Gothic Landscape Research Proposal

Research Proposal

Gothic Landscape, Co.

Company Background Info:

        Gothic Landscape, Co. is one of the top landscaping companies in America, and for the past few years was the leading landscape company in California. Since 1984, Gothic has been able to provide quality landscaping services to communities throughout California, Nevada, and Utah. With headquarters in Valencia, California, they credit their long-standing success to their commitment to the quality, safety, and respect for the environment. They have implemented a “green” initiative and have completed various projects which integrate water conservation and beautiful landscape. For this reason they have been particularly successful in the California market.

        Early 2016 financial statements show that Gothic Landscape, Co. generated over $124,500,000 in revenue from commercial landscaping, specifically. At the end of 2016, Gothic Landscape was positioned as the market leader for landscaping companies in California, with Marina Landscaping Co, headquartered in Anaheim, CA, in the second position.

        Although smaller scale than Gothic, Marina Landscape, Co., with it’s 650 employees, generated $64,050,000 in revenue and has received various awards for their landscaping work on the Disney parks.

        On January 11, Marina Landscape, Co. announced that they were being acquired by Brightview, Inc. With over $2,000,000,000 in revenue per year and 22,000 employees, Brightview has consistently remained the overall market leader and generates the highest revenue (by far) in America each year, even though they had not tapped into the California market prior. Brightview generates over $1,000,000,000 per year than the second largest landscaping company in America, TruGreen Cos.

Identify Management/Business Problem:

        Gothic Landscape, Co. is now facing a serious business problem. For the last few decades, they have been able to remain the market leader and sit comfortably in the California landscaping market. They have been able to do so because the number one largest landscaping company and most aggressive competitor, Brightview, had generally stayed away from the California market.

        Now that Marina has been acquired by Brightview, Gothic will have to adjust their business plan to account for this new aggressive competitor entering their market. In order to account for this new competitor, Gothic will have to effectively differentiate themselves from their competition.

Symptoms:

Symptoms of this issue can been seen in various ways. First and foremost, Gothic can lose its market leader position and in turn have lower market share, due to the new intense competition. This will result in less business opportunities and less revenue.

Marketing Problem/hypothesis:

In order to maintain their market position in California, it is imperative that Gothic Landscaping, Co. emphasizes their attention to customer satisfaction, while also differentiating their services from the new competition. At this point, this is the ultimate marketing challenge for Gothic.