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Customer retention and satisfaction research proposal
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Bill Nichol is the CEO of Kentucky Derby Hosiery (KDH), a clothing manufacturing company. The company has been working with Little One’s Products (LOP), to produce baby sox under this brand. This line of LOP branded baby sox has been sold at Walmart in a deal between KDH and Walmart. However, it has Nichol’s attention that Walmart is about to drop the LOP branded sox from its portfolio.
Bill Nichol believes that this situation can be salvaged and he does his best to ensure that they remain in business with Walmart. First, he organizes a meeting with LOP and Walmart’s buyer to discuss all options available. During this meeting, KDH and LOP focus on presenting financial and market data that shows that the line of sox is doing well in Walmart stores. The information provided show that the products have been doing well in the stores and consumers appreciate the product. KDH and LOP have maintained good numbers which are in line with Walmart’s requirements. However, from the information given by Walmart’s buyer, it is clear that the company wants to drop the line and the decision has already been made.
KDH has invested largely into the manufacture of branded baby sox to meet the volume needs of Walmart. When the contract between KDH and Walmart came into force, the company focused on increasing its volume capacity to meet the huge inventory needs. This means that the company has borrowed from banks such as JP Morgan to meet the costs of investment. Loss of the Walmart business will translate into huge losses for the company. In addition, KDH has a contractual obligation to LOP which it cannot meet with the loss of Walmart’s business. It is therefore necessary that Nichol negotiates with Walmart to find a way to continue collaboratio...
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...re that the company is able to continue producing high volumes of products thus meeting its financial obligations at the same rate
Secondly, in order to retain high profit levels, the company has to look into expanding its product portfolio. After retaining the socks line with Walmart, the company must find a way of developing a more varied line of products and markets. This will ensure that when one line of product is dropped, the company does not sink into losses. A varied product line will act as a cushion against market demand fluctuations.
In order to deal with the LOP situation, KDH should look for other markets to carry the brand. The company should approach other stores such as Target to ensure the brand is still visible to its customers. In addition, KDH should be ready to give up its exclusivity rights to give LOP the freedom to move into wider markets.
Maxx benefits from chaos by picking up the pieces, merchandise at a discount, when other retail stores close, or have overruns, or unexpected changes in demand and in return pass these savings on to their customers who shop for value (Levine-Weinberg, 2016) This is the demand-side benefits of scale when the consumer rather pay less for name brand merchandise than to pay more for the same designer in the department store. The stores that where having difficulty in the retail market left themselves vulnerable by not defending their position and T.J. Maxx proactively attacks this opportunity with its purchasing power and passes the savings to its customers. This proactive process of attacking and defending is what Wee (2016) calls the holistic and balanced perspective of handling competition. Moreover, this business warfare strategy of attacking struggling competitors is called offensive marketing warfare strategy (Grewal, 2014).
Caterpillar Inc. - Strengths and Weaknesses Caterpillar Inc., sought to better determine customer demand by leveraging the Internet. Using i2 Demand Chain Management, Caterpillar created an online dealer storefront that is accessible to both dealers and end customers, and the company has expanded its sales coverage, reduced the cost of sale, and increased productivity. Caterpillar’s Building Constructions Product Division needed to predict and rapidly respond to customer demand. The company wanted to empower its dealer network to provide the highest levels of service to the end customer. Company executives knew that the Internet was critical to their strategy. Caterpillar wanted to leverage the Internet to provide more visibility into customer buying habits. In doing so, it could save millions of dollars in inventory by building and configuring those products that customers demand, rather than stocking excess inventory. The company wanted to promote specific product lines and associated work tools using a combination of traditional (dealer) and nontraditional (Internet) channels th...
The success of Wal-Mart is so great, that many people believe that Wal-Mart is becoming a monopsony . Suppliers are forced to deal with Wal-Mart because of the large percentage of sales at Wal-Mart cash registers. As such, Wal-Mart also has the ability to dictate prices of the goods it receives from the suppliers. Every day, more and more retail stores close their doors for good because Wal-Mart controls such a huge margin of the retail sector.
... fashion industry. I believe through all of their marketing tactics and great leadership they will continue to thrive. Although I am not a customer of the brand, I have found great interest in completing this product to explore and expand and broaden my fashion in the brand. The company has had consistent sales increase and if it continues to utilize its business plans wisely, I believe it will continue to increase.
The issue is whether RLK should exploit its brand equity as it is known for their innovation and the innovation capabilities. However, Lars need to understand that outsourcing is not the only option and he should consider more options and possibilities.
Given the dominance and fiercely competitive nature of Wal-Mart and Target within the big box discount retail industry, Dollar General avoided competing head-to-head with these larger rivals by differentiating a classic generic bu...
In 2002, CEO of Levi Strauss, Phil Marineau was faced with a tough decision: whether he should sell product at Wal-Mart. In the last five years, Levi-Strauss had lost sales and had to close US plants to move production to cheaper offshore areas. Levi's really needed to revive the brand image to gain back some lost sales and was using marketing to create new advertisements and product placement to broaden their target market. Levi's had tough competition on every level of the price-point spectrum, whether it be high end retailers like Diesel or Calvin Klein, middle vertically integrated retailers like Gap or American Eagles, and on the bottom, private-label brands like Wal-Mart and Target.
Sears has created a “Financial Crisis” when hedge fund manager Edward Lampert took over control of the company. The mentality of investors of a CFO is an important viewpoint during crisis because it can help streamline process and reduce cost. Retail experience should be dominant the retail in order to feel the pulse of the consumer desires and to determine proper margin levels while eliminating inefficiencies in the organization. According to Marina Strauss of the Globe and Mail, “a sweeping change will be required to improve the retailer’s outlook”. She quoted the (CEO of Sears-Canada) Mr. McDonald saying in a memo that “Our store are too difficult to shop in. We have inconsistent execution…We do not offer the right product in the right market” (STRAUSS M., 2011).
Harvard Business School case 274-116. Cooper Industries, Inc. Retrieved on August 31, 2008, from University of Phoenix, Resource, FIN/545 web site: https://mycampus.phoenix.edu/secure/resource/resource
Offering special products is marked under strengths and opportunity; however, long term sustainability must ease the weaknesses and threats posed by competitors and external markets forces. However, they are several other strengths of this company that outweigh the weaknesses but can easily be threatened. Lululemon has a great brand equity and knowledge in the market which has helped them development a customer loyalty. While Lululemon’s strengths is challenging, limiting their products to a special market, with higher than normal prices opens the markets for competitors. Lululemon has several weaknesses, they only offer a specialty product and it mostly aimed to attract woman. The company’s profitability has decreased over the recent years, showing the necessity for Lululemon to sustain its economic growth through product diversification and geographical expansion. Many of their competitors have grown, mostly likely due to their global growth and divarication. If Lululemon would expand their market growth this would open up so much more opportunity for this company to grow. One of their weaknesses is there is the dependence on suppliers. This opens a great opportunity for Lululemon, right now they are heavily relying on suppliers around the world and they do not have their own manufacturing facilities. This is causing the company to spend more money of vendors to
As like every retail organization, Wet Seal Inc., has seen the best and worst during their years in business. With the 9/11 tragedy and other natural disasters, the nation’s economy had seen better days. Wet Seal Inc. stuck it out with Kathy Bronstein behind the wheel, and in late 2001 sales increased into the double digits, and stock was up 61% for the year. A vendor partner stated, “ She’s one of the greatest merchants I know in the industry...she lives, eats, and breathes this junior business.”
What we conclude from our research that there’s no single organization free from facing complications and difficulties. Each and every organization face few or many strategic problems. Johnson & Johnson had a problem with one of their products, and they were smart in handling that problem to keep the company on the safe side without letting it effect it negatively. It is very important to act quickly to fix the problem before many consumers notice.
Weave Tech has several strategic challenges and opportunities since the purchase of the once then called Johnson-ware apparel in 2007. Since the organization has had the challenge of rebranding themselves to attract a new customer base which is also an opportunity to grow the organization. Weave Tech has to reposition the organization to be successful throughout the changes. Another strategic challenge the organization is undergoing is reorganizing and attracting a new management team which causes for cuts and layoffs. These cuts and layoffs can drastically effect the morale of other employees and ultimately production. Over the next 3 years Weave Tech goal will be to strategically handle these challenges and opportunities while
Since this was the group negotiation, I was expecting beforehand that at least one of the members would support my decisions, and I was right as most of my views were similar with the VP of Sales & Distribution. Thus, I planned to lend their support so as to make the idea of expanding the brand image feasible.
The retail giant’s policies to offer lowest prices on the market is one that gives the company an upper hand since it can leverage on its massive economies of scale, but ultimately the low prices throw the local economy into turmoil. The many small businesses within the regions find it extremely difficult to compete with the low prices offered by the retail giant, Wal-Mart. According to Wolff-Mann (2016), the opening of Wal-Mart in North Carolina resulted in a 30% drop in the sales of a 44-year-old grocery store. Whenever the grocery store cut prices to retain its clients which were being lost to Wal-Mart, the giant retailer would always undercut or match the price. This unfair practice led to the close down of the store, while other businesses in the region succumbed to the stiff and unfair competition. Therefore, when Wal-Mart moves into a small town, things do not get better; the company introduces unsustainable economic models which makes thing worse within the