Strategic Case Analysis
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Promotion: What marketing campaigns does the
company use to reach its customers? How effective
are these campaigns? Can the Internet be used more
effectively to improve these campaigns? If the
company wants to promote its products on the Internet
through advertisements, should the company focus on
building brand equity by placing CPM (cost per
thousand impressions) ads, should the company go for
more tactical CPC (cost per click) ads, or should the
company use both?
Framework #6 --- Five C's
This is an elementary framework which can drive any
strategic analysis. The five C's stand for Company,
Customers, Competition, Costs, and Channels. Subsets of the
5 C’s are also quite popular. Usually, the 3 C’s stand for
Customers, Cost, and Competition; and if you exclude
Channels from the 5 C’s, you get the 4 C’s.
A set of good questions is provided below for each of the five
C’s. If one thinks through the answers for the questions raised
under each term, one can analyze a Company's business
problems step by step as a means to proposing solutions
which will improve the Company's business:
•
Company: What is the company size, i.e., is the
company mid-sized (less than $500 M in revenue) or
larger? Is it public or private? What are its products /
product lines / services? What are its sustainable
competitive advantages / core competencies? Who are
its key executives? Who are its board members?
•
Customers: Are they consumers or businesses? What
are their current / emerging problems / needs? Does
the company listen to its customers and solve their
problems? What is the bargaining power of these
customers? Will they switch to the competition, if the
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