Page 75 - Marketing Management

52 PART 1 UNDERSTANDING MARKETING MANAGEMENT

marketing
Memo Checklist for Performing Strengths/Weaknesses Analysis

Performance Importance

Major Minor Minor Major
Strength Strength Neutral Weakness Weakness High Med. Low
Marketing
1. Company reputation _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
2. Market share _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
3. Customer satisfaction _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
4. Customer retention _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
5. Product quality _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
6. Service quality _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
7. Pricing effectiveness _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
8. Distribution effectiveness _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
9. Promotion effectiveness _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
10. Sales force effectiveness _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
11. Innovation effectiveness _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
12. Geographical coverage _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
Finance
13. Cost or availability of capital _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
14. Cash flow _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
15. Financial stability _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____

Manufacturing
16. Facilities _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
17. Economies of scale _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
18. Capacity _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
19. Able, dedicated workforce _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
20. Ability to produce on time _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
21. Technical manufacturing skill _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
Organization
22. Visionary, capable leadership _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
23. Dedicated employees _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
24. Entrepreneurial orientation _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
25. Flexible or responsive _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____

Companies need to give creative thought to finding partners that might complement
their strengths and offset their weaknesses. Well-managed alliances allow companies to obtain a
greater sales impact at lower cost. To keep their strategic alliances thriving, corporations have begun
to develop organizational structures to support them, and many have come to view the ability to
form and manage partnerships as core skills called partner relationship management (PRM). 36
Both pharmaceutical and biotech companies are starting to make partnership a core competency.
37
It’s estimated that nearly 700 such partnerships were formed in 2007 alone. After years of growth
through acquisition and buying interests in two dozen companies, the world’s biggest wireless telecom
operator,Vodafone, has looked outside the company for partners to help it leverage its existing assets. 38

Vodafone To spur more innovation and growth, Vodafone has embraced open
source software and open platforms that allow it to tap into the creativity and skills of oth-
ers. With its Web portal called Betavine, amateur or professional software developers can
create and test their latest mobile applications on any network, not just Vodafone’s. While