Marketing: Principles of marketing management

This article discusses the marketing mixes of Kmart, Target, and Big W and how each retailer creates a unique position in the retail market. It also explores how these retailers create value for their customers and use socially responsible product decisions. The article provides evidence and analysis to support these findings.

Running Head: MARKETING
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Marketing
Principles of marketing management
(Student details :)
7/4/2019

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Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Answer 1....................................................................................................................................2
Answer 2....................................................................................................................................4
Answer 3....................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
In the article written by (Mitchell, 2019), the author has focused on Kmart’s sudden fall
recently. The discussion on Kmart has raised a question whether a room in the $15 billion
discount departmental store of Kmart exists for the 3 major chains. The three chains about
which the article is, include Target, Kmart and Big W. In this context, a relationship among
the sales of the three has been demonstrated and analysed (Mitchell, 2019).
In addition to that, this review paper will critically review the article written by (Mitchell,
2019) from the perspective of marketing management. Here, the comparison of the marketing
mixes for above mentioned three retailers will be done. Moreover, a detailed discussion of
how each retailer company creates a unique position within the retail market will be carried
out. Besides, the way in which Kmart, Target as well as Big W generate value for their
consumers will be discussed in this article review. Apart from this, the process how Target,
Kmart, and Big W utilize socially responsible product decisions for effectively creating and
capturing customer value will be demonstrated while providing evidence in order to justify
provided processes for all the three retailers (Hill, 2008).
Q.1 Compare and contrast the marketing mixes for these three retailers and discuss
how each creates a unique position in the retail market.
Answer 1
In this context, the three retailers Target, Big W and Kmart are having different marketing
mixes. Besides, the three retailers own unique position within the global retail market. Here,
K Mart is having a marketing mix which analyses the company with the help of 4 Ps include
price, product, place, and promotion (Cateora et al., 2011). Hence, the marketing mix of the
Kmart will be helpful in explaining the Kmart’s marketing strategy. Based on an article
written by (Mitchell, 2019), the marketing mix of the Kmart is as follows:
Product:
The Kmart is a huge retailer firm headquartered at Illinois, US and established in the year
1899. The company sells a lot of products under their marketing-mix product portfolio
including toys, jewellery, apparel, pet supplies, office supplies, health and beauty products,
home décor, OTC medicines, hardware, electronics, sports equipment. In addition to that, in

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the form of accessories, bedding and bath accessories, food items like poultry, Kmart
provides an amazing shopping experience to their customers (K mart, 2019).
Price:
The Kmart is having a broad range of products having a price disconnection. The company
has claimed itself as a discount department store as well. Although the prices of the Kmart’s
products were either too expensive or too cheap yet they have maintained to be a discount
retailing store. Presently, Kmart is focusing on a permanent low-pricing business model to
preserve its marketing mix strategy (Mitchell, 2019).
Place:
The company Kmart has operated at many locations yet the future of this retailing firm chain
lies in the jeopardy. Moreover, Kmart’s parent company Sears Holdings closed so many
Kmart stores. The Kmart has an international presence as well as own stores within the
countries such as Puerto Rico, Guam and many more (Vijayasri, 2013).
Promotion:
The retailing firm Kmart has changed its brand positioning through a store which had
everything for appealing people to a brand which especially targets mothers and women in
particular. In addition to that, Kmart also included pleasant and appealing pop songs within
their commercials as a brand promotional strategy (K mart, 2019).
On the other hand, when we talk about Target and Big W from the perspective of comparing
and contrasting marketing mix then it can be said that Target is the welcoming, light, as well
as the premium retailing company with some value, added elements (Lee & Carter, 2011).
Marketing mix of the Target retailing chain can be explained as follows:
 Target is having an impactful entry with a huge digital screen wall. Apart from this,
the store is having a café with Hollywood style lightening for attracting the consumers
and seeks their attention.
 Target provides a premium feel with LED down lights rather than some less
glamorous or bright lights.
 Target offers ease of navigation to all of their customers while they come to shop
some company’s products (CSR Target, 2018).

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While comparing and contrasting the three retailers marketing mixes, the writer found that
the value-added services provided by each of the three retailers distinguish the way how these
three create a unique position within the retail market. For instance, now a day Big W offers a
garment alteration service at different places like outside the change rooms, services desk
(Woolworths Group, 2019).
Q.2 how do Kmart, Target and Big W create value for their customers?
Answer 2
In this context, Kmart, Big W, and Target all the retailers are creating value for their
consumers in following mentioned ways. In this way, strategies used by each three of them
are useful for all of the one another to become a successful retailer (Mitchell, 2019).
Target is creating value for its customers with the help of the following ways:
 The retailing firm Target created value for its customers by going on a small scale. In
other words, the company has put the brakes upon contemporary huge format store
openings. In this way, for creating market value Target Company is pushing hard for
going into smaller scale locations. Here, smaller locations refer to college towns and
urban cities. The strategy of opening in small locations will definitely create a new
consumer base for Target (Tiago & Verissimo, 2014).
 Target is getting online as well as their logistics right for efficiently creating value for
their precious customers. However, Amazon will always continue to dominate the
online market. Still, Target is creating value-added advantages through expanding the
business online (Fill & Turnbull, 2016).
Kmart is creating value for its customers with the help of the following ways:
 Kmart retailing firm offers customer loyalty as well as rewards programs for creating
great values for their customers
 In addition, Kmart offers competitive pricing for its products and services which
ultimately create values for their consumers
 Apart from this, Kmart always takes socially responsible product decisions so that
their customers can leverage off it in the long-term.
 Kmart promotes effective customer interactions with the help of customer care chats
and different social media portals (Hollensen, 2010).

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 Kmart creates value for their loyal consumers by consistently providing quality
products as per consumers’ changing demands
 Kmart also provides customized deals and discounts on their products on the occasion
of international and national festivals, as well as special days, include fathers’ day,
mothers’ day and many more (Leeflang et al., 2014).
Big W is creating value for its customers with the help of the following ways:
 The retailer chain Big W is getting involved in so many CSR and sustainability-
oriented activities in order to create good value for their consumers.
 Like other global retailers, Big W is acquiring the benefit of the customer demands
for more choices by utilizing a content-led marketing strategy for creating value for
their customers
 Big W has become a partner within the Woolworths reward program worldwide so
that they can offer unique value-added benefits to their loyal customers
 Big W is aiming to create real differences for the customers’ families as well. They
are offering real solutions with the help of quality offerings for meeting real families’
daily requirements efficiently (Lindgreen et al., 2012).
Q. 3 how do Kmart, Target and Big W use socially responsible product decisions to
create and capture customer value? Provide evidence to justify your answers for all
three retailers.
Answer 3
The companies Target, Kmart and Big W utilise their socially responsible product decision-
making processes for creating as well as capturing customers values. In this context,
corporate social responsibility plays an important role in creating and capturing customer
value in the long-term. Here, based on the article written by (Mitchell, 2019) sustainable
practices of the three retailing chains are explained below.
Socially responsible product decisions used by Kmart:
 Kmart has initiated the different strategies in relation to socially responsible product
decisions for creating an overall customer rating well.
 For creating value and capturing customers’ attention Kmart is ensuring safety and
quality of their different products largely (Rigby, 2019).

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 Kmart is sourcing their products ethically for generating socially responsible
decisions in favour of their customers
 Kmart is creating a high-performance culture while providing a mutual understanding
as well as a common language. In this way, they are ensuring their customers are
living Kmart’s great values in daily life
 Kmart is enhancing the health and safety of their organizational team for fulfilling
their social responsibility efficiently (Marx, 2018).
 Kmart has taken initiative for strengthening communities at a large extent
 Kmart is optimizing their energy efficiency for creating value for their customers
 Recently, Kmart has reduced its non-environmental packaging by conducting an
evaluation of 4 major packaging categories for ascertaining different areas for
improvement (Vernon, 2017).
Socially responsible product decisions used by Target:
 The decision of adopting sustainable packaging coalition, Retailing Company Target
is continuously creating value for their customers. For instance, they have added
How2Recycle label to their owned-brand products’ packaging.
 Target has taken initiative in the direction of addressing common issues and
challenges in order to establish zero-waste earth (Target, 2019).
 Target is taking socially responsible product decisions by reducing plastic usage into
the entire process of their production and selling. For instance, Target use on an
average 500 million plastic hangers per year in their stores. Thus, by having a closed
loop hanger reuse program since 1994, Target is attracting its customers for their
sustainable practices (CSR Target, 2018).
Socially responsible product decisions used by Big W:
 Big W is continuously attempting to mitigate the risks of child labour, forced labour
as well as worker exploitation within their supply chains.
 Big W also protects the environment from critical effects of their operational fashion
industry
 Big W retailer chain is effectively working into areas like transparency, policies,
environmental management, as well as worker empowerment for attracting their
customers (Woolworths Group, 2019).

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 In addition to that, sustainable practices like angora ban, fur-free, efforts for paying a
living wage, and charitable donations have been adopted by the retailing chain big W.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the article review of the chosen paper has been done successfully with the help
of different analysis parameters like CSR activities, creating value practices and preserving
quality in the long-term. The article’s main findings are suggesting that Kmart is facing a
downfall in their sales and growth recently. However, the author has also highlighted the
overall increase in the Kmart’s margins over the last 10 years. The author of the article
suggested that Kmart sales decreased because of the gain of the two retailing chains include
Target and Big W. In this way, the article has highlighted the modern business environment
as a tougher and competitive one. In whole, fewer price deductions of Kmart are causing less
volume uplift and growth within a global business environment.

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References
Cateora, P., Gilly, C. & Graham, J., 2011. International Marketing. New York: McGrawHill.
CSR Target, 2018. 2018 Target Corporate Responsibility Report. [Online] Available at:
https://corporate.target.com/_media/TargetCorp/csr/pdf/2018_corporate_responsibility_report
.pdf [Accessed 04 July 2019].
Fill, C. & Turnbull, S.L., 2016. Marketing communications: brands, experiences and
participation. London: Pearson.
Hill, C., 2008. International business: Competing in the global market place. Strategic
Direction, 24(9).
Hollensen, S., 2010. Marketing management: A relationship approach. UK: Pearson
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K mart, 2019. K mart. [Online] Available at: https://searsholdings.com/about/kmart
[Accessed 4 July 2019].
Lee, K. & Carter, S., 2011. Global marketing management. Strategic Direction, 27(1).
Leeflang, P., Verhoef, P. & Dahlstrom, P., 2014. Challenges and solutions for marketing in a
digital era. European Management journal, 32(1), pp.1-12.
Lindgreen, A., Hingley, M., Grant, D. & Morgan, R., 2012. Value in business and industrial
marketing: Past, present, and future. Industrial Marketing Management, 41(1), pp.207-14.
Marx, A., 2018. Customer retention analytics: 5 strategies to reduce churn with data.
[Online] Available at: https://getthematic.com/insights/5-ways-data-and-text-analytics-
improve-customer-retention/ [Accessed 30 April 2019].
Mitchell, , 2019. Kmart's pain is Target and Big W's gain but is. [Online] Available at:
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Rigby, T., 2019. WHAT TARGET’S DOING RIGHT… AND WHAT BIG W COULD
POTENTIALLY LEARN FROM THEM. [Online] Available at:
https://retailoasis.com/2019/04/target/ [Accessed 04 July 2019].

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Target, 2019. about company. [Online] Available at: https://www.target.com/s?
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Tiago, M. & Verissimo, J., 2014. Digital marketing and social media: Why bother?. Business
Horizons, 57(6), pp.703-08.
Vernon, R., 2017. International investment and international trade in the product cycle.
London: Routledge.
Vijayasri, G.V., 2013. The Importance of International Trade in the World. International
Journal of Marketing, Financial Services and Management Research, 2(9), pp.111-19.
Woolworths Group, 2019. BIG W. [Online] Available at:
https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/about-us/our-brands/portfolio-businesses/
BIG_W [Accessed 04 July 2019].