1.

This week, we learned about the marketing mix (the traditional 4 P’s, as well as their interpretation in terms of value offerings) and the concept of customer centricity.

If you are new to the marketing field, identify a brand with which you are familiar (put the brand in the subject line of your main post). In your main post, describe the marketing mix. Also, what evidence can you find (through brand communications, company information, etc.) of the brand’s focus on customer-centricity?

OR

If you have experience in the marketing field,

• identify a brand with which you are familiar (put the brand in the subject line of your main post). In your main post, describe the value proposition for that brand. Does the brand have different value propositions for different target markets?
• Also, what evidence can you find (through brand communications, company information, etc.) that this brand is customer-centric? Support your view with reliable evidence and examples.
• How important is it for this brand to be customer-centric? Explain.

2. Describe a situation you are aware of that involved making an ethical choice. This could be a situation you personally experienced or one you are aware from the media. What was the choice that had to be made and how did it affect the stakeholders involved?

Of the major theories (e.g. utilitarianism, deontology, social contract, virtues-based) which were, or appear to have been, considered in the decision? If the situation is one you personally experienced, how would the application of a different ethical theory have changed your decision? If you are describing a familiar situation (vs. an experience), on what evidence/outcomes do you base your response?

ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS: Comment on the response of 3 of your
peers. The response should consist of no less than 150 words and should
incorporate at least one outside, i.e., from a library database search,
APA formatted reference at the end of the post.Your responses must contribute significantly to your classmate’s
posting and foster further discussion in order to receive the full
points per response. To make a knowledgeable posting, it would be a good
idea to review the supplemental material before writing your response
(attached). Here are the responses of your peers to the questions asked:

QUESTION 1: After reading the text, search for an organization that does not currently do business globally (outside of their home country). What opportunities would international expansion give this organization? List 2 – 3 strategies the organization might use and analyze the benefits and risks associated with each strategy. Justify, why in your opinion, international expansion is or is not a viable strategy for them.

JOSEPH’S RESPONSE:
Barnes and Noble does not have any stores outside the United States, although they do ship products overseas. They are not considered a foreign direct investment which is a “direct investment in production or business in one country by a business from another country” (Dyer, Godfrey, Jensen & Bryce, 2016, p. 171). Although Barnes and Nobles may compete with online retail store, Amazon, Barnes and Noble can offer the “experience” of customers visiting its stores abroad. Below are two strategies that Barnes and Noble may use to help consider its expansion:

1. Efficiency (Global Strategy). “Beyond looking at the price of a particular resource, though, companies also have to take into account factors that might increase the cost to use the resource, including labor productivity, and the transportation and communication costs needed to acquire the resource” (Dyer, et al, 2016, pp. 174-175). The benefit would be that stores could be opened on a much smaller scale while still providing an ample amount of products. A risk would be that people living abroad wouldn’t get the “full” store interactive experience with a coffee shop, children’s play area, quiet study areas, etc.

2. Responding to Customers or Competitor (Multidomestic Strategy). “Last, but not least, firms may expand internationally in response to either customers or competitors” (Dyer, et al, 2016, p. 175). As we already mentioned, Amazon is one of Barnes and Noble’s largest competitor. The organization may respond to competitors in order to gain more consumers. Additionally, more people are living abroad and Barnes and Noble may have an opportunity to open its doors to even more consumers. “It doesn’t matter whether someone relocates outside of their home country at age 5 or 45, the experiences gained and the memories retained have a lifelong impact on individuals and their families” (Sandlin, 2016, para. 1). The benefit would be capturing the market audience while understanding what the organization’s are doing as well. The risk would be that the market is consistently changing at a pace where Barnes and Noble may have a tough time catching up to appropriately respond. If Barnes and Nobles goes forth with their international expansion, I
feel that their best bet would be to only open a limited number of
stores abroad. As we know, Barnes and Nobles stores are very, very large
and opening many stores could be a costly challenge. It may be more
efficient to open smaller versions of the retail store while still
accommodating the latest and greatest books available on the market.

QUESTION 1: After reading the
text, search for an organization that does not currently do business
globally (outside of their home country). What opportunities would
international expansion give this organization? List 2 – 3 strategies
the organization might use and analyze the benefits and risks associated
with each strategy. Justify, why in your opinion, international
expansion is or is not a viable strategy for them.

HENNA’S RESPONSE: Quick Trip is number 33 on Forbes list of top privately owned companies in the United States (Forbes, 2017 para. 33). They are based out of Tulsa, Oklahoma. They have 700+ locations in 11 states (Quick Trip, 2017 para. 1). I would suggest they expand north all the way to Canada. Canada’s history on gas refueling stations is interesting. For a long time Canada’s gas prices and filling stations were primarily controlled by the fuel manufacturing companies. This is diminishing quickly. For example between 2015 and 2016 the fuel prices controlled by the seven fuel refining companies has gone down by five percent and in turn the privately owned fueling stations has gone up by five percent (Kent Group, 2017 para. 3).

Global Strategy

Quick Trip could allow franchising into Canada. This is not recommended though. It would be relatively low cost for Quick Trip as a company, the Quick Trip brand is not well known in Canada and thus the franchisee would have little to gain from doing so. It would be simpler for them to go to a large gas station chain that is already well known in Canada.

Quick Trip could also simply start get all necessary licensing and contracts to build new locations in Canada much the way they have expanded in the U.S. This is the most expensive option, but they would have all of the control of the locations. This is also not recommended as a mode of entry into Canada.

Multidomestic Strategy

Recommended mode of entry for Quick Trip is a joint venture. If Quick Trip was to go into a joint venture with a relatively small but well known gas station chain they would be able to utilize their resources and the cost of fueling contracts would be relatively low. They could also provide the needed capital to the smaller chain for expansion further into the Canadian market. Eventually they could buy out the chain and change the name thus allowing them to become more popular in Canada.This could also allow for ease of further expansion under the Quick Tripname. QUESTION 1:
After reading the text, search for an organization that does not
currently do business globally (outside of their home country). What
opportunities would international expansion give this organization? List
2 – 3 strategies the organization might use and analyze the benefits
and risks associated with each strategy. Justify, why in your opinion,
international expansion is or is not a viable strategy for them.

GREG’S RESPONSE: One of my favorite companies to shop at is Menards. Menards started in Eau Claire Wisconsin but now has 300 stores in 14 states and focuses in the home improvement industry as a low price leader (About Menards, 2017). I believe that Menards could operate in foreign countries where some of their products are sourced. They would benefit from being a “local” customer in these countries with improved relationships and pricing opportunities. While home improvement is dominated in certain countries by a select group of companies, I am not aware of a global leader in the industry and that could be a major opportunity for this company. While I believe that international expansion is possible for this company, I think it is far more likely that they will continue to spread out in the United States before they invest in foreign countries. Their current business model works in the United States and there is no reason to think that it would do better in Spain than it would in the neighboring state of their current expansion pattern.

Global Strategy

Because Menards has always been a private owned business, they are not likely interested in a franchise of joint venture type of expansion. Instead the expansion would be based wholly around a wholly owned subsidiary of the company. While the time, investment and risk to the company are all elevated, the company can benefit in that they appear to the host nation that they are fully invested in the community and not interested in simply siphoning funds from the economy to send back to America (Dyer, Godfrey, Jensen & Bryce, 2016, p187). This strategy would allow the company to maintain full control and ensure that the international expansion met the vision that they had for the company globally.

Arbitrage Strategy

In several emerging markets there are arbitrage opportunities which Menards may be able to take advantage of. Arbitrage involves buying where costs are low and selling where they are higher to make a profit in the process (Dyer, et al, 2016, p183). Many of the products sold in the United States at Menards are actually produced overseas. Setting up retail stores in these countries would allow for relationships to be built upon which better pricing and terms can be generated over time. Instead of allowing importers to add their profit along the supply chain, Menards can cut out the middle man by going directly to the source and getting products into their own logistics systems closer to the point where the products are produced.

ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS: Comment on the response of 2 of your peers. The response should consist of no less than 250 words and should incorporate at least one outside, i.e., from a library database search, APA formatted reference at the end of the post.Your responses must ask a pertinent question, contribute significantly to your classmate’s posting and foster further discussion in order to receive the full points per response. To make a knowledgeable posting, it would be a good idea to review the supplemental material before writing your response (attached). Here are the responses of your peers to the questions asked:

QUESTION 1. What is the current state of communication in your organization? How can it be improved?

MIKE’S RESPONSE: Currently, my organization’s communication is getting better. We have recently received new leadership and he is making a lot of changes and communicates those to us directly every week. In the past, with old leadership, the organization had poor communication which directly impacted how we performed as a team and how effective the job was completed (ineffectively). There were a lot of negative effects happening because the poor communication, things like decreased productivity, low morale, and mistakes (Forneris, nd). Now that the organization has new leadership, some of those items are starting to filter out. Communication has increase therefore morale and productivity has also increased. Is communication perfect at the office? No, it is not there yet and can still be improved.

I looked at an article by Valentine Belonwu that broke out 20 different ways to increase communication in the workplace and I believe my organization could use a lot of them. My organization can improve communication by several different ways. Some of the processes and procedures could be written out to ensure that everyone have continuity and a task guideline to completing specific tasks. In addition, to write standard operating practices down, in house training could be a great asset to communication. Some of the suggestions in the article were simple, like showing appreciation, listening, use of body language and encourage feedback. I say simple but these items involve not just the leadership but the entire organization. We all, as individuals need to work on those items to be more effective at communication.

QUESTION 2. What is your sense of others’ willingness to support change efforts for improvement in your organization? Why do you believe as you do?

SARAH’S RESPONSE: The text states that there have been studies that indicated that employees who are committed to their organization are willing to exert effort and are more accepting to change (Hayes, 2014). This is true but there are also associates out there who are committed to their jobs and therefore might not support the change as one would think. I’m not sure if this is the same for all automobile manufacturing plants but it is difficult to implement large changes across our plant. I do believe that the sheer size of the workforce makes makes it challenging for managers to implement changes and get widespread support. However, I think there are other factors as to why people hate change in our workplace. Our biggest issues are low trust and low tolerance for change with a combination of poor implementation and communication from management. We have an older workforce and many associates have been there for over 15 to 20 years. It is extremely challenging to get a job a BMW and keeps up from having the opportunity to hire in younger professionals. With this older population we end up with people who aren’t used to the new technology being implemented because they fee l like they are being replaced in some way and other might feel like they won’t be able to develop the skills and capabilities to be able to be successful in their advanced roles. The last piece of this is that associates need to protect themselves. Who wouldn’t feel like you might be replaced when your work keeps integrating machines into the workplace that is now doing the work that you and your peers used to do.

The other piece to this is the communication aspect. To be able to seamlessly integrate new changes and processes into the workplace, management needs to effectively communicate and equip their teams with the knowledge and development opportunities before the change comes into effect (Torben, 2014). It is almost like we are forcing changes down associates throats and I believe that is one of the reasons as to why we struggle at times.

Harley Davidson Motorcycle Company is considering purchasing engines from a supplier in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Engines would be shipped from Milwaukee to Harley’s motorcycle assembly plant in the state of Pennsylvania. Engines would be transported from Milwaukee to Pennsylvania using trucks. Each truck trip would cost $1000, essentially independent of the number of engines transported, as long as the load does not exceed 2000 engines. The motorcycle plant assembles and sells 200 motorcycles each day (365 days per year) at a fairly uniform rate. Purchased engines would cost $500 each and Harley incurs a holding cost of 20 percent per year. Harley pays for engines at the time they are shipped.

a.) How many engines (EOQ) should Harley load onto each truck in order to minimize annual truck transportation and cycle inventory holding cost? (3 points)

As an alternative, Harley is considering the implementation of lean manufacturing in Pennsylvania. As part of this initiative, it is considering the financial impact of shipping 600 engines per trip from Milwaukee (three days worth of demand).

b). If each truck trip continues to cost $1000, compute the annual engine transportation cost and cycle inventory holding cost that would be incurred at Pennsylvania under lean ( 600 engines are shipped at a time). (3 points)

c). Find the cost of each truck trip (the value of K) in order for 600 engines per

trip to be optimal with respect to the EOQ model? (2 points)

d). Suppose the truck trip from Milwaukee to Pennsylvania takes, on average, 2 days. What is the average annual holding cost associated with engines that are in-transit? HINT: To answer this you first need to determine the average dollar value of material that is in-transit, i.e., has been paid for, shipped, but has not yet arrived in Pennsylvania. (2 points)