Best Buy Marketing Essay

Best Buy Inc. has been performing business and providing customers with products and services in the United States for over forty-three years. From what started as an idea and a small music shop in St. Paul, Minnesota, Best Buy Inc. now operates over 1,500 â€Å"big box† retail stores around the U. S. They have constantly grown to become the largest specialty electronics retailer in the entire world. With ventures expanding into other countries such as China, Mexico, United Kingdom, and many others, Best Buy has plans to develop stores, distribution, and networks throughout the world to better serve its customers as we become more dependent on our gadgets and technology in our everyday lives. While being the largest specialty electronics retailer in the entire world, Best Buy is not just about the products and services it sells. While our customers are the most important aspect of our business, Best Buy is focused on developing and helping its employees grow as professionals in the workplace and better their lives as a whole. Their mentality is that if our employees are empowered, engaged, knowledgeable, and able to go above and beyond their normal expectations, customer satisfaction and loyalty will be built. Strong lasting relationships amongst our employees and customers will drive our profitability and growth as a company. Mission Statement â€Å"Our formula is simple: we’re a growth company focused on better solving the unmet needs of our customers-and we rely on our employees to solve those puzzles. Thanks for stopping. † Core Values †¢ Unleash the power of our people Show respect, humility, and integrity †¢ Learn from challenge and change †¢ Have fun while being the best Core Philosophies †¢ Invite each employee to contribute their unique ideas and experiences in service of customers †¢ Treat customers uniquely and honor their differences – as segments and individuals †¢ Meet customers’ unique needs, end-to-end Company History Over the last forty-three years, Best Buy has grown from a single facing store to now boasting over 1,500 stores nationwide. Best Buy was originally started as a small audio-video and car stereo shop in St.  Paul, Minnesota, by a man named Richard Schulze. At the time, the small retail store was named the Sound of Music. In 1967, the Sound of Music obtained exclusive rights to Kencraft Hi-Fi and Bergo Company; which were the first of many acquisitions the company would make moving forward. With its immediate success, a second and third store was opened near the University of Minnesota and in downtown Minneapolis, respectively. In its first year of operation, the Sound of Music ended with gross sales totaling over $173,000. In 1969, the Sound of Music was introduced as a publicly traded company for the first time. In addition, three more stores are opened in and around the Twin Cities Area. A year later in 1970, they posted earnings and revenue which hit the $1 million dollar mark for the first time in the companies short history. In 1974, instead of operating out of each individual store, the Sound of Music opened their first headquarters located in Bloomington, Minnesota. They hired leadership staff and managers to help implement larger scale management direction and decisions. By years’ end of 1978, there were nine stores running in Minnesota. In 1981, a natural disaster shook up the small retail chain which seemed to be devastating, but little did they know it would provide insight into a new operating model that would lay the tracks for Best Buy moving forward. A tornado hit the Roseville, Minnesota store and the Sound of Music responded with a â€Å"Tornado Sale† which introduced low prices in a â€Å"no frills† retail environment that would be carried over to all surrounding stores. As a result of its success, stores averaged over $350 in sales per square foot versus the then industry average of $150 – $200 per square foot. Thus the beginning of Best Buy. In 1983, the Sound of Music’s board of directors approved the new corporate name, Best Buy C. , Inc, Shortly after; Best Buy opened its first superstore in Burnsville, Minnesota. From that point on, growth for Best Buy was inevitable. With its initial public offering on the NASDAQ, it earned over $8 million dollars in 1985. In 1986 the public stock offering raised over $33. 6 million dollars. This helped fund a 12 store expansion in Minnesota and surrounding states, Iowa and Wisconsin. Best Buy now operated in 21 â€Å"big box† retail stores with the â€Å"grab and go† store format and non-commissioned sales. In 1989, the Best Buy logo was changed to what it is today, the familiar angled yellow price tag with Best Buy in bold black letters. In 1993 Best Buy was deemed the nation’s second-largest consumer electronics retailer and was a staple and the epitome of retail prowess. In 1995 Best Buy broke into Fortune magazine’s annual ranking of America’s 500 largest corporations, listed as number 373. Best Buy also mandated and implemented a Standard Operating Platform (SOP), which was developed to support and manage every aspect of business within stores around the nation. Today, SOP is still around, but it has evolved as customer demands, employee needs, and the environment have impacted the way Best Buy store operate in their day to day operations. In 1999, Best Buy partnered with software giant Microsoft to cross-promote products going forward. Even today we see relevance of this as Windows 7 was recently promoted throughout Best Buy stores and commercials in order to drive business for both companies. They also were acclaimed by Fortune Magazine for being one of the top performing stocks since 1990. Since 1995, Best Buy has been ranked in Fortune’s top 500 largest corporations. In 2000 Best Buy launched BestBuy. com and entered the online retailing business to compete with many others who were entering into the cyber store front space. They have continued to grow through customer base and acquirement of many brands listed below. †¢ Magnolia Hi-Fi †¢ Future Shop †¢ Geek Squad †¢ Audio Visions †¢ Pacific Sales †¢ Jiangsu Five Star Appliances †¢ Carphone Warehouse Since 2001, Best Buy has also made strides to compete in the global market place making international acquisitions and efforts to expand into the United Kingdom, Canada, China, and Mexico. In 2001 Best Buy moved north to acquire FutureShop, a large Canadian electronics retailer chain, thus paving the way for eight Best Buy stores to open in the greater Toronto area in following years. In 2003, Best Buy also made efforts in the global market by opening its first global sourcing office in Shanghai, China, and later in 2006 they acquired Pacific Sales and a large portion of Jiangsu Five Star Appliance stores located throughout China. Finally, after two years of planning, research and development, Best Buy finally opened its first retail store in Shanghai bringing the low cost, warehouse style shopping experience to a very different market. Recently, in 2008 Best Buy acquired one of the largest cell phone distributors, Carphone Warehouse, in order to gain competitive advantage in the cellular device market. They also have begun to introduce Best Buy stores across and around the European countries as well as opening the first Best Buy Retail store just north of Mexico City.