Discuss about the Marketing Management : Woolworth Marketing Strategies.
All in Australia there are about 140,000 businesses and retail companies, only for the retail industry. Australian retail markets are considered to be the strongest industries in the world (Wardle and Baranovic, 2009). Here the largest positions are captured by Coles and Woolworths, these are owned by the Wesfarmers group and Woolworths limited respectively. All through Australia, these are the giants in retail supermarkets which prove to serve the high quality products.
If we talk about the history of the Woolworths, it was established with its operations running in 1924. Initially, they had small store in the basement in Sydney, Australia. Since then it had grown up as the leading giants among Australia. Most commonly, if we talk from the customer’s point of view, it has become the first choice to buy the household products from both in the regional areas and in the metropolitans of Australia. Woolworths deal with the wide range of grocery and its food products manufactured which they had begun as the fresh food suppliers. It has been 64 years since they have had started as the fresh food supplier’s chain. The main motto Woolworths has is that they treat their customers on the highest priority on what they demand. Not only this but also they try to keep their customers updated about what is newest and the best for them. There are many brands under the Woolworths limited which are dyed-in-the-wool to serve its customers in the best possible manner with respect to its quality of the products (Rotembuurg, 1993).
This company’s retailed product includes food products, grocery, liquors, electronics, fuel and general merchandise. Under the Woolworths, there are currently, 2330 divisions along with 284 if its hotel and 577 of its general merchandising stores. The primary area of operation and marketing includes New Zealand, Australia which has its subsidies in China, Hong Kong and India (Global Data, 2012).
The glimpse of history of the Woolworths limited is briefed as follows:
1924: the company had started its first store in Sydney, Australia.
1930-1940: This was the phase of rapid growth and expansion of its operations from all of the stores.
1970-1980: the brand became the holder as world largest retailer in the fresh food products.
1980-1990: this is the phase when Woolworths has become the market leader of the retailed sector, in Australia.
1990- To present: it has expanded its sectors by entering into various sectors of hotel, liquor and gas stations.
Any of the company so as to have a working developing plan and strategy, they must have a understanding of its vision and mission. The vision statement of the company includes that how the organization does wants its environment to be like and where does it wants to see itself in near future. Also the vision statement of the organization can be concluded as the planning which is done from the long-term view of its goals and which arrears are to be focused upon in the near future. This vision statement proves to motivate the employees and guides inspiration for them.
The vision statement of Woolworths is to maintain its retail business and offer its customers the best quality which has greater value for the money along with wider choice options which shall serve the high-end services to the customers. This can be concluded from its vision statement (Global Data, 2011).
The objectives of this organization are to improve the efficiency with the stock turnover and ensuring that the customer are served by the more than 800 stores which are there across streets of the United Kingdom. Such stock contains the value for money products which will match the expectations of the customers. Woolworths has its investments in the supply chain system which has affected all the areas of the organization.
Agencies: Agencies are the middlemen of the business world. When businesses need a specific worker who specializes in the trade, they go to a recruitment agency.
Analysis of five c’s can be done which is useful for the performance analysis of the environmental scanning which is useful in analyzing the marketing situations. This analysis helps in the marketing decision making. Also, it covers the scanning of the internal as well as the external environment. This five c analysis is basically the extended of three c which includes the company, customers, collaborators, climate and its competitors. The detailed analysis to the five aspects is as follows:
This shall include the company’s analysis which states the objectives and evaluation of its capabilities. This tells about the strength of the strategic plan and model of the organization. Moreover, it analyses what are the areas to be worked upon in terms of improvement and that how well the organization fits in the criteria of the external environment.
Identifying and accessing the competitors in the market is necessary so as to compete from its competitors. The competitors of Woolworths in Australian market are Aldi and Coles.
Collaborators are those who create a business idea and helps in commencing the business for an organization in the most efficient way. The collaborators to an organization manufacturing the products are as potential suppliers, buyers, retailers, distribution channels, etc.
Woolworths has mainly the customers as the females. They are more engaged into house hold activities. Also, the target customers for this organization are the high income group as it has comparatively high priced products.
Climate of an organization includes the factors which lead to PESTAL analysis. This analysis for Woolworths can be done as:
Political: the political factor includes the retail companies which are affected by the political climate of other industries. These political conditions help in shaping the perfect environment for the business.
Economical: factors such as that of the recession is higher and the high the unemployment factor which will have greater impact on the financial performance of the business.
Social factors: the changes that the customer has made from the early era to now in the retail shopping experiences. The company has recently introduced many new means to fulfill what the customers are seeking for.
Technological factors: the newer the technologies the more ease will be there for the customers to buy the products. Use of RFIA and Service oriented architecture is operated for the effective supply.
Legal factors: this includes the taxation and managing the revenues. These are the legal formalities that have to be undergone while doing business. The quality of the products manufactured should be always according to the standards of Australia.
The marketing research method that Woolworths follow is basically based upon the marketing research and the methods Woolworths follow for factors such as its customers, competitors, collaborators and the context of the business. These are the aspects which once when decided does the market research and then is followed according to the strategies formed:
How does the organization decide that what their customers are longing for?
Woolworths basically serves the customers in the personalized way which the individual which is high in quality and according to the current market trends. This is their aim to satisfy its customers within the value for money pricing range. This is the strategy which Woolworths follow. Also, meeting the customers need by providing them the products with highly competitive pricing, best of the best quality consistently, with more options available for the customers which shall give them the best experiences among shopping.
The firm collects information by the way they have created different departments for knowing what the customers want actually. This is done by conducting surveys from the customers, so as to satisfy of strategic management. Also, focus groups are important tool for to research that has skills in moderating and interpretation. Ethnographic studies also help in the market research.
The threat from the other rivalry’s present in the market is as:
Woolworths have the strong competitors in Australia which the retail stores have is Myers, Coles Wal-Mart, TESCO and macro wholefoods limited. The present competition prevailing in the markets is at such intensity which shall create a better competition in the market and these will also build upon the effective strategies which will differentiate themselves.
The presence of some strong competitors in Australia retail and grocery industry such as Myer or Coles is likely to limit the Woolworths’ market share and contribute the high level of concentration. The intensity of those competitors is forcing the company continuously creating competitive and effective strategies in order to differentiate themselves from competitors.
Market research done about the competitors in the market includes the information done through the interaction with the employees. Retrieval of information can be done by the way of getting the information out of the social networks. The information about the competitors is also retrieved by the way of doing some reporting about the competitors in the market currently.
To know about the changing marketing trends like going global, diversifying the business or about the flexibility the research can be done by evaluating the new features of the products or of the new features available. Also, by assessing the advantages and the disadvantages for if the new packaging is done for any newly launched products.
The research method used for getting the information about the collaborators involved can be done the way of SWOT analysis which enables Woolworths about the analysis of the internal bureaucratic and product development techniques.
The maximum sales revenue of the suppliers when done in a certain period of time, is called as the potential market. The potential market segments that are available to Woolworths are as follow:
Woolworths has its core customers who are more loyal and are not scared in complaining about, if the local street stores fulfill their expectations or not. For this when the market analysis is done, it is found that the organization works for building the strong relationship with its customers and will say consistently about providing the right services and the products.
Also, it is found that the target customers are basically includes more female customers. This is because only they are generally conscious about the house holds of the family. Also they spend large amount of money in solving their problems and the issues. In other words, the females when spend more upon the cosmetics who lie in between the age group of 14-30 are targeted (Westwood, 2002).
The purpose of the value statement is that it is used in the communication of the actual purpose of the organization. This is also called as the mission statement. On the other hand, the mission statement briefs about the fundamental principles of any organization. It has description of the details about the commencements of the organization and also what are the goals that need to be attained. Woolworths has stated in its mission that aims at the it need to be the most loved amongst the retailer for family, leisure, home and the kids.
The marketing mix strategy of the Woolworths can be defined as below. The elements of the marketing mix include product, price, place and promotion. This extends to the three more p’s now which are physical layout, provision of customer services and process as its elements. Firstly, under the product category the aim of the organization is to fulfill the expectations and needs of the customers. For example when the house hold and the beauty products are there then the customers are to be served with the most advanced technology present in the market. Woolworths basically focuses on the quality it is offering to the accessible products available. Woolworths has clearly identified that what the customers are actually looking for and how to satisfy them with serving the accurate value for money options. Woolworths has done a great job in providing the highest quality factors in terms of quality. Also, the products sold are the cost effective driven products. Moreover, it is kept in mind to serve their loyal customers with the high quality products and services. This is the motive of Woolworths regarding the product marketing strategy.
Second is the pricing factor which is accordingly monitored by using different strategies and is changed in the period of time. Also, the supermarket has different offers and techniques for customers who include various discounts, promotional offers, etc. also, it has sometimes the offer for discounts on the MRP which attracts the customers and helps with generating more revenue for the organization (Hwang, Bronnenberg & Thomadsen, 2010).
Third is the place which includes the stores which are located under the areas which are actually convenient to the customers. Moreover, these kinds of supermarkets have the focus on choosing its location for the stores. Hence, it can be concluded that the stores of Woolworths has kept in mind the location as well as the convenience of the customers, to get high demand response. Moreover, for this sake now online stores are also launched for the sake of its customer convenience. It is recently, that the mobile application software for Woolworths are also facilitated so that their customers can shop from anywhere, anytime (Omar and Sawmong, 2007).
Fourth p is regarding the Promotion activities, that Woolworths does so as to broadcast it on Tv channels and other media. The most popular option available that is the Billboard advertising is used majorly for communication with its target market/ audience. In addition to it, many of other activities like that of the promotional activities are carried on. For instance, like that of the demonstration about the products is done and shown to the customers in the store which are under the promotional activities. Also, Woolworths has its own publication published in the market for the sake of more effective communication with its target markets (Wowlink.com.au, 2015).
The physical layout is the fifth P which explains about the physical output protection for the products, in the factories which should ultimately important to the end customers. But for now many of the products which are retailed has the high level presentation which is there in the stores which are modern. Woolworths has the highly presentable way of physical output of the product which is equally important to the providers with high quality.
Next is the provision for the customer service, this is the post sale marketing tactic which shall help the customers with availing the facility of the organization about their products. Woolworths has their customers treated on the highest priority and is quiet successful in this approach. Call centre staff and facing the customers in the first line is considered to be the troops with the front lines which are considered to be the advantage in building up the customer relations.
The processes are the seventh P which is associated with the number of processes that are done through to make the organization much better along with the effective marketing tactics. The processes undergone are as the process to handle the customer’s complaints processes for identifying what the target market is looking for and also the processes involved with the handling of the orders. This is the marketing tactic followed by Woolworths.
Recommendation for the marketing mix of Woolworths is that firstly they should revise upon their prices which are higher comparatively in the Australian markets. Whereas, the quality of Woolworth’s product is similar to those of available in other supermarkets. The name of company is highly repudiated which is for the reason of its highly maximized shares. For the long run race with its competitors, Woolworths will have to look after its pricing strategy. This will help to attract the larger target market as compared to what it is for now.
These are the seven P’s of marketing with their own effective tactic for better marketing and creating more effective value prepositions from the customers. This is followed by Woolworths for efficient management.
Conclusion
Woolworths is amongst the leading supermarkets of Australia which has its own business tactics and strategies. These help its customers, collaborators, suppliers, company, and its context to develop for the better and effective marketing management. It has many near competitors in the market.
This is concluded about the Woolworths marketing management.
References:
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