Effectiveness Of The Market Structure For The Company 's Operations

Question 2: Describe the methods for marketing planning, including business portfolio analysis, the Boston Consulting Group market

II. Business Model and Strategic Plan Part I: Existing Business or New Business Division; Vision, Mission, and Value Proposition ………………………………6

Question: Outline the marketing process and explain the importance of each element of the marketing plan.

The three main competitive strategies are cost leadership, differentiation, and price strategy. Cost leadership focuses on acquiring raw material of the highest quality at the lowest price. In return this company can lower production cost with the goal of being the company with the lowest production cost in the industry. Differentiation strategies allow companies to make their products stand out from the others. Differentiation can be actual or perceived. Actual differentiation occurs when the company creates products that are not available elsewhere. Perceived differentiation takes a lot of marketing and advertisement to convince the consumer that this company’s product is superior. Price strategy includes a variety of strategies that cause a particular product to be marketed at the lowest price possible. Price strategy includes skimming where companies set a high initial price only to turn around and lower it. Bundle pricing occurs when several products are offered for one price. Promotional pricing allows other incentives to buy such as buy one get one half off. Using the pricing strategies causes many consumers to actually purchase more believing that they are receiving a “deal” while the company is still profiting. Competitive strategies are always used by companies and are often used together. Companies that understand how to combine competitive strategies fare much

Develop a marketing plan for the business that suggests how Helen’s may improve its performance.

Use the Internet to research two (2) of the leading competitors in the low-calorie frozen, microwavable food industry, and take note of their pricing strategies, profitability, and their relationships within the industry (worldwide).

In this essay I will assume the role as an employee for the maker of a leading brand of low-calorie, frozen microwavable food chain. Using the data from 26 supermarkets around the country for the month of April and the equation data that has been provided to me, I will compute the elasticity for each independent variable as well as determine the implications for each of the computed elasticities for the business in terms of short-term and long-term pricing strategies. Based on these calculations I will recommend whether the firm should or should not cut its price to increase its market share. Lastly, with the understanding of the concept on

Markets differ in a variety of ways including the degree of concentration and competitiveness, a fact which is reflected in the concept of ‘market structure’. Economists’ models link the structural characteristics of a market to the behaviour of firms in that market and subsequently to their performance. A key question therefore is how far a firm’s strategic decisions are shaped by the structure of the market in which it operates.

The organization and characteristics of a specific market where a company operates is referred to as market structure. While markets can basically be classified by their degree of competitiveness and pricing, there are four types of markets i.e. perfect competition, monopolistic competition, monopoly, and oligopoly. In perfect competition markets, many firms are price takers whereas monopolistic competition markets are characterized by the ability of some firms to have market power. In contrast, oligopoly markets are those in which few firms can be price makers while monopoly market is where one firm can be a price maker.

Perfect competition is an idealised market structure theory used in economics to show the market under a high degree of competition given certain conditions. This essay aims to outline the assumptions and distinctive features that form the perfectly competitive model and how this model can be used to explain short term and long term behaviour of a perfectly competitive firm aiming to maximise profits and the implications of enhancing these profits further.

Macy's is one of the premier retailer franchises within the United States. To begin, Macy's Inc. is one of the nation's largest and well known department store chains. Started over 150 years ago, Macy's has continually generated excellent returns for its shareholders and employees. Currently, in the midst of a global recession, Macy's has generated huge profits with same store sales increasing 5.3% year to date. In 2012 same store sales increased 4.6% in the month of February alone (Macy's Inc., 2012). In fact, throughout the duration of 2012, Macy's is projecting even larger profits for its underlying business operations. Even though Macy's has experienced success with both its assortments and brand, its competitors haven't faired so well. Sears, due in part to part to a lackluster holiday season, has been forced to close nearly 120 locations to generate excess liquidity in an effort to shore up its balance sheet (Isadora, 2011).Other competitors who cater specifically to the middle class consumer have also lost significant amounts of market share as consumers trade down due to the economy. Macy's, with its ride array of assortments and products continues to grow as it attempts to capture market share from failing competitors. Macy's is also unique as it operates in a unique market demographic. It is upscale, but not to the extent of Saks Fifth Avenue or a Nordstrom. It is also not as low scale as a JC Penny

To attain competitive gain, organisations can differentiate their merchandise and services from their competitors they can also choose to lower their costs in order to compete with other contenders. By aiming their produces to a wide-ranging target, they are essentially covering most of the marketplace or if they choose, they can decide to concentrate on a narrower target within the market (Lynch 2003). While doing so may reduce their market range it essentially reduces their other competitors. Porter stated that there are three generic strategies that an organisation can follow to achieve competitive gain over other organisations. These are:

In 2000, Airbus was considering launching a super jumbo jet that they called A3XX. This aircraft could seat 550 – 900 passengers, which classifies it as a type of “Very Large Aircraft.” The defining feature for Very Large Aircraft (VLA) was that it could hold more than 400 passengers (or carry more than 80 tons of freight). Boeing was a monopolist in the VLA market, since the only other VLA available for purchase was their 747 aircraft. For Airbus, the question of deciding whether to launch A3XX was a question of whether they (a potential entrant) should attempt to break into the market of an incumbent monopolist (Boeing).

The manner in which firms are able to compete is most commonly categorized by implementing Michael Porter’s strategic typologies. Porter’s strategic theory has been the most widely accepted strategic approach used by fellow academics (Kim and Lim 1988; Bordean et al 2010). Porter proposed three generic strategies namely: cost leadership, differentiation and focus strategy. Warszawski (1996) later introduced a competitive strategy

a) In a perfect competitive market, the sole determinant of pricing is the market demand and the supply curves. A demand curve refers to the total amount that consumers will pay for their products. The supply curve is the total amount that the producers can actually make to supply to the company at the price they can afford or are willing to pay. Another factor in a perfect competitive market structure is the equilibrium price which is basically when the supply of the market meets the market demand of the consumers. Anther unique feature of a perfect competition market is that it is a price taker. In essence, this means that the company doesn’t have any influence on the price. Again, this can only be caused through a market that has a large number of firms with identical products. (Samuelson and Marks, 2010).