Discuss about the Relationship Marketing Of The Marrison Supermarket.
The aim of the report is to talk about the relationship marketing of the Marrison Supermarket. Relationship Marketing is a sales approach that emphases on forming a long-term relationship that helps the customer and business (Management Study Guide, 2018). On the other hand, CRM is the acronym for the customer relationship management. In the competitive market, the companies have realized that they have to implement relationship marketing successfully to get closer towards the customer and market in which they are dealing as this will help the business in understanding the needs of customers. Customer relationship management is described as an enabler of relationship marketing in any organization. CRM comprises of different tools and techniques that help the managers to engage the customers. Along with this, the relationship marketing works as a strategic level and implementation of the strategy is possible with the help of relationship marketing. Relationship marketing of Morrison Supermarket will be discussed in the report that is related to CRM. The report also includes different activities of CRM followed by Morrison.
Morrison is the fourth largest chain of Supermarkets in the UK with the headquarters in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. This supermarket was founded in 1899 by William Morrison. The company believes in serving fresh food &grocery products across the UK with more than 500 stores. Along with this, the company offers the online home delivery service facility to its customers (Morrisons, 2018). Currently, the company has introduced a new customer relationship management with the aim to focus on customers and to compete with their big four supermarket rivals in the UK. This new system is developed by the Capgemini which will allow the supermarket to better analyze and understand the need of the individuals related to their preference, taste, and others (Glenday, 2013).
Morrison Company knows the value of their customer and due to which they believe in following effective customer relationship marketing (Zhang, et.al, 2016). Evaluation of the Morrison CRM can be done with the help of CRM value chain along with the use of IDIC model. This value chain is divided into two categories one is primary stages and another is secondary stages. Below given is the analysis of the primary stages of the CRM value chain.
This stage reflects that the business needs to identify the customers that it needs to target. The company targets single, bachelors, working couples and busy occupied professionals along with the international students and people who wish to work hard to save the money by having ready means with the spices and good taste (Cohen, 2014). To identify the needs of the customers they initiated “customer listening programme”. Morrison believes in listening to their customers and brings the changes in their business operations. Through this, the company can understand the needs of the customer’s such lack of availability of products on shelves, no special offers, and many others. After this programme, the company brought improvements in the availability of the product on stores. This is the effective way through which the company can form effective relation by providing them expected value. Customer listening programme helps the company to interact with the customers which is essential considering the interaction component of IDIC model.
Along with this, the company formed the strategy to strengthen the customer focus on the implementation of the multi-channel CRM. The company has more than 490 stores in the UK with approx. 131,000 employees serving over 11 million customers every week. Through this, the company can build strong CRM by understanding and satisfy the tastes, preference and shopping habits of the customers. Morrison can gather the details easily with the help of this new system (Ippoliti, 2013). Considering the analysis, this can be said that the company is doing well but not enough as there is need of improvement that helps the company to achieve the desired goals and objective of company.
Customer intimacy is another stage in which the company tries to engage with its customers after collecting the information. It is essential for the company to get engage with the customers to provide them the greater value than its competitors which is effective to retain customers (Morrsions, 2018). Morrisons has enhanced the customer intimacy by forming a reliable price strategy after considering the feedback from the customers. In additions, the employees of the company were happy and celebrated with the customers when the company introduced price-cutting strategy (Hobbs, 2017). Thus, this shows that employees share the happiness with customers. This makes the customers feel valued and precious for the company.
Price cut strategy of the Morrison Company was one of the strategies that are to build emotional loyalty with the customers who are done with a price cut and the contribution of employees. This successful price cut reflects the use of identifying component of the IDIC model is done effectively which states it is essential for the company to identify the needs of the customers.
This stage of network development includes the interaction of all the stage of business and its customers. The aim of the company is to enjoy the interaction with the customers to makes them happy and satisfied with the services. After listening to the customers, the Morrison Company came to know that they are not able to get shoppers experienced personnel at the right place. This shows that the network development is still not completed (Vizard, 2015). Morrison Company provided training to their employees and placed them in stores so that they can interact with the customers and offer them delight services.
In addition, the company was looking into the areas of marketing logistics and head office for the cost savings across the business as it looks to simplify and speed up. This is one of the effective ways to build a closer relationship with the customers. The CEO of the company David Potts said that marketing cost is part of careful programmes which in an effort to make the relationship with suppliers simple and develop a direct relationship with customers.
This stage comes when the company has learned much about their customers and have made the decision regarding what they are going to serve in the market to their customers. Morrison focuses on reducing the cost of products and services that are essential for creating value for the customers (Kumar, 2010). The aim of the company is to provide one-stop-shop as this will be convenient for them. Moreover, the company believes in offering practical services such as key cutting, mobile repair stations along with the pick-up points. These practical services help the company in getting connected with the customers and will help them to achieve the position of leading online retailers. In addition, the company is offering different offers (including deals on meal and bundle deals) on their products. It is recommended to the company to bring the new services such as a sitting area for the customers. It has been observed that in most of the supermarket there is no sitting place for peoples. If Morrison will start providing this services then they can add on the in the experience of the customers. Thus, the company will be able to meet the Differentiate component of IDIC model which states that differentiate can be done on the basis of value and need.
The lifecycle of the customers is defined as his journey from the stage of being a prospect right through to the end of the line when the prospect has become the customers of the company. The effective experience of the customers comes with the proper processes and structure of its organization (Linoff and Berry, 2011). The structure needs attending to customers, acquisition, retention, and development of the customers.
Morrisson supermarket attains their entire customer whoever visits the store along with this they attract the potential prospects to visit the store by offering them attractive services. When the supermarket gets successful in acquiring the new prospects then they retain them by engaging them in their business by showing their value and culture. In addition, the company tries to offer the best of their services so that they get successful in retaining them. After retaining the prospects becomes the customer of the company and makes the purchase of the products from the Morrison. Later, the company makes such strategy so they can easily convert the customers into the loyal customers.
Morrison needs to consider some activities that help them in retaining the customers. This is the fact that Morrison is able to form the strong connection with their customers but still, there is need to improve the relationship after considering the evaluation of the company’s relationship marketing (Christopher, Payne and Ballantyne, 2013). Below are the activities that can be used by the company for retaining customer: –
CRM is an approach that helps the company to manage the interaction with the current and the potential customers of the company. There are 3 different types of CRM; Operational CRM, Analytical CRM and Collaborative CRM (Payne, 2012). Out of which the major CRM is the operational CRM. Operational CRM refers to the services that allow an organization to take care of their customers. It offers the support to the various business processes that include the sales, marketing, and service (Greenberg, 2010). The relationship marketing activities that are proposed helps the company in forming a relationship with the customers. The description related to the same has been discussed below: –
Email marketing- Morrison can share the content which will help them in attracting the maximum number of customers as the content of mail will include the details related to the discounts and coupons to the customers. This activity will also generate the awareness about the services that the company is offering to their customers. Therefore, this will ultimately increase the sales and revenue of the company and will help them in forming a relationship with new customers.
Credit card- This activity of the company will help the Morrison Company in generating high sales. The company will be able to form the relationship with the help of sales which is an operational CRM. Along with this, they can form a trust relationship with the customers which are essential for the future perspective of the company.
Improvement in customer service- Morrison ensures that are offering effective services to their customers. The company provides the availability of the call centers, data aggregation system, and website. Through all these services the customer can contact the company easily for sharing their issues and feedback before the purchase of products and after the purchase of the product.
Marketing automation refers to as the software that exists with the goals of the automating marketing actions. In simple words, it is referred to as the software platforms and technology that is designed for the marketing departments and the organizations to perform the business operations more effectively in the market on the multiple channels online and automate repetitive tasks (Todor, 2016). It is suggested to the company to make use of the Marketing Automation in their loyalty card through which they are forming a relationship with the customers.
Morrison supermarket is forming their relationships with the help of the loyalty card. The company introduced the Morrison’s More Card through which the customers can earn the market-leading reward on fuel and can earn points. This card has been sent to the existing cardholders and gives them the opportunity to earn Morrison’s More Points per pound spent in the store. When any of the customers will be able to earn 5,000 points they will get the £5 voucher that can be used by the customers on the store (Morrisons, 2018).
This card will also provide the benefits listed below: –
The company should make use of the marketing automation in the loyalty card which will help them in managing the repetitive task for the emails, social media and other website actions (Jena, and Panda, 2017). There are different ways through which Morrison makes use of the marketing automation in loyalty cards. Some of them are given below: –
Welcome Email
Whenever new customers get register with the Morrison supermarket through loyalty card then they get a welcome mail from the company side. This is the first active communication that takes places between the company and the user. To generate the welcome email for the very customers the company make use of the marketing automation (Beck, Chapman and Palmatier, 2015). Moreover, now the company is willing to send the personalized mail to their customers in which they provide the greeting with the name of customers. It is recommended to the company to make use of the picture of the company in which they represent that they are welcoming their customers which leave a good impression on the mind of the customers for the brand.
Activity Email
Morrison Supermarket provides an email to the customer whenever customer get to engage in the programs and receive the progress towards the rewards. This is one of the effective ways through which the company engage the customers with the brand. Moreover, through the activity mail, the company gives the invitation to the customers to visit again to the stores for the purchase of the product. The company is making use of the marketing automation in such types of email but now the company is making it simpler (Bannister, 2017). They are making use of the clear and simple visuals that reduce the amount of the text generally used in the e-mails. This will enhance the chances of the contribution from the customer’s side.
The image reflects the use of the visual by the company in their activity email that they share with the customers whenever they find any activity through the Morrison loyalty card. Along with this, it is suggested to the company to make it more attractive for the customers. Moreover, it is suggested to the company to add slogan which will attract the customers and make them visit the store again for the purchase of the products.
The company can make use of the marketing automation in the SMS. The company can generate the awareness about the discount and offers that the company is offering it products which will help them in generating the sales and forming the relationship with the customers. The mode of SMS has been selected because this is the fact that most of the customers don’t check their email on daily basis. Therefore, the company should share the details with the help of the message because this will easily generate the awareness and also grab the attention of the customers towards the discount and offer that the company is offering to their customers. it is recommended to the company to initiate this system as soon as possible.
Conclusion
In the end, it can be concluded that Morrison Company knows the value of the relationship marketing as this is the effective way through which they can form the strong connection with their current and potential customers. CRM value chain analysis reflects that there are numerous activities that are conducted by the company to form the relationship with the customers and to make them happy and satisfy. The evaluation of the customer relationship management chain reflects that the company is able to conduct the effective relationship marketing or not. On the basis of the evaluation, there are some activities suggested to the company which helps them in retaining the customers and also in generating the customer loyalty. Morrison supermarket is performing the relationship marketing effectively as they are making use of the marketing automation which helps them in making an effective relationship with customers. The marketing automation on the loyalty card has been done by the company. Some of the changes have been suggested to the company.
References
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