An Environmental Analysis Of Meadows And Byrne Marketing Essay

Meadows and Byrne comes from a very interesting background. One which put a small village on the map. In 1928, a boy of 13 named John Christy Kelleher like most of his friends in Blarney, Co Cork began to work at Martin Mahoney & Bros LTD woollen mills. Christy began work at the mills as an apprentice machinist and worked there for 22 years. During these 22 years Christy developed a great knowledge and awareness of the textile industry. He was soon promoted to supervisor responsible for the day to day running and maintenance of the heavy industrial machinery. In 1951 Christ left the mill to work for an insurance company in the city so he could provide better for his family. As well as this for a small fee he also took the local harrier club members to their drag hunts around Munster and operated a hackney service to bring the cycling club to their various meetings. On Saturday mornings he ran a vegetable round. As a born entrepreneur Christy was never happy sitting still, he purchased the local cinema and used it as a dancehall at the weekends.

Every Summer Christy would watch thousands of visitors come and go to Blarney to kiss the world famous Blarney Stone. He knew that there should be something else of interest to keep the tourists in the village. Everybody knew it was inevitable that Christy with his love for Blarney would start a venture that would benefit both the village and his family. In 1967 with not enough money to rent a shop he built a small thatched cottage to sell crafts to the tourists. It was at this time Freda Christy oldest daughter left school to run the cottage. They started off selling Aran sweaters, crocheted shawls and made crafts all made by village locals. Making £14.00 on his first day Christy knew he had struck gold.

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Years later Christy and Freda converted the cinema/dancehall into a knitwear family to supply the cottage with jumpers employing 10 people. When in 1973 Mahoney’s Mill the mill where Christy first started work shut down the huge stone buildings became bare and empty and the machines were dismantled and removed. For two years the mill lay derelict Christy visited the site many times and slowly his idea began to grow, he would turn the mill in to a visitor centre. After a family conference Christy persuaded his wife and children that this was an opportunity not to be missed. He placed a deposit on the Mill only to find after meeting with the banks with his daughter Freda the financial institutions didn’t share his enthusiasm. The family agreed drastic measures were needed. The cinema/ dance hall was sold, homes were re-mortgaged and each member of the family who could took out a personal loan. With enough money to purchase the mill they later persuaded the banks to provide the working capital.

Fast forward to ten years later and each year more than half a million visitors passed through the gates of Blarney Woollen Mills, many of whom just wanted to meet Christy Kelleher the man who had created jobs for many people in the small village and made Blarney a lively and prosperous village once again! Between the shop, knitwear factory, mail order department and the hotel Blarney Woollen Mills employed over 380 people. In 1988 the business started to expand and opened its first shop outside of Blarney, on Nassau Street in Dublin

In 1991 aged 76 Christy Kelleher this man of great vision died. He left behind a thriving family company. Unfortunately with 6 directors all children of Christy, not everyone’s vision was the same. A fight broke out in the company. In 1993 Freda Hayes was over ruled as CEO of the company and left the business. In late 1993 with all the experience she had gained from starting the family business with her father Freda started on her own venture. Meadows and Byrne. She opened her first store on Academy Street Cork and the business has gone from strength to strength with there now being 8 stores nationwide. Whilst building her empire Freda and with the death of her mother she once again became close to her family. 7 years after her departure In January of 2000 causing a lot of controversy Freda rejoined the family firm. The two companies merged and now employ over 600 people and have a turnover of over €60 million a year.

Organisational Chart:

“The divisional structure groups each organizational function into divisions. Each division within a divisional structure contains all the necessary resources and functions within it.”http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/120970/functional_divisional_and_matrix_organizational.html?cat=3 Divisions in Meadows and Byrne are organized geographically as the company has branches nationwide.

Marketing Environment:

The marketing environment is the external and internal factors which have an impact on a company. There are 3 main elements of the marketing environment, the macro- environment, the micro- environment and the internal environment.

The macro environment are major external factors that a company cannot control that influence a company’s decision making and also affect its performance and strategies. The macro environment is made up of demographic environment, economic environment, natural environment, technological environment, political-legal environment and social-cultural environment.

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The micro environment is the internal factors close to the company that have a direct impact on the company’s strategy. This includes all departments in a company. Each of these departments has an impact on marketing decisions. These factors can also include customers, shareholders, media and employees.

The internal environment are conditions, entities, events, and factors within an company which influence its activities and choices. Factors that are frequently considered in this category include the company’s mission statement, leadership styles, and its organizational culture.

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It is very important for a company to study the marketing environment that affects their company as it shows them the external and internal factors which do and can in the future affect their company. It can help them distinguish their competitors, and consumers. It can also help to reduce a company’s expenditure. When certain markets become over saturated competition can become overly expensive and can lead to the closing of a company. A company must keep track of trends in the market to insure that this does not happen to their company. Frameworks such as a SWOT analysis a PEST analysis and Porters Five forces analysis are 3 frameworks which can be used to analyze the marketing environment.

Environmental Analysis of Meadows and Byrne:

SWOT Analysis of Meadows and Byrne:

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“A technique created by Albert Humphrey, SWOT Analysis is a strategic planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture. A SWOT is used to highlight and identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It is particularly helpful in identifying areas for development.

Strengths: attributes of the person or company that are helpful to achieving the objective.

Weaknesses: attributes of the person or company that are harmful to achieving the objective.

Opportunities: external conditions that are helpful to achieving the objective.

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Threats: external conditions which could do damage to the objective.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWOT_analysis visited on 08/12/09

Strengths:

Linked with Blarney Woollen Mills: Blarney Woollen Mills is known worldwide. About 200,000 people come to visit the famous mill every year and more go to each of its other stores. Being linked with this famous company can only be an advantage for Meadows and Byrne as it means that the people visiting the Blarney Woollen Mills shops could visit their store also.

Main Player in its field: Meadows & Byrne is one of Ireland’s most popular, stylish interior and home-furnishing retailers with quality products in furniture, pottery, glassware, kitchenware and home ware. It has a great reputation and is also one of the best known home ware stores in Ireland.

Lower distribution costs: Meadows and Byrne uses the same distribution channels as Blarney Woollen mills meaning that it is cheaper for the company to transport goods around Ireland.

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Bulk Buying: With some of its products being sold in both the Blarney Woollen Mills and Meadows and Byrne stores means that the company gets discounts when buying products as they buy in such large quantities.

Customer Loyalty: Meadows and Byrne have very loyal customers and have set up a customer loyalty scheme to reward loyalty; a card which entitles customers to 10% off all non sale items they purchase in the store.

Staff: Each staff member is vigorously trained in home ware and furniture as well as interiors so they can give customers the best service they possibly can.

Weaknesses:

Stock: As with all companies the buyers are never sure how much of a certain item will sell in their stores and do not know how many items to purchase so sometimes they under order products. For example the company bought 1000 Christmas trees and were sold out of them by the 2nd of December.

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Understaffed: Due to the recession Meadows and Byrne has had to scale back on staff to try and help reduce costs. Now during sale times the stores get extremely bust and there are not enough staff to help customers on the shop floor.

Communication: With the head office being in Cork sometimes it is hard for management to communicate with the heads of the company as they have to wait for an email reply or a phone call back.

Opportunities:

Merging: Although they are the one company Blarney Woollen Mills and Meadows and Byrne do not share stores. Meadows and Byrne do open a Christmas concession each year in the Blarney Woollen Mills store. If they did this all year round they would increase their footfall to their shops and reach out to more customers.

New Stores: Meadows and Byrne could open up more stores in other areas to cover a wide area so far they have stores in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Clare and Tipperary.

Opening stores across Europe: With Ireland being a member of the EU Meadows and Byrne could easily open stores across Europe.

Threats:

Competitors: With new home ware stores opening all the time Meadows and Byrnes customers could shop in these stores instead.

Shops opening new departments: With stores such as Dunnes Stores starting to stock home ware items this could affect Meadows and Byrnes sales.

Recessions: The recession has given IKEA the opportunity to open in Dublin. Flat packed furniture and the shops style of IKEA is a lot cheaper than Meadows and Byrne. It also means people have a lot less money to spend on home ware goods; they focus on the essentials instead of luxuries.

Resource Based View

“The resource-based view (RBV) is an economic tool used to determine the strategic resources available to a firm. The fundamental principle of the RBV is that the basis for a competitive advantage of a firm lies primarily in the application of the bundle of valuable resources at the firm’s disposal (Wernerfelt, 1984, p172; Rumelt, 1984, p557-558).” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource-based_view

“The key points of the theory are:

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Identify the firm’s potential key resources.

Evaluate whether these resources fulfill the following (VRIO) criteria:

Valuable – A resource must enable a firm to employ a value-creating strategy, by either outperforming its competitors or reduce its own weaknesses (Barney, 1991, p99; Amit and Shoemaker, 1993, p36). Relevant in this perspective is that the transaction costs associated with the investment in the resource cannot be higher than the discounted future rents that flow out of the value-creating strategy (Mahoney and Prahalad, 1992, p370; Conner, 1992, p131).

Rare – To be of value, a resource must be by definition rare. In a perfectly competitive strategic factor market for a resource, the price of the resource will be a reflection of the expected discounted future above-average returns (Barney, 1986a, p1232-1233; Dierickx and Cool, 1989, p1504; sarfraz sheikh, 1991, p100).

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In-imitable – If a valuable resource is controlled by only one firm it could be a source of a competitive advantage (Barney, 1991, p107). This advantage could be sustainable if competitors are not able to duplicate this strategic asset perfectly (Peteraf, 1993, p183; Barney, 1986b, p658). The term isolating mechanism was introduced by Rumelt (1984, p567) to explain why firms might not be able to imitate a resource to the degree that they are able to compete with the firm having the valuable resource (Peteraf, 1993, p182-183; sarfraz sheikh, 1992, p371). An important underlying factor of inimitability is causal ambiguity, which occurs if the source from which a firm’s competitive advantage stems is unknown (Peteraf, 1993, p182; Lippman and Rumelt, 1982, p420). If the resource in question is knowledge-based or socially complex, causal ambiguity is more likely to occur as these types of resources are more likely to be idiosyncratic to the firm in which it resides (Peteraf, 1993, p183; Mahoney and Pandian, 1992, p365; Barney, 1991, p110). Conner and Prahalad go so far as to say knowledge-based resources are “…the essence of the resource-based perspective” (1996, p477).

Non-substitutable – Even if a resource is rare, potentially value-creating and imperfectly imitable, an equally important aspect is lack of substitutability (Dierickx and Cool, 1989, p1509; Barney, 1991, p111). If competitors are able to counter the firm’s value-creating strategy with a substitute, prices are driven down to the point that the price equals the discounted future rents (Barney, 1986a,p 1233; sheikh, 1991, p137), resulting in zero economic profits.

Care for and protect resources that possess these evaluations because doing so can improve organizational performance (Crook, Ketchen, Combs, and Todd, 2008).”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource-based_view

Porter’s Generic Value Chain    

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Firm Infrastructure

HR Management

Technology Development

Procurement

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“The goal of these activities is to offer the customer a level of value that exceeds the cost of the activities, thereby resulting in a profit margin.

The primary value chain activities are:

Inbound Logistics: the receiving and warehousing of raw materials and their distribution to manufacturing as they are required.

Operations: the processes of transforming inputs into finished products and services.

Outbound Logistics: the warehousing and distribution of finished goods.

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Marketing & Sales: the identification of customer needs and the generation of sales.

Service: the support of customers after the products and services are sold to them.

These primary activities are supported by:

The infrastructure of the firm: organizational structure, control systems, company culture, etc.

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Human resource management: employee recruiting, hiring, training, development, and compensation.

Technology development: technologies to support value-creating activities.

Procurement: purchasing inputs such as materials, supplies, and equipment.” http://www.netmba.com/strategy/value-chain/

PEST of Meadows and Byrne:

PEST analysis is a management technique that enables an analysis of four external factors that may impact the performance of the company. These factors are: Political, Economic, Social, and Technological. It is very important that an organization considers its environment before beginning the marketing process. The PEST analysis helps with this.

Political Factors:

The political arena has a huge influence upon the regulation of businesses, and the spending power of consumers and other businesses.

Currently Fianna Fail are in government in Ireland. They have a huge influence on Meadows and Byrne as they influence all the taxes and laws the shop must follow. They also control the budget for the country. When the government increases taxes it has a huge impact on peoples spending habits. As Meadows and Byrne are selling luxury goods when people are low on money they focus more on the essentials. Also as Ireland is part of the European Union Meadows and Byrne must follow all the laws they create as well.

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The government’s policy on the economy has a huge affect on Meadows and Byrne. When the government tell the public not to spend money and to save as they have told people to do people follow it mean that people spend less money which affects profits of the company.

Economic Factors.

Marketers need to consider the state of a trading economy in the short and long-terms. This is especially true when planning for international marketing.

With the recession people are not as likely to spend money as they used to be. People focus on buying essentials not luxuries.

Interest rates in Ireland are low at the moment. But with the recession at the moment the banks are not willing to lend money to many people. Even thought Meadows and Byrne are part of the Blarney Group if they wanted to borrow money for expansion it is doubtful they could borrow. Also it affects the customers of Meadows and Byrne if they do not have money to spend or cannot borrow money they cannot shop in the store meaning sales will be down.

Employment in Ireland is down at the moment all companies are scaling back on staff to reduce costs. Meadows and Byrne has had to follow every other company and do the same.

Socio cultural Factors:

The social and cultural influences on business vary from country to country. It is very important that such factors are considered.

The main religion in Ireland is Christianity. This really has no affect on Meadows and Byrne. Meadows and Byrne buy most of their products abroad in countries such as India and China as it is cheaper. Luckily people have moved with the times and do not have problems buying goods that were made in other countries. People do not have as much leisure time as they did before the recession people now spend more time working. This has an effect on Meadows and Byrne as people do not have as much time to shop. In Ireland at the moment people have a strong view on being “green” meaning they like to buy products which do not have a lot of packaging and are environmentally friendly so they can feel like they have done their bit for the environment. Meadows and Byrne have seen this and have stopped using plastic bags in their stores and use paper ones instead they also try not to use bubble wrap when it can be avoided. People in Ireland are now living longer with the older generation having a lot of disposable income meaning they are a prime customer for Meadows and Byrne.

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Technological Factors.

Technology is vital for competitive advantage, and is a major driver of globalization.

Meadows and Byrne are very up with technology. They have installed the latest in software in their stores, use touch screen registers and use email to keep in contact with the other stores which is a cheaper alternative to using phones. They also have an online store enabling customers to buy all their products without even leaving their house.

Porters Five Forces of Analysis:

“”Porter’s five forces” is a framework for the industry analysis and business strategy development developed by Michael E. Porter of Harvard Business School in 1979. Michael Porter provided a framework that models an industry as being influenced by five forces.”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter_five_forces_analysis visited on 08/12/09

Rivalry among existing competitors:

“Rivalry amongst existing competitors creates a lot of competition in the market place. Competition is good for business.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter_five_forces_analysis visited on 08/12/09 It lowers prices for the buyer. At the moment Meadows and Byrne have no direct competitors. They are Irelands leading home store. If there are problems with competitors the company can do several things such as lower their prices or use their channels of distribution more creativity.

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“The intensity of rivalry is influenced by the following industry characteristics:

A larger number of firms increase rivalry because more firms must compete for the same customers and resources. As Meadows and Byrne are nearly one of a kind they do not really have to worry about this characteristic.

Slow market growth causes firms to fight for market share. With the recession companies have to fight as hard as they can for market share.

High fixed costs result in an economy of scale effect that increases rivalry. Meadows and Byrne have fixed costs such as rent, wages and light and heat.

High storage costs or highly perishable products cause a producer to sell goods as soon as possible. Meadows and Byrne have to pay for a warehouse to store all their products before they go to the shops. They do not sell many perishable products.

Low switching costs increases rivalry. When a customer can freely switch from one product to another there is a greater struggle to capture customers. Meadows and Byrnes customers can easily switch to buying in another shop so they have to make sure they are selling the best products at low prices.

Low levels of product differentiation is associated with higher levels of rivalry. Brand identification, on the other hand, tends to constrain rivalry. If there is not much difference in products but a huge difference in price people will always go for the cheaper option meaning Meadows and Byrne must try to keep their products as low as possible. “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter_five_forces_analysis visited on 08/12/09

Threat Of Substitutes

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“In Porter’s model, substitute products refer to products in other industries. If another company is selling a similar product at a better price this means customers will go and buy this product instead. “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter_five_forces_analysis visited on 08/12/09Meadows and Byrne have to make sure that they are selling good quality products at a good price to entice people to purchase their products.

Buyer power:

“The power of buyers is the impact that customers have on a producing industry. In general, when buyer power is strong, the relationship to the producing industry is near to what an economist terms a monopoly – a market in which there are many suppliers and one buyer. Under such market conditions, the buyer sets the price.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter_five_forces_analysis visited on 08/12/09

The following tables outline some factors that determine buyer power:

Buyers are Powerful if:

Example

Buyers are concentrated – there are a few buyers with significant market share

DOD purchases from defense contractors

Buyers purchase a significant proportion of output – distribution of purchases or if the product is standardized

Circuit City and Sears’ large retail market provides power over appliance manufacturers

Buyers possess a credible backward integration threat – can threaten to buy producing firm or rival

Large auto manufacturers’ purchases of tires

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Buyers are Weak if:

Example

Producers threaten forward integration – producer can take over own distribution/retailing

Movie-producing companies have integrated forward to acquire theaters

Significant buyer switching costs – products not standardized and buyer cannot easily switch to another product

IBM’s 360 system strategy in the 1960’s

Buyers are fragmented (many, different) – no buyer has any particular influence on product or price

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Most consumer products

Producers supply critical portions of buyers’ input – distribution of purchases

Intel’s relationship with PC manufacturers

Source: http://www.quickmba.com

With the recession buyers now have a huge impact on how prices are set in Meadows and Byrne. The customer is in mind with every price that is set. The buyers take into consideration how much people are willing to spend on products.

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Supplier Power:

“A producing industry requires raw materials – labor, components, and other supplies. This requirement leads to buyer-supplier relationships between the industry and the firms that provide it the raw materials used to create products. Suppliers, if powerful, can exert an influence on the producing industry, such as selling raw materials at a high price to capture some of the industry’s profits. The following tables outline some factors that determine supplier power.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter_five_forces_analysis visited on 08/12/09

Suppliers are Powerful if:

Example

Credible forward integration threat by suppliers

Baxter International, manufacturer of hospital supplies, acquired American Hospital Supply, a distributor

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Suppliers concentrated

Drug industry’s relationship to hospitals

Significant cost to switch suppliers

Microsoft’s relationship with PC manufacturers

Customers Powerful 

Boycott of grocery stores selling non-union picked grapes

 

Suppliers are Weak if:

Example

Many competitive suppliers – product is standardized

Tire industry relationship to automobile manufacturers

Purchase commodity products

Grocery store brand label products

Credible backward integration threat by purchasers

Timber producers relationship to paper companies

Concentrated purchasers

Garment industry relationship to major department stores

Customers Weak

Travel agents’ relationship to airlines

Source: http://www.quickmba.com

Meadows and Byrne have a lot of suppliers and because of this they can negotiate the prices of the materials they are purchasing.

Barriers to Entry / Threat of Entry:

With Ireland being a member of the European Union it is easy for companies to enter the Irish market place if they are a member of the EU. This causes a threat for Meadows and Byrne because we have already seen companies such as IKEA opening up in Dublin and take some of the companies customers.

Examples of Barriers:

Easy to Enter if there is:

Common technology

Little brand franchise

Access to distribution channels

Low scale threshold

Difficult to Enter if there is:

Patented or proprietary know-how

Difficulty in brand switching

Restricted distribution channels

High scale threshold

Easy to Exit if there are:

Salable assets

Low exit costs

Independent businesses

Difficult to Exit if there are:

Specialized assets

High exit costs

Interrelated businesses

Source: http://www.quickmba.com

Conclusions:

With over 15 years experience in the retail trade Meadows and Byrne have a strong brand with loyal customers. Although the recession has had some effect on their business they are still making a profit which is hard in these times.

Recommendations:

Meadows and Byrne could look into expansion or just merging more with the Blarney Woollen Mills stores to increase their customers. They could also lower prices to stop try and stop competitors. Moving out of Ireland and moving into Europe could also be looked at in the future.

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