Marketing Mix of Kmart, Target, and Big W

Running head: PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Case Study Analysis: "Kmart's pain is Target and Big W's gain but is there room for
three?"
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1
PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT1. Compare and contrast the marketing mixes for these three retailers and discuss how
each creates a unique position in the retail market?
Kmart Target Big W
Product Retail company with
large amount of retail
products and OTC
medicines. However, it
sells packaged and
frozen foods, but it does
not sell fresh food and
groceries.
Retail chain under
Wesfarmers. It is also a
chain department store
that sells all types of
consumer goods and
daily essentials like
groceries. It also has a
pharmacy, walk-in clinic,
photo centre, optical
clinic, and a salon.
It is a chain discount
department store under
Woolworths. The variety
of products is less in Big
W than the rivals.
Price It claimed to be a
discount retail chain
initially but now it has
adopted everyday low
price (EDLP) strategy. It
has replaced expensive
big brands products with
their home brands which
are cheaper. The average
price in Kmart is AUD 7
It is a discount price store
and has an affordable
price strategy for
different types of brands.
It also offers price match
strategy with the
competitors. Target also
provides discount on all
online purchases and
discount on shipping
The products at Big W
are comparatively costlier
than the market rivals.

2
PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT
(Satgunaseelan 2017). charges during the
holiday seasons. Target
offers a credit card that
allows the customers to
shop on credit. It gives
variety of sales
promotion deals.
Promotion Kmart promotes
simplicity in its
approach. Good quality
stuff at really cheap price
is the promotional
strategy of Kmart.
Social media is the main
form of free advertising
for Kmart.
It focuses on good quality
products at a lower price.
It airs commercials on
TV and radio, distributes
flyers, coupons and
special offers and prints
ads on newspapers. It
also maintains
promotions on the social
media. It has direct
marketing strategy too
and sends personalized
emails to the customers.
During Thanksgiving and
Black Friday, it offers
huge discounts to various
Big W focuses on the
fashion selection and low
prices. It is promoting its
efforts to be more
relatable with the
customers. Conventional
and digital marketing
techniques are used for
promotion (Mitchell
2018).

3
PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT
product categories.
Place It has chain store located
at convenient places in
and around the cities and
at some gas stations.
Kmart has around 200
stores across Australia
(Powell 2017).
It has 303 retail stores
across Australia and also
has online network
(wesfarmers.com.au
2019).
It has 183 stores across
the country
(woolworthsgroup.com.au
2019).
Thus, it can be seen from the above table that Kmart, Target and Big W are close rivals in
the retail department store industry in Australia and all these three stores focus on discount
pricing to attract the customers. However, the product categories are more in Target than the
other stores. On the other hand, Kmart has captured the market with every day low prices for
higher quality products and fun shopping experience. Big W however has fallen behind the
competitors as the products are costlier and the variety is less too. The number of stores of Big
W is less too than the other two and it does not provide much promotional offers to attract more
customers.
2. How do Kmart, Target and Big W create value for their customers?
Kmart, Target and Big W all operate in the same industry, that is, discount retail
departmental store industry and all these are chain stores. As stated by Kent et al. (2016), the
retail department stores create value for the customers by focusing on the pain points, that is,
through quality of products and service, exclusivity, convenience, cost, product comparison,