I. Introduction
This paper is aim to have a quick analysis of current competitive position of Build-A-Bear Workshop in the toy industry and challenges it faces, and to provide Build-A-Bear Workshop with some short-term and long-term recommendations to continue its success in toy industry. This paper mainly apply Porter’s five forces analysis, external environment analysis, financial analysis and value chain analysis.
II. Case Summary
Build-A-Bear Workshop was an American toy retailer, which was founded by Maxine Clark in 1996 in St. Louis, Missouri. Build-A-Bear Workshop main served teddy beard and other stuffed animals, and accessories for teddy bears and other stuffed animals. According to professor Eisner, Korn, Baugher, and graduate student Vojtkova (2011), “Build-A-Bear Workshop was founded 13 years ago on a simple but powerful idea: to create a successful company with heart” (p. C259). In order to differentiate itself from other toy producers, Build-A-Bear Workshop served customers with interactive experience by “allowing its customers to make, personalize and customize stuffed animals od their choosing” (p. C262). As professor Eisner et al. (2011) concluded, “the company (Build-A-Bear) differentiated itself from the competition with marketing initiatives that facilitated stronger connections with its customers” (p. C262) In addition, Build-A-Bear Workshop exercised its focus strategy by narrowing its product lines. Build-A-Bear Workshop earned a big success in the past decades.
However, Build-A-Bear Workshop also exercised some big challenges, especially during economic recession. Shifting markets, fluctuating economy, developing of Internet, and changeable preference of kids were all negatively affecting Build-A-Bear Work...
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...hop to have a comprehensive analysis of basic learning needs of customers of all ages. This strategy can be costly because it requires Build-A-Bear Workshop to provide continues investment to develop different types of products which can meet customers’ various learning needs. This strategy could give Build-A-Bear Workshop a competitive advantage for long time and further expand its global expansion because the rapid growing world make customers of all ages have a great need of learning various skills. However, as preferences and demands of customers are changeable, it is really hard for Build-A-Bear Workshop to predict learning needs of customers, so Build-A-Bear Workshop’s investments may not generate high returns.
Works Cited
Eisner, A. B., Korn. J. H., Baugher, D., &Vojtkova, L. (2011). Build-A-Bear Workshop. Strategic Management (text & cases) 6th. C259-C267
Description: Students develop skills to workout solutions in a group to an imaginary or a real life business problem and develop a presentation project collating all these solutions. The media selected for the project would be on the basis of consensus by different groups. The final presentation using the selected media should show how...
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Arthur, A., Thompson, Margaret, A., Peteraf, John, E. Gamble, A., J., Strickland III. (2014). Crafting & Executing Strategy: The Quest for Competitive Advantage 19e: Concepts & Cases. C6-C25.
Toys R Us is the world's largest children's specialty retailer. The company operates toy stores throughout the world and is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. In this paper I will give a brief company history, cite where the competitive environment is coming from, strategies that were attempted, and where they stand today.
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It is also highly beneficial to use children as informants. This role allows children to share ideas and opinions with the design team acting as consultants during the product development and design process. This role enables children to contribute their ideas to the design process through interviews, questionnaires and focus groups which could prove invaluable in terms of design. This means that design ideas come from the collaboration of adults and children.
Planning for the future of Vermont Teddy Bear Co. Inc it is important that we consider conditions/trends in the internal environment of the company that may impact the future success of the company. These factors (conditions/trends) involve financial resources, human resources, the quality of products and services provided the efficiency of internal processes, student and stakeholder satisfaction, and the company culture. Specification of these factors will allow us to: 1) identify their potential impact on the market; 2) assess the probability that they will continue; 3) categorize them as strengths or challenges; 4) rank them in terms of how well the company is doing in each category.
Hill, C. W. L & Jones, G. R. (1998). Cases in Strategic Management (4th edition). Boston New York: Houghton Mifflin Company
P’kolino’s story is all about passion for superior products and how they can change people’s lives. Founded by Antonio Turcos-Rivas and J.B Schneider, the Company’s goal is: to “make better products to improve play at home”. In the course of developing safe and quality products, implementing and marketing other strategies, P’kolino Company aims at improving children’s play thus , improving sales by $51million (Bygrave and Andrew, 2008). The Company’s goal was comprehended during their MBA’s study. During their study, the two entrepreneurs began a thorough research and development project with more than twenty international design students.
2. Thompson and Strickland (2002), Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases, 13th Edition, Chicago Irwin Publications.
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Witcher, B., and Chau, S. V., 2010. Strategic Management: Principles and Practice. Cengage Learning EMEA.