INDIAN INSTITUTE OF PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT

NEW DELHI

[ASSIGNMENT]
Strategic marketing

SUBMITTED BY:
GAURAV SHARMA
BATCH: FW/2013-2016
SECTION: FWUG
ID NO: DL1316FWCHE-UGPC15025(GGN-2-GA-59447)
Paper : Strategic marketing

General Instructions:
The student should submit this assignment in the handwritten
form (not in the typed format).
The student should submit this assignment within the time
specified by the exam dept.
The student should only use the Rule sheet papers for answering
the questions.
The student should attach this assignment paper with the
answered papers.
Failure to comply with the above Four Instructions would lead to
rejection of assignment ,

Specific Instructions:
There are four Questions in this assignment . The student should
answer all the four questions . Marks allotted 100.
Each question carries equal numbers (25 marks) unless specified
explicitly.

Question 1
a) What is the difference between key success factors
and sustainable competitive advantage? Illustrate your
understanding by discussing by discussing several
constructs such as the cola market or the luxury
market?

Key Success Factors in Strategic Management

An industrys key success factors (KSFs) are those competitive factors that
most affect industry members ability to prosper in the market place-the
particular strategy elements, product attributes, resources, competencies,
competitive capabilities and market achievements that spell the difference
between being a strong competitor and a weak competitor-and sometimes
between profit and loss, (Thompson et al., 2007). Key success factors (KSFs)
are the major determinants of financial and competitive success in a
particular industry.
Key success factors highlight the specific outcomes crucial to success in the
market place and the competences and capabilities with the most bearing on
profitability. Identifying KSFs in light of prevailing and anticipated
industry and competitive conditions is important for a company that seeks to
develop wining strategies in the market place; besides an in-depth
understanding of these critical factors help the company meet the needs and
expectations of particular group of target customers . An industry key
success factors can be deduced through environmental scanning. Wheelen
and Hunger (2008), defines environmental scanning as the monitoring,
evaluation and dissemination, of information from the external and internal
environment with the aim of identifying strategic factors for the organizations
future success.

Sound strategy incorporates efforts to be competent on all key industry

success factors and to excel on at least one factor.

Competitive Advantage
Firms throughout the world face stiff competition and other environmental
variables and the only sure way to succeed in the market place is to develop
superior sustainable competitive advantage. In addition; a major eterminant
of any companies continued successes is the extent to which it can relate
functionally to the external environment and finding its place in a competitive
situation concept of strategy is that strategy is about achieving competitive
advantage through being different delivering a unique value added to the
customer, having a clear and exactable view of how to position yourself
uniquely in your industry. He suggested that a firm can achieve
Competitive advantage if it possesses capabilities that allow it to create not
only positive value but as well additional total value than its competitors. To
be sustainable, a business must perform unique activities that impact on the
customer purchasing criteria.

A competitive advantage exists when a firm is able to deliver the same

benefits as competitors but at a lower cost, or deliver benefits that exceeds
those of competing products emphasized that businesses must focus on
areas of capability where they have distinct advantage relative to competitors
in their target market. A competitive advantage enables the
firm to create superior value for its customers and superior profits for itself.
Porter suggested three main generic business strategies that could be
adopted in order to again competitive advantage namely cost leadership
strategy, differentiation strategy and focus strategy.

A business gains competitive advantage by performing its activities either

more cheaply than its competitors or in a unique way that creates superior
customer value and commands a price premium (Sanchez & Heene, 2004).
Competitive advantage is therefore at the heart of a firms performance in
competitive market. Hence, if a company wishes to achieve a competitive
strategy, it must encompass every aspect of the business so that every
manager and employee knows what the objectives of this strategy are and as
a result every decision and action is consistent with it and serves to put it in
practice.

Key success factors and Competitive Advantage

Key success factors are the few areas where satisfactory results will ensure
successful competitive performance for the individual department or
organization. Businesses must align their strategy, skills and resources with
the KSFs in order to achieve success. According to Bullen and Rockart
(1981), no organization can afford to develop a strategy which fails to
provide adequate attention to the principal factors which underlie success in
the industry.
Identifying KSF is important as it allows firms to focus their efforts on
building their capabilities to meet the key success factors, or even allow firms
to decide if they have the capability to build the requirements necessary to
meet Critical Success Factors. In any organization certain factors will be
critical to the success of that organization, in the sense that, if objectives
associated with the factors are not achieved, the organization will fail.
Correctly diagnosing an industry KSFs raises a companys chances of crafting
sound strategy and thereby enhancing its competitiveness.

A company must develop competencies on its industry key success factors if

it has to remain successful. KSFs by their very nature are so important to
future competitive success that all firms in the industry must pay close
attention to them or risk becoming an industry also-ran. How well a
companys product offering, resources, and capabilities measure up against
an industrys KSFs determines just how financially and competitively
successful that company will be. Identifying KSFs in light of the prevailing
and anticipated industry and competitive conditions is therefore always a top
priority analytical and strategy-making consideration. Company strategists
need to understand the industry landscape well enough to separate the
factors most important to competitive success from those that are less
important (Thompson et al., 2010).

Question 2
a) What is strategic analysis? What are the objectives ?
what , in your views are the three keys to making a
strategic analysis helpful and important? Is there a
downside to conducting a full blown strategies
analysis?
Strategic analysis is the use of various tools to prepare business
strategies by evaluating the opportunities and challenges faced by the
company as it moves forward. Typically, strategic analysis involves a
review of internal strengths and weaknesses as well as factors in the
external environmental that could affect business.
Industry analysis is one major element of a strategic analysis process.
Industry includes an overall assessment of the sector in which the
business operates. A movie rental store would evaluate the size of the
movie rental market, current competitors, target markets and market
trends. Understanding the current industry structure allows a business
to decide how it best fits in with regard to positioning.
A tool often used as part of strategic planning and analysis is SWOT.
SWOT is an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
threats. This tool allows company leaders to assess internal and
external factors that could help or hinder the company. A review of
current company strengths and weaknesses allows leaders to plan how
to leverage strengths, and overcome weaknesses. The opportunities
and threats evaluation allows for assessment of the external
environment. The goal is to seize opportunities for new markets or
products to create revenue. The business must also navigate around
threats by planning ahead and making adjustments as needed.

A strategic analysis is an evaluation of a corporate process or plan to

determine how future programs can be made more effective. Examples
of strategic analysis include the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities
and threats analysis or the Five Forces analysis. All of the different
forms of strategic analysis share three keys that make them effective
and useful for your company.

Objectives
A strategic analysis needs to be a comprehensive analysis of company
objectives and how the methods used were effective, or not effective,
in reaching those objectives. This goes for any short-term project
analysis or for the full analysis of a corporate procedure, such as
customer invoicing. To create an effective analysis, you need to
develop a comprehensive objective.

Internal Factors
One of the keys to any useful strategic analysis is a look at the internal
factors that went into the success or failure of a project. It is a
comprehensive view of each member of the staff involved in the
project, the use of internal resources and an analysis of whether or not
there were sufficient internal resources to begin with. A company
needs to understand its own limitations before it can successfully
exploit the shortcomings of the competition.

External Factors
When you analyze the external factors that a plan or project had to
overcome, the point is to determine if the response to the external
challenges was adequate and how to improve that response in the
future. For example, if you are analyzing a marketing plan to launch a
new product, you will look to see how the new product was compared
to the competition before it went to market. Understanding how
external factors such as competition, economic conditions and legal
regulations affect your strategic planning is key to creating more-
efficient plans in the future.

Question 4
a) Develop a scenario based on the proposition that hybrid
cars will continue to improve and take 30 percent of the
automotive market in a few years. Analyse it from the
point of view of an energy company like Shell, or a car
company like Mercedes. What are the top three or four
dimension to consider?

Electric vehicle (EV) sales grew 60 percent worldwide last year, according to
Bloomberg New Energy Finance, which predicts in an article, "Here's How
Electric Cars Will Cause the Next Oil Crisis," that electric vehicles will account
for 35 percent of new car sales globally by 2040.

Industry expert Navigant Research also forecasts strong EV growth in 2016

as new, longer range models enter the market and more charging stations
are installed. Already through the first two months of 2016, EV sales are up 9
percent compared to the same time last year, according to InsideEVs.com.

No wonder the oil industry is skittish. Bloomberg predicts the EV "revolution"

will displace 13 million barrels a day of crude by 2040 and 2 million barrels
per day as early as 2023.

It's easy to see why the future of electric vehicles is bright. Here are five
reasons:

Reason #1: Battery costs are dropping fast

Battery prices are plummeting, faster than many experts (including myself)
would have predicted.

More and more, scientists, industry experts, and automakers are in

agreement that battery prices are headed below the magic $150 per
kilowatt-hour in the next decade. That's the point where experts believe that
EVs enter the mass market.

"EVs may be able to compete directly with petrol-driven cars on cost a lot
sooner than most people think,'' wrote scientists Bjrn Nykvist and Mns
Nilsson, authors of a recent scientific study published in Nature Climate
Change on falling battery prices.

Battery prices are "on a trajectory to make unsubsidized electric vehicles as

affordable as their gasoline counterparts in the next six years,'' Bloomberg
New Energy Finance projects. "That will be the start of a real mass-market
liftoff for electric cars.''

By 2022, Bloomberg estimates electric cars will be cost competitive on a

lifecycle basis (purchase plus fuel costs) with gasoline cars.

Carmakers like GM and Tesla are investing in mainstream EV models because

they expect battery prices to rapidly fall.

Reason #2: Longer range, affordable electric cars are coming

Longer-range, affordable electric cars that operate solely on electricity and

are capable of traveling 200 miles on a charge, are coming to showrooms.

GM's Chevrolet Bolt, with a 200-miles-per-charge range and costing about

$30,000 with tax credits, has been described by Wired as "the electric car for
the masses.'' It will arrive later this year, followed by Tesla's affordable Model
3 and the next generation, longer range Nissan LEAF. Even VW has
announced it will build a 186-mile, high-volume electric car.

Plug-in hybrids, capable of operating either on electricity or gasoline, are also

getting better.

GM's next-generation Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in hybrid whose range has been
boosted from 40 miles to 50 miles, is already in showrooms, and selling
briskly. Toyota plans to reintroduce its Prius Plug-in later this year, also with
boosted all electric range, rumored to be 30 to 35 miles.

Reason #3: More charging stations are coming

Lack of charging stationsso-called "range anxiety"remains a barrier to

much wider EV use. But utilities and others are moving to increase the
number of charging stations at workplaces, apartment complexes, campuses,
transit stations and other public gathering places.

In California, where Gov. Jerry Brown has set a goal of putting one million
electric vehicles on the state's roads by 2023, Southern California Edison is
moving ahead with a pioneering plan to deploy 1,500 charging stations
initially and another 28,500 in the future. San Diego Gas & Electric is set to
deploy another 3,500 stations.

Companies such as Google, Coca-Cola and Walgreens are installing charging

stations. Nissan offers buyers of its LEAF two years of free charging at
hundreds of stations. BMW and VW are teaming up to build up to 100
charging stations in "express charging corridors" from San Diego to Portland,
Ore., on the West Coast and Boston to Washington on the East Coast.

Reason #4: Auto industry is embracing EVs

Car makers are investing billions of dollars to bring more electric vehicle
models to market.

The number of EV models has grown from two in 2010 to 25 today. Over the
next three years, industry expert Alan Baum forecasts, the number of models
to double to over 50, with 16 new models in 2016.

With sales leaders Tesla, GM, Nissan and BMW threatening to run away with
the EV market, other companies are playing catch-up.

Ford is investing $4.5 billion in electric cars, and will be adding 13 electric
cars and hybrids by 2020, when more than 40 percent of its lines will be
electrified.

Honda's Chief Executive Takahiro Hachigo recently announced that two-thirds

of its line-up by 2020 will be electrified, including conventional hybrids, plug-
in hybrids and fuel cell vehicles.

The mighty German auto industry is also recognizing the threat.

Despite being mired in the diesel scandal, VW will step up its EV investments
and plans to roll out 20 electric cars and plug-in hybrids by 2020. Audi, a
subsidiary of VW, expects 25 percent of its U.S. car sales to come from
electric cars by 2025. Even conservative Daimler is investing 500 million in a
new lithium ion battery factory in Germany to supply its growing electric car
line up.

Reason #5: The global imperative to cut carbon pollution and oil dependency

EVs have gained importance as the world looks for ways to reduce the carbon
pollution and oil dependency that fuel dangerous climate change.

A study by NRDC and the Electric Power Research Institute found that
widespread electric vehicle use could cut carbon pollution by 550 million
metric tons annually in 2050, equivalent to the emissions from 100 million
passenger cars. It also would reduce other harmful pollution, such as ozone
and particulate matter.

As part of the historic Paris climate accord, 197 nations representing 97

percent of the world's emissions have committed to national plans to cut
carbon pollution, including from motor vehicles which accounts for 17 percent
of global CO2 emissions.

The three largest passenger car markets representing two-thirds of global

sales all have strong fuel economy standards in place that will help drive up
EV sales: the U.S. (54.5 mpg by 2025), European Union (56.9 mpg by 2021)
and China (47.7 mpg by 2020).

And it may come to a surprise to many, but China has quickly become the
world's largest market for EVs and the home to the world's number one EV
manufacturer, BYD.