1. Executive Summary 2. Opportunities times two 3. Justification 4. Holistic and snake positioning 5. SCA and value proposition 6. Capabilities 7. Marketing Mix 8. Four stages of implementation 9. Two special features of implementation 10. Quality of integration throughout the strategy 11. Conclusion 12. References and any 13. Appendices Executive Summary This is a short but powerful summary of your project. It should be a very effective way of knowing the essence of your report without reading it, which sometimes the CEO may not have time to read fully. Total length about one to two pages. You have an option of an internal report to the CEO or an external report from a consultant to the CEO. Organise into five clear paragraphs: Paragraph one: What is the background to your project; its purpose. Paragraph two: main findings: broad strategic thrust/chosen strategy. Basic nature of it. Paragraph three: elaborate on the strategic thrust especially in terms of holistic and specific positioning and supporting capabilities. Paragraph four: main features of the 4Ps. Paragraph 5: main features of implementation (including likely benefits of doing the strategy). Company Description, Purpose and Goals • Very brief history of the company; mission; vision • Do a very brief summary of the situation analysis that you did in report one • Less than half a page in total for this sectionKey purpose of the company and vision. Two Opportunities and a Justified Choice • Identify two major potential opportunities • Why two? A bit of competition that stops you doing the first thing that you think of. Also, if you have three, work out which is the weakest one, and then you are back to two. So two is the magic number. Use this principle in a lot of your work situations, if time allows. • Most likely you have already identified two major opportunities from your first report, but you can change your mind at this point if you can see an even better option • Each of your opportunities has to make sense in light of your previous situation analysis; both opportunities should be compelling in terms of addressing challenges that need fixing or new pastures that need exploring • Neither of the two opportunities should be a "straw man"; that is a token option that is quickly found to be inferior to the other option. A straw man solution means that you have only one option, not two, so find a stronger second option if that it is the case. So both options should be very strong; if possible they should be what you regard as the first and second best options possible open to the company to undertake over the next 6-12 months. • Note that both options are alternatives, not complementary. You can only do one option. You cannot say let us do option one in the short term and option two in a year or so. That is not allowed. Both options need to move now, that is, launched within the next few months [you can assume that the R and D department can get the design right and we can organise the manufacturing if necessary]. You have to make a choice. • What is an option? It is an opportunity for the company, yes. • But it is more than that. Each option is a mini-strategy; it is not just a few words. It needs to be a full strategy, in skeleton form. It is not just a few words, like "expand into China". Rather it needs to be: expand into China using a particular approach, such as a low-cost strategy and with new type of distribution method • Each of the opportunities [equal mini-strategies] should be about a third of a page long • After you have come up with two options, you now have to justify why one option is the best [use a third of a page to do this] • You might make the case that one option makes better use of the strengths and capabilities of the firm; or another one is able to create a stronger competitive advantage; or another option is able to solve some weaknesses of the company. • Remember, both of the options have to be good, so you need to be very clear why you choose a particular one. • Remember also that this is a big investment decision, maybe tens of millions of dollars; that is why you need to think carefully about the right choice. A bad choice means that you have wasted millions of dollars. Are you going to pay it back? Holistic and specific market positioning and SCA Marketing Strategy Plan Builder Holistic and specific market positioning and SCA • Check your notes on holistic positioning • It is a big picture way of formulating your strategy. (1) What is the essence of the company? Is it a leader in technology? In innovation? Say a little on this aspect in terms of your intimate knowledge of the company (2) Is it the market leader? A challenger in number 2 or 3 spot? Is it a leader in a particular niche? Just say a little more on this aspect. (3) which one or two of the four generic marketing strategies apply to this company? Which one is dominant? Which one is second? Is it dominant in innovation or branding or channels/relationships or low prices? Which one is second? Expand in a few sentences. Try and picture in a holistic way your company's positioning? Briefly, what is the market positioning of the other two competitors? • Construct a snake positioning map on excel. • Essentially the snake positioning map enables you to cover more attributes than the simple positioning or perceptual map in most textbooks; those maps can only portray two dimensions across the vertical and horizontal axes. • The snake diagram can do a huge number; say ten attributes. • For your exercise use ten attributes. • Firstly, choose ten attributes that are relevant to your firm and its competitors. These will vary, but should include things that the company is good at, like for example, quality, reliability, technology, innovation, trust, branding, relationships, • Secondly, for each attribute, estimate the performance of each company [the focal company and the two competitors]. Start by working out your own scores for each attribute. Then get a couple more friends to do the same. Average your marks for each attribute for each company. • Thirdly, plot the scores in the excel diagram. Label and use different bright colours for each firm. Along the horizontal axis are the ten attributes and along the vertical axis is the performance of each firm for each attribute. You should have an attractive graph in the end, each line is a snake that weaves along [in jagged leaps]. • Interpret you snake positioning diagram. You should say that your focal company is the highest for 2 or 3 or whatever attributes which should be named. Also the focal company is lowest on 2 or whatever number of attributes (named) and in the middle on the remaining attributes. • SCA • Sustainable competitive advantage is when the performance of the focal company (your company) exceed those of its competitors. • Going back to the snake diagram, which ones were the company highest on? These are the SCA. • You need to tell a short story about this, elaborating just a little on the relevant attributes and why they give an SCA. Value Proposition • What is the package of benefits to the customer? [check up on project one information] • The attributes include SCA and parity points [mid-level performance] from the snake diagram, so you are getting a lot use out of this snake diagram • Elaborate on the story and soften it out in a language suitable for real customers • Conclude with a sentence that wraps up the value proposition. Capabilities You know all of this from project one. Make sure that you link the capabilities of the firm to the top three strengths. Where are the strengths? These are the top 3 SCA performances from the snake diagram. Under each strength, outline which are the key capabilities that support the particular strength. The 4Ps You might have more than 4P, that is no problem. But no need to discuss more than four, five maximum. Write down the correct order of the 4Ps. The order is important, reflecting the holistic positioning of your approach. If you said that innovation was critical, then start with product. If you said that branding was critical, start with promotion, then move to product. If you said that low prices was critical, start with price. For each P you need about half a page to elaborate on the critical features of that P. If you are changing the product, you need to be specific about the design changes to the product. For promotion you need to be clear about the “message” and where to target the relevant media. Is social media relevant? For price, making a comparison with competitors is a good idea – parity pricing means same as competitors, or it could more or less by say 5% or 10% or whatever you deem appropriate. You need to give a mini-program of what you are doing, with a real-life practical feel, but focused by strategic priorities. You might spend more space on the top two Ps and less on the next two Ps. Each P has to be consistent with the strategic thrust and help support it as well; it reinforces your strategy. Implementation Implementation is important. Use the new four stage best practice model of implementation to structure your answer. Stage 1: Be clear about what is the essence of your strategy. What are your priorities and thus what are your implementation priorities. What are key objectives? Stage 2: Resources needed are =? Both dollars and human and IT Stage 3:Management processes. Do a Gantt chart; time line against decisions. Who is responsible for each decision? How will you get buy-in from staff? Stage 4: Monitor. KPIs and Controls. Measurability is important. What is special about your implementation? Is there anything special that gives you an advantage compared to competitors just in the implementation process. References A few key academic references are needed. These can give your plan extra zip because of the extra knowledge they inject into it. Make an effort to improve your report by making effective use of these special articles [take pride in one of the Ps or any section; which one do you really add some value helped by a journal article?]. Give Web references here as well. No appendices please.