CISCO SYSTEM CASE STUDY: Walmart's Marketing Strategies Analysis

This case study examines Walmart's marketing campaigns and tagline choices, including the "Always Low Prices. Always" strategy and the adoption of a yellow smiley face. It analyzes the rationale behind dropping the original tagline in response to market competition and evaluates Walmart's performance during economic downturns and upturns. The study explores how Walmart can protect itself during economic growth and whether its strategies are sustainable. The author argues that Walmart's approach, which involves maintaining low prices and adjusting them gradually during economic recovery, can be successfully adopted by other supermarket chains and is sustainable in the long run, due to the cyclical nature of economic recessions and booms. The assignment references Fletcher (2012) and Prasch (2008) to support its arguments.

CISCO SYSTEM CASE STUDY` 1
CISCO SYSTEM CASE STUDY
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CISCO SYSTEM CASE STUDY` 2
CISCO SYSTEM CASE STUDY
1. Evaluate Walmart’s new marketing campaign and tagline. Provide your views on
the marketing activity carried out by Walmart based on your understanding.
Walmart was a very innovative investor. He used strategies to market his products to potential
customer by applying persuasive marketing campaign and tagline. The marketing campaign
adopted by Walmart was categorized with yellow smiley face which was initiated at the
beginning of the year 1996. This particular campaign was classified among the greatest stars of
the company. The campaign was appearing in staff equipment such as aprons and button. Before
the campaign, he had initiated a tagline which asserted that, “Always Low Prices. Always”. The
assertion of this tagline was to enhance efficient and effective communication strategy
concerning the main brand of the company. This tagline was anticipated to generate millions of
dollars since the brand was promising to the company. My view on this particular marketing
strategy is based on Walmart creativity. He maintained a welcoming impression to the customers
at all times (Prasch 2008). This is usually a good strategy to welcome customers. It initiate
negotiation for buying and selling in the market.
2. Did Walmart make the right decision to drop ―Always Low Prices. Always.‖ As a
tagline.
My view on dropping this particular tagline is based on competition in the market. It was the
right decision to drop the tagline by Walmart. The main reason for asserting this is the
competitors who always aim at achieving competitive advantage in the marketplace. This tagline
could be used against Walmart’s company by the competitors. By saying, Always Low Prices.
Always, innovative competitor may wish to lower the selling price of that particular product at
some point even if they may not make profits at that time. The aim would be targeting
customers. This will create a notion to the customer that even if Walmart claim to offer products
at low prices, there exist other outlets that can offer the same product at diminishing price. Once
that notion is created, the competitors would the increase the prices accordingly. Walmart will
end up losing potential customers.
3. Walmart does very well when the economy turns sour. How can it protect itself
when the economy is on the rise? Explain.
When the economic recession affected many parts of the world, Walmart did a special task of
offering consumable good and other commodities at affordable prices. This can be a form of

CISCO SYSTEM CASE STUDY` 3
charity activity. The company should employ particular strategies and mechanisms in case the
economy is on the rise. Walmart should maintain the initial low prices so as to retain the
customers’ threshold. Then, he should adjust the prices slowly and accordingly without huge
realization by the customers. By so doing, the company can be protected from external forces of
money supply. Later on the consumers would have adjusted to the reasonable prices of goods
and other commodities as economy grow. Otherwise during boom stages, the customers have
money to spend.
4. Do you feel Walmart’s strategy can be followed by other supermarket chains to
achieve success? Give your justification.
I fully have a feeling that supermarket chains and other supermarket outlets can employ such a
strategy in their daily operations based on the current economic cycles. It is good to state that
these supermarkets generate a lot of profits by the end of the day. This is associated to the many
shoppers who go out for vacation and shopping. During recession, the supermarkets should
lower the prices to support people at the time of poor economy (Fletcher 2012). This would be a
form of giving back to the society. Therefore, in the long run, the economy will gain stability and
boom season will come along. All the customers who received support from the supermarket
during recession will still be willing to shop in the same supermarket during boom seasons. This
will make the supermarket to gain competitive advantage.
5. Is Walmart’s strategy sustainable in the long run? Reason. If not suggest an
alternative strategy for Walmart.
I believe that Walmart’s strategy is sustainable in the long run. This is because, the cases of
recession are not always recursive. On the other hand, the cases of boom are always recursive.
We can assert that, in a span of ten years. Recession season may appear once or twice. All the
other period will be associated to boom seasons. Therefore, in that span, Walmart is required to
give back to the society at least twice. This is on recession period. He may not make reasonable
profits at that time. However, during boom season, which occupy much of the time in that life
span, Walmart will be realizing huge profits as compared to his competitors due to customers’
authenticity and competitive advantage. This makes his strategy very workable and sustainable
in the long run.

CISCO SYSTEM CASE STUDY` 4
References.
Fletcher, F 2012, Business Problem Solving, Routledge.
Prasch, RE 2008, How Markets Work: Supply, Demand and the Real World, Edward Elgar Pub.