British Company Woolworth And Causes Of Its Failure Marketing Essay

British Company Woolworth And Causes Of Its Failure Marketing Essay The British Company, Woolworths is normally categorized as a variety store dealing in retailing of a range of varying products. Historically it was established as a subsidiary of an American Company F.W. Woolworth &Co, in 1879 by Frank Winfield Woolworth It was incorporated in England on 23rd July, 1909 as private limited company with initial capital of 50,250 pound sterling. It, first time floated a new idea of selling all the products at a cost not more than five cents. This idea gained popularity amongst the customers resulting in fast growth of the subsidiary. Its first shop at Liverpool attracted about 60,000 people in first two days because of attractive one penny, three penny and six penny products put at sale. It continued to open new shops at various cities that attracted heavy rush of customers and visitors. It was company’s policy to purchase the products directly from manufacturers, who also were very happy due to momentum in their business as well. Some of the ma nufacturers started doing business solely with the Woolworths and labeled their products with the company’s name. Company’s business grew day by day and it had 31 shops in United Kingdoms by the year, 1914. Due to inflationary trends after the World War II, the company had to do away with its three pence and six pence price limits. It introduced self service first time in its retail side in the year 1955. Woolworth opened about 190 self-service stores by the year 1970. It created new division in the stores by establishing Woolco departmental stores in the year 1966. These stores had full range of quality products like, clothes, groceries, car service and restaurants etc. available at affordable prices. (WGP 2007: Fu 2007) The Company continued to flourish very fast because of its stated aim to remain at the customer’s heart and best kid’s retailer till 1966. But thereafter its sales as well as profits started falling because of its competitors, Marks & Sp encer who overtook its sales as well as profits. The results of the company were the worst in the year 1969, because it failed to chalk out suitable strategies necessary to take on its competitors in the market. Sales at Woolworth began to decline. Consumers were reportedly not satisfied with the quality of customer services of the company. Many of the business sites were not at prime locations. Its new products could not attract the customers because of lack of well trained staff and availability of ‘A class service’. The company tried to improve its services in the year 1971 by introducing new system of centralized payments besides closing its 23 unprofitable shops, as an attempt to trade up. The profits of the company increased to some extent as a result of these measures but it failed to boost up its profits at the desired level. (WGP 2007: Peston 2008) The competitors of Woolworth like Wal-Mart, Argos and Next very soon became more prevalent in the market because o f low prices, better service and vast range of their products. The Management of the company ultimately decided to sellout the Woolco stores in 1977. In the year 1981 it sold-out some of its valuable prime located properties to cover-up the losses suffered by the shops situated at these locations. Even then its profits went down in the said year and the company was forced to cut the dividends first time since its establishment. In the normal restructuring process during the year 1985, the company decided to abandon the sale of food and adult clothing that was contributing about 30% of its overall sales. The Management of the company sold out its 200 unprofitable shops out of about 990, during the years 1982-1991. During this decade company made a number of acquisitions in order to become more diversified in retail business. It launched Music and Video Club that specialized in CDs, videos and other entertainment products. The company succeeded in boosting its sales and turnover durin g 1990s and gave impressive results despite the fact that some of major chains like Wilkinson expanded their business in the Woolworth areas. (FRANCE 2008)

Philosopy Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Philosopy - Term Paper Example Therefore it can be a good thing to lie because by telling â€Å"white† lies we may have the intention of saving others from hurt feelings or we may prevent a crime. In such a case the underlying motivation of the lie is not selfishness, as the intention was to save another’s feelings. If no such underlying selfless motives are present, the outcome of the action can still be positive, as in the example given in this question. This would be an example of act utilitarianism whereby the result of the act is good and therefore the act must be deemed to be good, irrespective of the underlying motivation. Mill explains in â€Å"Utilitarianism† that â€Å"the Greatest Happiness Principle† holds that â€Å"actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, or wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness†. Following that principle, Mill believes that there is no difference in the moral value of an act to help others, or whether the fact that they have been helped is a side effect of an egoistic, self-motivated action. The outcome is the increase of general happiness: a person’s life has been saved, and the person who saved the life has arrived at a financial gain. The act therefore must be deemed moral as it has increased general happiness. An instinctive reaction to this argument for me is that there is a moral obligation and duty to save a person’s life irrespective of any personal gain (Kant’s categorical imperative) and that therefore to save someone’s life purely for financial gain lessens the morality of the action. Still there is a certain compelling elegance in Mill’s argument that, if solely considering the outcome of an action and not the motive that triggered the action, then one is perfectly justified in saying that a person who is lacking ethically sound motivation for his actions is nevertheless still capable of acting in a moral and ethical way. 3.

Advertisers Do Have a Responsibility to Society Essay

Advertisers Do Have a Responsibility to Society - Essay Example Different people today have varying perceptions about advertising in society. However, advertising cannot be considered good or evil. Advertising is like a tool or an instrument; therefore, its users might use it well or badly. Depending on how it is used, advertising might have both negative and positive effects on society. For this reason, therefore, advertisers do have a role in society. Advertising leads to different health conditions in society when the advertisers of junk food develop advertisements that are full of misinterpretation, mixed messages, and which hold important facts from the audience. For example, junk food advertising involves the promotion of literacy, health and fitness, and education (Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, n.d). Because of this, advertisers and other communication professionals have the responsibility of upholding ethics in advertising, which in this case includes dissemination of clear and honest information in advertising (Institute for Advertising Ethics, 2011). According to Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, a large percentage of students are exposed to advertising of food, which has minimal nutritional value, and are high in fats and sugar (n.d). As such, advertising of food products should encourage healthy eating, including the consumption of fruits and vegetables (The Children's Advertising Review Unit, 2009). Every year, the rate of obesity among children and youth keeps increasing, and today, one-third of children and youth are obese, or at risk of obesity (Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, n.d). Therefore, advertising should be free of any deception (The Children's Advertising Review Unit, 2009). Advertising is harmful to society when it contributes to the decline in morality. For example, the exposure of children to advertising encourages materialistic values in children (Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, n.d). Because of this, advertisers should demonstrate special responsibility w hen advertising to children, bearing in mind that children have limited capability of evaluating the credibility of information, and might not be capable of discerning the persuasive nature of advertising (The Children's Advertising Review Unit, 2009). According to Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, advertising promotes the sexualization of childhood through the highly sexualized messages in the media ads (n.d). Therefore, advertisers should not include obscene messages and content in advertisements, which are inappropriate for children audience (The Children's Advertising Review Unit, 2009). According to The Center for Alcohol Marketing and Youth, alcohol marketing encourages underage drinking (n.d). As such, advertisers should advertise to children, only products that are appropriate for them (The Children's Advertising Review Unit, 2009). Advertising promotes the stereotyping, when it places women at a disadvantage, in relation to the male gender. For example, alcohol adve rtisements portray women as sex objects and as a pretty package to see and not respect (Downing, McQuai, Schlesinger, and Wartella 2009). As such, advertisers should avoid any form of stereotyping and prejudice of any particular groups, but present them in a positive manner (The Children's Advertising Review Unit, 2009). According to the Media Education Foundation (2008), advertising emphasizes beauty and sexiness for women, at the expense of other important values and principles. Therefore, advertisers should encourage the development of positive personal qualities, characters, and values, and serve an educational role to the audience.