Marketing Report: Aldi's Marketing Mix and Planning Strategies

This report provides a detailed analysis of Aldi's marketing strategies, focusing on its roles and responsibilities within the marketing function. It examines Aldi's application of the marketing mix (product, place, price, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence) to its marketing planning, comparing it to competitors like ASDA. The report explores key marketing functions such as market research, product development, supply chain management, and promotional activities. Furthermore, it delves into the roles of marketing managers, the importance of quality goods and services, risk management, human resource management, and inventory/transport management within Aldi's operations. The report concludes with a comprehensive marketing plan for Aldi, incorporating recommendations for future marketing endeavors. The report also compares Aldi's marketing strategies with its competitors, such as ASDA, highlighting the importance of finance, market research, product development, and supply chain management.

MARKETING ESSENTIALS

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1..........................................................................................................................................................3
P1 Important roles and responsibilities of marketing function.................................................................3
P2 Roles and responsibilities of marketing function in Aldi....................................................................5
TASK 2..........................................................................................................................................................6
P3 Application of marketing mix to marketing planning in Aldi.............................................................6
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................................8
P4 Marketing plan of Aldi.......................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is considered as one of the important factor that aids an organisation to
understand different factors in market that includes competitive market, market place, consumer
based marketing and strategies,building goodwill and profitable relationship among customers.
In current business market several plannings are made by organisationare customer driven that
reflects in marketingand promotion strategy of organisation (Mihart, 2012). This report is based
on the case study of Aldi, it is a UK based supermarket chain that has increases their grassroots
over 20 countries with more than 10,000 retail outlets functioning efficiently. The company is
performing very efficiently in market with their effective promotional and marketing strategies.
They have potentially applied several theories including marketing mix, that help them to
analyse both internal and external business environment. The assessment also includes
comparison between organisational strategies. Aldi and their competitor in business market and
at the end recommendations are also provided that will help Aldi to have a positive approach in
performing in marketing ineffectual way.
TASK 1
P1 Important roles and responsibilities of marketing function
Marketing function is used for identification of product, their capability before launching
them market. In larger context marketing function includes marketing planning, product
development, promotion, supply chain management, customer services, customer relation etc.
All these factors are effective for an organisation as it helps company to increase their brand
image and financial base in market in different geographical location. Some of the major
marketing functional that contribute in progression of Aldi are sales support system, marketing
survey, product development, promotion of individual product, research of market, and
monitoring the sales volume of product (Smith, 2014).
The marketing department plays crucial role in maintaining and functioning activities of
organisation in market structure. They are responsible for increasing brand image of
organisation by enhancing their growth and popularity in different market sector. Some of the
major work manager of Aldi plays is communication, financing, distribution , demand
forecasting, better supply chain management and increase grass root of company in different
market sector. Several important marketing functions are given below that will help in
increasing capability of organisation capability of organisation in market place are given below –
Functions of marketing adopted by different retail company to increase their growth and
profitability.
Marketing strategies – It is responsibility of top level management of organisation to
make effective planning and strategies that will help company to have core competence in
market place. Before implementing any strategy a manager must ensure that he has ample

knowledge of macro and micro factor that will help them to effectively execute their strategies.
As Aldi is dealing in variety of products across their retail stores they have to make planning
and strategies for every manufactured item to earn more revenue from market (Lane, 2016).
They also have to analyse the demand of their product in different geographical region as taste
and choices of people are different from place to place
Market research – Before investing in any market it is essentials for manager to
determing different factors to invest and invrease their revenue. Some of the important factorts
thata they have to analyse are types of prople, volume of people, ethical values of people, cost of
capital, funding requiredfor investmemnt etc. To get adequate information and analyse them
properly the organusation is using qualitative and quantitative approact for efficient analysia
data.
Development of product – It is crucial for organisation to develop their productto
increase their sales activity. In retail stores products are not manufactured instead of that the
organisation must plan to increase their sales volume by different promotional technique.
Communication – Spreading knowledge about the product is necessary for comoany to
make people know ablut their product. Aldi is dealing in variety of food products that are
essential in day to day life (Pappas, 2017). So by making people aware about quality of product
it will be able to increase their sales volume in different geographical market.
Supply chain management – Inventory and transportation management plays vital role
in increasing revenue for organisation. It helps in fufillion demand of people in desired time
interval that will helpful in creating a better image for organisation among their customers
(LEHTINEN , 2012).
Promotional activity – For generating better outcome for business activities comoany
has to adopt diffrent platform to increase their promotional activities so that they can be able to
perform better in different market. They can use digital medium, printed media or classical
method to spread their business efficiently in different business market.
Finance -This is one of major factor that has to consider while doing business. Weak
financial base of any organization cannot help them to invest according to their wishes (Desai,
2013) . Aldi is having by a good financial base that has helped them to increase their retail store
in more geographical location. It is not possible for any company to invest in business activity
with their own financial assert. So they have to plan to extract money from the market. Some of
the major sources of finance of Aldi are angel investors, shareholders, local businessmen,
sponsors, merchandise and government support.
Management of products – Apart from marketing of product it is essential for
organization to manage their products , company have to give equal importance to their product
so that they can be able to increase their value in market. An organization do not want one of

their products doing good business in market and other is redundant this will affect their image
among their suppliers and customers.
P2 Roles and responsibilities of marketing function in Aldi
Aldi has adopted above factors in their marketing strategies to gather all those
opportunities to increase their growth and competitive ability in different business market. They
are dealing in a wide range of grocery items so they have to identify opportunities to invest in
new business market to increase volume of their profit (Rossi, 2012). Adopting different
functions of marketing in business activity will aid organisation to understand their capability
and how they can improve them. All the department of organisation must co relate to marketing
department so that their product can fetch more revenue from market for organisation. Some of
the major marketing functions that are used by Aldi are mentioned below.
Market research – Market research is an effective tool that is used to study business
activities of organisation. Aldi can use different tools and techniques and apply them in business
activities so that they can be able to analyses different factors about their product (Baker, 2016).
More importantly some of the techniques like sampling, questionnaire helps in evaluating
progressiveness of their product in several markets. Research team will coordinate with
marketing department to understand the need and want of people so that efficient strategies can
be made in marketing in different geographical area
Production development – it is about developing potential of products that their sales
volume increases. Company has to divide product according to their demand and sales in market
place. Aldi is dealing in daily based food or slow moving food so by categorizing the will aid
them to adopt a systematic approach to enhance productivity of their product in market. A better
coordination with production and marketing department will help organization will help
organisation to make individual plan for increaseing sales of their product.
Quality of goods and services - To sustain in better in market for longer period of time
company has to maintain quality of them product so that it was help them to deeply penetrate
more market in distant geographical sector and establish their base (Malhotra, 2013). Aldi is
always tried to maintain quality of product in their supermarket chain to complete. They have to
strong vigilance over their competitors very keenly. Some of the important competitors are Lidl ,
Waitrose, Tesco, ASDA, Morrison who can impact acting of their business. The TQM
management team plays a vital role in analyzing quality of product and what quality it has to
sustain in market.
Risk and uncertainty - to produce and expand business in different area always of a
risky affair to company have to more different planning for business activity .so that they can be
able to minimize rest and generate more project.to complete in larger market Aldi has too many
better planning by accessing and their resources to enhance producing of their organization.
Human Resource Management – Leaders and mamanger plays vital role in increasing

productivity of their product in market, they are responsible for making several strategies that
will helpful for organisation to perform their business (Blythe, 2012). Apart from increasing
sales volume of their business Aldi has worked on increaasing potential of their customer by
having a good organisation culture.Manager of organisation are entitled to invest in their
workforce so that they can be able to increase their potential in market.
Sponsorship and merchandising – to increase theirn reach in market place the have to
promote theirn busines through. One of the important feature to enhanve brand image and
reaching out to customers sponsership is the better option as it will pull in attaention of people
towards their product. Sponsering in local and natioional sports event is one of the best option to
enhanve their activity in market. Aldi has effcetively worked on sponsoring local effective that is
cost effective and can be able to attract more customers to their business activity. To make the
sponsorship efficient way the manager has to make several research that will help in targeting
most number of customer in market.
Inventory and transport – It is the base for develpipment for an organisation. Having an
efficient inventory and better transport servive goods can be able to reach desired destination on
time and having a good storage facility will help company to minimise wastage of products. For
example Aldi is dealing in daily food product to fulfil demand of people on time, this will be
very helpful for organisation to make a good customer base in market and have upper hand over
their competitor in market place (Pike S, 2015).The management of organisation has to develop a
separate to monitor functioning of their inventory and make planning to increase their potential
to contribute in progressive planning of Aldi.
TASK 2
P3 Application of marketing mix to marketing planning in Aldi
Marketing mix is an efficient tool that is positively used by many organisations to analyse
offering of their products or brand. Initially it was 4Ps but later few more features are added to
understand the effectively of their products (Nguyen, 2012). The major elements of marketing
mix are product, place, price, promotion, people, process and physical evidences. Aldi used to
make planning according to marketing mix to sustain in competitive market. Not only Aldi but
there are several other organisation using 7Ps to enhance their retail business in market. ASDA is
one of the biggest competitors in business market of Aldi .Comparison between their marketing
strategies has been given below.
Elements Aldi Ltd. ASDA
Product Aldi primary works on
providing standard product at
a reasonable rate so that it can
be available to more number
of people. They concentrate
on purchasing their products
They are having a wide range
of products, clothing, home,
fresh food, health and beauty,
health drinks, pet, products
and entertainment product.
They are also working

from branded suppliers that
help them to have control over
their manufacturing and cost.
They have also added some
more products like fresh
vegetables and fruits apart
from food products. Apart
from these some of the
featured products of Aldi are
Snow gear, warm- campaign
gear and wine.
financial services like credit
card, travel insurance. As they
are investing in large variety
of products they have
competitive advantage by
maintaining quality of their
products.
Place Aldi is having more than
10000 stores over 20 countries
and they continue to explore
more geographical locations.
In every place they have made
worked on layout and designs
of their store to invest less on
infrastructure. They try to
make regional appearance by
naming their store in local
area. For example in
Switzerland they have named
their store as Switzerland
Sussie.
They have two main channel
of distribution of their
products e.g. Online and
offline. They are having 525
retail outlets across UK those
are monitored through online
platform. They are having a
wide range of stores including
supermarket, superstores, and
super centres to sale variety of
items through their outlets.
Through supercentre they sell
food items and other grocery
products.
Price They are able to make a strong
customer base by selling their
product at a reasonable rate.
They have made several
policies in their pricing
strategy. For example they
have made Unit Price Strategy
that aid customer to compare
prices of products. Some other
policies that are also use are
market penetration strategy,
competitive pricing,
psychological pricing, loss
leader pricing.
Like Aldi they also plan to sell
their product at a relatively
low cost to increase their sales
volume. Hey are committed to
sell food, clothing, and
merchandise. In their price
strategy they claim that if they
are not able to sell their
product at 10% lesser amount
that Sainsbury, Waitrose,
Tesco, and Morrison they will
pay price difference.
Promotion They have one of the
comprehensive prising
strategies in market. They
invest very less in their
promotional activity. They
have used digital medium to
reach out to their customer
The effectively use different
media like newspaper,
television and other digital
platform to reach out to their
customers. They also so
sponsorship to national and
local agency to increase their

and provide information about
new offers or product through
mail. They also use several
printing media like
newspapers and pamphlets to
reach out to people.
efficiency in market place. For
example in 2008 they have
partnered with sports charity
organisation named as
SportsAid to give finding to
athlete of UK.
People Aldi is having much lower
customer service in market.
They have worked on making
layout in a potent way and
placed they product more
efficient way some that they
do not need more people to
assist their customers. They
have placed billing counters in
every section fast billing and
reducing inconvenience.
Almost 160000 are working in
ASDA. For encouraging
people to be dedicated to
organisation they have
organised several seminars
and hired some motivational
speakers as well as they
appraise their employees by
providing minatory and non –
monitory benefits to increase
their to perform their work.
Process Layout of their stores is so
efficient that customer finds it
easy to search desired
products. They put limited
branded products in their
stores so that their customers
cannot get confused while
purchasing requires items.
They have put barcode on
each section and on individual
products to gather their
information easily.
It refers to the approach and
activities that are performed
by organisation. The process
of performing their business is
very simple they buy product
from branded suppliers, keep
them in selves accordingly and
let the coater take away their
product in return of money. In
the whole stepwise process
they have made sure that they
have maintained quality of
their products.
Physical Evidences Aldi is known for
standardisation, global pricing
and simple brand process.
Around 85% of their products
home brand that is why they
are able control prices of their
products. They also have
policies to maintain prices of
their products equally around
their entire retail store.
Physical evidences are those
that are seen in market that
helps in attracting more
customers in their business
activities. They have a god
rang of stores, market
presence, customer
experience, logos, websites,
pamphlets and attractive offers
to attract customers in their
business activities.

Figure 1 7Ps of marketing
The above comparison is between two major retail sectors doing progressive business with
their own marketing strategies in promotion of their products. Both the organisation has
efficiently worked on increasing business activities by adopting the policies and nature of
geographical area to generate goodwill and faith among customers.
TASK 3
P4 Marketing plan of Aldi
Executive summary of planning - Marketing plan for the organisation can be made by
considering various resources like mission, vision, objectives, Budget and straggles. By
considering these factors organisations can be able to make an efficient plan that will help them
to increase their potential in market. Important factors that are used in market planning’s are
mentioned below –
Vision of Aldi
“Spend a little, live a lot” it means that customers have to spend less time in choosing
product as company is dealing with branded products only
Mission
“Sells at affordable prices maintaining top quality products.” It defines the ultimate aim
of an organization to provide best quality product at minimal price range
Objective

The main objective of organization is to provide best product to customer at cheaper rate,
increase stores and earn revenue for longer run.
Situational analysis of Aldi
For analysis the situation of organization it is important to use certain kind of techniques that will
effectively determine functioning of organization. SWOT and PESTLE analyses are some of the
best tool and techniques helps in analyzing organizational activity efficiently.
Strength Weakness Opportunity Threat
 Provide
branded
products
 Prices are
affordable
 Strong
presence in
UK and
Germany
 Low
operational
cost
 Having more
than 10000
retail outlets
across Europe
 Shown
presence in
more than 20
countries
 Have good
marketing
strategy and
planning
 Still regarded
as a small
company
 Don’t have a
global impact
as their retail
stores are
restricted to
European
countries only
 They are
sometimes
treated as
providing
cheap quality
of products
because they
primarily deals
in home brand
products
 They need to
invest in
promotional
activities
 They have to
expand their
business in
emerging
economic
country like
India, South
Africa
 Are not able to
give shopping
experience
 They do have
supermarket
types of stores
 They will face
stiff
competition
from larger
brand.
PESTEL analysis
 Political – UK government want to invest in many small scale organization as they want
to develop organizations in home countries before implementation of Brexit
 Economic – Due to Brexit the values of pound has dropped down. This will give
advantage to the company to increase their business value.
 Social – They are considered one of high paying supermarket in UK. As the wages are
high they are able to provide standard living to their workers, so they are making a strong
bonding with all of their employees that in return will support them to grow in business

in future run (Dibb S , 2013). They are also focused on having good relationship with
customers by providing good quality of service.
 Technology – Use of technology will aid organization to promote and expand their
business activities effectively. They are planning to technology effectively in their
business by increasing number of self-service checkout in grocery gateways.
 Environmental – Most of the stocks are from local suppliers so they have created a good
business environment in UK. They have a good strategy behind it; they are able to
capture local market by increasing their dealings with local customers.
 Legal – They have faced legal dispute once because they are putting olive oils in organic
product. Apart from that they have followed all legal policies of government of UK.
Budget of Aldi in and their 5 year performance. (Values are in pounds)
Particulars 1st year 2nd year 3rd year 4th year 5th year
Initial money 54540 13500 15300 21000 10700
Investment 50000 21000 15200 17000 15000
Total 104540 34500 30500 38000 25700
Marketing
expenditures
Sales
promotion
2100 1950 4700 3000 2500
Direct
marketing
7200 5900 2100 7400 1970
Total 9300 7850 6800 10400 4470
Available
balance
95240 26650 23700 27600 21230
By analysing budget of organisation it is estimated that they are having profitable business
from their business. In this the marketing strategy of organisation is being discussed that
provide information that the company is investing less on promotional activities instead of that
they are investing all their money in increasing efficiency of their business. The main reason of
efficient planning is that before investing or spreading their business in new geographical area
they have analysed their business activities in an effectual way.
CONCLUSION
From the above assessment one can conclude that marketing is an essential factor for
development of business. By considering different factors in marketing an organization can be
able it increases their potential to compete in market. Aldi Ltd is a fast growing retail store in UK
and Europe. They have analyses market through different tools and techniques to gain

competitive advantages over there competitors. The budget of organizations clearly shows the
effort they have shown in their budget in recent business market. Marketing is a vast area to be
explored and this report shown a small glimpse of that.