Whirlpool Corporation is one of the famous American based multinational manufacturer of home appliances. It’s headquartered is located in Michigan, United States. It is also listed in the Fortune 500, as it earns the annual revenue of around $18.4 billion. The company is employing over 70,000 people. As being the multinational company, it has its technology and manufacturing research centers in 70 countries across the globe. Its primary objective is to serve the consumers with best technology for making their life easier and comfortable (Agrawal, 2014). Although there are major competitors in the industry like Samsung, LG, Haier, etc. but still Whirlpool made its own space and developed strong brand equity. It uses different marketing strategies to gain the consumers all around the globe.
The company is considered as the market follower rather than innovator, as it believes in serving the customer with exactly what they demand for, rather than manufacturing something and creating the demand for it. Its different marketing strategies also involve the BCG matrix analysis, which helps the Corporation in evaluating the product portfolio in detail, to analyze which products need investment and which needs to shut down (Whirlpool, 2018). Here is the detailed BCG matrix analysis of Whirlpool is;
Cash Cows
These products are the mature market leaders, as their return on investment is much higher than the cash they consume. Which shows they play in volume rather than prices and growth rate. These products must be “milked” effectively to extract the revenue. The revenue earn by these can be invested in other items, or could be used for operational purposes. For Whirlpool, its washing machines are the cash cow item, as the company has no strong competitor in this category. However, it is still hoping to see the growth in the washing machine sales till the year end (Garcia, 2018).
Stars
The products of this category generates large amount of revenue mainly because of the high market share they have, but simultaneously consume the heavy investment due to high market growth. These items can be turn into cash cows after the decrease in its growth rate, which could be the challenge for the companies. Refrigerators and freezers are the Star items for the Whirlpool, as it has the enough market share and so the growth level. LG is aggressively competing Whirlpool in this category, because of more innovative features. However, if the research centers try to become the market innovators, the category can become cash cow (Statista, 2017).
Question Marks
The products in this category grow quickly, due to which, they consume heavy investment, but unable to generate enough because of low market share. They have the potential to grow and effective strategies can turn them into stars and later cash cows. Whirlpool has launched the duet series of the front door washing machines that has the ability of drying and machine. The machines saves the water up to 74% in comparison to the traditional ones, and also saves around $894 in five years. It is the question mark for the company because of not having enough market share. Because of its unique features and competitive prices, in the long run, this can grab the large market share (UK Essay, 2013).
Dogs
These are the items with low market share and low market growth. Cooking appliances are considered as the dog items for different places across the globe, like many countries of Asia, who prefer to use local brands because of prices. Whirlpool needs to consider these points too, for retaining the products into question mark quadrant (Statista, 2017).
References
Agrawal, R. 2014. Whirlpool. [Online], Available at: https://www.slideshare.net/rohitranj09/whirlpool-33084754, [Accessed on: 7th September, 2018].
Essays, UK. 2013. Various marketing programs of Whirlpool Corporation. [Online], Available at: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/marketing/various-marketing-programmes-of-whirlpool-corporation-marketing-essay.php?vref=1, [Accessed on: 7th September, 2018].
Garcia, T. 2018. Whirlpool shares jump on high hopes for washing machine sales. [Online], Available at: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/whirlpool-shares-jump-on-high-hopes-for-washing-machine-sales-2018-01-24, [Accessed on: 7th September, 2018].
Statista, 2018. Whirlpool net sales by products]. [Online], Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/373088/whirlpool-net-sales-by-product/, [Accessed on: 7th September, 2018].
Whirlpool, 2018. About Us. [Online], Available at: https://www.whirlpool.com/products.html, [Accessed on: 7th September, 2018].