MGMT3058: BCE Inc. Retail Management Report - Strategic Analysis 2017

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of BCE Inc.'s retail management strategies, focusing on its business mission, performance objectives, merchandise flow, category management, branding, pricing, and customer loyalty. It evaluates BCE's current performance using metrics like GMROI and offers recommendations for improving merchandise flow, pricing strategies, and customer loyalty programs. The report also examines the company's strategic imperatives, including investing in broadband networks, accelerating wireless, and expanding media leadership. Furthermore, it suggests ways to enhance customer service and achieve a competitive cost structure, providing valuable insights for the company's future success. This solved assignment is available on Desklib, along with other resources like past papers and study tools for students.

Running heading: RETAIL MANAGEMENT
RETAIL MANAGEMENT

RETAIL MANAGEMENT
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Table of content
Business mission.............................................................................................................................4
Business of the company. -..........................................................................................................4
Opinions for the future business plans-........................................................................................4
Business capabilities-...................................................................................................................4
Performance objectives.................................................................................................................5
1-Performance of the business and proofs for them....................................................................5
2- Calculation of the GMROI of the company............................................................................6
3- Performance measurement for the following..........................................................................7
Merchandise flow...........................................................................................................................8
1- Description for the merchandise flow for the company..........................................................8
2- Recommendation for the change in the merchandise flow......................................................8
Category management...................................................................................................................9
Identifying the category that the company sells...........................................................................9
Type of merchandise does category management represent........................................................9
Category’s life cycle....................................................................................................................9
Assortment plan for the category.................................................................................................9
Branding strategies......................................................................................................................10
Debating about the mix of the national brand and the private label brands sold by the company
....................................................................................................................................................10

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Discussing about the expansion or contraction of the number of private label brands.............10
Determining the private brand strategy followed by the company and recommendation for the
strategy with an example............................................................................................................10
Pricing strategy............................................................................................................................10
Description of when setting prices how company looks for the following accounts................10
Recommending two methods on how to change prices.............................................................11
Price adjustments of the company.............................................................................................11
Recommending two methods for possible price adjustment.....................................................11
Pricing strategy of the company.................................................................................................11
Recommending the change for the pricing strategy used..........................................................12
Company's current pricing to stimulate sells.............................................................................12
Recommending two methods for sale stimulation of the company...........................................12
Customer Loyalty........................................................................................................................13
Explanation Of The How Company Is Getting Customer Loyalty............................................13
Recommendations for the Increment Of Loyalty Of The Customers For The Company..........13
Summary......................................................................................................................................14
Analysis and recommendations of the following research........................................................14
Opinions for the future success of the company........................................................................14
References.....................................................................................................................................16

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Business mission
Business of the company
BCE bell is a communication company in Canada providing communications like broadband
connections, television connection and etc. Earlier and in initial stages, the company main focus
was on the telecommunications networks because at that point of time internet was not
introduced to every individual and was not popular but television was (David, David& David,
2016).
Opinions for the future business plans\
The company is one of the biggest and widely spread communications networks in Canada. The
company now wants to spread to the maximum levels of in-home wireless connectivity with the
help of new technology on offer. With the integration of Q9 Networks, Bell has the infrastructure
to improve the performance of the network connectivity. The company also is involved in
creating a first smart city based on the new technologies over Kingston and Ontario (Eși, 2014).
Business capabilities
The company is very capable in the upcoming future market of Canada and also countries
besides Canada as in future time the world will be based on internet connectivity and era will
come of wireless connectivity, the company can extend its networks to unlimited extends (David
& David 2016). The company can focus on, how to improve customer service in the upcoming
period of time and how to spread the company brands to more extends, to have more profit lines.

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Performance objectives
1-Performance of the business and proofs for them
Figure 1: Performance indicator
(Source: Annual report of the firm)
From the above image, it can be said that through the company's annual report the company has
experienced an average goth in its revenue and EBITDA. The central intensity of the company
was abnormally high and the adjusted Earning per Share had average growth and cash flow
growth was also average (Feng & Yocom 2018). The three examples of the company’s stability
is the maintenance of Revenue growth as per standards, maintenance of free cash flow growth as
per standards and Adjusted EBIDTA growth in accordance to standards.
2- Calculation of the GMROI of the company.

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Particulars Formula 2017 2016
Gross Margin 9178 8788
Inventory 380 403
GMROI Gross margin/Inventory 24.1526 21.8064
Table 1: GMROI
(Source: Self-generated)
3- Performance measurement for the following
Through the Calculations of GMROI, it is found that the company has increased Gross
margin with respect to the investor which is a positive sign for the company. The input and
output of the company have increased as the operational size has increased which has ultimately
increased the firm productivity. With the increase in the input along with the calculation by
GMROL, the organization could see more of advantage situation in terms of edge over
development.

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Merchandise flow
1- Description for the merchandise flow for the company
2- Merchandise flow for the company refers to the variety of products that are available for
the sale and for the display of those products in such a way which attract customer
interest and tempt purchase. The different types of products which Bell Canada
commonly known as Bell provides are Fixed line, mobile telephony, internet services,
digital television and radio broadcasting as well. Bell provides mobile service with the
help of Bell mobility subsidiary including the company flanker brand Virgin Mobile
Canada and Bell Tv and Bell Fibe Tv subsidiaries with the help of direct broadcast
satellite. Their overall revenue is $21.51 billion CAD, operating income is $8.551 billion
CAD and net income is $2.730 billion CAD. The subsidiaries or daughter company of
Bell Canada are Bell Mobility, Bell Aliant, Virgin Mobile Canada, Bell Internet, Bell TV,
Bell Fibe TV and Lucky Mobile (Tikas & Akhilesh, 2017). Bell Canada has its own
research and development labs for the continuous flow of companies merchandise. The
bell system has two main companies in the telephone industry who operate the business
which is Bell Canada and Northern Electric. Bell Canada, the regional operating
company which is affiliated with AT&T and has an ownership stake of approximately 39
per cent. Northern Electric is the equipment manufacturing company which is affiliated
with western electric and has an ownership stake of approximately 44 per cent.
3- Recommendation for the change in the merchandise flow
Bell Canada accuracies majority per cent of northern electric and their local phone service are
currently available in major city centers in Ontario and Quebec only. For the continuous growth

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and flow of merchandise, the company has to change their marketing techniques as there are
many rivals companies also entering in the market with full fledge. The company has to make
there service more pocket-friendly for the customers so that they will attract towards them and
use their service. Bell Canada also have to change their policies of bandwidth throttling and
BitTorrent traffic across their network. They also have to change the policies of their usage-
based billing and misleading prices (Drucker, 2016). According to Tikas and Akhilesh (2017) for
the continuous growth and flow of merchandise, they also have to prevent the security breaches
by safeguarding their customers' personal details. As bell suffered a major security breach in may
2017, in this security breach cyber-criminals stole 1700 employee and 1.9 million customers
email address and phone numbers. On Jan 23, 2018, there was one more security breach in which
100,000 customers lost their sensitive data. The company also have to give incentives to
encourage new subscriptions. So these are some recommendations that the company can follow
for the change in their merchandise flow.
Category management
Identifying the category that the company sells
The company sells different types of telecommunications services which are as follows:
1. Voice
2. Voicemail
3. Internet access
4. Television
5. Wireless
6. legacy

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Type of merchandise does category management represent
Category management represents the process of organising categories which aims to provide the
customers with what they want, where they want and when they want that particular service. Bell
Canada offers different types of merchandise like mobile services through its Bell mobility
subsidiary and television through its Bell TV and also Bell Fibe TV subsidiaries. Bell provides a
standard and good voice services. Voicemail service is also provided by Bell Canada as an
optional feature for residences and business. They also own Virgin mobile Canada and operates a
cellular network in all Canadian area with Bell Mobility. The company also provide high-speed
DSL Internet service in many areas of Canada where they offer phone services. The speed of the
DSL internet is offered in the various range which starts from 500 kbit/s to 50 Mbit/s download
and 256 kbit/s to 10Mbit/s upload speed. It depends on the area and local infrastructure. Bell
Canada also offers the home monitoring system which is known as Bell Gardium or Bell Home
Monitoring.
Category’s life cycle.
The telecom industry is dealing with the constant revolution and the life cycle of categories that
the company provides are extremely short. Nowadays innovation is the most important part of
the telecom industry. The technologies that were developed by the telecommunications
companies must be cutting edge technology which will help them to sustain their organization
and also increase their efficiency (Sastry & Rao 2017). So the company has to be creative and
create a dynamic, innovative and competitive telecommunication infrastructure in order to
survive in the market. If they stand still and do not be creative then they will fall back.

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Assortment plan for the category
Assortment planning is the process in which selected products are planned to maximize sale and
profit for a designated time period. According to Zarkada-Fraser & Fraser (2015), The
seasonality of merchandise and financial objective are considered in the assortment plan which
will ensure the proper receipt flow. Assortment planning can be done by the estimation of
demand based on the historical sales data. And on the basis of estimation result company can
make assortment planning. According to Piotrowicz & Cuthbertson (2014), company revenue
can also be increased when they limit the types of cell phone cards that are assigned to each
store. The company has to select the product and the areas that are most targeted by that
products and make them better so the products can attract customers and maximize the sales.
These are some assortment planning that the company can use to maximize sales and profit.

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Branding strategies
Debating about the mix of the national brand and the private label brands sold by the
company
The national brand and private label brand sold by the company are parent brand name as
American bell, AT&T Corporation and BCE Inc. and subsidiaries are Bell Mobility, Bell Alliant,
Virgin Mobile Canada, Bell internet, Bell Tv, Bell Fibe Tv and Lucky mobile.
Discussing about the expansion or contraction of the number of private label brands
The company provides Bell Mobility including with the Flanker brand Virgin Mobile Canada
and television through Bell Tv with the help of direct broadcast satellite. There are many
subsidiaries or daughter companies associated with Bell Canada. Bell Canada enterprises also
own Bell media and Bell media operates the mass media properties and also include the national
CTV television network.
.
Determining the private brand strategy followed by the company and recommendation for
the strategy with an example
Bell Canada created the company to advertise their products named as frank and Gordon. They
also organise the Beijing Olympics in 2008 in order to advertise their products with a slogan of
‘todays just got better’. They have to market their products more and targets the areas where they
are not operating with the help of social media and another advertisement platform. And they
also have to introduce incentives which will increases the numbers of new consumers. These are
some strategies recommended for the companies growth.

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Pricing strategy
Description of when setting prices how company looks for the following accounts
Cost is optimized by the company to getter a better profit margin sells price
The demand for the company’s service tends to increase the price of the service rendered by the
company.
Price of competitors affects the overall pricing approach of the company as the company seeks a
price advantage (Kaura, Durga Prasad & Sharma, 2015).
Legal consideration is considered by the company while pricing for the company's products so
that every service is properly priced.
Recommending two methods on how to change prices
Cost is optimized by the company to getter a better profit margin sells price
The demand for the company’s service tends to increase the price of the service rendered by the
company.
Price of competitors affects the overall pricing approach of the company as the company seeks a
price advantage.
Legal consideration is considered by the company while pricing for the company's products so
that every service is properly priced (Laszlo & Cescau, 2017).
Price adjustments of the company
Price adjustments within the company should be done in accordance with the current demand
and cost of rendering services.
Recommending two methods for possible price adjustment
1.Premium pricing can be done to render high-quality service to attract customers