Digital Marketing Plan for Woolworths Australia

Running head: DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN FOR WOOLWORTHS
Digital Marketing Plan for Woolworths
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN FOR WOOLWORTHS AUSTRALIA
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
1. PESTEL Analysis of Australia.................................................................................................3
Porters 5 Forces Analysis................................................................................................................4
SWOT Analysis...........................................................................................................................5
2. Market Segmentation for Woolworths Australia.....................................................................6
3. Digital Marketing Mix..............................................................................................................7
Recommendations............................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................12

2DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN FOR WOOLWORTHS AUSTRALIA
Introduction
To engage in the use of technology for the effective running of a business is a wise thing
to do given the important role that is played by technology today in day to day living. People
order food online, they purchase garments and groceries online and they eve pay their hospital
bills online (Aswathy and Nair 2020). Technology use also proves to be immensely effective in
the running of business operations as it makes it possible for a business to conduct operations in
a quick and efficient manner. Woolworths Australia is one of the most prominent retail chains in
Australia that has acquired name and fame for the high quality of its groceries and household
products. This is a retail chain that is not only known for the quality of its products, though, but
also for the excellent variety that it is seen to provide its customers with. Woolworths has as
many as 995 stores operating under its name in various cities and towns of Australia and is the
most relied upon and sought after store for the purchase of groceries, meat and household
products (Bacile et al. 2019). This assignment prepares a digital marketing plan that can be used
by Woolworths Australia to reach out to its target audience in the best way possible. The
assignment engages in a situational analysis of Woolworths Australia, by undertaking PESTEL,
SWOT and Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis after which the digital marketing strategies that the
company ought to take to promote its products, are discussed. The assignment concludes with a
number of important and useful recommendations on how a business like Woolworths Australia
can best make use of digital technology such as social media interaction for example, to establish
prominence for itself in the Australian market.

3DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN FOR WOOLWORTHS AUSTRALIA
1. PESTEL Analysis of Australia
Political – Australia is a commonwealth country, with the Queen of England being the head of
state here, technically, and it is characterized by a relatively stable political environment. At
present, the right wing party is in power in the country and the stable political climate that
prevails here allows businesses to function in a smooth and glitch free manner. An enterprise like
Woolworths Australia is able to conduct its operations without the fear of uncertainty owing to
the firm and well established political ambience that exists in Australia (Crowley 2017).
Economic – Australia is quite a prosperous nation. GDP growth is high and the country has a
huge reserve of natural resources to fall back on. The economic progress in Australia enables a
business like Woolworths Australia to run its operations at cost effective rates. While the rate of
labor is high, the cost of production is not uniformly high in all cities and towns, and
Woolworths Australia is able to command the prices that it deems fit for the goods that it puts
out for sale (Crowley 2017).
Social – Society in Australia is multi-ethnic in character. It is home to people from diverse
religious and ethnic backgrounds. Some of the ethnic groups that are seen to reside in Australia
are Chinese, Indian and aboriginal people, over and above the White Australians who form the
majority of the country’s population. The social fabric in Australia is harmonious for the most
part and the varied and hybrid population in the country serves as a good target base for a
business like Woolworths Australia. This is a business that is able to find takers for its different
products without any difficulty at all, given the fact that most of its target audience has the
purchase power or capacity to afford what Woolworths Australia has to offer (Bailey and
Inderberg 2017).

4DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN FOR WOOLWORTHS AUSTRALIA
Technological – Australia is one of the most technologically advanced nations in the world. The
internet is widely used for day to day communication and business transactions in Australia.
Woolworths makes use of this advancement in technology to sell its products online quite
intensely, with the online sales of the company often being higher than in-store sales.
Technological developments are also utilized by Woolworths Australia to add a great degree of
efficiency and efficacy to in-store operations (Bailey and Inderberg 2017).
Environmental – Global warming is one the rise and Australia has a nation is quite susceptible
to the grave dangers that are associated with global warming. As such, it is expected that
businesses in Australia will conduct their operations in a way that ensures the wellbeing of the
surrounding natural environment. Woolworths Australia does its business responsibly, by
avoiding the excessive use of plastic and making use of recycled products in day to day business
affairs (Bailey and Inderberg 2017).
Legal – The legal system in the country of Australia is based entirely on the type of legal system
that is in existence in the United Kingdom. As such, there are no harsh taxation and other laws
that a business like Woolworths Australia is subjected to, and the secure legal framework in
Australia enables the business to conduct its operations without the fear of hassle, intimidation
and fraud (Crowley 2017).
Porters 5 Forces Analysis
Competitive Rivalry – While Woolworth’s Australia is a prominent retail chain, competitive
rivalry is still something that is quite high for this company. This is because other competing or
rival chains like Tesco are also in operation in the Australian cities and towns. Woolworths must
keep its products uniquely positioned at all times in order to establish competitive advantage in

5DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN FOR WOOLWORTHS AUSTRALIA
the best possible way and in order to attract the interest and the attention of its target audience at
all times (Buchanan et al. 2019).
Bargaining Power of Suppliers – Since there are many retail chains in Australia, Woolworths
has an elaborate and reliable network of suppliers and distributors that it can fall back on for the
effective and timely supply of raw materials. The bargaining power of suppliers is low for this
business (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick 2019).
Bargaining power of Customers – Once again, since there are several retail chains in operation
in Australia, there are many different options for customers to choose from. The bargaining
power of customers is high (Chaffey and Smith 2017).
Threat of Substitution – The products on offer at Woolworths Australia are popular for their
price and quality, but the lack of uniqueness when it comes to these, implies that rival businesses
can easily substitute such products and offer better household goods and groceries for sale. The
threat of substitution is high (Chester and Montgomery 2017).
Threat of New Entry – The demand for groceries and retail products in general in Australia
indicates that there is every possibility for a new retail chain to emerge in this part of the world.
The threat of new entry is high for Woolworths Australia (Confos and Davis 2016).
SWOT Analysis
Strengths – The key strength of Woolworths Australia lies in the quality of products that it
offers its customers and also in the variety (De-Pelsmacker et al. 2018).

6DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN FOR WOOLWORTHS AUSTRALIA
Weaknesses – The products on offer are fresh foods, household goods and day to day utility
products, which are not unique as such and which can be easily substituted or replaced (Kannan
2017).
Opportunities – The huge demand for retail products in Australia indicates that there is every
possibility for Woolworths Australia to continue growing and expanding in the country, in spite
of having 995 stores under its purview already (Kannan 2017).
Threats – There are significant threats that a business like Woolworths is faced with. The
widespread demand for retail products implies that a new business could emerge that offers
related or similar products at a price which is lower than what is offered at Woolworths
Australia. If Woolworths Australia does not take care with the positioning of its products and
with its marketing strategies, it can end up losing out to new rivals and competitors in the scene
(Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick 2019).
2. Market Segmentation for Woolworths Australia
Demographics – The products that are sold by a company like Woolworths Australia are those
that cater to people of every age group. This is because the store offers fresh food groceries,
household products and even bath products and baby foods, the use of which spans across
various age groups (Dodson 2016).
Geographic – The goods offered at Woolworths Australia are those that are made available for
sale in every major Australian city and town such as Sydney, Brisbane, Hobart, Canberra and
Adelaide. Apart from the brick and mortar stores, customers can also procure goods from the
online store (Dodson 2016).

7DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN FOR WOOLWORTHS AUSTRALIA
Psychographic – The type of goods that are on offer at the Woolworths Australia stores are
utility products for the most part, and as such, are likely to cater to the interests of people who
lead a middle class or upper middle class lifestyle, not to mention elites (Kingsnorth 2019).
Behavioral – The behavior of customers who are likely to purchase the Woolworths Australia
products cannot be placed in any specific category. Goods such as fresh foods and groceries and
also household commodities are required and used by customers characterized by various types
of personality and behavior hence the products of Woolworths Australia cannot be considered
behavior specific as such (Kingsnorth 2019).
Firmo-graphic – Woolworths Australia is one of the largest retail chains in Australia and the
goods sold by this company have some characteristic features of their own, in terms of quality
and the way by which these are packaged and presented before customers (Durmaz, Y. and
Efendioglu, I.H., 2016).
3. Digital Marketing Mix
Product – The product that is being sold here are the products sold by Woolworths Australia.
These are fresh food products and domestic products or products that are required around the
house such as in the kitchens and bathrooms. The Woolworths brand is quite well-known and
popular, with quality being the topmost feature of the products sold by this chain of stores
(Laverie et al. 2018).
Place – While the Woolworths Australia products are available for sale at all of its 995 brick and
mortar stores, the online purchases are also quite frequent with most of the target audience of this
company preferring to order for Woolworths products online. Hence the online marketing

8DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN FOR WOOLWORTHS AUSTRALIA
strategies of the company need to up to date and in keeping with present online marketing trends
to ensure good sales all the year through (Moody and Slobodian 2016).
Price – The products that are, and which are going to be sold by Woolworths Australia online in
the future are products which will be kept quite competitively priced. The pricing of the goods
available online is something that will be kept affordable so that customers of just about every
budget find themselves in a position to afford the products that are sold by Woolworths Australia
online (Patrutiu – Baltes 2016).
Promotion – Woolworths Australia will make extensive use of social media in order to promote
its products online in a successful manner. Some of the important platforms that Woolworths
Australia will make use of in this respect are Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Regular photos
and videos of the products on offer at Woolworths Australia will be published on these platforms
for viewers to like and appreciate. Based on what they see on the social media pages of the
company, buyers are likely to be influenced into making a purchase at the online stores of the
company or even at the brick and mortar stores of the same. The benefit of promoting
Woolworths Australia products on social media is the fact social media facilitates the quick
dissemination of knowledge. Woolworths will be able to make new and updated information
about its products known to a very wide target when it opts for social media marketing. The
social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are those that can be used to post
updated videos and images at any given point of time and can also be utilized for the purpose of
going live and giving customers real time updates and information about the products that have
newly arrived at the Woolworths Australia stores (Paul et al. 2018).

9DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN FOR WOOLWORTHS AUSTRALIA
Positioning – The positioning of Woolworths Australia products as promoted on social media
and digital platforms, will be in the form of updated images and videos, with the most attractive
features of the products being highlighted in the images and videos uploaded. Customers will get
firsthand information about what they are about to buy when they look at the social media
marketing videos and images of Woolworths Australia. They will not be in the dark about their
purchase and going through all the real time information will enable customers to make the type
of purchase which they will not be likely to regret later on (Saura et al. 2017).
Physical Evidence – At the physical stores of the company, an attempt will be made on the part
of the store authorities to inform customers to visit the social media pages of the company on a
regular basis, so that they can come across updates and alerts concerning the latest arrivals at the
stores (Taiminen 2016).
People – A team of social media marketers will be drawn up by the company so that the digital
marketing strategies of the company are implemented to perfection and without any delay
(Taiminen 2016).
Recommendations
The following recommendations need to be taken into consideration by Woolworths
Australia, to market its products on digital platforms in the most effective way –
 A company like Woolworths Australia needs to engage in more search engine
optimization if it intends on marketing its products in an effective way on digital
platforms. SEO techniques can play a crucial role in drawing traffic to the website of the
company, where customers can engage in the purchase of products offered by

10DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN FOR WOOLWORTHS AUSTRALIA
Woolworths Australia at any given hour of the day, and at rates which are truly cost-
effective (Thomas et al. 2017).
 Using live video and audio content is yet another way by which Woolworths Australia
can ensure that its digital marketing plan has been properly implemented. Live video and
audio content will enable customers to tune in to real time updates about new arrivals at
the company stores, which in turn will put them in a position to make informed decisions
about when and what it is that they would like to buy from stores (Todor 2016).
 The social media pages of the company should be kept updated as regularly as possible
so that customers can have access to the latest information regarding what is up for sale at
Woolworths, when they visit these pages. An attempt should be made to design the social
media marketing pages of the company on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and even
Youtube in as attractive a manner as possible so that customers feel tempted to visit such
pages time and again (Zhu and Gao 2019).
 An attempt needs to be made to engage with customers on the social media platforms so
that the company can gain an accurate idea of customer needs and requirements. A one to
one with customers on the social media pages will give the company authorities a great
opportunity to assess customer demand and expectation (Zhu and Gao 2019).
Conclusion
Thus, there are quite a few marketing strategies and techniques that can be deployed by
Woolworths Australia to promote its products online and on digital marketing platforms. E-
commerce platforms and social media marketing are some of the most effective tools that can be
used today for the marketing of goods and services and Woolworths Australia should not leave

11DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN FOR WOOLWORTHS AUSTRALIA
any stone unturned to utilize the digital marketing platforms that exist for the promotion of its
products. By adopting a pragmatic and effective digital marketing strategy the company can go a
long way in increase and building its target audience and establish competitive advantage quite
significantly in the process.

12DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN FOR WOOLWORTHS AUSTRALIA
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