Strategic Solutions for Walmart Assignment

Marketing Management Assignment Sample

Introduction:

Walmart is a retail corporation of America which deals in multinational market. Sam Walton was the founder of Walmart and the company was founded in 1962. The company deals in a supermarket in which all consumable goods such as furniture, clothing, grocery, health and beauty, etc. The company currently working with 2.2 million associations across the world. The mission of Walmart is to provide all essential for improving life with money savings. The report aims to propose an efficient strategy to mitigate the challenges facing Walmart. In the context of organisational purpose, the negative impacts are emerging on the communities due to Walmart such as lower wages to the Employees and lack of money in the community leading the worst impact on communities and reputation of Walmart. The losses of the organisation are highly relevant to the low wages of employees at Walmart. 

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As the purpose of Walmart is to provide efficient product availability to improve the life of people by saving money is related with the business challenges as an organisation is not meeting the requirement of employees in relation with 'live better'. The company is facing issues of low wages in which directly impacting the performance of employees at the workplace and also leading the inadequate healthcare from the organisation. The low wages challenges diminishing the retention rate of Walmart as about 70% of Walmart employees leave in their first year of the job. The strategic marketing plan will be developed based on marketing planning model 'SOSTAC'. The proposed strategy will be based on marketing opportunities and set smarter objectives.

Environmental analysis:

MACRO trend environmental analysis:

PESTLE analysis of Walmart-

PESTEL analysis is a significant tool to analyse the trends of the macro-environment by which the identification of external forces such as political and technological factors influences the performance and profitability of the organisation. Following is the festival analysis of Walmart to identify the external forces which influence its business operations-

Political factors: The political factors include the governmental policies which directly influence the business operation and supplies of an organisation such as the China government prohibited them sell off all products temporary due to dealing in prohibited products at China (Fam, et. al., 2017). Walmart required to operate in foreign markets by protecting the supply chain efficiently and logistic operations away from interruptions of political risks.

Economic factors:The economy of the world and international market in which the Walmart deals are in stable and it influences the price range of product make the organisation increase the prices of product which dissatisfied the customers. Walmart requires to be aware of the landscape and location of each international market to manage the higher interest and tax rates and influence potential revenue.

Social factors:Walmart facing issues of positioning organisation among global audience due to lack of interest and global recognition in the context of socio-culture factors. Walmart is required to efficiently determine the supply of particular product among customer to lead the successful global brand. Walmart can achieve brand recognition by providing organic food among different demography to satisfy diverse consumers.

Technological factors:The technological factors such as a digital transformation, automation in business operations and utilisation of robotics influence the order fulfilment and streamlining the production of Walmart (Walsh, et. al., 2019). Walmart can utilise technological development positively for improving order fulfilment and keeping the shops and stores clean. The adoption of digital transformation will create efficiency in the business process of Walmart.

Legal factors:The legal factors such as labour laws, data protection laws and safety laws at the workplace influences the Walmart and leads $65 million loss to the company. For dealing with the legal issues Walmart is required to provide appropriate accommodation and compensation to employees for improving their retention and meeting the legal requirements.

Environmental factors: The environmental laws influences the performance and business operations of Walmart as the company recently backlash for dumping the hazardous fertilizers and pesticides is improperly in the sewage pipes (Rastogi, et. al., 2016). Walmart should initiate the Gigaton project as an eco-friendly promise to improve the responsibility towards the environment and enhancing the brand value with environmental responsibilities.         

MICRO trend environment analysis:

2.2.1.  Industry (Five forces) analysis of Walmart:

The porter’s five force model is utilized in strategic marketing planning for analysing the competition of organization in diverse impacts. The Walmart is a well-established organization and it faces tough competition in the business market to develop strategies for building the strength of company such as- 

The threat of new entrants: The power of the new entrance is a strong force and significant threat for Walmart because the competition of supermarket is continuously growing. The company is required to improve the quality of products and services to manage the negative influence of new entrants in the market.

The threat of substitutes:The threat of substitution of products and services is a weak force on the performance and profitability of Walmart because establishing the substitute products and services at the same level of Walmart is difficult for other brands (Rahman, 2019).

Bargaining power of suppliers:The power of suppliers to bargain and negotiate with the Walmart is a weak force because the Walmart has strong base off suppliers and significant supplier chain and Walmart has domination on the suppliers due to long term contracts.

Bargaining power of customers:The power of bargaining of customers is a weak force for Walmart because the company provides highly efficient product and services including a wide range of commodities in suitable prices due to which is the customers cannot bargain and negotiate.

Industrial competition:Industrial rivalry is a strong force because there is strong competition in the target market of Walmart. Company deals in National and international market due to which the competition is stuff for Walmart which requires significant strategies.

Customer (segmentation) analysis of Walmart:

Geographic segment:The segmentation criteria of Walmart for geographic segmentation is based on region and density in which the domestic and international markets and the urban and rural areas are the target segment respectively. The geographic segment is the advantage for Walmart because it covered the deep region and density of the target segment. Because it improves the consumer base and reaches of Walmart. 

Demographic segmentation:The demographic segmentation of customers is divided into three categories i.e. age, gender and life cycle stage in which by an individual of all ages and males and females as well as all type of life cycle stages are targeted by the company as a customer segment to serve the quality services and products across the world (BerishaQehaja, et. al., 2017). The income and occupation-based segmentation are low to medium income and all type of occupations.

Behavioural segmentation:The target customer segmentation is the wires with the high degree of loyalty and the individuals who are looking for cost benefits including non-users, potential uses, first time users, excuses and regular users of Walmart.

Psychographic segmentation: The psychographic segmentation include the lower classes and middle working classes social class segmentation and resigned, streamers and strugglers are the lifestyle segmentation of Walmart to provide the services for customers.

Summary:

From dance external environmental analysis of Walmart, it is summarising that there are opportunities are available for Walmart to improve its performance in the context of macro environment for enhancing the brand recognition and customer interest by significantly operating with the loss and policies of different environmental factors (Varelas, et. al., 2017). Walmart has the opportunity to improve the consumer base and supplies of product because the power of suppliers and customers to bargain is weak and it is an advantage for the business extension and development of Walmart. The strong and intense knowledge and target of customer segment is an advantage of Walmart to improve its business and recitation by mitigating the impacts of threats.

However, there are many threats are identified from the external environment analysis such as dam significance political and environmental laws which are required to be accomplished by the organisation to perform legally in the international markets.

Internal environment capability analysis:

McKinsey’s 7S framework:

Strategy:The Walmart utilizes cost leadership business strategy to accomplish the brand promise which is providing lower prices every day for a better life (Nakano, et. al., 2018). The company is focusing on sustaining the cost leadership strategy by improving the economics of scale and promoting bargaining power by assortments prices and access. However, the company is criticized due to providing lower bases among employees.

Structure:The traditional organisational structure of Walmart has been hierarchical because the large size of Business and scope as it comprises 11,000 stores in about 27 countries and service about 260 million customers every week. The company also announces that for improving them bureaucracy and customer service the layer of management will be eliminated. 

System:the system of Walmart is it developed with a wide range of different level and facilities to improve the complexities in the business operations of Walmart. The business system of Walmart comprises a selection of employees with the recruitment process, performing information technology, providing performance recognition and appraisals as well as the financial system.

Style:The business style of Walmart is comprised of the engagement of a retail business with wholesale business. The company provide assortments of different type of merchandise in the retail and wholesale process and the other accommodations and services with lower prices (Dullaghan, et. al., 2017). The Walmart perform business in different segment style which includes the US, Sam's club and Walmart international.

Staff:Walmart performs HR planning in which the job analysis and job designing are performed to match business requirement. The staff management of Walmart includes the employee training, performance appraisal and developing individual for organisational purpose. the company utilizes a forecasting system to identify the future changes among workforce and HR demands but it faces a low retention rate of employees due to poor villages and payroll system. 

Skills:The organisational skills of Walmart include performance management which includes the improvement in effectiveness and efficiency of business procedures (Awino, et. al., 2017). The organisational skills also include improving quality in customer services and productivity of each sales personnel and timeliness of the activities of the supply chain.

Shared values: The shared values of Walmart include the maximizing interest of customer's society and the business by providing highly improved services and high-quality products. The goals of Walmart in relation with shared values include being consistent to achieve the organisational vision by continuing the process of evolving and accomplishment of global responsibilities (Clarke, 2019).

2.3.2. Barney’s VRIN Framework

Walmart’s global operation management and supply chain management are strategic resources in its value chain to stay in the competition and sustain its position (Dullaghanand Rozaki, 2017). These advantages are determined using the VRIN analysis. The company's value chain is assessed in regards to the core competencies. These are presented below:-

Walmart’s Capabilities and Resources	V	R	I	N
Non-core Competencies
Ease of Access to Human Resource	ü
Diverse services and product offerings	ü
Private level brands	ü	ü
Highly effective delivery and supplier network	ü	ü
Sustained Competitive Advantage
Highly Efficient Inventory Management System	ü	ü	ü	ü
Strong Brand Value	ü	ü	ü	ü
Strong Bargaining Power as a key Buyer for Supplier	ü	ü	ü	ü
Huge global supply chain	ü	ü	ü	ü
E-commerce Operations & Access to Consumer Data	ü	ü	ü	ü
Data mining and analytics capabilities	ü	ü	ü	ü

3.Proposed Strategy

3.1.SWOT Analysis

Strengths ·         Global Organisational size ·         The unmatched scale of operations and value chain ·         Efficient use of organisational resources ·         International supply chain ·         Unmatched data mining and analysis (Fam et al., 2017) ·         High efficiency of the supply chain	Weaknesses ·         Poor human resource management (Varelasand Georgopoulos, 2017) ·         Easily copied services and product offerings ·         Thin profit margin ·         The business model can be imitated easily ·         Incompetent against high-end speciality sellers (Varelasand Georgopoulos, 2017)
Opportunities ·         Expansion in Developing markets in South African and Asian countries ·         Forming international alliances ·         Improving human resource management practices (Dullaghanand Rozaki, 2017). ·         Improvising quality standards	Threats ·         Errors in orders and technical glitches in order management and Inventory management systems (Rastogi and Trivedi, 2016) ·         Increasing local e-commerce companies in the market ·         Political and legal issues affecting operations across borders ·         Pandemic situations like COVID-19 affecting both local and international operations.

3.2.SMART Marketing Objective

According to Rastogi and Trivedi (2016), companies operating in the developed countries or saturated marketplace can gain overnight growth and earn huge revenues in the developing countries, especially in Asian countries, Latin America, and the Middle East countries. These countries offer high growth conditions to Walmart and it can also form a strategic alliance with local companies operating in both offline and online mode of operations. This can also help the company in lowering down its operating costs and improving the quality of products and services. The SMART marketing objectives of the company regarding entry in the developing countries are:-

• To increase sales of Walmart by 4% in the next 12 months
• To add 1 million new customers from the new market in the next 12 months
• To increase net profits by 1.5% in the next 12 months

3.3.Proposed Marketing Mix

The company needs to employ an effective marketing mix to succeed in the new international market of Asian countries. For that purpose, the 4P's of marketing mix of Walmart are explained below:-

• Product

The company offers a wide range of products in the market that matches the demands of customers. These include hardware, groceries, wellness, electronics, etc. The company makes use of innovating approaches to improve customer experience. Also, it can make use of its strong relationships with suppliers and distributors to improve service quality in different regions of the target market (Rastogi and Trivedi, 2016).

• Price

The price of Walmart products can decide the long-term success of the organisation in the new market. The company buys products from manufacturers and suppliers in large quantities to achieve economies of scale. Apart from this, Walmart’s label products can also suit the budget of target customers. In addition to this, the company’s outstanding procurement strategies provide it with an advantage to bargain prices with suppliers (Nakano& Kondo, 2018).

• Promotion

In the initial period, the company needs to run ads and promotional content frequently for creating brand awareness in the new market. Furthermore, it needs to promote its offers, prices, services, and everyday offer to target new customers and persuade them to visit either online or offline stores of the company. Also, it needs to make use of social media and newspaper promotions to provide updated information to customers about service offerings.

• Place

Being an international brand, it is successfully operating through online and offline stores in other countries. Therefore, in the new market as well, it can be able to operate using these modes of sales. Customers in the Asian market are becoming tech-savvy. In fact, with the help of a well-structured network of distributors, operating online is easier for the company (Rastogi and Trivedi, 2016).

3.4.Key Milestones

Particular	Resources Required	Duration
Define the Market	R&D, the Marketing team	2 Weeks
Market Study& Analysis	Marketing and Sales team	3 Weeks
Assess Internal Resources and Capabilities	HR Department, Operation management, inventory management	1 Week
Prioritise and Select Market	Board of directors and Marketing Head	1 Week
Develop Market Entry Options	Board of directors and marketing team	2 Weeks
Marketing Strategy formulation	Marketing team, R&D,	1 Week
Marketing Operations	Marketing and Sales team, the R&D team	4 Weeks
Customer Experience Analysis	R&D team and Surveying team, the marketing team	2 Weeks

3.5.Key Risks and Mitigation Strategies

There are certain categories of market risks that are required to be considered by Walmart while entering in the new market. These are briefed here along with mitigation strategies:-

Concentration Risks:These risks arise when a company operates or concentrates in a particular sector and Walmart is the pure FMCG Company. However, to mitigate this type of risks, it is advised to the company to diversify its product portfolio.

Geo-Political Risks:these risks require deep market study and better analysis. Hence, these are required to be studied well with research data before entering the market and make a suitable adjustment in the risks.

Liquidity Risks:Company can avoid liquidity risks in the new market by keeping its focus on the low-impact cost stocks.

Volatility Risk:the company needs to manage its volatility by taking a systematic and long-term approach. It needs to study the market and strategically invest in the new market.

3.6.Key Performance Indicators

From the analysis, it can be seen that there have to be some KPIs for the company associated with the new opportunity:-

Number of Online Orders Placed

As the company operates through an online platform as well, the number of online orders placed in a particular period can be used as a KPI.

ROMI (Return on Marketing Investment)

It is measured by measuring the sales in a particular period and the investment is done on marketing. It can help in providing the idea related to sales and success of the marketing campaign

Order Defect rate

While operating in the new market with new suppliers, the standards are very important to match. The Order Defect Rate is the measure of defects or errors in the product or delivery process. This would affect the sales of the company. It has to be lower than 2% (Nakano& Kondo, 2018).

Conclusion

In the following report, the marketing plan of Walmart Inc. was developedusing the business environmental analysis to identify the external opportunities and threats and the internal strength and weakness of the organisation. It was determined that Walmart has to address the different issues which have been identified from the external environment analysis to improve brand recognition and customer satisfaction. From the internal analysis, it was analysed that the company provides poor salaries to employees that leads poor employee retention and it is a major challenge for Walmart. Proposed strategy based on planning model should be efficiently utilised and perform by Walmart to achieve the desired results from the implementation of the developed marketing plan. 

References

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Clarke, C.P., 2019. Using the McKinsey 7S Framework to Assess Al-Qaeda Over Three Decades: Lessons for the Future.

Dullaghan, C. and Rozaki, E., 2017. Integration of machine learning techniques to evaluate dynamic customer segmentation analysis for mobile customers. arXiv preprint arXiv:1702.02215.

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