Woolworth's Marketing Strategies: Consumer Behavior and Digital Impact

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Woolworth's marketing strategies, focusing on the significance of digital marketing within the retail sector. The executive summary highlights the examination of Woolworth's marketing mix, including product features, pricing, placement, and promotional strategies, considering both internal and external factors influencing consumer behavior. The report delves into the consumer decision-making process when purchasing Woolworth's products, emphasizing the impact of internal and external influences. It explores the 4Ps of marketing (Product, Price, Place, and Promotion) in relation to consumer behavior, analyzing how factors like attitude, motivation, and perception shape purchasing decisions. The report also examines Woolworth's digital marketing practices, their effectiveness, and their role in business success, concluding with a discussion on the overall importance of digital marketing in the company's operations.

Importance
of digital
marketing

1
IMPORTANCE OF DIGITAL MARKETING
Executive Summary
Analysis of the marketing strategies of Woolworth is done in this report. The features of
products, pricing strategies, place and promotional strategies are explained on the bases of
internal and external factors of client. The focus will be provided over the influence of
consumer behaviour while purchasing the food products of company. A brief analysis has
been done on the various stages of consumer decision making process in purchasing the
products and services of Woolworth.
It was found that internal and external factors of the client gives a major impact on the
consumer behaviour. It was also found that digital marketing strategies of Woolworth have
proved very beneficial for the business of the company. Although there are many types of
marketing strategies exists for developing the business but digital marketing is a key source
for successful business especially in retail sector.

2
IMPORTANCE OF DIGITAL MARKETING
Table of Contents
Executive Summary...................................................................................................................1
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
Analysis of marketing strategies of Woolworth:.......................................................................3
Importance of developing marketing strategies for the Woolworth Company......................3
The impact of marketing strategies over the consumers........................................................4
4p’s of marketing strategies with respect to consumer behaviour:........................................4
Influence of internal factors over the consumer:....................................................................6
Influence of external factors over the consumers:.................................................................7
The decision making process of consumer of Woolworth:....................................................8
Importance and effectiveness of digital marketing practices of Woolworth:........................9
Conclusion................................................................................................................................10
References................................................................................................................................11

3
IMPORTANCE OF DIGITAL MARKETING
Introduction:
Woolworth supermarket is one of the largest Australian supermarket chains. It was
established in the year 1924, and become the second largest employer in Australia. The major
products of the company are groceries including fresh vegetables, meat and packed food
items, liquor, various food products and general merchandise. The company operates around
1,000 Woolworth’s branded supermarkets throughout the country. The focus of the
Woolworth Company’s business is the retail sector with food and drink services provided in
the upper as well as middle income groups in South-Africa, New Zealand, and Australia.
Their priority is offering quality services and products to all target consumers by its
competitive price, human resource, and fresh food strategies (woolworths, 2020).
In this report an analysis will be done over the marketing practices of Woolworth with a
special focus over understanding the consumer behaviour especially in retail sector of
company. The focus will be given over the various marketing strategies adopted by the
company in order to enhance its sales and expand its business in domestic and foreign
market. The marketing mix adopted by Woolworth Company on the bases of analysis of
consumer behaviour will also be analysed in this sector. A discussion will be done over the
impact of internal and external factors over the consumer behaviour. The decision making
process of consumer will also be scrutinised. In the end, the importance of digital marketing
will also be analysed in this report.
Analysis of marketing strategies of Woolworth:
Many types of marketing strategies are adopted by the Woolworth Company in order to
promote its business through selling of various services of its products.
Importance of developing marketing strategies for the Woolworth Company:
The marketing strategy is one of the crucial decisions of the company. The business of the
company is very much depends upon the suitable marketing strategies adopted by the
company. Adequate marketing strategies help in the acquisition of customers. It helps in
identifying the best food and drink products in order to cater the need of the customers.
Actually, different customers have different economic position, class and even differ in

4
IMPORTANCE OF DIGITAL MARKETING
believes related to investments. That is why a suitable marketing mix is required for dealing
with a large segment of customers having different mind-set (Wilcox, 2016).
The impact of marketing strategies over the consumers:
Perfect marketing strategies are always helps in promoting the business of the company. It
also helps in identifying the new and innovative products with suitable price and place for the
product. The suitable and appropriate marketing strategy leads towards the customer
satisfaction with a profitable business. Sometimes imbalance and inappropriate marketing
strategy reduce the interest of customers in purchasing the products of the company (Wilcox,
2016). The analysis of the marketing strategy of the Woolworth Company with respect to
consumer behaviour is as follows:
4p’s of marketing strategies with respect to consumer behaviour:
(1) Product:
The Woolworth offers a wide variety of products to fulfill the need of food and groceries
to its customers including health products and products related to households. It also sells
beauty products. Woolworth also offers a wide variety of financial products to its
customers including Woolworth insurance and Woolworth credit cards and ATM’s.
However it is famous for its large range of food products which is offered in various
countries throughout the World (F Jie, 2019). It supplies bakery products with a lot of
variety in dairy products. It also offers food for babies and even for pets. Moreover
Woolworth is dealing with a large variety of food to cater the need of consumers
(Woolworth, 2020).
Company first of all identified the target customers and then makes the tailored customer
products according the requirements and need of different types of clients. Company
segmented the population on the bases of various demographic, cultural, social and
economic factors. For example fresh seasonable vegetables could be sold to satisfy the
need of the individuals and families of Australia related to their diet requirement for in
taking a balanced diet (MR Dutta, 2019).
Segmentation could be done on the bases of demographic factors like the needs of
Australian customers may be different from the need of New Zealand’s customers
because of the difference in culture and norms of both the countries. However the digital

5
IMPORTANCE OF DIGITAL MARKETING
mobile services fulfill the gap of demographic distances because in today’s scenario
everyone wants the discounts and additional services and this can be possible with the
help of mobile. Woolworths offers wide digital mobile services like free voucher on
frequent shopping by collecting points (JR Saura, 2019). It also promotes its offers to
clients by using their phone numbers in order to matches the requirements of clients and
to save the time of customers (E Xu, 2019).
(2) Price:
Pricing is one of the crucial decisions for the business of the company. Pricing strategy is
also decided after the understanding of consumer behavior. The Woolworth adopts the
medium pricing strategy with premium prices in order to meet the customer’s expectation
as well as meeting the sales standard of the company. Very low prices of the products will
badly affect the business of the company whereas high prices may leads towards low
customer base that is why a suitable pricing strategy is must for the profitability of the
business of the company (groups, 2020).
Many of the consumers want the food product at very low cost. Especially the retail
customers want to purchase the groceries products with minimum price charged by the
company. For these customers, Woolworth is offering ‘Woolworth credit card’ which
gives discount on shopping and even provides fuel charges to the customers. Consumer
behaviour may have a great impact over the pricing policies of Company. Competitive
and fair pricing policies always help the company in the customer’s acquisition (Rowley,
2016).
(3) Place:
Distribution and networking policies are related to the place of the company, where it is
going to offer its wide chain of products. The people and their culture plays an important
role in deciding the place where the company needs to sale its products and services
(Amalesh Sharma, 2019). However the Woolworth have a lot of branches of its
supermarkets throughout the world including the countries China, New Zealand,
Indonesia, Hong Kong, London, New York City, Tokyo, Mumbai and Vietnam. Co-
ordination and channelization between the different branches of company in different
countries is very challenging for the management and superior authorities of the

6
IMPORTANCE OF DIGITAL MARKETING
company. Dealing with national and international regulations for companying industries
is also a crucial task (Rowley, 2016).
The customers of different places are different in culture, preferences and investments so
that Woolworth has to offer various products by observing the changes in the behaviour
of consumer according to the place. The people of some countries do not prefer to
purchase vegetarian food in abundance whereas in some countries people prefer to
purchase fresh vegetarian products regularly (MA Moliner-Tena, 2019).
So that, the requirements of the customers are keep on changing with respect to place and
their culture. Still the company is catering with the need of customers of so many
countries and offering different types of products which match the interest and
preferences of customers (MA Moliner-Tena, 2019).
(4) Promotion
Woolworth Company is promoting its brand name and products by giving advertisements
on television and offer Loyalty programs to its customers. They promote their name and
products by giving advertisements in newspapers, magazines and online media (E Xu,
2019). With the help of its mobile app, it promotes and provides the knowledge about
their products and discount schemes to its customers.
The Woolworth focuses over the digital marketing as a promotional tool for the company.
The company is very active on Facebook. It is also adopting philanthropic activities for
achieving a fair image in the eyes of customers (W Reinartz, 2011).
For example: Company is involved in the campaigns of ‘Fresh food People Campaign’
and Woolworth is also feeding the animals and victims of bushfire that is making havoc
in Australia (Woolworth, 2019).
Influence of internal factors over the consumer:
So many internal factors affect the behaviour of consumer while purchasing the financial
products. Analysis of some of the internal factors with respect to consumer behaviour is as
follows:
(1) Attitude: Attitude is defined as a state that what a person feels or thinks about
something. It depends up on the personal choice and thinking of the customer.

7
IMPORTANCE OF DIGITAL MARKETING
Sometimes the person does not want to purchase a high priced product whereas any
other person may be interested in investing in any product with a high price. Attitude
is also defined as a mental state of the person, on the bases of the state he would like
or dislike the product. For example: Some people do not believe in the concept of
purchasing high priced meat from marts, they prefer to purchase the same meat from
local market at lower price (JHJ Min, 2019).
(2) Motivation: Motivation is the internal quality of a person which leads towards the
fulfilment of his requirements by purchasing the products. Some persons are very
ambitious and cautious about their financial status. Ambitious person always go for
purchasing costly household products from companies for fulfilling their desires like:
Purchasing costly kitchen and dining accessories like utensils and electronic items.
Motivation plays a very important role in the purchasing of households products.
Sometimes the person need in search for a particular household product to fulfill his
desires and automatically motivates towards purchasing the product (J Paul, 2016).
(3) Perception: Perception is defined as a process by which a person identifies, analyse
and interpret the information in order to discover meaning about the information.
While watching advertisements and campaigns, a person discovers and understood the
meaning of the information related to the products of the company on the bases of his
perception. A person may perceive positively about a particular product whereas
another person may perceived negatively about the information related to the same
product. For example: Some people perceived that low price food items may be low
in quality whereas some people may perceive that low price on food items is offered
by the company to delight its customers (HH Chang, 2019).
Influence of external factors over the consumers:
(1) Impact of social class on consumer behaviour:
The customers belongs from a high social class usually prefer the product having best quality
with high price and attractive looking. They do not consider the price of the product because
they have more than enough money for catering their needs whereas person belongs from a
low social class prefer to invest in the products of low price with discounts. A middle class
person would like to purchase average items so that he could save the money. These
customers usually avoid high prices products. Choices of the products is differs according to
social class of the person (WU, 2003).

8
IMPORTANCE OF DIGITAL MARKETING
(2) Impact of culture on consumer behaviour:
Culture refers to the particular believes, norms and values of the people in certain area. The
buying behaviour of a person is very much related to his cultural norms. For example: The
people of Asian countries prefer to purchase vegetarian products like processed vegetarian
products, vegetables, fruits and pickles whereas people of European countries would like to
go for purchasing the no vegetarian items including meat and processed food with meat
(WU, 2003).
People from rural background do not have sufficient knowledge about household products.
Their culture do not educate them related to importance of decoration and beauty products
whereas people from urban areas and metropolitan usually aware about the use of beauty and
household products (MR Dutta, 2019).
(3) Impact of personality on consumer behaviour:
Personality refers towards the different set of characteristics and qualities which a person
possesses naturally. The financial products purchased by the consumer reflect about their
personalities. For example: A person having introvert type of personality would not like to
purchase a credit card of Woolworth whereas a person having extrovert personality would
like to purchase the Woolworth credit card and other supportive schemes offered by the
company (WU, 2003).
(4) Impact of reference group over consumer behaviour:
People would usually like to purchase the products of company on the advice and reviews of
their friends, family members, colleagues and other groups. It is related to ‘Word of mouth’
marketing. For example: If a friend of a person receives a better quality of liquor offered by
Woolworth, then no doubt the person would like to purchase the same product offered by
company. It is quite clear that reference group plays a very important role in the decision
making process of a consumer (MA Moliner-Tena, 2019).
The decision making process of consumer of Woolworth:
It can be explained with the help of following steps:
(1) Problem Recognition:

9
IMPORTANCE OF DIGITAL MARKETING
If a person wants to cook vegetable dishes at his home, then he would be looking to purchase
fresh vegetables with suitable price. He would like to go for making the dish with the help of
necessary ingredients including vegetables. He realised his need of purchasing the vegetables
to cater his need of hunger.
(2) Information Search:
The person will search about the information related to purchase of vegetables like what type
of vegetables are available near his area. He will also search about the availability and quality
of green vegetables inside the market. He may be interested in knowing the various vegetable
markets and supermarkets near his area (Grimmer, 2019). He would like to know the average
prices of vegetables in different markets (D Panwar, 2019).
(3) Evaluation of alternatives:
At this step, the consumer will evaluate the various vegetable markets in his surroundings for
knowing the quality of products. Usually customers evaluate and compare the schemes of
markets by websites of supermarkets. Digital medium is the most common method of
evaluating the different food products of various companies (Kingsnorth, 2019). The
consumer critically evaluates all the possible options of local markets and supermarkets for
purchasing vegetables before reaching towards final decision (Trute, 2018).
(4) Purchase decision:
After evaluating the various vegetables and food products of local markets and supermarkets,
customer finally reached towards the decision and selects one market which matches exactly
towards his need. Ultimately the person purchased vegetable and other food products related
to his requirements from ‘The Woolworth’. The final decision taken by the client very much
depends upon his personal choice and preference (D Panwar, 2019).
(5) Post purchase evaluation and feedback:
After purchasing the vegetables and food products from the Woolworth, person evaluates the
quality of products with prices and services of the company. Sometimes he also gives
feedback for the quality and services of the company in the form of reviews of customers.
Sometimes the person gives the feedback to his friend groups and social group about the
quality and schemes of the company. To evaluate the purchase decision, the consumer has to

10
IMPORTANCE OF DIGITAL MARKETING
critically observe the services and quality of the products offered by the company (D Panwar,
2019).
Importance and effectiveness of digital marketing practices of Woolworth:
In today’s scenario where the business is crossing the boundaries of the country, digital
marketing is one of the most effective marketing techniques. With the help of digital
marketing, company can promote his brand name with special features of their products and
services. ‘The Woolworth’ also prefers the digital marketing by active responses on
Facebook and dealing with a large group of customers belongs to different segments (Ioannis
Antoniadis, 2019). The Woolworth is also provide mobile application of the company for
quick, efficient and better services for the clients by saving their time and reduces the
complexities in purchasing the products from super market. With the help of Loyalty
programs, gift cards, free vouchers on collecting points attract the customers for purchasing
(LL Lillard, 2018). Moreover these tactics make the customers aware about their products
availability, quality and prices of their products. Digital technology is an effective method to
attract the clients (NA Morgan, 2019).
By giving advertisements on social websites and televisions about their products and
services, Company get a range of large group of customers across the world. Digital
marketing is one of the most convenient and effective method of marketing especially in the
field of retail sector. Customers can easily compare between the products and policies of the
company with the help of the website of company and mobile applications provided by the
company (AM Tartaglione, 2019). Retail sector is one of the crucial sectors for customers
because the food and liquor products may be rotten with respect to time and many substitutes
are available in the local market to give the competition to the retail sector of supermarkets
(W Reinartz, 2011). That is why digital marketing has been proved highly beneficial for the
business of Woolworth Company by providing details of products for customers with the
help of digital media like social sites, websites, televisions and media coverage (MR Dutta,
2019).
Conclusion
On the bases of the analysis, it can be concluded that suitable marketing techniques are
always beneficial in attracting the customers but internal and external factors of a consumer,

11
IMPORTANCE OF DIGITAL MARKETING
highly impacts over his purchase process and decisions. The Woolworth also prefers to make
the perfect marketing mix after analyse the consumer behaviour. The Woolworth is using
digital marketing for promoting its products and this method has proved very beneficial for
the business of the company. It can be said that digital marketing is proving very effective in
the field of retail sector.