| Course | MGT 570 Advanced Strategic Management |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 4 |
| Paper type | MBA business-level strategy recommendation |
| Length | About 1,006 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Aspen University |
| Program | Master of Business Administration |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MGT 570 Module 4
A Billboard for the Corner Bakery: Choosing a Business-Level Strategy Between Red and Blue Oceans
Student Name
Master of Business Administration, Aspen University
MGT 570: Advanced Strategic Management
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
A Billboard for the Corner Bakery: Choosing a Business-Level Strategy Between Red and Blue Oceans
By this point in the course, Natural State Outdoor has a defined purpose, scenarios for its environment and an internal analysis showing that its grandfathered permits and local selling relationships are its real advantages. Today it sells mostly monthly static boards to mid-size local businesses and some national brands, and it competes with national outdoor firms largely on price. Its margins have narrowed. This paper chooses how it should compete.
Generic Strategies
Porter (1980) set out three routes to beating rivals: having the lowest costs in the industry, offering something buyers will pay extra for, or doing either for a narrow slice of the market. He warned that firms attempting all at once risk being stuck in the middle. Natural State cannot be the cost leader against national firms with larger scale. Differentiation and focus remain possible.
Pure or Hybrid?
Thornhill and White (2007) tested Porter's claim using data from businesses across many industries, measuring how clearly each pursued cost leadership or differentiation. They found evidence that businesses with purer strategies, committed clearly to one approach, tended to outperform those mixing approaches. The finding supports a clear choice rather than trying to beat national firms on price while also offering premium service.
Creating New Market Space
Kim and Mauborgne (2004) argued that most firms compete in red oceans, existing markets where rivals fight over the same customers, and that some succeed by creating blue oceans, new market space where competition is irrelevant. They proposed four actions: eliminate factors the industry takes for granted, reduce factors well below the industry standard, raise factors well above it and create factors the industry has never offered. The aim is value innovation, offering buyers more value while lowering cost.
A Strategy Canvas
| Factor | Current offer | National rivals | Micro-advertiser offer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price per campaign | Moderate | Low for large packages | Very low per day |
| Minimum commitment | One month | Several months, many boards | One day |
| Creative design help | Little | Agency-supplied | Free templates, design in 24 hours |
| Flexibility to change ads | Low | Low | Change daily from a phone |
| Audience measurement | None | Estimates | Simple daily views report |
| Local service | Strong | Weak | Strong |
| Multi-market national packages | Some | Strong | Eliminated |
The Micro-Advertiser Opportunity
Applying Kim and Mauborgne's actions, the company would eliminate national packaging and long contracts for this segment, reduce price per message through digital slots, raise flexibility and local service and create things the industry has not offered small firms: same-week booking, free design and daily reporting. Research by the sales team found that small business owners avoid billboards because of cost, long commitments and not knowing how to design an ad, exactly the factors the new offer addresses.
Testing the Demand
Kim and Mauborgne's approach can mislead if the new market is imagined rather than tested. The sales team surveyed 300 small businesses in Little Rock and Tulsa that had never advertised outdoors. About 40% said they would consider a billboard message if a day cost under $150 and design was included; their most common reasons for never trying were cost, long contracts and not knowing how to make an ad. A three-month pilot selling day slots on eight digital faces drew 140 first-time advertisers, and 45% bought again within two months.
Why Not Stay the Course
Continuing to sell monthly static boards to mid-size advertisers and some national brands would leave the company in a red ocean against national firms with greater scale. Its margins have narrowed by four points in three years, and national firms can bundle many markets in a way a regional company cannot. Thornhill and White's evidence suggests that drifting between price competition and service competition is the weakest position.
Recommendation
Natural State should pursue a focused differentiation strategy aimed at small and mid-size local businesses, built on digital slots at its best permitted locations and sold by its local sales team. It should stop chasing national packages at low margins. The activities that must fit together are digital conversion of prime faces, a simple ordering and design system, sales staff trained to serve first-time advertisers and daily reporting.
Activities in Detail
Each activity supports the others. Digital conversion of permitted faces in Little Rock, Tulsa, Fort Smith and Springfield provides the inventory. A simple ordering system lets an owner choose days, upload a photo or pick a template and pay by card. Two designers turn requests into finished ads within a day. Salespeople shift from closing monthly contracts to helping first-time advertisers succeed and come back. Daily view reports, built from the traffic data the company already buys, show advertisers what they got.
What the Company Gives Up
The strategy means declining some national business at low margins and accepting smaller average orders. Revenue per salesperson may fall at first as they work with more, smaller customers. The owners must accept these trade-offs, which Porter's framework treats as the essence of a real strategy rather than a cost of it.
Pricing the New Offer
Day slots will be priced at $95 to $175 depending on location, with design included for first-time buyers. At these prices, a digital face selling six advertisers a day for most of the month earns more than the same face sold as a single monthly static board, which is why the offer can be cheap for each buyer and still raise revenue per face.
Risks
National firms could copy the offer on their own digital faces, but they lack the local relationships and grandfathered locations. Small advertisers may churn quickly, so retention will be measured closely.
Measures
The company will track first-time advertisers, repeat purchase rates, revenue per digital face, the share of revenue from businesses under fifty employees and gross margin, reviewing them quarterly against the pilot's results.
Conclusion
Porter's options, Thornhill and White's evidence for clear commitment and Kim and Mauborgne's blue ocean actions point to the same choice: compete for the many local businesses that have never advertised outdoors, using the permits and relationships rivals cannot match.
References
Kim, W. C., & Mauborgne, R. (2004). Blue ocean strategy. Harvard Business Review, 82(10), 76-84.
Porter, M. E. (1980). Competitive strategy: Techniques for analyzing industries and competitors. Free Press.
Thornhill, S., & White, R. E. (2007). Strategic purity: A multi-industry evaluation of pure vs. hybrid business strategies. Strategic Management Journal, 28(5), 553-561. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.606
Reading the MGT 570 Module 4 assignment instructions
Module 4 in Aspen's MGT 570 is where analysis turns into a choice about how to compete. A paper generally compares strategic options using established frameworks and recommends one, showing what the organization would do differently. Your section's Module 4 page sets the requirements; Natural State Outdoor remains the worked case. Summarize what earlier analysis found, including the firm's real advantages. Explain generic strategies and at least one approach to creating new market space, citing the original sources. Review evidence on whether firms should commit to one strategy. Compare options on the factors customers value, using data from customers where possible. Recommend a strategy and describe the activities, investments and trade-offs it requires.
Inside the MGT 570 Module 4 example
The company now sells mostly monthly static boards to mid-size local and national advertisers, competing with national firms on price. Porter's book on competitive strategy describes cost leadership, differentiation and focus. Thornhill and White's Strategic Management Journal study across many industries examined whether strategic purity, committing to cost or differentiation, outperformed hybrid approaches. Kim and Mauborgne's Harvard Business Review article on blue ocean strategy proposes eliminating, reducing, raising and creating factors to open new demand. A strategy canvas rates the current offer, rivals' offer and a micro-advertiser offer on price, minimum commitment, creative help, flexibility, measurement and local service. The recommendation focuses on small local businesses with day-long digital slots, free design templates and same-week booking, while reducing long-term contracts and national packaging.
Reading the MGT 570 Module 4 grading rubric
A competitive strategy recommendation stands or falls on whether the chosen path follows from the earlier analyses and whether the reader can see what the firm will do differently. This example ties options to the permits and local relationships identified in Module 3. Thornhill and White's evidence encourages a clear commitment rather than a muddled mix of low prices and premium service. Kim and Mauborgne's four actions turn the idea of new market space into specific design choices. The strategy canvas shows how the offer differs from rivals', a pilot with real small businesses tests the new market and the recommendation lists activities and trade-offs.
MGT 570 Module 4 help from the desk
Business-level strategy papers often recommend differentiation in general terms. Specify what the firm will offer differently, to whom, and what it will stop doing. Another weakness is ignoring evidence on whether to commit to one strategy. Consider whether new market space exists, but test it with data about potential customers, such as a survey or a small pilot. Use a strategy canvas or similar tool to compare offers. Connect the recommendation to earlier internal and external analysis. Finally, list the activities and investments the strategy requires and how rivals might respond. Test any new market with real customers before committing.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Aspen University document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
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MGT 570 Module 4 questions, answered
What does MGT 570 Module 4 usually ask for?
Aspen's MGT 570 covers business-level strategy in this module, so an MBA paper comparing competitive options and recommending one is typical. Look at your classroom prompt.
Do pure strategies outperform hybrid strategies?
Thornhill and White tested strategic purity across industries and found evidence favoring businesses that committed clearly to one generic strategy.
What is blue ocean strategy?
Kim and Mauborgne's approach to creating uncontested market space by eliminating, reducing, raising and creating factors to offer new value at lower cost.
Where can I find a free MGT 570 Module 4 sample paper?
The example above chooses a business-level strategy for a billboard company, using a strategy canvas and blue ocean thinking to target micro-advertisers.
What is a strategy canvas?
A chart comparing how an offer and its rivals perform on the factors customers value, used to find ways to differ.