Who is GGI’s competition (relative to Housewares)?: GGI will be contending with many competitors when the new house ware line products are positioned into the marketplace. Home improvement stores, such as Lowes and Home Depot, will be a competitor for the company since these stores carry home décor items, as well as home improvement items. Mass merchants and clubs, such as Sam’s and Costco, will be another competitor for the company since these merchants carry appliances and home décor. Department stores, such as Wal-Mart and Target, will be a competitor for the company. Wal-Mart will be a priority competitor since they offer guaranteed low price for consumers. Also, supermarkets and drug store, such as Walgreens and Kroger will be a competitor for the company (Bernard, 2001). For example, suppose a consumer is in need of a toaster after our company hours and instead of waiting until we open, Walgreens is open 24 hours and the consumer could purchase the toaster from their store.
How can GGI Housewares differentiate themselves?: In order for the company to differentiate our new product line of house wares we will need to gain a competitive advantage over the overall industry. The new line of house ware will have to be distinctive and unique from our competitors. We can differentiate our merchandise by having the new product line of house wares have unique features, designs, or prices when compared to our competitors. Also, many times differentiating the house ware products from our competitors will pertain to culture. What is meant by this is maybe the house ware product line will relate really well to a particular cultural group in which consumers have traditional backgrounds (Spingola & Jiambalvo, n.d.).
Who will be your various market segments?: GGI will have to use many market segments to promote the new product line. The desires and needs of the consumers will need to be matched with the key characteristics of the house ware product line we are presenting. Also, the company should look into the behaviors of consumers to determine what they are buying and why they are buying it. This will give the company a good set of characteristics to go on in relation to the new product line and positioning it into the marketplace (Spingola & Jiambalvo, n.d.).
What are the trends and how can we utilize this knowledge in our marketing campaign/strategy?: There has been an inclination in consumer buying trends of house ware products over the last few years since many consumers are willing to spend continuous amounts of money on house ware products just to make their homes more comfy. However, with the expansion of the new product line of house wares there must be a variety of products for the consumers to browse through so that this inclination of buying trends stays with the company (Love, 2009). With that being said, these trends can be used in the marketing campaign/strategy for GGI by promoting a variety of products for consumers to take advantage of in being more comfy in their own homes, and the company can also benefit from this by offering the consumers more efficient products when it comes to decorating their homes and saving money.
What houseware related products should you focus on marketing?: In my own opinion, as previously stated, consumers want products for their homes that have the ability to save them money on electricity, water, and gas. If GGI presents more products that have the ability to do this then consumers will want to buy from the company since we will give them a variety of products that do this. Things, such as washers, dryers, hot water heaters, dishwashers, refrigerators, etc. would be of great value to our consumers in saving money on their common utility bills, and therefore, GGI should have a variety of these products for the consumers. Also, other house ware items, such as toasters, can openers, cook ware, bake ware, utensils’, etc. I think GGI would benefit from focusing on all house ware products that consumers want and need in this day and time.
References
Bernard, S. (2001). Mergers and acquisitions industry research. http://www.piperjaffray.com/piperpublic/MA/pdfs/Housewares%20and%20Household%20Products.pdf
Love, S. (2009). New trends in housewares go green, save green, Full house. Retrieved from http://www.cleveland.com/insideout/index.ssf/2009/04/_new_housewares_aim_toward.html
Spingola, L. & Jiambalvo, J. (n.d.). Business guide to the United States’ home and housewares market. Retrieved from http://www.housewares.org/pdf/usbizguide.pdf