DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Acers strategy has been described as divide and conquer. Explain Acers strategy was to position its brand in the local market, before pursuing regional and then global market. Shih wanted to make sure that people had a good image of his brand and that they associated it with quality and high technology. 2. How did the global markets-local markets paradox figure into Shihs strategy for China? He achieved these global markets by making the brand gain recognition in the mainland and then gained international identity that gave the company an access to advanced business practices, technology and economies of scale that other company didnt have at the time. That gave Acers an advantage over other brands 3. Can Acer become the worlds third largest PC company, behind Dell and Hewlett-Packard? I think if Acers strategy is effective and it focuses on business to consumer and not only in business to business, their goal will be achieved successfully because since this brand started developing, it has faced some struggles but still maintained their vision right to the goal and thats how Acer has been positioned as it nowadays 4. Growth in the U.S. PC market has started to slow down. Despite strong competition from Dell and Hewlett-Packard, Acers U.S. market share increased from 1 percent in 2004 to 3.3 percent by the end of 2006. What are Acers prospects for gaining further share in the United States? Right now Dell and Hewlett-Packard are two very positioned brands and I think their market share is way bigger because their market is different, they decided to have different strategies and if Acer decides to gain further share in the U.S. they should do a new campaign to position Acer as THE choice for a PC

SITUATION - ANALYSIS of the PROBLEM RECOMMENDATIONS

1. What is the decision facing ? Describe the situation and problem in the case. The decision facing is to slow down a first and focus on positioning in the mainland before going regional and then global. The brand needed to have a great image on consumers so that when it arrive new markets, the consumer would be confident about this brand. Acer wanted to be seen as a new technology and quality PC.

2. What factors are important in understanding this decision situation? The poor image that was often associated with products in China. The role of supporting activities for local brands Become well positioned to overtake local mainland firms 1. Make analyses of the situation and come up with some alternatives. I think that the new idea of getting rid of the old-fashioned way of driving Acers brand was great, new ideas were needed to improve the brands image and overtake market share worldwide. New marketing campaign to position this brand as the high technology, quality and not expensive PC. Improve some technology feature or application for the computers. 1. What decision(s) do you recommend? I would do both, they need to do new things to get more market share 2. What are some ways to implement your recommendations? Do some research to develop an application or something interesting for the new PCs and also execute a different marketing campaign that doesnt consist in only typical advertisement; to leave the oldfashioned way it refers to innovate in all the ways its possible.