Retail Mini Case Study: Peering into Business Strategy
Situation
Several important retailers are located close to Concordia's campus, just across 1-94. Your team is assigned one retailer to analyze using Porter's 5 Forces and the SWOT analysis from a consumer perspective. Find out through your own observation and analysis what you can about their ability to compete in their market and your assessment of how this particular store will do going forward. All of these stores are part of larger chains, which affect their ability to compete. While you can't completely separate them from their chain, your main focus in this assignment is the particular store here near the campus: therefore, visiting the store is a requirement.
Your Mission
1. Gather any information you can find online about the 5 Forces affecting your store.
2. Consider the beginning of a SWOT analysis using the information you found online. In your analysis, consider what the consumer perspective is on strengths and weaknesses. For example, large variety and low prices may be strengths, while difficulty in finding products or long check-out lines might be seen as weaknesses.
3. Come up with in-store questions you want answered about your particular store that you may find answers to while visiting the store. Remember, this is from a consumer perspective.
4. Visit the store you are assigned. It is best if the entire team can go together.
5. Answer the in-store questions you came up with as you go through the store.
6. After the in-store experience, meet to discuss the experience. You may have all had different perceptions of the experience, or they may have been similar.
7. Together, come up with a prognosis for the ability of the store to stay competitive in that location, and add any recommendations you can think of Remember that every recommendation has a cost, so there has to be a benefit that brings in or saves more revenue than the cost.
8. Create a two page executive summary of your experience, incorporating both the Porter's and SWOT analyses as well as your prognosis and recommendation. You will need to be concise to get this into 2 pages, so remember, just the results are put into an executive summary, not all the initial details.
9. Create a 5-8 minute ppt presentation to share with the class about your analysis of the store.
The Deliverable
You will present your Retail Mini Case Study PowerPoint to the class on Thursday, 2/3 during class.
Your presentation will comply with the following requirements:
• 5-8 minute presentation, plus Q&A. Everyone on the team will present, but the parts do not have to be equal. Choose your best presenters for the intro and conclusion. Attire: Business Casual
• Your ppt and the 2-page Executive Summary must be submitted to Blackboard Assignments prior to midnight, Wednesday, 2/2. The executive summary should include a title and reference page; these pages are not part of the page count. To be clear: I should receive one executive summary and one ppt from each team.