Introduction to Marketing: SWOT Analysis, Ansoff Growth Strategies, and Digital Marketing

This report covers the basics of marketing, including the extended marketing mix, and explores how companies can use SWOT analysis, Ansoff growth strategies, and digital marketing to remain competitive and improve their performance and growth. The report uses Morrison, a UK-based retailing company, as an example throughout.

Introduction to marketing

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Define marketing and extended marketing mix.....................................................................1
How a business can use marketing to remain competitive by using SWOT analysis............2
Ansoff growth strategies of an organisation...........................................................................3
How an organisation can use digital marketing to improve its performance and growth......4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6
Online- ............................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is a huge concept where a company analyse opportunities for their growth.
Here, companies explore, create and deliver value to meet the needs and wants of targeted
customers. Marketing term is also used by companies to promote their products and services to
attract customers which further help them to increase their sales. There are various kinds of
marketing model which help the companies to analyse the performance of their products and
services in market to gain competitive advantage. Morrison is a retailing company headquartered
in Bradford, UK. It is founded in 1899 by William Morrison. The following report cover 7Ps of
marketing, SWOT analysis, ansoff growth matrix and the role of digital marketing to improve
organisational performance and growth.
MAIN BODY
Define marketing and extended marketing mix
Marketing is the concept of actions which is performed by companies to attract their
customers and grow their business within the market (Ndofirepi, Farinloye and Mogaji, 2020).
For example, a business which promote their products through TV advertisements is called
marketing activity. Conducting marketing research to analyse needs and wants of customers and
analyse targeted customers for a company is also considered as marketing activity. Marketing
mix of Morrison is mentioned below-
Product- This is the element which consist of main features of the offerings of a
company. This element helps to analyse the main characteristics of the products offered by a
company. For example, Morrison sell fresh food items which are having good quality. They are
having their own manufacturing facilities. Hence, this will further help them to control the
quality of their products.
Price- It is the monetary value of a product which a customer pay to purchase the
products. They are focused to gain the attention of their customers through their low pricing
strategies. Hence, they try to satisfy their customers by offering them best prices which are less
than their competitors. They also provide a price comparison tool to their customers to compare
the prices of their product with their competitor's products.
Place- It is the element which describe the place where customers can buy the products of
a company (Blut, Teller and Floh, 2018). Morrison is having more than 660 stores (Morrisons
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Marketing Strategy & Marketing Mix (4Ps), 2016). They sell their products within their
supermarkets, hypermarkets and through online applications.
Promotion- This element will describe the advertisement strategies of a company that
how they aware their customers about their product in market. Morrison advertise their products
through TV advertisements, social media promotions, through their website and also through the
appearance of their stores.
People- It consist of all those people who are linked to company and who are also
important for them to grow well. In context of Morrison, they are having 12 million customers at
worldwide level and 117000 employees working within their chains of supermarkets.
Process- It consist of the procedure used by the company to manufacture their products
and sell it to their customers.
Physical evidence- This will help to provide proof for the existence of company. In
context of Morrison, their physical stores, their logo and the bills which they provide to their
customers which contain the name of company is evidence that this company really exist in the
market.
How a business can use marketing to remain competitive by using SWOT analysis
SWOT analysis is a marketing model which is used by companies to analyse their
strengths and weakness at internal business environment and opportunities for growth and threat
to defend at external business environment (Benzaghta and et. al., 2021). SWOT analysis of
Morrison is mentioned below-
Strength-
Brand image- High brand image of
Morrison will help them to gain new
customers and develop their customer base.
Weakness-
High attrition rate of employees- As
compared to the competitor's, Morrison is
spending more expenses on the training and
development of their employees (Morrisons
SWOT Analysis / Matrix, 2020).
Opportunity-
Increase in online dealing with
customers- It is a good opportunity for
Morrison to gain the trust of customers
Threat-
COVID Pandemic- This pandemic has
impacted worse for all type of industry
(Hajizadeh, 2019). Morrison's also face loss
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through online channel because today most
of the customers prefer to chose online
shopping rather than traditional shopping.
from this pandemic due to government rules
and regulations.
SWOT analysis can be used by Morrison to remain competitive within their industry by
following ways-
 Strength of the company is their high brand reputation which can help them to gain more
customers and even help them to influence those customers who use the products and
services of their competitors. Hence, maintaining large customer base will help the
company to gain competitive advantage in the market.
 Their weakness is that they are spending high expense on the training and development of
their employees which they require to control by preparing budget for this activity. On
the other hand, spending more on employees training will further help them to enhance
the skills and talents of their employees which further help them to satisfy their customers
more by offering better services.
 Expanding business through online channels is a good opportunity for them to gain high
competitive advantage.
 COVID pandemic are threat for chosen company. Hence, they require to maintain
effective strategies for their business growth like keeping high hygiene within their
stores.
Ansoff growth strategies of an organisation
Ansoff matrix is a marketing tool which is used to analyse the growth of a company in
terms of their effective strategies for business expansion. There are four major components in
Ansoff matrix which are mentioned below-
Market penetration- This is the strategy where companies focus to develop their
business with existing product and within the existing market (Khajezadeh and et. al., 2019). In
context of Morrison, they can gain success in this strategy if they focus more upon fulfil the
needs and wants of their existing customers like they can make sure that their stores will always
have the availability of their products and they will serve their customers a quality product at
lower prices.
Market development- This is the strategy where a company focuses to gain future
growth by offering their existing product in new market. In context of Morrison, they can use
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this to target other geographical region to expand their business. For this, chosen company is
required to conduct marketing research that which country is having more demand of their
products as well a which country is having appropriate political, economical and technological
factors which further help the company to grow well. Hence, it is suggested for the Morrison to
conduct appropriate marketing research for using this strategy and make sure that they will make
decision to expand their business in those countries only which are having highest demand for
their products and services.
Product development- This is the strategy where companies bring new product or
modify their existing product within the existing market (Zanjani and et. al., 2020). It is
suggested for Morrison to focus on diversification of their products to attain this strategy. Here,
they require to analyse the need and wants of their existing customers as well as they require to
analyse new ways of satisfying their customers through product diversification.
Diversification- This strategy will help the company to grow within new market by
introducing new products. This is one of the most risky strategy for companies. In context of
Morrison, in case they adopt to use this strategy then they must require to invest high in their
research and development department and recognize the needs and wants of other region
customers and try to manufacture those products only.
How an organisation can use digital marketing to improve its performance and growth
Digital marketing is consist of using those technological tools and machines to promote
the products and services which help the company to aware more customers and offerings and
gain their attention to buy the products (Whitelaw and et. al., 2020). The digital marketing plays
an important role in improving organisational performance and help them to grow high. For
example, Morrison supposed to use their website to gain attention of customers. There are many
visitors which visit to the Morrison's website and clear their doubts regarding quality, quantity
and prices of the product. Customers are also allowed to use the website to file complaint against
any defective product or services. With the help of digital marketing companies get to know
about needs and preference of customers more clearly by feedback forms. Here, companies send
their feedback forms to their customers through social media platforms such as Instagram,
Facebook and many others and they also use e-mails, text messages and many other digital
medium to send their feedback to their targeted customers. When customers resend their
feedback forms then they review the forms and analyse the factors which is satisfying their
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customers more as well as they are supposed to focus on those factors which are dissatisfying
their customers. Making changing within the products and services for satisfying more customers
help the company to grow well within their market (Bryukhovetskaya and et. al., 2020).
CONCLUSION
From the above information it is concluded that marketing models are used to analyse
marketing situations which further help a company to grow well and gain competitive advantage.
There are various marketing model such as marketing mix which help to analyse the factors
which can be used to satisfy customers and aware them regarding their products and services.
SWOT analysis is used to analyse strength and weakness of the company so that weakness will
be improved and converted to strengths. Ansoff matrix helps the companies to analyse their
growth strategies out of four strategies which are market penetration, market development,
product development and diversification. It is also concluded that digital marketing plays an
important role for improving organisational performance and growth.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Benzaghta, M.A. and et. al., 2021. SWOT analysis applications: An integrative literature
review. Journal of Global Business Insights, 6(1), pp.55-73.
Blut, M., Teller, C. and Floh, A., 2018. Testing retail marketing-mix effects on patronage: A
meta-analysis. Journal of retailing, 94(2), pp.113-135.
Bryukhovetskaya, S.V. and et. al., 2020. Management of digital technology development in the
national economy. In IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science(Vol.
421, No. 4, p. 042018). IOP Publishing.
Hajizadeh, Y., 2019. Machine learning in oil and gas; a SWOT analysis approach. Journal of
Petroleum Science and Engineering, 176, pp.661-663.
Khajezadeh, M. and et. al., 2019. Application of neural network in portfolio product companies:
Integration of Boston Consulting Group matrix and Ansoff matrix. International Journal
of Economics and Management Engineering, 13(6), pp.809-813.
Ndofirepi, E., Farinloye, T. and Mogaji, E., 2020. Marketing mix in a heterogenous higher
education market: A case of Africa. In Understanding the higher education market in
Africa(pp. 241-262). Routledge.
Whitelaw, S. and et. al., 2020. Applications of digital technology in COVID-19 pandemic
planning and response. The Lancet Digital Health, 2(8), pp.e435-e440.
Zanjani, S. and et. al., 2020. Designing a Corporate Growth Strategy Based on Ansoff Matrix
Using Fuzzy Inference System. Innovation Management in Defense Organizations, 3(2),
pp.151-178.
Online-
Morrisons Marketing Strategy & Marketing Mix (4Ps), 2016. [Online] Available Through:
<https://www.mbaskool.com/marketing-mix/services/16798-morrisons.html/>
Morrisons SWOT Analysis / Matrix, 2020. [Online] Available Through:
<http://fernfortuniversity.com/term-papers/swot/1433/1363-morrisons.php/>
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