CanGo. Com CanGo is a new up and coming small business that growing by the minute. CanGo’s executives recently began to look into new ways to expand their already successful business. Selling new and used books has proven to be a great market for them, but they were looking into expanding their inventory to keep up with competitors, Amazon.com, Barnes & Nobles, and Book-a-million. CanGo’s CEO and visionary, Liz Blackman and senior leadership opened the company to Initial Public Offering to increase capital.
In her essay, “In Praise of Chain Stores”, Virginia Postrel hails the progressiveness of chain stores and counters arguments made against them. As a frequent shopper in my city, I have experienced the benefits of chain stores and how they affect the locals that shop in them. I believe that chain stores have not turned Augusta into a boring city because they are familiar even to those new to the area, they have a high standard of quality and service, and provide fair fixed prices. First, Postrel quotes Thomas Friedman in her essay, stating that “…America is mind numbingly monotonous- the most boring country to tour; because ‘everywhere looks like everwhere else…’ the familiarity of a Walmart to someone new to Augusta may be a relief,
Fifth Business Reading Journal What is the point of view of the writer? Robertson Davies is a Canadian author, who grew up only ten years after the book was set. He also lived in a small town, Orangeville, and so the point of view of the writer is similar to that of the main character. I believe Davies’ point of view is that this story can entertain and inform his readers.
Corruption was prevalent in the United States during the 1900s. Fraud existed in major industries, such as monopolies or unsafe working conditions. Several people wanting reform wrote books and articles about the industries which made a large impact on the consumers and users of industries. This put pressure on the president to make changes in regulating these industries. Muckrakers, a group of journalists, exposed corrupt issues to the American public, which brought reform to many major industries such as oil, railroads, and government.
The term “Big Business” was first coined in the 1800’s, used as an insult against companies that controlled the market, like monopolies. Monopolies are bad because they allow one company/organization/individual to produce a product and sell it for whatever price they want because the product has their name on it. Certain businessmen, like the richest political and business tycoons, Rockefeller, Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Ford, Morgan, etc. were able to capitalize on the 5 biggest industries which were oil, steel, railroads, automobiles, and textiles. These men were entrepreneurs that took America into the Gilded Age and created some of the biggest companies of the era, most of which are still around today and dominate the industries. Rockefeller
Monopolies in the 1900’s had immense powers in the market, and were able to have complete control because they had such power. A monopoly is the “exclusive control of commodity, market or means of production” where the “power is concentrated in the hands of a select few” (Beattie). While monopolies do get jobs done and inquire a large amount of money, their success it at the expense of the people and the power they have obtained is abused. They started off liked by small businesses because it helped with shipping costs, but eventually monopolies became too powerful. They are more hurtful to the public than helpful, and the benefits they gain from being a monopoly hurts the public, making them a collective dilemma.
Section One An American Retail Icon J.C. Penney Corporation, Inc. (JCP) has been a household name since the early twentieth century. Founded in 1902 by James Cash Penney, JCP experienced steady growth through its early decades, adding a variety of merchandise and stores throughout the United States. Their diversification of merchandise and services enabled them to compete with other national department store chains like Sears, Roebuck & Co. and Montgomery Wards & Co. (Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, 2017). In 1973, JCP reached its peak with 2,053 retail stores in operation (J.C. Penney Company, Inc.
Marketing relationships described the company and consumer reaching a goal to obtain a lasting relationship, where the buyer and seller have an arrangement they both agree upon based on trust coming from the customer and confidence that the company will understand the needs of the consumer. The relationship between the two parties when the marketer makes improvements on products based on the feedback from the consumer (Ferrell & Hartline, 2013). Lowes the home improvement store, one of the programs that Lowes provide to the consumer is their program where you scan your Lowes card and an individual can go to their account and look at past purchases they made, input their house floor plan and can get information as how much paint they will need
Robin Sloan’s Mr Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore is a great example that coincides with Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor. He accomplishes that with sex, politics, and a quest. During Sloan’s Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore, the main character Clay goes on a quest with his friends, Neel and Kat, along with his boss, Mr. Penumbra, to figure out the secret, hidden in books, to immortality. Throughout the course of the book, Sloan uses several tactics that go along with the points in Foster’s book as well. Foster, in the book, states, “for those who remember a time when the movies not only didn’t showed people ‘doing it’, they also didn’t show people having done it or talking about having done it… director cuts to waves, somebody was getting lucky.”
The story of this company can definitely be a telling example of how a legendary and innovative business may lose its position by not paying attention to the changes happening on the market and shifts of consumer’s expectations and needs associated with that. As a conclusion to all the above, I would like to point out that I firmly believe that the company could have been saved if given a team of marketing experts in the moment of major changes on the market. Building a new marketing strategy based on a market-orientation and product differentiation would definitely become in use. Nevertheless, Fred Harvey did leave a tract in history by becoming ‘the first chain of everything’, changing public’s attitude to a position of women on a labor market, making a significant contribution into a popularization of traveling, and introducing America to the Americans.
Q1a. MARKET STRUCTURE OF APPLE INC Apple Inc. operates different types of market structure in terms of their different products. In the smart phone business, they happen to be one of the major players with their different models of the “iphone” which makes them operate in an oligopolistic market. Oligopoly arises when there is an imperfect competition in which there are just few firms producing similar products. As a result of high competition, monopolies, interdependence among firms there are just a few big players having the market power and making it very difficult for new firms to penetrate the market with their products.
For the business-level, Trader Joe’s adopted a differentiation focus strategy. According to our textbook with this strategy, Trader Joe’s seeks to differentiate in its target market. They rely on providing better service than broad-based competitors. Specifically, they focus on the special needs of the buyer in other segments (Dess, Page 159). Joe’s differentiates its self from other grocers by providing a unique shopping experience fortified with their private label goods and great service from their crew members.
Apple Inc. embraces diversification strategy as a means of promoting its viability in the market. Largely, the creation of the three products lines compounds the sources of the company’s income. In fact, the company does not rely on a single source of income because the product design belongs to different categories. This strategy cushions the business from suffering risks of associated with depending on a single business. According Hitt, Ireland, and Hoskisson (2014, p.135), the benefit of handling many products is that when one product fail or does poorly in the market, the business is would shift its attention of the best performing products.
The core value propositions for Amazon’s internet book buyers were price, customer service, selection and convenience. Bezos (2000) claimed. Amazon to be “Earth’s most customer centric”, which meant they needed to listen, be innovative and personalise. Amazon’s personalization efforts were summarised by the CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, by stating “If we have seventeen million customers, we should have seventeen million stores.” (Bezos, 2000).
3.3 Customers and Competitors Customers Amazon customers consist of upper & middle class social groups who have inclination towards using E-commerce portals and are comfortable with online shopping. Majority of the customers are professionals or businessmen who are busy with their business/Job & find it convenient to purchase anything online rather than visiting the physical outlet in order to save time & money. Furthermore, the customers might also be the ones who are searching for deals.
