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    HR Competitive Strategy - Panda Bear Case Study

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    Ajay
    The three toy companies described have differing business strategies and approaches to marketing and sales: Panda Bear produces high-quality wooden toys and focuses on nostalgia and durability to appeal to parents. They sell at higher prices through up-market retailers. Caribou makes custom high-end toys like rocking horses and dollhouses, often bespoke. They consult directly with customers who are collectors or buying gifts. Products are very expensive due to materials, labor and service. Grizzly Bear manufactures low-cost plastic toys to compete overseas. They market as "pocket money" toys and sell in many retailers and supermarkets to exploit children's pestering. Their focus is low costs and

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    HR Competitive Strategy - Panda Bear Case Study

    Uploaded by

    Ajay
    142 views2 pages
    The three toy companies described have differing business strategies and approaches to marketing and sales: Panda Bear produces high-quality wooden toys and focuses on nostalgia and durability to appeal to parents. They sell at higher prices through up-market retailers. Caribou makes custom high-end toys like rocking horses and dollhouses, often bespoke. They consult directly with customers who are collectors or buying gifts. Products are very expensive due to materials, labor and service. Grizzly Bear manufactures low-cost plastic toys to compete overseas. They market as "pocket money" toys and sell in many retailers and supermarkets to exploit children's pestering. Their focus is low costs and

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    HR Taylor's theory case study

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    HR Competitive Strategy- Panda bear case study (1)

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    The three toy companies described have differing business strategies and approaches to marketing and sales: Panda Bear produces high-quality wooden toys and focuses on nostalgia and durability to appeal to parents. They sell at higher prices through up-market retailers. Caribou makes custom high-end toys like rocking horses and dollhouses, often bespoke. They consult directly with customers who are collectors or buying gifts. Products are very expensive due to materials, labor and service. Grizzly Bear manufactures low-cost plastic toys to compete overseas. They market as "pocket money" toys and sell in many retailers and supermarkets to exploit children's pestering. Their focus is low costs and

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    142 views2 pages

    HR Competitive Strategy - Panda Bear Case Study

    Uploaded by

    Ajay
    The three toy companies described have differing business strategies and approaches to marketing and sales: Panda Bear produces high-quality wooden toys and focuses on nostalgia and durability to appeal to parents. They sell at higher prices through up-market retailers. Caribou makes custom high-end toys like rocking horses and dollhouses, often bespoke. They consult directly with customers who are collectors or buying gifts. Products are very expensive due to materials, labor and service. Grizzly Bear manufactures low-cost plastic toys to compete overseas. They market as "pocket money" toys and sell in many retailers and supermarkets to exploit children's pestering. Their focus is low costs and

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    HRM and Competitive Strategy

    Panda Bear Toys

    Panda Bear is a family-run business which produces high-quality wooden toys such
    as train sets, abacuses and !developmental" toys such as shape-sorters and puzzles.
    Panda Bear have recently celebrated their fiftieth birthday and continue to produce
    many of the toys that the founder produced when the business first began trading.
    The company seeks to produce toys that appeal not only to children but also parents
    by evoking nostalgia for ! simpler" toys and ones they might remember from their
    childhood. Indeed, a central theme of Panda Bear" s marketing is to remind parents
    that they would have played with their toys as children and emphasise their
    durability and quality. Panda Bear products are however at the more expensive end
    of the toy market and tend to be sold in up-market toy retailers and department
    stores, but are increasingly stocked in high-volume toy superstores as the market
    for such products grows. Despite recent sales growth and the need to produce
    higher volumes, management continues stress the importance of maintaining
    consistent high-quality through the use of the best materials and an explicit focus on
    minimising defects, supported by high-quality customer service. Given their !
    nostalgic" focus and production of !old-fashioned" toys, Panda Bear do not focus
    greatly on developing new products but recognise the need to continually improve
    on their existing ranges.

    Caribou Toys

    Caribou Toys is a small but growing !workshop" company producing high quality,
    exclusive toys # principally, rocking horses, stuffed teddy animals and doll houses
    and accessories # often made-to-order by a limited number of customers. As many
    of their orders are bespoke, most of their products are unique or manufactured in
    small quantities. They are often either hand-made or hand-finished. Consumers
    order directly from the company and are typically either toy enthusiasts or
    collectors or buying a present for a special event (for example, a christening). As
    part of their service, Caribou offer a ! consultancy" and design service to meet the
    exact requirements of their customers. Specialisation ranges from teddy bears
    embroidered with special messages or markings to doll houses designed to the exact
    specification of a customer" s home or a cherished building. The high quality,
    custom-made nature of their products, the length of the design and manufacture
    process and the high level of customer service provided, often means that products
    are very expensive, often running into several thousand pounds. Whilst Caribou" s
    products appear traditional, senior management are constantly looking for new
    avenues in which to take their business and new products # particularly those that
    are not being offered in the wider market - whilst adhering to their central business
    model and philosophy. Similarly, whilst many of the techniques use to produce their
    toys are based on traditional craft skills, Panda Bear often invest in new production
    technology and the development of improved design and materials to meet the
    exacting standards of their customers.
    Grizzly Bear toys

    Grizzly Bear Toys are a UK-based toy manufacturer producing a limited range of
    low-price toys, for example, die-cast toy cars and cheap plastic toys such as hula-
    hoops, yo-yos and dolls. In order to compete with low-cost suppliers from overseas
    and having so far resisted the pressure to move production abroad, Grizzly Bear
    needs to sell their products as cheaply as possible and to maximise both production
    and sales volumes. Marketing their toys explicitly as ! pocket money" , Grizzly Bear
    seek to get their products into as many specialist toy retailers and supermarkets as
    possible and to exploit the ! pester power" of young children. In order to maintain
    supply contracts, however, Grizzly Bear must meet basic standards in respect of
    safety, quality and (limited) durability. Grizzly Bear" s primary business imperative
    in a highly-competitive market is to keep costs as low as possible and product
    design is kept as simple as possible to minimise production costs. Given their
    relative success in winning and maintaining supply contracts with a number of large
    retailers, Grizzly Bear expend very little effort on developing new or improving
    existing products, rather seeking to lower production costs further and to refresh
    their lines by altering minor details which do not require further investment.

    You have been asked to advise the three companies outlined below - Grizzly Bear,
    Panda Bear and Caribou - on an appropriate approach to HRM. You have been asked
    to put together a brief management report on the approach that you would advocate
    for each company. In doing so, you should consider the business strategy adopted in
    each company, the objectives of an appropriate HR strategy, the employee
    behaviours and attitudes that should be encouraged or discouraged, the required
    skills and the necessary supporting human resource practices (for example,
    recruitment, promotion, pay and benefits, training and development, work
    organisation and job design). To be discussed in class

    As of now, just mark out the differences in their marketing and sales strategy .

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