Clyce

A strategic alliance is when two or more organizations combine their products and services to cooperate together.  This would be most effective for another cooler brand to align with Yeti.  Yeti was the front runner on coolers that could stay cool for longer periods of time. A strategic alliance is a great resource for any company so that they can learn new tricks or habits from another successful company.  However, with all good things there are the downfalls.  A strategic alliance does set companies up for some sort of risk.  Most importantly are allowing other firms to learn the skills to compete more effectively, possibly violating antitrust laws, and learning race scenarios in which they hinder the alliance to improve.

Having a strategy for Merger's and Acquisitions is always important for a company to have.  There is always room to expand and grow for any organization and having a plan already in place helps for when an opportunity presents itself.  If there is a plan already in place then there is no need to rush around when the opportunity arises.  Yeti could merge and acquire any number of companies.  I think one of the best mergers they could do would be with a camping company.  Their coolers are already used by a lot of outdoorsy customers so this merger would not be a hard transition.  A company that they could acquire would be another cooler company, one that is a close competitor of theirs so that the joint group  could come close to taking over the market. Either way, it is always better to have a plan in place so that no one is caught off-guard.  If there is no plan in place then sometimes when an opportunity presents itself it is one that has to be passed up because there is not e

Yeti does not have the complete option to diversify like other larger companies, for example, Amazon.  They are pretty much set to making coolers and drink ware.  They did diversify their product when they started a drink ware line, and they have made a few other items that are handy for camping or tailgating.  There is not really a way for Yeti to diversify unless it went into the camping supply or clothing business.  They easily could jump into those arenas, but it would require the company to create a strategic plan to successfully diversify.

Yeti has already proven that they can diversify their products and they could diversify their strategies.  Currently they are a stand alone company, but they could add additional businesses in their area. For instance they could partner with Bass Boats or other fishing tournaments.  It would promote their products and also create Yeti and the cooler brand you would use with these activities. This could prove to be a difficult experience because you must learn how to have cross-business relationships.  You also would be sacrificing to meet a general goal instead of your direct customer needs.  The other issue that could come up is if one business has bad publicity for anything in the world then the other company would also be brought into the ugliness that can be social media problems. 

Yeti would not benefit from vertical integration with their current product.  They already have a supplier that works well for them and taking over creating their products materials would create a significant down time for the product to be created.  Also, the company would have to hire a multitude of employees to not only create the materials, but managers, warehouses to create and financial teams to run this endeavor.

All companies must be flexible in the market they work within.  Yeti has shown its ability to be flexible with the ability of their product to sustain advantage even when there are multiple copycats presenting in the industry.  Yeti does not rely on only one vendor for their items, rather multiple vendors.  This has kept them available in markets that do not have certain stores.  Unlike RTic which is usually sold at sports themed stores, they are not always in small towns.  However, Yeti has made their product available in small town stores like Stockdales.  Yeti has also shown flexibility when offering new and different products in their product line.They have now started offering drink ware and chairs to keep themselves viable.