Marketing for Journal of Production Economics- myassignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theMarketing for Journal of Production Economics. Answer: Value chain analysis is the process by which a firm identifies its vital activities and support that add value to the final product. These activities are then analyzed and a conclusion made on how they can be used to reduce the production cost or increase differentiation of the firms products. It is a representation of the process that a firm undertakes in the process of transforming inputs to outputs(Cruz-Mejia, 2014). The primary aim of value chain analysis is to identify the most valuable activities of the firm to determine the one that can be improved to provide competitive advantages for the company. Overall, if a companys competitive advantage lies in differentiation, it will then try to develop strategies for undertaking its activities better than their rivals(Agustina, 2014). If it competes by cost advantage, it will struggle to carry out its activities at a cost lower than that of its competitors. Asa scarf is a product produced in France that is required to be introduced into the Australian and Chinese market. The targeted customers are high end, who want high-quality products regardless of their cost. Now that the buyers have nothing to do with the price but quality, the competitive advantage of the scarf producing firm lie in differentiation. Care has to be taken to ensure that the produced products are of the high quality(Ener, 2015). Currently, the main source of competitive advantage is innovativeness and technological improvement and therefore need for value chain analysis. In order achieve competitive advantage through differentiation, the firm ought to identify the customer value creating activities, determine the differentiation strategies for improving customer value and later identify the best sustainable differentiation. Product consolidation Product consolidation refers to the processes in which companies or firms merge or consolidate to act as a single big entity with the aim of acquiring competitive advantage as well as having a potential control over the product prices. Firms come together either through buyout emergence. This move helps to scrape off the small business that is not performing in the market. Consolidation reduces competition and thus merged firms have the capacity of controlling the product prices however they wish(Darmawan, 2016). The same strategy can be applied in Asa scarf. The product is entering a new market where there exists other firm dealing with the same products at apparently the same prices and quality. The best strategy to counter this problem is through consolidation where the scarf producing firm will remain the only operating firm. If the company needs to command a substantial position in the market it intends to enter, then absolutely consolidation is the choice(Gereffi, 2016). If the other supplying firms are scrapped off from the market, the firm will start enjoying monopoly advantages and will, therefore, be in a position to sell its product at the price it wishes without the threat of competitors offering the same product at a lower cost(Mudambi, 2015). A fact that has to be appreciated is that penetrating into a foreign market will not be comfortable with already established brands dealing with the same products. Therefore wise enough, the Asa scarf producing firm would better strategize on how to achieve consolidation so as to penetrate the intended markets with ease. References Agustina, D. (2014). Vehicle scheduling and routing at a cross-docking center for food supply chains. International Journal of Production Economics, 2 (7), 87-90. Cruz-Mejia, O. (2014). Lead time performance in an internet product delivery supply chain with automatic consolidation. Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Humanized Computing, 4 (7), 76-87. Darmawan, M. (2016). Value chain analysis for green productivity improvement in the natural rubber supply chain: a case study. Journal of Cleaner Production, 3 (7), 54-76. Ener, S. (2015). Consolidation of cobalt nanorods. A new route for rare-earth-free nanostructured permanent magnets, 3 (8), 32-44. Gereffi, G. (2016). Global value chain analysis. The Duke University, Center on Globalization, Governance Competitiveness, 3 (7), 74-89. Mudambi, R. (2015). A global value chain analysis of the regional strategyperspective. Journal of Management Studies, 3 (6), 56-67.