Market-Led Strategic Change - Essay Example

Postgraduate International Marketing work Assignment 2: Critically evaluate the article "Market-led Strategic" through reference to other s and real examples. Introduction In his article "Market-led Strategic" Nigel F. Piercy contends that traditional "off the textbook" marketing strategies are not able anymore to sustain a successful firm in a constantly changing environment. Increasing customers' demands, competition from new electronic business models and a high competition from new sources constitute a demanding marketplace. Focus is shifting from competition among companies to better cover the customer needs which calls for thorough market research techniques and careful examination of customer needs. Such implementation of new strategies requires adaptation of current college curriculum to the market reality. The article identifies five key issues a company must take into consideration and adapt to in order to participate in the high demanding business field. These are (i) a core value strategy, (ii) development of a clear market strategy, (iii) integrating an Internet-based technology strategy, (iv) managing key organizational process strategy to achieve total integration among business functions (v) and manage change strategy programs in the form of internal marketing (Piercy, 2002). The aim of this paper is to evaluate how the former key issues reflect the constantly evolving changes of the marketplace and how much these contribute to the success of a high standards company. The critical evaluation is based on relevant articles and real-life examples. An estimation and personal viewpoint is supplied at the end of the paper. The Customer Needs The key to success as far as value-based strategies are concerned is the constant evolvement and adaptation to offer the customer something new. Recycling of the same product or service over and over again is not competitive in the marketplace anymore. Customer needs call for innovative ideas which treat the customer as a market selling strategies aware person (Piercy, 2002). According to Piercy also, the customer retention relationship, first invented in 1990's, is based on profitability rather than a love level; in this case the customer is viewed as a stupid profit machine that requires little or no attention and is only valued for the profit they leave the company with. The example of Toyota selling cars with no interaction at all with the company stuff is a good example. In this era everything around the customer was about branding; the brand is the selling product and it sells good since customers seem to prefer famous brand which they equate to high performance. Customer needs and tastes however change and a high competing company has to evolve to in order to meet these needs of Relationship Marketing. According to a research value-based marketing for fed-beef cattle using real-time ultrasound and graded animal relations for the selection of animals to slaughter increased profit range of $10.61-27.26 per head from using relations data, $9.04-16.75 per head from using RTU measures and $11.27-27.93 per head from using both to selectively market beef animals. Building a relationship where the customer satisfaction is the core product sells pays off and is the main criterion to a successful company. Value Strategy Value strategy defines monitoring of the customer needs to provide the products a services of importance to them. Value strategy comes in to bring the customer in the focus of the firm selling strategy and off the competition among organizations. The main issues we confront as far as value strategy is concerned is that there is no standard way of estimating the value attached to the customer and even though past techniques are thought as obsolete there are still many companies that have a big with low price products and friendly customer approach. Put in other words, it is really difficult to find the trick that will work for customers. Customers buy on personal values basis: religious, spiritual, environmental, or political, it is therefore that these have to be satisfied (Wellner, 2005, pp.36-37). This is the starting point that requires constant monitoring of customer changing buying habits to adapt to their needs either because customers age or because they need to see their brands offering new products (Boyles, 1999). Market Strategy In order to remain competitive and in the playing field a company needs to follow a robust marketing strategy which is evaluated through the latter four points: customer focus and market sensing, market choices, value proposition and key relationships. The first requires customer-company interaction to learn from their needs, the second creating those basis to attract customers from competitors, the third identifying possible new selling products and services and the last effective delivery of services through implementation of valuable relationships to the customers. All the these form the Strategic Pathway. Indeed, censoring local market niches as an alternative to global markets and provision of nutritious, high conformance products increased agricultural industry in the US and led to a stronger customer/firm relation (Gray, 2005). According to Ulrich improving literacy among customers and keeping track of competitors marketing strategy is the proper basis of convincing customers to spend money on your company rather than competitors (2005). Acquiring AT&T Wireless, Cingular in a $41 billion deal, allowed Cingular to become the largest wireless service provider in the US when a few years earlier it just could keep in rival with Verizon Wireless (VZ) (Rosenbush, 2006, p.15). As far as effective relations to customers are concerned the following example is representative of the necessity of building those; according to Hammergren hiring the right team for one's company and keeping the focus on the customer are the success keys to building a strong relation to the customers, making a strong bond with them which is the basis for long-term relations and serve their needs. Starting his is career as a med-surg supply sales representative, the McKesson Corp. chairman and CEO drove rural Wisconsin product spreading at about 55,000 miles annually (Alden, 2004, 32-34). Marketing strategies no matter how effective they might be call for careful planning. It might be the case that censoring of customer needs to realise their true needs and values require many years of research and carry a high implementation risk. The capital and the wasted effort in case of failure call for extra care. Internet Strategy Since 1990, Internet has been picking up in rates. Today, other than being an information tool it has been a marketing medium. E-business, or E-commerce, allows customers to buy products from any corner of the universe literally. For a business to remain in the competition they have to market their products through the web, if not through the web alone. E-commerce however requires deep understanding of subsidiary issues to ensure customer attraction and satisfaction as they do not come in personal contact with the customer. The former represent the externalization of the Internet services. On the other side local networks allow better communication between the company parties to ensure speed and functionality among the departments. Giving customers the chance to make their own online airplane reservations rather than though clerks has boosted greatly airline agencies ticket selling. Setting off to plan a journey in the US In America, 54% of consumers start looking for resources through agencies as Expedia.com, the largest online travel agency firm, or Travelocity.com or Orbitz.com. a study by Nielsen//NetRatings, which analyses internet use claims airlines and hotels, to be visited first by 37% of shoppers, while a small percentage of 9% start planning through web sites run by travel-search firms like Kayak and SideStep.com. Even these do not serve as booking services from the first moment on, they are good basis for travel search. One third of $200 million dollars was booked through the Internet last year, with 40% of the travel agencies total income coming from the Internet (Economist, 2005). On the other hand, implementing PmWiki, a free, open-source software product, MWW GROUP, A PUBLIC relations and marketing firm in East Rutherford, N.J with 200 employees, allowed the involved parties to work on a project without the need to exchange emails but rather access a page and perform any operation on the location with immediate results open to anyone. Employees needed to train to effectively use the program it however succedded in reducing emails exchange within the company by 30% (Dahl, 2006, pp.41-42). Process Strategy The fourth strategic step Piercy focuses on is the process strategy which he views as the dissemination of duties within the company which must effectively interact and communicate. Divided in three sectors process strategy comprises of: information, operations and logistics. The first understand the customer needs, the second responds to such needs by taking initiatives and the third implements the changes to adapt to the customer needs. In fact, such dissemination of processes in organization has been discerned and customised software programs to facilitate the interaction among the departments of a company have been developed and exist in the market. IT has penetrated and closely monitored market demands to develop highly sophisticated software that allows interaction among the different software programs of various departments of a firm and perform large scale data mining from databases to gather valuable data. Change Strategy Being the last step, change strategy asks that the processes to performed as to encourage customers to value a firm and commit to it are analyzed and external processes are brought into the company per se. In other words, the last recommendation by Piercy contends "internalizing" the external stimuli and data to bring the changes to be made in the real company environment. One might argue that it simply suggests that the company staff understand what changes occur as to adapt to customer needs. Kesterson and Broome suggest that if the direction a company is moving towards and the tools that are employed to bring such changes are not fully understood by the customers then such changes are futile because the employees are desperately moving in diverse directions trying to perform chores they do not understand (Kesterson, Broome, 2005, p.48). According to Jurow furthermore when changes that have to occur within a company's structure are familiar to the staff beforehand, they, the staff, become excited about such changes and embrace the process (1999, p.60). In fact the newly acquired skills help the staff to overcome difficulties that will encounter and employ such knowledge in real-world situations later on when they are asked for assistance by customers. Generally speaking the last step in the adaptation process is considered one of the most crucial since it is the "training" of the staff in real-world situations before such occur. Conclusion Nigel F. Piercy contends that effective marketing techniques call for initiatives that sensor and adapt to the constant changing customer needs and buying habits and suggests a five stages model to implement it. These are guidelines that reflect the market changes from traditional models to the new emergent technologies as the internet that offer more potential for a wider buying audience. In fact, Piercy's suggestions do reflect the changing market conditions that need to be studied in universities and find applications in the marketing industry to keep a highly competing firm in the play. There exists however an obvious obstacle in Piercy's suggestions; since these are new model and recommendations a company needs to closely research the proposal, estimate the possible outcomes and the advantages and disadvantages of each proposal and adopt those only that are appropriate to the company, that keep the budget within logical limits and do not carry a high risk rate the company cannot undertake. Simply put, the article does reflect the marketing reality one has to be extremely careful however, when implementing the suggested processes which call for careful examination of customer habits and marketing techniques to avoid pitfalls. Works Cited Boyles, Carolee. 1999. Your Customer's Buying Habits Are Changing. Are You. Publishers' Development Corporation. [Online]. Available from: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3197/is_1_44/ai_59520935/print [Accessed 8 August 2006]. Dahl, Darren. Feb2006. The end of e-mail. Inc.,Vol. 28. Issue 2. pp.41-42. 2005. Flying from the computer Economist. Vol. 377. Issue 8446. Oct 1st Gray, Thomas. 2005. Local-based, alternative-marketing strategy could help save more small farms. Rural Cooperatives. [Online]. Available from: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0KFU/is_3_72/ai_n15894806 [Accessed 8 August 2006]. Jurow, Susan. 1999. CHANGE: THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PROCESS. Educom Review. Vol. 34. Issue 5, p.60. Kesterson, Randy. Broome Susan. 2005. Islands of Change. T+D. Vol. 59. Issue 7. pp. 48-50 Margulius, David. 2005. Business Driven Architectures. Infoworld.com. Vol. 27 Issue 11. pp. 40-42 RosenBush, Steve. 2006. Wireless: Still Too Crowded. Business Week Online. pp.15-15. Piercy, Nigel F. 2002. Market-led Strategic Change: New Marketing for New Realities. Westburn Publishers Ltd. Volume 2,Number 4, December 2001, pp. 385-404(20) Solovy, Alden. 2004. There's no I in a Team. H&HN: Hospitals & Health Networks. Vol. 78. Issue 8. pp.32-34 Walbulger Allan. Crew, Jr. 2004. Improving Market Selection for Fed Beef Cattle: The Value of Real-Time Ultrasound and Relations Data. Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics. Vol. 52 Issue 1. pp. 1-16. Wellner, Alison Stein. 2005. The Morality Play. Inc., Vol. 27. Issue 2. pp.36-37 Ulrich, Dave. Brockbank, Wayne. 2005. Focusing on customers: the ultimate measure of HR programs is how well the help attract and retain customers and improve their satisfaction. HRMagazine. [Online]. Available from: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3495/is_6_50/ai_n13826262 Accessed [Accessed 8 August 2006]. Read More