Business Model Re-Engineering: Myspace

————————————————- Business Model Re-engineering MySpace Date: November 4, 2011 ————————————————- Word Count: 3742 Introduction Nowadays, increasingly more industries, especially the media sector, are facing a continuous change. In the case of media, this is mainly a result of steadily developing digital technology. Even though a company’s business model might have been successful for many years, it suddenly can start to become weaker. The media market is quite competition-driven and hence a competitor with a new business model might alter the industry almost instantly (Business model re-engineering, n. d. ). In such a competitive market, the â€Å"strategy [†¦] is about being different. † (Eisenhardt & Sull, 2001, p. 116). This statement perfectly implies that companies and their products need to be so unique with such a well thought-out and innovate business model that they can create a competitive advantage. However, this adaption of the business model in an ever-changing media environment turns out to be quite a complex challenge, since now many companies face a decline of customers and revenue. A good example for a business model that could not survive the changing media environment in terms of online social networking is the one of Myspace. Consequently, I am going to propose a re-engineering of its business model. In this paper, I will focus on the problems of the current business model and carefully analyze the context of the market in order to propose a refreshed model that will help Myspace to survive and to compete more successfully in nowadays’ social networking market. Myspace needs a business model that provides value to its customers, guarantees a competitive advantage, as well as collects revenue (Teece, 2010). Myspace Myspace. com, which was founded in 2003 by Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson (Piskorski, Chen, & Knoop, 2008), is an online social networking ervice that is now owned by Specific Media LLC and singer Justin Timberlake (Specific Media Acquires Myspace, 2011). Specific Media LLC is a media company which sells advertising online with a technology that aims at targeting specific customer segments (Specific Media LLC, 2011). Specific Media LLC, however, has not been the owner of Myspace for long. In June 2011, the company bought Myspace for about $35 million and as part of the deal pop star Justin Timberlake took an ownership stake (Specific Media Acquires Myspace, 2011). Before, from 2005 until 2011, it was owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation (News Corporation to Acquire Intermix Media, Inc, 2005). From 2005 until 2008, Myspace was the most popular social networking website in the world, as measured by the visitors. But the number of 75. 9 million visitors per month in 2008 dropped to 34. 8 million in May 2011 (Gillette, 2011). Problems Is Facebook Myspace’s biggest problem? Since 2008, Myspace has been continuously losing members which was at the time when it was overtaken by Facebook (Mack, 2008). Myspace has been gradually losing its users which can be expressed by the declining members and visitors of the website. As from February 2010, the visitors decreased by 43. 3 per cent (Arrington, 2011) and the members shrunk by ten million within one month at the beginning of 2011 (Stafford, 2011). This decline brings along a dramatic loss in revenues which are solely generated by advertising (Enders, Hungenberg, Denker, & Mauch, 2008). Facebook has now about 25 times more users than Myspace (Stafford, 2011) and it seems that members migrated from Myspace to Facebook, but there is other reasons for the failure of Myspace, mainly in terms of innovation. Myspace was performing really well at the time of News Corp’s acquisition and it barely had any competitors. However, with the rise of its first great competitor Facebook, the former leading social networking site had to confront one of its severest lacks: innovation! At the very beginning, Facebook entered a niche market, namely the one of college students. Firstly, it was available to Haravard students, then more and more universities wanted to join Facebook and today, almost everybody is using this social network, no matter if college student or not (Piskorski et al. , 2008). Today, around 600 million users enjoy keeping in touch with people all over the world via Facebook (Cauwels & Sornette, 2011). Facebook managed this great success because it was innovative. New features have been added all the time since it has been launched, hence people were involved and kept coming back as a result of new innovations such as the ‘news feed’ at that time (Stafford, 2011). While Facebook managed to be innovative all the time, Myspace failed to adapt to the market and did not add new features as Facebook did. Additionally, Myspace did not allow third party developers to create new features such as applications (e. g. Facebook – FarmVille etc. ), they rather kept everything behind closed doors. Therefore, Myspace lost the competition of controlling the market at the time between 2006 and 2008 and consequently it became boring (Stafford, 2011). Even though Myspace had certain features, they did not all work very well. For example, members were able to create their own backgrounds either themselves or they could download an existing design from many providers who specialized in creating Myspace profile designs. This feature turned into quite a mess, problems, and confusion regarding certain profiles. The whole competition resulted in a confusing mess and one could not be sure on what Myspace was focusing. Not only because of the customized user profiles but also because of some other flaws in the site’s design, Myspace was confronted with security issues. Results were spyware (Hesseldahl, 2006), phishing, and spam (Webb, Caverlee, & Pu, 2010). Another security fear was regarding the profile content. Users were concerned about trust and privacy and even law enforcement officials claimed, â€Å"MySpace is used by sexual predators to lure teenagers† (Dwyer, Hiltz, & Passerini as cited by Schrobsdorff, 2006, p. 5). The last problem I want to focus on is the revenue model. As previously mentioned, Myspace operates on revenues from advertising. Especially under the ownership of News Corp, the main focus was on generating revenue. It seemed that Rupert Murdoch solely focused on revenues and nothing else which is a great flaw for a social networking site, as it needs to focus on the onsumers. In 2006, Google pledged to pay News Corp as many as $900 million over three and a half years and in return Google was allowed to provide search services and advertising on Myspace (Piskorski et al. , 2008). For Myspace’s customer it seemed that the site was full of too much unorganized advertising, hence the website appeared unp rofessionally (James, 2009). The previously listed problems of Myspace are mainly problems of the time when Myspace lost the competition against Facebook, and reasons why Myspace is not successful anymore. With regards to the Business Model Canvas by Alexander Osterwalder (2009), I will focus on the problems based on the following elements: Value Propositions, Key Partners, Revenue Streams, and Media Channels. The element of value propositions â€Å"seeks to solve customer problems and satisfy customer needs with value propositions† (Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2009, p. 16). I consider this part to be Myspace’s greatest problem regarding the issues of trust, privacy, spam, spyware, and phishing. Furthermore, the lack of innovation was one of the major problems why Myspace lost that many users who constantly want to experience something new. With its lack of good and new features as well as its unclear point of focus, Myspace was not able to deliver value which would result in customers continue to use the social network. From my personal experience, I can say that Myspace faded into obscurity which can be backed up by the low number of users now, compared to the time of 2006 when Myspace was at its peak (Snyder, Carpenter, & Slauson, 2006). I was a Myspace user around 2006 as well, when I was 15 years old. It seemed to be a meeting point for teenagers and for me it was not any different from the German social networking site ‘Schuler VZ’ except that it is international. However, as time went by, I decreasingly used Myspace as for me it always was too confusing and it could not compete with the German social network. Besides, I got spammed with advertising, random men (who were not at my age) thought it was a dating service, and it simply became boring. Therefore, I can state that Myspace’s biggest problem is that it is not valuable enough for the users. Theory Firstly, I will focus on the value propositions as all the other elements, I chose to focus on, follow up on the value propositions. When looking at value propositions, I would like to consider the three types of value propositions according to Anderson, Narus, and van Rossum (2006), namely ‘all benefits’, ‘favorable points of difference’, and ‘resonating focus’. In the case of Myspace, it certainly would not be enough to â€Å"simply list all the benefits† (Anderson et al. , 2006, p. 2) since there are too many competitors in the Internet environment that share most of the benefits and values. The ‘favorable points of difference’ approach is promising in so far that it distinguishes the valuable points that the competitors do not offer. However, I believe that Myspace does not present many highly valuable aspects over their competitors and therefore it would be most convenient to concentrate on the ‘resonating focus’. With this approach, I will focus on â€Å"the one or two points of difference [†¦] whose improvement will deliver the greatest value to the customer for the foreseeable future† (Anderson et al. , 2006, p. 4). In connection to that, I will of course need to study the greatest competitors with regards to their value propositions in order to highlight Myspace’s most valuable points of difference. Furthermore, I will need to research what customers expect from online social networking, what they value about Myspace, and what they generally find lacking in the social networking environment in order to develop ideas for a possible niche market. Additionally, for this customer value research, I will need to conduct research on focus groups with regards to problems mentioned in the previous section (safety and innovation). Furthermore, the design is an important aspect of the value propositions as well. As I previously stated, the old Myspace design was quite confusing which resulted in safety problems. Hence, a new design is needed which is unified for every user, yet attractive and which does not allow bugs. Secondly, in relation to innovation, I will need to look at the Key Partners who will be part of the re-engineering of the Media Channels as well and concerning revenues. Through Media Channels, the company can communicate with its customers and deliver the value propositions (Osterwalder et al. 2009). Especially in the online environment, awareness can be raised with the help of other key partners. For example, you can share content from one website on another. Not so long ago, Myspace introduced connection opportunities to Twitter and Facebook (Myspace introduces mashup with Facebook, 2010) and also youtube allows sharing videos on myspace. Myspace’s connections to Facebook which will al so help to generate user-specific streams according to the user’s Facebook profiles. However, Facebook for example, does not allow a connection to Myspace. Accordingly, Key Partners are needed that would help promoting Myspace. Moreover, the former revenue model which only consisted of advertising, has proven to be quite annoying for the users, hence Myspace needs Key Partners who will not only make the website more appealing but also help to make revenue. Hence, research has to be done on Key Partners who are willing to help financing Myspace as well as who would be interested to offer for example applications (which then help the Key Partners as well). As I said before, Myspace faded into obscurity. For this reason, I will also need to look at other media channels such as campaigns and marketing strategies in order to bring Mypsace back to people’s minds. In that relation, research needs to be done on what marketing strategies worked for successful social networks such as Facebook and also what media channels can help to basically re-introduce a media product like Myspace. Assumptions & Best Practices Review First of all I need to mention that Myspace decided in 2010 to focus on music and entertainment (About Myspace, 2010). However, for now I will only consider online social networking sites as websites that focus on music and entertainment are not Myspace’s greatest competitors. Of course, I will need to take Facebook into account as Myspace’s greatest competitor and as today’s most popular social network which was the most visited website in June 2011 (Smith, 2011). Facebook first started in a niche market of college students and it got awareness from the very beginning. It did not use any special advertising campaigns to become popular but the promotion was rather by word to mouth (Mitchell, 2009). The popularity has then been covered by newspaper articles and television which reported on the success (Ibid). Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook as a unique and intimate website and constantly added new features that kept the site interesting. Facebook is far more innovative than Myspace and therefore the members keep using it and promote it by word-of-mouth advertising. Similarly to Facebook, Twitter was initially successful in a niche market. At the beginning, primarily computer- and technology specialists as well as bloggers used Twitter for example to promote their blogs (How did Twitter become popular? 2009). Twitter could convince with its simplicity and real life experience. Real life experience in so far that people twittered news from certain events such as the Mumbai attacks or recently the uprisings in Tunisia as different to regular news channels (Ibid). The best practices that made Twitter and Facebook successful and popular are therefore word-to-mouth advertising and t he Internet itself. Word-to-mouth advertising only worked because of the convincing and interesting designs and usability. Both platforms are innovative, as they have been creating new features that make them enjoyable, flexible and interesting (The Success of Twitter, 2011). Those best practices worked for Myspace as well – in the beginning. However, the task now is to remake Myspace aware to people’s minds and the goal is that the users actually keep using Myspace because of the new design and value propositions. I would suggest sending a short and catchy email to the Myspace users which shortly introduces them to the new Myspace. Users might want to get to know the new Myspace and then tell people about their good experience. Additionally, since Myspace is focusing on music, an advertising campaign might help to make new bands aware of Myspace’s ability to promote their work. Facebook uses an aggressive innovation approach, meaning that it comes up with new features that users initially might not like but after a while they cannot imagine Facebook without those new features anymore. Furthermore, Facebook constantly adapts the privacy settings in order to meet the customers’ needs with regards to safety (Blodget, 2010). Innovation keeps Facebook interesting and worthwhile to continue using it. Another highlight it offers for their users are applications. Many software developers create applications for Facebook which make the site not only more interesting and entertaining but also help to generate revenues (Stone, 2007). With the help of key partners, Myspace can get help for its design as well as applications that help to make the site interesting. What is more, key partners help financing; hence Myspace would not only be dependent on advertising revenues. As users find the amount of advertising quite annoying, Myspace can focus on less but personalized advertising. Those steps would help to make Myspace more innovative and it can easier meet the users’ needs in terms of design, safety, new features that make it worth to use. Research Proposal – Method Myspace needs change! More specifically, Myspace needs a re-engineered business model. The previous statistics show that the numbers of Myspace users decline gradually. If this decline continues, the once most popular social network (Bains, 2009) will soon be almost unknown or at least unused. However, with further research on my previously stated ideas based on the problems of Myspace in relation to the Business Model, I will be able to help Myspace creating a new and innovative Business Model that will help to avoid further declining user numbers and to create competitive consistency in the environment of social networking. In order to study the value propositions carefully, I will conduct qualitative research. Only with qualitative research I will be able to gather in-depth understanding of the reasons why people do not use Myspace anymore. I can gather such information in two ways: through interviews and through an online research community. With the help of a qualitative research interview I will gather the facts as well as analyze the meaning (Kvale, 1996). As a result, I will be able to understand the values customers need as well as the reasons and problems which caused the failure of Myspace. By using an online research community, Myspace can put â€Å"the customer at the heart of [the] marketing strategy† (Simon, 2009). Such research communities allow efficient and deep qualitative research online. In such a community, members can discuss certain aspects such as new features and designs, and Myspace can adapt accordingly. Besides, a qualitative research online will probably bring more results since people rather take the time to discuss issues online. However, the qualitative Interview will also be needed because it is an additional in-depth analysis with face-to-face communication that enables immediate follow up questions and answers with high reliability. The qualitative research of both forms will be base on current or former Myspace users and also on general social network users in order to determine the general arget group’s values. Questions for both kinds of researches will for example include what they currently like about Myspace, what they do not like, why they use Myspace, or why they (stopped) using Myspace, what they generally value about Myspace, and their opinions about the competitors such as Facebook. For good measure a detailed research on the competit ors and their best practices is essential. This can be done by further online research on the competitor’s strategies in order to find out what could work for Myspace as well. Plan The following table provides an overview of the estimated time and costs for this project – subject to modifications. For now, I will conduct the research for three weeks, meaning that for example that the online community will be run for three weeks. Part| Time| Costs per hour| Costs per day| Creating online community(5 employees)| 8 hrs| EUR 10 (x5)| EUR 400| Leading discussion online(10 employees)| 3 wks (120 hrs)| EUR 8 (x10)| EUR 9600| Analyzing online community (10 employees)| 2 wks (80 hrs)| EUR 12 (x10)| EUR 9600| Developing questions for both onliny community and interview (4 employees)| 8 hrs| EUR 12 (x4)| EUR 384| Interviews (5 hrs per day)(10 interviewer)| 3 wks (75 hrs)| EUR 12 (x10)| EUR 9000| Evaluation Interview(10 employees)| 2 wks (80 hrs)| EUR 12 (x10)| EUR 9600| Total Costs for staff:| EUR 38584| Further costs: Possible travel costs (for interviewers):ca. EUR 300 Equipment (for Interviewers – recorders etc. ):ca. EUR 400 Technical equipment for online community:ca. EUR 10000 Total Costs:ca. EUR 49284 The additional costs might not apply if the equipment already exists. All prices are including value added taxes. Reflection In this paper I laid the foundation for a re-engineering of Myspace’s Business Model. Back in 2006 and 2007 I was a member of Myspace as well. However, I never liked this social network much since it was confusing, annoying because of all the advertising and I did not feel safe using it. Overall, it did not really work out. Now I am a Facebook user and I totally forgot about Myspace. Apparently, other social network users feel the same way which can be expressed by the declining number of Myspace users. Myspace became quite unpopular, fewer and fewer people visit that site and Facebook out-competed Myspace fast. Therefore I analyzed the problems that resulted in the failure of Myspace. The main overall problem is innovation. Myspace failed to add new features in order to make the platform interesting and worthwhile to keep using it. Myspace totally faded into obscurity wherefore it is essential to re-engineer at the media channels. Also, Myspace did not allow third party developers to help designing the page and add for example applications which not only would make the network more entertaining but also help generating revenues other than advertising. Instead, members were able to design their own profiles. This feature, however, resulted in an overall confusing design and safety problems. Safety problem arose from the bad software as it was easier to install for example spyware. Myspace could not meet the values that the customers need. Aside from bugs such as spyware, spam and phishing, users experienced a great lack of trust and privacy in that online network. To sum it up, I focused on the re-engineering of the following parts of the Business Model Canvas by Osterwalder and Pigneur (2009): Value Propositions, Media Channels, Key Partners, and Revenue Streams. All parts of the business model are connected though. That is why I analyzed all parts with regards to the others. My idea is that Myspace needs to be innovative. It can do so in analyzing both the values of customers and the best practices of the competitors and then adapt accordingly. With this method, Myspace can add new feature that will surely meet the customers’ desires. This is connected with a new design and key partners. Key partners can not only help with the design but also with innovation by adding applications that make Myspace more interesting. Furthermore, key partners would create another method of generating revenues. Then, Myspace would not only depend on advertising revenues and can reduce the annoying advertising to unostentatious, user-personalized advertising. After its changes, people need to be made aware of the new Myspace. This can be done with a short and catchy email to Myspace members who will then positively experience the re-engineered Myspace and spread the word. Additionally, television and Internet advertising campaigns might help to bring Myspace to the people’s minds. I am convinced that those methods and the further research, suggested in form of qualitative interviews, qualitative online community research and qualitative research on the competitors, would help Myspace to survive the competition in the online environment of social networks as well as stop a further downfall. References About Myspace. (2010). Retrieved November 1, 2011 from Myspace http://www. myspace. com/pressroom/2010/11/myspace-introduces-mashup-with-facebook/ Anderson, J. C. , Narus, J. A. , van Rossum, W. (2006). Customer Value Propositions in Business Markets. Harvard Business Review. Arrington, M. (2011, March 23). Amazingly, MySpace’s Decline is Accelerating. Retrieved October 29, 2011 from http://techcrunch. com/2011/03/23/amazingly-myspaces-decline-is-accelerating/ Bains, L. (2009). Facebook Overtakes MySpace as Most Popular Social Networking  Site. Retrieved November 2, 2011 from http://www. switched. com/2009/01/27/facebook-overtakes-myspace-as-most-popular-social-networking-sit/ Blodget, H. (2010). Ignore The Screams–Facebook's Aggressive Approach Is Why It Will Soon Become The Most Popular Site In The World. Retrieved November 2, 2011 from http://articles. businessinsider. om/2010-05-17/tech/29991115_1_ceo-mark-zuckerberg-facebook-s-pr-innovation Business model re-engineering. (n. d. ). Retrieved October 27, 2011 from AMR International http://www. amrinternational. com/services/corporate_and_business_unit_strategy/business_model_re-engineering Cauwels, P. , Sornette, D. (2011). Quis pendit ipsa pretia: facebook valuation and diagnostic of a bubble based on nonlinear demographic dynamics. Retrieved October 30, 2011 from Cornell University Library http://arxiv. org/abs/1110. 1319 Dwyer, C. , Hiltz, S. , Passerini, K. (2007). Trust and Privacy Concern Within Social Networking

Facts and Figures of Eudimorphodon

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Out of Hart, Dworkin and Altman, who provided the best understanding Essay

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Faith and Vocation-Child and Family Services Coursework

Faith and Vocation-Child and Family Services - Coursework Example I have a strong vocation for child and family services because this field offers the most opportunity for integration of faith. Following discussion seeks to illuminate the reality of this claim that â€Å"developing a strong bond between faith and vocation can help one give a definite spiritual meaning to professions like child and family services.† Fea (2010) claims that people are obligated to use whatever knowledge they have in promoting common good according to how it is stipulated in the Bible. According to Hughes & Hughes (2005), it is our duty as Christians to use our skills in a manner that reflects the position we are given by God. Christians believe that God is very pleased when He sees His people using their skills in accordance with the Holy Scriptures. In Matthew 5: 44, Jesus announces the desire of God saying, â€Å"Love your enemies, bless them that curse you† (cited in Scheele, 2006, p. 131). Therefore, it is a religious obligation of children and family service providers to remain professional under all circumstances and help their clients despite their inadequacies. We are not sent by our Lord to greedily advance our personal interests while eschewing the welfare of humanity. It is due to the fact that we have stopped seeing faith and vocation as two entities inextricably linked to one another that such despair and anguish has taken the place of peace in our lives. Remembering the teachings of Jesus Christ when interacting with disadvantaged children and families is bound to motivate us to give our best to those in need because of this influential message in our minds that we have to die one day and answer God. It is important to enumerate just how faith can be expressed by a professional within the field of children and family services. For example, a child of divorced parents can be assisted by a certified specialist in dealing with pressures of daily life by encouraging his/her faith. Every time a disadvantaged child is brought by children

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Understanding strategic corporate social responsibility - Essay Example One of these is called strategic corporate social responsibility, an interesting perspective that is often equated with enlightened self-interest. Considerable amount of literature have been produced on the subject of the stakeholder concept. In addition to the identification of who these stakeholders are, attempts have been made to categorise them. Clarkson (1995) has divided them into primary stakeholders and secondary stakeholders. The former are those who are essential to the survival of the firm: the owners/shareholders, customers, employees, communities, the government, and (contingently) suppliers and creditors. Secondary stakeholders are those that are not essential to the firms survival but are affected by its operations; these include interest groups such as environmentalists, the media, intellectual critics, trade associations, and even competitors. An expansive view would include future generations and natural entities such as the earths atmosphere, oceans, terrain, other living creatures as part of the stakeholders. In this stakeholder model, the welfare of each is an end in itself, not just a means to enrich or b enefit investors. This is in contrast with the traditional concept which puts the interests of the investors/ shareholders as paramount. There are several definitions of corporate social responsibility, but in general, according to Buchholz (1992), the concept means that a private corporation has responsibilities to society that go beyond the production and sale of goods and services at a profit – that the corporation has a broader constituency than the stockholders alone. Post et al (1996) states that a corporation should be held accountable for any of its actions that affect people, their communities, and their environment. Further, the corporation relates to society through more than just the marketplace and serves a wider range of human values than the traditional economic values that are dominant in the marketplace.

A Swot Analysis On Pizza Hut Marketing Essay

A Swot Analysis On Pizza Hut Marketing Essay SWOT Analysis is one of several strategic planning tools that are utilized by businesses plan, gives overall direction to an organization within its chosen environment, guides allocation of resources and efforts. SWOT analysis also provides information that is helpful in matching the firms resources and capabilities with the competitive environment that it operates. Other than this, the process of SWOT involves four areas of consideration: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It should be noted that when identifying and classifying relevant factors, the focus is not just on internal matters, but also external components that could impact the success of the project. Strengths are defined as the positive attributes of the organization, which are within the organizations control. Such as, specialist marketing and advertising skills, patents, introduction of new and innovative product or service, cost benefit through proprietary knowledge, strong reputation. Weaknesses is f actors that are within the organization control and can easily be improved. It is necessary to take care of your weaknesses because these factors can detract you in achieving your goals and objectives. Opportunities is portunities are the external factors that are providing benefit your business directly or indirectly. Such as, market growth, careful research about market, market size. Threats these are also the external factors, which are not in organizations control, but they can seriously damage your organization mission. Threats include competition, economic crises, earthquakes, competition, price war, new regulations. Pizza Hut is the company owned by Yum! Brands in 1997 by Wichita and Kansas. The headquarter is located at Texas USA. The company is engaged in restaurant industry producing wide range of pizzas, pastas etcà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ By 1972, with 314 stores nationwide, Pizza Hut went public on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock ticker symbol PIZ.In 1977, Pizza Hut was acquired by PepsiCo, who later also bought KFC and Taco Bell. In 1997, the three restaurant chains were spun off into Tricon, and in 2002 joined with Long John Silvers and AW Restaurants to become YUM! Brands. Pizza Huthas opened Pizza Hut Express which specializes in small 6pizzas. The oldest continuously operating Pizza Hut in the world is in Manhattan, Kansas, in a shopping and tavern district known as Aggie Ville. 2.0 SWOT for Pizza Hut 2.1 Strengths The strengths of Pizza Hut is the main strengths of company is their focus on their product and services. Added to that is the ambience or the facility which is not under the category of fast food but a restaurant. The idea of creating this kind venue is to provide the bond between families and friends. Another factor is the on-going efforts of the restaurant to provide the healthier pizza. It is because they found out that there is a percentage of their target that is health conscious. The idea is to strip or cut off the unnecessary calories and fats when the cheeses is added to the dough. The product reinvention did not stop there as the company included to their menus that news tastes and combination of different pizza which is according to the tastes and preferences of the consumers. To gain additional trust from the market, the company pursues their research and develops pizza dippers, as another answer to their never-ending customer demands. 2.1.1 Weakness Pizza Hut is identified as the largest users of cheese that affects the pizza hut branches that lacks the supply of cheese. The problem with alternatives is eventually identified buy the consumers and there is a narrow choices for substitutes. Other than that, the company reported that they incurred high cost in terms of their production, the root of this problem is on the intense competition and their pizza reinvention just to satisfy the taste buds of the customers. As a result, the overhead cost pushed the restaurant branches to have additional charge, not knowing that because of their action, there is more probability to lost most of their consumers. 2.1.2 Opportunities Pizza Hut opened lots of doors through their pizza reinventions or product innovation. This is evident in the increase on the revenue and increasing brand loyalty with their customers. Their service and products are outstanding and the offered new taste combinations and expansion of the varieties of menus also touched their pastas, beverages, and desserts. As said earlier, the opportunity is also part of the marketing strategy of the company to provide the proper utilization of the technology through their online-ordering system. The use of landline is still viable but the evolving world of technology where almost 70% of their customers is sitting in front of the computer gives the company bright ideas to establish their relation with them, with their customers own convenience. 2.1.3 Threats Many companies are bothered by the high competition and Pizza Hut is not different from those companies. Competition really gets the firms to push their limitations and boost up the needed investment just to answer the risky competition. Pizza Hut is also concerned with their customer satisfaction and most of the extensive research and development is allotted to the needs of the customers. The roles of prices, promotions, advertisement, and delivery systems make the competition too risky and lead the customer in some series of confusion. When there are many options, the customers find it hard to choose and sometimes lead to dissatisfaction. 2.2 Market share In the near of the place have a Pizza Hut. Their business is good from many customer. There are many ways to other a pizza and their add-ons in Pizza Hut. The customer can choose whether the order can be made by call or by online. In call ordering, the customer will dial a specific number that been assigned for pizza hut call centre. Here, a customer will be asked about their name and address. The detail will be stored in a database therefore when the same customer call again, their address are already been identified. The customer then can state their order and the staff that work in call centre will double check the order for confirmation. The staff will detail the time of delivery and the price for the customer to stand by. After a certain time, the order will be delivered to the customer. The customer will pay the price and enjoyed the pizza. For online ordering, IT infrastructures are totally involved. The customer needs to log in to Pizza Hut (Malaysia) website using internet. From there, they need to log in. If the customer is a first time using the services, therefore, the customer needs to register. In the registration, the customer will need to fill up a form that asked about the details of the customer such as name, identity card(IC), address, phone number and others important details and will be stored in a database. The interesting fact that using online ordering in Pizza Hut is that the customer can save their favorite choice of menus for future order. Then, the customer will state the order and check the order before checkout. After checkout, the customer will need to pay using Maybank2U.com.my. A transaction authorization code (TAC) is needed for security reason. After payment had been settled, there will be an email sent it to the customer to confirming the order had been received. The customer will received the order by delivery within hour or on the specific date that been selected by the customer itself. Why are there good of business The fast food self-service concept like KFC, McDonalds, AW and Marrybrown seemed to draw more lunch time crowd compared with Pizza Huts dine-in concept of catering mainly to dinner crowd. This causes a major restaurant space slag and wasted capacity due to timing difference. But then, Pizza Hut Malaysia is part of KFC and strategically, this is a niche over second generation type of restaurant practiced by Dominos Pizza What Pizza Hut may attempt to do is to introduce a fast food lunch package consisting of a slice of pizza, garlic bread, coleslaw/salad and a Pepsi and pricing the lunch pack equal or cheaper to the fast food counterpart to draw lunchtime crowd. Most office workers have only one hour and speed of service is key to its success. This will definitely increase sales turnover and eventually proliferate the pizza eating culture in Malaysia. Pizza Hut restaurants are centrally located and combine modern dà ©cor with the atmosphere of a classic, traditional restaurant. The comfort of our restaurants, their carefully designed lighting and modern music, create an attractive environment. All our restaurants have air conditioning. Our sanitation network and our strict adherence to the rules of the health inspectorate ensure that all our restaurants are clean and hygienic. Conclusion Pizza Hut has many targets which it has achieve in a given period of time. The time-period is mostly a tear. Therefore, in order to fulfill the targets different strategies are adopted by Pizza Hut. It can be concluded that these strategies have been successful and there is flexibility in the strategies, as they can be changed with the changes in the market conditions as well as the targets. Pizza Hut has built the strong reputation of its brand throw giving the quality products and earned the respect from its customers. Its innovation and quality with commitment took higher and higher during past few years. But still the company is planning to go and capture more market share. The employees and the management know what they have to attained through the targets which have been put to them and the plans they have assumed help them recognize the way they will accomplish the objectives. Similarly, Pizza Hut has diverse targets set to the mand they have adopted different strategies to su ccessfully achieve the targets set. 1.0 Introduction The factors which influence a decision are also termed as its environment. The environment can be Internal, can be controlled by the organization; Micro, specific to the industry and is different for different industries; and lastly Macro, generic in nature and impacts the whole business environment. The Macro Environment includes all the factors which are external to the firm and which cannot be controlled by the organization. And also they are not specific to any industry but influence all the firms but the influence may be at different level. As a Marketing manager, on musty have knowledge of different factors which influences the marketing decision of a firm, And also since they are not controllable, one must adjust the decisions as per the changes in the environment. The Important factors comprising the Macro Environment of Marketing are Demographic, Economic, Socio-Cultural, Natural, Technological and Political-Legal. Influence of each factor shall be discussed in detail in the following parameters. 2.0 Macro-environment factors would impact on the operation of Pizza Hut of Malaysia 2.1 Demographic factors The demographic factors in the take-out pizza industry have provided new positive opportunities for companies in the industry. Now day, Pizza hut have many ways to order. Many people like to use the number specially to order the pizza from Pizza Hut. Pizza Huts general market segment is younger generation. But they go wide in this thing. They segment high incomes and business class families which can spend money on the best pizza sin the market. Pizza Huts global slogan is also describing its market segmentation that is Now its time to eat more. But in Pakistan, the slogan is Share the good times. Main age group is12-30 years. Pizza Hut Pakistan offers Halal foods to all its customers. Pizza Huts general market segment is younger generation. But they go wide in this thing. They segment high incomes and business class families which can spend money on the best pizzas in the market. Pizza Huts global slogan is also describing its market segmentation that is Now its time to eat more. Bu t in Pakistan, the slogan is Share the good times. Main age group is 12-30 years. Pizza Hut Pakistan offers Halal foods to all its customers. 2.2 Economic environment Economic environment is the factors that affect consumer buying power and spending patterns. For Pizza Hut, this part is concerned to the overall perspective for the economy. The macro economy of a nation has a huge impact on a business such as Pizza Hut. Factors in the economy include the gross domestic products, the unemployment and inflation rates, the foreign trade deficit and surplus. If the overall economy of a country is not favourable, lesser people will franchise Pizza Hut because they will most likely loss a great amount of money instead obtaining profits. 2.3 Natural environment Pizza Hut for being the first mainstream fast food chain to jump on the Natural wagon. I saw an advertisement today for Pizza Huts new Natural pizza. Whats so natural about this pizza. 1. Multi-Grain Crust (note not organic, not whole wheat, but a multitude of grains) 2. Sauce made-with organic tomatoes 3. Choice of new natural toppings (which from the images they showed consists of sliced tomatoes and begs the question are the rest of the toppings not-natural?) 4. All-Natural mozzarella cheese Its just yet another example of the bastardization of the term natural. Junk food purveyors of the world are all racing to slap the term natural on their packaging to win the hearts, taste buds and market share of pseudo-conscious consumers. 2.4 Technological environment The technological environment is about the new technology creates new markets and opportunities, replaces existing products and service. Also to research and development activity drives this sector, country spending on RD. Other than that, technological environment include government programs to encourage more and government agencies to regulate new product safety. The fast changes in technology nowadays have far-reaching effects in the business. The factors that have a huge impact are the research and development, internet and e-commerce, and new technologies. The research and development has effects on the business of Pizza Hut because through RD new products are developed for the business, the internet and e-commerce also contributes to the technological factors because through them customers can give feedback regarding the products of Pizza Hut which can also aid in the research and development, and the service of the company. Political environment Political environment is about laws, government agencies, and pressure groups, influence and limit organizations and individuals within a society, increasing legislation. And also increased emphasis on ethics and social responsibility. Business legislation is used to protect consumers, businesses, and the interests of society. It is the most difficult from the four factors because the attitudes and beliefs of people are difficult to quantify. Aside from the attitudes and beliefs, demographic factors such as population and life expectancy are also important aspects in the analysis of the social factors. The influence of the values and beliefs affects the business of Pizza Hut. For example in India beef or pork is not served in the Pizza. The changing trends in the taste of the consumers also play an important role in the external analysis of the environment. If the current trend in the society is being health conscious, thus consumers will demand that the foods be healthy. Its most di fficult from the four factors because the attitudes and beliefs of people are difficult to quantity. Aside from the attitudes and beliefs, demographic factors such as population and life expectancy are also important aspects in the analysis of the social factors. The influence of the values and beliefs affects the business of Pizza Hut. The changing trends in the taste of the consumers also play an important role in the external analysis of the environment, if the current trend in food is thai. Therefore Pizza Hut can add an additional food such as vietnarnese or thai soups. If the current treand in the society is being health conscious, thus consumers will demand that the food be healty. Cultural environment Cultural environment is an institutions and other forces that influence. Societys basic values, perceptions, preferences, and behaviours. Core beliefs passed on through family, reinforced by institutions and secondary beliefs are more open to change. Sometimes that peoples views of, themselves, others organizations, society, nature and the universe. Each country has its own specific culture which is called National Culture and can be defined as : The values, belief, attitude and norms shared by individuals from a specific country that shape their behavior and beliefs about what is important? Every global organization has its own culture which is called Organizational Culture. Pizza Hut manages in global environment by giving more importance and emphasis to the national culture than its own culture. 3.0 Conclusion Pizza Hut is company who business model had stood the test of time. Today they are an industry giant with name recognition and restaurants spanning the globe. The company has been able to retain market share despite efforts by competitors due to introduction of new products and services and the customer focus. Pizza Hut strives to achieve customer satisfaction and loyalty. They created a system in order to receive customer feedback in order to improve service. They also created a bonus structure which makes individual store managers focus on the customer experience. The bonus structure needs to be restructure to avoid the current situation of managers of poor performing stores receiving bonuses while managers of very profitable stores, receiving less if not nothing at all. The focus on the customer experience is a contributing attribute which separates the company from the rest of the competition. If your customer is satisfied and feels you are delivering good value, then loyalty will grow your business. A loyal, satisfied customer, is you best form of advertising. And also they are not specific to any industry but influence all the firms but the influence may be at different level.