Beam Suntory
Marketing and Competitive Advantage Strategies
During the last several years, Beam Suntory made a number of steps to stabilize its position in the market and improve its marketing and competitive advantage strategies. The peculiar feature of this company is the provision of its employees with room to grow (Beam Suntory, n.d.a) and demonstrate their best skills that could impress customers and introduce high-quality products and brand names in the most attractive ways.
Strategic Intent and Architecture
The strategic intent, or the goal and intentions of the company (Mburu & Thuo, 2015), is to outperform its global spirits market. The achievement of this goal is possible with the strategic architecture in the form of a powerful platform for the creation of famous brands, the building of winning markets, and fueling the company’s growth (Beam Suntory, n.d.b).
Strategic Thrust and Weapons
The main thrust is to take the leading position in the market and make sure that employees and customers stay satisfied with the working conditions, services, and products offered. The main weapons that could be used are the skills of the employees of the company as the main source of inspiration. Employees are free to develop their knowledge, improve their skills, and evaluate the current situation of the company. Besides, it is important to understand what opportunities could be used to achieve the best results. These weapons play an important role in the life of the company.
Target Market
Consumers from different parts of the world are able to enjoy the company’s brands. All customers should reach the required age to get access to spirits, and the company follows this point being considered. Spirits should not be available to children and adolescents. Still, their parents are free to enjoy the products and their high quality, which is the center of the company. As a rule, the customers of Beam Suntory are men and women aged 20-45.
There are no clear distinctions between the genders or ethnicity of the company’s customers. If people could allow buying this production, they are welcome to buy it. The products of the company are available to all nationalities around the whole globe. The representatives of upper-middle and upper classes prefer to buy this production because, in many countries, the prices on these products are still too high in regards to the current economic situation and instability of currency.
Global Positioning
The policy of the company is to promote the respect of human rights, the safety of the workplace, and the protection of the environment in all areas Beam Suntory is located. It is not enough to be the best representative. It is important for the company to meet certain ethical, environmental, and cultural issues that could bother an ordinary customer.
Corporate Culture
Organizational culture is all about the encouragement of creative thinking of its employees and the promotion of innovative solutions that help to develop appropriate entrepreneurial skills and motivational factors. It is not enough to motivate employees and make them work. It is important for the company to encourage people and make them using their best skills to achieve good results.
Consumer Profiles and Preferences
Consumers want to be sure that the company takes care of the environment and offers credible and qualitative products. They respect the history of the company and underline the importance of traditions that could be traced to the far 1800s.
Strategic Vision and Aspirations
The vision and strategy of the company are underpinned by its winning competitive edge that includes people who work in the company day by day, develop its culture, and offer innovative solutions that promote the company’s success.
Branding: Importance, Awareness, Association, Loyalty, Perceived Quality
Beam Suntory pays much attention to its brands. Centuries were spent to make sure that product development could bring many benefits to the company. Whisky portfolio is the richest in the world, including such categories as American, Scotch, Japanese, Irish, and Canadian (Beam Suntory, n.d.c).
Value Chain
The ability to move up the value chain means the ability to stay competitive in the global economy regardless of all challenges and shortages that could be observed in the market. Globalization has already raised a number of crucial challenges, including technical achievements, trade liberalization, new opportunities that can be easily acceptable by huge corporations and become a real challenge for a number of small companies.
At the same time, it is hard to prevent if the company could be able to move the value chain regarding the current changes. Still, Beam Suntory is able to combine its possibilities with new opportunities, the needs of employees, and the expectations of the customers. For example, the company underlines the importance of human rights throughout the whole value chain, makes use of R&D activities to create new values, promotes customer satisfaction as a top priority.
Business Scope
The latest reports of the company show that net sales were increased by 4% and reached more than $2.5 billion. The company continues its development and demonstrates a strong growth for premium products and innovations. Its financial positions and cash flows have also been increased during the last years because the company found it crucial to promote its employees’ growth and development and to understand the needs of its consumers and the methods people could choose when they think about their options in the spirits industry. The latest results prove that the company is not going to stop and ready to demonstrate positive changes every year:
Core Competencies and Global Competition
To take a leading position in the global competition, Beam Suntory tries to focus on its core competency that is to make the best spirits in the whole world and meet the distribution needs in the chosen sphere of business. The company also understands that people want to stay connected with the activities of the company. Therefore, it tries to inspire human connections, organize the work of all departments in a clear way, and underline a creative mindset.
Informed Critique
The company has a chance to improve its target market and involve more people in its production. Due to the existing advertising, many young men aged 20-30 are eager to compare their lifestyles with the styles preferred by those who use Beam production. For example, Beam Suntory could improve its services and try to promote bourbon (that is frequently used in the USA) in European countries for women aged 25-30, who prefer an independent (free from men) style of life. Bourbon for European feminists seems to be a good idea that could be promoted by the representatives of Beam Suntory.
The business scope of the company introduces good results with a constant sale increase. It is hard to predict if some changes could be as effective as the routine activities that bring a certain income to the company and make it known and effective around the whole globe.
Core competencies of the company could be improved by providing the best spirits for people who deserve it and could allow drinking the best. People who appreciate the quality and uniqueness should pay more attention to the services and products of the company.
Finally, participation in the global competition and the choice of the competitive strategy that is focused on the improvement of employees’ skills and abilities are properly organized. Still, some changes are always acceptable for the company. For example, it is possible to promote training programs and competitions within the company to make employees think about the best approaches in their work and the achievement of the best results at the end.
Diageo
Marketing and Competitive Advantage Strategy
Diageo is a famous multinational company that focuses on the production and distribution of various alcoholic beverages with its center in London. In different regions, the spirits market has undergone considerable changes and improvements. Therefore, Diageo should introduce powerful and effective marketing and competitive advantage strategies to stay one of the leading companies worldwide. First, the company stays competitive due to its geographic reach and the possibilities to hire people across the globe. Second, its strategies are focused on the necessity to sell and produce its wine business as a new direction in its constant distribution of rum, vodka, and whiskey. Finally, there is a powerful strategy that promotes the celebration of life, today and tomorrow (Diageo, 2016) by means of doing business with respect to nature, understanding corporate governance, and considering environmental and safety issues.
Strategic Intent and Architecture
The main goal of the company is to innovate at scale. During the last several years, the company demonstrates good results in doubling its size, promoting luxury business, and making changes in different aspects of the work. The main reason why Diageo is confident in its powers and abilities is the fact that this company has already established a number of strong business units and earned the trust and respect of each consumer and stakeholder (Diageo, n.d.a).
Strategic Thrust and Weapons
The company wants to achieve two main goals that should change the way of how its employees should work and cooperate with consumers. First, Diageo wants to improve the quality of the services and products offered to its customers.
The world of luxury goods and drinks has been changing considerably, and the company should be ready to correspond with new expectations and requirements. At the same time, it is not enough for the company to improve its quality. It is necessary to provide people with the required portion of information about why such exclusive beverages have such prices. People have to learn more about the history of the drinks they choose in order not to be astonished by the prices. If the price is low, the product could be available to anyone so that it could lose its uniqueness and exclusiveness. Diageo could make this happening.
Target Market
Taking into consideration the goals and opportunities of the company, the target market is people aged 18-35, who turn out to be the representatives of the fast-growing middle, upper-middle, and upper classes. The company admits that it tries to stay focused on male consumers because its beverages are still appropriate for and interesting to men who live in Brazil, the US, the UK, and some African, European, and Asian countries.
Global Positioning
Diageo is a global leader with a number of opportunities for its employees and a number of options for its customers. It has already introduced its services in some European and African countries, India, Brazil, the UK, Mexico, and the US. The company does not demonstrate clear attitudes to expand its products worldwide but does concentrate on the necessity to improve the already gained positions and reputation. The main global position is to introduce a kind of positive role of alcohol in the society that could touch upon such issues as health, safety, human rights and freedoms, and diversity (Diageo, n.d.c) and promote stable positions of tequila in different regions of Mexico.
Corporate Culture
The corporate culture of the company is closely connected with the roles performed. At the moment, Diageo tries to be a responsible corporate citizen that is able to complete a number of functions, consider safety and protection, and explain the importance of diversity. Culture is a crucial aspect of any organization, and Diageo’s culture is presented in the work of the environment, the attitudes of different people, and the rules that should be followed by all stakeholders. Innovation and diversity remain to be two main aspects of the organizational culture.
Consumer Profiles and Preferences
People who appreciate the quality of drinks, and want to find exclusive beverages, are eager to choose Diageo among other representatives of the market. The preferences of consumers are not easy to predict. Still, it is clear that people want to use high-quality products. Besides, they want to have a variety of products to choose from. Diageo takes these possibilities into consideration and demonstrates its respect toward people and their references.
Strategic Vision and Aspirations
The vision of the company is to be the leader in the distribution of exclusive drinks and wines in the regions it is already located. Brand equity, passion, integrity, creativity, and respect are the main aspirations that make the company work hard and achieve good results.
Branding: Importance, Awareness, Association, Loyalty, Perceived Quality
Nowadays, the company has a 21 market structure that provides the possibility to look at all its brands through the lens of global giants and choices (Diageo, n.d.b). Brands of the company create a powerful platform that helps to promote the growth of a number of international spirits that have a premium quality, including Smirnoff, Captain Morgan, Baileys, Guinness, etc.
Value Chain
The value chain begins with suppliers, who present raw materials. Then, operations are considered in order to examine the impact of products and services offered. The next stage is the recognition of customers and their needs in order to choose appropriate retailers, stores, and restaurants. Finally, there are the consumers who take responsibility for products’ disposal.
Business Scope
The operational profit of the company in 2014 is about £3 million. Annually, the company produces about 6.5 billion liters of drinks in more than 30 countries. Each region has its own achievements and challenges that could be observed in the following table:
Core Competencies and Global Competition
To be a strong global competitor, Diageo focuses on such core competencies as strengthening its marketing and luxury brands, predicting what other companies could offer to consumers, and stable presence in the market. Still, all these competencies are not distinctive. Therefore, the company has to work hard on the identification of what should be achieved as a short-term goal.
Informed Critique
The company demonstrates the right direction in terms of demographic, geographic, and psychographic factors. For example, the number of consumers, who are now men aged 18-35 from different parts of the world, could be increased if the company re-evaluates its positions and attitudes to the female part of the population. Diageo has all chances to introduce its wine production for Asian women between 20 and 45 ages, who prefer actives styles of life.
The business scope of the company varies from country to country. The Asian results remain to be the lowest on the list. Therefore, Diageo should focus on the needs and interests of the Asian population and make sure to increase net sales in the next five years.
Core competencies of the company are properly identified. Still, not all of them are effective and provide a clear guide on what should be improved. They do not separate the company from the rest but focus on the quality of drinks. People should know more about the people who offer them Captain Morgan or Baileys to make fast decisions and be confident in the company.
The company has already introduced itself as a powerful beverage company in the world. Still, it does not pay much attention to its employees and their opportunities the way Beam Suntory does. Therefore, it is possible for Diageo to focus on its employees and their abilities to create an effective competitive strategy and prove its worth in the global competition.
References
Beam Suntory. (n.d.a). Career paths. Web.
Beam Suntory. (n.d.b). Leadership team. Web.
Beam Suntory. (n.d.c). Our brands. Web.
Diageo. (2016). Sustainability & Responsibility. Web.
Diageo. (n.d.a). About us. Web.
Diageo. (n.d.b). Our brands. Web.
Diageo. (n.d.c). Our sustainability & responsibility strategy. Web.
Diageo: Annual report 2014. (2014). Web.
Mburu, S.N. & Thuo, J.K. (2015). Understanding the concept of strategic intent. International Refereed Journal of Engineering and Science, 4(6), 57-60.
Suntory holdings limited. (2015). Web.