Richmond University: Waitrose Strategic Marketing Planning Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Waitrose's strategic marketing planning, focusing on its corporate and business objectives. The report examines Waitrose's allocation of resources and organizational design as part of its corporate strategy. It further delves into Waitrose's business strategy, outlining the steps taken to achieve a competitive advantage in the marketplace. The organization overview provides a history of Waitrose and its expansion. The report then evaluates Waitrose's corporate and business objectives using marketing theory, particularly focusing on the marketing mix elements (price, place, product, and promotion). The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and the strategic marketing planning process employed by Waitrose to achieve its goals. The report adheres to the requirements of the MKT6801 module at Richmond University.

STRATEGIC MARKETING
PLANNING
1

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK...............................................................................................................................................3
P1 Corporate strategy..................................................................................................................3
P2 Business Strategy...................................................................................................................4
P3 Organisation overview...........................................................................................................5
P4 Evaluation of organisation corporate and business objectives through marketing theory.....5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8
2

INTRODUCTION
Strategic marketing planning is a process through which the company creates marketing
strategies and plans its execution in the target market. Strategic planning takes place at four
levels which are Corporate, division, business unit and product (Agic and et.al, 2016). Strategic
marketing planning requires a strategic planning to meet out the target growth and long-term
survival. Waitrose is a supermarket which was established in 1904. The company is operating
their supermarket in 332 locations through which they focus on serving food products and the
service provide by them is through online portal. This project reports is based on the analysis of
corporate and business strategies which are used by Waitrose.
TASK
P1 Corporate strategy
Corporate strategy entails a long term vision that organizations set, looking for corporate
value and always motivate the workforce for achieving the customer satisfaction. Corporate
strategy is an uninterrupted process to engage the investors with the company along with their
money, as a result of increasing the company's equity. Organizations who revisit their corporate
strategy at regular interval are successful in achieving the customer value. For developing a
winning corporate strategy, the focus must be on value creation and think more about the three
important key areas which are: Set a clear long term vision which always motivates their
employees and engages their investors consistently, a portfolio strategy for perceiving the vision,
set up the corporate policies and processes that reflect the corporates parenting approach. There
are different kinds of corporate strategy which includes Expansion Strategy, Stability Strategy,
Retrenchment Strategy. Expansion strategy is that strategy where the scope of business definition
has been increasing (Alsem, 2019). Corporate strategies involves defining business function sin
order top accomplish organisational objectives. Corporate strategies involves different policies
and strategies which determines organisational objectives. The strategies used by Waitrose are as
follows:
Allocation of resources- Waitrose allocates the resources of organisation in the most
effective manner to achieve organisational objectives. The two main resources of the
organisation involves people and capital. Waitrose recruits highly skilled employees in the
workplace in order to conduct business objectives effectively. Waitrose deploys employees in
3

accordance to the skills possessed by the individuals. It deploys employees in different team and
delegates specific job roles to the individual to achieve business success. They second important
resource of involves money, it involves allocating funds in different business activities for
financing business activities. It involves analysing the sources of funds from different external
and internal sources.
Organisational design- It involves structuring organisational structure in a way to
maintain the flow of command from the top level authority to lower level authority. Waitrose
develops hierarchical structure in the organisation in order to delegate and pass the flow of
information to the right employees (Baker and Hart eds, 2016). The top level executives in
Waitrose are responsible to develop long term planning and decisions. The managers are
responsible to delegate and implement all organisational objectives to the lower level employees
whereas the lower level employees are responsible for conducting business activities.
P2 Business Strategy
Business strategy is an set procedure through which decisions are formed through which
entrepreneurs and business entities can gain competitive advantage by accomplishing their
organisational goals and objectives. A business plan help an organisation to secure a competitive
position in marketplace by performing their managerial functions which will help an business in
accomplishing targets. A business plan is designed with an aim of identifying and utilizing
opportunities, utilizing resources, evaluating challenges and threats which are faced by business.
A business strategy helps business to make competitive actions through which they can attract
numerous customers, enhance performance which will help in achievement of organisational
goal using constructive approaches (Hanlon, 2018). The business strategy can be classified under
three levels, which are: corporate, business and functional level. A business strategy helps
business in enhancing their position in the marketplace and development of business can be done
through analysing changing and new market conditions. This can also be defined as long-term
business planning which has to be covered performed under the period of 3-5 years of time span.
There are different types of business strategies which are cost leadership, differentiation strategy
and lastly focus strategy which will help in targeting markets in smaller portions. An effective
business strategy helps in building and maintaining customer loyalty and also helps in locating
and utilizing resources effectively and efficiently which will help gaining competitive advantage.
4

There are several steps which are followed by management to implement a business
strategy trough which they can gain competitive advantage for business, steps which are
followed by business in implementing business strategy are stated below: Through strategically
planning , aligning the budget with objectives and through creating action plan for different
groups (Hansen and Juslin, 2018). After that performance management activities and reward
system, functions are performed through which plan is executed in whole organisation. The
business strategy help0s in enhancing clarity, improving focus and providing direction to al
employees through which organisational objectives can be achieved by using innovative and
constructive approaches.
P3 Organisation overview
Waitrose came into existence in 1904 when Wallace Wyndham Waite, Arthur Rose and
David Taylor opened their shop in Acton. It is a brand of British supermarkets. Its head office is
located in Bracknell and Victoria, England. It has 332 shops in all over UK. They export their
products to 52 countries and have its location in the Middle East. It involves rendering services
to customers by satisfying their needs and rendering them quality products. Waitrose first opened
store in 1955 in England. After the dawn of 1955 it continued for opening its new branches
around London and England. It focussed around rendering quality services to its clients. Is was
the first supermarket to render organic food to the customers. In the year 1937, the company was
taken over by John Lewis Partnership which consists of 10 shops and provided employment to
160 people. In 1944, the supermarket chain branch increased to 2 shops when it was purchased
by South Essex grocery business Schofield and Martin. 1960's the company was renamed to
Waitrose and was also converted into a self-service shop. The supermarket chain was first
introduced in Streatham, London and then the business expanded their location throughout
London and South East of England during the year 160.
P4 Evaluation of organisation corporate and business objectives through marketing theory
Waitrose aims to create a long term target through which they can sustain in business
environment for longer period of time (Josephson and et.al, 2016). These objectives will be
achieved through enhancing skills and through regularly motoring performance of business and it
will also help in increasing the market share. The corporate and business objectives of Waitrose
which will be accomplished are:
 To maximise profit within 1 year to time span by increasing sale by 15%
5

 To develop organic range of products through which maximum customers can be
attracted within 6 months of time period
 To motivate whole staff and employees which will help in improving performance
regularly by monitoring their performance and providing them regular feedbacks
 Incline in customer service within a time span of 6 months through which maximum
customer satisfaction can be achieved
 Will increase number of branches in 5 years of time period through which maximum
profits can be accomplished
Evaluation of objectives through using marketing mix theory
The marketing mix is a marketing theory which help business in analysing the analysing
the changing trends and introduce new products and services to the marketplace. The marketing
mix theory help business to position products at right place and at right time through which
maximum customer satisfaction can be met. Through this marketing technique, organisation can
meet customer demand. The factors which are identified through using this marketing mix theory
are: price, place, product and promotion (Milichovský and Šimberová, 2015).
 Price- This component of marketing strategy states that the price of the product must be
set which is neither low or too high as through this strategy business can easily face huge
competition with their rivalry companies. Waitrose will set low price of their products
while maintaining the quality through which they can target and attract more customers.
 Place- This marketing mix strategy states that all products which are provided by
business must be provided at locations which are easily accessible by customers through
which they can increase their sales and business can gain competitive advantage from
such operations. Waitrose will focus on opening new branches at location which are more
easily accessible through which they can attract more customer and gain competitive
advantage.
 Product- This strategy of marketing states that what products will be provided to the
customers at what quality and features product must have through which they can attract
more customer and increase their sales. All the product related decision are formed
through analysing the requirements of the customers. Waitrose will take feedbacks from
their customers through which corrective measures can be taken for existing products and
will analyse the market and introduce new products to attract customers. The company
6

will also introduce organic range of food products through which they can bring
something new and attractive to the competitive market.
 Promotion- By using various channels of promoting products and services which are
provided by the company will help in delivering message to their potential customers and
can attract numerous customers to the brand which will make more profit for the business
(West, Ford and Ibrahim, 2015). Waitrose will focus on using social media channels and
internet platforms through which they can attract more customers, some of the mediums
which will be used by organisation are hoardings, newspapers, TV and other mediums.
CONCLUSION
Strategic marketing planning refers to setting goals and objectives, product planning,
analysing internal and external business factors, execution and tracking your progress. The aim
of strategic marketing planning is to shape the company's businesses and products so that they
meet out the target profits and growth. Through strategically planning all corporate and business
strategy, it will help management in gaining competitive advantage from their operations.
7

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Agic, E and et.al., 2016. Strategic marketing patterns and performance implications. European
Journal of Marketing.
Alsem, K. J., 2019. Applied strategic marketing: a step by step approach. Routledge.
Baker, M. J. and Hart, S. eds., 2016. The marketing book. Routledge.
Hanlon, A., 2018. Digital marketing: Strategic planning & integration. Sage.
Hansen, E. and Juslin, H., 2018. Strategic marketing in the global forest industries.
Josephson, B. W and et.al., 2016. Strategic marketing ambidexterity: Antecedents and financial
consequences. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. 44(4). pp.539-554.
Milichovský, F. and Šimberová, I., 2015. Marketing effectiveness: Metrics for effective strategic
marketing. Engineering economics. 26(2). pp.211-219.
Sharp, B., 2017. Marketing: theory, evidence, practice. Oxford University Press,.
West, D. C., Ford, J.B. and Ibrahim, E., 2015. Strategic marketing: creating competitive
advantage. Oxford University Press, USA.
8