Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning pdf ebook

CHAPTER 2 STRATEGIC MARKETING PLANNING
and streaming services are reshaping the music industry. Changes also occur in customer 
tastes, which manifest in the products and services demanded. The fashion industry is one 
where tastes change incredibly rapidly, and fashions come and go – a phenomenon driven 
by designers and marketers. In such settings, particularly, but nevertheless in many modern 
markets where tastes change quickly, keeping up with market knowledge is crucial. (Chap-
ter 4 deals in more detail with customer analysis.)
The second major type of threat an organisation may face is from competition. Increas-
ing competition, both from domestic and international sources, is the name of the game 
in most markets. As competitors become more sophisticated in seeking out market oppor-
tunities and designing marketing programmes to exploit them, so incumbent companies 
need to improve marketing activities, products and services. In the United Kingdom, many 
industries have not responded adequately to increased international competition, and have 
suffered the consequences; high-profile examples would be the once world-leading car and 
aircraft manufacturing industries. It is telling that in the highly competitive laptop computer 
market, the first ‘lightweight’ computers demanded by business users weary of carrying 
heavier machines did not come from existing PC manufacturers, but from Sony – leveraging 
its core competence of making things smaller. In more sophisticated marketing companies, 
rigorous competitor analysis commands almost as much time as customer analysis and 
self-evaluation. Substantial effort is directed towards identifying competitors’ strengths 
and weaknesses and likely strategies (see Chapter 5).
2.3.3 SWOT analysis
The previous analysis of organisational strengths and weaknesses (internal focus) can then 
be combined with analysis of the market (external focus) to create a SWOT (strengths, 
weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis (see Figure 2.8).
The purpose of SWOT is twofold. First, it seeks to identify the most significant factors, 
both internal and external, affecting the organisation and its markets. It provides a quick, 
executive summary of the key issues. Second, by looking at where strengths and weaknesses 
align with opportunities and threats, it can help strategy formulation (see Figure 2.9). The 
organisation can begin to see where its strengths might be best deployed, both offensively 
and defensively, as well as where its weaknesses leave it vulnerable to market change or 
competitor action.