Marketing objectives, approaches, and portfolio analysis in competitive markets

Marketing and the Competitive Environment

Marketing objectives and approaches

Marketing focuses on the identification of the needs of the customers and working towards meeting these needs. Marketing activities involves primarily looking out for the customers needs and ensure that they convince the customers the business offers what will meet their particular needs and wants. The main objective of marketing is to ensure that the company promoters the idea that it offers the right product at an appropriate price, where they are needed and with the use of appropriate promotions. Marketing ensures that the benefits of the product are made known and not just the particular feature of what is being sold. For instance, a company can use an advertisement in the media to showcase the prices of the items they are offering. Another aim of marketing is to ensure that there is a barrier of entry by competitors.

Marketing objectives are for the company to be a leader in the market and to be recognized as the trusted and most recognized brand in a particular industry (Samuels, 2010).There are various marketing approaches these can be consumer marketing which is aimed for the general public who will be the final users of the product being marketed. This approach ensures that the products meet the needs of a buyer on a personal level. The other marketing approach is business to business marketing. This marketing is aimed for businesses that buy products to re-sell them. This approach contains a small number of customers. This makes it easy for direct communication with the customers so as to establish market trends .this can be achieved through offering free samples to the customers alongside what they buy so as to make them aware of what their products. If an organization has its marketing objectives in place it will determine the most appropriate marketing tools to realize these objectives.

Portfolio analysis and globalization in marketing

Portfolio analysis involves a comparison between the portfolios goods and services a company intends to produce so as to determine the most investment that is promising and well deserving. It also aims to make a decision on the particular investment that will be discontinued. There are companies that have strategic business units in place .The portfolio analysis are conducted with models that give a two dimensional matrix of the market of the product and SBUs. One dimension represents how attractive the market is and the other one determines the product or service strength when it comes to its competitive position. Product portfolio analysis ensures that marketing managers make decisions on what particular products they should channel the organization's resources, which of the products are to be eliminated .It also offers knowledge on existing opportunities of adding new products so as to achieve a balance of the products. For example, Portfolio analysis can be done when a company has wide range of products in its production line and it is difficult to make a decision on the product they should concentrate on.

Marketing today is quite different from what was there before due to the changes of economy in the world as well as developing of a very fast knowledge distribution network. Marketing has become more challenging now due to globalization, these challenges can either break or make a business and therefore new strategies should be implemented that will help in coping with the global market that is undergoing evolution.

Portfolio analysis and globalization affect marketing promotions through their influence on particular changes that can be made in marketing promotions. These are the types of changes that will ensure the marketing objectives of the organization are met. Globalization creates a need for business to align their marketing practices according to other countries. A company might require adoption of some marketing strategies that are used by other countries so that it can remain relevant in the global market.

Relevance of product placement in marketing

Product placement is advertisement that involves goods or service that have been branded being placed in a context that is devoid of advertisement. An example of product placement is running of an advertisement within a movie, TV show or even on popular social sites. These advertisements are not part of the video or show but are just incorporated to pass a promotional message. These product placements are very important in the marketing, particularly those related to e-commerce. This is because the placements capture people who did not expect to get the particular advertisement probably when they are internet. Therefore product placement reaches very many people at a particular time (Miranda, 2012).

Control strategies associated with product placement

There are control strategies that can be associated with product placement. This is because some of the placements can be termed as being destructive or lead to making decisions without thinking. These strategies can be such as restricting the number of placements that can be used in a particular context so that they are not too much to overwhelm a person. Another strategy is allowing only specific product placement in a context which are not too flashy and hence do not cause destructions. For instance a company can be allowed to use only dull colors in their placements and short messages that will not otherwise cause destructions. Companies should be aware of the control strategies in place so that they can avoid their placements from being denied.

Role of research and development in competitive strategy development

Research and development is aimed at discovering new manufacturing processes or products which is done in order to adopt the crucial developments that are needed to satisfy the needs of the market. A company might come up with a completely innovative product that no other company has produced before through research and development. Through this a company will develop a competitive advantage. This is through various ways such as providing selling points that are unique and hence marketing a product in a competitive environment. If from the research the resulting product needs patenting then a company will be a monopoly and therefore there will be no competition on the product.

Critical path analysis objectives and provide examples

Critical path analysis objective is carrying out analysis on the appropriate resource use to be applied in a specific period of time. This is an appropriate technique that is used by many industries. Critical path analysis is an effective way of the encouragement of forward planning. This leads to control of costs as well as efficiency in operations. An example of critical path analysis involves carrying out a particular activity the precedence and time required to complete the activities.

Relevance of market conditions to competitive strategy development

There are various market conditions that can exist within a market. These market conditions are perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly and monopoly. These conditions are relevant when it comes to competitive strategy development. For instance in perfect competition and monopolistic competition it is easy for other organizations to enter the market. This means that the organizations that exist in these market conditions should have come up with a competitive strategy development that will ensure they are not through out of the market. In monopoly and oligopolies entry of other businesses is very hard and therefore organizations in this market conditions should not be worried when it comes to development of a competitive strategy since the likelihood of facing any competition is very low. Therefore the knowledge of a particular market condition that a company exists in can be useful in the development of its competitive strategy.