Marketing Research Report: Consumer Decision-Making in UK Supermarkets

This marketing research report delves into the UK supermarket industry, analyzing consumer decision-making processes through the lens of problem recognition, information search, and purchase behavior. It examines the impact of e-commerce, the application of Porter's Five Forces and PEEST models, and the influence of marketing campaigns on consumer choices. The report highlights the effects of Brexit on consumer spending habits and the increasing importance of price and quality considerations. Furthermore, it explores future trends such as the growth of e-commerce, the rise of social media marketing, and the need for digital refining to maintain competitiveness. Recommendations emphasize innovation in both product and process to meet evolving customer needs and achieve cost leadership in the dynamic UK grocery market. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and research papers for students.

Running head: MARKETING RESEARCH REPORT
Marketing Research Report
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1MARKETING RESEARCH REPORT
PEEST Analysis
The PEEST analysis is a tool for measuring the macro environment of organizations
and industries. The PEEST consists of political, economic, ecological, social and
technological environment. In this current study, the United Kingdom retail industry will be
analysed based on the above mentioned factors.
Political
The political environment of any country is measured in terms of the government
policy, political stability, industry regulations, taxation, global trade agreements and
restrictions in the market. Since United Kingdom’s decision to make an exit from the
European Union there has been significant increase in uncertainty over the future restrictions
in the market (Miller and Rose 2017).The currency in United Kingdom has become
comparatively weaker due to BREXIT and this will affect the profit margin of all the
companies in the retail industry. Therefore, BREXIT has created an environment where
uncertainty prevails and the companies will have to wait for the impact to take counter
measures (Kew and Stredwick 2017). The government taxation policies will be highly
affected by BREXIT and the companies in the retail industry may have to pay high tariffs
which will reduce their profit margin significantly.
Economic
The different factors affecting the economic environment of United Kingdom are
exchange rates, economic growth, globalization, inflation, cost of living, consumer spending
habits and labour costs (Young et al. 2018). The negotiations with the suppliers are highly
impacted due to the increase in the volatility of the exchange rate conversions. The business
market are awaiting BREXIT which shows the level of uncertainty in the market (Narooz and

2MARKETING RESEARCH REPORT
Child 2017). The demand and supply of different products have changed due to the decrease
in disposable income of the consumers.
Ecological
The different ecological factors affecting the external environment of United
Kingdom retail industry are environmental restriction imposed by the governments, corporate
social responsibility, sustainable resources, supply chain management, procurement,
transportation and ethical sourcing. There have been increase in shoppers that are
environmentally and ethically conscious (Foreman 2017). The ethical sourcing has increased
the price of the goods due to increase in additional cost and implementation of the different
CSR policy has improved the relationship with the consumers. Therefore, the retail industry
will be highly affected due to the increase in strictness in the environmental laws as the
research and development cost of the companies will increase.
Social
The crucial factors affecting the social environment of the company are consumer
trends, lifestyle factors, work-life balance, career attitudes, consumer buying habits and
population demographics (Souza-Monteiro and Hooker 2017). The change in consumer
needs will further affect the market and as the market in the United Kingdom is highly
saturated the companies have to be flexible and innovative to maintain their competitive
advantage and long term sustainability (Kirton and Trebilcock 2017). Therefore, the
organization in the retail industry will have to constantly invest on market research so that
they are aware of the needs of the consumers and can develop new products accordingly.
Technological

3MARKETING RESEARCH REPORT
The technological environment will consist of factors such as automation, disruptive
innovation, social networking and other technological advancements. The use of technology
is essential for improving both online facilities and store facilities of the organizations in the
retail industry (Omar 2018). The saturation in the United Kingdom retail has caused the
companies to focus on product innovation as this is the only way of gaining competitive
advantage in the market. Moreover, the continuous change in the market needs of the
consumers has resulted in the increased usage of business analytics to keep up the market
volatility. Moreover, with the advent of new GDPR regulations the organization will have to
focus on data security and protection of consumer data (Thompson and McLarney 2017).
This will significantly increase the cost of the companies in the retail industry and they will
have to use cost leadership to increase their profit margin.
Conclusion
The conclusion will consist of linking the finding of the study with the predefined
objective of the study. This will facilitate in developing relevant conclusion and provide
result which can be used by the supermarkets in United Kingdom so that they can incorporate
these changes to capitalize on the market opportunities and increase their share in the market.
To identify the different types of the marketing and sales model used by supermarkets
The different models used by the supermarkets for implementing marketing and sales
strategies are porter’s five forces and PEEST model. These models are used to conduct a
situational analysis which will provide an in-depth analysis of the macro and micro
environment of the organization. PEEST can be effective used by the companies in
supermarket industry to evaluate the impact of the current political, economic, social,
technological and ecological environment. These factors remain same for all the companies
and the way they adapt to these constantly changing determines the ability of the companies

4MARKETING RESEARCH REPORT
to sustain in a highly competitive environment. Porter’s five forces is used by the companies
in the market to identify the internal capabilities of their respective organizations. This will
enable them to identify the strengths and weaknesses so that organizations can take
mitigating actions.
To identify the ways in which the factors affect consumers’ decision making
The findings of the research shows that marketing campaigns and advertisement plays
an important role in affecting the decision making of the consumer. The economic situation
also affects the decision of the consumers. BREXIT has changed the perspective of the
consumers and they have become much more conservative due to the decrease in their
disposable income. Price and quality is key factor which the consumers are considering right
now as they are searching for value for money in all the products they purchase from the
market. Therefore, there certain sets of consumers that are focused on buying discounting
products. LIDI and ALDI has been able to capitalize on this situation and have increased their
share. Tesco, Sainsbury’s and ASDA has provided quality products and introduced new
loyalty programs to retain their existing consumers and attract more consumers.
To identify the future development trends of supermarkets under Internet environment
The future trends in the market shows that there will be decrease in the number of
physical stores and increase in ecommerce where the consumers will be given options to
select customize products. The technological innovation will be a key practice in the future
which will help the organizations to obtain cost leadership in the market. Social media
marketing will also be increased significantly due to the rapid increase in the users of
different social media websites and microblogging sites. Moreover, the smaller retailers in the
market will pose more threat to the major players in the market. Therefore, digital refining is

5MARKETING RESEARCH REPORT
something all the companies will have to invest in order to improve their chances of long
term sustainability in the market.
Recommendations
Therefore, it is recommended that the organizations in the grocery retail industry in
the United Kingdom should focus on innovation both product and process. This will enable
them to meet the change need of the customers in the market and the same time reduce their
operational cost and improve the supply chain processes. The big players in the market will
have to focus on developing products that will add value to the current and future
requirements of the consumers. Thus, digital disruption will have a deep impact on the
United Kingdom grocery industry and the organizations will have to use it to their advantage.

6MARKETING RESEARCH REPORT
References
Foreman, J., 2017. Developments in Environmental Regulation: Risk Based Regulation in the
UK and Europe. Palgrave Macmillan.
Kew, J. and Stredwick, J., 2017. Business environment: managing in a strategic context.
Kogan Page Publishers.
Kirton, J.J. and Trebilcock, M.J., 2017. Hard choices, soft law: Voluntary standards in
global trade, environment and social governance. Routledge.
Miller, P. and Rose, N., 2017. Political power beyond the state: Problematics of government.
In Foucault and Law (pp. 191-224). Routledge.
Narooz, R. and Child, J., 2017. Networking responses to different levels of institutional void:
A comparison of internationalizing SMEs in Egypt and the UK. International Business
Review, 26(4), pp.683-696.
Omar, P.D.O.E., 2018. UK CONSUMERS'ADOPTION OF THE INTERNET FOR
GROCERY SHOPPING. AU Journal of Management, 3(1), pp.11-18.
Souza-Monteiro, D. and Hooker, N., 2017. Comparing UK food retailers corporate social
responsibility strategies. British Food Journal, 119(3), pp.658-675.
Thompson, J. and McLarney, C., 2017. What effects will the strategy changes undertaken by
next Plc have on themselves and their competition in the UK Clothing Retail
Market?. Journal of Commerce and Management Thought, 8(2), p.234.
Young, C.W., Russell, S.V., Robinson, C.A. and Chintakayala, P.K., 2018. Sustainable
retailing–influencing consumer behaviour on food waste. Business Strategy and the
Environment, 27(1), pp.1-15.