Wal-Mart is one of the top companies of the United States and it has rapidly grown into a huge corporation over the last few years in which it gained a massive business success with its marketing tactics and sales. There is a set of business strategies and plans through which the company has worked its way to the top and no other corporation has reached such a high level of global expansion in a limited period like Wal-Mart. The major factor in the success story of Wal-Mart is the use of media for social purposes and how the company has attracted consumers from everywhere through social media alone. Wal-Mart also collaborated with a number of educational institutes and famous shopping malls in order to have a positive impact on its target market.
The purpose of this research is the need to understand the operational structure of the organization and how it works within the industry. The purpose is to look at the factors which make Wal-Mart unique and different from other such organizations that are producing the same products and applying the same marketing tactics to their business but get lower results. The aim is to look at the target market and how the company fulfils its expectations through the use of social media and other advertising ways.
The methodology of the research was online. It was conducted through a number of reliable websites that provided an informative outlook on the current and previous situation of the organization and what kind of social media strategies it brings into use for business expansion and success. Information about the strengths and weaknesses of the company and also the threats that the organization faces because of being number one were looked at. The official website of Wal-Mart also provided valuable information about the suppliers and investors of the company and it also mentions various projects Wal-Mart is helping the community with and anyone who visits their official website can easily follow or like them on twitter and face book as well to remain connected. Wal-Mart has become the target competition globally and even locally for all other corporations thus the competition and production of better marketing tactics for consumer attraction increases. Websites such as epinions.com have online reviews of local customers who purchase products at Wal-Mart on a daily basis. Their feedback also provided many conclusions and results that were significant to the research.
ORGANIZATIONAL USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Wal-Mart continues to launch new ad campaigns that focus on promotions and discount offers and recently it has come up with a new advertising tactic which aims on telling its consumers about the low costs and prices of products the store has to offer. One of the weaknesses and issues that Wal-Mart had to face during the previous years was that it lost focus on the low prices of products and thus individuals who usually belong to middle class families and have low wages stopped trusting Wal-Mart when it came to prices. "We have lost our customer confidence in having the lowest price," said Duncan MacNaughton, chief merchandising officer at Wal-Mart in an interview with The Associated Press. The fall in sales was basically the fault of the retailers who made mistakes in price selection and costumer services. With the increasing price competition and the pressure of gaining more success economically as compared to other competing corporations, Wal-Mart has applied many advertising strategies for the marketing of its brand name. Social media platforms included face book ads, television ads within the US, posters, brochures and even radio advertisements. Twitter played a very important role in marketing Wal-Mart by updating people each second about new product offers and promotions. Most of these social media sources were effective and successful although, Wal-Mart lost some of its sales when it stopped focusing on its initial slogan, “Save money. Live better” in advertisements and billboards. It started promoting new items and stopped focusing on everyday products that were available on low prices in the store and were the main reason of customer attraction and attachment to the brand. Later on the corporation noticed the business going down and started focusing on its slogan again instead of marketing a number of selected items. The top consumer rated items at Wal-Mart include baby clothing items, music, food, jewellery, books, electronics and video games.
COMPETITIVE POSITION WITH RESPECT TO INDUSTRY
Wal-Mart’s entry into the business market has always had an impact on other competitive corporations. Many studies have been conducted that show and prove that small towns are more affected by discount retail stores such as Wal-Mart as compared to larger towns. A paper published in Farm Foundation in 1997 found that some small towns can lose almost half of their retail trade within ten years of a Wal-Mart store opening.[23] (Kenneth Stone, Professor of Economics at Iowa State University). Wal-Mart has always focused on such small towns where discount offers would attract everyone belonging to the middle class. All of the branches’ of Wal-Mart around the globe focus on serving the average man and providing good quality products on better and lower rates that match every budget. Target is the greatest competitor for Wal-Mart and is one of the top discount stores in comparison to Wal-Mart itself. Target focuses on providing products for the upper middle class as well as the lower middle class and this strategy is the same for Wal-Mart as well thus the competition increases. Since the company has maintained its reputation within the market and also because it is one of the oldest saving retail stores, the public trusts the brand more and prefers it over other corporations in the industry. This ultimately increases competition for Wal-Mart and it has always been the object in the market. Target as a competitor has recently earned the same profits as Wal-Mart and continues to grow big. All products are compared with their previous prices and customer reviewing and commenting is also asked for.
SWOT/COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS BASED ON SOCIAL MEDIA CONVERSATIONS
Wal-Mart is famous because of its product quality, good service in all stores and also because a large variety of products related to everything is found conveniently in one place. It has expanded globally during the recent year and holds almost 50% of the retail store market in the US. The company has used information technology very effectively in order to improve its logistics program and have a better well managed organization that runs smoothly through satellite systems. Wal-Mart can see the performance of its products at any branch and any part of the country in a fleeting look. Since the company has expanded on a very large scale it sometimes has its flaws when it comes to control and management because of the huge business scale. Although the company is international and is expanding globally, it is not present in a large number of countries worldwide and is still making a name in the global market. The general public believes that Wal-Mart mainly focused on providing for the middle and lower class so that they can save and live better at the same time but recently its quality of production also aims at serving the upper class due to the current recession in the economy. Complaints about the company from the customers include issues such as gifts cards that do not work lack of cashiers at the store outlets, incorrect billing and poor service.
It can be concluded according to the research and thesis that the company has done business successfully and is always present to serve at a very convenient location with affordable rates to attract everyone. The target market for Wal-Mart is average people belonging to the middle class or upper middle class who want good quality and good rates. It has had a lot of competition over the past years and still is the target in the business market but no other company has been as successful as Wal-Mart even after following all of its business and marketing strategies. The main reason for this is that it has maintained a good brand name over a decade and people trust the company more. There is a lot of space for improvement as the company also faces threats and has flaws because of being so large. The organization management must be improved and the use of IT should be controlled within the company. Employees must be provided with better wages and facilities as compared to the current wage rate the company is following so that they can work more happily and serve customers better.
References
William F. Achtmeyer. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. no. 2-0013. Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Web April 20, 2012, http://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pdf/2002-2-0013.pdf
Wal-Mart stores. Wal-Mart Web April 20, 2012 http://www.walmartstores.com/default.aspx
ANNE D'INNOCENZIO. Wal-Mart’s New Ad Campaign Renews Focus on Low Prices. Web April 20, 2012. Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/11/walmarts-ad-campaign-prices_n_847340.html
Epinions. Product rates. Web April 20, 2012. http://www.epinions.com/search/?search_string=walmart&no_skip=1%AC_look=1
Wikipedia. WAL-MART. Web April 20, 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walmart#Customer_base
