On July 28, 2009, after an eight year long struggle, Wal-Mart announced it would sell its stores to a local German retailer, finally abandoning their hopes to win over the German customers. Two months after selling stores in South Korea, Wal-Mart ended up selling 85 stores to the Metro Group and incurred a loss of $1 billion.

‘They entered Germany when the whole market was deviating from its existing model’ said James Bacos, the director of consumer goods practice at Mercer Management Consulting. Analysts estimate that Wal-Mart continuously lost money for most of the eight years it operated. However, despite these impediments, Wal-Mart had a 29 per cent increase in international net sales over June 2005.

The German market is driven by persistent price competition, cultural resistance of German shoppers to supermarkets and discount stores that have established a name for themselves in the market. As correctly pointed out by Aanshu Kapoor, Wal-Mart could not compete with the prices of local retails that offered good quality goods at below-average prices. In order to be successful, a business organization must keep a close check on its business environment, which is always changing. Ignoring the trend in the market or failing to adapt to them will create difficulties and often leads to a forced closure of the firm (as we saw in this case).

Source : NY TIMES

A consumer is said to be the ‘king’ of free market. The earlier principle of CAVEAT EMPTOR, which meant ‘let the buyer beware’ has now changed to CAVEAT VENDITOR, which means ‘let the seller beware’. This transformation was made possible due to initiatives taken by many business firms who realized the importance of consumer protection.

The need for consumer protection arises due to the following reasons:-

• Ignorance on part of the costumers, and
• Exploitation and unfair practices on part of the sellers.

The business must protect the interests and satisfy the need of their customers. Many enterprises have now realized that it is in their long term interest to satisfy their customers as satisfied customers not only help in repeat sales, but also provide good feedback to other potential customers. Businesses also have a social obligation towards various ethnic groups as they use resources which belong to the society.

Thus, it is the moral duty of every enterprise to protect the interests of their customers. They must stop unfair trade practices such as under-weighing and under-measurement. They must discontinue the sale of unsafe and hazardous goods that can cause damage to health and property of a person. Hence, a business must avoid unscrupulous and exploitative trade practices and protects consumers from any sort of exploitation.

Google Inc., the world’s largest Internet search company, purchased Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. for a whopping $12.5 billion earlier this year. Experts say as the search giant enters the handset business by acquiring Motorola, Microsoft will have a lot to gain from it.

Google and Apple have taken over majority of the smart phone market. Google acted as a catalyst to boost Android’s rise by providing the software free to almost 40 hardware makers. However, the strategy to expand business could have negative effects on Google’s business relations with its Android using partners.  Many handset makers are insecure about Google’s future plans. “Google is no longer just a partner; they’re also a competitor because they’ve entered the smart-phone handset business,” says Neil Mawston, the director of London-based Strategy Analytics’ global wireless practice. They fear that Google might be biased towards Motorola and could abandon them in the future.

This has also raised speculations about other potential take overs. Since RIM is busy dealing with its own internal issues, analysts see Microsoft as a potential buyer. Since the deal was finalized, Google has gone down almost 2 per cent. The deal makes Windows phones an attractive platform, and hence, Google would have to face many challenges to remain competitive.

Source : SEARCH PROQUEST

One of the most important decisions that a marketer has to take in area of ‘Product’ is in respect of branding. Branding refers to the act of assigning a name, term, sign, symbol to the product.  Branding is creating a corporate brand entity for consumers and making sure it gets imprinted in the minds of the consumers.

The importance of branding cannot be underestimated. Branding helps in differentiating the company’s product from that of their competitor’s. Branding helps facilitates advertising. Without branding, the company would only be spreading awareness about the generic name. It also helps in easy introduction of a new product that the company wished to add to its product line. This is the reason why many companies with strong brand names decide to launch a new product under the same brand name. From the consumer’s point of view, branding helps them to identify the product. It ensures a particular level of quality, builds up confidence among customers and increases level of customer satisfaction.

It is important to realize branding can either prove to be advantageous or have a negative impact. A negative impact can distort consumer’s confidence and hence decisions related to branding must be taken with utmost care, keeping your company’s image in mind.

As noted by Katrina Ma, the new iPhone may have disappointed a few, if not many, of its prospect buyers. While fans were expecting iPhone 5, a redesigned version of the phone- faster and slimmer- they only got iPhone 4S, very similar to the old model with a few extra features. Although iPhone is still the most popular and innovative product, and Apple also has the market leadership in tablets (almost 70%), this gadget is viewed by many as the worst product manufactured since the launch of the company.

Following the death of Mr. Steve Jobs, former C.E.O of Apple, the market price of share has also gone down. What went wrong? You often see a company’s new product enjoying the goodwill of the old product. This, however, is not true in all cases. Despite the fact that Apple is placed fairly well in the minds of most people, CONSUMER REPORTS still won’t recommend iPhone 4S to customers. Any company must add to the value of the product, so that the customers prefer it in comparison to that of their competitors. The consumers make purchasing decisions based on features, price, etc. of the product and it is the job of the marketer to provide them with the same.

Source : The Global Mail