By exploiting core competencies firms can develop value creating strategies which are superior to their competitors. Wal-Mart are experts at using there core competencies to become superior to their competitors. There are three resources which allow a company to create a core competency. Tangible resources consist of assets that can be seen, financial resources (borrowing capacity), physical resources, organizational structure and technology. Wal-Mart is a huge and very powerful company and therefore uses its ability of lending to become a core competency. Intangible resources are characterized by human resources, resource for innovation, and reputation. This category is where Wal-Mart excels against all its competitors. Knowledge, training and corporate culture possessed by employees may be one of the most significant sources of core competencies and competitive advantages throughout the business world. This is due to being very hard to copy or substitute for. Brand equity consists of brand name and maintaining brand equity. Wal-Mart are masters at using this resource as an advantage over their competitor are
Wal-Marts emphasis is on its image of everyday low prices and high quality goods when marketing. Wal-Mart uses many different channels when marketing itself. It uses television, radio, monthly circulars, weekly newspapers and many more channels. Each one of these channels can be used in an unique way to emphasize Wal-Mart’s position of selling quality products at low prices. Radio usually grabs the audience’s attention by promoting products which are experiencing high demand. Both of these channels are made stronger by the use of newspapers adverts and monthly circulars. In these marketing channels deeply discounted items are highlighted to the potential competitors and these items help lure the customers into the stores. The idea of having “quality for less” is a good marketing plan because it gets people into the store. It also offers a competitive advantage over the competitors because they can not financially match Wal-Mart prices. This is due to Wal-Mart having better use of financial resources, technology and physical resources.
By censoring some products Wal-Mart are trying to market themselves as a company with good values. They use this to attract families. Unfortunately this plan has negative and positive effects. A negative effect is the ef...
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...eakness have been stated as an air of complacency or a loss of presentation and marketing in the stores. As a most firms grow they encounter problems with staying in the right direction. Wal-Mart must address this problem to continue to grow.
Price deflation has been poorly by Wal-Mart and other retailers. “aiming to obtain sales increases, companies have bought more merchandise units of products that are experiencing price deflation, without allowing for the inelasticity of demand for most basic products” (lll). Basically this has reduced in markdowns which have resulted in reduced sales and gross margins.
IFE Matrix
The Internal factor Evaluation (IFE) matrix is used to summarize and evaluate the major strengths and weaknesses in the functional area of business. It also provides a basis for identifying and evaluating relationships between these areas. A weight is assigned to each factor with 0.0 being unimportant and 1.0 being all important. A rating is then assigned with 1 being minor weakness and 4 being a strength. Both of these are then multiplied together to get a weighted score. The closer the overall weighted score is to 4 the stronger the firm is. The average is 2.5.
Wal-Mart was not always the superstore that it is today. In the late 1940’s, Sam Walton took up the ownership of a Ben Franklin’s store in Newport, Arkansas. Even during the time before Wal-Mart, Walton was all about keeping prices low. It is every business’s objective to find the right balance between the prices of an item to meet the demands of the consumer in order to maximize revenue. How could Walton still make a profit while keeping the prices low for the consumer? Even while still operating the Ben Franklin’s store, he would purchase products from wholesalers and minimally markup the price. Where most retailers would rely on markup prices to gain profit, Walton would rely on pure volume in order to make up for the low prices (Frank, 2006). This was a smart decision on his part because it makes sense that if a consumer can get the same product for a lower price then they will purchase the cheaper product. It was not until 1962 that Sam Walton opened the first Wal-Mart store, also in Arkan...
According to Smithson, Walmart can expand its markets to new and emerging markets especially in the third world countries, which can significantly increase its revenues. Secondly, the company can reform is employment practices and improve the quality standard and in doing so, attract more customers and improve its brand image. On the other hand, the company faces threats such as the rising healthy lifestyle trend I that the company in most cases does not provide customers with healthy goods. At the same time, the company can capitalize on this aspect and increase its revenues. Aggressive competition from other discount retailers such as Target creates a great threat to the company (Smithson, 2015).
Wal-Mart has been praised for providing cheap diverse products close to home, while providing hundreds of jobs. The leading discount retail store got its title by selling its items at a lower cost than other competing stores. Whereas competing grocery store Winn Dixie sells a steak for twenty dollars, Wal-Mart sells it for seventeen dollars. This price difference may not seem like much, but when Wal-Mart’s overall prices average differs from Winn Dixie’s by a few dollars, it begins to add up. Wal-Mart has allowed for low income families to buy products for a reasonable price. Along with its low prices, Wal-Mart has been known to sell wide variety of products. While some stores such as Winn Dixie, Kroger, and Publix only sell food items, Wal-Mart sells food items along with electronics, clothes, and toys.
...al-Mart’s methods to keeping these prices down have been immoral. In addition, they have taken advantage of town resources for example, subsidies, employee benefits and exploitation of cheap labor. Even though they have surpassed significantly in attracting customers all over the nation, they failed to do so ethically. This has created losses to competitors, and the battle for profit is an ongoing one. Therefore, I believe that Wal-Mart has become an economical disaster to competitors and the US as a whole. This is due to the exporting of huge amounts of funds to Asian countries, which in turn reduced the funds in the US due to continuous import costs.
A prior market firm used by Wal-mart (GSD&M) warned Wal-mart of the public image issues they were facing and had not addressed, even though they had been advised of them for over two years. GSD&M wrote in one review to the company that “sadly, after two years of empty rhetoric and ineffective publicity stunts, we now know that Wal-Mart has not only needlessly hurt its Associates and their families, but has pointlessly hurt the image and success that Sam Walton built.” (wakeupWalMart.com, 2007). Wal-mart has acted in a manner that blends with the theory of egoism. This theory “sets as its goal the benefit, pleasure, or greatest good of the oneself alone.” (wofford.edu, 1997). “Egoist use personal advantage…as the standard for measuring an action’s rightness.” (Shaw, 2008, p. 45). Clearly Wal-mart today is acting with interests geared toward their personal advantage and not considering the wreckage it is leaving all around them.
In retail business, demand elasticity is different as there are combinations of goods presented. Nevertheless, Wal-Mart’s elasticity of demand is considered low and sometimes close to inelastic. According to “making change at Wal-Mart” in 2012, when income falls or even currency weakens, revenues increase at Wal-Mart. This is because people in such times demand cheaper goods and basically it is always available at Wal-Mart. In addition to that, Wal-Mart launches constant price wars to dominate the business, where suppliers are
Wal-Mart does have weaknesses, particularly in some of its international markets. In China, it has a primitive supply chain; in Japan it has to deal with "a powerful but backward retail ecosystem;" and in Brazil and Argentina it has
Consumers want more for their dollar and Wal-Mart has centered their focus on this idea, and has not apologized for that fact. In fact, Wal-Mart’s sole existence relies on the consumers search for the lowest priced goods.
These conditions are brought about by the enormous pressure Wal-Mart has put on their suppliers. Their sheer size enables them to negotiate whatever they want. Suppliers rarely dare to request a price increase, and they are very conservative when giving price quotes to Wal-Mart. To lose Wal-Mart as a customer can mean the end of business for many suppliers. It’s hard to combat this downfall when Wal-Mart has so much buying power-- countries send government officials to Bentonville, Arkansas to lobby for production in their country.
There are several key competitive edges that keep Wal-Mart successfully maintaining its leading position in the industry. First of all, Wal-Mart’ multiple store formats allows Wal-Mart to extend their customer base. Since Wal-Mart opened its first store in Rogers, Arkansas, July 2 1962, it has extended its store number from 9 stores to a total 4,906 throughout the four types of store: (Discount stores, Supercenters, Sam’s club, and neighborhood markets) Wal-Mart is able to embrace more customers to fulfill all kinds of demand such as live supplies, groceries, pharmaceuticals, and entertainments. As a result, Wal-Mart’s sales and profit increase significantly. Backward expansion strategy is another key for its success. Unlike other retail stores, Wal-Mart opens its stores in small town first before entering into metropolitan area.
Wal-Mart’s philosophy has always been to provide everyday low prices and superior customer service. But this philosophy might have stared potential customers away from Wal-Mart. Many people, including myself, have the misconception that Wal-Mart only sells necessities that the average working class family can afford. An extreme eye opener for me was a recent television commercial by Wal-Mart. I saw that they also sold flat panel televisions, which is considered a luxury item for any social class. After going to their website to see what other luxury items Wal-Mart sold I was amazed at the number of items I found that were not the necessities which I stereotyped them selling. Wal-Mart has to change the public’s opinion of the items that they sell and the types of people that it has in mind of serving.
It's headquarters if filled with sample furniture from vendors trying to peddle their goods through Wal-Mart. It doesn't stop there either. Wal-Mart demands the same of it's suppliers. All suppliers are required to provide a toll free number for consumers at the cost of the supplier. Shifting cost to suppliers to keep prices low has become the norm for the coorporation and at no risk for Wal-Mart since they have all the power. Despite inflation Wal-Mart will demand it's suppliers to sell for cheaper. Since Wal-Mart is usually the largest buyer by a large margin most companies cannot refuse Wal-Mart's order, resulting in cheaper materials used, less features, moving factories overseas, etc. One specific example is that of deodorant. Before the 1990's deodorant came in a cardboard box. Wal-Mart decided that the cardboard box was a waste of money. It cost money to make, to ship, and took up shelf space. Wal-Mart asked the deodorant makers to get rid of the box with the power they have. Now today you will see no deodorant
Wal-Mart provides low prices for people to afford more of these great products and to stretch their dollar more. Wal-Mart opens their stores in rural areas that are destitute. These people don’t have the ability to buy the latest and finest products around. That lifestyle of buying and getting the modern item is foreign to them. Thanks to Wal-Mart these people are able to grasp this lifestyle and experience for themselves (Coster 1). People are saving hundreds of dollars and these savings really add up. According to a study by the New England Consulting group, U.S. consumers save $100 billion annually, or $600 for the average America family (Maich 6). These savings for consumers and families are astounding. This data is not only about those who shop at Wal-Mart but this data is about all consumers. This is so because “Wal-Mart sells for less, it forces competitors to cut prices in order to compete” (Maich 6). A s...
Wal-Mart’s competitive environment is quite unique. Although Wal-Mart’s primary competition comes from general merchandise retailers, warehouse clubs and supermarket retailers also present competitive pressure. The discount retail industry is substantial in size and is constantly experiencing growth and change. The top competitors compete both nationally and internationally. There is extensive competition on pricing, location, store size, layout and environment, merchandise mix, technology and innovation, and overall image. The market is definitely characterized by economies of scale. Top retailers vertically integrate many functions, such as purchasing, manufacturing, advertising, and shipping. Large scale functions such as these give the top competitors a significant cost advantage over small-scale competition.
"Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices." Top Documentary Films. Web. 8 Aug 2011. .