Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, has recently set sights to become more sustainable. How, might you ask, will this company that differentiates itself in the market with “everyday low prices,” be able to maintain low prices while encouraging sustainability? The company plans to do this by incorporating sustainability into their productivity loop.

Walmart’s productivity loop.

Jeff Rice, Walmart’s Director of Sustainability describes sustainability at Walmart as follows:

Jeff Rice, Walmart’s Director of Sustainability.

“Price and sustainability really go hand in hand. Becoming a more sustainable business will make you a more efficient business. It absolutely supports everyday low prices.”

I believe that in general, all consumers want to buy greener, more sustainable products, however they do not want to pay for higher prices. Price competitiveness hinders a company’s ability to promote sustainability through their products and/or services while maintaining high profit margins. The resulting increase in prices discourages many companies from becoming more sustainable, especially for small companies or companies that differentiate itself with low costs. It will be interesting to see how Walmart plans to incorporate a sustainability strategy without sacrificing their low prices. If successful, Walmart can make a huge impact on the world by being an active contributor in sustainability.

After reading case 3 on Red Bull, I found it so interesting how Red Bull used sponsorships and multimedia platforms as a form of marketing to customers. Previously, I had never heard of content marketing which I think is a more effective way to market to people. Consumers have adapted to the many traditional forms of marketing; from commercials to print ads, consumers have tuned it all out. For example, DVR has become so common in households so that people can skip through commercials. It seems as though many companies are rethinking how to market to a society where ignoring advertisements have become a habitual practice. In the article “Coke Revamps WebSite to Tell Its Story” by Stuart Elliott, it discusses how Coca-Cola plans to give their website a makeover. In a subjective manner, Coca-Cola plans to tell a story and offer articles on entertainment, the environment, health, interviews, video clips etc. It is important that companies constantly adjust their marketing strategy in order to keep up with fast-changing societies. The way in which these companies approach marketing deepens the value proposition of the company and gives customers something to talk about in connection to the brand.

In class,  we analyzed the trend of Apple’s stock prices in the last year noting that its stock prices increased by 50%. We also discussed how Google earnings missed expectations October which caused shares to decrease by 11% as investor’s confidence in the company’s future cash flow decreased. This made me wonder if the stock prices of Apple decreased when Steve Jobs resigned as CEO in August 2011. Did investors have less confidence in Apple due to the resignation of its innovative leader?

The article “Apple stock drops as Steve Jobs resigns chief executive role” by Graeme Wearden, reports that a 3% fall in Apple stock wipes $10 billion off the company’s value, as investors fret over a future without its visionary leader. Contrary to this, Michael Gartenberg, research director at Gartner, makes a valid point saying, “while this marks the end of an era for Apple, it’s important to remember that there’s more to Apple than any one person.” Its interesting to see that Job’s resignation would have such an impact on stock prices. Apple consists of a massive team, not just one individual, that drives innovation at Apple. Do investors not have faith in the rest of the team? This shows that fear of change and uncertainty consistently encourages one to act impulsively, even in the realm of finances.