Step 2- Secure Payment Guarantee
Full Question
MK812: B2B and Key Account Management
Prepare a report with a word limit1 of 3,000 words maximum.
Angus Lift Truck is in the business of selling, hiring (letting), and servicing forklifts as well as training the users for their customers. The company operates two branches, one in Leicestershire and one in Nottinghamshire, thus having coverage of the central and norther parts of England. The company’s management is bold and ambitious and given their very successful course over the past 10 years they now seek further growth and expansion (in terms of both the customers they serve and their coverage of the market geographically).
The company’s Managing Director has asked you to consult them on a number of questions,namely: (1) What is the best strategy to increase their market share by 20% over the next five years? (2) What actions does the company need to take to achieve this objective? (3) What obstacles may stand between the company and the achievement of this objective? To answer these questions, you need a thorough understanding of the company’s sector (e.g., approximate number of competitors, growth rates, competitive intensity and concentration level), the company and the company’s customers. For this purpose, you need to rely on secondary (‘market’) data that you will collect from online resources so you can understand: (a) What are the key sectors that can potentially use the services Angus Lift Truck (ALT) offers?
In other words, who would be interested to ‘buy’ what ALT is offering? (b) Within each of these sectors that you will identify, what are the key (largest) customers (no more than five customersfor each sector)? What is the scope of operations for those customers you have identified as ‘key’? What are the criteria that these ‘key customers’ most likely employ in selecting their supplier? (c) Compared to the competition, how does ALT fulfil the purchasing criteria of these key customers? In other words, what are the competitive strengths and weakness of ALT? (d) Finally, what are the mega-trends coming from the broader environment (e.g., BREXIT, the pandemic etc.) that may impact on ALT’s ability to achieve the objective for 20% growth overthe next five years?
Having collected the above information, prepare a report for ALT’s Managing Director (MD). Your report will rely on the market data you have collected; you may also use (but not
necessarily) references to academic work (e.g., papers, textbooks etc.) when, for instance, you believe this will strengthen your arguments to the MD. Your report should cover the following sections, around which the report should be structured:
Analysis of the greater macro- and micro- environment for ALT.
- Key customers the company will need to target before achieving the growth objectives for the next five years: Who are they? What are their (probable) purchasing criteria? What are the strengths and the weaknesses ALT has over its main competitors?
- Explain the segmentation-targeting-positioning (STP) that will best serve ALT growth objectives, given your answers to points 1. and 2. Above.
- Given the STP you recommend, describe the implication for ALT in terms of product/service/servitisation management and development.
- Discuss if a Relationship Marketing approach is/is not what a company should consider;
either way, justify in full your recommendation.
Guidelines
In producing your assignment, choose the concepts and ideas introduced during the lectures, covered by the core textbook, supplementary textbook and further readings and apply those
to your report (direct referencing is not required unless you need it to support your arguments to the MD). By ‘concepts’ and ‘ideas’, I mean any general and abstract idea, framework or research method introduced during the lectures, covered in the core textbook, and supported by further reading (i.e., academic articles). For example: market segmentation, customer experience, voice of the customer, Customer Portfolio Analysis, Key Account Management etc. Make sure that you use a broad approach in your report; be creative! Your report should be structured according to the order of the questions (1-5). Please indicate clearly when you start answering the next question by organising the report into sections each with headings.
Please note, students must check plagiarism in advance of the submission of their assignment.
