Jones-Blair Company Case Report
Problem Statement
Jones-Blair Company is a privately held corporation that produces and markets paint and paint sundries under the Jones-Blair brand name. Their current issue at hand is to decide on where and how to deploy corporate marketing efforts among the different architectural paint coatings markets in southwestern United States. Continuing disagreements between proposals made by the VPs of different Jones-Blair divisions are delaying a course of action.
One unmet company objective is the application of their efforts towards the correct market segment in geographic terms between the eleven-county DFW areas and the non-DFW areas. Another unfulfilled target is the positioning of the Jones-Blair brand name in terms of price and awareness for the consumers. There is also an expressed discrepancy between the service quality and commission granted towards Jones-Blair sales representatives. Competition has increased with regards to other major producers (accounting for up to 60% of sales) and private store brands of paint (in which 50% of architectural coatings are sold under these store brands).
The best solution to attend to these conflicts is to divert marketing efforts towards the dealers in the DFW areas and towards the do-it-yourself painters in the non-DFW areas. Adding appreciable commission rates to the sales representative will further increase their already-satisfactory customer relationship skills.
Analysis
There are many alternative courses of action that were offered at the meeting between the VPs of Jones-Blair and Alexander Barrett, the President of the Jones-Blair Company. Focusing on advertising to build awareness, targeting a series of mentioned market segments (even further pen ...