Entrepreneurship Report: Coles Marketing Enterprise, Australia (2024)

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Coles' marketing enterprise, focusing on its background, operations, and financial projections. It examines how Coles leverages social media for marketing, manages its operations efficiently, and utilizes technology to drive sales and profit. The report highlights Coles' commitment to corporate social responsibility, its strategic approach to market research, and its efforts to maintain a competitive edge in the Australian market. Furthermore, it delves into Coles' financial performance, including sales growth, employee training, and its overall success in the industry. The report also touches upon the company's marketing plan, target market, training programs, and promotional strategies, offering a comprehensive overview of Coles' business practices and market positioning.

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Executive Summary
Enterprise denotes the company as a whole including its background, operations, and finance.
The main purpose of this assignment is to shed light upon the marketing enterprise of Coles, one
of the famous companies among the threshold of Australia. The adoption of social media has
enhanced the status and quality of the internal operations. Along with this, effective and
judicious utilization of the machines has enabled Coles to witness an escalating sales revenue
and remarkable growth in the profit margin. Making noticeable contributions towards the
societal upliftment of the community people has enhanced the corporate social responsibilities of
Coles towards catering the specific needs, demands and requirements of the customers. Apart
from this, adopting the means of feedback and survey projects the consciousness of the Coles
personnel towards improving the standards of their marketing. Moreover, evaluation is the
keystone for Coles in terms of penetrating into the extent of foreign market penetration,
enhancing the fame and glory across the corners of Australia.

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Table of contents
Background......................................................................................................................................3
Marketing.........................................................................................................................................3
Operation.........................................................................................................................................5
Financial projection.........................................................................................................................8
Marketing plan...............................................................................................................................10
Target market.............................................................................................................................10
Training......................................................................................................................................10
Promotion and advertising.........................................................................................................11
References and Bibliography.........................................................................................................12

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Background
Under the guidance of George James, Coles achieved accolades and glory by serving
quality products to satisfy the basic needs of the customers. Consciousness towards innovation
has enabled the personnel to get a taste of success till this point. Even the Great Depression of
1930 could not suppress the enthusiasm of Coles in terms of achieving organizational excellence
(Coles.com.au 2017). Since the era of 1922, Coles stick to its commitment regarding the
enhancement of corporate social responsibility. Typical evidence of this fact is donations and
charities for improvement in the health condition of the patients. This reflects the adherence and
compliance to the identified and specified values. Adoption of latest technologies has provided
opportunity to Coles personnel regarding business expansion.
Marketing
With the advent of World War 2, the marketing of coles started. Women were most
affected. They were experiencing helpless conditions in terms of nourishing their families. As a
result of this, the sales of readymade food stuffs increased. This escalated the sales revenue and
profit margin. Toasters and Irons accumulated an important position in this escalation
(Coles.com.au 2017). Launching wide range of cosmetics in this chaotic ambience is not at all
justified. This aggravates the complexities of the women customers in terms of looking after
their family members.
Since its innovation, Coles personnel strived towards bringing innovation within the
products and services. Typical example in this direction is the introduction of sales catalogue.
This made the customers aware of the schemes, offers and discounts, which they can avail for

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that day (Coles.com.au 2017). Conversion into supermarkets from stores is one of the radical
transformations, which has assisted the customers in the achievement of large scale customer
satisfaction. Along with this, adoption of logistics and information systems has revolutionized
the business. Revealing strategic approach towards the execution of the marketing activities
acted assistance for the Coles personnel in terms of making judicious utilization of the available
time. The program “Tomorrow’s shop today” is an evidence of this fact. Within this, the plan to
stock everything at one go reflects the consciousness of the personnel towards saving time for
the other activities, which helps them in completing all the tasks within the stipulated time
(Coles.com.au 2017). Providing the products and services, under one umbrella, acts as a wise
step towards catering to the needs, demands and requirements of the customers.
With the passage of time and rapid growth of population, the focus of Coles shifted
towards convenience of the customers in terms of exercising their buying behavior. At this stage,
the personnel decided to introduce latest technologies for expanding the business not only in the
local areas but in the foreign countries. Remarkable performance of the employees, regarding the
judicious use of the technologies enhanced the confidence of the personnel regarding making
noticeable advancements for the attainment of sustainable competitive edge as compared to the
contemporary brands such as Woolworths, Wesfarmers among others (Coles.com.au 2017).
Market research made the personnel aware of the actual market scenario. This research
helped in assessing their progress amidst the competitive ambience of the market. This
assessment, in turn, acted assistance in providing the personnel with an insight into the
modifications for overcoming the potential challenges. Decision to operate under Wesfarmers
seemed perfect in terms of restoring the hard earned glory and respect. Due to this joint venture,
coles emerged successful in reshaping the shattered culture (Coles.com.au 2017). This

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restoration again made Coles a name amidst the public domain. In response to such efforts by
Coles, the limitations of Australian threshold are nullified.
Operation
In Coles, the managers are very particular about maintaining the efficiency within the
business operations. For this, meetings and conferences are organized for making remarkable
advances towards escalating the sales revenue and adding maximum value to the profit margin.
Training and development courses are one of the most common outcomes of these meetings and
conferences. Providing training to the employees on the basic management skills enhances their
preconceived knowledge, skills and expertise regarding the execution of the marketing activities
(Coles.com.au 2017). The managers sit in meetings with the Board of Directors regarding the
courses to be included within the training programs. This is done in response to the analysis of
the current strategic position with the market scenario. As a matter of specification, the
Operations manager is involved in these meetings as he possesses direct relationship with the
operations executed by the personnel for fulfilling the identified and specified goals.
Technology is one of an important factor for the business operations in Coles. Within the
basic management skills, the employees are briefed about the effective and judicious utilization
of the technologies. Emerging successful in making practical application of the learnt skills
enhances the confidence of the personnel regarding the efficient execution of challenging and
enduring tasks (Coles.com.au 2017). The marketing team of Coles conducts market research for
gaining knowledge regarding the technologies, which can fulfill their requirements. After
selecting a particular device, evaluation is done to assess its effectiveness, appropriateness and
feasibility in terms of the identified goals and objectives. The employees and other stakeholders

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are involved in this evaluation in order to check if there are any drawbacks within the proposed
solutions. In view of these aspects, it can be said that Coles follows participative management
style for taking decisions related to the company issues.
In order to carry out the operations, Coles follows a strategic approach. Creation of
strategies helps the personnel to systematize the tasks in hand. Involvement of the employees
and other stakeholders and shareholders in making plans supports in averting the instances of
conflicts, discriminations and harassments (Coles.com.au 2017). As a sequential step, evaluation
of the proposed strategies helps the personnel to ensure whether they are progressing on the right
track. After this, teams are created and allocated with certain responsibilities. Even in this, the
step of evaluation is done so as to reflect on the effectiveness and impact on the overall business.
Resource allocation is the next step after the creation of team. Prior to this, the stock of resources
along with the financial condition is reviewed. This brings to the forefront the need for additional
stock and financial resources (Coles.com.au 2017). Within this, checklists and templates are
used, which enhances the clarity of the personnel regarding the undertaken operations. Drafts are
sent to the operations managers as well as the higher authorities, so as to make them aware of the
progress. These drafts are officially recorded for averting the illegal instances.
Social media is adopted for carrying out the marketing operations in a modernized
manner. Social media acts as an efficient means for Coles in terms of establishing connection
with a large number of audiences, from where the targets are identified. Uploading the news of
the newly launched services and products makes the audience aware of the recent steps
undertaken by the company for expanding the business (Coles.com.au 2017). Within this, the
options of “pay per click advertising”, “customer generated contents” enhances the stability in
the relationship between the company and the customers. Along with this, the means of feedback

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acts as an opportunity for the company in terms of upgrading the standard and quality of the
products and services.
One of the mentionable facts about Coles in terms of social media marketing is the safety
and security of the customers about the contents and reviews. Typical examples in this direction
are the cookies within the privacy policy, which are enriched with anti-virus. These cookies
possess flexibility to lock the contents of the customers after the personnel have used for their
marketing purpose. Compliance towards the legislations makes Coles famous in terms of
scandals (Coles.com.au 2017). However, improper utilization of the machines, other than the
allocated task, makes the operation of Coles scandalous, which degrades the reputation of Coles.
For this, the company has planned to hire IT experts for examining the machines at frequent
intervals. This is carried out through the means of indulging in partnerships with the IT
companies. The nature of these partnerships is contractual, which authenticates and validates the
business operations.
Participative management style is followed by Coles for maintaining stability in the
relationship between the employees and the managers. Here, the employees are provided with
the opportunity to voice out their opinions regarding the problems, which they are encountering
while executing the workplace operations (Coles.com.au 2017). Maintaining frequency in
conducting open forums and discussions mitigates the conflicts, discriminations and
harassments. One of the specialties here is the group discussions, which are organized by the
managers to study the approach of the employees towards the ongoing issues. This study helps
them to plan effective services for betterment of the organization. These group discussions
transfer thoughts, skills and perspectives from one employee to the other. This sharing enhances
their professionalism (Boons and Lüdeke-Freund 2013).

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Financial projection
According to the financial year 2016, Coles have achieved an overall profit of more than
4.3%. This is due to the better performance of 102,879 employees for sharing the common goal
of success in the business expansion. Shedding light on each of the departments separately, in
food and liquor sales, there has been a growth of more than 5.1%. This is due to the maintenance
of quality and originality in the food items. Along with this, quality tests have upgraded the
standard and quality of the food items, reaching to the specific tastes and preferences of the
customers (Coles.com.au 2017).
Adopting social media has enabled Coles to achieve a remarkable 24.1% growth in the
sales revenue. In comparison to this projection, the growth in convenience store selling is 11.1%.
This projection might be less, however in comparison to the efforts of the employees, the figure
involves higher intensity. In terms of freshness and originality of the products, Coles indulged in
partnership with the stakeholders and shareholders. The result of this partnership is the training
provided to 8000 members of the supermarket stores regarding the basic management skills and
in-store service (Coles.com.au 2017). This has given a proper shape to the professional career of
the employees. Typical evidence of this fact lies in recruiting 1000 indigenous teams, which
possess the flexibility to carry out the tasks in an efficient and effective manner. In LinkedIn,
Coles has attained the top most position in terms of the “most searched out companies among the
companies of Australia.
In terms of values, Coles has emerged successful in providing more than 3100 grocery
products to the customers. This has enabled the company to bag 500 awards in the last 4 years.
One of the notable facts here is overcoming deflation and setting prices of the products and
services according to the affordability of the customers (Coles.com.au 2017). The hard efforts of

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the customers have put Coles in 7 years of this practice. Apart from this, Coles has achieved
remarkable growth in other services. As a matter of specification, the company has launched
Flybuys travels, which has acted as an additional assistance for the company in terms of
providing a thrilling flight services to the customers along with quality products and services.
Issuing credit cards to the customers and giving lucrative offers on every purchase has enhanced
the reputation of the company. Typical evidence of this lies in bagging the award “Money
Magazine’s Credit Card Issuer” in the year 2016 (Coles.com.au 2017).
The achievement, which possesses direct relationship with this segment, is the provision
of financial services to more than 1 million customers. These transactions have enhanced the
reputation of Coles, through the means of online fund transfer to customers’ account. The
benefits of the social media marketing also lie in the establishment of the first online independent
store. In terms of store network, Coles emerged successful in establishing 20 supermarkets.
Getting speedy internet connection has enhanced the stability in the relationship between the
company and the customers (Coles.com.au 2017). Innovation founds its advent in the renovation
of 53 stores, which includes the liquor stores. Apart from this, the introduction of 31 new sites
named “Coles express” is the latest attraction among the customers. These sites possess
flexibility to cater to the needs, demands and requirements of the customers in a modernized
manner.
Owing to the degrading quality, Coles launched Liquor Direct, which escalated the
number of customers to more than 5.3 million. Due to the escalation in the online purchases,
there were more customer transactions (Coles.com.au 2017). This compelled Coles to launch
more than 100 new and exclusive products, which align with the specific tastes and preferences
of the customers.

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In order to enhance the area of corporate social responsibility, Coles raised $517 million
and contributed it as charity for the upgradation of the community people. Even in this, the
company has maintained its partnership with the community managers. Along with this, the
company has earned $50 million over the time span of 5 years to provide financial assistance to
the startup companies (Coles.com.au 2017). This has been possible through Coles Nurture Fund,
which bestowed 17 loans grants on the company till date.
Marketing plan
Plans would be an efficient means for companies like Coles in terms of expanding their
marketing services. This needs to include each and every activity of the firm, which would result
in the overall development of the company as a whole.
Target market
Selection of medium sized firms would prove beneficial for Coles in terms of achieving
efficiency in the business operations. Choosing a spot in the metropolitan areas, which is two
years older, would help the company to attract large number of customers (Hills and Hultman
2013). Consideration of the motives behind the purchases made by the customers would enhance
the productivity and result in the achievement of sustainable growth.
Training
After the selection of the marketing spot, plans need to be made regarding the ways and
means through which the needs of the customers can be satisfied. The answer for this is the
training, which enhances the preconceived skills of the personnel regarding the achievement of
customer satisfaction. Division of the courses into various sessions upgrades the grasping power

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of the personnel regarding the proper means of carrying out the business activities (Lam and
Harker 2015).
Promotion and advertising
Uploading the image of the newly launched products along with their specifications in
the social networking sites and official website would help Coles to increase the trafficking of
the audience towards the brand image. Within this, keeping the options of customer generated
contents and pay per click advertisements would also increase the number of customers. This is
one of the efficient means for reaching to the specific needs, demands and requirements of the
customers (Solé 2013). Along with this hiring celebrities for promotion of the products would
expand the reputation of Coles. Distribution of pamphlets along with the newspapers would
make the general public aware of the latest trends adopted by the personnel towards expanding
the business. Airing advertisements in radio, television and other sources would also serve the
purpose of promotion regarding the products and services of Coles.
All these plans would fail if no financial speculation is done well in advance. This would
compel coles to encounter financial issues, adding vulnerability to the market position. On the
other hand, if evaluation is done frequently, the standard and quality of the products and services
would be upgraded (Barrett, H. and Weinstein 2015).