Carrefour's Strategic Marketing Strategy

Only few months after opening its first stores in Russia in June 2009, Carrefour announced that it would be leaving the country. This withdrawal was a shocker and is a setback for international retail development in Russia.

The first recommendation for this firm is to adopt a global policy and try and explore new markets so that market growth and market share can be expanded. In case of a firm entering an international market, it requires to analyze the nature of the market and suitably form its marketing strategies in alignment with its business strategy and decide whether it is more beneficial to adopt a global approach or use a strategy that is customized to suit the needs of the local customers.

In 2009 and forward, Loblaw Companies were up against aggressive competitive markets while still dealing with the backlash from the 2008 world economic crisis. Same store sales were on the decline and Loblaw’s was in desperate need to change their store strategies. By 2011, Loblaw’s had come up with the idea to diversify and expand their operations with new upgrades to in store departments as well as expanding upon their leading brands, President’s Choice and No Name. This case study underlines the premise of national and global strategies, which is a key subject matter and general broad topic when studying International Business. The main concerns of this case study would be to identify if Loblaw’s new strategies gave them a leading edge in the ever-expanding market, as well as seeing if these new strategies will hold up to market standards in the near future.

Organizations, these days, are on a journey to grow piece of the overall industry and gainfulness to accomplish and keep up a position of upper hand. Carrefour is the world 's second biggest retailer and the biggest retailer in Europe. It was established in 1959 in France and works four market groups: hypermarkets, grocery stores, money and convey and accommodation stores. It has more than 9500 stores worked by the organization or establishments. Carrefour 's hard rebate brand DIA turned out to be more in 2011 yet is still part of the Carrefour bunch. Carrefour is available in 32 nations with more than 470.000 workers. Its three noteworthy markets are Europe, Latin free America and Asia (Carrefour, 2010) It yearly deals in 2010 added up to € 101 billion and in the second from last quarter of 2011 it had offers of € 22 billion. Its aspiration is being the favored retailer, wherever it works. Carrefour puts stock in building trust to clients for building client unwaveringness. The organization 's key goal is to accomplish natural, managed, and productive development that ought to be come to by the gathering 's customer introduction, change and additionally advancement as its key-development drivers (Carrefour, 2010).

In order to reduce Costco’s reliance on the US and Canadian markets, placing an emphasis on international expansion would not only lead to diversification, but also better profitability. While it is engaged in expanding internationally, an accelerated expansion strategy should be employed in order to tap into the high growth markets. The high growth markets of the BRIC nations as well as the growing East Asian markets remain relatively untapped and would provide an excellent opportunity for global growth. The rising middle income demographic in these markets would provide a sustainable customer base for Costco’s long term growth. In order to penetrate these markets, Costco would have to duplicate its success in warehouses located in Taiwan and Korea. This expansion, however, must be managed delicately as penetrating new markets comes with its own risks. Consideration needs to be given to the differences in cultural factors and the political and operating environment that exists within these markets.

As competition in most markets intensifies, firms are exploring approaches for surviving. International expansion is one of the strategies that have allowed businesses to escape intense competition. Through global development, companies can diversify their markets and extend the reach of their products. PepsiCo is among the firm that has adopted comprehensive expansion strategies in a bid to broaden its reach and counter competition. Today, the company has the presence in all major international markets where it sells its beverage products. While such organizations have opted to expand their operations into new markets, other firms have chosen to remain in their original domestic markets. Kohl’s (a US-based firm) is among the players in the retail industry who are facing challenges that the company can address through expanding into new markets. If the company enters new markets, Kohl’s will join companies like PepsiCo that continue to reap tremendous benefits from their international expansion.

Wal-Mart is a large and powerful corporation that uses its retail stores as its primary means of income and profit. The sheer size and influence this company possess on the global marketplace makes it a useful candidate for strategic management analysis. The purpose of this essay is to internally analyze Wal-Mart Corporation using SWOT methods to gain further knowledge about business operations and strategic planning. This essay will investigate the strengths of the company, explore the competitive advantages that this company possesses and finally determine some of the internal weaknesses that Wal-Mart faces.

Walmart Stores Inc. (Walmart) is not only the world’s largest retailer by revenue, but it is also one of the most profitable and well-known companies in the world. This strategic management essay will explore Walmart Stores Inc. in detail by identifying its challenges in the remote external environment, analyzing its competitive forces, performing a SWOT analysis, and providing strategic management recommendations based on my experience working with the company in the past. By exploring Walmart Stores Inc. in detail, I can explain to the readers of this essay where Walmart stands in the retail sector going forward.

Globalization refers to the economic integration of the countries all over the world. The globalization of an enterprise means that the production and management activities of an enterprise are not limited to a country, but an objective phenomenon and development process facing the world economy. The main purpose is to combine the international market, to combine production factors, to achieve product sales, in order to maximize profits. The aim of this essay is to evaluate different strategies that businesses can adapt to respond to issues of globalization and change. For the purpose of this essay, we will expose Whitbread and Target.

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY3 2.0 INTRODUCTION3 2.1 Background to Organization3 3.0 ANALYSIS3 3.1 Porters 5 Forces (Model of Competition)3 3.2 PESTEL (External Analysis)5 3.3 SWOT6 4.0 KEY FINDINGS OF ANALYSIS/PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION/ KEY STRATEGIC CONCERNS6 4.1 Vertical Integration6 4.2 Diversification7 5.0 POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS & STRATEGIES.8 7.0 CONCLUSION9 8.0 APPENDICES11 Appendix 1: Porters 5 Forces11 Appendix 3: Luxury Goods Group & Brands Top Ten Competitors13 Appendix 4: Industry Map*.14 Appendix 5: Financial Performance14 Appendix 6: PESTLE Analysis15 Appendix 7: SWOT Analysis16 Appendix 8: Evaluating industry Attractiveness and Competitive strength19 Appendix 9: A Nine Cell Industry Attractiveness-Competitive Matrix20

The world offers significant business opportunities for every company, however, opportunities are accompanied by significant challenges for managers. Managing global operations across diverse cultures and markets represents a big challenge and opportunity for companies. To compete in the global market and be successful, companies must learn the strategies, policies, norms and technology necessary to conduct international business. The opportunities for global expansion are numerous, and attaining success is a matter of developing the right strategy to win local markets and its consumers.

In order to conduct business at the global level and achieve a competitive position in the market, most of the retail organisations tend to undertake different overseas expansion strategies to open up their businesses abroad. However as Xi (2002) points out, it is due to globalization it is important to undertake the most appropriate penetration and expansion strategies, failing to do which, an organisation can face losses in context to time and finances.

In 1995, Carrefour entered China, with its first store opening in Beijing. By June 2006 the company was operating 73 hypermarkets in 29 Chinese cities and it was the number one foreign retailer in China having the fastest growing rate among its competitors [1]. The company planned to open 100 new stores in 2006-07 because the competition had recently stepped up. As competitors try to take the biggest share of pie, all brands of markets are forced to show their difference from the others in order to attract potential customers. Therefore, David Monaco, asset and

This report examines the strategic management of the international iconic fashion company- Prada. In this report we conduct an analysis of the external and internal environments and identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the Prada. The key issues identified in the environment analysis is the Prada’s future market especially China. The report reviews the financial and non-financial objectives of the company’s strategies and their affects for the stakeholders. Prada is engaging in their attempts to achieve their objectives. The strategic

Companies can decide to go global or to enter international markets for various reasons, and these different objectives at the time of entry that enable the business to produce different strategies and the performance goals, and even forms of market participation.