Introduction
The aim of any business is to make profit, which implies that the business should implement its strategies in order to increase sales. The managers of any company should ensure that the profit margin remains high by ensuring that competitive strategies are identified and implemented.
Selling in a business enterprise is not a simple task and therefore businesses require strategies that promote and maintain sales. Making successful deals is an important sales strategy that most companies strive to achieve in order to maximize profits.
Halfords Plc
Halford is a leading UK company that deals with automotive products and other leisure products that involve motor vehicles (Halfords 2010). As the leading company, Harford not only requires maintaining its sales but also influences in the market.
The company has to work towards retaining its clients even as well as focus on reaching out new clients. This paper, therefore, presents a report on an important strategy that is applied by Halford Company in its effort to maintain market leadership and boost its profit margin.
As the market leader in the UK motor industry, Halfords aims at maintaining its influence in the industry through production of ultimate brands.
The brands are very important in the creation and maintenance of market influence and therefore Halford has taken all possible measures to ensure that it has strong influence in the market through creation of well-established and strong brands. From the analysis, it was established that Halfords has a well-developed market that includes the United Kingdom and the republic of Ireland (Halfords 2010).
When the two-market zones are compared, the UK market is the most preferred since it was the initial market in which the company sold its products. In order to maintain and develop the market the company has established several stores and outlets where the customers can obtain products. In addition to the marketing outlets, the company has an interactive website where it advertises and sells its products.
The company has a good influence in the market and implement its marketing strategies through concentrating on its retail market for establishment of its brands. A brand is the property of a product that customers use to identify products of a company or what customers associate with the given products of a company. Halfords has well established brands that are accessible to all the customers.
Therefore, brands of the company are elements that customers associate the company with (Barwise 1992). Halford has several brands depending on its customers and they are important in maintaining the company’s performance in the market. The services provided help the company to reach its customers and they are therefore the first brands of the company.
For the services of the company to achieve the level of a brand they have to be unique. The company therefore ensures that it offers services that attract as well as retain the customers. The company considers providing high quality services to ensure that customers associate themselves with the company.
The company offers high quality car maintenance as its first service to its clients. In order to achieve this objective the analysis found out that the company has well trained staff. The company also provides vehicle maintenance according to the manufacturer’s specifications, which complies with the required safety measures.
Car enhancement is the second service provided by the company to its customers through its network of outlets in the UK and the republic of Ireland. The car enhancement service provided by the company is not only a general enhancement service as provided by other competing firms, but also a brand through which its customers identify the company (Aaker 1991).
Its customers therefore recognize the company for the high quality enhancement service that it offers. From the analysis it was verified that Halfords offers enhancement services that correspond the customers’ requirements and specifications. The enhancement services provided by the company not only meet the required quality and standards but also consider the fashion requirements of the customers.
The fashion industry is dynamic and changes often and therefore the company ensures that its enhancement service complies with the current fashion trends (Brady & Davis 1993). The Harford’s car enhancement services are the usual services and the customers use them to know about the company.
It was also established that customers identified the company through the car enhancement services that it offered in its outlets within the two countries (Christopher 1992).
Customers of the company are driven by the need for leisure, which makes the company take this as a priority. It offers leisure products as well as leisure services through its network of outlets. Leisure products provided by the company include cycling products and equipment, camping products and child safety products.
These are some of the products offered by the company to its customers for leisure. The customers do not consider these as common products since through these products they are able to know more about the company. In addition, the customers of the automobile industry associate the company with the high quality leisure services and products it offers (Ballantyne, Christopher & Payne 1991).
Finally, the company offers car servicing to its customers through its large network of outlets in the two countries. The car servicing offered by the company includes car maintenance and repair. Halford vehicle maintenance services are of high quality and they have influence on the customers who use them all the time (Hout &Stalk 1990).
The customers consider the quality services offered by the company as brands through which they identify the company. The customers also use the high quality services to associate themselves with the company and inform other people about the significance of using them for the first time.
From the analysis it was found that in order to maintain market leadership Halford capitalizes on its products and services to create strong brands which are known by all the potential customers (Lamming 1993).
Conclusion
Halford is a market leader in the UK market for the production of automotive products and services. The company maintains leadership in the market in terms of satisfying its clients and maintaining high profit margin through its effective strategy that depends on its products and services. The company has well established brands that the customers use to identify the company and its products.
The customers also use the brands to associate themselves with the company in the competitive motor vehicle industry. Halfords uses its high quality services and products as brands in order to enhance its market leadership. The high quality services and products provided by the company form strong brands that the customers use to associate themselves with the company.
References
Aaker, D 1991, Managing brand equity, The Free Press, New York.
Barwise, P 1992, Brand portfolios, European Management Journal, vol. 10, no. 3.
Brady, J & Davis, I 1993, Marketing’s mid-life crisis, The McKinsey Quarterly, No. 2.
Christopher, M 1992, Logistics and supply chain management, Pitman, London.
Ballantyne, D, Christopher, M & Payne, A 1991, Relationship marketing. Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford.
Halfords, 2010, The UK & ROI are our core markets. Halfords continues to grow market share in attractive markets and, through its unique service proposition, differentiates itself from its competition, Web.
Lamming, R, 1993, Beyond partnership: Strategies for innovation and lean supply. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs.
Hout, T & Stalk, G 1990, Competing against time, Free Press, New York.