William Welch Deloitte founded the company in 1845 that later in 1890 expanded to the United States. In 1972, Deloitte merged with Haskins & Sells, and it became Deloitte Haskins & Sells and in 1989, with Touche Ross formed Deloitte & Touche. It was later renamed Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu in 1993. Like any other business, Deloitte has a market analysis that includes the target market, industry analysis, SWOT analysis, market segmentation, and competitors. It is also important to assess the market strategy that discusses the price, product, place, promotion, price strategy, promotional strategy, and sales forecast.
Market Analysis
Firstly, it is vital to understand the market analysis. Market analysis refers to qualitative and quantitative assessment of a company’s market. It evaluates and analyzes the size, value, and volume of a market, competition, economic environment, patterns of customers, and barriers such as regulations that might inhibit company growth. This is because analysis provides a holistic picture of the company’s market outlook. Additionally, it shows the attractiveness of a market and the limitations of operating in a particular environment (Deloitte., 2022). Besides, market analysis involves several significant steps: target market, industry analysis, strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis (SWOT), and market segmentation that helps assess markets.
Target Market
The target market of Deloitte Company is crucial in developing market analysis. The company is situated in several countries globally, with its headquarters in New York, US. Besides, Deloitte is a top global consulting and management industry that provides a wide range of diversified services a d products portfolio. For instance; It offers consulting services, including outsourcing, operations and strategy, technology, and enterprise application. Also, it offers auditing services and risk advisory services. Risk encompasses privacy of information, data quality, and business continuity (Deloitte., 2022). Besides, it offers financial advisory to corporate finances, and finally, it aids clients with legal and tax activities. Hence from the company services, the targeted consumers include; new and existing urban business houses and corporate organizations. This is because the risk is a significant cause of uncertainty in most industries; hence Deloitte can help identify and manage the risks before impacting a company. Similarly, the company offers auditing services to help private and public organizations keep financial records.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Besides, the SWOT analysis of Deloitte gives a structure that helps assess the external and internal strategic factors that influence the company’s macro and microenvironment. The company has several strengths. One is best for advisory and consulting. It helps clients by availing services and products in human capital, operations and strategy, short-term outsourcing, and enterprise applications. Additionally, it is extensive with clients globally. Deloitte has branches in over 150 countries with more than 500 clients. It has partnered with several big companies such as Apple and McLaren Applied Technologies (Deloitte., 2022). The other strength is its brand reputation. The company is rated among the world’s best accounting firms with a good reputation from shareholders, customers, and investors.
Weaknesses
The company faces disputes. Deloitte has faced legal issues and disputes that spoil their reputations. In addition, the company also faces intense competition from other companies limiting growth and market share (Shin, 2018). Besides, there is regulatory and litigation action. The company has faced charges from Standard Chartered, Adelphia Communications, and Livent.
Opportunities
The small firm acquisition would provide Deloitte an opportunity to expand. Also, the company can expand its business operations to individuals predicting Analytics.
Threats
The company faces several threats. One is intense competition in the market that reduces Deloitte’s market share. Additionally, currency fluctuation is another threat that hides international projects. Besides, legal issues from lawsuits harm the company’s reputation and image.
Industry Analysis
Technology
New technology such as computer-assisted auditing tools, drones, and analytic tools has helped the company improve consulting and auditing services (Shin, 2018). However, Deloitte has to invest more in training programs to help the employees use the technology appropriately.
Threats of new entrants
Companies are effortless to enter the accounting industry since it only demands a legal license. However, it is complicated for new companies to compete with Deloitte (Boone et al., 2018). Besides, there is the threat of substitutes. Threats of substitutes are high due to competition from other companies such as Accenture (US).
Deloitte Market Segmentation
Deloitte segmentation involves performing a set of activities to identify a particular group of consumers and develop services and products attractive to them. Deloitte has four customer segmentation models, as elaborated below.
The first model is demographic segmentation. The company groups existing and potential customers based on income and occupational status. Demographic segmentation aids in identifying groups interested in purchasing the services and products (Dolnicar et al., 2017). The second is psychographic segmentation which focuses on customers’ interests and social class. Here, the company looks at the lifestyle and social class. The third model is geographic segmentation, where the company identifies customers concerning their physical location. For instance: the company is situated in more than 150 companies (Dolnicar et al., 2017). Finally, the company uses behavioral segmentation, including loyalty, user status, and benefits sought.
Competition
Deloitte (US) faces competition from several companies hence reducing its customers. It faces competition from Bain &Company, Accenture (US), Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC), and FTI consulting companies. All these companies provide advice to private, public, and non-profit organizations (Boone et al., 2018). However, through collaboration and acquisition with digital companies, Deloitte can compete with its rivals. It partners with technological companies to keep their applications and software’s upgraded, giving it a competitive advantage.
Deloitte is a private firm that is limited by guarantee and operates with the help of independent legal entities. The organization’s main services are legal, tax, auditing, risk, consulting, and financial advisory services. It has at least 334800 employees worldwide. Deloitte provides professional services worldwide to at least 150 nations. It is an accounting organization among the Big Four worldwide as it has high revenues and provides a professional services network. The headquarters of the organization is in London, England.
Market Strategy
Four P’s
Product
The company provides global management and global consultation through various products and services. Through member firms, Deloitte provides innovative, anticipatory, collaborative opportunities to the customers through the services and products. The company’s brand name interests independent firms, increasing collaborations in providing products and services. The services include consulting, including the application of enterprise, integration of technology, strategy and operations, and outsourcing (Schroeders & Visser, 2019). The other service is an audit, where the company provides traditional accounting and auditing services, internal auditing and control assurance in Information and Technology. It also provides financial, risk advisory, and tax and legal services.
Place
With 334800 trained employees globally, Deloitte collaborates with other companies to provide clients professional services. Deloitte has a network of at least 150 countries worldwide. In 2010, the company’s employees were a member of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (DTTL), a private entity in the United Kingdom (UK). Every company member is independent and has separate legal entities that follow the rules and regulations of the country in which the offices are located. Every member of DTTL provides professional services and is not the parent company.
Price
Deloitte has the highest revenues among other network providers. The company earns revenue of $36.8 billion and makes these earnings due to providing the best services at premium prices. Customers adopt the pricing policy since Deloitte advises minimizing risk options, and the services satisfy the customers (Schroeders & Visser, 2019). It, therefore, influences the earnings of DTTL.
Promotion
For a company to make sales, it requires promotion strategies. Since Deloitte is a globally known company, it increases the brand awareness and the visibility of the company. Due to the upbeat background, the company is involved with sports and events. From 2009, Deloitte provided the US Olympic Committee with professional services and officially sponsored the committee. Canadian firms provided professional services to Winter Paralympic Games and Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver (Schroeders & Visser, 2019). Also, DTTL sponsored the 2012 London Olympics and Royal Opera House. Similarly, in 2010, Deloitte firms in Singapore sponsored the Summer Youths Olympics. The member firms of Deloitte sponsor social events and sports in universities such as the Cambridge Union Society.
Pricing Strategy
Pricing strategy refers to the methods businesses use to select prices for the products and services they provide. The approach considers the market standards, actions of competitors, costs of inputs, and the trade margins. DTTL has a pricing strategy that ensures fair prices to the customers and competitors. DTTL pricing strategy helps address customer values and inputting transactional analysis that allows DTTL to distribute the services in the member firms. The pricing strategy helps ensure that the customers’ needs are satisfied by providing reasons for the prices of the services (Schroeders & Visser, 2019). DTTL uses premium pricing where the prices are not to attract but match the quality of the firm’s services. The strategy has helped DTTL to build the value of its products and services.
Promotional Strategy
Promotional strategies help in market penetration as they remind, inform, and persuade the public of the products and services of a company. DTTL identifies new growth opportunities, using commercial pricing models, encouraging innovative ideas, and sponsoring sports as promotional strategies of the firm. DTTL is also actively involved with communities’ activities and participates in and supports social activities.
Sales Forecast
Organizations use sales forecasts to predict the firm’s sales, revenue, supply, demand, and customer entry. It helps an organization set the annual targets to help maintain the vision and mission of the firm. For example, in 2021, Deloitte forecasted a 7%-9% increase in sales compared to 2020, and the retail sales increased by 5.8%, resulting in $1.19 trillion as stated by US Census Bureau. Deloitte predicts that in 2022, the firm will generate $81 billion, which is a 10% increase compared to 2021. The sales forecast helps encourage the firms to promote the firm’s services.
References
Boone, J. P., Khurana, I. K., & Raman, K. K. (2018). Audit market response to PCAOB censures of US big 4 firms. European Accounting Review, 28(4), 621-658. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638180.2018.1504687
Deloitte. (2022). About us. Deloitte United States. https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/footerlinks/about-us-deloitte.html
Dolnicar, S., Grün, B., & Leisch, F. (2018). Market segmentation analysis. Management for Professionals, 11-22. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8818-6_2
Schroeders, S., & Visser, M. (2019). Customer acquisition: Sales and pricing. Digital Marketing Fundamentals, 342-382. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003021674-8
Shin Y. (2018). Strategic Audit: Deloitte. UNL Institutional Repository. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1070&context=honorstheses
