Customer Service and Sales and Marketing Report

Introduction

Supermarkets have become one of the majorly ruling sectors in the business world and they have attracted a wide range of customers with their exceptional capability of offering a variety of different products and services under one roof as well as premium customer services that make them comfortable and satisfied at the same time. The key to the success of these supermarkets in the current era is their tactful and analytical use of marketing strategies with which they are able to attract a huge potential audience and are making uncontrollable sales and revenues (Gilbert, 2002).

This research is carried through is aimed at studying the internal and external factors that might impact the marketing strategies of the overall supermarket's sector as well as the three selected organizations, in particular, i.e. Tesco, Waitrose, and Aldi. Moreover, this research also aims at determining the customer service strategies of these supermarkets and to carry through a comparison between them.

Methodology

The research methodology used for this research is secondary in nature and the data and information about the overall supermarket's sector and the three specified organizations have been majorly gathered from their company websites and available research papers, etc. The secondary method of research has been preferred over the primary method as it was nearly impossible to gather primary data at such a large scale where the marketing strategies, as well as the factors impacting them, were to be determined from the whole sector of supermarkets. There were a major time and budget constraints as well for this is small-scale academic research only.

Findings

Marketing Strategies within the Supermarkets’ Sector of UK

The supermarket's sector within the United Kingdom is becoming the strongest business sector just like in any other part of the world and the three major names that come on mind while talking about the supermarkets of UK includes the Tesco, Waitrose, and Aldi. These are the most successful markets operating across the whole UK and are making the most of the profits and revenues as well. According to research, marketing and sales techniques of the UK based supermarkets is the key to their success as they are using them with effective control and proficiency (de Waal, 2017). There are variously internal and external factors determined via research that impacts the marketing strategies of these organizations and they can be described as follows (Felgate, 2015),

Internal Factors Impacting the Marketing Strategies of Supermarkets

Corporate Objectives

The corporate objective of a retailing supermarket can majorly impact their marketing strategy for example if a supermarkets aim and objectify to target the adult group of audience residing in a particular area, their marketing strategy would definitely be in accordance with the likes and dislikes of the adults residing in that particular area.

Finance

The financial condition of a supermarket would also impact their marketing strategy internally, for instance, a supermarket cannot take the risk of doing expensive marketing unless they have a strong financial background and can support the expenses of their marketing strategies effectively.

Human Resources

Human resource is another major internal factor that can impact the marketing strategies of a supermarket. For example, those supermarkets having a strong base of human resources that can put up creative and unique ideas for attracting the market are likely to have more impressive and successful marketing strategies in comparison to those having less effective and creative human resource.

Operational Issues

Operational issues are also a major internal factor that impacts the marketing strategies of a supermarket as they are the basis of any organization. For instance, the more efficient the operations and supply chain management of an organization would be, the more effective their marketing strategies would be and the more potential audience they would attract. 

Business Culture

The business culture within a supermarket is also a significant factor that can shape up their marketing strategies as they are usually determined and outlined by the individuals working within the organization so the more flexible and effective a business culture would be, the more proficient their marketing strategies would turn out to be (Alexander, 2015).

External Factors Impacting the Marketing Strategies of Supermarkets

Economic Environment

Marketing strategies within supermarkets are initially determined on the basis of the needs and demands of consumers and as they majorly rely on the economic conditions of a state, the marketing strategies are also determined on the basis of the economic environment (Marques, 2016).

Competitor Actions

As the competition of supermarkets within the UK is quite tough, their marketing strategies are majorly impacted by the actions of the competitors so as to deal with the rising competition and sustain the prevailing position within the market (Wiese, 2015).

Technological Change

Technology is continuously changing and advancing each day and it has got a major impact on the formation of marketing strategies within the supermarkets. For example, most of the supermarkets within the UK have adopted technological change and are introducing their online applications, etc. (Wiese, 2015)

Marketing Strategies within the Organization- Aldi

Aldi is a customer-centered supermarket based in the United Kingdom and their major objective is to fulfill the needs and demands of middle-class people at reasonable prices under one roof and to make the process of shopping and grocery easier for them. They have made effective use of all the internal and external factors discussed above in formulating the best possible marketing strategies and that is the reason why it stands at the top of United Kingdom’s supermarket industry and is able to make unstoppable sales and revenues. Aldi also uses the 7 Ps of marketing effectively in order to form their marketing strategies and the analysis of their 7 Ps be described as follows (Ododo, 2015),

Product

Aldi has adopted an amazing strategy for managing their products as they get all of their products supplied from a limited number of suppliers and do not indulge themselves into a pool of versatile suppliers. This technique helps them in reducing their transportation and communication cost as well as let them purchase all the products are the least possible prices because of purchasing most of the products from a single supplier.

Price

Aldi uses the competitive strategy of pricing as they are aimed at fulfilling the needs and requirements of its customers at reasonable prices. Despite offering low prices, Aldi does not compromise on the quality of their products and services and this is possible because of their bulk purchasing from limited suppliers that their quality is maintained even at low prices.

Place

Aldi has used great strategies of placing themselves as well so as to make the most of their location. They have located their stores in areas where there is a major chance of their target audience residing so that they can reach up to the stores without any difficulty. Moreover, the structures and interiors of their stores are made simple and sophisticated so as to reduce any additional cost or charges for they are meant to serve the middle-class people with products and services at affordable prices.

Promotion

Aldi uses both above the line and below the line methods of promotion among their potential ad targeted audience and they usually include advertising, printed leaflets, social media promotions, newsletters, emailing to the targeted customers, etc. and they effectively attract all of their potential customers through these mediums. 

People

Aldi takes special care of the people working form them and often comes up with discount offers for their staff, training programs as well as offers rewards and bonuses often.

Process

Processing at Aldi is much effective as they have various pay-points within each of their stores so as to reduce the waiting time of their consumers as well as possess much effective customer support staff.

Physical Environment

Aldi takes special care of the physical environment and tales active part in the activities that promote the safety of the environment. Hence, it is considered as a socially responsible corporation always supporting the green movements across the globe (Anon., 2019).

Customer Service Strategies

Customer service strategies within supermarket count a lot and they are the major factor that can maximize or minimize the sales and revenues of any supermarket. Supermarkets based in the United Kingdom including Aldi, Tesco and Waitrose are all fully equipped and savored with their customer services department and are rendering the best possible services to their customers. If we compare the services being provided by the three, Tesco comes at first in entertaining their customers effectively, Aldi comes at second number while Waitrose seems to have an ineffective customer service department that counts for their decreasing sales and revenues as well as lack of popularity among the consumers (Daugherty, 2019). Therefore, poor and ineffective customer services can majorly impact the functioning of an organization specifically a supermarket for they are solely aimed at catering the needs and demands of their customers. It can not only de-popularize a supermarket but can also cause them a loss in their sales and revenues, leading them towards bankruptcy and closure.

Conclusion

To be short and condensed, the supermarket’s sector of United Kingdom is doing a great job at marketing, sales and customer services at present and they have implied all the right techniques and strategies for letting their organizations grow and develop. Therefore, a little more customer-centered approach can lead them towards more success and growth.

References

Alexander, A., 2015. Decision-making authority in British supermarket chains.. Business History, 57(4), pp. 614-637..

Anon., 2019. Aldi. [Online] Available at: https://www.aldi.co.uk/  [Accessed 10 June 2019].

Daugherty, P. B. Y. a. G. S., 2019. The new age of customer impatience: an agenda for reawakening logistics customer service research.. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 49(1), pp. 4-32.

de Waal, A. v. N. E. a. S. L., 2017. Analysing supermarket performance with the high-performance organisation framework.. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 45(1), pp. 57-70..

Felgate, M. a. F. A., 2015. Analyzing the impact of supermarket promotions: a case study using Tesco Clubcard data in the UK.. In: In The Sustainable Global Marketplace . Cham: Springer, pp. 471-475.

Gilbert, D. a. J. N., 2002. The efficacy of sales promotions in UK supermarkets: a consumer view.. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 30(6), pp. 315-322..

Marques, S. T. G. a. S. M., 2016. The importance of atmospherics in the choice of hypermarkets and supermarkets.. The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research, 26(1), pp. 17-34.

Ododo, C. M. G. a. T. J., 2015. November. Can Discount Pricing Be A Comeptitive Brand Strategy? An Evaluation of Aldi.. s.l., In International Conference on Marketing and Business Development (Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 241-251). .

Wiese, A. Z. S. a. T. W., 2015. Shopping travel behaviour: influencing factors, shopper types and environmental consequences.. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 43(4/5), pp. 469-484..