Marketing Plan for Sainsbury's: A Comprehensive Analysis

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments. This report analyzes Sainsbury's marketing strategies and compares them to Marks & Spencer.

Marketing Essentials
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................. 3
LO1............................................................................................................................. 4
LO2............................................................................................................................. 7
LO3........................................................................................................................... 10
Conclusion................................................................................................................ 15
Reference List...........................................................................................................16
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Introduction
The study is about Marketing Essentials. Marketing Essentials mean proper
administration of activities like promotion of products and selling them with
appropriate research of the market and implementation of effective advertising
strategy. John Sainsbury established it in 1869. The following tasks will take a
specific organization, Sainsbury UK. It stands among biggest supermarket chains of
the nation with 16.9% share. The current CEO of Sainsbury is Mike Coupe. This
company serves customers with grocery items. It has 605 supermarkets, 807
convenience stores, 15000 brand products and 250000 weekly orders from online.
The interrelation of marketing responsibilities and other organizational factors will be
explained. Major factors of marketing function will be evaluated and analyzed
critically. Their ways of correlation with other functional areas within Sainsbury will be
analyzed. Another organization along with Sainsbury will be chosen in order to
compare the fact that different organizations use different elements from the 7Ps of
marketing mix. The evaluation of different schemes used by companies will be given
to show how they attain their business goals. The task will provide marketing plan for
Sainsbury including all seven marketing mix elements with proper action plan,
monitoring measurements and progression of evaluation in order to meet
organizational objectives.
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LO1
P1 Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function.
Marketing is an activity that includes producing products, communicating with the
members, delivering the goods, and sharing offerings that are valuable for the
clients, customers, society, as well as for partners in business (Hargrave, 2019).
According to Philip Kotler, marketing is the function of an organisation as well as a
set of procedures of generating, corresponding, and conveying the value of the
products to the customers as well as for administering the relationship of the
customers to benefit both the stakeholders and the organisation. There are some
roles and responsibilities of marketing in Sainsbury, United Kingdom.
Roles:
 The marketing meets the needs and demands of the consumers and
incorporates strategies to trade. This helps in producing the selected products
and avoiding wastage of those that are not in demand.
 The marketing department uses tools like mass media for selling, promoting,
advertising, programming, and event marketing (Linton, 2019).
 Marketing has the role of adjusting the price of the products for more profit of
the business. Thus, marketing helps in generating revenue in the company.
 Marketing develops the distribution system of the products. This helps in
managing the supply chain (Mishra et al., 2016).
 The marketing department creates articles and blogs for the online website of
the company. The customers would be able to get information about the
products and stay updated to new offers and goods.
 It has the duty of selecting and administering the vendors and agencies for
the company.
 Marketing has the role of designing products for higher satisfaction level of the
customers (Wroblewski, 2019).
 Marketing generates place, form, time, and information for marketing
products.
 Marketing manages the demand of customers.
 It faces competition and creates strategies to balance the position of the
company in the market.
 The marketing in any business establishes, maintains, and enhances the
relationships of the partners and customers. It benefits both of them. This can
be attained by shared exchanges and the accomplishment of the goals.
 Marketing also helps in increasing the economy of the company as well as of
the whole country. It does so by encouraging the production of the company,
and when the growth of the company is increased, it needs more workforces
to manage the labour. Thus, it helps in providing employment and enhancing
the economy of the country.
 Marketing helps in finance of the company by finding investors to invest
capital for the growth of the business.
Responsibilities:
 It should understand the competitive and economic aspects of Sainsbury
Company.
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 Marketing has the responsibility of recognising the targeted markets,
segments, and the methods that should be applied for the growth of the
business.
 The marketing department has the responsibility of researching and
comprehending the strategies of rival companies (Phillips, 2019).
 It should develop new products and scan the environment for getting the
knowledge of opportunities and threats.
 It has the responsibility of comprehending the positive and negative aspects
of the environment on the company.
 It should use the management information system, such as computer
database to recognise the progress is sales of products and services.
The roles of marketers can be changed in a difficult situation. For instance, in
Sainsbury, marketers have adopted new plans to deal with the reduction of profit
and sales. They have cut down the price of the products for the survival of the
business. The extra spaces of the stores have been used to expand the business,
for instance, by accumulating more clothing and other non-food products. It has
planned to open new stores for more sales and profit of the business. It has also
adopted innovation techniques in packaging and selling products to create a great
brand value. It has incorporated ethical sourcing method in marketing to attract more
customers. It has invested in “Information Technology” system to build a healthy
relationship with the customers (Vizard et al., 2019). It has incorporated the method
of messaging the customers to gain more profit.
P2 Explain how roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider
organisational context.
Marketing refers to the fields, which includes strategies, communication and
researches. It helps the Sainsbury Company in creating their customers’ value and
in building their relationship with their customers. The professionals of marketing
must have to be rigorous and creative to create advertisement. Marketing includes
many functions of the managers in analyzing and planning the strategies. There are
many responsibilities and roles of marketing, which helps the Sainsbury Company to
maintain and enhance their relationship with their customers. The marketing process
involves production, sustainable and ethical marketing, products selling and many
others (Moorman et al., 2016). The marketing function must interact with some other
functions in the organisation in order to achieve their main goal. The other functions
are discussed below:
Finance Function:
Finance function is responsible for setting budget so that they can control their extra
expenses (Gitman et al., 2015). Its main role is to set the price of the products in a
way, which can help in covering the costs and in contributing towards profits.
However, the finance department of the Sainsbury has to be flexible in order to do
the works intuitively. As a result, they can collaborate with the fast changing needs.
The accounting function of the Sainsbury Company has many tough terms to follows,
while the marketing function has the flexibility, by which the organisation can use it
as a negotiation procedure.
Purchasing Function:
Pricing function of the Sainsbury organisation has many roles in setting the price of
the products. They do it after focusing on the standardisation, purchase quantities
and the price of the materials (Paesbrugghe et al., 2018). As a result, it also has
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many flexible features, which allow the employees to be responsive in any situation.
However, the marketing functions of the company tend to take decision according to
the quality of the raw materials and components rather than pricing. However, this
function can increase the ability of the organisation to differentiate the quality of their
raw material from others. However, the both purchasing and the marketing
department must work together in order to build a flexible, co-operative and long-
term relationship with their suppliers.
Production Function:
The production function has more potential than the other functions in the
comparison with the marketing function (Ackerberg et al., 2015). This function helps
the organisation in operating large and good quality production. However, there are
many variations and changes on the basic products. The production function prefers
to produce the standard products than the customers’ customized orders. The
marketing function of the organisation sometimes can support the production
function in order to provide a range of requirements in the present market.
Research, Engineering and Development Functions:
The engineering and the research department prefer to have long period in order to
develop the new products in a better way (Fisher et al., 2016). However, the
marketing function sometimes forces the research and engineering functions to
develop new produces as soon as possible. As a result, the company can gain the
leadership of the products in the market. The research and development of the
organisation focuses on the products in order to attract more customers by serving
their requirements. However, on the other hand, the marketing department only
looks for their profits and benefits. In this case, they also focus on the development
of the selling process (Blair, 2016).
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LO2
P3 Compare the ways in which different organisations apply the marketing mix
to the marketing planning process to achieve business objectives.
Factors Sainsbury’s Marks and Spencer
Products Sainsbury’s sells multiple
kinds of products, which
includes various types of
clothes for men, women
and children. It also
includes numerous types
of grocery products like
fruits, vegetables, meat,
fish, eggs, beer and baby
food products. They have
several divisions of these
products, which is a
speciality of this
organization and is a huge
factor of attraction.
Sainsbury’s focuses on
designing their food and
fashion apparel categories
in such a way that it
attracts customers from
different backgrounds
(sainsburys.co.uk, 2019).
Marks and Spencer have
many kinds of products
under their catalogue and
it is very similar to
Sainsbury’s product range.
The main difference is that
this organization had to
develop their food section
to gain more advantage in
the market. The company
has various kinds of
clothes for men, women
and children. The product
line is greater than
Sainsbury’s when it comes
to clothes.
Price Sainsbury’s uses the
method of dynamic pricing
to assort prices of its
products. The company
performs public surveys
and checks the
competition regarding the
economical condition of
the people and the amount
of money they spend on a
product. The price of the
groceries of Sainsbury is
much lower than M&S, as
the organization focuses
on generating more
revenue from food
products. The apparels
are not much attractive
when it is compared with
M&S.
M&S uses the method of
dynamic pricing to allocate
the prices of their products
but they tend to focus
more on the apparel
section much more.
Therefore, they make
effective pricing for their
clothes for both men and
women. The prices are
reasonable and the
products are attractive for
people of all ages
(marksandspencer.com,
2019).
Promotion Sainsbury’s uses social
media platforms like
This organization teamed
up with RPM in Leeds to
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Facebook and Instagram
to promote their company
and attract customers.
The organization worked
with BecauseXM and
Cadbury to promote their
business on a global level.
Their recent campaign
focuses on living well in
exchange of lesser
money. They also
transformed a shipping
container into a high-tech
kitchen as a promotional
activity. The company is
also launching their range
of glittering wines in
Christmas for promotional
purposes
(becausexm.com, 2019).
launch a campaign
regarding foods for
summer. They displayed
various kinds of dishes
from different countries
like Italy and France to
attract people. They have
introduced the theme of
Paddington Bear and
designing various kinds of
activities inside stores.
They are planning to
surprise customers by
giving free products to
improve the customer
relationship and promote
the company. They also
use various kinds of social
medias like Twitter and
Instagram to promote their
business
(marksandspencer.com,
2019).
People It is necessary to appoint
the right people to perform
the job for Sainsbury’s.
Therefore, the company
hires employees who are
capable of increasing their
sales and sales assistants
who have the ability to
attract customers and
display products with skill.
Marks and Spencer train
their employees to perform
better when it comes to
achieving business
objectives. They go
through various
workshops and training
sessions to learn their
craft and it helps the
organization to maintain
good revenue. They also
engage employees more
to create a sustainable
business (Polman and
Bhattacharya, 2016).
Place The Sainsbury company
first chose the destination
or market, where they will
sell their products. They
try to make their products
and services visible to
their customers by serving
to the products to that
place, which can be easy
to reach for the customers.
The company tries to
improve the design of the
The Marks and Spencer
Company has no special
segmentation about place,
where they can sell their
products. However, the
company has a good
delivery process. Their
employees deliver their
products without any
delays and mistakes.
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store in order to attract the
customers at a glance
when they visit to the
store.
Process The company always
maintain a good process
in order to make the all
task going in the right
direction. They try to
increase their efficiency of
production in order use
less money. The
employees of the
company are so sincere
about the emotions of the
customers. Customers’
satisfaction is the most
important thing for them
and as a result, the try to
give them a better
experience.
The company has no such
process to manage their
entire process. However,
the company tries to serve
products with good quality.
However, the company
has the lack of
technologies and as a
result; they cannot operate
well with their customers.
Physical evidence The company tries to
make improvement of the
place, where they can
provide their services so
that, they can make an
impact on their guest. In
this case, the interior
design of the company is
so attracting that can
make an impact on the
customers at a first
glance. The Sainsbury
Company tries to fulfil the
promises, which the
company say in the
advertising time.
The Marks and Spencer
Company tries to improve
their packaging system to
attract their target
customers. Moreover, the
company manipulates the
perception of their
customers in order to
understand the choices of
their customer. That is
why; they become able to
provide things and
services according to their
customers’ preferences.
As a result, the brand is
well known to the every
customer.
Table 1: Marketing mix of 7P’s
(Source: Created by the learner)
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LO3
P4 Produce and evaluate a basic marketing plan for an organisation.
Executive summary
In the marketing plan, the aim and objectives of the Sainsbury Company has been
elaborated. The Sainsbury Company, which is a supermarket chain, needs to
understand their weakness and strength in order to be more benefitted. In this plan,
the both SWOT and PESTLE tools are used to analyse the company’s
environmental factors. The plan has discussed the marketing mix tools in order to
show its importance in the improvement of quality of the services and products of the
Sainsbury Company.
Vision
The vision of the Sainsbury Company is to become the most efficient and trusted
retailer by ensuring a great service to the customers. Their purpose is to please
people so that, they like to shop and work in the organisation. They main invest in
the development, training and various incentives in order to be sure that their
employees can provide their customers a good shopping experience
(sainsburys.jobs, 2019).
Goals and objectives
Sainsbury Company is the largest leading store, which always tries to check and
improve the experience of the shopping of the customers. Their main goal is to
provide good service and products with reasonable prices. However, the objectives
of the Sainsbury Company are elaborated below:
 To enhance their services, by checking the process everyday
 To maintain efficiency, productivity, simplicity in the organisation
 To provide respect to their employees and customers as well
 To build reputation in the present market
 To encourage their employees to overcome any situation so that, the
productivity cannot stop in any situation
Situational analysis
In the marketing plan, both the tools- SWOT and PESTLE is used in order to analyse
the impact of the internal and external factors on the Sainsbury Company.
PESTLE Analysis:
Factors Impacts
Political Brexit is the main political factor, which
can affect the business largely (Dhingra
et al., 2016). The company can face a
labour or employees problem. It mainly
affects the trade system. The small
company will not be interested in trading
with the company. Moreover, after Brexit,
the government of UK made many strict
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rules that do not to allow the free entry
process (Wadsworth et al., 2016). As a
result, the progress of work will be
slowed down because of lack of
employees.
Economical The increasing expenditure on the
household after Brexit is the other
factors, which affect the company in
many ways. The employees of the
company leaves the country because,
they are not capable of meeting the costs
of the households. However, in the last
few years, the GDP has increased a lot.
It refers to the fact that, the economical
position of the companies will be
improved.
Social The population of UK is so high and most
of them are aged. It affects the effectives
of the company. However, though, they
are very experienced than the new, they
may lack the new ideas and vision. As a
result, the company can face any conflict
in taking a decision.
Technological Nowadays, there are developed many
new advanced technologies, which can
be beneficial for the company. However,
if the company use the technologies,
they can provide a better shopping
experience to their customers. Moreover,
it can be easy for their customers to do
their tough task easily.
Environmental Climate change is the most important
factors, which can affect the business.
The delivery or the selling process can
be delayed for the climate change. In this
case, they cannot able to fulfil their aims
(customers’ satisfaction)
Legal Nowadays, there are many legal rules
and policies, which make the company,
feel insecure sometimes. The
employment laws can have a great
impact on the company. However, the
company can take the help of the
“copyright law” so that, the company
obstruct the small companies to sell their
low quality products by their name.
Table 2: PESTLE Analysis
(Source: Created by the learner)
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SWOT Analysis:
Strength
 The main strength of the company
is that the company gives training
to the employees before including
them in their organisation.
 A good collaboration between the
employers and employees
 Team-working skills among the
employees
 The mangers of the company
check the progress of the
company in every stage.
 Recognition in the market
Weakness
 Lack of innovation skills is the
most important weakness
 The lack of high skilled and
knowledgeable employees
 The communication problem
because of the immigrants
Opportunity
 Nowadays, the people of villages
also use the branded products.
That is why; it is best opportunity
to the company to grow their
business in the remote villages.
Threat
 The changing technology is the
most important weakness of the
Sainsbury Company. There are
many employees, who are not
familiar with these technologies.
 Growing costs is the other threat
to the company, because, the
company has to think twice
Table 3: SWOT Analysis
(Source: Created by the learner)
Segmentation age and income, targeting and positioning improve quality and
delivery
Segmentation: There are many kinds of segmentations, which are followed by
many companies. However, the Sainsbury Company shall focus upon three
segments that include gender, age and income.
Targeting: The target of the marketing plan is to attract both genders by providing a
good service. The company shall choose the young generation. The will target the
female, whose age is between 17-30 and males will be 15-35 years old. The aim of
the plan is to target both the middle class and the higher class according to their
income.
Positioning: The Sainsbury company must improve the quality of their services so
that, they can attract their target customers. They can make their process simple so
that, all their target customers can understand their strategies easily. In this case,
they can increase the speed of the communication with the warehouse. The
company must also check their packaging system. Any faults in the packing can
dissatisfy their customers. Moreover, they should select those markets, which is
easy to reach for their customers. Additionally, the company will target the middle
class by providing a good quality service in low price.
Marketing mix decision
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