Walmart Corporation Upon opening a business, a company must decide where to place the business and how to market the company. This is not an easy task if several businesses of the same industry are located in the same neighborhood. Before the company can open, a new business must choose what market they want to reach and the best way to reach them. The company must also determine the psychographic and behavioral characteristics of each market the company is trying to reach. The following is information on how Walmart Corporation chooses their geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioral segments when the company places a new store in a specific neighborhood.
Walmart History The first Walmart store was established in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962 by founder Sam Walton (Walmart Corporation, 2014). Walton moved his family to the area of Bentonville, Arkansas to take advantage of small town living and opened his Five and Dime store in the town square. With the success of that store he decided to open the first Walmart to offer lower prices and greater services to his valued customers (Walmart Corporation, 2014). By 1970, the company had gone public where Walton used the proceeds to expand the business. Over time the company grew enough that Walton decided to venture into uncharted territory by opening Walmart Supercenters, Sam’s Club Warehouses and the company’s first international stores in Mexico. The company now has “11,000 retail units under 71 banners in 27 countries and e-commerce in 10 countries. We employ 2.2 million associates around the world — 1.3 million in the U.S. alone” (Walmart Corporation, p.1, 2014). The company has been very successful but still must keep in mind where a store is placed, what market to target, and how the company will promote the new store.
Geographic Segmentation Walmart is not immune from determining where to place one of their stores. The company must take into consideration
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