Case Study: Whirlpool Corporation

Since the year 1911, Whirlpool emerged as the world’s number one manufacturer and marketer of home appliances through the inception of its first commercial motorized washers.

Whirlpool of India limited is an 82.3% subsidiary of Whirlpool Corporation, which has its headquarters at Benton Harbour, Michigan, USA. The parent company Whirlpool Corporation has presence globally in around 170 countries and manufacturing operations in 13 countries and operates 11 major brand names which are - Whirlpool, KitchenAid, Roper, Estate, Bauknecht, Laden and Ignis. As part of the company’s global expansion strategy, Whirlpool Corporation ventured into investing in the Indian markets in around late 1980s. It entered the Indian market under a joint venture with

They work in Retail Outlets called counters.

Team Leaders: Team Leader is responsible for managing RE Lifecycle (induction, periodic training and daily monitoring of REs performance). He is also accountable for supporting RE in handling customer grievances and stock shortages.

Supervisor: RE Supervisor is responsible for managing RE hiring, training and daily tracking of RE performance through Team Leader. He is also accountable for supporting RE in handling customer grievances and merchandise shortages.

Branch Manager Executive: The job of a BME is to act as a link between management and REs in everything related to Operations. He has to collect counter wise sales data and prepare monthly report for the branch. He also has to work for the management and implement any change in operations suggested by them.

Marketing Coordinator: His job is to prepare product catalogue, Display Stickers, banners and other marketing tools for all products in consultation with

The products are bulky home appliances which cannot be sold directly by Whirlpool to the end customer as customer wants to see the product first and compare it with other products before finally buying it. Since, the sales of its products happen in Retail Shops throughout the country, the Customer visiting these retail shops (called as Counters) interacts with Whirlpool Representatives known as Retail Executives (REs). To avoid huge investments in self owned retail outlets, Whirlpool ties up with retail chain dealers to display and sell their products. But the dealer himself does not put effort to push for any particular product. Hence to make sure that the product is properly marketed and that customer is given all information necessary to buy a product, Whirlpool hires Retail Executives (REs), Team Leader (TL) and Supervisor through a third party, Team