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#Written by David Tam, 1999.           #       
#davidkftam@netscape.net Copyright 1999#  
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From tamda@ecf.toronto.edu Mon Jul 12 18:30:48 1999
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 21:01:48 -0500 (EST)
From: David Kar Fai Tam 
To: APS 424S 
Subject: #19-03/16/99-"New Hudson's Bay chief considers strategy reversal"

The Globe and Mail, Thursday, March 11, 1999. B1, B6.

    This article is about the Bay's new strategic marketing 
direction. They plan to bring back one-stop shopping in their 
downtown stores. Departments such as home electronics, music, 
books and toys will be revived by possibly having other specialty 
retailers operating boutiques within these stores. For example, 
Chapters, Future Shop, or HMV could become strategic partners.

    This strategic shift came about because the president saw 
opportunity to tailor the downtown stores to the lifestyles and 
needs of downtown urban dwellers. This move is in contrast to its 
strategy of past years, where reduction and elimination of low 
margin products in a bid to capture sales on higher margin 
products.

    Market research revealed that consumers were confused on 
what was available in the downtown stores. The Bay may have even 
eliminated items that were still of high demand, leading to even 
more confusion.

    Suburban stores will also be altered to suit the suburban 
market, where moderately priced fashions are more popular than 
expensive bands favoured by urban dwellers.

    From this article, I think the Bay has finally done its 
homework, though a few more rigorous practice questions still 
need to be completed.  They have done market research to reveal 
current trends that may have not been evident in their previous 
survey of the market place.  We can see that performing market 
research is not only a one time event. It requires a plan to stay 
up to date on current market trends, and continual, periodic 
research and analysis.  The article also shows the importance of 
packaging, as one of the P's in marketing.  We can treat the 
downtown main-floor space as a critical location to package and 
present the right products necessary to attract customers further 
into the store and purchase more products.

    In business, value can be added or perceived by combining 
the right set of products and services into one convenient bundle 
at an appropriate price-point. The synergy that is created leads 
to more sales and more profits.  The article demonstrates a real 
life example of where a packaging strategy is being considered 
for deployment on a large scale.

    Source: geocities.com/siliconvalley/campus/9640/4thYear/Business

               ( geocities.com/siliconvalley/campus/9640/4thYear)                   ( geocities.com/siliconvalley/campus/9640)                   ( geocities.com/siliconvalley/campus)                   ( geocities.com/siliconvalley)