Swot Analysis Of Whirlpool

WHIRLPOOL’S MARKETING STRATEGY
Whirlpool has an important presence in six main categories of home appliances market:- washing, refrigeration, cooking appliances, dishwashers, heaters, and vacuum cleaners. While the world market has typically been fiercely competitive in terms of strong attacks by Electrolux, Bosch-Siemens, Samsung, LG etc. to capture market share of the growing appliance market, Whirlpool has been able to sustain volume growths in most of these categories over time. Whirlpool predominantly led the US market and achieved an increase in market share from 1995 to 2000 in categories such as:- dishwashers, Microwave ovens, and refrigerators. Electrolux has posed as one of the serious competitors to Whirlpool by taking away some

These companies increased the total market share from 70% to 98% by reducing the competition from small players. Whirlpool increased its marketing budget in this period which boosted growth in revenues, but margins dropped. After the acquisition of Philips’ European appliance business in 1991, Whirlpool Europe invested roughly $110 million in ad campaign to get Philips brand name out of picture and bring in Whirlpool centric consumer recognition in Europe. Capitalizing on the first pan-European advertizing campaign of “Whirlpool brings quality to life” in 1995, Whirlpool gained a strong foothold in Europe and extended the campaign to Asia later. Reflecting on the low market penetration, only 14% of households in Europe owned clothes dryer and just 19% had dishwashers. Even poorer was the case in Asia when Whirlpool entered the market during 1980s. Taking a cue from this, Whirlpool’s marketing strategy initially in both European and Asian markets was also oriented towards increasing the market penetration of home

Their marketing strategy is aligned towards five customer loyalty drivers:- Service, Communications (branding & advertising), purchasing experience, customer relationship, and the product – similar to what is focused elsewhere by Whirlpool. Contrary to what was practiced in Europe and Asia, Whirlpool did not employ extensive Whirlpool branding in some of the Latin American countries like Brazil. In Brazil, local strong brands Consul and Brastemp, which were a part of Multibras and had been in the market for around 50 years, continued to dominate. Capitalizing on the great brand awareness of Brastemp, and leading market position of Consul, Whirlpool continued its marketing strategy in promoting these brands. However, KitchenAid was the only North American Brand which made appearance in Brazil with its famous stand mixer line of products.
In Argentina, Whirlpool employed a different marketing strategy. Due to the lack of a strong brand, Whirlpool brand was marketed, playing in the premium segment and became the market leader. The mid-line Consul Brand and the Eslab—n de Lujo also had small market shares in the