Market leadership strategies. Netflix, Walt Disney, Wal-Mart, Apple and Toyota - Essay Example

A company that was able to achieve market leadership following a valued discipline was Toyota Corporation. Toyota was able to beat its US counterparts in the 80’s and 90’s by providing a superior product through operation excellence. The company makes car models of higher quality, better performance, greater fuel efficiency, and better overall value than the competition. The Toyota cars throughout the years have become very popular because they retain better resale value than other car auto makers. Toyota gained a brand value that accumulated over the years. In the 21st century other companies including some American firms like GM have caught up to Toyota in terms of innovation, but Toyota still offers superior value than most companies in the auto industry. In 2010 Toyota continued to be the market leader in global sales with 8.418 million units sold which represents an 8% sales increase in comparison with the previous year (Takahashi, 2011). Takahashi, Y. (2011). Toyota Global Sales up 8%. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved July 7, 2011 from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703398504576101190281234486.html 2. A firm that was able to achieve market leadership using a generic strategy is Wal-Mart Corporation. Wal-Mart is the market leader in the retail industry due to the fact that the company used a generic strategy focusing on cost leadership. Wal-Mart offers the best prices across the board in the retail industry. The company has become so big that it represents the biggest corporate employer in the world with over 2.1 million employees worldwide. Wal-Mart was able to beat the competition due to its superior handling of the supply chain. Wal-Mart takes advantage of its buying power by purchasing in bulk, thus achieving economies of scale. People love to shop at Wal-Mart due to the product variety, better customer service, and better overall prices. 3. There are many challenges associated with running multiple companies. It is much easier to have a single facility and run an operation in which the manager only has to worry about the employees and operation decisions associated with that facility. As companies mature they seek expansion opportunities and these opportunities are achieve by running multiple companies. Some of the challenges associated with running multiple companies include human resource issues, financing constraints, and marketing discrepancies. It becomes difficult for such a corporation to maintain a consistent corporate culture when the firm has multiple companies. The marketing efforts of the firm cannot be standardized because these firms serve different markets. A company that has been very successful at running multiple companies is Walt Disney. Walt Disney has diversified into different sectors including the movie industry, toy market place, vacation properties, and its traditional theme park operation. The US theme parks are run differently than the Japanese Disney theme Park operation. Despite the challenges of running multiple companies Disney has been a very successful enterprise. 4. Apple has always enjoyed a great brand value due to the superb products the company manufactures. The firm created a reputation in the computer industry in regards to producing the best computer systems in the industry. Steve Jobs and his managerial staff had the foresight and vision to make Apple a firm that produced some of the most innovative technological products in the world. Two of the mark key products the firm created which revolutionized the music and cellular industry were the iPod and the iPhone. The iPhone has become the industry standard in the smartphone segment. 5. Netflix is a firm that realized that the video industry reached its declining stage based on the traditional system of offering movie rental out of a video store. The firm created a new innovative system to rent video to movie watcher. Their $7.99 monthly price for unlimited video rental using the power of the internet to drive the system simply revolutionized the industry. The company became the market leader in this industry driving out of business industry giants such as Blockbuster Video. On September 2010 Blockbuster Video filed bankruptcy largely due to the market presence of Netflix. 6. I remember when Dell Computers started out with its innovative system of selling direct to the customers. Many market analysts laughed at the concept thinking that the delivery system of the company was a fad. Well these people were completely wrong. Dell was able to offer its customers a customized product at a lower price than the competition. Dell was able to save millions of dollars in overhead and selling expenses by eliminating the middle man. The quality of the Dell computers was also very good. I purchased a Dell computer in 2000 which lasted about 7 years which is more than the typical useful life of a computer. 7. I also choose Wal-Mart as my example company to illustrate dominance using a generic strategy. Wal-Mart has become so powerful that many small businesses feared its presence in the marketplace. A lot of small businesses claim that Wal-Mart cannabises the retail industry due to their superior buying power achieved through economies of scale. This allows the company to have a cost structure that makes it impossible for small businesses to compete. Wal-Mart offers an incredible product variety at the lower prices in the retail business. Wal-Mart is one of the most successful American companies and should be viewed with pride by the citizens of the nation. 8. Walt Disney is a very successful company. The firm started with one theme park in California and eventually expanded its operation into Florida where the firm had huge success. The company did not stop there and it eventually built theme parks in Europe and Japan. The company has made billions of dollars in the movie industry by taking advantage of the popularity of its characters. Disney always makes a lot of money during Christmas season from the sales of toys. The firm has invested a lot of money in properties and real estate as well. The firm has huge hotel facilities which they use to market vacation packages. Read More