Buy essay on Walmart

The goal of this paper is to analyze the marketing mix of a corporation operating in several countries, to consider the implementation of the marketing mix such as competition, target market, product strategy, communication, distribution and pricing strategy. One of the successful global corporations is Walmart, a multinational network of department stores and discount stores, which is the world’s largest private employer, and annually enters the top ten list of public corporations by revenue.
Walmart was founded by Sam Walton and marketed as Wal-Mart until 2008 (Walmart Stores, 2011). In 1969 the company was incorporated, and since that time the history of the world’s retail giant began. Walmart has become the largest grocery retailer in the US, and developed different types of stores to address different customer segments – discount department stores selling grocery and general merchandise, hypermarkets designed for one-stop shopping and having virtually all types of products, and neighborhood markets, which are the middle unit between the department stores and the supercenters. Walmart also introduced a line of warehouse clubs, where large amounts of groceries and general merchandise are sold; customers get access to premium prices by purchasing annual memberships.
International expansion of Walmart started in 1991, when a Sam’s Club was opened in Mexico (Brunn, 2006). The international department of Walmart was created in 1994, and since that time the company launched its stores in 14 countries, hired about 730,000 employees and the current number of Walmart international locations is 5,236 (Walmart Stores, 2011). The countries where Walmart stores are located include Argentina, Brazil, China, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua and the UK (Walmart Stores, 2011). In this paper, such countries as the UK, Mexico, China and India. The choice of the countries is performed basing on the cultural, geographical and economical differences (and challenges) faced by Walmart in these markets.
The four P’s of marketing include product, price, promotion and place. The products offered by Walmart are mostly manufactured by other companies; however, Walmart manages a number of private labels, which are alternatives for common brand products at reasonable prices. The mix of products at Walmart stores is virtually universal: electronics, furniture, toys, jewelry, grocery, pharmaceutical and health care production, clothes, books etc.
The major advantage of Walmart chain in any country is its pricing policy. Sam Walton proclaimed the vision of Walmart as saving money for people to help them live better. The mission of Walmart is to provide the merchandise of best quality at lowest prices. Due to economies of scale and optimization of supply and logistics operations, Walmart manages to offer truly low prices compared to its competitors. Walmart also establishes relations with suppliers and offers them a “plus one” policy which implies either reduced prices for Walmart stores or increase of quality (Brunn, 2006). Thus, price leadership and economy of scale shape the competitive advantage of Walmart.
The “place” component is also excellently implemented by Walmart – every store is a large conglomerate of smaller units such as apparel stores, food and drugs stores, restaurants, cash and carry stores etc (Brunn, 2006). Walmart manages to address all important categories of middle class customers as well as groups of customers with lower income. Walmart opens its stores at convenient locations and its additional advantage is one stop shopping.