The overarching brand of the store is coordinated with these sub-brands to accentuate breadth of selection and an aggressive direction on Everyday Low Price (EDLP) positioning. Wal-Mart's influence on its supply chain partners, the ability to continually drive down costs and increase quality, and its use of EDLP on Black Fridays (the shopping day after Thanksgiving in the U.S.) have continually reinforced the brand and also created a significant competitive advantage vs. competitors K-Mart Corporation and Target. K-Mart's positioning on EDLP historically has been to concentrate on low-priced leadership through its blue light specials throughout the store. In 2001, in an attempt to counteract the effects of Wal-Mart on its brand and market position, K-Mart initiated the "Blue Light Always" program to further underscore their EDLP strategy on 30,000 items, primary comprised of food, consumable and other high-frequency items. Consumers however did not equate the Blue Light Always campaign as being as competitive as the prices at Wal-Mart, specifically the latters' Sunday Specials and extensive use of loss leaders during the selling period between Black Friday and the holidays occurring at the end of the year. Instead, EDLP for the K-Mart brand connoted a lack of quality and lack of competitiveness relative to Wal-Mart products and the strategy eventually led to financial losses. The effects on consumer behaviour of K-Mart attempting its own EDLP strategy showed that the...
It also showed that in discount retailing is not a tactic, it is a strategic direction and it takes years of brand equity to create sustainable and trustworthy EDLP positioning in consumers' minds. The failure of Blue Light Always also shows that consumers who trust their low-price mass merchandiser are not easily swayed even with Sunday Specials or special programs.
Apple Strategy Apple: An Application of the Strategic Management Model Current Situation Apple Computer still has a small market share in the computer sector compared to some other PC manufacturers as of 2006, particularly Dell and Hewlett-Packard, however its share is growing and its profitability is quite high thanks to huge shares in the mp3-player market and in other technologies (Case Study, nd.). The company's vision and strategy of innovation and almost rabid
This level of the maturity model is a transitory one and is focused more on either small, incremental gains from the first level, which is Reacting. In the Reacting layer of this proposed Branding Maturity Model, the majority of brand departments have a decidedly "every department for itself" approach to process maturity and have information flow that is purely dependent on personal productivity applications only. That is to say
Apple Founded sometimes in 1976 by Stephen Wozniak and the late Steve Jobs, Apple Inc. has today become one of the most popular companies in the personal computers industry. Today, the company designs, manufactures and offers for sale a wide variety of consumer electronics including but not in any way limited to portable communication mobile devices and personal computers. Further, the company also avails to consumers a number of related peripherals
Product Management and SWOT Analysis In her 1998 article titled, Consumers and Their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory in Consumer Research, Susan Fournier demonstrates that consumers commit themselves to a particular brand because a purposive, consumer-brand relationship exists between them and the brand. This consumer-brand relationship, the author posits, is maintained as long as the brand's characteristics align with the customer's living experiences. Towards this end, the author expresses that there exists
Management Strategy Apple Inc. -- Management Strategy Vision, Mission, and SMART Objectives Vision SMART Analysis Strategy Implementation Management Strategy Apple Inc. has had a long history of reinventing itself. The first Apple computers were built in a garage without any type of case, monitor, or keyboard. Despite these modest origins, there was still demand for Apple grew exponentially. It wasn't long before Apple introduced the trademark Macintosh and then the Mac OS X which revolutionized the company.
Marketing Research: Products and Brands In the wake of globalization, business organizations have embraced different strategies aimed at increasing their competitive edge. Increased focus on quality management lays great emphasis on customer-oriented services and continual learning. As such, companies have embraced personal brands such as brand positioning and client's satisfaction. This study identifies the similarities and differences of strategies adopted by Apple and MatsSoft in terms of personal brand and positioning
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