W.L. Gore

Case Study #1 - W.L. Gore and Associates

Introduction

W.L. Gore and Associates is a company started in 1958 by Bill and Vieve Gore. Bill Gore was a prior employee of Du Pont who saw innovative ways to work with a substance known as PTFE (Teflon). When Du Pont was not interested in exploring his ideas, he started his own business.

W.L. Gore and Associates has diverse, high-tech product lines that range from electronic products, to vascular grafts, to apparel, and also to dental floss. The range of products shown by the company can be credited in part to an unconventional management style, which they term "lattice" structure, under which the company is organized. In this structure, there is no hierarchy and little organized direction, so employees are free to explore their own projects and create their own goals.

This case study will first perform a SWOT analysis of the W.L. Gore company, then identify how certain key issues in marketing are handled within the organization. Concepts explored will include strategic marketing management, marketing ecocyles, and marketing segmentation. Finally, some conclusions and recommendations will be made regarding the information gleaned from the analysis.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

The first and most apparent strength of the W.L. Gore company is its diversity of products. The company is able to market to a variety of industries on a global level, including electronics, medical industry, IT, aeronautics, and telecommunications. This diversity affords the company some protection financially should there be any negativity in a given market segment.

Another important strength of the company is its strong growth and financial performance over the long-term. According to the information presented, it has been profitable for 37 years and has consistently ranked in the top 10 percent of Fortune 500 companies for return on assets and sales.

One final strength that W.L. Gore possesses is its large quantity of patents, proprietary intellectual information, and trade secrets. Having high-tech products with this sort of piece attached to it effectively creates a barrier of entry for competitors. This, in turn, helps the company strengthen its market share.

Weaknesses

The main limitation that W.L. Gore faces revolves around that fact that their products stem from a single source of technology - PTFE. By working only with this substance, the company limits itself to some degree because of its dependency on PTFE. I think this limits the company's future potential for growth, especially if competitors begin to use some more advanced variation of the product or if industries in which W.L. Gore is present begin using better technology.

Another weakness is the company's size as compared to its competitors. Additional research outside of the article indicated some of its competitors are companies like Worthington Industries and 3M, both of which are many times larger than W.L. Gore. This may limit its ability to compete effectively at some point.

Opportunities

An area for opportunity and growth was mentioned in the information while relating a story regarding product champions at the organization. W.L. Gore was trying a new product that was a hydrocarbon leak-protection cable. This cable's purpose is to detect in-ground leaks of substances like gasoline. Products such as this, which are linked to the protection of the environment, will most likely become a future growing market for the company as environmental regulations increase and continually become an area of focus for the government and special interest groups.

Additionally, PTFE is continually being found to be superior to plastic due to its flexibility and ability to withstand extreme conditions. If W.L. Gore can continue to find innovative ways to use PTFE, they will have a huge and almost unlimited area of opportunity.

Threats

The substance PTFE is essentially Teflon, a product that has recently come under attack and additional regulations. My local media has been especially focused on the Du Pont plant in the Marietta, Ohio region and the emission and pollution Teflon is causing. The substance has been found to be present in drinking water sources and its effect on humans appears to be negative. I think this is a potential threat to W.L. Gore since it is possible that additional regulations on substances such as PTFE could be implemented. New regulations often are very costly to comply with, and the price for non-compliance, even if accidental, could be equally as high.

Another threat to W.L. Gore related to this would be its medical equipment segment, which is not only highly competitive, but that also faces strict regulatory requirements. The FDA has stringent guidelines for medical equipment and the healthcare industry as a whole. The medical equipment arena is also one renown for costly lawsuits when errors or malfunctions occur.

Strategic Marketing Plan and Marketing Management

W.L. Gore is a perfect example of how once a company defines its overall goals in a strategic marketing plan, those principles flow down into other levels of the company, complementing and working seamlessly with the marketing management plan. The three key elements of the strategic market plan are (1) offering the best value of products in the market segments it competes; (2) getting customers to understand the quality and performance of Gore's products; and (3) becoming a leader with unique products in each segment. Based on these three broad principles, the marketing management plan then proceeds with the details of marketing the products. Again in this area, the organizational culture and setup is reflected.

Because the company utilizes a lattice structure, it is set up to encourage creativity and innovation. A key component in the marketing plan is the use of "Product Champions" as leaders of marketing campaigns. These leaders are not assigned this position due to ranking, but instead naturally evolve because of their intense interest and fundamental beliefs in the value and use of a product. With this as a starting point, the enthusiasm and commitment of this person creates a trickle-down effect and leads to a "whatever it takes" attitude to bring a product successfully to market.