B&D Case Details
1. What is the cause of B&D 9% share and Makita 's 50% share?
2. Describe buyer behavior of tradesmen.
3. Analyze the competitive situation.
4. Choose the action from the action plan on page 10 1. Although Black & Decker is famous for providing power tools to consumers, they are not as successful to all segments. They have successfully captured the Consumer and Professional-Industrial segment with high market share, yet failed to do the same for the Professional-Tradesmen segment. (Only managing to hold 9% of the market share whereas its competing company, Makita, holds 50% of market share.)
The cause of B&D’s failure of capturing the Tradesmen segment is because their perception on B&D’s power tools is that of an inferior one compared to other company’s products. How did B&D products come to gain this unfortunate image?
It is because buyers tend to think that B&D products excel as home appliances but are not much of an outstanding tool for professional usage. B&D is famous for providing excellent household products such as vacuums, irons, mixers, food processors, coffee makers, toasters, etc. B&D’s strength as a consumer brand has contributed in forming a certain brand image among tradespeople that B&D products are for the use at home rather than on job.
Also, tradespeople believe that there is not much difference between Consumer segment tools and Professional-Tradesmen segment tools. The problem with B&D is that it lacks sufficient differentiation between the Consumer-level product and Tradesmen-level product. B&D has made the distinction between the two product lines by coloring Consumer-lvl products with black and Tradesmen-lvl with charcoal grey. Although there is some difference between these two colors, it isn’t quite boldly differentiating. Charcoal is, in fact, a black-ish color. Compared to B&D’s differentiation, Makita and Milwaukee used teal and red to differentiate their Professional-grade
2. Describe buyer behavior of tradesmen.
3. Analyze the competitive situation.
4. Choose the action from the action plan on page 10 1. Although Black & Decker is famous for providing power tools to consumers, they are not as successful to all segments. They have successfully captured the Consumer and Professional-Industrial segment with high market share, yet failed to do the same for the Professional-Tradesmen segment. (Only managing to hold 9% of the market share whereas its competing company, Makita, holds 50% of market share.)
The cause of B&D’s failure of capturing the Tradesmen segment is because their perception on B&D’s power tools is that of an inferior one compared to other company’s products. How did B&D products come to gain this unfortunate image?
It is because buyers tend to think that B&D products excel as home appliances but are not much of an outstanding tool for professional usage. B&D is famous for providing excellent household products such as vacuums, irons, mixers, food processors, coffee makers, toasters, etc. B&D’s strength as a consumer brand has contributed in forming a certain brand image among tradespeople that B&D products are for the use at home rather than on job.
Also, tradespeople believe that there is not much difference between Consumer segment tools and Professional-Tradesmen segment tools. The problem with B&D is that it lacks sufficient differentiation between the Consumer-level product and Tradesmen-level product. B&D has made the distinction between the two product lines by coloring Consumer-lvl products with black and Tradesmen-lvl with charcoal grey. Although there is some difference between these two colors, it isn’t quite boldly differentiating. Charcoal is, in fact, a black-ish color. Compared to B&D’s differentiation, Makita and Milwaukee used teal and red to differentiate their Professional-grade