Edmunds Case Study Essay

1. What would the SWOT analysis look like for this company? Strengths: 100 local employees, steady market share Weaknesses: Slight loss in market share, aging work force, lack of marketing with technology, no new products Opportunities: increase market share, serving industries other than the box market, mergers and/or acquisitions Threats: Manufacturers using better machines, Consolidation in the paper industry, higher raw material costs 2. What role do you expect the internet to play in the corrugated box industry? What are some ways that Edmunds could better use the Internet to foster growth? I would expect that the internet would be a great resource for researching other corrugated box companies. It would be good for advertising as well. Edmunds could make their website better and offer some of their services on their website. They could also purchase ad space on other websites that target the corrugated box industry. They could also post employment opportunities on their website and various other internet job sites. 3. Which of Porter’s competitive strategies would you recommend that Edmunds follow? Why? Which of the strategies do you think would least likely succeed? I would recommend the Differentiation Strategy because they need to develop new products or different ways of using the existing products to distinguish themselves in the market for the companies who still use corrugated boxes. I think that the cost leadership strategy would work as well. If they can find a way to offer their products at a lower cost than other companies by practicing cost reduction/lean in-house they could pull in more customers. I think that the Focus strategy would be the least likely to succeed because they seem to already be focused on a specific regional market or buyer group and that is causing their business to slow down.