Supermarket Strategies: Coles, Woolworths & Wesfarmers

This assignment delves into the competitive landscape of the Australian supermarket industry, focusing on the distinct strategies employed by three key players: Coles, Woolworths, and Wesfarmers. Students are tasked with evaluating each company's marketing approach, considering factors such as target markets, pricing strategies, product differentiation, and brand positioning. A comparative analysis is required to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of each supermarket's strategy and explore their impact on market dominance within Australia.

Running head: Marketing issues
Marketing issues

Marketing issues
Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Economic Issues in Wesfarmers..................................................................................................................4
Economic Issues in Woolworth....................................................................................................................4
Economic issues in Coles.............................................................................................................................5
Legal issues in Wesfarmers..........................................................................................................................5
Legal issues in Coles.....................................................................................................................................6
Legal issues in Woolworth...........................................................................................................................6
Ethical issues in Wesfarmers.......................................................................................................................7
Ethical issues in Coles..................................................................................................................................7
Ethical issues in Woolworth........................................................................................................................8
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................8
References...................................................................................................................................................9
Appendices................................................................................................................................................11
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Marketing issues
Introduction
The report presents a brief overview of the ethical, economic and legal issues of the
Wesfarmers, Coles and Woolworths Company. It examines the notion that “marketing makes a
positive contribution to the common goods and services in the market. It describes that marketers
are serious about environmental stewardship.” with respect to top three countries of Australia
named under supermarket i.e. Wesfarmers, Coles and Woolworth. The issues in the companies
are briefly explained in the report. There are situations taken in the place of examples to make
the report more understanding. It opens by explaining the definition of each issue and further
carries forward the same idea with respect to the companies. It is critically examined with the
policies that helped the company in growth and success. The report is a small overview of how a
company of Australia functions even after facing various many issues in the market. The three
companies taken in the report are the best supermarket companies that serve the consumers by
providing good quality products to satisfy the human needs on a maximum level.
Wesfarmers Company is founded on 1914 in Australia. It works with the cooperation of
Australian farmers. It is one of the most leading companies in Australia. In this way, it is
expanding and flourishing its business day by day. The Coles is a supermarket company which
is dealing in various consumers products across the world. In such way, it is providing
satisfaction to the customers. The company is a chain of the supermarket that is owned by
Wesfarmers (Armstrong, Kotler, Harker and Brennan, 2015). Woolworth Company is a company
delivering groceries and food items to the consumers. This Australian supermarket is a most
trusted brand in the sector of retailing. It has largely opened its sector all over the country across
the world. Further, it explains the business activities and operations of the companies in the
market (Kotler, Keller, Brady, M., Goodman & Hansen, 2016).
Economic issue
An economic issue is a problem that takes place in the company due to lack of resources.
In the world, dreams of human beings are unlimited compared to the limited availability of
resources. A number of resources present are insufficient and inappropriate. It cannot satisfy the
human needs and requirements. Therefore the problems arising due to this are Economic Issues.
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Marketing issues
The major problem faced by the society is of allocating these minimal resources within the
economy equally. The problem is created by the human society itself (Moriarty, Mitchell, Wells,
Crawford, Brennan & Spence-Stone, 2014). Initially, the use of resources becomes so large that a
number of resources present in the environment become limited to be used for future. Therefore
the human wants turns out to be unsatisfactory. The problem of economy arises due to the
problem of choice (Akbar & Ahsan, 2014). In this way, these issues are not good for the
companies.
Economic Issues in Wesfarmers
Wesfarmers is one of the biggest supermarket companies in Australia which largely
serves the grocery items in all over the world. It serves to the country by providing good quality
products and services to its customers across the world. It is making an effective position and
image in the market. In this way, the company is trying to overcome on its competitors in the
market. Thus various economic issues are faced by the company in the market across the world.
The problem of the economy started worrying the investors. The business faced low growth and
even no growth at all. The market value of the company dropped initially which put investors in
dilemma to invest in the company or not. The CEO of the company believes to push the business
towards a sale in order to gain good results and outputs in the market. Wesfarmers owns various
different supermarkets of the country which has uplifted the decreasing brand over the years. The
company is able to make the company’s position stable which resulted in a jump in company’s
share market (Menon, Bharadwaj, Adidam & Edison, 2015).
Economic Issues in Woolworth
Woolworth is also a supermarket company of Australia which has grown itself in the
initial years only by serving good quality of products and services across the world. They were
able to satisfy the demands of the consumers which made their growth in the market easy. The
economic issue faced by Woolsworth is same as faced by other companies in Australia.
Woolworth is facing the similar threat in the sector of the economy. It initially earned good by
the sale but later the percent of sale declined due to the difference in the planning of strategies.
The decline was as per the sale of food. Woolworth faced a lot of trouble while planning for
business expansion and growth. It certainly opened the branches of its own and started
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expanding the growth and success of the market. The company initially required a big
investment but then made it. Woolworth had to take care of the amount of the investment made
in completing one project. The issues resulted in the cost of operation due to the raw materials
supplied in the market (Slater and Tonkiss, 2013).
Ethical issues in Coles
Coles Company is a retail store in Australia. It has a number of retail chains and stores.
The parent originator of the company is Wesfarrners. Only 30% of the market is controlled by
the company for selling food and liquors. Company’s inevitability of firing the workers resulted
in dropping of the price. This led to the shortages in the stores which resulted in the feeling of
disappointment in a large number of customers. Coles had to claim over the trust of the
consumers by working harder. The economic issues in the company resulted in a claim over the
grocery market. The sales after that also were weak and profits became even worse. The
Company did not make that much amount of profit that is expected from the sale of product’s
supply. These profit gaps were not at all in the control of suppliers (Frewer, Kleter, Brennan,
Coles, Fischer, Houdebine & Salter, 2013).
Legal issues
Legal issues are those problems that are found in the business that requires the
interference of court to make a decision. The problem is solved by the evidence generated by the
legal authorities. Legal issues in a company are dependent on the laws made by the people hired
to handle the legal matters. It is very obvious that every company faces the legal problems since
it is not easy to run large institution without any problem. An important thing in a company is to
manage and anticipate legal issues on a timely basis to avoid any discrepancy (Schlosberg and
Coles, 2016).
Legal issues in Wesfarmers
Wesfarmers plays a very important role in contributing on a range of issues to public
policy and in the national debate. This has made the company the largest employer with
operations all over the country. The company is also responsible for interacting and co-operating
with the government agencies in order to operate effectively on the legal matters (Dos Santos,
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2012). The legal issues in the company are normally seen when the company operates its
functions irrespective of its policy (Richards, Lawrence, Loong, & Burch, 2012). This creates
competition among other firms and restricts the growth towards economy artificially. Since the
development of new technologies company is able to meet most of the issues in a few years. In
the company, there is undoubtedly an important role of the government in the operation of the
business (Keith, 2012). A member of legal representatives is required to form a healthy economy
in the environment. The support of these members is quite helpful for the company in
participating effectively and efficiently in the market avoiding any legal issues. The problems in
the company also arise with the interference of bureaucrats in the competitive market. It does not
contribute anything to the national wealth but they intrude and diminish themselves (Valenzuela
& Fisher, 2012). The company should focus on the legal issues to maintain sustainability in the
market.
Legal issues in Coles
The legal problems in Coles Company rose due to the workers. They took the legal action
for stopping the agreement relating to employment between the larger supermarket and the union
of retail workers (Kurt & Hulland, 2013). During the issue, workers claimed about losing a great
amount of profit in the coming years. The agreement was to increase the hourly rates of the
workers working in the supermarket. During the solving of this problem, Coles had to go through
many issues. It was asked to shut the markets down till the case is not solved which made a great
loss for the market. According to law, the agreement has to be better off rather than getting any
award. Australian competition and consumer commission announced the legal actions that were
declared but were not approved being against the conduct of the supermarket. The policy
launched by federal government relating to competition of various companies has increased the
market dominance (Richards, Lawrence, Loong, & Burch, 2012).
Legal issues in Woolworth
The legal problems in Woolworth have been a transformation in the company.
Woolworth’s retailer is able to drive away the other companies in the battle such as Lower
Company. The case was raised by the Lowe’s Company in the court. They wanted to appoint an
independent liquidator (Chapple & Humphrey, 2014). But Woolworth was not ready for that
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which created problems in the company. This required the interference of the justice to resolve
the differences. But since the economic stability of Woolworth is good the solution was in favor
of the company. According to the legal intervention, no company was insolvent and nobody
came to present the company in the court which gave rise to many problems in legal terms (Berk,
DeMarzo, Harford, Ford, Mollica, and Finch, 2013).
Ethical Issues
These are the issues that guide the business to behave morally. The issue gives a way of
to choose right and wrong at the time of making choices. It is mainly chosen to get answers
relating to the moral concepts. The problems relate to any good or evil consequences. The issues
in the business are generally studied as the problems arising in the business situations. The issues
that generally need the concern of any individual or representative to decide right and wrong i.e.
ethical and unethical. Ethical behavior of the company depends on the moral views and principle
values. There are various factors that cause issues relating to ethics (Cil, 2012).
Ethical issues in Wesfarmers
There are various ethical issues are faced by the Wesfarmers. The challenge that
company has to face is making the supply chain in managing the ethical sources of risk which
includes child labor, labor working under pressure etc. company works with the suppliers to stick
to the conducts of ethical business through the range of actions. Wesfarmers have a large group
of Ethical Source Policy. This allows setting the standards of the division. Every decision has the
ethical policy of its own that matches with the policy of the company (Chandon, 2013).
Ethical issues in Coles
The ACCC has observed the commercial practices that were declared without any proof
and were into engagement in the company. The Company showed concern over the suppliers of
the supermarket. The decision was left to the court to decide whether the facts given by ACCC
were relevant or rough. The ethical issues of the company resulted in fulfilling the outcomes of
demanding the pay money from the suppliers. The company failed to tell about this to the
suppliers which resulted in a demand for more money. But all this was illegally done. The
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Marketing issues
operation of the cost of the company fell due to less supplying of products and imposing extra
charges on what was supplied (Chapple & Humphrey, 2014).
Ethical issues in Woolworth
According to Woolworth, every supplier must go through an “ethical audit”. It is done in
order to know about the structure of payment, the place from where the raw materials are being
originated and whether the company does child labor. Woolworth wants its suppliers to work on
the “ethical audits”. This lets them know about the policies on corruption and working conditions
of the company. The Ethical Sourcing Policy of Woolworth states that there should be no bribery
and corruption by the suppliers. The suppliers must not go against the policies of the company
and must not abolish the ethics of the agreement. Woolworth began to work on its ethical audits
to meet the demands of the market and to follow the policies and agreement of the business
honestly. The audits didn’t fail and gave great results and also the ethical issues were solved in a
considerable manner (Liu, 2012).
Conclusion
On the above discussion, it is concluded that there are various ethical, legal and economic
issues are faced by Woolworth Australia. It gives a clear indication of the problems or of the
issues that are faced by the companies in the sector of marketing. The technique or the strategies
made by the company somewhere lacks in fulfilling the demands of the markets as well as of the
consumers. The different issues faced by the company attacks in the growth of the business and
become an obstacle in its target achievement. The report presents a clear overview of how a
company should function in order to maintain its stability of work in the market. Therefore, the
company should focus on these ethical, economic and legal issues in order to gain the success
and growth across the world.
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References
Akbar, S. and Ahsan, K., 2014. Analysis of corporate social disclosure practices of Australian
retail firms. International Journal of Managerial and Financial Accounting, 6(4), pp.375-396.
Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. and Brennan, R., 2015. Marketing: an introduction.
Pearson Education.
Berk, J., DeMarzo, P., Harford, J., Ford, G., Mollica, V. and Finch, N., 2013. Fundamentals of
corporate finance. Pearson Higher Education AU.
Chandon, P., 2013. How package design and packaged-based marketing claims lead to
overeating. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 35(1), pp.7-31.
Chapple, L. and Humphrey, J.E., 2014. Does board gender diversity have a financial impact?
Evidence using stock portfolio performance. Journal of Business Ethics, 122(4), pp.709-723.
Cil, I., 2012. Consumption universes based supermarket layout through association rule mining
and multidimensional scaling. Expert Systems with Applications, 39(10), pp.8611-8625.
Dos Santos, M.A.O., 2012. Global warming mitigation promotes corporate entrepreneurship
within Woolworths' supply chain. African Journal of Business Management, 6(31), p.9151.
Frewer, L. J., Kleter, G. A., Brennan, M., Coles, D., Fischer, A. R., Houdebine, L. M., ... &
Salter, B. (2013). Genetically modified animals from life-science, socio-economic and ethical
perspectives: examining issues in an EU policy context. New biotechnology, 30(5), 447-460.
Keith, S., 2012. Coles, Woolworths and the local. Locale: The Australasian-Pacific Journal of
Regional Food Studies, 2, pp.47-81.
Kotler, P., Keller, K.L., Brady, M., Goodman, M. and Hansen, T., 2016. Marketing management.
Pearson Education Ltd.
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Kurt, D. and Hulland, J., 2013. Aggressive marketing strategy following equity offerings and
firm value: the role of relative strategic flexibility. Journal of Marketing, 77(5), pp.57-74.
Liu, T., 2012. Combining GIS and the Huff Model to Analyze Suitable Locations for a New
Asian Supermarket in the Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota USA. Papers in Resource
Analysis, 14, p.8.
Menon, A., Bharadwaj, S.G., Adidam, P.T. and Edison, S.W., 2015. Effective Marketing
Strategy-Making: Antecedents and Consequences. In Proceedings of the 1997 Academy of
Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 224-224). Springer, Cham.
Moriarty, S., Mitchell, N.D., Wells, W.D., Crawford, R., Brennan, L. and Spence-Stone, R.,
2014. Advertising: Principles and practice. Pearson Australia.
Richards, C., Lawrence, G., Loong, M. and Burch, D., 2012. A toothless chihuahua? The
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, neoliberalism and supermarket power in
Australia. Rural Society, 21(3), pp.250-263.
Schlosberg, D. and Coles, R., 2016. The new environmentalism of everyday life: Sustainability,
material flows and movements. Contemporary Political Theory, 15(2), pp.160-181.
Slater, D. and Tonkiss, F., 2013. Market society: markets and modern social theory. John Wiley
& Sons.
Valenzuela, F.R. and Fisher, J., 2012. Poker machine wars: Social responsibility and
marketing. World, 2(3), pp.69-77.
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Appendices
1. Woolworths strategy
2.Wesfarmers strategy
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3. Strategy of Coles
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