Kmart Past Struggles
Management is a key to success, and Kmart needs proper management to help create a positive image that attracts more customers. Kmart’s disorderly management and bankruptcy caused many customers to shop with other retailers. According to Carr, Wal-Mart and Kmart were the same size in 1990. Since then, Kmart has grown far slower than its rival or the industry. Once one of the largest discount retailers, Kmart filed for the biggest Chapter 11 bankruptcy for discount retailing in the United States (2002). Struggling to find the right type of management has been one of Kmart’s problems that ultimately helped lead the company to its downfall. Kmart is constantly changing CEO’s, and thus focuses. Kmart has had four different CEO’s since 2000, all with different management objectives.
Youdath illustrates some of Kmart’s management changes, Charles Conway wanted to turn Kmart into an “Everyday low price destination,” making Wal-Mart Stores a direct competitor. Conaway cut back on advertising and the results were not profitable. After an unprofitable holiday season in 2001 the company filed bankruptcy. In 2002, James Adamson hoped to improve customer service and restock the shelves within the Kmart Stores. While Kmart was taking time to recover from filing Chapter 11, its rivals like Wal-Mart and Target were stealing its customers. When Kmart was focusing on random in-store discounts, Wal-Mart and Target were pitching low prices, broad inventories, hip products, and a pleasant shopping experience (2002).
Jalexson states that in 2003 Edward Lambert rescued Kmart from bankruptcy. Lambert wanted to attract customer’s back, but the closing of 28% of Kmarts over the last two years hurts the chains ability to attract customers and forced the remaining stores to pay a higher portion of advertising costs. Then, in January of 2003 CEO Julian Day said that when a company exits bankruptcy it should emphasize the exclusive brands like; Joe Boxer, Sesame Street and of course Martha Stewart (2003). As mentioned by Karush, starting in October of 2004 Aylwin Lewis was named CEO of Kmart and will be involved in merging Kmart with Sears (2005). With inconsistent management and objectives, Kmart has been struggling to create concrete guidelines necessary to improve store performance.
Effects of Past Struggles on Local Stores
Kmart’s reputation of poor manage...
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...of Kmart’s financial problems and unclear marketing strategy local stores have also suffered. Kmart struggles to change these negative images, and create a positive image to differentiate itself form its competitors. Even though Kmart has had a struggling past, changes can be made by management to improve stores status and attract customers.
Actions such as increasing advertising, improving the store environment, and increasing the availability of quality merchandise must be taken to improve store performance. To make consumers more aware of Kmart’s merchandise more promotions and advertisement is essential. Television, radio, newspaper, and promotional ads should be shown to the general public to spark interest. Stores need to improve appearance and organization and also offer a wider range of quality merchandise.
Kmart’s stores have prime real estate and could be improved by new marketing and management methods to make shopping with Kmart a more pleasant experience. Kmart must improve customer satisfaction, and differentiate itself from its competitors. The future is now and in order to stand out changes must be made.
Kohl’s also boasts a loyal customer base and strong brand equity. These strengths are critical to offset their weaknesses. Flaws include an imbalance on sales for men’s products and a lacking online presence. (Kohl's Corporation, n.d.) Another way that Kohl’s is actively counterbalancing their negatives is by capitalizing on opportunities. Kohl’s has found that their beauty sections are an immense source of opportunity. As a result, the company is expanding those departments in an effort to capture those sales that would otherwise go elsewhere. (Wahba, 2014) Finally, Kohl’s keeps the knowledge of their threats at the forefront of their decision-making. They understand that their coupon system can be abused and cause profit losses. They also recognize that price wars in their industry can also be very damaging. As a result, they are working towards more secure methods of offering savings and strategically making efforts to remain the leader for price setting. (Wahba,
Kmart is a huge vintage company that had peeked at one time and now is
The purpose of this memo is to show the affects of how Albertson’s is trying to implement many strategies in order to try, and compete with its powerhouse competitor Wal-Mart. This memo will contain information on steps Albertson’s is taking to gain back some of the market share that Wal-Mart has swallowed up. It will also describe Albertson’s planned innovations that will be what determines their success. Lastly it will discuss how through IT as well as a successful implementation of satisfying consumers demands, will possibly allow them to compete with the ever so powerful Wal-Mart.
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.
Some core competencies that must be exploited are: Brand Kmart is an existing well-known and trusted national brand in USA Kmart has private label and designer clothing that is well endorsed Infrastructure Kmart has a large number of well-located, low-cost, leased stores in urban far away from competitors through out the country ( Appendix B ). Staffing Confidence by the market in Kmart is created by the achievements of its staff and management. With the turn-around strategy in place, new blood has been put into the top management structures. In any renewal there will be retrenchment as unprofitable stores are closed. This can be used as an opportunity to retain and move high performing staff to where they are needed and to get rid of non-performing staff. Anderson the chairperson of Kmart is well supported by Wall Street and the board of Directors. These new staff members enter the company with needed skills to address problems in certain areas that previously were poorly managed such as inventory control and merchandising. Store locations, layout and Performance Stores conveniently located away from competitors like Wal-mart and Target therefore less to compete for customers face-to-face. There are 250 non-performing stores who have already been identified as being more cost effective to close than continue with running costs. Expertise exists in-house for the planning of store layout and appearance to meet different customer segments. This concentration of effort will enable focus on key areas Technology Kmart has already invested in good retailing systems. The system can be use to control inventory, supplier payments, track customer buying and monitor income versus profit margins across all stores. Research and Development The planning department is well established and in cross-functional to provide various perspective. The planning department to ensure that strategies at all levels are executed can further use the access to past data and knowledge of changes in buying patterns. Financial Backing JP Morgan Chase has agreed to support Kmart to avert the current threat of closure due to bankruptcy.
Every decision that the KB toys will immediately affect their performance against other major retail competitors such as Target, Amazon, and Walmart. Kay Bee Toys has already operated before giving them an idea of what flaws and issues to address as they reopen. There is a considerate amount of suggestions that I have provided for the success of the relaunching toy store. I believe taking into consideration the resolutions that I provide would help the company have a consumer point of view. Carrying out these resolutions will help not only the company but also help to improve a customers overall shopping
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.
On January 22, 2002, Kmart filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection becoming the largest retailer ever to do so in U.S. history. Most industry analysts attributed the immediate cause of the company's bankruptcy filing to a dull holiday season and stiff competition from WalMart and Target as the chain's more fundamental problem. But competition wasn't the root cause of Kmart's consistently poor performance. The real reason for Kmart's poor performance is that Kmart never had a marketing strategy. Kmart completely misunderstood its market and was positioning itself in the wrong direction. Also, on the strategic side, there are issues of where stores were located. On the whole, Kmart stores did not seem to be sited as well as the stores of the competition. Then there was the issue of technology. While Wal-Mart was becoming the relentless efficiency engine that we know today by investing in technology and streamlining the supply chain, Kmart held back. As Wal-Mart developed an infrastructure that enabled it to lower prices, Kmart slipped into a price disadvantage. This paper discusses these strategic problems that led to Kmart's poor performance.
One of the movie’s strengths is that it goes further than most films with similar subject matter. The film has several logical points where it could reach a conclusion, but the story continues to a moment that is more satisfying than one could suspect. (D.W. Kirkeby) The reason why I say this is because it shows how East Germany was back then. I stated this before, but I restated it to show the importance of it. Back then, East Berlin had people who spied on other citizens throughout their lives. In my opinion, I believe that I could not live like that. I couldn’t have someone watching me everyday. However, The Lives of Others is a fiction film intertwined with history. It gives you all the information that you need, except for the actual fall of the Berlin Wall. The suspense comes not only from the structure and pacing of the scenes, but also, more deeply, from the sense that even in an oppressive society, individuals are burdened with free will. You never know, from one moment to the next, what course any of the characters will choose. (A.O. Scott) The director, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, should have added that piece into the movie. It would have changed the whole entire film. Giving more of a suspense part into the movie. Although the movie didn’t give me the effect of the actual Fall of the Berlin Wall, I actually took away a great deal of knowledge from The Lives of
JCPenney is a chain of American mid-range department stores that is based out of Texas that started over 100 years ago. JCPenny has been successful for most of its time up until the last three to four years. The company is trying relentlessly to overcome the lingering effects of the makeover that former CEO, Ron Johnson, had implemented in order for the company to take a new direction in hopes of increasing sales. The new CEO, Myron Ullman, has taken a close look into the markets demographic segmentation along with the income segmentation in order to attempt to return the retailer back to its old self, which is to appeal to middle-market customers. A couple issues of major concern for the company are the dissolving of Johnson’s Boutiques, the price of their products, and overall revenue.
Douglas Mcmillon has been in the news lately for poor customer service under what seems like a lack of leadership style. Walmart has failed to keep up with changes in the retail environment. Once an ever anticipating, low cost retailer of consumer needs type business to a now slow reaction to change retailer. Buyers’ behavior has changed and so has the business landscape. Leadership must be able to realign strategy to suit consumer need. What works this year may not work next year. Consumers now have zero tolerance for inconvenience of any sort (Mourdoukoutas,
The advent of the revolution in the military affair in the period of 1450 and 1800 is believed to had been shaped by a number of reasons. All the reasons, that is to say, the invention of gunpowder, technology, trade, an increase in economy and different types of defensive fortifications are considered to have played an equal role in contributing the revolution in the military affair. However, some historians interpret the military revolution differently and have distinguished opinions towards the revolution from each other representing objections and disagreements. For example, Clifford J. Rogers points out that RMA-Revolution in Military Affair is simply a revolutionary change in how war is fought – a change that can be recognised by
The key issues for K-Mart strategies are finding the right cost level for an opportunity to be aggressive, and differentiating the product for consumer in terms of different consumer and different intangible product attributes. K-Mart and Sears should be combined with a new overall corporate competitive strategy using a cost focus. This may turn out to be the only sensible strategy, and the one which best describes the strategy adopted. Strategies of cost leadership and product differentiation are often described as if they were mutually exclusive you can either pursue one or the other, but not both.
Sears has seen many different changes in business and has had to adjust to t...
Michael Roberts introduced the concept of a military revolution. Roberts’ military revolution occurred between 1560-1660 and was the point he believed that separated medieval society from the modern world. Roberts attributes this “military revolution” to the advancement of tactical reforms, and their consequences.