Saturday, February 29, 2020

A Food Supermarket Chain Marketing Essay

A Food Supermarket Chain Marketing Essay INTRODUCTION Whole Foods Market is a food supermarket chain founded in 1980, which emphasizes in â€Å"natural and organic products†, based in Austin, Texas. John Mackey, founder of Whole Foods Market, has currently 331 supermarket stores in both the United States and Europe. In this report, PEST analysis and Porter’s 5-Forces would be used to analysis the general environment of Whole Foods Market. Using the above mentioned analysis, a value chain would then be recommended to identify which areas or stages of the product would need to be changed in order to improve Whole Foods Market market value, allowing it to remain competitive and ensure business sustainability. ADDED VALUE IDENTIFICATION Whenever a customer intends to patronize Whole Foods Market, the first thought that comes into majority of customer’s minds is that foods sold there are healthier choices. And with the presence of Whole Foods Market’s house brand, 365, customers would be able to purc hase healthier foods at affordable prices. As compared to Whole Foods Market’s competitor, Kroger Supermarkets, Kroger does not emphasize on selling healthier foods, in fact they emphasize more on selling produces at affordable prices. Majority of customers patronizing Kroger Supermarkets have the idea that it’s a one-stop shopping place. Both companies also give their customers the idea that poultry, meat and other fresh produces are of the freshest and highest quality. PEST ANALYSIS The PEST analysis is a business tool used for measuring market growth or decline, hence allowing the business to identify its position, potential and direction. PEST analysis comprises of Political, Economic, Social and Technological factors shown in (fig1.1): (fig. 1.1) POLITICAL Before June 2011, body care products sold at Whole Foods Market need not comply with U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) standards for sale as being organic. After June 2011, body care products are needed to c omply with USDA standards to be labeled as organic. ECONOMIC Economy in the U.S has been declining due to its global huge debt incurred. Recession has set in causing high unemployment rates and failed businesses. The same situation has been experienced in Europe, Euro Crisis, due to Greece’s huge debt incurred. Fall in value of the U.S. dollar and Euro currency has been experienced until present day. SOCIAL Consumer trends have also changed. Modern day consumers tend to go for â€Å"healthier choice† foods, especially organic products. Consumers also tend to shun away from foods, especially poultry and meat, where animals have been treated inhumanely. Organizations actively involved in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) are more welcomed by consumers. TECHNOLOGICAL Present day consumers are more engaged in on-line shopping from the internet. Compared to other sectors, the supermarket sector has fewer technologies being implemented in its day to day operations. CONCL USION The supermarket industry is being regulated regularly with new legislations being imposed to improve quality of foods sold. This industry needs to constantly adapt to the needs of consumers which are ever changing based on population, lifestyle, and buying power of consumers. This industry would continue to see growth due to consumers welcoming organic foods.

Thursday, February 13, 2020

Essay on International business finance report

On International business finance report - Essay Example REPORT TO IBF Respected Directors, IBF London (U.K) Introduction IBF Supplies Plc is a London based large manufacturer and distributor of office supplies. A recent forecast shows decline has been shown in the demand for office supplies in the UK. At the same time it is anticipates a strong demand for office supplies in Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa over the next several years. Hence, executives of IBF have started exploring the overseas markets and are planning to establish foreign subsidiaries in new markets. Before entering the market certain aspects are to be considered. These aspects include: Financial and non-financial factors The potential risks and possible external strategies to manage such risks. Other strategies available other than establishing a foreign subsidiary Financial and non-financial factors First of all it is to be made sure that whether the selected countries are going to produce the desired results or not. It is a good thing that IBF has anticipated a strong demand in Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa for the type of goods it manufactures but again a detailed research needs to be done before taking any final decision. Developing a foreign subsidiary means establishing company’s branch outside the country to run as a separate entity than IBF the parent company itself.  There are a lot of things that need to be considered like the political stability of these selected countries, their legal systems, the fiscal policies, the monetary policies, availability of labor that is skilled, logistics infrastructure etc (Terpstra and Sarathy 2001). It is a good thing that IBF has a proactive approach but still there are a lot of things that are of utmost importance before any final decision can be taken. The financial situation of the company happens to be one very important factor to be considered before IBF can take any decision. The tax bracket is to be kept in mind before actually deciding to expand the business to a new area. The net wor th and the objectives of the company happen to be of critical importance. The level of risk that the company can afford to take is also a point of significant importance. While considering the financial factors, IBF needs to take a decision regarding choosing one of the two financing techniques or may be both the techniques. These two financing techniques are debt and equity financing. If IBF chooses debt financing to raise funds it means that the company will borrow money from another source like bank. IBF will have to return the loan with interest and it can be short term or long term. The other way is that of equity financing. In this way IBF can raise finance by selling off its business part to some other party like the investors or the venture capitalists. The company need to decide whether it is going to be generating funds locally or by the parent company. A detailed PESTEL Analysis is required that includes things like political factors etc. The forecasting regarding the exc hange rates and the taxation agreement needs to be done before taking any final decision. It is to be kept in mind that these foreign subsidiaries are going to be exposed to volatility of exchange rates. IBF will need to evaluate its risk associated with exchange of foreign currency through monitoring

Saturday, February 1, 2020

2 questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

2 questions - Assignment Example Furthermore, if this business is new or small, then this method is very unsuitable. In choosing maxmin criterion, the management will be looking at the worst possible situation in all the options and then adopting the option that provides the least bad results; that is, they adopts the option that optimizes the least profits. As already discussed, this criterion will not be attractive to this particular company if its owners are risk averse decision makers because the method is based on excessive watchfulness. However, while adopting Laplace method, the management should be sure that they are not conversant of chances of different conditions and have no reason to decide otherwise. From the calculations, the most central location is B; therefore, the most frequented department (4) should be placed there. The department that makes more trips to department 4 is department 2, therefore should be placed at the locations closest, for instance A, which is 40 yards from A. Second priority should be offered to department 1, which makes 80 trips to department 4. This department should be placed at location C, which is 40 yards from location B. Automatically, the last department, which is 3, will be located at location D, which is the most distant location at 50 yards from department D’s location (Stevenson, 2008). Following the revised trips schedule, minimizing travel costs will be best when the departments are placed as described below. The highest number of trips are made to department 4, therefore, it should be placed at the most central location. Therefore, taking the distances indicated in part a, department 4 should be placed at location B, which is 40 yards from location A; 40 yards from location C; and 50 yards from location D. However, priority should be given to department 3, which does 60 trips to department 4. Department 3 should be placed at either location C, then department 2, which makes 50 trips to