Discuss about the Business Models And Their Relationship With Marketing.
The Australian Retail segment is captured by a large number of competitors, each of them aiming to gain their market share. However, there exists cut throat competition and several companies fail to make their operations successful. The given report will be discussing the different aspects of the chosen company Metcash which is an Australian wholesale company. The report will discuss the issues systematically and will provide recommendations for the same.
The Metcash is a leading Australian company involved in the retail as well as the wholesale sector. The business is involved in a leading wholesale distribution and marketing context and incurred a sales of more than $14 billion in 2017 (Metcash | Australia’s leading wholesale distribution and marketing company. 2018). The retail company has been in the industry for a long period of time and is 4th in succession after Woolworths, Coles and ALDI. The company has a strategic approach towards the activities and for this purpose, it ensures that all its activities are vital to the concept of sustainability and that the company maximizes its offerings. The company aims to promote local communities by providing merchandising, operational and other related marketing support across their various pillars like food and liquor.
The company provides the following offerings and products .The Company has divided its operations into the major pillars like that of:
In the food category the company provides and supports the network of more than 1600 independently owned stores. The retailers in the chain mix knowledge and convenience with the prices being competitive in nature. The stores in their community provide the best products from various local producers and thus supporting the local economy.
In the Liquor category, the company is the largest supplier to the different independent retailers and is the second largest broad range of liquor provider in Australia. The organization supports more than 2500 stores and provides the independent sales of brands like Celebrations, The Bottle-O, Duncan’s and Big Bargain.
The company is the largest independent hardware group operating in Australia which provides true leadership in the trade market. The company promotes leading hardware brands Mitre 10 and Home Timber along with companies Thrifty-Link Hardware, True Value hardware and supplies to more than 1100 stores nationwide.
The Purpose of the Organization
The primary purpose of the company is to give rise to successful independents.
The vision is to provide the retailer assistance so that they have the best offerings in town and through this they are able to provide the best services to the consumers. They tend to provide a distinctive and unique service to independent Retailers and the customers as well through the IGA group of supermarkets (Coombes and Nicholson 2013).Through IGA stores the company caters to the retail sector.
The 5C Analysis is a technique whereby a situation analysis is conducted using the five key aspects of the business organization. This means that when an organization is being analyzed, it becomes extremely important for it to do so with the help of situation analysis which helps in examining how the internal as well as the external environmental factors have an impact on the business and the environment in which it operates (Martelo Landroguez, Barroso Castro and Cepeda-Carrión 2013). The 5C Analysis can be described as a crucial framework which is popularly used in order to have a control over the internal as well as external environmental factors. The integrated analysis covers the key areas of marketing and helps in identification of the key areas of the business.
Company: The company analysis is used to analyses the organization’s vision, strategies, product line, technology, culture and the objectives of the company. This helps in the analysis of the existing problems with the company`s operations. The company functions with the different independent retailers and aims to provide them with adequate services which shall go a long way in assisting them to become a leading firm in the sector. It believes that sound relationships with the different suppliers is the key to the business success.
Customers- The different customers form a key part of the situational analysis. This involved knowing the reason behind the market growth, size, buying patterns, and purchase size of the customers, their purchase frequency and other related aspects. The primary customers of the business are the different retailers who form a chain with the company and provide it with the different goods and services which are beneficial for the given organization. Through the IGA supermarkets, the firm also sells the goods and services directly to the different customers
Competitors – The competition analysis helps in the critical understanding of the external environment in which the firm operates and knowing where the competitors excel. The competitor analysis can be done using the Porter`s Five Analysis.
Collaborators: The collaborators of the business can be described as the external stakeholders who tend to analyses the relationship of the business with the different parties like suppliers, distributors, business partners and collaborators.
Climate: The climatic analysis can be undertaken using factors like Political, social, technological and legal factors.
Political; The food and stable industry laws and legislations will have a huge impact on the working of the industry. Furthermore, the structure of the government and political stability in Australia may have an impact on its operations as well (Järvinen and Karjaluoto 2015).
Economical: The economic factors are the factors like the industry growth rate, efficiency of the financial market in Australia, Inflation rate in the country, interest rate, Discretionary Income, Labor Costs and the purchasing power of the different individuals.
Social: The social factors are the factors like the demographics of the individuals, leisure interest, choices and the entrepreneurial initiatives which the society aims to take.
Technological- The recent developments in the technological industry especially done by the competitors tends to have an impact on the business (Chernev 2018).
Environmental and Legal: These factors which are legal and environment factors comprise of various laws and legislatives which the business needs to abide by.
In order to understand what the customers want out of the business enterprise and what kind of offerings it aims to provide to the customers, the company sees to it that they are engaging in proper research analysis (McDonagh and Prothero 2014). This goes a long way in analyzing whether the demands of the company have been changing or not. It also helps in the analysis of the new products and ideas which can be generated considerably. The company uses market intelligence technique in order to analyze the different needs of the customers.
Market Intelligence can be defined as the gathering of relevant information with respect to the company`s market (Foxall 2014). Metcash gathers this information and then utilizes the given information in order to ensure that accurate decision making can be done to determine the correct strategy and to ensure that there exists opportunity with respect to market penetration, market opportunity and market development. The company Met Cash also makes use of Business Intelligence facilities whereby it gains information about the kind of products which it will be selling in the given market.
The Met Cash Company gathers this market data with respect to its customers using methods like survey, interviews, monitoring the outlets of the competitors. The company also purchases some data from various sources (Kotler 2015). The specialists are hired who go a long way in assisting the organization to gather relevant data.
Tools such as the Google Consumer Survey is used to do so and to analyze the different customer movements and trends. When a particular trend is identified, the company then ensures that it is able to successfully cater to the given need.
To understand the competitor dynamics, the company conducts various external market analysis like the Porters Five forces regularly in order to understand the role in the business domain (McDaniel and Gates 2013). Furthermore, it conducts various outlet visits and other techniques in order to see where the company is lagging and which areas the company needs to cater to. Furthermore, it also takes in consumer feedback in order to understand the different competitor’s requirements (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick 2016).
The business analyzes the market trends in order to understand the changing phase of the business. The business has changed considerably with the advent of technology and the introduction of e-commerce domain. Earlier, Met Cash was a market leader in the given domain, however as globalization increased the local suppliers are being used by different global competitors which is leading to problems.
Furthermore, the customers these days prefer shopping online and shopping hassle free and for this reason, the markets have been affected (Baker and Saren 2016).
The collaborators have a key role to play in the business domain. These collaborators include the food retailers, liquor retailer and hardware retailers (Kiel 2014). These retailers assist the business, Met Cash to conduct the business operations smoothly and assist them in achieving sustainable success.
The given section will outline the different segments of the market which the company aims to cater to and also outline the justification under each heading
The company Metcash plans to increase its independent suppliers and retailer chain and aims to expand it through the Australian Market (Pasquier and Villeneuve 2017). It knows that customers and retailers these days like to stock products which have been produced organically and thus, it has targeted the given segment in order to ensure that it is able to capture the root of the supply chain.
Value Proposition
The company aims to offer premium quality products with a large variety at unique prices to these retailers in order to enable them to compete with the international and national competition (Czinkota and Ronkainen 2013).
The positioning statement of the company is as follows:
Metcash offers the local retailers with unique quality goods sourced directly from the suppliers which helps them to increase their offerings and gain competitive edge.
Along with the retailers the company also aims to make an offering to the different customers through its IGA Market segment in order to increase its market share (Hartley and Claycomb 2013). The company will be getting the products directly from its parent company and thus it shall aim to reduce the costs and increase the profits earned by the company.
Value Proposition
The IGA Markets under the Metcash will be offering the consumers with cheaper products which will be organic in nature and will be providing the customers with goods at affordable prices (Gronroos 2016).
Positioning statement
The positioning statement of the company is as follows:
Metcash and IGA Markets aims to offer a large variety of goods to the different consumers at affordable prices.
The company understands that although it aims to sustain the international and national competition, it is still a long way to go and for this purpose, the company aims to supply the goods and products of the local suppliers to the national retailers as well. This shall enable them to increase the wholesale share market (Wilson et al. 2016).
Value Proposition
The national supermarkets will be able to achieve good quality products from the local suppliers which increases its edge.
Positioning statement
Metcash aims to offer organic and fresh products to the different retailers who want to save costs and increase the choices.
It has been suggested that the company should try and cater to the need of the Restaurants and Cafes as well (Stead and Stead 2013). As the country Australia, is primarily famous for the cafes and restaurants, Metcash can take an effort to fulfill their needs and offers them goods and raw materials. This is an explored section which the company can cater to.
As the restaurants are often in need of good quality products, Metcash will solve their problem and offer them various ingredients needed at cheap prices (Ramaswamy and Mosher 2013).
Metcash aims to become a one stop solution for all the customers.
After analyzing the marketing strategy in the given scenario, the following has been suggested to the company to adopt as a marketing mix (Weinstein and Pohlman 2015). The given marketing mix will be explaining the marketing strategy of the chosen company. It will be elaborating upon the pricing, advertising, and distribution strategies which are being adopted by the company.
Metcash is one of the leading wholesalers and retailers in Australia. The company has one of the largest independent retailer structure which provides all kinds of items and grocery products to the different customers. These products include products like vegetables, fruits, meat, packaged items and others. The company along with this has started selling hardware products as well. Metcash wants to be a one stop soliton for all the retailers and producers. Furthermore, the company provides various options with respect to the food products it plans to offer. The customers are offered local products, international and even customized as per their need. When it comes to choice, the company aims to satisfy their customers. The company also has a wide range of liquor products present which tend to attract the different customers and cause them to make repetitive purchases from the given company.
The company Metcash is a wholesaler and offers affordable competitive prices within the range. As the company offers the customers with a wide variety of choice and it is the option of the retailers to stock all appropriate goods within their realm, they agree to pay slightly higher products to the different customers and this leads a win win strategy on the side of Metcash (Tiago and Veríssimo 2014). The IGA Supermarkets tend to offer all the good products to the different consumers in order to ensure that the needs of the customers are satisfied. The company also has access to offering various offers ad discounts to the different retailers and offers bonuses for every good purchased over a specific amount. The shopping card also offered by Metcash also acts as a competitive advantage.
The company operates in Australia and has access to more than 1000 suppliers and retailers around the country. Furthermore there are more than 100 stores present in the county. The supermarket also operates through an online portal. Metcash provides its goods and services to various local as well as national retailers thus spreading its structure and capturing the market in a grapevine manner.
Promotion has always been an integral aspect of the firm’s business and Metcash uses its promotional mix strategy in order to make the different retailers and customers aware of its operations. The key to success has been innovation and for this reason Metcash offers various offers and loyalty schemes to the different retailers and customers. They keep launching regular plans which enable them to remain a known name in the business domain. The company makes extensive use of social media strategies and presents the different consumers and retailers with additional offers. The company as physical as well as online stores which provide detailed information to the different customers regarding the same. The company believes that an extensive promotional channel will help them to reach the desired target market. The company can use this as a strong strategy to satisfy the different customers.
The company Metcash has more than 3000 employees working under its umbrella and increases it by 500 evert year. The excellence of the sale assistants have contributed greatly towards the success of the given business enterprise The primary motive of the customers in the given scenario is to ensure that all the needs and requirements of the target market are captured extensively and the company is able to provide a good service to all customers as well as the retailers. The company makes use of a zero policy for the support of its different employees and it is the motive of the company to not cause any harm to the environment and the employees alike. It believes that a good employee base will contribute to a better environment.
The business model and procedure followed by Metcash is very simple. This means that the prime concentration of the business is on customer satisfaction and it wants to ensure that the independent local suppliers and retailers are able to compete with the large multinational retailers easily (Babin and Zikmund 2015). It also aims to see to it that the customers are able to derive full value out of a given product and that the procedures are environment friendly and sustainable in nature (Ryan 2016). The company believes that its use of technology and sustainability in the procedure will contribute greatly towards ensuring that the competition is maintained in the given market.
The IGA Markets under the domain of Metcash carries out its operations successfully and ensures that all the stores are clean and attractive. It is a requirement which Metcash has to ensure that the stores are customer friendly and the product placement is done adequately. The website of Metcash needs to be designed in a manner such that it is able to attract the different local suppliers as well as the producers. In the future, the company can make use of the virtual reality in order to make the different products extremely popular in the business domain.
Conclusion
Therefore from the given analysis it can be stated that the company, Met Cash has been successful in creating a name for itself in the given domain and brings together a large number of suppliers together and enables them to form a forum which would help in development and contribute towards the formation of a good economic base. The report analyzed the marketing mix strategies and target market the company aims to achieve successfully.
References
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