1003MKT Introduction to Marketing: Analysis of Woolworths Ltd

Provide a brief description of this organisation and the industry to which it belongs. You may also want to include in this description any mission statements, value statements or slogans that this organisation utilizes to communicate its purpose. In describing this organisation, please also identify its orientation towards marketing and provide relevant, detailed and factual supporting evidence to substantiate why you have identified this specific orientation. Finally, include a brief description of the product(s) this organisation offers the market. And comment on what role the brand has in this organisation's marketing strategy.

Analyse each of the 5Cs for this organisation:

a. Company what are the strengths and key resources, what are some of the weaknesses? What are the opportunities and threats?

b. Customers who is the company serving and what type of behaviour is typical from them?

c. Collaborators describe their suppliers, distributors or other partners that help the company to deliver their products to the market? If company doesn't have any explain why it is not necessary.

d. Competitors who are the current main competitors, are there any potential new threats or new entrants to the marketplace?
e. Context what other factors affect this organisation (e.g., legal, political, technological, etc.)?

How does the firm go about collecting information (e.g., market research, market intelligence, etc.) about the 5Cs? For example, how does it learn about?

a. What customers want?
b. Which competitors pose a threat?
c. How the context of business is changing, if at all? d. What role collaborators play in the process?

Based on the market analyses, outline potential market segments that are available to the chosen organisation. Recommend and justify:

- a choice of target market(/s)
- a value proposition for the target market(/s).
- a positioning statement for the target market(/s).

The organizational mission of the company is to deliver best quality of customer service, which will help them to provide value and respect for the needs of the customer. The main purpose of marketing strategy of the company is to establish healthy relationship with all the stakeholders, which has also, help them to improve upon their brand value. The company proudly announces themselves as business partner to all the local farmers and manufacturers, which help them to effectively operate the business and help in local economic development. The main purpose of the marketing strategy of the company is to build a strong customer and store led culture that can be achieved with the help of effective teamwork. Generation of sustainable development is also one of the major aims of marketing strategy of Woolworths, which will help them to retain customers and maintain their brand value within the Australian community. The company is also aiming to expand their product line, which will also help them to increase the overall sales volume. The management of the company is currently aiming to give better focus on the needs of their customer. This can be achieved through customer feedback program, which is mainly achieved by implementing better level of business communication strategy. With the help of the feedback and information collected from the, it is possible for the company to improve upon the shopping experience and bring about changes in the existing customer service protocol.

The company is currently offering all kinds of retail and grocery products, which are essential consumer necessities. The company sells these products from different types of manufacturers, which can fulfill the requirement of all class of people within the Australian society. Throughout past several years of operation in the Australian consumer market, Woolworths Limited has been able to earn high brand value for their products, which is mainly believed to the best quality among all other consumer products (Woolworthsgroup.com.au, 2017). The high brand value of Woolworths is one of the main parts of marketing plan, which is used by the company to communicate with the target audience. In the following section, detailed description of the marketing strategy will be provided.

Issue 2: 5 C's of the organization

The 5 C's of marketing is one of the effective tools that help to implement major marketing decisions of a company (Menon et al. 2015). With the help of this tool, it is possible to provide an effective guideline and help to implement the correct decision depending upon the external situation of a market. Baker (2014), has added that this tool is also effective in understanding the need of the customers and thereby help to provide high quality of customer service. The major marketing decisions that are implemented by large scale business organization are highly dependent upon the element of 5 C's in marketing.

Company: This is the primary element of 5Cs marketing plan, which help to identify the major strengths and weakness of a company in the context of current market environment (Hanssens et al. 2013). Being one of the largest private business organizations in Australia, one of the biggest strength of Woolworths is their high brand value and reputation in the consumer market of Australia. Moreover being one of the oldest companies, it is possible for the organization to have large scale of supply distribution chain, which is Highly Effective in providing all the necessary retail and grocery products to the customers. Having over 3000 stores in all over Australia, it is possible for the company to target a wide range of audience among the Australian community. The major weakness of the company on the other hand, is there any ability to expand in other parts of the globe. This is mainly due to the fact that the company has failed to maintain sustainability in all other parts. The company has currently encountered major threat due to entry of new rivals in the retail sector of Australia. Nevertheless, it is believed that with the help of new business pattern, which will be operated through E-Commerce business chain, it is possible for the company to target even wider range of customers.

Customers: The Woolworths has wide range customers, which is segmented into different categories depending upon their personal needs. With the current market share of nearly 20% of the Retail Industry in Australia, it is possible for the company to satisfy the needs of a wide range of Australian consumers (Woolworthsgroup.com.au, 2017). The company is also aiming to maintain effective business relationship with all the group of customers which will help them to maintain business sustainability.

Collaborators: Woolworths being one of the oldest business organizations has been able to establish effective business partnership with all the local farmers and manufacturers. The company also has business deal with a wide group of suppliers, which help them to maintain an effective supply chain distribution channel (Woolworthsgroup.com.au, 2017).

Competitors: In spite of being, the largest private retail network of Australia, the major competitors of the company includes the Coles supermarket, Aldi and Big W. The company has to face tough challenge to maintain their market share among the Australian community. Moreover, with new entrants in Australian retail sector the competitive environment is becoming even tougher. It is important for the company to bring about modification within the marketing strategies, which will help them to maintain greater sustainability.

Context: The external business environment in the Australian consumer market has a major impact in all the marketing decisions (Schmidt et al. 2014). Being one of the developed nations of the globe, Australia has always maintained a higher economic growth, which is mainly possible due to the effective government policies and business laws. The highly Advanced Technological infrastructure with an Australian society has also implemented in the business market environment. This external business context has a major impact in all the business policies of Woolworths.

Issue 3: Market information collection 

In order to maintain business sustainability, it is important for Woolworths to collect relevant marketing information that is essential in marketing research. It is important to collect information to properly implement the elements of marketing tool and analyze the external business environment (Schmidt et al. 2014). As the company is able to implement digital form of business communication with the customers, it is possible for them to collect the latest information from the market, which is possible due to direct and frequent interactions with the customers.

It is also essential for the company to deploy expert market researchers, which help them to properly analyze the external business marketing environment. This is also helpful in prediction of future market growth. The technique of situational analysis is believed to be highly efficient in the given context. This can help the business to gather accurate information that is needed for 5Cs of marketing plan. SWOT and PEST analysis along with Porter’s 5 forces is applied to collect information in context of the competitive business environment (Schleimer et al. 2014). The perspective of the customers can be understood with the help of information and statistical data derived from the customer’s survey feedback. The context of changing business also needs to be analyzed that can help to implement proper change in the marketing planning methods. The company needs to properly understand the perspective of the business partners and collaborators, which is needed to understand their role in the context of the supplier’s role (Shih et al. 2013).

Issue 4: Marketing Strategy 

From the analysis of the retail sector of Australian market, it is clear that is a tough level of marketing competition. Angell and Kraemer (2017), have mentioned about the importance of market segmentation policy that can be implemented by Woolworths Limited for better and accurate marketing strategy. Additionally, it is essential to consider about the fact that being the largest supermarket retail unit the target market group for the company will include all categories of people.  

One of the major issues that are faced by the company is due to high level of pricing of the products. For this reason, the company is able to target mainly the people with high level of income. Over the past many years, the company is able to provide premium quality of the products, which has helped them to position their brand value at superior position within the retail industry of Australia. The company has aimed to launch the market value proposition, which can be obtained with the help of price based marketing campaigns. This is also used a major part of the market positioning statement. With the help of effective position statement, it is possible for the company to have the ability to connect with the customers. It also fills the information that can help to fulfill the needs of the customers.

The market position statement will depend upon the behavior of the target customers. This is also effective in providing competitive edge to the company that is achieved with the help of aggressive marketing strategies. The organizational gaol of Woolworths is effectively reflected in the organizational mission statement. This includes focus upon the pricing and value for money for every product.

Issue 5: Development of marketing tactics (Marketing Mix)

The elements of marketing mix are effective in the context that it can help to change the parameters of marketing plan depending upon the change of the external business environment (Sarin et al. 2013). There are 4 elements of marketing mix that can be considered for the same:

Product: The Woolworths Limited sells all kinds of retail grocery products that include many of the essential requirements of daily life. The wide range of retail products have also helped in the development of market base for the company in the retail industry of the nation.

Price: The price of the products of Woolworths is usually in the higher category, which has helped them to provide premium quality of products. However, the company needs to alter or lower their pricing. This can be achieved by the introduction of lower pricing products and thereby help them to expand their range of target customers.

Place: The main places of market operations of Woolworths include the retail industry of Australia and New Zealand. Most of the attempts of the company to expand in other regions have failed. Hence, the current market tactics needs to modify according to the business environment of local market.

Promotion: The Company mainly needs to implement and focus upon the digital marketing tactics. This is believed to help them to focus upon the improving the communication with the target customers.

Conclusion 

In the concluding note, it can be said that with the help of effective marketing strategies and use of marketing tool, it is possible for Woolworths to be one of the largest business organization. The application of 5Cs of marketing along with that of marketing mix, it is possible for the company to comprehensively expand the market share and maintain their high brand value in the retail sector of Australia.

References

Angell, R.L. and Kraemer, J.R., International Business Machines Corporation, 2017. Automatically generating an optimal marketing strategy for improving cross sales and upsales of items. U.S. Patent 9,685,048.

Baker, M.J., 2014. Marketing strategy and management. Palgrave Macmillan.

Hanssens, D.M., Rust, R.T. and Srivastava, R.K., 2013, May. Marketing strategy and Wall Street: nailing down marketing's impact. American Marketing Association.

Menon, A., Bharadwaj, S.G., Adidam, P.T. and Edison, S.W., 2015. Effective Marketing Strategy-Making: Antecedents and Consequences. In Proceedings of the 1997 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 224-224). Springer, Cham.

Schleimer, S.C., Coote, L.V. and Riege, A., 2014. Headquarters to subsidiary transfer effects on marketing strategy exploitation. Journal of Business Research, 67(3), pp.307-315.

Schmidt, K.M., Spann, M. and Zeithammer, R., 2014. Pay what you want as a marketing strategy in monopolistic and competitive markets. Management Science, 61(6), pp.1217-1236.

Shih, B.Y., Chen, C.Y. and Chen, Z.S., 2013. Retracted: an empirical study of an internet marketing strategy for search engine optimization. Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing & Service Industries, 23(6), pp.528-540.

Woolworthsgroup.com.au. (2017). About Us - Woolworths Group. [online] Available at: https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/about-us [Accessed 10 Oct. 2017].

Sarin, S., Challagalla, G. and Kohli, A.K., 2013, May. Implementing changes in marketing strategy: The role of perceived outcome-and process-oriented supervisory actions. American Marketing Association.