Strategic Planning of Relationship Marketing for Nestle: An Analysis

This report provides a critical evaluation of Nestle's strategic planning for relationship marketing in the international market. It begins with a company background, highlighting Nestle's mission and objectives, followed by an analysis of their strategic planning process. The report examines Nestle's strengths, such as strong marketing capabilities and brand awareness, and weaknesses, like past product recalls. It explores the opportunities available, including the growing health consciousness of consumers, and how Nestle utilizes communication tools like social media and electronic CRM to build relationships. The report also discusses the needs and benefits of a strategic approach to relationship marketing, emphasizing customer satisfaction, retention, and competitive advantage. It concludes that Nestle's strategic planning is influential, considering the global industry environment, and that their focus on market trends and product labeling contributes to long-term success in the international market. The report references various academic sources to support its analysis.

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International Marketing Management

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\Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Company Background.....................................................................................................................3
Strategic Planning of Relationship Marketing Strategies in Nestle.................................................4
Needs and Benefit of Undertaking Strategic Approach to Relationship Marketing Strategies in
Context of International Market......................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
At the present time, as the business world has become unpredictable, needs and requirements of
the firms to think from strategic perspectives have been increased. According to Spee and
Jarzabkowski (2011), the idea of strategic planning is beneficial for the business organizations to
utilize its available resources and capabilities in an effective manner to manage different
activities as per the changes occur in the external environment.
Further strategic planning is a firm integrates wide range of aspects associated with the policies
and strategy development. It is always beneficial for the firm to use its different strategies as a
critical success factor and create a competitive advantage in the marketing by adopting a
strategic planning approach (Bryson, Anderson and Alston, 2011). This report presents a critical
evaluation of the strategic planning adopted by Nestle for its relationship marketing strategies to
develop in the international market. Along with this, benefits and needs of using a strategic
approach for its relationship marketing in the international market are also described.
Company Background
Nestle is one of the popular brand names in the global food industry, headquartered in Vevey,
Vaud, Switzerland. In 1866, Henri Nestlé found the company, and in 1905 by merging with the
Anglo-Swiss Milk Company, formally formed as Nestle. Mission of Nestle is to become a
leading business firm in the food and beverage market that delivers a wide range of creative,
branded food and beverage categories to the customers through developing innovations and
motivating key partners at global level (Nestle, 2017). In addition to this, the company has
several brands such as Nescafe, Perrier, Nestea, Lean Cuisine and Toll House and so on. The

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company has objectives of becoming a global market leader in nutrition, health and wellness
business and to make good relationship with all stakeholders. With this, the company has an
objective to maintain leading position in this industry in terms of strong financial performance
(Annual report, 2012).
Strategic Planning of Relationship Marketing Strategies in Nestle
At Nestle, strategic planning and program are very crucial and important to improve the
marketing performance of the firm and accomplish its goals and objectives on time. For the
attainment of the strategic objectives of enhancing its relationship with the internal as well as
external stakeholders, strategic planning is critical for the firm. The strategy of relationship
marketing is associated with the establishment of long-term and profitable relationship with
customers and its strategic planning approach is linked with use of relationship marketing as the
main strategy to develop long term relationship with the customers (Bondrea, Gârdan and
Geangu, 2010). It focuses fully on the consumer and tries to develop a relationship of mutual
trust and confidence with the customer which in turn, will increase his loyalty towards the
company (Heffernan, O'Neill, Travaglione and Droulers, 2008). For Nestle, to develop in the
international market, it is important to identify the industry market and understand the needs and
preferences of the customers, so that the firm can develop long term relationship with them by
using relationship marketing strategies.
For the strategic planning of relationship marketing strategies, the company has created its by
conducting a strategic audit. In this strategic audit, Nestle has identified its strengths and
weaknesses and opportunities and threats available in the international market to develop the
new relationships. In the international context, Nestle has a strong marketing capabilities and

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brand awareness which is its main strength. Thus, the company has used these factors to promote
it as a strong marketer in the international market and provide different benefits to the customers
to retain them for long term (Bondrea, Gârdan and Geangu, 2010). Further, due to the strong
financial position, the company has rich availability of resources and facilities, which are used by
the firm to attract the customers and other stakeholders in the international market through
different offers like loyalty rewards to customers, loyalty bonus to employees and so on. In the
present competitive environment, Nestle can use this concept by concentrating on the value
improvement by offering more satisfying food items with high quality an affordable price to the
customers (Peter and Donnelly, 2012).
On the other hand, the company has a weakness of contaminated food recalls, which has ruined
its market image in several markets. For example a recent recalls of Maggie Noodles of Nestle in
Indian market has damaged its image. Thus, due to this weakness, it is considerable for the firm
to implement a strong approach of relationship marketing and develop personal relationships
with the international customers.
For the strategic planning of relationship marketing in Nestle in the international market, the
company has also identified the opportunities available in the external market. The company has
a scope of developing relationship marketing by creating awareness about the health benefits of
its food items. The global consumers are becoming health conscious and it the fast pace of life,
they need quick and healthy food solution. Nestle has imposed different marketing strategies to
approach the consumers and organized educational programs to create awareness about the
health benefits of its food item, especially for babies (Williams and Naumann, 2011).
Its strategic planning of relationship marketing is also effective in terms of communicating the
right information in right time. The company has executed latest means of communication and

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innovative IT tools such as wireless networking, social media, digital marketing and so on to
approach the customers. Along with this, the company also implemented an electronic CRM
process, so that a quick response can be given to the customers and their feedback and positive
reviews can be shared. In order to maintain strong relationship the firm always welcomes ideas
and suggestions of the customers on this website, social networking pages and panel (Annual
report, 2012). By adopting this strategic approach of maintaining long term relationship, it has
also created a solution to manage the environmental threat and highly competitive pressure in the
industry. Further, the company also follows adequate labeling and packaging to provide clear
information about the product ingredients and its nutritional information to the customers. The
company follows all the regulations of food and drug administration to create a good brand
image and develop a good relationship with the customers in the international market
(BondreaGârdan and Geangu, 2010).
Needs and Benefit of Undertaking Strategic Approach to Relationship
Marketing Strategies in Context of International Market
Relationship marketing is an arrangement for the long run and it has mutual benefits for the
customers and the business organization (Sheth, 2017). At Nestle, for the achievement of its
objectives and mare sure that it will become a leading firm, it is important for the firm to give a
tough competition to the rivals. In this regards, relationship marketing strategies works as a
critical success factor for the company. Relationship marketing is important or the firm to have a
massive return on investment by focusing on customer satisfaction and increase the retention rate
of customer. A satisfies customer will give a long time business to the company as well as create
a competitive advantage (Heffernan, O'Neill, Travaglione and Droulers, 2008). It is a critical

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success factors and facilitate the firm to keep the customers happy and get great reviews about
the company and its product, which eventually influences its marketing image and brand
reputation. In context of getting potential success in the international market, relationship market
will be beneficial for Nestle to create positive word of mouth and spread its good image, If the
firm do not use relationship market in an effective manner and develop poor relationship with its
customer, it will be a future loss and failure of the company due to bad word of mouth. The
company can develop better and strong relationship with the customers by sending them thank
you notes, giving them discounts and sending other product information, new launches and other
benefits, which will attract the customers and make them happy. All of these efforts show that
the company values its customers (Williams and Naumann, 2011). This makes the customers
closer to the company and enhances the rate of purchase by the old customers as well as by
attracting new customers. Thus, it is significant for Nestle to conduct strategic planning of
relationship marketing for its long term success and use it as a critical success factor.
Conclusion
Thus, on the basis of the above discussion, it can be concluded that Nestlé’s strategic planning
for the relationship marketing is highly influential and based on the evaluation of the global
industry environment. In order to develop an effective strategic planning, the company has
analyzed its internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats in a
comprehensive manner. The company has executed an adequate relationship marketing
approaches through strategic planning. It is because it focuses on changing market trends, health
and nutrition’s and labeling of the products. The relationship marketing of Nestle is one of the

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critical success factors of its long term success in the international market because it enables the
firm to attract and retain the customers for a long time.
References
Annual report (2012) [Online]. Available at
http://www.nestle.com/asset-library/Documents/Library/Documents/Annual_Reports/
2012-Annual-Report-EN.pdf [Accessed on 15th February 2017].
Bondrea, A.A., Gârdan, D.A. and Geangu, I.P. (2010) The Role of Strategic Planning In
Relationship Marketing. Annals of Spiru Haret University, Economic Series, vol. 1, no. 4,
pp. 53-60
Bryson, J.M., Anderson, S.R. and Alston, F.K. (2011) Implementing and Sustaining Your
Strategic Plan: A Workbook for Public and Nonprofit Organizations. USA: John Wiley
& Sons.
Heffernan, T., O'Neill, G., Travaglione, T. and Droulers, M. (2008) Relationship marketing: The
impact of emotional intelligence and trust on bank performance, International Journal of
Bank Marketing, vol. 26, no. 3, pp.183 – 199.
Nestle (2017) [Online]. Available at: http://www.nestle.com [Accessed on 15th February 2017].
Peter, J.P. and Donnelly, J.H. (2012) A Preface to Marketing Management, 15th Edition.
McGraw-Hill Professional.
Sheth, J. (2017) Revitalizing relationship marketing, Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 31, no.
1, pp. 6 – 10.
Spee, A.P. and Jarzabkowski, P. (2011) Strategic planning as communicative process,
Organization Studies, vol. 32, no. 9, pp. 1217–1245.
Williams, P. and Naumann, E. (2011) Customer satisfaction and business performance: a firm-
level analysis. Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 20–32.