Black & Decker: The Case Of Black And Decker

Black & Decker, a US-based company established in 1917, was the first to have the “portable power drill” patented. They are also an established company offering many products in the household category including hand-held vacuums, irons, mixers, coffee makers and so on. While they succeed in becoming the lead in the consumer segment, they fail to display the same success with regards to their tradesmen segment, which what the case discusses. The case mainly scrutinizes the reasons on why Black & Decker has much lower market share in the Professional-tradesmen category- despite its success in both the Consumer tools area and the Professional- Industrial category- whereas its main competition, Makita, dominates the category.

Makita’s dominance in regards to their sales, despite owning equal shelf spaces with B&D, is mainly dependent on the way they appeal to the consumers in the category. For instance, they target tradesmen specifically and they have monopoly in membership club. Additionally, they provide a good baseline option in all major categories.

Although it might be expected for the two Professional categories- Industrial and Tradesmen- to have similar shares, they differ to large extent with regards to the different purchasing habits of the end users, a.k.a. the consumers, of these tools. While the buyers of professional industrial tools are corporations who buy for their employees to use in their production stage, those who buy the professional tradesmen tools