Business strategies present a complex notion, including knowing the markets, understanding the demand and balancing it with the supply, and the profound ability to forecast management and actions’ patterns. Many factors can influence the decision-making process, such as the level of competitors’ impact and the long perspective of the connected partners’ development. Thus, the analytical view on all the aspects of a business strategy should be of great use and help for the involved parties.
The main character of the article “Amalgamated Playthings” under discussion is the manufacturer Bert Russel. He comes across the necessity to decide on the new toy product release in the Christmas period. The product is the Destructo Blaster Ray Gun, a prototype of the gun from the upcoming movie, named “Space Chase.” Besides this product, there are a lot of aspects, which should be taken care of.
First of all, it is the upcoming movie’s level of success and, thus, the resulting number of sold goods. According to the forecasted data, 30% of the movie is becoming a hit and about 20% of the movie flopping. Bert Russel’s prognosis is that a movie will be of medium success. In this case, the API company, a medium-sized toy producing manufacture, will manage to profit for the produced goods. It is also noteworthy that if the movie is not a success, the filming studio will return API the money spent for the prototypic blaster production license. This way, the company also gets a kind of compensation. The movie’s hit and medium status give API a chance to get the sell-outs of their Destructo Blaster Ray Gun, even if it is not an exact copy, but a slightly different from the movie model.
The second factor influencing the decision of Bert Russel is the analysis of the competitors’ strategies. Here, Widgets and Gadgets company, the main competitor for API in the toy producing industry, will release a similar product, which is, however, cheaper than API’s prototype. The chances are high that the only condition under which there will be no competition for the API company is if the movie is a flop and W&G company decides not to make a release of their product at all. In other cases – if the movie has a strong or medium response from the audience – the rival company is going to have a successful release. There are also some factors to keep in mind. First, W&G can have an early release before it comes clear what the movie’s box-office results are. In this case, the lower price of the company’s products is likely to decrease the number of API’s sold goods considerably. Second, W&G and API can wait until the movie release results are available, and if it is a success, API will lose again. In both ways, only if the movie is not a total flop, Bert Russel and his company will have to increase the investing budget for the blaster production and selling.
According to the sales department of API projections, the higher number of sold Destructo Blaster Ray Gun toys can be reached in case of no competition for the company and if the “Space Chase” is a total success. The worst results are reached if the movie is a flop, and W&G decides to enter the markets early, as their production is more favorable, due to a lower price. The average result for API, which can also be very good, is in case of no competition and the movie’s average popularity.
In other words, this is how Bert Russel can build a strategy for this particular case with toys. Anyway, the decision should be taken. Using the analyzed facts and factors, it is possible to suppose that Bert will make a planned release of the Destructo Blaster Ray Gun by Christmas. There are about 50% of the chance that the movie will gain at least an average level of success. Even if the rival W&G company also enters the markets, the number of forecasted sales will not be so low, increasing due to the Christmas time. It is also important to mention that Bert Russel knows the conservatism of the W&G head. It gives him an opportunity to suppose that his competitors will not enter the markets early, waiting for the box-office results for a movie.
In conclusion, it is possible to state that a manufacturer under discussion has to evaluate, count, and analyze all the aspects of business strategy to make the best decision for the products to be released. Analyzing the markets, the strategies of the competitors in detail and the demand for the movie can help Bert Russel in the discussed case to take into consideration all the shallow and risky aspects seeing the best-forecasted plan for the product release. This business pattern, however, can also work for various other industries and fields of development.