m2a2so

Please see all attachments (3). Due Saturday 9/1.

Market Position Analysis

Throughout this course, you will conduct a strategy audit for a selected company. In Module 1, you selected an organization for your course project activities (EuroDisney. See attachment).

In this assignment, you will assess the product portfolio for your selected business unit by analyzing the value proposition, market position, and competitive advantage of its products and services. You will begin your analysis by identifying the business unit and the product(s) and service(s) you will focus on in this paper.

Complete the following (You can make this up):

· Conduct at least three interviews with your selected mid-level or senior managers. Use the interviews to solicit each manager’s understanding of your business unit’s market position, value proposition, and competitive advantage.

· Provide either full transcripts or annotated summaries of the interviews. Include them in the appendix of your analysis.

In your analysis, be sure to cover the following:

· Describe the target customer for the product/service in terms of relevant characteristics that impact the marketing strategy, including location (how it is reached) and buying habits.

· Identify each customer segment’s specific wants and needs. Explain why they buy your company’s product or service, or a competing product or service.

· Justify how well your product/service satisfies customer wants and needs. Identify any wants and needs that are not met by your product/service.

· Analyze your product’s position in relation to the competition. Identify 3–5 main competitors. Explain how your product differs in terms features, function, quality, price, availability, brand image, etc. Explain why this differentiation is important to your customers.

· Describe the source of competitive advantage for your product. Evaluate sustainability of this source of advantage.

· Assess the long-term sustainability of the source of differentiation and competitive advantage.

· Apply the five “P’s” of marketing to your product analysis. 

· Provide a concluding paragraph in your report that recapitulates the findings of your interview.

See attached template to use for comparing your product to that of the competition (m2a2template).

Support your responses giving reasons and examples from scholarly resources. Include the matrix in an appendix and add an extra page for your references.

Write a 3-page paper in Word format and attach the matrix as an appendix. Apply APA standards to citation of sources.

RunningHead: BETTER WAYS TO GET TO MARKET: FORMULATING A STRATEGY THAT WORKS

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BETTER WAYS TO GET TO MARKET: FORMULATING A STRATEGY THAT WORKS
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Module 1, Assignment 3:

 Better Ways to Get to Market: Formulating a Strategy that Works

Scott Jackson

Solutions to Organizational Challenges B6028

August 26, 2012

Strategies for entering any new market are very important for the product’s success. For most new products, advertising is used to lure consumers to buying them. However, if this is not done appropriately, it can instead turn away consumers. Therefore, get to market tactics are very crucial to the success of any new product as they determine whether the product will immediately be accepted by consumers in the market or be rejected or will take time to be accepted by the consumers. However when these strategies are well set, the new product picks up immediately it is introduced to the market (Rangan, 2006).

For example, during the introduction of the Euro Disneyland in the year 1992, the media had speculated and told people that a turn up of approximately half a million people was expected. However, that was not the case as only twenty five thousand people attended. This was followed by a massive resignation of employees of Euro Disneyland. Additionally, the firm did not perform as it had expected and this saw it incur a lot of losses. The firm decided to change its name to Disneyland Paris and this saw it succeed from that time to now although it has not yet repaid all its past debts (Wit & Meyer, 2010).

The firm could have used the media positively to influence the turn up of people during the opening ceremony. By stating that more than half million people were expected, this acted negatively as people saw no need to attend may be because they would not get enough space or any chance to enter during its opening. The firm could also have attracted people prior to the opening by giving out free coupons for the first people to arrive, as a way to attract them or giving out free movie tickets to a theater of choice just to attract and welcome them. Massive advertising could also have helped the firm to attract more people (Wit & Meyer, 2010).

For firms that seek to introduce new products to the market, a lot of consideration should be made towards passing the right message to the consumers in order to attract them and to lure them to buy the products. This is the right approach if a firm seeks to have its product readily accepted by consumers. Therefore, convincing efforts should be made through training consumers on the product use, giving out free samples in order for the customers to have a taste of the product, and also giving out free products for the first customers to buy the product as a strategy to attract them. Therefore, this approach should be a universal consideration for firms as faster adoption of the product is just as important as the success of the product launch (Rangan, 2006).

References

Rangan, V. K. (2006). Transforming your go-to-market strategy: The three disciplines of channel management. Boston, Mass: Harvard Business School Press.

Wit, B. ., & Meyer, R. (2010). Strategy: Process, content, context; an international perspective. Andover: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Market Position Analysis: Product Position versus Competitor Product Position

Needs of the Consumer	Rating of Your Product (Use a scale of 0–2*)	Rating of Competing Product 1 (Use a scale of 0–2*)	Rating of Competing Product 2 (Use a scale of 0–2*)	Rating of the Competing Product 3 (Use a scale of 0–2*)
Quality
Price
Availability
Features
Functions
Brand Image
Total Score
Narrative/Comments

* On the scale of 0–2: 0 indicates “need not met,” 1 “indicates need partially met”, and 2 indicates “need fully met.”

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Solutions to Organizational Challenges: A Capstone Experience in Integration and Strategy

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