Marketing Analysis : Wal Mart

Question 1: What were the rights of Walmart, the employer, during these two organizing drives?

Wal-Mart founded in 1962 by Sam Walton is now the largest American retail corporation. With thousands of chains of stores and warehouses Wal-Mart monopolized the American retail industry. In addition, Wal-Mart is the second largest retail corporation in the world employing of two million employees world-wide. As one of the most valuable corporations in the world Wal-Mart continues to improve their sales annually while offering some of the lowest prices available. Wal-Mart’s famous low price guarantee, come at a high expense of the environment, the small businesses, education, the rights and safety of the consumer, but most importantly their employees. Although Wal-Mart has plays a dominate role in American economy, this “American”

Walmart hurts local communities and drives out small businesses. “In the old days you actually support a family selling electronics or running a general store. But you can’t support a family working at Walmart. The vast majority of the jobs that Walmart create are very low paying. Large numbers of Walmart employees are on welfare, and this is part of the reason why we have seen an expansion in the number of the working poor in America.’-economyincrisis.org

Best Buy is electronic retailer that has brand names under 11 brand names in the United States. The company also has services in Canada, China, Europe and Mexico. It specializes in selling technology and entertainment products and services. The company became successful by using a low cost strategy and high cost customer service practices. The company has a lead market position because of its differentiation strategy, its brand names that are reputable and the many series of acquisitions.

Being such a large company with many stores and employees Wal-Mart faces many issues. Some of the issues the retail giant faces are; wages, gender discrimination, and health benefits. It seems too many that Wal-Marts has lost its way. When the recession hit Wal-Mart laid off many of its employees and because of that consumers feel the shelves are not being restock and they can’t find what they are looking for. According to Bloomberg Business Week Wal-Mart went from having 343 employees in a store in 2008 to 301 employees in a store in 2013. Even though the employee cut seems logical it is costing the retail giant business. There is no man power to keep the shelves stock and give customers the great customer service that Sam Walton envisioned. (Bloomberbusinessweek)

The development of the Internet and more specifically the business website has seen brand recognition by consumers escalate to never before seen heights. Because of this brand recognition, it has become important for businesses to design their websites to reflect their overall marketing strategies. This is especially important in the retail world. All retail businesses have a similar overall marketing strategy of generating sales and retaining the customer for future sales. Most of the retail giants still greatly rely on the success of their brick and mortar stores to turn a profit. However, internet sales for these brick and mortar stores have increasingly risen over the last few years to compete with the retail stores like Amazon that are strictly internet based businesses. Brick and mortar retail stores, such as Walmart, Target, Kmart, and Nordstrom, have each designed their websites to reflect the overall retail marketing strategy as well as the individual marketing strategies that have made their brick and mortar businesses successful.

The organization that I have chosen for the purpose of this corporate finance analysis is Wal-Mart. As is well known, Wal-Mart is the global market leader of

To be the world 's largest low cost store that carries all types of merchandise for all possible consumers.

Wal-Mart was founded by businessman Sam Walton in 1962 as a small retail store in Arkansas, USA. From there it has grown to become the largest retail giant in the world. Ranked by Forbes 2000 list for 2011 as the 18th largest public corporation in the world, Wal-Mart is the highest revenue generating public entity in the world as of 31st January 2011, with gross revenue of 422 billion US Dollars (Walmart Annual Report, 2011). It is also noted for being the largest private employer in the world having just over 2 million employees serving in 8500 stores, in 15 different countries, under 55 different names, worldwide. (Daniel, 2010)

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. helps individuals around the globe spare cash and live better - at whatever time and anyplace - in retail locations, online and through their cell phones. Every week, more than 245 million clients and individuals visit our almost 11,000 stores under 65 flags in 28 nations and e-trade sites in 11 nations. With financial year 2015 net offers of $482.2 billion, Wal-Mart utilizes 2.2 million partners around the world. (Wal-Mart Corporate) Wal-Mart is a superpower in the business world and has been that way for 50+ years. Understanding how it got to this point and how it has maintained its successful business model starts with its

Walmart the supercenter giant was founded in Rogers, Arkansas in 1962(Walmart). Founded by Sam Walton with his visionary leadership and along with his associates they focused on helping consumers and communities to save money and live better (Walmart). The successful retail giant has been known to dominate markets and operate on global efficiencies. Walmart operates in 27 countries with more than 11,000 stores serving more than 2 million consumers worldwide (Walmart). The economic satisfaction encouraged Walmart to develop new strategies and methods that they are now using to help with management. The retail giant has been very successful with Inventory Management and there Forecasting methods. Some key tactics they incorporate within success of inventory management are strategic vendor partnerships, fewer links in the supply chain, cross docking and technology. In result to having such inventory system Walmart is able to forecast and plan for any unforeseen circumstances.

1. TARGET MARKET: As discussed, target market is a group of potential customers in which a company directs its marketing efforts. A company should always anticipate consumers’ needs and work towards fulfilling these needs. It is one thing to identify your “target market” and another to satisfy them. Walmart’s credo is, “save money, live better” this summaries their target market, the lower-middle class and the poorer. (Low income consumers). Walmart is the only retail

Wal-Mart’s mission to ‘save people money so they can live better’ has impacted more than 176 million consumers in thirteen countries. A global company, Wal-Mart has positioned itself as the unbeatable price leader in offering a variety of affordable products that range from health and beauty, to apparel and jewelry to electronics and food items. While expansion,

Sam Walton 's first venture as a milk boy is when he understood the value of a dollar and the knowledge of how far a dollar could take one in life. From Sam 's first five and dime stores in the 1950 's to his opening of the first Wal-Mart in Rogers, Arkansas in 1962, no one could have predicted the enormous success of this small-town merchant. Today, fourteen years after his death, Wal-Mart continues to grow and leadership of this company continues to rely on many of the traditional goals and philosophies that Mr. Walton left behind. In keeping one step

1. What is the ethical dilemma facing Wal-Mart in this case ? Do Wal-Mart’s associates also face an ethical dilemma? If so, what is it ?