Contemporary Strategic Management

Contemporary Strategic Management

Introduction

A catalogue based retailer, Argos is a merchant based in United Kingdom. They also operate in the republic of Ireland. Having more than 700 stores, it is one of the largest retail stores in United Kingdom. They are also part of a Home Retail Group, along with their sister client, Home base. There are numerous brands that are part of Argos such as Alba and Bush. As far as the financial history of the entity is concerned, it was once part of FTSE 100 index, bu today its representation is done by its parent company Home Retail Group. Home Retail Group is listed in FTSE 200 index.

Strategies Persuaded by Argos

Rebranding of Argos in 2010

Changing the identity of the brand or trying to create a new look can be really hard. When Argos did that in 2010, this strategy was looked rather bemusedly. The basic idea for this branding was to create more consistent identity of the brand. The re branding process is going to take many years. The last time this sort of rebranding was carried out, the Argos Extra brand was added to the portfolio. There were some additional catalogues as well. Another rationale for taking such a step was to make sure that that customer understanding of the brand can be improved. Seasonal add campaigns were launched by Argos. There was this celebration of British Christmas day that is not inspired from any other country (Yu & Ramanathan, 2008). Older stores of Argos were refurnished. All the stores that were completed after 2010 were in synch with the new image of the brand. The estimated cost of rebranding was said to be around 70 million and it is expected to be long term process.

Inception of Argos Television

Television is a strong medium for marketing and feeling that this medium has not been utilized by them, Argos opted for their own television channel in 2011. The channel was launched on Sky Channels 642 and it was also available online. The channel is there broadcasting about the products and run a 24 hour broadcast. There is four hours of live programming on all weekdays and there is special eight hours transmission on weekdays. There is fair level of customization in all such programs as customer are able to pick and choose what they want to purchase and they can collect all their receivables from a local Argos Store. The check and balance service of the retailers is always taken care of when any such transaction is happening.

Catalogues

One of the more interesting innovations that Argos has brought is that it has introduced this idea of catalogues. The editors that are currently in circulation in the market contain more than 1500 pages. It contains photographs of all the items that are part of the catalogue. It also contains brief descriptions of all the constituents of the catalogue (Sparks, 2003). The process of in store shopping contains small order form. The most important aspect of these ...