Developing A Creative Digital Media Content Strategy For Woolworths Group Ltd

Selected Company

The success of the business strategy depends upon strong communication. Every company focuses on customer service and in this aspect, it is extremely important to communicate effectively with the customers in order to retain them and make them loyal to the organization. While reflecting on the significance of customer service experience, there have been recent studies that revealed that it has a direct impact on customer retention as well as the profit of the business. If the customers get a good customer experience, then 7 out of 10 customers are expected to spend more money with the organization and will return to that company. On the other hand, if there is ineffective communication within an organization then it can result in a bad customer experience. It has been observed that the customers who have experienced bad customer service have abandoned the organization and have even provided negative reviews about it. The main aim and purpose of this assignment are to research, plan, and develop an engaging and creative digital media content strategy that can attract customers to the organization and ensure success for a long period.

The selected organization is Woolworths Group Ltd which is an Australian retailer, headquartered in Sydney (Thorlakson, Hainmueller & Lambin 2018). The company has a wide operation across New Zealand and Australia. In addition to this, it is the biggest organization in Australia by revenue as well as the second largest in the regions of New Zealand (Zulu, 2020). The organization has experienced stable growth throughout the 20th century and it started to spread its business after closing the last of its variety store in the year 1980. As Woolworths Group Ltd is a big organization, it is often observed that the organization fails to cater to their customers in terms of customer service (Van Kampen & Kirkham 2020). Therefore, this company has been selected and a creative, as well as engaging digital media content strategy, will be developed so that the company can take care of their customers’ needs and demands and offer them the best customer service.

This part of the assignment will analyze the market situation of the company in order to know the community better. The PESTLE analysis will be used to scan the market for the company.

 Political- As Woolworths is a big brand, several political factors affect the business. For instance: the ban of single- use of plastic impacted the company which led to a certain slowdown during the initial months of the year (Bedward, Xiao & Fu 2019). However, the transition from single- use plastic to a more sustainable option was cost rigorous as well as time- consuming for the organization. The region has been strict with the use of plastics, and the retail marketers need to start working towards an alternative source of packaging.

Situational Analysis

Economic- In order to retain its market share, the company of Woolworths has introduced several loyalty programs, which were thought to be good but they have failed to capture the marketplace. On the other hand, Woolworths’s competitor Aldi has managed to capture around 15% of its market share which left Woolworths at a crossroads related to their future of current marketing campaign (Ngwenya, 2020). Although the organization of Woolworths has managed to gain the trust of their customers to some extent they need to work on depicting themselves as an innovative as well as meaningful organization.

Social- There has been a transfer among people, where they are moving towards healthier options, where the variety and quality of products of the organization must be served into the markets drastically. The company has managed to capture this upcoming trend and has even worked accordingly in order to satisfy their customers by offering fresh vegetables and fruits which is controlled by their “Grower Fresh campaign”. It has been observed that the company caters to the needs and preferences of its customers by analyzing the localized needs of different regions.

Technological- With the constant transformation of technology, Woolworths have even implemented technology in order to provide a better- quality service to their customers. In addition to this, the company has even launched the concept of smart stores where they have implemented enhanced surveillance and have made the stores much safer (Rapo, 2019). Also, they have implemented robots and an iPad with an inbuilt camera at the self- serve checkouts. Along with this, Woolworths has even proposed a subscription model which allows the consumers to have a monthly and annual subscription along with a free home delivery option of the products that are over the in- house app.

Legal- There has been a recent change which is introduced by ASIC stating About the inclusion of climate change report as a part of financial review across all the organizations in Australia. The company of Woolworth has made an increased effort in order to reduce its carbon footprint as well as to help create a better environment (Nandonde, 2019). The company follows the rules and regulations strictly and they keep working on their stocks so that they can be up-to-date in order to avoid any type of legal claims against their products.

Environmental- The company of Woolworths have taken several measures such as the “Good Business Journey Program” to implement sustainability options as well as promote them to their customer.

Target Audience: Their Needs and Interests

The target customer of Woolworths is the working class as well as upper- middle- class people (Kasanagottu & Bhattacharya 2018). The organization has even positioned itself as an outlet that offers a customer- centric service and every possible product at an affordable price under one roof (Rudansky-Kloppers & Strydom 2021). Also, the company does not compromise in quality because it offers a high- quality premium product to its customers. Every customer wants the best quality products at an affordable price and the organization of Woolworths is offering the same due to which the company has been one of the biggest retailers across Australia and they can retain their customers for a very long time.

Among the five stages of listening and observing, the company of Woolworths must focus on Stage 1 which is listening to conversations regarding the brand or organization. This particular stage allows the marketers to observe their audience first hand. By using different sources of social media such as Twitter, blogs, Facebook, and others, the marketers are provided with a boundless opportunity to look into what their targeted audience is saying regarding the brand, both negative as well as positive, and giving them a greater idea of how their brand is perceived (Zaim, 2017). Both good and bad feedback can lead to a new type of opportunity where the organization will be able to fix the areas where they are lacking. In addition to this, social media is a great platform where nowadays the customers open up about anything they want to talk and with the help of this, the company will be able to understand the needs and preferences of their customers along with the areas that need to be developed.

Content plays a vital role in attaining business and social media objectives like thought leadership, brand recognition, audience engagement and lead generation. In addition to this, it even helps the organisation to submit their position as well as a go to destination among their customers whether it is related to entertainment, inspiration or education. The networks of social media are open to all and they offer the businesses and opportunity to follow their consumers activity. It even helps the marketers to be more informed regarding their targeted audience as such as their dislikes, likes through which they can develop a better marketing strategy in order to attract such customers (Gao, 2016). Therefore, it can be said that the social media content strategy is an opportunity for the company of Woolworths as it provides an immense amount of information regarding their customers and vice versa. Also, social media has been in the trend for a long period of time and there has also been a preference for social media among customers as they look for information from that channel.

Specific	Measurable	Attainable	Realistic	Time- based
The company will effectively communicate with their target audience through social media platforms.	Woolworths will effectively communicate with their customers by engaging them over the social media platforms.	The engaging posts will be posted over the social media channels every 1 to 2 days.	the posts will be posted on the social media platform every 3 to 4 days.	This strategy will take place in the next 6 months to 1 year.

 Conclusion and Recommendation

Lastly from the above discussion, it can be concluded that Woolworths has been an effective company and they have been catering to the needs and preferences of their customers. However, with the advancement of technology, social media has been in a rise and it is important for the company to implement social media platforms in order to communicate effectively with their customers. This assignment has discussed about effective communication strategy with the help of SMART objectives which must be followed by the organisation in order to retain their existing customers as well as target the new ones.

References

Bedward, T. M., Xiao, L., & Fu, S. (2019). Application of Raman spectroscopy in the detection of cocaine in food matrices. Australian Journal of Forensic Sciences, 51(2), 209-219.

Gao, F. (2016). Social media as a communication strategy: Content analysis of top nonprofit foundations’ micro-blogs in China. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 10(4), 255-271.

Kasanagottu, S., & Bhattacharya, S. (2018). A Review of Metro, Target, & Woolworths Global Business Strategy. International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology, 9(7).

Nandonde, F. A. (2019). A PESTLE analysis of international retailing in the East African Community. Global Business and Organizational Excellence, 38(4), 54-61.

Ngwenya, N. B. (2020). Local Fashion Brand Leadership Within the South African Youth Market (Doctoral dissertation, University of Johannesburg).

Rapo, N. (2019). Marketing the high street: a solution to the British retail crisis?.

Rudansky-Kloppers, S., & Strydom, J. W. (2021). Target Market Solutions in South African Online Businesses: The Generational Effect. Journal of African Business, 22(2), 209-234.

Thorlakson, T., Hainmueller, J., & Lambin, E. F. (2018). Improving environmental practices in agricultural supply chains: The role of company-led standards. Global environmental change, 48, 32-42.  

Van Kampen, T., & Kirkham, R. (2020). Assessment of the Supermarkets and Grocery Stores Sector in Australia: A Case Study of Woolworths and Coles using DEA and VAIC™. Journal of New Business Ideas & Trends, 18(1), 1-11.

Zaim, M. (2017). Implementing scientific approach to teach English at senior high school in Indonesia. Asian Social Science, 13(2), 33-40.

Zulu, S. B. (2020). The role of CSR in brand equity: Case of selected Woolworths stores in Pietermaritzburg (Doctoral dissertation).