Principles and Practice of Marketing

This report examines the marketing strategies of Sainsbury's, a major UK supermarket chain. It analyzes the AIDA model, push and pull strategies, and Porter's generic strategies, highlighting their effectiveness in promoting Sainsbury's brand and driving sales. The report also explores Sainsbury's customer relationship management approach and its segmentation, targeting, and positioning strategies.

Principles and practice of
marketing

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Research into the promotional tactics of Sainsbury....................................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
1.AIDA model ............................................................................................................................6
2.Push and Pull Strategies ..........................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Marketing defines as a critical business function of every successful business. It includes
various factors which plays an important role in increasing the productivity of the firm such as
research, product design and development, promotion and customer services(Kotler and et.al.,
2015). The Sainsbury's recognized as a second largest chain of the supermarket of the united
kingdom and it is established in the 1969 by the John James sainsbury in London, UK. This
report present the promotional mix tactics which plays an important role in the promotion
activities of the sainsbusry's supermarket. In this study we also defines various marketing
theories such as AIDA model and above \ below the line theory and also evaluates effectiveness
of this theories in the sainsbury's supermarket.
TASK 1
Sainsbury is one of the largest supermarket chain in united kingdom. It was founded 150
years ago that is in the year 1969, by John James Sainsbury in London. It has around 16.9% of
the supermarket market share in united kingdom. The company grew and expanded very rapidly
and it is quite evident from the fact that it became the largest retailer of groceries in the year
1922. The company has its head office in Holborn, London. The holding company of Sainsbury
is J Sainsbury plc and it has 3 divisions and those are Sainsbury's supermarket ltd, Sainsbury's
Argos and Sainsbury bank. Initially when the Sainsbury was incorporated it used to deal in fresh
foods but later on the company expanded and started dealing in packed groceries such as tea,
sugar,etc. When the company became the largest retailer of groceries in the year 1922; then it
was established as a private company. The company also experienced decline after 1992, when
the long time CEO of the company John Davan Sainsbury retired, the new CEO brought change
in management style which in turn affected the working of the business and lead to downfall of
the company(Das and Lall, 2016). The company has around 1425 shops by the end of may, 2017
and has given employment to large number of employees that is as many as 186900 by the end of
2018.
Research into the promotional tactics of Sainsbury
Marketing
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Marketing is one of the major component of business management and may be defined as
all those activities that are carried out by a company in order to foster buying and selling of a
product or service. It focuses on creation of relationship with the customers and making efforts to
provide full satisfaction to them by providing quality goods and services.
Sainsbury focuses on carrying out effective marketing so as to enhance its sales and
revenue. The company makes huge investment to carry out effective marketing. One of the most
efficient marketing strategy used by Sainsbury was “ ultra personalised” based on the location of
the customers, which played a huge role in increasing the sales of the company as well as visit of
the customers. This strategy was adopted by the company with the help of Aimia under which a
campaign was run by a company in which personalised messages and offers were sent to the
customers through the mobile app named bespoke. This strategy has helped a lot to the retailer to
promote the brand as well as drive the sales(de Sabando and et.al., 2018).
Apart from this, in order to carry out marketing the company formulated a team
comprised of talented individuals possessing various kinds of skills. The team is comprised of
brand builders, data analysts, designers, planners, digital experts and specialists. This team
designed and implemented efficient marketing campaigns which played a vital role in boosting
up the sales as well as understanding the needs and experience of the customers. In order to carry
out effective marketing the team used updated tool, technology and techniques to promote its
brand as well as they focussed on developing team spirit so that when the creative brains will
work together the company would be able to achieve its objectives effectively and efficiently.
Characteristics of marketing
Marketing is a very important part for every company is order to take the company to
new heights. Various characteristics of marketing are as follows:
Customer focussed – marketing is customer oriented function of every business and the
main motive behind carrying out marketing by every business is to find out about the needs and
wants of the customers and then producing goods and services as desired by them. Sainsbury
carried out effective marketing campaigns which focussed entirely on customers such as
determining their needs, their preferences, their location, etc; and then take action on this basis
which in turn helped the company to survive and grow in long run.
Continuous and regular activity – marketing is a function of every business and is carried
out on regular basis in order to fulfil the needs of the present customers as well as future
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customers. It is very important for Sainsbury to carry out marketing on a regular basis otherwise
it wont be able to determine the needs of the customers, recent trends in the market, expanding
its product line(Festa and et.al., 2016). Thus, in order to carry out its business smoothly,
Sainsbury has to remain involved in promoting its product on a continuous basis.
Customer satisfaction – it is one of the most important characteristic of every business
because in order to gain competitive advantage, it is very essential for every company to ensure
that its customers are fully satisfied. Sainsbury in order to beat its competitors and be the market
leader in entire uk market has to make sure that its customers are fully satisfied by providing
quality good and services as desired by them. The company can find out whether its customers
are satisfied or not through carrying out market research or survey. With the help of this
company can find out its loop holes and take actions on it to minimise and eliminate them in
order to achieve the business objectives efficiently.
Promotional mix
It may be defined as all those promotional activities carried out by marketers in order to
towards the achievement of business objectives(Wijaya, 2015). There are 5 main elements of
promotion mix and those are:
Advertising – advertising is basically carried out in order to witness wide number of
people. It is a paid form of promotion. Example of advertising are television, radio, print ads,
email, etc. Sainsbury in order to advertise its brand has adopted an effective food campaign that
unveiled energetic and tasty food which as marked the 'step change' in marketing strategy.
Public relations – it is carried out by a third party in order to promote its good and
services in an indirect way. Sainsbury has searched for a new public relation agency in order to
promote its foods division. Prior the public relation agency appointed by Sainsbury was Golin
but now the company has broken ties and discontinued with this agency in 2015.
Sales promotion – it is a marketing communication and is used for a specified period in
order to increase sales and brand awareness. Examples of sales promotion are coupons, contest,
rebates, etc. Sainsbury in order to promote its sales has sponsored various events which have
played a vital role in boosting its sales such as Paralympic games, 2012.
Direct marketing – this helps to communicate directly with the customers through use of
mobile app, email, website, etc. Sainsbury in order to promote its brand has used a unique
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method by developing a mobile app named bespoke which helped the company to create ultra
personalised relations with the customers.
Personal selling – it is used in order to convince one or more customers to buy the
product or service. Sainsbury also gives personal touch in selling the products such as by giving
various kinds of offers(Plank and Canedy, 2015).
Customer relationship management
It may be defined as an approach that is used in order to manage the relationship of a
company with its customers whether current or future. It is a system which helps the company to
remain connected with the customers and helps in identifying their needs, wants, handling
queries and grievances, etc. This system plays a vital role in retaining the customers and sales
growth.
Sainsbury in order to maintain effective customer relationship management has adopted
voice response system. This is a system which has been established by Sainsbury while working
with engage hub by deploying an interactive voice system. This system helps in answering all the
questions or queries of the customers on the spot without rushing to or interacting with the
interior staff of the supermarket and this in turn help in saving the time of both the staff and the
customers. This system has helped a lot to the company in order to keep its customer satisfied
and improving the sales of the company. Hence, it can be said that one of the major reason
behind company leading the supermarket segment is its effective customer relationship
management.
Porters generic strategies
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Illustration 1: Porters generic strategies
source: (Porter's generic competitive
strategies, 2016)

It is used in order to determine firms competitive advantage in terms of whether the firm
is earning profits above or below the average of industry. It has generally 3 main porters generic
strategies and those are cost leadership, differentiation and focus. Further, the focus id divided
into 2 that is cost focus and differentiation focus.
Cost leadership – it is when the firms gains the advantage of cost that is the cost of
producing the goods or providing services is reduced through economies of scale or preferential
access of raw material. Sainsbury has became the low cost producer in the supermarket industry
by achieving the economies of scale.
Differentiation – it is concerned with providing some different or unique attributes to the
customers that are of vital importance for them. Sainsbury provide quality products to its
customers which makes it different from others.
Focus – it is concerned with focussing on a particular segment or market and excluding
others from it. Focus strategy is further divided into 2 and those are cost focus and differentiation
focus. Cost focus provides cost advantage to the target segment and differentiation focus helps in
differentiation in the target market. Sainsbury adopts both the strategies of focus towards a
particular target segment or market.
Segmentation, targeting and positioning
Segmentation – it is very important to carry out segmentation by every company in order
to promote its product or carry out marketing effectively towards the achievement of objectives
of the company. Segmentation may be defined as dividing the market of customers into different
segments based on different characteristics. A segment comprises of customers possessing same
kind of characteristics. Every company chooses its own basis in order to segment its customers
based on their characteristics and then focussing on implementing and formulation of marketing
strategies particularly for a specific segment. Sainsbury adopts demographic basis in order to
segment its current as well as future customers. Demographic characteristics is concerned with
age, gender, race, religion, income, education, family size, etc.
Targeting – once the segmentation is done, the company has to decide which segment
they have to target. Market segment comprises of people for whom the product is produced or
towards whom the marketing efforts of the marketers are directed to improve or boost up the
sales. These are those people for whom specially distribution network is prepared and prices are
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set. The company in order to target a particular market critically evaluates each and every
segment of the society and chooses the most appropriate market which will help them generate
maximum revenue and in turn maximise their profits(Kotler and et.al., 2015). Sainsbury targets
the market based on the product offered by it. In case the company offer product for infants then
the target market would be kids below age of 6 years. Hence, different products are provided by
Sainsbury and based on the product offered by the company the particular segment would be
targeted.
Positioning – positioning is a strategy that is adopted by a company in order to position
the product in the mind of the customers. Every company focusses on effective positioning of its
product so as to boost up the sales which in turn will help in increasing the profit and thus help in
achieving the objective of the company effectively and efficiently. Further, positioning helps the
company in differentiating its brand from its competitors. Sainsbury in order to position its brand
in the mind of customers adopts value based positioning strategy. This strategy is used in order
to make the customers about the value that the goods of the company are delivering and this will
help in positioning the product effectively and thus boosting up the sales.
TASK 2
1.AIDA model
According to this model marketing is the activity of the and the process for creating
communicating, delivering and exchanging offers that have value for the customer, partners and
societies at very large extent. This model includes four main elements such as Attention, Interest,
Desire and Action model which plays an important role in identifying the stages that an
consumers goes during the purchasing process of the products.
The brand awareness of Sainsbury's supermarket can be increased through the advertising
and marketing measure , the AIDA model defines various explanatory approaches for evaluating
how advertising and communication policies are involves in the brand selection. Through AIDA
model advertisers of the retailer have to achieve four communication objectives to direct
potential consumers from the stage when they are first aware about the product and encourage
their interest to make their way to the purchase stage(Montazeribarforoushi, Keshavarzsaleh and
Ramsøy, 2017).
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A- Attract Attention
The first element of AIDA model defines that firstly the retailer have to attract the target
consumers attentions. It is the initiating process of the activation and perception. This phase of
the AIDA model ensures that retailer has a positive impact on potential customers which can be
possible through graphic design element. For example Retailer can use the posters for presenting
the offers on any occasions for attracting consumers. The effectiveness of this element is that
retailer can use various elements for catching the viewers attentions towards their firm such as
TV, radio and social media.
I-Interest
Creating interest in the consumers towards the firm is the hardest part of every retailer. It
is very difficult to achieve interest of the consumers when the product and services in not
inherently interesting. This phase of model is defines that retailer have ton pre4sent the benefits
of the products in front of consumers. The effectiveness of this element of the model is that
retailer can find out effectively the target consumers that are interested towards the product of
the enterprises(Pawaskar and Goel, 2016).
D- Desire
The interest and Desire element of the Aida model go together. As retailer hopefully
build interest of consumers towards the product and services, it is important that retailer provides
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Illustration 2: AIDA Model
source; (what is AIDA model, 2019)

the product and services according to the requirement of the consumers. The effectiveness of this
element of the AIDA model, it helps in increasing the productivity of the retailer through
providing interesting information of the products along with buying benefits to consumers which
encourage them towards the product of the enterprise.
A-Action
Action is the last element of the AIDA model which designs the statement that helps in
getting immediate response from consumers. Retailer can provides the sample products to their
consumers for using and encouraging them in terms of purchasing the products from their
enterprises. The effectiveness of this element, the retailers can increase the productivity as well
as profitability through providing them various offers such buy one get one offer to
consumers(Schulze, Schöler and Skiera, 2015).
The effectiveness of AIDA model towards the Retailer enterprises, it gives a a kind of
checklist which can be used to evaluate and optimise communication measure in the context of
advertisement, sales talks and moderations for increasing the productivity of the firm.
2.Push and Pull Strategies
Push strategy
Retailer use effectively both pull and push strategies to promote and sell the goods and
services of the firm. With the help of push strategy retailer promotes the products through a
reseller who yet promotes the ultimate consumers. This strategy helps in creating a brand
awareness and push a brands to its consumers. It includes various strategies such as monetary or
non monetary allowances, free trial offer, heavy discounts and displays. Retailer can sell directly
to consumers by push promotional and advertising strategies through trade show productivity.
For example; retailer can increase their productivity through providing free samples of new
products in a supermarket. Push strategy is the opportunity for the retailer to increase their
productivity through becoming the part of the distribution chain of the manufacturer which
concentrates on their marketing efforts to promote their product(Nowak, and et.al., 2015).
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Apart from this, with the help of push strategy retailer produce the product in front of the
consumers by advertisement to make sure that consumers is aware of the existence of the
products. Effectiveness of this strategy, in this company can encourage retailer to stock a
product and also company negotiate with a retailer to stock a specific item because retailer has
limited store space. Retailer also use this strategy to launch new product in the marketplace and
gain competitive advantage from the market.
Pull strategies
this strategy plays an important role in the building a customer demand for a product ans
services through advertising. From a retail business perspective, pull marketing helps in creating
brand loyalty and keeps the consumers to coming back. Pull strategies in the retail sector are all
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Illustration 3: Push marketing strategies of the Retailer businesses
source;(illustrate the push marketing strategy, 2019)

about creating demand for products at the consumer level. With the help of this strategies retailer
provides the products to consumers according to their requirements(Pawaskar and Goel, 2016).
Retailer use this strategy for increasing their productivity through advertising in
newspaper and magazines. Offering coupons, contest and prizing are other pull method used by
retailers in conjunction with advertising for attracting new consumers towards the firms. Retailer
use push strategy effectively through communicating directly with consumers with the hope that
it encourages curiosity and requirement for the product at the end customer level. Retailer also
use this strategy for attracting new consumers to try new products and building long lasting
consumer relationship through rewarding loyal customers.
The effectiveness of the pull strategy, it focus on customer relationship management
which makes existing customer aware about the new product of the retailer that will fill a
specific need and it also increase the demand for the product through sales promotion and
discount offers(Wijaya, 2015).
Retailer some times use both push and pull strategy for advertising. This togetherness
between both pull and push strategy helps helps brand in reaching not only macro level level of
production but also macro audience.
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Illustration 4: Push marketing strategy

CONCLUSION
The above study has been summarised that marketing principles and practices are
essential for every successful business organisation. Marketing mix also a significant tool which
increase the brand loyalty of the business and also interact with a particular market place for
launching new product successfully inn front of consumers. This study has been concluded with
that the retailer increase their productivity as well as profitability through AIDA model and push
& pull strategy which use the advertisement tool for better attainment of the goal of firm.
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REFERENCES
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Das, S. and Lall, G., 2016. Traditional marketing VS digital marketing: An analysis.
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de Sabando, R. and et.al., 2018. The marketing orientation as a university management
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Festa, G. and et.al., 2016. The (r) evolution of wine marketing mix: From the 4Ps to the 4Es.
Journal of Business Research. 69(5). pp.1550-1555.
Kotler, P. and Armstrong, G., 2015. Principles of Marketing-Global Edition. Pearson.
Kotler, P. and et.al., 2015. Marketing. Pearson Higher Education AU.
Montazeribarforoushi, S., Keshavarzsaleh, A. and Ramsøy, T.Z., 2017. On the hierarchy of
choice: An applied neuroscience perspective on the AIDA model. Cogent Psychology.
4(1). p.1363343.
Nowak, G.J. And et.al., 2015. Addressing vaccine hesitancy: the potential value of commercial
and social marketing principles and practices. Vaccine, 33(34), pp.4204-4211.
Pawaskar, R.P. and Goel, M., 2016. Improving the efficacy of destination marketing strategies:
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Technology. 9(15). pp.1-11.
Plank, R.E. and Canedy, C., 2015. The Language of Marketing: A Content Analysis of
Marketing Principles Textbooks. In Proceedings of the 1989 Academy of Marketing
Science (AMS) Annual Conference. (pp. 258-262). Springer, Cham.
Schulze, C., Schöler, L. and Skiera, B., 2015. Customizing social media marketing. MIT Sloan
Management Review. 56(2). p.8.
Wijaya, B.S., 2015. The development of hierarchy of effects model in advertising. International
Research Journal of Business Studies. 5(1).
online
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Illustrate the push marketing strategy, 2019. [ONLINE] Available through
<https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/strategy/push-marketing-
strategy/>
What is AIDA model?, 2019. [ONLINE]. Available through <https://en.ryte.com/wiki/AIDA>
Porter's generic competitive strategies. 2016. [online]. Available through:
<https://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/research/dstools/porters-generic-competitive-strategies/>
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