Strategic Marketing for Tesco: Role, Relationship, and Development - Desklib

STRATEGIC MARKETING
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................
ACTIVITY 1........................................................................................................................................
1.1 Role of strategic marketing....................................................................................................
1.2 Relationship between corporate strategy and marketing strategy.........................................
1.3 Developing a marketing strategy...........................................................................................
ACTIVITY 2........................................................................................................................................
2.1 Evaluation of approaches to internal environmental analysis...............................................
2.2 Evaluation of approaches to external environmental analysis.............................................
2.3 Integration of internal and external analysis........................................................................
ACTIVITY 3......................................................................................................................................
3.1 Decisions and choices at corporate level.............................................................................
3.2 Decisions influence marketing at business unit and functional level..................................
3.3 Approaches to competitive positioning...............................................................................
ACTIVITY 4......................................................................................................................................
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................
ACTIVITY 1........................................................................................................................................
1.1 Role of strategic marketing....................................................................................................
1.2 Relationship between corporate strategy and marketing strategy.........................................
1.3 Developing a marketing strategy...........................................................................................
ACTIVITY 2........................................................................................................................................
2.1 Evaluation of approaches to internal environmental analysis...............................................
2.2 Evaluation of approaches to external environmental analysis...............................................
2.3 Integration of internal and external analysis........................................................................
ACTIVITY 3......................................................................................................................................
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3.1 Decisions and choices at corporate level.............................................................................
3.2 Decisions influence marketing at business unit and functional level..................................
3.3 Approaches to competitive positioning...............................................................................
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................
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INTRODUCTION
As every organization operates in a highly competitive as well as a dynamic market, it
needs to have strategic marketing. In this, companies have to enhance their knowledge about
competitors they are having with their strategies. Strategic marketing is a process of making
long term plans which ultimately integrates with business strategy (Davies, 2011). It provides
guidelines for assessing customer preferences and also helps in creating a strong relationship
with them.
In this report, complete knowledge about role of strategic marketing and the relation
between corporate strategy and marketing strategy is being discussed. It will be done by
keeping a firm, Tesco in focus. It is one of the largest retail organizations in UK (Ries, 2003).
Here, an elaborative study on its internal and external environment will also be done. At the
international level Tesco faces many local challenges and there has been significant
speculation about possible exists from underperforming markets, due to recent scandals as its
share fell to 11.5% to 11 year low (Dave Luis Guardian 2014). But the company had been
reluctant to withdraw from further markets if there are other options available.
ACTIVITY 1
1.1 Role of strategic marketing
According to Boykin (2014) strategic marketing can be defined as identification of one or
more sustainable advantage that firm can have in order to get competitive advantage in
market in appropriate manner. It allows companies to deal with different kinds of issues like
the products that can be launched in market, the price of products, distribution strategies, etc.
According to Hunt and Arnett (2004) strategic management can be defined as proper
formulation and implementation of different goals and initiatives that are taken by company
so that it can present itself strongly in market and also in most suitable manner.
At Tesco, the main role of strategic marketing is to know about the markets where they
are going to operate and compete. After that it decides how they will compete and can gain
competitive advantage. The time of entrance in those markets is also predetermined so as to
know at which time they would get the highest benefit (Nandakumar, Ghobadian and
O'Regan, 2011). To maintain the high position within the retail industry and to promote goods
and services among its customer, in effective manner these preparations are essential.
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Tesco performs strategic marketing so as to build customer relationship by creating value
for them. It helps in market research as it is done according to the plans Tesco has made.
(Marketing Week. 2015). For instance, Tesco Club card strategy has been specified as the
most effective promotional tool which greatly contributes to the business strategy of cost
advantage. It helps the company in collecting some valuable information about consumer
behavior as well. Furthermore, it has helped the company in achieving value for the brand.
For the purpose of marketing, the brand will continue to open stores where opportunities
exists and focus on displaying some imaginative thinking in all sizes of stores.
The main aim behind strategic marketing is to increase the market share and establish a
good identity among the people. Tesco uses strategic marketing to show their unique features
and capabilities (Yannopoulos, 2011) and it justifies their mission statement. Through the
strategies which Tesco has made, actionable goals can be formulated. Marketing strategies
are made for the products that the company offers and the audience to which they are
offering. Strength of the products of the organization can be easily determined through these
strategies (Roetzer, 2011). At Tesco, competition and revenue also plays an important role in
strategic marketing. Competition pricing, as well as its distribution criteria, are also important
parts of strategic marketing (Marketing Week, 2015).
1.2 Relationship between corporate strategy and marketing strategy
Corporate strategy is a set of goals and the steps leading towards reaching these goals;
therefore corporate strategy is something that is decided to bring effectiveness in the business
processes. Undertaking of a corporate strategy requires great concentration and focus on
different types of factors. It is to be adopted when company is in need of improvements and
enhancements. Marketing approaches are part of corporate strategies.
One of the major corporate strategies of Tesco is to provide value for money and
considering this into focus, company markets itself as one of the companies that has cheap
and quality products available. The company also has a strategy to focus on customer
services and customer loyalty and for that it has launched different loyalty card schemes and
other loyalty programs which have helped it to attract customers in most appropriate manner
(Jordan, 2015).
Tesco's corporate strategy is one which primarily focuses on value for money and
offering quality customer service. For this, the company gives training and development on
regular basis from which standard services can be offered to customers. For increasing
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revenues, this firm has taken various initiatives as it diversified number of its products. It also
bought another business so as to enhance their business (TESCO Annual Report, 2014). It
assesses new technologies and also takes steps to increase sales volume of their products
(Daft, 2008).
At the time of making business plans, Tesco's executive management has to be in contact
with the marketing department. This is to check whether business strategies are aligning with
marketing strategies or not. Through marketing strategies, research is done on things like
consumer behavior and their needs. It also tells people about their superiority on competitor’s
product (Narasimhan, 2005). Without giving attention to marketing strategies, the long term
business strategies cannot be made. Whenever a corporate strategy has been made, it may
look hopeful but if strategy at marketing level is not referred, it could easily fail.
At Tesco, to be a good business unit first it has to be a good marketing unit (Linus, 2001).
Both (marketing and business unit can be described as same as they are customer oriented. As
for the corporate strategy of Tesco, the focus is on the overall business concept, and it is
made by the top management. While marketing strategies are made at middle level, and here
the focus is on the product, its advertisement and selling (Hunt, and Arnett, 2004). Business
plans are made for all the departments in this company. Marketing plans are just for its
department only.
In addition to it, company focuses on CSR activity also in order to develop a sound
relation with the society. For this purpose, company runs different campaigns such as
environmental steering group, energy saving, ecofriendly transport packaging design,
conserving water and other related. It has framed the tag line for CSR i.e. “we see ourselves
as good neighbors with a real sensitivity to environmental concern (Sir Richard Broadbent
Corporate strategy, 2015).”
1.3 Developing a marketing strategy
A well-defined marketing strategy proves to be very helpful in setting mission, vision
and objective of the firm. It helps in gaining competitive edge and contributes towards
earning revenue and profits. It has to be made with great concentration and focus. Strategy is
something which helps in achieving differentiation for the business. It is very evident that
retail industry is highly dynamic and competitive. Companies operating in the industry are
required to adopt effective marketing approaches from time to time so that awareness can be
created and customers can become familiar with the products and services.
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