Marketing Fundamentals Report: Sainsbury's Marketing Mix Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive overview of marketing fundamentals, using Sainsbury as a case study. It delves into the core processes and phases of marketing, exploring the marketing mix (product, price, place, and promotion), STP (Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning), and the development of effective marketing plans. The report analyzes the role of marketing in creating value for customers, highlighting the importance of meeting customer needs, incorporating innovation, and engaging in corporate social responsibility. Furthermore, it examines the impact of stakeholders on marketing activities and details the communication tools employed by Sainsbury. The report concludes with an assessment of the effectiveness of marketing strategies and processes within the context of Sainsbury's operations, including budget allocation and monitoring and control mechanisms. This analysis offers valuable insights into practical marketing applications and strategies.

MARKETING
FUNDAMENTALS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Task 1A............................................................................................................................................3
Processes and different phases of Marketing.........................................................................3
The role of marketing in creating value for customers...........................................................6
Role and Impact of Stakeholders in the marketing activities.................................................8
Task 1B............................................................................................................................................8
Communication tool used by Sainsbury.................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
It is a management practice whereby the organizations promote and advertise their differentiated
products to the customers and businesses at large. Fundamentals of marketing involves having a
deep understanding the four P's of marketing to serve the customers better. Sainsbury is
second largest chain of supermarkets in UK. Sainsbury was an early adopter of self service
retailing in UK and also became the largest retailer of groceries in 1922. Sainsbury deals in wide
range of supermarket, cafe, fuel, Banks, Energy etc. This study describes the different stages and
process of marketing mix and role of marketing in attracting the customers and creating value for
them. It also includes the impact of stakeholders on the marketing activities of Sainsbury and the
various communication tools adopted by Sainsbury to attract customers.
MAIN BODY
Task 1A
Processes and different phases of Marketing
Marketing refers to operations performed by a company to promote the selling or buying
of a product or service. It includes all aspects of business which are distribution methods,
product development, advertising and sales. These are the steps which are involved in marketing
process: Stages and process of marketing mix
Mission- To help the clients to gain sustainable business growth through market intelligence,
strategice vision and creativity and to establish an organisation that retains, develops and attracts
customers.
Objectives- To increase the sales by 20% till the end of year 2020.
To enhance consumer awareness by 30% in next 6 months.
To increase profitability by 20% till the end of year 2021.
Situational analysis
Strength- Sainsbury's main emphasis is on high product efficiency so by the low cost
they attain the huge profit margin among its products. It concentrates on good quality products
to maximise the revenues of the organization. Sainsbury's concentration is on designing the best
quality product. Sainsbury tries to adopt the best promotion startegies to increase the revenues as
well as profits of the company.

Weakness- Sainsbury concentrates on customer satisfaction to achieve customer loyalty.
Sainsbury have a stiff competition among the retail sector with the other competitive
supermarkets. Rising prices of food all over the world let the Sainsbury to sell food at the high
prices which somehow reduces the sale of the products(Kleinaltenkamp and et.al., 2015).
Opportunities- There are various oppotunities for Sainsbury in terms of enhancing their
business all over the world as it helps to reduce the cost of production of the company. Sainsbury
tries to analyse the policies of the competitors, needs and wants of the customers and various
trends emerging in the market through market researches which can be useful for it to attain its
goal. Another opportunity for Sainbury is in the field of digital marketing. Sainsbury’s online
shops enables its customers to purchase at the covenience of their own place. Further Sainsbury
offers great flexibility to those customers who have mobility issues. So the customers may
easiliy reach out for those products online whose physical availabilty is very limited.
STP- It It is one of the important step involved in the marketing mix. In this step, Sainsbury
analyses or evaluates the targeted markets to fulfill the needs and wants of customers. As It is
diificult for the company to analyse the whole market so they split the whole market in different
units for conducting the smooth operations in the organisation. After that various marketing
startegies are prepared for each unit. This helps to improve the efficiency of the product
(Marketing, 2015).
Marketing Mix Strategy- After complete marketing strategy of Sainsbury, they are
ready to initiate the planning of Marketing Mix. To generate certain desired response in the
targeted segment a company composed certain mixed variables. The marketing mix is composed
of following four P's – Product means any offering to the market by the Sainsbury whether it is
goods or services. Sainsbury along with innovation and quality management, they also focuses
on developing new products and enhancing the existing range of the product. Price is the money
paid by the consumer to buy that product. Sainsbury's pricing strategy is based upon the 'value of
money' so they maintain the quality of the product and services ensuring the customer retention.
Place means the efforts which assure the accessibility of the product to the customers in the
market. Sainsbury has 598 supermarkets and 714 stores out of which 45 stores are 24*7
available. Promotion means all the efforts made by the Sainsbury to promote its product in
effective way to its customer(Marketing mix, 2019). They use ATL (Above the line) and BTL

(Below the line) promotional strategies to attain customer attention and build its brand name(De
Mooij, 2018).
Sainsbury develops an effective marketing strategic program in which suitable
combination of marketing mix is efficiently coordinated to provide greater value to the
customers and sustain the company's objectives. It is the last step of process in which the action
phase of the marketing program where Marketing Mix is fixed for a target market. For the
management of marketing efforts Sainsbury will identify the strengths and weaknesses along
with the opportunities and threats for the company. Further Marketing plan will be developed to
attain the company's marketing objective and the marketing plans and strategies are practically
implemented. At last Sainsbury will evaluate the performance results of the Marketing plans and
strategies and for the accomplishment of overall objective of company necessary steps will be
taken(Reid and Plank, 2016).
Budget-
Expenses Amount
Salary £200
Other variable expenses £200
Total £400
Monitoring and controlling-
The first monitoring and control tool which a company uses to evaluate the effectiveness
of its marketing and advertising campaign is monitoring the customer feedback. Soliciting the
feedback from the customers regarding the product helps the company to know its return on sales
For example, Sainsbury reaches its customer indirectly by conducting online polls on internet
which includes specific questions about the marketing plan. Apart from this it also conducts
surveys and reaches the target audience through the use of questionnaire. The another tool which
an organization uses is cost analysis if the company looks through the cost benefit perspective. It
analyses the return benefits from the product which they have marketed like Sainsbury recently
launched a new product in its grocery store. The main objective of Sainsbury to launch this
product was to increase the sale by 30%. After the product enter the market Sainsbury conducted
the cost analysis and found that the product made a huge success and the objective was
met(Sahaf, 2019).

The role of marketing in creating value for customers
In this changing era of technology and development, each and every organization strive
to survive in the ever changing nature of competition and endeavours to entice the customers.
Marketing is basically the mixture of various activities which the business adopts to promote its
products and services among the customers and emerge as a well known market leader.
Traditionally, marketing was confined to generating revenues and making profit but with the
emergence of globalization, the role of marketing has taken a drastic turn and now its strategies
and efforts revolves around the customers and target market. Customers are now considered as
the king of market without whom organization can no longer establish itself. Thus every
organization, whether small or big modify their marketing efforts to create value for
customers(Loebler, 2017).
The foremost role that the marketing plays to produce worth for customers are meeting
their constantly changing demands and wants. Every customer has different demand.
Understanding the rationale behind the fluctuating needs and promoting the products that suits
them the best is utmost important for the organization. Extensive marketing research helps the
companies to understand the trends of market and customers which eventually leads to the new
product development according to the requirements of the target market. For example-
Sainsbury, A supermarket chain, when planned to introduce the new grocery stores narrowed its
efforts by conducting a market research to know whether customers are interested in accepting
the new stores and . Focusing on the needs and wants of the customers indirectly compels them
to form a good image of the organization in their mind(The role of marketing, 2019).
Another role of the marketing to cater the customer needs is incorporating innovation in
every and aspect of the business. Customers wants the market to bring something new and
innovative for them. Although some resist change and remain uninterested to step out of the
comfort zone but most of the customers are flexible to changes and accept innovation if they are
advantageous for them. However, it sometimes become difficult for small businesses to invest
immensely in research and development but bringing even small creativity in the existing
product or producing new product will be worthwhile for customers. Video marketing is one of
the important tool which helps in showcasing the innovation & helps the customers to understand
product's features and characteristics. Thus video marketing is one of the efficient way to reach

the target audience and explain the brand story. For example In April 2018, Sainsbury
established a future brand team to chase the innovation and bought Salmon skin chips and
alcoholic kamboucha in the market and appealed the wide range of customers with its trend in
products(Perreault, 2018).
The third role of marketing to attract the customers is engaging in corporate social
responsibility. CSR is actually a management discipline wherein the organizations contribute
towards the sustainable development of environment and strive towards the well being of
society. Marketing plays a crucial role in reflecting on the various social issues occurring
throughout the year and many companies spoke on it. CSR is a priority for the organization
therefore they spend a huge amount on advertising their brand and showing their involvement in
CSR. Although digital marketing plays an important role in conveying their brand message to
customers, but focusing greater on the offline mode like marketing campaigns to tell the
customers about the organization's CSR involvement helps the organization to achieve more
therefore, whether offline or online, marketing puts a greater emphasis on customers while
advertising the organization's CSR initiative which eventually helps achieving in greater
customer engagement. Apart from this, customers tend to perceive those organization reputable
which are involved in conducting the business ethically and work towards the welfare of society.
For example- Sainsbury launched a 20 by 20 sustainable plan under which they emphasized on
driving down the use of energy in supermarkets, alleviating the emission of carbon and its
sources, and invested in low carbon technologies(Baines and et.al., 2017).
Another role of marketing encompasses providing employment to the unemployed.
Marketing is not only confined to meeting the demand of customers but also provides an
opportunity to work in the field of marketing which not only helps them in securing the job but
also provides a way for career development. Marketing is wide field where the individual can
achieve great success and earn handsome amount of money even with less experience and
education. Although the ultimate goal of marketing is to satisfy its customers and go beyond
their expectation but the way of achieving this goal varies form organization to organization
therefore, besides fulfilling the needs, marketing also creates value for them by providing a
chance to showcase their exceptional skills and serve the market with great proficiency. For
example From past few years Sainsbury has made changes in recruitment advertising strategy
where they now emphasize on attracting the talent from leading digital businesses. Andy day,

chief data officer in Sainsbury declared in his forthcoming recruitment campaign that the
company will now target technology industry to hire tech people in order to compete with
google, amazon etc(McKay, Hopkinson and Ng, 2018).
Role and Impact of Stakeholders in the marketing activities
Stakeholders are parties which are involved in the companies and have a great influence
on its success and failure. Stakeholder play various roles within a company depending on job
responsibilities, rules and titles formulated during the growth of the company. Stakeholder has a
right to introduce new ways of doing things in the company. As there was peculation of funds in
the Sainsbury, their stakeholder suggest them to change in management to avoid future collapse
in the company. Sainsbury has involved a knowledgeable stakeholders which are lawyers,
accountants, engineers and others who can give them a expertise opinions to uncover the risk and
find alternatives to manage them. The major impact which the Stakeholder project on Sainsbury
is that the laws made by them help the company to meet the challenges and achieve the
competitive advantage. Local government, one of the important stakeholder worked in
collaboration with the suppliers of Sainsbury and opened around 30,000 merchandise and retail
shops of the company(Pike, 2015).
Task 1B
Communication tool used by Sainsbury
After going through all the marketing strategies and action plans of Sainsbury, I have
analyzed that this company uses wide range of communication tools in order to generate
awareness among its customers to promote the products and services. The first tool used by
Sainsbury is advertising which is the most prevalent among all the other marketing tools.
Sainsbury launched a marketing and advertising campaign which was “Try something new
today” where they focused on telling the customers who were involved in buying the identical
things again and again, to try the other stuff and outside the zone of sleep shopping. From then,
this campaign made a huge success through its promotion in newspaper, magazines, TV.
Another tool which Sainsbury employs to attract the customers is sales promotion where
they provide free samples, product demonstration, offers, coupons to them like Sainsbury
introduced new kind of coupon for their customers in 2017 which was made available online as

well as in store. These coupons stated 'use online or in-store' which made it easier for customers
to identify them. These grocery coupons helped Sainsbury to outperform from its competitors
tesco and Asda.
Email marketing is one more tool used by Sainsbury to entice the customers and increase
loyalty among them towards the company. Sainsbury worked in collaboration with Aimia to send
personalized messages and mails to customers for helping them in planning their shopping list.
The main objective of this campaign was to increase the shopping experience of customers
through the use of mobile emailing. Besides this, They developed an iOs mobile app to send
promotional messages and smart offers to customers. This campaign made a huge success and
drive the sales to 6.6% within 12 weeks(Kasemsap, 2016).
CONCLUSION
From the above study it is concluded that effective marketing strategies and plans helps
the company to attain its specific goal with effective use of resources. By implementing
marketing mix and evaluating the strengths and weakness company could develop a future plan
to met up the hurdles and achieve the company goal and sustain in the market for long term with
the other competitive companies.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Baines, P and et.al., 2017. Fundamentals of marketing. Oxford University Press.
Baker, M.J. and Hart, S. eds., 2016. The marketing book. Routledge.
De Mooij, M., 2018. Global marketing and advertising: Understanding cultural paradoxes.
SAGE Publications Limited.
Kasemsap, K., 2016. The Fundamentals of Business Intelligence. International Journal of
Organizational and Collective Intelligence (IJOCI). 6(2). pp.12-25.
Kleinaltenkamp, M and et.al., 2015. Fundamentals of Business-to-business Marketing. Springer.
Loebler, H., 2017. Humans’ relationship to nature–framing sustainable marketing. Journal of
Services Marketing. 31(1). pp.73-82.
Marketing, G., 2015. International Marketing. Social Cognition. 26(2). pp.248-258.
McKay, G., Hopkinson, P. and Ng, L.H., 2018. Fundamentals of marketing. Goodfellow
Publishers Limited.
Perreault, W.D., 2018. Essentials of marketing. New York: Mc Graw Hill.
Pike, S., 2015. Destination marketing: essentials. Routledge.
Reid, D.A. and Plank, R.E., 2016. Fundamentals of Business Marketing Research (The
Foundation Series in Business Marketing).
Sahaf, M.A., 2019. Strategic marketing: making decisions for strategic advantage. PHI Learning
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