WaWa's Strategic Shift: A Detailed Blue Ocean Retailing Case Study

This case study explores WaWa's successful application of the Blue Ocean strategy to overcome intense competition in the retail market. It examines the tools and techniques WaWa used to differentiate itself, moving away from traditional Red Ocean practices. The analysis covers WaWa's expansion strategies, including its combination of restaurants, convenience stores, and gas stations, and provides recommendations for sustaining competitive advantage. The report emphasizes the importance of innovation and adapting to market changes to avoid direct competition and foster long-term growth. Desklib provides access to this and other solved assignments to aid students.

BLUE OCEAN RETAILING
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Findings and Analysis................................................................................................................3
Tools and Techniques of Blue ocean adapted by WaWa...........................................................3
Red Threats of WaWa................................................................................................................5
Red Ocean over Blue Ocean Theory..........................................................................................5
Industry Details..........................................................................................................................5
Expanding Strategies of WaWa.................................................................................................6
Advice over Numbers and facts.................................................................................................6
Advice over Details....................................................................................................................6
Recommendations....................................................................................................................10
Conclusion................................................................................................................................11
Reference List..........................................................................................................................12
Appendices...............................................................................................................................13
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Introduction
Proper management of the business is one of the most critical aspects for any company to
survive. The use of appropriate strategies inappropriate situation is mainly essential for facing
competition. In this particular report, the expanding plans of Wawa have been discussed as
in how the company was able to survive all the ups and downs of the business due to
excessive competition. The use of Blue strategy helps the business to differentiate itself from
all the other competitors and enabled it to gain back the position it had in the beginning. The
red market conditions have also been discussed. The methods and tools that the company
used for getting back into the market have been discussed in details. Probable
recommendations have been provided as per the case study and the kinds of problems a
company might face. All the details have been reviewed and supported with relevant
information.
Findings and Analysis
Tools and Techniques of Blue ocean adapted by WaWa
Blue ocean concept refers to the process and usage of methods and tools and techniques
which helps a business to stop competing in markets where there are a lot of industries and
try to invent new ideas so that it can capture the uprising demands of the customers. Along
with that the industries and businesses are to apply the methods of differentiating the market
with the low cost of the products. Therefore the business and companies are to invent new
ideas and take proper initiative to make the business different from others to avoid full
competition (Crall et al. 2017). Therefore, in the case of struggling business, those have
newly entered the market or have been in the market for years but still struggling can learn
new ideas from the blue ocean concept. This will help the business to understand that there is
no point in competing in a market that is already overcrowded with the competition. This is
because there will be someone or the other that will be selling goods at lowers prices and will
have better quality products than you. Therefore, it is better for the business to improve and
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complete the change the line of products or makes new innovative ideas that will attract the
attention of the customers. Increasing the range of products and improving the strategies of
the business to provide quicker and cheaper services will distinguish the company. Other
companies and hence will help the industry attract new customers (Fu, Sanjay, and Li, 2016)
The business can also learn that to stick to the market no matter whatever may be the
condition is the key to success. This is because in case of Wawa, no matter what the company
went through it kept on fighting until it succeeded and if the company also suffers from
prolonging competition it is better to change strategies rather than losing hope. [Referred to
Appendix 1]
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Red Threats of WaWa
Red Ocean over Blue Ocean Theory
The traditional ways of benchmarking in red ocean practice had become throat choking for
Wawa./ This is because in the methods of red ocean practice the company has to face the
head to head competition and face a threat and then have to find out the ways to succeed. In
the case of red practice, the business becomes very intense, and there is competition
everywhere. Hence if the companies try to stick to the traditional methods of Red Ocean then
at some point in time there will come some game that will be better than the business and
hence destroy the entire firm. In case of Wawa, the game was not only becoming intense due
to increase in the game but also because the new competition was bringing in new
technologies that were achievable by Wawa and hence they had to fall back, and their
business thrived (Ibrahim et al. 2018).
Industry Details
Wawa had been founded many years ago and had been increasing its line of business from
one to the other. When it came to the new competition, it brought in better strategies and new
types of technologies, which Wawa lacked. This is why the company has faced heavy
competition and was not able to shine. The lacking of new strategies and techniques forced
the company to fall out and go short on sales as the new companies brought in latest items.
Thus if the company continued to work in red ocean strategy, then the company would have
to face intense competition in which other companies excelled. This could have led to the
entire dissolution of the business. As the number of the race was too many, Wawa would
have no chance of surviving in the industry. As the new firms already had better products at
lower prices with the help of the latest methods that Wawa did not have. That is why the Blue
ocean strategy was the best solution for Wawa (Mac Donagh et al. 2016). [Referred to
Appendix 2]
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Expanding Strategies of WaWa
The only main reason which makes it difficult for any company or business to exist
peacefully is competition the same goes for Wawa. Wawa has been trying to increase the line
of business and improve the standards of the business year after year and implement different
types of methods and new models of business, but still, the company thrived. This is because
of the intense competition and incoming technological development. Wawa had been
increasing the kind of business form one type to another, but every time they started a new
kind of business they had different new types of competition that were ready to challenge
their products and prices. This was the main reason for the company having to thrive year
after years (Murray and Kline, 2015).
Advice over Numbers and facts
The three types of business that the company had involved itself in were Resturants, gas
stations and convenience stores. Even having all these types of activities the company had to
suffer intense competition. This is because the company had to endure during its growth
period. Although the business that Wawa dealt with were low margin and had high risks, the
new firms that came into the market could indulge with new techniques and methods that
overpowered the methods that Wawa used. In the modern world, the business was changing
the concept of higher the risk drastically; more senior will be profit played a significant role
and hence made all the competitive firms more competitive.
Advice over Details
Due to intense competition, Wawa was not able to grow a constant flow, and that is why the
business of Wawa suffered and failed to maintain a proper record revenue for years. It was
seen that no matter what type of business they tried there was always a new type of
competition that came up, and hence Wawa failed to maintain the steady business, and that
made the revenue irregular.
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The primary purpose of blue ocean strategy is not to compete in highly crowded competition
but to create low margin business and expand the types of business to avoid the game and
increase the industry as a whole. The main aim is to develop new and innovative ideas and
make proper adjustments to the store to completely erase the competition (Bolos et al. 2016).
If I were to be an executive, the following would be the tools and techniques that I would use
to expand and protecting the business from the red ocean:
Eliminate: The first step is to eliminate the competition that has been bugging the
market for over a long period. If the game is overcrowded and does not allow the
companies to improve, those factors are to be eliminated. This can be done by
changing the line of the business that does not have the competitors (Carpenter et al.
2016).
Reduce: The next step would be to reduce the conditions and the factors that
influence the increase of the competition. If the company can reduce the game and the
factors that lead to increased competition, then it will become more comfortable for
the company to continue its operations freely and independently. The industry's
standards are to be checked and accordingly the factors that bug the business with
intense competition are to be tested and reduced if not eliminated (Agnihotri, 2016).
Raise: The factors that will help the betterment of the business are to be evaluated as
per the standards of the company are to be implemented and supporting those factors
that would help in improving the quality of the market is to be appreciated. Raising
the standards and improving the factors that would help the company to enhance the
betterment of the business also improve the revenue of the market is to be checked
and implemented correctly.
Create: The ultimate motive is to create new and innovative ideas that would help the
business to differentiate from the other company. Implementing new and innovative
ideas will help the company to develop even better and avoid extra competition.
[Referred to Appendix 3]
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Figure No 1: Tools of Blue Ocean Strategy
(Source: Created by author)
According to Ordoñez de Pablos and Tennyson, (2016), Wawa, was mainly based up the
three types of business lines, firstly, restaurants then convenience store and finally gas fueling
stations. As per the analysis of the business and the competition, the company saw the
changes were required for maintaining the market. Therefore, after the restaurant, that had
been suffering from intense competition, the company decided to start convenience stores,
this would help the company to get all types of products that the restaurant might need to
serve the customers with fresh products. The main idea was to create the clusters of
convenience stores so that the stores could help each other whenever required. As the
convenience stores would stick to each other and stay beside each other, they can supply each
other with the stocks and stuff that the other might need in times of thriving. The restaurants
that were managed by Wawa also provided quick and fast food services enabling the
customers to get all that they need in a short time. After that, the gas stations were made
(thecasecentre.org, 2019).
The restaurants and the quick service food stores were made just beside the gas station so
that the customer while fueling up their vehicles would go into the restaurants and grab some
for food themselves. Hence as the restaurants were nearby the gas stations, this helped the
restaurants to increase the sales as the gas stations provided not only quick services but also
helped the customers to get food just beside the gas station this attracted the customer and
hence increased the sales and revenue of the restaurant business.
Therefore, the restaurants were supported by the convenience stores, as the convenience
stores also helped the restaurants with supplies and other stuff. The gas station was just
beside the restaurant and therefore as and when people came to fuel their vehicles picked up a
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thing or two from the restaurant for feeding themselves. This increased the revenue overall in
restaurants, convenience store and gas stations (art business phl.org, 2019).
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Recommendations
After analysing the situation Wawa had went through in the past, and the intense amount of
competition that they have been facing, following are the recommendations that might be useful for
tackling the situations:
Improve and improvise the Blue ocean strategy more to terminate all types of challenges and
competition to the business. Increase the quality of the products and reduce the cost to attract the
customers to join in and purchase from the same company. Improve and expand the business more
and make available more types of products and services so that the customers can get everything
under one roof and do not have to go to their stores for their supplies. Completely renovate the
business so that there remains no competition and at all. Not to compete in a market that is already
overcrowded with different types of games. Increase and improve the usage of technologies so that
they remain updated and new stores do not pose a threat to them. Help in developing the services of
the stores so that it can increase the sale of the products and services supporting the increase of
revenue over time. Not to ever implement red ocean strategy as that could create problems for the
business as there are already a considerable amount of competitive firms struggling to get to Number
one spot. Red ocean strategy maintains the competition in the market which is already existing but in
the blue ocean theory keeps a non-competition market in the industry. That is why WaWa has to be
held blue ocean theory. Red ocean theory always explores themselves in the existing demand, but in
the blue ocean theory there is a demand for new existence and maintains innovative ways in new
markets. Blue ocean theory never supports the value cost theory, but red ocean always does that.
Therefore the company has to be kept the blue ocean theory to explore themselves and create
innovation in the existing market.
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Conclusion
From the above understanding, it can be concluded that every business has a particular time
of expanding its growth and have to face ups and downs before they can have a steady base
and place to survive. In this case, Wawa survived all the challenges and threats and came out
of all the hurdles and is now at the top spot. The blue ocean strategy and the red ocean
conditions have been adequately discussed. The lessons that the new struggling business can
get from this example has also been defined and made transparent. It is with the help of the
strategies that the company has been able to survive and grow along with the intense
competition in the market. The entire report revolves around the understanding that the
changes in strategies are required to make the business a success.
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Reference List
Books
Ordoñez de Pablos, P. and Tennyson, R.D. eds., 2016. Handbook of research on human resources
strategies for the new millennial workforce. US: IGI Global.
Journals
Agnihotri, A., 2016. Extending boundaries of blue ocean strategy. Journal of Strategic
Marketing, 24(6), pp.519-528.
Bolos, C., Idemudia, E.C., Mai, P., Rasinghani, M. and Smith, S., 2016. Conceptual models on the
effectiveness of e-marketing strategies in engaging consumers. Journal of International Technology
and Information Management, 25(4), p.3.
Carpenter, T., Rastello, F., Sadayappan, P. and Sidiropoulos, A., 2016, July. Brief announcement:
Approximating the I/O complexity of one-shot red-blue pebbling. In Proceedings of the 28th ACM
Symposium on Parallelism in Algorithms and Architectures (pp. 161-163). ACM.
Crall, A., Kosmala, M., Cheng, R., Brier, J., Cavalier, D., Henderson, S. and Richardson, A., 2017.
Volunteer recruitment and retention in online citizen science projects using marketing strategies:
lessons from Season Spotter. Journal of Science Communication, 16(1), p.A01.
Fu, G., Sanjay, S.T. and Li, X., 2016. Cost-effective and sensitive colourimetric immunosensing using
an iron oxide-to-Prussian blue nanoparticle conversion strategy. Analyst, 141(12), pp.3883-3889.
Ibrahim, M., Onyango, B., Pattanaik, N. and Liu, X., 2018. Current Trends, US Immigration Policies,
and Marketing Strategies for Goat Meat. Journal of Food Distribution Research, 49(856-2018-3112).
Mac Donagh, P., Velazco, S.J.E., Botta, G.F., Schlichter, T. and Cubbage, F., 2019. Logging
Contractors’ Growth in the Southern Cone: An Analysis of Contractor Business Strategies,
Innovation, and Mechanization. Forests, 10(1), p.69.
Murray, A. and Kline, C., 2015. Rural tourism and the craft beer experience: Factors influencing
brand loyalty in rural North Carolina, USA. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 23(8-9), pp.1198-1216.
Websites
artsbusinessphl.org,(2019), blue-ocean-shift-renee-mauborgne
thecasecentre.org,(2019), Product details,
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