Super Market Success Strategies Marketing Essay

Published Date: 23 Mar 2015

This essay mainly focused on the how to run a supermarket successfully. Here taken a branch which is decline in quality and servicing and as I was a branch manager what are the strategies that have to implement to take it into a leading branch. For this I had taken the different kinds of business and marketing strategies and consumer point of view and customer thoughts as the base. Hence, I'm going to implement those strategies in my branch to take it into a leading position NOT IN ESSAYS!.

INTRODUCTION

" Supermarket is an inventory area that holds common items that are replenished by a kanban system " (Heize, j & Render, B 2008, p. 573). This essay discussed about, how to run a supermarket in a successful stream. MEANING??For that different kind of business strategies and marketing strategies involved. Very good topics are discussed in this essay, the way how to attract the female market and importance of 4Ps and 4Cs to the business industry. Different kinds of supermarket success strategies: customer relationship management / customer servicing, effective customer loyalty schemes, marketing prominence, up selling promotions and inviting new technologies. For, a big organisation position and branding are critical is discussed with detail. To be successful here "marketing strategies, tools, techniques and media are applied, with regard to use of the customer's language, including elements in the marketing mix such as advertising, packaging, branding, logos, catalogues, trade exhibitions, Internet Web sites, sponsorship, public relations, face to face meetings and oral presentations" (Rita & Sylvie DO YOU MEAN MARCELLA AND DAVIES?, 2004, p.1).

" Supermarket is an inventory area that holds common items that are replenished by a kanban system " (Heize, j & Render, B 2008, p. 573) . " Supermarkets are large, low-cost, low-margin, high-volume self-service stores that carry a wide range of food, laundry, and household products" (Kotler,et al. 2010, p. 447-448). Actually the first supermarkets were introduced the concept of self-service, checkout counters. In olden days these supermarkets was sold only particular items like fish, meat after development in the supermarket industry they sell variety of household things, grocery, cooking things, eatables, a variety of convenience goods like bottle water, soft water, ready eatables and many more what not.

Supermarket is the place where customer can buy all kind of grocery with an affordable price and is very convenient to shop at any day in a week. The disadvantage of the supermarket is not a twenty-four hour one. Due to the reason why convenient stores are established. These supermarkets took the advantage of out-of-home eating, thus these supermarkets are looking for new ways to build sales. These supermarkets practice 'scramble merchandising', holding many non food items like toys, house wares, DVD's, beauty aids, appliances, garden supplies and sporting goods. Supermarkets are improving their customer servicing and other kind of servicing like, putting store in a very good place that is main business place, good residential one. Improving decor, long trading hours and EFTPOS payment facilities and specialised services like banking, car and truck fuel sales. Supermarkets are playing an important role in the present trend. It attracts the customers by giving different kinds of loyalties.

The supermarket merchants' continuities in thinking on the senses, however, because it rested on age-old gender types that cast the desires of women's noses, skin and tongues as ones with a strong erotic charge (Mack, 2010, p.3). The loyalty cards include discounts on the fuels after submitting loyalty card or discount coupons. These merchants had very good marketing skills they put products at the nose and eyes of the customer. Customer un-intentionally or by impulse buys the products. In Australia Woolworth and Coles are the two major supermarkets; where as other competitors also there like Aldi. Woolworth and Coles are established in every suburb and metropolitan cities of Australia.

The marketing program builds powerful customer relationships by transforming the marketing strategy into exploit. Marketing programme consists of the firm's marketing mix, which is the set of marketing tools the firm uses to implement its marketing strategy (Kotler at al. 2010, p. 15). The main marketing mix tools are divided into four broad groups, called four Ps (4Ps) of marketing: product, price, place and promotion. First set the place which is very important for a supermarket because it should be very convenient to customers followed by product, place and promotion. These popular 4Ps are prominent in the seller's point of view, from a customer point of view each marketing tool is designed to deliver a customer benefit called as four Cs (4Cs): customer needs and wants, cost to the customer, convenience and communication. Hence the above 4Ps and 4Cs are very important to a business to be successful.

Females are the very frequent shoppers for any country we see. The basic idea is to attract female market to get high volume of sales and profits. Many American supermarket companies, determine to place and make their large self-service stores attractive developed a commercial aesthetic designed to loosen shoppers' purse strings by, literally, inspiring their appetites (Mack, 2010, p.1).

Figure 1: Image of Publix mural, "George Pleasures them with Groceries," Look, 5 May 1964, 106. SOURCE: Adam Mack,2010, p.11 IRRELEVANT!

As a study tells that human senses are a part of great movement towards the purchase. The supermarket approach represented continuities in thinking on the senses, however, because it rested on age-old gender stereotypes that spread the requirements of women's noses, skin and tongue. A trade magazine tells that, Publix invited women to indulge their serves to stimulate greater sales through 'impulse buying" (Mack, 2010, p.14).

Even as advances in information technology authorize companies with large numbers of customers to contract with them individually, CRM is not about technology (Greenberg, 2001). Successful, commercial CRM starts with a customer focused business strategy that is intended to keep customers and avert the competition ahead them. It is very important to acknowledge that human resource management and measurement systems as major drivers enabling managers to take CRM project to move company / organisation ahead. Many companies realise that creating more business with the existing customers is more easy compare with simply trying to get and attract new customers from competition. So many companies implementing the new methodology called customer relationship management (Rittippant et al. 2009, p.1).

CRM will truly succeed only by confronting the people concerns of an organization (Brendler, 2001) and adjust can bring about resistance in people with resultant threat to best possible idea generation and problem solving, which are essential to successful CRM projects. It is not a matter how fast the technological changes are but it is with the people who manage and understand CRM. The people had understood how customer-focused the organisation is not the highly technological equipment / systems nor the business processes (Brendler, 2001). A company / organisation must keep broader information about each customer in order to determine customer value consistently (Dyche, 2000). Referring the customer life cycle is an important need and is more analysed in terms of three models: the customer management scorecard, customer capital asset management and the customer balance sheet and value flow statement, which go beyond traditional accounting systems. Part of a successful CRM strategy is to build a scorecard that quantifies current method, customer and profit presentation and sets clear targets (Reed, 2001).

The customer management assessment tool (CMAT) (Wylie, 2001) concentrates on the customer life cycle, focusing on factors which management can change or influence. For example: the Brazilian base of pyramid (BOP) market is the most emerging market in the present scenario. Low-income people represent over 70 % of the total population based on the food, medicine and electronic market. It shows half of the market is low-income people. With over 190 million people, according to 2008 senses the GDP is US$1.6 trillion and ranks ninth in the world after purchasing power parity (ppp 2007) (Barki and Juracy Parente, 2010). So customer market ?and attracting customer is a great asset to any organisation.

The idea of customer loyalty and a particular process to gain customer loyalty called loyalty cards or schemes (Mauri, 2003). Loyalty card programme is the giving customer an identification and some sort of discount on purchasing goods / products in the supermarket or in a company / organisation. This is the most effective idea for any organisation because by providing customer identification he / she feels belongs to that company / organisation. By giving good customer service customer feel most attached and often come to the same place for purchasing something. As a perfect example let's take our supermarket tycoons in Australia Coles and Woolworth. Both of the two supermarkets providing the loyalty cards and different kinds of schemes to gain customers and to increase sales. Many researchers found that customer who having loyalty cards spend their budget more on shopping, "it found that the bottom 25% of customers represented only 2% of sales, while the top 5% of customers were responsible for 20% of sales" (Rittippant, 2009).

Take for instance Woolworth supermarket it introduced the rewards card. The use of this reward card is like our credit card, after purchasing items / things customer have to swipe that rewards card to get discount on the purchased things. There is another advantage is to gain points on purchasing items in the supermarket these points useful for passengers who travel frequently in the flights. Qantas is the leading and major airlines in Australia which is offering discount for the Woolworth reward card users. In the similar passion Coles Myer discount card, this works the same way. These two supermarkets (discount cards) give discount on the fuels for the customers after submitting that discount card to the appropriated outlets.

There is a new and inventory programmes recently practicing at Coles. Coles is giving insurance to the cars, this programme looks cool but there is a big idea behind this programme. This insurance card is also used as the discount card for the fuel. Now see there is a great advantage to the customer. If the customers purchase more than $30, Coles give discount coupon; this coupon was given after swiping Coles Myer card. Now the same customer go the fuel outlet he / she going to submit discount card, discount coupon and insurance card now he /she gets lots of discount on the fuel. This is a great idea to attract and get customers from competitors. All loyalty schemes are offer some rewards to the customer. In most of the cases, the more the investment the greater the likely to reap the rewards offer (Andrew smith, 2004).

To be a part of successful organisation, a marketing department must do a job of satisfying its target customers rather than competitors. Thus, marketing strategies must speedup both to the customer needs and competitor strategies. The best competitive marketing strategies start with thorough competitor analysis. A leading company always compares values and customer satisfaction delivered by its products, prices, channels and promotion with that of its close competitors. The market leader always searches the innovative things which competitors can't put forward or implement. Leaders always monitor the competitor thoughts and ideas like, who are our competitors? What are their strategies and objectives?, what are their strengths and weaknesses? And how they will react to different competitive strategies that our organisation might use?

There are three kinds' market strategies that a market leader would follow. 1. Expanding the total market: in this strategy a market leader benefits greatly by providing their products of easy accessing and time consuming services. It always searches for the new customer and users with great usage of its products. 2. Protecting market share: in the second strategy a market leader must fix the weaknesses first, which are advantages for the competitor. The market leader must keep its costs down and its prices in line with the value the customer see in the brand. 3. Expanding market share: in this strategy market leaders can also lead to increasing sales. 1 percent in increase market share translates into millions of dollars of profit (Kotler et al. 2010, p.111-118).

This is the main and important thing in the retail or supermarket business. Because by up selling promotions employees would be interactive directly with the customer. By telling customers the up selling promotions some customers un-intentionally buy those promotions. Some customers searched a lot for one item if he / she forgot to take item and if the employee is up selling that is interactive with customer he / she recalls the forgotten item and take instantly with promotion items too. The merchants who developed supermarkets clearly followed in the practice of the urban department stores using visual appeals to make consumption thrilling, fun and enjoyable. Supermarket leaders also invited customers to enjoy the range of sensory pleasures associated with food, a sharp break from the service-oriented nature of traditional grocery sales and the "scientific" retailing of the chain stores.

The supermarket merchant's continuities in thinking on the senses, however, because it rested on age-old gender types that cast the desires of women's noses, skin and tongues as ones with a strong erotic charge (Mack, 2010, p. 3). "Big Bear supermarkets, to take one celebrated example, opened its doors in 1932 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Housed in an old automobile factory, Big Bear offered what an advertising manager admitted were "ridiculous" price discounts, all made possible through bulk purchasing, self-service and low overhead. The strategy counted on a high sales volume to make up for bottomless price discounts, an approach that proved successful (Mack, 2010, p.4). Challenging that female consumption derived not from normal calculations, but rather from irrational "impulses" encouraged by sellers who knew how to direct the female sensory apparatus. You are talking too much as though only women go into supermarkets.

Inviting new technologies would result in the simplification of the life of customers. The new technologies include putting self service boxes at the supermarket after the normal customer counters. So, if the customer servicing queue is too long then the customers would have a chance to go to the self servicing counter and scan their items and pay bill by themselves and left the store comfort. Featured sound-absorbing floor insulation as well as carts with rubber tires that permitted employees to refill shelves "soundlessly" (Mack, 2010, p. 12). This will reduce the time framing for a customer and the customers will feel happy. This is a very good idea for a successful supermarket.

6.0

"As customers become ever more demanding in a business environment where competition is fierce (Day, 1999) and innovation faster the key challenge facing chief executives today is how to further increase the value of the products and services they sell". In today's environment a senior management of a company or organisation to develop and market the customer value at a broader level, this process is referred as organisation brand and its positioning in the supply-chain (Knox, 2004). The word brand is referred as an asset to an organisation and brand equity is a major component of their market place value. When come to the supermarket position the word brand is an asset, but the brand comes from the freshness of the stock, vegetables (what they sell), customer relationship management (CRM).

Sometimes due to heavy competition in the market there is a chance for the customers to choose different kinds of brands. So in order to gain the customers managers have to create a strong brand name in the market by keep on advertising their deals / promotions in the print media or in the radio and television. This kind of things had proven results in the present supermarket trend. For example: take Woolworth and Coles are the leading brands of supermarkets in Australia. They have their own printed promotion flyers and had their brand names, so if any new competitor would like to come into the market, he / she never succeed. The strong positioning in the market will create by reducing the prices of products and maintain better quality. The promotion / deals on the products is a great advantage for the both managers and customers, both will be profited by putting near to the customers eyes, nose, ears and mouth.

7.0

To function a supermarket in successful and leading organisation the above are some of the strategies should be follow. By following those strategies organisations would be beneficial, and if I'm the manager of the supermarket, I would definitely follow. By putting customer oriented staff and giving motivation and implementing the above strategies I will take my branch in a leading position.

8.0

References: family names first!!!

Adam Mack, june 2010, 'Speaking Of Tomatos: Supermarkets, The Senses, and Sexual Fantacy in Modern America', Journal of Social History; Vol. 43 Issue 4, p815-842, 28p.

Smith, Sparks, Hart & Tzokas, 2004, 'Delivering customer loyalty schemes in retailing: exploring the employee dimension', International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management, vol. 32, no. 4.

Andrienne curry & Elena Krolou, 2004, 'Evaluating CRM to contribute to TQM improvement-a cross case comparison', The TQM Magazine, vol.16, no.5, pp. 1-11.

Brendler, W. (2001), "The human dimension of CRM: the key to success or failure", The Customer Relationship Primer, 2nd ed. (online).

Day, G.S. (1999), The Market-Driven Organisation, The Free Press, New York, NY, p. 22.

Dyche, J. (2000), E-Data:Turning Data into Information with Data Warehousing, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA.

Edgard Barki and Juracy Parente, May 2010, 'Consumer Behaviour of the Base of the Pyramid Market in Brazil', Greener Management International; Issue 56, p11-23, 13p, 1 Chart.

Greenberg, P. (2001), CRM at the Speed of Light, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY.

Jay Heizer & Barry Render, N 2008, Operational Management, 9th edn, Pearson Education, New Jersey, pp. 573.

Kotler, p, Brown, L, Burton, S, Deans, K, & Armstrong, G 2010, Marketing, 8th edn, pearson Education, Frenchs Forest, pp. 15, 111-118, 447-448.

Mauri, C. (2003), "Card loyalty: a new emerging issue in grocery retailing", Journal of Retailing and Consumer

Services, Vol. 10, pp. 13-25.

Reed, D. (2001), Track Two: Technology (online), European Centre for Customer Strategies, available at:

www.eccs.uk.com/outlook/opinion.

Marcella & Davies, 2004, 'The use of customer language in international marketing

communication in the Scottish food and drink industry', Europeam Journal of Marketing, vol. 38, no. 11/12.

Simon Knox, 2004, 'Positioning and Branding your Organisation', Journal of Product Management, vol. 13, no. 2.

Wylie, J. (2001), Improving CRM Performance with the Customer Management Scorecard (online), European Centre for Customer Strategies, available at: www.eccs.uk.com/advice