Advanced Marketing Assessment Answers

Introduction:

The study consists of the explanation of some marketing concepts along with marketing approach of a company. The company selected for the study is Countdown. Countdown is a full-service retail supermarket chain of New Zealand. It is a subsidiary company of Progressive Enterprises. Again, Progressive Enterprises is a subsidiary of Woolworths Limited. Hence, the parent company of Countdown Supermarket chain is Woolworths Limited. Few marketing concepts are explained in the report that is vital for every company to sustain in the competitive marketplace. Apart from this, recommendations will also be provided to Countdown that would help the company to increase profitability and brand awareness.

Key Marketing Concepts

Production concept of companies lies in reducing production costs of its products. If a company is successful in lowering its production cost, more amount of profit will be earned by it. To implement this strategy, companies indulge themselves in large scale production while improving the distribution pattern (Boone & Kurtz, 2013). It is effective when the market demand is more than the supply. Product concept refers to the quality of product served by the company towards its target customers. Companies must focus on the standard quality of their products that is ethical and is a reason of attracting customers. Firms following product concept devotes them in maintain a standard quality of the goods (Armstrong et al., 2014).

Sense and respond concept refers to the ability to predict the needs of the company regarding planning, command, control, the hierarchy of authority, etc. Firms practicing this concept emphasize on the prediction of the needs of customers more than focusing on operations. A management paradigm is followed by the companies that usually practice sense and respond concept (Beuren et al., 2013). Probe and learn marketing approach refers to probing and learning procedures. Organizations at first probe or approach to markets then approach towards manufacturing process. The process of probing and learning includes the introduction of new products by firms. Firms usually experiment with new products. This stage is known as probing. After this stage, the learning process comes. If the new product or the modified old product fails in the market then companies learn the causes of failure. Companies the following innovation generally practices the probe and learns marketing orientation (Fuller, 2016).

Social networking is a current trend of marketing of products of service. It is proven to be one of the most effective marketing approaches practiced by every company in the modern business world. The most vital part of it is an investment is almost negligible when compared to other traditional practices of marketing. Traditional marketing tactics include advertisement, direct marketing, personal selling, display advertisements, banners, radio jingles, etc. It incurs huge budget to companies (Davis & Manrodt, 2013). Social media can target huge customer base than the above-mentioned marketing tactics. It is considered as a global marketing process. There are different social media channels that are used by both companies and customers. They are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, Pinterest, Bebo, LinkedIn, Google Plus, YouTube, etc.

Critique of Marketing Orientation

Countdown is a popular supermarket based in New Zealand that operates worldwide. The company has adopted several strategies to gain a significant position in the food and grocery market. Globally the company has its presence. However, supermarkets of New Zealand are very competitive in nature. The main aim is to tap more customers by providing good quality of products to the customers. On the other hand, Countdown adopts unique marketing strategy. Tailored marketing strategy of Countdown is a popular strategy that is responsible for not only attracting new customers but also for retaining existing customers (Barquet et al., 2013). Apart from the tailored approach, new product development is another strong aspect that is responsible for increasing brand awareness. Both these two strategies are a part of the product and production concept.

Countdown strives to deliver a quality product to its customers. The unique selling point of Countdown is to provide choice, convenience and value to the customers. It is the reason of having excellent shopping experience to the shoppers. The value chain is maintaining the process of manufacturing to the sale of the products to the customers. It is an example of the product concept. Countdown provides value for each product to its customers. Lowering the price is the main selling point of the company (Morris et al., 2015). A price war is practiced by all supermarkets across the world. However, to sustain in the competitive market, Countdown has to implement unique marketing approaches for tapping more customers. The current marketing approach of Countdown is integrated with production, product and selling concept. The real strategic advantage is the key point of success of the company for delivering the priorities of the predefined marketing goals. Cost leadership is a result of the production concept (Leonidou et al., 2013). The Large scale of production is the result of lowering cost of products along with good relations. Lean retail model is the manufacturing strategy of the company.

Sense and respond concept is the base of Countdown for introducing the tailored strategy of the firm. Tailored strategy refers to the customized approach of the company to its customers. For this approach, the extensive customer relationship is maintained by Countdown (Webster Jr & Lusch, 2013). The employees are trained to provide better service to the customers coming to the stores of Countdown. There are many promotional strategies of that engage customers to the company. Discounts and offers are implemented by application the sense and respond approach. Offers are also customized according to the nature of the shoppers and buying behavior of the customers.

The online marketing tactics are also very strong to that of the traditional approaches. Traditional approaches are not so popular like that of the social media advertisements. The company has its presence in many social media platforms. However, Countdown mainly focuses on sales of its groceries via its website (Roberts & Grover, 2012). Development of website for the convenience of the online shoppers is an area of consistent focus by Countdown.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Countdown supermarket has many strategies of increasing its brand awareness in the target market. The company is growing its operations globally by opening supermarkets and convenient stores in metropolitan areas of the state along with developing new products as per the preference of the customers in a particular country. For better experiences, many strategies and new policies are formulated by Countdown for satisfying the needs of the customers. However, a company cannot excel in all areas of its operations. Countdown has few drawbacks in its marketing approaches that are integrated with the above-mentioned marketing concepts. Recommendations are provided to the company that would increase the sales volume of the company resulting in increased profitability.

 Countdown can apply the production concept more efficiently in different countries. It is a hard to maintain the same cost of production in every country. But Countdown has to conduct extensive research to find the competitive advantage in the perspective of the manufacturing process (Barrales‐Molina et al., 2014). In terms of marketing through social media channels, Countdown should focus on more engagement of customers through different social media platforms. There are many strategies that are applied by social media marketers for conversion of viewers of the applications of the social media into prospective customers of the company. In this way, Countdown can increase their customer base. Extensive market research regarding competitor analysis, customer satisfaction, demands in the market, etc. should be done by Countdown for improvement in the customized strategy of the company (Wu, 2013). It will encourage customers to shop more products from the supermarket. Countdown could also implement the approach of Probe and learn the method in reinventing old product with slight modifications and then selling it in the marketplace. Customers might accept the product. However, it should be performed after making a customer survey that helps in knowing demands of them.

References

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Fuller, G. W. (2016). New food product development: from concept to marketplace. CRC Press.

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