IBM marketing strategy and theory

1. INTRODUCTION

Development of a marketing strategy is important for all business. In the absence of a good marketing strategy the whole effort to attract the customer is likely to be incompetent and inefficient. The main focus to be given on your strategy, which makes sure that the product and services meet the customer expectations in such a way it can develop a long lasting and profitable relationship with those customers. Strategy is a long term phenomenon, it can be a management strategy or it may be Marketing strategy. It points out achievement of objective in its field. It tackles the resources in such a way that, the resources are optimum utilized. If the management is thinking about a new product/service or a new market, the marketing strategy has to be developed. Strategic planning will be related to its main organizational objective

1.1. Objective

In this assignment we are analyzing IBM marketing strategy based on marketing strategy theory. Marketing theory is based on the following

* Influence and importance of information in organization marketing function in strategic and tactical process

* Integration of organizational marketing decision making with strategy.

* marketing strategy is related to their overall organizational strategy

* Base of marketing knowledge and the strategic implications

* Analysis of e-business strategies embraced in marketing

All the above theory will be discussed in relation to IBM market strategy

1.2. Background of the study

In the management theory, the word strategic management denotes to corporate strategy or business strategy. Cooperate strategy means strategy at the organization level in a multi-business firm and business strategy means strategy at the business unit level in a multi-business firm. When considering the marketing principle market strategy and strategic marketing are used interchangeably in reference to the field of study. Marketing strategy is a method of analyzing the organization resources and energies to find out maximum usage in a better way to accomplish the objective of the organization. As mentioned earlier this assignment is based on IBM. IBM is the short form of International business Machine cooperation. This is a multinational entity based in United States. It is a multinational entity spread across in the world. Its main activity includes manufacturing and selling computer software and hardware, infrastructure service, hosting/Server hosting and consulting services.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

According to American Marketing Association (AMA) “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” (Varadarajan, 2009). Another important definition from Jain, According to him, marketing strategy can be defined as the method of accomplishing the marketing objective. (Jain, 1999) Marketing strategy has contradictory points and views from different authors. In some sources, the marketing behaviors of organizations in the area of the 4Ps, i.e., product, promotion, price and place/distribution, are characterized as marketing strategy. In some another sources it is considered as behaviors pertaining to segmentation, target market selection and positioning

2.1. Marketing Mix and Marketing Strategy

2.1.1 Product Strategy

Product Strategy is one of the very vital aspects of a organization. It must consider the capabilities in terms of engineering, of production, of distribution (sales) prevailing in the company and the future requirements. It must analysis the consumers’ requirements at the time of delivery. It must anticipate the competition (including market penetration) and possible tactics to enter the same market. Technology is another aspect which influences the production strategy. Based on these factors the management should make best possible strategic planning for the organization (Product strategy, 2007)

2.1.2. Pricing strategy

One of the aspects of the marketing strategy is price. It termed as an important strategic issue because it is connected to product positioning and targeting. Apart to this , pricing influents other strategic marketing mix elements such as product strategy, distribution strategy, and promotion strategy. While there is no single method to finalize pricing, the there are several aspects which influence the pricing. Demands, cost and market completion are some of this

2.1.3. Promotion strategy

Promotion means circulate information about a product or product line, brand or company. Promotion is mainly classified into two Above the line promotion and below the line promotion: Advertise in the media (e.g. TV, radio, newspapers, Internet and Mobile Phones) known as above the line promotion. All other type of promotions includes in other category E.g. sponsorship, personal selling, public relations, endorsements, sales promotion, etc

2.1.4. Place strategy

Place strategy stands for channel, or distribution,. It is the way by which goods and/or services are transported from the manufacturer/ service providers place to the end customer.

2.2. Market Targeting

Organizations are keen to enter a particular market area to create its own domination over the competitors. This particular market is or customer group is known as segments. Based on organizational situations the management will select this segment, where the company has to play. The important decision in marketing strategy is selecting the segment is known as market targeting,

Market Targeting concentrate on the following

1. Ascertaining particular customer demand. Product/service requirement

2. According to customer requirement the targeted customers are grouped in to segments

3. Define each group or segments

4. Deciding the market segment to serve

2.3. Market positioning

Creating image or good picture in the minds of target customers known as Market positioning. This is the loyalty and customer satisfaction towards the product or service which influences the buying decision of the target customers. In order to create the awareness about the product or service advertisement is the one important factor. Customer satisfaction will help to a certain extend for creation good mentality towards the product.

2.4. IBM Strategy

According to IBM, The Company’s organization model is created to support two principal goals:

1. “In helping customers succeed in providing business value by transforming more innovative, efficient, capable and competitive by the use of business ideas and information technology (IT) solutions”
2. “Providing enduring value to stakeholders. The business model has been built over time by means of strategic investments in potentiality and technologies that will bring the long-term stability, growth and profitability. This goal will be based on customer value deliver in the business. “The company’s strategy is to focus on the high-growth, high-value segments of the IT industry”.

The companies have presence in global market and its capabilities include service hardware, software, server, fundamental research and support. The company clients have been catered by the help of these combined business capabilities. This will give a good customer satisfaction in all area.

The IBM’s business model is very flexible, and gives scope for periodic alteration and rebalancing. The company has good commoditizing opportunities like personal computers and hard disk drives, which give strength to its position in the global market through strategic investments and acquisitions in rising higher value segments like service oriented architecture (SOA) and Information on Demand. In above to that, the company has altered itself into a globally integrated organization which has enhanced overall productivity and is dynamic investment and contribution in the world’s fastest growing markets. Over the years as a result, the company became a highly performing organization.

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The business strategy is based on the company’s long-term organizational objective, backed by the company’s long-term financial structure, enables IBM to deliver time after time higher earnings, cash flows and returns on invested capital for stake holders even in changing economic environments.

2.5. Information is important for organization perspective. How much it contributing to strategic and tactical planning

Information is important for every business. Most of the organization have separate department for information collection and analyze. Marketing has also required the internal as well as external information, which contribute to their strategic and tactical process.

IT shows the impact of marketing information in preparing the marketing strategy. The system would perform to synthesize information from many areas and transform in to usable form to help mangers who directly participate in decision making process. This information is necessary and will useful in strategic as well as tactical level of decision making. As a marketing strategy IBM started listening from customers. They gathered information from market and transformed this data in to usable research agenda. They trying to ascertain the customer needs and processed according to the marketing pulse. IBM is a key player in the IT world. Everyone knows the capability of the organization. As they are playing overall in the global market, they are getting feedback from all over the world. This they will transform in to valuable design and will serve the customer accordingly. Many time IBM have stepped, where other people are not entered.

2.6. Analysis marketing strategy vs. organization strategy

As discussed earlier strategic decision is long term in nature. On strategic decisions repairing level, all management decisions, especially marketing decisions are ideally guided by the organization strategy. All Marketing planning and decisions are directly or indirectly connected to end customers. When building a company strategy, the high level management team will consider the main aim and its connection with the end consumer. Company’s value propositions to their product and service customers and the financial accountability and their value propositions. (Galavan, Murray, & Markides, 2008). Strategy originates from mission and planning. Strategic planning relates to overall scope and whole part of the

2.7. Analysis based on IBM Strategy

The IBMs organizational communication strategy says “fostering innovation and business agility by making people easier to find reach and collaborate through a unified communications experience. IBM makes it possible this challenge by giving an open and extensible software platform other technology”.

2.8. Market planning considering the Global context

Marketing strategy aims at target market and market positioning. The targeted market can be big as well as small. Market strategy will be created based on how the target market and how they are defined. Mass marketing denotes to marketing the product and service in the whole market. If the company plays in the global market and it is a multinational company, the strategy will also have an impact of global context. (Beamish & Ashford, 2007)

In the current business world the products and services for organizational clients and other single consumers are coming from different foreign countries. This phenomenon, i.e. delivery of service and products from different markets, is happening due to the process of international marketing. All businesses are going to be competitive and aggressive now as well as in the future; they should stabilize in these global markets. Achieving a stabilized position in the international markets is a challenge for any organization. The process and strategies of marketing in the international markets as well as domestic market are very important to create the market segment. It is crucial that we familiarize this situation and also ascertain the opportunities that suitable and creative for the marketing strategies that can present in the required atmosphere

IBM has business in most of the foreign. Their one strength and importance is that they are global service organization. When making a marketing strategy for IBM, it is unavoidable to create a plan which considering all foreign market that means global market.

2.9. E-business strategies in marketing – Reflection and evaluation

E-business strategy is defined as “the approach by which the applications of internal electronic communication can support and influence corporate strategy”. (Chaffey, 2007) This is a way of embracing of e – channels by organization for some products and service or markets to best generate worth for the organization according to the organization importance. E business strategy defines how an organization accomplishes the value internally from exploring electronic network. Now all business firms are considering an e-business strategy for its own requirement. The main cause for this is due to non- accomplishment of some opportunities and from lack of measurement of opportunities or insufficient resourcing of e-business initiatives. These will result in to more savvy organizational competitors achieving a competitive advantage over the business.

IBM e-business strategy in marketing

ÃËœ IBM always tries to identify the financial side of e-business and which helps the business firm to find the different e-business strategy marketing opportunities by analyzing their net value effect.

ÃËœ Checking the requirement for change and making performance measurement for the e-business and creating new ideas for the future.

3. CONCLUSION

IBM is an organization which always gives importance to its clients. IBM helps its clients to success in the business world by delivering innovative information technology ideas and solutions. For this purpose IBM develops competitive organizational and marketing strategy. For the organizational strategy process IBM as well as all other organization relies on information. Marketing strategy is important and it develops based on organizational strategy. Now the world becomes one and the boundary concept for the market is lost. So it is important that the marketing strategy should be developed based on global context. It is important that the marketing aspects have to be finalized also considering e-business strategies and channels

4. REFERENCE

1. Beamish, K., & Ashford, R. (2007). Marketing planning 2007-2008. Elsevier.

2. Chaffey, D. (2007). E-business and e-commerce management: strategy, implementation and practice. Pearson Education.

3. Galavan, R., Murray, J., & Markides, C. (2008). Strategy, innovation, and change: challenges for management. Oxford University Press US.

4. Jain, A. K. (1999). Marketing information products and services. IDRC.

5. MarketingNews. (2008). AMA adopts new definition of marketing Marketing News. Marketing News .

6. Product strategy. (2007). Retrieved from www.feb-patrimoine.com: http://www.feb-patrimoine.com/english/corporate/product_strategy.htm

7. Sandhusen, R. (2000). Marketing. Barron’s Educational Series.

8. Varadarajan, R. (2009). Strategic marketing and marketing strategy: domain, definition, fundamental issues and foundational premises. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science