The Companys Vision for Future - Case Study Example

IBM Strategy Report Student Name Institutional Affiliation IBM Strategy Report The Company’s Vision for Future There are two major market opportunities underlying at the company’s disposal that can significantly be used to derive the corporate vision of IBM with a focus of enhancing its future sustainability. The first opportunity entails that, there is increasing trend of customers’ awareness in regard to technology around the world. This presents a good and viable opportunity to avail IBMs products for such populations. As the customers adopt the use of new technology, the more sales the company will make. Secondly, cheaper telecommunications costs are being experienced and applauded worldwide. Therefore, more people are willing to communicate mainly using the internet thus increasing demand for hardware and software devices. Besides these two substantial market opportunities, there is a dire need for the IBM to address the emerging threats, mainly, increased competition and counterfeit products. These could be addressed through high level innovation for development and production of high quality products to remain competitive, which would thereby be realized through enhancing better customer satisfaction (Lamb, Hair & McDaniel, 2012). Having reviewed these marketing opportunities attributed to IBM, the most suitable corporate vision for its future would be to consistently accomplish the real time consumer demands and needs through embracing innovation, research and product development in order to ultimately achieve maximized customer satisfaction and market leadership in the industry. Remarkably, this is a very strategic vision for the company in its efforts to enhance its future sustainability (Gitman & McDaniel, 2009). Worth noting, in the electronics and computing industry, the target consumers are no longer purchasing just for the sake of merely buying a new thing, regardless of the dire need they may be experiencing. However, they are increasingly purchasing technology products because they have evidenced some sort of benefits in them. Thus, they do not invest their money without evidencing benefit at sight (Lamb, Hair & McDaniel, 2009). This shows that the consumer demand in electronic and computer products has significantly become different, which thereby calls for the company to redesign and adopt different and new strategies. More so, the IBM Company has got to change its marketing system entirely, as well as its way of production through emphasizing on innovation and new product development for better customer satisfaction in the long run. Most importantly, this would become a key strategic tool for enhancing the company’s competitive advantage. In doing so, the company would significantly take advantage of exploiting the market opportunities at its disposal, which include the increased demand of high quality and original technology products that suitably satisfy the real time customer demands on a consistent basis. As a result, such accomplishment would consequently benefit from increased market share and market performance through ensuring maximized customer satisfaction, which would ultimately lead to market leadership in the industry (Ferrell & Hartline, 2011). Essentially, in order to realize the company’s vision more effectively, the company’s new strategy would involve more marketing as compared to selling. In this regard, there would be two marketing strategic components that the IBM would significantly plan, formulate, and design, which include the positioning strategy, as well as the marketing mix strategy. Nonetheless, the key thing is that the IBM should remain more focused about its target clients and should be driven by their specific needs as opposed to the technology trends in the industry. More importantly, the company should also have a focus of offering consultancy services, as well as providing business solutions through developing and marketing new, quality technology products for better customer satisfaction. In this regard, the IBM would be aided by setting its priorities right in respect to its potential. In the long run, the company would increasingly earn itself a high competitive advantage in the industry, which would be sustained consistently with a key focus of positioning the company as the market leader in the industry. Positioning Strategy Essentially, in order to realize the set company’s vision and sustain the accomplishment in the long run, it would be very essential for IBM to position its products and services strategically. This would be done effectively through creating a distinctive and unique image for the company’s products brand as compared to those of competitors. This is to significantly ensure that the IBM products brand is perceived as different from those of competitors by the target consumers through the dimension of quality, reliability, and efficiency. There are 5 dimensions that would shape the positioning strategy that have been seen to be suitable in this report. They include holistic positioning, specific positioning, value positioning, value proposition, competitive advantage, as well as the corporate capabilities. 1. Holistic Positioning IBM should always take advantage of the interconnectedness of today’s world. The networked global economies have created a global business setting and a basis for business change. This integration of global economies have opened markets and accelerated marketing while creating new market opportunities of positioning products holistically across the entire global market (Easingwood & Koustelos, 2000). Notably, the holistic brand positioning is very suitable for the company, owing to the fact that, the company an established network serving over 170 countries across the world. Thus, the IBM’s brand remains strong in the Information Industry. In addition, its distribution network is also huge. Both the brand and distribution network have boosted the company’s growth over the years. 2. Specific Positioning Nevertheless, besides the holistic positioning, the company should also embrace customization or personalization marketing tactics, owing to the verity that each specific market segment has got distinct needs that require varying marketing strategies. Thus, the IBM should consistently unravel the unique and specific consumer’s needs that cannot be generalized, and from them, develop products and positioning strategies that suitably fit them. However, the holistic positioning aspects that entail quality, reliability, and efficiency would always prevail in the entire global market while simultaneously meeting the needs of each market segment (McKenna, 1999). 3. Value Proposition The key to the value proposition in the industry is through ensuring that the company’s products are of high quality, highly reliable and functional, durable, believable, and associated with increased innovation for sustained customer satisfaction. The IBM brand has to a high extent achieved this by remaining a high quality and dominant brand in the information technology industry for customers associate the brand with quality. In this regard, it should continue to do the same while also enhancing innovation so as to incorporate the other value proposition aspects. In addition, the company should institute a dress and grooming code that should become an inflexible set of rules and regulations within IBM as a basis for branding. Consequently, rules were set where it was mandatory for every salesperson to look like a professional in every respect. 4. Competitive Advantage If the company’s brand is positioned strategically, this would make the customers associate with the brand. Notably, this would be very strategic as, potentially, the brand can make the company have a competitive advantage. In addition, the company’s organizational culture should always present a competitive advantage in the market. Dedication to every client's success, innovation that matters for IBM and the world and trust and personal responsibility in all relationships values would make both employees and customers comfortable to work and to buy products from the company. 5. Capabilities The marketing teams of IBM across the distribution regions have high capability of ensuring customers get the products. The teams represent a strong capability to the company by enhancing sales through awareness creation. Additionally, the company has a strong capability in regard to enhancing its products base. The company would always ensure the development and production of a wide range of products for individuals, specialized businesses and institutions. Consequently, these products would make the company outlook be widespread because an individual may be involved in a specialized business or an institution. Therefore, if quality is confirmed in an IBM product, the IBM brand would ultimately be perceived from a quality perspective, thus attaining a strong market position. Marketing Mix Product In the electronics and computer industry, product element of the marketing mix is the main key determinant of the customers’ level of satisfaction (Kerin & O'Regan, 2008). Firstly, the IBM Company would strengthen its brand awareness, brand equity and brand reputation in the target market. Essentially, this would be accomplished through the use of various tools of marketing communication and would aim at creating awareness on the company’s brand name, mission, purpose, and values. Secondly, the company would consistently ensure that its developed products, as well as its consultation services, are of high quality and satisfactorily meet the customers’ expectations (Dev & Schultz, 2005). Furthermore, the company would significantly offer various after sales services, including one year attached warranty, low cost repairs and maintenance, as well as free consultation and training services in regards to the uses, features and benefits associated with its products. Most importantly, the IBM should never lose focus on strengthening its competitive advantages through high quality production that is modified frequently so as to meet the real time needs and wants of the respective consumer target markets. In addition, the company must sufficiently learn from its past technological innovation experience, and thereby, improve accordingly. Most importantly, the research and development should always remain an ongoing process within the company so as to sustain better customer satisfaction in the long run (Kim & Tse, 2002). Also, the IBM should focus more on the internet usability products, more too, on smart phones, which are, day by day, experiencing increasing demand in the global market, as opposed to it largely produced personal computer products. Remarkably, in order for the IBM to substantially cope with the changing consumer’s tastes and preferences in the industry, the company should start innovatively producing smart phones with more additional and innovative features and functions that customers desired. Price Price is another critical element in the marketing mix, owing to the actuality that, it is significantly used by customers to relate or gauge the products’ quality level. Notably, quality is a very imperative aspect that is usually relied upon by the potential customers in determining the quality level of the company’s products as compared to the competitors’ products available in the market. In most cases, they usually believe that quality and innovative products come at a higher costs and that low prices mainly reflect a great compromise in quality (Dev & Schultz, 2005). Therefore, it would be highly essential for the company to both consider the products’ affordability and the perceived quality attached to the price. In this regard, the company would always ensure that the set prices for its products and services are reasonably high, whereby they are relatively affordable by all the market segments targeted by the company, and at the same time reflects the products high quality aspect (Khurana, 2010). Promotion In order to attract a large customer base, international market leadership, and ensure increased sales growth, the company would significantly execute a well designed marketing promotion. This would be done with a key objective being enhancing the company’s brand awareness in the market place; attracting more customers to buy the company’s product and services, establishing the desired product positioning, informing customers of the key features and benefits of the company’s products, encouraging repeat purchases, as well as establishing and maintaining a sustainable customer relationships (Constantinides, 2006). In this regard, an integrated marketing communication strategy would be used, which would incorporate advertising, public relation, direct marketing, website marketing, and sales promotion. In addition, both internet marketing and online social media marketing would significantly be incorporated within the company’s integrated marketing strategy, due to their increased effectiveness in the recent days among the entire world population (Dominici, 2009). Place Essentially, the company has an established network serving over 170 countries across the world. This makes launching of new products, creating awareness and marketing somehow easier. The distribution network of the company forms a substantial competitive advantage against other companies. Nonetheless, this should further be boosted through creating and building a long and strong relationship with its distribution network of retailers, wholesalers and company units across the world (Grönroos, 1994). In this regard, it would be ensured that there is efficient and effective communication between the company and the entire distribution network of retailers, wholesalers, as well as the various IBM’s distribution units across the world (Ante, 2012). Such effective communication and sustainable relationship with the entire distribution network would significantly ensure sufficient product distribution in all the company’s target markets, as well as enhanced efficient accessibility and availability of the company’s products and services to the end customers across the globe (Richter, 2012). Implementation Plan Noteworthy, this IBM strategy would always remain a theory if it is not putting to action effectively (Huber & SpringerLink, 2011). It is due to this that this report has designed suitable implementation plan that would consist of four stages of implementation. For effective implementation, the company management should first select a steering committee to oversee its full implementation, which should be accountable to the same management. The committee would be led by the company’s marketing manager and would compromise of 7 members derived from all business units and departments across the globe. In addition, a marketing expert from outside the company would also be hired to support the implementation committee so as to ensure the strategic plan objectives are ultimately realized. Basically, stage 1 would emphasize on outlining the implementation priorities based on the objectives. Stage 2 would entail allocating the appropriate and sufficient resources to facilitate it to work. Stage 3 would entail the most essential thing of managing the processes so as to actualize the strategic plan. The last stage would entail monitoring whether the implementation progress is on the right track as planned. Essentially, each of these stages is discussed below in details. Stage 1 During this stage, the implementation committee should keenly focus on the set objectives of the plan and the essence of the strategy. This would be done so as to enable it outline the activities and tasks to be prioritized during the implementation (Huber & SpringerLink, 2011). As a reminder, the key main objective of this strategic plan is to consistently accomplish the real time consumer demands and needs through embracing innovation, research and product development in order to ultimately achieve maximized customer satisfaction and market leadership in the industry. Based on this chief objective, the activities to be given priority should flow as follow: recruitment, human resource training and development, marketing research, new product development and innovation, product positioning, as well as executing the entire marketing mix strategy, including product, pricing, promotion, and distribution strategies. Remarkably, all this would be done with the key focus on maximizing the real time customer satisfaction and attaining market leadership in the industry. Stage 2 During the second stage, the committee would suitably allocate appropriate and sufficient resources in order to allow it to work. Notably, such resources include time, finance, IT support, staff support, and management priorities. The time frame set for implementation of this plan is a period of six months. However, the implementation of some activities in this project plan would be long term, which includes the marketing research, as well as new product development and innovation. The company management is to fund this implementation program sufficiently, and it is estimated that it would incur a budget of $200,000 within the six months. These funds would be used in hiring required staff, allocating them to their task functions such as research function, product development function, promotion function, distribution function, or positioning function. Moreover, all material requisite to support the implementation would be adequately procured (Doole & Lowe, 2008). Stage 3 This stage of the plan implementation would entail managing the processes. The committee should significantly ensure that the staffs remain highly motivated in their tasks. This would be enhanced through ensuring suitable employee compensation, as well as upholding remarkable working conditions. In addition, it would also ensure that all the stakeholders are significantly incorporated in the decision making of the implementation program. This would be done to enhance full support of the program, as well as encourage new ideas that could be of high help in the effectiveness of the implementation. More importantly, human resource training and development would be embraced consistently in order to enhance the productivity and performance of the employees (Doole & Lowe, 2008). Stage 4 Of high essentiality, there would be a continued close monitoring of the progress so as to keep the implementation on the right track. The key performance indicators would include the accomplishment of the plan’s milestones, individual and overall employee performance and productivity, the increase in sales and market share, as well as the rate of customer satisfaction improvements. In addition, the implementation committee would also monitor the emerging external and internal factors affecting the effective implementation, which include changes in consumer taste and preferences, technological changes and marketing trends, in the industry. Upon identifying them, the committee would then adjust accordingly so as to accommodate them as they arise (Doole & Lowe, 2008). Therefore, this plan would remain subject to changes based on the emerging substantial environmental factors that can potentially affect its successful implementation. References Ante, S. E. (2012). IBM takes aim at marketers. Wall Street Jounal Asia, 36(226), 19. Constantinides, E. (2006). The Marketing Mix Revisited: Towards the 21st Century Marketing. Journal of Marketing Management, 22(3), 439-450. Dev, C. S., & Schultz, D. E. (2005). In the mix: A customer-focused approach can bring the current marketing mix into the 21st century. Marketing Management, 14(1), 16-22. Dominici, G. (2009). From Marketing Mix to E-Marketing Mix: a Literature Overview and Classification. International Journal of Business and Management, 4(9), 17-24. Doole, I., & Lowe, R. (2008). International marketing strategy: Analysis, development and implementation. London: Cengage Learning. Easingwood, C., & Koustelos, A. (2000). Marketing high technology: preparation, targeting, positioning, execution. Business Horizons, 43(3), 27-34.  Ferrell, O. C., & Hartline, M. D. (2011). Marketing strategy. Australia: South-Western Cengage Learning. Gitman, L. J., & McDaniel, C. D. (2009). The future of business: The essentials. Mason, OH: South-Western Cenage Learning. Grönroos, C. (1994). From Marketing Mix to Relationship Marketing: Towards a Paradigm Shift in Marketing. Management Decision, 32(2), 4-20. Huber, A. J., & SpringerLink. (2011). Effective strategy implementation: Conceptualizing firms' strategy implementation capabilities and assessing their impact on firm performance. Wiesbaden: Gabler. Kerin, R. A., & O'Regan, R. (2008). Marketing mix decisions: New perspectives and practices. Chicago, Ill: American Marketing Association. Khurana, A. (2010). Marketing Mix of International Business Machines (IBM). Retrieved from http://www.managementparadise.com/forums/marketing-management/209189-marketing-mix-international-business-machines-ibm.html Kim, C. S., & Tse, E, M. (2002). Positioning strategies in the fast changing high-technology market. Marketing Management, 214-263.  Lamb, C. W., Hair, J. F., & McDaniel, C. D. (2009). Marketing. Mason, Ohio: South- Western Cengage Learning. Lamb, C. W., Hair, J. F., & McDaniel, C. D. (2012). Essentials of marketing. Mason, Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning. McKenna, R. (1999). Market positioning in high technology. California Management Review, 27(3), 82-108. Richter, T. (2012). International marketing mix management: Theoretical framework, contingency factors and empirical findings from world-markets. Berlin: Logos. Read More