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.
Purchase answer to see full
attachment