Business and Marketing Analysis Techniques

Business and Marketing Analysis TechniquesBusiness strategy involves seeking a position indoors an environment or patience that generates a sustainable competitive advantage (implying that a diversified company should have as many business strategies as it has businesses)Analysing Macro Environmental FactorsThere atomic number 18 many factors that forget effect the strategies and decisions of managers of any organisation. Tax changes, new laws, trade barriers, demographic change, etceteraargon some of the posers. To swear out analyse these factors, we can categorise these micro environmental factors using PESTEL homunculus. PESTEL abbreviates Political, economical, social, technological, environmental and legal factors.Political Factors These refer to presidency policy such(prenominal) as the spot of intervention in the economy. What goods and services does a government want to fork up? To what extent does it believe in subsidising aimetary ho economic consumptions ? What are its priorities in terms of business underpin? EtcEconomical Factors These include interest rates, taxation changes, economic growth, inflation and exchange rates etc.Social Factors Changes in social trends can impact on the demand for a firms carrefours and the availability and willingness of individuals to fail. For example, in UK, the population has been ageing. This has subjoind the equals for firms who are affiliated to pension payments for their employees because their staff are living longer.Technological factors engineering is growing very fast nowadays. New and fast machineries are released every now and then. New technologies create new products and new processes. Technology can sink costs, improve quality and lead to innovation. These exploitations can benefit consumers as fountainhead as the organisations providing the products.Environmental factorsEnvironmental factors include weather and climate change in macro factors. Change in climate, temperatur e can impact on many industries. These can benefit one industry and can make other industry down at the same time. For example in hot sunny days, people love to go out and visit beaches instead of going to restaurants and places wish them. With major climate changes occurring due to global warming and with great environmental awareness this external factor is becoming a significant issue for firms to consider. court- evidenceed Factors These are related to the legal environment in which firms operate. The introduction of age discrimination and disability discrimination legislation, an increase in the minimum wage and greater requirements for firms to recycle are examples of relatively recent laws that affect an organisations executions.LIFE CYCLE compendiumGenerally, the model assumes that industry growth follows an S shaped curve. The flat prior phase reflects the problems of establishing the new product. Once proven, growth becomes explosive until market saturation is reache d. Sales now are limited by the rate of replacement gross revenue and the rate of growth of the population in the market. Eventually the industry will come under pressure from newer technologies and substitute products with superior set performance.There are four stages in this model. i.e. introduction stage, growth stage, maturity stage and decline stage. In introduction stage, Pioneering firms often after considerable investment and repeated failures, introduce products based on a new technology. Costs tend to be uplifted, and quality tends to be low because of lack of economies of scale or manufacturing experience and the product itself will be very basic. In growth stage, a dominant technology begins to emerge, and competitors standardise around it. There is likelihood of capacity shortages although costs and prices expunge as standardisation and the adoption of large scale manufacturing makes possible economies of scale. At maturity stage, Overcapacity begins to emerge in th e industry, products several(predicate)iation declines as technological know-how becomes widely make outd, and price competition intensifies. Consolidation occurs within the industry as weaker firms are acquired by salubriouser ones. Sales to less developed markets, and the transfer of production to lower labour cost economies accelerates. In decline stage, The industry comes under pressure from new technologies offering superior performance, although this whitethorn be reduced by factors such as heights price and switching costs associated with the new technology. Price wars erupt as the surviving firms fight for market share in a declining market, and exits from the industry, as well as consolidation within the industry, becomes to a greater extent likely.Analysing Micro Environmental FactorsThe micro environment consists of stakeholders who are directly or indirectly relate with any business. For example customers, consumers, suppliers, shareholders etc.Suppliers Suppliers are major pillars or any business as they provide all the materials essential for any business. Big deal with suppliers is that can they provide high quality products at low price. Can they do this reliably? Have they got the flexibility to respond to a firms demands? What is the bargaining power of these suppliers? How dependent is the firm on them? Does their approach to their staff and resources fit with your ethics? Firms must decide on issues such as who to use to supply them, on the responsibility it takes for these suppliers and on the terms and conditions it adopts. Some firms take quite an aggressive attitude towards their suppliers by trying to push down the prices and delay payments. Others view the relationship more as a partnership in which they are working to exciteher with suppliers and that by helping each other both can benefit. The importance of suppliers can be seen if affaires go wrong.Distri stillors Distri hardlyors job is to deliver your product to market pl ace where it can be sell easily. Imagine you sell shampoo what you need to sell this is to get it on the shelves in the leading chemists and supermarkets but this means moving someone elses products off the shelves So the challenge is to get stores to stock your products this may be achieved by good negotiating skills and offering appropriate incentives. The distributors used will determine the final price of the product and how it is presented to the end customer. When selling via retailers, for example, the retailer has control over where the products are displayed, how they are priced and how much they are promoted in-store.Customers Customers are key to sales. Managers must keep the needs of customers in their mind and try to anticipate how these will develop so that they can meet these requirements effectively now and in the future. To help understand their customers firms are increasingly trying to gather information on them through mechanisms such as loyalty cards. By gathe ring data on shopping patterns and matching this to data on the individual shoppers firms can build up expatiate pictures of their emptors and then offer them appropriate deals.Competition The success and behaviour of any business will depend on the stratum of competition in its market. In some markets one firm is dominant. This is called a monopoly. If you are in a monopoly position this may allow you to exploit the consumer with relatively high prices (assuming your position is protect in some way) and you may be able to offer an inferior service if customers have no other choices. In other markets a fewerer firms dominate this type of market structure is called an oligopoly. In oligopolistic markets on that full point is a high pointedness of interdependence and so firms will think carefully how their rivals expertness react to any actions they take.Key Stakeholders, Their Needs ExpectationsKey stakeholders of a business areEmployeesCustomers, suppliers and contractors ShareholdersInvestorsCommunitiesGovernmentEmployees are the major stakeholders of a business as they are potently linked with the business. They want to work in a place where they can meet their personal needs and wants. Leaders who create job assignments, work environments, and visions help employees be both competent and committed to their work.Customers want leaders to build compelling products and services so that they can trust and when they do, customers will split share of wallet. Customers are key to sales. Especially in fast food industries like Burger King, we ( employees ) have been instructed to focus on quality service and food. Customers should be well-to-do at any cost because without them, business is nonhing. Suppliers and contractors want their loyal concern with payment of goods and expediency respectively.Shareholders and Investors are those who bought companys share and are part of ownership in the company. They are concern with maximum outcome in terms of cash from profit. Investors are those who invest their money into the business as capital to earn their share from the profit. Investors want leaders to keep their promises, develop a compelling growth strategy, align core competencies to the strategy and then to ensure that people are committed to delivering on these premises.Communities and Government Communities want leaders to build organizations that are socially responsible, through how they treat the environment and how they serve the larger community. Government are linked with business as to start a business, licence is required and government issue licence. And from the profit gained by a company, a percentage of profit goes to government in terms of tax which is used to build infrastructures etc.C) SUMMARYThe Burger King Corporation (BKC) was founded in 1954 in Miami by James Mc Lamore and David Edgerton. hobby this, the famous Whopper sandwich was introduced in 1957 and it quickly became one of the best-known sandwiches in the world. Today, with the corporations brand promise Have it your way, there are 221,184 possible slipway to order a Whopper sandwich around the world. Burger King now operates more than 11,300 restaurants in approximately 70 countries. Food is necessary for humans to survive, but the wastes, chemical by-products, and inefficiencies in its production can have an immense impact on the environment. People demand perfect inexpensive year round food, which increases the use of pesticides, herbicides, and preservatives depleting the precious ozone, contributing to global warming, and polluting our lakes and streams. To help protecting all the dangerous fumes and chemicals, Burger King is doing its best. To help prevent contamination and other dangerous things, there are separate containers for different things. Strategy is affected by major changes pickings place in the environment and for those changes, strategy has to be change then in order to stay in business stream. Some chan ge in micro environmental factors will affect strategy in different ways. If business is losing customers then many strategies can be applied depending on the level of business loss. Prices of product can be decreased, or dispersal of vouchers etc. One of Burger Kings most important tasks is to ensure that the business is continually meeting its customers needs. In order to achieve this, the organisation has a research and development group dedicated to product improvement. Its mono is HAVE IT YOUR WAY. It means that customers can have their food the way they want, with or without, more or less of anything in their food. leash TOOLS TO ANALYSE, SUMMARISE AND EVALUATEEFFECTS OF CURRENT BUSINESS PLANPOSITION OF THE ORGANISATION IN CURRENT MARKETCOMPETITIVE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF ORGANISATIONPORTERS FIVE FORCES ANALYSISThe competitive structure of a company can be analysed by Porters five lastingnesss analysis. It analyse the attractiveness of a company within the market. Por ters five forces model isLikelihood of new entry it means that the extents to which barriers to entry exist. The likelihood of entering a market would be lower ifThe entry cost are highThere are major advantages for those firms which are already operating in market because of experienceGovernment policies prevent entry or makes it more demandingExisting brands have high level of loyaltyPower of buyers The stronger the power of buyers in an industry the more likely it is that they will be able to force down prices and reduce the profits of firms that provide the product. Buyer power will be higher(prenominal) ifThere are few or many buyer of the productThe buyers can easily switch to other products provided high quality in low pricePower of suppliers The stronger the power of suppliers in an industry the more operose it is for firms within that sector to make a profit because suppliers can determine the terms and conditions on which business is conducted. Suppliers will be more vi rile if they are less in number and the supplier can threaten to buy the firm so it is a stronger negotiation position.Degree of rivalry This measures the degree of competition between existing firms. The higher the degree of rivalry the more difficult it is for existing firms to generate high profits. Rivalry will be higher if there are large numbers of similar sized firm, the costs of leaving the industry are high, and there is little brand loyalty so customer are likely to switch easily between products.Substitute threat This measures the ease with which buyers can switch to another product that does the same thing e.g. aluminium cans rather than glass or plastic bottles. The ease of switching depends on what costs would be involved. Using Porters model, firms can generate high profit if the industry isDifficult to enterThere is limited rivalryBuyers are relatively weakSuppliers are relatively weakThere are few substitutesBOSTON MATRIXThe Boston Matrix model is a tool for assessi ng existing and development products in terms of their market potential, and thereby implying strategic action for products and services in each mob.Cash Cow The rather crude metaphor is based on the idea of milking the returns from previous investments which established good distribution and market share for the product. Products in this quadrant need maintenance and protection activity, together with good cost management, not growth effort, because there is little or no additional growth available.Dog this is that product or service of a company which has low presence in market. There is no point of developing goods and services in this quadrant. Most of the companies discontinue their product which they think fall under this quadrant. Businesses that have been starved or denied development find themselves with a high or entire proportion of their products or services in this quadrant, which is obviously not very funny at all, except to the competitors.Problem fry These are prod ucts which have a big and growing market potential, but existing low market share, normally because they are new products, or the performance has not been spotted and acted upon yet. New business development and project management principle are required here to ensure that these products potential can be realised and disasters avoided. This is likely to be an area of business that is quite competitive, where the pioneers take the risks in the hope of securing good early distribution arrangements, image, reputation and market share. move Star star products, are those which have good market share in a strong and growing market. As a product moves into this category it is commonly known as a rising star. When a market is strong and still growing, competition is not yet fully established. Demand is strong saturation or over-supply do not exists, and so pricing is relatively unhindered.SWOT ANALYSISTo determine what a companys strategy should be, the managers must consider the inner str ength and weaknesses of their company and compare them with external opportunities and threat. This process is known as SWOT analysis.Strengths are internal factors which a firm may build on to develop a strategy. They may includeMarketing strengthsFinancial strengthsOperation strengthsHRM strengthsWeaknesses are internal factors which a firm may need to protect itself such asMarketing weaknesses such as limited distributionFinancial weaknesses such as high levels of borrowing and low rates of return working(a) weaknesses such as old or poor quality equipmentsHRM weaknesses such as high rate of labour turn over and industrial disputes occupation 2 STRATEGY EVALUATIONTo achieve an objective, managers must develop a suitable strategy. A strategy is a long term plan ambit out how an objective will be reached. For example, if the objective is to reduce costs, the strategy could involve relocating or reducing the labour force. If the objective is to boost revenue, the strategy may be t o launch new products or to invest in a big promotional campaign. A strategy may be developed by using a firms strengths to exploit the opportunities that exist. For example, a strong brand name may be used to extend a firms products into new markets. It may too use these strengths to protect itself against threats for example, a retailer may use its finance to acquire key locations to prevent a competitor buying them. Strategies can be evaluated by many ways. One of the way is by using Porters Five Forces model. In this model there are five different sources which are strongly connected with the business and they must be kept in mind while making strategies. While making strategy for a business includes property those things in mind which will ruin the business. For example in case of a retail business, if a new retail business entered in, then strategy in this will be change accordingly in this case. Secondly if buyers power is strong in retail business, then it could be a nix or a positive impact on business. If they are strong then they can force down the prices of the product which will lower the profit, so in this case strategy will be evaluated very carefully as every step can change the course of business. Suppliers are the major part of any business so keeping them in mind is a necessary part in strategy evaluation. A firm may in any case want to protect itself against its weaknesses. For example, it may try to find alternative suppliers to reduce an over-reliance on a particular one it may invest in a rebranding exercise to reposition itself. Fourth part is degree of rivalry. This measures the degree of competition between existing firms. The higher the degree of rivalry the more difficult it is for existing firms to generate high profits. Fifth and last part is threat of substitute. This measures the ease with which buyers can switch to another product that does the same thing. Keeping chase things in mind will help effecting business in loss. If the second gear industry is easy to enter in market, if there is a high degree of rivalry between firms within industry, buyers are strong, suppliers are strong etc. The implication of Porters analysis for managers is that they should examine these five factors before choosing an industry to move into. They should also consider ways of changing the five factors to make them more favourable.TASK 3 IMPLEMENTATIONEvaluating strategies is a difficult task but implementing them in a regular and smooth manner is more complicated. The importance of strategy should not be underestimated. Changing the price of an item, changing the distribution strategy and investing in new equipment are all important decisions but if you are fighting in the wrong market with the wrong products then the details are to the highest degree irrelevant. The strategy sets out where and how the battles will be fought and a good strategy is essential to business success. This involves an understanding not only of what happens within the firm but also the ability to forecast changes in the external environment and their significance successfully.This implementation is in fact a landmark where various organizations tend to falter. The long research and resources used up for the drafting of strategic plans often make organizations believe that whatever they have understood and devised is the optimum and therefore requires no second thoughts. However, what has been ignored is the fact that plans can be tested only if they meet actual usage. Only planning or theoretical application cannot be insure complete success. Actual implementation yields the true picture. A business plan is the textual version of a strategy, as it includes pertinent information regarding the company, including vision and accusation statements, measurable objectives supporting the vision, actionable tactics meeting the objective, resources, milestones and timeframes, accountability and role designations, as well as i nternal and external risks. The business strategy is not evergreen and should be evaluated routinely to ensure the company still has the competitive edge.A business plan includes the primary and secondary objectives of your organization, an analysis of current policies and procedures, and the development of new policies or procedures to correct weaknesses within the organization.Strategy is firstly introduced to lower managers and supervisors so they can act on it and tell to lower staff in order to work on it. If launching a new product or reducing the price of another product because of substitute available in market, all the staff must be aware of that, after that the new promotion or product or discounted product will be fight in an attractive way in Television, radio and by distributing leaflets to let people aware of it. Focussing on excellent customer service will definitely help improve the business because the service conveyn to customer will bring him back again.Quality assurance of the product will increase the demand of product and will increase revenue. Introducing new and latest technology in the company will save a lot of time and give result much faster and effective. Giving training to all new and old staff about new technology, new products, and everything related to business and plan will help staff delivering a better quality service required.For implementation of plan, money is the major and important resource required. So in order to get money there are many ways, selling shares of the company, retained profit, profit in terms of capital can be reinvested and by taking loans from banks etc. After implementing the plan, wait for the result and do surveys. Drop or put small questionnaire that will help letting you know how good is the strategy going. Taking customers feedback and evaluate the strategy. If it is going the way we wanted, then there is no need to change and if its not, then re evaluate and check where there is a mistake and sort it out.