Kohl’s: A Popular Service Organization
Service organizations can be viewed as any organization that provides customer service. Restaurants and retail stores are a couple of the top organizations that come to mind when thinking about a service organization. Kohl’s is a popular retail establishment that has grown by leaps and bounds over the last several years. Kohl’s offers excellent customer service, friendly staff, and a well organized store. The store has become a staple in many cities and towns; offering fashion and shoes for the whole family, jewelry, as well as various home goods. Kohl’s has been committed to providing convenience and bringing quality and value to their customers over the years. The following will describe the history of Kohl’s, their target market, effective strategic goals, and how they can improve in the future to remain profitable and popular for many years to come.
Kohl’s history
In 1938, Mr. Max Kohl and his three sons developed Kohl’s Inc. and turned it into a department store that sold apparel and hard goods. In the mid 60’s, William Kellogg was hired for his known expertise in budget retailing. Together, Mr. Kohl’s and Mr. Kellogg carved a “niche between upscale department stores and discounters, offering department store quality at discount prices” (Kohl’s Corporation, 2014). In 1970, Milwaukee became home to the largest Kohl’s shopping center, followed by five new Kohl’s department stores by 1972. In 1986, the Kohl’s retail chain grew to 40 stores and a distribution center, with $288 million in annual sales. Kohl’s branched out to Detroit and Chicago shortly after and went public in 1992, growing to 81 stores in 6 states, with sales topping $1 billion. The Kohl’s corporation...
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...ized store, and has been consistently committed to bring quality, value, and convenience to their customers. Kohl’s has remained successful due to their competitive strategy and catering to their core target market. As long as they continue to follow their competitive strategy and revise operations and processes as the world and shopping trends and patterns continue to evolve, they will continue to strive in the retail market. Redesign and creativity are an important aspect in a retail environment, and Kohl’s has a big opportunity to appeal to their shoppers senses to lead them to the areas and products they are featuring. Their overall processes, goals, and operations have made them who they are today. Kohl’s has and will continue to be a popular retail establishment in many neighborhoods, and will continue to grow by leaps and bounds in the coming years.
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...
With minimal aid from interviews with managers and no exposure to the marketing entity of the company, I was able to accomplish much of my findings related to the macro environment of Kohl’s through diligent online research. One of the major changes occurring in the retail industry is online shopping. Substitutes such as Amazon, eBay, and other online retailers are replacing the technically savvy shoppers from ever having to enter a store. Kohl’s competes with these outlets by remaining on the cutting edge of integrated technology to enhance the customer experience shopping their brand. They are currently testing multi-function tablets in jewelry and beauty departments that can be used to demonstrate
Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, The Kroger Company is one of the largest supermarket retailers across the United States. Founded in 1883, Barney Kroger invested his life savings of $372 to open his first grocery store at 66 Pearl Street in downtown Cincinnati. (Kroger, 2011). Barney was quite proud. He was the first grocer ever to have a bakery, to sell meat, and to sell other groceries all in one store. From the start, Barney operated his business with a simple motto: “Be particular. Never sell anything you would not want yourself.” (Kroger, 2011). Today, one hundred and twenty-eight years later, the Kroger Company is still following Barney’s motto.
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
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.
Kohl's. Kohl's | Shop Clothing, Shoes, Home, Kitchen, Bedding, Toys & More. Retrieved April 20, 2014, from http://www.kohls.com/
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.
Kroger was also an inventor, of food products. What was born in his mother’s kitchen, of just a tangy German sauerkraut has grown into over 30 facilities that manufacture the Kroger brand. Just another example this company meeting its objective to serve and please its customer base. Kroger understood from the very beginning, the value of the customer base, which according to the text Managing Customer Relationships is simply put, is to get, keep, and grow customers and is the very objective of the Kroger brand. Mr. Kroger was a natural born leader and servant and built this concept into the very framework of the company. Every step he took, focused on this premise, and soon he built a successful model that many other merchants fervently attempted to duplicate. The modern supermarket owes it roots to this early adventure in
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the different services offered by the organization, the target market of the organization, how the
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