EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT
PESTLE Analysis
Political
• Australia has positive relations with many countries. TORSTAR has relationships with individuals and companies across Europe (including the United Kingdom) and the United States. Many of the clients are based in the US with TORSTAR bringing their brands over to Australian markets. As mentioned beforehand, TORSTAR has been involved with moving well-known American companies like Sephora and the British brand TopShop into the Australian market. Additionally, TORSTAR is now working on expanding Australian companies such as Sukin and Freeze-Frame to consumers and retailers globally.
Economic
• Many communications companies are facing downsizing as they start moving their work to digital platforms. Meaning that companies are forced to let go a substantial number of employees as their jobs are made redundant. TORSTAR has decreased their staff by 50% in the past year and have focused on sourcing external consultants to help handle the workload.
Social
• There is poor-wage growth currently in Australia, which impacts sales and promotional techniques. TORSTAR understands this; therefore, they represent affordable fashion and skincare brands such as Missguided and Sukin.
• The global population is now ageing. Hence, the brand Sukin is promoted as providing products for ageing women that are affordable and not harsh on their skin.
Technological
• The rise of technology created a large impact on the industry as many
The PEST analysis helps to explain the critical factors in the organization's external environment. The factors include political, economic, social and technological. For Myer, these forces combine with the internal factors, and other external factors like competition. The Australian consumer goods retail market is worth $121 billion (IBISWorld, 2012) but is heavily fragmented. Myer is the third-largest company in the industry behind David Jones and Harvey Norman, but with $3.158 billion in sales holds just 2.6% market share (Myer 2011 Annual Report). This implies that competition is only one of many factors that can contribute to the company's results. This PEST analysis will help to identify the other major factors.
Telstra is Australia’s largest and most efficient telecommunications company, which provides one of the best-known brands in the country. They offer a full range of services and compete in all areas of telecommunications both domestically and internationally. Telstra’s vision is to enhance its position as the leading full service telecommunications and information Service Company in Australia as well as to expand its presence internationally. (Telstra Website, 2008)
The product range is focused on providing the best beauty and health products at affordable prices. You can find anything from makeup to vitamins at Superdrug. Furthermore, the company has
Working with a group of Swedish scientists, Malin came up with an ingenious product, the (insert product here). This skin care line was tested and verified to be world class and super effective. The ingredients, which include many native to Sweden are considered the most effective out there for treating fine lines and dark circles under the eyes, which are of course some of the first signs of aging. Malin interested investors to help her launch the product in America, where she felt it would do the most good.
Telstra is Australia’s biggest telecommunications provider. Many Australians are familiar with the work of Telstra and their utilities can be found in most suburban houses. Stability in this company can be proven by the continuous uprising for the past four years. This rise will
New technology has lead to our customers handling their claims via the internet and by contacting our national call centres. Some areas of work have been contracted out to private industry in order to cut costs and provide a more bespoke service to customers. This has all resulted in a reduction of staff headcount in frontline offices and redeployment of employees to other departments or more recently the offer of redundancy packages.
It attracts attention by putting Sofia Vergara, a popular actress on the page. With that, it stimulates desire because even though she has aged, it does not seem like she has. It seeks action by listing three reasons that it will do to your skin. The ad creates conviction by stating “ Start today to make tomorrow more beautiful!” Thus, persuading the reader that this product will make them look young and beautiful.
Some of the companies have best policies to attract the customers even in economic crisis. But are they really success in doing so. Cutting the prices may be the solutions for a middle class customer to buy goods.
What happens to those employees whose jobs are being terminated? Will they just layoff of all the employees? If they do layoff the workers, one of the problems they face is that the it will affect the rest of the employees' productivity. These workers will go through survival syndrome, which is series of emotions they face in these circumstances and normally there are high costs related to this issue. Another problem that can arise from this situation, is if they do get laid off it will be involuntary turnover and if Rogers Media doesn't follow correct procedures they can have lawsuits being formed against them. Most of these issues are related to layoffs. In this situation, one technique that can be used to avoid layoffs is job sharing. Job sharing is when you divide up one job's responsibilities between two or more workers. This can be win-win situation since layoffs are avoided and employees still have a job even though they work fewer hours. This could be really beneficial to Rogers since the main reason why they are cutting 200 jobs is to increase efficiency for Rogers Communication and splitting a job between workers will not only get the job done faster but it will also be done way more
Consumers are constantly changing, with the pressures of life and lack of time; we are becoming more of a spiritual society. Our concern towards the environment is increasing along with social responsibility. For consumers nowadays, transparency is something vital and they are increasingly aware of what ingredients make up a product. Men’s habits in regard to personal care has been increasing rapidly over the past few years and the trend is to continue, which will change the market. The anti-aging skin care segment is also growing due to the large population of baby
Young girls are more concerned about acnes and blackheads while mature women are looking for anti-aging and anti-wrinkle products. Genders do affect the choice of skin care products. In the past, skin care products only belong to the girls’ world. Nevertheless, in recent years, men are increasingly becoming more and more concerned about skin care. With a view to this latest trend, various brands have started developing men’s line. Income level directly affects the purchasing power of customers. Skin care products take up a wide range of price levels from far less than a hundred dollars to more than a thousand. Young girls who do not have any income cannot afford the expensive skin care products while mature women with higher purchasing power focus more on quality and effectiveness. Occupations also determine the need for skin care products. Models and artists generally have a higher consciousness on skin care than people with less exposure to the public.
The generation of Baby-Boomers are growing older and living longer. The struggle to stay young has created a demand for a cosmetic product that slows down the hands of time. Many cosmetic companies have developed products that promise to erase wrinkles, lift and firm skin on our faces, and smooth out blotchiness created by age spots. Estee Lauder's Idealists Skin Refinishing line promises to do all that. The products range from US$46 to US$85 (EsteeLauder.com 2005). These miracle serums and lotions have a price tag many consumers in China still may not be able to afford.
Downsizing has become a commonplace strategy for organizations to adopt in an effort to cut costs, eliminate redundancies, and streamline organizational systems. Over the last 15 years, many organizations have engaged in downsizing more than once. Most companies have learned from the mistakes of the past, but some companies are still trying to use the same tactics today that were used in the mid 1980s, that leave employees reeling.
When Dove first launched their “Real Women Campaign”, their target age group was women between 30 and 39 that had never used skin firming products. This age group was ideal for Dove to target because their current brand image was considered emotionally dated and
Downsizing, restructuring, rightsizing, even a term as obscure as census readjustment has been used to describe the plague that has been affecting corporate America for years and has left many of its hardest working employees without work. In the year 2001 we had nearly 1.8 million jub cuts, that’s almost three times as much as the year 2000(Matthew Benz). In the 1990's, one million managers of American corporations with salaries over $40,000 also lost their jobs. In total, Fortune 500 companies have eliminated 4.4 million positions since 1979 including the 65,000 positions cut in February of 2002 (Ellen Florian). Although this downsizing of companies can have many reasons behind it and cannot be