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PROCTOR AND GAMBLE 8

Week 6 Assignment 2

Felicia Griffin

BUS499 Business Administration Capstone

Professor Joseph Keller

August 16, 2020

Introduction

Proctor and Gamble is an international company dealing with products of segments like family care, fabric and home care, grooming and health care. These products include; Pampers, Ariel, Gillette, Charmin, Bic, Always, Venus and others. The company operates with six segments of the general environment but only has discussed two segments that mostly affect the operations of this company in this section. The company's operation, strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities are affected by the forces of competition that have been discussed in this section. The company has external threats that affect the available opportunities and gaps in the target market and group. The company also uses strategies and tactics to maximize its strengths and fix its most significant weaknesses.

General Environment

There are several general environments which include; demographic, economic, political, sociocultural, technological, and global. All these segments significantly affect proctor and gamble corporation and the industry in which it operates. Depending on the brands of products that this corporation deals with two of the several segments of the global environment have the highest rank in their influence on how the corporation operates. These two segments include; demographic and technological segments.

Demographic Segment

It involves the population size, age, geographic distribution, population income and ethnicity. Most of the brands that this corporation deals with are largely feminine, which means that the target groups are the women; for example, products like; Always, Aussie and Perfumes mostly target women. Therefore a target group comprising a higher number of women will have a higher cost of sales than the one with a high number of men. Population income affects the ability of potential customers. Some customers are willing to buy and not able to purchase the brand due to lack of money, which is brought by inadequate sources of income available in certain countries. Target group is also influenced by population distribution. This product has a target group of babies, like Pampers will be affected by birth rates in a certain region or country. A product like Gillette also is affected by population income as all the customers are men who are the heads of the family and their ability to purchase is reduced by other needs of the family.

Technological Segment

Most of the corporations and firms have installed digitalized systems in their operations. E-commerce has become a threat to SMEs (Laudon & Traver, 2016). All the operations of the industry are all done across their websites. Proctor and gamble corporations have doing extensive online marketing and advertisements for their products. All the departments have been digitalized and interconnected through electronic systems and business applications. All the departmental functions, i.e., production, finance, accounts and audit, are all done digitally. An improvement in technology and adoption by organizations has led to easy operations and increased profits and minimizing the cost of production as there is a reduction on the cost of labor because most of the work is being done by machines.

Five Forces of Competition

These include the following;

1. Competition rivalry

2. The bargaining power of suppliers

3. The bargaining power of buyers

4. The threat of substitutes

5. The threat of new entrants

Competition Rivalry

This force examines how intense competition is the market, depending on the target market. Companies using the same strategy and tactics in operation engage in rivalry over a certain market. Also, those companies dealing with similar brands of product, each of the firm competes favorably to outdo the other. Proctor and gamble corporation has of past been dealing with products that are home care and fabric. Still, they have brought into the market new products targeting new groups, which is a tactic and a strategy to remain in the market. To do this they must conduct market research to know customers' preferences and tastes. The corporation to remain in its operation and maximize profits has a variety of products and substitutes to compete favorably.

The Threat of Substitute Products

Proctor and gamble corporations, through advanced technology, has been able to improve the quality of their products so that they can maintain their performance and position in the market. For example, Unilever their competitor trades the same products as proctor and Gamble Corporation does. Therefore there is threat of substitutes by the competitors. Proctor and gamble have hair care products like Aussie with their substitutes like heads and shoulders, which has the same tastes to the potential customers.

This corporation keeps inventing new products regarding the decisions of their customers. Therefore the brands they produce are the best as per the customer's specifications and preferences.

Future Improvements

She is conducting market research to know the customer's preferences and tastes.

The corporation should give back to society to boost their buying power and protect themselves from the threat of new entrants. The corporation should also survey to know their market status and know how to improve on their production methods (Beisl, Miltner & Friedl, 2017).

Greatest External Threat

The threat of new entrants has a intense impact on the corporation’s operations. New companies registering into the market comes with new products with different tastes that may attract the potential customers of proctor and gamble corporations. This will lead to a loss in the cost of sales. If the corporation has diminishing margins of losses may shutdown and therefore, it should overlook other threats and major on this threat. Proctor and gamble corporation should engage in vigorous marketing research to produce products that best fits their customers.

Greatest Opportunity

Proctor and gamble have been doing able to do product innovation, mergers and acquisitions, and also market innovations. These are trends that the corporation may practice to increase the advantages. Proctor and gamble corporation can practice e-business and open departmental branches to different parts of the continent. Its competitors have opened links with other outside countries to increase the cost of sales and profit margins likewise. Competitors like Unilever have links with different countries in East Africa, making it more competitive.

Strengths and weaknesses

Proctor and gamble corporations do brand image, product portfolio and global operations. Corporation’s brands are unique in their image compared to those of the competitors. The corporations does global marketing of its products, making it ahead other corporations in the market. The corporation has a high dependence on US markets, which is a weakness (Asadi et al., 2016).

Strategy and Tactics

Brand image; corporation should have a unique method of giving names to the produced brands. The names should be apprenticing to potential customers. Proctor and gamble corporations should go global in marketing their products.

Resources, Capabilities and Core Competences

Proctor and gamble corporation started with soap and candle makers. It later innovated its products from using ivory to produce a variety of products. The corporation's capability has been limited in the US and its localities. Corporations can go global in doing marketing and advertisements.

Conclusion

Proctor and gamble corporation has many segments of the general environment that affects its operations, mostly the cost of sales, tastes and preferences of brands. There are competitive forces that also influence their operations. The threats of substitutes, new entrants into the market and competition rivalry, the bargaining power of both suppliers and buyers significantly determines the future the corporation. The corporation has gone global in marketing to increase the cost of sales.

Sources

1. Asadi, H., Brennan, P., O’Hare, A., Thornton, J., & Looby, S. (2016). Sudden onset bilateral

lower limb weakness in a female patient with no significant past medical history:

question. Journal of Clinical Neuroscience, 27, 153.

2. Laudon, K. C., & Traver, C. G. (2016). E-commerce: business, technology, society.

3. Beisl, S., Miltner, A., & Friedl, A. (2017). Lignin from micro-to nanosize: production

methods. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 18(6), 1244.