Walden University W 6 Trader Joes Successful Grocery Supermarket Discussion

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Business Finance

Walden University

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Discussion 1: Respond to two or more of your peers in one or more of the following ways:

  • Comment on what you learned from your colleague's analysis that is new to you and that will help you improve your Strategy Playbook and how you will use it to do so.
  • Offer constructive ideas for how your peer might extend or improve his or her summary analysis.
  • Provide your observations about your peers' comments based on your synthesis of several of the original posts, explaining how those posts better inform what your peer wrote. (Note: Exemplary responses should provide a synthesis of multiple peers' insights, findings, and analyses.

Discussion 2: Respond to two or more of your peers in one or more of the following ways:

  • Comment on what you learned from your colleague's analysis that is new to you and that will help you improve your Strategy Playbook and how you will use it to do so.
  • Offer constructive ideas for how your peer might extend or improve his or her summary analysis.
  • Provide your observations about your peers' comments based on your synthesis of several of the original posts, explaining how those posts better inform what your peer wrote. (Note: Exemplary responses should provide a synthesis of multiple peers' insights, findings, and analyses.)

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Crystal Fowler RE: Discussion 2 - Week 6 Some of the key factors that I’ve examined for my company to see how it can “win” comes from a shift that needs to be made. This shift can be described as more than a change in position of monetary standing, it can be seen as a change in strategy for marketing, pricing configuration and branding. One of goals I set for JC Penny was to capitalize on its opportunities of collaboration. They have already started this process collaborating with Sephora, but this effort would be much more effective by considering bringing in another powerful player in the fashion retail business. It’s no secret that JC Penny has had to close over 100 stores to make up for loss in revenue, and recently the company experienced a loss in $477 million dollars. (Isidore, 2020) So how can this once beloved department store turn things around and acquire the “win”? Since one of the main reasons why this store seems to be performing poorly is due to lack of interest for consumers, the business may want to consider appealing to the consumers that they have lost. In this trying times, it would beneficial to utilize multimedia marketing methods like commercials or social media, to reach out to the consumers to simply state that they as a business are here for them. On the financial front is has become known that JC Penny has implemented a restructuring support agreement to find a way to suppress its current standings in financial debt and navigate through the trenches of the pandemic. (Investors, 2020) This strategy will also target some other trouble areas such as changing its offer in merchandise, enhancing the customer experience and ensuring a results minded culture just to name a few. These repositioning made by JC Penny can prove to be sound and a step in the right direction to getting JC Penny in a winning situation. Resources “JC Penny is Doing Even Worse than we Thought” Isidore, Chris. 2020. Wink News. Web Article. https://www.winknews.com/2020/06/30/jcpenney-is-doing-even-worse-than-we-thought/ “JC Penny to Reduce Debt & Strengthen Financial Position Through Restructuring Support” JC Penny Investors. 2020. Press Releases. Web Article. https://ir.jcpenney.com/news-events/pressreleases/detail/613/jcpenney-to-reduce-debt-and-strengthen-financial-position Andrew Stark RE: Discussion 2 - Week 6 - Progressive's Strategic Pathways Progressive Insurance has seen significant success to get to their current position as the #3 automobile insurer in the U. S. The following recommendations include enhancement of these factors as well as a strategy to create new capabilities through new markets for Progressive to succeed in the future and attain its goal to be the #1 automobile insurer in the U. S. Demographic changes expected in mobility-related to driverless vehicles, Progressive should look to expand the types of insurance they provide. This will provide diversity to Progressive’s product offerings, in anticipation of the eventual decline in the automobile insurance business due to driverless vehicles. Most of Progressive’s 83-year existence has been as a provider of automobile insurance; it was only until 2014 did they start offering homeowner’s insurance, and even then, it was due to their acquiring another insurance company. Progressive’s total assets have doubled between 2015 to 2019 (The Progressive Corporation, 2020). That financial strength provides the organization with the capabilities to offer other types of insurance such as life, disability, or long term care, or they could use this financial strength to acquire another insurer who is already providing insurance products not already offered by Progressive. Metrics used in determining the success of this recommendation include customer retention percentage for those customers who stay with Progressive who have multiple types of insurance. This scenario will provide greater revenues to Progressive and lower costs by retaining customers longer. Current social trends reflect an increasingly connected society through social media. Progressive has capitalized on this trend through their advertising spokesperson named Flo. Flo’s character over the years has put a face to the Progressive brand while giving it meaning to customers (McAllister et al., 2015, p. 351). Other insurance companies have attempted to copy this strategy, such as Jake from State Farm, but Progressive has overwhelmingly succeeded in leveraging Flo to educate and convince the public that insurance is a commodity that can be purchased like any other retail product. Younger demographics tend to see less value in a relationship with an insurance agent which is a business model of other large competitors. Progressive should increase their marketing efforts with respect to Flo by engaging with her character in-person formats and other marketing efforts. They should also use Flo in orchestrating an advertising campaign as Progressive offers new and different products beyond automobile and homeowner’s insurance as recommended previously. As a metric for this recommendation, marketing or advertising research could be employed to determine Progressive’s brand recognition and awareness due to these more creative ways to leverage Flo. Progressive’s current CEO, Tricia Griffith, leading the company since 2016, has created excitement and energy to the company’s employees while inspiring the organization to operate in alignment with the company’s name (Jenkins, 2018, p. 126). It is recommended for Progressive’s CEO to create performance programs that will provide innovative ideas as to how the company can become more efficient while supporting other types of the insurance business. An employee rewards program will support the organization’s need to evolve and develop their processes for how they serve customers and implement the technological innovations needed to succeed. The rewards program could be easily measured using a tracking mechanism to account for the number of employee ideas and improvements while including the anticipated cost savings or revenue increases to the organization. As Progressive strives to be the leader in the industry, these recommendations with respect to product diversification, enhanced marketing, and employee culture/innovation will provide the organization the capabilities to grow and make their competition irrelevant (Kulkarni, 2020, p. 12). References Jenkins, A. (2018). 1 Tricia Griffith. Fortune, 178(6), 124. Kulkarni, B., & Sivaraman, V. (2020). Making a Blue Ocean Shift: Tata Ace captures a new market. Journal of Business Strategy, 41(4), 11–20. McAllister, M. P., Cooke, T. R., & Buckley, C. (2015). Fetishizing Flo: Constructing Retail Space and Flexible Gendered Labor in Digital-Era Insurance Advertising. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 32(5), 347–362. The progressive corporation. (2020). Fort Mill: Mergent. Retrieved from Business Market Research Collection. TANWIE LIONEL RE: Discussion 1 - Week 6 In my previous post about Trader Joe’s, I made mentioned some key factors that will be the success of the retail chain such as their uniqueness amongst their competitors with respect to products and services. Their products are unique and hard to find at regular stores and are also very natural food produce. With respect to services, their loyalty to their customers is undisputable and their employees are very satisfied working for them because of how great they treat their employees. New part-time hires typically earned $12 per hour. Full-time employees earned approximately $50,000 per year. Store captains grossed more than $100,000 per year. Trader Joe’s also contributed 15.4% of employees’ pay to retirement accounts. The company even offered some health care benefits to part-time employees (Ager &Roberto, 2014) however, and taken into consideration the five forces of competition, new entrant, threats of substitution, competitive rivalry, bargaining powers of supplier and bargaining power of buyers, Trader Joes possess some Key Successful Factors (KSF) which will help them survive in the next five years. Trader Joes focus on affordably priced private-label health foods, organic produce, and nutritional supplements. To keep costs down, its stores have no service departments and a limited selection. (Scheer, 2003). With the recent call for food security and nutrition to avoid obesity in the U.S., people are awakened with the selection of food they are consuming. Going towards healthy and organic food stuffs such the ones offered at Trader Joe’s. Also, it focuses on educated, health conscious customers, which influences where it locates its stores, which products its stocks, and the type of employees it hires. The company's choices reinforce one another to increase customers' willingness to pay, reduce costs, and thereby drive profitability. The dense interdependencies among the choices prevent rivals from imitating Trader Joe's winning strategy. (Sull et al.,2018) Furthermore, Trader Joes will need to expand it business within the ecommerce space. Taking their business online will be of great necessity in order to keep, them in business. It is no news that e-commerce has taking over physical shopping recently and this will be the future of shopping especially with the way things are going with the recent outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic which has changed drastically how we associate with others and how we do business with others. In addition to the above, the fact that managers are giving the power to respond according to their individual store needs and the needs of the customers gives a lot of flexibility for growth. Manager do not have to adhere to corporate bureaucracy. Store managers, too, did not have to adhere strictly to a “planogram” developed by the corporate office. They could adapt how and where products were displayed based on their understanding of the local clientele. (Ager &Roberto, 2014)) Despite these successes and the factors put in place to guarantee a lifelong success, Trader Joe’s still has a lot to do to keep itself in business. One of the most apparent gaps is the absence of technological innovations such as online purchasing and shipping / delivery service like their competitors. With the recent trend in the world and with people trying as much as possible to stay indoors and shop, it will be advisable to introduce online purchase and shipping/ delivery to its loyal customers. It should be noted that this will not be easy to pull this off since they believe strongly in the interaction with their customers on a more physical basis. This will also help to reach out to other customers segments who can’t make it to the store. Also, the growth of the firm has orchestrated a growing bureaucracy which even employees feared might leads to a change in policy and derailment of their values. ex-crewmembers who worried about growing bureaucracy at the company as it implemented new processes and procedures. Mark Gardiner expressed some concern as well. He described how recent changes had led to increased competition among employees seeking advancement. (Ager &Roberto, 2014). These fears amongst employees will lose the zeal to work for the firm they once cherished. To this respect, management needs to assure employees by making sure they are giving what they are entitled to like raises and promotion. If hired as a consultant, I will emphasis on installing technological innovations to reach another segment of customers who can’t make it to the store but are fan of their products. At the same time, making it at home for the customers who still want to maintain that physical shopping ability. Will also continue to build on the purchase and supply of unique and fresh produce which makes them stand-out amongst their competitors. Ager, D. L.., & Roberto, M. A. (2013). Trader Joe’s (Harvard business School Case No. 9-714419). Christensen, C., Anthony, S., & Roth, E. (2004). Seeing what's next: Using the theories of innovation to predict industry change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press. Scheer, R. (2003). Organic Profits. E: The Environmental Magazine, 14(4), 44. Sull, D., Turconi, S., Sull, C., & Yoder, J. (2018). Turning strategy into results. MIT Sloan Management Review, 59(3), 1-12. Reginald Hyman RE: Discussion 1 - Week 6 What are Trader Joe's essential skills, competencies, and capabilities to survive or thrive in the future? Trader Joe's is a successful grocery supermarket which takes a different business approach to stay competitive in the grocery industry. The company skills have focused on providing excellent customer service, creating a pleasant customer experience, and developing quality products that other grocery supermarkets can not give its customers. Another skill is Trader Joe's has built strong relationships with its suppliers and vendor to distribute unique products in their grocery stores (Ager & Roberto, 2013). The company has skills, competencies, and capabilities that focus their strategies by engaging a specific target customer-based and a combination of exclusive products to reach new markets, Trader Joe's skills are the employees can perform different job roles and positions which makes the staff more effective in their job performance and productivity (Ager & Roberto, 2013). In understanding the key success factors are for Trader Joe's to thrive in the future it must maintain its customer experience, gain new methods for ads promotion, continue to product differentiation, and develop better information technology systems for store website. The company needs to revamp its marketing strategy to attract different customers based not only on professional and college students. The company should continue to look at store location expansion that will enhance its brand and appeal to new customers. Trader Joe's do not use a customer reward program which would allow discounts and special sales offers on its products. Another competency is understanding Trader Joe's has effective store managers that find different ways to communicate with the employees by using a bell system instead of using a regular intercom system (Ager & Roberto, 2013). The company senior management has taken steps to incorporate good decision making that improves business sustainability and competitiveness in the industry. Trader Joe's have critical gaps in skills, competencies, and capabilities. What can bridge Trader Joe's gap? If Trader Joe wants to bridge the critical gap the company will have to make some changes in the way it functions to become a leading in the industry with using its internal and external resources (Johnson, Yip, & Hensmans, 2012). Trader Joe's have focus on how the organization will stay competitive in a demanding changing industry. The company has to consider if Trader Joe's take care of its employee with high pay and increase percentages of retainment accounts they will take care of the customers (Ager & Roberto, 2013). The company current critical gaps are they lack customer rewards program, no technology presence, no social media advertising, and do not providing brand name products in its stores to reach potential new customers. Trader Joe's has to keep its internal and external stakeholders aware of how the company manage it skills, competencies, and capabilities in it industry. The company needs to create technology with grocery delivery service apps, website provide information on the business activities and store products. If Trader Joe's is still willing to make some adjustments to always stay relevant and competitive in its industry the business will have long term success and growth. • • • • • • • Some other critical gaps in future to manage: Cost Expansion Product differentiation International business markets Technology Maintain Employee Involvement Distribution channels Continuously meeting customer needs References Ager, D. L., & Roberto, M.A. (2013). Trader Joe's (Harvard Business School Case No. 9-714-419) Johnson, G., Yip, G.S., & Hensman, M. (2012). Achieving successful strategic transformation. MIT Sloan Management Review, 53(3), 25-32.
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Response to Crystal Fowler Week 2 Discussion
You have identified the need to focus on building a substantial change process within
which it would be possible to achieve an improved system. The efficacy in building change
outlines essential processes that help define difference strategy. You have identified marketing,
pricing, and branding as crucial aspects that are integrated within the organization successfully
to determine an improved level of performance. I agree with this assertion, although different
companies have different processes that help influence their decisions and build change
development. One of the underlying goals that JC Penny has in place is to capitalize on its
opportunities in collaboration.
Improving organizational performance can be adequately defined after analysis of
internal aspects that define business development. Positive measures within business
development help create a sustainable system within which it is possible to achieve more
exceptional outcomes. You have not fully exploited the real opportunities that the company
can utilize in helping redefine business change and improve efficiency based on more reliable
processes that define change development. You also identified vital processes that the company
has considered to strengthen its development within the market (“JC Penny is Doing Even
Worse Than We Thought," 2020). Restructuring is an intense process that must be effectively
developed, emphasizing different components that define restructuring success.
Your discussion is short but detailed. However, there was a need to elaborate on key
aspects that you have included, which help define change and integration of better processes
that can help improve efficiency and improved the level of change. The ability to enhance
change development...


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