...mid-twenties, Sears switched its target focus from “only the farmer” to “both the farmer and city population”. The reason is that the low-income groups desired to buy the same goods as the middle and upper class. The country was becoming one big homogeneous market. And Sears noticed the trend and was aware of the consumer shopping habits, so they made changes accordingly. This strategy made me think of Starbucks in China. The consumer of Starbucks in America is almost for everyone, but in China, the target consumer is mostly for the wealthy upper and middle class. College students won’t pay 30 yuan for a cup of coffee because they can buy 6 bottles of CocaCola instead. Starbucks was really smart when they decided their target consumer in China. Since coffee is still not a common drink for Chinese, carrying a cup of expensive Starbucks is seen as a symbol of success or some little personal luxury for the middle class. Starbucks premium pricing strategy fits the market demand very well because the middle class and affluent consumers are growing, which means the market of Starbucks in China will be huge in...
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...From Scratch: How a Couple of Regular Guys Grew the Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion, tells the story of Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank, and how they are responsible for one of the biggest entrepreneur successes in recent history. This novel shows, first hand, how they became leaders within the home improvement industry. This was no easy task, but these two had experience. Bernie’s parents immigrated to America, and he grew up in a poor neighborhood, Newark, New Jersey. He dreamed of working in medicine, but could not afford the kickback he needed to pay Harvard Medical School to circumnavigate the quota they had at the time for people of Jewish ancestry. Bernie soon graduated from Rutgers, Newark, and worked as an intern in a pharmaceutical company. One day a customer came in that forever changed his life. Bernie was introduced to the world of discount stores when he met a man named Danny Kessler. A few years later Bernie worked alongside Arthur blank within one of the most successful home improvement chains at the time, Handy Dan’s Home improvement center. Bernie became the President and CEO, and Arthur was the vice president of finance. They were eventually fired, and faced legal trouble due to a false accusation. It was at this time that they decided to open up their own home improvement store, one that captured their own core values. They had high hopes of a store that far surpassed Handy Dan’s Home improvement center. The idea was to build a store more...
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...About | Contact | Jobs | [pic] • Lesson Store • Buy Video • Exercise Store • Powerpoint [pic][pic] Marketing Teacher: Home / The Marketing Environment The Marketing Environment [pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic] [pic][pic][pic][pic]The Marketing Environment What is the marketing environment? The marketing environment surrounds and impacts upon the organization. There are three key perspectives on the marketing environment, namely the 'macro-environment,' the 'micro-environment' and the 'internal environment'. [pic][pic][pic][pic][pic] The micro-environment This environment influences the organization directly. It includes suppliers that deal directly or indirectly, consumers and customers, and other local stakeholders. Micro tends to suggest small, but this can be misleading. In this context, micro describes the relationship between firms and the driving forces that control this relationship. It is a more local relationship, and the firm may exercise a degree of influence. The macro-environment This includes all factors that can influence and organization, but that are out of their direct control. A company does not generally influence any laws (although it is accepted that they could lobby or be part of a trade organization). It is continuously changing, and the company needs to be flexible to adapt. There may be aggressive competition and rivalry in a market. Globalization means that there is always the threat of substitute...
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...Outline Topics: Corporate governance culture differences are obstacles to U.S companies in their expansion to the global market 1. Introduction: As technology has developed rapidly, commerce between nations around the globe become easier. As the heart of the global economy, United States has successfully fostered lots of successful business. However, not a lot of them became International Corporation like Starbucks which spread their seeds all around the world. Indeed there are multiple reasons that could contribute to the failure; however, one of the main reasons among them would be the difference in corporate governance between the U.S. and the rest of the world. 2. CG differences in U.S and Non Anglo-Saxon Western Countries * US strong managers but weak owners * Non-Saxon strong owners weak managers * What benefits can each CG model system bring to the company * Case study, U.S. Home Depot and French Carrefour 3. CG differences in U.S and East Asia countries * U.S. CG culture and Chaebols * U.S. CG culture and Chinese CG culture * Case study, U.S. Amazon and Chinese Alibaba 4. Obstacles arise from CG differences to prevent expansion in the globe * Orientation differences due to cultural CG differences lead to disagreement * Chief executives payment and compensation differences around the globe lead to non-satisfaction * Different focuses base on cultural CG differences 5. Conclusion * How to help American companies...
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...Why Starbucks succeeds in China and others haven't By Shaun Rein, CNBC.com Contributor Updated 2/10/2012 3:03 PM • Comments • • • • [pic] • [pic] • [pic] About 14 years ago, I met an entrepreneur who wanted to open up coffee shops around China. I never thought the coffee business would work there. The Chinese would not easily give up their tea-drinking culture for a bitter, overpriced drink, I told him. • [pic] By Greg Baker, AP A worker cleans the sign outside one of the many Starbucks outlets in Beijing. Enlarge By Greg Baker, AP A worker cleans the sign outside one of the many Starbucks outlets in Beijing. Sponsored Links Starbucks has proven me wrong. Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks (SBUX), announced that China will soon become its largest market outside the United States. It has opened over 500 outlets in the country, which are more profitable per outlet than in the U.S. even though sales per outlet lags its U.S. counterparts considerably, according to the chain's chief financial officer, Troy Alstead. What did Starbucks do to succeed in a market where so many other Western food and beverage brands such asDunkin Donuts, Krispy Kreme, and Burger King have failed to live up to their own expectations? What Starbucks did right in China is a textbook case study in how food brands can succeed despite rising labor and real estate costs and increased competition on the Mainland. • PHOTOS: 10 fake businesses...
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...ultimately cause your business to fail. The second challenge I see with setting up a business is targeting potential customers. You have to figure out who your going to sell your product to and how to reach these individuals. The third challenge I see with setting up a business is coming up with the capital to start the business. It takes money to make money. Unless you have a nice savings account, you will probably have to get a business loan or find people who are willing to invest in your company. 2. Define what a “niche” product is. Give at least three examples of niche products. A niche product is something designed to appeal to specialized interests. Not for everyone, but a specific customer. Examples; speakers at the Bose store, Starbucks Coffee, a restaurant that sells Chinese food. 3. Explain why a niche company might have an advantage in a market. Would price necessarily be an advantage? Explain why or why not. A niche company has an advantage in the market because the customers are coming to the store specifically for a product that the company sells. If a woman walks into Victoria’s Secret, she’s shopping for women’s underclothes and she’s completely surrounded by women’s underclothes from the minute she walks into the store. Price might be an advantage if the company has a large enough surplus of the product, like Victoria‘s Secret. The product can be cheaper. But if the product is a specialty item the price might be higher. I think that the customer will...
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...In a recent American Marketing Association journal article titled ‘Taking Care of Their Own’, Christine Birkner explores the relationship between the corporate brand and social responsibility. Specifically, Birkner claims that brands like Costco and Starbucks (which empower employees through benefit packages that contain healthcare and other elements) tangibly benefit by treating their employees well while other brands (notorious for cutting employee benefits) like The Home Depot and Wal-Mart experience the opposite. Birkner claims that employees that feel valued by their employers will perform better on the job. She goes on to state that treating employees well will attract skilled workforce talent, and that the employees of a company will become brand ambassadors by spreading their positive reflections of the company in response to being treated fairly by their employer. She notes that Costco has put no money into marketing the way it treats its employees, and yet it is well known that this wholesale giant is consistently rated close to the top for employee happiness and satisfaction. But Birkner’s claims are not just conjecture, she cites hard statistics from a 2014 study that back up her claims: 82% of consumers consider a company’s employee treatment and CSR practices in deciding where they will shop. Based on Birkner’s observations it is clear that there are benefits to treating employees well. The perceptions that one’s employees hold towards their employer are reflected...
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...American Paramount Publix Postum Incorporated Radio Corporation Sears Roebuck & Company Standard Oil (N.J.) Texas Company Texas Gulf Sulphur Union Carbide U.S. Steel Victor Talking Machine Westinghouse Electric Woolworth Wright Aeronautical THE ORIGINAL DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE THIRTY COMPONENTS CURRENT DOW 30 (Updated March 8, 2013) 3M Company Alcoa, Inc. Coca-Cola Co. DuPont Co. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. McDonald’s Corporation UnitedHealth Group Inc Verizon Communications, Inc. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Walt Disney Co. American Express Company AT&T Inc. Bank of America Corporation Boeing Company Caterpillar Inc. Chevron Corporation Cisco Systems, Inc. Exxon Mobile Corp. General Electric Company Hewlett-Packard Company The Home Depot, Inc. Intel Corporation IBM International Business Machines Corporation Johnson & Johnson Merck & Company, Inc. Microsoft Corporation Pfizer, Inc. Proctor & Gamble Co. The Travelers Companies, Inc. United Technologies Corporation on the Fortune...
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...How to do business in china With a Solid economic expansion, coupled with a rapid market transformation and a series of government reforms, mean China the world's second-largest economy is no longer just a country for low-cost manufacturing. It is also an increasingly attractive destination to do business. Several western companies including global giants such as Starbucks, Volkswagen, Boeing and Procter & Gamble have established a presence in the country. But despite China's increasing influence, challenges remain for those looking to do business in the country. Intense competition, corruption, business etiquette and language are some of the barriers that can be faced. In a first time we’re going to talk about a few keys of success of doing business in china, and then we will take the example of Starbucks and his adaptation on the Chinese market. Here are five things we should know before doing business in China: A mosaic of markets China is the world's most populous nation, with its sprawling 1.3 billion people making up a highly diverse market. There is no single consumer profile, and analysts suggest companies remain flexible and innovative, while understanding how their company would fit in each specific market. There's no simple answer in China it depends so much upon the specific market and upon the specific characteristic of your own company. Operating in a country with a history of thousands of years and ways of doing business that go back as...
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...Home Is... - Research Paper - Louisemarie 27/12/14 00.37 Login Join Spar optil 50 % The Research Paper Factory www.itasker.dk Join Search Browse Saved Papers Search over 100,000 Essays Home Page » Novels Home Is... In: Novels Home Is... Home is... The main character in Home Is, by Morris Lurie, is Max Gottlieb. Max; an out burned poet with a boyish and sad eyes with an intense look (p. 60, l. 36). He is meeting up in Rhodes with his two good friends, the couple Sylvia and Larry, wich is one of the places he has got a house or a place he calls home. Larry is an artist, a painter. He is very modest and attenuates his answer when Max asks about his painting; “Just dabbling” he says (p. 60, l. 5), even though Max presumes that he is winning prices and making lots of money. Larry doesn’t deny this. His wife, Sylvia, is a very talkative lady, the novel doesn’t tell much about her but that she is sunbathing and likes a good gossip. Since she wants all the gossip before everyone else (p. 61, l. 3) one could think that one of her main doings on a small island like Rhodes is hostessing. Max is out of a rich family; when his father dies he inherits a lot of money; “Max the millionaire” (p. 61, l. 32). Sylvia and Larry seem financially privileged too; him painting and her probably being a housewife. The novel doesn’t tell anything from their background; maybe Larry is such a skilled painter that they can live carefree out of that. Max, Sylvia and...
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...October 15, 2009 1.) A: “One is that Germany was too "green" for a slash-and-burn outfit like Wal-mart, with its plastic bags and plastic junk Another is that Wal-mart couldn't hack the pro-labor union culture of Germany. Another is that Germany is anti-American when it comes to name-brand retailers (even though Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks are popular there).” B: Wal-mart failed because of their lack of knowledge, of foreign countries. In order for Wal-mart to have a successful business over seas, is to do research about the particular country that they want their cultural business to be located. “There are many reasons why Wal- Mart’s business model failed in Germany, such as Cultural attitudes, Customer Service, and Cultural arrogance all contributed to what one economist referred to as a failure. But under these basic economic decisions were a host of basic cross- cultural mistakes that fuelled the company’s poor strategic planning.” They had the right idea on how to approach Germany, but they didn‘t do their research on the country it‘s self. “Wal-Mart failed to take into account Germany’s cultural attitudes, especially with regard to such matters as labor law and the role of unions.” Wal-mart’s guide lines are focusing on just the company and not about the different countries values. “Wal-Mart also runs afoul of requirements that workers‟ representatives be consulted before introducing changes in working conditions.” If Wal-mart would have did more research on...
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...Case Analysis [pic] Prepared by: Juice22 Prepared for: Prof Class: Accounitng TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Page Number Executive Summery 3 Company Overview 4 Analysis 5 Success Factors 7 Competition 7 Conclusion 8 Recommendation 9 Exhibits 10 Ratio Analysis 11 EXECUTIVE SUMMERY In April 2006, Anna Simpson is considering revising her personal investment portfolio. In doing so she has become aware of RONA Inc. She would like to gain a better understanding of the company and its financial position before she makes her decision. RONA Inc. is one of Canada's largest retailers operating with more than 580 stores across Canada, with its largest concentration in Quebec and Ontario. The chain has grown quickly in the early part of the new millennium through a series of building new stores, acquisitions and recruitment. Analysis will show that RONA is well positioned to meet its future goals and maintain its strong presence within their market segment. RONA’s strong profit before taxes to sales ratio indicates their strength to effectively secure customers. RONA’s ratio is double the industry average and continuously growing indicating strong sales growth and strong management. Furthermore, RONA is proving to...
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...Let's look at the competitive forces model specifically as it applies to the company that interest you or pick one of the following companies, such as Google, Ebay, Amazon, Walmart, Apple, Microsoft, Starbucks, AT&T, Coke, Home Depot, Aflac, etc.... For maximum credit for this post, please be sure to address each of the questions below for your selected company 1. Who are their existing competitors? To name a few EBay, Walmart and Alibaba are some of Amazons competitors. 2. Are there any potential new market entrants? Considering the nature of the business there are always potential new market entrants because it is less costly to enter the market and setup operations. Traditional stores can be the biggest threat because they already have the consumer base. For instance Walmart already enjoy economies of scale, they have brands that people recognize and they have a strong supply chain. 3. Are there any substitute products and services? Yes there are a ton of companies that offer some of the same products and service that Amazon offer. 4. Can customers easily switch to a lower cost provider? Yes customers can easily switch to lower cost providers, but most will not because of the customer service provided by Amazon. 5. Who are the suppliers? Amazon.com provides any type of product there is in its online stores. This means that there is a strong supplier base relationship that cannot be replicated. In addition, as...
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...The role of marketing has changed over time; beginning with the simple trade era, a time when everything was either made or harvested by hand (White, 2010), to the Social Media Marketing Era. The following eras will be described using different business types to explain what companies did during the era; Production Era, Sales Era, Marketing Concept Era, Market Orientation Era, Customer Experience Management Era, and Social Media Marketing Era. The production era began in the mid 1800s and lasted for 60 years. The revolution of mass production began during this era and business’ main focus was on selling their products rather than satisfying customer needs (Crane, 2014). The Ford Motor Company played a big part in the production era, this is when Henry Ford introduced the first moving assembly line. The moving assembly line at the Ford Motor Company was able to to meet the ever growing demands of a motorized vehicle by producing one Model T vehicle every 24 seconds (History, 2009). The main focus of The Ford Motor Company was the amount of vehicles the assembly line could produce and sell; this was done by creating using production plants where the parts being used to produce the vehicles could be interchangeable on the assembly line, and the ability of the assembly line to move instead of being static. After the production era came the sales era, beginning in the 1920s and lasted until the 1960s. Industries, like the flour industry, were producing more than customers could...
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...Introduction The situation under investigation is Commerce Bank. Vernon W. Hill is the Founder and former CEO of Commerce Bank, which was founded in 1973 under the motto “The world,…did not need another “me-too” bank. The Bank started with no capital and no brand name, nonetheless Hill managed to differentiate himself from his competitors. Commerce Bank operates more comparable to retailers such as Starbucks and Home Depot rather than a typical bank. Many people choose said retailers over competitors due to buying into their brand. Commerce Bank has branded themselves as a bank that cares all about providing great service for their customers. One Strategy they have is encouraging customers to visits their branches by extended bank hours on the weekday and weekends. Due to this strategic approach in 2001 Commerce Bank experienced a growth of 40% deposit growth, whereas cumulative deposit growth in the United States was 5% in 2001. Commerce Bank method of attracted and retaining customers through outgoing friendly service was effective. Instead of remaining stagnant on customer service tactics, in 2002 Commerce Bank installed the “Retailtainment” program as a latest idea for WOW!ing customers. Competitors were beginning to adopt some of Commerce’s basic service offerings. Thus Commerce developed this program to continue to maintain their competitive advantage. The focus of this case analysis is to discuss how the company’s operation design supports Commerce’s competitive advantage...
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