A company's marketing organization could insure its ability to
identify newly emerging competitors and new trend by doing
research and probably people studies. This will help to find what
people like and don't like, also will help with learning about
competitors and what drives people to purchased the competitors
products. Surveys and just research will help stay in front of
up and coming trends. These days with technology, social media
is a good was for companies to identify emerging trends and
prepare for any changes that have to be made to stay ahead
of things to come. An example is when we ran a new
product, we had done a people survey to see if people would
be interested in our new product. Then our plant decided to
ask permission to be able to run the new product, but
cooperate office decided against it. One day the owner came by
for a visit and to inspect our plant and he was told about
our idea for a new product. He responded with, "It's better to
ask for forgiveness instead of asking for permission". So we ran
the new product and sold it online as limited item. We ran
our in just a few hours. We are now getting things together
to run the item again and this time we have permission to
do so. A company can keep up with newly emerging competitors
and ways to beat them at marketing by having a team of
employees constantly environmentally scanning. By having people
keeping up with other companies within the same business market
as theirs they would be able to see what new products or
ideas their competitors are putting out and how they plan to
market those. That way, when they report to the marketing team
periodically the marketing team has enough time to come up
with something to get ahead of those competitors. When you are
keeping up with environmental scans it allows your company to
see what people are shifting their focus to when it comes to
your area of the market. It keeps your company on top of
how they then take those changes and implement them into their
product or service so that they are now meeting the wants and
needs of their customer base before they competitors even get a
chance to ease in on their customers. When your company tends
to stay on top of changes and that company conveys those
changes in their marketing then those customers feel that the
company is speaking directly to them and what their wants and
needs are even though they have changed and that makes a
customer feel loyal because they feel heard.A company's marketing
organization can identify newly emerging competitors in time to
plan and execute an effective marketing strategy in response to
these competitors in a number of ways. First, they can search
local business directories. They also can be on the lookout for
advertisements and press reports. Exhibitions and trade fairs may
be helpful. Finally, what may be most common and easiest
would be to search on the internet for similar products or
services. I think one of the best ways is getting information
from customers. For example, my daughter customizes sneakers. At
the beginning stages, she would look into others online that was
also in the same business and found ways to bring in many
customers by looking into what they had going on in the
business. She was able to bring in great prices that were lower
than usual, but at the same time - with the promotions,
discounts and incentives that she provided, her sneaker business is
now booming. This is because with the great quality of her
work and the great prices, she has customers putting in orders
every day. A company's marketing org can keep up with and
identify newly emerging competitors by doing general research into
the local markets and seeing what people are finding. A good
example is social media, I know there are many large companies
who pay several people to manage the company Twitter account,
Instagram, Facebook, Snapchats, etc. These people are paid to do
engagement activities with customers and at the same time pay
other people to engage in research based on this engagement.
They can observe how well their engagement fares versus
competitors, and using the social media tool of hashtags, it's easy
to do research into newly emerging brands simply by searching
relevant topics to your business by hashtags and seeing what is
trending each day and at each hour. There are several different
strategies that companies employ to conduct effective marketing
strategies and set goals, but social media has lately been the
most powerful all-seeing eye into the world of customers and
what they're looking for as well as what companies they're
looking at. There are a few ways a business can stay ahead
of its competition. They could research the pros and cons of
their competitor and marketing; for example: if the business
competition has a problem with customer service or customer
returns, a company can build on the negativity of their contender
by using it against them and, in turn, help their own business
improve their sales. Second, give your customers incentives like
20% off their purchase for filling out surveys regarding what the
customer wants to see in the company's business and what would
encourage them to shop with their company. I find incentives are
always a great idea for improving a business. It would also be
a great idea to start a mailing list, so the customer can
receive incentives to encourage them to do business with the
company. Company credit cards would also create more extensive
sales for the company; buy now pays a small monthly payment
every month. There are many great opportunities for a new
business to succeed; all it takes is research, advertising, and
incentives. According to the text, an organization will use a
process called environmental scanning. It allows organizations to take
a look at trends in their industry to determine how threats and
opportunities can be managed. Chapter 3 lists the five
environmental forces that help determine industry trends. Social forces
are the first component of environmental scanning. It encompasses
the demographics and culture of the population. Changes in social
forces can have a tremendous effect on an organization’s marketing
strategy. The second component is Economic forces as it is
related to income, expenditures, and resources that organizations need
in order to operate. The third component is technological forces,
which refers to inventions or innovations from mechanical or
engineering research. Technology is constantly evolving so organizations
need to know how technology can replace existing products or
companies. Competitive forces are the fourth component of
environmental scanning. It includes information about other
organizations that could offer the same product to an organization's
prospective market. Identifying competitors and determining which of
the four forms of competition they are categorized can help an
organization develop its marketing strategy. The fifth component is
regulatory forces. These forces consist of state and federal laws
put in place to ensure organizations conduct fair business practices.
These regulations also provide protection to organizations. For
consumers, regulatory forces have state and federal laws in place
to protect them from unfair trade practices and it ensures their
safety.
Organizations can develop and maintain successful marketing programs
when they are able to identify trends related to each of these
forces.” A way a company’s marketing organization ensure that it’s
able to identify newly emerging competitors in time to plan and
execute an effective marketing strategy in response to these competitors
is through environmental scanning. Environmental scanning includes looking
at information and looking for information. I’ve always wondered this
information as well, so this was fun to explore. There are four
modes of environmental scanning: undirected viewing, conditioned viewing,
informal search, and formal search. An example of undirected viewing
is using a small firm that gathers information through pre-existing
contacts personal contacts with limited buyers, suppliers, sales personnel,
and associates in other companies. An example of conditioned viewing
is browsing sections of newspapers, periodicals, or websites that report
on the topic. An example of informal search is conducting a
simple survey, informal interviews with a target audience, seeking
opinions of colleagues, and searching through company files. Lastly,
an example of formal search is using more of a systematic
approach and scientific methods such as research design and method,
results and analysis, conclusion, and bibliography. It’s careful to use
up to date information and reliable sources. These four environmental
scanning modes help the company’s marketing team know their
competitors and plan accordingly. A company's marketing organization
can identify competitors by using environmental scanning. Environmental
scanning is a way to identify and analyse trends by continuously
acquiring information. Environmental scanning gathers information from
five categories: social, economic, technological, competitive and regulatory
forces. Each of these areas provides insights on potential trends and
can provide an early warning of a new competitor. Having
information on things such as consumer income, demographics, and
changing technology would allow a company to respond accordingly
to a competitor by ensuring their resulting product is wanted and
needed by consumers, and consumers have the ability to purchase
it. One example of a company responding to competitors is Coca-
Cola. Coca-Cola is the major competitor of Pepsi and they have
a long rivalry competing in the soft drink industry. In order for
Coca-Cola to stand out from Pepsi and convince consumers to buy
Coca-Cola products over Pepsi, Coca-Cola introduced new products such
as Vanilla Coke and Coke Zero. Coca-Cola was able to gather
information on consumers and demographics and create a product that
would satisfy and need and want of consumers that Pepsi did not
have. A company's marketing organization can ensure that it is able
to identify newly emerging competitors by ensuring they are exercising
environmental scanning. If a company has a grasp on what is
happening around their organization as well as with their product
or service, in regards to sales, environmental scanning will aid them
in identifying competitors as well as time to plan and execute an
effective marketing strategy. They will also be able to pinpoint any
environmental trends that may be happening. I remember growing up
in a neighbourhood that had maybe 2 hand carwashes within a 3-
mile radius. These were the do-it-yourself car washes. They were
always crowded so a lot of people resulted to washing their cars
in their driveways. Home car washes became another Saturday
household chore. In my early 20's the neighbourhood gained a drive-
thru car wash, the car wash stayed busy and employed a lot
of teenagers. The manual car washes were still operational, but they
were now a choice and not to only option. The family that
opened the drive-thru car wash lived in the 3-mile radius that I
spoke about before, I did not know this as a kid or young
adult but I would say that this family did a form of environmental
scanning and saw a want of the community.
A company's marketing organization can ensure that it is able to
identify newly emerging competitors in time to plan and execute
and effective marketing strategy by consistently and continually scanning
the market environments and researching completing research in its
target markets. Once they are aware of the needs of the customers
and identify other organizations that are focused on meeting those
needs and how they are able to adjust and offer better. Offering
unmatched value for the customers will draw them to the company
and marketing to those things that the customers value will beat
out the competition in most cases. In this technological age, using
social media to research, connect, and communicate is vital in the
marketing strategy. Additionally, concentration on the marketing mix
four P's; product, price, place, and promotion will also be a key
component. An example is the different travel assistance agency's that
are available needing to stay up on the marketing they are
producing in comparison to others. I often will use Expedia to
convenience of being able to book hotel, rental, and airfare if
needed as well as the value offered in comparison to some others.
The ability to accumulate points is an added value. However, there
are many other companies that have jointed this realm of business
that would be considered Expedia's competitors. "A company scanning
its environment must consider the possible barriers to entry for
other firms, which are business practices or conditions that make it
difficult for new firms to enter the market. Barriers to entry can
be in the form of capital requirements, advertising expenditures,
product identity, distribution access, or the cost of customers of
switching suppliers." (Kerin & Hartley, 2021)
Provide an example.
I was a former outside sales rep for one of the largest
business supply companies in the country. Our company mainly
sold commodities such as paper, ink, coffee, toner, office supplies,
janitorial supplies etc. We provided either same or next day
delivery with no minimum order amounts. The question in this
assignment asked about "identifying newly emerging competitors in
time to plan and execute an effective marketing strategy." With
respect to my former industry the barrier that was most prevalent
was "the cost of customers of switching suppliers." Because my
company had sold so many different categories of sale the goal
of the sales rep was to establish as many hooks in the
account as possible and by that, I mean categories of sale.
This type of sale was a repeat sale. We didn't sell what a
customer wanted. We sold what a customer needed. "Cost" doesn't
just mean the amount of money for the tangible item. "Cost"
also means the cost of having the employee ordering the
products and having to spend work time shopping around. "Cost"
also means the actual inconvenience of having to overhaul an
ordering procedure that would take time to do. To exploit this
barrier to entry the sales rep would customize an online favorite
list that had all the customers items on it. We would then
make proprietary item #'s to protect the sku from being shopped
around. Then we would identify the most frequently ordered item's
and customize a price that was always 5-10% below market
price. The idea is that we were ok with losing money on the
front end because we know that when people shop online that
often that add items, they didn't plan to buy prior to logging
in. Most of the time those items were just ordered without
needing to give special pricing, thus we would make up the
lost margin on the front end, with the profit on the back
end. We did this while giving the perception to customer that
we were saving money because the customer is usually only
sensitive to the items, they know they order most frequently. But
creating a customized list we simplify the process for the
customer making it annoying to leave us. Because the company
gave us the tools to adjust pricing, we always had that tool
in our toolbox. All of this, in combination with good service,
is how the rep was able to not worry about a competitor,
and if a concern became prevalent, we already had the recipe
to mitigate to salvage the account. How can a company's
marketing organization ensure that it is able to identify newly
emerging competitors in time to plan by doing research. A lot
of companies turn to social media and tv now a days. I am
a business owner and I have gone to social media and have
put advertisements out for my company, I own a roadside
assistance company. I know that I have competition out there
and so I have to set my rates at a competing rate so that
I will get the business over the other companies that are out
there. Some of my business has been off the advertisements that
I have put out but most of my work is word of mouth
and also, I work for insurance companies and get my calls that
way. Word of mouth is big for me, as long as you are
going quality work and have a good attitude and good to
customers, they will tell their friends and family and that is
always a plus and help my company grow. I work in the
hospitality industry. Everyone has their own specifics that draw
people to each property. With hotels the biggest marketing strategy
as with many other businesses is price. Entangled in price is
rewards. Each hotel has specific rewards design to attract repeat
business with the hopes of getting free nights and free upgrades.
I feel that it is a waiting game. Most of the time a brand
will come out with a new marketing scheme, and then in
response to that other brands will come up with something
similar yet slightly better to try and beat the competition without
hurting the profit margin to much.You need someone in your
company involved in social media, someone who is specifically
hired and trained to keep tabs on competitors and to let the
upper management know when it is time to change a policy or
introduce a new idea to beat the competition!. A company can
ensure that it can identify newly emerging competitors in time to
plan and execute an effective marketing strategy by leveraging
environmental scanning. Companies can conduct an environment scan
to identify trends based on the five environmental forces which
include- social, economic, technological, competition, and regulatory. By
identifying trends through an environmental scan, the connection
between the trend and the environmental force can help get a
company's marketing team get in front of its competitors. The
example that I would like to use is the law passes in CA
to move to a state of just selling all electric vehicles. After
that law was passed the increase for the auto industry to offer
a form of an electric vehicle has increased. We have seen a
huge increase to go to electric, not just in CA, but across
the US. This law set in place a sort of domino effect in
the auto industry, and most cars not being promoted are in
fact electric vehicles. Of course, hybrids and electric offerings were
not new to the industry, there was just a huge push in
recent years due to CA regulation. I believe that the media
plays a huge role in marketing nowadays. Companies are constantly
paying attention to what goes on social media and tv. I
remember it was around the time of the Winter Olympics (can’t
remember the year) Verizon put out a commercial centered around
the Olympics. It was these two skaters; a blue one which
represented AT&T, and a red one which represented Verizon. The
two skaters were speed skating and the skater that represented
Verizon was faster while the at&t skater fell behind. I feel like
Verizon did this because they knew a lot of people would be
watching the Olympics and if they did a commercial centered
around one of the sports, they knew that it would catch a
lot of people’s attitude. For this reason, bigger companies with
competitors have to stay on top of the media, otherwise their
sales will go down along with their stock value. This is my
first marketing class so I am solely going off what little
background I have from communication classes prior to this one.
a company's marketing organization can come up with strategies in
response to competitors by watching the market and now at least,
checking social media. There's so much information that is
transacted on, shared and spread through social media any
marketing firm worth its chops would have to take advantage of
it. For example we have the few commercials between Apple
and Samsung coming to blows and taking jabs at each other.
Spoofing the competition's own commercials is also a good way
to call attention to the competition and what your product can
do much, much better. There is a certain more recent example
that comes to mind. With GMC releasing their Hummer EV
soon, built into the car itself on the info-tainment system, they
have pictures of the car showing the Hummer climbing over,
crushing, and out speeding and doing donuts in the face of
other EV trucks when selecting modes. These kinds of playful
jabs and Easter eggs hidden within a product are genius
especially in today's climate where everyone wants to over analyze
and find stuff like this. The best way for a company to
identify newly emerging competitors is by conducting environmental
scanning. Environmental scanning shows organizations information both
inside and outside of their own and identify trends that may
affect long-term viability of the organization. One example of
competitors would be the car industry. There are so many car
manufacturers all over the world who create cars. Nissan and
Ford for example are both competitors of each other because
they both produce the same product with only some slight
varying differences. Same situation for makeup brands, smart phones
and so much more. Via conducting environmental scanning, a
company's marketing department can identify newly emerging
competitors in time to plan and execute an effective market
strategy in response. Environmental scanning allows organizations to
acquire information happening outside of the organization and identify
trends. There are five environmental trends that a company can
monitor with competitive sources being one of those trends.
Competition refers to different companies who produce and sell a
product or service that meets the needs of a specific market.
There are several different forms of competition, all of which are
important and should be considered when a company creates its
marketing strategy. Barriers to entry, power of buyers and sellers,
and existing competitors and substitutes all must be evaluated. One
example is the smartphone industry. There are manufacturers all
over the world who produce smartphones, with Apple and Samsung
reigning at the top of the list. These two companies are
constantly coming out with new smartphones that tout the latest
and greatest features. In order to have an edge in this market,
the two companies need to monitor their competition. They need
to see what one another is producing and offering, in addition
to keeping an eye on any new competitors who want to enter
this market with a product even more appealing to the consumers
in this market. A company's marketing organization can ensure that
it is able to identify newly emerging competitors in time to
plan and execute an effective marketing strategy in response to
competitors is by doing market research. Look at the market for
your product and evaluate which other companies are selling a
product that could compete with yours. You could talk with your
sales team to find out which competitors do they see come up
often in their sales process. You can check on social media
because in this day and age a lot of customers look to social
media for references or products they are seeking. You can
investigate the conversations your customers are having on on
websites to identify your competitors. For example, when a
customer leave a review on your product it can be either
negative feedback or positive feedback. That is a conversation you
could pay attention to because sometimes in a negative feedback
they may compare your product to another product that they may
believe is better and that can help you identify competitors as
well. Social media is such a both positive and negative impact
on companies. I do agree that it can help a company figure
out who their competitors are and to see what they are up
against. Commercials now seem to show companies taking jabs at
one another more than they have in the past. Apple and
Samsung are one of the most competing companies and it has
been this way for quite a while now.
