NAME: FAJEMILUA BEN

MATRIC NO: P19DLBA80482

COURSE: MARKETING MANAGEMENT & STRATEGY (BUAD 828)

QUESTION 1

QUESTION: Partnership strategies is important to the existence of an organization. What is

strategic alliance and showcase different forms of these alliance?

ANSWER:

What are Strategic Alliances?

Strategic alliances are agreements between two or more independent companies to cooperate in the

manufacturing, development, or sale of products and services, or other business objectives.

For example, in a strategic alliance, Company A and Company B combine their respective resources,

capabilities, and core competencies to generate mutual interests in designing, manufacturing, or

distributing goods or services.

1
Different Forms of Strategic Alliance

1. Joint Venture: A joint venture is a child company of two parent companies. It’s maintained by

sharing resources and equity with a binding agreement. Whether it’s formed for a specific

purpose or an ongoing strategy, a joint venture has a clear objective, and profits are split

between the two companies.

2. Equity Strategic Alliance: An equity strategic alliance occurs when one company purchases

equity in another business (partial acquisition), or each business purchases equity in each other

(cross-equity transactions).

3. Non-Equity Strategic Alliance: In a non-equity strategic alliance, organizations create an

agreement to share resources without creating a separate entity or sharing equity. Non-equity

alliances are often more loose and informal than a partnership involving equity. These make up

the vast majority of business alliances.

QUESTION: It is vital for company to attract customer keep them to reduce the defection rate

from one company to another. As manager advice the Company on actions take?

ANSWER:

Reducing Defection Rate using Customer Attraction and Customer Retention

2
Acquiring new customers can cost five times more than satisfying and retaining current ones. It requires

a great deal of effort to induce satisfied customers to switch from their current suppliers. The average

company loses 10 per cent of its customer each year.

Marketing Funnel: The marketing funnel recognizes the percentage of a potential target market at every

stage of the decision-making process, right from slightly aware to very loyal.

Customers must pass through every stage before becoming loyal customers. Marketers even elongate

the funnel in order to accommodate loyal customers who become brand advocates or even partners of

the firm. The funnel further highlights the importance of attracting new customers, along with retaining

and cultivating the existing ones.

Attracting Customers: Companies trying to grow profits and sales require investing time and resources

efficiently in the search for new customers.

At times, promotional campaigns that are intended to reinforce the value of the brand not only target

loyal customers but could more likely attract high-value fresh customers.

Strategies to attract customers

• Conduct a Contest.

• Use of Social Media.

• Improve Website SEO.

• Offer discounts and deals.

• Interact and Retain Loyal Buyers.

• Associate with complementary businesses.

3
 • Establish trust with the help of customer reviews.

Retention: The process of engaging the company’s existing customers to continue buying products or

services from the business is called customer retention. Having converted the customers at least once

in the past, customer retention is very different from customer acquisition or lead generation.

Best customer retention tactics empower the firm to form enduring relationships with customers who

eventually become loyal to the brand. They even might become indirect advocates of the brand who

may spread the word within their circles of influence, which turns them into brand ambassadors.

Reducing Defection: Attracting new customers is not always enough for the company; it must also keep

them along with increasing the business. Many companies fall prey to customer churn or defection. In

such cases adding customers is like adding water to a leaking container. Defecting customers indicate

unmet needs and expectations, low product or service quality and high complexity as well as billing

errors.

To reduce the defection rate, the company must

• Define and measure its retention rate

• Define the causes of customer erosion and identify those that can be managed later

• Compare the lost customer’s lifetime value to the costs of defection rate

Managing the Customer Base: Reducing the rate of customer defection: Electing and preparing

employees to be knowledgeable and friendly raises the possibility that customer’s purchasing questions

get answered satisfactorily.

4
Example: Carlton Gate Resorts Ibadan: The Carlton Gate Resorts Ibadan, a place that beautifully

combines genuine care and comfort of their guests. It is their highest mission to give guests a personal,

heartfelt experience by ensuring the most satisfactory personal service and facilities for the guests who

will enjoy a gracious, carefree, yet refined ambience. This experience vivifies the senses, instils welfare,

and satisfies even the unexpressed wishes and needs of the guests.

Increasing the longevity of customer relationship. When customers are more engaged with the

company, they are likely to stick around for longer.

QUESTION 2

QUESTION: The Company have well-staffed marketing departments as well other units and

accept that the customer is king. Reflecting on the above statement, what is company strategic

planning in marketing and the key areas that marketers must give priority to, identify some level

to achieve the game plan?

ANSWER:

What is Strategic Market Planning in Marketing?

Strategic Market Planning is an ongoing process through which the company creates marketing

strategies and plans its implementations in the target market. The process taken into account the current

5
position of the company, helps in identifying the promotional opportunities & then evaluating these

opportunities. Target market is identified through comprehensive research.

Marketing is a complicated process and mostly cannot be planned in short period of time. The strategic

market planning takes into account long term and short-term view of the market and considers various

parameters to plan according to the target market.

What are the key areas that marketers must give priority to in order to achieve the game plan?

The strategic marketing process is a deliberate series of steps to help you identify and reach your goals.

Even more, you’ll discover what your customers want and develop products that meet those needs.

Here are the steps to a successful strategic marketing process.

1. Mission

2. Situation Analysis

3. Marketing Strategy/Planning

4. Marketing Mix

5. Implementation and Control

Strategic marketing planning involves setting goals and objectives, analyzing internal and

external business factors, product planning, implementation, and tracking your progress.

Consider the example of Apple, here’s an example of the strategic marketing plan for one of

the most successful companies in the world.

6
Mission: Apple is dedicated to making innovative, high-quality products.

Situation Analysis: Apple’s competitive advantage is driven by its commitment to

understanding customer needs, focusing on the products that are core to its mission, and

fostering a collaborative work culture.

Marketing Strategy: Apple usually is first to the marketplace with new products and the

company relies on brand loyalty from existing customers as a strategy when launching new

products and services.

Marketing Mix: While Apple offers a range of products, it values premium pricing and relies

on strict guidelines for distribution.

Implementation and Control: Each Apple product complements the others and work within

the same ecosystem, so customers tend to stay with the brand, creating loyal consumers.

The strategic marketing process puts all the pieces together so that everything you do

contributes to the success of your business. Rather than executing haphazard activities and

ideas, developing a solid plan that weaves goals and tactics into a seamless experience is

essential. You can follow these steps to create products and services that will delight your

customers and beat out your competitors.

7
 QUESTION 3

QUESTION A: The Company’s success depends not only on how well each department performs

its work, but also on how well the company coordinates departmental activities to conduct core

business processes. Identify the processes?

ANSWER:

A firm may grow faster when each of the department of a business work properly and coordinated with

each other. There are four types of business processes such as:

1. Design to development: This business process refers to the first step to run a business as it emphasize

the planning of the production activities for example how much labor or capital should be employed to

meet the demand in the market.

2. Development to production: It refers to the step under which output is produced and transformed the

raw material into useful things for example; bread are used to make the cake to sell in the market.

3. Production to installation: This process defines the process of accessibility of the output in the

market. It defines that output are transported in the market, for example; clothes manufacturing in the

factories and then transported I the market to sell.

4. Installation to servicing: This process explains the facilities of the producer that is provided to the

customers to attract customers, and get maximum revenue from it.

8
QUESTION B: Analyze the connection between Marketing intelligence system and sales

information system?

Marketing Intelligence System: A marketing intelligence system is a set of procedures and sources used

by managers to obtain their everyday information about pertinent developments in the marketing

environment. It means that this is a mechanism used by executives to gather data on the developments

taking place in the environment – commercial, technological, legal/political, and so on – to help them

formulate strategies to cope up with the changes.

Marketing intelligence may be carried on by reading books, newspapers, trade journals. It may also be

carried on by talking to different groups as customers, suppliers, distributors, and so on and different

company personnel. In contemporary marketing practices, we find the formal use of an intelligence

system instead of an informal or casual one. Because the casual system may provide information either

too late or the information so gathered may be lost or forgotten.

Therefore, steps should be taken to place an appropriate marketing intelligence system that involves

four logical steps. In the following section, we shall discuss the steps involved in a good marketing

intelligence system.

Sales Information System: This is a flexible tool which allows you to collect, consolidate, and utilize

data from Sales and Distribution processing. It can be used at different levels in the decision-making

process as a control and planning instrument, enabling you to recognize market developments and

economic trends early on and to take appropriate measures.

9
The Sales Information System is a component of the Logistic Information System (LIS), which contains

a range of other information systems including those for Purchasing and the Shop Floor.

All of the LIS information systems have standard structures and user guidelines and use a large number

of data analysis functions that they access from the central system. Therefore, the information systems

that belong to the LIS are described in the documentation for LO - Logistics Information System , while

any special functions are described in separate sections of the documentation.

QUESTION 4

QUESTION: Analyze market division and why is important for an organization to apply that in

its marketing strategies in order to succeed?

What Is Market Division?

Market Division is a marketing term that refers to aggregating prospective buyers into groups or

segments with common needs and who respond similarly to a marketing action. Market segmentation

enables companies to target different categories of consumers who perceive the full value of certain

products and services differently from one another.

Examples of Market Division

Market Division is evident in the products, marketing, and advertising that people use every day. Auto

manufacturers thrive on their ability to identify market segments correctly and create products and

advertising campaigns that appeal to those segments.

10
Cereal producers market actively to three or four market segments at a time, pushing traditional brands

that appeal to older consumers and healthy brands to health-conscious consumers, while building brand

loyalty among the youngest consumers by tying their products to, say, popular children's movie themes.

A sports-shoe manufacturer might define several market segments that include elite athletes, frequent

gym-goers, fashion-conscious women, and middle-aged men who want quality and comfort in their

shoes. In all cases, the manufacturer's marketing intelligence about each segment enables it to develop

and advertise products with a high appeal more efficiently than trying to appeal to the broader masses.

What is Marketing Strategy?

Marketing strategy is the comprehensive plan formulated particularly for achieving the

marketing objectives of the organization. It provides a blueprint for attaining these marketing

objectives. It is the building block of a marketing plan. It is designed after detailed marketing research.

A marketing strategy helps an organization to concentrate its scarce resources on the best possible

opportunities so as to increase the sales.

A marketing strategy is designed by:

1. Choosing the target market: By target market we mean to whom the organization wants to

sell its products. Not all the market segments are fruitful to an organization. There are certain

market segments which guarantee quick profits, there are certain segments which may be having

great potential but there may be high barriers to entry. A careful choice has to be made by the

11
 organization. An indepth marketing research has to be done of the traits of the buyers and the

particular needs of the buyers in the target market.

2. Gathering the marketing mix: By marketing mix we mean how the organization proposes to

sell its products. The organization has to gather the four P’s of marketing in appropriate

combination. Gathering the marketing mix is a crucial part of marketing task. Various decisions

have to be made such as -

§ What is the most appropriate mix of the four P’s in a given situation

§ What distribution channels are available and which one should be used

§ What developmental strategy should be used in the target market

§ How should the price structure be designed?

Importance of Marketing Strategy

§ Marketing strategy provides an organization an edge over its competitors.

§ Strategy helps in developing goods and services with best profit-making potential.

§ Marketing strategy helps in discovering the areas affected by organizational growth and thereby

helps in creating an organizational plan to cater to the customer needs.

§ It helps in fixing the right price for organization’s goods and services based on information

collected by market research.

§ Strategy ensures effective departmental co-ordination.

§ It helps an organization to make optimum utilization of its resources so as to provide a sales

message to its target market.

12
 § A marketing strategy helps to fix the advertising budget in advance, and it also develops a

method which determines the scope of the plan, i.e., it determines the revenue generated by the

advertising plan.

In short, a marketing strategy clearly explains how an organization reaches it’s predetermined

objectives.

13