conducting environmental scans based on ‘foresight’; defining the market from the consumer’s perspective; analysing market segmentation; identifying market and industry dynamics and trends; addressing issues of sustainability and environmental concerns and pressures; modelling responses in consumer demand to price, advertising, promotion etc.; identifying opportunities for profitable growth and market entry.

b) Creating a vision of market and channel potential

imagining how markets could look in the future; reshaping market understanding with mould breaking thinking; identifying key growth opportunities and competitor threats; defining the future market and its parameters; assessing potential to create new markets through alliances, partnerships and new channels; deriving an inspiring business mission and strategic thrusts; defining the Research agenda; creating stretch (“big hairy audacious goals”).

c) Anticipating competitor actions

identifying both current and potential competitors ( e.g. e-commerce, private label); assessing relative strength of business against key competitors across value chain; determining competitor market strategies and capabilities; modelling demand and competitor responses to changes in price, advertising, promotion etc.; assessing implications of potential competitor reactions; developing marketing strategies and tactics to forestall competitor actions.

d) Constructing brand portfolio strategies

taking risks with new ideas; assessing potential brand roles in context of market segmentation and dynamics; reviewing implications of each brand’s existing BrandKey; judging cross-category potential of brands; generating alternative portfolio scenarios to anticipate potential market developments; evaluating strategic hypotheses and options; determining the portfolio of brands for each market; establishing pricing and value points within the portfolio; determining relative investment levels for each brand.

e) Building required marketing capabilities.

conducting internal scrutiny; leading change and challenging the status quo; defining key capabilities needed to implement market/ portfolio strategy; assessing required capabilities against existing capabilities; examining ways to leverage existing capabilities; identifying means of developing new capabilities.

f) Providing input into the business planning process

contributing towards formal business planning exercises (e.g. Annual Contract, Category Strategies); ensuring marketing plans are consistent with company and category strategies; agreeing business targets and milestones; communicating strategy and explaining implications; building appropriate contingencies and responses; allocating company resources to enable strategy implementation; championing marketing opportunities with high business potential.

Tasks:

• Read the business pages to search for the underlying trends and strategic issues facing other major companies and brands.

• Access Unilever's corporate intranet sites for information on international trends, economic

developments, competitive intelligence etc. (e.g. http://wow. unilever. corn)

• Review any relevant global category segmentation studies and models.

• Ask managers working outside your category for their objective perspectives on the strategic issues your brands are dealing with.

• Set up "war game" activities to develop hypotheses about potential competitive activity.

• Look for case studies in marketing journals of companies that have transformed their performance through effective strategic marketing

• Ask marketeers in other categories to explain their approach to market segmentation and brand portfolio management, using the inputs to challenge the segmentation of your own category.

• Find out if any form of price modelling has been undertaken in your company and ask those involved to explain what was involved.

• Identify and analyse the value and growth drivers (marketing and non-marketing) of the brands in your company and category.

• Request the manager in your company responsible for strategic planning to explain to you how the process works.

• Review historical strategic documents (e.g. brand plans, Annual Contract documents etc.)