Creating Value for Customers

Its a 2 page assignment on Tesla answering these 4 questions:
 
 - Creating Value for Customers. Consider the customers you believe currently use
your product or service and the definition of marketing offered in the course
content. As we begin our study of marketing, what are your preliminary thoughts
as to how you think the company creates value for its customers based on the
concepts in this week's readings. 
 - Role of the Customer in the Company's Strategic Plan. The readings indicate
that the best marketing begins with the customer and that commitment to the
customer begins with including the customer in the company's mission statement.
 Find your company's mission statement. Repeat it (or attach as an exhibit if it
is too long) and comment on its effectiveness in demonstrating the company's
commitment to having a customer focus. Could the mission statement have more
focus on the customer? How would you recommend it be modified? Is it supported
with value statements or other evidence of a customer focus? 
 - SWOT analysis. Identify at least one element of each of the SWOT categories (a
strength, a weakness, an opportunity, and a threat). Explain your choice using a
citation if needed. Then identify possible implications for each of the four
elements. For example, if a strength is a a strong national brand name, the
implication is that the company may be able to launch other related products
under the positive umbrella of the same brand name. Conversely, if a major
weakness is the company is carrying a lot of debt, the implication is that the
company not not be able to achieve significant growth, but may have to consider
retrenchment strategies. 
 - Competitive Analysis. Identify at least two major competitors or those two
products that are trying to sell essentially identical products to the same type
of consumer. Then, identify at least three criteria that are important to those
consumers when they are making their decision as to which of the three competing
offers to buy (e.g. price, specific benefit, service, warranty, convenience,
specific feature, etc.). Make a little chart with the three criteria along the
left-hand side and the competitor products (including your own product) across
the top. Rank each of the products on a scale from 1= low to 5= high on each
performs on each of the three criteria. Add down each column. Which product
ranked highest overall based on the sum of the columns. Then, look at the
highest score in each of the criteria boxes. Which products ranked the highest
on each of the three criteria? Was it the same product, was it three different
products? What do these results tell you about the competitive environment of
your product category. Which product is the leader? Which product is the
follower, challenger and nicher if those categories apply? Attach your chart as
an exhibit.

Learning Outcomes 
 - Creating Value for Customers: Student can demonstrate an understanding of the
concept of value creation. 
 - The Role of the Customer in the Company's Strategic Planning. Student can
assess the company's commit to serving customer needs as evidenced in a company's
mission statement. 
 - SWOT analysis: Student can conduct a simple SWOT analysis (Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) of a product or service offering and draw
inferences from an analysis of the results. 
 - Competitive Analysis: Student can conduct a simple competitive analysis based
on criteria important to the customers of the product or service.