It seems that McDonald’s was able to improve efficiency in 2008. Part 2. Red Flag Analysis As we can see from the Trend Analysis, Most of the ratios improved in 2008. Some of them even had huge improvements. After a thorough search, we found that there was a big impairment in 2007.
According to Pearce and Robinson (2011) by thoroughly developing and exploiting its expertise in a narrowly defined competitive arena, the company achieves superiority over competitors that try to master a greater number of product and market combinations. As stated in their Declaration of Interdependence: “Whole Foods Market is a dynamic leader in the quality food business. We are a mission-driven company that aims to set the standards of excellence for food retailers. We continually experiment and innovate in order to raise our retail standards”(Whole Foods Market, 2012). Through identified niche markets, WFM can leverage some of their customary strong points by recognizing innovated uses for current goods using market penetration.
From the ratio analysis of Tire City, we can see that the company’s financial health is favorable increasing as of 1995. Tire City has a 23.8% ROE, in which it is very consistent throughout its previous years and is above average. Tire Company is very profitable; the profit margin improved from 4.90% to 5.06% in 1995. This growth is due because of the decrease in percentage sales on the cost of goods sold. Also, this increase can be attributed to the competition in the market.
Is Whole Foods’ strategy well matched to market conditions in the food retailing industry (one of the criteria for a winning strategy discussed in Chapter 1)? Yes the Whole Foods strategy has worked well for the company. They have good products and show good employees who also have shares in the company. They do not have much competition only on smaller scales or small areas in existing regular food markets. The company is still expanding even in this poor market and acquiring new stores and companies.
Overall, a rise in revenue and reduction in cost adds to CB’s profitability in Years 6 and 7. In reviewing Competition Bikes total selling expense, it was able to ascertain a huge 33% increase from Years 6 and 7 then managed to decrease that spending in Years 7 and 8 for about 14.9% (approximately $59,000) which is a strength for CB because they were managing their spending. For the Total General and Admin Expenses, Years 6 and 7 had a 20.4 % increase while the following years, 7
“Their goals are nourishing their consumers, nourishing their neighbors, nourishing their employees and nourishing their planet”. SWOT analysis: Strengths: high skills in marketing and R&D, new product introductions, knowledge and experience in the canning and preserving business, strong performance in non-soup segments and expand business in internationally. Weaknesses: working capital and raising expenditures or manufacturing cost. Opportunities: vertical integration, increase differentiation and cost advantages, innovative products and packaging. Threats: variation in raw material prices, raise labor costs, raise in substitutes, change in customer tastes, lower market growth and strong pricing pressure from competitors.
This contains increasing net income and gross sales. Pan-Europa needs to capitalize on their hard earned increased market share. Humbolt and Morin should be leading the charge on this strategy. Because they have more experience about this company and the market. Question 2: Exhibit 3 gives three different ways to look at the data.
2. Improve retail partnership 3. Refocus marketing campaign. Recommendation: * Product Development CGS strength has been its R&D and quality. Exhibit 3: shows that the Metal wood product type sales in 1998 is decreasing by 8% compared to 1997, however, the sales of irons and putter, accessories has gone up.
Goal: The goal is to figure out which sales promotion will be a win-win for all parties involved in the process. This includes the company, manufacturer, wholesaler, and the consumers. Company: Giant Consumer Products (GCP) People- Allan Capps: CEO, Byron Flatt: VP of Sales, Mary Davidson: FFD General Manager, and Mike Sanchez: Director of Marketing -A main concern for GCP is to preserve brand equity and not hurt the overall image by discounting. Current issues within GCP: 1) They need to increase revenue in order to meet Wall Street’s projections or it can seriously hurt the division’s standing within the company. 2) They need to increase demand of their product without hurting long term goals Factors to Consider: 1) 2.8% increase in growth rate between 2003 and 2007 (has slowed down since) 2) Customers view sales promotions as a very positive thing and keeps the product on their minds 3) 50% of consumers’ money spent on food is at restaurants (expected to decrease because of current hurting economy) 4) Current trend of healthier eating and focusing on the ingredients 5) Different types of family dynamics…family eating, childless families, etc.
Some good ideas for retailers to consider after reading this case are, repositioning old images, continuing to target the youth market, and creating a life cycle of retailing whereas, when a customer outgrows a particular brand, you have another brand for the consumer to grow into. There are also many ways that our ever-advancing technology can be incorporated into retailing to aid companies in increasing revenues. All of these strategies are good starting points for soft line specialty store retailers to consider when planning strategies 2. What are the positive implications of this case with respect to the use of leased departments in department stores? Answer: Because of the fact that soft goods are continuing to decline in the way of specialty stores, more and more people are finding what they need from the department stores.