Strategic Marketing: Tesco Plc's Brand and Marketing Strategies

This report provides a strategic marketing analysis of Tesco Plc, examining the company's approach to differentiating itself in the competitive market. It explores the concepts of standardization and adaptation within the marketing mix, emphasizing their importance in product sustainability and market entry. The report delves into the customer-based brand equity model, highlighting its role in understanding customer perceptions and building a strong brand image. It also discusses the effectiveness of integrated marketing communication (IMC) methods, including advertising, public relations, and personal selling, and provides insights into measuring marketing success through metrics such as revenue contribution and brand awareness. The report emphasizes the significance of adapting marketing strategies to meet the needs of different market segments and the importance of building customer loyalty through effective brand management.

STRATEGIC
MARKETING

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Strategic marketing is essential for Tesco Plc on order to differentiate itself in industry
from other competitors. Report will provide the overview of standardisation and adaptation of
marketing mic strategy. Customer based brand model will define in order to know the perception
of customer. It can be analysed from the report that standardisation and adaptation is an
important concept which will assist Tesco in order to determine the sustainability of a particular
product in a target market. It can also be said that customer based brand model helps in depicting
essentials of customer' perception in making the brand successful.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
ADAPTATION AND STANDARDISATION OF MARKETING MIX.......................................1
CUSTOMER BASED BRAND EQUITY MODEL........................................................................2
INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION MIX METHODS......................................4
MEASUREMENT OF SUCCESS...................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Strategic management can be termed as the effectiveness of firm by which it
differentiates itself from competitors. Main goal of strategic management is to increase the firm’s
brand value over other competitors in industry. In this report, strategic marketing will be
discussed which will help in increasing the brand value of Tesco in market. Further, report will
discuss the standardization and adaptation of marketing mix elements in selected company.
Application of customer based brand equity model will be discussed which will help Tesco to
build a strong brand image in market. Effectiveness of Integrated Marketing communication
includes different methods of communication in marketing. Furthermore, ways to measure the
marketing success will be discussed in report.
ADAPTATION AND STANDARDISATION OF MARKETING MIX
Marketing mix is an effective strategy in order to formulate a product or services in target
market. Marketing mix can simply be defined as the strategy to put or introduce a right product
at the correct place at appropriate time with suitable price to be offered to customers. It is an
important concept which will assist Tesco in order to determine the sustainability of a particular
product in a target market. Standardization of marketing mix covers the union of culture and
with similar environment and customer based around the globe. Whereas, adaptation of
marketing mix defines the all environmental factors and culture of market of the country which
Tesco is entering.
Product: Company has huge range of products to be offered in its store. The vast product
offerings will cater to different needs and preferences of customers from different market
segments. Different products offered bt Tesco is Beverages, Frozen food, Bakery products,
Technology and gaming products, Home electrical products
Price: It is the amount that a customer will pay for a particular product. It is essential for Tesco
to have a strong pricing strategy as it determines the firm's profitability and survival. Tesco
follows cost leadership strategy as its pricing strategy (Stead and Hastings, 2018). It provides the
lowest priced goods by maintaining the same quality in order to attract more customers.
Place: This strategy is also known as distribution. Offering the product at a right place is also an
important element in marketing strategy. Tesco has around 6900 stores in more than 11
countries. The best placing or distribution strategy can be formed by in-depth understanding of
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target market. It helped Tesco to have vast distribution network so that product can be available
at target market at right time.
Promotion: It is an important component which assists in boosting the brand recognition and
helps in increasing sales. Tesco has a strong brand image because of its low prices. Such low
price helps in attracting more customers which increases the revenue and assist in building brand
image in market. Company uses hoardings, television ads and charitable events as its
promotional channels.
Adapting marketing mix is crucial for Tesco which helps in making strategy for their
product to be offered in the target market. However, company also has to make decision before
entering in the selected country regarding marketing mix strategy. The marketing team has to
preliminary decide that up to what extent company should standardize or adapt its marketing mix
in the chosen country. Standardization of marketing mix assists in creating economies of scale in
manufacturing, advertising and packaging (Azhar, Prayogi and Sari, 2018). Thus, it can be said
that marketing mix in Tesco cannot be fully standardized. Some of the marketing mix elements
are more adaptable than other elements. Standardization of the marketing will assist Tesco to
enhance its sales volume, lower production cost, greater profitability and helps in building a
strong brand image in market.
Adaptation of marketing mix helps a company to be a leader of the market or needs to
reach out new segments of the market. Adaptation approach of marketing mix emphasizes on the
importance of customization. Marketing Mix's adaptation involves considering the local
environment, competition, needs and preferences of international market's customer.
CUSTOMER BASED BRAND EQUITY MODEL
Brand equity term is used in marketing which represents the value of a particular brand.
This value is determined by perception of a consumer and his experience with the brand. The
brand with favourable consumer perception has positive brand equity and vice -versa. There are
various models that help in explaining the brand equity in an appropriate manner so that
marketer can apply in their business activities. Customer based brand equity model is the most
effective model of all. This model helps in depicting essentials of customer' perception in making
the brand successful.
Keller's model of Customer Based Brand Equity is the four-level of pyramid. It shows
how Tesco should incorporate the brand value which helps in creating a positive attitude towards
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a brand (Ang and Rusli, 2018). This model assists the marketers to understand needs and wants
of customers in order to build a successful brand.
According to this model, customer-based brand equity occurs when consumer is familiar
with the brand with having positive perception. The four level pyramid of Keller's Customer
based Brand Equity is as follows:
Level One: Brand Salience
This is the bottom most level of pyramid which represents the basic term, “who are we?”.
At this level, a marketer analyses the thinking of a customers regarding their brand. This stage
involves evaluating the awareness of customers regarding the brand.
Level Two: Brand Performance and Brand Imagery
The second level of this model includes two factors which assist a business to analyse the
brand reputation in market. The performance factor encompasses the satisfaction of a customer
with service of particular product (Camilleri, 2018). Performance factors also rely on the
reliability and durability and price elements in product for customer opinion.
Imaginary factor in level two helps in knowing how the customer needs from the product
has met both socially and psychologically. Tesco’s marketer can achieve this by interacting with
customer and collect their views and opinions regarding the product offered.
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Illustration 1: Customer based brand equity model
Source: (Keller’s Brand Equity Model , 2018)

Level Three: Judgements and Feelings (Consumer reactions)
Both the factors in third level that is judgement and feelings are interrelated to each
other. The third level of the model includes analysis about the perception of the customer
whether it is actual or depends on the reputation of brand. Judgement and feelings study the
personal opinions as to how a customer thinks and feels about the brand.
Level Four: Consumer Brand Resonance
It is the top most level of the pyramid, it helps in knowing the loyalty of the customers
towards the brand. In order to gain the loyalty of the customer towards the brand, Tesco has to
build relationship and built a strong interaction with the target customer. Tesco is required to
make customer perception about the brand that is superior to other brands. It involves many
factors which includes price, products, customer service and their past experience with brand.
Building and managing a strong brand value depends on customer perception regarding
the products being offered (Duman, Ozbal and Duerod, 2018). Tesco can manage and build a
strong brand value through tools such as brand awareness, brand creditability, brand reputation
and customer satisfaction. Tesco has to work on different strategies in order to use and enhance
these tools. However, it can be critique that managing a brand image will gives cost burden to
company and require heavy investment which will affect the profitability of the company.
INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION MIX METHODS
Integrating the brand's marketing communication can lead to increase the brand loyalty,
earning higher profits and competitive advantage over other brands.
 Integration Marketing Communication is an effective approach that assists in planning
communication to business and links all brand's marketing communication which assist
in making greater impact on the consumer.
 Integrated Marketing Communication is beneficial for Tesco as it leads to increase the
value with the pace of time (Hoque, Nik Hashim and Azmi, 2018). With the increase in
media, it has become essential to include integrated marketing communication in the
brand marketing strategy of Tesco.
 IMC indicates integrating all the promotional tools in order to be linked together to make
more effective strategy of marketing. It is also very important in launching a new product
as it assist in assuring the right target market to reach in right time through correct
channel with correct message.
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There are different types of marketing communication methods that are effective in
building a strong brand image. In order to use marketing communication mix, it is essential to
analyse target customers and their needs. Three different types of marketing communication
methods that are prove to be suitable for Tesco are as follows:
Advertising: It is one of the most common form of marketing communication which is an
inevitable tool of marketing. It can be said that it the most powerful elements of promotional mix
strategy of a company which helps in building awareness of the product in market, increase sales
and earning more revenue for the company. Advertising of Tesco can be done through different
channels which aim to create awareness of the product in market. However, it can be critique that
advertising creates cost burden on company. Advertising strategy varies with demographic and
social buyers which can eliminates potential buyers.
Public relation: It is an effective method which helps the company to communicate about the
new product to the public and media. Public relation of Tesco assist the customers having
positive perceptive about the product as the information are coming from a reliable sources. This
method is more cost effective than other methods (Colicev, Malshe and Pauwels, 2018).
However, it has been argued that company cannot have control on the business should be
portrayed in market through media. It has also been critique that it is very difficult to measure the
effectiveness of such communication strategy.
Personal Selling: It refers to the method when sales representatives of companies interact fact to
face with the customer and directly sells the product. It can also include sales through phone
calls. This methods gives more control on the sales strategy of company. This strategy is
beneficial for Tesco as it helps in encouraging customers and giving confidence to buy the
products. However, it can be critique that personal selling cannot reach many customers. It can
also be said that this method is expensive than other communication methods.
MEASUREMENT OF SUCCESS
Measuring the marketing efforts is essential in order to control and make improvement in
marketing strategy. For Tesco, it is important to measure the success of marketing which helps in
providing variances and the areas required for further improvement. Tesco can measure its
marketing success or effectiveness through the following ways:
Marketing contribution to revenue: This metrics will help in determining the increasing in the
revenue from the sales of company as compared to the marketing team efforts. There are many
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marketing activities which may not be measured easily like brand awareness and websites
activity. But it will also be contributed to company in long run.
Brand awareness: It is important to understand for Tesco as it has longer sales cycle. Brand
awareness is essential to measure the success of the marketing activity which assist the buyers in
reaching out to the company for more information (Chekalina, Fuchs and Lexhagen, 2018).
Brand awareness mat not give sufficient return but it is very effective in generating in long-run.
Incremental sales: It helps in measuring the contribution of marketing efforts towards the sales
numbers. It assists in measuring the effectiveness of marketing campaign in increasing the sales
of the product for company.
Sales target: effectiveness of the marketing can also be measured bt evaluating the sales growth
rate and analysing whether reaches up to the budgeted sales target.
Market share: It can be said that increasing in the market share clearly shows the effectiveness
of the marketing campaign.
After measuring the effectiveness of marketing of Tesco, team knows the variances and
the areas which requires improvement in marketing activities. In order to improve the marketing
success the company needs to effectively analyse its data and use an analytical tools which helps
in determining the aspects which requires improvement in strategy.
CONCLUSION
By summing up the above report, it can be concluded that effective strategic marketing is
essential in order to improve the brand value of company. It can be analysed from the above
report that decision of standardization and adaptation of elements of marketing mix is important
while entering in a new country. It can also be articulated that Customer Based Brand Equity
Model is effective to analyse the perception of customers regarding Tesco’s product. Further,
report has assessed the importance of integrated marketing communication to improve the brand
value in market.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ang, C. and Rusli, H., 2018. The Impact of Marketing Mix 4Ps and Consumer Behavior toward
Purchase Decision of Adidas Products. iBuss Management. 6(2).
Azhar, M. E., Prayogi, M. A. and Sari, M., 2018. THE ROLE OF MARKETING MIX AND
SERVICE QUALITY ON TOURIST SATISFACTION AND LOYALTY AT
SAMOSIR. Revista de turism-studii si cercetari in turism, (26).
Camilleri, M. A., 2018. Integrated Marketing Communications. In Travel Marketing, Tourism
Economics and the Airline Product (pp. 85-103). Springer, Cham.
Chekalina, T., Fuchs, M. and Lexhagen, M., 2018. Customer-based destination brand equity
modeling: The role of destination resources, value for money, and value in use. Journal
of Travel Research. 57(1). pp.31-51.
Colicev, A., Malshe, A. and Pauwels, K., 2018. Social Media and Customer-Based Brand
Equity: An Empirical Investigation in Retail Industry. Administrative Sciences. 8(3).
p.55.
Duman, T., Ozbal, O. and Duerod, M., 2018. The role of affective factors on brand resonance:
Measuring customer‐based brand equity for the Sarajevo brand. Journal of destination
marketing & management. 8. pp.359-372.
Hoque, M. E., Nik Hashim, N. M. H. and Azmi, M. H. B., 2018. Moderating effects of
marketing communication and financial consideration on customer attitude and intention
to purchase Islamic banking products: A conceptual framework. Journal of Islamic
Marketing. 9(4). pp.799-822.
Stead, M. and Hastings, G., 2018. Advertising in the social marketing mix: getting the balance
right. In Social Marketing (pp. 29-43). Psychology Press.
Online
Keller’s Brand Equity Model . 2018 [Online] Available through:<http://www.free-management-
ebooks.com/news/kellers-brand-equity-model/>
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