Runninghead:WALMARTCORPORATESTRATEGY
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WalmartCorporateStrategy
Student’s Name
InstitutionalAffiliation
WALMARTCORPORATESTRATEGY
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WALMART CORPORATESTRATEGY
Walmart’s decision to incorporate grocery in some of its stores creating “Supercenters”
was both corporate diversification and differentiation strategy.At this business-level Walmart
had already matured in business which makes it difficult for a company to increase its market
share or profits. Diversification is a corporate strategy that enables businesses to explore new
business areas and also provides the company with opportunities to increase their income
without necessarily expanding new stores (Rothaermel, 2017). Introducing groceries in some of
its stores would increase the variety of products that Walmart was offering its customers thus
enhancing its core competitiveness. Through diversification, customers can purchase
complementarygoodsthusinfluencingthesalesofotherproductsespeciallytheunder-promoted
products. Considering the business level of Walmart it is clear that the company required
diversification and differentiation to boost its competitiveness rather than expansion.
On the other hand, the decision can be seen as a corporate differentiation strategy.There
are the basis of achieving organizational differentiation including product, pricing, and
organization (Heng, 2017).Acompany can differentiate itself by offering unique products that
meettheneedsofthecustomers.Pricingisanotherstrategyofcorporatedifferentiation.Walmart
offered groceries to customers at lower prices compared to the grocery stores and offered other
complementary products from the same store thus attracting more customers. Corporate
differentiation strategy enhances customer loyalty since itmakes thecustomers believethatthey
cannot find the range of products and prices from other competitors (Heng, 2017). By creating
supercenters Walmart and introducing groceries in some location, stores was another way of
achieving corporate differentiationthroughunique branding. Organizationaldifferentiation isan
effective strategy that helps an organization gain a competitive advantage over its competitors.
WALMARTCORPORATESTRATEGY
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Inconclusion,Walmartdecisionofincorporatinggrocerystoresandcreatingsupercenters was
a strategy aimed at enhancing competitiveness in the market. The approach did not require the
opening of new stores but increased the range of products for customers to choose from. It also
made Walmart become a unique brand from the rest. This explains why the strategy was both a
corporate diversification and differentiation strategy.
WALMARTCORPORATESTRATEGY
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References
Heng,L.(2017).Differentiationstrategy.LahtiUniversityofAppliedSciences.Spring.Available at:
https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/125681/Lok_Ka_Heng.pdf;jsessionid=AF
66A3EAE1E9B4BBA0682450D7AECB6E?sequence=2
Rothaermel,F.T.(2017).Strategicmanagementconcepts(Custom3rded.)NewYork,NY:
McGraw-Hill.
