Analysis Of Home Depot

1269 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Lowes vs home depot financials

One of Home Depot’s largest marketing problems through the course of their industry life-cycle is their differentiation strategy from their competitors. In a mature life-cycle, it’s hard for companies to be innovative. The issues though are that Home Depot has been following Lowe’s lead in change and innovation, but what Home Depot claims as their differentiation strategy isn’t really that different from their largest competitor, Home Depot’s CEO from 2000-2007, the slumping of the housing market, homogenous products, and their high market concentration.
Home Depot is one of the biggest players in the home improvement market. Lowe’s follows right behind them. Other competitors are Wal-Mart, True Value Hardware, Ace Hardware, and Menard’s. We will focus more on the differences between Home Depot and Lowe’s, because they are the two largest within the home improvement industry.
The characteristics that differentiates Lowe’s from Home Depot is their customer service, store appearance, and store layout. Lowe’s started in the 90’s to differentiate itself from Home Depot, to attract more of the D-I-Y customers, because they were worried about losing market share. Lowe’s is more attractive to the women consumer base, because there are a lot more home décor products that are appealing (Competition Leaves…).
Home Depot and Lowe’s have different customer bases. While Lowe’s adheres to the needs of the majority women, Home Depot has a mixture of customers. The loyal consumer base does find a difference between the two stores, but no one is able to tell which company is better (Competition Leaves…). The other thing about Lowe’s customers is that they are a lot more loyal to their store than Home Depot’s customers, especially when it comes to ...

... middle of paper ...

...umer, Home Depot needs to focus on their employees, because the results of focusing on them will in turn relay good results for the consumers. When Home Depot is able to retain their reliable employees who are trained and educated about Home Depot and their products, then the employees will be able to relay the knowledge to their consumers.
(Talking about the Housing Market)
In the year 2014, Home Depot has taken the opportunity to open an online distribution center. They’ve always followed a traditional retail model by adding stores in areas where they thought they could make profit, but the problem was that in an over saturated market, they started to cannibalize their profits by having many stores in the same area. Home Depot has found one way to differentiate itself, by fitting the changing shopping behavior of Americans and not lose out on their profits (WSJ).

Show More
Related

  • Continual Improvement at Lowe’s Companies, Inc.

    1116 Words  | 3 Pages

    Lowe’s grew through strategic choice by heavily focusing on key functional areas involving research and development (R&D), marketing, and logistics. Lowe’s important R&D investments included the creation of two prototype stores. The first prototype with 147,000 square feet catered to large markets and the other with 120,000 square feet catered to smaller markets (Rouse, 2005). Lowe’s used these store prototypes to help guide their continued growth and store placement. The prototypes also aided the company in designing future stores more efficiently with respect to energy and sustainability (Lowe’s Companies, Inc., n.d.). Furthermore, Lowe’s marketing strategy concentrated on attracting new customers and enhancing current customer satisfaction. To bring new customers to the store, Lowe’s engaged in a pull marketing strategy (Wheelen & Hunger, 2012). The com...

    Read More

  • Lowe's and Information Technology Management

    1734 Words  | 4 Pages

    Rivalry. Home Depot, Ace Hardware and Menards are the biggest competition that Lowe’s faces. With Home Depot being the large...

    Read More

  • The Home Depot: Stock or No Stock

    975 Words  | 2 Pages

    After researching Home Depots financials I would invest money in Home Depot by purchasing stock. In my research there was a lot of talk about how popular home improvement is and how many people prefer the do-it-yourself aspect. While I am sure Home Depots numbers have been better, before the recession, I do not for see Home Depot going under anytime soon. I think it is a stable company that will be in business for many years to come.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Lowe's Companies, Inc.

    3993 Words  | 8 Pages

    Lowe’s is leading the way by example. Lowe’s believes that creating long-term partnerships is a win-win situation for both sides of the deal. Lowe’s is the second largest home appliance retailer in the country, by working hand in hand for twenty-six years with Whirlpool, the largest marketer and manufacturer of home appliances. Whirlpool and Lowe’s have worked together to become unmatched in bringing their customers a high quality product and a very low competitive price. Through a tremendous logistical effort Whirlpool and Lowe’s have created a one of a kind Innovation Tour. A semi-trailer transforms itself into a functioning kitchen to show customers cutting edge appliances that will be available at Lowe’s in the future from Whirlpool and Kitchen Aid. As Lowe’s motto states, Lowe’s truly is “Improving Home Improvement”. (http://www.businesswire.com/)

    Read More

  • Black & Decker

    1278 Words  | 3 Pages

    Answer: It seems from the case that there are several reasons why B&D leads in Professional-Industrial and Consumer product segments, but trails in the Professional-Tradesmen segment. It is also clear from the tests performed by Black & Decker that their products were at comparable, or even better at some cases, quality.

    Read More

  • Robert Nardelli's Leadership Style Analysis

    444 Words  | 1 Pages

    Nardelli was brought in when the company needed to focus on the cost side of the equations when sales were growing. However his reputation suffered when Home Depot's smaller archrival, “Lowe's Companies, soared more than 200% since 2000, while Home Depot's shares declined 6%”.In addition, The organization never really embraced his leadership style. The company needed a more innovative and constructive leadership. Nardelli came in with new ideas for change, the employees did not have the desire for transformation since they did not feel the need for change and their morale was good. He believed that managing by metrics was the best way to guarantee fairness in judging a person’s performance. When Nardelli acquired control, the store managers felt that they lost their autonomy and independence. This led to the failure of unification of commitment and enthusiasm of his

    Read More

  • Home Depot Organizational Structure

    1061 Words  | 3 Pages

    (Reingold, 2014) Nardelli had a hard edge and was driven by the numbers, whereas Blake preferred a management style of a service culture. He wanted engaged employees who excited customers with their knowledge of the latest tools and products available for purchase. He wanted to dominate the professional contracting business. He realized that employee morale is an important factor in the retail business. “He slowed store growth to focus on quality over quantity.”(Reingold, 2014) He spent money to train associates. He was determined to build a sense of pride among the associates. He felt that the training would provide for better customer service.5 Blake believed that customer service was the key to Home Depots ability to succeed. (Aluise,

    Read More

  • Essay On Lowe's

    1257 Words  | 3 Pages

    Conclusion: Given the current economic status the home improvement industry is in a low spot with sales. With the decrease in building new homes we have to focus mainly on home improvements. The three strong points we have against existing rivalries are our great locations, quantity of quality products, and convenient customer service. With these great qualities we can move ahead and stay ahead of our competitors during these times.

    Read More

  • Wal-Mart's Competitive Environment

    1679 Words  | 4 Pages

    In general merchandise retailing, Wal-Mart’s primary competitors are Target and Kmart. Retail superstores such as Circuit City and Bed, Bath, and Beyond, also provide retail competition. A survey found that the majority of respondents favored Wal-Mart over stores like Target and Kmart. Respondents claimed Wal-Mart offered lower prices, better variety and selection, and good quality. The needs of consumers is an important economic feature in all competitive environments. What attributes (price, variety, quality, etc.) prompt buyers to choose one retailer over another is very important in the competitive landscape.

    Read More

  • Lowe's Mission Statement Analysis

    978 Words  | 2 Pages

    Their mission: ‘Customer service and community service are core commitments at Lowe's — and they have been for more than 60 years. Being a good neighbor means being committed to improving the places our employees and customers call home. We see that as an investment in our future. We've grown that investment as Lowe's has grown from a small-town hardware store in North Wilkesboro, N.C., to the second-largest home improvement retailer in the world.’

    Read More

  • Home Depot Structure Analysis

    1713 Words  | 4 Pages

    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).

    Read More

  • Walmart And Publix Compare Contrast

    760 Words  | 2 Pages

    customer service while Wal Mart is the almost the opposite. Wal Mart has a negative atmosphere

    Read More

  • Branding, Pricing, and Distribution: Home Depot

    1572 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Best Buy in China

    1258 Words  | 3 Pages

    Best Buy has a unique perspective on their business and technology because they pride themselves in educating customers. As Spenner and Freeman (2012) mentions, customers want simplicity and need to be able to make informed decisions. By educating customers about the products and teaching them how to use it, Best Buy could actually increase the chances of the customer buying the product because they are confident in it and Best Buy. This is how Best Buy practices business now. Building on this is the fact that employees are paid hourly instead of based on commission so the employees don’t have to make hard sales, which can be a negative for many customers. Centricity, Best Buy’s tailoring of their stores for targeted customers, is a great concept as well (Chandrasekhar, 2009). It allows the biggest profit generating customers to feel comfortable and encourages spending through a more relaxed environment.

    Read More

  • Competitive Analysis of Metro Holdings Ltd

    880 Words  | 2 Pages

    Department stores do not manufacture products nor create their own brands of merchandise, their products are not differentiated. As a result, consumers have low switching costs, customer loyalty is low, as they can easily purchase similar products elsewhere. These lower the barriers to entry, allowing new entrants a chance to gain customers.

    Read More

More about Analysis Of Home Depot

Open Document