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Business-Level and Corporate-Level Strategies
A company is expected to have consistent and clear business and corporate level strategies for enhancing the achievement of its set objectives and goals. Business level strategies make sure that the core competencies of the organization emphasize on meeting the preferences and tastes of the customers (Teece, 2010). These tactics offer details on the actual market and business plans that need to be deployed for increasing the value proposition of the business to its consumers. Besides business level strategies, companies also adopt corporate level strategies for determining the direction and scope of their diverse business activities to gain success (Ireland, Covin, & Kuratko, 2009). The current study assess the business-level and corporate-level strategies of Estee Lauder Company.
Business-level Strategies of Estee Lauder Company
A structured business-level approach is the heart of a business organization and quite crucial for keeping the firm growing in effective way. The business-level strategy of Estee is fairly diverse in comparison with those of other firms in its industry. It has been identified that the company is continuously involved in innovation in all aspects of their business (Estee Launder Companies, 2018b). Therefore, the firm places a higher emphasis on customer understandings and integrate their regions, brands and activities for leveraging scale and capabilities. This supports Estee to attain higher levels of sustainability and ensure profitable growth for the business. On the other hand, the organization strives to be locally relevant to customers wherever they live. The firm create certain goods for explicit markets altering its strategic marketing relying on the area. It permits the company to interact with customers in more culturally related way. As a result, Estee is successful in engaging consumers and generating interests within them to buy their products and services.
Estee drives its long-term success through balanced and diversified business which is supported by a number of engines of growth, coupled with an agile resource allocation and excellent implementation. It has been determined that Estee is the only major firm that focus solely on prestige beauty, with an unparalleled portfolio above twenty-five differentiated and aspirational brands suited to customers of each region (Estee Launder Companies, 2018a). This in turn, contributes to the growth of the business by retaining and attracting more customers.
Considering the business-strategies of Estee, it can be pointed out that strategies of the company are good choice as it supported it to become one of the successful organizations in the industry. Though the company faces a tough competition from a number of rivals, has been successful in combating the competition strongly. Moreover, Estee has been able to implement its strategies successfully within its business model that has allowed in generating success by strongly positioning itself in the global market. The differentiation and innovation strategies of the firm ensure that it will be able to sustain itself in the market and gain long-term achievements.
Corporate-level Strategies of Estee Lauder Company
Corporate-level strategy makes sure that a firm takes the best decisions as it directly influences the organization. It is crucial for the company to decide on the specific corporate strategies to implement in its business system. The first corporate tactic that Estee embarks on is the value-creating strategy. It emphasizes on the growth to continuously boost its market share and gain competitive advantage. It has been identified that Estee has engaged in aggressive international expansion on a continuous basis where it currently has operations in more than 40 nations across different regions around the world. The organization aims at exploiting its competitive benefit in resources such as capabilities and finances. On the other hand, it can be mentioned that the company focuses on using technology for creating new and diversified products and enhance the products they already have (Trefis Team, 2016). Estee has opened stores in different locations, which supported it in moving further with vertical integration. This in turn, has provided the benefit of having both online and retail stores, which further offered the company the chance of making consumers avail comfortable purchasing. The organization has a long list of products, which places the company at an advantageous position, allowing it to target greater number of customers and thereby resulting in the generation of a higher value.
It can be further mentioned that Estee is immersed in the online world and has continued to make resources investment in everything digital. Almost all the brands of the company interact with customers through YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. This has supported in establishing and expanding global e-commerce sites, which help in creating powerful viral marketing campaigns.
The corporate-strategy of the organization can be considered as the viable tactic. The strategies have considerably contributed to the achievement of the company and have supported it to attain a scale where its consumers continue to have consistent satisfaction. It can be further mentioned that the precision employed in the making of the product and use of natural resources have contributed in building the reputation of the company among stakeholders and in the industry. It can also be pointed out that the corporate-strategy of Estee has supported it in becoming one of the leading marketers and manufacturers of quality skin care, fragrance, makeup and haircare products in the world.
Competitive Environment
An organization really needs to strive to become the best by using its most innovative and creative ideas for designing and producing products that will keep them competitive in the industry. The competitive environment in the cosmetic industry is significantly high due to the presence of a number of companies that offer skin care, haircare and other related products. It is crucial for Estee to emphasis on its manufacturing tactics in order to bring about an augmentation in the consumer receptiveness, proficiency and quality of work. It has been determined that Estee significantly emphasizes on an innovative promotion strategy. It supports the company to make changes in the offering of products that can relate with the customers of different cultural background. As a result, the company is able to retain and attract thousands of existing and new customers.
It can be further mentioned that Estee uses premium pricing and its products are priced higher in comparison to most of its rivals. Through this pricing strategy, the company aims to target classes, which means the consumers who are less sensitive to prices are targeted (Consultancy.uk, 2012). Furthermore, digital approach is used by the company to interact with employees and customers in order to enhance its operational performance.
Avon is one of the major competitors of Estee, which is in the industry for around 130 years. It has operations in Europe, South Latin America, Middle East & Africa, North Latin America and Asia Pacific. It has been identified that the organization emphasizes on department store quality at discount store prices. This allows the customers to avail the products at reasonable rates, which further provide competitive advantage in the market. Furthermore, it can be mentioned that Avon adopts a direct selling method in developing markets, which has contributed in opening up unprecedented prospects for women (Wahba, 2014). On the other hand, it has been identified that the organization adopts different pricing strategies for different markets such as modern pricing policy for premium market, affordable prices for Indian consumers, medium pricing for Romanian customers. This largely supports the organization in attracting the customers, which contributes in the strong growth of the business.
Based on the competitive analysis of Estee and Avon, it can be pointed out that Avon has an advantage over Estee in achieving a higher long-term success. In this context, it can be mentioned that Avon designs its strategies considering almost all the different markets and the shopping and behavioral pattern of the customers. On the other hand, Estee is highly engaged in providing products to the upper section of the society, due to which, in the future it may not be able to generate as much revenue as Avon can generate.
Slow-Cycle and Fast-Cycle Markets
The slow-cycle market is when the market does not come up with innovative products and services in a short time and changes only take place in a very long time. Moreover, it will be difficult to imitate resources and capabilities (Hitt, Ireland, & Hoskisson, 2014). The selection of Avon will not change in the slow-cycle market because of their differentiation in products. The company will gain more from the slow-cycle market due to the changes in the markets with the development of new products. It will provide a competitive edge to the industry. Due to this, it will be more challenging for the rivals to imitate Avon’s products and achieve the level of quality that its products possess.
The fast-cycle market is where goods are continuously altering and new innovative products are being generated in a short time (Hitt, Ireland, & Hoskisson, 2014). In this market type, the choice of Avon will also not change. It is evident that Avon is engaged in adopting an innovative approach in its product offerings. This in turn, will make them a direct rival of Estee. However, it has also been identified that both the organizations are involved in creating products that are highly innovative for the current market. Thus, it can be stated that it is crucial for the company to be very innovative and have better and newer products for consumers in order to be competitive in the market. Based on the above analysis, it can be stated that both the firms will be able to perform well in the fast-cycle market.
Conclusion
Organizing the firm in order to make it the best in the market and industry is a tough task. It is imperative for the business organization to know the actual customers and then distribute the products in order to succeed in the long-term. Therefore, it is important to design an effective business-level and corporate-level strategy in order to become more successful. It has been identified that Estee adopts different business and corporate-level strategies that has supported the company in increasing its business performances. The firm has focused on offering diversified and differentiated products that can contribute in attracting the customers from various markets. On the other hand, it has been observed that Avon has a competitive advantage over Estee as Avon adopts strategies that are more effective.
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