Improving Customer Service Level for ALDI

This article discusses the ways to improve customer service level for ALDI, a well-known brand in the market. It explores the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the company and provides insights on marketing objectives and a marketing mix plan. The article also highlights the importance of customer service and suggests strategies to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.

MARKETING
MANAGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
TOWS analysis.......................................................................................................................4
Marketing objectives..............................................................................................................6
Marketing mix plan................................................................................................................7
Ways for improving customer service level...........................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is the tool that works as promotional technique that helps companies in attracting
new buyers and gaining success in market. Present study is based on ALDI which is performing
in market since longer duration. Current assignment will explain the TWOS analyses and will
describe opportunities and threats of business. It will explain marketing objectives and will
prepare a marketing plan that may aid business in gaining success.

MAIN BODY
TOWS analysis
Strength
The major strength of Aldi is its great brand image. From past few years, Aldi has gained
a great market position and has increased its brand image to a great extent and this has become
its biggest strength. Another major strength of Aldi is its strong and powerful distribution
network. Aldi has built a great as well as reliable supply chain and distribution network which
has helped the company to reach wide audience. The third strength of Aldi is its great return on
the capital expenditure. Aldi has been successful in execution of its new projects which has
helped the company to get a goo return over capital expenditure. The fourth strength of Aldi is its
great brand portfolio. Aldi has invested a great amount in designing and building the powerful
brand portfolio. This extensive brand portfolio of the company helps it to expand its network
(Chin and Mansori, 2018).
Weakness
The major weakness of Aldi which has dominated it is its low profitability ratio as well as
net contribution percentage. It has been reported that profitability ratio of Aldi is generally below
average which has affected the company in a great way. Another weakness of the company is its
limited investment in research and development. Aldi from past few years has not come up with
great innovation and the main reason is low investment in R&D which has affected its position.
Third weakness of Aldi is its high turnover and attrition rate. In comparison to other companies,
Aldi generally has high rate of attrition which has somewhat hindered its operations. Fourth
weakness of the company is its limited success apart from its core business. Although Aldi has
extended its chain in various product segments but most of its revenue comes from its core
business that is retail and thus have limited growth in the other sectors (Barry and Gironda,
2017).
Opportunities
The golden opportunity which is being available to Aldi is increasing the investment in
research and development. Company can increase its investment in R&D and thus can bring
innovation in its products and services. Another opportunity which is available to Aldi is growth
in the rural areas. Nowadays, even people in villages have become brand-oriented thus Aldi have
the great opportunity to extend its operations in the rural areas. The third opportunity which is

being available to the company is practicing the differentiated pricing strategy. With the
advancement in the technology, Aldi can practice the differentiated pricing tactic which will
enable the organization to maintain the loyal customers and increase market share. Fourth
opportunity available to the company is adopting to the changing trends within consumer
behaviour. The changing attitude and behaviour of customers have open different market for
Aldi to diversify in new products (Gama, 2017).
Threats
The major threat which might affect the operations of Aldi is strong presence of
competitors. Due to the great image of its competitors like TESCO, Sainsbury, Aldi might face a
great brunt in market. Another threat is the changing legal policies. As company operates in
more than one country thus it remains exposed to fluctuating political and legal rules which
might affect it in negative way. Third threat which might affect Aldi is the shortage of the skilled
employees in global markets. Due to shortage, company will not be able to hire talented
employees which may become roadblock in its steady growth. Fourth threat is rising strength of
the local distributors. Aldi might face a great challenge due to this power of the local distributors
and might have to pay a high price to these suppliers for increasing its expansion (Zhabin and
et.al.,2016).
Marketing audit
Marketing audit is basically well-through review of marketing plan, goals, strategies and
objectives which are being implemented in business. Marketing audit primarily helps the
organization to realign their marketing activities along with their goals and objectives and thus
helps in the systematic evaluation of the marketing environment which affects operations and
functions of organization. There are generally wide range of audits which are being carried out
by organizations for specific task or for the particular strategy like macro-environment audit,
micro-environment, marketing system audit, strategic audit etc. For this marketing campaign that
is 'Expressing ourselves', macro as well as micro environment audit has been carried out. Macro-
environment audit mainly consist of factors outside firm which influences marketing
performance and mainly covers opportunities ass well as threats. Thus, for analyzing the
opportunities as well as threats Aldi has made use of macro-environment audit. Through this
audit, organization has been able to evaluate that how the legal, competitive environment mainly
impacts the organization. On the other hand, for analyzing the internal factors which affects

operations of organization and for examining strength as well as weaknesses, Aldi made use of
micro-environmental audit. Micro-environmental audit mainly covers strength as well as
weakness of organization and helps in evaluating that what is their overall position in market and
what factors become roadblock in their growth as well as development (Rahardja and Triyono,
2020).
Strength Weakness
Opportunities Power distribution network
and extending supply chain in
rural areas.
Investing heavily in R&D and
innovation.
Threats Increased brand image and
surviving through tough
competition.
Shortage of skilled employees
and great turnover ratio of
company
Marketing objectives
The following are the major objectives that are set for marketing campaign 'Express
ourselves' for the period of 12 months.
Objective 1
Deliver the customer support with 90% satisfied or very satisfied customer satisfaction rate by
the end of year 2020.
The main aim of setting this objective for the marketing campaign is that it will help the
company to provide great quality services to the customers. This objective is set with the main
purpose of improving the customer support and thus increase a sense of loyalty among them. It
has been found that due to low level of innovation and improper services to customers, the
satisfaction level of customers and their loyalty has declined to more than 34% thus its becomes
highly necessary to increase this satisfaction level for gaining competitive advantage and for
establishing a great position in the market. This objective will help the organization to enlarge its
customer base and will be highly helpful in entering the new markets. Besides this, this objective
will help to gain an edge over the competitors (Tadajewski, 2016).
Objective 2

To improve the customer service level by 30% through providing effective training to the
employees in next 3 months
This objective is all about enhancing the customer service and their experience by
improving the skills as well as capabilities of the employees through offering proper training.
The major problem which Aldi is facing is decreased level of the customer service due to its
great turnover rate and increased complaints of customers regarding service. Thus, the main
purpose for designing this objective is to inculcate great skills as well as capabilities within
employees in order to make them highly competent to deliver great services to customers. This
will not only help organization in delivering great customer services to people but will also help
the firm to reduce its turnover ratio as through training employees will feel highly motivated and
their commitment towards work will eventually increase (Johnston and Cortez, 2018).
Objective 3
To increase the profitability ratio as well as revenue ratio of organization by 40% towards the
end of year 2021
This objective is being set with the view to increase the overall market share and hence
raise the profitability ratio towards end of 2021. The major weakness as well as problem which is
prevailing in Aldi is its profit which is below the average thus by establishing this marketing
campaign, Aldi will be able to increase its sales by reaching great customers and will increase its
profitability (Freytag and et.al.,2016).
Marketing mix plan
The marketing mix plan is basically the framework which mainly outlines the various
aspects of marketing and thus helps the organization to take branding message to wider audience.
It is highly essential for Aldi to design a marketing mix plan which will help the organization to
achieve their objectives as well as goals
Product
This is one of the major and most important aspect of marketing mix plan which basically
states the product strategy that company uses for achieving its objectives and goals. In order to
make its campaign successful, Aldi will make use of market leaders strategy. In this market
leader strategy, organization mainly develops the innovative as well as new products for
attaining the great market share (Vassileva, 2017). In this, the market leader basically invest
within research and development for creating new products and for gaining competitive

advantage. Thus, for achieving the objectives of its marketing campaign, Aldi will make use of
this product strategy and thus will develop innovative products as well as service for becoming
market leader and for establishing its position in the market.
Price
This is another mix of the marketing mix plan and basically relates to the pricing strategy
which is being used by organizations for attracting customers and for taking their brand message
to the wider audience. In order to achieve its well-through objectives, Aldi will basically make
the use of competitive pricing strategy. In this strategy, organizations mainly emphasizes upon
existing rate of market for particular products and services and thus sets the prices according to
that. In short, within this strategy generally prices of competitors are used a benchmark for
advertising the products. Thus, Aldi will set the prices of its product below or similar to the
prices of its competitors in order to attract the customers and enlarge its customer base (Quach
and et.al.,2019).
Place
This is the third aspect of marketing mix plan and thus mainly relates to the location or
place where the strategy as well as products will be focused. Place plays a great role in making a
particular campaign highly successful and thus is determining factor for its success. For
achieving its objectives, Aldi will mainly focus on the rural areas along with promoting its
products and services to the developing countries. Besides this, in order to increase the
distribution of goods company will seek the support of wholesaler and retailer instead of
depending on direct selling. Through making use of third party for its distribution, Aldi will be
able to tap a large market areas and it will be easier for them to properly manage and track the
different geographical locations (Wesselmann and Hohn, 2017).
Promotion
Promotion is basically ho an organization advertises as well as promotes its products and
services to wider audience and take their brand message to them. There are wide range of
promotional strategies which are being used by organizations by for gaining a great market share
and fulfilling its objectives, Aldi will mainly seek the support of social media as well as trade
shows for attracting the customers (Spurrell, Araujo and Proudlove, 2019). As its objective
mainly covers promoting its product to both rural and urban areas thus for rural areas, company
will through the help of trade shows provide demos of its products and services in order to attract

the customers of town and villages. While for urban areas, company will promote its marketing
campaign and its products through advertising heavily on social media.
Process
process largely plays an essential role within an organization and thus helps the
organization to effectively deliver the services as well as products. For achieving its objectives of
the marketing campaign, Aldi will mainly improve as well as optimize its overall process of
delivering products and service. Besides this company in order to advertise its marketing
campaign at high level and to great extent will build its efficient online delivery system for
making the products and services available to the customers conveniently (van Helden and
Alsem, 2016).
Physical evidence
Physical evidence is basically the environment within which services as well as products
are delivered ad where organization mainly interacts with customers for advertising products and
promoting it. Aldi will deliver the tangible as well as intangible aspects of its new marketing
campaign in its retail outlets. Besides this, in order to increase the perception of customers
towards the marketing campaign company will promote it in the cafe near colleges as well as in
the cinema hall where ambiance and cleanliness are given the high importance. As each and
every place of promotion, decor as well as surrounding environment will be given a high
importance (Chin and Mansori, 2018).
People
People generally refer to employees as well as staff which are directly or indirectly
involved in providing great services and products to the customers. For achieving its objectives
and making this marketing campaign highly successful, Aldi will seek support of its trained and
talented sales and marketing staff which will promote the various aspects of this campaign.
These teams will mainly target rural as well as other urban areas and will promote the campaign
offline. Besides this, another team of marketing and sales will be highly involved in promoting
the campaign online through social media and handling the complaints of customers (Barry and
Gironda, 2017).
Ways for improving customer service level
Each and every organization is dependent on its customers for attaining success as well as
for achieving competitive advantage. Thus, it is highly essential for the company to improve its

customer service in order to establish a great position in the market. There are various ways in
which Aldi can increase its customer service and can gain a great position in eyes and hearts of
customers.
Providing quality services
This is one of the most effective way as well as strategy which Aldi can adopt for
increasing its customer service. Quality plays an important role within an organization and thus
forms the core strength of each and every firm. Nowadays, customers have become highly
quality oriented and thus looks for quality in each and every aspect of the products and services
(Gama, 2017). Thus, Aldi can improve its customer service by increasing then quality of their
staff. For example- Aldi can provide effective training as well as development to its staff and
employees in order to respond to the complaints of customers and thus resolve them as soon as
possible. Employee forms the main link between customers and organizational success thus they
should be provided an effective training in order to deal with customer grievances in an effective
way. Besides this, Aldi can strengthen its customer service team by effectively organizing
various communication training and workshops in order to teach the various skills to their
employees regarding dealing with customers and their queries.
Customer feedback
This is the another highly remarkable as well as well-known strategy which Aldi can
utilize in order to increase its customer services and hence achieve competitive advantage.
Within its campaign 'Expressing ourselves', Aldi can adopt this strategy for making this
campaign successful and for taking its brand message to wider audience. For providing the
excellent and outstanding customer services, it is highly essential to become aware that what are
the expectations of customers and what are their needs and demands (Zhabin and et.al.,2016).
Thus, Aldi can solicit the feedback of customers regarding their services, products, staff etc and
this will help the company to know that where they stand in the market and what is their
competitive position. Through this customer feedback, company can analyze that what are their
strength, in which areas they need improvement and whether their products have been able to
make a great position in minds and hearts of customer or not. The main advantage of
incorporating customer feedback in the marketing campaign 'Expressing ourselves' is that it will
help the organization to gain a deep insight of its operations as well as experience of the
customers.

Using CRM platform
Most of the organizations mainly struggle for establishing the effective communication as
well as coordination among the teams which sometimes leads to the customer dissatisfaction.
Incorporating this strategy in its marketing campaign, Aldi will be able to establish the great
standards of customer service and thus will help them to make this campaign successful. For
increasing the customer service, Aldi can streamline its workforce processes through making use
of the smart and advanced CRM platform. This system will help Aldi to make sure that each and
every employee is on similar platform which is largely important for having high standards of
customer service. Thus, Aldi can make use of CRM software for enhancing the customer
interaction as well as for providing the personalized experience to them. Besides this, CRM will
help the company to increase the coordination among the sales as well as service teams and will
eliminate chances of confusion and misunderstanding. Hence, Aldi cam seek support of CRM for
increasing customer engagement as well as taking its brand message to wider audience through
its marketing campaign (Rahardja and Triyono, 2020).
Leveraging multi-channel
It has been reported that most of the people generally prefer to purchase from the brands
which provide consistent as well as reliable customer service across the multiple channels. This
is main reason that why various organizations are required to offer omni-channel communication
options to their customers. Customer prefers those brands where they can easily switch between
the multiple channels and thus enjoy consistent service quality. Therefore, Aldi can use this
strategy in order to increase its customer service. This will eventually help company to foster its
brand reputation and thus gain a great market share through its marketing campaign 'Expressing
ourselves'. Aldi can make use of multi-channels for delivering a great and quality services to its
customers. There are various channels through which Aldi can provide well-through services to
its customers like mobile devices, self-service, social media etc. For example- Aldi can ensure
that their customer as well as support pages are high;y mobile ready for meeting expectations of
customers. Besides this, as nowadays a high number of people are generally turning to the social
networks for their queries as well as compliant thus Aldi can utilize proper of this social media
for bridging gap between organization and consumers (Tadajewski, 2016).

CONCLUSION
From the above study it can be concluded that marketing efforts needs to be done in
appropriate manner so that overall marketing objective of firm can be accomplished. TWOS
analyses aids in analyzing strength and how these strength can create opportunity for
organization. By having a great marketing plan enterprise can generate more sales and can
manage its operations in such market successfully.

REFERENCES
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