International Business
Executive Summary 4
Challenges 5 Re-Aligning the Marketing Strategy for Greater Relevancy 5 Figure 1: Wal-Mart Segmentation Strategy 8 Figure 2: Customer Segment Loyalty Analysis 10 Human Resources Lack Compliance and Governance 11 Figure 3: Wal-Mart’s Chain of Command 14 Ethnocentrism Rampant In Global Growth Strategies 15 Competitive Strategies must get Beyond Price Wars 18 Wal-Mart’s Competitors 19 Figure 4: Big Box Retailing Market Shares, 2007 20 Responding To an Emerging Recession 22
Company Analysis 23 Wal-Mart Strengths 23 Wal-Mart Weaknesses 25 Wal-Mart Opportunities 26 Wal-Mart Threats 27
Industry Analysis 28 Figure 5: Comparing Store Statistics 30 In applying the Porter Five Forces Model to this industry, the following insights emerge by area. Figure 6, Porter’s Five Forces Model, provides the theoretical structure for the analysis. 31 Threat of New Entry 31 Competitive Rivalry 31 Supplier Power 32 Buyer Power 32 Threat of Substitution 33
Alternatives 33 First Alternative: Heavy Investment in Merchandising and Marketing to Increase Same-Store Sales 34 Second Alternative: Increase process-related and IT investments, including RFID in the Wal-Mart global supply chain so aggressive pricing can be pursued. 34 Third Alternative: Enable Global Market Growth by capitalizing on analytics, merchandising, supply chain and technological expertise. 36
Recommendations 37 Figure 8: Wal-Mart Value Chain Analysis 41
Appendices: 42
References 43
Executive Summary
Wal-Mart faces a daunting series of challenges beginning with the need to refine and strengthen its core marketing strategies in the U.S., resolve Human Resource compliance violations, and learn from failures to expand globally and to be successful in China and India. In addition to these challenges, Wal-Mart faces stiff competition from competitors who are
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