Electronic Company Sales and Recruitment

Electronic Company Sales and Recruitment Elec company is specialized in importing and distributing electronic and electrical products in Sri Lanka market. Their product range consist of television, home theater systems, digital cameras, kitchen appliances, refrigerators, gas burners and ovens, washing machines and personal computers. The organization wants to make use of their promotional effort to the maximum so that they are planning to come up with an integrated marketing promotions to support the selling activities. Company is going to develop the sales structure and required to add few more people there to support the expansion. They wont to set sales targets for representatives, come up with a plan to recruit new positions to the sales function, develop a benefit package for them, introduce sales package for them, introduce techniques to co ordinate and control sales procedures for the company. In this report there is a sales plan to the company and there are some suggestions to expand sales. First explained about the personal selling to support the personal mix and analysis the role of the sales team within the marketing strategy. Then revised their sales strategies in line with the cooperate objectives. Then explained the appropriate recruitment strategies and selection procedure. The role of motivation for field sales representatives, remuneration package and training in sales management. Explained the sales structure, territorial design, sales recordings and methods to control sales activities. After that explained how sales representative could make use of database in setting effective sales management programmed. Then developed a sales plan to promote electronic and electrical items. Finally investigate the opportunities for using exhibitions or trade fairs to promote the electronic and electrical items to the target customers. Introduction Elec Company is specialized in importing and distributing Electronic and Electrical products in Sri Lankan market. Their Products range consist of Televisions, Home theater systems, Digital cameras, Kitchen appliances, Refrigerators, Gas burners and ovens, Washing machines and Personal computers. Currently it is covering the main cities in the country with ten sales representatives. They all report to one sales manager who is located in the head office. They go on filed visits and make sales to B2B shops which are operating all over Sri Lanka. Some times their sales trips spring to two or three days in filed, before they make the next sales visit. But, their selling tasks within the company are not properly organized. In many occasions, they met together, since there is no proper field visit scheduling done. Sales records are poorly maintained. The company wants to restructure their business operations and align the sales operations to match with the organizational objective. The company wants to streamline the sales channel and expand the business operations to achieve the organizations corporate objective. The company is willing to implement a proper planning and monitoring system to have a better quality sales operation and to increase the profitability. Personal selling Personal selling is where businesses use the sales force to sell the product after meeting face-to-face with the customer. The sellers promote the product through their attitude, appearance and specialist product knowledge.  They aim to inform and encourage the customer to buy, or at least trial the product. A good example of personal selling is found in department stores on the perfume and cosmetic counters.   A customer can get advice on how to apply the product and can try different products.   Products with relatively high prices, or with complex features, are often sold using personal selling.   Great examples include cars, office equipment and many products that are sold by businesses to other industrial customers. Point-of-sale merchandising can be said to be a specialist form of personal selling.   POS merchandising involves face-to-face contact between sales representatives of producers and the retail trade.   A merchandiser will vis it a range of suitable retail premises in his/her area and encourage the retailer to stock products from a range.   The visit also provides the opportunity for the merchandiser to check on stock levels and to check whether the product is being displayed optimally. Advantages of personal selling are high customer attention; message is customized, interactivity, persuasive impact, potential for development of relationship, adaptable and opportunity to close the sale. Organization sell and customer buyer behavior in relation to purchase decisions Digital crameras and the washing machines products that selling at the Elec company. People buying Digital crameras and the washing machines for different purposes. First we have to identify the purposes of the customers before selling products. Digital crameras are mostly needed for the younger generation and photographers. But when we come to the washing machines, mostly it is important for women. Then the company have to use different ways to advertise their products. When the company is going to advertise for the washing machines, it is better to put those advertisements in a womens news paper rather than putting that advertisement in other newspapers. When selling digital crameras it is little bit different. When the company selling digital crameras it is better to advertise in commercial magazines than womens magazines. Washing Machine Buyers Digital crameras Washing machines are house hold items . It is already use in houses. When people wants to get a washine mechines they mainly focused about the price and the facilities in that. Consumers are individuals, households or businesses who use the products. Consumer characteristics vary from country to country. Therefore it has become challenging task for marketer to understand the need, buying behaviour of consumer before developing product and marketing program. It has been found that the consumers decision making process is influenced by Usability aspect. Here the peer group pressure, Promises, Digital Processing, Flash, Location services, Cost of service Spare parts cost combined together affect the consumer to decide while purchasing a digital camera. The feature of the product is next important factor that heavenly influences the buying decision of the consumer. Here the consumer pays a great attention towards features like Picture quality, Zoom facility memory of the camera. The accessories have become an important factor in purchasing a digital camera. Apart from the features, the customer is very much interested in other add-on  like colour, carriage bag, weight trendiness of the camera. Other factors that are crucial in decision making while purchasing digital camera are service, value for money promotional schemes. Price has not emerged out as a very crucial factor for the consumers. The consumers give more weight age to usability features of the product in comparison with price. Promotional schemes like discounts emerged out as the least important factor for the consumers. Role of the sales team The sales team is responsible for researching and analyzing the business and the market. Using the information gathered, the marketing plan, budget and key performance indicators are developed. Action plans are devised and the marketing strategy is implemented. The marketing department measures and reports on the results of the marketing strategy. Staff in the marketing department train staff in other departments so they are conscious of current campaigns. The purpose of their activity is to manage the four Ps of marketing. The aim is to stimulate demand for the business goods and services and to generate leads. Leads are customers who are likely to make a purchase. Leads are identified by collecting the details of people who contact the business to ask about products or services, or by gathering details of prospective customers from online surveys, competition entries or newsletter subscriptions. Lists of potential customers can be purchased and classified into ranges of income, loc ation and purchasing preferences. The marketing department can analyze their customer database to highlight customers and their preferences, those who make regular purchases or those who are due for upgrades or replacements. After raising interest and demand for the products and services, the leads that are generated are passed on to the sales department. Leads are people who may make a purchase. It is up to sales staff to contact people, identify their needs and help them make a purchasing decision. Sales staff deal directly with customers and they must build a good relationship. Sales staff also deal with people who walk in off the street or contact the business through their website. The role of sales staff is to make sure the business gets a return from its investment in marketing and to turn demand into sales. Corporate Sales Planning Elec is having multiple ranges of electrical and electronic home appliances to meet with different needs of the families. Company management is more focused on building a business which is sustainable and more profitable for the stake holders. Further they want to have the brand presence as well. The company vision is more focused on creating better values for their end users, sellers and other stakeholders. Further the company is looking for the growing opportunities with business expansion and new sales force recruitment. Moreover the company should develop and competitive environment for the target market to choose Elec products over the competitor brands. Elec management should understand the corporate objectives of their organization clearly and should develop the sales planning accordingly. The sales force management in the Elec Company seems to be very weak and the company is not having and efficient tracking system on the employee customer visit plans. The company is in a position where they have to make strong call on how they are going to manage their sales planning and client management. Elec as a importer and supplier of house hold electronics and electrical thorough out the country, the company should understand the need for designing a sales plan with clear reporting and account management guidelines. As the company is managing a considerable amount of resellers its will be better to change the sales representatives roles to Key Account Managers. Key account managers will be assigned with different shop owners who could be taken care by the respective account managers. Each shop will be considered as separate accounts. The account manager will be responsible to handle any queries related to the accounts under his observations. When the company is designing the account managers reporting lines it can have a 2 layer or 3 layer reporting line. The overall sales and distribution operation would be handled by the country head for sales. And he can have three Senior Sales managers reporting to him, who will be responsible to handle the account managers. The account management can be differentiated into two main criteria. The first criteria would be the large resellers who by more than certain quantity every year. The company can check their past sales records and list the top 25 B2B buyers as the Key Accounts of the company. And the Key accounts can be handled by the Key account managers while the other B2B customers can be handled by the other customer account managers. Among the 3 senior sales managers one manager should handle the Key account Managers who will be handling the main customer accounts of the company while the other 2 senior managers could handle the other customer account operations. When assigning the account managers to the resellers other than the key account managers, the company may practice a territorial approach. This will help the company to plan their sales operations effectively. Same way the company can divide their key accounts into 3 or 4 territories which will make the client management and customer visits more convenient. Company can figure out the compatible staff from the current sales force and promote them as key account managers. If they give the internal staff, the opportunity to handle the key accounts, it will be much convenient for the company to have the rapport with the existing customer hence they already have some kind of relationship among them. Proposed Hierarchy of the Sales Department at Elec Company Country Head Country head for sales should be responsible for overall sales planning and budgeting of the department. The country head will be a member of the senior management team and will have the sales planning with the corporate objectives. He will play a major role in communicating the overall organizational expectations with the sales unit staff. He should have the capacity to develop a sales design and make rapid decisions based on the customer and corporate demands. Senior Manager Key Accounts Senior Key accounts Manager will be handling a team of Key account managers who will be responsible for delivering the set profit targets and achieving the organizational goals. Further the managers will be responsible to manage the account managers reporting to him and to provide them better guidance in delivering satisfactory performance. Further the senior account manager will also have occasional liaisons with the key clients. Senior Manager Customer Accounts Management Senior Manager will be responsible for handling the staff directly reporting to him and growing the unit performance. Also increasing the profitability of the sales team will be a major goal of the manager. Managers will also handle the customer grievances and provide professional guidance to the team members in personality development and business development. Key Accounts Manager Key account managers will have the direct liaison with the key customers assign to them and increase the companys profitability and developing the brand presence in the assigned region. Also they will be responsible to retain the customers and grow the portfolio size. Customer Account Managers The customer account managers will be responsible to handle the customer accounts of the company from the assigned territorial limits. The Account will be handled in terms of increasing sales and convincing the accounts to promote the Elec products over the competitor products. Also the Account managers will be responsible to have sustainable account management and relationships with the customers. Restructuring the sales department should be planned properly as the changes take place in the company to avoid the staff getting the wrong message. The company should give the existing staff more priority for the appropriate positions. And the company should have a clear change management strategy in the role changes and planning. Human Resources Management Human resources management functions related to the sales department will include staff retention, employees welfare management and motivation, recruitment and selection, training and development and Employees Evaluations and other activities related to the staff management. Human Resources Planning for the Sales Unit Human resources planning process involves identifying the need for human capital against the organisational goals and current human capital strengths. Any company in the market should do a human resources planning in order to have a competitive human resources and enjoy the economies of scale. Any decision on recruitment should be made only if the necessity is found through a human resources planning activity, if not the recruitment may be a burden for the organisations future. At Elec, as the company is planning on expansions and growth, the company is in need for more staff to match the need of the sales expansions and adoption of new customer accounts. Human resources planning will have several sensitive steps which need to be carried out with strategic thoughts and information. Evaluating the organisational goals and objectives This should be found from the top management decisions and needs. Identifying the need of human resources (Human resources Demand) The company HR should negotiate with the line managers and middle managers on the need of employees for the achievement of set objectives. The need can be identified by the average productivity assumptions. Identifying the currently human resources availability (Human resources Supply) Gather information from the HRIS or from departmental managers and payroll system on the availability of staff power. And the skills of the employees should be also identified. Evaluating the gap between supply and demand. The management should evaluate the gap existing with the demand and supply of human resources and the skills. Planning the strategies to meet the required human resources level. If the supply and demand is matching the company could focus on training and developing the employees to achieve the goals. If the company has staff surplus, it should implement strategies to downsize the human capital, if not they can reduce the working hours of the employees or prepare rosters for working. But the company may focus on new account adoption and increase the targets of the staff that are with little portfolios. If the company has a staff shortage the company can increase the working hours of the staff and pay overtime or if the need is a long term oriented, they can recruit new employees. Also they can outsource few functions which are not core activities of the business. Implementation of the plan and monitoring the process as a continuous cycle. The activities planned should be implemented and monitored to assure the execution aligns with the planning. And the planning process is a recurrent process which needs to be carried out frequently to assure the human capital is utilised effectively. The above HR planning process should be carried out on a frequent manner to understand the companys sales departments position based on the human resources need. This will help the managers to understand the over heads and shortfalls in the unit. Recruitment and Selection Process The need for recruitment would be identified through an effective HR planning process. ELEC should make their recruitment decisions by carrying out HR Planning activity. If the recruitment is done just for the request of the department managers the company may have to suffer unnecessary financial losses. The recruitment and selection process of the company should be strategically designed to match with the company culture and the industry they operate in. Recruitment and selection process may have the following steps in general. Analysing the vacancy identifying the job role and specialities need for the job role. Analysing the skills and qualifications expected to meet the vacancy. Identify the personality needed from the individual for the position vacancy. Identifying the recruitment method whether the company is planning to fill the vacancy from the internal staff or looking from outside. The company can call applications though education and professional bodies, via referrals and public advertising, etc. Selection process Screening the applications received to identify the qualified candidates. Preliminary interviews for the shortlisted candidates Exams/tests related to the job for the successful candidates Next level of interviews Reference checking and background analysis Offer of employment Acceptance by the employee and employment contract. Induction Evaluation of the Selection process The above procedures could be followed by the ELEC to recruit a suitable candidate for the vacancies. Elec can recruit staff with experience in the same industry and can attract staff members from their competitors by giving better benefits for their staff members. Selecting and recruiting the most suitable candidates will help the company to have a committed staff force who will help the company in achieving the competitive advantage over the competitors. Employees Motivation Elec Company should implement a better employee motivation system as the current system in the company is not very competitive to have a satisfied and motivated sales force. In order to have a motivated sales team the company should focus to develop a satisfied sales force and then motivating the sales team. If the company invests on employee motivations without achieving the employee satisfaction the company many suffer unnecessary losses. The company should make the employees to feel that they are being taken cared by the company and if they perform more the company will reward for their additional contribution. Company should take initiatives to hear the employee grievances and provide proper solutions to match their needs. The company can include employee protection schemes with insurance benefits and health protection for the staff and immediate family members. Also the company should introduce a competitive rewarding scheme based on the account management profits generated by each account manager. This will give them the motivation to focus on increasing the sales and build a strong business portfolio for their benefits and organizations benefit. In addition Elec can introduce a sales tracking mechanism which will provide the staff real time updates on their portfolio position and how their monthly incentives are going to be. Also if the company can introduce Tabs or laptops for the sales staff to have communication medium with the head office and to see the stock in demand and orders to the stores based on the clients needs. This will reduce the companys operational cost on communication medium though the initial investment may look higher. Further the company should have employee get together, family outings and special value adding rewards such as MDs awards to recognize the employees for their extraordinary contribution to the company growth. In addition to the above the company should invest more on the employees training and development. This will help the employees to have a trust on the company. Also they will be happy to see themselves growing within the company. Marketing Mix and Business Development Company should develop a marketing mix based on the corporate strategy of the company. The marketing mix will focus on the competitive advantage over the competitors. The Elec products are tangible and the consumers always want to have key benefits and values to be matched for the money they pay. Elec should evaluate the cost benefits before designing the marketing mix of the company. The marketing mix will be more focused of reaching the shop owners than the end users as the shop owners will be focused on sales growth to end users. Elec should build good rapport with the shop owners and identify the product movement style and analyze the best markets places for the range of products they have. They should provide the right products and the right quantity to the right shop to avoid returns of the goods which will cost extra on transport. Further the company should fix a price which will give better yield for itself, shop owners and cost advantage for the end users. Also they should match their prices with the main competitors to win in the price competition. The Company will have their main stores based on the head office and distribute the goods every fortnight based on the orders received. This system will help them to enjoy the cost advantage again without having many distribution centers. The market placing will be done through the account managers to the shops they manage. And the end users can buy the products from the shops hence the company doesnt need to meet the end user directly. Further the company could train the shop technical staff on the repairs and damage complain handling which will help Elec to have a professionalism in the shop level as well in treating the customers fairly. Also this will help the shops to be satisfied with the support given by Elec. Promotional activities related to the product range will be handled by the Elec corporate office. The promotional activities of the company will have 2 phases where one phase will be focused on the shops and the other phase will be focused on the end users. The public media advertising will have more focus on the general public and end users. But the advertisements done for the end users may have considerable influence on the decision making of the shop owners as well; hence the message received from the media will create a stereo typing on the shop owners mind. The company will carry out personal marketing to the shop owners with the support of the technical sales team and the account manager. Also the senior managers will be getting involved in negotiating the wholesales pricing and the profit margins with the shop owners. International movement of the company is pretty competitive. As the company is still focusing on establishing the brand in Sri Lanka they should do a feasibility study on the competitiveness and profit advantage of entering a new international market. Participating in Trade fairs will help the company to meet the end users in the selected area and identify the real needs and demands of the end users than they learning from an intermediary. Also they can learn about the influences of the other brand in the customer decision making process. Conclusions In summary Elec should develop a sales plan focused on account management concept and differentiate the account based on the profitability and turnover. The high profitable accounts will be managed by the key account managers and the other accounts should be managed by the customer account managers. The company may have to invest more on developing a professional account management team. Further the company has to invest in recruiting the best candidates and training them. The marketing mix of the company should be restructured to match the organizational overall expectation and the company can have products distribution strategies to match the regional demands. Also the whole sale pricing should be negotiated with the key customers and the senior managements involvement is much appreciated on this. Also the company moving international is not recommendable at this point of time hence the company is in need of more cash to stabilize themselves in the local market.

The Manovo-Gounda St. Floris National Park

? The Manovo-Gounda St. Floris National Park Most people have never heard of Manovo-Gounda St. Floris National Park, or even know where this particular park is located at. For those who do not know, Manovo-Gounda St. Floris National Park is located in Central Africa Republic, which is located in Central Africa. Central Africa Republic is about the size of France. The climate there is very tropical and can also be semi-humid, which means that the country has an annual rainfall from 950 to 1700mm. Rainfall normally occur during the months of June and last till November. From December to May, the climate is normally hot and dry. The country is also very rich in natural resources. Manovo-Gounda St. Foris National Park was established in 1933 and was name Oubangui-Chari National Park and was located on 13,500ha. The park was renamed Matoumara National Park in 1935. In 1940 the name changed again, this time to St. Floris National Park. The amount of land that the park operated on had increased to 40,000ha. By 1960 the park had tremendously grown and was currently operating on 100,00ha and in 1974 it was operating on 277,000ha. In 1979 the name change once again, but this time it changed to the name that the park is currently operating under which is Manovo-Gounda St. Floris National Park. Currently the area of the park is 1,740,000ha or 4. 2 million acres. Manovo-Gounda St. Floris National Park is home to a variety of faunas and floras. The wildlife animals include animals like the black rhinoceroses, giraffes, cheetahs, leopards, wild dogs, buffalos, elephants, etc. There are at least 57 different types of mammals, over 320 different types of birds, and at least 25 species of raptor all residing within the park. At one time this park was considered on of the most protected park in Central Africa. In 1988, the park was added to the Natural World Heritage Site, because of the diversity of wildlife that existed within the park. In 1997, things had drastically change, and the park was added to the World Heritage in Danger List in 1997, due to the heavy poaching that was going on within the park. This meant that the parkhad to have some of the most important and significant natural habitats of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species which this park had. It had a diversity of wildlife and flora, and a lot of it animals were already on the endanger list. There are other elements that the committee have to look at before deciding if an area, whether natural or cultural is entitle to be listed this list (Protected Area Programme, n. d. ). Some might not know what poaching in, and why it is important to finds ways to put an end to this dangerously practice that is destroying our wildlife. According to Ask. com (n. d), poaching is define as illegally hunting and fishing, and a poacher is define as a person who hunts and fish illegally, without a license. Poacher have no regards to any animals life, especially the ones on the endanger list. One of biggest threat to the Manovo-Gounda St. Floris National Parks comes from Poachers. Most of the poachers come from within Central Africa Republic, but they can also come from other countries and can be heavily armed with automatic weapons. These poachers have killed off at least 80% of this park’s wildlife. Let look at the black rhinoceros. Man is the main threat to these animals, but not for their meat, but for the price a person can receive from their horns. The reason these animals are killed at an alarming rate is because people in China believes that the horns or these animals can help reduced a fever. A black rhino is worth at least $200,000 dead (Black Rhino, n. d. ). Even though these animals are currently on the endanger list, poachers have no respect or any regards for the law. Right now there are only a few black rhino remaining in Manovo-Gounde St. Floris. The elephants population have also decline in this park by 75%, and this is also due to the poachers. As anyone can see, poaching needs to be stop and it up the people to do so. Not just the people of this country, but this issue need to be address so everyone from across the world is aware of what is going on. There need to be human intervention, because if this continue to go on, there will be no more Manovo-Gounda St. Floris National Park. The future of this park depends on everyone. Grazing is another issue. According to Ask. com (n. d. ), grazing is defined as to feed on growing grasses and field. Grazing is illegal and most of grazing that goes on with the park is done during the dry season, where there are a large numbers of cattle moving across the grassland going through the park. When grazing happens, it can destroy the grassland that is intend for the wildlife, and it can also cause the spread of disease from the cattle to the wildlife. Manovo-Gounda-St. Floris National Park, Central African Republic (March 2002), states that in 1997, four staff members were shot, causing the tourism in this park to come to a complete halt. Currently the park only has one manager and one assistant manager along with five guards. In order to keep the Park going, major changes need to be made. Since tourism was a great way for the park to pay for itself there need to be great consideration into making the area and park safe again for tourist. In 1988 there was a $27 million grant made to aid in the controlling of poaching and gazing that is going on within this park. How this money was use in to aid in the poaching and grazing situation is not know. The term biodiversity refers to genes, species (plants and animals), ecosystems, and landscapes, and the ecological and evolutionary processes that allow these elements of biodiversity to persist over time. Manovo-Gounda St. Floris National Park was one of the largest parks in Central Africa, and was home to some of the diversity wildlife in the world. At one time, tourism was a source of maintaining the up keep of the park, but all of this was threaten by poachers and the grazing of the land. Humans have become this park worst enemy. Man has fail to realize that these animals or vital to our existence just like insects and plants are. There is a lot that need to be done in order to maintain the diversity of the Manovo-Gounda St. Floris National Park. Where do we start? We have to start with education. In order for the poachers to stop killing off the diversity of the wildlife, they need to be educated on why the park exist, and what the benefit of the park is to the animals and the citizens of this country. They need to be taught what the consequence is if they continue to destroy all of the wildlife or if these animals seize to exist anymore. Education is the just the beginning, but first the people who are doing the poaching need to be educated in the harm this is doing. The residents of Central Africa Republic also need to be educated and need to know the value of this park. They need to know that once this park becomes safe again and tourism is resumed, then they all will be able to benefit from it. Tourism will bring money to their country, and might even bring new business into the country. New businesses, mean creating jobs. In order to do this, money need to be raised. Once the money is raise, some might wonder what and where the money is going. The money will go towards advertising, education, training, security, the up keep of the park. Action need to be taken today, because tomorrow is too late. The future of this park depends on us, the people. The survival of these animals depends on us. The destruction of wildlife is not just happening in the Manovo-Gounda St. Floris National Park. The poaching of wildlife is happening throughout Africa. In order for children our children to have a chance of seeing elephants, giraffes, rhinoceros, wild dogs, cheetahs, money, and other exotic animals up close, then we need to save this park. Let put the awareness out to the citizens of this country and to other countries as well. The majority of this park wildlife has already been destroyed, what we are waiting on the remaining 15-20% that is left. Let come up with a plan to end the poaching and grazing of this park, we can do it. References Ask. com. (n. d. ). Retrieved September 18, 2007, from http://www. ask. com/reference/dictionary/ahdict/103817/poaching Black Rhino. (n. d. ). Retrieved September 18, 2007, from http://www. botany. uwc. ac. za/Envfacts/Black_Rhino/index. htm Protected Areas Programme. (n. d. ). Retrieved August 26, 2007, from http://www2. wcmc. org. uk/protected_areas/data/wh/manovo. html United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre. (n. d). Manovo-gounda st. franis national park, central africa republic. Retrieved August 26, 2007, from http://www. unep-wcmc. org/sites/wh/manovo. html

Nike Brand equity Essay

Nike Corporation was incorporated in 1968. In their thirty-four year history, Nike has primarily been in the business of designing, developing, and marketing athletic footwear, attire, equipment and accessories, Ð ° lot of companies go out on a limb when it comes to business decision or management strategies with Nike Corporation. Nike is Ð ° powerful company. Nike Corporation is a well managed company in Ð ° striking industry, the company has a strong brand image, and they are effectively capturing the value shaped from their savings. Modern superior ways to make products are significant in today’s Apparel companies, both to be efficient and to be able to make hi-tech products. Nike is dependent upon high technology in their effort to stay ahead of their competitors and create products. These technologies are found within computers, used to create, design and develop the products and machines that actually make the shoes. Besides these main areas of technology such a large corporation also uses a lot of diverse technology such as accepting programs on computers, intranet within the headquarters and not to forget Web page technology for their web page. They have Ð ° extremely developed Web site used for marketing and sales purposes. (Carty 2001 34-47)Nike primarily competes in the footwear industry, a subset of the consumer cyclical sector. The major competitors of Nike are Reebok and Adidas, but any company that sells athletic and leisure footwear, apparel, or sports equipment could be considered Ð ° contestant too. Competition within the footwear industry can be very strong and change quickly due to rapidly changing customer preferences and technology. With an active industry such as Nike, it can be challenging to sustain a competitive advantage. Nike positioned itself in an industry where are virtually no substitute products. Runners, walkers, basketball players, football players, and virtually every person that moves by foot needs footwear. Since people are beginning to become more concerned with their health, active lifestyles are becoming more common. Strong rivalry still exists between Nike, Adidas and Reebok, but the competitive environment does not present a threat to the industry’s feasibility. Within the value chain in the footwear industry, there are only certain areas where profits can be extracted. Nike is keenly aware that this fact, therefore contract out portions of the business that  they do not want to be as intimately involved. According to Bigelow (1997) Nike took on the new trend aggressively and imposed a management strategy that targeted on building its brand name, differentiation of its product, intense marketing and creating new markets and exploiting its potential. (Miller 2002 311-31)Market positionNike is an industry leader in developing innovative new products. One of the powers of Nike Corporation is its brand name recognition, because Nike has been around so long, the brand is Ð ° recognized and respected both internationally and locally. Nike has effectively marketed their products and in addition understands the importance of Ð ° quality product. They are continually improving their shoes through new technologies that are developed by their research teams. Nike’s important sustainable competitive advantage is their intangible assets, such as brand image and organizational culture. Everybody knows that Nike Corporation is Ð ° competitive company. Strength of Nike is their brand loyalty, Nike has consistently produced quality products that appeal to its consumers, and Nike carries a wide arrangement of products with Ð ° large amount of options for personal preference. Strong international presence is an advantage for Nike Corporation, in the U.S sales continue to slack off or the economy continues to worsen, they have their international investment that consistently turns into a profit. Nike is the number one footwear manufacturer in terms of international rivalry in the market; with the distribution centres. Research and growth organization of Nike is one of the company strength, which has the ability to keep the company’s pipeline full in pioneering new products. The companies also have manufacturing contracts with manufacturers in countries that do not have as many requirements for conditions of work environment and others that increase costs. Also because of the process is labour concentrated, the manufacturing tak es place where labour is cheap. Nike is trying to increase their international presence. On-line store is an important factor in the presence of Nike Corporation; the company believes it is vital to run on-line operation. (Peters 2005 3-6)Nike despite popular belief the very good thing about them is that the company is aware of their social responsibility, and donated million of cash and products to different charitable organizations. In addition to their contributions they have also  developed Ð ° labour practices department, which pays close attention to Ð ° labour practice of third world countries in which it produces. Even though they are charitable organization they have not forgotten to be environmentally aware, with the introduction of Ð ° environmental concern showing consumers that they have a heart. Because of the Nike growth they are an advantageous position in the market. This can also be attributed to their market share leadership, wide product selection, and stronger name recognition. (Peters 2005 3-6)Brand loyaltyBrand faithfulness is the major succes s of any company and Nike has managed faithfulness with the customers now for Ð ° long. There are some factors which played important role for Nike brand loyalty are:The Social Factors -The age structure of population affects the lifestyle of sports. There would be higher chances of Ð ° purchasing trainer shoes in the market, if the age groups were younger. The catchments area of class and income-structure as trainers are relatively expensive to purchase. Sports have become a widespread interest for the pursuit of physical health development. It is why Ð ° mass market for training shoes products to serve the new-found past-time after World War One. It has become Ð ° global consumer product even they were perceived as a youth fashion item worn by film stars and famous athletics. The low wage labour is also a social issue in Vietnam. The Technological Factors – This forms the physical environment as Ð ° availability of equipments affects the business organization. Their products and technologies must be up-to-date in order to research new innovative marketing s trategy. The design of Ð ° training shoe is acknowledge being crucial to its commercial success. The shoe’s style and technology are most likely to influence purchasers. For example, Nike’s 1977 introduction of its Air sole, which contained pockets of pressurized inert gas, established an industry benchmark. They have â€Å"Design to Fit soles† for Ð ° every individual foot. They make money with digital technology taking advantage of new technologies and their potential to cut costs (Moore’s Law). (Carr 1998 10)Economic Factors – Analyzing their pricing strategy for Ð ° lower class population, the number of potential manufacturing countries and cost of labour, purchasing quantities, information about customer demand, competitors, competitor strategies, shopping patterns and the economic environment has help Nike to analyze today’s world. The training shoe manufacturing has shifted their financial investment from South Korea  and Taiwan, now considered to be higher-cost production locations, to lower-cost ones such as Indonesia, Thail and and China. The trend has been for trainer companies to continue to use the same Korean and Taiwanese manufacturers, who have set up and manage production plants in the new geographic locations. They are also able to profit from beneficial trade and tariff agreements, wherever they exist. (Bigelow 2006 87-90) Political Factors – Such as capitalism and democracy of the state influence their organization. For example, the labour in third world countries causes Ð ° criticism against Nike. But since they have been exposed, Nike has been trying to fix this horrible problem they created. They have been sending people to upgrade the standards and have had routine checks on their plants all over the globe for Ð ° crack down on child labour. A short time ago, the CEO of Nike, Phil Knight, was quoted as saying, â€Å"Nike has zero tolerance for under-age labour.† So, it is good to know they are at least trying to clean up the mess they have made. Recently, Nike has been making an attempt to help the environment. They have done many things like building an environmentally safe factory in Europe and used their own sustainable manufacturing system. This system â€Å"strives to use Ð ° minimum amount of resources, at 100% efficiency with zero waste.† Also Nike created the Air to Earth Program. It is Ð ° program that is designed to make learning about the environment safe and entertaining for children. They have also taken into considerations of the regulations and legislation for future likely developments. The inter-relations and interdependency activities of the environment affected the Nike organizations. Their business affects the economic, technology, political and social factors (STEP) which these four factors affect their businesses as well. For Nike to make Ð ° profit, they must maintain high margins whilst expanding sales. These can only be done with a more selective distribution system that maintains margin. (Carr 1998 10)Brand awarenessBuyers in the athletic footwear industry enjoy a great deal of power. Consumers have shown again and again that they will simply wait until prices reach Ð ° level they feel is reasonable before making a purchase. Nearly 40% of all shoe purchases are made through discount stores. Also, consumers are able to make informed decisions about a purchase through utilization of Internet websites. The bargaining power of retailers is also Ð ° problem for footwear manufacturers. In recent years, retailers have begun  to hold fewer inventories, forcing manufacturers to pay for increased inventory levels on their end. Manufacturers must also make sure that retailers are selling the product in accordance with the desired image of the shoe. Nike has recently experienced a disagreement with their largest retailer Foot Locker due to pricing disagreements. As Ð ° result, Foot Locker significantly reduced its high end purchases from Nike and Nike decided to shift their high end product sales elsewhere. (Mokhiber, Weissman, 1997, 9)Brand associationWhilst looking at the different trends and styles of present day athletic footwear, we can further our research within the product and look at the different customer groups that our three companies focus their attention towards. We are primarily looking at the three different companies and the rules of style that may apply to a specific customer group for this product. In some cases, the customer group that they are focusing on may greatly impact the demand for the product because of different influences whether it is there income level, influence of childhood, or even there changing preference of Ð ° specific product. Footwear is classified within many different categories, which makes the research of specific athletic footwear more difficult. For example, we are focusing on the companies of Nike, Adidas, and Reebok, and all of these companies make numerous styles of shoe lines. They range from golf cleats to soccer cleats to cross-country shoes. So when trying to determine the main customer groups, each line of shoes is basically broken down within the group that the specific product is directed towards. So when looking at the different types of customer groups within the athletic footwear industry, some of the key customer demographic trend are broken up into different generations of tastes in style. (Teremenko 2003 207-249) The industry of footwear can be broken up into three main customer groups, which are the Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y. These customer groups do not have much in common except for their love of shoes and the different tastes in the new fashion trends of footwear. These three generations are broken down as follows: Baby Boomers are from ages 35-53, Generation Y are consumers from 4-21, and Generation X is consumers from 22-32. As we develop ideas about the main customer groups within the footwear industry we can conclude that the Baby Boomers account for 31% of the population, which is equal to about 81 million consumers. Generation Y is the second largest group that accounts  for 28% of the population which represents about 75 million consumers. The smallest customer group is Generation X, they comprise about 17% of the population, which equals about 46 million consumers. collected information from many consumer surveys rates Nike high among the consumers of Generati on Y and X. Nike has become more appealing among younger consumers and has shifted away from the Generation of the Baby Boomers. (Teremenko 2003 207-249)Proprietary assetsIn fiscal 2005, NIKE met their financial goals. The revenues grew 12% to 13.7Billion, net income grew 28% to 1.2 billion and NIKE delivered diluted earnings per share of $4.48, Ð ° 28% increase versus fiscal 2004. The gross margin percentage increase 44.5%. The return on invested capital has improved and free cash flow from operations has increased. They continue to return cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. Cash provided by operations was $1.6 billion in 2005 compared to $1.5 billion in 2004. There has been an improvement in cash management of accounts receivables and timing of inventory receipts and vendor payments. (Teremenko 2003 207-249)Perceptions of qualityOpportunities include that Nike is not Ð ° fashion brand; their main selling point is the quality of their manufacturing. However true this is, people–particularly youth–are greatly concerned with fashion. Whilst the sneakers are made well, and help you run faster, jump higher, and so on, they have to look good. This is an importa nt opportunity since styles will change faster than the sneakers will wear out, hence forcing consumers to purchase more sneakers. Also, since Nike is as far into the apparel industry as its footwear market competitors, it has great opportunity to expand on this into accessories (ex: sunglasses). The road is open as to where Nike can bring their apparel ideas. Lastly, since Nike is a global company, there are many areas they can expand into. China is a newer market for them and there is opportunity to establish the same brand recognition there, and in similar countries, as they have in the U.S. overall Nike remain itself high in quality compare to Reebok and other competitors. And it seems to be continued in future after seeing the fresh and strong marketing approaches by Nike. Nike has loyal customer market with brand aware customers, which will drive Nike on a successful future. (Anonymous 2006, 30-31)ThreatsCompetition is always a threat to a competitive company both domestically and internationally. The rivalry is very fierce with many  companies competing for sales. Lots of money is spent on marketing and promotions through diverse channels in order to converse to the young demographic group of consumers who spend the most money on their products. Development has also slowed in the athletic footwear industry, however new markets are emerging with high growth rates. Nike currently dominates the market, but Nike competitors pose a potential risk to the company’s reputation If Nike cannot stay one step ahead of their competitors in terms of product design and customer satisfaction the corporation could flounder. Another threat is the maturing market in athletic shoes. There is also rising adverse demographic change in the marketplace relating to brand image and promotions that Nike is unable to overcome. (Egan 1999 66-70)ConclusionMarketing on-line or E-commerce is really an opportunity for every company, if of course they will do it correctly. Consumers are using the Internet more and more to purchase their goods and service. In stipulations of the Nike Corporation’s Information Technology safety, the company or let’s say in any business organization, their IT is always at risks for the reason that some bad element had their own bad elements and are always trying to get some very sensitive and important information to suit their best interests. The company should invest for the company’s safety measures in terms of their information technology. Several company not only the Nike Corporation should be give an attention to these issues. The problem might be very costly for it needs some money to develop its security, but the results of it would be very promising and indeed very helpful. On the other hand, their marketing mix, mission statements as the company’s marketing strategies are extremely important because this will propel the company because customers would be informed that Nike is serious in making innovations not only on their products, but also on their service. This will create a good impression not only on the customers or consumers, but also on the sports apparel market. This will result to a successful marketing strategy employed by Nike. (Enderle et all 2000, 11-19) References Anonymous, â€Å"Adidas stands its ground on Salomon merges: 2006, Corporate Finance, 30-31. Bigelow, B. The human lives behind the labels: 2006, the global sweatshop, Nike, and the race to the bottom. Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. 92, 87-90. Carr, Robert. SGB: Sporting Goods Business: 1998, Vol. 31 Issue 8, p10, 1/2p. Carty, Victoria. â€Å"The Internet and Grassroots Politics: 2001, Nike, the Athletic Apparel Industry and the Anti-sweatshop Campaign†, George Mason University pp. 34-47Dworkin, A. â€Å"Nike prepares to step into e-commerce with acquisition of online firm: 1999, The OregonianEgan, T. â€Å"The swoon of the swoosh: 1999, New York Times Magazine. pp. 66-70Enderle, Kim, Dan Hirsch, Lisa Micka, Brian Saving, Sheetal Shah, and Tatiana Szerwinski (2000). Strategic Analysis of Nike, Inc. ISS 395, De Paul University. Chicago Illinois, 11-19. Miller, K. â€Å"A Framework for Integrated Risk Management in International Business†: 2002, Journal of International Business Studies, 23(2), 311-331Mokhiber, Russell; Weissman, Robert. Multinational Monitor: 1997, Vol. 18 Issue 12, p9, 10p, 5bw. Peters, J. â€Å"Business policy in action: 2005, Management Decision, p. 3Teremenko, Victoria Dizik. DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal: Fall2003, Vol. 2 Issue 1, p207-249, 43p.

Operations Management Essay - 1405 Words

Kudler Fine Foods is a local upscale specialty shop in the San Diego metropolitan area. Kudler provides gourmet foods, beverages and products designed for the gourmet cook at its three stores located in La Jolla, Del Mar and Encinitas and at reasonable price. The stores are stocked with the very best domestic and imported food available and are divided into the following departments: fresh bakery and pastries, fresh produce, fresh meat and seafood, condiments and packaged foods and cheese and specialty dairy products. As part of Kudler’s growth strategy to expand its customer base and improve its competitive position, the company has decided to contract with local organic farmers to provide fresh organic produce in its stores. This paper†¦show more content†¦These regulations exist to assure consumers that the organic foods they purchase are produced, processed, and certified to be consistent with organic standards. This is communicated to consumers through labeling w hich department managers and store managers have to include in their current process. Inventory management would continue to keep the levels of excess inventory to a minimum but would have to ensure the integrity of the organic produce they sell and maintain the current high levels of customer service. The delivery process, trucks and timeframes will have to be adapted to the special requirements for the handling of organic produce. Kathy handles advertising in coordination with her store managers. When advertising organic produce, Kathy and her store managers will need to make sure that the organic products are labeled properly according to the NOP regulations in the stores as well as in the advertising. Additionally, Kudler’s legal department needs to be well versed on the NOP regulations to ensure that Kudler adheres to the requirements to avoid non-compliance. 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