Strategic Marketing Plan: Problems of Whole Foods Market Inc. (SGMT 2)

This report examines the strategic marketing plan of Whole Foods Market, highlighting key issues and challenges. The analysis focuses on the company's struggles with price perception, competition from mass-market retailers, and the impact of Amazon's acquisition. It discusses the company's efforts to lower prices and the resulting consumer perception issues. The report also addresses the problematic relationship between Whole Foods and Amazon, and its impact on suppliers and the supply chain. The report also discusses the need to develop a defensive strategy against lower-priced competitors and the importance of understanding consumer behavior and market trends. The report concludes by emphasizing the need for Whole Foods to adapt its marketing strategies to address these challenges effectively and maintain a competitive edge in the organic food market.

SGMT

SGMT 2
Strategic Marketing Plan for Whole Foods Market Inc
1.It has been observed that in the recent times Whole Foods Market Inc is facing some of the
problems. One of the main problems that the company is facing at present is finding the right
marketing strategy of the organic food in the Whole Food Market.Throwing light on the
above-mentioned statement it can be stated that almost all the organic food items are mainly
sold via the mass market retailers by the Whole Foods Market Inc. It is the trend that is
regarded as quite problematic for the company. On the other hand, in a figure it has been
highlighted that the Whole Foods Market only has 1.2% of share in the entire grocery market
of the U.S. The organic food industry is a relatively new one in which customers preferences
have not been segmented precisely so there are many emergent consumers who are likely to
shop in a mass market grocery store rather than speciality store due to their prioritization of
convenience. (How Consumer Trends in Grocery Shopping Are Changing Retai, 2017)
2.The company has single focus on the high-end produce has alienated a much more price-
conscious shoppers and they are also having a lot of issues with the negative price perception.
The company is also struggling for developing to form a working defensive strategy against
the lower-priced competition. It is quite vital for mentioning that some of the choices that
have been made by the company in terms of their strategy, have forced the firm for making
the trade-offs which have been one of the biggest contributors to some of the problems that is
faced by the company in the recent times (Turner, Wang & Soper, 2017).

SGMT 3
After the acquisition of Whole Food by Amazon, it has attempted to change the price
perception by lowering the price of Whole Food (Anne Stych, 2019). The problem has been
seen that this price strategy was unable to disrupt the new demographical areas and was not
able to change public perception of Whole Food in new regions. In addition to this, the
customers related the lower price of organic food as a decrease in standard of the quality of
organic food sold online.
3The relationship of the firm with the Amazon will also be quite problematic as Amazon
tends to control a lot of retail market share (Kowitt, 2017). Since Amazon is an online retail
business and a mutually beneficial relationship with the suppliers is not its main priority.
Amazon’s aim is not to make every product success which leads to problematic relationship
with suppliers, especially when Amazon controls so much of the retail market share. Putting
too much pressure on suppliers will not only bring unfavourable relationship with them but it
will also decrease the quality of the product hence disrupting the supply chain.

SGMT 4
References
.
(2017). How Consumer Trends in Grocery Shopping Are Changing Retail.
Kowitt, B. (2017). How Amazon Is Using Whole Foods in a Bid for Total Retail Domination.
Turner, N., Wang, S., & Soper, S. (2017). Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7
Billion. Bloomberg Technology.
Anne Stych, C. W. (2019). Amazon drops prices at Whole Foods again.