...wanting to know how to go about introducing a new product. The paper will discuss if it is better to use a late-mover theory or a first-mover theory through the use of positives and negatives of each which will be supported by examples of sixteen companies. Finally, a decision will be made as to which style should be used and why. Introduction Within this paper the late mover theory and the first mover theory will be defined. Once they are both defined each one will be shown to have advantages as well as disadvantages. All of these advantages and disadvantages will be supported with real life situations and businesses that have used both for the positive as well as the negative. This analysis is being done because the head company wants to know which theory to go with in terms of releasing its new product. Unfortunately, the product is unknown as well as many other facets of the company. The benefit to that is the decision can be made with an unbiased approach and only the facts will hold true within this report. Advantages & Disadvantages of the Theories The “First-mover” theory and the “Late-mover” theory are both ways of attacking the global marketplace with regard to product placement as well as the best time to strike. Many corporations in the world will come up with similar or even identical ideas at the same time. The difference is whether to try and be the first to put it on the market or wait and see how the other company does and respond...
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...September 26 & 28: Wal-Mart case Question 1 – Assessment of Wal-Mart’s external environment Wal-Mart –> Part of the retailing Industry External Environment: * Demographics I. Age Structure –> younger generation, a generation that is easier to influence, mainly women between the ages of 25-45. II. Income Distribution –> lower class/lower income individuals, but who still have a strong interest in fashion and who want to look good * Socio-Cultural Our society and our culture “dictate” how and what you should wear. The increase in TV reality shows such as “What Not To Wear” greatly influence our decision-making. Industry Environment: * Power of Buyers –> High We, the consumers, are the buyers of Wal-Mart’s cheap chick clothing line. The switching costs are low; it is easy for us to go see elsewhere to acquire clothing. As buyers, the consumers represent Wal-Mart’s sole source of income, which means that if dissatisfied consumers will buy elsewhere, giving buyers high power in Wal-Mart’s future profit margins. * Power of Suppliers –> Low The textile industry would be considered to be Wal-Mart’s suppliers as well as a third-party clothes producers / factories where Wal-Mart places its orders. Since Wal-Mart is part of the “cheap chick” industry, it is not as picky when it comes to the “quality” of the textiles acquired to make their clothing items; and the clothes are not expected to be of premium quality and long-lasting...
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...strategies to help Dell accomplish great success in a relatively short period of time. These strategies included allowing customers to individualize products, giving 24 hour phone service, and cutting out the middlemen by allowing direct mail order business. Outsourcing allowed Dell to have less inventory and have a faster turnover to new technology which gave a huge advantage over their competitors. Dell created good relationships with suppliers and that allowed them to cut costs by guaranteeing returning business. All these strategies cut costs and allowed Dell to be a leader in technology and quality. As other companies began to copy these strategies, competition began to heat up. In the 1990’s Dell launched an unsuccessful line of new laptop computers and had to recall 17,000 units because they were to slow and expensive. With more competition Dell decided to enter into the retail market which slowed down their strategy of cutting out a middleman and allowing quicker turnover to new technology. In 1993 after 14 consecutive quarters of rising profits Dell profits were only 10 million which was half of what they projected. Stock dropped drastically and many were already expecting the end of Dell. Three major problems were identified to be the reasons why Dell took a step back and these problems would need to be solved if Dell wanted to go back to the success they had achieved since the beginning. The first problem was the retail market causing turnover to be slower and making...
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... I. Executive Summary In this report I will talk about the American retailer; “Target” failed attempt to conquer the Canadian market. I will first give a detailed introduction of the company and what were the circumstances of such event. I will then describe the different problems the company encountered during their stay in Canada. I will briefly showcase the different guidelines that Target should have used going into this international market. Afterwards I will give my market research of the retailer’s market in Canada to then give a new marketing plan that Target should have followed in order to succeed internationally. I will end by a brief conclusion of the case and give my personal opinion on the subject. II. Introduction Target, the US supermarket founded in 1962, decided to expand into the international market in 2013. It only seemed like the logical next step for the 3rd biggest supermarket in America. After 50 years, they had conquered the American market with their great customer service and products and it was now time for the world to experience the Target culture. The timing was perfect, as the previous year, the Canadian supermarket Zeller had gone out of business. This meant their 220 retail stores in Canada were for sale. It was the perfect opportunity for Target to finally expand beyond the US. Canada was a considered an easy step into the foreign market, as there was a similar culture to Minnesota, where Target had started and is still headquartered...
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... Varun Sehgal Swati Mehta Why Kinetic-Honda Company failed? 1.) Kinetic seemed to miss the pulse of the market, which was fast moving towards motorcycles. Kinetic had no motorcycles to offer - mainly due to the Honda joint venture stipulations. 2.) Miscalculated the purchasing power of the Indian Middle class due to this they couldn’t grow. 3.) Financial Position of the company - operating margin was the lowest in the industry because of the high import content of raw materials. 4.) Issues between Kinetic and Honda over - introduction of new models, advertising expenditure, marketing strategies, etc. As a result, the company suffered in terms of growth and profitability. 5.) Kinetic as an Umbrella brand not being as promoted - Consumers associated the name Kinetic with scooters and 'Luna' with mopeds, but did not see them as belonging to the same business house. 6.) Less Advertising Expenditure on newspaper and television of introducing a new product. 7.) The cost of making the Kinetic scooter was higher than the cost of manufacturing a motorcycle, the selling price of the latter was Rs 10,000 more. What can be done to increase the sales 1.) Promotion of Kinetic brand on both Television and Newspaper ad campaign. 2.) Public awareness camp and scooter service campaign about the new product launch. 3.) Needs to launch a new aggressive and consumer focused marketing strategy like a package...
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...Market Analysis & Insight Introduction Marketing is a very important part of any successful company. In order to have successful marketing one must create a marketing plan to help the marketing for the company. Definition of Marketing Plan A marketing plan is a written document that companies use to write all the individual details they will need in order to accomplish any and all goals that they have. (How to Create a Marketing Plan, 2012). Basically, a marketing plan will be a step by step guide for the company to reach its goals. Companies that are successful tend to start with a great marketing plan. Marketing plans can vary in all different sizes depending on how large or small the company is. When a company creates a marketing plan it is very important for them to get information from all departments of the company. Examples would include finance, manufacturing, supply and several more. When a company gets information from all departments it will allow your marketing plan to include all aspects of the company and not only a few (How to Create a Marketing Plan, 2012). Marketing Plans: an Example of Success In 2001 Golden Valley Fire Department had a hard time trying to get together five daytime firefighters to get to a scene after an emergency call. Today, because of the company’s marketing plan they are able to easily put together 15 firefighters within eight minutes of the emergency call. Golden Valley Fire Department would try and hire people through newspaper...
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...for my own guidelines my business strategy. It is because when I look back at all company that build a unique product, not all of them are survive in the market because for me market world are cruel because sometime it makes a lot of product failed to attract buyer that can help them to survive in market. Look at Kodak as example, great company and has a great product before digital film being introduced in the market. But when they don’t have unique product that can attract buyer at certain period of time, it can crash the company name. That is why for me I think unique is very important for me from the last week class. Before I come to London to further my studies in MBA, I’m working with my dad’s company who build property in one of the states in Malaysia. At that time, we still discussing about to build 30 storey building of house apartment that will be the highest building for house apartment in that state. We try to put a unique element into that particular apartment by providing a lot of choices to the potential buyer to make it more interesting. We provide 5 types of different apartment because we want to attract all type of people in that area. We provide from studio room, apartment 1 room plus 1 living room, apartment 2 rooms plus 1 living room, 3 rooms plus one living room, and the best room is suites resident which is at the highest of the building with 5 rooms and 2 living rooms plus one big balcony. By build a unique design of house that can accommodate or...
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...External Factor Analysis Summary | weight | Rating | Weight Score | Opportunities | | | | 1. Plus-sized segment | 0.20 | 5 | 1.00 | 2. Trade segment | 0.15 | 5 | 0.75 | 3. CSR | 0.05 | 3 | 0.15 | 4. Buying power of Generation Z | 0.10 | 4 | 0.40 | 5. Stance on ethics | 0.03 | 3 | 0.09 | | | | | Threats | | | | 1. Economic downturn(Inflation) | 0.10 | 4 | 0.40 | 2. Emergence of companies that are low cost and high fashion | 0.03 | 2 | 0.06 | 3. Low Switching Costs | 0.02 | 2 | 0.04 | 4. Petroleum Prices | 0.05 | 3 | 0.15 | | | | | External position | | | | | | | | | 1.00 | | 3.95 | OPPORTUNITIES: * Plus-sized segment: Pakistan has approx 70% of its population in rural areas which remains untapped as far as Shoe Polish industry is concerned at large. Kiwi has the opportunity to increase its market share through the rural areas. * Trade segment: Improve trade marketing and inject strategies like tying up with schools, fashion houses & schools. * CSR: With earth hour & other CSR’s becoming a huge success, Kiwi should focus on CSR’s in order to achieve an edge over its competitors. * Buying power of Generation Z: Generation Z is the first generation to be brought up completely with social media and technology. Knowing how to use social media to effectively attract Generation Z buyers, as well as other consumers is vital to the survival of companies. THREATS: ...
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...STUDY The domain of marketing has been proven by Levitt (1988) and Kotler (1980), among others to transcend the tangible products areas. Increasingly, intangibles (including financial services) have benefited from the pervasive advantage that marketing can offer. Today, persons, ideas and in fact, doctrines are daily sold to us. Financial services (and intangible product) is one of the important services provided by banks in the economic sub-sector in Nigeria and whose employment of marketing service is becoming more noticeable and acknowledge. The financial services is becoming more noticeable and acknowledge. The financial services sector has in recent years been among the fastest growing areas in the Nigerian economy. Progressive deregulation, starting with free banking ad decentralized foreign exchange market to the lifiting of interest rates ceiling and structural adjustment programme had dramatically altered the operating environment facing suppliers of financial services. These changes in conjunctions with decreases in personal income and wealth, contraction in other sectors of the economy, trends towards globalization and developments in information technology have created an increasingly competitive and demand driven financial sector. As a consequence of these changes, the sector has witnessed considerable innovation not only in terms of products but perhaps more importantly, in terms of processes and marketing arrangement. Initially, the pattern of deregulation probably...
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...1970’s IKEA had expanded its market share throughout Scandinavia with a total of nine stores in the entire region. The furniture market mainly consisted of fragmented and high cost retailers, where a lot of the products that they had in their stores were not readily available. Thier competitive advantage was being the best-cost provider within the furniture market, while adding conveniences for the customer such as an in-store restaurant, a care center for children, self-service warehouse and check out procedures. IKEA sold furniture which had high quality, elegance, and functionality at a very low price, along with the ‘experience ‘of IKEA. They were able to provide such low cost products was because they were able to use differentiation and outsourcing with their suppliers to cut down of transportation and transaction costs. For example in 2008 IKEA had over 1,000 different suppliers in 54 different countries. Thier top sourcing countries (China, Poland, Italy, Sweden and Germany) were able to provide IKEA furniture to any where in the world while still maintaining minimal transaction and transportation costs. Question 2 IKEA’s expansion into Western Continental Europe was a great success for the company. They quickly established a firm grip of the market with their first store opening in Switzerland. This was due to the similarities the European market had with the Scandinavian market. Much like the scandinavian model, Europes’ furniture market was dominated by fragmented...
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...order to obtain higher profit, some of the companies may violate business ethical values. Background Mattel founded in 1945 is one of the largest toy companies in the world (Fortune, 2008). Although Mattel is a major toy company, there are many unethical issues found. Firstly, Mattel`s products contained lead paint and tiny magnets that could be swallowed (Mauro, 2007). Secondly, Mattel recalled toys frequently as there were five recalls in less than a year (Mattel.com, 2010). Thirdly, the packaging of Mattel`s product contributed to rainforest destruction (Jakarta, 2011). According to the American Marketing Association (AMA), these activities are unethical and violate 3 ethical values including responsibility, honesty and citizenship. Responsibility For responsibility, Mattel failed to accept the consequences of our marketing decision and strategies. Mattel did not recognize their special commitments to vulnerable market segments such as children who may be disadvantaged. First of all, on August 14 2007, Mattel`s product, the ‘Sarge’ cars, was discovered with lead paint and tiny magnets which are harmful and dangerous to children. Although the product was recalled, some of the products which are claimed passed still contain lead paint. However, Mattel minimized the impact of the use of lead paint. In fact, lead is toxic if ingested by children and there is no safe level of lead in them according to Dr. John Rosen, a lead poisoning specialist (Consumer news, 2007). Although...
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...remain viable. But what is diversification? Diversification as it relates to business is defined as a “business development strategy allowing a company to current products, services, and markets” ("What is diversification?" 2011). This strategy enables a corporation several key benefits such as enhanced shareholder value, distribution of risks across several related or unrelated businesses, as well as the ability to offer lower prices than their competitors. Additionally, the company can benefit from entry into new markets. Although these are very great benefits, diversification requires very extensive research and market analysis in order to be successful. If not implemented correctly, the company could face brand confusion, loss of sales due to customer alienation, as well as lack of establishment of a loyal market following. Here we will explore both the diversification strategy and outcomes of consumer electronics retailers Best Buy and Circuit City. We will also explore possible decisions that led to the drastically different outcomes as well as alternative strategies that could have been employed in order to help one company remain viable. Best Buy: Innovative Retailer vs. Circuit City: Traditional Retailer Best Buy Company, Inc. is an American specialty retailer of consumer electronics products. Initially founded in Bloomington, Minnesota as a small audio, video, and car stereo retailer under the name “Sound of Music”, Best Buy has grown into a the dominate...
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...Improving and Sustaining Business Ethics and Corporate Responsibility ! Business Ethics is emerging as one of the greatest recognized needs in business today. No other element in business life can profit so greatly for such a small investment. Ethics and corporate responsibility not only describes what a company does internally, but also shows what they did externally. If a company lack this, it can cost business dearly. In order to start looking at how to improve and sustain business ethics, we must first ask what ethics itself is. In a simple definition, ethics involves learning what is right from wrong. Then taking that knowledge and acting on what is right. However, that’s not as straightforward as conveyed in a great deal of business ethics literature. Philosophers have been discussing ethics for at least 2500 years, since the time of Socrates and Aristotle. Many consider ethical beliefs to be legal matters. For example, what becomes an ethical guideline today is often translated to a law, regulation or rule tomorrow. Many companies use public relations as a diving board into the world of ethics." " " Public relations are a huge way that companies can effectively show ethics and corporate responsibility. Business ethics and corporate responsibility are a huge part of businesses and companies around the world. In the public’s eye, ethics are a reason why people do business with a specific company or not. A good way for companies to Page 2 of 7 show that they are...
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...advantages and disadvantages of each theory and examples of each and how it affects the use of the theory. It progresses with giving four examples of companies that that been successful and failed using the theories. It will conclude with an unbiased recommendation of which theory is more beneficial and effective to use. Advantages and Disadvantages of the First Mover Theory The value of being the first is a concept that is widely accepted by many cultures. In today’s business environment where there are limited resources and competition is fierce, it is understood that he who invents first or gives the customer what he wants first will emerge the winner. The determination to be the first and the understanding of the importance inspires the concept known as the first mover (Ya-De Wong, 2003). As the name implies, first movers are predicted to gain considerable advantages over their competition by acting early, as it is said the early bird gets the worm. Businesses that are in the network or electrical industry may have the ability to place barriers on other entrants into the market and can even make it impossible for the competition to follow. Being early may also allow a company to capture a large portion of the market share by being the only one of its kind on the market and also create brand loyalty and customer recognition. By the time the competition decides to follow, the first mover would have already been branded as the pioneer in the industry and would...
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...so for the concentrate producers than the bottler’s. This is surprising considering the fact that product sold is a commodity which can even be produced easily. There are several reasons for this, using the five forces analysis we can clearly demonstrate how each force contributes the profitability of the industry. Barriers to Entry: The several factors that make it very difficult for the competition to enter the soft drink market include: * Bottling Network: Both Coke and PepsiCo have franchisee agreements with their existing bottler’s who have rights in a certain geographic area in perpetuity. These agreements prohibit bottler’s from taking on new competing brands for similar products. Also with the recent consolidation among the bottler’s and the backward integration with both Coke and Pepsi buying significant percent of bottling companies, it is very difficult for a firm entering to find bottler’s willing to distribute their product. The other approach to try and build their bottling plants would be very capital-intensive effort with new efficient plant capital requirements in 1998 being $75 million. * Advertising Spend: The advertising and marketing spend (Case Exhibit 5 & 6) in the industry is in 2000 was around $ 2.6 billion (0.40 per case * 6.6 billion cases) mainly by Coke, Pepsi and their bottler’s. The average advertisement spending per point of market share in 2000 was 8.3 million (Exhibit 2). This makes it extremely difficult for an entrant to compete...
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