Coles Group Limited Business Strategies: A Comprehensive Analysis

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MGT703 TASK 2

Executive Summary:
Coles group limited is Australian supermarket retailer whose main branch is situated in
Hawthorn East, Victoria. This is a business report on the strategies used by the Coles
supermarket in their business. Coles which was established earlier in 1914, where the very first
store was developed in Victoria. Due to the successful opening of Coles supermarket retailer, the
Coles supermarket retailer has emerged as a self-service retailer later. With the success in this
business, investing more, Coles supermarket has successfully developed their very first
supermarket in Australia in Victoria. Coles have been the leading market king in the supermarket
segment. There are some new technologies also which Coles uses to enter the more advanced
market in 2007.

Introduction:
This is the business report of Coles supermarket which is a retailer in Victoria Australia. Coles
have been the leading market in the retailer segment where several strategies used by Coles
supermarket, enhances the productivity and marketing of the Coles. The main Purpose in this
business report is to analyses two main levels of strategies which would be discussed. Which are
Functional level strategies including pricing strategies, marketing strategies, and promotional
strategies and business level strategies which shows how they have used several strategies to
develop their business in the retailer segment? Furthermore, there are many new marketing
recommendations been discussed which can be given to the Coles to develop their market
further. Limitations are how these strategies have certain drawbacks such as the promotional
strategy of over advertising sometimes irritates customers hence it should be prevented.

Table of Contents
Executive Summary:...................................................................................................................................1
Introduction:................................................................................................................................................2
Functional level strategies of Coles Retail company:..............................................................................4
Core marketing strategy for Coles:..........................................................................................................4
Components of Promotional Strategies....................................................................................................5
Business Strategies:.................................................................................................................................6
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................8
Recommendations to Coles in their business...............................................................................................9
References.................................................................................................................................................10

Functional level strategies of Coles Retail company:
Coles is the leading supermarket and other market leaders in the retailer department. It is very
important to understand what are functional level strategies in any organization. It is very
important to understand that every company has to perform certain tasks or functions for the safe
running of their business. These functions are marketing, Finance, Production and operations,
Human Resource Management and Research Development. It is very important to carefully
analyses, execute such functions for the safe running of any company's business (Rastogi, 2017
p. 46).
Core marketing strategy for Coles:
Coles understand how important it is to understand the needs of the customers in the company
and their products which they sell, they also understand how important it gives a good
experience to the customers. The main focus of Coles is on to the people, stores, their products,
and care, etc. Coles strategy is to provide a great experience to the customers by providing the
on-shelf availability of the products with diversified availability of the products which many
products which are exclusively only available at Coles supermarket.
Coles have always ready to cut the price of their products, hence they even improve their
merchandise and their strategies using their logistics available. Coles is very famous for

providing the products on time with ease with quality also. Time consumption of shopping for
the customers is less as the products are available easily. It utilizes the space provided very
effectively to enhance the productivity of the market. This strategy helps them to provide most
kinds of products of each category with excellent availability of the products. Hence Coles have
succeeded in developing a trust in the market as they provide quality products.
Pricing Strategy is the part of the functional level strategy, On June 7, 2018, according to the
article on inside retail, Coles have to stick to a new pricing strategy. In the article, Coles will be
adopting a new kind of strategy which will provide them a separate ASX listed entity, which will
see them enhance their productivity in the fresh food. It happens due to the terminated bond with
we farmers. On a strategy day, the CEO of Coles has announced that Coles would be working on
a new differentiate strategy which will make the life easy for the customers. In this new strategy,
the Coles will be going to develop a fresh department and more innovation would be there in the
fresh food department on their private label products. There is one more announcement which is
also the part of this new strategy which is Cole's would be spending 20% more on their
department of fresh food more than what they did in last 2 years. According to the research on
Coles, Coles is very much involved in thinking that if the mainstream of the selling point is
price, the customers lose their loyalty on Coles, and hence they switch to other retailers.
Price is the money which is been paid in return for the service or product provided by the Coles.
This amount can be paid in any form such as toll, tax, commission, etc. Price, which is the only
element in the marketing mix which is providing revenue in return, it has also emerged as the
most flexible one also (Rastogi, 2017, p. 42).
There are some factors which decide the price of any product in any organization. The internal
factors involve the strategy in the marketing mix, organizational considerations, etc. The external
factors on which price of the products depends upon are retailers, competitions, etc. It is
understood that the most difficult task of any organization is to set a particular developing
strategy which can guide them further. The price should be set according to the cost of the
product. It is important to understand that for any wholesale of any kind of products, the price of
their product is directly dependent on their manufacturers of the product. The price would be
dependent on the operational cost, the overhead profit and the supplier pay of the manufacturer.

For Australia's biggest supermarket chain which is Coles supermarket, they use a pricing strategy
which they call Everyday low-price strategy. A campaign started on the name of Coles, which is
low price always at Coles. There is another strategy which is used by the supermarket Coles,
which is multiple unit pricing. This strategy is very useful to attract the customer for multiple
prices at an attractive price of the products. This strategy encourages customers to buy more and
more products. The sales increasing exponentially, but it is also important to know that this kind
of deals encourage the customers to wait for the deal to come and attract customers.
There is a healthy competition among the two major supermarket giants, such as Coles and
wools worth. Both these supergiants have always cut the price of their products, and to compete
the roasted chicken they have lowered the price of their chicken (Li, 2017, p. 45).
Components of Promotional Strategies
When we discuss promotions, it means influencing the customers to buy any product. It is
important to understand that Coles is a supermarket giant in the retailer and the only strategy it
can adopt regarding the promotions is the pricing. As products available there are also available
on the other supermarket also, so they have to influence them to buy from them using the low-
price product strategy. It is also important to build a long-lasting relationship with the customers,
and their loyalty is very important and it can be achieved by trust only.
First, it is important to make them understand about the main unique purpose of your company.
Whether the Coles will be pushing and forcing the customers to buy their product with too much
advertising or they will develop trust over their products. The development of trust to make the
customers loyal is better option as too much advertisement sometimes irritates the customers
also.
After developing a trust in the customers About why they should buy products from them, it is
important now to Make a strategy about how they will be selling their products.
Business Strategies:
The main business strategy of Coles group is the five-year fresh tomorrow strategy which
develops some of the points which have to be achieved by the Coles for safer, healthier and loyal
customers. The success of the Coles group would be their business strategy of providing healthy

food to their customers by earnings, customers satisfaction and sales growth, etc. (Rastogi, 2017,
p. 56).
Offers been provided on the food which they are selling with good quality, hence Coles have
approached to successfully focus on to the offering of the great quality products which they have
maintained with their suppliers and their customers. It is important to know that they have also
improved their own brand portfolio which has also developed about 29% from the last sales.
Coles have a committed strategy of everyday-low-price strategy which is very much successful.
Coles succeeded in developing a price deflation and maintained a good reputation among the
customers of their supermarket. Australian retailer companies such as Coles have continued yet
again to maintain their bond with their suppliers in the strategy of everyday low price. Coles
have decided to continue their strategy of everyday low price and would promote deeper further
in future (Horio,2017, p. 456).
It is important to understand that the expectation which the customers have from Coles has been
changing day by day and hence, there should be some changes in the portfolio of Coles, to
satisfy the needs of the customers. Coles have decided to introduce some new services such as
Coles online and mobile applications, which can ease out the customer's shopping headache and
will provide the updated products available to their phones. Some of the delivery options which
click to collect and door to door delivery which can ensure their experience.

Coles have also decided to improve the national store network which can leverage customer
insights, innovations and can provide new renewal programs which should be there and changes
required in the fixed time period. Well suited stores of different product range across the local
customers should be ranged according to the need of the customers (Bromiley, 2018, p. 223).
Coles have decided to set a particular leverage-based system which can simplify the
environment of the stores, to modernize the programs and stores which can be used to develop
more technology which should be used to improve the quality and quantity of the products.

Conclusion
In this business report of Coles supermarket, it has been concluded that both the functional level
strategies and the business level strategies are important for the smooth running of the business.
Coles have a tough competition with the wools worth and hence promotional strategies are also
been an important part of the strategies. It has also been concluded that there is some important
conclusion extracted from the report which is how important these analyses are, such as swot
analysis of business which is discussed in the appendices. IT has also been concluded that the
Functional level strategies are more important as it enhances the different functions of the
business in the Coles supermarket.

Recommendations to Coles in their business
There is a big recommendation which can be given to Coles as they don't have a review analysis
as if any supermarket has a physical location, it is very helpful to provide a review content in
stores which enhance the shopping power of the customers. Displaying review is not a big task
as it can be done easily by providing some kind of rating system out of five by which Coles will
get the feedback of the shopper which they can improve further.
These rating and reviews can also be given to the mobile applications which can be used to take
the feedback of the shoppers and it can help to improve the services in the future.
The sampling of the products is not at all a new thing to be used. Product sampling is a good
way to attract customers to buy different products for their different uses. It has been found out
that nearly half of the shoppers in the market use to buy a new product based on the reviews
given by the customers (Acquaah, 2016,p. 34).
Review filtering is also very much recommended as some consumers use to give bad comments
and review just for the personal gurgles on to the Coles, hence those comments and reviews
should be filtered better. In terms of product sampling, transparency is recommended.
It is important to give a better experience to the shoppers. Supermarket owners can give different
offers on special occasions which not even encourage them to buy more products but the review
they will give will be good and they might be loyal to them in the future. Giving a good
experience in the stores will allow them to make a good connection with the organization. They
would be loyal to them when they might buy new products and will trust them further for future
products.
Though Coles is already there online, hey can develop further for a more good experience for the
customers. It is important to understand that the customers can have a strong presence online in
the analysis of the Coles and their products.

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