Nordstrom Inc. marketing Essay

It goes without saying that in contemporary world the retailing sector takes quite a significant niche in the consumer goods industry market and even becomes more socially significant. But still already developed managerial, organizational and business solutions and what is more important marketing solutions are developing quickly and pressure of the competition. The new inventions and technical innovations provide a significant impact on the development of the environment of the marketing niche and this research is intended to reveal the core factors that impact the success of the different strategies.
This investigation would reveal and investigate the role of the different factors on the discussed marketing niche. With the help of different research methodologies it was revealed that the company (Nordstrom Inc.) analyzed as one of the impacting representatives of the consumer goods industry marketing niche widely make use of traditional 4P strategies, stressing of the Focus strategy and promotes specialist organization tactics within the marketing niche. It should be noted that with the help Focus strategy the company reached outstanding success not only on the local level (originally it was formed in Seattle, US), but expanding its impact outside of the United States. The objective of this research is to find the strongest parts of the introduced strategies and reveal the reasons of their effectiveness and the role they played in the global success of the corporation.

Introduction
It won’t be a secret that in contemporary consumer goods industry market niche in particular retailing there used a wide range of the different strategies. It would be important to make a stress on the fact that retailing niche in the market is expanding very quickly, seeking for the new markets as across the country, as well as taking into consideration the global situation and the competition between the key players, such as Nordstrom Inc has to compete for the more effective position is really severe. Thus the strategies the companies used are very important and this research objective is to reveal successful strategies in the global consumer goods industry market on the example of the quite important competitor in this market – Nordstrom Inc, the owner of high class department stores chain in the USA, examining its way to success, the industry it is competing, and the reasons of the effective and fail solutions, that occurred in the particular regions as well as company’s strongest and weakest parts. Hence it would be important to note that retailing corporations and Nordstrom Inc, in particular have captured a number of markets and nowadays their marketing, organizational and developmental strategies could be referred to as one of the most effective ever used. The deep understanding of the market niche and target group in different areas, added to the effectiveness of Nordstrom Inc strategies, despite the number of negative factors, oppressive competition and certain fails in particular regions. Among the objectives of the research investigating any ability of cross country infrastructure the company’s suppliers, their experience in managing the complex catering places, choosing places, where the restaurants would be located and finally marketing activity. This report is going to examine the global strategy of Nordstrom Inc, retailing shops network, their global marketing success and their fail in some areas, made due inappropriate use of the. This report would provide recommendations for further development within the niche as sometimes global strategies got to be changed for the local success. Understanding the role of marketing strategy is the core idea of the success and Nordstrom Inc could be called the best illustration of the successful practice.
Brief Review of Nordstrom Inc History
Nordstrom Inc is generally regarded to as effective and noticeable player within the retailing market in the present day US. Its shops chains are widely spread all over the country and very often Nordstrom Inc is regarded to as one of the most successful companies suggesting the products for the upper class, selling their production not only in the US. The company was started in 1901 by John W. Nordstrom and since then the company demonstrated outstanding vision and perfect understanding of the current marketing situation, providing exceptional service: “In 1901, the two opened their first shoe store, Wallin & Nordstrom, in downtown Seattle. This was the start of what would become the retail legend of Nordstrom, Inc. From the beginning, John’s business philosophy was based on exceptional service, selection, quality and value. The company built a devoted customer base; and in 1923, the partners added their second store” (Nordstrom, Inc., 2011).
Current Marketing Situation
Being always on the ear Nordstrom Inc has always been an object of investigation as it was the company which first invented the ideas of the exception shop service in practice and their successful performance realized it in practice their understanding of the market. This made Nordstrom Inc retail shops network to be an outstanding example of the successful marketing strategies, leader of the fast food industry: “While Nordstrom was growing nationally, it focused on catering to customers’ needs, individually. Instead of categorizing departments by merchandise, Nordstrom created fashion departments that fit individuals’ lifestyles. Today, Nordstrom has grown from one downtown Seattle shoe store into a nationwide fashion specialty chain with renowned services, generous size ranges and a selection of the finest apparel, shoes and accessories for the entire family” (Nordstrom, Inc., 2011).
It goes without saying that population evolution is very significant for the success of the company. Now we live in the multicultural society and ethnic, racial as well as religious question plays one of the most significant roles in the development of effective marketing, organization technologies. In contemporary world understanding the needs of racial groups means healthy market relationship between the target group and the goods producer. The Marketer could not avoid the diversity question and cultural background in the present day society as ethnic minorities spend more than $600 billion a year on products. It goes without saying that understanding the needs of the target groups includes the precise knowledge of their ethnic racial and religious peculiarities as it help to understand the needs of the target groups, avoid the typical mistakes in the marketing strategy. It goes without saying that principles of consumer behavior are the core for understanding. First we signify the cultural factors that influence consumer behavior:
Culture
Sub-culture
Social Class
It goes without saying that understanding the reasons for buying the goods could be dictated by some cultural peculiarities, which have nothing to do with the fashion. Thus Nordstrom Inc Marketing department is so successful because their marketing department perfectly understands the wishes and desires of the average American, setting an individual approach as their major goal, trying to find a way for every particular service, thus extraordinary service made the company effective competitor, as they make shopping comfortable: “The company’s philosophy has remained unchanged for more than 100 years since its establishment by John W. Nordstrom in 1901: offer the customer the best possible service, selection, quality and value” (Nordstrom, Inc., 2011). Developing marketing strategies the sub-cultural peculiarities should also be included. The national clothing would be a good example. The company executives should understand that national clothing is a part of sub-cultural identity and it goes without saying that for preparation some national dishes the representatives of different ethnical seek for the certain solutions, which correspond to their view on this

Market Description
The company has already developed united standards of customer involvement, technologies, branding positioning, marketing strategies, programs of staff training, service organization, methodology of shops placement and system of supply. These standards are used in all the company’s network all over the USA and the company sees the future perspectives as the expanding their strategy. It desires to surpass all the competitors in the quality and quantity of service performance, suggesting the outstanding choice and level of support.
The strategic priorities of the company are the support of stable increasing and growth of the company, irreproachable client service, keeping the effective and qualified supplier status, the qualification increase of the employee’s qualification on the different level, organization of experience exchange between the departments, constant perfection of the customer individual strategy concept, praising of the new development, equipment innovation, marketing innovation, innovation is service organization and equipment innovation. It is a well known fact that Nordstrom Inc puts interest of the client above everything and it is the core idea of its strategy. As it was mentioned earlier Nordstrom Inc realized their strategy on the country level. That is why the message strategy, which is one of the most important, is realized on the global level. It goes without saying that the development of the united marketing strategies could be very efficient, while developing united strategy for the whole corporation and its units.

Product Review
The development of the Nordstrom Inc is happening within the quite scrutinized economical area. The company operates on the retailing market for the upper classes (target group are people whose income is higher than average) and meets the severe competence from such monsters of the retailing with deep traditions, Louis Vuitton, Paul Shark, Chanel and other significant players, who own their personal brands, as Nordstrom Inc stores idea to give wide variety of choice starting from clothing and ending with cosmetics and accessories. The rush of innovative and popular fashion is probably the first sign of this industry and it is not surprising that in such facilities every company should operate very quickly just to keep their positions, struggling for every customer. After the successful introducing on the market more than 100 years ago, the company ordered exceptional level of service expanding in retailing. It has quickly captured the target group of the market – women, who devote huge attention to their image, but did not concentrate on them, suggesting now the designers clothing from different brands for men and even children, trying to cover the individual needs of every family, suggesting them individual choice. The core groups they are contracting with are families with the high income, who take care about their business and social imagery and the fashion solutions Nordstrom Inc provide assist them in their life, making them more successful. That makes Nordstrom Inc stores an effective tool for their success, offering various, individual solutions for the whole family, as it provides a number of supporting accessories for the clothes (shoes, bags, belts etc) that help makes the company to provide universal solutions, stressing on individual choice for every customer. It goes without saying that direct orientation on the certain target group helped the company to concentrate on the development of the particular solutions, offering as popular as well as individual branding for every particular customer and do not push the means into overloading the stores with the number of different models for different target groups. They provide the product that is suitable for the effective and successful people (one of the most specified groups is businessmen) and they took the significant part of the market due their breaking solutions for the businessmen, for example, developing unique and individual styles for every customer. Currently the company is developing successful solutions for their target group, providing reliable, high quality, different branding solutions for corporate rookies, for example and many others. It won’t be a secret that the company develops different solution for different situations, Nordstrom Inc executives share their vision with the customers, applying and working in details on their choice, discussing the effective solutions. It goes without saying that it helps to win the company its target market and survive in the severe competence and scrutinized economical situations, when a number of companies could not find effective solution for being efficient
Competitive review
It would be important to note that Nordstrom Inc was chosen because it is one of the most noticeable players on the contemporary retailing market demonstrating outstanding marketing approach towards the customers. It started with the successful solutions in retailing and continued its development quite successfully, if we look at its annual report we could find a number of proves to that. The company is developing attracting investments and seems to be very successful from the first look. I would like to provide a research dealing with Nordstrom Inc and its success to understand the current state of things in the company, its past solutions and perspectives for future development including marketing vision and approach of the company. It goes without saying that Nordstrom Inc takes one of the leading positions on the retailing market due to its successful marketing solutions and development of right strategic planning, demonstrating high involvement of the customers, which is very important for such a big company. And it would be very interesting for me to view the developmental perspective of the company.
The company plays quite a significant role in the market and could not be excluded. It should be noted that the a number of innovative marketing solutions provided by Nordstrom Inc were real breakthrough on the retailing market and even now the other competitors could hardly dare to repeat them and this put the company several steps up than the other competitors. It was the first company that suggested individual approach to the every customer, suggesting development of personal style not only for the payment (fashionable stylists developed whole industry, suggesting effective solutions for celebrities, which make them more successful) but for general people and for free providing a number of abilities and seeking for collaboration with the clients, demonstrating high level of customer involvement. The successful team of professionals shares their ideas with the masses and provides interesting and effective style and design solution; the same time their company could be regarded to as one of the most successful corporation on the contemporary mobile market.
SWOT Analysis of Research in Motion Limited

Strengths
Plays significant on role in retailing market, creating a new trend in the service and developing individual unique style for every customer
Impacts the innovative integration to the retailing market
Provides development of the individual style and fashion solutions
Suggests wide variety of brands
Providing centralized individualization approach in marketing
Keep in touch with the customers
Owning several brands
Reducing ineffective time spending and complexity of shopping

Weaknesses
Depending from human factor (customers, investors, business partners)
The brands they introduce own their stores (the company is just a reseller)
The already found investors could be hard to locate
The brands, owned by the company are not highly popularized and could not compete with the other solutions they resell
The company is not the single one using the same marketing solutions towards the customers
The company meets severe competition in struggle for the target market.
Opportunities
Provides greater perspectives for target group suggesting individual approach to every customer
Individual approach has become business card of the company
Brand owners prefer to deal with resellers, than set up expensive direct selling shops in the other countries (European brands in particular) as the poor knowledge of market determines the fail in high competition
Raise popularization of business style
Threats
The integration of the innovative marketing solution could meet misunderstanding
The company owns very small personal solutions, which are not highly popularized, and removed by the brands they resell
The company is going to meet more severe competition in the nearest future

Marketing Strategy
It would be essential to mention that product and service marketing differ a lot due to the fact that service need building of relations and is intangible (Leslie, 2008). Selection is also the core thing signifying the service providers: they got to be more selective (Leslie, 2008). Nordstrom Inc competes as a service provider, the same time introducing their personal brand (i.e. consumer goods). It would be essential to use the 7 P marketing mix in order to understand the Marketing strategies the company implements its approaches to marketing.
• Product
Product introduced by Nordstrom Inc could be in generally referred to as high quality retailing goods, starting from fashionable clothes for men, women and children and ending with the cosmetics and accessories, which are so necessary in the present day world to create an individual style. That is why the internet users could find on the official web page numerous suggestions Nordstrom Inc offers to their clients and choose the most suitable for them, communicate and disagree with the company vision, participating the same time in creation of personal style and vision with the help of Nordstrom. The investigators consider that it is really a good choice for the company, which deals with reselling and the same time selling its own brands.
Products sold by Nordstrom Inc are constantly changing. The innovation plays the core role and suggesting revolutionary solutions within clothing design and cosmetics could be a decisive factor in success of the company (Nykiel, 1997). Developing a unique solution for every area could bring the company on the top, that is why something definitely new regularly appear in retailing industry, attracting the customers and winning new target groups, making use of differentiation strategy
• Price
Price is one of the strongest parts within the marketing strategy of Nordstrom Inc as they provide discount systems for their regular customers, attracting to buy more. That could really be a hit as their prices are quite competitive for reseller and they suggest quite competitive price for the goods, which could be found all in the 1 place. The testimonies represent that target group accept this strategy. The internet shop suggest quite competitive prices too and could deliver the goods to any part of the world, even the company strongly orients of the US customers, they have developed loyal policies for the rest of the world. One could hardly disagree to the strategic planning of correlation between price and amount as it covers wider groups, making effective solutions.
Constant promotion of the different discount programs and seasonal or holiday sales make the brands more attractive and competitive within Nordstrom Inc. Being among the companies dealing with strong customer oriented services products use such strategies rarely, focusing on the reputation of the establishment more than on the huge discount systems
• Place
Another idea dealing with the place strategy (but with its building aspect) is connected with decreasing the expenses on the preparatory works, with the help of standardization and increasing the effectiveness of the projects, consolidation of equipment purchasing and building material with the help of global delivering system.
And the PLACE strategic element, which plays significant role in the development of the global strategies is increasing of Nordstrom Inc attraction to the clients as inside as well as outside, providing eating service for the shop visitors, where possible are the distinctive features of this strategy. Another the place where they made stress on their promotional strategies is internet. It is also reasonable as the target group uses it more often than any other media source and is familiar to web 2.0 and involved with socialization via internet. The customer could get familiar with the pricing strategy, policy of the company, availability of certain products. The same time Internet is not the single place the representatives of both industries make use of.
• Promotion
Wide varieties of solutions are used by Nordstrom Inc, starting from direct mailing to regular customers and ending with competitions, free gifts and many others. But as the company offering high quality services & products they are less expressive as reputation is very important and has close connection to the image of the institution and it marketing strategies. Direct mailing, advertising and direct promotion these are main promotional tools used by the organizations offering such service on the society. Their promotion is oriented on the particular target group. It goes without saying that it would attract target group and raise their interest to company and the brands they offer. Company blog would make the company more close to the customer as they should learn more about the people they are supposing to spend time while travelling. Openness in the present day world is very popular.
The web site of the company already has familiar interface for the customer, providing enough information and picture illustration of the service and products the company provides. The online store is also among the strongest parts as it makes communication between the clients and company easier. Providing reliable payment system Nordstrom Inc could attract foreigners for the buying the products making them more interesting and productive and certainly profitable as the core idea is to raise the interest and to increase profitability.

• People
As it was mentioned earlier does not try to capture as many target groups as possible but use wide variety of tools to attract people who can spend money on quite expensive cloting and cosmetics they offer. The same time as the company offering high quality service, they use such a specific method concentrating on the particular target group and suggesting peculiar solutions for the certain target groups. As it was mentioned earlier standardization is the thing that significantly impacts the marketing strategies of the Nordstrom Inc s and this aspect of marketing mix is significantly impacted by standardization.
• Process
The process play core importance for the companies offering the services and products similar to Nordstrom as actually it represents the face of the company. The reliability of such store chains is determined by the process factor. Especially if we take into consideration the fact that the company is stressing on individual approach to every customer and make of The Focus Strategy
• Physical Evidence
Physical Evidence is also very important for the companies offering outstanding levels of service and the same time selling goods. Their individual approach to personal image also determines their success in different target markets and this could be referred as one of the strongest aspects of Nordstrom Strategy. This aspect reflects the mission, vision of the company and their attitude to the target group. It would be important to note that Nordstrom Inc sell its products in their own distribution centers and this means that the image of the company is important in relation to the product and they could perfectly impact on this aspect
Action programs
Nordstrom Inc does not adopt any companies’ strategies but develop its own strategy for the development in the global economy facilities. It goes without saying that the company has strategic partners in the innovation industries and use the investment practice as many others. Their shares are in the United States stock markets present, but everything which is connected with marketing products placement and development of the strategy is the company’s innovative practice. It goes without saying that it is not an easy task to develop personal and unique strategy, but it is distinctive feature of Nordstrom Inc from the date of its creation, which is aimed on the development of unique style of the company, providing special abilities for the clients and policy of open standards. This attract the more clients for the company even in facilities of severe competence and global financial crisis, the company is reporting profit and this mark the strategy developed by the leaders of the corporation as extremely efficient. Personally I consider that this is connected with the policy of innovation, which the company proclaims and it is really good for the company. It develops unique attitude to the client, providing them outstanding abilities and it goes without saying that adopted strategy won’t work in such facilities. The company is developing due to its own plan and despite the weaknesses and the threats its strengths and opportunities in the SWOT analysis look more confident especially in aspect of global economy. It goes without saying that this innovative practice and unlike the others technique define the company from the other participants of mobile innovation market and the position more strong, according to my personal point of view.
Budgets
In 2009 Nordstrom Inc was among the leaders on the retailing market thanks to the strong customer oriented policy and the following numbers represent its positions:
Total Revenue 8.57 Billion US Dollars (2009)
Operating income 773 Million US Dollars (2009)
Net income US$ 401 Million US Dollars (2009)
Total assets US$ 5.66 Billion US Dollars (2009)
Total equity US$ 1.21 US Dollars (2009) (Nordstrom Inc., 2010)
Controls
As it was mentioned earlier pricing is one of the most strongest parts in Nordstrom Inc marketing strategy and it is highly kept under control in order to correspond to the local realities, as offering competitive price require constant control and measuring over the company. Promotion strategy, which is also strong, could be referred as one of the control methods in marketing, as it assist evaluation whether the products are popular or not.
Conclusion
In the end I would like to make a stress on the fact that Nordstrom Inc is still considered to be very successful corporation in the retailing industry and is among the brightest examples of successful realization of specialist organizational structure and focus strategy on the cross country level of retailing niche. They have developed recognizable trademark and try to imply their global strategy on the local realities. Personally I consider that Nordstrom Inc would expand soon father than just in US with their unique strategy. Providing such significant changes in the whole perception of retailing