Over the past 44 years, Best Buy Company has grown from a Sound of Music audio-specialty shop in St. Paul to a global, 155,000-employee electronics retailer with $45 billion in revenues. Best Buy’s growth in the past decade can be attributed in large part to its role as a corporate ambassador.
Best Buy is a trailblazer in retail and marketing as it seeks to enter new international markets. It has operations in the United States, Canada, China, Mexico, Europe, and most recently Turkey. Taking into account each of its brands and subsidiaries, it operates in 14 countries.
“Best Buy got our attention for its courage to have an Eid [al-Adha] marketing campaign for the [U.S.] Muslim community,” says awards judge LaJune Lange. “There was a lot of pushback, and as a corporate citizen they said, ‘No, this is a community we need to market to.’” In its advertising for 2009 Thanksgiving Day sales, Best Buy included a note saying “Happy Eid al-Adha,” a holiday that includes gift giving. Eid al-Adha falls in November, during the Islamic month of Dhu al-Hijjah.
“They’re stepping into some of the broader cultural issues that separate us today,” says Anthony Williamson, CEO of Golden Valley–based technology consulting firm Ajasa Technologies, who nominated Best Buy for the award. “They create profits, but in turn, they can reinvest and make the whole community sustainable.”
Best Buy donated $200,000 to Haiti following the catastrophic January earthquake, and it worked with the American Red Cross to aid victims of the 2008 earthquake in China and the 2004 tsunami that struck Sri Lanka. Employees contributed $300,000 to the Red Cross Society of China, and organized blood drives. A Shanghai store will donate 5 percent of its revenues between May 23 and 31 to help rebuild schools destroyed by the quake.
Susan Busch Nehring, Best Buy’s director of corporate public relations, says that the company’s global success can be attributed to its “insatiable appetite for customer satisfaction.” She stresses the importance of understanding each culture before entering its market, describing the company’s international growth as “a marathon, not a sprint.”
