Marketing Principles and Customer Communications: Case Study Report

This report delves into the core principles of marketing, exploring customer communication, consumer behavior, and marketing campaigns through case studies of Sainsbury's, Marks & Spencer, and Aldi. Section 1 focuses on consumer behavior, analyzing its influence on purchasing decisions and the importance of understanding customer needs. Section 2 examines the marketing environment, utilizing PESTLE analysis and the 4Ps of marketing to assess internal and external factors affecting business operations. Section 3 discusses communication campaigns, highlighting their role in promoting products and services. The report provides a comprehensive overview of marketing strategies and their practical application in the retail industry, including the use of various models and frameworks for analysis.

Marketing Principles and
Customer
Communications

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
SECTION 1......................................................................................................................................4
Introduction.................................................................................................................................4
Main Body...................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................................6
SECTION 2......................................................................................................................................6
Introduction.................................................................................................................................6
Main Body...................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................................8
SECTION 3......................................................................................................................................8
Introduction.................................................................................................................................8
Main Body...................................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................................9
Conclusion of the report.................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is defined as the procedure of creating awareness and developing relationship
with the customers. In addition to this, there are mainly seven principles of marketing that is
price, product, promotion, physical evidence, place, process and people which ensures attainment
of maximum results possible in the present marketing environment (Bruhn and Schnebelen,

2017). It is important for an organisation to ensure that a proper communication is take place
among the customer and employees as it help in dealing with their queries and retain them for
longer time period. The report will consist of 3 sections and for each sections different
companies were used. For section 1, Sainsbury's is taken into consideration, which is the second
largest supermarket of UK. For section 2, Marks & Spencer is chosen as a base company, it is a
British multinational retailer which is specialise in home products, clothing and so on. In section
3, Aldi is taken, which is the family owned supermarket chain and is established in year 1946.
The report will discuss about three marketing issues that is marketing environment, consumer
behaviour and communication campaign along with some of theories and models related with it.
SECTION 1
Introduction
Consumer behaviour is defined as the study of how groups, individual customers and
organisation choose, purchase, dispose ideas & service to fulfil the requirements and needs. In
addition to this, it is defined as the set of actions the consumer within the marketplace undertakes
& consider motives for those actions as well.
The article that is considered for gaining knowledge about consumer behaviour
marketing issue is by Meg, 2020. The article is discussed about importance of consumer
behaviour along with its types and the factors that influence consumer behaviour. In addition to
this, the article will help in gaining insight about consumer behaviour patterns and buying
decision behaviour which is significant for an organisation to know in order to deal with the
external factors that is competitors, economic conditions and so on (Chaffey and Smith, 2017).
Main Body
According to Meg, 2020, it is stated that consumer behaviour is the decision procedure
and an actions that a consumer performs at the time of purchasing a product and services. In
addition to this, consumer behaviour plays an important role as it help higher authorities of
Sainsbury' s to find out which products are required in market and what are they need to produce
in order to retain and satisfy customer for longer time period (Consumer Decision Making
Process, 2020). There are various factors that influence consumer behaviour and these are
personal, cultural, psychological, age & lifestyle and social factor. Most of the consumer

considered this factor before taking the decision to buy product so that they get things as per
their requirements.
As per the view point of Aimee Miliwood, 2020, most of the organisation think that the
most significant stage in a sale is when customer hand over the money of their purchase goods
and services. In order to maximize or enhance profit, It is important for Sainsbury's to focus on
the each stage of consumer buying procedure. It is a process through which consumer become
aware of & identify their requirements and then make purchase decision. The process is
mentioned below in context to Sainsbury's:
Need recognition: It is one of the significant step of buying procedure as every sale of
product and service is begin when customer have knowledge about its requirements.
Search for information: After analysing the need, the customer find out the information
about that particular product or service on different places that is online, offline and so on.
Evaluation of alternatives: Herein, customer find out the alternatives prevailing at
marketplace associated with the factors that is price, quality etc.
Purchasing decision: After analysing the alternatives available, the buying behaviour is
covert into the purchasing action by customer.
Post-purchase decision: It is the last step wherein consumer undertake whether the
product and service purchase by them is worth or they will suggest such brands to others, what
feedback they provide to company.
All the above given steps of consumer decision making procedure plays an important role
for Sainsbury's and for this, it is important for the company to ensure that all the detailed
information is being available on the website (Consumer behaviour in marketing, 2019). It is
analysed that the company have access to people who visit on their website by which they can
approach them with effective and discounted offerings in order to turn into consumer into buying
of its products. Therefore, it is stated that analysing the behaviour of consumer is vital for
organisation as it help in satisfying requirements of customers and meet with the market demand
in an appropriate manner. Moreover, it also assist company to increase its performance as well as
profitability level effectively and efficiently.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above information that consumer behaviour plays an
important role as it assist business entity to know about customer requirements and what

products are needed to develop in order to satisfy them in an appropriate manner. In addition to
this, it is important for the company to focus on customers who searched for their products and
then approach them with attractive offers that impact positively on their sales & profitability
level.
SECTION 2
Introduction
Marketing environment is defined as the combination of internal as well as external
factors that impact on the organisation ability to develop a relationship & serve its customers. It
is determined that some of these factors are controllable and some are uncontrollable which
require business activities to change accordingly (Pasquier and Villeneuve, 2017). It is important
for an organisation to aware about the marketing environment as it help in gaining knowledge
about the factors that affect negatively on the business activities and performance as well.
In order to describe about marketing environment, two articles is considered. The first
article describes the factors of marketing environment and the second article describe about the
methods used by company in order to analyse internal and external environment that help in
developing effective strategies to deal with the factors that has negative impact and required to
be improved as well.
Main Body
According to prachi M, 2020, a company marketing environment subsist the forces and
factors that impact marketing management skill to generate & retain favourable transactions in
recognised customer. It is stated that marketing environment involve micro-environment, internal
environment & macro environment as well. The micro environment factors include customers,
competitors, suppliers, public, marketing intermediaries and many more (Marketing
Environment, 2018). On the other side macro environment consist of political, social,
environmental, cultural, legal, technological factor and so on. It is analysed that it is significant
for a company to consider all this factors before developing a strategy and execute activities that
will leads to enhancement in performance and efficiency of an organisation at marketplace.
As per the view point of Mex and Clich, 2018, there are various framework and models
which are used by company in order to conduct marketing environment study that is internal and
external analysis. The models are PESTLE analysis, Porter's five force model, four Ps of

marketing and so on. The higher authorities of Marks and Spencer make use of PEST analysis
and four Ps of marketing that is elaborated below:
PEST analysis: It is defined as a framework that consist of macro environment factors
that has directly impact on the performance and operations of an organisation. The PEST
analysis of Marks and Spencer is given below:marketing environment
Political factor: It is stated that free trade policies have a massive political advantage for
respective organisation as it has around 1500 stores globally. But on the other hand, due to Brexit
hanging code, it is determined that many of the policies is not applying to Marks and Spencer. In
the present time period, the political stability of UK is not good and affect on the overall
performance of respective company.
Economical factor: The present market trend of UK is shifting towards the small stores
and provide a markup price that allow respective organisation to retain a premium status. It is
determined that the majority of people in UK prefer to buy products from local retailers instead
of Marks & Spencer premium goods which has negative influence on the performance of an
organisation.
Social factor: In the present time period, there is increase in consumption of ready meals
by the customer and it is analysed that Marks and Spencer is the top provider in UK of ready
meals. This leads to increase in sales as well as profitability of company.
Technological factor: It is stated that rapid increase in the technology allow an
organisation to bring innovation and provide high experience to customers(PEST analysis,
2018). In relation to Marks and Spencer, it introduces self check-out option so that customer find
convenient exit at shop. In addition to this, the company has online presence due to which it is
able to reach large number of customer that has positive influence on the productivity and
profitability.
4P's of marketing: The 4Ps of marketing are mainly the key factors which are included within
the marketing of products as well as services. These are product, place, price and promotion,
which are as follows:
Product: Marks and Spencer offer wide rage of products that is home products, clothing
and so on. These are jeans, Blazers, shirt, sandals, wine, furniture for living room, dining room,
bedroom & lighting, pyjamas and and many more.

Price: The company make use of pricing strategy that help in attracting large number of
customer towards the brand. In addition to this, it house brand are price among higher to medium
category due to is premium and well quality.
Place: The respective organisation is a renowned brand that has more than 1100 stores at
a global level within 40 countries (Hoque, Hashim and Azmi, 2018). This shows company has
high market presence in Spain, Finland, UK, Turkey etc. This help company to strengthen its
brand image and attain higher profits in an appropriate manner.
Promotion: The marketing manager of Marks and Spencer selects its marketing strategy
very carefully in order to align the advertisement campaign with its in store and digital marketing
strategy. In addition to this, the company make use of social media platforms such as Facebook,
Instagram, YouTube in order to promote its brand at marketplace. This assist company to reach
large number of customers and attain higher profits in an effective manner.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above section that it is significant for a business entity to conduct
internal as well as external analysis as it help in gaining knowledge about where a company lack
and what opportunities they have in order to achieve its objectives. PESTLE analysis allow a
company to determine macro environmental factors along with its influence on the operations
and performance of an organisation.
SECTION 3
Introduction
Communication campaign is developed with a purpose to promote the product and
services offered by an organisation in an effective manner (Chernev, 2020). In addition to this, it
help to aware large number of people towards brand which maximise the sales & profitability
level of an organisation. It is one of the effective marketing strategy that is used by company
with an objective to meet with their targets and enhance its profitability level.
The article that is consider will describe the marketing communication campaign and the
reason why it is effective for a company. Along with this, the other article shows the
communication campaign developed by Aldi in order to market its offering in a proper manner.

Main Body
According to P. amgul, 2020, communication campaign is defined as set of activities and
actions which are aimed to promote specific goofs, services and business by spreading
information and message by different media of promotion such as internet, television, print
media and many more. In addition to this, it not only consist of advertising but also involve
tactics, exhibitions in order to promote word of mouth & other techniques in order to aware
people about the offerings (Communication campaign, 2019). In the present competitive
environment, there are lot of companies that offer the same product and to look apart from the
crowd and get noticed in the mind of customer is significant in order to gain long-term
sustainability. Integrated marketing communication channel help in reaching people by
advertising that leads to achievement of competitive advantage at marketplace.
As per the view point of McCann, 2020, it is determined that the company has
established a communication campaign in order to thank its employees for remaining with them
in the pandemic situation that is COVID-19 (ALDI campaign, 2020). The main objective here is
to motivate its staff members towards the company so that they put high efforts in order to meet
with the targets and achieve objectives timely as well as effectively. Moreover, it is determined
that the company has a communication campaign for customers that allow Aldi to direct
communicate with its customer and solve their queries continuously and timely (Chaffey, 2019).
This communication campaign help company to develop a positive brand image in the mind of
both employees and customers that leads to raise in market performance and profitability of the
company. It is analysed that such kind of campaign allow company to to gain the trust of its
customers and aware large number of people towards the brand which leads to raise in sales &
profitability of respective organisation. This also enhanced the market presence of company
which has an opportunity to company for expansion and become the leader in industry in an
effective and appropriate manner.
CONCLUSION
It has been analysed from the above section that an effective communication is
significant in order to develop relationship with customers and to solve the employees issue in an
effective manner. In addition to this, it is determined that the communication campaign allow a
company to promote its product and services to large number of people which leads to increase
in sales as well as profitability of an organisation.

Conclusion of the report
From the above discussion, it has been concluded that there are various marketing issues
that is faced by companies such as marketing environment, consumer behaviour, communication
and many more. It is analysed that consumer decision-making process will help company to gain
understanding about customer requirements and needs that is fulfilled by them and leads to
attainment of objectives in an appropriate manner. Moreover, it is significant for a business
entity to focus on using effective communication channel so that clear message and information
is provided to both the customer and employees as well. Furthermore, it is important for an
organisation to analyse the marketing environment as it help in dealing with the complexities and
issues which arise at marketplace at any period of time & leads to maintenance of performance
and profitability in an effective manner.

REFERENCES
Books & Journal
Bruhn, M. and Schnebelen, S., 2017. Integrated marketing communication–from an instrumental
to a customer-centric perspective. European Journal of Marketing.
Chaffey, D. and Smith, P.R., 2017. Digital marketing excellence: planning, optimizing and
integrating online marketing. Taylor & Francis.
Pasquier, M. and Villeneuve, J.P., 2017. Marketing management and communications in the
public sector. Routledge.
Chernev, A., 2020. The marketing plan handbook. Cerebellum Press.
Hoque, M.E., Hashim, N.M.H.N. and Azmi, M.H.B., 2018. Moderating effects of marketing
communication and financial consideration on customer attitude and intention to
purchase Islamic banking products. Journal of Islamic Marketing.
Chaffey, D., 2019. Digital marketing. Pearson UK.
Dahiya, R. and Gayatri, 2018. A research paper on digital marketing communication and
consumer buying decision process: An empirical study in the Indian passenger car
market. Journal of Global Marketing, 31(2), pp.73-95.
Valos, M.J., and et. al., 2018. Integrating online communities within business-to-business
marketing communications: an exploratory study. Journal of Marketing
Communications, 24(5), pp.450-468.
Cavallone, M., 2017. Marketing and Customer Loyalty. Springer.
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