Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning pdf ebook

Figure 6.4 
Marketing 
resources
Dynamic marketing capabilities
Marketing capabilities
Marketing assets
The processes that create new assets or
capabilities to help sustain competitive
advantage
The processes that deploy the assets to
create competitive advantage
The resource endowments the firm has built or
acquired over time

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CHAPTER 6 UNDERSTANDING THE ORGANISATIONAL RESOURCE BASE
the share of other Kellogg’s brands, at very attractive margins. The new product exploited 
the existing brand name, flake technology and plant, but did so in a way that attracted new 
customers at high margins.
A wide variety of company properties can be converted into marketing assets. As shown 
in Figure 6.5, they can be usefully grouped into:
● 
customer-based and reputational assets;
● 
supply chain assets;
● 
internal or marketing support assets;
● 
alliance-based assets.
6.4.1 Customer-based marketing assets
Customer-based marketing assets are those assets of the company, either tangible or intan-
gible, valued by the customer or potential customer. Often, they exist in the mind of the 
customer and they are essentially intangible in nature. They may, however, be one of the 
most critical issues in building a defensible competitive position in the marketplace.
Company name and reputation
One of the most important customer-based assets a company can possess is its reputation 
or image. Companies such as Mercedes, BMW, Jaguar Land Rover and Rolls-Royce have a 
clear image, supplying a particular set of customer benefits (reliability, durability, prestige, 
overall quality) in the markets in which they operate.
Company name confers an asset on all products of the company where it is clearly 
identified. Indeed, in many cases where the company identity is a strong asset, it has been 
converted into a brand name for use on a wide variety of products (for example, Marks and 
Spencer and Sainsbury are not only company names, but also brands with strong customer 
franchises). As previously mentioned, however, image and reputation can also be a liability 
and may negatively impact on how customers view products and services marketed by such 
companies (see Chapter 17 for more detailed consideration of this issue).