[SCRIPT] CorpBrand - Mastering the Corporate brand strategy

Discussions about scenario games and user-defined scripts.
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infoscott
Level 3 user
Posts: 64
Joined: Fri Mar 06, 2015 11:04 pm

[SCRIPT] CorpBrand - Mastering the Corporate brand strategy

Post by infoscott »

This script was written as like a game scenario, based on a thread about the effective use of Corporate brand strategy started here.

Code: Select all

// Begin script CorpBrand.txt

// This script is the final product of a discussion on the Corporate Brand strategy, and its effective use.
// Created by user [infoscott] on 4/3/15.
// Written for Capitalism Lab version 2.6.34 Release

[HEADER]
Title=Corporate Brand Hurdle
Description=The Corporate Brand strategy has many advantages after a company takes off, but you are starting from behind. The AIs have more expertise and capital, and the seaports will not be much help. You will be expected to master Manufacturing and Retail using only your Corporate Brand and trading partner agreements.

[ENVIRONMENT]
Number of Cities=7
Your Start-up Capital=Low
Random Events=Never
Game Starting Year=1990
Retail Store Type=Many
Technology Disruption=Yes
Stock Market=No
Alternative Stock Sim=No
Macro Economy Realism=High
Inflation=Inverse
Inflation Strength=Normal

[COMPETITORS]
Number of Competitors=30
Competitor Start-up Capital=High
Competitor Aggressiveness=High
Competitor Expertise Level=Moderate
Show Competitor Trade Secrets=Yes
AI Friendly Merger=Yes
Competence of Local Competitors=Low

// Trying to balance the competitor types to make for an optimum integrated supply chain environment.
// This section commented out before release 2.7 as it causes AI companies to drop out.
// Retail Focused Companies=2
// Stock Focused Companies=2
// Real Estate Focused Companies=2
// Tech Focused Companies=2
// Media Focused Companies=0
// Diversified Companies=22

[IMPORTS]
Consumer Goods Seaports=1
Industrial Goods Seaports=1
Constant Import Supply=No
Import Quality=Low

[PLAYER EXPERTISE]
// The player gets a balanced slight advantage in expertise. Because the AI is reluctant to get into raw material...
// ...extraction, the player gets more expertise there. The player is expected to fully leverage the Corporate brand...
// ...without any expertise advantage.
Retailing=20
Farming=20
Manufacturing=20
Research and Development=20
Raw Material Production=40
Marketing=0
Training=20
// The player may still be assigned a random product class expertise.

// Goals are intentionally omitted in order to allow a more open ended play style.
// There should be sufficient challenge in keeping up with the AI players as the markets mature.
// An informal goal is to get maximum brand rating in 5 out of 7 cities using the Corporate brand strategy exclusively.

[LOCKS]
// Owning media firms is locked out. All product classes and products are available.
Firm, TV Station
Firm, Newspaper Publisher
Firm, Radio Station

// End script CorpBrand.txt
Media firms and the stock market are turned off to players to allow focus on manufacturing and retailing. The player is expected to start and finish using the Corporate brand strategy, with a soft goal of obtaining 5 out of the 7 cities with a 100+ brand rating.

I will run test games against this script until I'm happy that it is ready to use for creating a business journal on Cap Lab Fans.
infoscott
Level 3 user
Posts: 64
Joined: Fri Mar 06, 2015 11:04 pm

Re: [SCRIPT] CorpBrand - Mastering the Corporate brand strat

Post by infoscott »

Here is a saved game using the CorpBrand script; hitting a major stopping point at the year 2000. This game is from the Business Journal on CapitalismFans.com

Although not mentioned in the journal, current brand ratings range from 16 in a city with only a wholesale frozen beef market to 52 in the headquarters city, Rome. Rome had been running a negative customer loyalty for some time, but finally switched positive years after the toy doll wholesale factory was converted over to jeans.

Two mega-classes are represented. Frozen Foods in Food & Beverage cover every city, and now most cities have Leather Goods and Apparel in its mega-class. Leather and certain apparel products production was capped due to a limited leather supply, but I just recently converted the Cairo frozen beef farm to a leather farm. So there will need to be some redistribution of this new leather supply.

In areas where the AI has a significant lead in brand rating, I'm still not experiencing any great difficulties with market penetration. In many cases the AI has a supply agreement and is the sole supplier, limiting how much share he and his partners can take because of limited production.

The next step in bringing in third party product for relabeling and retail would likely be in food and beverage. For purpose of the business journal this wouldn't work, since the CEO is determined to make all his products organic and/or sustainable. But for a diagonal integration business model, this would be the logical next step.

As can be seen from the rankings, starting capital of $20 million versus the AI's capital of $50 million was not a significant handicap. Even with the Business Journal's story line limitations, Wholesome Goods has become first in revenue and a close second in profit.

Most of the time business volume has grown due to stores cited in high traffic areas and product quality being high. There has been little need to advertise through media, and much of the ad spending in the last five years has been to boost branding awareness. Around year 6 or 7 I maxed out public relations spending to correspond with the story line's press release campaign as part of a Strategic Marketing tactic. If public relations spending does have an effect on erasing negative brand loyalty, it's hard to measure. I'm not sure the positive contribution to brand awareness is worth the expense. :?
Attachments
200001Rankings.png
200001Rankings.png (83.52 KiB) Viewed 2847 times
200001IncomeAndEconomic.png
200001IncomeAndEconomic.png (207.85 KiB) Viewed 2847 times
200001BalanceSheet.png
200001BalanceSheet.png (204.76 KiB) Viewed 2847 times
CorpBrand2000.zip
Running Corporate Brand script and branding strategy starting in Year 1990.
(3.89 MiB) Downloaded 141 times
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