Assignment Sample on Marketing Dynamics

Introduction

The present report is vital in shedding light on different aspects or elements associated with supply chain management and logistics. For this purpose, the report analyses the case study of a well-established retail corporation, PC World, based in the United Kingdom. The report highlights the key issues or challenges faced by the corporation in the application of forecasting and planning of customer demand. Other than this, the report also analyses certain operational key performance indicators required to manage operations and business. Lastly, the report proposes certain recommendations to the company for ensuring its growth and building competitive advantages.

Issues in application of forecasting and planning

Demand forecasting and planning has been considered to be a significant aspect in driving corporations towards sustained growth, enhanced profitability, and overall success in the industry (Banomyong et. al. 2019). This is because, demand forecasting and planning immensely supports an organisation in predicting the demand of its offered products by the target customers. The more accurate forecast of the customers’ demands and plan, the more satisfied customers. Therefore, it can be observed that demand forecasting and planning helps an organisation to formulate strategies, planned, and procedures as per the quantity of products demanded in the market. It further contributes in eliminating any additional cost or expenses, wastage of materials and resources, thereby, enhancing overall effectiveness and efficiencies in operations. This eventually results in minimisation of cost, and maximisation of profit earned by a corporation.

Effective, accurate, and robust forecasting and planning of customer demand of a significant benefits or advantages to a corporation. Similarly, the concerned enterprise, PC World emphasises on appropriately forecasting, estimating, and strategizing for customer demands associated with computer and electronic products (Dutta et. al. 2020). The key benefits offered by demand forecasting and planning to the PC World company, include maximum satisfaction of the customers, significant reduction in inventory cost, and optimisation of cash flow within the firm. These advantages hold the potential to drive an organisation towards maximum customer satisfaction, enhanced brand reputation, cost and time effectiveness, and enhance profits.

Figure 1 Demand Planning and Forecasting

(Source: Demand Planning and Forecasting, 2021)

However, the present retail industry continues to grow even more complex than before. In addition to this, with the influx of customer data and information, the retail corporations need a better and enhanced mechanism for forecasting and planning customer demand. This is highly significant in order to enhance the customer services as well as for staying ahead of the competitors (Goldbeck et. al. 2020). The concerned corporation, PC World also observes the urgent need and the significance of an excellent mechanism for forecasting and Planning. A robust and effective model of demand forecasting immensely support PC World to smartly utilise it historically collected consumer insights or data, thereby, contributing in the anticipation when the customer demand for computers and electronics will be high. Other than this, it will also help in the establishment of a long-term mechanism or model, which further facilitates long-term business growth and development in the retail electronics industry, based in the United Kingdom. A demand forecasting and planning model immensely supports the retailers, like PC World, to eliminate their reliability or dependency on intuition or instinct for making decisions. Although, demand forecasting and planning involves several complexities and offers critical challenges to the retailers. Similarly, PC World Corporation also faces certain issues and challenges associated with accurate and proper demand forecasting planning in the electronics and computer market (Kwak et. al. 2018). Certain challenges or issues being encountered by PC World associated with demand forecasting and planning are highlighted below.

Application and use of an integrated system for tracking customers and business: A major proportion of retail corporations have been analysed to be out there and deploy modernise systems as per their requirements. Similarly, PC World Corp also deployed an integrated advanced systems for ensuring smooth flow of operations within the workplace. Although, it implies that corporation has a single system for its ERP or enterprise resource planning, and other system for customer resource management (Batista et. al. 2018). These systems have significantly contributed in solving the incremental requirements of the corporation, the emerging digital transformation, combined with the requirement of maintaining interoperability. These aspects have been observed to largely hinder the operations, activities, and overall development of the concerned retail corporation, PC World. This is because it sometimes results in the duplication of crucial data or information within both the systems, which further develops a siloed approach and affects overall operational efficiency of the corporation. Other than this, such a system further offers difficulties for the corporation and associated with obtaining actionable information or insights within the sets of unstructured data. Therefore, lack of an integrated system in the organisation, becomes much difficult and complex to improve overall business operations and activities, thereby, offering serious challenges to PC World.

Application of correct methodology of making strategic decisions: The modern retail corporations, like the PC World Corporation, make crucial decisions by setting objectives at large, instead for particular region. This eventually results in the retail corporation failing to gain visibility and direction into where sustained growth and development can be expected. Additionally, this approach fails to support the company in identifying or recognising the regions or the markets which outperform in the highly rated scenario, as well as the ones which underperform against different easy regional targets (Choi et. al. 2020). Hence, lack of a proper procedure associated with forecasting and management of customer demand of a serious challenges to the retail corporation, PC World, to ensure getting away with instant-based decision making.

Leveraging unstructured data sets for upgrading demand forecasting: The electronics and computer retail industry is highly crowded and aggressively competitive. The established players in the industry strive to leverage customer profiles and external data effectively. PC World also tends to adopt this strategy or technique. This is because customer profiles provide detailed and actual insights related to what the customers want, which further enables corporation to gain a better understanding of the customer demand. In addition to this, external data further helps the corporation to enhance its overall accuracy of demand forecast and planning, by accounting for different external factors (Yuet et. al. 2018). Therefore, development of demand forecasting model can further make it possible for the retail corporation to distinctively segment its consumers as well as to analyse the preferences and needs of the target customer segments in the market.

These issues further contribute in developing serious challenges and problems for PC World. It includes failure to keep up with the fast-changing corporate environment as well as integration of the latest technologies and systems. In addition to this, long time period required for inventory management as well as purchase at the end of the product cycle is a challenge being encountered by the concerned corporation. Furthermore, involvement of multi-suppliers and entities eventually result in increasing complexities and difficulties concerning the alignment of costs and time constraints. The computer and electronics retail industry, based in the UK is highly competitive and well-established (Kayikci, 2019). This further implies that PC World encounters challenges in segmenting and targeting its customer base, thereby, facing complexities in reaching and capturing customers. The corporation also faces barriers in the development or creation of strong competitive advantages, thereby, facing issues in building an excellent point of differentiation and standing tall against the rival corporations. Lastly, a major challenge being faced by PC World refers to the integration of operational methodologies and frameworks, being followed by the merger between PC World and Currys.

Hence, it can be analysed and observed that the above-mentioned challenges are significant to the concerned corporation, PC World these issues hold the potential to largely affect the overall business operations and activities performed by the company. Not only this, lack of proper techniques and strategies for mitigating these issues is highly significant so as to ensure sustained growth and development of the corporation in the industry (Tien et. al. 2019). The mitigation of these issues will eventually help the company to reduce significant cost and expenses, enhance profits, and drive towards sustained growth and industrial success.

Analysis of existing Logistics and Distribution strategies

Supply chain management refers to a cross functional approach, which includes the management of movement of different resources and raw materials within an organisation. Other than this, certain elements of the internal procedures of material into finished products, as well as the movement of finished goods out of the corporation, and towards the end consumer, make the core elements of supply chain management (Perboli et. al. 2018). Similarly, the concerned corporation, PC World strives to emphasise on its core competencies, thereby, enhance its overall flexibility, reduce ownership of raw materials sources, as well as different distribution channels. The corporation focuses on ensuring overall effectiveness and efficiency is while undertaking these functions associated with logistics or supply chain management. Proper management as well as performance of these activities or functions primarily contribute in satisfying consumer demand, thereby, ensuring smooth flow of operations. Therefore, it can be observed that PC world Corp aims at improving collaboration and trust among its supply chain partners, hence, enhancing inventory visibility as well as the velocity of inventory movement.

Figure 2 Supply Chain Management

(Source: Diann Daniel, 2020)

Not only this, PC World primarily relies on effective network of supply chain in order to enhance its competitiveness in the global market. Other than this, the executive and the leaders of the corporation highlight the significance of proper supply chain management. The corporation emphasises on implementing excellent strategies and tactics which further contribute in driving the corporation towards long-term success as well as customer satisfaction (Attaran, 2020). The supply chain activities undertaken by the concerned corporation, PC world, comprise of:

• The movement of required raw materials into the organisation, for undertaking different internal procedures and operations.
• Conversion or transformation of raw materials into finished goods.
• Movement of finished goods to the end user or the consumers.
• The supply chain managers or executives also hold the responsibility of bringing down the ownership of the raw materials for the corporation over a long period full, as well as support the firm in the accomplishment of competence within the industry.
• Supply chain management aims at ensuring that all the functions associated with logistics and distribution or take a note at most consideration, thereby, guarantee maximum cost effectiveness and satisfaction of customer demands.
• Additionally, the management of supply chain within the PC World corporation emphasises on construction of collaboration, trust, and honesty among different members or entities within the overall supply chain, thereby, ensuring better association and smooth flow of operations.

After assessing and analysing the logistics and distribution PC World, the other activities within its supply chain management are categorised into three main dimensions. All these dimensions or categories of the supply chain activities, include; strategic activities, operational activities, and tactical activities (Jayasinghe et. al. 2019). All these activities within the supply chain maintained by the concerned corporation, are categorised on the basis of raw materials, operations, objectives, operational flow, and departmentalisation. Proper categorisation or division of activities within the supply chain offers immense support to the executives and the managers to ensure that the collective corporation is driven Towards overall effectiveness, cost minimisation, enhanced profitability, and long-term growth. Similarly, the supply chain managers and executives at PC World emphasise on Minimising operational cost, time required and each task, the best quality standards, enhanced profitability and overall achievement of set objectives. The activities or operations within the supply chain management undertaken by the concerned corporation of further listed below depending upon their categories.

Figure 3 Categories of activities/operations in Supply Chain Management

(Source: Self-made, 2021)

Strategic Activities:

• Primarily, it includes the optimisation of different Strategies of a corporation, including the number of locations, warehouses, facilities, centres of distribution, the location of warehouses, and other search operations (Kechagias al. 2020). PC World maintains approximately 105 official or authorised outlets across the United Kingdom. These locations of distribution centres all the company’s outlets are managed and maintained by the implementation of excellent and effective strategies or tactics.
• The strategic activities or operations also comprise of the development of a strong communication network among different supply chain members as well as overall improvement within the activities of supply chain, like docking, transportation, shipping, distribution, and logistics.
• Additionally, proper organisation of the designing and development of the product is also a key element of the strategic activities undertaken by PC World. The company also ensures that the strategic activities integrate the existing as well as the new products into the supply chain.
• It supports all the other operations and activities within the supply chain.
• The strategic activities and operations within the supply chain must align and integrate with the strategic objectives and goals of the corporation.

Operational Activities:

• The operational activities within the supply chain PC World comprise of the activities and decisions associated with aids day to day activities concerning planning and production at different levels within the supply chain.
• It also involves estimation or forecast of production necessities and facilities within the supply chain in each instant.
• Moreover, operational activities also comprise of planning and forecasting the demand of computers and electronics in the industry (Mangla al. 2020). Then converting the overall product demand into supply, as well as sharing it with all the members or the entities within the supply chain. Estimating, planning, as well as coordinating the customer demand is the most significant function within the supply chain.
• It also involves the functions or operations, including movement or transportation of stocks and goods within the supply chain.
• It comprises of different integral operational decisions and plans associated with ingestion of inventory towards the finished product within the overall chain of supply.
• It constitutes the fulfilment of promised orders, as well as accounting for all the procedures and functions performed within the supply chain, ranging from the supplier to the end user or the consumer.

Tactical Activities:

• The tactical activities or operations within the supply chain comprise of significant decisions associated with the purchase or procurement of inventory as well as contracts.
• It also comprises of the decisions and plans pertaining to production, including schedule, location, contracts, definition and plan of the procedures involved in production, and other such important aspects.
• Decisions associated with the quality of production process and raw materials, location, quantity, transportation, logistics, as well as the use of inventory, also make an integral part of the tactical activities within the supply chain.
• It further includes the formulation of plans and the strategies associated with freight, like the cost, transport frequency, contracts and logistics, and other such aspects (Kumar al. 2021).
• Lastly, the tactical operations within the supply chain comprise of benchmarking the best procedures within the industry throughout its overall activities and operations within the supply chain.

Hence, after analysing the different categories of supply chain activities undertaken by PC World, it can be observed that the company emphasises on ensuring smooth flow of operations and superior performance standards. The three categories of activities within the supply chain further support the executives within the corporation to ensure smooth flow of raw materials and finished goods, operations, achievement of supply chain objective, and fulfilment of customer demand. In addition to this, supply chain management undertaken by PC World forms the most integral part of its business and highlights significance within its overall success in the industry, and maximum customer satisfaction.

Not only this, the strategy of supply chain management initiated and formulated by PC World primarily emphasises on the below mentioned aspects. These aspects or objectives of supply chain management defined by PC world are the key contributors in eight sustained growth and development in the industry (Junge, 2019). The supply chain strategy formulated by PC World principally highlights the objectives of: Boosting customer services, Reduction of Operating costs, Improving the firm’s financial position in the industry, building strong competitive advantage, and ensuring sustained growth or development.

Operational KPIs required for business management

A retail corporation, like PC World, is responsible for driving a wide range of key performance indicators associated with its different outlets or stores. In addition to this, a successful process of store operation comprises of sales, marketing, operations management, customer experience, as well as management of supply chain and inventory (Kechagias et. al. 2020). Therefore, key performance indicator or KPI refers to metric which evaluate the performance level of a particular business activities. Selecting the most appropriate and the correct KPI to measure primarily revolves around understanding the principal objective served by each, how each KPI can be evaluated quantitatively or qualitatively, the timeframe relevant for reporting each KPI, as well as how the metric map offers wide a strategic goal. The most relevant key performance indicators associated with the retail corporation, PC World, are explained below.

Conversion Rate: The KPI of conversion rate is calculated or evaluated by dividing the number of sales made by the total number of buyers who visited the store. This KPI is highly significant for PC World as it provides an understanding of how good the corporation is at converting the shoppers into its consumers. It is also an effective approach of contrasting and comparing the performance levels of different advertising channels of a corporation (Mangla et. al. 2020). Therefore, the use of this KPI will enable PC world as it enables in lowering the cost associated with customer acquisition by obtaining more value from the users and visitors already acquired by the corporation. Therefore, the optimisation of conversion rate contributes in increasing revenue on foreign visitors, thereby, helping in acquisition of more customers as well as sustained business growth in the industry.

Sales per square foot: This KPI is calculated by dividing the net sales of the corporation by square footage of its sales space. This is considered to be a great metric for determining the overall productivity level of the store. In addition to this, this key performance indicator will enable PC World to understand how well its store space is optimise as well as the ROI being obtained on its different outlets or stores, based in the UK. This metric will immensely support the concerned corporation to determine how its sales space or outlets are utilised as well as helps in making crucial decisions associated with inventory, merchandising, and sales.

Sales per Employee: The key performance indicator of sales per employee is evaluated by dividing the net sales of the corporation by the number of employees recruited at its stores or outlets (Kumar et. al. 2021). This metric is critical for PC World as it highlights the top performers of the store, the employees who need extra training sessions, and also depicts the overall effectiveness of the workforce. In addition to this, a higher ratio of sales per employee metric demonstrate that the corporation can operate on low overhead expenses, and hence, with fewer employees, which eventually translates into enhanced profits. Therefore, it will largely help the concerned corporation to save significant cost, and maximise its profitability.

Foot Traffic: Foot traffic refers to the total number of Store entrances observed during a particular time frame. The time frame can be weekly, monthly, quarterly or any other. Store foot traffic is a crucial KPI as it demonstrates the effectiveness of marketing efforts and strategies implemented by an organisation within the geography area around it store. PC World operates through 105 outlets in the UK. This metric will largely help the corporation to understand the patterns associated with foot traffic in its outlets, thereby, reflecting the health of each outlet and the overall business. Not only this, tracking foot traffic also reflect seasonal shopping patterns of the customers purchasing electronics or computers, thereby, obtaining a diagnosis why foot traffic is declining or improving. In addition to this, this KPI also provides valuable insights highlighting how well the corporation performs within a particular geographic area or location (Junge, 2019). A decline in foot traffic may imply that the company must emphasise on enhancing its marketing tactics and promotional strategies within the area. It also focuses on proper use of traditional and social advertising, emails, and shield marketing techniques to target potential shoppers in the area location of declining foot traffic, and offering them a strong reason to get back to the local store or outlet. Hence, operational KPIs or Key Performance Indicators are significant or crucial for PC World to assess and analyse its performance or productivity levels and enhance its overall growth prospects.

Recommendation

It can be recommended that business can use different types of strategies that will help them at the time of sustaining competitive advantage in the turbulent business environment (Haseeb et. al. 2019). Strategy is mainly defined as the process or a plan that is used by the organization at the time of achieving more than one long goal that is within the conditions of uncertainty. The strategy will not only help the organization at the time of achieving a competitive advantage within this competitive environment but will also result in defining the direction, vision and mission of the organization. Strategies are also known as road maps of the organization which helped them at the time of facing different types of challenges or achieving competitive advantage. In regard to this competitive advantage will also result in helping the business at the time of achieving superior margin as compared to its competitors.

For achieving the competitive advantage, it is very important for the business to make sure that they have clearly thought about their product and services which are offered to the customers (Kuncoro and Suriani, 2018).  At the time of adopting different types of strategies for achieving the competitive advantage, it is very important for the business. The best strategy that the organization can use is cost leadership which will help the company to establish a selling price that is very different as compared to its competitors.  Along with this, it will also be based upon the economy of this scale along with the product that is at a cost lower than its competitors. On the other hand, differentiation is the other strategy that the organization can use for sustained competitive advantage.  It will also help them at the time of differentiating their product and services as compared to its competitor.  With the help of this, the organization can also provide and deliver high-quality products and services to its customers or can also adopt or can-do innovation that are very different from its competitor.

In this, the organization can also set a premium price for the different types of products and services that are offered to the customers. In the turbulent business environment (Mahdi et. al. 2019). It is very important for the businesses to make themselves very different as compared to its competitor that is within the narrow market segment. Both the strategy will help the organization at the time of achieving sustained competitive advantage in today’s turbulent business environment. It will also result in helping them at the time of identifying the core competency and the supply chain of the business which is very important for achieving growth and development. In today’s world, it is very for the business to have a good strategy that will help them at their time of executing their strategic objective and missions in the proper manner. The strategies that are explained above can be chosen by the research and development department of the organization by doing the full research of the market along with its material sourcing and distributor relations. The strategies will also help them at the time of identifying all the issues that can result in affecting the organization long term well-being (Ferreira et. al. 2020).

Conclusion

Therefore, it can be concluded from the above report that operations and logistics management involve several complexities and difficulties. The above report analysed the case study of a developed retail corporation, PC World. The report highlighted the issues encountered within the process of applying demand forecasting and planning, and assessed the existing logistics and distribution strategies of the firm. Lastly the report highlighted certain recommendations to the company concerning its growth and competitiveness in the industry.

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Online:

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