Evaluation Essay on Walmart: External and Internal Environments

Introduction

Walmart's majorly depends on market segmentation as it is concerned with all population. The facility also depends on branding as the other strategy to enhance customer satisfaction in conjunction with consumer loyalty. The supermarket is operating on the grounds of massive customer base from its initial business models that enabled the company to accumulate a large pool of customers. It uses a mono-segment type of market positioning. It aims at marketing that is affiliated to a single customer as a way of placing value on the price of products when compared to some other attributes (Liu, Liao, Huang & Liao, 2018). Geographic segmentation involves region and density. On region, Walmart concentrates on international and domestic targets. On the other hand, density segmentation criteria depend on rural and urban areas. The company operates as a multinational retail corporation with a chain of operations. Thus it targets customers of all ages.

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The five major types of competition that corporations face include monopsony, monopoly, oligopoly and perfect competition. Monopoly is not part of the competitive factor that Walmart has ever operated with since there are various retail service and product providers in play. Therefore, perfect competition is one of the competitions that Walmart has managed to control. The company has engaged in product cannibalization and spreading of outlets across America (Prajogo, 2016). Therefore, the competition that is controlled by players of the economy, i.e., buyers and sellers have been made minimal. Secondly, Walmart operates as an oligopoly market structure as it enjoys the existence of few suppliers in the market. The reason why Walmart has conquered the oligopoly structure is that it has the greatest market share alongside serving the market with few suppliers of its ability (Prajogo, 2016). It, therefore, has the opportunities of stifling new competition by taking part in adverse business tactics like price-cutting. It also takes part in collusion between giant entities. In the recent past, Walmart has worked towards keeping its flaws on upcoming competitors by engaging in products cannibalization.

For Walmart to maintain its position in the perfect competition, it should, therefore engage in service development strategies and it should enhance its brand equity and customer perception. The facility can strengthen customer loyalty by engaging in situational influence approaches (Heinemann, 2016). For instance, Walmart should engage in the following situational influence approaches:

Usage-Situational Influence

In this perspective, Walmart will be required perform a thorough study of its customers and the kind of products that they value most. It should also engage in selling new products through the involvement of usage-situational influence approaches which focuses on brand preferences and the value of the products being sold. It required the organization to carry out studies of the consumer market and identify a product that is lacking (Hawkins et al., 2013). After identification, Walmart needs to take it as an advantage for enhancing its current situation of being a perfect competitor and a service provider in the economy. Walmart should consider its products to dominate the market before its close competitors decide to start selling them.

Dispositional Situational Influence

Under this perspective, Walmart's customers will always remain to be loyal so long as it does not change its products. Dispositional influence is usually connected to customers sticking to their official products. Walmart, therefore, needs to start selling complementary products to keep its position as a perfect competitor and player in the economy at a secure place. Additionally, Walmart is required to maintain customer's loyalty to the firm by keeping in touch with customers' needs and the products that they value.

Communication Situational influence

Walmart is serving as an oligopoly business in the market. Therefore, it has to engage in the practice of enhancing communication as its significant role in engaging its customers in active communication about the service and products that they wish to be provided (Hawkins et al., 2013). The firm should speculate on types of communication to reach a broader market of its customers. For instance, baby boomers do not need to be communicated to by using Facebook ads since they might not be able to get the message (Hawkins et al., 2013). Therefore, Walmart needs to engage in all possible communication to reach a broader market. It should introduce new products and participate in content specific advertising in both media, newspaper and social media platforms.

Purchase Situation Influence

Walmart needs to speculate through customers' purchasing behavior to know how they perceive products as a way of enhancing their loyalty to the firm (Hawkins et al., 2013). Purchase situation outlines that there are specific consumers who stick to their brand thus the firm needs to add stock but should not stop supplying particular products to the economy.

Another aspect of enhancing oligopoly is concentrating on demographic segmentation or income segmentation. Walmart should keep engaging in service cannibalization to continue expanding its market share (Hawkins et al., 2013). In spite of the fact that it is the most significant retail provider, it should keep growing to avoid any challenge from the present businesses.

References

Hawkins, D. I., Mothersbaugh, D. L., & Best, R. J. (2013). Consumer behavior: Building marketing strategy. McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Heinemann, M. (2016). Leveraging Data Mining and Market Segmentation to Gain Conservation Opportunity Intelligence.

Liu, J., Liao, X., Huang, W., & Liao, X. (2018). Market segmentation: A multiple criteria approach combining preference analysis and segmentation decision. Omega.

Prajogo, D. I. (2016). The strategic fit between innovation strategies and business environment in delivering business performance. International Journal of Production Economics, 171, 241-249.