STRATEGIC MARKETING ASSIGNMENT 2

Strategic Marketing Assignment 2

Summary of the Case2

Dyson: Company Overview2

Dyson's Global Competitive Advantage3

Porter's Generic Strategies4

Porter's five forces and Industry Structure4

Implementing Global Competitive Advantage6

Long Term Sustainability of Dyson's Competitive Advantage: A Critical Evaluation6

Recommendations for Dyson8

SWOT Analysis9

TOWS Analysis10

Introduction to Automobile Market of UK11

Competing Approaches and Strategic Marketing Decisions12

Environment Based Strategy12

Market Leader in Quality12

Cost Leadership Strategy13

Premium Positioning13

Investing in R&D13

Effects of Approaches on Strategic Marketing Decisions14

References16

Strategic Marketing Assignment 2

Section A-Question 1 (a): Critically evaluate the long term sustainability of Dyson's global competitive advantage in view of the changing situation in the case study

Summary of the Case

The case is about a British company, Dyson which was established by James Dyson in 1993. Dyson Ltd manufactures vacuum cleaners, heaters and handheld fans etc. it took James Dyson many years of continuous hard work to arrive on a special vacuum cleaner. The management style of the company is highly affected by the style and character of James Dyson. Dyson concentrates highly on design-led marketing and encourages innovation and engineering.

The company puts a strong emphasis on research and development. Although, the products are priced higher, the customers are willing to pay the premium due to the superior quality and craftsmanship of the products. The low-cost Chinese and Korean companies are competing Dyson on price base. As a reaction, the company moved its production facility from UK to Malaysia to save 25% on production cost to compete with the suppliers., despite the fact that the company has never wanted to separate production from research and development, which is located in UK. The move cost 600 job losses and a drop in UK sales. Recently the United States has become the major market for Dyson, far exceeding the current UK sales.

Dyson: Company Overview

Dyson Ltd is a technology company, headquartered in Britain. The company was founded in 1993 by Sir James Dyson. The company specializes in design and manufacturing of vacuum cleaners, bladeless fans, hand dryers and heaters. Dyson sells its products in more than 50 countries around the world. It employs more than 3,000 employees worldwide. The company labels itself and feels proud in engineering better and improved products for the people of the world. James Dyson created 5,127 prototypes for his first vacuum cleaner, before the perfect one, the DC01 worked (Bloomberg, 2013). Dyson vacuum cleaner is considered one of the best British inventions by one of the best British inventors and it is impossible to separate them (WPS, pp. 1).

Dyson's Global Competitive Advantage

James Dyson created the high suction vacuum cleaner. This was the beginning of Dyson's strong competitive advantage. Dyson incorporated product development strategy, as he invented a new product for the existing market. Every inventor has the chance to capitalize on his/her invention and Dyson did so. With hard work and creativity, Dyson managed to penetrate and sustain its position in UK through product development strategy.

As competitive advantage is a hard to define term. It is highly desirable and very difficult to ...