Black & Decker Case Study

Today, Bass Pro Shops is a multi-billion dollar enterprise that specializes in sporting and hunting equipment. The company's current position is a far cry from its modest beginnings in 1971 when the company's founder, Johnny Morris began selling fishing lures on just two shelves in his father's liquor store. With fifty-two retail outlets as well as a number of Outdoor World superstores in the United States and Canada, a user-friendly Web site and extensive mail catalog sales, Bass Pro Shops has become a leading sporting and hunting goods in North America today. To determine how the company achieved this impressive growth, this paper provides an analysis of Bass Pro Shop's corporate strategy using Ansoff's Growth Strategies and Porter's generic strategies for growth, the company's market segmentation and marketing mix. Finally, an assessment of appropriate Bass Pro Shop's marketing metrics is followed by a summary of the research and important findings in the conclusion.

Blackmores is also committed to a strong business performance, with a strategic direction concentrated on delivering growth and continuous improvement to increase and maintain their leading market position and to achieve continued success for the company and its stakeholders. (Blackmores, 2014). They believe in growth by acquisition and diversification of products and market channels (Annual Report, 2013). By diversifying, Blackmores ensure their company does not become reliant on a single product or line which can affect the stability and sustainability of their business. Each year Blackmores invest over $2 million in research and development projects (Annual Report, 2013).

B&B Consulting Services was requested to evaluate, assess, analyze and make recommendations to Lowe’s Home Improvement in the areas of strategy for growth improvement. The following information will give Lowe’s a better understanding of its company and what improvements can be made in the short-term and long-term.

Brand Image in Hiring …………………………………… …………………………………………………………………….................... External Candidate Assessment & Selection Process …………………………… ………………………………………………... Concepts ……………………………………

Recent research studies showed that B&D is one of the powerful brand names in the world because of its professional tools that has high quality in the industry.

The company that I have chosen for this assignment and project is Lowe 's Companies, Inc. Lowes strongly focuses on the mission statement “helping the customers to improve their homes”. The company started in 1921 as a small store in North Carolina. Great success and high demand of Lowe’s products led to an increase in the number of stores. By 1955, there were five more functional stores. Rapid growth took place around 1960s. Carl Buchan was one of the founders of Lowe’s, who died in year 1960. Exactly a year later in 1961, the company went public. This was the time when Lowe’s was given its name. Initially it was called North Wilkesboro Hardware Company. By 1979, Lowe’s established more than 50 stores in the United

In the 1990’s Black and Decker had a great position in the market for their products to appeal to the Professional Industrial segment and the Consumer segment but when it came to the Professional Tradesmen segment they were lacking. Their 9% market share vs. Makita’s 50% market share in the tradesmen segment was incomparable. Makita clearly had a better product in the eyes of the Professional Tradesmen. In the Professional Segment most of the people who buy the products are people who need these tools to make a living such as carpenters, electricians, plumbers, roofers, and general remodelers. Black and

J.D.B.T.’s overall business strategy was competitive benchmarking on factors such as price, brands, and advertising. After noticing a decline in our profits and market demand, we added a competitive twist to our business strategy. We expanded our sales channels,

• Direct resources to testing and developing new brands to lessen dependence on the ARM & HAMMER brand due to the possibility of loss of its present customer appeal.

This gain value and addresses a key decisive achievement factor in the industry (Grant,2010). As position is important to offer convenience and a deep assortment, An extra unique intangible resource would be their brand representation and customer loyalty, this is vital since it can attract or attract consumers and it could be necessary to build the brand image .

* Product Differentiation: It is evident from the case that B&D products in the professional segment were of good quality with 10 out of the 14 products in leadership category (Figure E). Therefore, the problem faced by B&D products in this segment is more of differentiation than of product quality. The consumer level products in black in color are not substantially differentiated from professional level products which were charcoal grey in color (Figure D). This lack of differentiation has adverse influence on the buying decision made by professional tradesmen as they take pride in their work which is more rigorous than “do it yourself” low quality consumer segment. Therefore, the professional tradesmen segment has disassociated itself with Black and Decker brand name despite good quality professional tools manufactured by B&D.

Branding is a tool to make the goods of one producer different from another producer (Keller, 2003). Carroll (2008) asserts that branding is a sign of quality, and it is helpful to increase

Brand choice? Should the BC 18 technology be introduced with a pan European name, or with local brand names, or even with a mixture of both approaches?

“Whether you use your personal brand to consult, freelance, or drive more traffic and trust to your company, it 's vitally important to establish one to stay competitive” (Demers, 2014). For

For international business strategy, Hill and Jones (2004) suggested that there is four basic components of strategy development need to be addressed by a firm in order to succeed in foreign markets. These components are: ¡¥distinctive competence¡¦, ¡¥scope of operations¡¦, ¡¥resource deployment¡¦, and ¡¥synergy¡¦. By applying the theory, it is revealed that Whirlpool¡¦s distinctive competence is its brand name ¡V Whirlpool, the world¡¦s largest white-goods manufacturer. For the scope of operations, Whirlpool is specialised in broad middle market niche of white-goods products. In terms of resource deployment, Whirlpool allocates the resources equally to its three product lines. As far as synergy concern, due to the poor business performance of Bauknecht and Ignis, Whirlpool is not benefited in whole.