Marketing Plan: Wh Smith
SWOT Analysis-WHSmith
Description, Mission Statement, Goals, Competitive Advantage and
SWOT Analysis for WHSmith Books
Christopher Powell
D01199813
11/1/2012
Contents
The Organization 2
WHS Strengths 4
WHS Weaknesses 4
WHS Opportunity 5
WHS Threats 6
Summary 6
The Organization
WHSmith is one of the largest book retailer chain stores in the United Kingdom, operating with just about nine hundred High Street stores and five hundred other sales points in the country with the strong focus on the intuitional sales to the their customer by exposing the products through the windows. Merchandising plays tremendous role in the developed sales proposition of WHSmith and the company seem to reach impressive results.
The company started its operations from the small store on the railways station and have grown to one of the largest retail chains with High Street, rail stations and airport stores around the United Kingdom. According to the internal reporting of the company WH Smith’s High Street stores experienced unprecedented profit results in 2011. In addition, as based on the same document company profit increased by 4.3%. At the same time the reality over the last five years reflects significant downfall in the total sales volumes and revenue of the company. This indicates the challenges and gaps in the strategic organizational planning that could be further explored on the basis of the Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT).
Mission statement of WHSmith is defined as follows:
“Our business goal is to rebuild our position as Britain’s most popular stationer, bookseller and newsagent. We strive to be an outward facing, customer-focused, store-responsive organisation that delivers on our promises.” (WHS, 2011)
The vision of the company is focused around the understanding of the customer needs and predcting their expectations. WHSmith positions itself in variour customer segments and acts as a provider of instant “reading and
Description, Mission Statement, Goals, Competitive Advantage and
SWOT Analysis for WHSmith Books
Christopher Powell
D01199813
11/1/2012
Contents
The Organization 2
WHS Strengths 4
WHS Weaknesses 4
WHS Opportunity 5
WHS Threats 6
Summary 6
The Organization
WHSmith is one of the largest book retailer chain stores in the United Kingdom, operating with just about nine hundred High Street stores and five hundred other sales points in the country with the strong focus on the intuitional sales to the their customer by exposing the products through the windows. Merchandising plays tremendous role in the developed sales proposition of WHSmith and the company seem to reach impressive results.
The company started its operations from the small store on the railways station and have grown to one of the largest retail chains with High Street, rail stations and airport stores around the United Kingdom. According to the internal reporting of the company WH Smith’s High Street stores experienced unprecedented profit results in 2011. In addition, as based on the same document company profit increased by 4.3%. At the same time the reality over the last five years reflects significant downfall in the total sales volumes and revenue of the company. This indicates the challenges and gaps in the strategic organizational planning that could be further explored on the basis of the Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT).
Mission statement of WHSmith is defined as follows:
“Our business goal is to rebuild our position as Britain’s most popular stationer, bookseller and newsagent. We strive to be an outward facing, customer-focused, store-responsive organisation that delivers on our promises.” (WHS, 2011)
The vision of the company is focused around the understanding of the customer needs and predcting their expectations. WHSmith positions itself in variour customer segments and acts as a provider of instant “reading and
Bibliography: BML. (2010). Sizing the UK book market. Retrieved from: http://www.bookmarketing.co.uk/index.cfm/asset_id%2C885/index.html Ghemawat, P. (2007). Redefining Global Strategy. Crossing Borders in a World where Difference Still Matters. London: Harvard Business School Press. IR. (2010, 4). Internet Retailing. Retrieved from IR: http://www.internetretailing.net/2010/04/more-than-50-of-uk-adults-now-shop-online/ WHS. (2011). WHSmith. Retrieved from: http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/businesssurvivaljune10.pdf