Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning pdf ebook

Figure 2.8 
SWOT 
analysis
Strengths
Good
points
Danger
points
What are we
good at relative
to competitors?
Opportunities
Internal
External
What changes are
creating new
options for us?
Weaknesses
What are we bad at
relative to
competitors?
Threats
What emerging
dangers must we
avoid or counter?

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41
ESTABLISHING THE CORE STRATEGY
2.3.4 Core strategy
Using the previous analysis, the company seeks to define key factors for success (KFS), 
sometimes termed ‘critical success factors’, in particular markets. KFS are those factors 
that are crucial to doing business in a particular industry, and are identified by examining 
differences between industry ‘winners’ and ‘losers’. They often represent the factors where 
the greatest leverage can be exerted – that is, where the most effect can be obtained for a 
given amount of effort.
In the grocery industry, for example, KFS might centre on relationships between manu-
facturer and retailer. The power of the major multiples (in the UK, the top three retailers, 
Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda, account for just under 60 per cent of sales) is such that if a new 
food product does not obtain distribution through the major outlets, a substantial amount 
of the potential market is unavailable, thus severely impacting on the overall viability of 
that product. In commodity markets, where price is often considered the only real means 
of product differentiation, a KFS might be production process efficiency.
A further consideration when setting the core strategy for a multi-product or multi-
divisional company is how the various corporate activities add up – the role in the com-
pany’s overall business portfolio of each activity (see Chapter 6).
Having identified corporate capabilities, market opportunities and threats, the key fac-
tors for success in the industry in which the firm operates and the role of the particular 
product or business in the company’s overall portfolio, the company sets its marketing 
objectives. The objectives should be for both the long and short term. Long-term objectives 
indicate the future overall destination of the company – its long-term goals. To achieve 
those long-term goals, however, it is usually necessary to translate them into shorter-term 
objectives, a series of which will add up to the longer-term goals. Long-term objectives are 
often set in terms of profit or market domination for a firm operating in the commercial 
sector. Non-profit-making organisations, too, set long- and short-term goals. The long-term 
goal of Greenpeace, for example, is to help save the world’s environment.
Often, short-term and long-term goals can become confused, or conflict. There is also 
the danger that setting them in isolation can result in a situation where the attainment of 
the short-term goals does nothing to further the long-term objectives and may, in some 
instances, hinder them. For example, a commercial company setting long-term market