Microsoft Globalization Strategy
Microsoft Globalization Strategy
Business strategy is an oxymoron!
Well that's often my experience in the SME sector and it may be the reason that so many essentially good businesses fail to sustain themselves when times get tough. Many business owners have not considered putting strategic marketing planning – business strategy by another name – on their agenda, and it can be difficult to know where to start.
However, there are free tools that help you to benchmark your business and give you a robust insight into just where you start from. On the face of it, getting your Business Strategy right appears quite straightforward. There only two major decisions at the outset, the first of which is ‘do I serve carefully selected niche markets, or do I have the resources to attempt genuine mass market coverage?'
Considering the UK owner managed sector, the vast majority of businesses – even at the upper end of the SME spectrum, choose a niche market strategic focus rather than trying to sustain a competitive position as a mass market player. A quick look at the organisational resources available usually confirms this is a sensible strategic choice. Few of us have the wherewithal to sit alongside real global mass market giants like Ford, Wal-Mart, Microsoft and so on.
So the focus will eventually come down to business to business marketing communications, and this is where so much money is wasted if the strategic marketing planning has been ignored. (Good benchmarking tools will assess business to business marketing communications as well as business strategy).
The second major Business Strategy decision is slightly less straightforward, but usually ends up with the vast majority in one camp rather than the other. This decision is about the basis on which we are going to compete. Will we compete on price or will we compete on differentiation?
Again resources are often at the heart of this decision. Does the organisation have sufficient strength to sustain a hard fought cost leadership campaign to try and secure competitive advantage – it can be long hard war of attrition!
Often the conclusion is no, and so the default position is "we may not be the cheapest (indeed we don't want to be) but look at our value proposition and everything that you will receive as a customer of ours, as opposed to being a customer of anyone else in the market place!"
So there it is, my Business Strategy – simple really!
"I will serve carefully selected niche markets on the basis of a highly differentiated value based proposition that each of these markets will identify with and aspire to"
It's hard to imagine that such a simple statement can be so complex to convert into a workable strategic plan to sustain business growth in future years! It is also hard to imagine that so many choose to ignore the process and yet expect to sustain themselves in the teeth of the worst economic conditions for a generation.
About the Author
Darren works for manchester web design firm RedStar Creative and was talking to the owner of Corve Consultancy - Jeremy Bassett DipM FCIM. Jeremy is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
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Microsoft Globalization Strategy
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Retail Strategy in India-II (Understanding Customer)
Understanding a Retail Customer
Any retailer’s growth and survival in the highly competitive market depends on how well it understands its customers and responds to their current and potential needs. In the retail industry, understanding the retail customers plays an important role in the success of a retail store. The development of technology and globalization has led to a new era of consumerism where retailers focus completely on meeting the needs, wants and priorities of a consumer.
To understand the strategies of “understanding the retail customer”, the blog has been handled in three sections namely:
- 1. Structure and nature of buying population
- 2. Consumer buying behaviour
- 3. Buying influences
1. Structure and nature of buying population
Structure of buying population
The buying population structure of a country is developed based on different age groups and also on males and females(demographics of population is very important). The common method to show the structure is by a population pyramid. From this structure, we get the percentage of gender and age group ranges.
Understanding gender and age range helps retailers to develop specific strategies on planning for production, promotions, investments etc. For example, in recent years the population bulge in India, with its characteristic age and family constitution, needs to be taken directly into account while developing specific strategies.
Nature of buying population
In this era of competition, understanding the consumer is a necessity for retailers. Consumer needs and preferences are continuously changing, given the changes in factors like demographics and lifestyles. These changes can become great business opportunities for alert retailers, and threats for retailers who fail to adapt.
Consumers go through several cognitive and behavioural processes while making their purchase and consumption decisions. The knowledge of how they decide on one brand instead of another and what factors influence their decision-making is crucial for retailers, not only to cater to the existing needs of their consumers but also to prepare for their future needs. This knowledge is also essential to make various business decisions related to packaging, pricing, distribution, promotions, etc.
2. Consumer Buying Behaviour
What Consumers Buy?
Consumers make choices by assessing some of the aspects of product like product tangibility, product durability and product availability.
Product tangibility
Strategies built on tangibility helps the image of a product or retail firm and on what they are into. The tangibility of promotional products makes them particularly strong in building and supporting a deserved image.
Also, the quality of the items to be given should be considered as part of the image building process. Sometimes most promotional products have quality variations, and the lowest price is not always the best value. Hence strategies on product tangibility are specifically designed on the objectives, the target audience, and the image the company is trying to build.
Product durability
In the retail industry, demand depends on user reliability, functionality and technical durability of products. Such demands need to be combined with cost-effectiveness and shorter lead times.
But how long the product (would) to be durable, in the market? Economists differ on whether market structure affects product durability and consequently, on whether planned obsolescence strategies pay. Many studies have found that efficient durability can emerge when firms compete on price.
Hence strategies developed on durability help retailer to understand the market and have knowledge on sales.
Product availability
What is the optimal level of product availability a retailer should have in a store? The level of product availability is an important component of any supply chain’s responsiveness. A supply chain can use a high level of product availability to improve its responsiveness and attract customers. This increases revenue for the supply chain. However, a high level of product availability requires large inventories, and large inventories tend to raise costs for the supply chain. Therefore, a supply chain needs to achieve a balance between the level of availability and the cost of inventory. The optimal level of product availability is one that maximizes supply chain profitability.
3. Buying influences
Why do they buy?
Assessment of consumers buying preferences can be understood by looking at personal and social factor.
Personal factor
It assesses the influence of customer’s characteristics on their approach on buying task. With the help of recent advancement on PC-based packages, experimental designs on different buyer characteristics and the relative importance that individual buyers place on different product attributes, it has been possible for many retailers to draw some pertinent conclusions as to how the buying task is approached.
Social factor
Socially constructed marketing strategies which vary across consumer groups, help retailers to understand consumer’s choices and decisions. Still, human and retailing technologies interactions are rarely evaluated from a social practice perspective.
“We can believe that we know where the world should go. But unless we’re in touch with our customers, our model of the world can diverge from reality. There’s no substitute for innovation, of course, but innovation is no substitute for being in touch, either”. - Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft Corporation
Contd…..
Jethendra. B. K
Retail Consultant
CustoLogix Solutions
CustoLogix with its experience on retail strategy consulting, help the retailers across globe to develop strategies on sales units and profits. To know more about retail strategy consulting opportunities please visit CustoLogix at www.custologix.com/service
About the Author
Retail Consultant,
Lead Business Analyst
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Getting China and India Right: Strategies for Leveraging the World's Fastest Growing Economies for Global Advantage $14.91 This book is the first strategic guide for multi-national corporations (MNCs)who are contemplating expanding into both China and India. Gupta and Wang explain how many MNCs view China and India solely from the lens of off-shoring and cost-reduction, and focusing their marketing strategies on only the top 5-10% of the population. This is a missed opportunity. China and India are the only two countr... |
Microsoft Globalization Strategy
