May Tag
Maytag Case Study
Executive Summary
The Maytag Company was created in 1909 because F.L. Maytag had found a niche in the market by producing washing machines. They were extremely successful and held 40-50% of the market share throughout the 1920′s and 30′s. F.L. Maytag had created a product that was known for its quality and was a product that targeted the high-end consumer. Maytag continued to enjoy market leadership, market share growth, and profits until they tried to expand globally in 1988.
Expanding globally seems to be the root cause of Maytag’s problems they are currently facing. They seemed to have leapt into the global market and due to their losses they were not prepared to enter this market.
Upon realizing this Maytag took on a retrenchment strategy that caused them to fall behind their competition in the North American market and allowed their main competitors to have an advantage over them because they had been focusing on the North American market while Maytag was focusing on global operations.
Basic Analysis
Weaknesses/Threats
- Maytag had three CEO’s in only a five-year span. This created changes in the company’s strategies and they had to spend a significant amount of time reversing the implementation of projects started by Ward.
- Maytag took significant losses when it had to retrench from the global market. Maytag tried to enter a new market too quickly and this was the root cause of their problems. During this time their competitors were able to remain profitable which Maytag was trying to reduce their losses by selling off operations soon after they were bought and significant investments had been made in them. This caused Maytag to fall behind their competitors and have been trying to catch up ever since.
- Industry experts stated that Maytag’s marketing strategy was confusing. The brand Maytag was a high end product but they were selling this line through discount stores. Maytag did have products for all markets – and experts stated
Executive Summary
The Maytag Company was created in 1909 because F.L. Maytag had found a niche in the market by producing washing machines. They were extremely successful and held 40-50% of the market share throughout the 1920′s and 30′s. F.L. Maytag had created a product that was known for its quality and was a product that targeted the high-end consumer. Maytag continued to enjoy market leadership, market share growth, and profits until they tried to expand globally in 1988.
Expanding globally seems to be the root cause of Maytag’s problems they are currently facing. They seemed to have leapt into the global market and due to their losses they were not prepared to enter this market.
Upon realizing this Maytag took on a retrenchment strategy that caused them to fall behind their competition in the North American market and allowed their main competitors to have an advantage over them because they had been focusing on the North American market while Maytag was focusing on global operations.
Basic Analysis
Weaknesses/Threats
- Maytag had three CEO’s in only a five-year span. This created changes in the company’s strategies and they had to spend a significant amount of time reversing the implementation of projects started by Ward.
- Maytag took significant losses when it had to retrench from the global market. Maytag tried to enter a new market too quickly and this was the root cause of their problems. During this time their competitors were able to remain profitable which Maytag was trying to reduce their losses by selling off operations soon after they were bought and significant investments had been made in them. This caused Maytag to fall behind their competitors and have been trying to catch up ever since.
- Industry experts stated that Maytag’s marketing strategy was confusing. The brand Maytag was a high end product but they were selling this line through discount stores. Maytag did have products for all markets – and experts stated