Business and Sustainability Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Business and Sustainability - Essay Example ASDA is known for its cheap prices and has kept this name for ten consecutive years. Since Wal-Mart's acquisition of Asda, the company has steadily increased its market share to become the second largest retail chain operating company in the UK with a 12% market share. The company runs more than 269 Asda stores (including superstores and super centers), 47 Asda small stores, seven Asda Living stores, two discount stores (Asda Essentials) and 12 apparel stores (George) in the UK. It has successfully implemented Wal-Mart's low pricing strategy which is yielding positive results. Furthermore, Wal-Mart's robust financial performance (revenues reaching $348,650 million during the fiscal year 2007, an increase of 11.7% over 2006) would provide financial stability to the company. Also, Wal-Mart's presence in 13 international markets including the UK, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Brazil and China, it also allows Asda to foray easily into new markets. The Wal-Mart umbrella not only provides Asda wi th a strong brand image but also fuels the company's top line growth. Asda's George apparel line started as a small unknown brand in 100 ASDA stores. It is now the second largest clothing retailer in the UK by volume selling in more than 250 stores in the UK. Furthermore, George now has a presence in five other countries including Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Japan and the US. George products are available for men, women, and children and include apparel, shoes, handbags and even eyeglass frames in select stores. (DesJardins 2006) The George brand, known for style and quality, continues to grow in popularity as a favorite fashion choice across the globe. Strong brand image of George allows the group to extend the brand into other product lines. Asda is the second largest chain of supermarkets in UK with a market share of 16.8% as of February 2007. Furthermore, the company outperformed the rest of the retail sector for the first time in three years in terms of growth rate. The overall growth rate of the company was recorded at 9% for the fiscal 2007. Asda's competitors on other hand recorded a low growth rate during the same period. For instance, Sainsbury recorded a growth rate of 7.8%, Tesco (7.2%), Morrisons (3.9%) and Somerfield (-3.8%). This was primarily due to attracting one million new customers through its checkouts and re-evaluation of its customer offer and pricing strategy. Asda can leverage this growth to further enhance its revenues and profitability. Evaluation of ASDA's non-financial reporting practices - Supply Chain Evaluation Model Old Supply Chain Model Identifying Overheads in the Supply Chain Eliminating the overheads Drafting a new Supply Chain model The bargaining power of suppliers can be crucial. The suppliers are whole sale dealers of grocery and the like. The suppliers have undergone a drastic change over the years and with it their

Sales Promotion Techniques Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Sales Promotion Techniques - Research Paper Example â€Å"Sales promotion refers to those marketing activities other than personal selling, advertisement and publicity, which stimulate consumer purchasing and dealer effectiveness, such as displays, shows and expositions, demonstrations and various non-recurrent selling efforts not in the ordinary routine. Its purpose is to increase the desire of salesman, distributors and dealers to sell a certain brand and to make consumers more eager to buy that brand† (Sales Promotion Methods & Ideas, 2009) Even good quality products may fail in the market in the absence of good sales promotion activities. On the other hand even cheaper quality products may excel in the market with the help of quality sales promotion activities. The present market is filled with thousands of products manufactured by different business groups from different countries. It is difficult for the customers to decide which product is better or which one is worth for the money they spent. Only through effective prom otion activities an entrepreneur can convey the characteristics and worth of his product to the consumers. Various techniques must be developed and used in the market through sales promotion activities in order to convince the consumers. Sales promotion is important for introducing a new product into the market and also to sustain the movement of the existing products in the market. The major sales promotion techniques are Discounts and deals, Increasing Industry Visibility, Price-based consumer sales promotion, Attention-getting consumer sales promotion etc Discount deals are one of the prominent sales promotion strategies which are adopted by most of the manufacturers and service providers. It is not possible for a manufacturer to sustain the sales of a product in a constant manner because of the increased competition from the market. Thus same product may experience fluctuations in its sales during different seasons of an year. In order to sustain the