Discuss about the Marketing strategies of Woolworths limited and BHP Billiton.
The following paper focuses on the fact of marketing strategies and its implementation on the organizations. The proper marketing strategies can bring ultimate success to the organizations if they properly use those use those strategies and fulfill the needs and requirements of their target customers. In order to discuss these strategies for a better marketing, two organizations have been chosen from the Australian context who have done a great deal of business by applying their strategies particularly to meet the needs of their customers and then gain the competitive advantage over others in their respective industries. The chosen companies are Woolworths limited and BHP Billiton. The first one acts in the retail industry while the second organization works within the metal and mining industry. Both these organizations have been extremely successful and their marketing strategies have catered to the customers’ demands, thus establishing them as supreme brands in the industry.
Woolworths limited
Woolworths limited is one of the leading organizations in Australia that works within the realm of the retail industry. It was founded in the year 1924 (Woolworths Online, 2017). The headquarter of this organization is situated at Bella Vista in New South Wales. Along with Australia, it serves the countries like New Zealand and India as well. The number of employees engaged in this organization ios over 200000 (Woolworths Online, 2017). They have used many innovative methods to cater to the target customers as they have a very clear set of target consumers by segmentation.
BHP Billiton
BHP Billiton is one of the biggest and most successful organizations in the metal and mining industry in Australia (BHP, 2017). The full name of BHP Billiton Plc is the Broken Hill Proprietary. The headquarter of this organization is situated at Melbourne in Australia. Another branch of this organization is located at London in the United Kingdom. The market area that this organization serves is worldwide. The CEO of the company is Andrew Mackenzie. The annual revenue of this company as recorded in the 2016 was A$30.9 billion (BHP, 2017). The kinds of products that this company produces are iron ore, coal, petroleum, copper, natural gas, nickel and uranium. This organization has numerous mines all along Australia (BHP, 2017).
It is very important to note that the success of the company depends on its marketing conditions. The marketing conditions of a company rely on the facts how they see their strengths, weaknesses, threats from the rivals that those weaknesses expose and the opportunities that they can grow in the future (Grant 2016). These are very important to mark the growth of the company. Here, the macro-environment of the business has to be discussed.
Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats
Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats
When a company wants to gain the competitive advantage over their rivals they have to outsmart their rivals to erase the challenges they can give (Wedel and Kamakura, 2012). Woolworths has to make their target segmentation choices properly so that they can cater to the needs of the consumers. They have to analyze the demographics of the consumers so that they can set up their targets properly (Wedel and Kamakura, 2012).
There are various kinds of people all over Australia with cultural diversities. People come from different countries, religions and family backgrounds. Woolworths look to focus on the buying powers of those customers and provide them products according to it. They also focus on customer loyalty and the quality of products (Wedel and Kamakura, 2012). This helps them to stay ahead of their rival companies. Once they begin to provide the best products to their customers according to their buying power, they gain the faith and thus compete strongly.
The application of Ansoff matrix on any organization indicates the strategies for growth in other countries. In case of BHP Billiton they have a worldwide market with a good reputation and for further expansion they must follow some simple things (Hussain et al. 2013).
Market penetration
BHP Billiton must adhere to the different aspects of maintain the market share and thus resulting in the growth of the organization.
Market development
BHP Billiton should target their new market segmentation areas by analyzing the demographics. They should be able to provide the products like metals for buildings of huge offices or apartments. They should gain the customer faith first (Hussain et al. 2013).
Product development
Apart from the existing products, they should look to develop new products of metals and mining ingredients (Hussain et al. 2013). They can look to prepare alloys by mixing metals and making it stronger than before. This will help them to capture the market in the new target market.
Diversification
BHP Billiton can focus on developing new businesses in the new target markets. This will boost them to have a firm hold on the industry than their competitors (Hussain et al. 2013). These new products will be prepared according to what the people of that place want.
Product
As Woolworths provides various premium brands in the food chain, their product prices are generally higher (Gordon 2012). However, they provide the customers various products at both low and higher prices according to the consumer segmentation.
Place
Woolworths operates in 1000 stores in Australia. 950 of them are supermarkets and 50 are convenience stores. They also operate through their online version and They have several label brands in the country. The retail chains using their brand name exists in many countries all over (Gordon 2012).
Promotion
They use several methods for the promotion of their brand like offering loyalty schemes at petrol pumps through coupons (Gordon 2012). They also operated a Fresh Food People campaign as well. They promote their business through social media platforms.
Price
Woolworths looks to maintain similar or slightly higher prices in the market. They provide shopping cards to their customers that help to track the transactions. They offer lower prices as well according to the buying powers (Gordon 2012).
Product
BHP Billiton happens to be the top company in delivering the major commodities. The oil gas segment is the chief segment for the company. They possess a large share in the world market. They supply their products according to their demographics.
Place
They trade their commodities on a global basis (Peng 2016). They find their raw materials all over the world so they have a large capacity to expand all over. BHP Billiton has become one of the best suppliers of resources due to a set of merger and acquisitions.
Promotion
They always assure that they provide best promotional activities in the industry. They advertise about their products in various mediums like radio, newspapers, television and online platforms as well. They also promote their brand in the form of business to business (Armstrong et al. 2015).
Price
They fix the price of their commodities based on the global market (Peng 2016). These are dependent on global markets, competition and many other things. The raw materials that they trade in are traded at a low price. The levied government taxes on the materials increase the price of the materials as well.
Conclusion
After a thorough evaluation of the business market and environment of these two globally reputed organizations, it can be concluded that making proper strategies is very crucial for a successful business campaign. The companies have to focus on their demographics to fix their target consumers. They have to adopt proper marketing strategies if they want to expand their business to other countries. The companies also have to focus on the strengths they have and improve on their weaknesses. They have to utilize the opportunities they have. It is indeed important for them to think about these various aspects and then make their marketing strategies so that they can gain the competitive advantage
References
Achzet, B. and Helbig, C., 2013. How to evaluate raw material supply risks—an overview. Resources Policy, 38(4), pp.435-447.
Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. and Brennan, R., 2015. Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education.
BHP. (2017). BHP Billiton | A leading global resources company. [online] Available at: https://www.bhp.com/ [Accessed 6 Aug. 2017].
Capon, N., Farley, J.U. and Hoenig, S., 2012. Toward an integrative explanation of corporate financial performance. Springer Science & Business Media.
Gordon, R., 2012. Re-thinking and re-tooling the social marketing mix. Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ), 20(2), pp.122-126.
Grant, R.M., 2016. Contemporary strategy analysis: Text and cases edition. John Wiley & Sons.
Hussain, S., Khattak, J., Rizwan, A. and Latif, M.A., 2013. ANSOFF matrix, environment, and growth-an interactive triangle. Management and Administrative Sciences Review, 2(2), pp.196-206.
Peng, M.W., 2016. Global business. Cengage learning.
Stadtler, H., 2015. Supply chain management: An overview. In Supply chain management and advanced planning (pp. 3-28). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Wagner III, J.A. and Hollenbeck, J.R., 2014. Organizational behavior: Securing competitive advantage. Routledge.
Wedel, M. and Kamakura, W.A., 2012. Market segmentation: Conceptual and methodological foundations (Vol. 8). Springer Science & Business Media.
Woolworths Online. (2017). Woolworths Supermarket – Buy Groceries Online. [online] Available at: https://www.woolworths.com.au/ [Accessed 6 Aug. 2017]
Essay Writing Service Features
Our Experience
No matter how complex your assignment is, we can find the right professional for your specific task. Contact Essay is an essay writing company that hires only the smartest minds to help you with your projects. Our expertise allows us to provide students with high-quality academic writing, editing & proofreading services.
Free Features
Free revision policy
$10Free bibliography & reference
$8Free title page
$8Free formatting
$8How Our Essay Writing Service Works
First, you will need to complete an order form. It's not difficult but, in case there is anything you find not to be clear, you may always call us so that we can guide you through it. On the order form, you will need to include some basic information concerning your order: subject, topic, number of pages, etc. We also encourage our clients to upload any relevant information or sources that will help.
Complete the order form
Once we have all the information and instructions that we need, we select the most suitable writer for your assignment. While everything seems to be clear, the writer, who has complete knowledge of the subject, may need clarification from you. It is at that point that you would receive a call or email from us.
Writer’s assignment
As soon as the writer has finished, it will be delivered both to the website and to your email address so that you will not miss it. If your deadline is close at hand, we will place a call to you to make sure that you receive the paper on time.
Completing the order and download