Sustainable Competitive Advantage (6pts)
Identify what the source of the advantage is, and how sustainable it will be long term.
It seems Target has a better brand image than other retailers. For example, Wal-Mart has a bad reputation for mistreating its employees and bad customer service. On the other hand, Target is better at managing employees and gives shopper a much better shopping environment as well as service. Also, it seems Target is popular among house owners, women, and family. Size wise, Target is the second largest discount retailer in the US, just behind Wal-Mart; Target has competitive advantages over other retailers due to its size and assets it holds. Moreover, Target is heavily expanding in North America as well as in Canada that many Super Target or smaller format Target stores are planned to be build. Target plans to have at least 100–150 stores opened in Canada by 2013 and 2014. Target’s trademark is highly recognized because of sponsorship, philanthropy, good shopping experience among shoppers, and advertisement which Target could use its popularity as its advantage. Its popularity and high market share in the industry would be its advantage and bring sustainable profit for the company. I believe the good brand image among shoppers, good quality products and service could be beneficial for Target in the long run. As far as Target maintains those advantages it holds; Target will keep expanding and gets bigger.
Is it easy to imitate, are there “copycats” in the marketplace?
Target is proud of its innovating and constantly developing approach. Target has well-structured managing personnel as long as a group of professional to train employees which I do not think it is easy to imitate. Moreover, Target’s size, partnership, and huge market share within the industry could hinder other retailers to mimic Target. Also, the US did a great job protecting domestic companies from other foreign companies that want to do business in the US. This makes it harder for other foreign companies to mimic or compete with Target. Furthermore, the regulation of business conducts and trading prohibits stealing information from other companies which limits unethical business behaviors. Target has huge personnel and complicated business structure that are hard to imitate. Arguably, other big retail companies could try to copy Target’s store layouts and Target’s website but it would take a long time and huge amount of money to fully copy Target’s business structure.
What would be the “Achilles heel” of the retail strategy?
It seems that customers enjoy the quality of the products and in store shopping experience Target provides; it would be a bad strategy if Target lowers their product quality and trendiness. Also, Target should maintain selling variety of products at cheaper price, so people could feel that Target is better than other retail stores. I believe the “Achilles heel” for Target is not being able to deliver the good quality goods at lower prices to attract family or shoppers. So far, Targets success is built upon selling goods that meet with customer needs. To become more success, Target needs to make sure it maintain good products and service(well trained personnel); also keep exploring ways to run the business efficiently and minimize costs.
Blizzard Entertainment Inc (service retailer)
Retailer Name and Mission (reason for being, what needs to they fulfill) (3pts)
Blizzard Entertainment Inc is the service retailer according to my internet research.
Bizzard’s mission (core values) is to make their games as fun as possible for as many people they can reach. Also, to provide the best quality of work in games, take feedbacks seriously to improve their work, leave long lasting and fair gaming experience to people, embrace everyone and listen to their opinions, be a leader, and think globally also giving back to the community.
Blizzard wants to continue making the best computer games.
Target Audience BE SPECIFIC (4 pts)
Blizzard Entertainment’s target audience are professional gamers, teenagers, normal gamers, adults that plays online games for relaxation, geeks, students, and anyone that would like to join the Blizzard community.
Retail Format (12 pts)
Sustainable Competitive Advantage (6pts)
Identify what the source of the advantage is, and how sustainable it will be long term.
Blizzard has the most popular pc games and has the most online gamers in the world. Blizzard is constantly developing new games and improving the gaming contents. Blizzard manages the release of its games strategically which gamers always have new and interesting games to play. I believe Blizzard will maintain a competitive advantage over other gaming companies due to its leading gaming technologies, and brand recognition for a sustainable time.
Is it easy to imitate, are there “copycats” in the marketplace?
It is really hard to imitate Blizzard’s games because it requires a lot of human resource and technology to develop a game similar to Blizzard’s. Besides that, many of Blizzard’s game are owned by Blizzard and copying its games would result in many legal actions. Furthermore, many Blizzard’s games take years to develop which are hardly profitable for someone to imitate a game that has already been released and would soon be outdated.
What would be the “Achilles heel” of the retail strategy?
The “Achilles heel” for Blizzard is not being able to maintain or provide the good service level. Blizzard is an entertainment company that profits by providing good service. If Blizzard cannot meet the customer needs and fail to bring in fresh and newer contents to the game than many of its subscribers would leave. Blizzard needs to constantly develop new games/expansions and continually listen to its customers to keep business. Also, Blizzard should be aware of the PC market and not develop games that could only be run on expensive computers which many of its die hard customers cannot afford. If Blizzard can maintain good customer service, develop new game contents, and have its games affordable, its business will continue to rise.
The Amazon.com (e-retailer)
Retailer Name and Mission (reason for being, what needs to they fulfill) (3pts)
I choose Amazon.com as my researched e-retailer.
Amazon.com would like to become earth’s most customer centric company; to be a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.
Target Audience BE SPECIFIC (4 pts)
Amazon’s target audience would be online users that would like to buy books, music, games, electronics, clothes, jewelry, tools, and groceries….etc that have a debit or credit card.
Potential online users that would like to buy or sell items online are also Amazon’s target audience.
Amazon also seeks opportunities to attract people that would like to do business, partnership, or invest with Amazon.
Amazon also targets people who want to save money due to cheaper prices it provides like students.
Retail Format (12 pts)
Sustainable Competitive Advantage (6pts)
Identify what the source of the advantage is, and how sustainable it will be long term.
Amazon is a trust worthy company among many online shoppers which is its advantage. Also, Amazon provides many assortments, good service, and cheaper goods that are beneficial for its shoppers. If Amazon maintains the above advantages it has then they will sustain its business for a long time.
Is it easy to imitate, are there “copycats” in the marketplace?
It is hard to try to imitate the Amazon due to the size of the warehouse and the sorting software that are required. In order to imitate Amazon, it would require a lot of human resource, computer software/program experts, money, and warehouse which is really unlikely for someone to do so.
What would be the “Achilles heel” of the retail strategy?
The “Achilles heel” for Amazon is not being able to maintain its high quality services and not being able maintain quality goods at cheaper price. Most of Amazon’s customers, buy products from Amazon because of the quality product and services it provides. If Amazon cannot maintain those above advantages it will lose many businesses.
Work Cited
"Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & More." Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & More. Amazon.com. Web. 06 Mar. 2012. <http://www.amazon.com/ref%3Dgno_logo>.
"Mission Statement." Blizzard Entertainment:. Blizzard Entertainment Inc. Web. 06 Mar. 2012. <http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/about/mission.html>.
Monster Cable Inc. "Monster Cable® Products, Inc. Company Information." Monster Cable® Products, Inc. Company Information. Monster Cable Inc. Web. 06 Mar. 2012. <http://www.monstercable.com/company_info/monster_cable_products.asp>.
by
nkokchuan (student)
