Marketing Factors Influencing Strategic Alliance

Marketing Factors Influencing Strategic Alliance

Description
Perform the following in your analysis (at a minimum):
1. Provide the brief background information of (a) the industry where the alliance operates and (b) the partner
firms.

2. Research the marketing channel of one of the alliance partners. Describe the current state of the company’s
marketing channel—its structure, members, allocation of channel functions and flows, ability to meet target
customers’ demand for service outputs, channel design, and channel conflicts. Evaluate the efficiency and
effectiveness of the company’s supply chain management. Make recommendations on how to improve the
company’s marketing channel strategy.

3. Evaluate whether the alliance is doing well or not. Your evaluation could be based on information from many
sources. For example, a company’s website may report that its managers are satisfied or disappointed with a
marketing alliance. Another example could be that a magazine or a website points out that a marketing alliance
is a success or failure. Or, you found from comments on social media that the consumers of the alliance are
satisfied or dissatisfied with the value they receive. Further, you may be able to identify financial performance
information of the alliance or both partner firms (you need to think carefully about how to link the financial
performance change of partners to the alliance performance). These are a few examples that could help you

justify your evaluation of the alliance performance. Next, provide the alliance mission (it could be the alliance’

current mission if the alliance has one, or the mission that the team believes that the alliance should have if the
alliance does not have a mission, or the revised mission if the team decides to revise the alliance’ current
mission).

4. Analyze the factors of the partner firms and/or the alliance that positively or negatively influence the
performance of the marketing alliance. In particular, you should focus on the analysis of marketing factors
(e.g., company strengths and weaknesses, customers, key account management, competitors, products, pricing,
promotion, distribution, and a variety of environmental factors) that you feel are important in explaining the
performance of the alliance. State clearly whether each factor is a positive or negative influence on alliance
performance.

5. Research and report the advantages (benefits) or disadvantages that this alliance brings to each partner firm.
Provide quantitative evidence of the advantages or disadvantages if possible (such as changes in sales, profits,
market share, costs, number of new products, number of patents, or customer satisfaction score).

6. For each of the partner firms, perform marketing forecasts to determine the quantifiable and realistic
marketing objectives in the next five to 10 years that the partner firm can expect to achieve through this
alliance. The marketing objectives could be sales, profits, or market-share goals. Feel free to include additional
marketing objectives if you think they are appropriate for the partners. You do not need to cover all the
previously mentioned objectives if no data are available. Formulate marketing strategies for each of the partner
firms that would enable them to gain more benefits from the alliance. Apply digital marketing techniques
(online, social media, and mobile) along with traditional methods. Clearly outline your assumptions and thought proces