Introduction
An organization that wants to succeed in a competitive business environment needs a sound strategy. A strategy is a broad, long-term plan, conceived in order to achieve business objectives. Strategies are developed at three levels of the organization name, the corporate level, the business level and the functional level. Many operational decisions are framed in conformity with the objectives of the business, and with the functional objectives of the various departments of the organization. Operations strategies such as the preference of operating structure are influenced by the nature of the goods or services to be produced or offered and the markets intended to be served.
However, the organization should use Marketing as a focal point of revenue creation. When making marketing decisions, it is important to consider all aspects of the macro-environment to make sure that whatever the decision is made is sustainable not only to the business but also in the larger business environment. Marketing decision marking and sustainable development should thus be treated as two inseparable concepts since it is the decisions made that will determine the sustainability of the business. Marketing research is a mandatory tool to evaluate marketing dynamics and gather important information that can aid in decision-making.
Challenges of StubHub, Inc in the environment
The industry in which StubHub, Inc operates is believed to be very competitive. The existence of competitive companies like e-bay makes competition to be very high. Although the industry exercises an extremely high level of macroeconomic power in the nation, it is at the same time enormously receptive to public opinion. Targeting tickets of those customers who are not going to attend a game for one or two reasons are limiting the business of the organization.
StubHub, Inc’s marketing approach on the internet affects its sales strategy largely. Note that the advertising the companies adhere to focuses on social knowledge building. It entices the creation of a more definite approach in helping society know about the real worth of their products, which has a lengthened effect on their buyers’ minds than that of the appeal-based advertisements and popularity endorsements.
Ansoff Matrix
The Ansoff matrix makes available to us the strategies that StubHub, Inc has available to them in the future regarding their services and all of their service lines. We have to look at StubHub, Inc now at a Corporate Level, which is far superior to that of looking at things as an independent business unit. StubHub, Inc is a large business group however all of its businesses fall within one particular industry that may be termed as the online marketing Industry. Thus, we see with the number of resources available to StubHub, Inc both human and financial they can actually manage to follow all four strategies without having to make a tradeoff – thus in this regard, they can do so when the need arises and follow different strategies within different brands.
Taking into account generic strategies that are available there is no two ways about it StubHub; Inc is very much following a broad differentiation strategy. Looking at Porter’s matrix, we see:
Out of the generic strategies, that we see here in this matrix StubHub, Inc does have a broad market scope of advertising. These we see that they happen to follow a Broad Differentiation Strategy which unique service lines targeting different segments – at the functional level however their strategies might either converge on a brand to brand basis or diverge on a brand brad basis (Morgan, 179).
SAF Test
Winning Strategy
The best strategy for any firm or corporation is one in which they match their strategy with the nature of their market and their firm’s own competitive advantage. StubHub, Inc has many competitive advantages. Their primary competitive advantage in ticketing is providing markets for those not attending for one or two reasons.
A very effective strategy for expanding market influence would be that of the continuous campaign through online press releases handled by the organization that would be released to prospected buyers through the aid of cloud networking. This company shall be able to advertise to target consumers from all around the country at one time press release distribution. Regular enhancement of such procedure shall entail the company in becoming more popular in its campaign for promoting services for modern consumers hence increasing the possibility by which it releases its services to the market (Cateora and Graham, 239).
They also have a competitive advantage in terms of both brand equity and an excellent supply chain network. These strengths coupled with their profitability, growth allow them to follow a combination strategy, and thus they would best be advised to follow a broad differentiation strategy. Following such strategic changes and a broad differentiation with cost leadership, they will always keep winning!
Recommendations
The main implementation of StubHub, Inc is based on the interface on the web, specifically, because there is an establishment of consumer relationships that directly link to the organizational environment. This implementation came from the planning of how to get ticket holders onto the marketplace, as well as how to ensure that each of the products would build from a reputable company. The total quality management, which has been established by StubHub, Inc, comes from continuous planning, specifically in the resource maturity stage. There is a security and back-end system to ensure the delivery of products to consumers, all of which come from an automated system. This establishment has combined with the planning and implementation of new functions and applications, all of which are designed to change the way in which the planning works within the website. As the site has grown, are new plans for growth, specifically which have diversified the types of products offered and which have grown in system applications to ensure quality that is offered to customers (DeWitt and Brady, 199).
Conclusion
The ability of an organization to achieve success is not only dependent on developing services and getting a response from customers. For an organization to be sustainable within the market and to continue to grow with the prospects available there is the need to plan and have functions that are continuously moving forward in the internal environment. The planning, which is used for different organizations, is essential to the overall growth and functionality of those who are working within the company. Understanding how planning contributes and provides a basis for an organization can then assist in the development and sustainability within an organization.
Works Cited
Cateora, Philiph and Graham, John. International Marketing. Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2007.
DeWitt, Tom and Brady, Michael. “Rethinking Service Recovery strategies.” Journal of Service Research. 2003: 6, no. 3
Morgan, Gareth. Images of organization. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2007.
Porter, Michael. Competitive strategy: techniques for analyzing industries and competitors. New York: The Free Press, 1980.