A corporate strategy entails the direction of a company as a whole. Home Depot corporate level strategy branches out their operations by having several businesses competing in different product markets of home improvement. The Home Depot integrates a dynamic corporate level strategy corresponding to its ability to sustain fast growth. Since inception, The Home Depot has enjoyed an annual growth rate. Their growth rate is a product of their corporate level strategy. The Home Depot has primarily used a growth, concentration, horizontal strategy to achieve new growth. The firm focuses on enlarging their products into multiple geographic locations, while increasing the range of products and services supplied to current markets. The company focuses …show more content…
on an integrated, cost leadership/differentiation business level strategy. This strategy consists of assortment, price, and customer service. The Home Depot grew from an idea to a nationally recognized leader in the do-it-yourself industry. Since the purchase of our home, my husband visits Home Depot frequently to purchase the necessary materials to complete small projects. Whenever he needs assistance there are knowledgeable employees on the sales floor willing to help make the best selection. My husband has the drive to complete projects himself and Home Depot is the first destination to gather all the materials needed to complete the project like a professional. A marketing strategy deals with pricing, selling and distributing a product.
The Home Depot’s marketing strategy consists of home improvement do-it-yourself customers who want to be able to complete household improvement projects, but are not professionals. These homeowners want the opportunity to perform a range of household projects, but need an expert’s advice on the techniques and materials that are necessary to do these tasks. Since the recession, homeowners are looking for opportunities to save money whenever possible. Many homeowners are willing to perform tasks themselves that they once paid a professional to do. In the past, my husband worked for the lawn company TruGreen. As a result, he canceled the contract with the company and decided to take care of the lawn himself. When my husband took on the task of updating the fence around our home, he relied on expert advice from a Home Depot associate, as the right technique to mix and pour the concrete, type of screws and drill, so he could complete the project himself. As a result, he was able to save money by doing the project himself instead of having to pay someone else to complete the task. Home Depot’s current marketing strategy does “fit” with the firms’ strategies at the corporate and business levels. The company current marketing strategy is directed to the homeowner that has a do-it-yourself mentality. Which will promote growth as is relates to its corporate level strategy. The company provides excellent customer service to its customers and offers an assortment of products at an affordable price. This business strategy has enabled the company to remain ahead of its
competition.
When one recalls numerous companies in North America, an endless list of organizations can be compiled, ranging from recent start-ups to historic organizations. Last year, I had an opportunity to gain knowledge in the corporate business field from the most historic company in North America. Hudson’s Bay Company(HBC), a department store retailer focusing on fashion apparel, accessories and home products, which was incorporated in 1670 and has ninety locations in Canada. This paper will explore HBC’s recent changes in a strategic direction as well as corporate level strategies and its implications with using relevant strategy typologies and Michael Porter’s competitive strategy frameworks.
Home Depot is the brainchild of Bernard Marcus and Arthur Blank and came about after both men lost their job in the home improvement industry in 1978 (Parnell, 2014). Home Depot has acquired several smaller home improvement stores in both the U.S. and abroad through the years which enabled it to position itself as the world’s largest home improvement chain (Parnell, 2014). Home Depot focuses on the do-it-yourself segment of the market and sells sells tools, construction products and services. Marketing is a strong point for the company. They are able to maintain a competitive advantage by keeping themselves available to their customers at all times. Home Depot has been using both online and offline marketing efforts. The internet has become a very useful tool for the company and part of the reason that they are leading the market in DIY stores. Home Depot currently provides DIY videos on YouTube and Vine that cover current topics that consumers are likely to be interested in. They also have social media pages on Facebook and Twitter, where they have a huge following. They provide online communities where actual employees answer consumer’s questions and provide assistance on
In the early 2000’s Lowe’s was rapidly intensifying its presence nationwide. The company carried a varied assortment of home improvement products and catered to the needs of retail as well as commercial business customers. Lowe’s expanded their reach by acquiring a 41-store chain, Eagle Hardware and Garden, and engaging in a strategic alliance with HGTV to obtain a more profound existence in their market (Rouse, 2005). By 2004, Lowe’s operated almost 1,000 stores with plans to continue expansion across the nation (Rouse, 2005). The company has a core competency in helping customers meet their home improvement needs at a low price. In order to use this core competency to gain a competitive advantage, the company has focused on key functional strategies. To continue their success, Lowe’s must specifically focus on marketing, logistics, and human resource management strategies.
The Article, "Renovating Home Depot," describes how, since the arrival of the new Chief Executive, Robert Nardelli, the business strategy has shifted to a more militaristic style. In the beginning, Home Depot was a "decentralized, entrepreneurial" business, and now is switching to a different management style. Nardelli loves to hire ex-soldiers, and is perhaps using the armed services as a role model for the new business structure. Under Nardelli's leadership, Home Depot is becoming more centralized and the good financial reports following this are signs that it a good strategy (Grow 50).
Home Depot is built on the principle of creating value for our stockholders while never forgetting our values. We seek to be profitable, responsible, and balance the needs of our communities. Throughout our company, our associates are challenged with finding ways in which we can provide the best products for our customers, provide the best possible work environment for our associates, have a positive impact on the communities in which we operate, and provide excellent returns for our stockholders. Working in a Store Support Center, rather than a corporate headquarters, their leadership team knows that the most important people in the fabric of the company are the store associates and store leadership teams. Frank Blake was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of Home Depot in January 2007 (Sellers, P.).
Now Home Depot continues to evolve towards leveraging their digital assets to support customers shopping in their stores, and leveraging their stores to support customers shopping through their digital assets. Home Depot’s strategy continues to be rooted in their three-legged stool, which stands for customer service, product authority for home improvement and disciplined capital allocation.
Once Home Depot’s marketing plan contains a thorough description of the scissor lift, it will then focus on the branding, pricing, and distribution of the lift. The plan will also need to include a product branding and pricing strategy, as well as examine how the pricing strategy supports the branding strategy. In addition, Home Depot will prepare a distribution channel analysis from which it will create a distribution strategy, determine whether the company is going to use a push or a pull strategy, and how the distribution strategy fits the product.
Best Buy, one of the biggest consumer electronics retailers in the world, provides products from smartphone, computers to large electronic appliances. It aims at offering a large variety of products with outstanding customer service at a comparably economical price. Yet, it has been facing internal and external challenges in the recent years. Bottom line and the share price are slightly catching up after a fall in 2013 but still barely satisfying the shareholders and customers are changing their purchasing habits which may threaten its future.
Business strategy is the means by which firm’s plans to achieve its goals and objectives. It can also be termed as organization long-term planning. The strategy covers periods between 3-5 years and sometimes longer. Businesses use two major types of strategy, general or generic and competitive strategies. The overall strategy involves strategies of growth, globalization and retrenchment. The competitive advantage includes low pricing, product and customer differentiation. We will look at the business strategy used by Marks and Spenser (Cole, 1997). The company is a British multinational located at Westminster London and specializes in clothes and luxurious food products.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is in the discount, variety stores industry. It was founded in 1945, Bentonville in Arkansas which is also the headquarters of Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart operates locally as well as worldwide. It operated 1209 discount stores, 1980 super centers, and 567 Sam’s Club by January 31, 2006. It has also extended its operations to many international countries. It runs its retail stores in two forms: Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart Stores. The Sam’s Club sells assorted product lines such as hardwares, electronics, jewelry, and to mention a few. The Wal-Mart stores also offer similar products in addition to the following: health and beauty products, apparel for women, men and children, household appliances etc (www.yahoo.finance.com). The Vision Statement, Mission Statement, Values and Code of Conduct, Corporate Governance: Directors, Executive Management, Committees and Stakeholder will be the key elements that will discussed in this report as it relates to Wal-Mart. In addition to that, the major trends in the general/macro environment and industry will be analyzed.
FTC collected more direct empirical and statistical evidence to prove that the proposed merger between Staples and Office Depot can and will raise market price in a profitable way above competitive price level. Firstly, according to Staples own documents mentioned above, Staples management predicted that without this merger, the percentage of three-player markets would increase from 17% to 69% by 2000. More fierce competition will push Staples to lower office supply prices and improve product/service qualities. Besides, operating expenses will lower as two stores combine into just one. Secondly, according to relative companies’ operational statistical data of product prices across various local markets, when Staples competes with Office Depot in local markets, their office supply prices significantly lower than prices in the market with only Staples or Office Depot. Table 3 shows average price difference of office supply products among various markets. Staples’ office supply prices are 11.6% lower in the markets of both Staples and Office Depot
The Home Decor Furniture company might utilize competitive positioning strategies. The main purpose of competitive strategy is to reposition the way of consumer's mind thinking, according to Quick MBA. The company can use comparative advertising to demonstrate its brand and proved that their products are better than other competitors. For instance, a furniture company claims that their materials for manufacturing a sofa was imported from the certain country and the supplier promise those materials were only provided for their
...lopment industry as well as the strengths and weaknesses within the company. The Business Strategy should reflect the main issues that determine the long-term
158). It is expected that a corporate-level strategy will help the firm earn above-average returns by creating value. The corporate level strategies that are used by Seprod are vertical integration and diversification.
Corporate level strategy is the overall strategy for a diversified organization or company. It is usually concerned with a mix of businesses that the company should compete in and also the ways on which individual strategy units are integrated and co-ordinated.