在经济全球化的今天,电子商务已经逐渐成为零售业务战略的一个组成部分,已成为一个强有力的激励机制来刺激商业的开发和增长。
信息和通信技术的发展从内至外的改变了业务组织关系,从自动贩卖机到零售行业都发生了这一变化,这些改变都满足了客户的需求,特别是业务中信息和通信系统的发展,增强了生产率,改善客户体验,而且增加了客户的忠诚度。
电子商务--E-commerce and e-business
虽然这两个词是可以交替使用的,但要深究的话,这两个词还是有一些不同的地方。电子商务基本上是客户在网上购买,商家销售商品,提供服务。这意味着电子商务不仅仅是单纯的买卖,电子商务更是终端的业务流程策略包括帐户和帐单,市场营销、人力资源、客户关系管理、采购和库存控制。电子商务是一个聪明的前锋,因为它横跨了整个价值链。
如果你有机会进入娱乐业,你会发现其实很难在这个行业生存下去,并且只是一个很不浪漫的行业。如今,诸如CD,DVD,电脑游戏,电子设备如MP3播放器、软件、书籍和其他娱乐产品都以通过“砖头加水泥”模式零售。
How Your Business Operates In The Industry Marketing Essay
In the new global economy, e-business and e-commerce have gradually become an integral part of retail business strategies and has become a strong incentive for any developing business growth.
The addition of information and communication system in business has changed business organizational relationships from internal and external vendor-suppliers through to customer fulfillment and particularly information and communication system in business has enhanced and enriched productivity reduced cost, improved customer experience and furthermore increased customer’s loyalty.
电子商务--E-commerce and e-business
Although these words are used interchangeably but they are distinctively different. E –commerce is basically the buying and selling of goods and services using online means whereas e-business is more than mere selling and buying, it incorporates the end-to-end business process strategies like the account and billing, marketing, human resources, customer relations management, procurement and inventory control. E –business is a smarter forward because spanned across all the value-chain.
The entertainment industry you are in, is one of the industry that will find it very difficult to survive if the business does not romance e-business, sales of music CD’s, DVD’s, PC games, electronic equipment such as MP3 players, software, books and other entertainment products have gone pass the “bricks and mortar” retail network you have at present. The Illegal downloads of music, people prefer to stay in front of the computer and get the music they want by clicks instead of going to the physical shops. The use of new technologies has made the industry more vulnerable.
The problem this company is experiencing for the past six months which has been highlighted as the direct result of competition from on-line suppliers is an evidence that doing a retail business at this present time is more difficult than it used to be, but with an effective e-business website which will integrate all part of the business will make a huge difference in gaining back the lost market share and establish the Mega Musik entrance into the global markets rather than just in Ireland and England respectively.
My research over the past few years on this subject matter have shown and proved that the present problems faced by entertainment industry such as Mega Musik is different from the ones they face 10years ago. To add value to your business, gain market share or probably be a cost leader in the industry you need to invest in Information and communication technology by developing a great looking and user- friendly website, invest in training the employees because they are the biggest asset of the company and more importantly the employees must be carried along by the management during the process of changing into a full fledge e-business company.
建议--Recommendation
As external consultant, I am hereby recommend to the board of this company “Mega Musik” to adopt the framework of Michael Porter’s five-force model of competition which is the widely and most used framework for business strategies development . For the business to have an edge over its rivals, the management needs to understand the industry better, the strength of your current competitors and how your business operates in the industry.
I will analyze these five competitive forces as follow“Supplier Power – In this phase you ascertain in what way difficult or not difficult it is for suppliers to dictate prices in the industry. This is usually caused by the number of suppliers of raw materials, the differentness of their product or service, their power and control over you, the “cost of switching from one to another” and so on. The less alternative suppliers you have, and the more you need supplier’s assistance, the more authoritarian your suppliers become.
Buyer Power – This phase is about the consumer power of the products or services and the strength they have over the business by “driving the prices down” and getting value for money. The less the number of buyers of the product the better for the buyers because they can spend little and get more, they can negotiate for better deal and also because there are more suppliers so they can switch to another supplier that has the best deal at little or no cost . But if there are many buyers and fewer suppliers the reverse is the case.
Competitive Rivalry – This phase depends on how your products and services stand-out among its competitors, if you have many rivals and they offer the same quality and good product or service, the power of the product is spread among all. If you offer a unique product and suppliers and buyers get exceptional quality or good price, then you are likely to have some power in the market or maybe you are the only producer of a certain product and service, then you will have the control of the market.
Threat of Substitution- This phase describes the power of your customers to find an alternative way of doing what you do in order to drive you out of business or probably reduce your market share. If this alternative product can do the same job and meet the required quality, then your strength in the market is affected.
Threat of new entry – This phase explains how the threat “of other people entering your market” can affect your power in the market. How hard or easy it is to enter the market in terms of cost, preparation, time and technologies. If there are legislations that make it really impossible or hard for anyone to get into the market, then very good for you, but if it a not regulated you can easily lose your position in the market fast. For example the Irish taxi industry in Ireland which has made it very easy for anyone to come into it has caused many people losing their jobs as taxi drivers, and their wages slashed tremendously.”
I would like to advice this board on the three Porter’s generic competitive strategies: The way forward or the ways of competing in the industry of any kind. Mega Musik can choose any one of these competitive strategies to compete with its competitors in the industry.
“Cost Leadership – First and foremost there can only be one cost leader in an industry, to be a cost leader, the company must have the lowest cost base in every task in the value chain. Considering the same product and the industry standard quality of any product, and the same market-price, the company would make the highest profit and can even afford to sell below market-price if there is need for it and still make profit. An example of a cost leader is Ryan air in the airline industry. Ryan air cost base is so low that they can even give free flights to their passengers and since they have been in business their profit has been growing every year.
This strategy will help in the event of competitive rivalry that exist in the music industry that Mega musik is operating because if you can get the cost of labour down, the cost of raw materials, facilities, suppliers down you would be able to sell at a relatively below the market-price and thereby gaining market share. So having an attractive and user friendly e-business website with being the cost leader in the industry, the company will regain its falling market share.
差异化--Differentiation
Another strategy is differentiation which is, making your products or services different from and more attractive than your competitors, you can achieve this by having a good customer relations management, good after-sale service, high quality products. Examples of differentiation strategy are BMW and TOYOTA. These companies only make one brand of car, and their customers are loyal because they get quality and durable car, and they always prefer to change to another BMW or TOYOTA whenever they want another car. This is a difficult strategy to achieve as larger companies that have more resources can spend more on research and development, innovation and new technologies.#p#分页标题#e#
关注焦点--Focus
The last one is in the area of focus strategy which requires focusing on a particular market, getting to know the requirements of the customers in that market, the behaviors in certain circumstance, needs of customers using the product. Focus strategy builds strong customer loyalty.”
“Value chain is a framework for identifying core competencies inside or outside the business. It can be used to identify the strengths and weaknesses, identify sources of competitive advantage and identify market opportunity. It is classified into primary and support activities.
主要活动--Primary activities
Inbound logistics – material handling, warehousing, inventory control, application of input, and so on.
Operation – Take input from inbound logistics and convert to final products. Examples are spraying, plowing, planting, harvesting.
Outbound logistics - Collecting, storing and physical distribution of final products.
Marketing and sales – Provide means through which customers can purchase products and t induce them to do so e.g. advertising, communication with buyers, developing customer relationship.
Service – activities designed to enhance or maintain a product’s value, e.g. timely delivery, ISO9000.etc
Supporting Activities
Procurement – Activities to purchase the input needed to produce products, negotiating with suppliers, standard timing of replenishing parts and tools etc.
Technological Development
Human resources - recruiting, hiring etc
Firm’s infrastructure – finance, management, legal support etc.”
Ron. E. Elliot. 2010, Strategic management, lecture note distributed in the topic: SWOT analysis and Value chain (BSHBISE 4) at National College of Ireland, Mayor Street, Dublin 1 for semester 2, 2010.
波特链的基本模型--Basic model for Porter’s chain
“The implications of e-business for new entrant to the market, can be a threat, and can come from the “incumbent rivals” and also new business trying to find their way into the industry. In an e-business industry where there is “free entry and exit”, the profit will be at “equilibrium” because the free flow of entry and exit will affect the profit of those business that are there, if more new entry into the industry the profit will drop, and if there are more exiting the profit will rise. So any industry that in doing well and making huge profit will attract other people to join the business for competition. Although industries try to keep the “high profit level” by blocking “new rivals” from entering the industry, this is called “barriers to entry”. For example if the “start-up cost” is high, some interested businesses may be discouraged, another barrier is through the government putting legislation in the industry in other to create a “monopoly”. For example it is only the government ministry that supplies water to every household in this country. Another barrier is when there is a patent right for an industry; some businesses will not be able to enter the industry.
Implication of substitute products can be a threat because when your product has got a substitute product, the market share will be spread across the products because some people than have no choice other than to use your product, have another product they can use that does the same work as your product thereby reducing your profit and demand for your product, “product’s price elasticity” occurs.”
The traditional “bricks and mortar” business still have a big advantage than those business that do not have, in the sense that some customer really prefers a face-to face method of buying, that is a real-world counterpart rather than just making their judgment based on what they found on the internet, another advantage is that in rural parts of most countries do not have access to broadband yet, so they still depend on the physical business, thirdly not everyone have access to computer or know how to use it, so there is still a big niche market there. Finally some business can only run “bricks and mortal” e.g. Burger king etc The e-commerce or online website you have can be use to generate more customers and revenue by having a link on your website with other products website which have a direct relationship with your product, for example music download, music artist and so on. Another way is to have the banners of some social networking sites like facebook, bebo, twitter and so on to target the teenagers. Subscribe for search engine optimization, advertise your business as pay per click(say 500,000 clicks in one day) to establish brand recognition in the business, and as your brand grows, other business will pay to advertise their products on your which will offset the overhead for your online search engine optimization.
结论--CONCLUSION
Whether e-business or not e business customers are always looking for quality products, and where they will get value for money, speedy information accessibility about a product they are looking for. Adopting e-business by any industry gives competitive advantage, reduce cost, and expand the business across the globe.
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