Introduction
Significant advancement in the technology has led to the increase in the demands of the consumers and leading to the growth in the market competition. Nowadays, the customers are much more concerned about getting a top-quality product at a cheaper rate.
This aspect has led to the formation of major concerns in meeting the expectations of the consumers. Looking at the case scenario of Sustainable Bikes, this could be elucidated that the efforts are made by this company in the delivery of the bikes which will be economically sustainable both in manufacturing and purchasing.
There has been implementation of new technology that will help in minimizing the costs of the bikes and will help in increasing the customer satisfaction. As a VP-brand management, the focus will be made on the sustainability aspects by taking into account the different marketing parameters that will help in the increase in the sustainability and measure profitability that will help in enhancing the competition.
Based on this aspect, this report will help in making a detailed presentation of the strategic planning, mission, vision and decision making prospects. Through the consideration of this information, theoretical suggestions will be made for understanding the strategic implementation of this company for increasing customer satisfaction through sustainability.
Critical analysis will be made for different quarters and will highlight the contributions made through decisions by different team members. Suggestions and recommendations will be made based on the analyzed results.
Vision
With reference to the business scenario, the vision has been considered for the formation of a new bicycle business segment through the implementation of technology and innovation. This will help in the increase in the sustainability in bicycle production and will also minimize purchasing costs.
Mission
Based on the company vision, the mission has been considered for the significant increase in the sustainability by making a decrease in the costs of shipping by making an authentic marketing plan. Also, the mission has been taken for increasing the customer advantage that will help in increasing customisation of shape, size and also meet the performance requirements as per the customer demands.
Objectives
With reference to the vision and mission, the marketing objectives are as follows:
- To eliminate the inventory costs that will help in the significant decrease in the market price of the bikes.
- To implement new technology of 3D printing that will help in the consecutive decrease in the production costs for carbon-fiber bikes.
- To develop a new market division that will help in the significant decline within the costs for shipping.
- To meet the consumer demands by keeping in mind their profitability through the deployment of bikes of advanced technology.
Strategic planning
Looking at the business mission, objectives and vision, this could be suggested that Sustainable Bikes has been focused in the formation of suitable pricing strategy and innovation concepts that will help in enhancing customer satisfaction. For developing a new market segment and for developing a position in the competitive market (Goi, 2019), the application of the 3 D printing process will help in the significant reduction in the bikes purchase costs. Apart from that, there will be a proper visualization of customer needs for making marketing decisions.
Decision making
Through the implementation of a price reduction strategy that will be done through technological innovations, there will be development of market decisions based on the needs and preferences made by different customers.
Figure 1: Balanced scorecard
(Source: https://game.ilsworld.com/mpl/web7/engine.php?tpl=student&quarter=1&language=en-us&resource=welcome-to-marketplace&tab=task)
There will be formation of a balance scorecard that will help in the consideration of future investments based on the financial and market performance. Based on this aspect, there will be formation of marketing effectiveness and wealth creation through the consideration of a pricing model that will help in meeting the sustainability concepts in marketing division.
Theoretical frameworks
For the development of an innovative strategy, there always seems to be a requirement for the proper recognition of the issues that are being faced in the current market scenario of bikes (Bolton et al., 2019). There has been formation of different issues that are affecting the purchase of bikes accordingly. These issues are as follows:
- Higher costs of carbon-fiber bikes: looking at the market scenario of the carbon fiber cycle market, it could be investigated that there has been a presence of higher costs of these bikes. Due to this particular reason there has been generation of limitations within the sales within mountain and high road performance bikes within Elite users. Although, there has been a taste of having the facilities of carbon fiber bicycles but due to the presence of price limitations the purchase is reduced.
- Presence of multiple competitors: The rivalry is raised through the usage of similar knowledge and resources by different competitors. As a result of which, there will be generation of confusion within the customers for understanding the best quality of products from a particular company (Liao et al., 2021). This proves to be a requirement for developing a unique feature within the product that will help in gaining attraction from the customers.
- Presence of multiple segments within bicycle buyers: The availability of different bicycle buyers will also result in a generation of variation within the preferences within performance and price requirements for different bikes. A Youth segment will focus on safety and recreation whereas a work segment will mainly focus on the practical that could be achieved through the development of suitability within the environment and price control (Lohmann et al., 2019). Furthermore, the preferences are made within the recreation segment for having little exercise and fun through bike rides whereas the focus is made within a speed and a mountain segment for availing trekking facilities and speed capabilities within a bike. So this is essential for understanding the market segment requirements in order to develop a bike through an innovative technique.
With reference to the above issues, there might be implementation of a theoretical framework of strategies that includes strategic management, performance management and marketing accordingly. Through application of these strategies, there will be formation of sustainability in making a reduction within the costs and also help in identifying the market segment accordingly.
Porter’s strategic positioning
With reference to the issues, the implementation of Porter’s strategic positioning has been made through the consideration of 3 significant aspects. Differentiation strategy, Cost leadership and Focus are 3 aspects that will be useful in increasing the brand value of Sustainable Bikes.
Cost leadership
- Lowering prices whilst maintaining a fair profit per sale due to cost reductions, expanding market share.
- Lowering expenses to increase profits while maintaining competitive pricing.
The biggest danger of implementing cost leadership model is that additional companies will adopt similar cost-cutting tactics because these focus on cost lowering are not exclusively available to company. It is therefore critical to consistently look for methods to cut every expenditure.
Differentiation strategy
- Efficient marketing and advertising are necessary to ensure that the customer is aware of the advantages provided by the unique services.
- The capacity to provide top-notch items or services.
- Positive development, technology, and investigation will help in increasing bike quality.
Focus strategy
Focus strategies emphasize on certain market segments and create distinctively reduced or even well quality products through knowing the structure of that marketplace and the special requirements of individuals inside it. Manufacturers frequently achieve high brand equity amongst the clients since they provide clients in particular industry with a unique level of service. Because of this, rival companies are less likely will target this target markets area.
Value chain analysis
Whenever Sustainable Bikes determines its fundamental, subsidiary, and sub activities then assesses the effectiveness of each component, it has completed the value chain assessment.
The different primary activities that need to be considered are as follows:
- The transfer of goods to clients. Technologies for keeping, collecting, and dissemination to clients are all part of processes. Administering this firm’s internal systems as well as system elements from client organizations falls under this category.
- The interior administration and management of assets obtained from independent bodies, such as distribution network source information and contractors.
- In order to boost recognition, attract an advertising demographic, and explain how a customer would buy a good or service, operations like advertisement and label are used.
The different secondary activities are as follows:
- The administration of human resources. These involves activities like recruiting, teaching, establishing and upholding a business culture, and preserving a positive work environment.
- Locating new multiple vendors, keeping up connections with existing vendors, discussing rates, and other tasks linked to getting in the required supplies and resources required to create a good or service.
Ansoff matrix
Product development and market segmentation have been the major focus for this company for increasing the customer attraction through the deployment of new technology. Through the implementation of Ansoff matrix, the Sustainable Bikes will focus on the following aspects.
- Market penetration: Under this stage, efforts will be made for the development of sales expansion for the new products through the application of “low carbon fibre”.
- Product development: The increase in the product quality will be made through the formation of product customization on size, shape and operation capacity.
- Diversification: Formation of a suitable marketing plan by making a selection of the market segment of the bikers.
- Market development: Making investment through technology that will help in enhancing the sustainability through cost reduction.
Strategic management
Moreover, the Sustainable Bikes is mainly focused in the development of sustainability that will help in the elimination of inventory costs by making an implementation of new 3D printing Technology. Also, the requirement is made in the formation of a new market division for enhancing customer profitability by meeting their demands. The usage of strategic management theory will be effective in making a proper deployment of resources and staff as per the vision mission and marketing objectives of this company. The theoretical implementation could be made as follows:
- Goal setting: Through the formation of a road map, this organization needs to plan for implementing technology and innovation with a motive of reducing the purchasing costs. Efforts need to be made to reduce the production costs of carbon fiber bicycles (Buil et al., 2019). Also, there has been recruitment of proper estimation of the consumer demands by making suitable recognition of customer segments’ preferences.
Figure 2: Bicycle Market
(Source: https://game.ilsworld.com/mpl/web7/engine.php?tpl=student&quarter=1&language=en-us&resource=virtual-business-world&tab=task)
- Environmental analysis and scanning: The visualization needs to be made for analyzing the various marketing opportunities at different geographical markets. There will be generation of variations within potential demand and price points that will vary as per the customer mix. So, there has been a requirement for considering economic and cultural differences in order to develop suitable marketing promotion strategies.
- Formulation of strategy: There needs to be application of distributed manufacturing strategy. This will be effective in enhancing consumer advantage by making customisation within performance requirement shape and size (Tozanlı et al., 2020). This will be accomplished through the implementation of 3D printing Technology that will help in generating lighter and stronger material through carbon fiber as compared to metal for different bicycle parts.
- Implementation of strategy: This strategy could be implemented through the formation of 9 different quarters that will include market division organization, shop setting, developing test market, adjusting skillful strategy, generating future investments, making expansion within market offering, refining the strategy for marketing and putting a closer through marketing techniques.
- Evaluation of strategy: Finally, the evaluation will be made through the consideration of the balanced scorecard and also through customer feedback. [Referred to Appendix 1]
Performance management
Management of “Sustainable Bikes” really has to actively monitor it along with their team. To assist its group members through overcoming obstacles including implementing innovative factors learning and performance development, coaches should provide regular, constructive criticism. If it is postponed unless a year-end assessment, it will be too belated and targets and performance targets could only be partly realized (Xu et al., 2022). The basic components through which an effective performance management can be engaged within “Sustainable Bikes” are defined. Sustainable bikes must develop targets correctly. They must have depth and be comprehended. Workers must be aware within which these concrete targets are important as well as how they advance company targets. Whenever workers fully comprehend the importance of their work, they will feel significantly more about their responsibilities and be a lot less involved. Workers need or demand openness and authenticity from its supervisors and leaders throughout all moments.
Marketing
Acquisition of suitable customer requirements proves to be essential in meeting the business competition. Based on the requirements, the development and research could be made on advertising, pricing, design, salesforce and sales outlets. Since this organization has been a new player in the bicycle market, there is a necessity of generating a brand image that will help in forming a unique value (Matute-Vallejo and Melero-Polo, 2019). The solution could be developed through the formation of higher sales volume that will help in a significant decrease within the production costs and will enhance profitability. Advertisements need to be made based on the demands that are being specified by different market segments of the bicycle market and their food will help in getting better solutions through benchmarks.
Analysis
With reference to the above issues and strategies that are being highlighted, there will be formation of a critical analysis of 9 different quarters by considering the business simulation results of this organization.
Looking at the first quarter, the efforts have been made by the team for developing market division through the recognition of the marketing responsibilities by making a survey on the market./mpl/web7/engine.php?tpl=student&quarter=9&language=en-us&resource=welcome-to-marketplace&tab=
To conclude, this report has helped in understanding the business objectives for Sustainable Bikes and thereby has helped in making a suitable representation of the issues. Based on the issues, theoretical suggestions are provided. Also, there has been a critical representation of the simulation results for different quarters for understanding the innovation implementation for increasing the sustainability.
Recommendations
Based on the current scenario, the recommendations are as follows:
- In the future, there needs to be use of artificial intelligence for understanding the trends and demands for bicycle purchase by considering the sentiments of buyers.
- In the future, there needs to be use of digital marketing strategies like content marketing for increasing the sales massively.
Reference List
Journals
Al-Surmi, A., Cao, G. and Duan, Y., 2020. The impact of aligning business, IT, and marketing strategies on firm performance. Industrial marketing management, 84, pp.39-49.
Biroscak, B.J., Bryant, C., Khaliq, M., Schneider, T., Panzera, A.D., Courtney, A., Parvanta, C. and Hovmand, P., 2019. Using system dynamics modeling to evaluate a community-based social marketing framework: A computer simulation study. Journal of Social Marketing, 9(1), pp.53-76.
Bolton, R.N., Chapman, R.G. and Mills, A.J., 2019. Harnessing digital disruption with marketing simulations. Journal of Marketing Education, 41(1), pp.15-31.
Brown, D.M., Charity, I. and Robson, A., 2019. Hitting the Ground Running: Group Simulations Within Business School Cohorts. Employability via Higher Education: Sustainability as Scholarship, pp.389-413.
Buil, I., Catalán, S. and Martínez, E., 2019. Encouraging intrinsic motivation in management training: The use of business simulation games. The International Journal of Management Education, 17(2), pp.162-171.
Cosenz, F. and Bivona, E., 2021. Fostering growth patterns of SMEs through business model innovation. A tailored dynamic business modelling approach. Journal of Business Research, 130, pp.658-669.
Fraccascia, L., Yazan, D.M., Albino, V. and Zijm, H., 2020. The role of redundancy in industrial symbiotic business development: A theoretical framework explored by agent-based simulation. International journal of production economics, 221, p.107471.
Goi, C.L., 2019. The use of business simulation games in teaching and learning. Journal of Education for Business, 94(5), pp.342-349.
Hernández-Lara, A.B., Perera-Lluna, A. and Serradell-López, E., 2019. Applying learning analytics to students’ interaction in business simulation games. The usefulness of learning analytics to know what students really learn. Computers in Human Behavior, 92, pp.600-612.
Ibrahim, E.B. and Harrison, T., 2020. The impact of internal, external, and competitor factors on marketing strategy performance. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 28(7), pp.639-658.
Liao, M.J., Zhang, J., Wang, R.M. and Qi, L., 2021. Simulation research on online marketing strategies of branded agricultural products based on the difference in opinion leader attitudes. Information Processing in Agriculture, 8(4), pp.528-536.
Lohmann, G., Pratt, M.A., Benckendorff, P., Strickland, P., Reynolds, P. and Whitelaw, P.A., 2019. Online business simulations: authentic teamwork, learning outcomes, and satisfaction. Higher Education, 77, pp.455-472.
Matute-Vallejo, J. and Melero-Polo, I., 2019. Understanding online business simulation games: The role of flow experience, perceived enjoyment and personal innovativeness. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 35(3).
Moellers, T., von der Burg, L., Bansemir, B., Pretzl, M. and Gassmann, O., 2019. System dynamics for corporate business model innovation. Electronic Markets, 29, pp.387-406.
Schiavone, F. and Simoni, M., 2019. Strategic marketing approaches for the diffusion of innovation in highly regulated industrial markets: the value of market access. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 34(7), pp.1606-1618.
Tozanlı, Ö., Kongar, E. and Gupta, S.M., 2020. Trade-in-to-upgrade as a marketing strategy in disassembly-to-order systems at the edge of blockchain technology. International Journal of Production Research, 58(23), pp.7183-7200.
Xu, C., Park, J. and Lee, J.C., 2022. The effect of shopping channel (online vs offline) on consumer decision process and firm’s marketing strategy. Internet Research, 32(3), pp.971-987.
Zulfiqar, S., Sarwar, B., Aziz, S., Ejaz Chandia, K. and Khan, M.K., 2019. An analysis of influence of business simulation games on business school students’ attitude and intention toward entrepreneurial activities. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 57(1), pp.106-130.
Know more about UniqueSubmission’s other writing services:
