Marketing Case Analysis MCA

Identify the strengths and weaknesses of Staples Inc . before the arrival of Ronald Sargent . As well , identify the threats and opportunities this organization is facing

Strength and Weaknesses

Despite of overall market decline , Staples sales had in fact increased by 0 .7 , giving it a larger share of the market when its competitors were losing it

Staples ' profits increased , reaching US 265 in 2001 from US 59 .7 in 2000

Staples ' Return on Net Assets was below its weighted average cost of capital its profitability had declined

It had

too many well stocked stores , a lot more than its competitors Despite of this , revenue per store was still less than competitors

It just caters to one segment of the market , small businesses . It has to increase its market share by making inroads into other avenues

Opportunities and Threats

Opportunities in terms of catering to individual customers instead of just offices are huge , Staples could diversify and tap into a new target market altogether

Expansion into other markets such as home customers , both at home and abroad

Expansion into more international markets is possible . Japan and the Middle East hold huge opportunities

The Office Supply market was maturing , resulting in a shrink of 3 in the Make use of the internet more inline with Staples targets . This would result in a multi-channel strategy while proving customers with better services and a higher value

Staples Inc . runs a multi-channel distribution system that includes stores , catalogues , a Web site , and field sales force . List a seven pros and cons of this system

Pros and Cons of using a multi channel distribution system

Provides a 360 degrees technique of sorts to target the customer

Such strategies are very beneficial for customers and provide them with an added value

It is expensive to maintain and if not fully used , like Staples is not using it to gain new customers (despite of regular customers being more profitable than new ones ) when it should . A system is already in place it just needs to be modified so as to not just limit itself to current customers but also gain new ones

With the Office supply market stabilizing this strategy will help Staples a lot in expanding into other markets

For Staples , these other markets would include the ones that are international which their web based system will help in targeting and the other is customers who do not run offices . These are individual customers and again , all the channels employed by Staples can be used to target them as well

Right now , Staples is operating a set of distribution channels . It should expand this into a value- delivery network from start to finish and the current set of channels it has can give it a good head start in this direction

Managing so many channels at once is a problem . These channels should not be judged according to profitability , all need to be concentrated on instead of investing more on the ones that seemingly are more profitable...