Market buzz

7/29/2019 Market buzz

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BY: Sonakshi Kalra (M00427220)

Firangiz Akbarzade (M00387317)

Aveenash Sekhar (M00190946)

Market Buzz International: A

CASE STUDY


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MARKET BUZZ INTERNATIONAL: CASE STUDYGROUP ASSIGNMENT

NAME AND MISIS NO: Sonakshi Kalra (M00427220)Firangiz Akbarzade (M00387317)Aveenash Sekhar (M00190946)

COURSE: MA marketing communication

MODULE TITLE: Strategic Marketing

MODULE CODE: MKT4100

WORD COUNT: 3492

SUPERVISOR: Dr. Doug Young


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MARKET BUZZ INTERNATIONAL: A CASE STUDY

Table of Contents

ABSTRACT .................................................................................. 4

INTRODUCTION ........................................................................... 4

COMPETITIVELANDSCAPE ....................................................... 5

SOCIAL MEDIA ERA .................................................................... 6

NICHE STRATEGY ....................................................................... 8

RELATIONSHIP STRATEGY ....................................................... 9

QUESTIONS FOR THE CASE STUDY ....................................... 10

REFERENCES.............14


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ABSTRACTThis case study details the start up and growth of Market Buzz International, a

small-scale marketing consultancy in the Middle East. The corporate vision of

the company is to make a difference in the small and medium sized business

clients and creates satisfied customers to attain success. The objectives of

the company have been to gain a sustainable competitive advantage and

work towards the growth of the organization. The case study begins with an

introduction section, which includes the complete background of Market Buzz

International. The competition of the company has been described by an

accurate industry analysis using porters model to explain the basic nature of

the industry. The following sections also explain obstacles faced by the

company in its journey such as the changing social media, cut throat

competition and lack of financial and human resources. The company made

strategies to overcome these obstacles. An advanced strategy was adopted

by MBI to overcome the changing face of social media marketing. To gain acompetitive edge in the industry the company followed a niche strategy and a

relationship strategy implying the importance of collaborations and alliances

was taken up to deal with the limitations of financial and human resources.

INTRODUCTIONIn the year 2000, Mita Srinivasan started the company Market Buzz

International. A small-scale business, MBI is a marketing consultancy

company, which provides clients services like advertising, PR, brand building

and communications support to new and existing businesses in the middle

east. The company has a small team of five members and works with

freelancers for certain projects. MBI combines its own expertise and

resources with the outsourced strengths of experienced freelance executives,

providing its clients access to a wide network of industry professionals. MBIs

focus is technology and gives technical solutions to small and large

companies. The company goes beyond contractual obligations to satisfy

customers and works diligently to humanize the business. The slogan of the

company your voice delivered by our passion shows that the company lays

emphasis on being passionate about the projects taken up and the team is

result oriented aiming to create a difference in the customers business.The growing sophisticated demands of consumers have led the business to

understand the importance of marketing and social media to make the

business a success. Thus companies are looking for professional consultants

to build up brand image and market the products effectively. The industry of

marketing consultancies is increasing which in turns increases the competition

for MBI. The small-scale businesses are important for an economy and the

strategies adopted by them should be studied. (Cooper et al, 1986). The

business objectives of the company have been to grow in the industry and

attain a sustainable competitive advantage. The company has faced many

challenges in these years due to the changing scenario of the market.


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COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPETo attain the objective of sustainable competitive advantage it is important to

know the positioning of the company as well as competitors. It is vital to

analyze the competitive forces of the industry. MBIs competitive forces can

be understood by Porters five-force model, which gives information about the

industry and competition of the company and forms the basis of strategies

followed by the company.

PORTERs FIVE-FORCE MODEL

The five forces of MBI are explained as follows:

Bargaining power of customers: The bargaining power of customers

can bring down the profitability of the consultancy industry. They pose

a threat of integrating backwards which increases their power. The

bargaining power of consumers is mediocre in this industry as they

can lower the prices of the services due to large number of

competition but to achieve success in their business they have to

seek professional help, which suits their company. Threat of new entrants: The business can enjoy a better position and

profits if there are barriers to new entrants in the industry but MBI

faces a high threat of new entrants as there are no barriers to entry

and the business can be put up with limited capital and experience.

The new era of social media as and its usage has given rise to large

number of companies entering the industry and continues to enter.


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Bargaining power of suppliers: If the supplier forces up the price paid

for inputs, profits can be reduced. The bargaining power of suppliers

is low in this industry as the cost of switching to a different supplier is

low and large numbers of suppliers are present in the industry with

advanced technical skills and knowledge. Threat of substitute products: The extent of threat from substitutes

depends on the price and performance of the substitute. The

substitute for this industry is online, do it yourself software available

for business to develop strategies and help marketing their

companies at a low cost but the professional help need for starting up

and building a brand cannot be completely substituted by software.

In-house marketing and media team is also a substitute but involves

high cost of maintenance and thus the threat of substitutes is low.

Competitive rivalry: It relates to the competition for market share in

the industry. The industry has large number of small and large

marketing and communications consultancies, which leads to nominal

profits being earned. The current competition in this industry is heavy

and leads to loosing of projects to other clients.

By analyzing all five forces a complete picture of factors influencing

profitability of the industry can be obtained. The game changing strategies

can be developed at an initial stage (Porter, 2008). The above model

analyses the industry of MBI and gives and thus develop basis to understand

the strategies followed by the company. The model represents the key factorsrequired for sustainable competitive advantage and value added drive from an

analysis of the industry and its market structure which includes the number of

firms and degree of rivalry, market conduct which shows how firms behave

with each other which influences strategy and the overall market performance

of the company. The following sections shows the strategies used by Market

Buzz International keeping in mind the five-force model by porter.


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SOCIAL MEDIA ERAAs mentioned above the companies main objectives are to gain a sustainable

competitive advantage and a to have internal growth and an important

obstacle faced by the company to reach its goal has been the evolution of

social media.

Social media is not a traditional way of advertising. It is a way to communicate

with the audience and involves skilled knowledge about the market and the

business to successfully implement it in the business. In todays world social

media can make or break the business and MBI understands the value of

social media and thus it uses extensively when marketing or building a brand

image for its clients. The company also uses social media to market itself and

build an online reputation for the business. The current state of flux in the

evolution of social media makes it difficult to pick a platform as the Facebook

changes frequently whereas Twitter goes up and down in popularity, LinkedIn

has set of etiquettes and rules to be followed and sites like MySpace havefallen off the map altogether. Apart from instability of the social media the

security is always a difficulty, which is considered as a major threat to the

business.

The company uses an advanced strategy to overcome the dangers of social

media and use it effectively. The advanced social strategy goes beyond the

normal social media presence. It reinforces the marketing message while

pushing the user to another profile. (Balwani, 2009) MBI thus uses this

strategy by using multimedia messages. It develops the campaigns for its

clients based on multimedia to attract attention to the company it is marketing.It also integrates offline and online advertising which develops a better

communication process and builds customer interest. Company believes in

customizing different messages for different sites so as to have the planned

affect on consumers and also helps to avoid repetition. The company also

believes in open communication with its consumers on a regular basis. The

owner of the company regularly writes blogs and is active on Facebook so

that potential customers and existing customers can communicate with the

company without any barriers and their ideas are also shared on social

network sites. MBI handles social media without it becoming a time drain and

also ensures that the privacy concerns of the clients are well taken care of by

contemplating what is safe to divulge in a social setting.

Therefore the company recognizes the fact that social media is here to stay

and uses it widely to attain success. It has a social optimization system (SOS)

which involves developing a consistent plan for social media usage,

measuring its effectiveness and follow up to make the required changes. This

leads to optimum utilization of resources and maximizes the customers

satisfaction.


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NICHE STRATEGYThe above competitive landscape and industry analysis shows that MBI faces

a lot of competition in the industry. Businesses have recognized the need of

professional media and marketing consultancy to succeed and thus to satisfy

these growing needs a large number of marketing consultancies have come

up. The evolution of social media and its significant effect on the marketing

world has also added to the competition of the company. The company

understands that in this fast growing competitive industry it is imperative to

have a sustainable competitive advantage to succeed, grow and have a

leading position in the long run so that major projects are not lost to

competitors.

The competitive strategy used by MBI is niche strategy, which involves

reducing the size of playing field and concentration on a segment of market.The emphasis is laid on niche strategy by MBI so that they can capitalize on

the power of leverage, which means the power of doing more with less. The

company does market segmentation for which it uses different customer

requirements to segment the market. The company concentrates on B2B

market and thus focuses on this segment. It looks for unmet needs and needs

the existing companies are not completely meeting. It makes and effort to

know what the consumers want more than the consumers and start with the

consumers and not the services they provide. All these factors form the part of

niche strategy. The company strengthened its position by finding a segmentthat is B2B segment that targets the IT sector as it has immense knowledge

and experience in the IT sector.

Market Buzz International uses the focus strategy. It focuses only on a part of

the industry rather than the whole industry. IT targets a narrow segment and

within that segment tries to provide differentiated services based on

information technology and also capitalizes on its experience and skilled IT

journalist in the Middle East. . MBI is a small sized business with limited

capital and thus cannot compete with large firms on low cost and

standardized products as the company needs to cover its operational

expenses and also expenses incurred on freelancers for the completion of

Minimizing the playing field can reduce the barriers and thus niche strategy

was adopted. To successfully implement the focus strategy the company

works to define the target market effectively and also look for unmet needs

that are not met by existing companies. Using mobile technology to do

marketing can be an example of such needs that business marketed using the

applications present in the smartphones. The focus strategy proved to help

the company to concentrate on its strengths and manage the target

consumers at a low cost, which is essential for a small-scale business like

MBI. (Cooper, Willard & Woo, 1986).


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RELATIONSHIP STRATEGYStrategic relationships among suppliers, producers and distribution channel

organizations occur for various reasons. It can be done to enhance value

offerings, reduce the risks generated by business changes, share

complimentary skills or obtain resources beyond those available to the

company. (Cravens & Piercy, 2003). MBI uses the relationship strategy due to

the lack of human resources. MBI lacks human resources as it works with a

team of only five members and uses freelancers for certain projects. It is not a

magnet for talent from elite educational background, as it cannot offer high

compensation due to the lack of financial resources, as it is a small-scale

business. The lack of staff also affects the continuity of the business, as the

company is solely dependent on the founder Mita Srinivasan and there is no

successor to the founder.

MBI has thus collaborated with and is part of the OXYGEN Group (Network)

helping to represent several of its European clients in the Middle East region.OXYGEN initially focused on the new technologies sector, but its uniquebusiness model and professional consultants have since achievedoutstanding results in many other industries, including consumer goods &services, healthcare & early years, gastronomy and lifestyle, sustainabledevelopment, construction, corporate, and humanitarian aid.

(http://www.themarketbuzz.net/aboutus/)Thus MBI collaborated withOXYGEN to reach new horizons in the business. This collaboration alsohelped MBI reach market outside the Middle East and boost its growth withlimited human resources.

The company also believes in strategic alliances, which involves collaborative

relationships between the company and its competitors. MBI uses these

alliances to enhance the market position in the market and add value to their

services. It maintains a cordial relationship with its competitors and works with

them on certain projects and thus it involves actively participating in a

common project that is strategic in scope. The competitive realities of

surviving in the changing industry encourage companies to form alliances.

MBI thus understands the importance of alliances as being a small scale and

not having enough resources can pose as a threat and alliances helps in

pooling of resources and so reduces the risk of the company. The companyalso learns new skills from alliance partners and these alliances provide an

edge to the company and assist it to manage time and resources effectively to

gain success and work towards growth of the company. Trust and

commitment between the partners are critical in building these relationships.
http://www.themarketbuzz.net/aboutus/http://www.themarketbuzz.net/aboutus/http://www.themarketbuzz.net/aboutus/http://www.themarketbuzz.net/aboutus/


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QUESTIONS FOR THE CASE STUDY

1.How should Market buzz international face the growing competitivelandscape to gain a competitive advantage?

MBI faces direct and indirect competition and to prosper in the marketingconsultancy industry the company needs to understand the competitive pointof difference. The business having a sustainable competitive advantage cansurvive in this cutthroat competition. This is explained with the help of PortersModel.

It can be seen from the above figure of porters generic strategies that a firmsstrengths can fall into two categories that are cost advantage anddifferentiation. (Porter, cited in Dess and Davis) These strengths can beplaced in either broad or narrow scope giving rise to three generic strategiesthat are cost leadership, differentiation and focus.The generic strategy of cost leadership involves selling the product orservices at lower prices than the average industry prices to gain a widermarket share and thus attain higher profits whereas differentiation strategyinvolves development of product or services that are unique from that ofcompetitors and consumers value the uniqueness that the business offers andthus can charge a premium price for it. Lastly, the focus strategy includestargeting a narrow segment and within that segment makes an effort toachieve cost leadership or differentiation. Thus it can be seen from the casestudy that Market Buzz International competes with the focus strategy. ForMBI to have a sustainable competitive advantage only focus strategy is notenough. According to porters model a successful business should competeonly on one of the three generic strategies where as Wright (1987) believed ina combination of strategies that can be adopted to attain success and the sizeof the business plays an important role in deciding upon the competitivestrategy.


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A differentiation strategy yields a longer lasting and more profitable edge overthe competitors when based on factors that provide unique customer value.(Hammer et al, 1999) Market Buzz International success can be achieved byfollowing differentiation and focus strategy simultaneously. MBI has theexperience in local market on which the company can capitalize to earn

higher profits. The company also has a team of highly skilled technicalexpertise and an advanced knowledge of social media usage with a creativebond. MBI should aim to provide superior customer service to follow thedifferentiated strategy with its experience and expertise. The company alsohumanizes the business, and it also manages online reputation to ensure thatcustomers are satisfied and the company is marketed well. Thesecompetencies can provide unique customer value and in addition to these thecompany could ensure an impeccable security system to its customers so thatthey do not shy away from social media due to privacy concerns. Thesefactors can be taken into consideration to differentiate the services providedby MBI and its competitors to earn a premium profit along with the niche

strategy the company follows.

2. Is the relationship Strategy followed by Market Buzz Internationalenough to overcome the hurdle of limited human resources to achievesuccess and ensure the continuity of the business?

MBI works with a team of five permanent members, which affects theoperations of the company and also is a threat for the continuity of thebusiness. In this changing era of business the companies prefer asophisticated system of work and when companies search for marketingconsultancy they prefer a consultancy with all in-house talent company ratherthan company that outsources due to the difficulty in trusting the third partyand also the additional mark- ups from third party suppliers are notappreciated. The relationship strategy of the company poses many risks asthe company can loose its power and the credibility of the company can alsobe questioned. The alliances formed can be fragile and ineffective in the longrun. It is thus integral to have a strategic human resource management thatprovides the company with an internal capacity to adjust to their competitiveenvironment and exploit the growth opportunities. (Barrett & Mayson, 2007).


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The following diagram explains the HR strategy that can be adopted.

MBI HR STRATEGY FRAMEWORK:

As shown in the diagram HR strategy is divided into stages to have a clear

understanding of the strategy and thus attain success.

FIRST STAGE: the first stage involves the client-based satisfaction, which

can be achieved through the right amount of members in the organization.

MBI should thus recruit more members in the company, as a team of five

members is not enough to provide impeccable services to the clients and also

it leads to loosing of major projects that could help MBI grow.

ACHIEVING THAT MBI HAS THE

REQUIRED PERSONNEL

OPTIMIZE MBI

COST

OPTIMIZE MBI

TALENT RETENTION

HR planning

in line with

MBI strategies

Develop

personnel

abilities and

knowledge

Develop

leadership &

teamwork

Manage and access HR personnel growth


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SECOND STAGE: The second stage underlines the importance of finance as

being a small scale the MBI works on a tight budget so the optimization of

talent and cost is necessary. To ensure that there is no wastage MBI should

adopt methods for talent retention such as providing an excellent working

environment and giving the employees an opportunity to grow. New levels of

productivity should be asked without providing methods so that the

creativeness of the employees can be channeled. (Billington et al, 2007)

THIRD STAGE: The third stage is the internal process of the company, which

includes the planning of HR in line with basic strategies of the company,

development of HR personnel and a strong leadership culture. A vigorous

program of education and training should be provided to the employees, as

employees should have complete knowledge about the social media and the

advanced technologies in the market. Often, small business claim that they

are too busy to train the employees and this is a very big mistake made by

companies. (Webster et al, 2007) The marketing team should be trained in all

facets of the marketing mix and be competent to work under tight budgets.

FOURTH STAGE: Lastly it is important to access the growth and

performance of the staff. The evaluation of the staff will help the company to

decide the rewards to be given to deserving employees and also ensure that

all the employees are dedicated to give their best in the organization for the

success and growth of the company.

Thus it is advised to adopt the above-explained HR strategy to grow in the

industry. The importance of training is explained above and though the

training may be time consuming and resource intensive it can reap benefits

for the company in the long run. (Beresford and Saunders cited in Webster et

al, 2007). Consequently a strategic management approach is advised to the

company rather than just in time approach followed by MBI so that the

performance of the company can be improved. (Jennings and Beaver 1997) Having mentioned that, it is vital that the MBI continues to have a flexible

approach as well so that the opportunities are grabbed without delay and the

company does not looses any of the advantages of being a small scale


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Documents

Market buzz