Laptop manufacturer Strategy Clock

Hanneman213

Hey,

So i have an exam tomorrow where I have to use a tool called the Strategy Clock to examine different companies positions in their industry. The example i'm thinking of using is the laptop manufacturing industry.

Now the strategy clock has 8 position but i only need to worry about 5 of them. These positions are

1-No frills: These would be basic, cheap models with only the bare essentials on them. Aimed at price sesnitive consumers.
2-Low price:These would be models which have similar benefits to other companies but are sold at a low price. The low price is usually due to their ability to reduce costs in ways their competitors can't.
3- Hybrid: This is where the product offers benefits that are the same or better than thos of competitors but does so at a cheaper price.
4-Differentiation: This is where the product is of a better quality than competitors and the price is the same as competitors or slighty higher due to the better benefits.
5-Focused diffeentiation. This usually involves highly branded, premium price goods which are aimed at niche markets.

I think that Dell may be a good example of the hybrid strategy, Sony for the differentiation and Alienware for the focused differentiation strategies. However, I'm a bit unsure of who to put for the no frills and low price strategies. I was thinking of someone lik Acer for the no frills and then Toshiba for the low price.

What do you guys think?

xsiborg

i'd say HP are a better example of the Hybrid strategy, as their mid-range laptops are better built than dell using more or less the same internal components, well, with the exception that HP also tend to use AMD processors as well as intel in their laptops, and this is only my personal opinion but HP laptops were always more stylish than Dell laptops.

you also tended to get more accesories thrown in with HP laptops, i've bought Toshiba, HP, Sony, Dell and Acer in the past, and an Advent netbook, (rebranded MSI Wind), and right now im typing this on a Lenovo laptop, little workhorse of a machine! Toshiba used be a little workhorse, i got seven years out of it before i reluctantly passed it on to my son, (actually now i think about it, the laptop is older than HE is, he's six!) and it's still going strong with XP on it! i wouldn't buy toshiba now though, they're far too flimsy and cheap looking for my taste, again just a personal opinion, but they do seem to be inferior quality builds to what they were back then circa 2002...

Hanneman213

xsiborg wrote: »

i'd say HP are a better example of the Hybrid strategy, as their mid-range laptops are better built than dell using more or less the same internal components, well, with the exception that HP also tend to use AMD processors as well as intel in their laptops, and this is only my personal opinion but HP laptops were always more stylish than Dell laptops.

you also tended to get more accesories thrown in with HP laptops, i've bought Toshiba, HP, Sony, Dell and Acer in the past, and an Advent netbook, (rebranded MSI Wind), and right now im typing this on a Lenovo laptop, little workhorse of a machine! Toshiba used be a little workhorse, i got seven years out of it before i reluctantly passed it on to my son, (actually now i think about it, the laptop is older than HE is, he's six!) and it's still going strong with XP on it! i wouldn't buy toshiba now though, they're far too flimsy and cheap looking for my taste, again just a personal opinion, but they do seem to be inferior quality builds to what they were back then circa 2002...

Thanks for the input! where do you think dell might fit in so? Would they be too expensive to consider low price?

xsiborg

honestly, it would depend on who you ask, and thats not a smart or dismissive answer. their studio and inspiron line are what i refer to as mid range home consumer laptops, then their XPS line are the high end top spec, bells and whistles jobs for home or business use, and again then they have a vostro line aimed at business users.

remember that alienware also (i think) are owned/technology sharing with dell, the XPS gaming laptop hardware will be quite similar to alienware models.

to answer your question somewhat, i just find that dell are normally over-priced for what you get, but they're nothing compared to sony, whom you're quite right cater for a niche market, (i paid €1150 for a sony vaio for my wife and the hardware by any other manufacturer would have been max €800, but it was simply because of the sony brand, and the wine red color when most laptops were still black or grey in color).

honestly, depending on the product line, they could either fit in the low priced category, or the focussed differentiation category for their XPS line...

GarIT

Hanneman213 wrote: »

1-No frills: These would be basic, cheap models with only the bare essentials on them. Aimed at price sesnitive consumers.
2-Low price:These would be models which have similar benefits to other companies but are sold at a low price. The low price is usually due to their ability to reduce costs in ways their competitors can't.
3- Hybrid: This is where the product offers benefits that are the same or better than thos of competitors but does so at a cheaper price.
4-Differentiation: This is where the product is of a better quality than competitors and the price is the same as competitors or slighty higher due to the better benefits.
5-Focused diffeentiation. This usually involves highly branded, premium price goods which are aimed at niche markets.

For me it would have to be

1. EMachines
2. Acer
3. HP
4. Sony
5. Apple

Ailenware is somewhere between 4 and 5 there not that highly branded and they are more targeted at gamers only. Apple computers are the most definite and best answer for 5, you could spend 1200 on a mac that has the same hardware as a 600 pc. I would say toshiba and dell are mainly somewhere between 2 and 3 so its hard to put them somewhere. With dell business models they could also fit into 4. so its best to leave them out