Sherwin Williams: Expanding Sales On A Global Scale

Introduction to Sherwin Williams

Question:

Discuss in detail about the Current Market situation by using one or more of the following techniques:

Marketing sizing, perceptual map, forecasting, pricing, promotions, PESTLE Market analysis, Porter’s five forces analysis.

Sherwin Williams is one of the most important names in the world of coating industry. It is an US based company that mainly focuses its interest on the manufacturing production and the supply of their products in United States and within the rest if the world (Navarrete, 2016).  It is a very well known and universal provider of strong and durable protective and marine coatings. The products provided by this company are extremely durable in nature (Botha, 2014).

Sherwin Williams has its manufacturing units located only in the local regions that are located in and around United States; hence there will be a huge expense that the company will have to bear in order to bear the entire supply and logistics that will be needed. This is because Sherwin Williams has a few of its branches opened in Canada (Hasan, 2016). Hence Sherwin Williams must make sure that they adopt, utilize and start implementation all those important principles within their system that would enable them to increase their sales in the global or the international level. Among all the other strategies that they adopt they will have to consider the fact of extending their services in different countries all across the world (Botha, 2014).

Political

In order to increase its sales volume, Sherwin Williams will have to open or set up its new outlets and branches in many different regions outside United States (Navarrete, 2016). As a result of this, it is quite natural that all, the different branches of this company will be exposed to so many different political setups. This is because of the fact that different areas will obviously have many different political setups and different political setups have so many different kinds of rules and regulations. Currently the company has specialty chemical branches operating in almost a dozen of countries (Slowinski et al., 2015). There will naturally be many systematic risks associated with the different kind of political set up. Hence the company will have to very closely analyze the political factors like that of risk of military invasion, intellectual property protection, antitrust laws and several other such things. It will have to be very much alert and carefully deal with all the different political constraints.

The need for expanding sales globally

Economic

Both the macro and the micro economic factors can influence the company in many different ways. There are several other economic factors as well that the company must take into account like, that of the kind of economy that the country has in which they are operating, the level of skill of the work force, comparative advantages of the host country (Acquaah et al .,2013). This is because of the fact that as per the contemporary situation and the current market condition of Sherwin Williams, they have only set up the majority amount of their outlets in U.S. However in order to increase their sales, they will have to set up many new outlet in the different other parts of Europe. As a result of which, they will have to face many new and different kinds of economies when they set up their branches in all the other parts of Europe. They will also have to bear a huge economic pressure based on the kind of workforce availability, the skill of the workers and many other such things.

Social

In order to successfully reach out to the target market the company needs to take care of the culture of the customers. In other words, the shared beliefs, though processes and the attitudes of population is something that the company has to take care of. This is because of the fact that the patterns of the needs and demand of the consumers are usually governed by the social norms in which the market and the co summers operate. It is only after taking onto consideration all the social factors like demography, education level, leisure interest, that the company must design the products. This is also a very important factor because as Sherwin Williams will have set up many new firms in different parts of the Europe in order to increase their sales, they will be exposed to many new kinds of social scenarios. As a result of which they will have to be flexible enough to fit in the new kinds of social scenarios. They must make a thorough survey of the attitudes of the consumers, the thought processes and the mind set. All these social scenarios are to be taken into account in order to cater to the needs and demands of the consumers.

Technological factors

Technology is something that will naturally influence the working of the company a great deal. Technology is something that has been increasing at a rapid rate over the last few centuries. Technology can be helpful in various ways (Hunt, 2013).

Political Factors Affecting Business

This is evident from the large scale advancement of the car industry. This will naturally help in the fast distribution of the products of the company (Botha, 2014). The usage of technology in other fields will also help in increasing the rate of development of the company.  At the same time, the company will also have to analyze the harmful impacts that technology might have on the smooth running of the company.

Environmental factors

As this company mainly deals in the paint and the coating products there can be many environmental factors that might pose a threat to the production. There can be many climatic change or environmental disasters as well (Slowinski et al., 2015). In order to deal with these conditions, the company needs to abide by the different norms or the environmental factors of the different countries in which they are operating. Some important considerations to be made under this can be production of eco friendly products, weather conditions and climatic changes, recycling.

Legal factors

Sherwin Williams have to abide by the legal codes of conduct that are prevalent in the different countries of their operation. It has to strictly abide by the legal considerations like employment law, health and safety law, consumer protection and ecommerce (Hasan, 2016).They will have to face many new and complicated legal constraints whenever they are about to expand their distributional centers or their outlets in new areas outside their local and regional boundaries.

Threat of new entrants

There is a very strong fear or a threat of the entry of new firms in the market (Acquaah et al., 2013).

This is because of the fact that the US paint and coating industry is a highly competitive market and there are already a large number of strong competitors like that of PPG industry operating in the market. It is also known that Sherwin Williams already is suffering from the lack of enough global marketing and sales. Ii such given scenario, the threat of the entry of new firms becomes even stronger.

Bargaining power of suppliers

The companies under the chain of the Specialty Chemicals, can buy their raw materials from various suppliers. A large number of suppliers can negotiate and lower the profit margins of the company. This is because the suppliers will naturally try bargain and negotiate with the company. Having a large number of suppliers is both good and bad for the firm. Good in the easy as it helps the company to keep the options open in case any disputes arise with any one of them. Bad in the sense because the negotiating power of the suppliers can lower the profit margins in the long run (Zambrano Balladares, 2016). 

Economic Factors Affecting Business

Bargaining power of buyers

Buyers actually will demand a large number of products at a small price. They will also try to seek out a large number of discounts and offers. If the customer base is small, limited and more powerful, then the bargaining power of the customers becomes high and hence the profits will naturally decrease (Hunt, 2013).

Threat of substitutes

As the US paint and coating industry is itself a very powerful industry, there will be a large number of other strong competitors existing in the market suppliers can lower the profit margins in the long run . European markets like that of Africa, Asia and several other such places. The present marketing scenario of this coating and paint Company shows that there are many strong competitors that are already existing in the market and operating in the same line of product on a universal or a global level. There are many other companies like that of PPG Industries, that have already been operating on a very large scale and has been increasing and expanding their sales volume in on a global basis (Hasan, 2016). They will naturally try to outnumber Sherwin Williams by taking advantage of its weakness which is the lack of global sales and distribution. This naturally will allow the consumers to easily switch over a large number of alternatives.

Rivalry among the existing competitors

The Sherwin Williams Company surely will have a large number of competitors. This is because of the fact that the US coating and paint market is a very highly competitive market. Moreover these markets like the PPG industry have already had a large number of outlets opened in the global market; naturally this has increased the competition to a great level. If the rivalry increases then the competition eventually will increase (Zambrano Balladares, 2016). 

Conclusion

So, it is evident that in order to successfully run its business Sherwin Williams will have to focus on all the factors like social, environmental, legal and many other such factors. It will have to adopt all the modern technological advancements in order to develop and increase the business on a global scale. Moreover there is also this matter of concern that the customers of Sherwin Williams are just concentrated in the parts of United States. Apart from this, the United States paint and coating industry is such that will allow the customers to easily switch over to many other options or the alternatives present in the market. It is also a known fact that all these companies that already have established their outlets and their branches in different parts outside USA are enjoying a good sales volume. However, expanding sales on a global basis will at the same time expose the company to many new legal and environmental laws and setups as different countries have different laws. Sherwin Williams will have to strictly and cautiously abide by and follow all these rules.

References

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Hasan, A. (2016). Color Blocking: How the Harmonization of Color Protection May Catalyze Color Depletion in Global Markets. Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, 23(1), 293-322.

Hunt, H. (2013). Best Practices for Corporate Internal Investigations. The Legal Intelligencer.

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Zambrano Balladares, P. R. (2016). Estrategias de merchandising para incrementar el tráfico de consumidores en los puntos de venta, empresa Sherwin Williams, Guayaquil, 2016 (Bachelor’s thesis, Guayaquil: ULVR, 2016.)