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a particular course of action. The cases assigned are intended to give you practice in assembling information and data to support a decision. As is often the situation in actual practice, cases may not have all the data you would like. Nevertheless, it is critical that you develop a reasoned plan of attack on the basis of the data available. In preparing a case analysis, read through the case looking for the main problem that you will address. Develop a rationale for your belief that the major problem identified is actually in fact the problem! In addition, assemble the factual information in the case that addresses any other related problems/issues. Once you have assembled all the information provided, use the following framework for analysis. This framework is the format to use for all group written cases to be handed in per the course outline. Land Rover North America Case Analysis Diagram I. Problem Definition: Define the problem by providing a concise, well-written statement that defines and describes the case's marketing problem. II. Critical Issues: State critical issues, or "sub-problems," that need to be resolved in order to solve the overall marketing problem stated in the Problem Definition section. Critical issues should be dealt with in the Recommendations section. III. Alternatives: Formulate viable alternatives, or possible courses of action, to solve the problem. IV. Analysis: This provide logic, listed does or recommendation section is the is the heart of your case report. Here you should reasoning, facts, etc. as to why each alternative does not make sense. Provide logic for why your will not select the "other alternatives." This linkup between the problem and the recommendation.
V. Recommended Solution: First state your recommendation; then state your overall marketing strategy; and then state your plan of action (marketing mix) for your strategy. Your plan of action should be very specific decisions to implement your marketing strategy. VI. Appendices (If appropriate).
Common Errors in Case Writing 1. Format outlined above is not followed. Subheadings are not used in the analysis section. 2. Problem and Alternatives sections are too long. No more than half a page is generally needed for each of these sections. 3. Failure to use outline or bullet points throughout the written report. Bullet points can be used effectively in the Critical Issues and the Alternatives sections. There is no need for complete prose throughout the entire report. However, do not use shorthand that is unintelligible to a reader. 4. Rehashing of case data. Assume the reader is familiar with the case. Present case data only when it is needed to support a line of reasoning you are developing. Do not summarize the case situation as a preamble to your analysis, and do not present case facts unless you are going to drive home a point with them. 5. Noncritical evaluation of case data. Before you use evidence presented in the case, ask yourself if the data was collected in a sound manner and whether it is relevant to the issue you are addressing. This does not give you a license to eliminate all data. Rather, you want to qualify the conclusions you reach by evaluating the quality of the data on which a conclusion is based. 6. Failure to present a rationale for eliminating unchosen alternatives. It is important to show
that the recommended course of action is likely to deal effectively with the problem and issues identified. It is equally important to provide a rationale for dismissing unchosen alternative courses of action. 7. Failure to present work in an understandable manner. For example, if computations are used, be sure your presentation (usually in an appendix) is sufficiently detailed so the reader can replicate the analysis. This requires you to indicate where the data came from and how it is analyzed. BLACK AND DECKER
1.2.1 Strengths
One of the biggest strength of the company is the large number of divisions, then segments and then products groups of the business. This wide portfolio comprising of a large number of products allowed the company to enjoy the benefits of diversification and hold 50% of the market share in United States. The company due to the well-functioning of other divisions and their segments made good acquisitions. Recently one of the most important acquisitions of the company was with Stanley Works in March 2010after which the company changed its name to Stanley Black and Decker Inc. Strength of the company is enhancement of its brands, in 2009 when due to adverse economic conditions companies decreased their brand support; B&D invested $20 million in its brands by launching various new programs. Thus the companys strength was its consumer brand value in all other segments except the Professional Tradesman Segment Buyers such as the Professional-Industrial segment which viewed B&D as a company offering high quality, differentiated products and excellent services. Innovating new products according to the needs of the countrymen helps the company to work fairly outside US. The companys 50% of the sales are from outside US. The company has achieved efficiencies of a larger organization with increased size and scale.
Weakness
The biggest weakness of the company is its Professional Tradesman segment of Power tools division. The buyer attitude towards the Tradesman product is just got to stay away from the Black and Decker. The products of the company are viewed as not suitable for use at job for products designed specifically to suit job requirements. The companys weakness is the ambiguity in the minds of Tradesmen about the tools and their performance. Another weakness of the company is the selling and administration costs which are 25 % of the gross profit margin.
Opportunities
There are opportunities for the company to enter the market of the developing economies such as china, Southeast Asia, Brazil and rest of Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Theres an opportunity for B&D to tame retailers as they were not positive about Makita, and regarded it as arrogant and dictatorial. B&D by taming the weaknesses of its competitor Makita can capture the retailers market such as by offering channel protection and to produce the goods in a slightly different color than Makita.
Threat
The biggest threat to the company is from its strongest competitors, Makita and Milwaukee which satisfies the consumers a lot and at the same time offers a good baseline options in major categories. The strategy of the company was well planned, even if the company is priced at a premium from B&D; some of the products are priced at a much
lower price than the price charged by the company in its home country. The biggest question posed in from of the company is that how the company is a foreign country is able to offer goods at a lower price than B&D to which US is its own nation. The company also faces tough competition from the company Skil due to its strong particular product strengths for example saws.
1.5 Recommendation:
After evaluating all the three options, we would recommend the company to choose option 3 in place of option 1 or2. Option 1 is not making sense because it is not hitting the primary and the basic problem which needs to be addressed by B&D and as far as second option is concerned, sub branding may have been successfully applied by Galli in his earlier career but the same may not work for B&D because when asked the people about the B&D Tradesmen product they were of the view that one should stay out of them. This sub branding wont help and the people will still relate the earlier brand with the new sub brands. Option 3 is the most viable option because lets play the game by completely dropping the name of the B&D and check the results because when its products were researched on the scale of product quality, all the laboratory tests were in the favour of the company, not only this but the company also scored outstanding on the scale of awareness and
specific attributes. This whole means that the problem with the Tradesman is the name of the company which is somehow taken to be negatively the professional and withdrawing the name of the company will surely reap higher market share to B&D and that too from Makita. Using of DeWalt brand which was bought back by the company in 1960 will definitely change the perspective of the customers and moreover, after research it was found that though the awareness rating of DeWalt was 70% when compared with B&D but one of the best agreement percent if 63% for DeWalt when compared with 44% of B&D.
Contingency Plan:
Contingency with this option is that the competitor Makita may also plan a similar or completely new marketing strategy; secondly the other segments of this division may get disturbed and the Company may face embarrassment. Another contingency is that if the market share instead on improving further fell from 9%, then the company may get out of the market for the Power Tools-Professional Tradesman Segment. Appendix 1: A Graph showing the five largest product groups and their percentage of B&Ds 1990 sales is presented below:
Appendix 2: a graph showing the market share of B&D in the Power tools, Professional Tradesman segment