Strategic Marketing Assignment

Strategic marketing management Strategic marketing roll in growing business organizations

Strategic marketing management

Table of Contents The role of strategic marketing in the organization .......................... ............................................ ............................... ............... ..3 Process involved in strategic marketing ........................ .......................................... ............................... ................................ .....................4 Links between strategic marketing and corporate strategy ......................... ............................................ ....................... ....7 Tools and models used to develop a strategic strategic marketing strategy ......................... ...................................... .............8 Segmentation, targeting and positioning for Wilkinson ......................... ........................................... .......................... ........11 Importance of relationship marketing ......................... 13 ............................................ ................................ ............................... ..................13 Growth opportunities opportunities in the market ......................... 14 ............................................ ............................... ............................... ..................... ..14 Wilkinson marketing marketing plan plan Executive summary ........................ .......................................... ............................... .................. .....14 Introduction ........................ ........................................... ............................... ............................... ................................ ............................... .................... 14 .. Objectives, values and vision ........................ 14 ........................................... ................................ ............................... ............................ ..........14 Financial situation ........................ 14 ........................................... ............................... ............................... ............................... ......................... .............14 Situation analysis ......................... ........................................... ............................... ................................ ............................... ......................... ............. 15 Market analysis ......................... ............................................ ............................... ............................... ............................... ............................ ................16 16 Competitors' analysis ......................... 17 ........................................... ............................... ................................ ............................... .................... ........17 Marketing strategy ......................... 17 ............................................ ............................... ............................... ................................ ....................... ..........17 Marketing objectives ........................ ........................................... ............................... ............................... ............................... ......................... .............19 19 Marketing strategy option ........................ .......................................... ............................... ............................... ............................... .................. ..... 19 External environment ......................... 19 ............................................ ............................... ............................... ................................ ....................... ..........19 Strengths and weakness in the marketing strategy .......................... ............................................ ............................... .............20 Proposed Marketing responses to key emerging themes ......................... ............................................ ........................ .....21

Bibliography ......................... ........................................... ............................... ............................... ............................... ............................... ....................... .....22 22

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The role of strategic marketing in the organization Strategic marketing is a market driven process of strategy development that consider a continuous changing business environment and the need to deliver superior customer value. “The role of strategic marketing is to lead the firm towards attra ctive economic opportunities, which are adapted to its resources and knowhow and offer a potential for growth and profitability”. (Lambin, 1977). Strategies are the plans for reaching specific goals to reach long-term and big-picture objectives, determining where the company is, where it wants to be and how it can get there, strategies are for a long period of time that extend to c over three to five years. Wilkinson strategy is designed to continue growing by targeting a new market segment, to grow, a business need to give the customer what they want, at a price they are satisfied with, when they want it and make a profit for the company. On the other hand tactics are with higher level of details, they are the practice things that are done to implement the plans and achieve the goals with scheduling and costing of each action, tactics are for short period, normally for one year or less. Wilkinson tactics include a range of promotional tactics as follow: •

• • • • •

Being present at fresher's fairs- and giving free goody bags with sample products. Direct mail flyers to homes and student halls Advertisement with fun theme Offering discounts of 15% with first purchase using online store. Give vouchers Free wall planners.

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Process involved in strategic marketing "Strategic marketing process is a series of logical steps that have to be worked through in order to arrive at a marketing plan" (McDonald, 2008). According to (R.Kerin, S.Hartley & W.Rudelius, 2008) the strategic marketing process have three vital phases: • • •

Planning phase. Implementation phase. Evaluation or Control Phase.

The planning Phase:

The planning phase of the strategic marketing process includes three steps: •

Step 1- Situation Analysis

The need of situation analysis is to know where the organization is now, a nd where it will be in order to develop an overview of the organization strategic situation, this can be achieved using one of the following tools: o

o

o

o

SWOT analysis, which is used to match corporate skills and resources with forecast market opportunities and threats, by studying the internal positive factors (Strength), internal negative factors ( Weakness), external positive factors (Opportunities) and external negative factors (Threats). PEST analysis, "an analysis of political, economical, social and technological factors in the external environment of an organization which can affect it activities and performance." Market research is the process of collecting and analyzing information about a target markets and potential customers; market research is an integral part of marketing planning process, strategies like market segmentation and product differentiation cannot be developed without marketing research. (encyclopedia:entrepreneur) Ansoff Matrix, is strategic planning tool that help organization in determining its products and market growth, this is usually determined by focusing on whether the products are new or existing and whether the market is new or existing. Within each strategy there is a differing level of risk. The four strategies are:

1. Market Penetration: by pushing existing products in their current market. 2. Market development: by developing new markets for the existing products.

3. Product development: by developing new products for the existing markets. Page 4 of 22


4. Diversification: by developing new products for new markets.

Figure 1 Ansoff Matrix - (businesscasestudies)

•

Step 2 – market- product focus and goal setting

In this step the organization shall set its goal for being in the business, have a vision and a mission statement, set measurable marketing objectives to be achieved for a specific market. Focus on its product and market by determining which product will be directed to which customers, based on market segmentation, this step is an essential for developing an effective market strategy. •

Step 3- marketing program

After determining who are the customers and what are their requirement in the previous step, it's time to develop the how aspect (marketing program) of the planning phase. This step includes developing the program's marketing mix by determining the product strategy, price strategy, promotion strategy and place (distribution) strategy in order to produce a cohesive marketing program. The implementation phase:

This is the second phase of the strategic marketing process, it involve execution of the marketing plan that resulted from the planning phase. There are four components of the implementation phase: 1234-

Obtaining resources Designing the marketing organization. Developing planning schedules. Executing the marketing program.

Evaluation and control phase:

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The evaluation and control phase of the st rategic marketing process intend to keep the marketing program moving according to the plan, this need to compare results with the plans in order to identify deviations and act on these deviations, exploring the positive deviations and correcting the negatives. Wilkinson applied this methodology in developing its marketing strategy as follow: In the planning phase Wilkinson applied the Ansoff matrix tool for helping develop an appropriate marketing strategy and chooses to apply a market development strategy by finding or creating new markets, this is a medium risk strategy as it requires the business to develop new c ustomers and carries costs of the marketing campaigns to reach this new segment. Wilkinson also conducted a market research to explore new potential segment in the market, the research used questionnaires from students across the UK (primary research) and also used government and university admission data (secondary research) The outcome of the research showed that there were three million potential student customers in Uk that had a combined annual spend of around 9 million pound annually. The next step for Wilkinson is to focus on this market segment, the student population, so Wilkinson undertook further research to identify how to reach student and convince them to start shopping at Wilkinson stores and developed its marketing strategy that aimed to ensure the student population began shopping at Wilkinson stores early in their student years and maintain their customer loyalty after university. The market strategy for growth that was applied by Wilkinson is also aligned with the company mission and vision which is "to give consumers what they want, at a price they are satisfied with, when they want it and make a profit for the company" and with the goals for the company to have over 500 stores by 2012. To implement this strategy a marketing campaign was launched which focused on a range of promotional tactics like being present at fresher's fair and giving free goody bags with sample products, direct mail flyers, advertisements with fun theme, web banners, gift vouchers and free wall planners. To evaluate and compare results of the marketing strategy to indentify deviations from the planned, Wilkinson used qualitative data (received from questionnaires collected from the first year undergraduates) as well as qualitative data (received from redemption rate of discount vouchers, sales analysis and footfall in stores analysis). The collected data identified motivation factors for student to encourage future purchase like product being cheaper than competitors, location of stores to be near university and stores layout. The awareness of the brand was significantly increased from 77% to 95 %. Further interview with fresher students showed that from various marketing tactics implemented by Wilkinson like being at fresher's fair and distributing flyers and brochures had the greatest impact on students awareness with a value of 79% and

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50% respectively while TV, radio and online advertisement banner have less that 7%. These results permitted Wilkinson to plans for future marketing campaigns.

Links between strategic marketing and corporate strategy The corporate strategies is to allocate company resources to attain the business goals specified within corporate objectives, the strategy helps to control and coordinate the different areas of the company. "Corporate strategy include: creating an organizational structure, debt reduction to improve the companys balance sheet, diversifying the product or service line to increase profits or decrease dependence on one product, merging with or buying another business to create economies of scale" (Ashe-Edmunds) Marketing strategies refer to plans, direction and requirement that involve making or selling a product, selecting markets and segment and determining the marketing mix. Marketing strategy shall align with the c orporate strategy and interact with each other as the corporate strategy guides, direct, controls and coordinates the marketing strategies while the marketing strategies inform and achieves the corporate strategies. The interaction between corporate and marketing strategy is illustrated a follow:

Figure 2 - Interaction between marketing and corporate strategy Wilkinson objective is to grow and increase stores across the UK (To have over 500 stores by 2012) and to increase brand awareness and repeat visits from customers, this strategy also incorporate the vision of the company that is to give consumers what they want, at a price they are satisfied with, when they want it and make a profit for the company, "If you have every day jobs that you need to ticked off your to do list, where there's a wilko, there's a way". Wilkinson marketing strategy is designed to continue growing by targeting a new market segment, the student population, the aim was to ensure the student population began shopping at Wilkinson stores early in their student experience, to maintain their customer loyalty through their student years and also to develop them as future customers after university.

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As it is noted that the corporate strategy guides and direct the marketing strategy of Wilkinson for developing a strategy for growth that not only covered the specific requirement of the targeted group, but also linked closely with the company overall aims and objectives.

Tools and models used to develop a strategic marketing strategy When developing marketing plan marketers need to consider internal and external factors affecting the company, they use tools and models to help them to develop a strategy that creates a competitive advantage to achieve their goals and targets. Porter's Five Forces Model

Michael Porter developed his Five Forces Model and introduced it to the world in 1980 in his first book, "Competitive Strategy"; the model provides a basis to consider the critical forces that impact the company's ability to compete in a market. These forces include existing competition between suppliers, the threat of new entrants to the market, the bargaining power of buyers, the power of suppliers and the threat of substitute products.

Figure 3 - Porter's five forces Threat of new entrants Profitable markets attract new entrants, which will gain a market share and reduce profitability unless there are barriers to enter the market like economies of scale, product differentiation, capital requirements or government policies. Barging power of suppliers Suppliers are likely to be powerful if the supplier industry is dominate by a few firms, suppliers' products have few substitutes or i s an important input to buyers' products, suppliers' product are differentiated or have a high switching cost.

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Barging power of buyers Buyer group are likely to be powerful if buyers are concentrated or purchases are large relative to seller's sales, products are undifferentiated or unimportant to quality, buyers face a few switching costs. Threat of substitute products Where close substitute products exist in a market, it increases the likelihood of customers switching to alternatives in response to price increases. This reduces both the power of suppliers and the attractiveness of the market. PEST analysis

PEST analysis is an effective tool used by organization in order to st udy its environment before beginning the marketing process the aim of doing PEST is to find out the current external factors that may change in the future. The organization marketing environment is made up from internal environment, the micro-environment and the macro environment which include Political factors, Economical factors, Sociocultural factors and Technical factors; these are known as PEST factors. The outcome of PEST is an understanding of the overall picture surrounding the company Political factors The politics has a huge influence on the businesses, as it affects the consumers spending power; it has other impact on profitability like tax policies, environmental regulations, international trade regulations and restrictions. Economical Factors It is important to study the economic factors affecting the company, economy growth rate, the inflation rates, taxation, government spending and the stage of the business cycle. Sociocultural factors The social and cultural influences on business vary from country to country, it is important to study the demographics population growth rates, age distribution, lifestyle changes, labor and social mobility. Technological factors Technology is vital in today business for competitive advantage especially in global markets in obtaining data and information and in promotions and reaching new markets.

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SWOT analysis

SWOT analysis is used to match corporate skills and resources with forecast market opportunities and threats, by studying the internal positive factors (Strength), internal negative factors (Weakness), external positive factors (Opportunities) and external negative factors (Threats). The outcome of the SWOT analysis shall be translated into specific actions to help the organization grow and succeed by using its strengths, working on its weaknesses, benefits from the opportunities and avoiding threats. Organization can use a strength to maximize an opportunity ( Maxi-Maxi Strategy) or improving capability to maximize an opportunity (Min-Maxi strategy) or minimizing a threat with a strength (Maxi-Min strategy) or minimizing weakness and threats at the same time ( Min-Min strategy). For Wilkinson the use of tools and models available is important to develop the company marketing strategy in order to achieve the c ompany goals and objectives. It is clear that the using of PEST analysis is not useful tool for Wilkinson case as the PEST analysis is most commonly used to measure a market or a new market development in other country which is not the case, on the other hand the use of SWOT analysis can be useful because it measure business unit or a preposition or idea or the current company situation. When evaluating Wilkinson situation the most useful tool should be the Porter's Five Forces Model as it concentrates on the forces that affect the industry- the retail industry- by analyzing the following: The power of suppliers, Wilkinson has a large number of suppliers, we need to identify the cost for switching to other suppliers, for some product we have a few substitutes, take consideration that some suppliers can squeeze our profitability if we are unable to recover cost increase. The power of buyers, as long as the switching cost is low costumer are searching for good quality and low cost so Wilkinson need to have a differentiation by its own brand products and focus product quality and low cost The threat of new entrants, need to be studied carefully, as profitable markets attract new entrants that can take a market share from Wilkinson. Threats of substitutes, as similar products exists in a market, it increases the possibility of switching to alternatives by c ustomers in the favor of prices. Competitive rivalry, Wilkinson needs to study carefully their competitors, what are their strategies, future plans and objectives, their capabilities and how we can deal with that.

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Segmentation, targeting and positioning for Wilkinson "Buyers in any market differ in their wants, resources, locations, buying attitudes, and buying Practices. Through market segmentation, companies divide large, heterogeneous markets into smaller segments that can be reached more efficiently and effectively with products and services that match their unique needs." (Kotler; Armestrong;, 2012). When selecting a segment from a market the segment shall have the following criteria: Sustainability: segment must be large enough to warrant a special marketing mix. • Measurability: segments must be identifiable and their size is measurable. • Accessibility: members of targeted segment must be reachable with marketing • mix. Responsiveness: segment responds to marketing mix differently. • Segmentation can be based on: Geographic: segmenting markets by region, market size, market density and • climate. Demographic: segmenting markets by age, gender, income, ethic background • and family life cycle. Psychographics: markets segmentation on the basis of personality, motives • and lifestyles. Benefits sought: segmenting according to benefits customers are seeking from • the products. Usage rate: dividing the markets by the amount of product bought or • consumed. Wilkinson applied demographic age segmentation by selecting the student population in the UK universities; this segment is sustainable and measurable (around 3 million potential student customers) and can be reached in t he university campus.

A target market consists of a set of buyers who share common needs or characteristics that the company decides to serve. (Kotler; Armestrong;, 2012) Market targeting can be divided into 3 approaches: Undifferentiated targeting strategy: in this approach company view the market as one big market with no individual segments and thus the company designs marketing program that will satisfy to the largest number of buyers. Although this approach has advantage in the potential saving in marketing and production cost but it has it disadvantages that the company is more subjected to competition and loosing it market share. Niche marketing strategy: when a company concentrates on a small segment of the market. This strategy permits smaller companies with limited resources to serve this small segment that may be unimportant to or overlooked by larger competitors . Concentrated targeting strategy: when a company decides to target a market segment and design a marketing mix for that segment. The advantages of this strategy are the concentration of the company resources and strong positioning in the market. The Page 11 of 22


disadvantage is that competitors may market to niche segment and hence reduce market share. Wilkinson applied a concentrated targeting strategy that focused on students in 60 universities and targeted the new students and student in years 2 and 3 to ensure the student population began shopping at Wilkinson stores early in their student experience. This would help to maintain their c ustomer loyalty to Wilkinson through their student years and also to develop them as future customers after university.

Positioning of a product or brand "is the way the product is defined by consumers on important attributes — the place the product occupies in consumers' minds relative to competing products" (Kotler; Armestrong;, 2012). Marketing mix should be developed in order to create a position that gives the products the greatest advantage in the selected target market. Wilkinson has applied a differentiation and positioning strategy for its rang of product (having 25,000 product line where 40% of them are Wilko 'own brand' products) this distinguish Wilkinson products from those of competitors and give Wilkinson and advantage over its competitors in the mind of customers.

Wilkinson also positioned its brand by designing and developing a marketing mix for the selected target market (student's population) this includes being present in fresher's fairs and giving good bags, advertisement with fun theme, offering discount of 15% with first purchase from online and gift vouchers aiming the increase of awareness of the brand, capturing new customer group and securing repeat business. In 2012 Wilkinson has also rebranded its stores as WILKO in order to reposition is brand name to be more easy and famil iar with customers. The results for applying segmentation strategy and concentrating on the targeted segment provide it with special promotion and offers and positioning of the brand are: • • • •

Increase in brand awareness by 18% of the interviewed students. 17% of students used the 15% discount voucher and 58% intended to use it. The campaign had made the company more appealing to 67% of s tudents. The campaign raised the number of shopper ones per month f rom 13% to 33%.

This shows that the marketing strategy applied by Wilkinson was successful in achieving many of the business aims like increased brand awareness and repeat visits.

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Importance of relationship marketing Relationship marketing involves developing strong, long term customer connection to a brand in order to generate repeated sales and ongoing business. Company should build long term relationship with customers by gathering information about their customers, analyzing and use the data to design and modify the marketing mix, monitor the interactions with customers a nd preference of customers to orient every part of the organization. Relationship marketing stands in contrast to transaction – based marketing, which focuses on increasing the individual sales rather that repeated business, " It takes a lot of work to persuade customers to make their first purchase with you, but if you can persuade customers to give you repeat business it will cost you less money and time." (learnmarketing) Wilkinson believes that repeat business is the key to sustained growth. In order to retain a strong and long term relationship with customers, Wilkinson shall provide its customers with good quality products with competitive prices, s atisfied customers with their needs met by Wilkinson range of product, excellent customer services and even loyalty cards , "Wilkinson has launched a saving stamp scheme across all its stores Although not an unusual practice in the retail market, it is unique to Wilkinson and it was replaced by a saver cards" (wikipedia). Long term customer relationships require customer satisfaction, Wilkinson need to continuously monitor how their customers are feeling about the services they provide, the conducted market research and researching students' opinions after the campaign helped the company to formulate future plans for new stores (23% of students questioned gave distance from university as a reason for not regularly visiting the stores and the layout of the store was another major problem affection repeat visit).

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Growth opportunities in the market Wilkinson marketing plan Executive summary In our journey for growth of the business a nd increasing profits, Wilkinson is preparing to introduce new products in its enormous product range of retails goods which is the organic food and products, a niche market from the food and grocery retail category. Taking advantages from the opportunity indicated by higher growth rate of food and grocery retail section and the high direction of consumers to organic and healthy food. We aim from our products to provide a high quality and reasonable prices for our customers under our new own brand “Wilko -organic”. The marketing objectives are to achieve a market share of 3- 5%, this will represent a sales of £38m to £64m by the end of 2016

Introduction Wilkinson is one of the UK's long established retailers, opened its first store in 1930. The Wilko product range concentrates on household essentials, including home wares, textiles, cleaning products, health and beauty lines, stationery, confectionery, pet products and kitchen and bathroom goods. A large proportion of the range is made up of own-label products sold under the Wilko brand; with a total of 375 stores, the company retained a place in the top 30 retailers in the UK.

Objectives, values and vision The Wilkinson objectives is to grow a nd increase stores across the UK and to give customers what they want, at a price they satisfied with, when they want it and make a profit for the company, taking into consideration Wilkinson values that are pull together, shape our future, show passion, make it fun, Wilkinson vision for 2012/13 is to deliver extraordinary shopping in the heart of the community.

Financial situation Wilkinson more than doubled its profit on it ordinary activities before taxation to £ 64.9m in 2010 and £ 60.8m in 2011, theses values fall down to £22.7m in 2012 and £27.5m in 2013 with a reduction of profits that exceeded 37% (Wilkinson Annual Reports, 2009 to 2012).

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Wilkinson Profit on ordinary activities before taxation in m £ 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

Figure 4 - Wilkinson profits

The company is facing an increasing challenges it its business due to the general depressed retailing markets for the UK in the last years, the tough trading conditions and the increase in VAT to 20% at the start of 2011 (http://www.retailweek.com.article, 2013), the increased cost of living that have a major impact on consumer's ability to spend and the increased competition in the market. Although 7 new stores were being added to the company portfolio, sales had been declined, Profitability has also deteriorated sharply in recent years and though there was considerable improvement in 2013, margins remain at significantly lower levels than they did prior to 2010, the profits are gained from the company policy of reducing costs and make efficiencies across the business. (Top 30 Retailers Report, 2012)

Situation analysis Performing a situation analysis for the company by applying the SWOT analysis Strength •

• •

•

Wilkinson is a long established retailers since 1930 with a huge experience in it field for serving customer needs. Strong management team. Product range of 25,000 product lines witch 40% of them are Wilko ownbrand. Multichannel approach – using direct sales and online stores and mobile application a key part of sustainable offer for the future.

Weaknesses • •

Performance deterioration as profits dropped by 62.6% from 2011 to 2012. A number of executive management team had left the company.

Opportunities

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• •

Online sales and multichannel can be utilized in increased sales. Developing a new product that have higher growth rate in the foreseen future.

Threats •

•

Increasing competition from the discount variety sector, superstores and single-price retailers. The increased cost of living that have a major impact on consumer's ability to spend.

Market analysis Wilkinson main market is the retailing industry focusing on non food retails, the UK retailing industry registered positive growth in the past years as it records 1.5 % growth in 2013 regardless of the fact that the economic climate remained challenging as consumer spending habits remained under the influence of t he economic recession, Based on a market research and trends published by Conlumino & SAS on December 2013 improving general economic indicators and rising consumer confidence are having positive impact on retail as the forecast for 2014 will hit 2.4% growth. (SAS, 2013). The sales of organic product in the UK grew by 2.8% in 2013 with total sales of £1.8 bn after four years of contraction. (Organic market report, 2014). According to soil association published report four out of five households buy organic products. Kantar Worldpanel research shows that people under 34 are much more likely to be prepared to pay more for organic products. This suggests that young shoppers may hold the key to accelerating future growth. Levels of disposable income are also likely to be an important factor, as families with no children spend more per capita than large families. More than half of all spending on baby food goes on organic products, reflecting the apparent change in food priorities when feeding a young family. The sector where organic products are most dominant is baby food, where organic sales now account for 54.8% of all sales through the supermarkets. The following chart show the share of the UK organic market in 2013.

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2013 Share of the UK Organic Market

£in m multiple retailers 17.5

Box schemes / home delivery / mail order Farm shops and farmers’ markets

259.9

42.7

193

Catering

1275.6

Other independent retailers

Figure 5 - 2013 share of the UK organic Market

As observed from the graph that multiple retailers have more than 70% of the market shares. Applying a product development strategy by selling new product like organic food and non food products in Wilkinson existing stores, although this is a medium risk strategy but it can ascertain growth opportunity and increase profitability.

Competitors' analysis Sainsburys is the UK’s biggest organic retailer, with a 29% market share and a 7% increase in sales of its own-label organic products followed by Tesco and Waitrose. The strongest growth was achieved by the online grocer Ocado, the countrys fourth largest organic retailer, which increased its organic sales by 10.4%. Common factors in the success of Sainsburys, Waitrose and Ocado include a strong online presence, extensive organic ranges and a strong commitment to new product development and marketing. The British consumer is becoming less l oyal, showing a great tendency to shop around, as the average grocery, shopper after the recession use now 4.1 stores for their groceries shopping. This trend mean that spend is being spread more thinly than before and the battle among grocers is centered on securing the largest share of customer wallet and establishing loyalty. Linked to t his has been a great polarization of spend with customers looking for value. Larger pla yers, like Tesco and Morrison are finding their share being eroded. (SAS, 2013).

Marketing strategy Wilkinson marketing strategy is based on introducing new products to the retail business which is the organic food and products, a niche market from the food and grocery retail business, we are targeting younger shopper and families with babies and children who are interested in organic food because it is natural, unprocessed, less Page 17 of 22


chemicals and healthier for the family, this target market may hold accelerating future growth. Positioning

Using product differentiation, we are planning to produce our own brand for organic food "Wilko-organic" to be the most trusted brand for quality and price. Distribution strategy

The organic food and product shall be available in all Wilkinson stores and through the web site, aligned with the company strategy for growth by opening new stores for current retail product portfolio, 20 new convenience stores dedicated for organic product under the brand name "Wilko-organic" shall be opened. Product strategy

The organic food shall be sourced from local and foreign s uppliers; some of them can be outsourced directly from organic farmers. Building the Wilko-organic brand is an integral part of our product strategy. The brand and logo will be displayed on the department section, packaging and on the new dedicated convenience stores. Pricing strategy

The pricing of the product shall be c ompetitor; this can be achieved by outsourcing our product from cheaper suppliers and especially from local organic farmers, focusing on the supply chain and try to reduce cost of transportation, storage and handling. Promotion strategy

Using the most marketing tactics that have high impact on customers (based on our previous conducted research that showed the most marketing tactics that have greatest impact on customers) like posters, local and national newspapers, advertisement and social media. Encouraging and promoting the idea of using organic food for better life and health by constructing a web site and a social network page on facebook that contains articles, interviews and information about healthy and organic food, the web site shall be linked to our online store. Sponsoring sports activities in local communities. Using discount coupons in local newspapers on our organic food and products.

Controls

We shall apply control measures to closely monitor quality of our products and customers service satisfaction in order to e nable us to react quickly to correct any problems that may occur, the control shall be trough questioners for customers in the Page 18 of 22


stores or online with rewarding coupon, feedback from social media li ke facebook and twitter. Other control measure shall be by monitoring monthly sales, expenses and revenues, in order to find any signs of deviation from the plan and act to correct the deviation.

Marketing objectives In order to ascertain growth opportunity in the market and t o deliver extraordinary shopping in the heart of the community, Wilkinson marketing objectives shall be: Introducing the new type of organic product in all stores by the end of the • year. Opening 20 new convenience stores dedicated for organic product with the • nd new logo of "Wilko-Organic" in London by the 2 half of 2016. Creating a web site for Wilko-organic that is concerned on healthy and • organic food to promote and sell our range of organic products. Introducing new own label brand of organic food and product under "Wilko • organic". Reach a market share of 3 - 5 % by the end of 2016. •

Marketing strategy option •

•

•

•

Wilkinson should apply a focus strategy that concentrates on niche market which is the organic food and organic products from the broad segment of food and grocery retail industry. Remain customer focused, providing them with solutions that make organic shopping better value for money, offer a combination of product quality, freshness and convenience in order to build a strong brand loyalty and make our particular market segment less attractive t o competitors. We shall make sure a full range of organic products is available in store and online. We can also do more to promote our organic offering, introduce new products and strengthen supply chains for the long term. Study carefully the main cost component and try to reduce it in order to be more competitive.

External environment Markets are changing all the time, Wilkinson need to take advantages from change in external environment in order achieve our goals and expectations, this can be realized by: The shift from supply to demand may require more focus on the quality and • price of our introduced products and also to promotion and advertising techniques applied. Knowing the demography of our customers, their attitudes and lifestyles i s an • important factor to sustain growth and profits. Take into consideration the rising expectation of customer from Wilkinson and • its new introduced brand "Wilko-organic".

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•

•

Using technology in social network and the li ke in order to get customer feedback and ideas regarding our new introduced products, stores convince online shopping web site. The importance of customer services has a great influence on gaining customer loyalty and repeated purchase.

Strengths and weakness in the marketing strategy The developed new marketing strategy explained above has strengths and weaknesses that can be identified as follow Strengths •

•

•

The developed marketing strategy is directly linked to corporate strategy for identifying growth opportunity in the market and increase profitability for the company. Wilkinson recognized that E-business and online sales are important for competition and advantages along with traditional bases sales. The analysis of the market and knowing who buy and why they buy help to focus on the target customers and market.

Weaknesses •

• •

The matrix organization structure of the company may cause management to lose control due to increased sizes of branches and diversity of product. The ability to customize the product and market development. Wilkinson strategy is focusing on local markets and misses the opportunity of globalization adopted by other market competitors.

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Proposed Marketing responses to key emerging themes The proposed key emerging themes that Wilkinson needs to focus are: •

•

•

Although Wilkinson is focusing on local market, but it is important also to enter the global market and evaluate carefully all market segment in which we expect to compete, in order to open new market for our products and new profits. Study carefully major competitors by identifying their strength and weaknesses according to their size, market share / coverage, production and distribution capabilities, personal issues, international links and profitability. The state of the economy is important including the inflation rates, investment levels, unemployment, business cycle as these factors affect directly consumer behaviors for expenses.

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Bibliography Ashe-Edmunds, S. (n.d.). corporate-strategy-vs-marketing-strategy-63753.html . Retrieved from smallbusiness.chron.com businesscasestudies. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/ encyclopedia:entrepreneur . (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.entrepreneur.com/ Grocery market share in UK:statista.com. (2014). Retrieved from statista.com: http://www.statista.com/statistics/279900/grocery-market-share-in-the-united-kingdomuk/ http://www.retail-week.com.article. (2013, 9 9). Retrieved from retail week: www.retailweek.com Kotler; Armestrong;. (2012). Principles of marketing. Pearson. Lambin. (1977). learnmarketing. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.learnmarketing.net McDonald, M. (2008). Malcolm McDonald on marketing planning. London and Philadelphia. (2014). Organic market report. Soil Association. R.Kerin, S.Hartley & W.Rudelius. (2008). Marketing. McGraw-Hill. Rouse, M. (n.d.). techtarget . Retrieved from techtarget.com SAS, C. &. (2013). Retails in 2014: trends & winner strategies. (2012). Top 30 Retailers Report. RetailWeek. wikipedia. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.wikipedia.org (2009 to 2012). Wilkinson Annual Reports. Wilkinson case study.www.thetimes100.co.uk IAARS lecture and presentations on strategic marketing

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Strategic Marketing Assignment

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