Corporate Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Corporate Strategy - Essay Example nd names and private label brands under the Next name, including a variety of menswear, womenswear, child-focused clothing and accessories, and limited houseware products. Next has captured the attention of its target market, which is generally the 18 to 40 year old markets, by providing moderately-priced, contemporary clothing and accessory products that are comparable to the higher quality and higher priced merchandise offered by many High Street stores in the United Kingdom. Next has, since 1999, focused strongly on its online sales division, NextDirect, which recently provided the business 44 percent of its total operating revenues (Next Plc 2012). The business is strategically positioned in terms of service quality excellence, which is supported by considerable capital investments into improving convenience and the home delivery service processes (Next Plc 2012). The business utilises a focused low-cost strategy which allows the organisation to dedicate its service and product-c entric resources to specific markets drawn to the trendy and fashionable merchandise offerings that cater to the younger, contemporary target markets. In a hyper-competitive retail environment, Next is able to outperform even High Street stores and long-standing retailer brands, such as Marks and Spencer, by effectively meeting the needs of a narrower market segment. Many of Next’s competitors, which include Zara, Marks and Spencer, Debenhams, New Look and Matalan (to name only a few), operate in highly competitive retail environments and seek to utilise broad differentiation strategies to create an effective market position in the minds of desired target consumers. The difficulty that many competitors face in this differentiation strategy is that many marketing tactics under this strategy are easy to replicate, with product quality and pricing no longer being viable methods of differentiation (Bennet and Rundle-Thiele 2004; Nandan 2005). However, many of these competitors cater to