Here is a compilation of term papers on ‘Marketing Strategies’. Find paragarphs, long and short term papers on ‘Marketing Strategies’ especially written for school and college students.
Term Paper on Marketing Strategies
Term Paper Contents:
- Term Paper on the Introduction to Marketing Strategies
- Term Paper on the Concept of Marketing Strategies
- Term Paper on the Factors Affecting Marketing Strategies
- Term Paper on Porter’s Five Forces Model
- Term Paper on Marketing Warfare Strategy
- Term Paper on Goal Attacking Strategy
- Term Paper on Boston Consulting Group Matrix
- Term Paper on GE Nine Cell Matrix
- Term Paper on Ansoff’s Product-Market Growth Strategy
- Term Paper on the Strategies Adopted by Different Marketers
Term Paper # 1. Introduction to Marketing Strategies:
Marketing strategies are the key to success for an organization as they act as the foundation for marketing plans. The effective formulation and implementation of marketing strategies help an organization in achieving marketing objectives. These strategies also help an organization in diversifying its business into new geographical areas, introducing new technology, and gaining competitive advantage.
Marketing strategies revolve around the four P’s of marketing, namely, product, price, place, or promotion. Nowadays, the business environment has become very dynamic; therefore, organizations need to devise new and innovative marketing strategies on a regular basis to sustain its customer base and increase market share.
The article begins by discussing the concept and process of creating marketing strategies. It further explains Porter’s generic strategies and five forces model. The article also describes marketing warfare and goal attacking strategies. The concept of market expansion strategies is explained in detail. In addition, the article elaborates on Boston Consulting Group (BCG) matrix, GE Nine Cell matrix, and Ansoff’s product market growth strategy. Towards the end, it describes competitive strategies adopted by marketers.
Term Paper # 2. Concept of Marketing Strategies:
Marketing strategy is a plan that explains how goals will be achieved within a stipulated timeframe. It also determines the preference of market segment, positioning of brand, marketing mix, and resources allocation. Marketing strategy combines product, price, place, promotion, and other elements to achieve the marketing goals of the organization within a timeframe. It gives a defined route to any business to achieve the set objectives.
An organization follows a process to create a marketing strategy.
The process of creating a marketing strategy is discussed as follows:
1. Creating the Team:
It refers to the formation of a group of strategic managers in an organization. It is the first step towards the preparation of a marketing strategy.
2. Reviewing the Present Scenario:
It refers to analyzing internal factors, such as strengths, weaknesses as well as external factors, including opportunities and threats of the organization.
3. Setting the Marketing Objective:
It refers to determining marketing goals to answer basic questions, such as what product to launch, when to launch, and how to launch. These marketing objectives should be set after considering organizational goals.
4. Planning the Action:
It refers to preparing a framework of actions to achieve organizational goals. In this step, the marketing department prepares a plan of action to implement the marketing strategy.
5. Implementing the Strategy:
It refers to executing the marketing strategy for the organization. It includes introducing a product in the market through various media, such as print and electronic media.
6. Reviewing the Strategy:
It involves the evaluation of marketing strategies to determine whether the desired results have been achieved or not. This step helps an organization to know the performance of marketing strategies in terms of achieving market share.
An organization implements a marketing strategy to increase its market share. For example, if the mobile phone market in India earns the revenue of worth US $ 50,000 million annually and an organization ABC Mobiles sells mobile handsets worth US $ 20,000 million annually, then it has 40% market share. Market share can also be calculated in terms of units sold by an organization.
If the industry sells 4 million mobile handsets in a year, out of which ABC Mobiles sells 1 million mobile handsets then the market share of ABC Mobiles is 25%. The market share of an organization is decided by demographic factors, such as geographical area, gender, and ethnicity.
An organization strives to increase its market share to achieve economies of scale in the functional areas, such as production, distribution, and advertising. The organization that has a large market share often dictates the market and keeps the competitors at bay. The organization with a large market share enjoys lower operating expenses and becomes more profitable than the organization with a smaller market share. The organization increases the market share by lowering the prices, improving the product quality, increasing advertising expenditures, expanding distribution channels, and merging with the competitors.
The organization adopts various kinds of strategies to achieve its marketing objectives.
The major strategies used by the organization are discussed below:
1. Porter’s Generic Strategies:
Michael Porter has suggested three generic strategies – cost leadership, focus, and differentiation.
He defined each generic strategy with the help of two dimensions, which are as follows:
i. Competitive Advantage:
It implies the supply-side dimension that focuses on the competitiveness and strength of the organization.
ii. Competitive Scope:
It refers to a demand-side dimension that focuses on the size and composition of the target market.
Most of the organizations implement single marketing strategy; whereas, some organizations may use, more than one marketing strategy at a time.
Now, let us discuss the Porter’s generic strategy model in detail:
i. Cost Leadership:
It refers to a strategy in which an organization produces products at the lowest cost. An organization can gain competitive advantage as a cost leader in the market by producing standardized products in high volumes. This helps the organization to gain economies of scale or efficiency. An organization needs to continuously search for low cost factors of production to achieve and maintain this strategy. The sole aim of cost leadership strategy is cost reduction in the production of basic products for a wide range of customers.
ii. Differentiation:
It refers to a strategy in which an organization offers differentiated products in the market to attain competitive advantage. Unlike the cost leadership strategy, where the focus is on cost control, this strategy completely focuses on giving customized products to its customers to satisfy their needs. Differentiation strategy allows organizations to focus on value creation of the product, which in turn allows them to charge premium prices.
In differentiation strategy, the organization should continuously focus on innovation and improvement of the available product mix. In addition, the organization is required to segment the target market in such a way that it targets the products and services in a profitable manner. Market segmentation can be done by differentiation of products in terms of design, brand image, technology, features, dealers, network, or customer’s service.
iii. Focus Strategy:
It concentrates on selecting a specific customer segment with a view to cater to its specific needs by customizing the marketing mix and product mix. Markets serving very specific customer segments are called niche markets. The focus strategy is suitable for the smaller organizations that neither have cost leadership nor differentiation strategy. It allows organizations to streamline their efforts and resources on a narrow and specifically defined segment of a market. Every market segment or niche has its own competitive advantage.
Organizations can use the two variants of focus strategy, namely:
a. Focused Cost Leadership:
This opts for the strategy that focuses on cost reduction. Focused cost strategy is adopted by organizations that sell products at low cost in small markets.
b. Focused Differentiation:
This opts for the strategy of product differentiation to gain competitive advantage in the niche market.
Term Paper # 3. Factors Affecting Marketing Strategies:
The marketing strategy of an organization is affected by several factors. An organization should take these factors into consideration while formulating and implementing strategies.
Following are the industrial factors that affect the marketing strategy of the organization:
i. Condition of the Industry:
It implies the basic conditions and features that characterize the industry. The conditions of the industry include current size of the industry, product categories, performance of the industry, and volume of sales.
ii. Environment of the Industry:
It refers to surroundings of the industry. According to Michael Porter, the environment of industries can be categorized as fragmented, emerging, matured, declining, and global industries.
iii. Structure of the Industry:
It involves economic and technical forces that form an industry. It also includes number of players and relative shares of each player, market size, nature of the competition, and practices followed by competitors.
iv. Attractiveness of the Industry:
It includes the factors that attract the new entrants in the industry. These factors include industry profitability, industry potential, industry growth, and entry and exit barriers for a business in the industry.
v. Performance of the Industry:
It measures the efficiency of an organization in terms of sales, profitability, production, and technological development.
vi. Practices Followed in the Industry:
It shows the approach that major industries follow in various areas related to pricing, field support, distribution, promotion, methods of selling, research and development, and legal matters.
vii. Emerging Trends of the Industry:
It implies that the future trends of the industry are analyzed by evaluating the factors, such as innovation in product/process, rate of growth, product life cycle, stage of the industry; entry and exit of organizations, and changes in the regulatory environment.
Term Paper # 4. Porter’s Five Forces Model:
Every industry is characterized by high competition; therefore, every organization formulates a competitive strategy to sustain in the industry. Most of the organizations only look at the competitors within the industry and do not take into consideration other factors in the competitor analysis. Micheal E. Porter has developed a competitor analysis model, which consists of five forces that determine the power of industry competition and profitability.
The explanation of competitive forces in an industry is as follows:
i. Threat of Substitutes:
It leads to a close competition among organizations within an industry. Substitutes are alternative products available in the market for a product. Examples of substitute products are tea and coffee or bulbs and tube lights. The presence of substitute products puts a ceiling on the prices of products. Organizations have to formulate strategies according to the presence or absence of substitutes in an industry.
ii. Threat of New Entrants:
It implies the entry of new competitors in the industry. A profitable industry attracts the new entrants that may lead to lesser sales volume and revenue for the existing organizations. Entry barriers, such as high investment requirements, government policies, lack of access to raw materials, and lack of experience, act as de-motivators for new entrants. However, new entrants may enter in the market with higher quality products and low prices despite these barriers. The strategists of existing organizations should identify and monitor the strategies of these new entrants.
iii. Rivalry within the Industry:
It refers to the degree of competition in the market. If the rivalry is weak then there will be less competition. Intensified rivalry among organizations reduces the possibility of making profits in an industry.
iv. Bargaining Power of Suppliers:
It acts as a force of competition in an industry. The suppliers of raw materials of an organization may have high or less bargaining power. A high bargaining power of supplier may hamper the supply of raw materials to an organization.
The factors that can make a supplier strong are as follows:
a. Less number of suppliers in the market
b. Unity in the suppliers
c. Products of suppliers are unique and not easily available.
v. Bargaining Power of Buyers:
Refers to the degree to which buyers can influence the price of the product. A high bargaining power of buyers acts as a competitive pressure for an organization. A low bargaining power enables the organization to pass the cost to buyers.
The factors that make the buyers strong are as follows:
a. Bulk purchases by buyers
b. Few buyers of the product
c. Products purchased by buyers are standard or undifferentiated.
Term Paper # 5. Marketing Warfare Strategy:
Marketing warfare strategy involves systematic deployment of available resources to achieve specific objectives. The vast number of military books, such as The Art of War by Sun Tzu and The Little Red Book by Mao Zedong has become the knowledge base for managers to formulate strategies. Philip Koder and J. B. Quinn are among the major proponents of marketing warfare strategy.
Now, let us discuss the types of marketing warfare strategies in detail:
i. Offensive Warfare Strategy:
It refers to the strategy that is used to secure competitive advantage by attacking competitors. In this strategy, the organization mainly attacks market leaders and struggling competitors.
Following are the various types of offensive warfare strategies:
a. Frontal Attack – Involves matching the competitor in terms of product, price, place, and promotion.
b. Envelopment Strategy – Encircles the target competitors in two ways. First is to produce a range of products similar to target competitor’s products and second is to capture the markets of the competitors. Envelopment strategy is also called encirclement strategy.
c. Leapfrog Strategy – Refers to avoid competitors completely. Leapfrog strategy involves the development of either new technologies or new models. In this strategy, the organization develops a new product model or technology to make the existing product outdated. For example, the introduction of compact discs reduced the demand of floppy discs.
ii. Defensive Warfare Strategy:
It defends an organization by decreasing the chances of being attacked, minimizing the effects of attacks, and strengthening the organization’s position.
The types of defensive marketing warfare strategies are as follows:
a. Position Defense – Strengthens the position of a product in the market with the help of promotional activities.
b. Mobile Defense – Refers to constantly change the resources and develop new strategies to confuse attackers.
c. Counter-Offensive – Involves launching of a strategy by an organization at the time of attack. In this strategy, the defender selects the weak point of the offender to attack.
d. Pre-Emptive Strike: Refers to an attack by an organization before it gets attacked by other organizations.
e. Strategic Withdrawal – Refers to a strategy in which an organization retreats and consolidates its strengths to face the competitors in future.
iii. Flanking Warfare Strategy:
It includes two strategic dimensions, such as geographical and segmental. In flanking warfare strategy, an organization can attack the weak geographical areas and product segments of market leader.
iv. Guerrilla Warfare Strategy:
It implies a strategy of harming competitors by minor attacks. In guerrilla warfare strategy, the organization attacks, retreats, hides, and again attacks the competitors.
Term Paper # 6. Goal Attacking Strategy:
Goal attacking strategy helps an organization in targeting multiple goals simultaneously. In addition, it defines the path of organization’s long-term objective.
The explanation of the types of goal attacking strategies is as follows:
i. Vertical Goal Attacking Strategy:
It divides a goal into few levels and focuses on a single level at a time until the predetermined level is achieved. For example, the goal of an organization can be the achievement of 25% market share in three years but this goal can be divided into few levels. In the first year, the level can be the achievement of 10% market share. In the second year, it can be 20%, and in the third year, it can be 25%.
ii. Horizontal Goal Attacking Strategy:
It focuses on several goals at a time. It assumes that targeting a number of goals simultaneously produce better results. This approach is appropriate for organizations with multiple areas to focus on. For example, under horizontal goal attacking strategy, an organization can target goals, such as achieving 25% market share and 10% profit simultaneously.
iii. Cyclical Goal Attacking Strategy:
It focuses on several goals, each for a specified time period. For example, an organization has two goals – earning 25% profit and selling 100,000 products in the next 4 years.
In this case, an organization can schedule its goals in the following manner:
First year-15% profit
Second year- 50,000 product sale
Third year- 25% profit
Fourth year- 100,000 product sale
From the preceding example, it is clear that every year goal of the organization changes. The organization shifts from one goal to another every year. Even if the goal of first year is not achieved, organization will shift to the goal of the second year.
Term Paper # 7. Boston Consulting Group Matrix:
BCG matrix was developed in 1970s by The Boston Consulting Group, a global management consulting organization. It is also known as BCG growth-share matrix and used for managing a portfolio of different business units in an organization. It shows a relationship between the market growth rate and relative market share of a business unit.
The market growth rate helps in judging whether an organization should remain in the particular industry or not. High market share gives special benefits to the organization, such as strong bargaining power. It divides the business units into four categories to allocate the resources of a business.
BCG matrix represents the market growth of business units and their relative market share.
The discussion of the BCG matrix is as follows:
i. Cash Cows:
It refers to the business units that hold a large market share and strong business position in the market. However, the industry in which these business units operate is a slow-growth industry. These business units are in the maturity stage of their life cycle and require less investment. The returns in these business units are often more than the investment done. The products of a cash cow business unit provide complete satisfaction to the customer and develop generic names. For example, Bisleri for water and Xerox for photocopying.
ii. Stars:
It refers to business units that grasp a large market share in a growing market. Star business units are in their emerging stage with high investment needs to promote products. When the industry matures, a star becomes a cash cow and hardly needs any investment.
iii. Question Marks:
It refers to the business units that have low market share in high growth market. These types of business units require high investment because their cash needs are high. As the market is growing rapidly, it is easier for such business units to acquire market share. However, if a dominant player already exists in this industry, it is better for an organization not to invest in question mark units. On the other hand, if there are numerous competitors with no dominant share, it would be fruitful to invest in question mark units.
iv. Dogs:
It refers to business units with low market share and limited growth. These business units do not need much investment and give limited returns. Thus, they have limited scope of growth. It is advisable for such business units to liquidate or divest. However, sometimes organizations keep the dog business units in their portfolio to complete the product range.
According to various researches, such well-managed business units can have a positive effect on an organization. The characteristics of these business units are narrow business focus, concentration on high quality products, and control of costs through less advertising. These business units can generate good surplus; however, the possibility of turning into cash cows does not exist.
The BCG matrix helps in dividing the resources among different business units. It also helps in comparing different business units present in an organization.
However, it suffers from the following limitations:
a. Emphasizing more on improving the market share which may induce an organization to ignore its objectives.
b. Linking of market share and profitability is questionable because the rising market share requires additional investment; therefore, it may not result in increasing profit.
Term Paper # 8. GE Nine Cell Matrix:
The GE nine-cell matrix was developed in 1970s by General- Electric with the support of McKinsey & Company for portfolio analysis and brand marketing. It deploys various factors to measure the business strength and industry attractiveness. The business strength is measured by factors, such as market share, profit margin, market knowledge, ability to compete, and technology; whereas, industry attractiveness is measured by factors, such as market growth, competition, resource requirements, and environmental, legal and human factors.
The vertical axis of GE nine-cell matrix represents the industry attractiveness and the horizontal axis represents the business unit strength. Both the axes are divided into three parts – low, medium, and high.
A strategist first identifies the factors contributing to industry attractiveness. After that, based on the importance of each factor, the weights are assigned to each industry attractiveness factor. Then, the overall weighted composite score is calculated for the business’s industry attractiveness. Similarly, the score for business strength is calculated with the same procedure.
After calculating both the scores, the factors of industry attractiveness and business strengths are classified into high, medium, and low.
Term Paper # 9. Ansoff’s Product-Market Growth Strategy:
Product-market growth matrix was developed by Igor Ansoff in 1957. This matrix suggests strategists to consider ways to do businesses through existing or new products in existing or new markets. The matrix helps strategists to decide what strategy should be followed.
Now, let us discuss Ansoff’s product-market growth strategy in brief:
i. Market Penetration:
It refers to the increase in the sales of existing products in the existing market. It can be done through lowering the price of products. For example, Maggie noodles initially targeted working women but soon repositioned itself to target school going children.
ii. Market Development:
It refers to sell existing products in new markets. For example, initially, the target market of Coca-Cola was the US market but it developed its market for soft drink by entering Russia and other countries of the world.
iii. Product Development:
It means launching new products into the existing market. For example, iPod by Apple Inc. was a new product for the existing market of music lovers.
iv. Diversification:
It refers to sell new products in the new market. For example, if an Indian automobile organization offers a new small car X in the new market of other country then this is called diversification.
Term Paper # 10. Strategies Adopted by Different Marketers:
There are four kinds of marketers in an industry. Each marketer uses different competitive strategies to fight competitors. These four marketers are leaders, challengers, followers, and nichers.
The discussion of these marketers is as follows:
i. Market Leaders:
They dominate the industry and capture substantial market share in terms of number of units sold and revenue generated. The market leaders often have a research and development department. They also offer better solutions to customers’ problems.
Following are the strategies followed by market leaders:
a. Expand Total Market – Refers to expand the existing market demographically and geographically. For example, Hindustan Unilever Limited entered into rural Indian market to sell its products.
b. Defend Market Share – Implies that marketers should not lose the existing customers. This can be done through different reward programs for the existing customers. For example, a U.S. based coffee manufacturing organization; Starbucks runs mobile coupon loyalty programs for its customers.
c. Expand Market Share – Refers to increase sales in the existing market through low pricing. For example, a mobile manufacturing organization reduces the price of the mobile to increase its sales in the lower segment of the market.
ii. Market Challengers:
They occupy second or third position in the industry and can challenge the market leaders at some weak points. The market challengers aspire to become market leaders in future. They follow different kinds of strategies to challenge market leaders.
These strategies are as follows:
a. Offensive Attack – Targets the vulnerable areas of market leaders to grab the market share
b. Offering all the Benefits and Facilities – Refers to provide all the benefits and facilities to customers that are offered by competitors
c. Indirect Attack – Refers to get into the market where leaders have no presence.
iii. Market Followers:
They replicate the strategies of market leaders but do not challenge them. They do not follow aggressive competitive strategies.
Some of the strategies adopted by market followers are as follows:
a. Expansion of Market – Refers to increase the market in new geographical areas by acquiring new customers.
b. Defensive Measures – Include several methods to protect the market share of the organization. For example, the mobile defense method involves increasing the market share of an organization and the contraction defense method involves withdrawing from weak product segments.
c. Increasing Market Share – Refers to increase the market-share by operational effectiveness, such as new product development and increase in marketing expenditures.
iv. Market Nichers:
It refers to those organizations that target small and unique market segments. These are called niche markets.
Following are the three strategies adopted by market nichers:
a. Creating Niches – Involves the identification of niches in the industry
b. Expanding Niche – Add new niches or expands the present niche by attracting more customers
c. Protecting Niches – Implies defending niches from competitors’ attacks.
Thus, every organization should identify its position in the market as a leader, challenger, follower, or nicher to compete in the market.