Marketing Management Report: Case Study of Morrisons Supermarket

This report delivers a comprehensive marketing analysis of WM Morrison Supermarket plc, trading as Morrisons, a major UK retail chain. It begins with an introduction to marketing management and the company's background, including its founding, key personnel, product offerings, and market position. The main body of the report provides an in-depth marketing audit, employing SWOT and PESTLE analyses to evaluate Morrisons' strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, as well as the political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors affecting its operations. The report then reviews Morrisons' existing marketing mix, followed by proposed new marketing mix actions to enhance its market performance. The conclusion summarizes the key findings and recommendations, and the report includes a list of references.

MARKETING
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Background Information.............................................................................................................1
Marketing Audit..........................................................................................................................2
Review of Marketing Mix of company.....................................................................................10
New Marketing Mix actions......................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Marketing management refers to the use of marketing orientation, application of
marketing methods, tools and techniques for marketing of the products or services of the
organization. Marketing management can be referred as the business discipline which focuses on
practically applying the techniques and tools of marketing. Marketing management refers to the
effective evaluation, control and implementation of various types of marketing programs to
achieve aims and objectives of the firm. The Report will be based on Morrisons. The firm
belongs to Retail industry. The company was founded by William Morrisons in year 1899. The
key peoples that are working in Morrisons are David Potts, Andrew Higginson etc. (Morgan,
Feng, H. and Whitler, 2018). The organization is dealing in different types of products such as
clothing, food and drinks, magazines etc. The Report will outline detail background of the
company, marketing audit with the help of different types of models, marketing-mix of Morrison
and new marketing-mix etc.
MAIN BODY
Background Information
WM Morrison Supermarket plc is one of the biggest supermarket store in UK and it
trades as Morrisons. Company deals and operates its business in retail industry and offers wide
range of products and services to its customers (Fan, Lau and Zhao, 2015). Products offered by
Morrison includes clothing, food, drinks or beverages, clothing, CDs, DVDs, magazines and
many more. This is the fourth largest supermarket chain business in the UK and the company
was founded in the year 1899 by its founder William Morrison. Morrisons covers more than
10% market share and its headquarter is situated in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England.
Company provides employment to approx 110000 employees and they serve around 11 million
customers every week. Morrison operates its business activities and operations from 498 stores
and locations.
The vision and mission statement are supported by the strategic objectives and brand
value of the company. The vision statement of Morrison states it wants to become 'the food
specialist for everyone'. Morrison's mission outlines and states about broad directions which
company will and should follow and it also briefly summarises values and reasoning which lies
behind it.
1

The official website of Morrison describes that company offers fresh and quality products
at a price that people likes and it also offers famous promotional offers such as Get free
vouchers, Collect saver stamps for every customers having £30 purchase. The company develops
its strategy in a way that it does not focus n offering value of its products but also the prices of
products are also great values across the different ranges (Kotler and et.al., 2018). The strategy
of Morrison objectives of business is to make great food, offer outstanding services to it
customers and also to become more effective and efficient so that company can compete with
other in better way. The company gas been integrated vertically so that it can control quality and
freshness of products in better manner. Morrisons also gave their own manufacturing plans,
facilities of packaging and also the distribution networks that helps in ensuring that it can get
food items to store in faster time so that it can be kept fresher.
Now-a-days every industry is facing great competition and even the retail industry is
facing intense level of competition. Thus, Morrison aims at developing and implementing
effective business strategies so that it can ensure to sustain in competitive business environment
and gain sustainable profits and increase market share. Morrison develop its strategic business
strategy in a way that helps in achieving overall goals and objectives of company (Baker, 2016).
The strategy describes that it aims at delivering sustainable, long-term development and growth,
build on traditional strength i.e. quality, fresh foods, value and services, and it is backed by the
unique vertical integration capability, while reflects on needs of customers and changes which
are taking place in markets.
Marketing Audit
The marketing audit refers to the broad, autonomous, efficient and periodic assessment of
the organisation's marketing assets (Gürel and Tat, 2017). Morrison aims at implementing
marketing audit so that it can continuously get a reference point, reflecting evolution from the
internal and external business environment and also develop effective business strategy and also
the marketing plan.
SWOT analysis
This is considered as an important tool or technique for eventuating about the current
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats which Morrison's is facing in the market
environment.
2

Strengths
 Morrison has various outlets in different countries with strong network for distribution
that ensures that products are easily available to customers in timely manner.
 Company maintains low cost structure which helps it to produce products at low cost and
offer it at low prices making it affordable for target customers.
 The financial position of company is strong with 5 years consecutive profits and also
accumulated profit reserves which can be utilized for future capital expenditures.
 Company has extensively invested in training and development of employees which has
resulted in employing talented and skilled workforce.
 Company has diverse workforce such as people from different race, culture, geographical
locations, educational backgrounds which helps in bringing diverse methodologies and
ideas for doing things.
 Its innovative and creative team helps the company to come up with innovative ideas and
take entry into new markets (Goworek, McGoldrick and McGoldrick, 2015). Morrison has large product portfolio in which it provides wide range of categories.
Company has various unique product offerings which are different from the other
competitors.
Weakness
3
Illustration 1: SWOT Analysis

 Decision making process is highly centralized that means decisions by the management
teams needs to be approved by particular officials. This process leads to reduce the
operational efficiency and innovation as well.
 Current organisational culture and structure has resulted failure of different merges aimed
at vertical integration.
 The company has to face high employees turnover rate as compared with other
competitors.
 Morrison has weak online offering that leads to affect the marker share and profitability.
 Morrison fails to maintain effective loyalty programs for its customers. Company fails to maintain personalized couponing.
Opportunities
 Increased internet users brings the opportunity to Morrison for expanding their online
presence and interaction with potential and target customers.
 E-commerce is the new trend as people are interested for making their purchases through
online modes and Morrison can earn great revenue through opening online stores and
increasing its market share and profitability.
 Company can make effective use of various social media platforms for promoting its
products and interacting with target customers.
 Morrison can focus on making effective use of technological developments and advances
for making operations automated and reducing cost.
 Morrison can aim at manufacturing and offering environment friendly products and
government also has announced subsidiary on such products. Globalisation is another opportunity for Morrison to develop and expand its market share,
productivity and profitability across the national boundaries.
Threats
 Retail industry faces great and intense competition which puts downward pressure on the
products price and it also leads to reduce the revenue of Morrison.
 Political uncertainty of a country also acts as a barrier that leads to hinder the business
performance (Baker, 2016).
4

 The changing taste, demands and preferences of customers leads to bring pressure on the
organisation to bring changes in the products so that it meets need and wants of
customers.
 There are constant developments in the technological aspects which makes company to
spend more on training and development of employees and workforce to keep up with
changes.
PESTLE Analysis
This is considered as the strategic planning technique which is used by Morrisons for
doing external analysis of the business.
Political Factors
Political factors of a country in which business operates brings great impacts on the
business organisation and it may include government tax policies, foreign trade policies and
procedure of country, political instability, labour laws, trade barriers, environment legislation,
etc.
Morrison operates in retail industry in various countries around the world, thus, it is
exposed to different kinds of political system and political environment risk (Chernev, 2018).
For example, UK food retailer businesses gets greatly influenced due to UK and EU legislations.
Such regulations and legislations are concerned with planning, pricing, licensing, consumer
protection and competition. Thus, Morrison needs to focus on being active towards the actions of
government and implementing various legal and regulatory frameworks in the business.
Economic Factors
This factors leads to bring great influences and impacts on the working of business
organisation. This may include interest rate, economic growth of a country, exchange rates,
5
Illustration 2: PESTLE analysis

inflation situation, disposable income of customers and so on (MARKETING THEORIES –
PESTEL ANALYSIS, 2019).
For example, global economic recession or UK recession will lead to bring great impacts
on every business organisations including food retailer business such as in UK as well. The
supermarket or chain business gets impact due to changes in transport costs, energy cost and cost
of raw materials. This leads to bring changes on the supply chain which can affect Morrisons by
cutting their profit margins.
Social Factors
This factors are also called as socio-cultural factors and this is related with areas which
involves shared attitudes and beliefs of people (Fan, Lau and Zhao, 2015). This may include age
distribution, population growth of country, career attitudes, education level, leisure interest, etc.
The buying patterns of customers are always changing and it is generally dependent on
eating habits. For example, Now-a-days customers are focused on adopting to healthy eating
habits and becoming more health conscious. The customers are becoming cash rich and time
poor as in today's modern world lifestyle of customers is very engaged, there is increasing
number of working women, people prefer ready meals and have less time for shopping. Thus,
Morrison's needs to consider these factors before developing any business strategy so that it can
effectively boost sales and profitability.
Technological factors
The technological landscape is changing on a fast pace and leads to bring great impacts
on the business. The organisation may get influenced due to new methods for production of
goods and services, new ways for distribution of goods and also due to new methods for
communications with target customers (Chernev, 2018).
Morrison RFID needs to focus on restructuring the supply chain process for bringing
more flexibility so that it can meet cost structures and also needs of customers. Company needs
to focus on effectively monitoring the technological updates and it must be prepared for adapting
to these approaches. For example, self-scanning, in-store direct marketing, loyalty cards or
programs, online sales and distribution of products and services.
Legal Factors
Every business organisation needs to know that what is legal and what is not for trading
successfully (Atighechian and et.al., 2016). The factors which may influence and affects the
6

business includes law related to health and safety, data protection legislation, consumer law,
equal opportunity legislation, consumer rights, product labelling, safety of products, etc.
For example, In some countries, legal frameworks are not robust enough for protecting
the intellectual property rights which can lead to theft of organisation's property and it may also
cause lost of competitive edge. The company needs to also consider about the regulatory
frameworks related with acquisition and mergers in the new markets or country. Thus, Morrison
needs to effectively and carefully evaluate such factors before entering into markets.
Environmental Factors
This factor is important to be considered as it brings great influence and impact on the
working of business activities. Business organisation needs to be ensure about carbon footprints
target set by government, regulations for water and air pollution, legislations regulating
environment pollution and waste management practices (Phadermrod, Crowder and Wills, 2019).
For example, the CO 2 emissions, carbon footprint targets and less travel miles target
leads to bring impacts on the business activities in form of closing down of warehouse facility to
main store locations. Morrisons needs to focus on sustainable production in order to cut waste,
minimise the resource consumption in order to reduce the environmental damages. This will help
the company to maintain good and effective brand image and reputation of company.
Porter's Five Force analysis
This framework views the company's capabilities and profitability as determined by the
five sources of the competitive pressure (Gürel and Tat, 2017). Morrison aims at analysing about
the five basic forces which may bring influence and affects on the business activities.
7

Illustration 3:
Porter's Five Force Analysis
Bargaining power of suppliers
Every business organisation within the retail industry purchases their raw materials from
different suppliers. Products which are provided by the suppliers are less differentiated and fairly
standardised and also have low switching cost. Thus, suppliers have less power and control over
the prices and weak or less bargaining power.
Morrison can get effective benefits by developing and maintaining close relationship with
the suppliers. It can also focus on having multiple suppliers within its supply chain precess.
Bargaining power of buyers
Product quality is essential aspect for customers and such buyers leads to make frequent
purchases. Buyers within retail grocery industry are less price sensitive (Rastogi and Trivedi,
2016). Product differentiation is high in the retail grocery industry that means buyers do not have
alternative options for particular products. This makes switching cost higher for buyers and thus,
there bargaining power is weak or less within the industry.
8

Morrison can aim at bringing innovation and product differentiation in order to attract
great number of buyers. It can also focus on increasing marketing efforts and building brand
loyalty in order to strengthening the customer base. Morrison can also take effective advantage
of economies of scale for developing low cost products and selling it to low-income customers.
Threat of new entrants
Exit and entry barriers are generally high as because high investment is required for
acquiring capital, assets and operating. The barriers are high due to restrictions and regulations of
government as well. Capital requirements are also high which leads to make threat of new
entrants very low or weak in the industry.
Morrison can take effective advantage of economies of scale and fight with new entrants
with its cost advantage.
Threat of substitute products
There are fewer substitute products available in the markets in which Morrison operates.
The few substitutes that are available in markets provides high quality products but are way more
expensive. This means that customers are less likely for switching to the substitute products and
thus, threat of substitute product is less or weak in the industry in which Morrison operates.
Morrison can focus on offering higher quality products to its customers or on
differentiating its products (Atighechian and et.al., 2016). This will lead to ensure that customers
considers such product as unique and do not easily shift to substitute products.
Threat of existing competition
Fixed cost are high in the retail industry which makes company to push to full capacity
and they lead to reduce the price of the products when demand slackens. This leads to make
threat of existing competition very high in the industry. High capital requirements and high exit
barriers makes the firm to operate even at low profits which leads to increase the threat of
existing competitors.
Morrison needs to focus on developing innovative products and/ or differentiating its
products so that competitors' action brings less effect on the customers. It can also conduct in-
depth market research for understanding the supply-demand situation and prevent
overproduction.
From the above conducted marketing audit of the Morrison, it can be concluded that there
is great potential for market growth in the retail (grocery) industry. The SWOT, PESTLE and
9

Porter's Five Force analysis is conducted in order to do internal and external environmental
analysis of the business (Kotler and et.al., 2018). The results of these analyses suggested that
Morrison have the capability and potential for market growth and development.
Review of Marketing Mix of company
Marketing mix
It refers to the tool that helps the organization to determine the needs and demands of the
buyers on the basis of goods or services of the firm. Marketing mix is comprises various factors
that are under the control of the firm to influence the buyers for buying the goods or services of
the company. The marketing mix will help Morrison to promote its products or services to attract
targeted segment of buyers(Chernev, 2018). These factors are as follows-
Product
10
Illustration 4: Marketing Mix