MKTG Management 9/8/2011 Coach, Inc. Case Study Executive Summary (Problem) The global luxury goods industry consists of men’s, women’s and children’s designer apparel, fine watches, jewelry, and leather goods and generated revenues of over $105 billion in 2005. U.S. companies held a 14% share of the market following Swiss, French and Italian companies who accounted for 19%, 22% and 27% market shares respectively. The market in the U.S. has grown recently in part due to the weak state of the U.S. dollar; companies are able to benefit from the converting of the international currency back to the U.S. currency. Buying habits of U.S. consumers have also characterized the growth of the industry. Middle-income consumers have begun to desire products with higher levels of quality and style.
Colton Scott 07.20.08 Eng101-2DND Essay 9 Gas Effects Everything Rising gas prices in America have had a substantial toll on how Americans live. In 1990 gas prices ranged at about a dollar and a half per gallon. Now, in 2008, gas prices range around four dollars a gallon. Many people complain that these rising gas prices effects how much they travel, but it effects more than that. Prices in gas have changed how much food cost since the transportation of these goods needs gas.
The worst year appeared to be 2009 with the luxury segment rebounding in 2010 and 2011. The following is a comparison of 2011 sales growth of Nordstrom as compared to several of its competitors: Nordstrom 7.2% Neiman Marcus 7.5% Saks 5th Avenue 6.4% Bloomingdales 5.4% Nordstrom, in its most recent Annual Report, anticipates its same-store sales to be 4 to 6 percent but sets a corporate goal of high single digit Total Sales Growth. Total sales growth is achieved through the expansion of retail space and increased online sales. Same-store sales are sales growth
xxxxxxxxx Business Economics GM545 March 2007 Exercise 1: Microeconomic Issues #2 - Ethical Issues in Business. In the early 1990s, I worked for Johnson Matthey (JM) in the division of the company that produced catalytic converter for automobiles. JM's first and largest business was the mining and refinement of precious metals such as gold, silver, platinum, and almost every other type of metal or mineral that is mined. Production of finished products from the refined metals excellent profits and allowed JM to maintain a sustainable advantage in significantly higher margins in finished products. Although market prices for precious metals fluctuated wildly for JM's competitors, JM's costs were tied mainly to mining and production costs which were stable and significantly lower.
This illustrates that even a multi-national company such as Toyota is not immune from financial mistakes, even with a strong past performance and competitive product line up. “Toyota is still faring better than General Motors and Chrysler, which together have received $17.4 billion in emergency loans from the U.S. government, and asked for an additional $21.6 billion in aid last month. (Associated Press, 2009)” All of the other companies like GM, and Honda are still in a worse spot financially than Toyota. Toyota is still performing well against its competition and even after the bailout Toyota still has a well respected brand that they are successfully
Task 1 P1 Describe the type of business, purpose and ownership of two contrasting organisations. In the first of a series of articles Helen Lyne looks at two contrasting business organisations that operate in the North West How different can two organisations be? The first business I will look at is Ford Motor Company .Ford is an international car manufacturing company that has been in business since 1903 and was founded in America by a man called Henry Ford, initially set up in Detroit. Ford soon became dominant in Americas manufacturing industry and at the time was one of America’s largest employers. With new efficient and cheap methods of production like the ‘production line’ Ford’s products (cars) became cheaper than anyone else’s and the Ford business soon came to Europe and other places around the globe.
General Motors General Motors Corporation (GM) is an internationally recognized, global enterprise based in the United States. The company was founded in 1908, and has some of the most recognizable names in the world including; Chevrolet, Hummer, Buick, Cadillac, and Pontiac. Measured by global sales GM was the world’s largest automotive manufacturer for 77 years, until the 2009 financial collapse, and subsequent bankruptcy and government bailout caused major restructuring throughout the company. GM then lost the global sales title in 2010 to Japanese auto manufacturer Toyota, although both GM and Toyota are likely to be ousted this year by German manufacturer Volkswagen (Bloomberg, 2011). GM has had to reevaluate the company’s organizational structure for financial solvency, and to gain a foothold against strong competition expanding into the US and developing markets abroad.
Since Land Rover North America began its operations in 1987, the SUV industry in the United States has developed into an extremely competitive market. Charles Hughes, President and CEO of Land Rover North America, Inc. (LRNA) is debating three positioning options for the new $30,000 Land Rover Discovery. These positioning decision will help determine advertising messages and the overall communication strategy for the Discovery launch. The current situation is that demand for SUVs is changing from symbols of wealth and prestige to experiences. This is seen from the fact that there is an increasing SUV purchasing trend and also with the increase in consumer wealth in US.
Founded in 1976, Olympic Rent-A-Car has grown to be the 4th largest car rental company in USA. They have prided themselves as providing the lowest prices and offering a competitive customer loyalty program. Competitors of Olympic are Enterprise, Hertz and Avis. The competitors take up about 92% of the market, with Olympic earning 8%. In the rental car industry, airport business rentals bring in the largest amount of revenue at 9.6 billion dollars.
The company product line includes the following: Honda Accord, Honda civic, Honda City, Honda CR-V, Honda Legend, and Honda Odyssey. Industry sales decline tremendously due to the de facto peso devaluation in 1997, where the local currency’s value plunged and interest rates skyrocketed. The company immediate concern was to maintain its number one position and regain its lost market share in the passenger car industry. The automotive industry particularly the manufacturing sector and many other industries were severely affected by the Asian financial crisis due to the high set-up cost and operating capital requirements. The currencies of Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines depreciated badly crippling much of Asia and neighboring countries.