Segmentation and Competitive Strategy

1
Segmentation and Competitive Strategy

• Strategies are directional statements. The
  direction is primarily set by four choices.
• Arena the market to serve and customer segments
  to target
• Advantage the positioning theme that
  differentiates the business from competitors
• Access the communication and distribution
  channels used to reach the market
• Activities the appropriate scale and scope of
  activities to be performed (e.g. purchasing
  manufacturing or processing, design, sales
  distribution and service). When these
  activities are assembled together, with the
  necessary organizational structures,
  controls, and technology linkages, they
  establish the value chain for the business.

2
Aspects of Quality in Product Design
Segmentation

• Functionality the product features and
  characteristics that provide value to the
  customer
• Reliability the products ability to perform as
  desired without failure
• Reproducibility the ability to manufacture
  products that consistently conform to technical
  specifications
• Human-machine interaction the product design
  elements that affect users for example,
  efficiency, safety, fatigue, and stress factors
• Maintainability the ease of performing the
  operational processes needed to ensure the
  stability of the products hardware and software
  components and
• Backward compatibility the ability of new
  products to work with previous product releases.
• Ultimately, for customers, the interplay between
  price and quality determines product value. In
  addition to market imposed quality standards that
  are based on meeting customers expectations
  vendors/suppliers are required to conform to a
  variety of industry, legal and regulatory
  standards (e.g. telecommunication).