How Elvis Shoe Company Segments Its Customers - Case Study Example

 Company full name: Elvis Shoe Company The abbreviation for Elvis Shoe Company as used to specifically recognize it in the public trading of shares in a stock market is ESC. Elvis Company is listed in the New York Stock Exchange. The company is in the Shoe industry where it manufactures and sells shoes, leather belts, school bags, ladies leather bags and socks. This is the area in which the company specializes up to date. BICS code is the abbreviations for British Industry Classification System. The company’s primary BICS code is 35893[Art08]. The primary decision maker in the company is Mr. Thomas k, CEO President and Chairman of the Board of Directors. Elvis mission declaration is “To enhance all the areas within their main business undertaking towards a profitable market that benefits and protects their employees, shareholders, and the social society. To fulfill this mission and goals, Elvis has continuously supplied the best and durable quality standards in the industry, in order to equally benefit their customers and corporate associates[Dar10]”. Elvis achieves its mission declaration through measures that brings profits to its owner’s in dividends form and increasing stock price. Providing value to its customers in the form of excellent products and services at a relatively low prices, and development opportunities to its employees in the form training and career development programs. The social responsibilities that Elvis Company undertakes in the society has enabled the company achieve its mission and business goals greatly. These responsibilities are outlined below[Wil09]. Details of how Elvis segments its customers and a description of an advertisement from Elvis that targets one of these segments. From research, Elvis has known the needs and wants of its customers at various points in their life. Research results on marketing shows that, Elvis divides its clients demographically by income, age, feet size and location into six target markets: (1) income-5$ to 8$ , 9$ to 11 and ,12$ to 14$; (2) age -5 to 7, 8 to 10, 11 to 15 ,16 to 18, 19 to 25, 26 to 40 and 41 to 80. (3) Foot sizes-2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. Following the research, Elvis company has its markets target into three broad shoe buyers markets: 5$ to 8$, 9$ to 11$, 12 to 14$ with feet size of 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 respectively[Art08]. An advertisement for Elvis products is active in locations where the feet size ranges from 6 to 10 for adults .This locations include; Rome, Paris and Singapore. Adults in this segment have their feet size ranging from 6 to 10 and their income ranging from 5$ to 14$.This is the main target in terms of marketing. Elvis Company promotes the communities by creating consciousness and giving information that benefits the general community. A sport ground is set in every community where games are held on weekends; in this platform the company gets the chance to market its new products. Customers who do well in this competition are awarded with companies products. During these activities attendants buy the company’s product at lower prices[Art08]. One of Elvis products that target a segment listed in the previous question and the characteristics of the product that appeal to the targeted segment From the research conducted, most average income earners have a foot size of 8 to 9. A also, most of the ladies in this income range preferred buying the Bear Hand bags that costs them 50$. Men in this income range preferred the Lion leather belts and the Loafer shoes. The Loafer shoes are comfortable, durable and cheap to maintain. The belts are elegant and classy. Bear hand bags are beautiful, classy and elegant. Elvis capitalized on this market segment to realize its mission and objectives[Dar10]. A competitor’s product that is in direct competition with Elvis product in the previous question and the explanations which product is better at appealing to customers. Bata Shoe Company is the second largest shoe producing company that competes with Elvis in the production of shoes .It is situated 100miles away from the Elvis industrial park. In direct competition with Elvis Bear Hand Bag is the Wild Hand Bag from the Bata Company. It is sold at a price of 52$.The inside is made of velvet material and they have a wide range of different colors[ste07]. The hand bags are similar to those of Elvis Company. An advertisement for Bata’s Wild Hand Bags is done by creating advertising and providing information through the radio and television advertisements as well as the social media. The difference in price between the two products is 2$ and the slight difference is as a result of the advertising cost. The Wild Hand bag is made to look more prestigious or classy than the Bear Hand Bag[ste07]. One strength and one weakness that would be listed in Elvis SWOT analysis and Explain Elvis effectiveness in taking advantage of the opportunity and reducing the effects of the weakness. One of Elvis strength is good relationship with customers. Elvis uses many channels, such as social media, emails, direct mail, telephone and searches. These systems help in tracking, responses, deals and deals. Elvis uses call software to manage, assign and create clients request. This invention is used to prize faithful customers. A customer centre was established and uses a system that automatically recommends appropriate appointment period to clients via e-mail or the website[Mah10]. Elvis regularly makes use of social media to strengthen up customer relations. Some Elvis systems incorporates social media sites like Face book and Twitter handles to trail and correspond with clients, giving out their preferences and experiences with the company’s products. Enterprise Management software platforms such as Medallia bring together interior survey information with trends spotted through the social media to permit businesses to make accurate and informed decisions on which products to venture in. All this activities are coordinated by the Marketing Manager and the IT Manage[Dar10]r. Despite the continued success in marketing, there have weaknesses pulling the Company down. One of the weaknesses under study is poor record keeping. There is always a problem when it comes to paying tax , failure to keep correct records is always can be a big obstacle, and a major hindrance. Parsing through a year of bank statements and business receipts is no fun. However, in the bankruptcy world, failure to keep accurate financial records can be grounds for denial of a discharge of debts[Dar10]. The bankruptcy trustee can actually sue you if your records aren’t in order. Some goods are lost through mishandling, poor record keeping. Bad records management results in spending too much time in locating misplaced files. Misplacing important files and documents can incur losses in terms of expending resources in searching for these files. Customer satisfaction will also be jeopardized if you cannot access information promptly and meet customer needs. A backlog in the business operations can also result from poor records; for example, when processing checks, paying taxes, gaining tax returns and inventory management[Wil09]. Poor records management exposes you to legal consequences, due to non-compliance with federal regulations on records management. There are many pieces of regulation regarding records management; for example, the Information Management Compliance U.S. Federal Sentencing Guidelines requires that you put a proper record management program in place in your organization. The Sarbanes-Oxley laws also require companies to maintain financial records for auditing purposes[Wil09]. Management decisions are made with reference to company records. This means that without the proper documents, an organization risks making unfounded decisions resulting in losses, corruption and mismanagement. Good records are directly linked to increased transparency and effective corporate governance. With this amount of electronic information, bad records management can easily overwhelm an organization's capacity. Information overload will bring an organization to a standstill. Proper management, on the other hand, ensures that information is kept in control[Art08]. Three distinct partners in the organization's value/supply chain and their contributions to the Total Product Offer.   Value or supply chain partners in a business are a key department. Sometimes, company may intend to outsource some of their basic requirements from other partners. Globalization, advancement in technology is the main reason for consideration of the supply chain partners for Elvis Shoe Company. Some of the supply chain partners for Elvis include Folkston tanning company, California marketing company and professional research institute. The value added by the partners is undoubted. The partners are aimed at sharing information, openness and accountability[Mah10]. Folkston tanning company is a great partner to Elvis Shoe Company. After comprehensive research it was found out that leather from Folkston Tanning Company was much cheaper that the one got through the company. It was also noted that the leather got from this tanning company was of higher quality. It was for this reason that these two companies became partners in the supply of puree leather for Elvis. The source of their skin and hides was through global imports from Europe, Asia and African markets. This partnership resulted to increase in demand for their products due to the high quality[Art08]. California marketing company in 2009 decided to partner with Elvis during the marketing stage. They had professional marketing tools for the world market. After the Elvis products are ready to hit the market, they would support the company in marketing. The marketing areas included the local market, online marketing and other global markets like Africa. It also advices the company on the fastest selling products hence increase their production. Marketing through California had integrated proper analysis of marketing strategies as their main area of specialization[Art08]. Professional research institute is also a key partner for Elvis. They are mainly aimed at carrying out research on behalf of the company. They carryout comprehensive production research. For example, through their research they were able to identify the products that favors the African market which a potential customer which was not fully vested on. Through their research their supply increased by approximately 30%. They have also done research on quality standards that made them be ISO 2009 certified. In addition, the partnership with the research institute has drastically increased their production and demand for their products[Art08]. The partners yield major benefits for the Elvis Company. Some of these benefits include: increased market share, company inventory reductions, improving delivery of service, improved quality products, and shorter product development cycles. Having modern partnerships with the company will result to great improvements in logistics facilitated through candid information exchange and better coordination between the partners. Free sharing of information between these partners has increased their capital strength greatly[Art08]. Two issues that relate specifically to the company that should be discussed in the "Operations Plan" portion of the business plan for Elvis Company Operation plan refer to the process of linking strategic goals and objectives to tactical goals and objectives. It contains measures on how the business plan will be implemented. It focuses on production/manufacturing, distribution and inventory. We shall concentrate on the production/manufacturing and inventory as the major components of an operation plan[Art08]. (a) Production/manufacturing The production planning covers the production process. Elvis production planning involves planning on what to produce, the production path to follow (economical) and reducing wastes in the production process. The production level is the most important factor that determines the cost of production of the company. Production process consist details on product produced, production system, quantity produced and production schedule. These factors comprises of the production process for Elvis[Art08]. (b) Inventory Inventory requirements vary from one company to another. For Elvis Company, they have three types of inventories. These are unprocessed raw material inventory, partially work in progress inventory and the finished goods inventory. With these inventories, purchases are normally done in advance of the time used in the process. The inventory is a very useful tool for Elvis and it is therefore well managed and controlled. Elvis shoe company inventory helps it realize great profit margins, minimize production cost and protect the company from experiencing cash flow crises. Effective inventory management is also important in balancing important trade-off between the cost of carrying too much and cost of carrying too small[Art08]. Two specific quantitative measures which should be used to assess organizational performance for Elvis shoe company. A company’s performance assessment is a process for obtaining important information about the performance of an organization and the factors that affect performance of such an organization.  It differs from other types of evaluations because the assessment focuses on the organization as the primary unit of analysis. Elvis Company’s performance can be measured quantitative through two major methodologies. This is normally done through determination of the market growth and their level of production. Rapid growth of the market will always lead to increased supply of their products. It is also noted that increase in the production and marketing sector levels, will lead to great growth of the company. The two factors are directly proportional to each other. When these two factors are high then the performance is good[Art08]. Fiscal analysis of the Elvis shoe company for the year 2013-2014 Elvis Shoe Company market during fiscal 2013 was approximately $11.5 billion, equal to roughly 16.7 percent of the $69 billion global market for the total footwear sales. For the Elvis Company, this reflects growth of 4 percent over the previous year. Future expectations are mixed as the retailers have applied varying strategies to the various shoe groups with different levels of success. Professionals Research Institute analysts are expecting increase in sales for the men’s athletic shoe. This move will actually cause increase by 2 percent during fiscal 2013. For the official women footwear is expected to decline by slight margin of 1.2%. Producers are currently responding with new styles and colors. Overall, it is projected that the total sales for the shoes in fiscal 2014 will go up hence the need for increase in production due to widening of the African market[Wil09]. Bibliography Art08: , (Art DeThomas), Dar10: , (Dahl), Wil09: , (Coleman), ste07: , (stevensson), Mah10: , (Homayouni), Read More