Adaptation Strategy Wal-Mart has recognized the shift in the spending habits of our consumers. They have realized that many consumers no longer purchase the products they want, but strictly the products they need. Wal-Mart’s strategy is to provide the products in high demand at the lowest possible cost. The company adhered to their strategy by implementing tactics such as, increasing the inventory in areas of necessity, such as food, health, and beauty, and decreasing the inventory on items such as apparel and home décor. Food consumption is not an option; it is essential.
Also the low switching cost and consumer awareness of shopping around to find the best bargains increased competition around stores to capture customers. Corporate stakes were high for Wal-Mart, this can be seen in its earlier years (Ben Franklin stores) where they were losing
That’s why the Walmart management started to plan a slower new store growth, so that the impact of new stores on comparable store sales will be stabilizing over time. Walmart International includes numerous different formats of retail stores and restaurants that operate outside the United States. The volatility in currency exchange rates may impact the International segment’s net sales. For example, the net sales in fiscal 2009 increased due to their global expansion activities and comparable store sales increases. The figure is however offset by a $2.3 billion unfavorable currency exchange rate impact.
2010) is provided below. 1167872 4 Despite the leading position and the good business results, SWOT shows several sources of potential risks for UST. The company is losing market share against new price-value competitors because of slow innovation and late product introduction and extensions. Historically, UST relied on his leading market position boosting earnings with annual prices increases. But in the meanwhile smaller competitors started to quickly erode market share with prices cut.
Starbuck’s case What went wrong and what would you recommend for improvements? Stock price plummeted Starbuck’s experience lost its flavor Competition from below and above Too much real estate, too fast : Recommendation : starbuck’s stores cannibalizing each others sales => relocate Starbucks’s stores strategically It was as an upper class coffee chain that they first made their mark and was what defined the success of the company. Sure people were aware that the beverages at Starbucks were more expensive than at many cafés but they still frequented the outlets, as it was a place ‘to see and be seen’. Setting up a brand as a symbol of status has served many companies well but if the company becomes too commercial and widely used it will lose much of its’ initial appeal. After all, if every second person appeared to be wearing Armani clothing, would anyone pay $400 for an Armani shirt.
Since textile-mill was a labor-intensive industry, in more recent years, the search for cheaper production costs had begun to move the textile-mill industry to Asia. Secondly, the strong U.S. dollar had made foreign textile manufacturers products much cheaper than those from U.S. companies. In addition, the World Trade Organization recently had announced that it would ban its members from using quotas, which would further open the U.S. market to competition from other countries. So how would Aurora face the crisis, since its sales have decreased four years in row, and its price fell from $30 per share to $12 per share, how would Aurora solve its problems? Zinser 351, a new ring-spinning machine, was under considered by the management of Aurora.
However, Kodak recognizes that for all of the success obtained worldwide, they must continuously re-evaluate digital technology in order to remain ahead of their competitors within the industry. Kodak’s stability became a concern due in part to the lenient sales in the United States, which where a result of the conflicts they had between Fujifilm and New Advancement of Photo Systems. They were forced to have significant number of layoffs (16,000), due to the strength of the U.S dollar, exports became less profitable and imports were more profitable for their competitors. The slow growth in the market contributed to the decrease in market shares, which Kodak was faced with. In 1993, Kodak hired George Fisher to be the CEO of the company.
The company had stores on every corner, which resulted in high costs. Once the industry started evolving with new technologies, these stores became sunk costs for the retailer. Online-only retailers who enjoyed much lower costs than the brick and mortar stores were able to profitably charge customers a lower rate; however, at the same time, Blockbuster Video was saddled with the high costs of labor as well as the physical stores. It was not long before Blockbuster’s costs became too much for the retailer, as they were forced into bankruptcy. Today’s market landscape looks much differently than it did when Blockbuster Video was at its peak.
CASE ANALYSIS LOBLAW COMPANIES LIMITED: PREPARING FOR WAL-MART SUPERCENTERS MKTG 5571-2 Dr. Gordon Fullerton Minh Pham A00340046 Jan. 23, 2013 1. PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION Due to the powerful competition from Wal-mart and its recently poor performance, Loblaw was experiencing a plummet in operating income and losing customers’ faith. As a result, its dominant market shares were threatened to shrink. The problem facing the new management team was building a new business plan in order to turn around its business to stay strong in competition and remain the leading position in the market with the three values: Simplify, Innovate and Grow. 2.
The problem with this operation is, in order to attract enough customers, the final product must be affordable and yet, still delicious. This brings up many problems with the dietary quality of the food produced by fast food restaurants. The food is often cooked in grease and oils which increases the amount of calories and fat grams per serving. With less home cooked meals on the plate and more foil wrapped sandwiches and fries hitting the table, people’s diets are being neglected of their basic necessities. However, fast food companies are managing to keep their drive-thrus filled by spending millions of dollars on advertisements.