Advanced Analysis And Evaluation Of EBusiness Strategies For Slices In The UAE Market

1. Present an advanced, integrated analysis and evaluation of eBusiness strategies.

2. Apply knowledge of key concepts and theories in eBusiness Strategies to real life examples and case studies.

Evaluation of Current Strategies

The purpose of the report is to define the suggestions for the new e-business strategies modifications that company would benefit from. The assignment is created on the part 1 which was based on a case study that is "Slices: what is next?”.  The initial part of the report consist evaluation of strategies that the company is implementing in their business. This report will include the implementation process of the social media marketing strategy of the company. In the end, there some of the recommendations are given to the company to improve the social media marketing.

The overview of the company is talk over in the assessment first with the support of the PESTLE framework and Porter’s Five Forces analysis (Lee and Carter, 2011). Moreover, the previous assessment includes the core capabilities of the Slices. PESTLE analysis is the framework that is used by the company to analyze the external factors that can influence the functioning of Slices. Moreover, another tool that has been used by the company is Porter’s five forces that help the company to analyze the competitiveness in the market (Kotler, 2015). Below given is the assessment of the current strategies that are discussed: -

PESTLE Analysis

The PESTLE analysis defines the current strategy of the company that helps the company to conduct the business operations in the market of UAE. Slices major priority is healthy and organic food due to which they maintain the standards in food considering the changes in the needs of customers. Moreover, the company is putting efforts to maintain a good relationship with foreign markets and regulations. On the other hand, the economic crises of UAE create an impact on the prices of the food (Jelassi, Enders, and Martínez-López, FJ, 2014). The economic crises reduce the prices and lead to the competition. Along with this, the implementation of the minimum wage has reduced the purchasing power. This reflects that the economy of UAE affects the profit of the company.

This is the fact that there is a change in preference and culture of countries across the world. Every company tries to meet up the demands of the customers in the operating countries. Similarly, Slices strategy is to fulfill the demand and preference of the younger to elder generation in UAE. In UAE, technology development matters a lot for customer engagement and promotion. Therefore, Slices Company needs to update their technology as the company is lacking behind in technological development. The company knows its legal obligations towards the people and society (Jelassi, Enders, and Martínez-López, FJ, 2014). This is the reason company donate their unsold food to the charity. This is the effective way to which the company is contributing to enhance the reputation of the company. Slices purchase the organic products from the local suppliers but the changes in the season might affect the company’s strategies. Global warming might affect strategies of the company.

New Strategies for Slices

Porter’s Five Forces

The company has distinctive capabilities in the whole market of UAE for the healthy products as this is the backbone of slices. Slices offer a healthy product which makes the company unique in the market and because of this the company doesn't have competitors in the market. The company has knowledge of the UAE market which helps them in understanding and fulfilling the needs of customers. The effective understanding of the UAE market helps the company in understanding the changes in the needs of the customers. The major strategy of the company in the market of UAE is to form the strong relationship with the suppliers (Jelassi, Enders, and Martínez-López, 2014). Though, some of the suppliers might face the high cost of moving to the alternative suppliers. The company has the unique quality of goods and services which makes the company free from the worries related to the substitutes in the market. Moreover, the company has distinctive initiative community program like School food program which upraises their position in the market. The Threats of the new entrants in the market is increasing for Slice because they are aware of the fact that the needs of the customers are fluctuation with time. Moreover, the government of UAE welcomes other companies to expand their business as this is the effective way through which they can welcome foreign investment.

Core competencies

Tangible resources are becoming one the way through which the company can improve its position in the market. Slices tangible resources include capital and funds like expansion, supplies, technology, and location of the business. The company can make use of these capabilities in the upcoming branches and franchisee. Apart from these tangible resources, there are intangible resources which include non-physical assets of Slices like loyalty of brand, knowledge about the product and suppliers and some other social responsibilities (Jelassi, Enders, and Martínez-López, FJ, 2014). The capabilities of the company are strategies that the company make use of their business. Abilities help slice to develop a reason behind picking up and maintaining better position in the market. Moreover, the major strategy of the company is to lead better marketing in the work culture.

The overall analysis reflects the overview of the current strategies that Slices company implement in their business because this helps the company in operating business in UAE. 

New Strategies for Slices

This section of the report reflect the new e-business strategies that Slices should implement in their business in the market of UAE as this is the effective way through which the company can boost their operations in the market. The development and advancement of the technology are essential for the company as the application of the e-business strategy is not possible without technology (Tuten and Solomon, 2017). Therefore, the company needs to update technology with the help of which they can implement the new strategies in their business. The new e-business strategy that the company should follow is social media strategy (McFarlin, 2018). This is one of the effective strategies through which the company can promote its products and service in the market of UAE. This is the fact that Slices business is on growth stage due to which it is essential for the firm to promote the products. The application of the e-business strategy needs the roadmap that defines the actions that the company will take to implement the strategy.

Roadmap for e-Business Strategy Implementation

Roadmap for e-Business strategy implementation

Every business in the competitive world needs a framework for managing the mobilization of association around its strategic plan (Reynolds, 2010). The application of e-business strategy includes some of the business actions and decisions that the company take to achieve the objective of the company and also to implement the e-business strategy.

The implementation of social media marketing is given below which is one of the effective e-business strategies.

(Source: By Author, 2018)

This roadmap of the helps the Slices in determining the actions that the company need to follow to achieve the objective of social media marketing.

Slices vision is to achieve the highly recognized position in the domestic and international market and to become the leading company who offer healthy products through their restaurants. 

The objective of the company is to generate the awareness for the healthy products that company offers to its customers in a national and international market. This is one of the effective ways through which the company can create a recognized position in the market. 

The notion of the value creations and value capturing is an essential of e-business strategy because it is generating superior value to competitors and the capability through which they can capture parts of this value in the method of revenue that is prerequisite for making a competitive advantage (Bocken, Rana, and Short, 2015). The below given is the six path framework of value creation. The framework reflects the six different paths that help the company to reconstruct the market boundaries (Kim and Mauborgne, 2014). Considering the previous analyses, it has been analyzed that the company is not having competitors in the current market UAE which reflects that they have implemented the Blue oceans strategy.

The above diagram reflects the explanation of the six path framework of the value creation (Dahl, 2018). All the six paths are explained from the point of view of Slices and their operation in the market of UAE. This is the way through which the company can create the effective value creation of the e-business strategy.

The company targets all the customers with the different age group. The major target segment of the firm is a Demographic segmentation which takes account of age, income, education, and many other factors that creates the segregation of market. The e-business strategy of the company is to generate the awareness among the target customers so that they can consume the maximum products offered by the company to its targeted customers (Solomon, et.al, 2014). The major target customers of the company are youth because in today’s era most of the people with age group 18-25 are health conscious and they know the importance of healthy diet in their lifestyle. The people targeted by the company falls under the category of middle and high-income group people. The value proposition that company offers to youth include fresh and highest quality products, facility of products in high vicinity areas and ensure that raw material which they are using is fresh.

Six Path Framework of Value Creation

Another target of the company is children’s with all the age groups but the company mainly emphasis on the children under 5 years because they are anemic. It is essential for the company to develop the healthy habits in the children’s of UAE as this is the only way through which the future of UAE will get bright. The value proposition that the company offer to their customers is a healthy diet and healthy eating habits that help them in making their future bright in the market of UAE. This is the fact that slices perform many promotion activities in which they donate the healthy food services to the children’s. Along with this, through their social media marketing, they want to make the awareness among most of the children’s for healthy food.

While implementing the social media marketing with the use of different channels the company should ensure some of the privacy, ethical and legal issues that will help slices in the future operations of the business.

Privacy issues

• Security breaches are increasing across the world due to which it is recommended to the company to ensure that they maintain their social media account effectively.
• Slices employees should be aware that they should not allow the unwanted access to private information because this is considered as a crime (Chen, Ruikar, and Carrillo, 2017).

Legal issues

• There should not be any disclosure of the confidential information on social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, and many others.
• The company should wisely use trademarks.

Ethical issues

• Slices should provide the ethical content on the social media channels
• The company should always maintain the privacy on the channels
• While posting the content, the company should ensure that they are not hurting anyone’s sentiment (Lipschultz, 2014).

Slices should definitely involve the external partners in the strategy of social media marketing. The effective social media marketing will be possible when the company will involve its external partners include business partners, supplier, customers and many others.

This e-business strategy is incomplete without the involvement of external partners as the existing customers will contribute in bringing new customers (Felix, Rauschnabel and Hinsch, 2017). The existing customers will share the feedback related to the promotion campaign of the company which will help slices in increasing the sales and revenue. Moreover, the involvement of partners is essential because this is the only way through which they can get approval and creative ideas which will help in generating awareness widely.

Organisational model

Every company has an organizational structure that they follow. Slices Company follows the functional organizational structure (Rothaermel, 2015). Considering the e-business strategy, the company follows the independent business. The company slices are formed by the 4 friends together.

Revenue and cost model

The revenue model that is followed by the company is production model. In this model, the business creates the products or service and sells it to the customer at some certain value. The company generates the revenue by selling the products to their customers (DaSilva and Trkman, 2014). The healthy food that remains unsold by the end of the day is donated by the company to the children's. The e-business strategy of the company contributes in upraising the revenue of the company.

Target Customers of Slices

The cost model that is used by the company is Absorption costing. This technique of costing is to absorb the fixed and variable costs to production (Drury, 2013). The company makes use of the strategy and because of this strategy slices is able to offer the products at low cost.

Strategy alignment

The strategy alignment reflects the arrangement of the strategy of the firm with e-business strategy (Smith, 2016). The company offers healthy products through restaurants that help the corporation in accomplishing the goals and the social media marketing strategy helps the company in increasing their sales and contributes to accomplishing the company’s objective. This reflects both strategies of the company work with the common motive that is to achieve the objective of the company.

The implementation of the new e-business strategies is tough for the slices company in the market of UAE. A company might face some of the issues in the time frame of next 6-12 months. It is suggested to the company to bring the technological advancement in the company which will enhance the social media marketing.

The company should provide the discount coupons on the products as this is the effective way through which company can grab the attention of their customers. The company should promote their discount offers on Social media which helps the company in making the customer aware of the benefits that the company is offering.

Further, it is suggested to a company to customize the menu of food because this is the fact that the needs of the customers are changing with the growing education of people towards the healthy products.

Conclusion

The e-business strategies are becoming essential for the companies as these strategies contribute to the growth and expansion of the business. Slices current strategies are effective and helping the company to operate the business in the market of UAE. Considering the need of the business, Slices need to follow the e-business strategy in the market of UAE. The effective e-business strategy for the company is social media marketing which will benefit the firm in increasing the sales and achieving the objective of the firm. The implementation of the e-business strategy has been presented along with the recommendations to the company. 

References

Bocken, N.M.P., Rana, P. and Short, S.W. (2015) Value mapping for sustainable business thinking. Journal of Industrial and Production Engineering, 32(1), pp.67-81.

Chen, Y., Ruikar, K. and Carrillo, P. (2017) 13 e-Business infrastructure and strategic frameworks. Advances in Construction ICT and E-Business, p.296.

Dahl, S. (2018) Social media marketing: Theories and applications. California: Sage.

DaSilva, C.M. and Trkman, P. (2014) Business model: What it is and what it is not. Long range planning, 47(6), pp.379-389.

Drury, C.M. (2013) Management, and cost accounting. US: Springer.

Felix, R., Rauschnabel, P.A. and Hinsch, C. (2017) Elements of strategic social media marketing: A holistic framework. Journal of Business Research, 70, pp.118-126.

Jelassi, T. Enders, A., and Martínez-López, FJ. (2014) Strategies for e-business: creating value through electronic and mobile commerce : concept and cases. UK: Harlow Pearson

Kim, W.C. and Mauborgne, R.A., 2014. Blue ocean strategy, expanded edition: How to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant. Harvard business review Press.

Kotler, P. (2015) Framework for marketing management. India: Pearson Education.

Lee, K. and Carter, S. (2011) Global marketing management. Strategic Direction, 27(1).

Lipschultz, J.H. (2014) Social media communication: Concepts, practices, data, law and ethics. New York: Routledge.

McFarlin, K. (2018) Examples of an E-Business Strategy [Online]. Available from:

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/examples-ebusiness-strategy-11453.html [Accessed from 7^th May 2018]

Reynolds, J. (2010) E-business: a management perspective. UK: Oxford University Press, Inc..

Rothaermel, F.T. (2015) Strategic management. India: McGraw-Hill Education.

Smith, T.J. (2016) Business Strategy Alignment. Pricing Done Right: The Pricing Framework Proven Successful by the World's Most Profitable Companies, pp.35-54.

Solomon, M.R., Dahl, D.W., White, K., Zaichkowsky, J.L. and Polegato, R. (2014) Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being. India: Pearson.

Tuten, T.L. and Solomon, M.R. (2017) Social media marketing. California: Sage.