15
ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS AND SWOT ANALYSIS
Environmental analysis and SWOTT analysis
Company description
Walmart Inc. is a profit-making and privately-owned organization based in the United States, headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas. Walmart offers a series of products and services to market users, including grocery and farm products, hypermarkets, and warehouse and storage services. The mission statement of Walmart Company is to aid its customers and other market users to save their money by offering affordable products and services. With the mission statements, the management body and stakeholders have been working per the tastes and preferences of their customers to guarantee low price products and services per their satisfaction. In line with their mission statement, the vision statement of Walmart Company is to be a one-stop-shop in the market that offers a variety of affordable services and products to their customers despite the types of goods or services needed by the market users. Being the destination for cheaper services and products has been the driving force for the company's management, stakeholder, and shareholders to work around the clock to provide goods and services at a lower cost than its competitors.
Walmart Company offers a wide range of products and services to its customers. The company has a chain of hypermarkets in significant cities and towns of the United States, which gives room for various products. The company also offers warehousing and storage services to market users. The store services are meant to offer the customers storage facilities for their goods before being delivered or waiting for clearance from the concerned authority. Goods such as groceries and other farm products like milk and meat are also part of the products offered in their chains of hypermarkets. Walmart Company is one of the largest private employer firms with an estimation of 2.2 million employees. A large number of employees within the company justifies the size of the Walmart Company. In addition, the company has several branches both in the United States and foreign countries, thus making it a global company. With a revenue estimation of US$548.743 billion, Walmart Company has proved to be one of the largest and competitive firms in the market, both local and foreign markets, as the estimated revenue symbolizes the size of the company.
Environmental analysis
Competitive forces
Amazon Company is one of the key competitors against Walmart in the market. Walmart has developed a pricing strategy as its competitive advantage to outdo Amazon organization in the market (Nandonde, 2019). Walmart Company has based its strengths on its pricing slogan to save customers money to gain a significant market share despite stiff competition from Amazon and other firms in the market. In line with their mission statement, Walmart has been offering a low price on goods and services to achieve their mission statement as an organization. ...
1. 15
ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS AND SWOT ANALYSIS
Environmental analysis and SWOTT analysis
Company description
Walmart Inc. is a profit-making and privately-owned
organization based in the United States, headquartered in
Bentonville, Arkansas. Walmart offers a series of products and
services to market users, including grocery and farm products,
hypermarkets, and warehouse and storage services. The mission
statement of Walmart Company is to aid its customers and other
market users to save their money by offering affordable
products and services. With the mission statements, the
management body and stakeholders have been working per the
tastes and preferences of their customers to guarantee low price
products and services per their satisfaction. In line with their
mission statement, the vision statement of Walmart Company is
to be a one-stop-shop in the market that offers a variety of
affordable services and products to their customers despite the
types of goods or services needed by the market users. Being
the destination for cheaper services and products has been the
driving force for the company's management, stakeholder, and
shareholders to work around the clock to provide goods and
2. services at a lower cost than its competitors.
Walmart Company offers a wide range of products and services
to its customers. The company has a chain of hypermarkets in
significant cities and towns of the United States, which gives
room for various products. The company also offers
warehousing and storage services to market users. The store
services are meant to offer the customers storage facilities for
their goods before being delivered or waiting for clearance from
the concerned authority. Goods such as groceries and other farm
products like milk and meat are also part of the products offered
in their chains of hypermarkets. Walmart Company is one of the
largest private employer firms with an estimation of 2.2 million
employees. A large number of employees within the company
justifies the size of the Walmart Company. In addition, the
company has several branches both in the United States and
foreign countries, thus making it a global company. With a
revenue estimation of US$548.743 billion, Walmart Company
has proved to be one of the largest and competitive firms in the
market, both local and foreign markets, as the estimated revenue
symbolizes the size of the company.
Environmental analysis
Competitive forces
Amazon Company is one of the key competitors against
Walmart in the market. Walmart has developed a pricing
strategy as its competitive advantage to outdo Amazon
organization in the market (Nandonde, 2019). Walmart
Company has based its strengths on its pricing slogan to save
customers money to gain a significant market share despite stiff
competition from Amazon and other firms in the market. In line
with their mission statement, Walmart has been offering a low
price on goods and services to achieve their mission statement
as an organization. Walmart company has attracted a large
number of Market users to their products hence outstands its
competitors.
Economic forces
Walmart's economic environment has been favorable to its
3. customers regarding its prices and services. Low prices charged
on goods and services have boosted the economic status of
Walmart Company, following the high number of customers turn
out to their services (Perera, 2017). The management's effort to
reduce their production cost and saves customers’ money has
been affected by such an economic move, thereby makes their
suppliers supply their products and services at a lower cost.
Therefore, suppliers have to coincide with the economic move
of Walmart management to save customers money, thus
reducing the pricing of their supplies.
Political forces
The political push for higher wages by the federal government
has negatively affected the operations and productivity of the
company. The political amendment on the employment act
requires the company to increase the wages per hour from a
minimum of $ 6 to $7, affecting the firm's profitability. In
addition, the wage pressure from the politicians has made the
company lay off some workers to reduce the cost of production
and aid them in achieving their mission and vision statement.
Legal, regulatory and ethical issues
Legal and regulatory issues are governmen t regulation of
business activities (Vintilă et al., 2017). Such regulations might
impact Walmart's operational activities in terms of the labor and
employment act. Based on the adjustment made of the labor and
employment act, the employers are expected to increase the
salaries and wages paid per hour to casual workers, which
conflicts with their profitability projections. Increasing the
wages will impact the cost of operations of the business, thus
reduces its profitability. Increasing the wages and salari es will
affect the mission statements of the Walmart Company. The
management will increase their prices to cater to the increased
cost of production. Ethically, the company might face ethical
criticism from the community due to the abrupt price increase.
Based on the consumer protection act, an abrupt increase in
pricing is unethical as it aims to exploit and frustrate the
customers.
4. Technological forces
The emergence of technology will affect Walmart Company's
operations and marketing activities following the adoption of
online marketing technology, thus via the company’s website.
Walmart Company will have to embrace online marketing to
attract more users to their products and services globally.
Social forces
Social forces like the consumption of pork products by Muslim
society have negatively impacted the sales and marketability of
pork products. The business planning to cease offering pork
products as part of the farm produces due to social norms, thus
makes the product abomination in society.
Current target market
The target market for Walmart services and products are the
households that regularly consume the groceries and other farm
products in the store. The households member mainly targeted
are mostly the female shoppers whom regularly do the
household shopping. In addition, the store and warehousing
services target the importers and assembling firms and investors
who will need to keep their goods safely with the company as
they await delivery. Supply chain firms also add to the list of
targeted customers. Finally, the warehousing services targets
primarily foreign businesses.
Reviewing current marketing
The company has embarked on online marketing platforms, thus
following many potential consumers using social media
platforms. In addition, Walmart will be using its website to
advertise and respond to queries, suggestions, and complaints
from customers.
SWOTT analysis
Strengths
Low pricing on their products and services is one of the
competitive advantages of the Walmart Company. In addition,
the company is specialized in a variety of products and services
at a one-stop shop, thus saves customers time and choice of the
products or services they need, unlike their competitors like
5. Amazon.
Weakness
Society norms on some of the products offered by the Walmart
Company have been a limitation to its success. For instance, the
norm of Muslim society not consuming pork products has
negatively impacted the sales volume of pork products.
Opportunities
Free market entry in the international market will enable the
business to expand its branches to foreign markets (Deshpande,
2019). Expanding the branches in foreign markets will increase
the market share of Walmart Company and consequently
increases its profitability.
Threats
Stiff competition from other firms offering similar services and
products to the market has threatened the business. According
to Bonfante et al. (2021), competition has reduced the market
share and profitability of the business. In addition, regular
amendments and adjustments of labor and employment laws by
the government have also impacted the organization's operations
regarding salaries and wages increment.
Trends
The current market trends in marketing involved using online
platforms for advertisement, connecting with customers, and
making sales (Gürel & Tat, 2017). The use of the business
website has enabled online sales and marketing trends, reducing
marketing processes like advertisements, promotions, and
roadshows.
Strengths to opportunity and converting weakness to threat
Low pricing and availability of various goods under one shop
create an opportunity for the Walmart organization. It attracts
more users from the market to their products as the cost is
affordable and all their shopping needs are availed under one
roof. So many customers turn out to their products will
increases their sales volumes impacts the profitability.
Walmart's continuous trading on pork products will create a
market gap for its competitors to offer alternative products to
6. Muslim users. Society will prefer its competitors' products since
it aligns with their cultural beliefs and practices. Thereby,
Walmart will lose its esteemed customers, which is a threat to
them.
Marketing objectives
· Walmart Company will embrace online marketing trends by
creating a customer care response platform.
· The company will align with the norms and production culture
with that of the society in which they operate, limiting the
scenario of producing goods that conflicts with their beliefs.
· To beat the market competition, Walmart will ensure their
productivity matches the market taste and preferences, thus
guarantees market satisfaction.
Part B: marketing data analysis
Internal data
source
what it measures
potential usage
Sales report
Sales volume
Determine market share
Financial documents
The financial status of the business
To determine the profitability of the firm
HRM
Staff performance
To determine Individual staff productivity
Inventories
Number of inventories in the store
To find the value of the business
Operations
Productivity
To determine the operations requirements of the firm
Employees suggestions
General operations of the firm
To determine internal relations of the staff
7. Secondary data
Source
What it measures
Potential usage
Customer feedback
Satisfaction of goods and services
To determine costumers satisfaction
Retail market analytics
The values of sales
Market share analysis
Suppliers feedback
Availability of raw material
To determine the production volume thus per the available raw
material.
Society reviews
Market influence of the business
To find out the market influence and public image about the
business.
Primary data
Sources
What it measures
Data
Potential usage
Focus group
Decision-making process
group satisfaction
Qualitative
Applied in decision making
Survey
Market review
Public opinion
8. Qualitative
To determine customers tastes and preferences
staff interview
Employees satisfaction
Qualitative
To determine employees' satisfaction with the management of
the organization.
Customer relationship management
CRM
Purpose and CRM objectives
Data
Potential data usage
Customer suggestions from the website
Identifies customers tastes and preferences
Customer purchase portal
To determine the satisfaction of the customers
Customer review
Identifies market influence of the products and services
Surveys
To determine the satisfaction of products and services offered to
the market users.
Customer profile information
Identifies the number of customers served by the business
Sales record
To determine esteemed customers' location, tastes, purchasing
power.
Part C: Market strategy, channels, implementation, and
monitoring
New target market
Walmart company target opening a new branch in California
based on many product users from that specific region. Since
California will be a new market, Walmart's services will include
warehousing and storage service and other nonperishable goods.
Walmart will introduce perishable goods into the store upon
gaining market share and influence from the public. The pricing
9. will be per the mission statement, which aims at saving
customers money by offering low prices for their products and
services. The products and services will be availed to the
California branch by the company trucks upon the need
(Braciníková & Matušínská, 2017).
To create awareness of the new business in California, Walmart
will distribute business cards and flyers randomly to the
potential customers to promote the business through the sales
and marketing team. Rahmah & Prasetio, E. A. (2020) argued
that online promotion would involve email marketing, designing
branch websites, and creating online press about the product
and services offered to the market users.
Marketing implementation
The sales and marketing manager will be responsible for
implementing the marketing plans designed for the new branch.
Sales representatives will aid in implementing the plan using
the marketing mix model identified for the California branch.
Business cards and flyers will be randomly given to the public
by sales agents based on the location, purchasing power, and
social influence; thus, the public with the said qualities will be
prioritized by the sales representatives. The online promotional
team will focus on the market response, queries, and
suggestions via the branch's website.
Marketing communication channel
Channel
Target market
Advantages
Disadvantages
Publication
Middle class residential
Cheap to disseminate information
Only applies to literate customers
Television
Low-class residents
Reach out to a large number of users
Limited to those who have access to the television device
10. Direct mail
First-class residents
Reach out to specifically targeted customers
Costly and time-consuming
Strategic action
Action
Date
Personnel
Standard/metrics
Designing flyers and postcards
30/5/2021
Whitson Kim
Sales manager
Drafting emails and sending mails
31/5/2021
Harris Campbell
Sales manager
Distribution of flyers and cards
1/6/2021
John Frank
Sales manager
Monitoring
Action
Target
Person responsible
Inter-measurement
Flyers
1200 inquiries
Sales manager- California branch
400 inquires in the first three weeks of the campaign
Business cards
800 inquiries
Sales manager- California branch
500 inquires in the first five weeks of the campaign
11. Direct mails
2000 inquires
Sales manager- California branch
1200 inquires in the first four weeks of the campaign
References
Bonfante, M. C., Raspini, J. P., Fernandes, I. B., Fernandes, S.,
Campos, L. M., & Alarcon, O. E. (2021). Achieving Sustainable
Development Goals in rare earth magnets production: A review
on state of the art and SWOT analysis. Renewable and
Sustainable Energy Reviews, 137, 110616.
Braciníková, V., & Matušínská, K. (2017, December).
Marketing mix of financial services from the customers’
perspective. In Forum Scientiae Oeconomia (Vol. 5, No. 4, pp.
36-48).
Deshpande, S. (2019). Social marketing’s strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT): A
commentary. Social Marketing Quarterly, 25(4), 231-242.
Gürel, E., & Tat, M. (2017). SWOT analysis: a theoretical
review. Journal of International Social Research, 10(51).
Nandonde, F. A. (2019). A PESTLE analysis of international
retailing in the East African Community. Global Business and
Organizational Excellence, 38(4), 54-61.
Perera, R. (2017). The PESTLE analysis. Nerdynaut.
Rahmah, N., & Prasetio, E. A. (2020). PROPOSED NEW
12. MARKETING MIX STRATEGY TO INCREASE SALES (CASE
ARINE). In The conference encourages submissions for paper
presentations from academics and practitioners. In order to
reach the goals of the sharing and exchange of experiences of
both theoretical developments and applications, these
presentations may have a focus on either research studies or
case studies of best practices on related topics. (p. 17).
Vintilă, D. F., Filip, C., Stan, M. I., & Ţenea, D. D. (2017,
October). A Political, Economic, Social, Technology, Legal and
Environmental (PESTLE) Approach for Maritime Spatial
Planning (MSP) in the Romanian Black Sea. In International
Conference on Management and Industrial Engineering (No. 8,
pp. 653-666). Niculescu Publishing House.
Part B: Marketing Data Analysis
Student Name:
MKT 574
University of Phoenix
Date:
Prof. Ismael Hau
Part B: Marketing Data Analysis
Internal Data
Evaluate internal sources of information available to you inside
the organization and what information you will receive from
each source. Identify 3-6 sources of internal data. Insert or
remove rows as needed.*
Source
What it Measures
Data
13. Potential Usage
*(Add a brief summary about what the information in the table
means)Secondary Data
Evaluate secondary data sources and the specific information
you need from each source. Insert or remove rows as needed.*
15. Evaluate primary data needs to create and evaluate the
marketing plan. Insert or remove rows as needed.*
Source
What it Measures
Data
Potential Usage
16. *(Add a brief summary about what the information in the table
means)Customer Relationship Management
Establish customer touchpoints and develop appropriate CRM
events for customer acquisition, retention, and profitability.
Insert or remove rows as needed.*
CRM Touchpoint
Purpose & CRM Objective
Data
Potential Data Usage
17. *(Add a brief summary about what the information in the table
means)
References
MKT/574 v1
Strategic Marketing Plan
MKT/574 v1
Page 2 of 2
Strategic Marketing PlanPart A: Environmental Analysis and
SWOT Analysis
(Due in Wk 2)
Company Description
Describe the company you are designing the plan for. Include:
· Mission Statement
· Vision Statement
· Product line description
· Company information, such as the size of the company
Environmental Analysis
Analyze the forces that affect the company and marketing
efforts. Competitive Forces
Analyze the company’s key competitors. You may choose to use
a BCG Matrix or attribute checklist to compare your company
against its competitors. Describe any strategic moves the
competition has recently made. Estimate your market share.
Identify key competitive advantages against your
competitors.Economic Forces
Analyze the economic environment in the areas affecting your
business. Consider differences within your industry and the
economic impact on suppliers.Political Forces
18. Analyze relevant political forces. Examples may include an
election year or a law to drastically reduce or eliminate plastic
waste in your county.Legal, Regulatory, and Ethical Issues
Analyze the legal, regulatory, and ethical issues that may affect
your business. Considerations may include local laws such as a
ban on the use of plastic bags, the ability to post billboards, or a
possible increased regulation on direct mail.Technological
Forces
Analyze whether your company will be affected by emerging
technologies or trends in hardware and software
industriesSocial Forces
Analyze social trends and how they may affect your business.
Considerations may include if your business will be affected by
demographic trends, a growing dependence on computers, or
whether interest in your product might be affected by growing
preferences in the way things are done or changing social
values.
Current Target Markets
Define the company’s current target markets. Describe the
demographic, geographic, psychographic, and product usage of
these targets.
Review Current Marketing
Review the company’s current marketing tactics. Consider how
people find out about the product, how they get information
about the product or service, what might be involved in the
buying process, and what money is available for marketing. If
your company is a start-up, describe your competitors’ current
marketing.
SWOT Analysis
Assess your company’s strengths, weaknesses, threats,
opportunities, and then evaluate how to address these in your
marketing plan. Strengths
Assess your company’s competitive advantage. Consider core
19. competencies, assets, location, practices, etc. that are distinct in
the way the organization meets the needs of its
customers.Weaknesses
Assess what limits the company may have in its current
marketing strategy. Consider if there is a company weakness
that needs to be addressed through Public Relations or
Marketing.Opportunities
Assess the opportunities you see based on trends or
environmental conditions.Threats
Assess the threats or limitations that may interfere with the
company’s ability to meet its objectives or interfere wi th
marketing plans. Strengths to Opportunities & Converting
Weaknesses and Threats
Convert weaknesses and threats to strengths, then strengths to
opportunities in the marketing plan. Consider the implications
for addressing supplier relationships, implementing new
technologies, or changing the product line or addressing new
markets.
Marketing Objectives
Establish marketing objectives based on the results from the
SWOT analysis. Marketing objectives must align with corporate
objectives, modified by the company’s resources. Objectives
should include a date for the completion of the objective and the
way in which success will be measured. For example: The
company will expand its marketing efforts to include a new
market segment of 21- to 29-year-olds. This will entail the
development of a customized product by June 2020 that will
address the specific psychographic and technological needs of
this age group. This strategy is expected to attain a 20% growth
in overall sales by January 2020. Customer loyalty (will ingness
to recommend the product) will increase by 30%.Part B:
Marketing Data Analysis
(Due in Wk 4)
Internal Data
20. Evaluate internal sources of information available to you inside
the organization and what information you will receive from
each source. Identify 3-6 sources of internal data. Insert or
remove rows as needed.
Source
What it Measures
Data
Potential Usage
Example: Sales data
Monthly sales by specific product
Average sales that month in US dollars for each of 10 products.
Data can be segmented by business and consumer markets.
Can be used for trend analysis, projections, and to measure
effectiveness of promotions.
21. Secondary Data
Evaluate secondary data sources and the specific information
you need from each source. Insert or remove rows as needed.
Source
What it Measures
Data
Potential Usage
Example: retail store analytics
Dollar value of sales by quarter by major product categories
Total sales of major players
Market Share Analysis
Seasonal patterns
22. Primary Data
Evaluate primary data needs to create and evaluate the
marketing plan. Insert or remove rows as needed.
Source
What it Measures
Data
Potential Usage
Example: Focus group
Product usage, motives, identify group level satisfaction,
decision process, etc.
Qualitative
Identify different reactions of market segments to product.
Identify marketing opportunities, product/service flaws and
opportunities
23. Customer Relationship Management
Establish customer touchpoints and develop appropriate CRM
events for customer acquisition, retention, and profitability.
Insert or remove rows as needed.
CRM Touchpoint
Purpose & CRM Objective
Data
Potential Data Usage
Example: Customer profile information on website
Starts the account for visitors: name, geography, email address
(Customer acquisition)
Presale: geographic location; customer id, source of reference
Email address
Post sales: address, product purchased, quantity, price.
Track new and returning customer counts, total period
purchases by customer ID, geographic sales data. Can be used
for loyalty rewards, retention, and targeted marketing.
24. Part C: Market Strategy, Marketing Channels, Implementation,
and Monitoring
(Due in Wk 6)
New Target Markets
Determine any new markets for your strategy and describe how
you will provide value to each target market.
Marketing Mix for New Target Markets
Determine adaptions for each new target market.
· Products
· Price
· Distribution
· Traditional Promotion
· Online Promotion
Marketing Implementation
Create the implementation for your marketing plan. Describe
25. how you will organize and implement the plan, such as whether
it will be organized by market, geography, and who is
responsible for marketing decisions.
Marketing Communication Channels
Evaluate the marketing communication channels you will use to
reach selected audiences. Include Internet and traditional
communication channels to convey key messages. Describe the
advantages and disadvantages of each channel you select. Insert
or remove rows as needed.
Channel
Target Market
Advantages
Disadvantages
Example: Direct mail
Middle class residential
Can include coupons
Expense and low return rate for given product
26. Strategic Actions
Develop specific activities required to implement the marketing
plan. Identify the person or role who will be responsible for
each action, when it will be complete, and what standard or
metric indicate that the activity is complete. Insert or remove
rows as needed.
Action
Date for Completion
Person/Role Responsible
Standard/Metric
Example: Design flyer for direct mail campaign
1/1/2021
J. Smith, graphic designer
Approval by senior marketing team and legal
27. Monitoring
Develop the measurement to identify how you know you have
been successful for each strategic action. Specify the measures
to track performance against goals. Identify standard reports
from your online and traditional marketing efforts. Insert or
remove rows as needed.
Action
Target
Person Responsible
Inter-measurement
Example: Direct mail flyer
1100 new inquiries
Western regional manager
500 new inquiries first month of campaign
28. Copyright 2020 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved.
Copyright 2020 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved.