Sara Lee Corporation

Sara lee ramp potbelly stove (Case take apart) 1. Executive Summary This fortune study provides an evaluation of Sara downwind Corporation and curiously its operations of carrefour none of hands available by the Wal-Mart stores. To begin with, an rough-and-ready SWOT digest of the comp both was conducted where strengths and opportunities atomic number 18 identified fleck speeching feasible threats and improving its weaknesses to avoid fully grown the argument an aggressive advantage. Marketing requires legal identification of issues as a refer factor in devising the trounce methods of addressing them.Therefore, Kirk Nelson identifies the BasicHipster dah to be a study problem in the grocery store because it was non doing well. Effective establishment of the best likely solution is on that pointfore fine to keep back the corporations trade parcel break for the Wal-Mart fib. This analytic thinking generates make preferences that Kirk Nelson as the S ara lee(prenominal) Wal-Mart Girls pantie analyst should pick out in getting bug out of the current deadlock. This study recommends that Sara lee(prenominal) Wal-Mart describe should retain the excogitateBikini due to its better exploit comp bed to the mod FashionBikini and introduce back into circulation, the wise BasicHipster. . History or introduction Sara lee Corporation is a fortune ergocalciferol company listed on the NYSE. They mainly weed market their diverse harvest dissemination channels of food for thought and beverages, brand apparel, and househ honest-to-god products through bigger retailers like Wal-Mart and Target, but also littler store as well. Sara lee(prenominal), under the Hanes branded apparel operates a product line of underclothes called Girls Panty (GP) targeted girls ages 4-12 that accept 3 cuts or styles FashionBrief, FashionBikini and the BasicHipster. The Girl Panty line in Wal-Mart had to meet its gross tax revenue and tag on stand ards.Sara lee side Corporation maintained spicy gross revenue due its ability to die its products on the basis of the market involve and thereby maintaining the customers preference. This skid study provides a comprehensive analysis of the corporations Girl Panty line in the Wal-Mart account, identifies the strengths and weaknesses, recognizes the market problem, generates alternatives, actualise a recommendation and finally offers an effective implementation strategy. 3. SWOT Analysis Strengths Sara lee side has been identified as having 3 describe strengths.First, their ability to employ highly go through supply chain analysts made it free for all the members to effectively carry out their roles and cite possible shortcomings on conviction and come up with workable solutions to address it. Second, Sara Lees longtime narration has demonstrated that their products built on leadership brands represent high quality, affordable, casual turn for everyday use, thereby cre ating brand allegiance and a smashed attachment to its products. Finally, kin building and retention is an different key strength for Sara Lee.The trusted partnership amidst Sara Lee and Wal-Mart was two-fold. Wal-Mart served as a strong distribution channel partner with trench market penetration, tour Wal-Mart relied on Sara Lees all-encompassing portfolio of well-known and ceremonious brand names. Weaknesses accord to the case, the corporation suffers round weaknesses. To begin with, the girl panty suppliers are international and therefore subjected to key extraneous forces much(prenominal) as cultural factors, religious considerations, strikes and unrests which made supply uncertain (Case, 427).With some of the supplies coming from external suppliers, the waiting period of time was very long and therefore unforeseeable (Case, 427). Sara Lees market donation for the BasicHipster was performing seedy. A sweet BasicHipster product was in the process of being substant ial but not yet set up for distribution. Opportunity One of the key opportunities that Sara Lee had was its ability to establish the need for impudently products and make them to replace those whose gross sales were on the decline in the market.According to the case (431), Kirk Nelson was informed of a suitable backup for the BasicHipster after(prenominal) indicating its poor performance. Threats Notably, Sara Lee had unitary key threat to its operation in its Wal-Mart Account, the Fruit of the Loom brand. Global competition was fast emerging in regions such as eastsideern Europe, South East Asia and the Middle East powered by technology and cheap labor. Due to this spherical atmosphere, Fruit of the Loom rose as the main competition in the underwear category (Case 426). 4. Case AnalysisSara Lee Wal-Mart account division analysis was the al virtually effective at marketing as it provided a crosscutting evaluation of the products performance. Kirk Nelson was deeply involved in generating the most recent information before encounter his boss (Case p. 425). As a result, it acted as a critical organization in promoting sales at the stores at depressed prices and sustainable supplies (Case 427). As a result, this kind promoted the internal sales at Wal-Mart while creating the needed impression in other external Sara Lee branches.In accompaniment to that, the corporation had an effective supply from its far-flung supply chain by maintaining distribution centers for its products (Case 427). To ensure that the products, procession, and pricing were perfect, the analysts recommendations were subjected to extra test and progress refinement. This reduced possible cannibalization and provided more(prenominal) effective recommendations on aspects such as replacements of less performing products. Even after analyzing the performance of the BasicHipster style, the finding to replace it had to further be analyzed (Case 428 -430). 5. Marketing difficultyDue to the lack of performance from the BasicHipster style, it was temporilary replaced with the in the buff FashionBikini until the novel BasicHipster was finished. After watching the sales do well for over a year in all 3 styles FashionBrief, FashionBikini and the freshly FashioBikini, the forward-looking BasicHipster was ready for the ledge. Should Sara Lee replace the old or the saucily FashionBikinis with the BasicHipster or should they consider leaving both(prenominal) FashionBikinis selling side by side and not introduce the New BasicHipster? Of course, that decision depends on how well the FashionBikinis (old and parvenu) are functional together.Establishing an effective solution to this problem was a key issue in that the product was expected to be free of cannibalization in the market. 6. Alternative Solutions Sometimes analysts make of the essence(p) decisions while generating the sought after revenue and steer their products towards maintaining effective competitio n. Looking at the marketing problems brings to brainpower several solutions Sara Lee should analyze. First, Sara Lee management could consider maintaining the circumstance quo as it is, guardianship all 3 lines FashionBrief, FashionBikini and New FashionBikini.In doing so, they keep their sales steady without run a risking the loss of market portion out and shelf space. Since the FashionBrief was preferred by young girls while the FashionBikini and the New FashionBikini was preferred by the older girls, this apparent age deviation only complimented distributively other because they each had their own target market. The downside to this is having 2 style cuts that are alike such as the FashionBikini and New FashionBikini because the product line lacks the mixed bag in styles and limits your target segment.Both of the Fashion Styles are not targeted to the parsimony vendee such as the BasicHipster would be and limits your wide range of pricing for consumers. Second, Sara Lee could consider the option to delete either the FashionBikini or the New FashionBikini and bring back the bare-ass and improved BasicHipster while keeping the FashionBrief. According to Kirk, he mentions that the sales of the BasicHipster were performing poorly but no graph or sales figures were provided in the case for a comparison.After charting the sales volume for the take aim same year and periods of time in the midst of the FashionBikini and the New FashionBikini (see exhibit A), there was a sales ontogeny $125,348 where the FashionBikini outperformed the New FashionBikini by 154%. Keeping in mind that the New FashionBikini was only being interchange in 1700 store compared to 2300 stores, the increase was shut up significant. Since keeping both FashionBikini styles on the shelf along with the Fashion Brief and adding the sassy BasicHipster was not an option, Kirk would have to make a decision to delete at least(prenominal) one of the Bikini lines.Given the sales dat a, the one to cut would be the NewFashionBikini. This would legislate Sara Lee three distinct styles that include a virgin line of cut, the BasicHipster, which would transform their product line an appeal to the economy priced buyer and retain the sense of the schoolmaster hipster to the consumers while giving and then a new sense of the market. The downside to this alternative would be risk losing market share. If the BasicHipster was not performing well to begin with mayhap bringing the style back business leader repeat the same results. Again, without numbers to compare, the risk is still prevelant.On the other hand, the BasicHipster is the New BasicHipster with a new color scheme which could result in a great market shre while appealing to consumers. 7. testimonial Sara Lee should consider replacing the New FashionBikini with the New BasicHipster based on 3 reasons. First, I had to anaylze the sales of the FashionBikini and the New FashionBikini so I knew which one to e limanite in ready to introduce the New BasicHipster. After calculated anaylsis I found that the sales of the old FashionBikini were $125,348 or 154% higher than the sales of the New FashionBikini given the same time period.Also, by not having the BasicHipster style on the shelf for over a year, it would create a need for the product by the consumer. Second, a diverse product line in terms of price and cut would be available appealing to the ecomonic consuios buyer with the New BasicHipster, as well as those consumers who desire more colors and print themes as with the FashionBikini and Fashion Brief lines. Lastly, by keeping the FashionBikini and FashionBrief line, the two had already been in the market and would not require the intensive forward motion demanded by a new product.In addition, the sales and market share should take a breather contstant and even increase while the advance for the New BasicHipster takes hold. 8. Implementation By adding the new BasicHipster a whol e new marketing campaign leave behind be knowing around the the new product including commercials aimed at young girls ages 4-12 . email marketing, free giveaways, further analysis to determine possible cannibalization should root be conducted in the Sara Lee Wal-Mart Account to track the sales volume and market share.By introducing the already New BasicHipster, a new advertising and promotion effots will take place informing the consumer of this new line and style choice. Revising the NewFashionTh e for the first year to determine if any changes need to be made. If no changes are required, further analyses of the products lines will contunie for another 2 years until their life cycles are nearly the end whne 1 and continueof the 3 increase the chances of raising sales of the FashionBikini.Besides, Sara Lee should step by step increase the quantity of the FashionBikini to account for the added sales from the deleted New FashionBikini line while go along to expand on the growth and promotion of the New BasicHipster to ensure a savourless transition. In addition to that, the corporation should combine promotion of the FashionBikini to further inform and channel consumers to buy it at Wal-Mart. Finally, a critical review of the FashionBikini should be maintained to seek consumers further preferences while making possible adjustments on their preferences. Surname 6