MARKETING MANAGEMENT

Marketing Management

Marketing Management

Introduction

IBM operates in more than 150 countries worldwide and derives more than half of its revenues from sales outside the United States. IBM has adopted an international strategy with respect to how it plans to compete and operate globally. By adopting an international strategy IBM looks to create value on a global basis by transferring valuable skill and products to foreign markets where local competitors lack those skills and products. Although much of IBM's revenues come from overseas sales, they tend centralize the majority of the decision-making and other company functions right her in the United States. This means that they first develop marketing and product decisions in the United States and then transfer what they have done in the United States to other countries. IBM operates primarily in a single industry using several segments that create a value by offering a variety of solutions that include, either singularly or in some combination(www.ibm.com), technologies, systems, products, services, software and financing. This may lead you to believe that IBM has adopted a corporate level strategy of concentrating on a single business unit, but this is only half the picture. For IBM there is not one general type of corporate strategy that best suits their needs, but a combination of both a concentration on a single business strategy as well as a vertical integration strategy.

Information in marketing strategy

The world is changing - in every way we are impacted by environmental, economic and social drivers of change. With more information, more technology, more analytical power we're challenged to achieve more than ever before...faster than ever before. To get it done, we need to transform the way we do things(Calantone Kim Schmidt Shin 2002 121-129): eliminate the blind spots, act with speed and agility, and empower all levels of the organization to make fact-based, real-time decisions. It's about leading with your information assets. At IBM they call it an information-led transformation.

Overall marketing strategy

A single business unit strategy means that IBM is concentrating on competing successfully within the confines of a single business unit. An advantage of choosing such a strategy is that the IBM can focus its total and collective resources to dominating and becoming successful in this business area. If IBM were to attempt to pursue some other strategy such as diversification, they might spread their resources out too thin, thus inhibiting them from taking advantage of some other opportunities that may come about due to a lack of available resources. Another advantage to pursuing a single business unit strategy is that IBM is remaining within an area with which it has a great deal of competence and experience. This decreases the likelihood of IBM partaking in a venture that may be unsuccessful and it keeps IBM in an area where their existing capabilities and resources can contribute and add value. (Blyth 1990 pg. 14-21)

But concentrating on just one business area may not be enough and so as previously stated, IBM has also adopted a corporate level strategy ...