Strategic Marketing Action: Steelcase Corporation Case Study Proposal

This assignment presents a strategic marketing action proposal for Steelcase Corporation, focusing on attracting and retaining customers. It begins by emphasizing the importance of customer-centric strategies and market analysis, followed by a detailed SWOT analysis of Steelcase. The proposal highlights the significance of understanding customer preferences, identifying target markets, and analyzing competitor strengths and weaknesses. The marketing strategy aims at providing tailor-made products to suit customer needs and achieve high customer satisfaction and sales volume. The assignment also delves into customer segmentation, geographical and customer segmentation, and concludes with a call to action emphasizing the importance of establishing a strategic marketing plan for successful business outcomes. References from academic journals and industry reports support the analysis.

Strategic Marketing Action: Case Study of Steelcase
Corporation
Name of Student
Course Title
Institutional Affiliation
Date of submission

Proposed Strategic Marketing Action
 In any business, customers are core.
 Companies produce products and offer
services purposefully to fulfill the
customers’ needs (Geiger, 2015).
 A company should develop a marketing
strategy that fulfills the customer needs
by :
 comprehending the competitors in the market
 actively identifying the shifts in the market place

 The SMA’s main purpose outlining a
practical strategy for attracting and
retaining customers.
 The strategy could be achieved by:
 defining the company’s target market,
 Understanding the preferences of customers
 Understanding strengths and weaknesses of the
competitors.
 The overall company efforts should be
focused on
 satisfaction of customers and fulfilling their
demands;
 The company’s sales volume which contributes
to profitability.

Statement of the Marketing Strategy
 The marketing strategy focuses on identification
of a group of customers whose preferences align
with the company’s products.
 The strategy aims at serving the group of
customers much better than the competitors by:
 providing products that are tailor-made and suit the
customers’ needs.
Target Marketing
 Identification of distinct customers making up
huge groups (Carter & Little, 2007).
 The customer segmentation can be accomplished
in two ways:
 Geographical segmentation
 Customer segmentation

The SWOT Analysis
Steelcase Furniture’s Strengths
 Strong brand portfolio
 Good returns on investments
 Robust dealer community
 Strong distribution network
 Skilled workforce
 Automation
 High customer satisfaction

Weaknesses
 Gaps in product range
 High days inventory
 High workforce attrition rate
 Financial ratios suggest inefficient cash
usage
 Limited success outside core
 Low investment in new technologies
 Little control over niche categories

Opportunities
 Stable cash flow allows investment
 Decreasing cost of transportation
 Core competencies can be used in other similar products
 New customers through online channels, big data may be
usable in the future
Threats
 Increasing trend toward economic isolationism
 Imitation / counterfeit products
 Environmental regulations may impact certain product
categories
 Intense competition
 Demand of profitable products is seasonal
 New technologies developed by competitors
 Currency fluctuations

Call To Action
 For many organizations, marketing is
basically a placement of simple
advertisements newspapers, or direct
mailing a few prospective clients.
 However, this haphazard strategy will
accomplish very little and drains the
marketing budget.
 The key to marketing an organization’s
business successfully begins with
establishing a strategic marketing plan.

References
 Carter, S.M., & Little, M. (2007) Justifying
Knowledge, Justifying Method, Taking Action:
Epistemologies, Methodologies and Methods
in Qualitative Research, Journal of Qualitative
Health Research, vol.17, no.10, pp.1316-132
 Geigar, P. (2015). A brief tour of the
Steelcase historical archives. Red Thread.
Retrieved from
https://www.red-thread.com/blog/a-brief-tour-
of-the-steelcase-historical-archives/
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