Marketing Principles and Strategies: A Sainsbury's Case Study Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Sainsbury's marketing principles, examining various aspects of its operations. It begins with a company overview, highlighting Sainsbury's history and vision, followed by an introduction that emphasizes the importance of marketing in a competitive environment. The report then delves into the core concepts of marketing, analyzing Sainsbury's marketing process, including market environmental scanning, marketing strategy, and the marketing mix. It explores the benefits and costs of market orientation for Sainsbury, addressing ethical considerations and the need for market research. The report further investigates macro and micro environmental factors impacting Sainsbury's marketing decisions, along with segmentation, targeting strategies, and the influence of buyer behavior. It examines how Sainsbury can achieve a sustainable competitive advantage through new product development, distribution channels, pricing, and promotional activities. Finally, the report explores the marketing mix for different consumer segments and contrasts the differences between marketing to consumers versus businesses and the nuances of international versus domestic marketing.

Marketing principles

TABLE OF CONTENTS
COMPANY OVERVIEW ..............................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................4
1.1 Concepts of marketing and marketing process of Sainsbury.................................................4
1.2 Benefits and costs of marketing orientation for Sainsbury....................................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
2.1 Macro and Micro environmental factors which affects the marketing decision of Sainsbury
......................................................................................................................................................6
2.2 & 2.3 Segmentation and targeting strategy for Sainsbury ....................................................7
2.4 & 2.5 Effects of buyer behaviour on marketing activities of Sainsbury in different buying
situations & new positioning strategy for company ...................................................................8
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
3.1 How developing new product helps in achieving sustainable competitive advantage to
Sainsbury .....................................................................................................................................9
3.2 Providing convenience to customers with the help of appropriate distribution channels......9
3.3 Prices set by Sainsbury reflects its marketing activities......................................................10
3.4 How company would integrate its promotional activity to achieve its marketing objectives
....................................................................................................................................................10
3.5 Additional elements of extended marketing mix.................................................................11
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................11
4.1 Marketing mix for two different consumer market segments .............................................11
4.2 Difference when Sainsbury marketers its products to business rather than consumers......11
4.3 Difference between international and domestic marketing of Sainsbury............................12
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................12

COMPANY OVERVIEW
Sainsbury has been regarded as the 2nd largest supermarket chain that currently exists in
UK. The company was founded in the late 1860’s by John James Sainsbury. The company then
became one of the largest grocery retailers by the year 1922 (Sainsbury, 2014). Presently the
company is split into three major divisions being Supermarkets, Convenience Stores as well as
banks. Its present head office is in Holborn London. It has been operating around 1200 stores in
the present times and employees over 161000 employees.
Sainsbury has made its vision of being one of the most trusted retailers that people can
rely upon. It wants the people to consider Sainsbury as a place where people can shop and also
love to work in such a manner so as to make the life of consumers an easy one. This ideology is
clearly reflected in its marketing code of practice. In order the consumer loyalty, Sainsbury has
made an attempt to create marketing communications that are decent, honest, truthful and there
to maintain consumer confidence.
The company has further made the strong culture as well as values as a part of its identity
that has further led to successful operations of company. It has further been revealed that
Sainsbury is a well-known company in terms of being able to assess the consumer data as well as
personalize the efforts related to consumer marketing. They have further been able to assess the
results constantly as well as taken significant part for bringing a significant improvement in its
performance.

INTRODUCTION
In today’s highly competitive environment, it is highly essential to develop appropriate
marketing principles in order to enhance competitive advantage. For the same, the present report
is based on the scenario of Sainsbury which has been declining its sales due to existence of
competitor’s effective marketing strategies (Armstrong, Adam and Kotler, 2014). In this regard,
marketing director of the company is highly concern to review its existing marketing activities
and develop new marketing strategies. With the help of this, they are able to enhance their sales
and effectively maintain their consumer base.
Under these activities, Sainsbury requires adopting some of the best promotional and
advertising techniques. Through this, they are able to fulfil the needs and demands of their
customers. Further, the present study covers different aspects of marketing planning as well as
repositioning of various marketing activities in order to boost up the overall revenue against the
competitors.
TASK 1
1.1 Concepts of marketing and marketing process of Sainsbury
According to the American Marketing institution, marketing is a set of activities of a
process which helps in communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings so that value for
customers can be created.
In addition to this, it can be determined that marketing is a process which helps in
analysing current and future market opportunities for any particular company by selecting its
target market (Smith, 2014). The whole marketing process of Sainsbury determines through
various elements used in this. These fundamentals are follows:
Market Environmental Scanning:
These factors are present inside or outside the Sainsbury and impact their performance as
well such as:
Porter 5 forces analysis: With the help of analysing this element, company can easily test
the effectiveness of their industry and rivalry among competitors (Lilien, Rangaswamy and De
Bruyn, 2013).
Pest Analysis: These are the external factors which affect the business activities such
political, economic, social, technical factors, etc.

SWOT: It helps Sainsbury in identifying all their internal processing such as strengths,
weaknesses, threats and opportunities. With the help of this, company is able to attain
appropriate and effective marketing process.
Marketing Strategy: After analysing all the above processes, Sainsbury can determine
that if any opportunity is founded by them, then they can effectively plan for segmentation,
targeting, positioning, etc. (Shank and Lyberger, 2014).
Marketing Mix: In the whole marketing process, it is another most effective step in
which company determines its 4Ps (Product, price, place and promotion) to successfully launch
its new product for target market.
Implementation and Control: This is the last step of marketing where whole planned
activities are implemented with the help of close monitoring.
1.2 Benefits and costs of marketing orientation for Sainsbury
It has been founded from past data of Sainsbury that they are facing various issues
regarding their supply chain process as well as quality associated with their products and
services. They are seeing sales decline sharply as customers nowadays avoid superstores and big
weekly shopping trips (Hastings and Domegan, 2013). They are often in favour of more local
shopping and also looking for better deals and trying new retailers. At the time of such problems,
it is highly essential to provide effective and quality services to the customers.
In order to overcome with these problems, it is highly necessary for their marketing
director to review their existing marketing activities as well as implementing another effective
marketing plan. For the same, appropriate marketing orientation technique helps them in
maintaining ethical and sustainable practices in the market (Ennew and Waite, 2013). Within this
concern, there are various benefits associated with market orientation technique for Sainsbury
such as:
Benefits of marketing orientation
Marketing orientation is one of the most effective techniques to reach out to more number
of customers after identifying their needs and desires. With the help of this technique, company
is able to attract more number of customers and increase their level of loyalty. By selecting an
appropriate market orientation technique, satisfaction level of customers can be maintained as
they are able to provide appropriate production of products (Lilleker, 2013). Further, it can be
determined that Sainsbury needs to provide various discounts offers to their loyal customers

timely (Challagalla, Murtha and Jaworski, 2014). They should comply with all the ethical and
sustainable practices. By following all the ethics at the time of marketing, they can build trust
and loyalty among customers and enhance firm’s profitability as well.
Costs of marketing orientation
Cost of marketing orientation for the Sainsbury can be covered by various fields such as:
Ethical Issues: While going through the proper marketing orientation, company needs to
adopt the best ethical practices. With the help of this, they are able to promote their services by
carrying out the best advertisements and ethical practices (Fletcher, Fyall and Wanhill, 2013).
With the help of this, Sainsbury can escalate their cost of business and easily achieve their
objectives.
Requirement of huge investment in market research: In order to develop effective market
orientation, it is essential to go through the proper market research. Sainsbury needs to carry out
heavy investment in the market research field. By investing in this, company is able to identify
customer’s requirements and enhance their satisfaction level.
TASK 2
2.1 Macro and Micro environmental factors which affects the marketing decision of Sainsbury
Macro environmental factor consists of external factors which are the main causes of
ineffective development of various business practices of company such as: Political factors: All the policies and legislations developed by the UK government need
to be followed by Sainsbury (Kruglanski and Higgins, 2013). Due to the increased
globalization, both opportunities and challenges have been enhanced by them. Further, all
the policies developed by UK government need to be considered regarding trading,
taxation etc.
 Economic factors: Increasing cost of fuel is becoming the biggest economic challenge
for Sainsbury. It may lead to increase the cost of company which affects the total supply
chain and causes to increase the product’s prices (Popkova, Dubova and Romanova,
2013). Various economic factors such as: inflation rates, exchange rates, cost of raw
material etc. are some of the major concerns which may lead to affect the overall growth
of company. Due to these factors, their whole marketing decision gets affected and they
might lead to reduce their customer base.

 Social factors: Meeting changing needs and demands is becoming a major threat for
Sainsbury. Due to the increasing social trends in healthier foods, Sainsbury gets a wide
range of opportunity (Burchell, Rettie and Patel, 2013). For the same, customers may
shift to other retailers if they are unhappy with the services of company.
 Technological factors: Due to increasing technological advancements Sainsbury is able
to develop its online presence in the market (Gordon, 2013). Sainsbury's utilizes all the
rapidly changing technologies by constantly upgrading their technologies such as
upgrading to more efficiently scanning checkouts, computerised stock controlling etc.
Micro environmental factors are highly related with the internal conditions of company’s
business operation which might leads to hamper their business decisions. SWOT analysis is best
tool to analysis internal factors:
2.2 & 2.3 Segmentation and targeting strategy for Sainsbury
In order to go through the appropriate marketing for all the products and services it is
highly essential to go select STP strategies more effectively. In this concern, segmentation is
regarded as a crucial step under which company can divide its customers on the basis of their
geographical locations, psychographic and demographic conditions as well as behavioural
conditions etc. Sainsbury is a retail outlet which serves different category products to their
customers i.e. from clothing to food products as well as baby products, gifts, home accessories
etc. Company have planned to expand its category within the area of kids section (Luca and
Suggs, 2013). Here, they have planned to launch new category for their clothing and gaming
zone. In this regard, company has segmented their kids clothing products on the basis of
Demographic segmentation as people belong to different age groups are having different choices.
Further, differentiation takes place on the basis of gender i.e. male wear, female clothing etc.
In addition to this, there are various baby products regarded as gaming items which is
segmented on the basis of psychographic segmentation (Russell-Bennett, Wood and Previte,
2013). Further, food products are segmented on the basis of age groups as well. In this concern,
it can be stated that Sainsbury have segmented their market on the basis of different category and
products.

At the time when company is highly focused with all its marketing efforts on same
particular group it is defined as targeting. Here, target market can be selected by three different
ways i.e.
In order to target more number of customers Sainsbury always use different targeting
strategy such as: For the section of kids clothing they can adopt undifferentiated marketing
strategy as it is very market. In addition to this, for their clothing section target customers are
different age group people such as 3-6 years 6-10 years and 10-14 years (Carins and Rundle-
Thiele, 2014). These are the different category and range of target groups. With the help of
selection of appropriate target customers company can easily fulfils the needs and desires of all
their customers and maintain their loyalty base as well.
2.4 & 2.5 Effects of buyer behaviour on marketing activities of Sainsbury in different buying
situations & new positioning strategy for company
It is being determine that buying behaviour of people highly get affected due to the
various cultural, social, psychological factors, etc. It totally depends on the changing customer
attitude and preferences (Bowie and Buttle, 2013). Customers are considered as most important
parts of any organization and keeping them satisfied is the biggest challenge for company.
By the way of using rational decision making model customers can recognize the
problems and find out the products and services that can satisfy them. Purchasing behaviour of
buyer totally depends on the different buying situations. They possible select the different kind
of alternatives and then selects the best among them. For the last selection of any products, firstly
any individual or buyers go through the careful inspection. It is the most effective way which
helps in determining different features of products (De Mooij, 2013). Both the category of kids
gaming products and clothing products customers’ demands for different features. Here, kids
demand for the technological advanced toys and games while parents will like to purchase soft
and colorful toys for their kids. In this case, it can be determine that choices of people differs due
to which their buying behaviour also gets affected.
Positioning Strategies
With the help of selection of best and most effective positioning strategies companies are
able to develop different brand identity in the mind-set of customers. It can be define as a most

effective strategy which is very helpful for company in achieving higher competitive advantage.
Sainsbury can position their products on different perspectives such as:
They can position their kids section on the basis of comfortable feeling, attractive
colours, ruff and tuff with high quality and cheap prices (Beierlein, Schneeberger and Osburn,
2013). On the other hand, for the gaming products they can create positioning on the basis of age
group of people. Moreover, they are able to attract more number of people with the help of
organizing some gaming competitions which are very famous in UK.
TASK 3
3.1 How developing new product helps in achieving sustainable competitive advantage to
Sainsbury
With the help of appropriate development of new products Sainsbury is able to reach out
to more number of customers. In order to sustain higher competitive advantage it is highly
essential for company to provide quality services and products to their customers. At the time of
developing any new product, management team of company go through the proper market
analysis (Armstrong, Adam and Kotler, 2014). It helps them in determining their competitor’s
strategy in a more effective way. With the help of this, they are able to adopt some of best
marketing tactics. In order to produce their products more appropriately it is highly essential for
company to go through the appropriate research and development. With the help of this they are
able to understand the existing needs and demands for their customers and provide them quality
services. Through this, they can enhance their customer base and maintain loyalty among them
(Smith, 2014). For the same, Sainsbury decided to adopt the market development strategy so that
they can develop new products according to the needs of market and enhance higher competitive
advantage.
3.2 Providing convenience to customers with the help of appropriate distribution channels
Sainsbury is looking for expanding its category within kids sections. For the same, they
have planned for kids clothing and gaming section as well. In order to provide convenience to all
customers company needs to arrange its distribution channels (Lilien, Rangaswamy and De
Bruyn, 2013). They usually deliver their products into market with the help of online stores as
well as retail stores.
Sainsbury has already selected direct distribution channel in which they distribute the
products directly to customers. For the new category or their kids section, they sell the products

at their retail stores where parents can check for the quality and purchase any product as per the
desires of their kids. For the gaming section, company can use the online channel and directly
sell it online over their competitors (Shank and Lyberger, 2014). Both the given channels are
most effective way to directly reach to the customers.
For the gaming section, company can mainly use the online channel as young people can
directly select the game they want and can give order. Further, company can also provide them
24/7 services.
3.3 Prices set by Sainsbury reflects its marketing activities
One of the most essential tasks for Sainsbury is to set their pricing strategy on the basis of
prevailing market conditions so that they are able to attract more number of customers. One of
the main objectives of company is to enhance their sales by providing quality services to all their
customers (Pricing strategies, 2012). There are mainly four types of pricing strategies i.e.
 Cost plus pricing
 Price Skimming
 Penetration Pricing
 Price Leadership Strategies
In order to meet the given objectives, company requires adopting price skimming strategy. It
is highly beneficial for newly developed products where company can keep relatively high prices
for their kids clothing and gaming. Here, with the help of this strategy producer can set high
price for unique differentiated products.
3.4 How company would integrate its promotional activity to achieve its marketing objectives
At the time of launching any new product company requires to go through the selection
of best promotion technique. For the same, there are various promotional methods such as:
 Advertising
 Personal Selling
 Public Relation
 Sales Promotion
Here, Sainsbury is one the largest supermarket stores of UK and they are having their huge
consumer base. In this regard, they can attract more number of customers with the help of
selecting best promotion techniques. For their clothing segment of kids they have appointed

marketing agency that are specialized in children promotions (Hastings and Domegan, 2013). On
the other hand, for the gaming segments of kids appropriate media channels have been used such
as social media, e-mail and mobile marketing etc. These are the best promotional ways through
which company can reach out to their target audience.
3.5 Additional elements of extended marketing mix
There are mainly 4 elements of marketing mix i.e. price, place, promotion and product.
After selecting all these marketing Mix Company it is highly essential for them to go through the
additional element of marketing mix (Ennew and Waite, 2013). There are 3 more types of the
marketing mix which are-
Physical Evidence: It can be define an environment where services are being offered to
customers. Within their retail outlet they can decorate their section of kids with colorful designs
and with play area so that parents can easily shop for kids.
Process: By maintaining better relations with customers, Sainsbury can go through the
effective marketing of their products and services (Lilleker, 2013).
People: People can be given special trainings to handle the customers for both of the
products.
TASK 4
4.1 Marketing mix for two different consumer market segments
Marketing mix Clothing segment for kids Gaming segment for kids
Product Good quality, attractive designs Attractive and vibrant colours
in the games.
Price Affordable prices and competitive pricing
strategy due to presence of huge
competition in clothing segment of kids
(Challagalla, Murtha and Jaworski, 2014)
Competitive pricing with
discounts and offers during
festive season.
Place Retail outlets of Sainsbury Retail outlets of Sainsbury
Promotion Appointing marketing agency that are
specialized in children promotions.
Social media, email and
mobile marketing

4.2 Difference when Sainsbury marketers its products to business rather than consumers
Marketing Sainsbury products to
consumers
Marketing Sainsbury products to business
Simple content filled with humor, of use and
sharable can be used so as to attract the
consumers.
Marketing content is required to be highly
detailed so as to satisfy the requirement of
clients
Marketing process here is emotionally
triggered
Marketing process in B2B marketing is rational
and logically driven
Markets are required to use fewer buzzwords
and (usually) simpler language to garner
consumer attention
Require usage of industrial jargons so as to
attract the client base (Fletcher, Fyall and
Wanhill, 2013)
B2C sales are done directly to the consumer
or may involve a retailer.
B2B sales require consultative selling
Brand identity is created on account of
advertising and now social media.
Brand identity happens due to presence of
personal relationships and consultative selling
4.3 Difference between international and domestic marketing of Sainsbury
International marketing of Sainsbury Domestic marketing of Sainsbury
Sainsbury is likely to face increased
competition in case of international marketing
Competition is not so intense in case of
domestic marketing carried out by Sainsbury
There is a presence of high risk in terms of
high risk. Political, foreign exchange, bad
debt etc.
The risk factor present in domestic marketing
is very low.
Language barrier may act as a major issue in
carrying out marketing activities
The absence of language barriers makes it
easier to interpret the consumer demands and
market trends (Kruglanski and Higgins, 2013).
International marketing requires more time
and effort
Domestic marketing has got a substantially low
amount of time and efforts.

CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that with the help of developing appropriate
marketing plan Sainsbury is able to maintain its sales and growth of company as well. For the
same, they have recently launched a new category for its kids section where they targeted kids
for gaming and gaming zone. Moreover, it can be stated that with the help of best marketing
decisions Sainsbury is able to enhance their sales as well as market share.

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