Relationship Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Relationship Management - Essay Example Their son, William Henry Smith took over the business and was joined by his son, William Henry Jr. and WH Smith and Son was born. The firm based its growth on the railway boom and capitalized on it by its presence in the railway stations and using the railroads as a means of distribution. For many years, the main rival to both W H Smith's railway station and news distribution business was John Menzies. WH Smith addressed this competition by buying out all retail outlets of Menzies in 1988. This has resulted in an amazing presence for WH Smith in every single railway station in Britain. In the year to 31 August 2004, W H Smith plc had a turnover of 2,834 million, on which it made a pre-tax loss of 130 million, due to significant "exceptional items" and losses on the sales of subsidiaries. Disposals during the year reduced the group's net assets from 409 million to 256 million. At its December 2004 share price of around 323p, the company's market capitalization was just under 600 million. (wikipedia.org) The company had been having a series of problems including the retail where it has faced tough competition on diverse fronts, significant fall in pension funds that has caused internal tensions and from the threat from its distribution side that all contributed to its financial downfall. There is no doubt that the company has to try to revamp on all fronts to recap its former glory. The main The main disadvantage of WH Smith is that it lacks a distinct retail identity and that shoppers no longer have a real reason to visit its stores. It has lost its niche and needs to re-find it in order that it builds itself a solid identity. It has suffered the onslaught of specialised competitors and its sales have declined due to it losing customers. Specialist retailers such as HMV, Waterstone's and Ottakar's offer a far wider range of music and books. Amazon burst on the scene as an online retailer and built its base so quickly and this has influenced WH Smith's sales. It has also been squeezed by Asda and Tesco, which sell basic stationery and magazines more cheaply. In addition, shoppers seeking DVDs and compact discs are just as likely to pick them up at their local Tesco too, along with their envelopes and greetings cards, other traditional WH Smith staples. Attempts at diversification such as publishing have not been as successful as expected. Kate Swann, WH Smith's chief executive, said the company aimed to "reinvigorate" itself. "We aim to return the UK High Street Retail business to its role as Britain's most popular stationer, bookseller and newsagent," she said. Ms Swann admitted the firm had lost out to competition from supermarkets and had not helped itself by providing "an inconsistent product offer and an inadequate strategic response to competition". However, she said the stores still had great potential. "The business has unique strengths through its extensive store portfolio, strong market shares and high customer footfall. "Our plans encompass improved efficiency through cost savings and margin enhancement, while rebuilding the competitiveness and depth of our product ranges." Relationship management Relationship Marketing is a marketing method in which businesses consistently maintain two-way communication with their prospective, current and inactive customers in order to gain a deeper understanding of their needs while delivering personal and compelling marketing

Food security and Bioterrorism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Food security and Bioterrorism - Essay Example government of United States gives utmost importance and significance to food security due to which, it assures that in any kind of problematic situation, people will be provided with proper food items (Singer, 1997). Due to the country’s well-managed food items, the country also makes financial benefit in food products and is considered a major economy in the world (Fogel, 2004). All the food products and the ways that are employed for the transportation of food products predict themselves as an imperative part of United States financial system (Singer, 1997). In the past few years, United States is threatened by many revolutionary terrorism attacks. The government of United States considers the importance of availability of food to its citizens in case of any attack from terrorists. FBI is active in getting all the information about any possible attacks on any part of the State (Paquette, 2002). It is also assessed that the assailants can attack by biological means that comes under bioterrorism, which means that biological means like virus, bacteria, parasite or any other toxic materials can be employed by the bioterrorists to conduct their attack on food items (Wagner, Moore and Aryel, 2006). A proper strategy is designed for people working with food items and drinks to ensure that the process is free of any kind of contamination and all the food resources are properly analyzed in terms of the healthiness of the food items (Brown, et.al, 2008). Packing of each food product is ensured by the food associations related to government and it is considered a crime to overlook the rules set by the food associations in terms of food security (Singer, 1997). The transporters and suppliers of food products are hired after assessing their details and after assuring that they are reliable people (Fogel, 2004) Water, other drinks and food products are analyzed by means of machines about their healthy state before making them available to public (Brown, et.al,