Introduction
Innovation is considered the foundation for a company’s market performance and development in a constantly changing environment. It results in the improvement of products and processes that enable the organization’s continuous advancement to withstand the competitive environment through an increased product lifecycle, facilitate its rapid growth and increase profitability levels. These factors elevate a firm’s market performance compared to non-innovating firms necessitating the incorporation of innovation in the organization, especially in today’s competitive environment. The paragraphs below will provide an analysis of the links between layers of innovation and market performance, some of the marketing innovation strategies highlighted in the case study, how marketing innovation and market culture enable my understanding of marketing an innovative product, and how this information can utilized in developing the final project.
Links Between Layers of Innovation and Market Performance
Market performance relies on focused layers of innovation, such as culture, market innovation, and product innovation (Aksoy, 2017). Regarding innovation culture, most firms, including small and medium enterprises (SMEs), have invested considerably in training and development programs to inspire employees to be more innovation-oriented. It refers to the extent to which company managerial activities, values, and norms support innovativeness amongst the employees. The culture enhances the company’s focus on innovation and fosters employees’ reception of new ideas, thus providing the company with a competitive advantage (Iranmanesh et al., 2020). An innovative culture is essential for ensuring a company’s better market performance and lays a foundation for market and product innovation- it positively impacts SMEs’ market and product innovation performance. It allows businesses to identify new strategies for creating new markets and marketing channels that boost their market performance.
The marketing innovation layer helps increase the company’s sales value and market performance. It mainly focuses on progressing the market mix- marketing innovation determines new ways the company can best serve its customers (Stock et al., 2013). Innovation is an integral part of marketing, such that innovation reveals the customer needs beyond the product. In contrast, marketing innovation evaluates customer value perception and reveals the gaps in unsatisfied consumer needs. Based on the evaluation, companies can provide a new range of innovative products, thus improving market diversification and the company’s competitive advantage. Marketing innovation plays a significant role in a company’s success hence the necessity to incorporate market innovation strategies to achieve higher market performance.
Product innovation is one of the most significant layers and is a major determinant of a company’s market performance (Aksoy, 2017). it is defined as the continuous improvement of the performance attributes of a supplied product or service (Stock et al., 2013). The improvements are based on customer needs and allow companies to penetrate new markets. Product innovations increase a company’s profit margins, increase market share, and positively affect market performance. It enables companies to offer customers superior product quality, thus boosting the company’s market performance. However, the product innovation levels are much higher in big firms than in small and medium enterprises.
Marketing Innovation Strategies
Marketing innovation strategies have a significant positive impact on product innovation and market performance. It entails utilizing and developing new ideas, products, and services and viewing these ideas as marketing opportunity that helps address market demand in a novel way. The market innovation strategies for companies revealed in the case study include analyzing marketing variables, modifying existing marketing strategies, customer-oriented and market-focused marketing, and unique value proposition strategies (Aksoy, 2017). SMEs that utilize innovative marketing respond to market needs by adjusting their marketing activities based on the marketing mix variables. The changes help them attain product or service differentiation in a competitive environment and from the standard product offerings of larger companies.
In terms of modification, businesses need to identify possible change opportunities in their marketing behaviors and continuously nurture their modifications to adapt to existing market practices. The adaptations mainly focus on innovative products and services that result in reactive or proactive marketing activities. Innovative customer orientation is a significant component of marketing innovation strategies in most companies (O’Dwyer et al., 2009). It entails identifying customer focus groups through the elimination process in place of traditional methods (segmentation, targeting, positioning). It enables customer satisfaction that increases the company’s competitive advantage and performance.
To achieve successful marketing, companies should focus on market-positioning factors and adopt a more flexible managerial structure that fosters innovative marketing. As a result, the businesses can execute their marketing objectives while focusing on the level at which the new products and services intersect with the financial objectives and enable the implementation of their long-term business vision. In turn, the strategy enables a focused competitive differentiation – a significant component of innovative marketing. Unique value proposition entails the development of unique products and services for the satisfaction of consumer needs companies (O’Dwyer et al., 2009). The primary purpose of marketing innovation is to establish potential new markets and find better ways of satisfying the target markets. The unique proposition strategy makes unique, new, unconventional products available to satisfy consumer needs.
Marketing Innovation and Marketing Culture
Innovation efforts are a significant trend in most businesses. However, marketing innovative products with the same effort is necessary to achieve improved market performance through innovation. Marketing innovation and culture are significant contributors to the product’s successful launch in the market (Iranmanesh et al., 2020). Marketing innovation helps me understand how to attach a new innovative product to a marketing opportunity that helps address market demand in a novel way. The marketing culture helps me understand that a flexible marketing culture that supports innovative products is essential in creating a robust market for the product.
Application of the Case Study to the Final Project
Some of the innovative marketing techniques in the case study that I would use for my project include formulating marketing strategies based on the marketing mix variables, formulating customer-oriented marketing strategies that prioritize customer focus, creating market-focused strategies that attain a full competitive advantage, and utilizing of the unique proposition of innovative products in marketing. The strategies are essential in attaining product differentiation and a competitive advantage- the necessary factors for improved market performance (Aksoy, 2017).
Conclusion
SME performance depends on strategies, capabilities, culture, relationships, and structure. Market performance depends on more focused constructs in the form of innovation culture, market innovation, and product innovation. The various layers of innovation, including culture, marketing, and product innovation, positively impact market performance. Marketing innovation plays a significant role in a company’s success hence the necessity to incorporate market innovation strategies to achieve higher market performance. The strategies include analyzing marketing variables, modifying existing marketing strategies, customer-oriented, and market-focused marketing, and unique value proposition strategies. These factors can be incorporated into my final project to ensure the product attains product differentiation and a competitive advantage enough to sustain good market performance.
References
Aksoy, H. (2017). How do innovation culture, marketing innovation, and product innovation affect the market performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)? Technology in Society, pp. 51, 133–141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2017.08.005
Iranmanesh, M., Kumar, K. M., Foroughi, B., Mavi, R. K., & Min, N. H. (2020). The impacts of organizational structure on operational performance through innovation capability: innovative culture as moderator. Review of Managerial Science, 15(7). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11846-020-00407-y
O’Dwyer, M., Gilmore, A., & Carson, D. (2009). Innovative marketing in SMEs. European Journal of Marketing, 43(1), 46–61. https://b111f778b-mp01-y-https-doi-org.proxy.lirn.net/10.1108/03090560910923238
Stock, R. M., Six, B., & Zacharias, N. A. (2013). Linking multiple layers of innovation-oriented corporate culture, product program innovativeness, and business performance: a contingency approach. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 41(3), 283–299. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-012-0306-5
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