Whirlpool Corporation

The Whirlpool Corporation has its headquarters in Benton Harbor, Michigan, U.S. and was founded in the year 1911. Today, it is a multinational manufacturer and marketer of major home applia nces. The company manufactures in 13 countries and markets its products in more than 170 countries under 13 principal brand names. Its principal products are laundry appliances, refrigerators, cooking appliances, dishwashers, and mixers and other small household appliances. Whirlpool also produces hermetic compressors for refrigeration systems.

In the United States, the Company markets and distributes products under the Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid, Jenn-Air, Roper, Estate, Admiral, Magic Chef, Amana, and Inglis brand names primarily to retailers, distributors and builders. In Canada, it markets and distributes its home appliances under the Inglis, Admiral, Whirlpool, Maytag, Jenn-Air, Magic Chef, Amana, Roper, Estate, and KitchenAid brand names.

In Whirlpool's European region, it markets and distributes its major home appliances under the Whirlpool, Maytag, Amana, Bauknecht, Ignis, Laden, and Polar brand names, and portable appliances under the KitchenAid brand name. In addition to its operations in Western Europe, it also has sales subsidiaries in Russia, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Croatia, Morocco, and Turkey, with representative offices in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro.

In Asia, the Company has organized the marketing and distribution of its home appliances into five operating groups as they are China, (mainland China; Hong Kong and Taiwan); India (Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Pakistan); Oceania( Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands); and Southeast Asia( Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Korea, and Japan).

It markets and sells its products in Asia under the Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid, Amana, and Jenn-Air brand names by a combination of direct sales to appliance retailers and chain stores and through full-service distributors to a large network of retail stores. Whirlpool has manufacturing facilities in France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, South Africa, Sweden and Brazil.

The Marketing strategy of Whirlpool is market driven, to gain competitive advantage, the company is leveraging a global presence in various regional markets as already mentioned above. They also concern market mix of the company that differs of each country. Whirlpool segmented the market regionally since almost every country has unique preferences that are influenced by environment condition, custom and economic condition.The Company competes with Electrolux, GE, Kenmore, LG, Bosch Siemens, Samsung, Fisher & Paykel and Haier.

In 1989 Whirlpool entered the European market through a joint venture with Netherlands-based Phillips NV and two years later Whirlpool became wholly owned European Whirlpool subsidiary of Whirlpool cooperation. This foundation happened due to their purchase of the remaining shares from the joint venture that with Phillips. Whirlpool Europe has today over 14.000 of employees throughout 38 European countries, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. From Whirlpool Europe, about 25 per cent counts for the company’s worldwide sales, and since its introduction into the market they have become number one in the home appliance market per volume. What makes it more difficult for Whirlpool when it comes to marketing their products is that Europe consists of many different countries, where their focus lies on 5 major countries, Italy, Germany, France, UK, and Poland. Their marketing strategy lies on focusing on their brand strategies, first of all they have the Whirlpool brand which account for 60 per cent of the total sales. The next brand, Bauknecht is very profitable in Germany especially which account for 20 per cent. This brand is originally from Germany and it is strategic for the German and the Northern European countries, the slogan Bauknecht stands for Intelligent Answers for Your Piece of Mind. The Intelligent indicates that they apply smart technology in an accessible way, and the Piece of Mind stands for German reliability and improved service concept. In other key markets, they use the Whirlpool brand and other local brands, such as Ignis in Italy, Laden in France, and Polar in Poland. Whirlpool states that this shows a strong local brand that symbolizes strong heritage and that they can leverage that strength into the market .

The Whirlpool brand is targeted to younger cosmopolitan females, who like innovative and design-oriented products. Bauknecht however, is more targeted to families and more traditional with a slightly higher price range.

Whirlpool Europe is the leader in production and marketing home appliances and in order to better be able to serve the European