BOOTS
•Give a clear definition of the marketing function - what does it aim to do?
-Marketing is a management process so it requires people to take responsibility for decision-making. It involves identifying the needs and wants of customers. It involved anticipating or predicting what customers might want in the future. It seeks to satisfy the consumer and for the business, marketing is all about making a profit.
-The seven functions of marketing are: Distribution, Financing, Marketing Information Management, Pricing, Product/Service Management, Promotion and Selling.
-Its main aim is to satisfy their customer’s needs and wants while generating a profit for the firm.
•In the light of the definition above, how does market analysis help to meet the aims of the marketing function?
-A Market analysis is an investigation of a Market that is used to inform a firm's planning activities around the decision of: inventory, purchase, work force expansion/contraction, facility expansion, purchases of capital equipment, promotional activities, and many other aspects of a company.
-The following are the dimensions of a market analysis:
* Market size (current and future)
* Market growth rate
* Market profitability
* Industry cost structure
* Distribution channels
* Market trends
* Key success factors
-Market Analysis helps in deciding how to get their target market, achieve and gain a place in the market.
•What would you classify the company's market position to be? Justify your answer.
-Market Challenger. In the market for prescription medicines, Boots’s main competition comes from UniChem (who own Moss Pharmacies) and SuperDrug, which are pharmacies around the UK. A market challenger is a firm that seeks to adopt strategies to challenge market leader’s position.
•What are the key marketing objectives of the company?
-Boots' stated goal is to modernise, become more efficient and be more customer focused. They say that in the past, the business has been a steady performer, but has not 'punched its weight' given the strength of its brand.
-Boots's customer loyalty card, named 'Advantage', is strongly associated with their marketing campaigns. The Advantage card is held by nearly 15 million consumers. It is linked with half of all sales in Boots the Chemists.
-Therefore, the company used the marketing mix technique, where marketing mix is the balance of marketing techniques required for selling the product.
-Furthermore, their other objectives are revenue maximisation, consumer and product focus and to overcome competitors.
•In your view, does the marketing strategy adopted by the company appear to help them to meet these objectives?
-In response to the tougher trading conditions, Boots embarked on a programme of price discounting in the third and fourth quarters of 2003-04. A large 'three-for-two' gift promotion over Christmas 2003, helped to boost like-for-like sales by just over 4% during this period.
-In 2004, the company intends to continue its price discounting. The company aims to continue to invest in this area, planning to spend £5 million on price cuts in the fourth quarter of 2003-04.
-Few issues have risen over the company and the community of loyal customers for Boots are growing every year. Yes, as of now, Boots has 17% of the market share in Britain, behind UniChem with a 40% market share.
•What are the main market segments the company appears to be aiming at?
-Boots is a diversified company, which aims to sell their services and good among a wide range of consumers and customers, despite the age, religion, social class, ethnic grouping and lifestyle of the society. Boots is also a single segment – often selling a specialised product, exclusive goods, medicines, home care products and other necessities.
•What type of market structure does the company operate within - how do you think that might affect their marketing strategies?
-Boots operate in Britain within an oligopoly group. As of now, Boots’s main competition comes from UniChem (who own Moss Pharmacies) and SuperDrug, which are pharmacies around the UK. Boots did price skimming with their products as one of their marketing strategies to gain more customers. They also did market penetration where Booths choose to focus on selling existing products in existing markets, where an example is an introduction of the loyalty card Boots has implemented in their company.
•Try to find out what market share the company has in its market. What are the marketing implications of this information for the company?
-As of now, in Britain, Boots has 17% of the market share, behind UniChem with a 40% market share and SuperDrug. Which shows that Boots are behind the leading top firms, Boots is also the largest pharmaceutical wholesaler in the UK. This information will help Boots try to strive harder to be 2nd or along-side UniChem with their marketing strategies.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Is Wal-Mart Good for America?
Is Wal-Mart good for America?
Advantages
-Wal-Mart offers a wide range of consumer goods for the people of America.
-It offers these wide ranges of good with low prices.
-Wal-Mart is a huge retailer market where almost all of the basic needs of a person can be bought easily.
-Wal-Mart created thousands of new jobs and allowed millions of Americans to save money with the low-priced goods.
-It lowered export prices between the countries of US and China.
-Wal-Mart's single-minded focus on low costs with helping contain U.S. inflation.
-Wal-Mart's sales is at around $300 billion a year, are equal to 2.5% of U.S. gross domestic product.
-It creates competition in the US, if there’s no competition, there’s no business.
-Wal-Mart provides lower cost of goods therefore lowering the cost of living for millions of lower income Americans.
-Wal-Mart has improved American productivity both of its own, suppliers and competitors and those things help the American economy.
-It has brought significant retail outlets to many rural and small town regions of America, therefore creating development to that region.
-Wal-Mart has been a leader of the use of information technology and it has refined consumer oriented marketing and production through its extensive data on and knowledge of consumer behaviour.
Disadvantages
-Destroys small businesses in local areas.
-Unemployment rate in the US is increasing; therefore people won’t have jobs and won’t earn enough money to buy their necessities.
-Cutting costs, results in putting out businesses because of not agreeing to an increase in sale price, used in the raw materials needed in making the product. (ex: Rubbermaid)
-Low standard of living for employees in China.
-Poor treatment of employees.
-Wal-Mart has an opening price point strategy where low cost items are advertised.
-Chinese manufacturers are said to be dumping, where the Chinese are producing exports and selling them in the U.S. below the price in China, or below what it costs to manufacture and ship abroad.
-The United States is exporting raw materials to Third World countries and importing their manufactured products, which is a reversal of former economic relations.
-Wal-Mart paid its hourly associates an average of $9.64 per hour -- almost $10 less than the average hourly wage the California supermarket workers were receiving.
-Wal-Mart's detractors point to a trail of litigation over pinch-penny issues like unpaid overtime, and to a federal investigation into its use of poorly paid illegal immigrants as janitors
-A basic flaw in the United States-China trade relationship is that we can afford to buy Chinese products, but they cannot afford to buy ours.
Evaluation
-"Consumers get huge benefits from Wal-Mart as long as it has real competition," Mr. Reich said. "The worry is that it becomes so powerful that it can unfairly stifle competition." Despite the fact that consumers from America are able to get things they want for such a cheap price, the consequences are unimaginable for people struggling to make a living. Wal-Mart outsources jobs to poor countries where labour is cheap and supplies products below the margin price of some of the suppliers. Therefore forcing the companies to agree with a low cost sale price. Then Wal-Mart has an opening price point strategy where low cost items are advertised, where it all has got to do with the customer’s perception of the prices. People are losing their business to countries that produce mass production of products that some are just being dumped into the country. It all depends on the person’s knowledge about Wal-Mart. As for me, the right to run a business and the right and privilege to gain as much as for the sake of you business’s survival is vital in every situation, but the cost to do these kinds of acts, not only cause controversial issues for you business but you take people out of their businesses and you leave them unemployed and took their lifetime job away from them.
Source: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/
Advantages
-Wal-Mart offers a wide range of consumer goods for the people of America.
-It offers these wide ranges of good with low prices.
-Wal-Mart is a huge retailer market where almost all of the basic needs of a person can be bought easily.
-Wal-Mart created thousands of new jobs and allowed millions of Americans to save money with the low-priced goods.
-It lowered export prices between the countries of US and China.
-Wal-Mart's single-minded focus on low costs with helping contain U.S. inflation.
-Wal-Mart's sales is at around $300 billion a year, are equal to 2.5% of U.S. gross domestic product.
-It creates competition in the US, if there’s no competition, there’s no business.
-Wal-Mart provides lower cost of goods therefore lowering the cost of living for millions of lower income Americans.
-Wal-Mart has improved American productivity both of its own, suppliers and competitors and those things help the American economy.
-It has brought significant retail outlets to many rural and small town regions of America, therefore creating development to that region.
-Wal-Mart has been a leader of the use of information technology and it has refined consumer oriented marketing and production through its extensive data on and knowledge of consumer behaviour.
Disadvantages
-Destroys small businesses in local areas.
-Unemployment rate in the US is increasing; therefore people won’t have jobs and won’t earn enough money to buy their necessities.
-Cutting costs, results in putting out businesses because of not agreeing to an increase in sale price, used in the raw materials needed in making the product. (ex: Rubbermaid)
-Low standard of living for employees in China.
-Poor treatment of employees.
-Wal-Mart has an opening price point strategy where low cost items are advertised.
-Chinese manufacturers are said to be dumping, where the Chinese are producing exports and selling them in the U.S. below the price in China, or below what it costs to manufacture and ship abroad.
-The United States is exporting raw materials to Third World countries and importing their manufactured products, which is a reversal of former economic relations.
-Wal-Mart paid its hourly associates an average of $9.64 per hour -- almost $10 less than the average hourly wage the California supermarket workers were receiving.
-Wal-Mart's detractors point to a trail of litigation over pinch-penny issues like unpaid overtime, and to a federal investigation into its use of poorly paid illegal immigrants as janitors
-A basic flaw in the United States-China trade relationship is that we can afford to buy Chinese products, but they cannot afford to buy ours.
Evaluation
-"Consumers get huge benefits from Wal-Mart as long as it has real competition," Mr. Reich said. "The worry is that it becomes so powerful that it can unfairly stifle competition." Despite the fact that consumers from America are able to get things they want for such a cheap price, the consequences are unimaginable for people struggling to make a living. Wal-Mart outsources jobs to poor countries where labour is cheap and supplies products below the margin price of some of the suppliers. Therefore forcing the companies to agree with a low cost sale price. Then Wal-Mart has an opening price point strategy where low cost items are advertised, where it all has got to do with the customer’s perception of the prices. People are losing their business to countries that produce mass production of products that some are just being dumped into the country. It all depends on the person’s knowledge about Wal-Mart. As for me, the right to run a business and the right and privilege to gain as much as for the sake of you business’s survival is vital in every situation, but the cost to do these kinds of acts, not only cause controversial issues for you business but you take people out of their businesses and you leave them unemployed and took their lifetime job away from them.
Source: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/
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