PAZARLAMA YÖNETİMİ

Strategic management is what managers do for creating organization’s strategies. It is explained as the art and science of formulating, implementing, and evaluating cross-functional decisions that enable an organization to achieve its objectives. For this reason, the correct answer is D.

Previous research proposed seventeen guidelines for strategic planning to be effective. Some of those; effective strategic planning process should be a people process more than a paper process; should be simple and nonroutine; should not be a bureaucratic mechanism; should not contain jargon or arcane planning language and should not be a formal system for control. For this reason, the correct answer is B.

Corporate level strategy answers the question of what businesses we should be in, business level strategy deals with formulating competitive strategies (e.g. answering the question of how to compete in a given business). For this reason, the correct answer is C.

Cash cows have low growth rates and high market share. Cash Cows are creating a lot of cash since it enjoys economies of scale and higher profit margins. They also need less investment to sustain their market share, thus the cash created is used to, for instance, pay bills or to support other businesses or products which may be labelled as stars. For this reason, the correct answer is A.

With growth strategy, managers pursue expanding organization’s businesses such as increasing the number of products they produce or markets which these products are distributed, therefore organization may be able to increase its sales, revenue, or market share. Stability strategy means the lack of a change. For instance, the organization continues to offer the same products to the same markets, thus maintains the same market share. Renewal strategy is developed to demonstrate organizational weaknesses which lead to declines in performances, therefore managers try to reduce costs by for instance restructuring their operations. For this reason, the correct answer is D.

With this matrix, a company first evaluates if it is possible to gain more market share with its existing products within existing markets which is called as market penetration strategy. The aim is to make more sales with the existing product in existing markets, thus it is the simplest and first choice of companies. For this reason, the correct answer is C.

In pure competition, the products are homogenous, and there are so many buyers and sellers in the market, thus there is no firm becoming large enough to affect prices (e.g. agricultural products such as cotton). For this reason, the correct answer is D.

If there are many substitutes to firm’s product in the market, the competitive position weakens. Unless you differentiate your product through its performance, or other means, your profitability declines. For this reason, the correct answer is E.

There is one tailor in Bostanlı, İzmir who specializes in cocktail dresses and gowns. This tailor provides its services only for Karşıyaka, Mavişehir and Bostanlı, and thus it is possible to say that it uses a focus strategy to get a competitive advantage in this narrow market through differentiating its services. For this reason, the correct answer is C.

Functional strategies are organizational strategies that are designed to support business level strategies. These strategies are created by major functional departments such as production and operations: marketing, organization (e.g. human resources), and finance. The aim here is to aid achieving corporate and business unit objectives and strategies by providing maximization of resource productivity. To achieve this, functional strategies try to develop a distinctive competence thus in turn create a competitive advantage for the company as a whole or to the business unit. For this reason, the correct answer is D.

The term “Strategy” comes from a Greek Word “strategos” which means “a general” and takes its roots from terms “army” and “lead”, thus the concept has traditionally been used in a military or political context.

With the start of 19th century, the word strategy was accepted in general use, and after World War II, as the business environment started to experience a rapid change and severe competition, a need occurred for businesses to adapt the concept of strategy to business environment.

Table 6.1 Guidelines for Effective Strategic Planning Process on page 156

The hierarchy of levels of strategy is like a nest in which one strategy covers another24. As Figure 6.1 demonstrates corporate strategies are supported by business strategies, which in turn supported by functional strategies. Therefore, corporate level success cannot be achieved if the organization does not know how to succeed at the business level25. Similarly, business level success cannot be achieved unless organization knows how to succeed at functional level. Business level strategy focuses on the concept of “competing” and it covers all functional areas of a business unit such as operations, marketing, logistics, research and development, etc26.

Question Marks: As the name applies, there is a question in the head of managers regarding the products or businesses in this category. Question marks need a lot of cash to sustain their position in the market as they have low relative market share, therefore managers need to decide if it is profitable to invest in these question marks and build them into stars. For instance, Mac computers may be considered as question marks as Apple’s revenue accountable to computer sales has decreased over the last 20 years.

company examines if it is possible to find new markets for its existing products which is market development strategy. Since the objective here is to find or develop new markets, the company may choose to search for new geographical markets. For instance, if they were only serving domestic markets, they may sell their existing products to international markets. Furthermore, if they are selling their existing products to only one group of customers, for example, teenagers, they may find new groups of consumers (e.g. elderly).

There is no such thing as The bargaining power of companies. all five forces suggested by Porter are as follows:

The Threat of New Entrants

The Threat of Substitutes

The Bargaining Power of Suppliers

The Bargaining Power of Buyers

Rivalry among Existing Competitors

One of the most popular companies using this strategy is Wal-Mart. At the centre of the company’s business model price leadership lies. Thus Wal- Mart provides products at lower prices than its competitors in retailing industry. With a motto of “Everyday Low Prices”, Wal-Mart adapts overall cost leadership strategy and retains its top position in Fortune 500 list for six consecutive years.

approaches to differentiation may take several forms: design or brand image (e.g. Apple for design, Lush (Lush is a company selling fresh handmade cosmetics such as soaps, see the following link for details https:// uk.lush.com/.) for advocating handmade products to support their brand image), technology (e.g. Space X, Tesla), features (e.g. Casper and Monster promotes its computers as best for video gamers), and customer service (e.g. Starbucks), etc.

Besides these major functions, companies may have other supporting functions such as logistics and supply chain management, procurement, and research and development (R&D). Accordingly, if a business unit has a low-cost strategy, logistics and supply chain management focuses on getting lowest fees for transporting goods whereas procurement would want to purchase the lowest cost inputs for supporting business level strategies. R&D strategy aims to create innovations on products or processes with an aim of improvement. In that sense, R&D department may aid business strategy by developing the lowest-cost production process.