Black And Decker

Scenarios/Options

Option #1: Concede the Segment

B & D would focus only on the Consumer and Professional Industrial segment. Focus in Professional Tradesman segment would be of maximum profitability even at the expense of Market share. But given the potential and growth rate of this segment, this option would not a good one to adopt.

Option #2 Introduce a Sub Brand to rebuild the brand name.

B & D is the leader among power tool companies in supplying house holds with power tool. During the thorough laboratory and onsite testing of the products, B & D found that its products are competitive in performance, reliability and durability. Even the test results of unmarked B & D tools observed that the products are of high quality.

It is obvious from Research studies that B & D products are not mechanically inferior to any of the competing power tools. The poor performance of B & D in the tradesman segment is attributed to other factors. Due to its success in the customer segment and house old products, Professional tradesmen segment view B & D as a brand closely related to house hold products. Many of the house hold products such as dust busters, pop corn popper destroy the credibility of black and Decker as the reliable manufacturer of the high quality power tools that a tradesman would be proud to own.

Given this brand perception, any attempt to introduce a sub brand with B & D tag may not yield good results.

Option #3 Introduce a New Brand

Abandon B & D name for professional tradesmen market segment and develop a new name without any negative associations or introduce an existing successful brand to target the professional tradesmen segment without any B & D brand association. Black & Decker's brand De