In spite of the economic downturn globally during the fourth quarter of 2008, Alibaba.com announced that total revenue for the company increased 39 percent over 2007, and registered users jumped by 80 percent. More than 1 million new members joined during each of the third and fourth quarters of 2008. Questions • What are the implications of the company's new ownership structure and shareholder expectations? Over the years, Alibaba.com has developed an effective group of programs and tools to make using the site easier, safer, and more rewarding. Alibaba.com must keep the customers royalty by developing more easy to use, advanced tool on the website, better service to make distinct with the competitors.
It is measurably more expensive to attract a new customer than to retain an existing customer. So why do so many companies focus their efforts and their dollars solely on new customers? It is because every organization is committed to growth and growth is associated with building new business. However, in order to maintain continuous profitability, companies must establish and maintain profitable relationships with all of their customers (past, current and future). Business leaders must do four things to have profitable customer relationships.
The U.S. carpet and rug industry recorded sales of $11.69 billion at manufacturer’s prices in 1999. Carpet and rug retail sales were estimated to be $17.9 billion. Industry sales are divided between “contract,” or commercial, sales for institutions and businesses and residential sales for household replacement carpets (Kerin & Peterson, 2004). Competitors: The U.S. carpet and rug industry is undergoing a period of consolidation begun in the mid-1980s. Mergers, acquisitions, and bankruptcies among manufacturers brought about by declining demand for carpet and rugs, excess manufacturing capacity, and dwindling profit margins reduced the number of carpet and rug manufacturers from more than 300 in the mid-1980s to about 100 companies in early 2000.
The launching of a new retail concept in the midst of the then gloomy economic environment was certainly risky. Amid other high end beauty marketers struggling during this economic downturn, CVS was poised to try and lure away some of their clientele. Named Beauty 360, the first stores were launched in 2008. This study will analyze the factors and decisions CVS made in deciding to enter this market, and, if these choices proved practical. Introduction CVS Pharmacy is the second largest pharmacy chain in the United States with over 7,000 stores in 41 states and $86 billion in revenue (Prior, 2008).
From the moment Tom was in charge of the company he focused on increasing the companies profit margin. This was not an easy job being that the company’s main products are considered commodities. Aside from that the partyware industry is constantly gaining new competitors that capture the market with similar products at lower prices. Tom Rose is currently faced with two marketing strategies that could be considered industry game changers and greatly impact his business. The original strategy is the launch of a brand line for Rose Partyware that will showcase a new printing technology that will improve quality and reduce costs.
Introduce Solberri operated in the hotel industry with the leisure travelers as their main customers. After many years of making losses, Solberri has finally turned its business around to be profitable. However, there are still many issues facing Solberri and the industry itself is in the beginning of a downturn. The industry After 9/11, and the following worldwide economic downturn, hotel groups performed poorly. Recent years have seen booming worldwide economies ensure high occupancy levels and increasing profitability.
Case 13-2 According to the case, revenues of Athenian Press were down over the past 2 years by 7%, while the company made its targeted growth of 2%. Steve Womble, the sales manager for the Athenian Press, felt that most of the decrease in sales was due to the need for change in the sales organization. However, there are several factors that impact the sales: 1) Competition for retail advertisements is strong in this area 2) Each salespeople handle too much customers (8 sales reps: 800 accounts) 3) each sales reps has too many responsibilities. Reorganizing sales division can solve those problems. Revising sales territories can be the most hurried things to do because it can be seen that in past two years the sales division has never reorganized.
He succeeded by showing that McDonald’s revenue had climbed 11% during 2006 and net profits had climbed 36%. In the 1990’s, the decline in McDonald’s once vaunted service and quality can be traced when headquarters stopped grading franchises for cleanliness, speed and service. It began to fail consistently with its new product introduction because of problems with the product development process. Because of first-ever decline in annual earnings, CEO Michael R.Quinlan was forced out and replaced by Jack M.Greenberg. However, Greenberg also failed and McDonald’s stock slide 60% in three years.
In contrast, they are the largest corporate bankruptcy in American history. They were an energy trading company, but made their money by buying and selling energy contracts, instead of actually generating energy themselves. Enron was formed by a merger between Houston Natural Gas (HNG) And InterNorth (Frontain, n.d.). Formed in Houston in the 1920’s, HNG was formed from the Houston Oil Corporation to provide gas to retail customers InterNorth began as Northern Natural Gas Company, organized in Omaha, Nebraska in 1930. “In May 1985, a deal was announced in which InterNorth would acquire HNG for $2.4 billion dollars.
* A business should focus on increasing strategic advantages. Back then, the main goal of a business was to make a good profit, but today in addition to making a profit, companies pay more attention on ‘time to market’. Project management helps in shortening the product life cycle which makes it an important force of modern business. A product life cycle of 10 to 15 years those days has been compressed to a life cycle of 1 to 3 years. It is said that a delay of 6 months in a project can cause a loss of 33% in product revenue share.