Sherwin Williams Strategic Marketing

Based on revenues, the Sherwin-Williams Company has been ranked the largest world's paint and coating company, recording approximately $18 billion in 2020 ("Leading paint and coatings companies," 2021). Achieving this success has taken years of strategic planning and marketing, ensuring that the company responds well to expansion, external competition, and management responsiveness to the environment. In the Ansoff Turbulence Model, the company is in the responsiveness to management capability level. In essence, the company has made significant strides to expand its business operations and distribution channels in targeted markets across the globe. Currently, seeking to maintain stability and promote product innovation to remain competitive is the most viable option (Um et al., 2017). Sherwin-Williams has continued to explore new markets and the environment and drive efficiency in its management processes.

Undoubtedly, today's business environment demands organizations to invest in research and development to gain a competitive advantage over their rivals. Moreover, globalization and economic inconsistencies, especially during this coronavirus pandemic, are forcing these organizations to manage these severe economic times by regulating their business aspects. This aggressiveness is necessary to promote agility and effectiveness, critical components of the management capacity, supply chain management, and service delivery (Akhavan et al., 2014). Given the current pandemic, the organization should restructure its projected business model and consider the inconsistencies caused by the pandemic. The world economy was significantly affected, forcing several businesses to reduce their operational costs or close shops in different countries. As such, Sherwin-Williams should consider backtracking its business strategy and employ strategic aggressiveness to remain stable and creative.

Five Generic Competitive Strategy Model 

Sherwin-Williams has, over the years, developed its business structure through expansion into other countries, developing a target market that is essential to its success in these countries. Being a multinational company, the company has endured competition to sustain its business entity through significant efforts of crucial generic competitive strategies of cost leadership, differentiation, and focus strategies. Adopting a combination of these strategies in light of tough economic times and stiff competition has allowed the company to amass a large customer base and register sales growth.

Cost leadership 

Sherwin-Williams has successfully employed cost leadership in its market segments by lowering its costs and allowing it to preserve its market position while making incremental changes to its market share (Alkasim et al., 2018). The company targets the middle class through this strategy, acknowledging the middle class's rise as a potential target segment for most businesses. More so, these types of customers emphasize the price, and the low-cost leadership approach will attract them. While the company has managed to lower its production cost and streamline the supply chain, offering coupons and discounts on its products to meet sales targets has helped it manage the growing competition.

Differentiation 

The company has effectively applied differentiation alongside the cost leadership strategy to gain competitiveness. The company has emphasized its unique products to tame and increase its customer base. Through understanding the changing customer needs, Sherwin-Williams has made significant innovative approaches to its product line to address those concerns (Semuel et al., 2017). Combining both differentiation and cost leadership has allowed the company to build a loyal customer base. Moreover, the company has managed to position its products differently from its rivals, allowing them to stand out in the competitive marketplace. Its long-standing presence and experience in the manufacture of paints and coatings is also a differentiation strategy in its communication and marketing approaches.

Focus Strategy 

The focus strategy fosters companies to target their resources in expanding specific target segments. According to Herzallah et al. (2017), targeting niche markets promotes competitiveness overall business productivity. Sherwin-Williams has offered niche markets through low costs, such as targeting the niche Mexico market, value for its products (Thurston, 2009). The company has also focused on its product designs through branding and packaging to satisfy its customers.

Ansoff Product/Market Expansion Grid 

Despite Sherwin-Williams's rich history and successful expansion into the global marketplace, it still considers expanding into other untapped market segments. Therefore, the company still considers all the components of the Ansoff expansion grid. Through its existing products, the company needs to ensure market penetration and development are achieved. At the same time, it needs to develop new products for new and existing markets through product development and diversification. Sherwin-Williams has managed to foster corporate growth through market penetration. For instance, lowering its product prices and using effective promotional strategies allows the company to push sales to its existing customers (De Waal, 2016). Integrating cost leadership and differentiation strategies to market penetration can prove critical to improving Sherwin-Williams` competitiveness.

Over the years, Sherwin-Williams has expanded its product line to target its existing and new customers. Investing in research and development will play a critical role in ensuring products remain relevant to customers (De Waal, 2016). Moreover, the existing infrastructure's effectiveness gives the company the ability to tailor new products into the market. Given the extent of globalization in exposing potential niche markets, Sherwin-Williams should explore market development and diversification to promote new products to existing and new customers. These expansion metrics will depend on cost leadership and differentiation to determine its entry into new markets. Moreover, the company should continue to acquire other businesses through mergers to expand its brand portfolio.

Market Mix 

Product 

Sherwin-Williams understands its customer needs and strives to develop unique products that stand out from the alternative products present in the market. The quality of the products, features, branding, and packaging, and variety are key factors the company should consider when developing new products for its customers.

Price 

Pricing is a critical element when evaluating the value of products targeted at specific customer segments. When considering pricing for its products, Sherwin-Williams should consider cost leadership and differentiation strategies to increase its market share and communicate its intention to customers.

Place 

Sherwin-Williams has a well-established distribution network that has fostered accessibility of its products. Expanding into new markets mandates the company to make significant decisions using existing networks or partnering with new distributors to improve product accessibility. Moreover, the company must analyze market dynamics to understand customer needs and preferences.

Promotion 

Through a detailed analysis of market dynamics, the company can employ different promotional strategies, such as below and above-the-line promotional strategies, to foster competitiveness.    

Customer Analysis 

Developing an effective marketing mix depends on the company's knowledge of its target customers. Any strategy it employs will rely on understanding the customer needs, attitude towards its products, and expectations (Aghazadeh, 2015). Sherwin-Williams should define its customers and classify them according to different segments. The company should identify the different needs and expectations that set them apart from each group or segment. Lastly, the company should compare how its products and services address these groups' needs and expectations. Customer analysis and segmentation go hand in hand. Information from the analysis can inform segmentation, targeting, and positioning.   

Segmentation 

Segmentation is critical to identifying the buying behavior of different customer groups and profiles. Customer needs, expectations, and buying behavior are guided by age, gender, values, income, lifestyle, among other factors (Müller et al., 2018). The company can classify its large customer base into small segments with matching characteristics through market segmentation surveys. The information can inform the company on the appropriate segmentation strategy to use when focusing on a specific group.  

Targeting and Positioning 

Once the segments have been identified, Sherwin-Williams should select segments whose needs and expectations align with its capabilities. Targeting is done by evaluating each segment's attractiveness and the potential growth they present to the business (Camilleri, 2017). When segmentation is accomplished, and the target market is identified, the company should create a strong positioning statement that articulates its significance and image to the customers.

Branding 

Competition remains a challenge for Sherwin-Williams, and its internal marketing should consider the significance of brand equity. In essence, Positive customer perceptions about the company and its products indicate a high brand value, while negative perceptions denote a low brand value (Aghazadeh, 2015). The company should continuously evaluate its brand equity by analyzing its brand awareness strategies, brand associations with its customers, and perceived quality from customer perceptions.

Sherwin-Williams Corporate Leadership and Ethics 

Sherwin-Williams is one of the many companies that have embraced ethics in their business operations. Corporate leadership, stewardship, and corporate social responsibility are encompassed within the business, allowing it to build a strong brand image. The company understands the significance of effective leadership in driving its agenda. According to Smith (2013), the company has been recognized for promoting ethics and a conducive workplace environment. Simultaneously, the company's success can also be linked to its organizational culture that encourages personal growth and emphasizes employee well-being. With its corporate social responsibility in place, the company has additional opportunities to drive success, increase its customer base, and work with communities to preserve the environment.

Any business's success is instilling a culture and organizational management strategy that aligns with its beliefs. With no ethical issues impacting its business operations, Sherwin-Williams has managed to forge its products to other markets globally. Moreover, the company's success is also linked to the employees who understand the direction the company is heading. They believe in the top management, believe in the decisions and direction the company is embarking on, and believe in the organization's values (Chang & Lin, 2015). These attributes have enabled Sherwin-Williams to manage any ethical and organizational issues without impacting its overall business performance, productivity, and image.  

Christian vs. Secular Worldview 

Ethics following the Christian paradigm provide a pathway to effective leadership that does not encompass unethical behavior. From a Christian worldview, leaders embrace Christian values to guide and influence their employees. Moreover, they will be geared towards fostering social corporate responsibility that positively impacts the local communities. Integrity, fairness, and social responsibility are critical values that leaders must embrace to create an organizational culture that fosters productivity and employee well-being (Voegtlin, 2016). From a secular viewpoint, leadership can take a turn where appropriate values are not followed. Leaders can engage in unethical behaviors without worrying about their actions on employees, company values, and the communities. As a recommendation, organizations should ensure the leaders understand the significance of business ethics and how their actions can impact employee performance and overall productivity. 

References 

“Leading paint and coatings companies globally by revenue 2020”. (2021). Statista .  https://www.statista.com/statistics/543989/leading-paint-companies-worldwide-by-revenue/ 

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Akhavan, P., Sanjaghi, M., Rezaeenour, J., & Ojaghi, H. (2014). Examining the relationships between organizational culture, knowledge management, and environmental responsiveness capability.  SSRN Electronic Journal .  https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2466380 

Alkasim, S. B., Hilman, H., Bohari, A. M., Abdullah, S. S., & Sallehddin, M. R. (2018). The mediating effect of cost leadership on the relationship between market penetration, market development, and firm performance.  Journal of Business & Retail Management Research ,  12 (03).  https://doi.org/10.24052/jbrmr/v12is03/art-17 

Camilleri, M. A. (2017). Market segmentation, targeting and positioning.  Tourism, Hospitality & Event Management , 69-83.  https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49849-2_4 

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De Waal, G. A. (2016). An extended conceptual framework for product-market innovation.  International Journal of Innovation Management ,  20 (05), 1640008.  https://doi.org/10.1142/s1363919616400089 

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Müller, J. M., Pommeranz, B., Weisser, J., & Voigt, K. (2018). Digital, social media, and mobile marketing in industrial buying: Still in need of customer segmentation? Empirical evidence from Poland and Germany.  Industrial Marketing Management ,  73 , 70-83.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2018.01.033 

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Thurston, C. (2009).  Sherwin-Williams targets niches in Mexico . Coatings World.  https://www.coatingsworld.com/contents/view_latin-america-reports/2009-11-02/sherwin-williams-targets-niches-in-mexico/ 

Um, J., Lyons, A., Lam, H. K., Cheng, T., & Dominguez-Pery, C. (2017). Product variety management and supply chain performance: A capability perspective on their relationships and competitiveness implications.  International Journal of Production Economics ,  187 , 15-26.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2017.02.005 

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