Introduction to Marketing: Strategies for Competitiveness and Growth

This report provides an introduction to marketing and its components, including the 7Ps of marketing, Ansoff's Growth Matrix, and digital marketing. It also discusses how businesses address challenges in competitive markets and the impact of globalization on these markets. The report focuses on Tesco, a UK-based supermarket chain, and how it has expanded its services in several countries and generated a good customer base. The report concludes with a discussion of how marketing strategies have helped Tesco dominate in internal and external markets.

INTRODUCTION TO
MARKETING

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Marketing and 7Ps.......................................................................................................................3
Marketing and competitiveness...................................................................................................4
Ansoff's Growth Matrix...............................................................................................................5
Digital marketing.........................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is defined as a process of increasing the interest of potential customers in the
product or service offered by a company. It encompasses all the strategies which may help an
organization to achieve its objectives.
Tesco is a supermarket chain, based in the UK, which is highly popular in the country for
its unique service. The company has expanded its services in several countries and generated a
good customer base.
This report will discuss how marketing and its components are developed, how the
business address challenges in the competitive markets, identify solutions to these challenges and
describe the impact of globalization on the competitive markets.
MAIN BODY
Marketing and 7Ps
Marketing
Marketing is an activity or process of creating and promoting offerings that have some
value to the consumers to satisfy their needs. It focuses on building relationships with the
customers in order to ensure customer satisfaction and build a better image of the brand in their
mind (Bala and Verma, 2018). It involves segmenting the audience into small groups and then
targeting in accordance to the groups formed which helps an organization to gain optimum
benefit.
Marketing Mix
The marketing mix is defined as an effective tool which is a combination of a number of
components to promote and sell the goods and service of a business (Marketing Mix, 2022). It
consists of 7Ps of marketing which are as follows:
Product : Tesco may deal in a wide variety of products which includes food, clothing,
electronics etc., company may target its customers by improving its packaging and providing the
best quality to targeting the needs of different categories of customers to increase its market
share and gain competitive advantage.
Price : Cost leadership strategy may be followed by Tesco, it maintains the lowest
possible price for its products to stay competitive in the market.

Place : The company may use two channels of distribution online and offline ensuring
its reach in different parts of various countries (Barna and Semak, 2020). It may develop an
excellent distribution system, to make the products easily available to the consumers.
Promotion : The organization may invest a huge amount in promotion of its brand by
using different channels like newspapers, television, social medial, website etc. The company
may use different offers or discounts to attract customers towards the brand.
Process : Tesco may develop advance technologies like self service machines and
customer assistants to pay in order to stay updated in the competitive market.
People : The company may have competent workforce and it may invest a huge amount
of time and money in recruiting and training the staff to build better customer relationships and
stay competitive.
Physical Evidence : Tesco may have attractive offline stores which are easily located at
different locations in the UK and the company has developed an easily accessible website for the
customers.
Marketing and competitiveness
Competitive environment is defined as a system where different organizations compete
among each other using different promotional strategies, pricing methods or marketing channels
to acquire more customers in the market (Herhausen and et.al., 2020). The environment may be
dynamic in nature and require applying different strategies by an organization to achieve its
goals.
SWOT Analysis is an effective tool used to identify and analyse the internal strengths &
weakness and external threats & opportunities of an organization to develop strategies in order to
achieve the organizational goals.
Strengths
 Market Share : Tesco may have the highest market share in the grocery stores in the UK
and it may have maintained dominance over its competitors consistently over the years. It
is a major strength for the business as it may have a better brand image in the market than
its competitors.
 Efficient network of suppliers : The company may have maintained an effective
relationship with its suppliers which is a major advantage for the business in order to
maintain the supply chain and deliver its products to different parts of the country.

 Diversified in many countries : The company may have expanded in many countries
and provided its services to a lot of customers worldwide which creates a better image of
the brand than its competitors.
Opportunities
 Growth of online sale of groceries : The pandemic may have encouraged people to stay
at home and order goods online which may create opportunities for Tesco in order to
dominate the online market and enjoy competitive advantage. The company may take full
leverage of the ongoing trend in the market.
 Rise of meat alternatives : The market may have experienced a great shift in the
demand of the customers as they are shifting towards plant based sources of protein
instead of the original meat products. It may be a great opportunity for the business to get
the first mover advantage and dominate in the competitive market.
Ansoff's Growth Matrix
It is a business tool used by companies to plan and analyse their strategies for achieving
their goals. The purpose of the matrix is to show different strategies by which a company can
grow and expand its market. It gives strategies in four quadrants that include market penetration,
market development, diversification and product development (Ansoff Matrix, 2022).
Organizations may gain a better understanding of the challenges and risks by analysing each
strategy of the Ansoff's matrix.
Market Penetration Strategy : According to this strategy, Tesco may be able to expand
its business by selling the existing products to existing markets. It may help the company to
increase its market share and gain competitive advantage in the market. Advertisement
campaigns and competitive price strategies may be useful for Tesco to implement these
strategies (Lim, 2021). It has helped the organization to develop an effective growth strategy by
satisfying more customers and becoming their first choice by gaining their trust. The
organization may acquire more customers in the market by selling products at lower prices and
increasing the efforts to promote and distribute the products all over the market.
Market Development Strategy : The organization may have developed this strategy by
selling existing products to new markets or regions. The company may expand to various places

around the world and established a good brand image in the different markets which has
provided the company to reach more customers and increase its product range. This strategy
may lead to the development of new products as per the needs of different consumers in various
markets. It may help in increasing the diversity of the company by acquiring more and more
markets globally and gaining the competitive advantage among its competitors. The customer
segment may be new for the organization as this strategy requires entering new foreign and
domestic markets which may give the business an opportunity to grow and gain competitive
advantage.
Digital marketing
The term is defined as promoting brands and companies by using the internet and
different digital communication platforms. This includes marketing from electronic devices
which may be less expensive than the traditional marketing methods and provide the business to
reach a wider audience (Terech, 2018). As the industry may be highly dependent on the internet
nowadays, digital marketing provides companies with a great opportunity to promote their brand
at a global level.
Using digital marketing to improve performance and growth
Social media marketing : Consumers in today's era may be dependent on social media
platforms like Facebook, twitter etc. and promoting the brand through these platforms may help
the organization to reach more customers, explore new regions and increase its market share.
Tesco regularly promotes its products on these platforms which has improved its performance
and growth.
Email marketing : The Email marketing campaigns help the organization to pass
important information to the customers such as discount offers, coupons and offer customer
support to the people. This tool helps in getting feedbacks from the customers which may help
the organization to improve its services and give a better overall experience to customers than its
competitors.
Content marketing : This tool may be effective for marketing teams to be proactive and
answer the queries of the customers by creating contents such as videos, articles blogs etc. This
is an attractive way of marketing as the customers may consider the business which produces
good content for them (Tuten and Mintu-Wimsatt, 2018). Tesco may be keen in posting good
quality content to attract its potential consumers towards buying more from the brand.

Affiliate marketing : The digital marketing tool is a type of referral program which
invites individuals to promote the product or service and get a commission in return. It is an
attractive way to do marketing and the company has developed a good system of affiliates to
offer to the public.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of the above report it has been concluded that the company has gained
benefit by applying various marketing strategies and acquired a good market share in comparison
to its competitors. Various strengths and opportunities have been evaluated by the company to
increase its productivity. By applying certain marketing strategies the organization has
dominated in internal as well as the external markets. Different digital marketing tools have been
used by the organization to provide the consumers with important information and take relevant
feedbacks in order to improve its products and services. A good marketing strategy has ensured a
better position of the business in the market.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Bala, M. and Verma, D., 2018. A critical review of digital marketing. M. Bala, D. Verma (2018).
A Critical Review of Digital Marketing. International Journal of Management, IT &
Engineering. 8(10). pp.321-339.
Barna, M. and Semak, B., 2020. Main trends of marketing innovations development of
international tour operating. Baltic Journal of Economic Studies. 6(5). pp.33-41.
Herhausen, D. and et.al., 2020. The digital marketing capabilities gap. Industrial Marketing
Management. 90. pp.276-290.
Lim, W. M., 2021. A marketing mix typology for integrated care: the 10 Ps. Journal of Strategic
Marketing. 29(5). pp.453-469.
Terech, A., 2018. An introduction to marketing and branding. Generations. 42(1). pp.45-49.
Tuten, T. and Mintu-Wimsatt, A., 2018. Advancing our understanding of the theory and practice
of social media marketing: Introduction to the special issue. Journal of Marketing
Theory and Practice. 26(1-2). pp.1-3.
Online
Ansoff Matrix. 2022. [Online] Available Through:
<https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/strategy/ansoff-matrix/>
Marketing Mix. 2022. [Online] Available Through: <https://mailchimp.com/marketing-
glossary/marketing-mix-7ps/>

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