Critical Analysis of Morrison’s Firm

This critical analysis explores the concepts of relationship marketing and customer relationship management (CRM) in the context of Morrison’s firm. It discusses the importance of maintaining a positive relationship with customers and how CRM models can help in retaining customers. The analysis also includes the design of the Match and More card using Buttle’s CRM Value Chain Model.

Running head: CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MORRISONS FIRM
Critical analysis of Morrison’s firm
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author’s Note

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MORRISONS FIRM
Table of Contents
1. Relationship Marketing and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in today’s business
era?...................................................................................................................................................3
2. To evaluate the Morrison’s RM effort and how CRM models can help them?..........................3
3. Designing of Match and More card by applying Buttle’s CRM Value Chain Model to retain
the Morrison’s customers?...............................................................................................................3
4. The operation CRM and sales force automation?........................................................................3
References........................................................................................................................................4

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MORRISONS FIRM
1. Relationship Marketing and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in today’s
business era?
Relationship marketing is a form of chain marketing system in which the market make
sure that loyal customers are always given the main priority in order to keep the business
between them. However, in other words, it is a process of maintaining, creating and enhancing
relationships with customers. The very soul purpose of marketing is to formulate prospects and
then conversion of this prospect into leads and then conversion of leads into end consumers
(Torres et al., 2016).
The concept of relationship marketing is based upon maintaining the relationship between the
clients and a market that is between the seller and the buyer, relationship marketing, on the other
hand, focuses mainly on the customer service, customer satisfaction and on the quality of the
product to ensure that they have an adequate amount of loyal customers (Dean et al., 2015). The
main area of focus point within relationship marketing comprises of customer service
management with customer satisfaction. As the term denotes, relationship marketing the concept
of relationship marketing is based upon maintaining a positive and healthy relationship between
the market and the consumers of the economy.
As the income of the consumer keeps on fluctuating according to which the choices for the
commodity or product keeps on all fluctuating. Hence, it is essential to consider this fact and
maintain the quality of the commodity. Because of high competition within the market, most of
the market, that is seller apply the concept of relationship marketing within their business firm to
be successful as it is not only necessary to generate end customers, but it is also necessary to
retain those customers. The customer should be provided with financial as well as which social

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MORRISONS FIRM
benefits. There exists a necessity for the business firm to implement a strategic plan regarding
how much to invest financially for relationship marketing and individual consumers (Nti et al.,
2017).
As the name suggests CRM stands for customer relationship marketing, this theory elaborate the
need for maintaining a positive and healthy relationship between the buyer and the seller.
Speaking in terms of today’s trending competitive rival business firm CRM plays a very primary
role as such the financial and the purchasing behaviour of the existing consumers can be
evaluated which reduces must much of the research cost along with time (Fernie et al., 2014).
CRM can contain every detail regarding the existing consumers in terms of the consumers
purchasing behaviour; therefore it makes it very easy for the business firm to track the
consumers. The working of CRM reports takes place by classification as such that specific kind
of consumers are group together and considered as one specific group. The different kinds of
consumers are grouped into different kinds of groups; this enables the business firm to undertake
strategic plan efficiently and effectively (Kale et al., 2014). The theory of CRM also introduces a
term known as “opportunity of business” which resembles to an identification of new consumer
and maintaining its corresponding details within the CRM system. CRM is an integrated business
module.
Some of the key aspects of CRM are as follows:
 It is a very cost effective module.
 It reduces much of the burden of manual labour work, system requires very less amount of
paperwork; therefore this ensures that less number of staff is required to allocate within the
CRM system.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MORRISONS FIRM
 All the details within the CRM system are kept confidential and centralised within the
business firm.
2. To evaluate the Morrison’s Relationship marketing effort and how CRM models can
help them?
The business firm Morrison undertakes business with the local market, all the commodity
that that are supplied by them are acquired from the local market and then it is being processed to
their very own sub-departments where the quality and preservations are given the highest
priority, in order to arrive at a customer satisfaction (Mollah et al., 2014). However, taken into
consideration the past performance of the business firm it seems like the business firm operates
on the (VMS) Vertical Marketing System. Taking into consideration the case study it is being
observed that the market follows a chain management system in order to ensure that the
customers as satisfied in order to maintain long term relationship marketing. Moreover, the firm
also provides coupons and discount to maintain the number of loyal customers. Morrisons has
introduced a card which collects points that can be used to purchase within the Morrison market.
The introduction of card has been made to maintain the loyal customers. The business firm has
trained their staffs and colleagues in terms of customer’s service to make sure that their customer
satisfaction objective is given the highest priority. The business firm even concentrates on the
after sale services for the satisfaction of the consumers. The firm makes use of some measures to
evaluate the firm’s performance and that of customer satisfaction, the firm undertakes qualitative
as well as quantitative measures.
Quantitative measures such as surveys are conducted to understand the customer view and
opinion. Qualitative measures such as mystery shops. Moreover, the business firm makes sure
that there exists zero competition within the firm sub-departments by communication and

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MORRISONS FIRM
maintaining relationship within each of the departments. The firm focuses on the customer to
such extent that it won the title of ‘Employer of the Year’ at the 2011 Oracle Retail Week
Awards. The firm eliminates any competition within the sub-department to make sure that focus
lies centrally on a single factor. The primary motive of all should be serve towards customer
satisfaction. Sharing individual ideas and innovative strategies will together contribute to the
success of the entire department. The firm focuses mainly on what are the key factors that will
make customer satisfaction high and to make the existing customers fall within the loyal
customer's segment (Haleem et al., 2017).
CRM is key to the firm’s success. CRM entails the business firm the opportunity to obtain
various CRM report which has been prepared keeping in mind the past purchasing behaviour and
consumption pattern of the customers. This helps the business firm to formulate future plans
based upon strategy. This also avails the opportunity to the business firm to create a new product
segment or to formulate product modification whichever is more desirable. The CRM module
implements the data related customers reference within the digital-based platform such as social
media and digital marketing which make the firm to arrive at an innovative marketing position.
The digital marketing platform enables the firm to reach thousands of customers within a fraction
of time.
However, this also avails the opportunity to evaluate the interest of the customers towards a
specific area. Moreover, the marketing and customer director Nick Collard at Morrison’s firm
stated that having availability of an adequate amount of customer data will make the business
firm to grow more. Salesforce data will help the firm to understand better, regarding the
purchasing behaviour and the key facts that pulls the interest of the customers (Jack et al., 2018).
Capegimini is responsible for implementing the use of the CRM module within Morrison’s firm.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MORRISONS FIRM
CRM is the key towards business planning phase formulation. CRM gathers data manipulates it
accordingly and generate a specific outcome. The business firm seems to focus mainly on CRM
as this is the key to their future growth. CRM platform in the present scenario collects customer
data and formulates a customer database. Whereas, in future, it can be seen that this data will be
valuable to further take business decisions.
3. Designing of Match and More card by applying Buttle’s CRM Value Chain Model to
retain Morrison’s customers?
Primary Stage: Customer portfolio analysis, Customer intimacy, Network development
scope, Value proposition development, Manage the relationship.
Supporting Conditions: Culture & leadership, Processes, Human Resource Management
Processes, IT / Data Management Processes.
The above mentioned key aspects are the factors that are the main contribution towards the
Buttle’s CRM Value Chain model. The components of the primary stage are the aspects that are
mainly to generate customers and revenue for the firm. Where these objectives are supported by
the supporting conditions within the Buttle’s CRM model. There exists only two stages within
the model and taking into consideration the Buttle’s CRM model the following design of Match
and More card has been formulated (Kasemsap et al., 2015).

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MORRISONS FIRM
Figure: Morrison’s Match and More card using Buttle’s CRM model
Source: (www.cleverism.com, 2019)
The primary factors are as follows:
Customer portfolio analysis- Morrison’s firm can obtain meaningful data regarding customer
purchasing behaviour and interest regarding the commodities. This will enable the firm to
classify each different kinds of customers into different categories. This will help the business to
create new business opportunity by identifying the new leads and business opportunities.
Customer intimacy- Creating a separate team for dealing with the problems of individual
customers. The team intention would be to get closer as much as possible to the customers using
communication and identify the areas of the problem that the customer is facing. This generates

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MORRISONS FIRM
faith within the customers that they are being given importance and priority (Ngambi et al.,
2015).
Network development scope- Since the supermarket chain Morrison’s has the presence of huge
brand equity and brand loyalty that exists within the customers. There is a huge scope for the
firm to generate new leads by means of the networks. The supermarket chain can make use of
concept addressed as WOM (Words Of Mouth), this is a marketing concept which brings in
much of the business when information flows from one person to another person (Zhang et al.,
2016). The flow of information takes place by means of referral, suggestions or
recommendations from family members or from nearby relatives.
Value Proposition Development- It is sole objective of the business firm operating within the
market. It is a complete series of a package of price, product quality, and qualitative
communication and much more than one forms regarding another firm by means of services
acquired from the business firm. Morrisons has built a very positive value proposition in the eye
of the economy as such that it has shown a huge growth within the market. However, the number
of rival firms are very competitive and quality oriented. There lies a need for the business unit
Morrison’s to move at a fast pace to overcome the rival firm's value proposition that exists in the
eye of the customers.
Manage the relationship: There lies a need for Morrison’s firm to maintain a positive nature in
terms of the buyer and seller relationship. Morrison’s has been able to push themselves to this
position because of their effort towards customer service satisfaction. However, this is a
continuous process, and some another rival supermarket also exists. Hence, there lies a need for
the supermarket chain, Morrison, to increase their effort towards the customer service to

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MORRISONS FIRM
penetrate more within the market. The consumer market is rational and demand only those
commodities that yield maximum utility. The rival firms have given a very high competition as
such that the market is balanced in between the rival firms.
The secondary factors that will support the primary factors of the supermarket chain are
as follows:
Culture & leadership- The supermarket culture should be organized in a manner that will be
preferable and desirable by purchasing consumers. There should be a presence of slogans and
signatures. Logo’s that represents a specific section of the commodity within the market. This
gives the customer development of sense that they are making business with a qualitative
business firm and they are obtaining a qualitative product. It is the vision of the senior executives
of the supermarket firm that contributes towards the leadership quality and taking future
decisions of the firm. The leadership body of the firm should undertake steps keeping in view the
culture of the supermarket ambience.
Processes- The supermarket chain follows the process of VMS, which ensures the quality of the
product. However, there exists a need to take forward the process of the business firm to another
step as such that the rival firms fail to complete with the firm. The supermarket chain can
undertake steps to step forward for more centric based business processes.
Human Resource Management Processes- The HRM process of supermarket firm includes a
smooth flow of communication and share of ideologies from one department to another
department. There exists no perfect competition between the various sub-departments in order to
eliminate the chaos that may lead to distraction from the path of maintaining positive and healthy
customer service.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MORRISONS FIRM
IT / Data Management processes- The supermarket chain make use of the data management
services to create its database. The data acts as a primary factor for formulation of business
actions plans and evaluation plan as well as a backup plan. This composition of data acts as an
asset for the business firm to generate their planning stage regarding product development,
product modification, new segment development, promotional strategy or to undertake any
necessary changes that may be required.
4. The operation CRM and sales force automation?
The CRM operations of the business firm mainly deal in the creation of CRM reports by
the past data collected and creating a separate database for the company to generate new paths.
The CRM database is arranged with the data regarding the different consumer perspective like
the purchasing behaviour, facts that motivates the purchasing behaviour of customers, what
influences the mind of customers to undertake purchase activity, what is the goodwill that lies
within the mind of customers in terms of the company, what are the key aspects that makes the
company a remarkable one in the eye of customers and many more (Khodakarami et al., 2014).
All these details are obtained and compiled according to the nature of the CRM module.
However, there exist different kinds of CRM such that they are as follows:
Operational CRM- It is a CRM module that outlines the sales, marketing and service
automation. The primary objective of this type of CRM is to generate prospect s and then
conversion of these prospects into leads and then into end consumers.
Analytical CRM- This CRM module mainly deals with the analytical activity; all the data are
being evaluated and compiled that are driven from various key points. The data compilation is
undertaken, and the report is later generated for obtaining a specific, meaningful report to the

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MORRISONS FIRM
senior executive to understand the present scenario of the business environment. Such an
analytical module helps the top management to focus on the sales, marketing and o the personnel
support.
Collaborative CRM- This specific module of CRM deals with compilation data and then
communicating this data within the various sub-departments of the business firm. It is also
addressed as the strategic CRM because of the utility that the module serves. It generates data
and passes on to the other sub-departments where further this data are being manipulated and
business steps are taken.
Figure: CRM modules
Source: Created by the researcher
Taking into consideration the case study of Morrison’s supermarket it seems like the firm is
paying much of the attention towards the process of CRM. However, the firm may undertake
steps to implement the various alternative modules of the CRM package. Very often it has been
found that most of the business firm fails although making use of the CRM software because of
the lack of supervision in the field of CRM applications. Many firms fail to understand as of
which specific CRM module to be chosen for a specific kind of operations according to the
Operational Analytical Collaborative

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MORRISONS FIRM
nature of the business firm. The supermarket chain should understand the nature of the CRM
packages and should make use of it to arrive at a preferable business situation.
However, there also takes place some marketing operations that are the automation process; the
automation process is possible because of the field of IT applications. The various automation
modules are as follows; they are:
Sales Automation- It helps in the sales process of the business firm. The primary motive of the
sales automation is to formulate a set of standards that will lead to undertaking sales related
business decision. Whenever the embedded standards meet with the data that are automatically
generated. Sales action takes place. However, a notification arrives in the eye of the senior
management regarding such automation activity. It is a set of various set of modules such as lead
generation, lead conversion, contact management and sales forecasting.
Marketing Automation- This module of CRM is related to the best manner which can be
implemented to present the product in front of the end customers. The module also deals with
what could be the best approach to bring the product in the eye of customers with a convincing
tone. This module is very beneficial in order to deal with the marketing theory of buyer-seller
dyad.
Service Automation- This module is related to providing automatic services to retain the
existing customers and to maintain brand loyalty. This module is focused on the building of the
strong relationship between the seller and the customer. This automation is very useful as the
application continues to work within the background context despite the geographical gap ad
time factor. This helps in keeping the end customers and the seller within in touch of each other.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MORRISONS FIRM
Figure: CRM module and automation
Source: Created by the researcher
The automation service is mainly developed to solve the complex issues and the burden of
manual labour availability to carry out a specific task. The supermarket chain can undertake this
various set of automation module to give further competition to the rival firms and to introduce
innovation within the organization. However, taking into consideration the case study it seems
like the business firm has been giving much attention to the application use of the CRM module.
Automation IT application Reduces burden of manual labour work
Different modules
Evaluation of different modules according to business undertakings
Generation of reports after
compilation of data
Top management executive

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MORRISONS FIRM
References
Brunvall, K.L.J., Lunde, O.J.G., Salmelid, M., Larsson, S., Lindin, R. and Ekeli, V., 2016. Kiwi
minipris: Export Marketing Consultancy Project (Bachelor's thesis).
Chakraborty, R., Dobson, P.W., Seaton, J.S. and Waterson, M., 2014. Market consolidation and
pricing developments in grocery retailing: a case study. In The Analysis of Competition
Policy and Sectoral Regulation (pp. 3-29).
Choi, S., Lee, S. and Friske, W., 2018. The effects of featured advertising and package labeling
on sustainability of cause-related marketing (CRM) products. Sustainability, 10(9),
p.3011.
Dean, D., Croft, R. and Pich, C., 2015. Toward a conceptual framework of emotional
relationship marketing: an examination of two UK political parties. Journal of Political
Marketing, 14(1-2), pp.19-34.
Deshwal, P., 2016. Customer experience quality and demographic variables (age, gender,
education level, and family income) in retail stores. International Journal of Retail &
Distribution Management, 44(9), pp.940-955.
Farquad, M.A.H., Ravi, V. and Raju, S.B., 2014. Churn prediction using comprehensible support
vector machine: An analytical CRM application. Applied Soft Computing, 19, pp.31-40.
Fernie, J., 2014. 02 Relationships in the supply chain. Logistics and retail management:
Emerging issues and new challenges in the retail supply chain, p.35.
Haleem, F. and Jehangir, M., 2017. Strategic Management Practices by Morrison PLC, UK.
Analysis, Lessons and Implications. Middle East Journal of Business, 12(3).

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MORRISONS FIRM
Jack, L., Florez-Lopez, R. and Ramon-Jeronimo, J.M., 2018. Accounting, performance
measurement and fairness in UK fresh produce supply networks. Accounting,
Organizations and Society, 64, pp.17-30.
Kale, V., 2014. Implementing SAP® CRM: The guide for business and technology managers.
Auerbach Publications.
Kasemsap, K., 2015. The role of customer relationship management in the global business
environments. In Trends and innovations in marketing information systems (pp. 130-
156). IGI Global.
Khodakarami, F. and Chan, Y.E., 2014. Exploring the role of customer relationship management
(CRM) systems in customer knowledge creation. Information & Management, 51(1),
pp.27-42.
Lilleker, D.G. and Jackson, N., 2014. Brand management and relationship marketing in online
environments. Political marketing in the United States, pp.165-184.
Mang’unyi, E.E., Khabala, O.T. and Govender, K.K., 2017. The relationship between e-CRM
and customer loyalty: a Kenyan Commercial Bank case study. Bank and Bank
Systems, 12(2), pp.106-115.
Mariadoss, B.J., Milewicz, C., Lee, S. and Sahaym, A., 2014. Salesperson competitive
intelligence and performance: The role of product knowledge and sales force automation
usage. Industrial Marketing Management, 43(1), pp.136-145.
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.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MORRISONS FIRM
Ngambi, M.T. and Ndifor, P.S., 2015. Customer relationship management and firm performance:
Revisiting the case of the Camccul Microfinance Institutions. International Journal of
Information Technology and Business Management, 38(1), pp.12-21.
Nti, G.A., 2017. Food preferences of customers of food service establishments in Ho in the Volta
Region of Ghana(Doctoral dissertation, University of Cape Coast).
Preece, C., Chong, H.Y., Golizadeh, H. and Rogers, J., 2015. A review of customer relationship
(CRM) implications: benefits and challenges in construction organizations. International
Journal of Civil Engineering, 13(3), pp.362-371.
Resnick, S., Foster, C. and Woodall, T., 2014. Exploring the UK high street retail experience: is
the service encounter still valued?. International Journal of Retail & Distribution
Management, 42(9), pp.839-859.
Santouridis, I. and Tsachtani, E., 2015. Investigating the impact of CRM resources on CRM
processes: a customer life-cycle based approach in the case of a Greek bank. Procedia
Economics and Finance, 19, pp.304-313.
Thomassen, Ø., Smith, H., Seiler, S. and Schiraldi, P., 2017. Multi-category competition and
market power: a model of supermarket pricing. American Economic Review, 107(8),
pp.2308-51.
Torres, J.P. and Kunc, M.H., 2016. Market opportunity recognition in the Chilean wine industry:
traditional versus relational marketing approaches. Journal of wine research, 27(1),
pp.19-33.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MORRISONS FIRM
Zhang, Y., An, Y., Ma, X. and Yu, L., 2016, December. Research on Standardization of Funeral
Process based on CRM Model. In 2016 5th International Conference on Sustainable
Energy and Environment Engineering (ICSEEE 2016). Atlantis Press.