Walmart Competitive Advantage Essay

Target's main goal is to be the main shopping center for families. It's a classy discount store that focuses on customer loyalty and also has brand names that the customers wouldn't mind paying the higher prices for. Target's slogan, "Expect more, pay less" is recognizable throughout the country. It's also recognized for their coupons, red card rewards, and distinct red logo. Even when the economy takes a hit Target sales continue to grow, proving that it is one of the top retailers in the game at the moment.

Yet, it’s not clear if the company is clear with “live better” there is a criticism on Wal-Mart’s very low price, employees at the end of the day are not sure if they are making commissions or bonuses because of the low price of the products. (Lawler, E. E. (2014) The company’s goal is to achieve a high position in the retail industry with its known vision statement “To be the best in the hearts and minds of consumers and employees”. One of the strategic objectives of Wal-Mart were to keep the cost of the product low, and spending on other areas of the business. Another strategic objective of Walmart is to attain economies of scale to support the cost-leadership.

Walmart is a multi-million-dollar business, greatly known in the United States for its abundance of products for low prices. They have often had catch phrases for how low their prices are, and how much one can save when it comes to buying their things from Walmart. One of the greatest driving forces in the success and growth of Walmart has for many years come from their trusted employees, who work endlessly to make such a huge company continue to succeed. However, with so many things to be done, staff can often be overlooked and mistreated. Therefore, it is essential to discuss the treatment of employees, regardless of how successful the company is.

This strategy requires low costs reflected through low prices because customers expect significant savings when they buy from Costco. Wal-mart also uses cost leadership generic competitive strategy. To distinguish a part from the Wal-mart’s cost leadership strategy, Costco partly employs broad differentiation as its secondary generic strategy. The secondary generic strategy make the business stand out based on value and quality by using Kirkland Signature, which known as house brand (m.koreatimes.co.kr).

This motto has gone so far that they now price match to other stores for the customers. This simply means that if the same product is found at another store for a cheaper price Wal-Mart will sell it to the customer for the price that it was found listed as at the other store. Customer

They have done so by consistently outperforming other “industry giants” like Walmart and Target by providing high-quality products to customers at lower prices. They maximized the return on a number of factors such as pricing, store layout and design, store locations, advertising and marketing philosophies and more. According to Jim Sinegal, in the end, it boils down to just treating people right and providing a consistently good quality product at an affordable price. Because of their ability to make the best use of these key factors, they have built themselves into a successful company with a global

Asda aims to cash in the Wal-Mart's global scale, by lowering its price further for its customers. Asda will use the global merchandising strategy to further influence Wal-Mart's global scale. Moreover, Strong financial performance of Walmart with returns reaching above $400 billion in FY2012.

Consumer Reports magazine reports that Costco is the leader and is the preferred retailer in the opinion of the readers based on factors such as product quality, value, friendliness of store and staff, ease of returning items, and overall service. Costco was also considered the value leader by providing the best bang for the buck. Walmart, Sam’s Club, and Target fell below Costco’s ranking in terms of popularity and value for consumers (Keshner, 2010). Psychographic characteristics typically go beyond the external focus and are not as easy to quantify but do identify why consumers buy a particular product or service (All Business,

Their prices on petroleum allow them to be a substantial substitute in the industry because of the low switching costs. Consumers are also able to go to other quick service restaurants that either stand alone or operate in another convenient store. Bargaining Power of Suppliers The bargaining power of suppliers is high because the industry is heavily controlled and the products that are needed are imperative to the company’s operations.

ALDI supermarkets, a well-known retailer in business, focused on retaining and gaining customer’s loyalty on those who were already familiar with the ALDI brand. ALDI’s main objective is getting its message across which is offering the best quality products at the lowest price possible. One of ALDI’s marketing strategies is the ‘Like brands’ by which ALDI created high quality products similar to those products of a well-known brand and competitors, but with a lower price. ALDI created blind tastes of these ‘like brands’ where people can taste ALDI’s brands and the national brand to see if they can make a

Stores need to focus on meet customer’s expectation and to win back their trust and create a strong brand loyalty. Also, because competition is already high, incumbents can use more of its financial resources to create stronger barriers for new competitors or to merge with companies that help to create more value to the overall company

Walmart does have their focus on low prices but lately Walmart has been bringing in some specialty products such as Paula Deen cookware, Rachael Ray cookware and Calphalon cookware. Target already had these brands so Walmart is changing their inventory to reflect what the consumers are looking for hoping to increase their sales. Also in return Target is cutting their everyday prices on their inventory also so both are taking cues from each other this will increase the choices that consumers have at both stores. As far as Costco and Sam’s Club of Walmart I personally have been to both and as for me I like Sam’s better than Costco due to Sam’s has a better selection than

The everyday low pricing strategy works best in a broader store positioning strategy and supported with advertising. Hi-Value doesn’t need to be the lowest priced supermarket in the area for the everyday low pricing strategy to work. Lowering pricing needs to be used by all in the area or else Hi-Value will confuse our store image and positioning. Hi-Value must look at recent consumer research to see how we are positioned and how this pricing will change our image. There is potential to reduce operating costs.

In order to keep prices low for consumers Kanner has to be sure that the company is running efficiently and being tight with costs. A competitor may not be able to keep costs as low and put out the same quality product. This gives Hill Country a higher demand from its target market. As stated previously Hill Country distributed all of its products as well. These product can be found for sale in grocery stores, movie theatres, schools and even at various sporting events (Stephenson, 2012 pg.1).

By focusing on having numerous locations for accessibility and assessing customers’ needs, Wal-Mart has been able to sustain a competitive advantage in the industry. The company leverages its massive size to exert high purchasing power over its suppliers and, therefore, it can obtain significant cost savings and pass them down to consumers with heavily discounted prices. (Britanny Carter) They also offer a large variety of products, including national, local, and private brands, giving extended choices to their customers.