COMPUTRON INC (2006) – CASE NOTES
Case Overview
Thomas Zimmermann, manager of the European Sales Division from Computron, has to give a reasonable bid to win the contract of 1000X digital computers to Konig & Cie AG (Germany), which is the largest chemical company and comprises of 80% business for Computron in Germany in 2005-2006. Because there are conflicts between the company pricing policy and the bid requirements due to tough competition, we will explain in the following the strategic positioning that Thomas Zimmermann needs to seek in order to win this contract.
Not only is Koenig & Cie currently (i.e. July 2006 in this case) the most important customer for Computron in Germany, but it also represents over 50% of the additional business for the fiscal year in the German market for medium-priced digital process control computers. Accordingly, the marketing and bid (pricing) strategy for Koenig & Cie’s tender for a computer of the type 1000X must be thoroughly assessed for strategic and tactic consistency with the firm’s objectives.
Customer requirements analysis
In this request for bids, the customer clearly specified that the computer would be used for training purposes instead of online processes. Therefore dependability and a ‘reasonable’ price are key factors to be considered rather than machine flexibility and accuracy. The following graph is a comparison of competitors in terms of pricing and quality of computers offered.
Group Assignment – COMPUTRON INC (2006) Page 2
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SWOT ANALYSIS for Computron
Conclusions & Implications:
Computron is following a differentiation strategy.
So far, the market has responded positively to the offering of Computron, resulting in a market leader position in terms of market share of total sales.
Compared especially with the main customer, Koenig & Cie, Computron enjoys customer based brand equity. The corresponding brand loyalty is expected to allow
Thomas Zimmermann, manager of the European Sales Division from Computron, has to give a reasonable bid to win the contract of 1000X digital computers to Konig & Cie AG (Germany), which is the largest chemical company and comprises of 80% business for Computron in Germany in 2005-2006. Because there are conflicts between the company pricing policy and the bid requirements due to tough competition, we will explain in the following the strategic positioning that Thomas Zimmermann needs to seek in order to win this contract.
Not only is Koenig & Cie currently (i.e. July 2006 in this case) the most important customer for Computron in Germany, but it also represents over 50% of the additional business for the fiscal year in the German market for medium-priced digital process control computers. Accordingly, the marketing and bid (pricing) strategy for Koenig & Cie’s tender for a computer of the type 1000X must be thoroughly assessed for strategic and tactic consistency with the firm’s objectives.
Customer requirements analysis
In this request for bids, the customer clearly specified that the computer would be used for training purposes instead of online processes. Therefore dependability and a ‘reasonable’ price are key factors to be considered rather than machine flexibility and accuracy. The following graph is a comparison of competitors in terms of pricing and quality of computers offered.
Group Assignment – COMPUTRON INC (2006) Page 2
_________________________________________________________________________________________
SWOT ANALYSIS for Computron
Conclusions & Implications:
Computron is following a differentiation strategy.
So far, the market has responded positively to the offering of Computron, resulting in a market leader position in terms of market share of total sales.
Compared especially with the main customer, Koenig & Cie, Computron enjoys customer based brand equity. The corresponding brand loyalty is expected to allow