Strategic Research Project Wal-Mart Research Essay

Here we can clearly see a shift in the company's philosophy of just offering lower quality products for a significant lower price. The company is trying to develop into new markets and to succeed. There have been some set-backs of course, such as the failure in Germany, and yet the company is persistent and keeps growing into new markets. Wal-mart is seeking to increase the market share for present products or services in present markets through greater marketing efforts (props, 2006). The company culture is also well suited for this type of strategy. The management of Wal-Mart has ingrained in the employee's the core values needed to excel at increasing their market penetration. Again, their Price Rollback campaigns can readily be diffused into markets where they do not have as much of a market share as they want (props, 2006). In regards to product development, Wal-mart is slowly changing from a low-quality and low-price retailer to a higher-quality and low-price retailer. This can be seen especially in the company's electronic department where it now offers consumer products from name brand suppliers such as Sony, Samsung, JVS, and others.

All in all we can say that the company has come a long way since Sam Walton started it in 1962. The ideas of offering consumers low prices everyday are still accurate and engraved into the Wal-mart philosophy and its objectives. Wal-mart is one of the large corporations, which has the power to determine and dictate prices for the products it sells. Since many other companies are not able to compete at the level where Wal-mart is, the company does not have to fear significant competition. Also the company is growing and is penetrating new markets with new products; it still is seen as a low-quality product store to most of its customers. Whether pharmaceuticals, vision products, groceries, cloth, automotive, or others, Wal-mart has a wide selection of products and therefore a main advantage over its competitors by offering more different products to its customers.

The company's management should be more focused on quality improvements of the products they offer and also on new markets and the differences between countries and the company's home country the U.S.A. This was one of their major set-backs in Germany that management did not understand the differences between the U.S. And Germany. In any regard, the company is well on its way to grow larger and become a significant player in the world's economy. Management should use these advantages to grow and improve the company and its reputation. Using the size of the company as strength, management should be able to keep prices under control and to negotiate with more of the name brands to offer those products to Wal-mart customers also. As a personal note, we can expect that this company will grow further and will eventually succeed in their endeavors to offer better and better quality products to its customers. It needs to be see if the current management team can keep this strategy in place and can pursue the points made in this paper.

Works Cited

Lever, P. (2008, 12-15). Strategic Busines Planing: suite101.com. Retrieved 04-22, 2010, from Porter's Five Forces Model-Competitive Analysis: http://strategic-business-planning.suite101.com/article.cfm/porters_five_forces_model_competitive_analysis props. (2006, 01-30). Case Analysis on Wal-Mart using the IE Matrix, SWOT Analysis and more . Retrieved 04-22, 2010, from Extensive Case Analysis on Wal-Mart: http://www.*****/essay.php?t=28463

Bibliography

Bush, R. (2006, 03-06). Wal-Mart. Retrieved 04-20, 2010, from Research Papers and Essays for All: http://www.*****/essays/Wal-Mart/80737

Lever, P. (2008, 12-15). Strategic Busines Planing: suite101.com. Retrieved 04-22, 2010, from Porter's Five Forces Model-Competitive Analysis: http://strategic-business-planning.suite101.com/article.cfm/porters_five_forces_model_competitive_analysis props. (2006, 01-30). Case Analysis on Wal-Mart using the IE Matrix, SWOT Analysis and more . Retrieved 04-22, 2010, from Extensive Case Analysis on Wal-Mart: http://www.*****/essay.php?t=28463