Sainsbury's Marketing Report: SWOT, Challenges, and Recommendations

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Sainsbury's marketing strategy, employing a SWOT analysis to identify the organization's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It pinpoints key service marketing challenges facing Sainsbury's over the next three years, including globalization, rising prices, skilled workforce shortages, and evolving legal norms. The report further analyzes these threats through the lens of theoretical service marketing principles, such as product, price, place, and promotion, offering recommendations to overcome these challenges while leveraging Sainsbury's strengths and opportunities. The importance of service blueprinting is highlighted as a crucial tool for enhancing service quality and addressing identified weaknesses and threats, ultimately aiming to improve profitability and market position.

Marketing

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK ..............................................................................................................................................3
1. Analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) facing the
organisation ...........................................................................................................................3
2. Identification of the organisation’s key service marketing challenges(Weakness and
Threats) for the next 3 years...................................................................................................5
3. Analyses the threats through the lens of theoretical principles of services marketing and
provide recommendations to overcome challenges within the constraints of Strengths and
Opportunities..........................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8
APPENDICES-1..............................................................................................................................9
APPENDICES-2..............................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is considered as the place where exchange of goods and services has been
taken place to a satisfy the needs of the consumer. In order to run successfully in a business
market, effective market strategy is vital (Franco, 2018). The good marketing system impart
knowledge to the consumer about the particular product so to make better choices about the
product (Brown and McGowan, 2018). There are marketing principles that helps to target the
potential consumers. These principles of marketing benefits the buyers to purchase the goods and
also benefit the business to generate revenue and brand value in the market. The company
chosen in this report is Sainsbury, a renowned retail store in the United kingdom. It is known for
their best quality service of food and supply fresh grocery items to ensure their health and safety.
This report will examine the principle of marketing and their SWOT analysis . Further, it will
also determine the challenges faced by the organisation in the market.
TASK
1. Analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) facing the
organisation
The marketing is used to inform the consumers about their product, specification, quality
to satisfy their demand (Halim, Wardhana and Sasongko, 2022). The consumer are said to be the
king of the market, The ultimate goal of every organisation is to fulfil their needs and generate
profit in the market. In order to exist in the competitive market for a long run, it is important for
the organisation to identify the opportunities and threats that may affect its productivity
(Pandey, Nayal, and Rathore, 2020). In context to Sainsbury, SWOT analysis is done to
determine the strength of the business which is positive mark for the retail store and Weaknesses
that creates challenges in expansion and any other factors that are negatively impact the
functioning of the retail store.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths Weaknesses
 Correct expansion moves  Globalisation

 Consistent Profitability
 Diverse range of products
 Brand value
 Rising in Prices
 Stiff competition
 Ineffective policies
Opportunities Threats
 New taxation Policy
 New customer from online channel
 latest trends
 Economic shift
 Shortage of skilled workforce
 Changes in legal norms and laws
 Covid 19 pandemic
 Lack of technology
Table 1:
Strength
The SWOT analysis helps to identify the strength of the company which shows the positive
side of the company and featured the better performance of the organisation. In context to
Sainsbury, internal factors helps the organisation to strengthen their policy and strategy to
achieve the organisational goal (Joshua, 2019). The strength of the company are discussed
below:
 Correct expansion moves: The Sainsbury company is growing very well in the retail
market due to their involvement in many merchandise categories product that are used to
fulfil their day to day requirements (Mogaji and Yoon, 2019). Their quality food services
and pricing strategy attract the consumer to afford their products and this is the main
reason for their expansion.
 Consistent Profitability: Sainsbury is the second largest supermarket chain in the world
as they are involved in joint ventures to serve the wide range of products and services that
creates huge market share of the company, leads to maximisation in profits and revenue.
Weaknesses
These are the external forces that has negative impact on the growth of the business (Larson,
2020). These forces may affect the overall performance of the business so it is important for the
organisation to determine these threats at the early stage to survive in the competitive market.

 Globalisation: The world is rapidly growing due to technological advancement and new
innovation . The entry of new companies in the international market may take good
position and can become the competitor of each other. In context to Sainsbury, company
is unable to compete with other similar forms of business organisation that are dealing
with the retail supermarket chain due to lack of resources.
 Rising in Prices: Due to rise in product prices all over the world, the Sainsbury is
incapable to sell the goods at reasonable rate and they are also increases the prices which
is quite difficult for the customer to afford their products. In context to Sainsbury, the rise
in prices of the product may reduce the purchasing power of the consumers and leads to
decrease in their profit earning capacity. Due to higher prices, consumers are shifted to
the other's brand who are offering the products at reasonable price.
Opportunities
The strategic factor can be used by the company to open the new door of opportunities to
achieve the organisational goal.
 New taxation Policy: It has significant impact on the business due to change in
government policy related to tax availability of loan at low rate of interest allow the
company to expand the business globally. In context to Sainsbury, the introduction of
various new schemes and policies of the UK government are encouraging the trade and
reduce the trade tariffs on the products and smoothen the export of goods in different
nation which may prove beneficial for them.
 New customer from online channel: It is a good opportunity for a company to promote
the product online and also it is the most effective tool to build large market share of the
consumer to product loyalty and brand value in the market. In context to Sainsbury, they
have diversified network who are reaching the consumer located at various parts of the
country. They are using the advanced technology to reach out their large base of
consumers in order to build brand value in the market.
Threats
These are the factors that are detrimental and may affect the growth of the company.
 Shortage of skilled workforce: This is one of the factor that affect the efficiency of the
retail company as labour are not skilled and experienced (Lim, 2021). The lack of

specialised knowledge and skilled labour in the Sainsbury organisation may affect the
performance of the organisation. Changes in legal norms and laws: the changes in government policy and legal rules
may affect the market policies and business trends. Many legal reforms and amendments
may affect the functioning of the Sainsbury organisation. The strict and complex
regulation may impact the overall performance of the organisation.
2. Identification of the organisation’s key service marketing challenges(Weakness and
Threats) for the next 3 years.
The organisation dealing in retail industry offers more choices at reasonable rate. Despite
of all the strength and opportunities, there are some weaknesses and threat that are challenging to
run in the competitive market. In the next 3 years, the Sainsbury company will own many
weaknesses and threats because of change in market shares and trends. Innovation and
technology will lead to higher level of competition in the International market. It would make
difficulty in expansion of product varieties and this condition may cause disadvantage to the
retail company. There are many companies dealing with the retail industry may gain advantage
due to their problem solving ability and early identification of opportunities helps them to run in
the competitive advantage than the Sainsbury retail company (Kitchen, 2020). The upcoming
changes in government policy and enactment of new legislation would be a new challenge before
the retail industry as number of controversies like price fixing and tax avoidance badly affect the
response of the retail industry like Sainsbury. There are number of giant industries in the UK that
are changing the era of industrialization and will caused threat to the retail store. The company
who adopt the changes quickly will lead to growth and expansion of business in the international
market. The promotion and price strategy will play significant role in achieve the business goal
and objective in the future.
Service Blueprint: In order to achieve higher profit in next 3 years, the company are required to
develop service blueprint to highlight the complete picture related to services, procedure for
delivering the product from one channel to another. It is considered as one of the most important
tool to provide high quality services and clear vision related to the product to its customer
(Sidhu, 2018). In context to Sainsbury, they are required to establish new plans and policies to
administer the associated threats and risk which are directly affecting their profitability and
productivity of their organisation. The unskilled workforce and stiff competition may create

serious threat to the Sainsbury. Therefore, it is important for them to bring flexibility and focus
on the quality of the product to achieve the success of the organisation.
3. Analyses the threats through the lens of theoretical principles of services marketing and
provide recommendations to overcome challenges within the constraints of Strengths
and Opportunities.
Marketing principles is considered as the most common used principles to maximise
profit and meet the business target. There are four basic principles that are used by the company
to fulfil the needs and demands of the consumer (Samad, 2019). These are business tactics that
allows the businesses to bring their product and service in the competitive market. There market
principles are mentioned below:
 Product: it is the one of the most important principles of marketing that helps the
company to survive in the competitive market. The company can expand their business
only when they are primarily focus on selling it according to the demand of the
customer. The customer taste and preferences change by the time and the company is
required to determine those changes at early stage so that they can produce the
accordingly.
 Price:This factor plays significant role to attract the ultimate customer to purchase the
product. It is important to sell the product at reasonable rate so that the end user can
easily purchase that product. Due to inflation, the prices are comparatively higher, so the
company is required to set their plans and policies to reduce burden on the consumer.
 Place: This is another principle that helps the company to decide the place to target the
customer and production of goods in particular areas or region. The company used this
strategy to set the location to connect with the potential consumers for the expansion of
business (Matysek-Jędrych and Mroczek-Dąbrowska, 2020). The place is choose
according to availability of user of product so that the company produce goods and
services to fulfil their demand.
 Promotion: It involves raising awareness about the goods , company and brand. It is
general information that informed the potential consumer reason to purchase the product,

quality and its usage (Oates, 2020). The company which used these market principles in
order to make effective promotion of product then they are able to achieve success in the
competitive market. In relation to Sainsbury, they are using online promotion to attract
the customer at large level so that they can expand the business globally and overcome
the barriers.
 Service Blueprint: To overcome the associated threat such as unskilled workforce and
amended legal reforms can create serious threat to the Sainsbury company. They are
required to develop service blueprint to highlight the complete picture related to services,
procedure for delivering the product from one channel to another. It is considered as one
of the most important tools to provide high quality services and clear vision related to the
product to its customer. It is believed that services are complex as it involves many
channels of people and technologies that work together. So, it helps to process the service
to make it more flexible and informative.
Advantages of Service blueprint are:
 Flexibility: It provides detailed information about the product.
 Knowledge Transferability: It provides clear instruction and reduce confusion
among the customers. It is beneficial for both the employee as well as the
customer.
 Competition: It helps to compare the products between the two company to
company the service with a competitor.
Therefore, the service blueprint promotes the implementation of plans for the achievement of
goal of an organisation. It fosters the communication and morale of employees. It helps to build
brand loyalty and goodwill in the market. So, it is important for the company to develop the
service blueprint.
CONCLUSION
Form this above report, it has been concluded that market principles helps to set out the
plans and decisions to ensure long term business objective. These principles are used to target the
customer to secure their interest produce quality product to create brand value and customer

loyalty in the market. These principles are identified to generate revenue and maximise profit . It
helps the company to develop new ideas and strategies to hold good financial position in the
market. Therefore, the company manufacture the good keeping in mind the customer taste ,
preference and expectation. These principles brings consistency in the market and helps to make
business decision to create brand value.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Brown, S. and McGowan, P., 2018. Once upon a market dreary: the prescient marketing
principles of Edgar Allan Poe. Journal of Marketing Management, 34(15-16), pp.1379-
1396.
Joshua, R., 2019. William D. Wells, John Burnett & Sandra Moriarty. Advertising: Principles
and Practice. Prentice Hall; (October 29, 2002) ISBN-13: 978-0130477224. Journal of
Media Studies, 34(1).
Kitchen, P.J., 2020. Marketing communications. In A reader in marketing communications (pp.
1-9). Routledge.
Larson, M.S., 2020. Market and Anti-Market Principles. In The Rise of Professionalism (pp. 53-
64). University of California Press.
Lim, W.M., 2021. A marketing mix typology for integrated care: the 10 Ps. Journal of Strategic
Marketing, 29(5), pp.453-469.
Matysek-Jędrych, A. and Mroczek-Dąbrowska, K., 2020. Brexit and its potential consequences
for Poland–the perspective of Single Market principles 1. In Poland in the Single
Market (pp. 299-313). Routledge.
Mogaji, E. and Yoon, H., 2019. Thematic analysis of marketing messages in UK universities’
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Oates, C.J., 2020. Sustainability Marketing: Products, Fairtrade, and Greenwashing. The SAGE
Handbook of Marketing Ethics, p.226.
Pandey, N., Nayal, P. and Rathore, A.S., 2020. Digital marketing for B2B organizations:
structured literature review and future research directions. Journal of Business &
Industrial Marketing.
Samad, N., 2019. Social & Non-Profit Marketing. Contemporary Issues in Marketing: Principles
and Practice, p.337.
Franco, M., 2018. Networking as a marketing tool in small companies: a random and informal
approach. Journal of Business Strategy.
Halim, E., Wardhana, G. and Sasongko, A.H., 2022, June. Online Customer Reviwes as a
Marketing Tool to Generate Customer Purchase Intention in Ecommerce. In 2022 IEEE
International Conference on Cybernetics and Computational Intelligence
(CyberneticsCom) (pp. 28-33). IEEE.
Sidhu, J., 2018. Sustainability performance—A key marketing tool for consumer brands.
In Strategic marketing issues in emerging markets (pp. 363-372). Springer, Singapore.
Raj, B. and Gupta, D., 2018, September. Factors influencing consumer responses to marketing
gamification. In 2018 International Conference on Advances in Computing,
Communications and Informatics (ICACCI) (pp. 1538-1542). Ieee.

APPENDICES-1
Sources: Marketing Mix
APPENDICES-2
Sources: Market share of Sainsbury, UK