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The concept of brand strategy
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In 1897 Sebastian Spering Kresge opened five-dime stores in Memphis and Detroit with John McCrorey as his partner. Two years later the partnership broke up and each person kept one city. Mr. Kresge kept the Detroit store and began expanding from there onward. In 1912 the company became incorporated as S.S. Kresge and was the 2nd largest dime store chain with 85 stores and annual sales of more than $10 million. In 1918 S.S Kresge was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Throughout the decades, Kresge rapidly expanded eventually opening the first Kmart store in 1962 in Garden City, Michigan. By 1966 there were more 160 Kmart stores in the US and Canada. In 1968 Kmart began airing TV commercials. In the 1970s, Kmart continued to expand opening 270 stores in 1976 alone. In 1977, S.S. Kresge changed its name to Kmart because 95% of its sales were coming from that branch. In the 1980s and early 90s, Kmart diversified by adding other retailers such as Walden Book Company which was the number one bookstore chain in the US. The Sports Authority in 1990, 90% stake in OfficeMax and the Borders bookstore in 1992. Also in 1990 Kmart opened its first Kmart Super Center in Medina, Ohio. Whatever was left of the Kresge locations in the US was sold to S.S. Kresge's former partner's store chain McCrory's. Between 1994 and 1995 earnings began to fall for Kmart causing them to sell off their other operations, OfficeMax, The Sports Authority, PACE, Borders and its US automotive service Centers. Also in that time period, more than 200 US stores were closed. Fast forwarding to the future, Kmart launched www.bluelight.com which is now known as www.kmart.com in 1999. In 2002 Kmart filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy which was the biggest retail bankruptcy i... ... middle of paper ... ... Our Strategic Issue for SHC is, "How can Sears Holdings Corporation strengthen Kmart's position and regain its competitive advantage? Our recommendations are as follows: 1. Differentiation Strategy: Appeal to low and middle income families with children, Quality clothing and decorating store. 2. Stable & Effective Management: Retention, Value Chain Analysis: Supply Chain, Inventory Control (Product Selection), Technology (Reserve), Overall Consistency, Continue Value Adding Strategic Alliances, Similar to alliance with Joe Boxer. 3. Continue to Evaluate Store Portfolio, Focus on owning more/ Premium space. 4. Meet Customer Expectations, Customer Service, and Continuous Research & Development.
Over one hundred years ago, an entrepreneur named Sebastian Spering Kresge opens his first retail store in 1899. The store was named Five-and-Dime and was located in downtown Detroit. The store was named Five-and-Dime because everything in the store was priced at either five cents or ten cents. This low price gained him a lot of customers and a lot of publicity. With this new found publicity, in 1912, he opened 85 more stores with annual sales of $10 million. As time went on, the prices have changed to $1 or less, but the business philosophy has remained the same. Around this time, the retail environment was getting very competitive, and the company needed to make some changes to keep up. In 1959, Kresge hired Harry B. Cunningham to become the president of the company. Under Cunningham leadership, the first Kmart store was opened in 1962 in Garden City, Michigan. In 1966, sales in 162 Kmart stores and Kresge stores topped the $1 billion mark and in 1968, the S. S. Kresge aired its first T.V. commercial. In 1976, Kresge made history by opening 271 Kmart stores in 1 year and becoming the first ever retailer to launch 17 million square feet of sales space in a single year. By 1977, nearly 95% of the S. S. Kresge sales were generated by Kmart so the company officially decided to change its name to Kmart Corporations. In 1991, Kmart opened the first supercenter in Medina, Ohio offering a full-service grocery area. In 1996, a complete redesign of Kmart was launched, changing its name to Big Kmart [or BigK] and in 1999, Kmart launch a new internet presence, named bluelight.com [now known as kmart.com]. In 2002, Kmart filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. (Corpor...
Sears Holding Corporation is the fourth largest retailer in the United States and Canada. Their supplements include Sears, Roebuck and Co. as well as K-Mart. “The closing of the merger between Sears and K-Mart took place on March 24, 2005. Sears has more than 4,000 retail stores across the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Guam. Sears offers products and services through over 2,700 branded and affiliated stores. Sears operates 894 broad-line stores and 1,354 specialty stores. Sears’ broad-line stores are mall-based locations. The specialty stores include Sears Hometown Stores that are mostly independently owned, Sears Home Appliance Showrooms, Sears Hardware Stores, Sears Auto Centers, and The Great Indoor Stores (Sears Holdings, 2011).”
Kmart Corporation is facing a serious problem with regards to the problem of bankruptcy protection that had allowed it to continue its operation even though it had been delinquent on obligations of more than $4.7 billion owed to creditors, vendors and leaseholders. The bankruptcy< which was filed in January 2002 was the largest bankruptcy in U.S. retailing history and was the culmination of decades of poor strategy execution that resulted in an overall deterioration of Kmart's competitive position in the discount retail industry and a roller-coaster earning history.
Barney Kroger who invested his life savings into opening his own grocery store established the Kroger Company in 1883. His once small business, beginning at 66 Pearl Street in Cincinnati, has now grown to more than 2,400 stores in the United States under multiple banners. This retailer and manufacturer sells things from fresh produce to gas in one of its 1,090 fuel centers operating on its facility. This once small town business has grown into one of the largest retailer and manufacturer businesses ever to operate in America.
The 1940’s – 1980’s proved to be a period of change for the company. Retail stores were opened in foreign countries, additional catalog companies were established and Sears Roebuck and Company built a new headquarters in Chicago, Illinois, which at the time was the world’s tallest building (Sears Archives, 2016). In 1980, Sears, Roebuck and Company underwent a period of restructuring, the retail division was renamed the Sears Merchandise Group, the company obtained many other subsidiaries in other areas of business such as financial services and real estate. This era of Sears’ restructuring and acquisitions has remained a questionable period in the company’s successful history.
How does managerial planning for Project Impact take place at different levels within the organization?
Overtime, a combination of poor customer service, messy stores, and lengthy checkout processes have led to the failure of the Kmart and Sears merger. One-time loyal customers, who routinely shopped at these stores, no longer felt appreciated or that the organization desired their business. Since they no longer felt important, customer chose to give their business to more deserving competitors such as Target.
For every $100 spent at a locally owned business, $68 of that will stay local compared to $43 if spent at a “big box store”. Even though people believe that local businesses are not as beneficial as a big box store, buying locally not only benefits the business but also the community because buying locally builds a strong community and the money you spend at a local business gets put back into the community.
Read the short Kmart case study on pages 161-162 carefully and answer the following questions:
Sears began as a small retailer but as the years have gone by, they have become
Wal-Mart is coming off a disappointing third quarter when its largest revenue generator, sales from U.S. stores, dropped 0.3%. The company also has forecasted flat earnings during the critically important holiday season. While lowering its full-year forecast, Wal-Mart still expects to see modest sales growth in FY2015 through the opening of smaller, more targeted stores, and its longtime strategy of lowering prices. However, there is some doubt whether these measures will be enough to stave off Wal-Mart 's competitors. Costco NASDAQ: COST is coming off a big year with more than $100 billion in revenue, 5% growth in U.S. store sales, and 7% growth in international sales. As Costco continues to challenge Wal-Mart domestically and internationally,
Subsidiaries include Sears, Roebuck and Co., Kmart, KCD IP, Shop Your Way, and MetaScale among others.
Atlas, Partners and Watertown Capital. (2002). Presentation to shareholders committee for Kmart, June 14, 2002.
This move came after Kmart proposed to buy Sears Roebuck for about $11 Billion. As per the terms of the transaction, Kmart shareholders received one share of the Sears Holding for each Kmart Stock (Article 13). At the time of the merger both companies were both top 10 retail stores, so they were hoping with the merger that they would become the top retailer in the nation. But after the merger they ran into some speed bumps. As Joe Clayton, president/CEO of Sirius Satellite “The Major challenge will be to address their different customer bases. They will probably have to amalgamate their operations. Maybe come up with a different merchandising Strategy” (Article 1). Analyst were also thinking with the merger that they would both go towards the IT direction of Sears. Rob Garf, an analyst at AMR Research Inc. said it would make sense for the retailers to head in the IT directions of Sears. “The combined entity needs to continue the momentum that Sears has gained over the last couple of years,” Garf said. “It’s important for them to not slow that process down” (Article
In the case of Dayton Hudson Corporation, the company fell into a situation of a hostile takeover attempted by the Dart Group in 1987. At that time, Kenneth Macke was the CEO of the Dayton Hudson Corporation and sternly disagreed with letting the company fall into the hands of the Haft’s. Macke’s decision on what could be done to terminate the takeover turned the circumstances over to the hands of the state of Minnesota where Dayton Hudson’s headquarters resided. Macke requested a special session of the legislature to revisit the Minnesota corporate takeovers statute. This proved to work in Dayton Hudson’s favor and a statute was enacted that left the decision of a takeover up to the Board of Directors of the company.