Period 2

We rank 4th this period. From the newsletters and market research studies it became evident that our competitors are investing huge portions of their budget on R&D. Specifically, last period’s winner (Team I) is spending a huge amount of money on R&D and is doing really well. The competition is getting fierce. We cannot afford to delay our R&D decisions and must modify our products as soon as possible in order to keep up with the frantic pace.

As for our current products, it’s exciting to know that our production department is getting more efficient — they produced significantly more than we requested, and the good news is we sold out everything. Increased marketing efforts were definitely helpful in boosting our sales. Our profits grew by $10 million this period.

To everyone’s surprise, Team A launched a new product (SASS) this period and it entirely captured the Buffs market. In such a competitive environment, we believe the best strategy to pursue is differentiation from our competitors. Our Board of Directors have agreed to launch a new product (SOBO) which will be very similar to SASS but with a significantly lower price; the aim for SOBO will be to capture lost share in the Buffs market. Together, coupled with more aggressive advertising expenditure, we are hiring more salespeople to help promote and sell this brand new product. In addition, the added sales force should help to increase sales for our existing SOLD and SONO products to their respective target markets.


We know that we will have to continue to strategize with the future in mind in order to succeed. We are ordering a feasibility study on our PSONY project which is going to be a brand new product targeted towards Singles in the long run. Next period, we will use the finished R&D project, PSOLI, to modify SOLD and better target it to the Others market. We are also altering the MDS dimensions of our current products to help better target them towards their respective target markets. In the long run, we are planning to enter the Vodite market to gain possible first-mover advantage; in anticipation of entering this new market we are ordering some Vodite market research studies.

Period 1

We rank last this period amongst industry competitors. Not the start we were hoping for but the good news is there is only one direction we can go from here. Both products have showed moderate growth in sales but comparably lower than what the other companies are currently selling. One reason is that a competitor of ours, Team E, is undercutting us on price for both products. The other reason is that we have not allocated enough advertising budget to create brand awareness in the market.

Obviously, our goal next period is to capture more market share. We will adopt a price-penetration strategy – we will decrease the price for SOLD and SONO to $199 and $499 with the aim of undercutting all our competitors so as to capture market share in the early stage. We are also hiring more salespeople to assist in the expected growth in sales. Further, we are happy to see that the results for our feasibility study have been released: we are going to invest budget into our first R&D project, PSOLI, which will be used to modify SOLD in period 3.




This period’s decisions feel inline with our overall growth strategy. It certainly feels as though we are aligning our strategy to start heading in the right direction — up!...the stock index chart that is!

Period 0

We have developed two Sonite products for launch next period: SOLD and SONO.

• SOLD is a lower end product, priced at $219; and
  
• SONO is a higher end product, priced at $549.

Welcome!

Welcome all fellow bloggers, this is the blog for Company O in the Bart Industry. Here you will be able to find current updates within our company, and understand our strategy to maintain a strong stock price within the industry.

From our previous knowledge of the industry in the MarkStrat world, we are approaching this business venture with the following overall strategy:

- conservative production levels
- competitive sales force size (firing costs are extremely high)
- products targeted towards niche markets
- undercut fellow competitors with regards to price
- eventually enter into Vodite market

We can anticipate that throughout the next couple of years, our strategies will need to evolve in reaction to rising competition. Ultimately, our goal is to retain a high stock price and capture a majority of market share in both Sonite and Vodite markets. Have faith in us - we will not disappoint you.

Keep you posted,