Edward Jones Case Study

As of 2006 Edward Jones has established themselves as a focused differentiator. Edward Jones’s two focuses are the buyer and the location. When looking at the focus on the buyer there were three classes of investors Edward Jones served. These classes are retirees, pre retirees and small business owners. Edward Jones did not differentiate on how much money the client had unlike some of the competitors in the industry. Their goal was to treat every client the same and to build a personal relationship with them. This personal relationship came from the atmosphere they provided at Edward Jones. The buildings were set up to be very welcoming and appealing to the client. It made them feel like they were at their home. Their main competitor was the …show more content…
Edward Jones places their offices in high traffic stripmalls that were in convenient locations (pg. 7). This results in added value since other investment firms are online and located in major cities which are not that convenient. Being able to stop by on the way home from work which is very convenient for the client. Another way Edward Jones was focused by location, is that they let the financial advisors pick where they wanted to set up their office. The focus was on how many people lived in that area. Edward Jones found they could add value as long as they had only one branch per 7,500 individuals. All of these factors allow Edward Jones to differentiate themselves from their …show more content…
The socially complexity would be too much for the other competitors to adopt a strategy like this. With it being socially complex it would take money and time. Starting with Merrill Lynch, they only cater to customers who are very wealthy and have offices in the city. Merrill Lynch does not have the resources to develop a personal relationship with every customer they have. For example for someone who has less than $100,000 in investable assets has to call a call center to get in contact (Pg.11). Local banks would not be able to implement this due to the fact they can not afford to have focused financial advisors. Employees at banks do a little bit of everything, not just investing. Online brokers could not afford to do this because they would have to set up offices and their business strategy is not to do that. Imitation of the Goodknight program would be impossible since competitors are not set up in a way to maintain a high level of personal