Business Strategy for Sainsbury: SWOT, PESTLE, Porter's Five Forces, and Strategic Management Plan

This report analyzes Sainsbury's business strategy, including SWOT, PESTLE, Porter's Five Forces, and a strategic management plan. It also evaluates different strategic directions available to the organization and ways to monitor the chosen strategy for success.

Business strategy

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
PART A...........................................................................................................................................3
Swot analysis ..............................................................................................................................3
Pestle Analysis.............................................................................................................................4
Evaluating the porter five forces in Sainsbury.............................................................................5
Justification..................................................................................................................................6
Strategic management plan for Sainsbury...................................................................................7
PART B............................................................................................................................................9
Critical evaluation of different types of strategic directions available to the organization.........9
Justification and recommendation of growth platforms/strategies............................................10
Ways to monitor the chosen strategy to ensure success............................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Business strategy is mainly being defined as the framework which mainly explains the set
of actions and plans which helps in outlining the goals to attain the set business target in the
company. With formulating the strategy it plays key important role which helps in creating the
vision and gives the direction to attain the set business goals on time. This report mainly provide
details about the Sainsbury which is being recognized as the largest multinational retailing
supermarket stores. The company is mainly attained the share in the market around 14 with using
its resources and capabilities. In this report the details pertaining to pestle and swot framework of
the company. Also, the competitive environment analysis with using the porter frameworks.
further, identifying and justifying the existing strategy helps in attaining competitiveness. Wit
devising the strategies to achieve the objectives. Further, determining the different directions
available and recommending the most suitable one. Lastly evaluating the ways for monitoring
success of the strategy being applied.
MAIN BODY
PART A
Swot analysis
Strengths
 With being listed in the London stock
Exchange results in trading the
company at global level.
 Wit establishing stores in the global
market and recognized for serving wide
range of products helps in attaining
competitive position in the dynamic
surroundings.
Weakness
 With high level of competition in the
market influences the company to earn
low margins, this reduces profits.
 The Brexit and covid pandemic
impacted the company by increasing
the costing of the products.
 The lack of financing capability
impacts in earning high revenues and
set targets.

Opportunities
 With diversifying the business with
entering into the emerging markets and
establishing stores mainly help in
adoption growth.
 With using automated technology to
start selling the products at 24/7
increases the sales of products.
 Producing the products with adopting
the latest trends mainly helps in
expanding the product lines for
satisfying the needs and wants of the
consumers with serving the latest new
featured products distinct from the
competitors (Olson and et.al., 2021).
 With adopting the new and latest
technologies by using the self checkout
options mainly helps in ever-increasing
the sales of the company products.
Threats
 By operating in highly competitive
markets, the high competition from the
Tesco, Morrisons impact the products
being served by the company to earn
more revenues and profits in the
dynamic surroundings.
 The company was impacted due to arise
of wide controversies which impacts its
business and its processes to attain
competitive position in the exiting
market.
 With the changing legal rules and
regulations in the environment impact
the operations to operate and serve in
the highly competitive and dynamic
environment.
Pestle Analysis
The pestle framework mainly helps in analysing the external factors which impacts the business
and its operations as:
Political factors
Various political factors which impact th company and its operations as for serving in
highly competitive market. It mainly includes the riles and regulations being change by the
government to operate the business in the highly competitive surroundings (Liu and Kong,
2021). The imposition due to the covid pandemic and the Brexit imposition of the restricting on
the imports level mainly impacts to serve the products which are of food and drinks in nature so
as to serve in the highly competitive environment.
Economical factors

Wide range of economic factors which mainly impacts the company, as due to change in
the income level of the individuals mainly impacts the purchasing capacity to serve in the highly
competitive environment. Due to covid pandemic this impacted and changed the consumers taste
and preference to serve more organics food products in nature as to serve in safer and organic
food products. Further more to the Brexit the rise in the fuel prices impacted the distribution
capacity of the company to serve the products by online distribution channels. Thus, this reduce
the prices, which impacts the revenues and profits while serving and operating in the dynamic
environment.
Social factors
Various social factors including the sustainable business practices with the changing
environment and the consumers shifting from one company to another due to the more natural
and healthy products in nature. This impacted th company and intended to serve more organic
products (Ali and Anwar, 2021). Thus, with the changing attitudes, tastes and preferences
induces the company to adapt the frequent changes in products to serve as per the behaviours and
attitudes.
Technical factors
The technical changes in the environment mainly impacts the business and its operations,
as with the development in the technology mainly intends to adapt the online serving ways to
provide more convenience , also by establishing the website for serving wide range of products
and accepting the payments with using the scanning options helps in limiting th time which
intake in standing of the consumers in queuing.
Legal factors
All the legal rules and regulations must be adopted by the company as to sustain the
competitive business environment. As this manly helps in serving wide range of products with
maintaining the policies and rules. But these legal laws mainly impact those to which the
companies fail to comply with th regulations and operating in the dynamic market.
Environmental factors
Different environmental laws which impacts the business operation's, as for limiting the
carbon emission and serving into dynamic environmental market. It must operate to serve the
products including wade ranges. For this the Sainsbury's is adapting recyclable packaging of the
products for being more sustainable in nature.

Evaluating the porter five forces in Sainsbury
Porter five forces is mainly used for defining the competitive position of the business:
Competitive rivalry:
With serving in high competitive markets, the impacts on the charging pics of the
products and attain profits of the firm in the competitive markets. With this Sainsbury is mainly
serving the differentiated products in which it intends to attain competitive position in the
markets.
Threats of new entrants:
The thereat of new entrants is low in the market, due to high level of operating ad fixed
costings required to establish the retail stores (Farrukh and et.al., 2020). This tends to benefits
the company and retain the high market share for better dealing wit the consumers.
Threats of substitutes:
With the high level substitutes products being served by the local retailing shops and the
competitors, this greatly impacts the company to serve the products and retains the target
consumers. With this Sainsbury is adopting to serve the differentiated products distinct from its
competitors and new added features.
Bargaining power of suppliers
With the less level of bargaining power of suppliers, this mainly impacts the availability
of obtaining the raw materials to produce the products. Thus, the Sainsbury is approaching the
supplier which is able to provide the raw materials to charge less costings this helps in attaining
competitiveness to earn more profits while serving in dynamic environment.
Bargaining power of buyers:
with the high level of bargaining power of the byers, this intends to shift the consumers to
the other stores for purchasing the products which are offering at the lowest prices. For this the
company is mainly adapting to provide wide discount ranges and offers to consumers for
retaining the loyal consumers market.
Justification
From the above finding, the company is attaining competitiveness by serving distinct
products in nature which helps in being competitive and unique than its competitors. With
operating in high competitiveness, adopting the suppliers which provide raw materials and low
cost helps in being competitiveness. Also the bargaining power of the buyers is high wth this the

company is providing distinctive products than that of the competitors which helps in being
competitive to sustain in the dynamic surroundings.
Strategic management plan for Sainsbury
Background:
Sainsbury is mainly recognized as the second largest multinational stores with serving
wide range of food and non-food products to the consumers while operating in highly dynamic
environment. Offering delicious and great quality of food products to the consumers helps in
serving tasty food products to the consumers with satisfying the needs and wants. It is mainly
serving and operating in various segments including retail and food, merchandising and
clothings, financing services and the property segments.
Organizational structure:
Structure of the company is mainly of matrix in nature, as it mainly combines more than
one structures which helps Sainsbury's to adapt the changes frequently as to serve and operate by
sustaining in the competitive business environment. Also, with adopting the mixed structure it
helps in competing with others with providing wide range of diversified products portfolio to the
consumers. Thus, Sainsbury is mainly serving the best quality dishes with packing the products
with maintaining all the hygiene standards.
Vision: The vision of the company is to serve the best quality products and treat all the
employees in fair manner for being the most trusted retailer in which individuals may love to
work and shop the products being produced by the company and being served to large number of
consumers.
Mission: The mission of Sainsbury's is to serve the products to consumers with maintaining
respect and ensuring healthy living of the employees to work in more enthusiastic workplace and
maintaining the positivity.
Marketing mix:
The marketing mix mainly comprises four strategies including:
 The product strategy, in Sainsbury it is mainly producing wide range of portfolio of
products including the beauty care, fruits, vegetables, baby products and the household
and electronic products.

 In the pricing strategy the company is mainly establishing and serving the products at fair
and reasonable prices, this helps in attracting the consumers to purchase products with
sustaining in highly competitive markets.
 With the placing strategy, the company is mainly serving product by establishing online
and offline channels (Magerakis and Habib, 2021). This strategy helps in providing
convenience to the consumers for purchasing the products from the stores established as
online and offline in nature.
 In promotion the company is mainly using strategies with using social media site with
offering the products to engage the consumer to purchase the new ad distinct features
nature products. In this using billboards, radio ads, TV ads results in ever-increasing the
brand image among the consumers to maintain the loyal position.
Strategy formulation: As with using the bowman and the porter generic model, mainly
helps in forming the strategy of the company to attain growth (Edwards, 2021). The
differentiation strategy is mainly being opted to attain growth in the company, as it mainly
focuses to serve the products by introducing new range with the added features which is distinct
from the competitors. As this strategy mainly helps in attaining maximum satisfaction with
offering unique products in nature, with this it intends to charge high prices to adapt the growth
and being more competitive by selling better products to the consumers.
Further, by using the VRIO framework, it helps in analysing the internal capabilities of
the company which helps in identifying the resources being used as the human resources,
marketing, brand image and the financial position of the company. Thus, as with utilising all the
resources being available with adopting the differentiation strategy mainly helps in offering and
serving the distinct products in nature which improves the brand image and sustain in the long
run.
Implementation: For implementing the differentiation strategy, with using the bowman
and the porter generic models. In this organizing all the tools ad equipments, also hiring the
employees to produce the differentiated products in nature for working and serving the company
for attaining competitiveness. Further more, in this aligning the set target and mission with the
strategy mainly helps in aligning the strategy with the mission and vision of the company. This
helps in introducing the differentiated products in the beauty, baby care, electronics with adding
new features and serving the best quality products at fair prices.

Evaluation: As with adopting the differentiation strategy different evaluation method is
being used for monitoring the success of the strategy being adopted to attain success. For this
using the KPI tools which mainly helps in identifying the growth and performance before and
after applying the strategy.
PART B
Critical evaluation of different types of strategic directions available to the organization.
Porter's generic strategy: this strategy is used to determine the direction of the
organization's growth. According to this strategy there are four directions available and
Sainsbury must choose one of these as the direction of growth. This strategy identifies the in
depth source of growth for the company and allows the choice to make for the effective growth
of the company. Different organization in different industry choose different directions of growth
which can give an edge on the market place to the company (Zahorskyi and et.al., 2020). The
ultimate point of growth is to increase the market share and attract the high profitability to the
business. Let's understand each direction in detail.
Cost leadership strategy: cost leadership emphasizes offering the products and services
to the large number of customer at the lowest possible prices. Here the goal is to reduce the cost
of end products and placing them in the market at the lowest prices. This can help in grabbing a
large market share where product is being offered at lowest price. It gives a sense of leadership I
the market in terms of cost. Sainsbury can use this model by reducing the cost of production and
elimination of waste which can help reduction of prices in the company hence cost leadership n
the market.
Differentiation strategy: differentiation focuses on making the most exclusive product
and services which has uniqueness to it. As targetting a large segment of the market by making
very different products from the existing products in the market is a good strategy which can
help a company grow. This has potential of achieving greater profitability and grabbing
significant market share. Here product must serve the needs of the customer or create a great
sense of need in the customer which enables the development of the unique product (Patwary
and et.al., 2020).
Cost focus strategy: the cost focused suggest serving to a very niche market or niche
group of customers at the lowest possible prices. As the market segment here will be very niche
or focused group which will serve the business growth. Sainsbury can adapt this strategy by

providing product to a targeted small group of customer at the lowest prices. Here also the
company has to adapt the lowest cost measures.
Differentiation focus strategy: This strategy mianly suggests offering of the exclusive
products to the niche market segment or target groups. Sainsbury can adapt this strategy where
they can just focus on specific group of customers in the market and after a deep analyses of the
market they can create the unique products accordingly. This strategy demands products to very
customized and unique which caters to the expectation of the customers as they will be willing to
pay he good prices.
Bowman's strategy clock: this strategy will help identify the potential growth areas of the
company by placing 8 positions across the clock. Let's understand each potential strategy.
 Low price low value added: here products are low in value and process are the lowest.
This is more about quantity selling. It is least competitive.
 Low price: here products are offered at the lowest prices in the market and expected to
sell the large quantities to derive profits. Focus is on cost-cutting which can bring large
profits (Mikhno and et.al., 2021).
 Hybrid: it is a combination of cost and differentiation. Prices are competitive and
product are of high value in nature. It attracts customers and maintains good profit.
 Differentiation: here product are exclusive in nature from the existing products in the
market which becomes the selling point in the market.
 Focused differentiation: it provides high value goods at high prices, a combination of
which can bring high profits to the business.
 Risky high margins: here products are offered at high prices without any value addition
to the product, Which makes it really risky in nature.
 Monopoly pricing: here pricing and products both are controlled by the single market
player yet it takes a lot of years and market research to come up with such products.
 Loss of market share: this is the worst position where market is being exited by the
company or company is facing decline.
Justification and recommendation of growth platforms/strategies
Sainsbury is a large organization which deals in various product and services
multinationally. Company neds a very specific growth direction which brings a sense of stability
in the profit and market share. As they have years of experience in the market, company can

utilize the same to adapt the product differentiation strategy. According to the porters generic
strategy and bowman strategy clock it can be said that for Sainsbury, differentiation is the best
suitable strategy (Rigby and Ryan, 2018). In the direction of differentiation company can come
up with new product in the market which becomes the selling point to the customers.
As the changing customer behaviour can be incorporated in building new products for the
company. Also, in the differentiation will need a thorough market research to understand the
customer behaviour and needs regarding the products. Such research will back the designing and
marketing of the new products. Such exclusive products will become a point of attraction and
curiosity for the customers which will result in sales n high amounts. Also, organization's goal to
acquire larger market share can be fulfilled by this strategy in long term. Differentiation will
require a lot of resource ans Sainsbury being a well-established organization has enough funds to
back new products (Dima and Maassen, 2018).
Sainsbury already has a large product portfolio which serves large number of people
which ensures a large customer base who is aware of the brand's existence. Company's choice to
develop new product which will be exclusive and unique will be able to give a competitive edge
in the market. Yet the clear adaptation is very necessary hence company must ensure a detailed
market research to ensure knowing the customers and market too well before developing the
product (Nguyen, 2020). Also, customer feedback must be taken which can be incorporated to
build the new product, and making the marketing campaign of the new product really strong
which can act as the identification of the products in the market.
Ways to monitor the chosen strategy to ensure success
It is very important to monitor the progress of the strategy as it facilitates the knowledge
of how successful each activity in the strategy is. Also, what is the level of progress the planing
has made and in case of any modifications and additions it becomes easy to incorporate the
same. more over, Sainsbury is a large organization which makes it even more appropriate to
measure the activity so that the potential of the plan can be determined in the initial stages only.
For monitoring the strategy there will be use the qualitative and quantitative methods to
determine about the company (Srinivasan and Hanssens, 2018).
As these measures will state the growth in real terms for the strategy chosen. There are
various qualitative and quantitative measures are available which will be used by the
organization. The qualitative basis is on the theoretical basis and quantitative base is on the

numerical basis so, the company will use the both methods to monitor the strategy effectiveness
and business performance. These methods help in provide the clearance data and also provide the
information about progress of strategies within the organization. The role of monitoring is to
provide a road map to the company in order to timely evaluate its progress. Adaptation of the
qualitative measures will also help in including this modification which are vital to the success of
the strategy. In the fast pace changing world it has become necessary to incorporate the customer
oriented approach which has power to lift up the whole product development strategy which has
been chosen by the Sainsbury as means of the growth direction available (Nagy and et.al., 2018).
Like for the productivity and profitability element of the business, efficiency and return
on investment for Sainsbury. For monitoring the chosen strategy a well-articulated process has to
be taken into practise. Where some KPIs are also being used for capturing the specific data and
ensure that business reach its goals and objectives such as
 Number of customers.
 Profit margin.
 Demand graph.
 Customer satisfaction.
 Revenue per client.
 Revenue growth.
CONCLUSION
The report has depicted the SWOT and pestle analysis of the Sainsbury to identify the
business environment. Also, porter's five force model has been used to analyse the competitive
environment. Further, keeping the important factors in mind, a strategic management plan has
been devised. In The report has comprehensively used the growth directions available to the
company by using various models as such as porter's generic strategy and bowman's strategy
clock. Further more , the recommendation and justification for choosing the differentiation as the
direction of company's growth has been highlighted. At last various methods such as qualitative
and quantitative to monitor the selected strategy in order to ensure success has been illustrated.

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