Retail Marketing Strategies and Challenges

This assignment delves into contemporary retail marketing strategies, focusing on key aspects such as omni-channel strategies, consumer relationship management, and brand building. It examines various research articles that analyze the effectiveness of different retail marketing approaches, the influence of power dynamics in supplier-retailer relationships, and the impact of cultural factors on customer behavior. The assignment also explores the role of social media, private-label branding, and corporate social responsibility in shaping modern retail marketing.

Running head: MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Marketing Management
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Executive Summary
Marketing Management is process of applying, tracking and reviewing organizational resources
towards achieving organizational success. This study has described 8 P’s of marketing strategy
of Cole’s Roxburgh Park. Apart from the theoretical definition, the study has also demonstrated
practical application of the 8 P’s of marketing strategy on the organization. The organization
majorly provides household products for Australian households. After assessing the effectiveness
of the marketing strategies, the study has also provided appropriate recommendations for the
organization towards improving its 8P’s factor. Moreover, the organization should improve on
the quality of the products and the physical evidence for getting high level of organizational
success.

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Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Company................................................................................................................................3
1.2 Product and Location.............................................................................................................3
1.3 Consumer...............................................................................................................................4
2.0 Analysis.....................................................................................................................................5
2.1 Product...................................................................................................................................5
2.2 Price.......................................................................................................................................6
2.3 Place.......................................................................................................................................7
2.4 Promotion..............................................................................................................................7
2.5 Process...................................................................................................................................8
2.6 Physical Evidence..................................................................................................................8
2.7 People....................................................................................................................................9
2.8 Partnership.............................................................................................................................9
3.0 Recommendation.....................................................................................................................10
3.1 Product.................................................................................................................................10
3.2 Price.....................................................................................................................................11
3.3 Place.....................................................................................................................................11
3.4 Promotion............................................................................................................................12
3.5 Process.................................................................................................................................13

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3.6 Physical Evidence................................................................................................................13
3.7 People..................................................................................................................................14
3.8 Partnership...........................................................................................................................14
4.0 Conclusion...............................................................................................................................15
5.0 Recommendation.....................................................................................................................15
References......................................................................................................................................17

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1.0 Introduction
Marketing management is the process of developing suitable strategies and planning for
the products and services, advertisement, promotional sale to the desired consumer group (Khan,
2014). This study has 8 marketing P’s of Cole’s Roxburgh Park, which is actually located in the
Roxburgh Park. Apart from theoretical description, the study has also applied such 8p’s of
marketing mix on the product of this organization. On the other hand, the study has also provided
suitable recommendation on the 8 marketing P’s of Cole’s Roxburgh Park towards their
improvement.
1.1 Company
For over 100 years, Coles has continued to deliver high quality products and outstanding
customer service to millions of customers in Australia. The organization is highly dedicated to
provide family products to the Aussie families for their happy and healthy home life. Cole’s
Roxburgh Park is the store located in the Roxburgh Park Area of Australia. The organization
always provides products with low cost for lowering the cost of living of the Aussie families
(Coles Roxburgh Park, 2018). Among all the product range like food, gift cards, meat, fruit dairy
and others, Coles loves to provide quality food products to the customers with lowest cost.
1.2 Product and Location
Cole’s Roxburgh Park is location is the area of Roxburgh Park of Australia. The area is
actually within the Melbourne city of the country. The store is placed at convenient location of
Melbourne, which is accessible and convenient enough for the customers. The organization
mainly offers household products like bakery, dairy, deli, fresh fruit and vegetable, meat and
others (Coles Roxburgh Park, 2018). Apart from that, the organization also delivers baby

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products, Coles mobile, gift cards, liquor, gluten free product, kosher and others. Moreover,
Cole’s is always intended to meet the household need of the customers through delivering its
products offerings to them.
1.3 Consumer
The consumers of Coles are generally from Medium income group family. Moreover, the
consumers of the organization are mostly middle income group people of Australia. The
organization has mostly targeted household consumer group having average income sources.
Moreover, the intension of the organization behind such targeting strategy is to get success of
low cost pricing strategy (Kraus et al., 2016). Furthermore, the organization majorly focuses on
lower middle age consumer group having positive attitude towards their life.
Figure 1: Cole’s Consumer Group

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(Source: Coles Roxburgh Park, 2018)

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2.0 Analysis
2.1 Product
Product is the item in marketing mix, which is produced or built for satisfying the needs
of certain group of people. According to Jackson and Ahuja (2016), the success of an
organization is highly dependent on it availability of right type of product per the market
demand. Coles Roxburgh Park mostly offers bakery, dairy, deli, fresh fruit and vegetable, meat
and others for meeting the household product needs of the household consumer group (Coles
Roxburgh Park, 2018). Moreover, the organization is highly popular for its high quality
Australian food delivery. Apart from that, the organization also offers the products like baby
products, Coles mobile, Gift cards, liquor and others. On the other hand, Dadzie et al. (2017)
opined that the quality and leveling of products are extremely important for attracting the
customers. In case of Coles Roxburgh Park, the organization is highly popular for it high quality
food products. However, the organization is often claimed with low quality fresh fruit and dairy
product, which can hamper the selected target group. Furthermore, the organization is mostly
limited within the household products.

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Figure 2: Coles Roxburgh Park Fresh Fruit Product and Vegetable Product
(Source: Coles Roxburgh Park, 2018)
2.2 Price
According to Chen et al. (2016) price is the sacrifice or pay, which consumers are
prepared to pay for acquiring a specific product. Price shapes the perception of the consumers
towards the products of an organization. In case of Cole’s Roxburgh Park, the organization uses
cost leadership strategy, where it offers product at low cost (Schramm-Klein et al., 2015).
Moreover, the organization has set price for the products at a range, which is affordable to all
types of customers from lower to middle or higher income group. On the other hand, Kumar et
al. (2017) opined that lower pricing strategy can increase the organizational profit with
increasing sales jump. Likewise, affordable pricing strategy of Cole’s Roxburgh Park has
fostered huge sales volume from increasing purchase from middle income group customers.

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2.3 Place
Place or Distribution is extremely important in marketing mix for getting business
success. According to Kozlenkova et al. (2015), organizations should always need to position
and distribute its products in a place, which is accessible enough to their target customers as well
as potential customers. Being established at Roxburgh Park, the position of Cole’s Roxburgh
Park is accessible enough to the customers. Moreover, the organization provides both online and
offline option to deliver products to the customers. On the other hand, Kumar and Pansari (2016)
opined that distribution channels act as intermediaries between the organization and consumers,
which ease up the process of selling. Likewise, the convenient physical stores and online service
delivery channel enhance the interaction of the organization with the customers (Hristov &
Reynolds, 2015). However, in retail selling, the customers often face issues in finding their
required products easily.
2.4 Promotion
Promotion is an extremely important component in marketing mix, which can boost up
the sales and brand recognition. According to Wang et al. (2015), effective promotional method
conveys most important information of an organization to the customers. In this way, it enhances
the brand recognition and helps in effective brand positioning of an organization. In case of
Cole’s Roxburgh Park, the organization uses print media, mass media, digital media and social
media for promoting its brands to the customers. The organization successfully uses television
commercials, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for conveying most important product
offerings to the customers (Kacker & Perrigot, 2016). Such communication always keeps the
customers highly informed about the product offering and these mediums encourage customers
towards purchasing the products of this organization. On the other hand, Keller et al. (2016)

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opined that Cole’s Roxburgh Park also offers attractive discounts and offerings for increasing
sales volume. However, too many discounts and offerings is harming the brand image of Cole’s
Roxburgh Park. Customers often suspect about the quality of the products for huge discounted
price.
2.5 Process
According to Gummesson et al. (2014), process of Marketing Mix is the procedures,
mechanism and flow of activities through which services are delivered to the customers. In case
of Cole’s Roxburgh Park, the organization has highly skilled and educated employees, who deal
with the customers smoothly within the store. However, with lack of effective training, the store
staffs are sometimes slightly rude with the customers that make customers disappointed. On the
other hand, the organization has speedy billing services with latest billing technology software.
Hence, the customers are always happy with such faster billing system at the cash counter. It
helps the organization to be ahead of the market competition. However, the organization has lack
of customer friendly staffs within the store.
2.6 Physical Evidence
Physical evidence is the presence and establishment of the business organization, which
attracts the customers. According to Grimmer et al. (2015), physical evidence is the environment
and space of an organization, where customers and organizational personnel interact. The store
of Cole’s Roxburgh Park is clean and attractive to the customers. Moreover, the store is easy and
customer friendly to navigate through each category of products. Furthermore, the website
design of the organization is highly attractive, but yet to simple and flexible to operate. On the
other hand, Chan et al. (2017) opined that effective physical evidence touches on the psychology
of the customers with the presentable approach of the store. The store distributes bags with their

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logo in the store for gaining customer attention. Such factors often act as an added value to the
customers, which can huge contribution in the loyalty level of the customers (Grimmer et al.,
2015). Moreover, the organization needs to maintain such physical evidence intact for long term
organizational success.
2.7 People
People in marketing mix refer to the employees of an organization, who are directly
responsible for the success of an organization. According to Geyskens et al. (2015), employees
are highly responsible for representing the value of to the customers. In case of Cole’s Roxburgh
Park, the organization has excellent sales assistants responsible for its success through achieving
sales target. The employees are competent enough and contribute equally to the organizational
success. On the other hand, Hristov and Reynolds (2015) opined that well trained employees are
always effective in providing genuine and superior service to the customers. However, in case of
Cole’s Roxburgh Park, the store staffs are not trained enough to deal with the customers having
friendly approach. Such unfriendly approach often disappoints the customers.
2.8 Partnership
Partnership is the association of two or more business together towards offering more
improved services to the customers. Cole’s Roxburgh Park has partnership with several
partnership relations with some other organization towards improving and diversifying their
product ranges. Moreover, the organization has built partnership with the Taste.com.au for
launching new recipes in the cart (Nowak et al., 2015). The customers can directly shop the
ingredients from the online shopping option of Cole’s Roxburgh Park. Apart from that, the
organization has also made partnership with the Airtasker job-outsource company, where the
customers can contract the workers to shop and deliver for them on their behalf. Moreover, such

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Marketing Mix
Partnership
Several Partnerships
Promotion
Social Media Digital Media
Place
Online
Offline
Price
Low Cost
Product
Grocery Product
Process
Speedy Billing system
People
Dedicated Employees
Physical Evidence
Attractive store
partnership has enabled the organization towards improving their product and service quality
towards enhanced customer satisfaction.
Figure 3: 8 P’s of Marketing Mix of Cole’s Roxburgh Park
(Source: David et al., 2017)
3.0 Recommendation
3.1 Product
The existing product portfolio of Cole’s Roxburgh Park is majorly limited within grocery
products and some others. Such products can only meet the household requirements of the
customers and not many others. Hence, the organization should enhance its product portfolio and
diversify its product range. Enhanced product portfolio will meet several needs of the customers,
which will actually enhance customer loyalty level. Furthermore, the organization is often

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claimed to have low quality for the fresh fruit products. Hence, the organization should be highly
concentrated on the quality of the fresh fruit products. However, huge competitive pressure from
the market players like Woolworths, ALDI, Costco and IGA can hamper the success level of
Cole’s Roxburgh Park. Such competitor organizations are offering same kinds of the products
with even more better quality (Davcik & Sharma, 2016). Hence, the organization should
immediately focus on the quality of the products.
3.2 Price
Cole’s Roxburgh Park always follows cost leadership strategy for being the market leader
in the retail market of Australia. As per such strategy, the organization offers its products to the
customers at lower price. Moreover, low price of the products helps the organization in gaining
enhanced customer loyalty towards gaining high level of competitive advantage over the rivals.
Hence, this pricing strategy seems to be perfect for the organization and should maintain such
pricing strategy towards gaining long term business success. Moreover, the organization can
maintain such low cost pricing strategy through keeping the overall cost of business operation
low consistently. However, with increased globalization, various global retailers are offering
their products at quite low price in Australia. Moreover, the popular global retailers Walmart and
Morrison are quite able to afford to offer lower prices of the products. Such multinational
companies often get discounts from the suppliers for their bulk buying pattern (Homburg et al.,
2017). Hence, it becomes quite easy for the multinational companies towards offering lower
price of the products.
3.3 Place
Cole’s Roxburgh Park has mix of both online and offline channels for delivering their
products to the customers. The customers can choose and purchase their required products from

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the convenient physical store of Cole’s Roxburgh Park. The customers should maintain such
offline store over the time for the convenience of the customers in their product collection.
However, the customers sometimes face issues in terms of seeking products in different product
category. Hence, the organization can initiate catalogue shopping for the customers, where they
will list down their require product names in a catalogue and the store staffs will collect those
required product on behalf of the customers. The customers will just have to pay for the
products. On the other hand, the online shopping option is highly convenient for the customers,
which should be maintained by the organization over the time. Moreover, the organization
should maintain the success of such online shopping option through timely delivery of products.
3.4 Promotion
From the analysis of promotional strategy of Cole’s Roxburgh Park, it can be found that
the organization uses print media, television commercial, digital media and social media for
promoting their product offerings. It also offers huge discounts and offerings to the customers for
gaining high level of customer loyalty. However, huge discounts and offerings seem to be
hampering the image of the organization. Moreover, the customers have started to perceive the
quality of products as low for excessively huge discounts. Hence, the organizations should make
a balance between the discounts and actual price. Furthermore, the contemporary issue of social
media interaction can hamper the image of the organization and its social media promotional
strategy. Moreover, the negative feedback about the products of posted by the customers on the
social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram can actually hamper the
organizational reputation (Kacker & Perrigot, 2016).

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3.5 Process
From the process analysis of Cole’s Roxburgh Park, it can be found that the organization
has highly skilled employees for interacting with the customers within the store. However, the
store staffs are sometimes rude with the customers having lack of customer handling training. It
often makes the customer disappointed with the staffs’ behavior. Hence, the organization should
immediately start to provide adequate customer handling training to store staffs. It will facilitate
the store staffs to behave with the customers effectively. Furthermore, it can be quite difficult for
the organization to always align with the technological advancement and foster frequent process
improvement. In such situation, the improved process of competitor organizations can create
competitive pressure on this organization (Jain et al., 2014). Hence, the organization should
always be concerned and updated about the advanced technologies in the market.
3.6 Physical Evidence
From the analysis of physical evidence of Cole’s Roxburgh Park, it can be seen that the
retail store has clear and attractive store arrangement. Apart from that, the website of the
organization is attractively deigned, but it is yet too simple to operate. Furthermore, the
organization provides bags its logo deigned on it to the customer for carrying the product. Such
bags often add to the added value for the customers. However, such strategy can be impacted
with the issue of corporate social responsibility. Moreover, the plastic bags distributed by Cole’s
Roxburgh Park can be an extremely important environment concern. Moreover, this strategy of
physical evidence can be highly influenced by corporate social responsibility and environment
concern issue of the society (Jones et al., 2015). Hence, the organization should take active
initiatives towards stopping such plastic bags and promote more numbers of environment
friendly bags. It would help the organization towards dealing with environmental concern.

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3.7 People
From the analysis of people of Cole’s Roxburgh Park, it can be found that the employees
of the organization are highly skilled and dedicated towards organizational success. However,
the employees are always not efficient in dealing with the customers properly. They are
sometimes rude at their behavior with the customers within the store, which makes the customers
disappointed. Moreover, such rude behavior of the store staffs can create ethical concern for the
organization (Hristov & Reynolds, 2015). Hence, the organization should immediately work on
the behavioral aspect of the employees through effective training. Such training would make the
employees efficient enough towards dealing with customers in friendly manner.
3.8 Partnership
From analysis of partnership of Cole’s Roxburgh Park, it can be seen that the
organization has several partnership relationship with other companies for providing diversified
products and services to the customers. However, the organization is still incapable of bringing
completely diversified products through their partnership strategy (David et al., 2017). Hence,
the organization should immediately seek for a partnership relation, which will help it in
fostering innovation through completely diversified product range. In this way, the organization
will be able to make it unique and competitive in the market for beating with fierce market
competition.

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4.0 Conclusion
While concluding the stud, it can be said that Cole’s Roxburgh Park majorly provides
household products like bakery, dairy, deli, fresh fruit and vegetable, meat and others.
Furthermore, it also offers baby products, Coles mobile, gift cards, liquor, gluten free product,
kosher and others. However, the organization should improve the quality of it fresh fruit product
for gaining high level of customer satisfaction. On the other hand, the issue of social media
interaction and negative feedback of the customers in social media sites can hamper the
organizational reputation. Furthermore, huge discounts and offerings are actually hampering the
corporate image of the organization with the misperception of the customers about its product
quality. Hence, the organization should perfectly match a balance between the actual price and
discounted price of the products.
5.0 Recommendation
Improvement of
Product Quality
Cole’s Roxburgh Park should immediately improve the quality of the products
for gaining competitive edge over the rivals in the market. More specifically,
the organization should improve the freshness and quality of the fresh fruits for
enhancing the satisfaction level of the customers.
Training to
Employees
The organization should arrange proper training facility for the employees
towards enhancing their customer handling skills. In this way, the well-trained
employees and store staffs will be able to interact with the customers in friendly
manner. Such friendly approach of the store staffs will make the customers
happy within the store.
Improvement in The physical evidence of the organization can get hampered with the issue of

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Physical Evidence environmental concern. Moreover, the distribution of plastic bags for carrying
the purchased product can be an issue of environmental concern. Hence, the
organization should immediately replace the plastic bags with the
environmentally sustainable bags for resolving the environmental concern.
Improved
Promotional
Activities
Negative feedback over the social media sites can hamper the corporate image
of the organization. Hence, the organization should properly handle and reply
the negative feedbacks of the customers for protecting the corporate image.
Table 1: Recommendation for Cole’s Roxburgh Park
(Source: Created by Author)

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