######################################## #Written by David Tam, 1999. # #davidkftam@netscape.net Copyright 1999# ######################################## From tamda@ecf.toronto.edu Mon Jul 12 18:30:48 1999 Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 21:01:48 -0500 (EST) From: David Kar Fai Tam To: APS 424S Subject: #19-03/16/99-"New Hudson's Bay chief considers strategy reversal" The Globe and Mail, Thursday, March 11, 1999. B1, B6. This article is about the Bay's new strategic marketing direction. They plan to bring back one-stop shopping in their downtown stores. Departments such as home electronics, music, books and toys will be revived by possibly having other specialty retailers operating boutiques within these stores. For example, Chapters, Future Shop, or HMV could become strategic partners. This strategic shift came about because the president saw opportunity to tailor the downtown stores to the lifestyles and needs of downtown urban dwellers. This move is in contrast to its strategy of past years, where reduction and elimination of low margin products in a bid to capture sales on higher margin products. Market research revealed that consumers were confused on what was available in the downtown stores. The Bay may have even eliminated items that were still of high demand, leading to even more confusion. Suburban stores will also be altered to suit the suburban market, where moderately priced fashions are more popular than expensive bands favoured by urban dwellers. From this article, I think the Bay has finally done its homework, though a few more rigorous practice questions still need to be completed. They have done market research to reveal current trends that may have not been evident in their previous survey of the market place. We can see that performing market research is not only a one time event. It requires a plan to stay up to date on current market trends, and continual, periodic research and analysis. The article also shows the importance of packaging, as one of the P's in marketing. We can treat the downtown main-floor space as a critical location to package and present the right products necessary to attract customers further into the store and purchase more products. In business, value can be added or perceived by combining the right set of products and services into one convenient bundle at an appropriate price-point. The synergy that is created leads to more sales and more profits. The article demonstrates a real life example of where a packaging strategy is being considered for deployment on a large scale.