Whole Food Market Company is a supermarket specializing in organic food based in Austin Texas, United States. It is a chain of supermarkets and has over four hundred branches in the US, UK, and Canada. The company only sells products that meet the quality of being natural and minimally processed. The foods are free from hydrogenated fats, sweeteners, artificial flavors, preservatives, and colors (Johnston, 2015). In addition, it cannot sell milk and meat from cloned animals that have made the company’s food safe for human consumption.
Strategic planning
The company has a corporate image strategy that can be achieved through some of the following ways. Firstly, it is dedicated to providing the highest quality of natural and organic foods. It also deliberates on conveying to the customers the high quality of products. Thirdly, it plans to offer a healthy lifestyle and offer a unique experience in the stores (Integrated Marketing Communications Plan, n.d.). Lastly but not least, it is the company's intention to care about the communities and the environment. It also has a strategy of brand development to promote the whole food brands. It intends to continue the promotion through advertising using its image of organic and natural products. It does it by using a ‘healthy’ logo that promotes green living. The company’s name itself implies that the foods are not processed and natural.
Another strategic plan of WFM is that of brand positioning. The company intends to promote the highest quality of its foods as opposed to the pricing. It also intends to make the products more competitive so that the customers perceive a healthier choice over those of its competitors. Public relation is also one of the company's strategic plans. Some of them include the provision of loans to the unprivileged families. It also continues to work with the third world nations and provide subsidies and loans to local farmers that meet whole food organic standards and sponsors a variety of green events. The other primary strategy of the company is the internet-marketing plan. It has a comprehensive website that provides information regarding the company and its stores, Whole Food news and recipes, health and nutrition, and forums and blogs (Johnston, 2015). The website allows customers to do catering services and make orders online.
Organizational structure
The organizational structure of the company's enhances its effectiveness in satisfying the market demands. It ensures that the corporation's systems, resource arrangement, and other operations help in attaining the business goals (Malloch, 2015). This corporate structure defines the relationships between the workers and other company's components. This company has a divided structure, namely; four-tier levels of hierarchy, geographic divisions, a functional structure in every section, and teams.
In a four-tier hierarchy, four levels of management include global headquarters, regional offices, facilities, and stores. The whole foods market company has vertical type of control, communication, and command. Another structure is the geographic divisions (Integrated Marketing Communications Plan, n.p). The company has twelve geographic branches that are operational in the United States, the UK, and Canada. The aspect of organization structure, therefore, involves the regional offices. These agencies are responsible for overseeing the business operations including the divisional market status. The company’s organization structure provides for adequate flexibility to deal with the differences in the regional markets. The functions in each division correspond to the business functions. This aspect maximizes the elasticity of regional endeavors because every regional administration carries out mandates based on the conditions of their markets. Whole foods market also allows the participation of teams at various levels of its organization. The teams support business profit making through sales bargaining and retail services that are directly offered to prospects.
Controlling
Whole Foods Market management has been working in collaboration with many of its suppliers for many years to source products that are free from GMO ingredients. Its effort is to collaborate with suppliers in all categories to emphasize on non-GMO products, or clearly label the ones containing GMOs (Malloch, 2015). Genetically modified organisms, therefore, are part of the ongoing national discussion to support other states to meet the uniform sets of standards.
Leading
This company is a conscious business, and therefore, it requires conscious leadership. The leaders of the corporation are motivated primarily by service and core purpose of creating value for customers and stakeholders. They reject a zero-sum or trade-off oriented business and looks for a creative, synergistic approach to delivering multiple kinds of value and the best products.
Human resource management
Staffing positions in the company are one of the most important functions of human resource management functions. The company can hire employees from outside or shuffle or promote the internal employees. The human resource department of the company provides options for applying for jobs via the company website using HR software called ISims(Johnston, 2015). The company also encourages training and development culture. For individuals who wish to move up to the managerial positions, Whole Foods Market Company provides adequate training for them.
Social responsibility
Apart from the provision of the organic products, the firm focuses on improving the sustainability of the agriculture industry. It advocates for the professional use of pesticides and educate the farmers on the reduction of land degradation. The company engages in other environmental initiatives that are beyond its business activities. For instance, it joined the Marine Steward Council in promoting sustainable fishing practices to preserve the stock of fish (Malloch, 2015). Further, it supports equitable compensation for those producers in the developing countries. These social responsibilities help in building a good reputation.
Globalization
Whole Foods Market has its retail stores or supermarkets in several parts of the world. The company also has been named to be among the world's most ethical companies as it emphasizes the production of organic food products and it is strict on that. Most people in various countries are trying to eat healthily, and the business is making advertisements on their website (Malloch, 2015). This has enabled its prospects to want to buy the company’s products from all over the globe.
SWOT analysis
Some of the company’s strengths are the high standards of quality products and competitive advantage on the sizes of its stores. Another one is its ability to offer an economic value in management and incentive system for employees. However, the company has a weakness when it comes to its high prices (Integrated Marketing Communications Plan, n.p). The cost of growing and marketing its organic foods are found to be higher by more than 25 percent as compared to conventionally grown ones.
The opportunities for the company include increased attractiveness of the organic foods and enhanced brand image through community services that makes it attract new customers. On the other hand, some of the threats include the increasing number of organic products groceries and their competitive pricing. The lower prices of these competitive groceries can steal Whole Foods Market’s customers.
References
Integrated Marketing Communications Plan. (n.d.). Dictionary of marketing communications. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Johnston, J. (2015). Whole Foods Market. The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Consumption and Consumer Studies, 1-2. doi:10.1002/9781118989463.wbeccs240
Malloch, T. R. (2015). Practical wisdom in management: Business across spiritual traditions. Sheffield, U.K: Greenleaf / Academy of Business in Society.
