Learning From Your Competitors

1. In evaluating period 9, I have extensively examined the most important performance metrics in MS3. In each four metrics, overall market share, segment share, stock price index and net marketing contribution, my company is leading the pack. Our overall market share for period 9 is 25.6% higher in units than any other company and our stock price index is 2,482 points higher than any other company as well. These are huge leads that are very intimidating to our competitors. We had a very significant share of the others segments and decent shares of the Singles and HiEarners markets. A key measure of growth and financial performance is net marketing contribution. Another notable area of concern is the companies return of investment.

During the nine periods we invested and marketed our products. We invested and marketed very wisely compared to the other companies, especially in period 9. Our return on investment in period 9 proves that we made good investing and marketing choices all through the semester. My company has again another sizeable lead over competitors with our high profitability given by net marketing contribution. All in all, company A is the leader of the industry and in the present period we show our competition whos boss.

I would have to give my company an A+ for not only surpassing our competitors in all of the important performance measurements but for also having such a substantial lead in most. I would give company E a B+ because they were very competitive and posed a threat to us many times throughout the 9 periods. Company E had good tactics but I think they went after the wrong segments. Companies I and O deserve a C because although they stole some of our segment market shares, they never challenged us or gave us a reason to occupy our time worrying about them.

2. First of all I believe that my company achieved high success because we focused on the importance of noticing and anticipating trends, especially the growth rates of segments and markets. The segment Others had the most consumers and had the most growth potential right from the start. Choosing to target the Others segment made us industry leaders from the beginning because we did not have much competition, we had good brand awareness, and we had great positioning. Company E also noticed trends but not the size and growth trend like we did. Company E decided to go after the segment that spent the most money, the Professionals.

Although Others do not spend a lot of money there are a great many number of them compared to Professionals and if you have cheap products and many consumers compared to expensive products and a small number of consumers, I believe the segment with numerous consumers would profit more. Plus, our products dont cost us a lot money and if we have effective segment positioning and high brand awareness we get a positive return on investment. I believe selecting and targeting the Others segment so early was one of the smartest decisions we made throughout the semester.

Timing in Markstrat was essential if you wanted to be a segment leader. Usually the companies that targeted the segments first had the highest brand awareness and held on tight to their segment market shares. That was another thing we did well. We aimed our resources toward segments that were not yet specifically targeted. We positioned ourselves immediately when we saw a missed opportunity within a segment. I think that the lack of success concerning companies I and O is because they waited too long to reposition themselves in a segment they were beginning to capture. They might have had a good share in the beginning but effective repositioning on Company A and Es behalf took away their market share immediately. If they would have just repositioned themselves as soon as they saw an opportunity arise, it would have helped their end-results dramatically. Timing was also crucial in entering the Vodite market.

Companies E and O performed R&D for the Vodite market as soon as they saw the opportunity, which gave them substantial market share in a whole different market. Company I suffered again because they never even entered that market. Our timing was bad in entering the Vodite market because we did not know it was possible until presented in class giving us a limited time to steal market share from companies E and O.

The importance of effective positioning in high-growth and/or high-gross profit segments coupled with strong promotion was touched on earlier minus the promotion part. Advertising and advertising research turned out to be a big factor in attracting and keeping market share. Company A was spending very little in the beginning but began to recognize by watching company Es stock rise that advertising was crucial. They began to spend more in the periods that needed it and succeeded in doing so, giving us the best results in period 9. Company O spent the least and Company I seemed to be spending it in the wrong periods.

Another thing that helped our revenues increase was adding and correctly assigning sales force to distribution channels. Each period we would examine where the segments our brand was targeting preferred to shop. For a while we had the least amount of sales force but as we increased the number and took our time distributing them to different locations we began performing better. Maybe these other companies did not bother to take the time to look at each segment and see exactly where they like to shop. That would be a waste of money on their sales force expenditure.

Overall, I believe the key reasons my company performed so well is because we paid attention to our competition, analyzed and observed each segment, positioned our brands successfully with the right timing and situated ourselves perfectly with the segment that had the most consumers and was growing rapidly. Company E did a great job with targeting the Professionals but failed to notice that they were a small elite number with not a lot of growth potential. Company I did not seem to challenge their competition for market share and positioned themselves poorly at inopportune times. Company O tried hard and repositioned well, in fact they had the highest segment shares of the Buffs, Singles and HiEarners, but ignored the fact that they were each a small number of the consumers. Im proud of my company and the team I worked with. We definitely exceeded expectations!

Colleen May recently moved to Chicago, Il from New Orleans, LA.

She graduated from Arizona State University with a double major in Finance and Marketing. She is extremely self motivated, a dedicated team player and always searching for new challenges. Colleen is currently seeking an advertising/marketing career in the Chicago area.

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