Organizational Responsiveness and Innovation Strategy

Question: Discuss about the Organizational Responsiveness and Innovation Strategy. Answer: Introduction: In todays more competitive business era, the marketing decision makers of the business firms must monitor all the business activities of their competitors in a continuous manner. Moreover, the decision makes must evaluate marketing mix (MM) components such as: product, price, place, and promotion of the competitors in order to accomplish competitive advantages in an effective way. The marketing decision makers must examine the products of the competitors before launching a new product in the marketplace (Verhoef and Leeflang, 2009). Moreover, they should also consider the price of the competitors before deciding the price of the product. The marketing decision make must choose the location that will be easily accessible by the customers. In addition to this, they must adopt and implement effective promotional strategies to promote their products and to improve the productivity as well as profitability of the firms in an appropriate way. On the other hand, it should also be noted down that, in todays rapidly changing business scenario, business firms are also changing their MM components to improve the market share, brand loyalty, brand awareness, and profitability of businesses in a more comprehensive manner. Marketing decision makers must evaluate quality and features of the products in order to recognize the strong or weak points of the products (Wei and Wang, 2011). Moreover, with the help of this, they would be able to reduce weak points of the products in a proper way. The MM components also play a significant role in order to improve the profitability and to reduce the different types of costs linked to the marketing of products. Along with this, the decision makers of a firm must evaluate the prices of competitors products constantly and also change the price of products accordingly to attract new customers and to retain existing customers in an effective way (Zhou, Brown, Dev and Agarwal, 2007). This strategy would also be helpful to improve the profitability as well as market share of the firm. It is because of by evaluating competitors price; the firm would be able to provide high quality products to its customers at a lower cost. On the other hand, it should also be noted down that, the sale of some firms such as: Car manufacturing firms fluctuates as per the economic changes of the nation. So, in this situation, the marketing decision makers of a car manufacturing firm change its MM components according to the changes in the economy and changes in the competitors prices to maintain the demand of products effectively. Apart from this, during the recession, the demand of luxury products like cars decline rapidly that also reduces the profits of the firms (Ehmke, Fulton and Lusk, 2005). In that case, the business firms reduce prices of products in order to maintain demand and also improve the market share of the firm in a significant way. Along with this, the pricing strategies of the business firms are based on different elements such as: interest rates, schemes, offers, etc. Most of the companies adopt low price strategies to accomplish competitive advantages over competitors. Moreover, with the help of low pricing strategies, business firms become able to improve customer value and brand image of the businesses. For case, Wal-Mart offers low price products to its customers, so the competitors of Wal-Mart must consider low pricing strategies to decide the price of their products (Czinkota and Ronkainen, 2006). Apart from this, high price of products may dangerous for the success and growth of the business. The marketing decision makers must also consider schemes, discounts, and offers of competitors before changing the price of products. This thing would be helpful to attract customers and to improve profitability of the firms. On the other hand, marketing decision makers of business organizations must monitor promotional as well as marketing activities of the competitors to make out target markets or target customers of competitors. It would be helpful to improve the brand awareness and brand loyalty of the businesses (Lamb, Hair and McDaniel, 2011). In todays advanced technological era, business organizations take help of the Internet to promote their products or services at the global level. Moreover, they also use social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.), print media, and broadcasting, and so on to create brand awareness about their products. Consequently, the marketing decision makers must choose the best medium of the promotions in order to create brand awareness among the customers. So, it is assumed that, the marketing decision makers must monitor the modern promotional trends to change their MM components in order to attract new customers and to accomplish growth in the marketplace. Fu rthermore, marketing decision makers must assess the quality and feature of the competitors products to accomplish growth and to improve share in the market (Pride, Hughes and Kapoor, 2006). Also, decision makers must take decision related to location (distribution) on the basis of distribution strategies of their competitors. In addition to this, by monitoring the promotional efforts of the competitors, business firms are changing their advertising and promotional strategies to improve and maintain their brand image or reputation in the marketplace. For case, Coco-Cola and PepsiCo Inc is the major rivals of each other in the beverage sector. In this case, if Coco-Cola focuses and also spends more funds on its promotional activities then PepsiCo Inc. should also focus on its promotional activities. If PepsiCo Inc. does not focus on the promotional efforts or activities then it may lose its market share as well as brand loyalty in the marketplace (Dost, 2006). Along with this, both firms are offering similar types of beverage products, so if they do not consider and monitor marketing mix (MM) activities then it would be hazardous for the health of the organizations. For that reason, it is assumed that, the decision makers of the business firms must monitor marketing activities and marketing mix components o f their competitors to accomplish the desired outcomes and competitive advantages in an effective and a more comprehensive manner. References Czinkota, M. and Ronkainen, I. (2006). International Marketing. USA: Cengage Learning. 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