MKT00720 The Marketing Strategies
Basing your arguments on the academic literature that you have studied in the first four topics of this unit, write a report on the ways two different organisations have been able to compete in their markets. Your report should discuss the following points about each of the two organisations:
- Evidence that the organisation has a gain a competitive advantage from their marketing processes.
- Theoretical analysis of the reasons for the achievement of this advantage.
Your discussion is to be based on two suitable published case studies. This means case studies published in the academic literature – for example, the series of case studies in a textbook, or published in journals etc. Case studies and short articles in newspapers, magazines, website opinion pages and the like are definitely not acceptable, although such materials may be used to supplement the published case study and your analysis. All sources must be properly referenced. If in any doubt about the suitability of a case study, seek an early ruling from your local lecturer/tutor.
This is a substantial piece of scholarly work and will require extensive engagement with both unit theory and at least two detailed case studies.
Answer:
The marketing strategies of organization play an important role in the ways by which the organization is able to create its unique position in the industry. The promotional and marketing activities are therefore important in successful operations of the business and for the purpose of increasing productivity and sales of the companies. The companies in a modern business environment thereby need to create a proper relationship with the customers.
The trust levels that are built by organizations play an important part in their sustainable operations (Cohen 2014). The modern organizations need to develop appropriate strategies which can help in their sustainability. Competitive advantage plays an important role in the ways by which an organization is able to create its higher position in the industry as compared to its competitors.
The report is based on the analysis of two organizations which belong to the same industry, namely Tesco and Sainsbury’s. The companies mainly operate in the retail sector of the United Kingdom. The companies have been able to create their position in the industry with the help of their unique features (Daspit et al. 2017).
b. Description of the cases
Tesco is a multinational organizational organization which operates in the retail sector of the United Kingdom. The organization has its headquarters in London and its founder is Jack Cohen. The company operates its stores in more than 6500 locations all over the world. Tesco has a huge employee base of 476000 in its different stores in the world. The revenues that have been earned by the organization in the year 2017 have been more than 55,917 billion Euros (Tesco plc. 2018).
The advertising strategy which has been implemented by the company has been helpful to implement the relationship marketing related activities that have been performed by Tesco. The major strategy that is applied by the organization in order to operate in the industry in a profitable manner was based on everyday lower prices. The brand image of Tesco has been improved with the help of its effective implementation in different processes (James 2016).
Sainsbury’s has been able to acquire the second position in the chain of supermarkets in the UK which has greater than 16.9% of total shares in the market. The organization was established in the year 1969. The founder of Tesco is John James Sainsbury’s which operates in the retail sector. Sainsbury’s has more than 1400 shops which operate in different areas of the United Kingdom.
The company has total employee base of more than 1,80,000 people all over the world. The organization has gained huge success and popularity in retail industry of the United Kingdom (Sainsburys.co.uk. 2018). The approach which has been taken by the company in the retail industry is customer centric in nature. This has been helpful for Sainsbury’s to gain popularity in the retail industry and provide the customers with better experience. The approach based on quality management has also followed by the company at the point of crisis. The horse meat based issue that had been faced by Sainsbury’s was solved with the help of improvement of the quality of service (Jones et al. 2015).
c. Evidence based on marketing related success
The activities related to marketing that have been conducted by Tesco in the retail industry are totally based on the ways by which customers can be satisfied in an effective manner. The strategies that have been implemented by Tesco in retail industry has helped the company to create a competitive position. The most important objective that has been set by the company is related to offering the best products to the customers in order to become successful in the industry. The relationship marketing based strategy has been implemented by Tesco in order to manage the different customers (Hill, Jones and Schilling 2014).
The services that are provided to the customers are also highly effective and beneficial as it is based on their demands and needs. The company has been able to maintain its competitive advantage in the market with the successful implementation of this strategy. Profitability analysis has also been implemented by Tesco in order to stay competitive in the retail industry of the United Kingdom. The information based on the ways by which Tesco has been able to gain a competitive advantage with the help of marketing strategies has been provided by the article named Tesco Success Story (Tesco Success Story 2018).
On the other hand, the marketing strategies of Sainsbury’s are based on the implementation of quality approach where the organization is able to provide high quality services and products to the customers. The organization has also been implementing different strategies that are based on the analysis of strengths which have been created by Sainsbury’s in the retail market. The company has also been able to implement many diversifications based strategies that are related to the increase of the effectiveness in the industry. The crisis based incident which had been faced by the company due to the horse meat based incident was solved by the organization with the proper management of quality of products that are offered to the customers (Ruddick 2018).
d. The ways by which these organizations achieved success in the industry
The analysis of the article named Tesco Success Story has proved that the company has applied different approaches which are customer centric in nature. The accurate type of customization is an essential part of the ways by which Tesco has been able to create a competitive position in the industry. The strong base of customers has been created by the company with the help of implementation of its effective strategies (Mollah 2014).
Tesco also adopted the strategy named EDLP that is related to the different transformation based processes which been successful for the company. The customers of Tesco are mainly treated as the assets of the company which is related to the ways by which they are provided with accurate services. The needs and wants of the customers have thereby played an important role in the achievement of competitive advantage by the Tesco in the retail industry (Verma, Sharma and Sheth 2016).
Sainsbury’s has aimed at gaining success in retail industry with the help of different types of relationship marketing based strategies. Relationship marketing has enabled the company to create a different position in the retail industry. This strategy of marketing has helped the company to maintain positive relationships with the customers in the retail industry of Australia. The surge that was experienced in the sales of meat was mainly after the company was able to fulfil the needs and demands of the customers. The article which has provided information based on the competitive advantage that has been gained by Sainsbury’s in the retail industry (Michael, Storey and Thomas 2017).
The strategies that have been implemented by the company with the aim of creating a position in the retail industry are totally based on the ways by which Sainsbury’s has satisfied the customers. The analysis of the article has mainly depicted that Sainsbury’s has implemented the strategies in such a manner which will be able to create a huge customer base. The company can thereby be able to create a position that is better than its competitors in the retail industry of the United Kingdom. Sainsbury’s has been able to operate in a more profitable manner as compared to the other organizations (Payne and Frow 2017).
The needs and demands of customers have been provided with huge importance by the retail organization. The customers have thereby played an important role in the ways by which Sainsbury’s has created a competitive advantage in the retail industry of Australia within a short period of time. The customers of the organization have been satisfied with the help of proper implementation of the marketing strategies that are developed by the company (Ruddick 2018).
Conclusion
The report can be concluded by stating that the modern organizations need to implement effective strategies in order to operate in the market in a profitable manner. The companies need to create marketing related strategies that are able to provide an important competitive advantage in the market. The marketing strategies are able to play the most important role in the ways by which an organization is able affect the operations of its competitors in the market. The customers of organizations belonging to any particular sector play the central in providing the sustainable competitive advantage.
The companies thereby need to create a loyal and large customer base in order to operate in the industry in an effective manner. The two organizations which have been taken into consideration for this analysis, that is, Tesco and Sainsbury’s operate in the same retail sector of the UK. The two organizations have been able to operate in a profitable manner in the environment with the help of their effective and efficient strategies. The strategies which have been implemented by the organizations are totally customer centric in nature which has been able to prove that the success of organizations and competitive advantage totally depends on the quality of services and products that are offered to the customers.
References
Cohen, T., 2014. Relationship Marketing. Touro Accounting & Business Journal, 26.
Daspit, J. J., Chrisman, J. J., Sharma, P., Pearson, A. W., and Long, R. G., 2017. A Strategic Management Perspective of the Family Firm: Past Trends, New Insights, and Future Directions. Journal of Managerial Issues, 29(1).
Hill, C. W., Jones, G. R., and Schilling, M. A., 2014. Strategic management: theory: an integrated approach. Cengage Learning.
James, S.D., 2016. Strategic bankruptcy: A stakeholder management perspective. Journal of Business Research, 69(2), pp.492-499.
Jones, M.A., Reynolds, K.E., Arnold, M.J., Gabler, C.B., Gillison, S.T. and Landers, V.M., 2015. Exploring consumers’ attitude towards relationship marketing. Journal of Services Marketing, 29(3), pp.188-199.
Michael, S., Storey, D., and Thomas, H., 2017. Discovery and coordination in strategic management and entrepreneurship. Strategic entrepreneurship: Creating a new mindset, 45-65.
Mollah, A.S., 2014. The impact of relationship marketing on customer loyalty at Tesco Plc, UK. European Journal of Business and Management, 6(3), pp.21-55.
Payne, A. and Frow, P., 2017. Relationship marketing: looking backwards towards the future. Journal of Services Marketing, 31(1), pp.11-15.
Ruddick, G. 2018. Sainsbury's sales surge following horse meat crisis.
Verma, V., Sharma, D. and Sheth, J., 2016. Does relationship marketing matter in online retailing? A meta-analytic approach. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 44(2), pp.206-217.
