Case Study Of BCG And PLC

Given the number of products available, the bargaining power of customers in this industry is very high. The two main drivers for customer’s preferences are quality and price, there is no service involved.

For the task I have chosen Next Plc. It is a British apparel, footwear and home products retailer. According to the Company’s official website, it has around 700 stores in the UK and about 200 stores worldwide (Next Plc: At a glance, 2016). The Company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a member of the FTSE 100 Index.

I agree, we often mistake PLCs for when teachers meet with other teachers. In my opinion, in order to have a successful PLC, you need to see student growth as well as have action steps to move the students forward. This is very different than when teachers meet with other teachers to discuss issues, but do not come out with action steps.

Unit three journals were about the competitive advantage that with strategy creates value for the company and customers. It also talked about non-customers, which are people that have option when making a decision to purchase regardless of their situation. The product life cycle in unit three was about customer and a product. In different stages such as the product introduction, to the industry, growth, maturity, and decline customers and product were introduced of the competitive advantage. The Six Utility Levers learned in unit three that mapping is a great tool for buyers. Buyers can make sure that the purchase, delivery and the supplements of products maintained and disposed

The BCG model is based on the product life cycle theory which can be used to determine which one of the product should be given the priority in the product portfolio of a business unit. It is usually based on the observations towards the company’s business units that it can be classified into four categories based on combinations of market growth and market share relative to the largest competitors that brings the name of “growth-share”. As to make sure that the long-term value creation is made, the company should have a specification of the products which contains both high-growth products in need of cash inputs and low-growth products that generate a lot of cash.

"To provide and offer value to the customers by guaranteeing high-tech products that are user-friendly and offer maximum satisfaction that no other brand can ensure." The proposed business will concentrate on delivering best quality products to the customers to the extent of achieving delighting to its clients. This will be realized through extensive networks of consumer markets, competent and experienced marketing agents and the resourceful entrepreneur skills from the business owner.

BPS also has to address the optimal product development path for its new products, reexamine its marketing focus and company perception, reexamine its manufacturing integration processes, market pricing strategies

Consumer and business markets present a different set of challenges and opportunities for Blu Dot. The challenge they face is meeting their targeted margins while keeping their prices lower then there competitors, this causes Blu Dot to struggles with keeping affordability at the lower end of the spectrum and craftsmanship at the high end, while also creating pricing strategies that make the appropriate margins. However, the challenge Blu Dot faces is supplying products that are affordable, attractive and of high quality! If they can do this, their company will continue to grow and expand.

On the other hand, prices are the most insignificant buying criterion in High End, Performance and Size segments. No matter how high the prices are, customers in these segments are more preferable to high-tech product. In particular, for the High End and Size segments, ideal position occupies 43% and products’ ideal age is 29%. Furthermore, reliability is the most important consideration to customers in Performance segment. Hence, Niche Differentiation is a proper alternative for these three segments.

Even if their products have high quality, their market share in tradesman segment is low. The reason behind this is their problematic brand image between tradesmen segment consumers. Consumers don't want to buy the brand but they don't have problems with actual product. In researches we are seeing that this segment of consumer prefer B&D products if they don't know its brand. We can understand why they are acting like this from consumer research. B&D has highest brand awareness between other power tools producers. It can see as a good thing but this is the reason behind wrong consumer perception. Tradesmen think that B&D has low quality because it exists in many product categories other than power tools. For example they have household and outdoor products. One tradesman said his wife has their dust and he loves their popcorn machine but for tools he is thinking that they are unprofessional. Because he does not believe that a company produces this kinds of products also can produce quality work products for him. These tradesmen taking their job serious and their perception to B&D is that it’s a low quality brand because of its popularity and high product

Richard Dufour explains the essence of a PLC in three “big ideas”: 1. Ensuring that students learn- with this concept it requires teachers to look at what we want students to learn, how we will know when they have learned it, and how will respond when a student struggles. 2. A culture of collaboration- “The powerful collaboration that characterizes professional learning communities is a systematic process in which teachers work together to analyze and improve their classroom practice. Teachers work in teams, engaging in an ongoing cycle of questions that promote deep team learning. This process, in turn, leads to higher levels of student achievement.” (Dufour, 2004) 3. A focus on results- teachers must begin to ask, “Have we made progress on the goals that are most important to us?” (Dufour, 2004)

* Product Differentiation: It is evident from the case that B&D products in the professional segment were of good quality with 10 out of the 14 products in leadership category (Figure E). Therefore, the problem faced by B&D products in this segment is more of differentiation than of product quality. The consumer level products in black in color are not substantially differentiated from professional level products which were charcoal grey in color (Figure D). This lack of differentiation has adverse influence on the buying decision made by professional tradesmen as they take pride in their work which is more rigorous than “do it yourself” low quality consumer segment. Therefore, the professional tradesmen segment has disassociated itself with Black and Decker brand name despite good quality professional tools manufactured by B&D.

LOST has high audience levels and therefore it is reasonable to assume a high market share associated. Moreover, this is a high growth market. Thus, LOST is a “STAR” product. Consequently, a correlation between the PLC and the BCG matrix can be drawn.

The BCG matrix analysis would help a company in its long term strategic planning and deploy its resources accordingly. It helps the company to consider the various growth opportunities by making a review of the existing portfolio of products and decide whether to invest more or discontinue or develop products. The BCG Matrix is also known as the Growth or Share Matrix. (Zhao & Lu 2006)

On the other hand product life cycle is based on Raymon Vernon’s theory which indicates the life cycle of a product in the form of a curve. The curve being divided into four stages namely development, growth, maturity and decline. It is interesting to note these four stages and four categories of BCG matrix can be used to co-related with one another as can be seen in the below case study of DHL.