MBA Online. Walmart

Today, Walmart is one of the largest public, multinational corporations in the world and one of the largest employers in the US as well as in the world. In actuality, the company conducts aggressive market expansion policy, which focuses on the expansion of international markets along with the major, target market of Walmart, the American one. In this regard, the company has proved to be quite successful due to the effective marketing and pricing policy. However, the marketing and pricing policies of the company are subjects to severe criticism. On the one hand, the current marketing and pricing policies have proved to be quite successful and made Walmart the corporation with the largest annual revenue in the world. Moreover, it is due to its successful marketing and pricing policies the company has become one of the leaders in the industry. On the other hand, its marketing and pricing policies have provoked severe criticism from the part of the public and specialists because Walmart’s policies in relation to its employees and local communities raise the strong opposition from the part of employees and local communities, whereas some of its products have proved to be dangerous to human health, although the latter were rather exceptional cases than a norm. In such a way, the company attempts to maintain its competitive position and expand its markets but still it has certain problems in its business development because of the deteriorating public image, although the low prices of the company allow Walmart to attract customers.

0.2 Executive Summary of Marketing Plan
In actuality, the company focuses its marketing plan on the international market expansion. In this regard, it is worth mentioning the fact that the company conducts low pricing policies to attract customers and to increase its marketing policies. In fact, the marketing plan of the company positions the international marketing expansion as the major part of its marketing strategy. In such a way, the company develops its markets and enters new ones to increase its market share internationally. Walmart focuses on the development of effective pricing policies to outpace its rivals and to take the leading position in the market. However, the company has to overcome the resistance of its competitors, which grows stronger as the company enters international markets. Nevertheless, the company has a substantial potential and it can improve its marketing performance. In this regard, the company uses the strategy of the low pricing strategy to attract customers and to take an advantageous position in the market. In such a way, Walmart’s marketing plan still uses its traditional pricing policies and marketing expansion to reach its strategic marketing goals. On the other hand, the company needs to improve consistently its performance through the improvement of its company-customer relationships and internal business operations to make its performance stable and successful.

1.0 Description of the Target Market
The target market of Walmart is the US. However, today, the company attempts to expand its markets internationally and today this policy is strategically important for Walmart. To put it more precisely, the process of globalization affects consistently the performance of the company. The company contributes to the development of new marketing policies because Walmart needs to adapt to the current business environment. What is meant here is the fact that the company should expand its markets because it is necessary to enter new markets and gain a strategic advantage over its rivals. At this point, it is worth mentioning the fact that the international market expansion is the major strategy of the company that may shift the target market for Walmart. To put it more precisely, Walmart was traditionally oriented on the US market, whereas the expansion of the company on the international markets may lead to the emergence of new target markets for Walmart, such as Europe, or Asia, for instance, China. However, at the moment, the company is still oriented on the US market. In such a way, the company holds one of the leading positions in the market.

However, the recent economic recession in the US revealed the full extent to which the company has proved to be vulnerable to the situation in the US market. What is meant here is the fact that Walmart attempts to increase its share in the US market but the deterioration of the situation in the US market leads to the deterioration of the position of the company in the market (Stopler, 2003). In such a situation, the focus of the company on the development of the international market expansion that may facilitate the position of the company and its business development becomes strategically important for Walmart because it should expand the target market internationally.