Examples Of Why Alphabet Games Must Consider Forces For Change When Managing Its Business Strategy

Differentiation strategy is generally reserved for companies with a clear competitive advantage. Companies such as Mercedes and Apple employ this strategy. Differentiation strategy is demonstrated when a company provides value to customers through unique unique features and characteristics of a company's products rather than by the lowest price (Open Learning World 2010).

To complete outcome 1 of the Business, Culture and Strategy I have to answer 3 questions based out the case study Alphabet Games. The 1st question asks me to describe how 4 forces of change may impact upon Alphabet Games and in doing so I must use a recognised analytical framework. The 2nd question asks me to carry out a SWOT analysis to illustrate and analyse the relationship the Alphabet Games has with its external environment. The last question asks me to provide a guideline for the senior managers of Alphabet Games to follow that would enable them to carry out an effective SWOT analysis.

(Aetna Inc., 2014, p.1) The statement best represents a differentiated strategy as clearly stated in the statement. Differentiation strategy is a strategy that focuses on value added ideas and being customer focused. They want to compete for years to come and in the health care market industry being competitive and making a profit is being able to provide to your customers superior products that they are willing to pay more for and usually cannot find anywhere

“Competition is not only the basis of protection to the consumer, but is the incentive to progress” – Herbert Hoover. The environments that today’s firms operate in are not static. The competitive environment they are operating in is constantly changing due to the entry or exit of competitors, changing technology and the demands of consumers. In order to maintain their market share and profitability, firms must continually assess and evaluate their competitive environment. Evaluating the various market forces firms’ face, and their effect on the competitive market ensures that an organization retains a proactive stance to the competitive environment. Instead of just accepting the status quo, organizations that actively examine and analyze their environment can then make choices and develop strategies that take advantage of the competitive situation or affect it to the firm’s benefit. This proactive stance to the market allows organizations to create value and position themselves for long term success. Firms that do not remain proactive and continually scan the competitive environment run the risk of being blindsided by innovation in the environment or significant changes undertaken by the competition.

An essential component of leadership is to articulate and exemplify the organization's core values. These values must be clear, compelling, and repeated. The leader must both "walk the talk" and inspire his/her colleagues within the organization to also live these values. Values are at the core of individual, group or organizational identity. Values are relatively enduring conceptions or judgments about what is considered to be important to an organization. Agreement between personal and organizational values result in shared values which constitute the benchmarking of a successful business practice.

In differentiation strategies, the emphasis is on creating value through sustainable uniqueness. This can be achieved through product innovations, superior quality, or superior service, which is then sustained and leveraged through creative advertising; brand-building and strong supply chain relationships. Another requirement for a successful differentiation strategy is that customers must be willing to pay more for the uniqueness of a product or service than the firm paid to create it. A differentiation strategy will lead to higher firm performance only if buyers value the attributes that make a product or service unique enough to pay a higher price for it or if they choose to buy from that firm preferentially. If

Porter's focus strategy is a mix of both the differentiation and the cost leadership strategies i.e. difference or cost leadership within a small target market segment. For instance: a company should be able to differentiate its products based on a particular target market segment because if the differences in products does not appeal to consumers in that target market as opposed to consumers in broad market, there would be no basis for differentiation and competitive advantage will not have been achieved.

Similarly, both companies had a product differentiation strategy, with the aim of being distinctly set apart from their competitors by the viewing market. However, different elements of this strategy were focused on by the firms. For instance,

In 2008, prior to the EA-Origin, one of EA Online’s first strategic steps in their direct to consumer initiative was the acquisition of Rupture for 15M USD. (Schonfeld 2008 - Techcrunch) EA hoped that Rupture was going to lead the charge in building a EA gamer community that is be the first step in selling EA games directly to consumer. It is important to understand the history here to further analyze influences in marketing objective setting within this organization. To set the stage, Rupture’s offering was purely that of new social technology. Their technology platform allowed gamers to see what their friends

Alphabet Games small company based in Scotland which develops software and games. The business was formed in 2001 by three companions with a passion to develop games and software which has resulted in it becoming a multi-million pound business. The aim of this case study is to identify four forces which may affect Alphabet Games using a recognised analytical framework. A SWOT analysis is to be carried out in order to analyse and illustrate the relationship Alphabet Games has with the external environment. A set of guidelines for carrying out a SWOT analysis is to be prepared to enable the senior managers at Alphabet games to carry out an effective SWOT analysis.

 In general, manager’s look at competition has been too narrow. There is a broad set of competitors that need to be looked at, which are described in “The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy” by Michael E. Porter. The model explains that there are several other forces in the competition for profits that the strategist should be aware of when forming a stagey. Those forces determine the profitability of the industry and are the most important to look at when you are forming a strategy. These five forces are are the “industry structure” model which contain: New Entrants, Suppliers, Buyers, Substitutes, and Existing Competitors.

Alphabet games need to supply customers with a quality product and service is the primary culture value. The case study shows that more than good looks are needed to make great video games, this shows that quality is very important and strive to stay ahead by investing in developments to advance their products. An example of this is also shown again in the case study; As video games have become more life-like, the company has pursued the concept that the games world may also react in a realistic manner. The work hard play hard culture will have a positive effect on the management approach at alphabet games. The case study shows that the need to align to the principals and ethos at Alphabet games has been a primary concern when requiting, but the underlying need for passion and quality has always been a minimum requirement in staff. This type of culture is characterised by high levels of activity, employees are motivated by the lower risk decisions and fast feedback on their performance.

Another generic competitive strategy is broad differentiation strategies. According to Thompson, Strickland, and Gamble, in “Crafting and Executing Strategy”, broad differentiation strategy is seeking to differentiate the company’s product offering from rivals in ways that will appear to a brad spectrum of buyers. A company attempting to succeed through differentiation must study buyers’ needs and behavior carefully to learn what buyers consider important, what they think has value, and what they are willing to pay for. Then the company has to incorporate buyer-desired attributes into its product or service offering

A company 's values are the beliefs, traits, and behavioral norms that company personnel are expected to display in conducting the company 's business and pursuing its strategic vision and strategy.

This strategy is usually associated with charging a premium price for the product - often to reflect the higher production costs and extra value-added features provided for the consumer. Differentiation is about charging a premium price that more than covers the additional production costs, and about giving customers clear reasons to prefer the product over other, less differentiated products.