Case Study #1 W.L. Gore and Associates
Introduction
W.L. Gore and Associates is a company started in 1958 by Bill and Vieve Gore. Bill Gore was a prior employee of Du Pont who saw innovative ways to work with a substance known as PTFE (Teflon). When Du Pont was not interested in exploring his ideas, he started his own business.
W.L. Gore and Associates has diverse, high-tech product lines that range from electronic products, to vascular grafts, to apparel, and also to dental floss. The range of products shown by the company can be credited in part to an unconventional management style, which they term "lattice" structure, under which the company is organized. In this structure, there is no hierarchy and little organized
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The substance has been found to be present in drinking water sources and its effect on humans appears to be negative. I think this is a potential threat to W.L. Gore since it is possible that additional regulations on substances such as PTFE could be implemented. New regulations often are very costly to comply with, and the price for non-compliance, even if accidental, could be equally as high.
Another threat to W.L. Gore related to this would be its medical equipment segment, which is not only highly competitive, but that also faces strict regulatory requirements. The FDA has stringent guidelines for medical equipment and the healthcare industry as a whole. The medical equipment arena is also one renown for costly lawsuits when errors or malfunctions occur.
Strategic Marketing Plan and Marketing Management
W.L. Gore is a perfect example of how once a company defines its overall goals in a strategic marketing plan, those principles flow down into other levels of the company, complementing and working seamlessly with the marketing management plan. The three key elements of the strategic market plan are (1) offering the best value of products in the market segments it competes; (2) getting customers to understand the quality and performance of Gore 's products; and (3) becoming a leader with unique products in each segment. Based on these three broad
A business must be highly competitive in the business markets today. For a business to grow successfully, remain sustainable, and competitive a business needs a good understanding of a marketing plan, and the knowhow to put the concepts to work for the business achieving a successful marketing strategy. Remaining successful when an economic growth has leveled out shows a sustainable business. Competitors that follow the same marketing concepts will need to develop a good marketing plan, and implement the concepts into a marketing strategy to remain a competitive business. A good marketing strategy contains a marketing plan describing the products offered, and taking into account
This marketing plan lays the foundations on which to build a solid and successful entry and entail a marketing campaign promoting core brand attributes and aligning them with our target market. To keep the plan on track specific objectives have been created to guide all strategic decisions. The objectives are divided into marketing and financial objectives
In summary, marketing is very important for a business to achieve success. Many businesses have a difficult time in this area. With the stiff competition, businesses struggle to stand out among others. Other companies resort in unethical and unfair schemes just to win the competition. But eventually find themselves in great loss and failure. As businesses all over the world enter into a gigantic marketplace, every business owner is faced with convoluted market competition. Nevertheless, any entrepreneur can be different and become successful in this matter. In every product sold and in every service provided, patience and hard work should take precedence to ensure quality. Products and services should be marketed honestly, planning should not be done with evil
Question: Outline the marketing process and explain the importance of each element of the marketing plan.
DuPont was aware of the harmful effects this chemical had on animals and people but ignored the issue in accordance of high profit. Not only were people affected in the local community, but people in surrounding areas were also affected. Thousands of people and large amounts of property were inflicted with poor air quality and poor drinking water. DuPont had later discovered that there were dust fumes emerging from the factories that were unhealthy for people to inhale, and later found it in the drinking water. DuPont also found an astonishing key of evidence, they had found PFOA in the water, and it was twice the amount of what was allowed, and could cause some serious issues. They had known about the levels and did not notify any workers or anyone in the community due to the fear of loss of profit. Men and women were coming home with a fever, nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting. These workers endured injurious experiences, and were never notified about the condition in which they were working. DuPont was named as not trustworthy, and at times known to practice illegal activity. After going through the experiences of which they just endured, they might go through the process of mental thinking or what they just went through was not right and should not have happened to me. That process is known as
I. Executive Summary II. Situation Analysis o Market Summary Target Market Demographics Geographic Demographics Behavior Factors Market Needs Market Trends Market Growth o SWOT Analysis Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats o Competition o Product Offering o Keys to Success o Critical Issues III. Marketing Strategy o Mission o Marketing Objectives o Financial Objectives o Target Markets o Positioning o Strategies o Marketing Mix o Marketing Research o Action Plan IV. Financials o o o V. Controls o o o VI. Summary Implementation Marketing Organization Contingency Planning Breakeven Analysis Sales Forecast Expense Forecast
Businesses usually abide by a mission statement to align goals and values establishing objectives toward creating the purpose of providing a service with the intent of promoting a quality product. My mission statement goes as follows...”Quality service and customer satisfaction are the driving force which Taste of Manila and its employees strive to achieve and will settle for
As a consequence of the president’s strategy to become profitable in two years, the senior vice president of sales and marketing and the vice president of advertising must formulate a marketing plan that will allow the company to achieve desired goals. This plan must take into consideration market segmentation, continuation of current marketing strategy, and sales promotions.
Mariotti & Glackin (2013) provide that development of marketing strategy and competitive advantage is from the "Four P's". The "Four P's" include product, price, promotion, and place. This paper further outlines each of the "Four P's". Mariotti& Glackin (2013) recommend continually referring to the mission statement and vision statement while developing the marketing strategy. This reference helps to build the marketing strategy and form the core competency for the business. The first part of the business plan, the mission and vision statements, are stated below:
Marketing plays the most important role for the success of a business. In this chapter, the business’ marketing objectives are laid out together with the plans or actions that will be needed to achieve these objectives. Furthermore, this chapter includes the profile of the respondents which aided the researchers to create this part of the feasibility study.
Tenacity is another aspect linked to Gore's innovation. This is juxtaposed with an embedded management process of ensuring minimal investment risks. Associates gain identity and they are encouraged not to try to fit in someone's shoes. Every associate is a shareholder. Gore's strategy is based on its engineering prowess (Mote, 2009). Bill Gore is the man behind
It’s hard to talk about management innovation without tipping your hat to W.L. Gore, the venerable maker of Gore-Tex and a host of other pioneering materials and products as diverse as synthetic vascular grafts, Elixir guitar strings, and Glide dental floss. Lauded as "the world's most innovative company" time and time again, Gore's wholly original (and endlessly inspirational) model for creating a true democracy of innovation is firmly rooted in the story of founder Bill Gore. More than half a century ago, in 1958, Bill Gore quit DuPont to start a business aimed at imagining and commercializing new uses for polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)—the material popularized as Gore-Tex. But he wasn't simply interested in inventing new
as the focal point of the marketing concept (Brassington and Pettitt 2007). This can be clearly seen in the role
W. L. Gore & Associates is a privately held company with yearly sales of more than $3 billion that has made a name for its self by creating innovative and technology-driven solutions, from medical devices that treat aneurysms to high-performance Gore‑Tex fabrics. “W. L Gore is committed to perpetuating its 50-plus year tradition of product innovation” and “focuses its efforts in the four main areas of: electronics, fabrics, industrial and medical products” (W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc, nd.). “Today, Gore employs more than 10,000 employees, called associates, with manufacturing facilities in the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan and China, and sales offices around the world” (W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc, nd.). W.L. gore is a company
“Setting objectives for a marketing plan is not simple and straightforward matter. It is an iterative process whereby objectives are set, strategies and action plans are developed, and then it is decided whether the planned objectives are impossible, achievable or easy. Marketing objectives should be difficult, but they must be achievable. The aim is to set objectives that a challenge, but can be achieved with effort. They must be motivating rather than discouraging.” (Westwood, 2002).