Marketing Plan: Sainsbury's Women's Clothing Line - Univ. of Suffolk

This report presents a comprehensive marketing plan focused on revamping Sainsbury's women's clothing line. It begins with an overview of Sainsbury's, highlighting its market position and diverse product offerings, followed by a detailed analysis of the competitive environment using PESTLE and SWOT frameworks to identify macro and micro environmental factors impacting the business. The PESTLE analysis covers political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors, while the SWOT analysis examines the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The report then delves into the marketing mix (4Ps) and concludes with recommendations for enhancing Sainsbury's brand image in the competitive retail market. The study emphasizes the importance of adapting to changing consumer trends, leveraging technology, and maintaining a strong brand presence to achieve sustainable growth and customer loyalty.

Marketing Plan

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The present study is based upon Sainsbury which is one of the top firm in UK and also
deal at different location, also the chosen product for this report is women clothes which need to
be revamp. Also, the study has reflected by using SWOT analysis that it has a brand image and
also deal at global level by offering product at reasonable rate. In addition to this, through
PESTLE analysis, macro environmental factors has been considered because it affect the
business performance directly. Also, 4P’s of marketing also used by the company in order to
determine the strategies used by the company to improve the brand image. Further, the describe
ways also assist business to improve the brand image and stay ahead in competition.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................5
Description of a company and product........................................................................................5
Competitive organizational environment by using environmental analysis tools.......................6
Marketing mix.............................................................................................................................9
Recommendations for improving its brand image.....................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Marketing plan is the document which lays out the marketing effort of a business in order
to promote the product in market. In the current environment, company are focusing upon
different marketing strategies in order to promote the business product in market. The entire
study will shed a light upon marketing plan and tools used to evaluate the current company’s
performance which include opportunity and threats. The chosen firm for this report is Sainsbury
which is one of the top and international firm in UK who is deal with range of variety of
products to their customers which include grocery, clothing and different furniture. Moreover,
the report presented a description of a company along with its product line in order to revamping.
Further, with the help of analytical tool, the current study will apply environmental analysis tool
that assist to determine threat and opportunities. Lastly, it uses marketing mix for the chosen
product and then recommend the ways through which bran image can be enhanced.
Description of a company and product
Sainsbury is one of the largest supermarket in UK and with its quality of product, it is
considered as a second largest chain with a market share of approx. 16%. In 1995, Tesco
overtook the quoted in order to become a market leader and that is why, it ranked second and
third. Currently the company has approx. 1500 stores at global level which in turn reflected it
offer best variety of product to their customer with an affordable price. Also, it has more than
one lac employees working all over the world and that is why, it focused upon its management
style in order to retain the employees for a longer term.
In addition to this, the company is deal under retail sector and that is why, there are
different channels in which the company is operating which include grocery, clothing, food and
beverage, beauty products etc. Currently the company also merge with Argos in order to offer
the product online so that effective results can be generated (Chernev, 2020). This helps the
company to improve the performance and generate effective results in term of financial
performance. The chosen product range for the present study is women clothes which need to be
refurbishing. It is chosen over the others because as per the changing trend, the company must
change the product that helps to meet the defined wants of customers. This assist to create a
positive impact and that is why, this product line is chosen in order to attract the customers
towards it.

Competitive organizational environment by using environmental analysis tools
The macro and micro environmental factor affected the business performance in
negatively as well as positively. Also, this factor includes internal as well as external factor that
needs to be consider in order to identify which factor affected the business directly. That is why,
to determine the competitive environment, both macro and micro environmental tools are used
which are as mentioned below:
Pestle analysis: The strategic framework is used to determine the macro-environmental factor
where all external factors are considered in order to identify its impact over the business
performance. These factors are as mentioned below:
Political factor: The factor is deal with uncertainty in political condition of a country and
this in turn affect the performance of a company. Such that in 2016, due to Brexit, the retail
industry affected the entire business in negative manner. Also, increase in the cost of foreign
products that rise the cost of offering in the company (DO, 2021). On the other side, recently i.e.
2020 pandemic also affected the entire UK as well as world in opposite manner. Thus, due to
which country faces lockdown situation that affected the business performance and decrease its
financial performance as well. To cope up with such situation, company offer online products to
satisfy the need and this in turn affect the entire business performance positively. That is why, it
can be stated that political factor affected the entire business performance in adverse manner if
effective strategies are not opt.
Economic factor: Change in the economic performance of a country affect the business
like Sainsbury in negative manner. This factor deal with rising fuel cost, rising salary, inflation
rate and employment of a country. That is why, it is necessary for the company to look after this
factors before implementing any product within new country. Such that changes in price of a
country due to inflation rate the company’s product rate also increases that affect the business
performance (Westwood, 2019). This in turn affected the sales because customer is not ready to
spend product at high rate. In addition to this, due to increase in unemployment rate of a country,
company decreases the salary that also affect the business performance. However, during the
pandemic, Sainsbury does not fire any employee and even hire many in order to balance the
employment rate of a country.

Social factor: There are many factor that affected the entire performance of a company
and that is why, there is a need to consider social factor so that it does not affected business
adversely. As quoted firm is deal in grocery and that is why, it is essential for the business to
offer healthy product so that it meet the customers need. This is so because after pandemic,
majority of the people changes their diet and become health conscious. That is why, company
should focus upon healthy diet so that it helps to remain competitive in market. Apart from this,
fairtrade movement is also related to the present factor where customer are also increasingly
consciously from where the food has come from. Therefore, company also needs to focus upon
this in order to meet the defined aim (Guo and et.al., 2018).
Technological factor: It is deal with the factor i.e. related to advance technology in
which bog data and artificial intelligence need to be complied. In this case, Sainsbury should
focus upon different tools that helps in smooth functioning of a business. Currently, the company
is also focusing upon the online shopping and that is why, it helps to meet the demand of
customers so that it helps to increase the overall performance. In addition to this, chatbots and
robots can be used in order to improve the profit and also helps to generate the better outcome.
This in turn help to improve the overall performance of a company and this help to generate the
better outcome in term of financial performance.
Legal Factor: This factor is deal with laws and legislation that need to be complied by
company in order to generate the better outcome. This laws include employment rate, equal
opportunity act so that it will help to generate the better outcome and smooth the business
operations as well (Sudari and et.al., 2019). Moreover, with an introduction of new sugar tax in
UK, the companies operate in retail industry needs to modify their product so that it helps to save
money.
Environment factor: This factor is deal with the environment and also help to save the
environment from pollution. Moreover, the company already comply with the sustainability act
in order to generate the better outcome. Also, Sainsbury is working to reduce the carbon
footprint in its operations so that it helps to create a positive impact over the business
performance. That is why, it can be stated that with the help of such factor, company is able to
focus upon environment and create positive impact.

SWOT analysis: This tool is used to determine the internal factors that affect the overall
business performance and also examine which areas needs to improved that helps company to
enhance its brand image. The tool is as mentioned below:
Strength:
 Due to having a brand image at global level, the company can rapidly move to its
international market. Initially, the company is deal with small grocery store and that is
why, with strong ability and skills, it become one of the top and international firm.
 The company uses effective promotional strategies that helps to promote the business
product in market. Also, one of the top example is Brand Match Promotion where each
product sold by comparing the same with competing brands like Tesco and Aldi (Othman
and et.al., 2020). This strategy helps to attract the range of customer and improve brand
image as well.
 The company’s business philosophy is also considered another strength of a firm because
it follows low-cost strategy that helps to retain customers of all the income segments that
assist to make them loyal towards a brand.
 The coupons offered by the company also helps to attract range of people because it is
designed by taking into account research data on shopping behavior that helps to meet the
customer demand.
 Sainsbury has an extremely experienced leadership team that helps them to attract
customer and manage thousands of employees at global level. This in turn reflected that
company also have an excellent branding and advertising across UK.
Weaknesses:
 The brand switching is considered as a weakness for Sainsbury because it faces ;lots of
risk from brand switching instead of loyalty programs.
 With growing competition in market within retail space, company faces issues with
regard to added risk to most retailers due to lost volumes. Thus to minimize the same,
company trying to cut down the cost in order to keep retaining the customers (Verma and
Singh, 2017).
 It is poor to use advance technology in the workplace and due to growing cost, it also
affects the business performance in order to identify the shopping experience. That is

why, it can be stated that it affected the overall performance of a company in adverse
manner.
Opportunities:
 Having a brand image and offering product at low cost create an opportunity for the firm
to enter into the emerging market so that financial performance of a company increases.
Thus, it can enter into emerging market via joint ventures or partnership in order to
explore new markets (SWOT analysis of Sainsbury, 2021).
 In this modern era, there is a need to focus upon the advance technology and for that self-
checkout machines could also help in Sainsbury to open its store 24 hours which in turn
boost the sales as well.
 By grab the opportunity of online sales, it tie-up with Argos that helps to focus upon e-
commerce so that customers can attract and Sainsbury can meet the demand as well.
Threats:
 Competition is considered one of the biggest threat that affect the performance of a
company adversely (Budiyono, Muliasari and Putri, 2021). Such that in UK, it faces
strong competition from Tesco, Aldi, Lidl and Asda because they all offer the same
product at reasonable rate.
 There is a need to present the products in unique and differentiated manner so that it
affects the overall performance in negative manner. However, the market and customer
need are fluctuating, so it become difficult for the company to focus upon such aspect to
meet the demand of customers.
 Changes in the political performance of a country also affected the whole business
negatively because it is quite difficult for the company to manage political instability.
Marketing mix
Marketing mix is the tool which comprises of 7 P’s and these are the key element which
involved marketing of a good and service to interact significantly. For the chosen product line
that needs to revamping, the marketing mix is as mentioned below:
 Product: There are different variety of products offered by Sainsbury which include
grocery, health and beauty product, bakery items, beer and wine products etc. This in turn

reflected that the company is deal at large range of products which helps it to improve the
overall performance and grab attention of many customers. In addition to this, it also
deals in household products with pet care that helps to meet the demand of customers so
that they can assist to improve the brand image at global level.
 Place: Initially, the quoted firm was started its operation at Drury Lane in London i.e. 22
years ago and then due to high quality of offering, it started established its unit at
different location that entails its presence at global market (Othman and et.al., 2019).
Currently the company has more than 500 supermarkets and more than 700 convenience
stores that provide whole day service to their customers. This in turn reflected that the
company know how to deal with different location in order to generate the better outcome
so that the overall performance of the company raise.
 Price: The pricing style of Sainsbury is low because it offers products to meet the
demand of customers at low and affordable manner. This in turn assists to makes a use of
price discrimination policy as per the positioning of a product in order to create a high
end market. Along with this, company is able to provide value for money so that it helps
to improve the brand image. Moreover, in order to retain the customer for a longer term.
it also tries to maintain the quality of product and services offered to them. Also, the
chosen organization does not believe in price-cutting strategy because it has also made
good use of price discrimination that assist to position itself in a market. Sometimes, to
stay strong in the market, it uses competitive pricing strategy in order to tackle the prices
set by tits competitors.
 Promotion: The company uses effective and modern form of marketing strategy that
helps a business to improve the overall performance and also attract the customers
towards it. Earlier, it uses traditional source of promotional strategy that helps to
communicate the views to their customers (Jermsittiparsert, 2019). This include TV,
radio, newspaper that helps to attract the range of people. In addition to this, company
also uses customer loyalty schemes that helps to attract range of customers towards it. In
addition to this, it can be stated that with the help of effective promotional strategy,
company is able to grab attention of many customers towards it and encourage customer
to take an advantage of such strategy. In the official website of the company, quoted firm
also offer token, gift vouchers and gift cards that can be redeemed from the outlet only.

This help to draw attention of customer and create positive impact over the sales
performance.
Recommendations for improving its brand image
It is necessary for the company to improve the brand image because pandemic affected he
entire business performance. Thus, to improve the same, there are some branding strategies
suggested that helps a company to sustain brand at global level. These are as mention below:
 It is suggested to Sainsbury to use Keller’s Brand Equity Model that helps to build a
strong brand and also shape up how the customer think and feel about the product. It is so
because it includes four stages that helps a company to understand each key point of a
customer so that effective solution can be taken (Gunawan and Wahyuni, 2018). Along
with this, company also able to let customer understand about the meaning of brand so
that effective efforts can be put to meet the customer need.
 It is further recommended to the company to develop a brand audit that helps to get a
clear picture of all the customers so that effective results can be generated in order to
make effective actions. This in turn assists to determine the views of customers that helps
to develop strategy. For example, by using survey form company is able to determine the
need of customers and improvement areas. This in turn assist to make actions so that
financial performance can be improves and company is able to stay ahead in the
competition.
 In addition to this, Sainsbury is lacking to digital marketing strategy and that is why, it is
suggested to focus upon social media marketing where Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
can be used to provide regular post about new offers and discount. This helps to attract
the customers and let them know about new offers offered by company so that they can
took an advantage of the same (Braciníková and Matušínská, 2017). This helps to
improve the brand image of a company and create a positive impact over the customers
because interacting them directly through social media sites leave positive impression.
 In addition to this, it has been also suggested to the company to focus upon its website so
that company can address the customer need and anyone at global level can check the
offerings of a quoted firm. Further, it assists the company to generate the brand image
because online presence always helps the company to improve the overall presence in

market. This in turn assist to provide better customer experience so that company can
fulfill the market needs as well.
 It is also suggested to the company to focus upon the creative parts which means that
focusing upon innovative parts helps a business to gain effective response. It is so
because focusing upon innovative product assists to meet the market needs and this
automatically help to improve the brand image as well. In addition to this, the overall
business product can be improve by focusing upon the innovative products and improve
financial performance as well.
CONCLUSION
By summing up above report, it has been concluded that Sainsbury has a brand image at
global level, but there are different areas which are considered as weaknesses that need to be
improved. The study also concluded that by using Pestle analysis, its macro environmental factor

analyses whereas through SWOT analysis, study reflected that it has a strong presence in market
while there is a need to focus upon its operations to emerge in the emerging market. With the
help of marketing mix, it also summarized that company should adopt effective strategy to
refurbish the chosen product line in order to improve the business performance. Moreover, by
using the suggested ways, company is also able to improve the brand image and generate
effective results in near future.