Black & Decker Case Study
BLACK & DECKER CASE
Problem Statement:
With Black & Decker being one among the most powerful brand names in the world and establishing its professional tools to be the highest quality in the industry, B&D failed to make an impact in the Professional-tradesmen segment. B&D was known for offering high quality, differentiated products and excellent service in the Professional-Industrial segment whereas its brand recognition, and image helped it attain the #1 position in the market place for Consumer segment. B&D occupied only 9% of the total share as against Makita who was leading the Professional-Tradesmen segment with 50% market share. Though B&D leads in the other two segments, it could not capture the tradesmen segment due to the following reasons. B&D was branded more as home tools; it lacked in capitalizing one of the most profitable distribution channels (membership clubs) whereas the same channel proved to be very successful for Makita (85%); the unremarkable grey color did not help B&D; and while B&D was focused in three segments, Makita was focused on only one segment of the market. Therefore, Joseph Galli, Vice president of sales and marketing for B&D, has to decide which one of the three marketing strategies must be implemented to take, the market share in the Professional-Tradesmen segment, away from the current leader Makita.
Recommendation:
I would recommend B&D to use the strategy of Re-branding i.e; using DeWalt name and the color yellow in order to regain Professional-Tradesmen segment market share. The reasons behind the above recommendation are explained in the following paragraphs
Option 1 requires B&D to focus only on the Consumer and Professional-industrial markets while ignoring tradesmen market. Since the tradesmen segment market is growing at a larger rate than the consumer and Industrial segments, alienating that market would give rise to more losses in the future. Dropping the
Problem Statement:
With Black & Decker being one among the most powerful brand names in the world and establishing its professional tools to be the highest quality in the industry, B&D failed to make an impact in the Professional-tradesmen segment. B&D was known for offering high quality, differentiated products and excellent service in the Professional-Industrial segment whereas its brand recognition, and image helped it attain the #1 position in the market place for Consumer segment. B&D occupied only 9% of the total share as against Makita who was leading the Professional-Tradesmen segment with 50% market share. Though B&D leads in the other two segments, it could not capture the tradesmen segment due to the following reasons. B&D was branded more as home tools; it lacked in capitalizing one of the most profitable distribution channels (membership clubs) whereas the same channel proved to be very successful for Makita (85%); the unremarkable grey color did not help B&D; and while B&D was focused in three segments, Makita was focused on only one segment of the market. Therefore, Joseph Galli, Vice president of sales and marketing for B&D, has to decide which one of the three marketing strategies must be implemented to take, the market share in the Professional-Tradesmen segment, away from the current leader Makita.
Recommendation:
I would recommend B&D to use the strategy of Re-branding i.e; using DeWalt name and the color yellow in order to regain Professional-Tradesmen segment market share. The reasons behind the above recommendation are explained in the following paragraphs
Option 1 requires B&D to focus only on the Consumer and Professional-industrial markets while ignoring tradesmen market. Since the tradesmen segment market is growing at a larger rate than the consumer and Industrial segments, alienating that market would give rise to more losses in the future. Dropping the