MGMT Chapter 7 EXAM 2

SWOT's Best strategies to accomplish an organization's mission:

1) Exploiting an organization's opportunities and strengths while 2) Neutralizing its threats and 3) Avoiding or correcting its weaknesses

o Decline Stage -

demand for the product or technology decreases, the number of organizations producing the product drops and total sales drop o Demand declines o Firms who don't anticipate decline stage in earlier stages may go out of business o Those that differentiate their product keep their costs low or develop new products or services may do well during this stage

o Introduction Stage -

demand may be very high, sometimes outpacing the firm's ability to supply the product • Managers need to focus on "getting product out the door" without sacrificing quality • Concerns of this stage - managing growth by hiring one employee and managing inventories and cash flow

o Reactor - EXAMPLE

has no consistent strategic approach; it drifts with environmental events, reacting to but failing to anticipate or influence those events • These firms usually do not perform well as others that implement new strategies • Most deny this strategy but International Harvestor Company (IH) was clearly a reactor - they failed to keep competition with competitors and when a recession cut demanded for its products, t was too late for IH to respond and they lost millions of dollars - its now just a truck business (Navistar) - instead of dominant firm in trucking, ag and construction its just a small truck co now • Kmart, Eddie Bauer, & Chrysler, Radio Shack

• Organizational Culture -

helps firms implement their strategies

Resource development - EXAMPLE

how it will distribute its resources across the areas in which it competes • EX: GE uses profits form its US operations to invest in new businesses in Europe an Asia

• After business strategies are formulated, they must then be - • To do this effectively, managers must integrate the activities of several different functions -

implemented - Market and Sales: used to promote products or services and the overall public image of the organization, price products or services, directly contact customers, and make sales - Accounting and Financing: control the flow of money within the organization and from outside sources - Manufacturing: creates the organizations products or services

• Evaluating strengths and weaknesses focuses attention on the - but evaluating opportunities and threats requires analyzing an -

internal working of an organization organization's environment

o Analyzer - EXAMPLE

it tries to maintain its current business and be somewhat innovative in new businesses, combines elements of prospectors and defenders • Most large companies do this because they want to both protect and create new market opportunities • EX: IBM, DuPont (firm is relying heavily on its existing chemical and fiber operations to fuel its earning for the foreseeable future) - DuPont is also moving systematically into new business areas such as biotech ag and pharmaceuticals • Yahoo is using it to keep primary focus on its role as an internet portal while also seeking to extend that portal into more applications

• Strategic Business Unit -

large companies engaged in several business and markets o EX: GE - diverse products - jet engines, nuclear power plants and light bulbs, 49 SBUs

o Backward vertical Integration -

A company that stops buying supplies (either manufactured goods or raw materials) from other companies and begins to provide its own supplies o Campbell Soup - cans?

o Home replication strategy

A firm uses the core competency or firm-specific advantage it developed at home as its main competitive weapon in the foreign markets that it enters. • EX: Mercedes-Benz's home replication strategy, for example, relies on its well-known brand name and its reputation for building well-engineered, luxurious cars capable of traveling safely at very high speeds. It is this market segment that Mercedes-Benz has chosen to exploit internationally, despite the fact that only a very few countries have both the high income levels and the high speed limits appropriate for its products. But consumers in Asia, the rest of Europe, and the Americas are nevertheless attracted by the car's mystique.

o Forward vertical integration -

An organization that stops selling to one customer and sells instead to that customer's customers o G.H. Bass - first sold shoes to retail outlets and now opened factory outlet stores directly to customers - not leaving the retail market

o The two major tools for managing diversification are:

Organization Structure Portfolio Management Techniques

The Miles and Snow Typology • They suggested that business-level strategies generally fall into one of the four categories:

Prospector Defender Analyzer Reactor

o 3 strategies of Diversification -

Single Production Related Diversification Unrelated Diversification

o The objective of most mergers and acquisitions is the creation or exploitation of -

Synergies

o Maturity Stage -

overall demand growth for a product begins to slow down and the number of the firms producing the product begins to decline • The number of established firms producing the product may also begin to decline • Its essential is an organization is going to survive in the ling run • Product differentiation concerns are still important during this stage but keeping costs low and beginning to search for new products or services are important strategic considerations

• Emergent Strategy EXAMPLE

pattern of action that develops over time in an organization in the absence of mission and goals or despite mission and goals o Implementing this strategy involves allocating resources even though an organization has not explicitly chosen its strategies o EX: 3M has at times benefitted from emergent strategies - invention of invisible tape, provides a good example - entrepreneurial engineers working independently took the invention to their boss who concluded it didn't have a major market because it wasn't a part of an approved R&D plan - but took to highest levels in the organization and it was accepted and now major success - 3M counts on this strategy

The diverse operating environments of multinational corporations (MNCs) may also contribute to -

organizational learning

Implementing Porter's Generic Strategies: Differentiation - --Markting and Sales --Accounting --Manufacture --Culture

• Marketing and sales must emphasize the high-quality, high-value image of the organization's product or services o EX: Neiman Marcus has excelled at using marketing to support its differentiation strategy • People don't go just to buy close or shop for home electronics, instead its called "total shopping experience" o Channel, Calvin Klein and Bloomingdale's • Accounting and finance function in a business that's implementing differentiation strategy is to control their flow of funds without discouraging the creativity needed to constantly develop new products and services to meet customer needs o Cant be more concerned with keeping track of and controlling flow of money over determining how money and resources are best spent • Manufacturing a firm implementing a differentiation strategy must emphasize quality and meeting specific customer needs rather than just reducing costs o May sometimes have to keep inventory on hand so that customers will have access to products when they want them o May also have to engage in costly customization to meet customer needs • Culture must also emphasize creativity, innovation and response to customer needs o EX: Lands End's Culture put the needs of customers ahead of all other considerations • Takes orders 24 hours a day and will ship most orders within 24 hours

Business Level Strategy

• Set of strategic alternatives from which an organization chooses as it conducts business in a particular industry or market • Helps organization focus its competitive efforts for each industry or market in a targeted and focused manner

Corporate Level Strategy

• Set of strategic alternatives from which an organization chooses as it manages its operations simultaneously across several industries and several markets

• 2 general levels of Strategy are:

Business Level Strategy Corporate Level Strategy

international businesses may also respond to a change in one country by implementing a change in another country.-

Chicken processor Tyson Foods, for example, has benefited from the increased demand by health-conscious U.S. consumers for chicken breasts. In producing more chicken breasts, Tyson also produced more chicken legs and thighs, which are considered less desirable by U.S. consumers. Tyson capitalized on its surplus by targeting the Russian market, where dark meat is preferred over light, and the Chinese market, where chicken feet are considered a tasty delicacy. So, Tyson now successfully exports most of its chicken thighs and legs to Russia and China.

• Organizations that fail to recognize or overcome their weaknesses are likely to suffer from -

Competitive disadvantage

Porter's Generic Strategies -

Differentiation Overall Cost Leadership Focus Strategy

Stategic Alternative for International Business- 4 Strategies:

Home Replication Strategy Multi domestic Strategy Global Strategy Transnational

• Related diversification -

If the businesses are somehow linked, that organization is implementing a strategy of related diversification. • All larger busness in the US practice it • Bases of Relatedness: o Similar technology - Philips Boeing Westinghouse o Common distribution and marketing skills - Kraft, Philip Morris, P&G o Common brand name and Rep - Disney, Universal o Common Customers - Merck, IBM, AMF Head • Advantages: o reduces an organization's dependence on any one of its business activities and thus reduces economic risk. • Disney - theme park/movies o by managing several businesses at the same time, an organization can reduce the overhead costs associated with managing any one business. o related diversification allows an organization to exploit its strengths and capabilities in more than one business. • Synergies - exist among a set of businesses when the businesses economic value together s greater than their economic value sep • McDonalds - McCafe

Implementing Miles and Snow's Strategies Prospector- EXAMPLE

Innovative, seeks new market opportunities and takes man risks o Encourage creativity and flexibility o They increase creativity and flexibility by adopting a decentralized (major decision making responsibility is delegated to middle or lower managers) organization structure o EX: Johnson & Johnson - links decentralization to prospector strategy • Organized into separate compartments

Synergy -

It can reduce the combined organizations' costs of doing business; it can increase revenues; and it may open the way to entirely new businesses for the organization to enter. • EX: Procter & Gamble made a decision to launch a nationwide chain of car washes under the widely recognized brand name of Mr. Clean, one of its leading brands of cleaning products. To jump-start the Mr. Clean Car Wash venture, the firm acquired the assets of Atlanta-based Carnett's Car Wash and its 14 locations.

o Multidomestic strategy-

Manages itself as a collection of relatively independent operating subsidiaries, each of which focuses on a specific domestic market. • EX: International businesses operating before World War II often adopted this approach because of the difficulties in controlling distant foreign subsidiaries, given the communication and transportation technologies of that time.

Single Production -

Manufactures or provides just one product or service and sold in a single market • EX: Red Bull • Major strength: a firm is likely to be very successful in manufacturing and marketing the product. • Major Weakness: if the product is not accepted by the market or is replaced by a new one, the firm will suffer. o Wrigley & electronic calculators

o Portfolio management techniques - Two important portfolio management techniques -

Methods that diversified organizations use to determine which businesses to engage in and how to manage these businesses to maximize corporate performance. o Two important portfolio management techniques are the BCG matrix and the GE Business Screen.

• Unrelated Diversification -

Operate multiple businesses that are not logically associated with one another. • EX: Quaker Oats owned clothing chains, toys, and restaurant business • 2 advantages: o a business that uses this strategy should have stable performance over time. o also thought to have resource allocation advantages. • a firm implementing unrelated diversification should be able to allocate capital to maximize corporate performance • research suggests that unrelated diversification usually does not lead to high performance o corporate-level managers in such a company usually do not know enough about the unrelated businesses to provide helpful strategic guidance or to allocate capital appropriately. o because organizations that implement unrelated diversification fail to exploit important synergies, they are at a competitive disadvantage compared to organizations that use related diversification. • Universal studios has been at a competitive disadvantage relative to Disney due to ist theme park, movies and liscensing divisions o For these reasons, almost all organizations have abandoned unrelated diversification as a corporate-level strategy.

Implementing Miles and Snows Strategies Defender Strategy - EXAMPLE

Tried to protect its market from new competitors o Downplays creativity and innovation in bringing out new products an services to focus its efforts instead on lowering costs and improving performance o Normally will switch from propector to defender • Happens when the firm successfully creates a new market or business and then tries to protect its market from competition • EX: Mrs. Fields Cookies - high quality and price cookies - sold its product in special store and grew rapidly - it encouraged other companies to enter the market - reduced demand for high priced cookies threatened Mrs fields cookies and forced the firm to scale back its operations and defend its current market share instead of additional growth

o Transnational strategy-

Tries to combine the benefits of global scale efficiencies, such as those pursued by a global corporation, with the benefits and advantages of local responsiveness, which is the goal of a multidomestic corporation. o EX: Microsoft, for example, locates most of its product development efforts in the United States, whereas responsibility for marketing is delegated to its foreign subsidiaries. Often, transnational corporations locate responsibility for one product line in one country and responsibility for a second product line in another country. To achieve an interdependent network of operations, transnational corporations focus considerable attention on integration and coordination among their various subsidiaries.

Implementing Miles and Snow Strategies Analyzer Strategy - Example

Tries to maintain its current business and be somewhat innovative in new businesses o Attributes tend to be similar to both defender and prospector strategies o Tight accounting controls, high flexibility, efficient production and customized products, and creativity with low costs o EX: Starbucks - firm is growing rapidly buts its fundamental business is still coffee - cautiously breaking out into food, music and ice cream products - allowing it to remain focused on its core coffee business and explore new businesses also o P&G revised some business strategies too to protect core business and expand to new ones

o Global strategy -

Views the world as a single marketplace and has as its primary goal the creation of standardized goods and services that will address the needs of customers worldwide.

• Sustained Competitive Advantage -

a competitive advantage that exists after all attempts at strategic imitation have ceased

• Strategy -

a comprehensive plan for accomplishing an organization's goals

o Prospector - EXAMPLE

a highly innovative firm that is constantly seeking out new markets and new opportunities an dis oriented toward growth and risk taking • 3M has prided self on being one of the most innovative major corporations in the world over last 3 years • Employees are encourages to develop new products an ideas • This focus has led to 3M to develop a wide range of new products and markets, including invisible tape and anti-stain fabric treatments • Amazon follows this strategy as it constantly seeks new market opportunities for selling different kinds of products • Apple

Strategies Based on the Product Life Cycle • Product Life Cycle - 4 stages in Product life cycle -

a model that shows how sales volume changes over the life of products Introduction Growth Maturity Decline

• Deliberate Strategy EXAMPLE

a plan chosen and implemented to support specific goals EX: o Texas Instruments (TI) excels at formulating and implementing deliberate strategies - uses a planning process that assigns most senior managers 2 distinct responsibilities: operational (short) & strategic (long) o TI's objective is to make short term operational decisions while keeping in mind longer term goals and objectives

• Distinctive Competencies - EXAMPLE

a strength possessed by only a small number of competing firms • Rare among a set of competitors • EX: George Lucas's Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) brought the cinematic art of special effects to new heights o Some of their special effects can be produced by no other organization; these are rare special effects and are thus ILM's distinctive competencies • Organizations that exploit their distinctive competencies often obtain a competitive advantage and attain above-normal economic performance • Main purpose of SWOT is to discover an organization's distinctive competencies so that the organization can choose and implement strategies that exploit its unique organizational strengths

• Strategic Management -

a way of approaching business opportunities and challenges - comprehensive ongoing management process aimed at formulating and implementing effective strategies

• SWOT -

acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats o It's a careful evaluation of an organization's internal strengths and weaknesses as well as its environmental opportunities and threats

• Competitive disadvantage -

an organization has this when its not implementing valuable strategies that are being implemented by competing organizations o Organizations with this can expect to attain below average levels of performance

• Differentiation Strategy - EXAMPLE

an organization that pursues this seeks to distinguish itself from competitors through the quality of its products or services o Those who successfully implement this can charge more than competitors because customers are willing to pay more to obtain the extra value they perceive • EX: ROLEX- DIFFERENTIATION - the watches are handmade of precious metals and like old or platinum and stainless steel, and they are subjected to strenuous tests of quality and reliability - the firm can charge thousands for watches • Coco-Cola and Pepsi compete in the market for bottled water on the bass of differentiation • Coke - Dasani → fresh taste • Pepsi - Aquafina → purity • Others that use differentiation strategy are Lexus, Godiva, Nikon, Mont Blanc, and Ralph Lauren

• Overall Cost Leadership - EXAMPLE

an organization with this tries to gain a competitive advantage by reducing its costs below the costs of competing firms o By keeping low costs, the organization can sell its products at low prices and still make profit o EX: TIMEX - it has specialized in manufacturing relatively simple, low cost watches for the mass market - prices are starting at 39.95 are low because of the company's efficient high volume manufacturing capacity o Poland Springs and Crystal geyser bottled waters are also promoted on the basis of their low cost o Other firms too like Hyundai, BIC, Old Navy & Hershey

• Organizational threats -

areas that increase the difficulty of an organization's performing at a high level

• Organizational opportunities -

areas that may generate higher performance

Conglomerates -

compete in dozens or even hundreds of markets

• Focus Strategy - EXAMPLE

concentrates on a specific regional market, product line or group of buyers o May have either a differentiation or an overall cost leadership focus o EX: In the watch industry, Tag Heuer follows a focus differentiation strategy by selling only rugged waterproof watches to active consumers o Hasselblad makes expensive cameras targeted at professional photographers o Fischer Price uses PD to sell electronic calculators with large, brightly colored buttons to parents of preschoolers; stockbroker Edward Jones focuses on small-town markets o General Mills focuses on one part of its new product development on consumers who eat meals while driving

o Defender - EXAMPLE

concentrates on protecting its current markets, maintain stable growth, and serving current customers, generally by lowering its costs and improving the performance of its existing products • EX: BIC has used this approach - it has adopted less aggressive, less entrepreneurial style of management and has chosen to defend its substantial market share in the industry • It does this by emphasizing efficient manufacturing and customer satisfaction • eBay - keeps focus on the auction business

• Primary distinction between strategy formulation and strategy implementation is along the lines of -

content versus process • Formulation stage determines what the strategy is & implementation stage focuses on how the strategy is achieved

• When the rivalry, power of suppliers and buyers, and threat of subs are all low then an industry has -

many opportunities and few threats - can hold above normal performance

• Strategy Implementation -

methods by which strategies are operationalized or executed within the organization

o Growth Stage -

more firms begin producing the product, and sales continue to grow • Important management issues include: ensuring quality an delivery and beginning to differentiate an organization's product from competitors products • Entry into industry during this stage may threaten organizations competitive advantage, so, strategies to slow the entry of competitors is important

• Firms in these industries with Threat of substitutes & new entrants are high & has relatively few opportunities and many threats can typically only achieve -

normal economic performance

GE Business Screen -

o Because the BCG matrix is relatively narrow and overly simplistic, General Electric (GE) developed the GE Business Screen o a more sophisticated approach to managing diversified business units. o The Business Screen is a portfolio management technique that can also be represented in the form of a matrix. o GE Business Screen considers industry attractiveness and competitive position. These two factors are divided into three categories each, to make the nine-cell matrix o classify business units as winners, losers, question marks, average businesses, or profit producers.

Porter's "five forces" model -

o Competitive rivalry o Power of suppliers o Power of buyers o Threat of substitutes & new entrants o Industries opportunities and threats

• A well conceived strategy addresses three areas: (COMPONENTS OF STRATEGY)

o Distinctive competence o Scope o Resource development

• A distinctive competence might not be imitated for three reasons: EXAMPLES

o First, acquisition or development of the distinctive competence may depend on unique historical circumstances that other organizations cannot replicate • EX: Caterpillar - obtained a sustained competitive advantage when the US Army granted it a long term contract during WWII - their current competitors (John Deere, Komatsu) cant recreate these circumstances o Second, a distinctive competence might be difficult to imitate because its nature and character might not be known or understood by competing firms • EX: P&G considers that its sustained competitive advantage is based on its manufacturing practices - Large sections are screened off to keep this information secure • ILM also refuses to disclose how it creates some of its special effects o Finally, a distinctive competence can be difficult to imitate if it is based on complex social phenomenon - like organizational teamwork or culture • EX: competing organizations may know that a firm's success s directly traceable to the teamwork among its managers but because teamwork is a difficult thing to create, may not be able to imitate this distinctive competence • EX: Southwest Airlines is successful in part because of the unique culture that has existed within the company for decades.

• An organization essentially has two ways of addressing weaknesses:

o First, it may need to make investments to obtain the strengths required to implement strategies that support its mission o Second, it may need to modify its mission so that it can be achieved with the skills and capabilities that the organization already has

• 3 Important classification schemes of formulating Business Level Strategies are:

o Porter's generic strategies o The Miles and Snow Typology o Strategies based on the product life cycle

BCG Matrix

o Provides a framework for evaluating the relative performance of businesses in which a diversified organization operates. o It also prescribes the preferred distribution of cash and other resources among these businesses. o uses two factors to evaluate an organization's set of businesses: o the growth rate of a particular market and o the organization's share of that market o The matrix classifies the types of businesses in which a diversified organization can engage as dogs, cash cows, question marks, and stars. o Dogs are businesses that have a very small share of a market that is not expected to grow. • suggests that organizations either should not invest in them or should consider selling them as soon as possible. o Cash cows are businesses that have a large share of a market that is not expected to grow substantially. • These businesses characteristically generate high profits that the organization should use to support question marks and stars. o Question marks are businesses that have only a small share of a quickly growing market. • The future performance of these businesses is uncertain. o Stars are businesses that have the largest share of a rapidly growing market. • EX: BMW bought Rover a few years ago, thinking that its products would help the German automaker reach new consumers. But the company was not able to capitalize on this opportunity, so it ended up selling Rover's car business to a British firm and Land Rover to Ford. Ford couldn't get leverage out of Rover either and ended up selling it (along with Jaguar) to India's up-and-coming Tata Motors. • Yum Brands has also made significant decisions based on the BCG matrix approach. For several years Yum owned and operated five restaurant chains—KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, A&W, and Long John Silver's. As the U.S. fast-food market approached saturation, Yum managers started to expand aggressively into foreign markets. The firm's three flagship brands, KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, had been successfully launched in many foreign markets several years ago, and now overseas profits account for around 70 percent of Yum's total profits. But A&W and Long John Silver's had few foreign outlets, and managers decided there was little potential for overseas growth. Consequently Yum sold those two businesses in order to more effectively concentrate on the other three. Then the firm bought WingStreet and added it to the Yum portfolio.

International businesses can exploit three sources of competitive advantage unavailable to domestic firms. -

o They can capture location efficiencies by locating their facilities anywhere in the world that yields them the lowest production or distribution costs or that best improves the quality of service they offer their customers. Production of athletic shoes, for example, is very labor intensive, and Nike, like many of its competitors, centers its manufacturing in countries where labor costs are especially low. o Similarly, by building factories to serve more than one country, international firms may also lower their production costs by capturing economies of scale. o By broadening their product lines in each of the countries they enter, international firms may enjoy economies of scope, lowering their production and marketing costs and enhancing their bottom line. o Finally, firms can take action to centralize operations in order to increase control over far-flung activities. Location efficiencies, economies of scale, economies of scope, can take centralized action

o Acquisition -

occurs when one of the organizations involved is larger than the other. In most cases, the acquired firm's "identity" disappears altogether. • Delta bought Northwest Airlines, Northwest was simply folded into Delta.

• Common Organizational Strengths - EXAMPLE

organizational capability possessed by a large number for competing firms • EX: Hollywood Film Studios have common strengths in lighting, sound recording, set and costume design and makeup • Competitive Parity exists when large numbers of competing firms are able to implement the same strategy • In this situation - organizations generally attain only average levels of performance - so a film company that exploits only its common strengths in choosing and implementing strategies is not likely to go beyond average performance

• Effective Strategies -

promote a superior alignment between the organization and its environment and the achievement of strategic goals

• Sometimes the processes of formulating and implementing strategies are -

rational, systematic, and planned - or the Deliberate Strategy

• Strategy Formulation -

set of processes involved in creating or determining the strategies of the organization

• Organizational Weaknesses -

skills and capabilities that do not enavke (and may limit) an organization to choose and implement strategies that support its mission

• Organizational Strengths - o Strengths - EXAMPLE

skills and capabilities that enable an organization to conceive of and implement its strategies deep pool of managerial talent, surplus capital, unique reputation and or brand name, and well established distribution channels EXAMPLE: • EX: Sears - has a nationwide network of trained service employees who repair Sears appliances - Jane Thompson (executive) conceived a plan to consolidate repair and home improvement services nationwide under the well-known sears brand name for general repair on all appliances • EX: Mastushita Electric demonstrated strengths in manufacturing and selling consumer electronics under the brand name Panasonic

Distinctive Competence - EXAMPLE

something the organization does exceptionally well • EX: A&F's distinctive competence is its ability to manage its supply chain more effectively than most of its competitors & continues to innovate

Scope - EXAMPLE

specifies the range of markets in which an organization will compete • EX: Hershey foods has restricted its scope to confectionary business with a few related activities in other food processing areas - its biggest competitor Mars - adopted a broader scope by competing in the pet food business and the electronics industry - some called conglomerates → compete in dozens or even hundreds of markets

• Diversification -

the number of different businesses that an organization s engaged in and the extent to which these businesses are related to one another

• Strategic Imitation -

the practice of duplicating another firm's distinctive competence and thereby implementing a valuable strategy o Some distinctive competencies cant be duplicated so strategies that exploit these competencies generate sustained competitive advantage

• Merger -

when the two organizations being combined are approximately the same size. • United and Continental airlines merged to create a new airline. The firm kept United's name but Continental's logo and livery.

o SWOT divides organizational strengths into 2 categories:

• Common Organizational Strengths • Distinctive Competencies

Implementing Porter's Generic Strategies: Overall Cost Leadership Strategy - --Marketing --Accounting --Manufacturing --Culture

• Marketing and sales are likely to focus on simple product attributes and how these product attributes meet customer needs in a low cost and effective manner o These organizations are very likely to engage in advertising o EX: Bic Pens, Timex watches and Wal-Mart • Emphasis on accounting and finance is pivotal o The success of the organization depends on having costs lower than the competition, management must take care to reduce costs wherever possible o Tight financial and account controls help • Manufacturing helps with large runs of highly standardized products o Designed to meet customer needs and be easily manufactured o Emphasizes increased volume of production to reduce per-unit cost • Toshiba and Texas Instruments use this • Culture tends to focus on improving the efficiency of manufacturing, sales, and other business functions o Walmart appeals to customers to leave shopping carts in designated areas in its parking lots with signs that read - "Please help us keep your costs low" - Family Dollar - 2nd and 3rd tier brands