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Introduction

An excellent strategy for how a company will achieve its revenues is a critical condition for market success. In the program students learn a methodology for developing a market oriented business strategy. A good business strategy is about developing attractive value propositions to main segments, and communicating and delivering these propositions so that customers have positive experiences and remain customers.

An overall business strategy is about developing a consistent plan for three main management areas. First, companies need an overall customer strategy for how the company will acquire, develop and keep their customer portfolio. Next, the company needs an overall strategy for developing an attractive, competitive and profitable portfolio of products. Third, the company needs an overall strategy for their brand(s) with a clear promise that strengthens the customer relationships and their product portfolio attractiveness.  As these areas are closely interdependent, the business strategy plan needs to address how these areas will be coordinated and managed.

There are five stages in the development of a business strategy:

  • Situation analysis and the overall strategic problems to be solved.
  • Defining strategic goals.
  • Developing the strategic initiatives.
  • Allocating resources.
  • Measurement and control.

Course content

Strategy and planning

  • Document
  • Process
  • Strategy and sustainability

Analysis

  • Methods for markets insight
  • Cause and effect (Causality)
  • Multivariate analyses (correlations, factor analysis, t-test, ANOVA og regresssion analysis)
  • Conceptual understanding of cluster analysis and conjoint analysis
  • Areas of application
    • Buying process
    • Customer satisfaction and loyalty
    • Customer portfolio
    • Segmentation
    • Product portfolio
    • Market and competition
    • Effectiveness in marketing

Customer strategy

  • Customer centricity
  • Customer lifetime value (CLV)
  • Customer satisfaction
  • Segmentation
  • CRM
  • Loyalty programs and customer service

Product strategy

  • Growth and profitability
  • Distribution
  • Pricing
  • Product development

Brand and advertising

  • Brand strength
  • Growth strategies
  • Brand Communication

Disclaimer

This is an excerpt from the complete course description for the course. If you are an active student at BI, you can find the complete course descriptions with information on eg. learning goals, learning process, curriculum and exam at portal.bi.no. We reserve the right to make changes to this description.