Marketing Management: Analyzing Silent Plc's Strategy in UK Grocery

This report provides an analysis of Silent Plc, a grocery retailer in the United Kingdom, focusing on its marketing management strategies. It examines the external environment, including political and economic factors like Brexit and inflation, as well as social and technological trends such as online retailing and click-and-collect services. The report identifies key market segments in the UK grocery retail market, including supermarket chains, discounters, online grocery retailing, and convenience stores, and assesses Silent Plc's position within these segments. Furthermore, it discusses the importance of integrated marketing communications, emphasizing the use of social media, print, and broadcasting media, along with personalized electronic mails and SEO-based content. The report references various sources to support its analysis of Silent Plc's marketing approach and its adaptation to the evolving retail landscape in the UK.

Marketing Management in
Silent Plc

About Silent Plc
Silent Plc started its operations as a grocery
retailer in United Kingdom during the 1980s.
During 2017, it is estimated that Silent Plc
commanded around 13 percent share of the grocery
retail market in the region.
The firm focuses on servicing the needs of
customers based on operating both through the use
of brick-and-mortar and also the online interfaces.
It also focuses on benefiting the customers to earn
the benefit of click-and-collect process based on
designing of potential apps for digital platforms.

Scanning of External Environment of Silent
Plc
The political impact of the Brexit is
quite clearly evident on the grocery
retailing business in United
Kingdom.
The fall in the value of the British
Pound post-Brexit has dictated a
higher price level for the suppliers
and also leading to events of store
closures and also job cuts (Mccall
2017).
The event of financial crisis during
2008-09 had potentially affected the
level of disposable income of the
consumers in UK.
The level of Consumer Price
Inflation (CPI) in UK is noted to be
more than that of the average
growth of real income on a weekly
basis for a period of 6 years (Rhodes
2018).

Scanning of External Environment of Silent
Plc
Online retailing accounted for 17 percent of the total
set of retailing activity carried out during 2018.
Around 6 percent of customers stressed the existence
of loyalty cards as an impetus to help them visit the
retail stores (The Telegraph 2018).
A survey report reflects that during August 2018 the
level of internet sales accounted for around 18 percent
of the total retail sales carried out in the region.
Likewise, the growth of click-and-collect and also
omnichannel based retailing were also visible regards
to the supermarkets, hypermarkets and department
stores (Walker 2018).

Scanning of External Environment of Silent
Plc
The supermarket and hypermarket retailers based in
United Kingdom are required to considerably invest
billions of pounds for carrying out their recycling
program for reducing the level of packaging wastes
(Laville 2018).
The players in the grocery retailing sector are required
to focus on the generation of effective labels to the food
products such that the same meets the information
needs of the consumers.
The retailers are also required to focus on the
generation of ethical advertisements that would restrain
from misleading consumers based on providing of false
and inflated promises (GOV.UK 2018).

Market Segments of the Grocery Retail Market in United Kingdom and Silent Plc’s position
The Supermarket Chains in United Kingdom account for
around 70 percent of the grocery retail market in the
region.
Silent Plc is positioned to essentially cater to the needs of
the middle level consumers and thus tends to render both
economy and also high-priced merchandises.
The Discounters also tend to govern a significant amount
of market share in the UK Retail Industry (Mayo 2015).
The market segment constituted by Online Grocery
Retailing was valued at around GBP 10.4 billion during
2017 and owing to tremendous growth is accounted to
reach to around GBP 16 billion by the close of 2022
(Vasquez-Nicholson 2017).

Market Segments of the Grocery Retail Market
in United Kingdom and Silent Plc’s position
The Click-and-Collect also tends to operate as a
potential marketing segment in the grocery retailing
landscape of United Kingdom.
Silent Plc offers distinct advantages to consumers
based on the use of the click-and-collect model
through which they can purchase online and collect
the same from nearby brick-and-mortar outlets of the
company.
The Convenience Stores also known as the ‘C-Sector’
comprising of co-operatives, gas stations, convenience
outlets, franchisees and other independent or non-
affiliated outlets acts as an effective market segment
in the grocery retail market of United Kingdom.
Silent Plc also tends to operate based on convenience
store formats like Express and One Stop stores and

Integrated Marketing Communications in Silent
Plc
Marketing communication practices in Silent Plc are required
to be carried out in an integrated fashion based on the
incorporation of social media platforms like Facebook and
Twitter.
Other types of media like print and broadcasting media
channels are required to be optimally used for propagating
the information to the target audiences (Blakeman 2018).
The marketing communication team of the company is
required to focus on designing of marketing contents for the
different types of media platforms based on effective
understanding of consumer needs and expectations.
 The marketing contents are required to be potentially
designed for attracting the customers to visit the online and
brick-and-mortar stores of Silent Plc (Percy 2014).

Integrated Marketing Communications in Silent Plc
Shared contents are required to be designed for the
social networking platforms.
Customers are encouraged for the generation of
personalised messages like messages for Father’s
Day occasion (Tesco Careers 2019).
The marketing communication department of Silent
Plc also is needed to carry out direct communication
with customers through the generation of
personalised electronic mails, SEO based contents
and other models like paid searches and designing of
affiliate marketing programs (Tesco Careers 2019).

References
 Blakeman, R 2018, Integrated Marketing Communication: Creative Strategy from Idea to Implementation,
Rowman & Littlefield, United Kingdom.
 GOV.UK 2018, Food labelling and packaging, viewed 26 February 2019, <
https://www.gov.uk/food-labelling-and-packaging>.
 Laville, S 2018, Retailers to pay up to £1bn for recycling under waste strategy, viewed 26 Febrruary 2019,
<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/11/retailers-to-pay-up-to-1bn-more-for-recycling-und
er-waste-strategy
>.
 Mayo, E 2015, The Co-operative Advantage, New Internationalist, London.
 Mccall, K 2017, Brexit Britain: how supermarkets like Tesco are suffering and what it means, viewed 26
February 2019, <
https://uk.blastingnews.com/business/2017/03/brexit-britain-how-supermarkets-like-tesco-are-suffering-an
d-what-it-means-001552775.html
>.
 Percy, L 2014, Strategic Integrated Marketing Communications, Routledge, New York.
 Rhodes, C 2018, 'Retail sector in the UK', House of Commons Library , London.
 Tesco Careers 2019, Direct to Customer Communications, viewed 26 February 2019, <
https://www.tesco-careers.com/office/customer/direct-to-customer-communications/>.
 Tesco Careers 2019, Marketing Communications , viewed 26 February 2019, <
https://www.tesco-careers.com/office/customer/marketing-communications/>.
 The Telegraph 2018, The future of retail, viewed 26 February 2019, <
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/tips-for-the-future/future-of-retail/>.
 Vasquez-Nicholson, J 2017, 'United Kingdom Retail Foods 2017', USDA Forreign Agricultural Service ,
London.
 Walker, H 2018, Shoppers have an appetite for retail tech – but they’re picky, viewed 26 February 2019, <
https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/channels/online/shoppers-have-an-appetite-for-smart-retail-tech-but-theyre-pi
cky/571208.article
>.