ADV320 Final Project

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ADV320 Final Project Group 5 Executive Summary Hewlett-Packard, commonly known as HP, is a technology company renowned for its electronic devices, including laptops, PCs, monitors, keyboards, and headphones. Founded in 1939 by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard (HP, 2023), HP has consistently pushed the boundaries of innovation and technology, earning a global reputation for excellence. Today, HP remains a leading player in the laptop and electronic technology industry. In 2022, HP's net revenue increased to $63 billion (HP, 2023), underscoring its significant influence in the industry. Among its product lineup, HP's laptops stand out as a cornerstone of their success. According to Statista (2023), HP shipped over 13.2 million laptops worldwide, a testament to the widespread popularity and success of HP's PCs. Let's delve into the key advantages that HP laptops offer. Outstanding Performance: HP laptops are synonymous with exceptional performance in the industry. They are equipped with the latest AMD processors, which give HP laptops the ability to operate efficiently and respond swiftly. This translates to an enhanced gaming experience that outpaces competitors like Apple. Notably, even Apple's flagship MacBook struggles to run certain games, whereas HP's laptops excel. Connectivity: HP laptops boast extensive connectivity options with a minimum of six ports, including USB, Type-C, HDMI, and headphone jacks. This user-friendly feature enhances versatility and convenience, setting them apart from Apple's MacBook lineup, which features only two Type-C ports and one headphone jack, necessitating additional purchases for USB connectivity. Impressive Battery Life: HP laptops are celebrated for their robust battery performance, with an average runtime of 11.3 hours on a single charge. This longevity ensures uninterrupted productivity for users on the go. According to Galea (2022), the latest model of MacBook Pro has 11-18 hours of battery lasting time per single charge. However, it's essential to note that HP's 11.3-hour average stands as a reliable benchmark. Target Audience and Brand Loyalty: HP's laptops cater to a diverse audience, including students, gamers, and professionals. The superior features and reliable performance associated with HP have cultivated strong brand loyalty among its target audience. HP's commitment to innovation and quality continues to position it as a technology pioneer in the global market. In summary, Hewlett-Packard (HP) has maintained its status as a technology leader since its founding by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard in 1939. With a strong commitment to innovation and quality, HP's laptops have become a global phenomenon, shipping over 13.2 million units according to Statista (2023). These laptops offer exceptional performance, versatile connectivity, and reliable battery life, catering to a diverse audience of students, gamers, and professionals.

HP's continued dedication to excellence solidifies its position as a trusted and influential brand in the technology industry. Business Strategy HP has shown to be a well established technology leader, especially in the laptop department. This allows for solid ground to build a business strategy. With a net revenue of $63 billion in 2022 and 13.2 million laptops shipped worldwide, HP can aim to further its success through a comprehensive approach. First, HP can start transitioning or expanding out towards a more direct selling approach by opening stores. HP currently does not have any stores to incorporate direct selling. HP currently makes use of a dual distribution approach by selling directly to customers through their website as well as indirectly through retail stores. Through opening physical stores, HP can have greater control, better messaging capabilities, and more direct customer interaction. Physically allowing people to enter stores and being able to see the products HP has to offer encourages consumers to want to purchase. These storefronts would also allow consumers to gain trustful relationships with HP salespeople since there is no way of currently creating and fostering relationships. These physical stores can be opened near college locations and collaborate with colleges to target the student market. A key idea throughout HP’s business strategy can be alignment. It is essential to have alignment and synergy between sales, marketing, and customer-based solutions. Sales management will require careful planning by conducting market analysis to create realistic but challenging sales goals. Leadership will be shown through training programs that give the sales force motivation and skills they need to succeed. Regarding organization, the sales force will be divided geographically, allowing HP to see which regions have a higher profit margin and which regions need help. Control will be established through monitoring sales activities using advanced software and data analytics. To further grow its market space, HP can run marketing campaigns that focus on customer needs as well as how HP differentiates its products from its competitors. HP can create various sets of advertisements to enlighten consumers on the benefits they will receive by using HP computers vs their competitors products. These advertisements will shine light on the various benefits that will be received by choosing HP such as the outstanding performance, connectivity, and impressive battery life. This marketing campaign will target consumer’s need for a better lasting product and service opportunity that competitors do not have to offer such as face to face customer service with their storefronts. We assume HP to currently be in the maturity stage of the business cycle. This is because HP is well established, has stable revenue streams, and has slowed down in terms of growth as they have acquired such a large market space. Assuming HP is in the maturity stage of the business cycle, the sales force should be small but highly specialized, focussing primarily on service and customer retention. The highest resource allocation should be devoted to the sales force to ensure quality for its customers. Hiring and training salespeople to target consumers who have purchased HP products in the past, but have not returned to inform them on the new

advancements HP has made would help retention rates and create a relationship with consumers. Building relationships with customers would make a significant difference since competitors such as Apple have built relationships with their loyal customers and maintain these relationships through the trust placed on their salesforce. To increase sales while also building long-lasting relationships with customers, HP can start loyalty programs and provide exclusive member benefits. These programs will be data-driven, targeting specific customer segments, including students, professionals, and gamers. By including these ideas in the business strategy, HP can ultimately offer a comprehensive, customer-centric experience that not only reinforces HP's market dominance but also captures new market segments. HP already has a competitive advantage when it comes to their products' value in terms of performance, connectivity, and battery life. Building trustful relationships with customers should ensure HP's market position as a technological leader for years to come. Target Segment Analysis According to “College Simply”, there are roughly 885 colleges and universities which enroll more than 3.7 million students in the midwestern area. Our target segment is those 3.7 million midwestern college students. When it comes to behavior, college students are highly educated and want a special experience through products, prefer online shopping, care about environmental impact, and value price and quality. When college students buy their products, they are looking for personalized and unique experiences. According to the “Insights for Marketers: College Student Consumer Trend”, a study conducted by the University of Mississippi, “College students want a personal experience with their products: They desire for a product or brand to fit lifestyle, align with who they are, and create image to others to admire”. Furthermore, the study concludes that college students consider high quality and affordability as the most important factor of their product. Accordingly, the top 5 factors were high quality, good customer service, In-style, environmental friendly, and affordable. HP’s products serve those college students’ needs by offering high-quality and affordable laptops, sustainable products, and 24/7 customer service. In order to deliver high quality and affordable prices, HP divides their laptops into 8 categories including Chromebook, laptop, Pavilion, Envy, dragonfly, Spectre, Omen, and Victus. If students want to have affordable laptops, they can purchase HP Chromebook, laptop, or pavilion laptops for more cheap and affordable prices. If students want to have high-performance gaming laptops, they can buy HP Omen, Spectre, and Victus which offer better environments for gaming and graphic works. Moreover, HP provides student discount programs that could provide discounts up to 40% of their products. All of HP’s laptop products use sustainable source packaging, meaning that their outside box and corrugated cushions are 100% sustainable and recyclable. Moreover, some HP laptops are built with recycled metals, post-consumer recycled plastic, and ocean-bound plastic to preserve the environment. To provide great customer service, most of HP’s laptop products offer

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24/7 pro live support. With just the touch of a button, customers can interact with live support to fix the problems. However, when it comes to offering special and personalized experiences, HP is failing. According to the CRN, close to 90% of the company’s annual revenue comes from indirect sales through partners. Due to the massive volume of indirect sales, HP failed to offer unique and personalized experiences to the college students. Sales Strategy Recruitment Strategy How will you recruit talent? When it comes to a Recruitment Strategy a company needs to have 4 things figured out about itself before it starts to hire people, Outline Our Goals, Create a Culture Code, Determine the Budget for Open Positions, and Determine How to Find Candidates. Outlining our goals is the first step in the recruitment strategy because it is the set boundary our company has for people we are looking to hire. This can be separated into different categories Short-term support, seasonal demand, and long-term assistance. For our company, we are focused on the long-term assistance and seasonal demand worker types. The next step in the process for recruitment is to create a culture code, this pretty much is the set guideline message for our company such as core values and qualities. To dive deeper into this topic our core values are “creating an accepting environment for everyone, and having a good boss and employee relationship” We also have certain qualities that we would like to have in the workplace and these are to promote education and personal growth. All of these open up the door for the next stage of determining the budget for open positions and this is an important part of the company to show that we are offering a high salary for our workers with a good compensation program to motivate them to push creativity. We also use this to offer scholarships and recruit students who are looking for internships to learn more about our technology. The final step is to determine how to find candidates, this can be shown across many methods however since this is an HP company we use 3 main methods of recruiting people Internships, Social Networking Platforms, and Job Boards. One thing that these have in common is the options to find us by any digital means this way we can find people who want to learn from us in an internship to those who are in the field already and want a new place to use their skills. How does this strategy serve your sales strategy and the larger business strategy? When looking into how this recruitment strategy aligns with the larger business strategy it is worth stating that as long as we follow the set boundaries and rules set in place it will for sure be profitable in the long run. We see this, especially in the section where our company is investing its funds into scholarships and internships because it allows for a younger generation to be involved with our company and appeals more to that demographic. This also allows them to gain more opportunities to join a more creative workplace where they can gain real work experience in this field. Once time passes you will get a return investment into these workers and grow your company from them. We also want to provide locations of our company near college campuses/ bookstores to get more word out about the company being a place where students can depend on an internship. Overall, with these strategies set in place, we can have a reliable place where many people of diverse backgrounds can find a place to be a part of.

Training strategy When managing or creating a company, the sales representatives and employees are the backbone of the company. One of the most important things is the training strategy. Depending on the training of a job, employees will get an idea of the rest of the workload they'll be doing and decide whether they want to stay or not. If they are rushed into jumping into their positions right away with only their knowledge and a list of expectations on behalf of the employers, it can be very discouraging. For our HP Laptops case, we have created a training guideline we would implement into our training strategy to ensure we create the strongest sales team. The first step for this would be creating a clear guideline list and expectations. This would include adding in the employees role and expectations they must follow. This gets rid of the miscommunication on both parts and serves as a reference for both employers and employees to look back at. The next thing on the guideline would be an assessment of the employees abilities and knowledge about tech. This can help define the employees strengths and weaknesses in different categories. Evaluating the areas needed for improvement will really help create the best training strategy for a stronger sales force. According to 360learning, 72% of employee training programs focused on skills development. If a company falls in the remaining 28%, employees may be ready to leave for companies that have better career development paths (Baragwanath). If prospective employees don’t have room to grow and learn, it is harder for them to find a purpose to stay. To ensure we are also attracting the right employees, we also will focus on our target segment. This includes learning more about what college students like which can range from personal preferences to program benefits such as scholarship or internship opportunities. Knowing our target segment will help the sales team prosper in the field and be able to get larger reach and engagement. What will our salesforce training program look like? Our salesforce training program will start off with assessing employees' knowledge about tech and the HP company. Depending on their results, we will have a general idea of what they need improvement with. Either way, trainees will shadow employers and learn from them first. After observing them, they will be doing the work hands on while being assessed. This allows them to gain information from observing and then practicing while being shadowed by employers. They will complete these two steps while having employers supervising them. After this time frame of working with employers, they will then communicate in real sales without the assistance from them. I believe this technique is one that allows room for learning and growth. In many case studies, a main reason why sales were not doing as well is because of the lack of training sales representatives had. If we create an elaborate and efficient plan, our sales team will have the resources and practice to be competent enough before entering the sales force. How does this strategy serve the sales strategy and the larger business strategy? Overall, providing employers with the right resources and practice benefits employers, as well as future sales teams. When there is a strong training strategy, employees will be more confident in themselves and perform better. This not only gives us improved performance but also competitive advantage, employee retention, and being cost efficient. We can gain competitive advantage by having well trained employees that are more skilled and knowledgeable, leading business to higher customer satisfaction and a stronger market position. Employee retention is also crucial to companies, as they won’t have to worry about hiring and training double the employees, which can be a big investment. Eliminating this factor will lead to

cost saving in the long run and allow us to focus on improving our products, without having to worry about the cost of looking for a new sales team. Compensation Strategy A hybrid paycheck We decided to employ a hybrid strategy when it comes to forms of compensation. An average sales member’s paycheck would consist of three parts: a stable paycheck that acts as the base salary, a cumulative bonus that rewards employees for every 20 units sold, and finally, a commission of 5% from every single deal, no matter how large the transaction was. How a hybrid paycheck motivates desired performance A hybrid paycheck alleviates the stress and worries often seen through a paycheck that completely relies on commission, since if a salesperson has a rough month they still have a reliable source of income to depend on. This boosts retention rate and loyalty of employees as they always have the opportunity to earn higher pay through performances.Bonuses and commissions also provide incentives for them to chase after more clients and make the extra effort to pursue potential deals, which leads our salespeople to align with company goals and aspirations. When it comes to recruitment, performance based compensation also attracts top salespeople confident in their abilities. Having an equalized base payment with added benefits for top performers also seems the most fair, lowering chances of disputes over monetary compensation and avoids the gender pay gap. How hybrid paychecks serve overall sales and business strategy Establishing a hybrid paycheck means that the stable portion of a salesperson’s salary is not overly high, and that performance ultimately determines one’s total compensation. Not only does this form of paycheck provide the most incentive for putting in extra effort, it also motivates eager college students and graduates to experiment with the sales industry, making them more likely to apply. This provides valuable opportunities for training new agents, and furthermore, a hybrid paycheck can easily be utilized to reward the development of various skills necessary for a successful career in sales. It is also a great way for managers to control hiring costs and monitor individual performance. Hybrid paychecks can produce many benefits to one's career. As stated, they will obtain many skills that they can use towards their profession. Motivation is necessary in order for an employee to reach their highest potential. Employees will strive to increase their overall performance, and begin to contribute more to the company. They will learn about hard work, dedication, time management, and self-motivation- all which they can utilize throughout their career. Having employees who are guaranteed to be driven will allow for a better work environment, more sales, and larger profits. As our primary audience are precisely college students, having other students or recent graduates on board also grants valuable consumer insights and allows for a more pinpointed and streamlined marketing strategy.

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Conclusion In conclusion, physical storefronts provide brands a large and noticeable presence in strategic areas, increasing customer brand identification along with hiring students with technical backgrounds to work in the stores. This strategy makes use of a number of benefits. First of all, it aligns HP's product lineup with the requirements of college students by recognizing the expanding significance of laptops in the educational field. HP increases brand presence and accessibility to its target market by locating outlets right on campuses. Additionally, employing tech-savvy students as retail personnel takes advantage of their in-depth expertise and understanding of HP products, providing clients with knowledgeable and relevant help. These student workers can offer specialized advice, solutions, and suggestions catered to the particular requirements of the collegiate audience, along with providing scholarships and internships for students. A win-win situation may be created by strategically placing HP laptop outlets on college campuses and hiring individuals with technical backgrounds. It meets the particular requirements of the collegiate market, strengthens the visibility of the HP brand, and provides students with worthwhile work possibilities and career development. This strategy equips HP for success in the cutthroat laptop industry and links the corporation with the tech-savvy youth. The use of hybrid paycheck has many advantages for both employees and employers, which mixes standard salary with performance-based incentives. This will establish a balance that can foster both individual and organizational performance by combining the security of a fixed salary with the motivation of variable rewards.

Citations Newcomer, Jana Elisabeth. Insights for Marketers: College Student Consumer Trends , egrove.olemiss.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1425&context=hon_thesis. Accessed 10 Oct. 2023. “About HP.” HP , investor.hp.com/home/default.aspx. Accessed 10 Oct. 2023. Martin, Dylan. “3 Big Ways HP Amplify Is Driving Partner Profits.” CRN , 16 Feb. 2023, www.crn.com/news/channel-news/3-big-ways-hp-amplify-is-driving-partner-profits#:~:te xt=Elbaz%20said%20partners%20are%20%E2%80%9Csuper,the%20channel%2C%E2 %80%9D%20he%20said. CollegeSimply. “College Search, Rankings and Ratings.” CollegeSimply , www.collegesimply.com/. Accessed 10 Oct. 2023. Therealmarketingmixblog. “Place- Hewlett Packard.” The Real Marketing Mix , 25 Nov. 2016, therealmarketingmixblog.wordpress.com/2016/11/24/featured-content-3/#:~:text=It%20c an%20be%20seen%20that,same%20products%20through%20different%20channels. https://www.statista.com/statistics/298931/pc-shipments-worldwide-hewlett-packard/. “How to Build a Recruitment Strategy Plan.” Sparks Group Blogs , Sparks Group, 13 Mar. 2019, blog.sparksgroupinc.com/client/how-to-build-a-recruitment-strategy-plan. Gross, Ian, and James Piacentino. “Is Your Sales Strategy Worth Scaling?” Harvard Business Review , 22 Apr. 2022, hbr.org/2022/04/is-your-sales-strategy-worth-scaling. “The Ultimate Guide to Starting a Successful Employee Training Program.” 3 60Learning , 360learning.com/blog/ultimate-guide-employee-training-program/. Accessed 13 Oct. 2023. Galea, Louis. “How Long Do Macbook Batteries Last?” Here’s How You Can Check It , Mackeeper, 20 Mar. 2023, mackeeper.com/blog/how-long-do-macbook-batteries-last/. Hewlett-Packard. (2022). HPQ Combined 2022 Annual Report and 2023 Proxy. https://s2.q4cdn.com/602190090/files/doc_financials/2022/ar/hpq-combined-2022-annual -report-and-2023-proxy.pdf “The Ultimate Guide to Starting a Successful Employee Training Program.” 360Learning , 360learning.com/blog/ultimate-guide-employee-training-program/. Accessed 13 Oct. 2023. Evans, Lisa. “How to Create an Employee Training Plan in 10 Steps.” University of San Diego Online Degrees , 15 Nov. 2022, onlinedegrees.sandiego.edu/create-employee-training-program/.

ADV320 Final Project

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