babu banarasi das university

2019-20

Retail management
ASsignment

Submitted To: Submitted By:

Dr. Sushil Pandey Shivani Rai
MBA 22
1180672130

Module 1
Corporate Strategy and Product Policy
Corporate Strategy is arguably the most essential and broad ranging strategy level
within organizational strategy. The corporate strategy level concerns itself with the entirety of
the organization on a more or less abstract level, where decisions are made with regard to the
overall growth and direction of a company

In more concrete terms, the main components of corporate strategy are:

 Visioning
 Objective Setting
 Allocation of Resources
 Strategic Trade-offs (Prioritization)

Visioning involves setting the high-level direction of the organization - namely the vision,
mission and potentially corporate values.

Objective Setting involves developing the visioning aspects created and turning them into a
series of high level (sometimes still rather abstract) objectives for the company, typically
spanning 3-5 years in length.

Allocation of resources refers to decisions which concern the most efficient allocation of
human and capital resources in the context of stated goals and aims.

Strategic trade-offs are at the core of corporate strategy planning. It's not always possible to
take advantage of all feasible opportunities. In addition, business decisions almost always entail
a degree of risk. Corporate level decisions need to take these factors into account in arriving at
the optimal strategic mix.

Components of Corporate Strategy

There are several important components of corporate strategy that leaders of organizations focus
on. The main tasks of corporate strategy are:

 Allocation of resources
 Organizational design
 Portfolio management

#1 Allocation of Resources

The allocation of resources at a firm focuses mostly on two resources: people and capital. In an
effort to maximize the value of the entire firm, leaders must determine how to allocate these
resources to the various businesses or business units to make the whole greater than the sum of
the parts.

Key factors related to the allocation of resources are:

I. People
Identifying core competencies and ensuring they are well distributed across the firm
Moving leaders to the places they are needed most and add the most value (changes over
time based on priorities)
Ensuring an appropriate supply of talent is available to all businesses
II. Capital

Allocating capital across businesses so it earns the highest risk-adjusted return

Analyzing external opportunities (mergers and acquisitions) and allocating capital

between internal (projects) and external opportunities

#2 Organizational Design

Organizational design involves ensuring the firm has the necessary corporate structure and
related systems in place to create the maximum amount of value. Factors that leaders must
consider are, the role of the corporate head office (centralized vs decentralized approach and the
reporting structure of individuals and business units (vertical hierarchy, matrix reporting, etc.).

Key factors related to the allocation of resources are:

 Head office (centralized vs decentralized)

 Determining how much autonomy to give business units
 Deciding whether decisions are made top-down or bottom-up
 Influence on the strategy of business units
 Organizational structure (reporting)
 Determine how large initiatives and commitments will be divided into smaller projects
 Integrating business units and business functions such that there are no redundancies
 Allowing for the balance between risk and return to exist by separating responsibilities
 Developing centers of excellence
 Determining the appropriate delegation of authority
 Setting governance structures
 Setting reporting structures (military / top-down, matrix reporting

#3 Portfolio Management
Portfolio management looks at the way business units complement each other, their correlations,
and decides where the firm will “play” (i.e. what businesses it will or won’t enter).

Corporate Strategy related to portfolio management includes:

 Deciding what business to be in or to be out of

 Determining the extent of vertical integration the firm should have
 Managing risk through diversification and reducing the correlation of results across
businesses
 Creating strategic options by seeding new opportunities that could be heavily invested in
if appropriate
 Monitor the competitive landscape and ensure the portfolio is well balanced relative to
trends in the market

Product Policy is defined as the broad guidelines related to the production and
development of a product. These policies are generally decided by the top management of a
company i.e. board of directors. It is like a long term planning with respect to the product-mix of
the company in order to deliver maximum customer satisfaction.

Product policy of a company has certain objectives:

 Survival: - The main objective of any company is to stay in the market profitably.
 Growth: - Based on the long term goals of the company the policies are defined to get a
good growth in the market.
 Flexibility: - The product policy needs to be flexible to the changing needs of the
customers, government regulations, global trends and economy.
 Scalability: - The companies should use its resources properly to make the most of its
valuable resources. With time the company needs to develop economies of scale to
improve profits.

A product policy generally covers the following:

1. Product Planning and Development

2. Product Line

3. Product Mix

4. Product Branding

5. Product Positioning
6. Product Packaging.

Module 2
Organizing New Products
New product introductions are classified according to the following factors: (1) newest to the
market; and (2) newest to the company.

Six categories of new products are defined as follows:

 New to the world of products: New product concepts and new products that create an
entirely new market.
 New product lines: New products that, for the first time, allow a company to enter an
established market.
 Additions to existing product lines: New products that supplement accompanies
established product lines.
 Improvements and revisions of existing products: New products that provide
improved performance or greater perceived value, and replace existing products.
 Repositioning: Existing products that are targeted to new markets or market segments.
 Cost reductions: New products that provide similar performance at a lower cost.

• CUSTOMER CENTERED New Product Development. Focuses on:

o Finding new ways to solve customer problems.

o Create more customer-satisfying experience

• TEAM BASED New Product Development

o An approach:

o To deserving new products in which various company's departments work closely

together overlapping the steps in the product development process in order to:

a)Save time
b)Increase effectiveness

o Company departments work closely together in cross functional teams overlapping the
steps in the product development process (to save time and increase effectiveness).

.
• SYSTEMATIC New Product Development
o Development process should be holistic (alternative) and systematic not to good ideas
die.

o This process is installed on Innovation Management System that collect, review, evaluate
new product ideas and manage :- employees, suppliers, distributors and dealers to become
involved in finding and developing new products.

o To sum up, New-Product success requires:

o New ways to create valued customer experience, from generating and screening new
product ideas to create and roll out want-satisfying products.

• VIRTUAL Product Development

o Uses collaboration technology to remove need for co-located teams

o Reduces G&A overhead costs of consulting firms

o Advent of 24-hour development cycle

Dig. Process of New Product Development

Module 3
Managing Brand Architecture and
Brand Portfolios
Brand Architecture
The short version is that a brand’s architecture is a way of organizing the different subsections of
a larger brand. Brand architecture shows us how the sub-brands of a larger whole are organized,
and how they all relate to each other. It can help a marketer see how to keep parts of a brand
separate when needed, and also how to allow them to work together to boost one another in the
marketplace.

Types Of Brand Architecture

There are three main types of brand architecture.

 The Branded House

FedEx is an example of The Branded House brand architecture, with their operating
companies and portfolio of solutions all falling under the name of the master brand. This
structure makes for a consistent experience, minimizes confusion, and builds equity for
the corporate brand.
 The House of Brands
One brand architecture example for The House of Brands is Procter & Gamble, with
dozens of product brands underneath the parent P&G brand. This structure makes sense
for P&G due to its large number of products, many of which have been marketed for
decades under the product name. Changing the name of something like Crest to match the
Procter & Gamble parent brand would only serve to confuse loyal consumers—this way,
P&G retains the brand equity of all their products.
 The Endorsed Brand
Marriott is an example of a hybrid brand structure where some brand extensions feature
the parent name, while others do not. This format provides flexibility in naming and
brand building. However, some consumers may be unaware of the connection between
the master brand and companies that carry a different name (between Marriott and
Sheraton, for example).
 Managing Brand Architecture
In developing and managing brand architecture strategy, there are at least four key
components to consider: 1) brand architecture audit; 2) brand architecture principles; 3)
brand architecture models alternatives; and 4) the brand naming decision tree.

Brand Architecture Audit

A brand architecture audit is a necessary starting point to define the “as is” or current state of
your organization’s brand architecture.  Depending upon the size and complexity of your
organization, this can be a fairly simple or very elaborate exercise.  The brand architecture audit
should focus on two key areas: business performance and brand structure.

 Business performance involves assessing the performance of the various products and

brands within the brand portfolio, in terms of sales, profits and growth potential.  Which
brands and products contribute the most to your business today and in the future?

 Brand structure involves understanding — from the eyes of your customer — how they
experience the current brands and product today, across all the various brand touchpoints.
This involves auditing and then visually representing how customers experience your
brand — including logos, website, advertising, collateral material, at-retail, etc.
Practically speaking, this can be done in a conference room or using a brand touchpoints
wheel.  Is the brand architecture visual depiction clear, consistent and logical or do
opportunities exist to improve the structure?

Brand Architecture Principles

 Brand architecture principle development should serve as the foundation for developing
alternative brand architecture frameworks.  This is a critically important, though often
overlooked step, in developing a clear, consistent brand architecture.  As questions arise
in managing brand architecture — should we add a brand, delete a brand, establish a
brand-driver relationship — it’s necessary to have a set of principles to guide decision-
making.  Importantly, brand architecture principles development should precede brand
architecture examples and alternatives development.  Before you consider whether a
“house of brands” or a “branded house” is the right approach, you need to establish a set
of criteria, specific to your organization, to guide development.

Brand Architecture Framework Alternatives

 Once the brand architecture audit and principles have been defined, it’s time to develop
alternative architecture models and frameworks.  This is where you consider the “boxes
and sticks” approach to brand architecture across a variety of brand architecture
examples. What alternatives exist for determining the strategic, relational structure for all
products and brands in the portfolio?  Again, depending upon the size and complexity of
your organization, an almost limitless number of options may exist.  Therefore, at least
 initially, our brand consultants and clients will develop and draw on a  brand architecture
template to jointly develop a limited set — typically three to five alternatives — that are
strategically sound and distinctively different from each other.

Brand Naming Decision Tree

 Once the brand architecture has been established, it’s useful to develop a brand name
decision tree to “test” the effectiveness of the architecture under different scenarios.  So,
for example, if a new product is developed within a particular product group, how should
it be branded and named?  Does it fall under the master brand or is a new brand
warranted?  Ultimately, a decision tree needs to be published and disseminated
throughout the organization to ensure consistency over time.   More information
about brand naming is contained here.  Brand identity guidelines should also be
developed regarding creative treatment.

Brand Portfolio
A brand portfolio is a collection of distinct brands operating under one larger corporate
umbrella. While each of these brands maintains its own operational structure, they benefit
from shared resources and cross-promotional opportunities with other brands in the
portfolio.
So, brand portfolio management takes the focus on managing the brands as a group. As
many companies today have very many brands on their balance sheets, this is an
approach that can be comprehended. The main aim is to receive something more by
managing the brands as a whole, rather then managing all the brands singly. This should
not mean that a company now only needs one brand portfolio manager rather than
different brand or product managers. It is more, that a brand portfolio needs a centralised
steering, that a central unit or person, depending on the size of the company, looks for
common objectives, brand associations and identities.
Module 4
Tools For Building Brand Equity
'Brand equity' is a phrase used in the marketing industry refers to the perceived worth
of a brand in and of itself—i.e., the social value of a well-known brand name. It is based on the
idea that the owner of a well-known brand name can generate more revenue simply from brand
recognition, as consumers perceive the products of well-known brands as better than those of
lesser-known brands. In other words, brand equity refers to "the branding of a product name on
an attention-deficit public.

The Tools for Building Brand Equity are:

1. Introduce a Quality Product into the Marketplace – This may seem obvious
but it is extremely important to deliver a product that attracts a positive reaction from consumers.
This can be achieved through labeling, packaging, delivery or the value its offers to users.

2. Monitoring Trends and Competitors – A strong brand has the ability to adapt to
changes in the marketplace in order to stay relevant. To achieve this, marketers must monitor
industry trends and market conditions.

3. Build a Consistent Brand Image – It is important to reinforce your brand by

providing a consistent positive experience in the minds of consumers.
4. Consistency of Brand Messaging – When creating your brand messaging ensure
that it is easy to remember and reminds consumers about the qualities that they care most about.

5. Capture Customer Feedback – Since the real power of a brand exists in the mind
of consumers, it is necessary for marketers to always capture and analyze customer feedback.