Principles of Marketing: Marketing Plan and Strategy for Sainsbury's

This report discusses the importance of marketing plan and strategy for Sainsbury's, a food retail sector organization. It covers topics such as the current situation of the company, development of marketing strategy, and the use of marketing mix to improve growth and market share. The report also highlights the significance of market research and the role of marketing plan in reducing uncertainties and improving coordination between departments. It concludes that marketing plan is vital for any organization and cannot be overlooked.

Principles of Marketing

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PART A...........................................................................................................................................1
Marketing plan and its importance..............................................................................................1
PART B...........................................................................................................................................2
Executive summary.....................................................................................................................2
Introduction..................................................................................................................................2
Current situation of the company................................................................................................3
Development of the marketing strategy.......................................................................................4
Use of marketing mix to improve growth and market share.......................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is an activity or a process of selling, purchasing and promoting goods and
services of a company with the purpose of getting attention of target audiences and fulfilling
their needs and requirements by offering products as per their demands (Hollensen, 2019). This
report is based on a food retail sector organisation, Sainsbury which was incorporated in 1869
John James Sainsbury. The firm operate its business globally and offer its food products as
supermarket. The written document will include information about marketing plan,
organisation’s current situation, marketing strategy and use of marketing mix for growth and
development.
PART A
Marketing plan and its importance
According to Stephen Morse, Marketing plan refers to the strategy made by an organisation
to identify the resources which are available and utilising those limited resources for achieving
the goals and objectives related to marketing and advertising of the company and its products
(Morse, 1967). Marketing plan helps a company in determination of the targets which form the
basis of future business revenue and growth. The purpose of marketing plan prepared by the
management of Sainsbury’s is to determine the sales channel, techniques of sales promotion and
platforms which are to be used for creating awareness about the products which are being offered
including online and offline mediums.
It helps the company to decide which people or groups of customers are most likely to buy
the products and services which are being offered by the company instead of having an
assumption that the product which is being offered is useful for the entire population. It is
imperative for the management of Sainsbury’s to realise the importance and significance of
marketing plan as it helps the company to increase the sales with minimum efforts. Marketing
plan involves determination of target customers and when any business organisation targets its
potential customers in a much smarter and strategic manner, the costs related to the marketing
and sales also reduces and there is a much higher chance of conversion of a potential customer
into a business customer (Chernev, 2015). Planning the marketing activities of the company will
help the management of Sainsbury’s to improve the coordination between various departments
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such as better production targets based on accurate sales forecasts. It also helps a great deal in
reducing the future uncertainties and unpredictable business conditions.
Marketing plan can be of vital importance for the management of Sainsbury’s in
determining clear sales objectives formed on the basis of realistic market research and having a
clarity of thought. Having a clear objective helps in better performance and operational results. It
can be argued that this decade has witnessed one of the biggest waves in technological
innovation and development which has also changed the face and dynamics of marketing. Tools
and mediums of marketing have evolved with a wide number of options available for any
business organisation to market its products and services and create brand awareness. Marketing
plan is an important step in determination of the channels and tools which are to be used by the
company for its future marketing and advertising campaigns since a particular channel might be
more effective than others for the company (Koskinen, 2016). For example, online advertisement
is more effective in context of Sainsbury’s.
Hence, marketing plan is important in selecting the right alternative as a huge amount of
money is involved in the marketing campaigns and even the slightest mistake in selection can
increase the sales costs by a huge margin. Under the process of preparation of marketing plan,
market research is conducted by the managers of Sainsbury’s which helps in identification of the
needs and wants of the customers and this knowledge helps the company to develop better
products in the future to increase the customer satisfaction which improves the goodwill and
image of the company (Burns, Bush and Sinha, 2014). It can be concluded that importance of
marketing plan for any organisation is significant and can’t be overlooked.
PART B
Executive summary
Introduction
Marketing is an act of importing, exporting and promoting products and services of a
company. For performing these kinds of activities, the administration of enterprises frames and
execute marketing plan (Perreault, 2018). The written report will include information about
Sainsbury that is going to launch new “Baked products”. It will define about current situation of
company, development of marketing strategy and marketing mix.
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Current situation of the company
To determine the current situation of the organisation, the administration of Sainsbury can
use PEST analysis framework. The management of the firm can use this tool in term of analyse
the impact of external components over business of this venture. The description of this analysis
in term of respective firm is as under:
Political- This factor consist different aspects like political stability and instability,
corruption, foreign exchange rate, trade restrictions and many more. The biggest political factor
that affects the business of respective company is Brexit. It will state that England will no longer
remain a part of the European Union, leading to maximised import rates. This would inevitably
maximise the product pricing of the brand and thus a large number of consumer may be lost to
rivals that offer cheaper retail alternatives. Apart from this, Free trade is another political aspect
that provides the opportunity to business venture to operate its business globally.
Economical- It consider different elements like currency rate, interest rate, inflation &
deflation, exchange rate, employment and employment rate and many more. Brexit is the main
factor that also affects the economic condition of the firm by generating inflation (Macarthy,
2018). Due to inflation cost of material, commodities and petrol and diesel are maximised and
the administration also make change in prices of its products in term of high. This affects the
sales, profits and customer base of the company unfavourably.
Social- It consist culture, custom, values, beliefs, needs and demands of customers, living
standards and other demographic factors. In Sainsbury, a large part of the brand is deriving from
the sales of fast food items in its stores. However, now the customers are increasingly shifting
towards a health conscious diet that does not consists fast food items. Another changing
customer behaviour that respective firm’s should cater to is the fair trade movement. It consists a
rise in prices of grains, vegetables and other farm connected commodities. Products such as
chocolate and coffee are influenced by the fair trade movement and the brand should assure that
they are meeting their consumer behaviour needs.
Technological- It considers technical innovation, advance technology, research and
development, artificial intelligence and many more. In Sainsbury, the administration of the form
use effective promotional channels and tools like social media, web ads and internet etc, which
assist in creating awareness about new and existing products of the firm in appropriate manner.
Now these people are preferring online shopping and respective firm recently introduce its e-
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commerce store that is highly beneficial in term of catering to the current tech friendly
generation.
Development of the marketing strategy
Marketing strategy refer to those plan of action that are developed by an administration to
run and operate the marketing activities in term of selling, buying and publishing goods and
services. In Sainsbury, the administration of the company can implement STP analysis in context
of its new product “Baked Food items”. STP is a model that includes three phases that assists the
firm to determine their offerings and the way, the venture communicates its advantages and
value to particular groups (De Pelsmacker, Van Tilburg and Holthof, 2018). The brief
explanation of this marketing strategy in context of Sainsbury is defined as below:
Segmentation- In this, the management of the firm segmented its target audiences on the
basis of Demographic, Geographic, Psychographic and Behavioural base (Gilligan and Lowe,
2018). In Sainsbury, the administration can segmented its customers regarding it new product
“Baked Products” on the basis of demographic and psychographic in term their interest, age,
income, lifestyle and the people who prefer online shopping etc.
Targeting- It is a segment of the larger marketplace; it is particular demographic segment
of the general market place and population. In this, the administration of the firm target people
and customer on the basis of specific age, gender and occupation etc. In context of its new
product “Baked products”, the administration of Sainsbury can target youths, working people,
Gym instructor, households and many more as these are the people that heath conscious and
prefer healthy and baked food items.
Positioning- It is developed for each target segment. It is at this stage that commodities are
positioned competitively in the segment and a detailed marketing mix. In context of Sainsbury,
the administration can positioned its new produced commodity “Bakery product” by adopting
effective and affordable pricing strategies and by providing the availability of these food items
on e-commerce so that people can easily reach to them and purchase them.
Use of marketing mix to improve growth and market share
Marketing mix is an act and process of putting a right product and service in to right place
by using effective distribution channels with effective pricing strategies and promote them by
implementing appropriate marketing channels so that customers efficiently aware about them.
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The brief explanation of this analysis in context of Sainsbury’s new “Baked Products” is defined
as below:
Product- Sainsbury offers wide range of products and services of variety of brand. Frozen
food, fresh and bakery food, meat, drinks and many more food products. Apart from this, the
venture also offers heath & beauty products, baby products, clothing many more. (Chernev,
2018) Now by producing baked food items the business venture is going to include new products
in its food line. Now these days, people are preferring healthy food products, so this will assist in
increasing market share and make development in organisation’s customer base.
Price- It refers to the cost that is invested by the firm manufacture to sales of the
commodity. In Sainsbury, the management can use competitive and low pricing strategy so that
people can easily purchase this product. It will assist in improving the sales, profits and market
share as well as enhancing productivity and customer base.
Place- It refers to the place where products are available to buy and easy to reach in
customers. In existing time customer prefer online shopping, so by providing its new product on
e-commerce and online, then consumer can easily purchase them (Opresnik, 2018). Apart from
this, the firm also accessible its new commodity on its supermarket outlets and convenience
stores. Here, people can purchase goods ease manner and this will assist in making improvement
in customer base that will assist in increasing market share and make development in company.
Promotion- By using different promotional tools like social media, internet TV, news paper
and Web ads as well as paid media, Sainsbury can do marketing of its new “Baked product”. It
will assist in getting attention of numerous customers and maximising customer base as well as
sales or market shares in effective form.
People- It refers to employees, retailers, suppliers, distributors and customers etc. In
Sainsbury, employees assist in managing and maintaining business activities and operation in
term of accomplishing set business objectives. Customers also play an important role in term of
buying products and make development in organisation’s success and improving market share.
Process- By using effective way of offering and distributing products, the firm fulfilling
consumer’s needs. In term of its new product, the administration of Sainsbury can use online
selling process so that target audiences can easily reach to the goods and buying them with
purpose of fulfilling their need. It will assist in developing organisation’s growth and increasing
profitability margins.
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Physical evidence- Now these days people are highly conscious about environment so
buying eco-friendly material in its product packaging which is able to recycle, the administration
of Sainsbury can easily provide satisfaction to this need of its customers (Percy, 2018). It will
also help in organisation development, maximising customer base and increasing market share.
CONCLUSION
This has been summarised from the above mentioned information that marketing is an
effective tools and technique of buying and selling commodities. By developing a marketing
plan, the management of a firm can make effective planning to track the needs and demands of
customers and offering commodities as per their needs and demands. By using effective
marketing strategies the firm can operate its business in appropriate manner.
REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Hollensen, S., 2019. Marketing management: A relationship approach. Pearson Education.
Perreault, W.D., 2018. Essentials of marketing. New York: Mc Graw Hill.
Macarthy, A., 2018. 500 Social Media Marketing Tips: Essential Advice, Hints and Strategy for
Business Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, and More!.
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
De Pelsmacker, P., Van Tilburg, S. and Holthof, C., 2018. Digital marketing strategies, online
reviews and hotel performance. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 72, pp.47-55.
Gilligan, C. and Lowe, R., 2018. Marketing and healthcare organizations. CRC Press.
Chernev, A., 2018. Strategic marketing management. Cerebellum Press.
Opresnik, M.O., 2018, July. Effective Social Media Marketing Planning–How to Develop a
Digital Marketing Plan. In International Conference on Social Computing and Social Media (pp.
333-341). Springer, Cham.
Percy, L., 2018. Strategic integrated marketing communications. Routledge.
Armstrong, G.M., Kotler, P., Harker, M. and Brennan, R., 2018. Marketing: an introduction.
Pearson UK.
Morgan, N.A. and et. al., 2019. Research in marketing strategy. Journal of the Academy of
Marketing Science. 47(1). pp.4-29.
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Hunt, S.D., 2018. Advancing marketing strategy in the marketing discipline and beyond: from
promise, to neglect, to prominence, to fragment (to promise?). Journal of Marketing
Management. 34(1-2). pp.16-51.
Kotler, P. and Armstrong, G.M., 2018. Marketing Mix: Selected Chapters From: Principles of
Marketing, Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong. Pearson.
Migliore, R.H., Howard, N.C. and Gray, D.M., 2018. Contemporary marketing evolves. Journal
of Marketing Development and Competitiveness. 12(2).
Burns, A.C., Bush, R.F. and Sinha, N., 2014. Marketing research (Vol. 7). Harlow: Pearson.
Chernev, A., 2015. The marketing plan handbook. Cerebellum Press.
Koskinen, S., 2016. Increasing Social Media Engagement through a Digital Marketing
Plan. Case: Plootu.
Online
PESTLE Analysis of Sainsbury’s. 2020. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.marketingtutor.net/pestle-analysis-of-sainsburys/>.
The STP Model of Marketing Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning. 2020. [Online].
Available Through: <https://devrix.com/tutorial/stp-model-of-marketing-segmentation-targeting-
positioning/>.
What are the 7 Ps of Marketing?. 2019. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://considerthisuk.co.uk/news/what-are-the-7-ps-of-marketing>.
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