Maytag Case Study

Executive Summary

The Maytag Company was created in 1909 because F.L. Maytag had found a niche in the market by producing washing machines. They were extremely successful and held 40-50% of the market share throughout the 1920’s and 30’s. F.L. Maytag had created a product that was known for its quality and was a product that targeted the high-end consumer. Maytag continued to enjoy market leadership, market share growth, and profits until they tried to expand globally in 1988.

Expanding globally seems to be the root cause of Maytag’s problems they are currently facing. They seemed to have leapt into the global market and due to their losses they were not prepared to enter this market. Upon realizing this Maytag took on a retrenchment strategy that caused them to fall behind their competition in the North American market and allowed their main competitors to have an advantage over them because they had been focusing on the North American market while Maytag was focusi...