Question

List five products that you consumed (breakfast, chewing gum, etc.) or used (Wi-Fi Internet service, radio program, etc.) within the past 24 hours. What strategy does the company behind each good or service employ: low-cost, differentiation, or focus? How is this product being delivered to the international market? Countries? For each company, write one or two paragraphs.

Answer 1

Five products I use as a daily consumer:

• Milk:
  • Company sector: Food and beverage (FMCG)
  • Business strategy:
    • Since food and beverage industry already has a large number of consumers, the company does not follow the focus strategy. The major points in their business strategy is based on cost and how different is their product from the others. There is a lot of competition in this sector and company needs advantage on both of the above factors to strive in their business.
    • This particular company is following a differentiating strategy. This is because consumers of milk products wouldn’t want to compromise in quality over cost. Although cost is will be an important factor for the consumer to decide the product but with many competitors in the same price range it all comes down to how attractive the product can be.
    • This company only serves the local (within country) markets since it’s a product of a local level scale and all customers would want their milk being fresh and locally procured.
• Cellphone:
  • Company sector: Consumer Electronics
  • Business strategy:
    • The cellphone I am using is a functional android device which has a very large consumer base. The consumers of this device lie in a big range of users spread across age and occupations. Hence, they need not focus on a specific segment of users.
    • This particular company is following a differentiation strategy. The cost of production is more or less the same and in this segment, many companies have offerings in this range. It all comes down to what different features and design the cellphone offers.
    • The company caters many international markets. They have local production in countries they serve with local support for reduced stocking and delivery costs.
• Laptop:
  • Company sector: Consumer Electronics
  • Business strategy:
    • The laptop I am using is a functional windows device based for business users. For this particular product, they have a focus on only the business users and have based their pricing and features according to that only.
    • This particular company is using the focus strategy for this product. The cost is kept at an industry standard. There is not much difference in product features as all the business users require a set of features which all companies in the segment thrive to provide.
    • The company caters many international markets. They have local production only in countries where the production support is high class to maintain product standards. They also provide local support for reduced stocking and delivery costs.
• Personal Vehicle (Car)
  • Company sector: Automotive
  • Business strategy:
    • The car I own is a daily commute car whose consumer base is the daily working-class people. The defined sector of the car makes it easy to decide pricing in the segment.
    • This particular company is using low-cost strategy. This is because, the commodity used here is a big investment for many people and is proven with not very good returns. So, for the mentioned segment, price is a major factor is basing their decision to buy the product or not.
    • The company caters many international markets. They have local production only in countries where the production support is high class to maintain product standards. They also provide local support for reduced stocking and delivery costs.
• Cellular Network
  • Company sector: Telecommunication services
  • Business strategy:
    • This company is a telecommunication service provider with support of all cellular bands like 2G, 3G and 4G. The consumer base thus, is quite wide.
    • This particular company is following low-cost strategy. This is due to the presence of a big number of players in this sector providing similar services. If we think from a customer’s mindset, the cost of calls and internet is the major concern while purchasing these services.
    • The company caters many international markets. They have tie ups with local service providers for satellite and network usage. They also have local support for their services.