Pebble Smart Watch Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Pebble Smart Watch - Research Paper Example The Pebble Smartwatch, in its latest campaign in Kickstarter, has been touted as the most funded project in the history of the site, generating close to $9 million in pre- orders during the first day of its funding campaign. Indeed, the campaign easily topped $14 million dollars a few days after the watch made its re-entry in the crowdfunding site. The massive popularity of the watch was evident in the way its first forays into crowdfunding in Kickstarter were also massively successful. This success allowed the firm behind it to launch itself into viability on nothing more than the success of this first crowdfunding initiative. Aside from the basic Pebble, which was launched earlier, the new crowdfunding initiative has the introduction of a new product variant, known as the Pebble Time Steel. This new model sells for $250 and has been well-subscribed. On the other hand, those massive numbers in sales translate to more modest number scales when it comes to ordered units, as the Pebble Time has been ordered by just 57,000 customers. To put this number into perspective, the launch of the new Apple watch product is expected to generate millions of units in sales, if not hundreds of millions. This tells us something of the target market of the watch presently, and of the way by which the evaluation of the marketing strategy and the marketing mix of the product range is to proceed (Murphy). The latest figures, meanwhile, put the total raised funds for the new watches at $20 million dollars and counting, making this latest Kickstarter foray a massive success (Weber and Babb). On the other hand, the overall levels of sales Pebble are encouraging at more than one million units at the end of 2014. To be sure, the initial distribution point of the Internet and Kickstarter had been complemented in 2013 by the entry of Pebble watches in Best Buy, but one can say that

Contemporary Issues in Strategic Management Assignment

Contemporary Issues in Strategic Management - Assignment Example Vodafone reached this enviable position through a series of alliances, joint ventures and acquisitions. Section 2 of this paper analyzes Vodafone’s value chain and elucidates its capabilities and core competencies. The Porter’s generic strategies have been discussed and an explanation of which type of strategy Vodafone pursued has been detailed in Section 3 of the paper. Section 4 of the paper discusses in depth the acquisition strategies of Vodafone. An in-depth analysis of pre-acquisition rationale and steps involved therein like analysis of strategic fit, valuation methods and due diligence has been done. The post integration efforts have also been detailed in this section. An attempt has been made to apply the Haspeslagh and Jemison Framework in the post integration efforts. The discussion in this section extends to gauging the overall effectiveness of the acquisition strategy. Any organization with a global footprint can pursue a global strategy, a multi-domestic strategy or a transnational strategy. Vodafone’s choice of International strategy has been discussed in Section 5 of this paper. An organization is able to compete successfully in the marketplace if it can deliver superior value to its customer vis-Ã  -vis the rival firms. The creation of this value entails a series of activities which have been referred to as the value chain by Michael Porter. The arrangement and completion of various activities and their linkages determine whether the firm will be able to manufacture a product for which the customer is willing to pay a price that is higher than the cost of producing the product. The activities in the value chain are divided into two broad categories namely primary activities and support activities (Grant, 2010, Pg 111) . The primary activities enable the manufacturing of the product that the organization intends to sell in the market. This offering may be goods (tangible products) like