Business Finance Homework Help

Winning businesses develop strategic merchandise/product pla ns that support the company’s overall business strategy, goals, and objectives. Specific promotions are planned by management and have fully developed financial plans to support the promotions. Promotions are well-planned so the stores can execute each promotion successfully and provide customers with outstanding products and service. Typically, a promotion has a specific strategy and targets a specific market segment. The objectives of the promotion may attracting new customers or increasing selling opportunities.

For this assignment, you will assume a customer perspective and visit two retail stores other than your own. During your visits, you will identify and assess elements of each store’s merchandise/product strategies. The other stores may be competitors in your industry sector, or they may be in an unrelated sector. You may assume any type of customer perspective; here are a few ideas:

• The perspective of a senior citizen
• The perspective of a single, young professional with a focus on upscale products
• The perspective of a head-of-household parent with four teenagers living in the suburbs (a “value” shopper)

Instructions:

1. Use outside research, and your professional experience to answer the following questions for each store visited:
   1. Identify the company’s general (or promotional) merchandise/product strategy. Provide evidence to support your identification of each type of strategy.
   2. In what ways did the products and services support the overall merchandise/product strategy?
   3. Judge which products were most meaningful to each store and whether those products did or did not meet your expectations as a customer.
   4. Evaluate if the most meaningful merchandise/product assortments were wide/deep enough to provide a sufficient variety of choices and options.
   5. Identify at least two financial goals that the stores may have been targeting during your visit, and justify your logic in identifying those goals.
   6. Compare and contrast the merchandise/product strategy(ies) used in the two stores you visited.
2. Compose your answers to questions a. – f. with a minimum of one paragraph per question (minimum of 6 paragraphs total). Research and use at least one outside source to support your answers. You must give appropriate credit to the source of the material and cite your sources according to APA guidelines.