Strategic Marketing Plan for Sainsbury: Process and Implementation

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Sainsbury's marketing process and planning strategies in the 21st century. It begins by outlining the concept of marketing and its role in modern business, focusing on how marketing functions contribute to brand definition, research and development, and innovative product offerings. The report then compares Sainsbury's marketing mix with that of its competitor, TESCO, examining differences in product range, pricing strategies, place (distribution), and promotional activities. Furthermore, it offers justified recommendations for Sainsbury to improve its market position, such as introducing affordable pricing in specific sectors, specializing in key product lines, and optimizing employment costs. The second part of the report discusses the strategic marketing plan, emphasizing its alignment with the overall organizational mission, corporate strategy, and objectives. It details the importance of clear and SMART marketing objectives, the use of marketing research to support new product launches, and a situational analysis involving marketing audits, SWOT, PESTLE, and 5C analysis. The report also covers competitor analysis, articulation of the new product value proposition, development of marketing strategies applied to the extended marketing mix, setting of an overall marketing budget, tactical actions, identification of appropriate control and monitoring measures, and a comprehensive media plan to support the planned marketing campaign.

MARKETING PROCESS
AND PLANNING

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
PART 1............................................................................................................................................4
Concept of Marketing in the 21st Century....................................................................................4
Role of marketing function..........................................................................................................5
Marketing mix between Sainsbury and TESCO..........................................................................6
Set of justified recommendations:...............................................................................................8
PART 2............................................................................................................................................9
The strategic marketing plan links with the overall organisational mission, corporate strategy
and objectives..............................................................................................................................9
Clear and SMART marketing objectives.....................................................................................9
Marketing research to support the new product line launch........................................................9
A situational analysis.................................................................................................................10
Marketing audit-......................................................................................................................10
SWOT-......................................................................................................................................10
PESTLE....................................................................................................................................11
5C analysis................................................................................................................................12
Competitor analysis including the market segments and sub-segments............................12
Articulation of the new product value-proposition in the eyes of the customer................12
Development of the marketing strategies applied to the extended marketing mix....................12
Setting of an overall marketing budget, including allocation of planned spend........................13
Tactical actions..........................................................................................................................13
Identifying appropriate control and monitoring measures to ensure achievement of objectives
including metrics to measure success such as Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI) and
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)...............................................................................................14
A comprehensive media plan that supports the planned marketing campaign, this will...........14
include:.......................................................................................................................................14
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................16

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is the concept in which there are different types of activities are included such
as communicating, creating, delivering and exchanging offering at the value of client, customer,
society etc. Also, marketing planning is referring to the process in which it includes defining and
organising the aim of the marketing of the company (Hodgkins, Knox and Kim, 2019). There are
different types of activities which are related to tactics are followed by the organisation in order
to achieving the goal of the firm. There are some of the strategies which are important in the
marketing because it is helps in further distribution, marketing, budget strategies for allocating
the plan. The report is based on Sainsbury is one of the biggest supermarket in the world, it has
established by John James Sainsbury in the year 1869 in London. There are more than 700
supermarkets and 800 convenience store all over the world. Moreover, large numbers of products
are offering by organisations including groceries, homewares, electronics, clothing etc. Further
the report discusses in two parts in which first parts are based on role of marketing and element
of marketing mix and functions in reference to organisation. In the second part it will addressing
the marketing plan in order to including communication, media plan etc.
PART 1
Concept of Marketing in the 21st Century
Marketing refers to a set of activities which are used in order to promote the goods and services
of a company. It includes communicating, designing, pricing and researching in order to
increase the sales of the company. In today’s times, the company makes use of the 4
essential P’s i.e., Product, Price, Place and Promotion in order to market its products and
services. In earlier times, people had no means to advertise their products except for
advertising in television, newspapers, and radios but in today’s world, the definition of
marketing in the lives of people as well as companies has completely changed as now
everyone can easily market and promote their business through social media platforms like
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. Companies can also make use of Email Marketing by sending
Personalized emails to their customers and influencing them into making a purchase (Thabit,
and Raewf, 2018).

Role of marketing function
Marketing plays and an important role in the overall functioning of the business. In today’s
world the role of marketing not only limited to market the products and services of the
company but also to convert the relevant leads into sales ( Lim, 2021). The role of marketing
in an organization includes:
Defining the brand:
With the help of marketing, the company has the authority to show what it is as a brand in front
of its customers (Iljina, 2019). For instance, Sainsbury uses the marketing tool in order to
influence its customers by presenting their brand. It uses the marketing to tell its consumers
what are its goals, what is the mission and how they are eager to serve their customers.
Research and Development:
Marketing is a basis of Research and Development in a company. Sainsbury makes use of its
marketing department for analyzing the needs and wants of the customers. It is used by the
company for the purpose of researching the current trends of consumerism in the market.
Innovative product offerings:
The role of marketing includes delivering better and innovative product offerings in the market.
Sainsbury offers a variety of products and services to its customers, thus uses the marketing
tool to bifurcate the physical goods which requires packaging and promotion in one part and
the services which are intangible in the other part.
Marketing and its relationship with other departments
Marketing is a wider concept which helps an organization in viewing themselves from the
perspective of end users of the products and services. Marketing is not an expertise activity
and thus is present in every department of the business.
Marketing and Operations Management
Though marketing is a function used to promote the goods and services of a company but it also
helps an organization in determining the specific needs of the customers. Sainsbury uses the
marketing tool in order to determine the current needs of the customers and how much
quantity of goods should be ordered so as to satisfy current needs of the consumer.
Marketing and Finance

The Finance department is the core of any business organization. It is the one who allocates the
required funds to each and every department of the organization (Rebecca, I.T. and
Maharani, A., 2018). Sainsbury links its marketing activities to finance department by
ensuring that the marketing of the relevant products and services is being done under the
financial scope of the company and that there is no shortage of the funds for the same.
Marketing and Human Resource
Working together of marketing and Human Resource is known as Consumerization of HR.
Sainsbury merges both these departments in their company in order to enhance the existence
of their brand in the market. Human Resource helps the company in bringing the most
efficient candidates for the purpose of marketing to the company which will further help
them in increasing the sales by focusing on their marketing skills.
Marketing and Sales
Marketing can bring so much to the table if implemented properly in the organization (Jindal,
Zhu, Chintagunta , and Dhar, 2020 ). Sainsbury utilizes its marketing function to the core of
the business. Sainsbury makes use of marketing in converting the leads to sales and thus
increasing the sales of the company. It is easy for the sales department of the company to
convert easy and influential targets to sales but Sainsbury takes the help of marketing in
order to convert tough targets by giving them the specifics required.
Marketing mix between Sainsbury and TESCO
Basis of
difference
Sainsbury TESCO
Product Sainsbury offers a wide range of products
that amounts to around 30,000 products,
out of which 20% are its product labels.
Its products range from food products,
clothing lines, fuel, cafes, home décor
pieces, etc. By keeping a constant track of
the products offered by the competitors in
the market, Sainsbury keeps on improving
its product range, and thus achieve its
organizational targets.
TESCO offers around 40,000
product lines in its retail stores.
It is a tough competitor of
Sainsbury. The products and
services offered by TESCO
includes foods products,
clothing, fuel, financial
services, telecom services
inclusive of Internet.

Price Sainsbury uses a competitive pricing
strategy in order to survive in the market.
It charges reasonable prices for the
products which people specifically buys
from store and a comparatively low price
for the products which can be bought
online. This helps the company to gain
maximum profits.
TESCO tries to keep the prices
as low as possible in order to
increase the sale without
hampering the quality of the
goods and services offered. It is
one major reason why people
buy more from TESCO as
compared to Sainsbury.
Place Sainsbury has widened its range from a
grocery shop based in London to an all-
rounder which has currently around 600
supermarkets and around 800 convenience
shops which has helped Sainsbury in
increasing its market share. Products are
offered online as well as offline.
TESCO is based in England.
TESCO also offers its products
and services offline as well as
online. It has 6 different types
of offline stores which includes
more of small size stores as it
believes that not everybody is
comfortable buying from big
stores.
Promotion Sainsbury uses ATL as well as BTL
strategies in order to promote its goods
and services in the market. It offers sales
incentives, rewards, makes use of
billboards, banners, newspapers, and
media in order to create a brand image in
the eyes of its customers. Sainsbury
recently introduced loyalty cards in order
to enhance its sales.
TESCO only uses its low prices
as a tool to market its products
and services. The
advertisements it offers only
has one main objective i.e, to
bring the focus of people
towards its low prices.
Packaging Currently, Sainsbury is reducing the use of
plastic and focusing more on using cloth
bags in order to give a message that it
cares for the environment. They have
made a policy of bring your own bags for
most of the products so that the use of
plastic can be reduced as much as
possible. This is helping the company in
saving the cost.
In the recent scenario, brands
have the pressure to present
themselves as eco-friendly in
the eyes of the customers.
Therefore, TESCO is using
environment friendly ways of
packaging which can be reused
and recycled such as cloth and
paper bags.
People Sainsbury has good and efficient
workforce which prioritizes the needs of
the customers and thus helps in achieving
the objective of the company.
TESCO is leading supermarket
chain which has employed
around 4,00,000 people all
over the world on the basis of
their skills and efficiency.

Positioning Sainsbury holds an effective position in
the marketplace in terms of satisfying its
customers, introducing own product lines,
and hiring efficient workforce in the
company.
TESCO hires more skilled
labor as compared to
Sainsbury. TESCO is more
adaptable and innovative in
terms of technology and
product offerings.
Set of justified recommendations:
Introduction of affordable prices in specific sectors:
Though Sainsbury is a leading supermarket chain and is in no specific need of making changes in
the organization but it can be benefitted more and hold an advantage in the market if it makes its
price more affordable by keeping in mind the lower middle-class section of the society. For
instance, it can introduce phones and laptops at affordable prices. This will help the company in
beating its competitors which follows low price policies.
Expertise:
Sainsbury is currently offering around 40,000 products in the market. The company should focus
on those product lines which are its key products and should stop selling those which are no
longer providing profits to the company. Sainsbury can specialize itself in limited product range
and become a king of those product range in the market.
High cost of employment:
The money spent by Sainsbury on the training and development of its employees is very as
compared to its competitors. The company should work on reducing the cost and improving the
process of recruiting and hiring of skilled employees in order to improve efficiency and reduce
the cost.

PART 2
The strategic marketing plan links with the overall organisational mission, corporate strategy and
objectives
Mission-
To make the first choice of the consumer in the food or other delivering products with the
outstanding quality or great service on the basis of competitive costs.
Corporate strategy and objectives-
The corporate strategy of Sainsbury is related to establishing value of the overall business
also helps top set the goals of the company and motivates the employees. This is the continuous
process that are carefully tailored by the organisation appropriately for changing conditions in
marketplace (Deffner and Sirakoulis, 2020). There are some of the main component of the
corporate strategy such as growth, renewal and stability. The growth of the company depends on
the customer review because when the customer is satisfying they will help to grow the
organisations. Along with this, the object setting is must for the developing vision with the
aspect of turning and creating them for the series. The strategic objective is big picture goal that
are describe for fulfil the mission, clearly communicating objectives of the personnel are help to
ensure about everyone who are focusing on high priority task.
Clear and SMART marketing objectives.
 To produce luxury brand for food item.
 For identifying growth of last 2 years then compare it from this year.
 To hire more staff for improve the performance (Christodoulou and Cullinane, 2019).
 Luxury food item will sell to high standard of people.
 Within three years the goal can be completed.
Marketing research to support the new product line launch.
There are some of major steps which are important to taken when the organisation launches new
product line.
Know the market- Salisbury has covered huge market for normal products which are
already produced by its Now it is necessary to sell luxury food item to those who are high in

class and able to buy the products easily. At the beginnings situations it is important to
understand the competitors who are already in the market with the same or substitute product.
Target customer- All types of customer are buying the products from Sainsbury for the
daily basis but now it is important to targets the customer of UK who are belongs to high profile
and able to buy the luxury products.
Devise unique value of proposition- The USP for the cited firm can be related to the
high quality products (Koshesh and Jafari, 2019).
Determine the market strategy- For luxury product it is important to promoting the
services at the online platforms because there are large numbers of followers who are actively
use the websites of the company. Also, roadside hoardings are help to set in the mind of
customers.
Monitor the lifecycle of product- Every product has its own period or lifecycle in which
it can be monitor further. For the luxury products it is important to change the product
accordingly after some time so that customer can buy it.
A situational analysis
This is referring to the detailed examinations of the market presence of the company on
the basis of external and internal factors. Also, in this there are examine the business potential
and current customers and their response for particular products or services.
Marketing audit-
It is the full exploration and analysis of entire marketing environment of the business that
assessing everything for targets and strategies for the specific marketing activities. There are
some of factors such as market position, organisation’s outside threats and opportunities related
for business environment. Also, there are some of the marketing channels which are help to
increases the macro environment, task environment etc (Burtt, 2021).
SWOT-
Strength Opportunities
 Loyal customer base
 Unique technology
 A strong brand
 Improve operation
 Increase the product line.
Weakness Threats

 Changing Consumer trends
 Change in technology
 Increasing in Competitors
 Tariffs are increasing
PESTLE
Political factor- There are some of the political factor which are related to imposing new
tax duty that are changing on the regular basis while exporting the services. Due to Sainsbury
there are fiscal policy are changed affected the organisations.
Economic factor- It includes all the factors that are related to the inflation rate which are
impacted positives for the organisation. The large number of people are help to increase the
demand of the product (ZAjAdAcZ and MinkwitZ, 2020). But at the same time there are some of
the common problem which can be faced by the company related customer preference that can
be changes according to the time. So it can be impacted purchasing power of the customer.
Social factor- The culture of any place can be changed according to the time and that is
why this factor are affect the organisation because consumer trend is change and customer are
changed their demand as well as demographic area in which customer can changed their
preferences such as in UK there are so many people who are like to wear western clothes but at
the same time there are comparatively less people who are like to wear western in the north
country. So the demand of the customer is changed accordingly.
Technological factor- There are different types of technology are changed and due to
this large investment for the grocery can be impacted negatively. Innovation in the technology
are one of the common factor which are impacted negatively as well as positively. Plant and
machinery are related to packaging and cleaning the product are help to sort the work. Also it can
help to increase the productivity (Tsai and Breit, 2018).
Legal factor- Sainsbury adopted the laws and regulation regarding employment because
there are large number of employees are working in the organisations. It is important to adopting
those laws which are related to health and safety of employees at the workplace.
Environmental factor- This factor is affect for some time because there is environment
issue which can impacted the agriculture and farming factor that are directly affect the market
and increase the power of supplier.

5C analysis
 Company- Sainsbury has good amount of resources which can satisfied the demand of
the customer easily on the basis of swot analysis.
 Context- Some of the context or climate which are affected due to high tariff rates,
technological factors etc.
 Customers- It helps to analysing the need of the customer as well as there are all group of
the customer are help to increase the productivity of the company for luxury products
there are particular class that is related to high profile are selected (Tong and Wigge,
2020).
 Collaborators- All the collaborators are related to the suppliers, distributors, producer
etc. which are control the external factors.
 Competitors- The major competitors are Tesco, mark and spencer.
Competitor analysis including the market segments and sub-segments
For the cited firm there are large number competitors in the market of the supermarket
but Sainsbury has make the name just because of unique qualities of the product. Some of the
key factors that are important for the business such as business dimension in order to identify the
price of the product. The technical dimension is included the infrastructure that are already good
in the market also the performance of the employees is stable with the firm. The market
dimensions are related to the enterprise and small & medium enterprises.
Articulation of the new product value-proposition in the eyes of the customer.
This stage is related to the value proposition that are help in identifying the main problems of the
customer. It has been very long the firms produced same line of products but at the same there is
constant sale also there are some of the people are expected to buy high quality of luxury food
items which are make the organisations different from other (Bhirud, Gupta and Narkhede,
2020). From the customers point the firm expected good response because there are less
competitors in the market who have sale similar category of products. This uniqueness will
attract customer as well as it helps to increase brand image of the Sainsbury.
Development of the marketing strategies applied to the extended marketing mix.
For any organisations it is very important to adopt those marketing strategies which are
help the organisation in order to increases the productivity of the firm. The extended marketing
mix are as follows-

Product- The luxury food products offered by Sainsbury are saffron cookies, organic &
soft drinks, Oysters dish which are easy to cook.
Place- At UK convenience store and supermarket also online delivery option are
available for selling the product.
People- There are more than 3000 employees are working in the organisations.
Price- Sainsbury has uses price skimming strategy for sale the products.
Promotion- The marketing strategy used by company is online as well as offline (Li, F.,
Larimo and Leonidou, 2021).
Process- The process used by the organisation is systematic as well as it includes
mechanism, procedures and work flow.
Physical evidence- Also, the stores are online as well as offline so that consumer can
buy the product according to their convenience.
Setting of an overall marketing budget, including allocation of planned spend.
Expense Amount
Advertisement expense $ 6000
Selling expense $ 3000
Service expense $ 4000
Marketing analytics $ 6000
Marketing research $ 5000
Tactical actions.
There are some of the tactical actions which are closer for achieving the strategic choice,
also when the company started for new product line it is important to make the strategy
according to the requirement of the Sainsbury. Some of tactical actions related to the marketing
strategies which are important in order to promote the product online and the locations would be
prefer for the place there are many high people are leaving together.

Identifying appropriate control and monitoring measures to ensure achievement of objectives
including metrics to measure success such as Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI) and
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).
To calculate return on marketing investment it is important to take sales growths of
business or product line by subtracting them with the marketing cost and then it will be divided
by the marketing cost (Jacobson, Gruzd and Hernández-García, 2020).
For example- sales $2000 and marketing campaign cost would be $ 200 then the simple ROI is
find 900%.
Also, to calculate the CLV is equal to average transaction size x number of transaction x
retention period.
For example, CLV= $ 4 (average sale) x 100 (annual visits) x 5(years) = $ 2000 approx.
A comprehensive media plan that supports the planned marketing campaign, this will
include:
○ a media budget- An advertisement or media budget are refers to the company’s expenditure
that is related to the promotional for the certain period of time. Sainsbury has spent a lot for
marketing expense because there are helped in marketing campaign so that it increases the brand
image of the company. The average media budget for the luxury item is approximately $250 to $
400 per day. Also, the target audience for Sainsbury are help to increase the brand image of the
company analysing the optimising campaign performance (Chatterjee and Kar, 2020).
○ recommendations and rationale for selected and integrated multi-media activities within
the set budget that meet the marketing objectives
All the multi-media activities of the company are depending on the budget there are large
amount spent on the social media but it has been recommended that the company should change
the marketing planning by providing different types of discount and additional prizes those who
have bought the first luxury item. This strategy will help for completing the marketing objective
which is to increase the reach of the product from the social media.
○ appropriate digital, offline and social media channels for communication
Video marketing- In this strategy it is important to make the video of the customer who
are visited in the store and then posted it on the social media or website so that there are large
number of people who are like to see the video and help to increases the reach of the customers.

Email marketing- All the customer who visited in the store as well as attend online
campaign necessary to send email to them so that they can get all the related information for
offers and discounts (Chen and Lin, 2019).
Social media marketing- At all the platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp are
help to increases the chance of communications with the customer or audience.
SEO (search engine optimisation)- In this strategy there are more and more audience are
help to connect on website and check the regular content which are uploaded on the website of
Sainsbury.
○ full justification for a multi-media plan based on quantitative and qualitative criteria.
It has been justified that qualitative research is help to attaining greater knowledge for
understanding the social world. Also, the statistics helps to get the idea about how people are
responding on the social media what next they expect from the organisation. On the basis of
qualitative methods, it can be depending on the response of people which are given on the social
media.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded for any industry marketing played important role it helps to promotes
services so that customer can connect with the organisation. Also, the reports discussed about
Sainsbury’s extended marketing mix and strategies for increasing the product line by luxury food
item. The report has been concluded on the basis of SWOT and pestle analysis with 5 C’s of
marketing. Further, the social medias plan and budget are explained so that customer wills spent
money accordingly. Moreover, evaluated tactical actions which are helps in the company and
discussed the different types of marketing strategies which are adopted by the cited firm such as
SEO, email, video etc. marketing techniques which are help to increases the customer base.

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