Lowe's Case Study Essay examples

S.P. is admitted to the orthopedic ward. She has fallen at home and she has sustained an intracapsular fracture of the hip at the femoral neck. The following history is obtained from her: She is a 75-year-old widow with three children living nearby. Her father died of cancer at age 62; mother died of heart failure at age 79. Her height is 5’3 and weighs 118 pounds. She has a 50 pack year smoking history and denies alcohol use. She has severe Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) and had an upper GI bleed in 1993 and had Coronary Artery Disease with CABG 9 months ago. Since that time, she has engaged in “very mild exercise at home.” Vital signs are 128/60, 98, 14, 99 degree farenheight (32.7 degrees C) SAO2 94%

Buying Power. Customers have a slight advantage since other retailers offering similar items. The way Lowe’s can separate them from the competition is to offer a product mix that appeals to both male and female needs.

Established as the older company of the two, Lowe’s ranks forty-second as a Fortune 500 company. Established in 1946 as a small hardware business, Lowe’s has grown into a 40,000 product, global market enterprise that consist of 1,710 stores nationwide expanding into the countries of Canada, Mexico and Australia (Lowe's Internal, 2010) Home Depot, founded in 1978, is the fastest growing retailer in the United States. Ranked twenty-ninth as a Fortune 500 company, Home Depot continues to remain the number one do-it-yourself retail store in America. These two companies may sell products of the same nature, but comparing their Code of Ethics is their way of setting themselves apart. (Home Depot Internal, 2009)

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Lowe’s is continuously being threatened by Home Depot in losing market shares. It is a constant battle; Lowe’s and Home Depot are expanding substantially in attempts to take over territory claimed by the other as well as unclaimed territory. The biggest weakness for Lowe’s is its lack of customer service. Customers are leaving Lowe’s in search of credible, knowledgeable service which is found at Home Depot.

Lowe’s is the 14th largest retailer in the United States and is presently planning aggressive expansion, opening a new store on average every three days. Lowe's revenue growth is primarily a function of penetration of the market increase resulting from a burst of new locations instead of the same store sales. Although Lowe’s has grown tremendously, it remains half the size of Home Depot and has serious debt burden that increases its risk level drastically. Lowe’s is Home Depot’s largest competitor because both companies have the same products, services, and enormous warehouse formats. In this major retail market Lowe’s and Home Depot stores go toe

In this case study, we will be analyzing the current position of how well Kingsford is within the marketplace and determine which of the issues are plausible causes in its drop in revenue. We will be creating a comprehensive strategy as well as a marketing plan to evaluate and adjust the matter at hand. First we will begin with identifying the issues and implementing a method to reemphasize the importance of marketing in the business. The goal is to create a marketing plan that will add value to Kingsford’s market share, sales, and profitability.

The home improvement sector of the economy is large with two major players in the industry and with many smaller local and regional competitors. These two major competitors are Home Depot and Lowe’s. These two companies account for over $110 billion in total sales each year. Even though sales have gone down over the past few years due to the downturn in the economy they have not gone down nearly as much as home sales and this is due to more people deciding to do more home improvements to their own home then buying a new home. Both of these companies have been able to keep up sales and increase them year over year by improving current

Through the dozens of merchandise sections within these departments, the company is able to offer customers one-stop shopping convenience in addition to the company operating a dairy, bakery, kitchen, and photo plan. These functional approaches incorporate the fundamental concept of integration with combining and coordinating products and services to offer the consumers one-stop shopping (Smith &Albaum, 2005). This type of marketing and operational strategiesprovides the company an advantage in multiple areas of business while contributing to the organization’s direction and mission. Fred Meyer’s organizational structures are effective in the company’s strategy of seeking competitiveness by enabling each department and each product division in response to the local competition with marketing and operational strategies. The position of the company is measuredby concepts of awareness, use, share, and competitive evaluation in determining the appropriate organizational structure to achieve the goals of the organization. This position of the company impacts the organizational functions in accordance to the organizational design and organizational structure. The operational and marketing functions performed by Fred Meyer reflect qualities of the organization geared toward the appropriate organizational design to achieve the direction of the company.

The Home Depot (NYSE: HD) is a home improvement, construction products and services retailer operating over 2,000 big-box stores in the United States and abroad. The Home Depot was founded in 1978 by Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank with the vision of one-stop shopping for do-it-yourself (DIY) customers, installation services for do-it-for-me (DIFM) customers and competitive products for the professional market. Their DIFM installation programs include products such as carpeting, flooring, cabinets, countertops, and water heaters. In addition, the company provides installation of various professional products like generators and HVAC systems.

Home Depot and Lowe's believe in big warehouse space, an informal atmosphere and low prices. They are able to offer the lower prices to consumers due to their purchasing power. Inventory differs depending on the story type, home centers typically sock more lumber and building supplies, as their biggest customers are contractors. They pay their floor employees minimum wage, and keep overall costs down by keeping them as part time employees.

However, in 1999, Lowe’s recorded very high sales growth alongside its expansion in preparation for the new millennium. From 1999 to 2001, Lowe’s began to assert itself as a worthy competitor for Home Depot, embodied in its significantly better margins and turnover ratios despite the recessionary economic environment. This improvement in ratios is indicative of positive change in the management of the

Strengths and Weaknesses The internal and external capabilities of Lowe's Inc. as well as strategies that may have employed to strengthen their standing in the home improving industry are discussed follow: Strengths Lowe's Inc. has particular departments in order to satisfy customer’s different requirements. A Company has kept a strong brand reputation and financial position in the top best companies. Moreover, company has imposed some well though policies to increase its revenue. Lowe's Inc. sells the products directly from the manufacturer, which tends to lower the prices for customers by avoiding the cost purchasing set by wholesalers.

Due to the current stagnate growth and reduced future growth Sear’s was experiencing in the late 70’s, Sears diversified its holdings to include more financial services businesses. This differentiation diversification strategy allowed Sears to vertically integrate into other markets by leveraging their huge customer base and brand loyalty to offer credit financing services, real estate services, brokerage services and insurances services (Gillan, Kensinger & Martin, 2000). These acquisitions furthered the ‘one stop shopping’ experience favored by

As with any company expansion into a foreign country, the largest challenge for Lowe’s will be the impact on the local economy. The basic question of acceptance by the community will determine future sales. Any time a large retailer shows up there is a chance of lack of community support through loss of local businesses. Lowe’s creates competition for small companies but can also create guaranteed sales for the local companies that want to participate in the corporate successes. Lowe’s has created locally owned companies to assist in marketing and sales of products offered through the retail store. One of the biggest services Lowe’s offers the local economy is the cash flow and purchasing power necessary to finance local change. Most governments will welcome large corporations to the economy simply to assist in creating better trades and services. As mentioned before, Lowe’s creates sales through