Case: HBS Case 595-057
Q1. Why is Makita outselling B&D 8 to 1 in an account that gives them equal shelf space? (Opening paragraph)
Ans. Perception of Quality - Makita have positioned themselves as a premium product in the profession power tool segment. B&D, as a result of its market leadership with 50% market share in consumer market segment, is considered an inferior brand to Makita as tradesman believe that the brand is more geared towards amateur than professional. The consumer and professional market segment are differentiated by skillset of the users of the tool - consumer segment is considered an amature segment requiring low performance tools whereas professional segment requires highest performance tools.
Another related
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The current market size is $420. Of that 10% will be off limit. That leaves out $380. The target is 20% of the $420 i.e. $80M. So B&D would have to generate almost $45 million in additional sales from the (380 - 35) = $345 market size.
Given the continued execution of Makita it would be very hard. Tradesman swears by the quality of Makita product. Despite being available in all sales channels, the product continues to be sold in the professional segment as high quality product. That speaks about the strength of Makita brand. So generating that sale would be very very difficult if not impossible.
B&D has few opportunities that it would need to execute on meet or get near to its goal - Improve BD brand value, increase prices of its product to expand market share, work with retailers to promote its product.
Q5. If you think Galli should pursue a "build share" strategy, what actions do you recommend? Does the DeWalt idea have any merit? How about the sub-branding option?
Here are the recommendations
A. Ship the product in a color different from charcoal grey/black due to the reasons mentioned above.
B. Remove B&D brand. This brand has been marginalized in the tradesman category to some extent. Of the two available options of sub brands and a different brand, I lean towards a sub brand under B&D. A sub brand that is built around performance and is priced at premium. A sub brand would enable the company to use the brand equity (reliable, established) of B&D
Describe the series of events that occur in skin, which is healing with the help of a skin graft?
1. A small family was traveling in its van and had a minor accident. The children in the back seats were wearing lap belts, but still sustained numerous bruises about the abdomen, and had some internal organ injuries. Why is this area more vulnerable to damage than others? Name specific organs that would be injured, as well as the abdominopelvic quadrant and region in which they are found. What injuries might you suspect in the damaged organs?
Discuss the four components of corporate social responsibility and how they relate to a charitable campaign such as (Product) RED. How does participation in a cause-marketing event contribute to a company's social responsibility? What role does sustainability play?
e) Will Breezy be able to gain competitive advantage over local suppliers? Breezy could choose between cost leadership strategy or product differentiation strategy.
To Kill A Mockingbird takes place in small town Maycomb, Alabama, a depression era town where people move slowly and twenty-four hours seems longer. The narrator of the story is a six-year-old girl named Jean Louise Finch, a tomboy who hates wearing dresses and goes by the nickname "Scout." Scout's being a tomboy is of no little significance because while we are treated to a sweet and affectionate portrayal of Maycomb at the novel's opening, we will find it is a town where racial prejudice, hostility and ignorance run deep below the surface. Not only are the majority of the townspeople prejudiced against blacks, maintaining a feeling of superiority to the whole of their race, but
Tradesmen most often buy their tools from the retail distribution channel like Home Depot, or independently owned stores like ACE hardware. In this segment of the market tradesmen spend about $3000 a year on tools and about $1000 a year to replace tools. Quoted in the article “On the job, people notice what you’re working with, if I came out here with one of those B&D gray things I would be laughed at.” Just buy this statement it shows that B&D tools are looked at by tradesmen as tools for the home or tools that are used for hobbies. Even though B&D products are high quality and sold at a good price tradesmen would rather purchase tools that are looked at as professional tools like Makita. Also it has been known for B&D tools to fail on the job. Even though these were tools that were marketed to the consumer segment, it still gave B&D a bad name to tradesmen. Some of B&D’s tools were solely designed for the consumer segment for home use but how was the tradesman suppose to know exactly what tool was for which segment. To avoid this confusion B&D could possible go out to job sites and provide information about their products that are designated for the tradesmen segment so people will be more informed about their product, or go to the big retail chains and have information sessions. By doing these things it could make their product more attractive to the consumer.
* 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.
Student athletes are getting scholarships and other types of benefits to pay for the education. They get everything they need that is essential to their college experience. They get many things paid for like room and board and books. The average for room and board is around three thousand dollars six thousand dollars per semester which that is already expensive and being paid for by the college/ university. The average books per semester ranged from three hundred to six hundred dollars. Compared to regular students who are not on scholarships or don’t get financial aid. These regular non student athletes have to pull their own money to pay for school and other living and educational expenses in order for them to get a college degree. After that if those students run out of money they have to look for
Current funds allocated to advertising and sales promotion is 3% of net sales ($80,000,000) = $360,000
Spokane Industries has contracted Franklin Electronics for an 18 month product development contract. Franklin Electronics is new to using project management methodologies and have not been exposed to earned value management methodologies. Even though Franklin and Spokane have worked together in the past, they have mainly used fixed price contracts with little to no stipulations. For this project Spokane Industries is requiring Franklin Electronics to use formalized project management methodologies, earned value cost schedules, and schedules for reports and meetings. Since Franklin Electronics had had no experience with earned value management, the cost accounting group was trained in the methodology in order to bid for the
4. Increase add-on business by $3 million dollars within the first quarter of project completion by improving the company’s completed current service obligation rate to 95%
Peter Nicholson wishes to convert the factory in the north east to production of the electric taxi. Using data in Appendix C, Table 1, calculate payback period and the average rate of return.
(4) Absent any resource constraints, which of the four departmental directions do you think is the most viable? Which is the second best strategy? Which is the least viable? In my humble opinion the most viable option would be to follow Eric Stanger’s advice to go ‘back to basics’. In order to underwrite the new line of LR trademark and experiment with more new products, they had in effect been milking the OM lines. Their price increase on several of our more critical items had outpaced those of their key competitors, in order to always deliver more bottom line profits. They had shaved their A&P budgets for the same purpose and this was resulting in slippage in value and trust among our consumer franchise thus the declining sales and share. They thus needed to cut on
Over the course of my behavior change project, I ran into several obstacles and the outcome was not quite what I had expected. There ae a few things that I learned during this project from the outrageous cost of healthy food, to what I really struggle with in terms of heathy eating. I started with the intention of eating healthy, but towards the end of the first month, I realized just how costly that can be because I am but a poor college student on a tight budget and sadly I burned a lot of my food budget on fruits and veggies. That was quite an eye opener for me. I also learned that it was not always the content of my meals, but also the size. My wife is much smaller than me and I really started to watch how she eats as opposed to how I eat. Her serving sizes were always much smaller. This taught me a thing or two about what I should be putting on my plate. I also know now that pizza is literally my kryptonite. I know I am doing this BCP, I know I want to lose weight, I know that I want to be healthy, but when I get around pizza I am like a drug addict that can only focus on my drug (pizza). I need to format my lifestyle to stay away from pizza places as much as humanly possible because I will it until it hurts.
Discuss the strategic decisions that firms in this sector may be facing. What future strategies can firms pursue to try to secure their competitive advantage and long term survival?