I. Introduction
This paper is aim to have a quick analysis of current competitive position of Build-A-Bear Workshop in the toy industry and challenges it faces, and to provide Build-A-Bear Workshop with some short-term and long-term recommendations to continue its success in toy industry. This paper mainly apply Porter’s five forces analysis, external environment analysis, financial analysis and value chain analysis.
II. Case Summary
Build-A-Bear Workshop was an American toy retailer, which was founded by Maxine Clark in 1996 in St. Louis, Missouri. Build-A-Bear Workshop main served teddy beard and other stuffed animals, and accessories for teddy bears and other stuffed animals. According to professor Eisner, Korn, Baugher, and graduate student Vojtkova (2011), “Build-A-Bear Workshop was founded 13 years ago on a simple but powerful idea: to create a successful company with heart” (p. C259). In order to differentiate itself from other toy producers, Build-A-Bear Workshop served customers with interactive experience by “allowing its customers to make, personalize and customize stuffed animals od their choosing” (p. C262). As professor Eisner et al. (2011) concluded, “the company (Build-A-Bear) differentiated itself from the competition with marketing initiatives that facilitated stronger connections with its customers” (p. C262) In addition, Build-A-Bear Workshop exercised its focus strategy by narrowing its product lines. Build-A-Bear Workshop earned a big success in the past decades.
However, Build-A-Bear Workshop also exercised some big challenges, especially during economic recession. Shifting markets, fluctuating economy, developing of Internet, and changeable preference of kids were all negatively affecting Build-A-Bear Work...
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...hop to have a comprehensive analysis of basic learning needs of customers of all ages. This strategy can be costly because it requires Build-A-Bear Workshop to provide continues investment to develop different types of products which can meet customers’ various learning needs. This strategy could give Build-A-Bear Workshop a competitive advantage for long time and further expand its global expansion because the rapid growing world make customers of all ages have a great need of learning various skills. However, as preferences and demands of customers are changeable, it is really hard for Build-A-Bear Workshop to predict learning needs of customers, so Build-A-Bear Workshop’s investments may not generate high returns.
Works Cited
Eisner, A. B., Korn. J. H., Baugher, D., &Vojtkova, L. (2011). Build-A-Bear Workshop. Strategic Management (text & cases) 6th. C259-C267
2. Thompson and Strickland (2002), Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases, 13th Edition, Chicago Irwin Publications.
. G. Toys is a leading supplier of high quality dolls that are manufactured in two plants within Illinois, one in Chicago, one in Springfield. These dolls are sold in retailors throughout the United States and have an established, loyal customer base due to their high quality and popularity (Campbell & Kulp, 2004). In the last few years, due to rising production costs, their most popular doll, Geoffrey, has seen a decrease in profit margin. In this evaluation we plan to address G.G. Toys existing cost system and offer recommendations on whether management should change the costing system in both the Chicago and Springfield plant. We will calculate the costs of the Geoffrey doll, the specialty branded doll #106 and the cradles using the cost
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Toys R Us is the world's largest children's specialty retailer. The company operates toy stores throughout the world and is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. In this paper I will give a brief company history, cite where the competitive environment is coming from, strategies that were attempted, and where they stand today.
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Description: Students develop skills to workout solutions in a group to an imaginary or a real life business problem and develop a presentation project collating all these solutions. The media selected for the project would be on the basis of consensus by different groups. The final presentation using the selected media should show how...
Planning for the future of Vermont Teddy Bear Co. Inc it is important that we consider conditions/trends in the internal environment of the company that may impact the future success of the company. These factors (conditions/trends) involve financial resources, human resources, the quality of products and services provided the efficiency of internal processes, student and stakeholder satisfaction, and the company culture. Specification of these factors will allow us to: 1) identify their potential impact on the market; 2) assess the probability that they will continue; 3) categorize them as strengths or challenges; 4) rank them in terms of how well the company is doing in each category.
Arthur, A., Thompson, Margaret, A., Peteraf, John, E. Gamble, A., J., Strickland III. (2014). Crafting & Executing Strategy: The Quest for Competitive Advantage 19e: Concepts & Cases. C6-C25.
Hill, C. W. L & Jones, G. R. (1998). Cases in Strategic Management (4th edition). Boston New York: Houghton Mifflin Company
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Witcher, B., and Chau, S. V., 2010. Strategic Management: Principles and Practice. Cengage Learning EMEA.