ASAP MKT RP II

Running head: MARKETING PROJECT I

MARKETING PROJECT I

Marketing Project I

Name

Institutional Affiliation

Company Overview

Wal-Mart is an American multinational retail corporation running chains of different and large discount department and warehouse stores launched by Sam Walton on July 2nd, 19632 at Rogers, Ark (Slater, 2003). The store was purposefully opened to help the people including customers, and the community saves on their money by lead a better life. The company was officially incorporated in 1969 as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. after which it first publicly traded of in 1972 at the New York Stock Exchange (Fishman, 2006).According to a report by the Fortune Global 500 list, Wal-Mart is the second largest public corporation worldwide (Patrick, 2002). As evident with approximately two million associates worldwide and serving of two hundred million customers weekly in more than ten thousand stores in 27 countries as of 2002(Patrick, 2002).

In reference to Farfan (n.d), Sam Waltonwas instrumental in the formation of the company’s mission and visionstatements hat up to now the company continues to work to the realization of the same.The mission and vision statements for Wall- mart reads, “We save people money so they can live better” and “If we work together, we’ll lower the cost of living for everyone…we’ll Give the world an opportunity to see what it’s like to save and have a better life” respectively(Slater, 2003).The mission and vision statements of Wal-Mart explains why the company has managed to grow into the right direction as they stresses the importance of the business being aware of the decisions they make on the basis of their mission and vision(Fishman, 2006).

PESTEL Analysis

The PESTEL technique provides a platform for investigating and analyzing external factors affecting business as it focuses on six key areas namely the political arena, economic, socio-cultural, technological, legal and environmental factors.

Political: There is need for Wal-Mart to adhere to rules and regulation of host countries now that the company operates worldwide so as to avoid scenarios such as the ones in China where it was forced to acquire local firms (Roberts, & Berg, 2012). The probable political factors that the company is facing include political instability especially in developing worlds, legal and regulation constrains, economic downtown, tax system, currency regulation, and intellectual property rights among others (Roberts, & Berg, 2012).

Economic: Just as typicalof the economic conditions in host countries impacting the business operations of a company, Wal-Mart faces high inflation rates and currency devaluation in m various markets(Fishman, 2006). In the US, for instance, the company is experiencing high interest rate, higher level of unemployment, higher consumer debt level, and unavailability of consumer credit among others that have adverse effect on the company’s consumer demand for products and services(Roberts, & Berg, 2012).

Social: There is very need for the company to operate international as per the local cultures of the host countries that comprise exempts such as age distribution, safety precaution, population growth and others. That is becausethesefactors affect the demand for the company’s products and services (Fishman, 2006).

Technological: There are various technologicalfactors that greatly impact the operations of a business such as environmental and ecological aspects. That means that Wal-Mart has to invest heavily in R & D and technological incentives in order to wade off the stiff competition in the market (Slater, 2003).

Environmental: The changes in the climate and environment in different manufacturing and distribution facilities in which Wal-Mart operate are a threat to the operations of the company die to heavy downpour of rain and unexpected natural disasters(Slater, 2003). These changes result in delayed transportation of the raw materials and finished goods and services to respective destinations.

Legal: Wal-Mart is facing a myriad of legal challenges across the continents resulting for employee mismanagement, gender harassment, and health issues among others. The same is slowing the growth progress of the company since it spends more time attending to the legal issues in courts as opposed to devising effective business strategies (Slater, 2003).

Reference

Farfan, B. (n.d). Wal-Mart Stores' Mission Statement - People, Saving Money, Living a Better Live. Retrieved November 12, 2014, from About.Com website: http://retailindustry.about.com/od/retailbestpractices/ig/Company-Mission-Statements/

Fishman, C. (2006). The Wal-Mart effect: How the world's most powerful company really works, and how it's transforming the American economy. New York: The Penguin Press.

Optimization: http://futurewire.blogspot.ca/2006/06/Wal-Mart to customize stores via.html

Patrick, H. (2002).Wal-Mart: Staying on Top of the(Fortune(500. Washington, DC: George

Perreault, W., Jr., Cannon, J., & McCarthy, J. (2015). Essentials of marketing: A marketing strategy planning approach (14th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Roberts, B. R., & Berg, N. (2012). Wal-Mart: Key insights and practical lessons from the world's largest retailer. London: Kogan Page.

Slater, R. (2003). The Wal-Mart decade: How a new generation of leaders turned Sam Walton's legacy into the world's #1 company. New York: Portfolio.