MKT10008 Marketing Principles: George Weston Foods Strategy Report

This marketing report provides a comprehensive analysis of George Weston Foods, a major food product organization in Australia. The report begins with an executive summary and an introduction to the company, followed by a detailed company analysis, brand analysis, and competitor analysis, focusing on Woolworths, Tesco, and Coles. The core of the report centers on the marketing strategy for the Tip Top brand, outlining the target market (adults, youngsters, and children), positioning strategy (differentiation, functioning, and symbolic), product strategy, price strategy (cost-based), promotional strategies (advertising, integrated marketing communication, and social media), and place strategy (online and offline distribution). The report highlights the company's historical background, product categories, brand theory, and the competitive landscape. It also discusses the marketing mix elements, including product, price, promotion, and place, to provide a complete understanding of George Weston Foods' approach. The report concludes with a summary of findings and recommendations, providing valuable insights into the company's marketing practices.

Report on snack foods
Australian Manufacturing
Company

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Executive Summary.....................................................................................................................3
2. INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................3
3. Company Analysis.......................................................................................................................4
4. Brand Analysis:............................................................................................................................4
5. Key Competitors..........................................................................................................................6
6. Marketing Strategy.......................................................................................................................7
6.1 Target market:..................................................................................................................7
6.2 Positioning strategy..........................................................................................................8
6.3 Product strategy................................................................................................................8
6.4 Price strategy....................................................................................................................8
6.5 Promotional strategy.........................................................................................................9
6.6 Place strategy....................................................................................................................9
7 CONCLUSIONS.........................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

1. Executive Summary
Marketing strategy combines all the objectives and goals of the company into single plan
and aims to achieve competitive advantage. In the present report, brand, competitor analysis of
George Weston organisation has been done. The analysis of the organisation is also done which
have explained various operations and business strategies is done. Furthermore, brand analysis of
the popular products of the company has been done. It has involved the production of different
food products and bakery items from world war are described. Further, its success and failure
factors in the business are also highlighted. Competitive analysis of the George Weston Foods is
done. Various business operations, brands and success rate of Tesco, Woolworth and Coles
supermarket are analysed.
In this report, marketing strategy plan has been developed for the implementation of Tip
Top brand. Further, it includes segmentation variable for the products and analysed the status and
living standard of the people. The organisation has evaluated target market and evaluated the
choice and taste of the customers. The firm has targeted adults and youngsters to increase their
sale. Further, differentiation positioning strategy has been adopted by the organisation to make
unique products. The main features of Tip Top brands and their packaging options are
introduced in this strategy. Additionally, cost based price strategy has been developed to increase
the sale. George Weston Foods have introduced club card system to provide additional benefits
to their customers.
Furthermore, various promotion strategies like advertising, integrated market
communication are discussed which focuses mainly on product's awareness, sale and effective
public relationships. Social media websites are also used by the company to introduce the new
features and offers of their products and services. Moreover, online and offline distribution of
products strategy is also introduced to avail the customers with new products. This strategy has
helped the consumers to easily access the goods and services of the organisation.
2. INTRODUCTION
George Weston Foods is the largest food product organisation in Sydney, Australia. The
organisation is specialised in selling bread, flour, meat etc. It was owned by Associated British
foods plc. The organisation was established by George Weston in 1882. In this report, company's
analysis, its competitors and brand analysis has been done. Further, marketing strategy for the
new product is made in which positioning, product, price, promotion strategies are mainly

focused (Akgun and et.al., 2017). These strategies have analysed the company's new strategies
and development areas.
3. Company Analysis
George Weston Foods is very famous organisation in Australia which has focused mainly
on manufacturing biscuits brands. There are 140,800 employees are working with this company
which are looking to make effective and tasty products. Overall revenue of the company is
$32.742 billion and has made profit of nearly $486 million every year (Armstrong and et.al.,
2014). The subsidiary of George Weston foods are Loblaw Companies and Weston Bakeries in
which it controls interest. The organisation is serving its services in Canada and United States.
Furthermore, the organisation retail brands are bakery brands, Jioe fresh, Moulin rouge,
Gadoua etc. Parent company of this organisation was Associated British Foods plc. which is food
retail company and operated in retail sector. The organisation is mainly maintained by Weston
family. The company was owned by W. Garfield Weston and rooted its business in American
market but it was not made profit due to disaster in America. In opposite phase, the company has
performed well and maintained their position in the market. The depression phase proved to be
beneficial for the company as it has expanded its services to 100 miles with the help of trustee
and receivers (Baker, 2014). The growth and progress of their business has increased with double
rate after signing with Canada US free trade agreement.
4. Brand Analysis:
The organisation has high brand image and operates mainly with bread, flour, processed
meat, Tip top, Jasol, KrCastlemaine, Weston milling etc. The company has benefited from these
brands and has increased its profits by 10% in the competitive market. In 1962, the firm has
focused more on diversifying their business beyond baking. It has moved to fish processing
business and chooses eastern and western coast of oceans. During second world war, George
Weston Foods have struggled opposite conditions and maintained maintain their production
(Campelo, 2017). It has provided its services to the suffering people by increasing the food
products production and started collecting basic ingredients like sugar, flour etc. It has produced
biscuits and other bakery products to meet the basic food requirements of the people.
In 1930, the organisation has focused more on serving Canadian wheat. It has also
acquired various bakeries so that they can easily avail their products to the customers. It has
acquired Scottish biscuits' maker company like Mitchell and Muil limited (Chari and et.al.,

2014). The company has expanded its business and given direct ownership to its shareholders to
convert British business into commercial entity. With the help of their business they have
produced the annual sale of $2.8 billion.
Overview of the brand: The George Weston Foods Limited company is one of the
leading manufacturing firm of food items and food related services within the areas of Australia
and New Zealand. It provisions food products in more than 60 sites with an employee strength of
more than 8,000 people. Further, it is a wholly owned subsidiary business of ABF (Associated
British Foods). Also, factory of this brand is mainly separated in four major parts that includes
ham, salami, bacon and continental small products. Apart from this, vision of the food enterprise
is centred on three key principles of growth, flexibility as well as innovation.
History of the brand: The selected food company was founded by George Weston and
followed by its introduction in the year 1882 in the food processing industry of Australia. With
the growth of this enterprise, it included more number of food products and gradually became
one of the largest food company.
Product categories: The mentioned brand i.e. George Weston Foods Limited includes
various kinds of food products characterized in the categories of ham, salami, bacon and
continental. In the present time, its current range of foods products involves bread, flour and
processed meat as well.
Brand theory:
This is on considering the 3-stage theory of branding where brand is referred to be a mere
specification of such concept that occurs in the mindset of customers. This defines brand as a
mere perception in consumer’s attention that takes place in three different phases (Hebert, 2011).
It is where an organisation cannot be held liable for the formation of a brand but assists them in
creating tools, actions and procedures which in turn results in enabling the devising of brand.
The aforesaid phases of branding have led to the three-stage theory of branding which involves-1. Designing- This is in context to the logo’s, slogans, colours and catch phrases of George
Weston Foods that in turn leads to the formation of a heuristic. It is simply a way in
which the customers are allowed to differentiate among the companies offering similar
range of goods and services.

2. Value proposition- This is yet another level of this branding theory where it exemplifies
the offerings of organisations like George Weston Foods. At this particular stage, George
Weston Foods is probable to add value to their offered products by indicating an urge of
obligation to its targeted set of customers.
3. Positioning statement- At this particular stage, organisations like George Weston Foods
entirely takes the charge of its offered goods and services. This is done by creating such
viable statement about their products that in turn makes an affirmative remark on their
consumer’s mind.
5. Key Competitors
The main competitors of George Weston Foods are Woolworth, Tesco, Coles
Supermarket. This companies are providing the toughest competition to George Weston Foods.
Woolworth is supermarket store in Australia which has accounted 80% of the Australian market.
It is launched loyalty schemes which are providing additional benefits to the customers. The
most important thing which makes it unique from other companies is that it’s all products as self-
branded which attracts more people towards them (D'Avino and et.al., 2015). This has directly
increased the competition for George Weston Foods.
Further, Tesco is leading internationally and have best brand image in the world. It is the
world largest company which is operating supermarkets, hypermarket and superstores in the
world. It is listed top in the list of London stock Exchange and providing best services to the
people due to which they have make good customer base. The marketing strategies of Tesco are
very much powerful which has helped them to increase its business profits and customer
satisfaction. This has forced to George Weston Foods company to think over their strategies
(Eshuis, Braun, and Klijn, 2013).
Coles supermarket is another major competitor of George Weston foods which has
increased the problems for the organisation to sustain in competitive market. Coles is providing
the best online services to the people which has increased their trust and confidence towards
them. They are providing free home delivery for their products which has attracted more
customers towards them. Furthermore, their best quality products and services has drawn the
attraction and trust of the people towards them.

6. Marketing Strategy
George Weston Foods have adopted new marketing strategy to develop its product in the
market. The organisation has implemented new product in the market of Australia to increase its
benefits and satisfaction level of its customers. The organisation has focused on launching Tip
Top brands products because most of the Australian likes to eat tasty and spicy products
(Frederiksen and et.al., 2013). To increase the sale of this bakery, it has introduced four main
strategies which are defined as follows:
6.1 Target market:
The organisation has targeted mainly adults and youngsters to provide them the best and
tasty foods and snacks. It has chosen these age group as they are fond of eating bakery and spicy
food products. Further, it has also targeted children which likes bread, toast and other food items.
This will help them to increase their sale and benefits. Currently it has targeted all the age group
people to increase their productivity and popularity (Grant, 2016). The popular dishes and
products of the company has not increased the attraction of the people but also forced them to
take at least one chance to taste the products of the company.
Further, it has opened its stores near coastal and public areas so that they can enjoy the
food with the nature and easily access it. The organisation has targeted the people which are
economically rich and afford their products (Martin, 2014). Additionally, they have provided
various discounts and offers on their food items to attract more customers.
Illustration 1: 4P's of marketing mix
(Source: Bhasin, 2017)

6.2 Positioning strategy
George Weston foods have adopted differentiation positioning strategy to expand their
business products. The organisation is making the Tip Top brands in much unique ways and
added their own taste and ingredients to make dishes tastier. Further, to explore the business, it is
very necessary to differentiate its products from market competition (Hollensen, 2015). Further,
it has adopted functioning positioning to increasing the product value of the company. It helps
the company to solve the problem related to their products and provide customer benefits which
will raise the satisfaction and beliefs of the customers towards the services of the company.
Further, symbolic positioning is used by George Weston Foods to identify ego, social
belongingness and self-image in the market. It helps the organisation to examine their position in
the target market (Ke and Li, 2015). Woolworth have also used this positioning strategy to
evaluate the position of its products in the market. This has helped them to improve their weak
areas and identify development areas.
6.3 Product strategy
The organisation has analysed the requirements of target customers and decided to
increase the quality of products so that everyone will get benefited and purchase their products.
Tip Top brands have extra quality that they are tasty, spicy and nutritional which helps them to
increase the satisfaction level of the customers. Further, they have adopted various strategy to
increase its popularity and other and branding (Liu and et.al., 2015). Further, the firm has also
concentrated on packaging options so that they can contribute in green evolution plans and
protect nature. They have used the paper products for packaging instead of plastic to preserve
nature as well as food products from poisonous effects of plastic.
The organisation has adopted low price product strategy to encourage customers to
purchase their products. It has offered the best food products at lower pieces so that they can buy
the products of this company instead of their competitor’s companies. The firm has also focused
on developing new products like Don Krc etc. to provide new taste to the customers and increase
their sale (Kotlerand Armstrong, 2013).
6.4 Price strategy
Price place significant role in maintaining the sale of the company. Effective price will
attract the customers to purchase the products from the company stores. The organisation has
adopted cost based pricing strategy to increase their product sale. They have reduced the price of

products so that customers will get all the benefits and feel happy by purchasing new products.
The pricing strategy will help the company to set the price according to its marketing cost. It is
the easiest technique and helps in determining the profits of the organisation (Papadopoulos and
Heslop, 2014). This will help them to increase the customer's trust and satisfaction level.
The organisation has used this strategy to lead all the supermarkets and increase their
overall sale. Further, they want to make effective impression on the people so that they can hold
their customers and encourage them to purchase their products. It has to launch club card system
which will help the customers to make points for their purchase which will be transferred into
money at final stage (Racz-Akacosi, 2017). This will be proved as the best price promotional
strategy which will offer more discounts and offers to the customer's.
6.5 Promotional strategy
For the promotion of Tip Top brands of George Weston Foods, various promotional
strategies are used. The main strategy for promoting the goods of Tip- Top brand is advertising.
The organisation has to provide their products in the bags on which its logo or other information
related to the company is printed. Further, they have also made use TV and radio for promoting
their products and aware the people about the new features of the goods and services (Resnick
and et.al., 2016). Advertising is an effective method which will help them to introduce their new
dishes and food products to the people.
Further, they have advertised their products on social media websites like Facebook,
Twitter, You Tube etc. which will help them to interact with more people. This strategy has
proved to beneficial for them as most of the people use internet and social media websites which
are directly influenced by the company's product. This will increase the brand awareness and
trust of the people on the firm's best products and services. Further, public relations also play
significant role in maintaining the organisation image (Smith, 2014). Personal selling and sales
promotion are another important part of integrated market communications.
6.6 Place strategy
The organisation is using suppliers and wholesaler for distributing their products to
various channels. They are using various thee channels which are not much effective in
providing services to the people which are from their areas. The organisation has many stores in
Australia and other countries which require the best distribution channels to provide the
customers all the services of the company (Wei, Samiee and Lee, 2014). It has to take care that

all the people are easily accessing their products and ensure that they are not facing any difficulty
in purchasing any products. Further, the organisation has owned small bakeries and other stores
which are near the public areas and visiting place so that they can effectively provide their
services to the people and increase their sales and profits.
The organisation has now employed online channel of distribution of the products. This
has helped George Weston Foods to increase their online business and help their customers to
easily access their products (Zeriti and et.al., 2014). The firm has also used transportation
channel like lorry, truck and vans to increase direct selling and offline sales. The channel
members have taken advantage of online mode to access the information of the company's
products and their delivery details.
7 CONCLUSIONS
From this report, it can be concluded that George Weston Foods is operating large
business operations in Australia and has made various marketing strategies to develop its brand
image. The company's analysis has been done in which the background information of parent as
well as the immediate company are analysed. Further, the brand analysis of the company is done
in which the details of different brands and their benefits are given. The main competitors of
George Weston foods are Woolworth, Tesco and Coles supermarket. Description of the
operations and the key products of these competitors are provided.
Furthermore, marketing strategy plan for Tip Top brand has been developed. Positioning
strategy is developed which includes new target market, and its positioning in the market. Low
price product strategy to increase their business and sale. Additionally, price strategy has also
been developed by the company which have given more focus on providing best price benefits to
the customers. Advertising promotion strategy has been developed to increase the awareness
among the people for their new products. Moreover, the firm has used online as well as
distribution channel for their products to provide easy access to the customers.

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