Marketing Strategies of Sainsbury: STP Model and Marketing Mix

This article discusses the marketing strategies of Sainsbury, a UK-based supermarket chain. It covers the STP model used by the company to segment, target, and position its products, as well as the marketing mix elements of product, price, place, and promotion. The article also highlights the company's focus on cost-conscious customers and its reputation as a low-cost provider.

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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Main Body...................................................................................................................................................3
Segmentation, Targeting and positioning................................................................................................3
Marketing Mix.........................................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................12
References.................................................................................................................................................13

Introduction
Marketing is the fundamental activity of each and every business. It aims to promote the
products or services in order to gain the attention of the buyers in an efficient manner. Here, the
organizations promote the products using suitable strategies and plans. It helps in gaining the
attention of more number of customers and also increases the sales & profit margin of business.
In current time, the business environment is highly competitive hence it is not possible to survive
in the market without adopting significant marketing strategies. The marketing techniques are
used in order to maintain effective communication with the target audiences (Lichtenthal, 2020).
In the present study, Sainsbury is taken into consideration that is a renowned supermarket chain
based on UK. It offers range of general items and groceries. Additionally, the company holds a
significant share in the supermarket industry of the country. The report will include marketing
activities adopted by the organization to maintain communication with the target audience.
Further, it will cover different marketing theories and models to promote and advertise the
products effectively.
Main Body
Segmentation, Targeting and positioning
Segmentation, Targeting and positioning: It is a widely used model in the field of marketing in
order to select a specific segment to make the efficient use of resources. The main aim of STP
model is to choose an appropriate segment to attain the business goals. It is not possible for the
company to target the entire population hence they select a specific segment. Additionally, this
model also makes the organization enable to prepare suitable strategies to gain the attention of
target audience. Selecting appropriate target segment is imperative to prepare effective strategies
so that the business entity can attain the pre-defined goals in an efficient manner. Apart from
this, the marketers can also position the products or services positively by adopting appropriate
positioning strategy (Visser and Kloos, 2021). Therefore, STP model is a vital framework which
is applied by the majority of the companies so that they can fulfill their marketing goals
efficiently.

In Sainsbury, they implement STP model significantly. In this, marketers classified the entire
population in small segments. The major segmentation of the organization is the people who are
likely to buy groceries and other general items through online and offline platforms. For this
purpose, they use geographical and behavioral segmentation. The main idea of the organization
is to formulate long-term value of business in order to gain profit in future period of time. In
terms of targeting, the main target of the entity is households and the individuals who wish to
purchase groceries to meet with the basic needs. Additionally, Sainsbury is perceived by the
customers as the company that offers variety of products at affordable range. The STP model
helps business entities in order to take suitable decisions in an efficient manner.
Segmentation: It is the first step of STP model wherein individuals are divided in different
groups. Here, the people having similar characteristics put together in a group. It makes easy for
the organization to target a particular segment. In the current market, it is quite difficult for an
organization to target the entire population. Hence, they divide the entire population in different
segments based on their attributes. Segmentation helps an entity in making an efficient use of the
available resources (Moscato and De Vries, 2019).Here, they can easily formulate suitable
strategies for a particular group of people. In this context, there are four major types of
segmentation such as demographic, psychographic, geographic and behavioral.

In terms of demographic segmentation, Sainsbury divide segments on the basis of income,
gender, age and more. Also, they offer products at different regions, cities hence they are using
geographic segmentation. In terms of psychographic segmentation, the company also classified
people on the basis of personality, life-style, social class and more. In terms of behavioral
segmentation, Sainsbury offers discounts and other offers to the customers on different
occasions. Here, the segmentation helps the entity to prepare appropriate plans to accomplish the
future goals in an efficient manner. Also, they are able to make efficient use of the available
resources by segmenting the audiences in different groups.
Targeting: When customers are segmented in different groups, the next step is targeting. In this,
company selects a particular segment to target. While selecting the target segment, it is
imperative to consider several elements such as profitability, needs of customers, growth
opportunities and more. Targeting refers to identify a specific group or market for specific
products. Selecting target segment is crucial to create unique strategies in order to set a different
image in the market place (Schroeders and Visser, 2019). Generally, target marketing is used by
the organizations so that they can know their customers and create suitable advertisement
strategies accordingly. This strategy can effectively use in case of mass marketing as it targets to

those customers who are the most likely to interact with the brand.
In Sainsbury, target segment are the customers who are likely to purchase products or services at
affordable price. They basically focus on differentiating targeting with an aim to target more and
more people. In other words, the major target of the company are cost conscious customers who
wish to buy affordable products to meet with their requirements. Additionally, they are targeting
to the households and individuals who are bargain to get the quality products within minimum
price. Here, targeting strategy will help the entity to attain the business goals by making
optimum use of available resources.
Positioning: It is the last step of STP model wherein a company put efforts to build and
maintain positive position in the market place. In other words, positioning reflects the image of a
company in the mind of target group. In the current competitive environment, positive
positioning is highly imperative to sustain in the market for longer duration. Customers are also
likely to prefer those companies which have positive brand image. In marketing, positioning
signifies the ability of a company to influence the perception of customers. In addition to this, it
also helps in getting an edge over competitors so that the organization can sustain in the
competitive market for longer period of time (Mintz and et. al., 2021).

In Sainsbury, they are able to maintain the positioning of such a company which offers quality
goods at affordable price. It is known as the provider of variety of goods at suitable price. The
main aim of the organization is to maintain such a position by which they can easily compete
with other players in the industry. Sainsbury is required to adopt suitable strategies so that they
can improve the future positioning of the company efficiently.
Marketing Mix
Product: Product is the most crucial element of marketing mix. It includes the commodity that is
produced by an organization to meet the market demand. The main aim of producing product is
to fulfill the requirement of customers in an efficient manner. The product can be intangible or
tangible as it can be provided ether in the form of services or goods. While developing a product,
it is crucial to perform detailed research to gather the detailed information regarding market
trends and more. In product, there are ample of features included to fulfill the requirement of
buyers efficiently (Solimun and Fernandes, 2018).

Sainsbury so a well-known multinational company that provides varieties of goods. It generally
offers groceries and general items such as electronics, food, financial services. Sainsbury is a
chain of supermarket which has more than 30,000 product lines with their own label goods of
more than 20%. The diversifying product range of the company includes fruits and vegetables,
dairy products, bakery products health and beauty care products and so on. This diversify
product line makes the company enable to target a huge segment of customers in a profound
manner.
Price: Price is the value which is charge by a ccompany from its customers. It is the most
important element of marketing mix as it generates revenue for the company. Additionally, price
also affects the value and profit margin of the organization. It is crucial to determine and
adequate price for the products or services to generate potential amount of profit. The major
crucial factors which need to consider while determining the price are profit, buying capacity of
target segment and more (Kumar, Shankar and Aljohani, 2020).

In Sainsbury, they follow the value based pricing strategy therefore they set different prices for
different products. Here, the main aim of company is to retain the customers hence the focus on
maintaining price at affordable rate while offering the quality products. Additionally, the
organization is facing tough competition in the market hence they have adopted competitive
pricing wherein they consider the price of rival brands as well. Although, the company is able to
maintain affordable and reasonable rates of its protect to attract huge number of buyers.
Place: It is a vital component of marketing mix which demonstrates the efficiency of a company
to meet with market demand in timely manner. It is associated with distribution and supply chain
management services of the organization. In other words, it is about selecting a suitable place
from where the organization will offer products on services to the end users. Additionally, it
comprises distribution and supply chain management so that buyers can access the product easily
(Kim and Kim, 2018).
Sainsbury was started in London in 1922 but now it is known as one of the largest supermarket
chains in UK. The company has More than 600 supermarkets and 800 convenience stores. Large
presence of company helps in meeting to the customer demand efficiently. Apart from the UK,

Sainsbury has presence in different countries across the globe. Also, the company operates its
supply chain by regional distribution centers to cater the requirements of customers in the best
possible way.
Promotion: In marketing, promotion is an essential element that is used to maintain proper
communication with the target segment. It is the strategy that is used by an organization in order
to maintain proper interaction to the customers. Here, several promotion tools are used so that
company can interact with the target audience. The widely used promotional tools are
advertisement, direct selling, social media platforms and more. Through the effective promotion,
it is possible to gain an edge over the competitors efficiently. In other words, promotion is a way
of communication that is used by the company to inform the target segment regarding the featurs
and attributes of the product (Ramani and Srinivasan, 2019).
Sainsbury uses traditional marketing approaches such as TV advertisement, radio broadcast,
billboards and more to promote their products. Additionally, sales promotion strategies also used
by the entity wherein they offer discounts and other such lucrative offers to the customers. In
addition to this, they sponsor the events such as Paralympics games which also put a profound

influence on the market image of the entity. Online marketing techniques are also applied by the
organization so that they can connect to the buyers effectively.

Conclusion
It is concluded out of above-mentioned information that marketing is a crucial business
function which aims to promote the products or services in an efficient manner. The main aim of
marketing is to inflate the existing sales and profit margin. The above study is based on TESSCO
that is a well-known supermarket company based on UK. It is analyzed that the major segment
that is being targeted by the organization is the cost conscious customers. Also, the organization
is perceived as the low cost provider in the market. In addition to this, there is also discussion
regarding marketing mix and its elements in the study.

References
Books and journals
Kim, M.S. and Kim, J., 2018. Linking marketing mix elements to passion-driven behavior
toward a brand: Evidence from the foodservice industry. International Journal of
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Kumar, A., Shankar, R. and Aljohani, N.R., 2020. A big data driven framework for demand-
driven forecasting with effects of marketing-mix variables. Industrial marketing
management, 90, pp.493-507.
Lichtenthal, J.D., 2020. Fundamentals of business marketing education: A Guide for University-
Level Faculty and Policymakers. Routledge.
Mintz and et. al., 2021. The right metrics for marketing-mix decisions. International Journal of
Research in Marketing, 38(1), pp.32-49.
Moscato, P. and De Vries, N.J. eds., 2019. Business and Consumer Analytics: New Ideas.
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