focused goals are possible. "At this level the focus is on building, defending and maintaining competitive positions through the development and implementation of competitive marketing strategies". (Brown, L. 1997, p.11) The role of the SBU strategy is clear, and is also highly relevant to E-commerce issues. This drive to maintain competitiveness in a SBU's market may be the foundation for a move into E-commerce development. As the core goals are to sustain a competitive position, an organisation may decide that E-commerce provide this and inherits it's use in their strategic planning. However, some organisations may find that E-commerce provide them with no significant competitive offering, and hence chooses to ignore it as part of their strategic formulation. The decisions must "follow a well prepared business plan and require a thorough understanding of the impact of the bottom line". (Higgins, J. 1999, p.48) The marketing strategy level of strategic planning identifies some key functional issues that the organisation must implement. This identifies the relevant marketing objectives that the organisation wishes to implement as well as the product market strategies. This level gains a clearer focus on the consumer in each particular target market. This integrates many key marketing ideals, and is used to co-ordinate marketing resource and the marketing mix to reach the desired markets in which are targeted. The Marketing strategy is by far the most relevant in measuring the impact of E-commerce on the marketing strategy formula. While the upper levels in the hierarchy shapes the direction in which various marketing strategies are planned; it is this level that develops the functional elements of this strategy. Retailing in E-commerce A major shift in the evolution of E-commerce is it's impact on the traditional retailing system, in particular the shift of intermediaries from the distribution channel. In theory, the Internet allows ma...
