Sales/Accounts-These are mostly based on Computer System.Employees’ details,stocks, Customers’ purchases and other details such as customers’Advantage Card points, (with points redeemable for products instore),Parenting Club points and etc are also updated to the system.
Trends/Records- In this modern era Information Technology contributes a lot for an any organization.Innovative ideas are vital for a development of a organization so Boots Centre for Innovation was established, consequently it introduced many own products. Every data is saved for a record.
SWOT analysis of Boots
The SWOT analysis is an extremely useful tool for understanding and decision-making for all sorts of situations in business and organizations.It is a method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a or in a venture. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieving that objective.
Strengths
Boots the Chemist is one of the best known retail names in the UK, providing health, beauty, baby & fitness products and lots more besides through its UniChem subsidiary with a 40% market share.
Boots has also diversified into the research and manufacturing of drugs.Boots developed Ibuprofen in 1960 which was patented in 1961. Boots was awarded the for the development of the drug in 1987and awarded 'retailer of the year' by Mother and Baby magazine. Now it has introduced most own products.
The company has a strong brand image, and is associated with good quality, trustworthy goods that represent excellent value. Boost’s innovative ways of improving the customer shopping experience, as well as its efforts to branch out into finance and insurance have also capitalized on this. It also owns several very strong sub-brands: No.7, Soltan and Botanics. No.7 is regarded as being on a par with other beauty products manufacturers' branded cosmetics/skincare ranges. Its 'Protect and Perfect Serum' was found by the BBC TV Horizon programme to perform better than more costly brands. This widely reported finding provided a considerable boost to Boots' and No. 7's brand reputation.
Some figures of Boots’s are earnings up 17% in 2007-8 Trading profit up 20% to £854m Revenues up 6% to £17.8bn So Boots has developed a successful multiform at strategy that has accelerated its advantage. Boots increases its customer by introducing the Advantage card, which awards customers four points for every pound spent, Parenting club, Health club,midnight pharmacies,Offers,Boots WebMD,order online prescriptions,repeat prescriptions servicesn and other services. So the Competition Commission's report makes it very difficult for a competitor to challenge its scale Therefore, Boots is in an enormously strong position in its domestic market.
Weaknesses
Although international business is still growing the company is still highly dependent on the UK market. While this isn't a major weakness in the short term, if any changes in the UKPharmacy/ supermarket industry over the next year that will affect share.
Boost’s Finance profit levels were impacted through bad debt, credit card arrears and other claims.
There are only 20 per cent of Boots stores are more conveniently located than their competitors - and convenience is the primary driver of pharmacy choice.
Whilst current economic conditions suggest Boost’s key value message will succeed there is a weakness in non-essential, mid to high ticket price items which will suffer from the rising cost of living and lower disposable incomes.
Opportunities
Boots is the market leader in cosmetics, fragrances, skin care, dental, hair care and bath toiletries.No7 and No17, are leading cosmetics brands in the UK and which is the UK's leading sun care retailer, employing consultants to provide expert advice on cosmetics and sun care and in baby food, toiletries and nappies. Many stores have dedicated mother and baby rooms. Across all health and beauty ranges Boots continues to invest in price to deliver the value customers .The company now has 298 stores with 4400 opticians.
www.boots.com is the one of online company with over a million households nationwide having used the company's online services, the company has a strong platform to further develop this revenue stream.
Although it has 2600 stores with 100 000 employees in uk,International expansion has continued. Boots Healthcare International was established in 1991 to market healthcare products around the world. (It was sold to Reckitt Benckiser in January 2006). Boots International operates in 12 countries around the world. In the majority of markets, Boots works with a complimentary retailer which host Boots areas within their stores, such as Target and CVS. Boots launched North American in 6 Target stores in Denver, USA in 2004 and extended toTarget locations in a number of regions across the US;
A new chapter in Boots history started on 31st July 2006 with the merger with Alliance Unichem to form Alliance Boots, an international pharmacy led health and beauty group.
Threats
Some of the customers try to benefit from the Boots’s services only such as prescription rather than it goods because some products are slightly expevsive than its main competitors such as Tesco,Masks &Spencer and Superdrug so The great danger to Boots is that just under half of consumers use the grocers for personal care products.
UK and American markets have been affected by economic concerns through the “credit crunch”. Lower available income will impact and strategic focus may need to change to lower priced basic products with less focus on higher priced brands suggesting a switch in price architecture.
Rising raw material costs will impact profit margins overall.
In February 2008, Sainsbury's announced that they were piloting a new scheme to move into the pharmacy sector. The supermarkets are thought to be offering a new method of organizing doctors' visits. The Sainsbury's plan was for patients to book appointments through their normal surgery, but to attend the clinic in the supermarket. Asda has also been considering something similar. Analysts suggest that although Boots is opening stores, it is finding it hard to grow market share. Some fear that it will also start losing prescription revenue to the supermarkets
Data/Information –About Boots
Data- Data are unprocessed facts. They do not enable decisions of any consequence to be made.
A list of Boots' s products and services/Customers’ needs:
- Health and beauty
- Personal care
- Cosmetics and toiletries
- Baby care
- Bathroom toiletries
- Dental care
- Hair care
- Men's toiletries
- OTC medicines
- Prescription medicines
- Pharmacy services
- Paper products
- Perfumes
- Skincare
Information- Information is data that have been processed or turned into some useful form.
A Consumer Insights report produced in 2008 revealed the following information
about Boots' position in the personal care market:
Boots' share of shoppers: Boots loyal shoppers - why they shop there:
Profile of all Boots Children in household of main users
personal care shoppers: of Boots for personal care:
Comparisons with competitors
Retailers in other categories used by Boots main shoppers (i.e. where their most loyal customers go for other things):
The competition: where people using Where Boots customers
Boots for main source of go instead of using Boots as main
personal care shopping also shop: source of personal care products:
The research takes the top ten segments of the health and beauty sector and analyses their prospects for growth between 2006 and 2011. Some of the highlights are outlined below:
Top Ten Segments:
This information is helpful with decision making.
A Sales Information System
The Competitive Advantages of Boots through the Information System
Competitive advantage is ,how a firm manages to keep making money and sustain its position against its competitors. three methods for creating a sustainable competitive advantage are through:
1.
2.
3.
According to these factors some problems are faced by Boots so it has to consider about Competitive Threats.
For instance:
The graph demonstrate the extent to which the supermarkets have tightened their grip on the £177bn UK non-food market of which they now take a share of £19.7bn or 11%.The great danger to Boots is that just under half of consumers use the grocers for personal care products.
So some Innovation Ideas have been started to countering these types of threats through the Information Systems.
Rebranding
As far as the Boots is concerned, the rebranding of the community pharmacy network is about playing to the strengths of the Boots brands. The work on the stores' interiors is built around the customer journey through the stores. The rebrand attempts to address the supermarkets' participation in the health and beauty sector, which, reduces the consumer's need to make a specific visit to a health and beauty specialist, cutting pharmacy-related sales and reducing footfall'.
Updating
According to The Times in August 2008, a former drive-through McDonald's restaurant was taken over by Boots. The firm's aim is that the store will allow customers to drive up to a window, hand in a prescription and pick up the medication from a collection point. If successful in Colchester, Essex, the format could be introduced across the UK.
Improving its retail offer
Following the integration of Alliance branches(member of Boots) into the Boots portfolio, a programme, due for completion in 2010, began to divide the retail offer into four formats:
- Local Pharmacy - 200 smaller branches plus 900 Alliance stores, pharmacy-focused and located in smaller high streets. They would have a stronger health and beauty offer than most of their rivals. The aim is to build strong relationships with local communities.
- Health and beauty - these are the core Boots stores. They are found in major high street and shopping centre locations. They offer a wide range of health and beauty, and lifestyle products.
- Flagship - these carry the full health and beauty range plus non-core categories, for example, children's clothes and nursery products.
- UK Airports - this is where Boots shows its keen travel focus, featuring holiday categories of products in locations such as Heathrow Terminal 5.
The desired effect of the refurbishment programme is to separate the health and beauty departments. These would be given their own identity, with clear segmentation of the two markets. Boots' larger stores will separate the two core departments, with these located on separate floors. In smaller outlets the health and beauty sections will be moved to the back of the store. Management are reviewing each store to best reconfigure its layout. They are utilising their new IT systems to do this. This will lead to considerable variation in their overall offer because of the chain having so many different stores/sizes.
An example of this strategy can be seen in Boots' Oxford Street store in central London. The changes appeared in 2007, with features that may roll out to other stores:
- Ground floor - creating clearer sight lines and an open feel. Locate cosmetics and branded goods at front.
- Health and pharmacy on upper floor to segment the two departments.
- Boots' sub-brands such as 'Origins', are showcased in distinctive fixtures, with oval-shaped display units for premium products.
A spa-based concept is being tried at Boots' branch in Kingston, Surrey:
Service and range: Boots' key retail proposition
In other ways, the company is investing in marketing to differentiate its offer and build loyalty, through offering a broad range of health and beauty products and services. The notion of customer service, though, is crucial to this proposition.
- In healthcare: this is the core of Boots' service strength. The firm is trying to reposition Boots as the complete healthcare provider.
- It has recruited more healthcare specialists to offer advice, running combined trials with GP surgeries. It has opened its first GP surgery in Poole and has earmarked another 150 potential sites for more.
- Boots plans to double the number of pharmacies opening to midnight and increase the Measured Dose Service to care homes.
In addition it is trying to stretch its service strengths in healthcare to the beauty market:
- With higher investment in its beauty offer, featuring exclusive brands and own-brands, for example 'Model Me' by Toni and Guy, the continued development of No.7, and its beauty spa trial.
- The company is trying to improve its beauty proposition by recruiting beauty consultants to stand on shop floor and offer advice.
Boots uses a wide range of media on an ongoing basis, including TV, press, and direct mailings to its Advantage Card members to highlight new products, offers and services
Overall, the strategy is to extend Boots' range beyond the reach of the supermarkets.
Conclusion
Organizations-no matter the size or whether they are profit or non-profit-are facing daunting challenges. All are trying to provide the best patient care, recruit and retain quality staff, and comply efficiently with state and federal regulations, while managing costs. The right pharmacy service has a significant impact on reducing cost, improving patient safety/care, and reducing the compliance burden. A pharmacy service must be in reducing cost, enabling better clinical and financial outcomes, and improving staff productivity and satisfaction. A pharmacy service must be easy to do business with and a seamless part of organization's operations with the help of the Information Systems (IS).
Based on detailed analysis of the organization, we can identify organizational goals and objectives. It will also be based on proven records management principles and practices. As a result, it has been developed a keen understanding of the commonality of processes, procedures and needs of the customers. This would pave the for a attractive business.
The ability to organize, control and find information is critical to any organization. IS helps companies to provide a competitive advantage for long-term growth. and build a platform for knowledge creation of employees to control information to achieve success in their markets.
As far as the Boots is concerned Customers are attracted by Boots Advantage Card, which awards customers four points for every pound spent, is a hugely important part of the business. With almost 15m active cardholders, these are used in around 70% of BTC sales. Linked to the Advantage Card, in 2005 Boots launched its Parenting Club for expectant and new mothers, and followed it with the Boots Health Club in 2006, giving regular advice and information as well as discounted products to its members. Updated technology will also enable offers to be more targeted.As far as the Boots is concerned it has a well developed Information Systems(IS) with innovative ideas so the secret of the Boost’s success is its IS.
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