Marketing Research: Identification of the latest market trends in retail, tastes and preferences and expectations of customers.
Merchandising and Stock Management and Store Layout Management: Separate merchandise floor with diversified section for apparels, footwear etc.
Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning: Young Mothers.
Designing Pricing Strategy: Low prices of product and services.
Customer Relationship Management: Effective displays of product, customer convenience facilities like amiable billing system and well trained staff to help customers (Case # 4 : Dressing Up).
In addition to this the strategic managers in Kohl’s Corporation should focus on the following functions of retail management for the effective management of their departmental store and fulfills the need and demand of customers more vibrantly:
Retail Product Planning and Formulation.
Supply Chain Management.
Promotional Strategies.
Strategies of Competitors.
Customer Retention.
Translating needs into products and services.
Exploring Retail Market Opportunities.
Easy availability of products and services (Case # 4 : Dressing Up).
In order to keep track of dynamic market environment Kohl’s Corporation should conduct market research and have a watch on the strategies of competitors on a regular basis which gives it the information regarding the latest trends, tastes and preferences of the customers pertaining to the retail and performance of competitors. Moreover it should get filled response sheets from its customers on a regular basis in order to get their feedback and further expectations. It will further helpful in retention of existing customers and creation of prospective customers which ultimately enhance the brand image, brand equity, market image of the company and assist it in having a competitive advantage over others (Case # 4 : Dressing Up).
Question 2:
If you were a strategic decision maker at Kohl’s headquarters, what types of external information would you want? What if you were Kohl’s store manager? What types of external information you want?
Answer 2:
External Information required as Kohl’s Strategic Decision Maker at Headquarters are as follows:
Information regarding the latest trend in the retail market and the tastes and preferences and expectations of the customers.
Pricing and quality aspects as per the need and demand of customers and the market.
Location of various retail stores of Kohl’s and its subsequent competitors.
Information regarding the promotional schemes like discounts, free samples, free gifts, price concession of competitors.
Information regarding the availability of various ranges of diversified brands.
Information regarding the customer relationship management trends in the market.
Strategies pertaining to the segmentation, targeting and positioning of competitors.
Recession or booming of the industry and the economy.
Services provided by competitors regarding the reputations and adjustments like warranties, guarantees, money back provisions in case of fault or undesirability of products and services (Case # 4 : Dressing Up).
External Information required as Kohl’s Store Manager are as follows:
Information regarding the loyalty programs like affinity, appreciation, coalition, rebates, rewards, partnership etc. conducted by its competitors.
Additional facilities like different modes of payments, flexible hours of opening, ample space for parking, amiable store location.
Store layout expectation of customers pertaining to accessibility of products and services, lifts and escalators, billing counters etc. and services provided by competitors in this regard.
Availability of adequate number of well trained staff of its own and competitors and the impact on customers.
Market trends pertaining to the merchandising and budgeting and marketing strategies of the competitors (Case # 4 : Dressing Up).
Question 3:
Do you think the strategic decision makers have done a good job of scanning and assessing the environment? Explain.
Answer 3:
Yes the strategic decision makers at Kohl’s Corporation have performed an excellent job in the scanning and assessing the business environment of the company.
The strategic decision makers initially identify the changes in the tastes and preferences of customers of departmental stores. They have altered their business operations as per the latest need and demands of the market customers, initially they focused on the augmented offerings of product and services at reasonable cost keeping in mind the customer’s convenience on top priority. They create a separate merchandise floor like a box shaped structure with economical lighting so that the customers can easily use carts in order to have access to the merchandise pertaining to the clothes, footwear, home apparels. Strategic decision makers suggest the company to open its retail stores in different selective locations. It focuses to open its stores in the center of “ soccer mom country” and avoid opening its shop in malls keeping in mind the convenience of its target customers i. e. young mothers. They provide additional numbers of cash counters for making billing facility more convenient and customers need not to stand in queues for long time, good displays of products and services so as to provide full information to the customers, manage right price tags, ensure full value of products and services with qualitative aspects on priority. It also started additional home furnishing section to attract its target customers (Case # 4 : Dressing Up).
Moreover Kohl’s focused its attention towards the training and development of its staff members so as to make them proficient in dealing with the customers which leads to effective customer relationship management, and customer delight. From the aforementioned change implemented in the business operations for fulfilling the demand of the customers as per the dynamic market environment it is quite clear that the strategic decision makers have scanned, assessed and evaluated the environment effectively. These measures are quite helpful to Kohl’s corporation in having a competitive advantage over the firms like Wal-Mart and J. C. Penney etc. (Case # 4 : Dressing Up).
Question 4:
What conclusion(s) about opportunities and threats can you draw from this case?
Answer 4:
The opportunities available with the Kohl’s Corporation which enable it to compete well in the market are as follows:
High revenue generating capacity of $ 13 billion.
Availability of 800 plus departmental stores.
Effective market positioning in the United States.
Effective market research and strategic decision making team.
Exact identification of customer’s needs and demands and proper delivery of products and services as per their requirement.
Effective merchandising system and store layout facility.
Effective market segment and target market strategies with young mothers of age group 25 to 52 years and income group of $ 35000 to $ 75000.
Effective diversification strategy pertaining to home décor and kitchenware products.
Good hold in the market through market positioning and customer relationship practices which leads to have a competitive advantage over Wal-Mart, Mc Donald’s, J. C. Penney etc (Case # 4 : Dressing Up).
As far as the threats of the Kohl’s corporation are concerned it has tough competition with Wal-Mart, Mc Donald’s and J. C. Penney. Its competitors were having strong web connections and big private label brands which generate high profits. Thus they beat it in terms of profit generation through high level brands as it mainly focuses on local brands like the Harbor, Villager, Hoggar, Union Bay, Jockey, and HealthTex at comparatively low price. Moreover the dynamic market trends pertaining to the Retail acts as another major barrier in the performance of Kohl’s Corporation apart from its competitors’ activities (Case # 4 : Dressing Up).
