Problem Recognition
The Jones Blair Company is a small paint (coatings) producer in the southwestern United States. The company plant and headquarters are located in Dallas, Texas; and it does most of its business within this 11 county Dallas-Fort-Worth region, and also Oklahoma, New Mexico and Louisiana. Currently the company sells top quality architectural paint and accessories to various markets. The company also sells OEM materials to domestic and international customers. Jones Blair is currently looking for solutions for marketing their architectural coatings and sundries.
Jones Blair mainly deals with customers looking for a high end product. They strive to produce top quality coatings by continually researching and developing new solutions. This has led the Jones Blair product to be the highest priced product on the market. Jones Blair caters to mainly do-it-yourself customers (50% of sales) and professional painters (25% of sales) looking for great point of purchase service, ease of application, and durability.
The Jones Blair Company has increased sales on an annual basis, but the sales volume has stayed the same. This is due to the high cost of research and development in their products. The company is in fear of facing a plateau in price and being able stay competitive in the industry. Jones Blair needs to determine where and how the company will market its architectural products in the southern US.
Currently, the company employs eight sales reps to manage the inventory and customer expectation at the companies 200 cooperative retail outlets. The company spends roughly 3% of net sales ($12,000,000*.03= $360,000). Of this 55% is spent on cooperative advertising ($360,000*.55= $198,000). This is spent on newspaper advertising and seasonal catalogs distributed by retailer. The rest of the advertising budget is spent on in-store displays, corporate brand advertising, a website, outlet signs, regional magazines, premiums, and advertising production costs. This case analysis will determine where and how the company should market its architectural products.
Alternatives
Jones Blair has developed four alternatives to relieve the companies marketing problem.
a) Spend additional $350,000 on corporate advertising;
b) Cut price by 20%;
c) Hire one additional sales rep.;
d) Do Nothing (Status Quo).
a) Spend additional $350,000 on corporate advertising
This money will be used to increase awareness. Most of it will be spent on television ads targeted mainly in the Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) area at the do-it-yourself market. Brand image is important to consumers and television ads are a great way to get the name out.
There are over 30 Sr. VPs and VPs holding various positions at the San Francisco
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...
When most people think of Sherwin Williams they think of paint. From the big blue globe with the paint running down stating "cover the earth." Sherwin-Williams has been synonymous with paint. The over 2,300 hundred stores also sell wallpaper, brushes, rollers, carpet, tape, caulk, and most any other item that is needed for any painting project. Sherwin-Williams is also tries to be the leader in innovation and for coming up with better and new products. For example the EZ pour can (which is a new form of paint can made from plastic that reseal with a screw on lid), and the KRYLON Fusion (which is spray paint made for adhering to plastic). Most people do not know is that although Sherwin-Williams sales paint they also make a lot of other brand names that people are aware of just by the name.
Debenhams starts its history in 1778 when William Clark opened a store, selling expensive fabrics, bonnets and parasols. In 1813 renamed to Clark and Debenhams because William Debenhams invest in the business, and in the following years the firm was profitable from the Victoria fashion. In 1851 Clement Freebody invested in the business and renamed to Debenhams and Freebody. A wholesale business was born, selling cloth to dressmakers and other large retails. In 1905 Debenhams Limited was incorporated, and in 1919, the business joined with Marshall and Snellgrove. In 1928 Debenhams became a public company.
This situation seemed interesting to Vanguard because of the exponential increase in the number of potential clients, whom Vanguard doesn’t have to directly advise and serve about their products and services, combined with the high potential for profitability. The development of this broad qualified sales force could also be done at relatively low development cost. The positive aspects of this alternative are somehow strongly counterbalanced by the fact that huge efforts of mass advertising would be required in order to inform the potential customers about Vanguard’s brand, and over whom Vanguard would have no control in the sale process. Vanguard would also have to face some strong competition in its relationship with the intermediaries, who are not always the most loyal sales representatives.
Due to the good establishment of the business, it has huge market national. The company has therefore opened many retail shops and stores all over the country to ensure that their products are accessible to the customers. The entity provides a favorable environment, and many clients view the place as a fun shopping place to be. The retailer has targeted a big pool of customer because of the variety of products it sells. The stores products vary from kitchen goods, jewelry, and electronics clothes to hardware
6 framework I and many others regularly use in analysis of marketing situations. We supplemented
The task of this assignment is to complete a competitive analysis of two of the largest competitors in the industry of chosen study. This researcher’s chosen field is the Car Wash industry. Unlike many industries, the Car Wash industry does not have dominant players or franchise names that rule across the country. Unlike other automobile related industries such as oil change (Rapid Oil Change), tires and batteries (Goodyear), and auto parts retailers (NAPA), where these types of name players may have thousands of locations throughout the country, there are no big name players in the Car Wash industry. Although there are companies that own and operate multiple car wash facilities, most of these multi-location owners operate multiple locations throughout a metropolitan or regional area and their overall location totals are nominal. Since there is a lack of dominant competitors to analyze, this researcher will focus on an analysis between the two main categories of car wash ownership: full service vs. unattended operations.
...n the Younger and has supplied artists since the 1930s. It is one of the largest manufacturers of professional art supplies and has an exceptional range of unique colors.
These issues could have been resolved if a proper market analysis was done. The outcome of this research could have suggested that it best suits highly populated areas. The objective of this research is to help a company or an entrepreneur understand the business environment better as well as customers’ needs and, therefore, make better business decisions. Once the market research data is compiled, it is then evaluated upon which recommendations and conclusions are drawn.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)is the world’s largest accounting firm and ranks as one of the giants in the global professional services arena. PwC employs over 146,000 people with 766 offices in 150 countries. The Firm is led by Samuel A. DiPiazza, CEO, and is headquartered in New York City on Madison Avenue. Its clients include 84 percent of the Fortune Global 500 companies. Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand merged in 1998, which made the combined firm the top player in public accounting. In the 2007 fiscal year, PwC had gross revenue of over $25 billion. Structured as a limited liability partnership (LLP), the private company would rank in the low 300s on the Fortune 500 companies.
During the last few years, Harry Davis Industries has been too constrained by the high cost of capital to make many capital investments. Recently, though, capital costs have been declining, and the company has decided to look seriously at a major expansion program that had been proposed by the marketing department. Assume that you are an assistant to Leigh Jones, the financial vice president. Your first task is to estimate Harry Davis’s cost of capital. Jones has provided you with the following data, which she believes may be relevant to your task.
When analyzing an organization’s target market, the first step is to understand the business and what they hope to achieve through their marketing strategies. Targeting and positioning strategies consist of analyzing and identifying segments within a given product-market, choosing which segment or segments to target, and developing and implementing a positioning strategy for each targeted segment (Cravens & Piercy, 2009). The company’s target market determines what customer group or groups the company wants to serve (Cravens & Piercy, 2009). Analyzing IKEA’s target market allows the company to determine if their marketing strategies have successfully targeted their intended customer group or groups. Discussing the company’s positioning strategy helps determine if the strategy is effective or if the company must make improvements strengthen their positioning strategy. The company must determine if their targeting and positioning strategies may be lacking. If the company’s targeting and positioning strategies are lacking, the company must determine what they must do to strengthen their targeting and positioning strategies.
In a simple way, the retailer needs to create a warm, friendly and an approachable retail space to attract consumers.The visual displays is an imperative element of branding of any store. If the stock is presentable, it is bound to appeal to the shoppers. If the shoppers appreciate the store layout and product, they are likely to spend more time in the store, and in return reward the store with sales. Along with the products for sales, the staff, the décor, the store interiors, the trial rooms arrangement, the lightings and music also form an inclusive elements boosting store sales. (fibre2fashion, 2008)
Much of the target market will be business people who earn between R36 000- R400 000 per year. Target Markets earning less than this may not have as much disposable income to spend on Dunkin’ Donuts products. More inexpensive products should be available for secondary target markets with less purchasing power.