Developing a Marketing Plan for Sainsbury’s: Strategies & Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of marketing functions and their roles within an organization, focusing on Sainsbury’s as a case study. It details the key responsibilities of marketing, including market research, product development, promotion, distribution, pricing, and customer service. The report also examines the interrelationships between marketing and other functional units within Sainsbury’s. A detailed marketing plan is developed, outlining strategies to enhance Sainsbury’s profitability and sales, with a comparison of marketing mix applications used by Sainsbury’s and ASDA. The plan includes strategic planning, sales support, product development, and distribution strategies, emphasizing the importance of adapting to potential marketing trends in the digital domain. This document is available on Desklib, which provides access to various study tools and solved assignments for students.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................1
TASK 1..........................................................................................................................2
P1 KEY ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE FUNCTIONS OF
MARKETING.............................................................................................................2
M1 ANALYSIS OF THE ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE MARKETING
IN CONTEXT OF MARKETING ENVIRONMENT....................................................5
TASK 2..........................................................................................................................7
P3 COMPARISON OF THE METHODS IN WHICH THE FIRMS APPLY THE
MARKETING MIX TO THE PROCESS OF MARKETING PLANNING PROCESS
FOR ACHIEVING THE FIRMS OBJECTIVES..........................................................7
P2 ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF MARKETING RELATE TO THE WIDER
ORGANISATIONAL CONTEXT..............................................................................10
M2 ANALYSE THE SIGNIFICANCE OF INTERRELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN
MARKETING AND OTHER FUNCTIONAL UNITS OF THE ORGANISATION.....12
TASK 3........................................................................................................................14
P4 PRODUCE AND EVALUATE A BASIC MARKETING PLAN FOR AN
ORGANISATION.....................................................................................................14
M4 PRODUCE A DETAILED, COHERENT EVIDENCE-BASED MARKETING
PLAN FOR AN ORGANISATION...........................................................................14
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................18
REFERENCES...........................................................................................................19
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INTRODUCTION
It is important for the businesses to adopt effective marketing strategy in order to
accomplish success. The marketing strategies are made for promoting the services
and the products of the firm to the customers. It provides assistance in the
accomplishment of the goals and the defined objectives of the organisations. In the
assignment, the retail supermarket firm, Sainsbury’s is taken into consideration. The
marketing manager of Sainsbury’s need to discuss the marketing concepts and the
role of the marketing in the firm. Moreover, the explanation will be given on how the
marketing process has interrelation with the other business functions. Lastly, a
marketing plan will be made for the firm to enhance its profitability and sales.
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TASK 1
P1 KEY ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE FUNCTIONS OF
MARKETING
The organisations identify and source the potential products in order to promote
comes under the category of the marketing functions. Among the marketing
functions, the processes include the research of market, the development and
implementation of a marketing plan along with development of the product and the
product service management, the process of advertising and promotion, the
distribution of the services and products for more sales, the pricing and financing
strategies and lastly the public relations (PR) and customer services (Armstrong, et
al. 2015).
The marketing functions have a certain set of responsibilities and the roles. They are
depicted below-
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Marketing
functions
Marketing
Informtaion
management
Selling
Distribution
Product
Service
Management
Financing
Pricing
Promotion

 The functions of marketing have the role and responsibility of defining and
brand management that includes the activities undertaken by the firm and
addressing the needs and demands of all the stakeholders at the earliest
 The marketing function of the marketing information management conducts
the function of a collection of data regarding the necessities of the consumers.
The function also comprises of identification of the potential and loyal
customers who will contribute towards increasing the customer base for the
firm.
 The promotion function includes the activities of utilisation of the promotional
channels which include the channels such as marketing through telecalling,
the concept of direct Marketing through the agents etc. The promotional
functions will provide assistance to the companies in communicating the
services altogether with their advantages along with the building of the
preferences for the organisation's products (Ernst, et al. 2010).
 The marketing function includes the proper management of the services
offered in which the team decides the new features and the additional
services to be offered with the existing services and products so as to
increase the sales in the firm. The function and act of marketing services as a
valuable input for the excellent promotion of the services of the firm. The
management team along with the marketing team has the liability to look for
new opportunities so as to expand the firm to new markets and introduce the
new services and products.
 The finance role of marketing provides aid in the evaluation of the monetary
follow for the operations of the business. The organisation, here Sainsbury’s
has the responsibility to keep an account of the revenue obtained for the long-
term form the customer loyalty and the cash flow obtained from various
programs for the development of products.
 In the marketing functions, the sales play a significant role. It has the role and
responsibility to properly keep the maintenance of the sales and related
functions of the firm. Also, to check whether the sales are upgraded or
degrade with the course of time. The individuals responsible for conducting
the sales must have appropriate knowledge about how to sell their products
and persuade the customers to buy more products and avail more services
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 In the functions of marketing, the aspect of pricing plays a significant role.
Under this aspect, the prices of the products and the offered services need to
be decided according to the set criteria and guidelines and must be set in
such as manner that the consumers are encouraged more towards the firm's
products and they do not shift to the competitor firms. Also, it works on the
criteria that when the demand for certain products is more, then the customer
will even accept the high prices but when the demand and necessity of the
products are less, then the prices should be kept low.
 The marketing process involves the function of distribution in which the firm
like Sainsbury’s has the liability for selection of the appropriate channel for
distribution for selling their products and the offered services. Followed by the
section of the appropriate platform for the distribution of the products and the
services, the role of the organisation is to align the marketing model with the
channel which is selected.
The present marketing strategy of the firm, Sainsbury is focussed towards increasing
its market share and rise in sales. The major focus of the organisation is towards
fascinating the customers in order to increase its sales. On the contrary, the potential
marketing trends show that in the digital marketing domain, the firm can adopt the
marketing strategy in the digital domain rather than the conventional approach of
marketing (Barney and Hesterly, 2010). The various roles and responsibilities of the
marketing functions cannot be undermined in the today’s business activities as the
major component in the business is its ability for promotion. The firm is well
established in the UK markets so it needs to conduct effective marketing so as to
increase the market share and get raked in the first position among all other
supermarkets.
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M1 ANALYSIS OF THE ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE
MARKETING IN CONTEXT OF MARKETING ENVIRONMENT
There are certain roles and responsibilities of the process of marketing that the firms
have to abide and also to implement them. In the marketing environment, the firms
have to work for the selling activity, the promotional activity and other functional
activities that are responsible for effective marketing process. The overall structure of
the department of marketing in a firm and the internal functions that are executed
inside the department give the definition of the roles of the various functions. The
department of marketing has to maintain the account of the total benefits and other
profits that are earned, the market share of the firm and the expenses. In the context
of the environment of marketing, there are the specific roles and a certain set of
responsibilities of the marketing which are described below-
Strategic planning- The organisations conduct the planning as a part of the short-
term goal related to the marketing information management. This is done to take the
decisions regarding what customers to targets for the sales of the company’s
services and products (Steiner, 2010). The planning is assisted by the STP which is
segmentation of the customers, targeting them and positioning them. The market
investigation is carried out for the purpose of business expansion and the
appropriate strategies are made according to the workforce capabilities.
Sales support- In the organisations, their performance of the sales is being
enhanced by amalgamating the hard work that is depicted by the marketing and the
sales teams by conducting a number of the advertising activities along with utilising
the promotional activities. The sales support is an effective approach which assists
the firms to take guidance in the further strategic planning processes.
Product development- In the organisations, the presence of the team for product
development provides a lot of aid in conducting the analysis of the current products
and the various services offered by the firms. This further helps in the examination of
the bridge between the various range of the services and products provided by the
firms. The whole analysis process is being carried out in order to seek for new
opportunities for the organisations and also to accordingly introduce and accelerate
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modification in the pricing strategies and various marketing plans for the promotional
activity in the firm.
Distribution- In the wider context of the marketing environment, the distribution
function of marketing plays a vital role in accelerating the other marketing functions
in the firm. This process of distribution is being initiated and further done through
two modes, first the online mode and the other is offline mode (Lamb, et al. 2011).
The presence of the physical stores of the firms makes it possible for the larger
audience to buy the products and avail different services of the firm whereas the
online mode of distribution helps the firm to offer their services and products through
the web and make it easy and convenient for the customers to buy the products
anytime and from anywhere.
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TASK 2
P3 COMPARISON OF THE METHODS IN WHICH THE FIRMS APPLY THE
MARKETING MIX TO THE PROCESS OF MARKETING PLANNING
PROCESS FOR ACHIEVING THE FIRMS OBJECTIVES
Element Sainsbury’s ASDA
Product The firm has products
delivered in 2 formats one
is a supermarket and the
other is local convince
stores. Both of them offer
around 30,000 product
line. Around 20% is the
firm’s own brands product
line. The products are the
low fat and organic
products. The others are
the other food products,
stationery items and
toiletries (Sainsbury’s,
2018).
The firm sells the grocery
products, electronic
products, clothing
segment and other
financial services. The
firm has retail sales as
well the platform for online
selling of the products. It
also has a mobile phone
firm which is based on the
EE network which is the
unique factor of the form
and adds to its marketing
strategies (ASDA, 2018).
Price The strategy for pricing is
based on offering the
value for the money. The
firm takes every effort to
keep the good quality of
products along with
making sure that the
customers are not moving
to other firms. It adopts the
competitive pricing policy
along with positioning the
ASDA adopts the low
pricing strategy for
building a large consumer
base. It believes in offering
prices as per the demands
of the customers. The firm
also provides sale and
discounts on the festive
occasions to attract more
customers.
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price of the product
according to the premium
and basic range.
Place Sainsbury’s has a total of
1415 shops as of 2017
data out of which some of
the shops are open all
round the clock. The firm
provides home delivery
services through placing
an order on website or
telephone calls. The firm
has around 13 distribution
centres and 2 national
distribution centres in
which the slow movement
of goods take place and
the storehouses for frozen
food storage are there
(Sainsbury’s, 2018).
ASDA has 642 locations
as of January 2018. All the
store formats have the
simple and fresh
approach. It follows the
niche store technique and
the largest hypermarkets
of ASDA are the ASDA
Walmart supercentres
which have a sales area of
around 90,000 square
feet.
Promotion The firm uses the
strategies of ATL (above
the line) and BTL (below
the line) for attracting the
customers and enhance
the brand name. It also
uses the celebrity
endorsement and
sponsorship strategies.
The firm also introduced
the Nectar reward card
which credits points in the
customer’s card on every
The firm believes in
Chosen by your attempts
where the firm has spread
the message for value
pricing and the testing
process is followed for
meeting the needs of
customers (ASDA, 2018).
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purchase.
Physical evidence The firm has different
store designs and to
address the customer’s
needs. The interiors and
the services provided by
the firm are excellent that
gives the customers a
great shopping
experience.
The strength of the firm
lies in its size of the firm,
the location and the
number of stores. It has a
supermarket division, the
general merchandise store
which is known as ASDA
living.
Process The firm has made online
shopping very well which
has the service of click of
collect. The firm is also
introducing new store
formats and has made
several changes in the
pricing strategy and the
allotting of delivery slots
(Sainsbury’s, 2018).
The firm was initially a
goods seller but moved
later to the sales of
household items and other
retail products. It also has
the financial services and
the insurance services.
The firm has a substantial
market share with its profit
earning processes (ASDA,
2018).
People The firm has 181,00
employees till 2017 which
are the trained experts as
well as professionals who
are well aware of the
needs of customers. The
firm also has level 2 craft
skills apprenticeship for
the fishmongers and
bakers.
The firm focuses on its
165,000 employees along
with the large customer
base. The firm provides
effective training to its staff
along with training them
with highly technical skills.
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