Environmental Factors and Marketing Decisions
Will a successful marketing plan in one country work in another country? This is unlikely to occur due to many different cultural, political, economic, technological, and competitive environments. Marketing mixes require adjustments to meet local conditions and companies that understand these environmental factors can create advantages when positioning their products or services. Wal-Mart is a global organization and uses market research to understand the market environments before making marketing decisions.
Introduction
Wal-Mart operates over 6,100 stores worldwide, employs 1.8 million associates, and operates in 15 different countries (Annual Report, 2006, p. 12). Lee Scott,
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The economic environment includes issues surrounding the purchasing power of consumers to satisfy their wants and needs (Bearden et al, 2003, p. 33). The political/legal environment includes issues related to government activities and specific laws and regulations that affect marketing practices (Bearden et al, 2003, p. 34). The technological environment encompasses factors and trends related to innovations that affect new product development and how marketing activities are performed (Bearden et al, 2003, p. 37). The competitive environment surrounds all organizations that attempt to serve similar customers with brands or products (Bearden et al, 2003, p. 38).
Cultural diversity is an important part of the social environment and companies must adjust their product "P" in the marketing mix. For instance, McDonalds includes items that reflect local tastes, including the Maharaja Mac (made of mutton) in India, the Tatsuta Burger in Japan, the McPork Burger with Thai Basil in Thailand, and the McTempeh Burger (made from fermented soybeans) in Indonesia (Armstrong-Kotler, 2005, p. 528). McDonald's successfully changed the product "P" by not selling hamburgers to cultures that do not eat them. As Wal-Mart enters new regions, it must determine the proper marketing mixes to meet the wants and needs of potential consumers.
Technology
Technology allows Wal-Mart to monitor the marketing environment and identify trends in specific areas and develops appropriate
"Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is the world's largest retailer, with $285.2 billion in sales in the fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 2005. The company employs 1.6 million associates
The location of the first Wal-Mart in the Fortune Global 500 for the year of 2001 to 2002 turnover of 219.81 billion dollars. Wal-Mart is the largest company in the retail in the world. The company was much larger than its competitors in the United States - Sears Roebuck, Kmart, JC Penney and Nordstrom combined. In 2002, Wal-Mart operates more than 3,500 discount stores, Supercenters and Sam's Clubs in United States and over 1,170 stores in major countries around the world. The company also sells products online via the website, www.walmart.com. Wal-Mart is one of the largest private employers in the world, with the use of force about 1.28 million. The
Walmart is a multinational corporation with 11,000 retail locations located in 27 countries and is the largest retailer in the world. With over 2.2 million employees, Walmart is the also largest employer in United States the world. The history of Walmart dates back to 1962 when founder Sam Walton opened the first Walmart store in Rogers, Arkansas. By the late 1960s, total sales were over $12 million with 24 Walmart stores spread across Arkansas (Riffel, 2014). “By the end of the 1970s, Wal-Mart had expanded into a number of different services in its stores—selling pharmaceuticals, adding auto service centers, and introducing jewelry divisions.
"Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is the world's largest retailer, with $285.2 billion in sales in the fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 2005. The company employs 1.6 million associates
Management is faced with many decisions when considering the environmental factors that affect marketing. This includes global economic interdependence, demographics, cultural differences, social responsibility, ethics, and technology. It is imperative for a company to understand how these factors can greatly affect the outcome of a company’s marketing plan.
Wal-Mart is now the largest grocer, largest retailer, largest corporation in the world. "If Wal-Mart was a nation, it would have a bigger economy than 80 percent of the world's countries"(Singer and Mason). About "138 million people go to one of Wal-Mart's 5,000 stores in the United States and nine other countries", and purchase more than $300 billion every year (Singer and Mason). With a 1.6 million global workforce, Wal-Mart has become the biggest private employer "in the United States, as well as in Mexico and Canada"(Singer and Mason). "Wal-Mart already has 11 percent of all U.S. Grocery store sales," and "by 2013 that figure is likely to rise to 21 percent"(Singer and
Walmart has about 9,600 retails around the world it’s the World’s 18th largest public corporation. It is also the biggest private employer in the world with over 2 million employees, and is the largest retailer in the world. Walmart is a much bigger brand than Target as
In just over half a century Wal-Mart’s global reach had gone from just one store all the way to 11,450 stores in 27 countries. This is one way of saying that Wal-Mart is a multinational company and that its globalisation is only limited by its host’s country. The current increase in globalisation has accelerated due to the rapid growth of multinational companies such as Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart is the world's largest retailer and the world's largest company with more than $300 billion (USD) in sales yearly. Wal-Mart employs 1.4 million associates in the United States and more than 425,000 globally (Melody Vargas, 2006).
With around 5000 retail outlets worldwide, operating in more then a dozen countries and with over US$286 billion in annual sales, Wal-Mart is the top retail chain and number one fortune 500 company in the world. Wal-Mart is the top employer in the U.S. with 1.3 million employees, “the company accounts for 9 cents of every US retail dollar and sells around 20 per cent of the nation’s groceries and pharmaceuticals.” (Times News Network).
Wal-Mart was first opened in 1962 by Sam Walter as a retail store. It started out a five and dime store in Rogers, Arkansas and was called Walton’s. He opened this store with one goal in mind, to sale at the lowest prices possible, quality leadership and great customer services. He thought that his idea could change the retail industrial. Wal-Mart was built on a solid foundation that remains stable even after the death of Mr. Walton. Wal-Mart became the largest multinational retail store in America, with a grocery store and a pharmacy. There is a Wal-Mart in all fifty states and seventeen international states and has more than 2.3 million employees. This store
Wal-Mart is the highest revenue generating organisation in the world (Forbes, 2014). According to WalMart’s annual report (2014), the company owns 6,100 stores in 27 countries. It employees 2.2 million
Ans:Wal-Mart,Inc runs a chain of large, discount department stores.it is the world’s largest public corporation by revenue. Walmart is the largest private employer and the largest grocery retailer in the United States. Walmart is one of the best known industries all over the world. Its concentration of a single business strategy is the basis of its success over the decades by this strategy without having to rely upon diversification to sustain its growth and competitive advantage. The leading marketing strategies of Wal-Mart are low prices, service and smile. However by adapting this strategy, it has risked itself by putting all of a company’s egg in one industry basket. While its global strategy worked elsewhere, the results were bad in Germany and Korea that Wal-Mart withdrew from those countries.
The global player Wal-Mart operates in 14 different markets all around the world, serving 176 million customers every week. Today, the second biggest company of the world, concerning turnover which amounts to 312,427 million US-$, categorizes its operational facilities into five divisions. Among those divisions are the Wal-Mart discount stores, offering convenience and low-priced goods. Wal-Mart supercenters are the biggest stores, being open 24/7 hours and employing a workforce of 350 people, selling all kinds of groceries and general merchandise at the lowest possible price. Wal-Mart neighborhood markets are specified in
Marketing environment is in relation to the marketing organization, its internal environment, microenvironment, and macro-environment. In the macro- environment, we identified several forces at play – political, economic, sociocultural, technological and legal (commonly referred to as the PESTL model).