Comprehensive Marketing Plan: Walmart's Expansion Strategy in India

This report provides a detailed marketing plan for Walmart's expansion into the Indian market, utilizing the SOSTAC model. It begins with an overview of Walmart and the Indian market, highlighting the reasons for expansion, such as the large market size and availability of labor. The plan includes objectives like recovering initial expenditures within two years and opening new stores using profits from the first. A SWOT analysis identifies Walmart's strengths (efficient supply chain, strong funding), weaknesses (easily copied business model, low profit margins), opportunities (improved HR practices, higher quality standards), and threats (online retail competition, health-conscious consumers). The STP analysis focuses on segmentation based on demographics, lifestyle, and values, targeting measurable and accessible segments, and positioning Walmart as a low-price provider. The marketing mix (7 Ps) addresses place, product, price, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence, with tactics tailored for the Indian market, followed by budget considerations, controlling, and monitoring mechanisms.

Individual marketing
planning

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................4
TASK ..............................................................................................................................................4
Brand :.........................................................................................................................................4
Country :......................................................................................................................................4
Reason :.......................................................................................................................................5
Summary of the marketing plan :................................................................................................5
Objectives :..................................................................................................................................5
SWOT analysis :.........................................................................................................................6
STP ( Segmentiation, targeting and positioning) analysis of Walmart in India :.......................7
Tactics (marketing mix 7 ps) :....................................................................................................9
Budget (Action plan):................................................................................................................11
Controlling and monitoring :.....................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES:.............................................................................................................................12
Books and Journals:..................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
A marketing plan is a report that outlines an operational document consist of the different
strategies that an organisation has made to implement in the coming year or month for generating
leads and achieving its objectives. The functions and components due to which a marketing plan
is made can consists of – developing of the decisions according to pricing, identification and
targeting the niche markets, selecting platform for the product and many more. It is a part of the
business plan of a company that describes all of its important aspects such as its mission
statement, budget, situation, vision and strategies. The following report is the detailed marketing
plan of Walmart to expand in India which can help it to identify the various steps needed, things
to consider and goals to accomplish (Bao, 2018). This gives the company and its employees the
direction and motivation to work. The report is in a systematic form that starts from the
information about the brand Walmart, country which is considered to be the expansion area,
reason why the company should expand in the country and then it finally covers the overall
SOSTAC model on which the marketing plan is based. SOSTAC consists of the summary,
objectives, situation analysis, tactics, action plan, controlling elements in the accordingly
formation.
TASK
Brand :
Walmart is the world's largest company by considering the revenue with around US $
548.7 billion. It is also considered as one of the largest private employing company in the world
with its 2.2 million employees. It is a supermarket retailer American company founded by Sam
Walton in Rogers, Arkansas in the year 1962. It started the journey with focusing on the rural
areas that helped it to avoid direct competition with giants of the same industry that were
performing in the urban areas and it has its own brand labelled products. It achieved a fast
growth and without focusing on slow and steady pace it bearded all the risks and focused on the
rapid growth in different countries.
Country :
Indian is a developing and vast economy of the world. It comes on 2nd position on the
population criteria in the world which tells about the big amount of consumers present in it. It

involves the co- existence of both public and private sector in respect of the participation in
different economic activities. It involves various economic policies that are needed to be
considered before stating any business related activity in it. The country has a low income level
of its people (Bhatia, 2020). It is consisted of low advancement of technology and manual and
labour is more preferred. The productive capacity of the country is under utilised.
Reason :
There can be several different reasons due to which Walmart should make its presence in India,
these are as follows:
 Huge market – The company will get a high market to perform due to the huge and
developing amount population that are being influenced towards western culture.
 Easy labour – The country has big amount of unemployed labour that are in need of jobs
which provides the company with the availability of workers that are willling to work at
lower wages and salaries.
Summary of the marketing plan :
Walmart is a retailer giant of USA that is seeking an opportunity to find a market in
which it can diversify to build its presence and profitability. The company is diversified in many
parts of the world but currently do not have any stores in India. The report is based on the
marketing plan that can help and show the company the availability of market ad various steps
that can be taken to make the process effective.
Objectives :
These are important elements that gives direction to a company to ensure its growth. Walmart
can get helped through different objectives such as:
 Cover all the expenditures that were incurred in the process of starting the store though
the revenue from its store in less than 2 years.
 Start a different new store in some other area of the country targeting new customers with
the profits it earned though the first store.

SWOT analysis :
It is an strategic management tool that helps in analysis the both internal and external
factors that can help a company to identify its weak and strong points which can accordingly
help it in the strategy building activity (Crutchfield, 2017). It involves four different elements
which provides a realistic and fact based information in relevance of the company. The swot
analysis of Walmart in context of making presence in India is as follows:
 Strengths – These are the strong points of a company that helps it in making a powerful
position in the market. Strengths of Walmart that can help it in the diversification in India
are as follows:
◦ High efficiency of supply chain – The company has good amount of holdings of in all
over the world with a effective and powerful supply chain that provides the products
to the final consumer through its stores.
◦ Strong funding – It is one of most revenue earning supermarket brand which gives the
power and money to be able to easily fund in its growth projects and is also able to
bear the losses if incurred through the new stores.
 Weakness – The involved factors are poor elements of a company which are identified
with the motive of rectifying them. The following are the weakness of walmart that
should be considered in implementing the related project :
◦ Easy business model to be copied – The industry in which Walmart works does need
high expetsie knowledge and practises. This makes it libale to get future competitions
in the area.
◦ Low profit margins – To maintain the presence and customer rentention in the
essential products with high competition, walmart puts less margins and this provides
it with the necessity to get high sales to maintain the expenditures and enjoy profits
(King, 2018).
 Opportunities – This provides an organisation with favorable external factors that can
give it an competitive edge in the market. The opportunities for Walmart in the Indian are
market are as follows:
◦ Improvement in human resource practises – The majority of the other competitiors of
the same industry in India do not provide their worforce with training programs. As in

other stores of the brand it can also give proper trainings to its workforce in India and
this will make the workforce motivated and efficient in handling the customers.
◦ Improvement in quality standards – Through providing qualifuied products and
customer satisfaction it can make loyalty in the customers of the related country.
 Threats - These include the factors that have potential to negatively effect an
organisation. Threats which can harm the brand in India are as follows:
◦ Peak competition of online retailing – People are relying on the online sources to get
essential and wanted products to avoid the hectic process of buying and finding from
different physical stores (Larkin, 2020). This can effect the sales of Walmart's stores.
◦ Healthy lifestyle – Population is moulding towards adopting healthy lifestyle. This
can make them to avoid the packaged and stored food products of the related
company.
STP ( Segmentiation, targeting and positioning) analysis of Walmart in India :
STP is central concept model that helps in analysing the market to serve and target the
customers successfully. Companies divides their products and services into different segments
and practice to target and provide these products to the attractive customers through fillings their
wants and needs. The different marketing strategies such as advertising are build and practised
accordingly that could target and attract the targeted customers (Payne, Frow and Eggert, 2017).
The use of this model has become a popular strategy due to the increasing of diversity in
customer needs, figuring of mature markets and ability to perform better in niche markets that
are used to target specific customer areas. The three different elements of this model are
elaborated in following points in reference of Walmart starting its stores in India:
 Segmentation – This point refers to the division of customers of a market into some
different identifiable groups. These groups are made according to the common needs and
characteristics. These dividation can be based on geographic, psycho graphics,
demographics and behavioural variables. Walmart uses demographic and psycho graphic
segmentation strategies in forming distinct groups in its stores yet. These help in
understanding psyche wants of the consumers regarding the neediness getting as lower
prices as possible for the satisfactory providing products. Considering this, Walmart
introduced a strategy named EDLP – every day low prices. This strategy can also prove

to be useful in attracting the customers of India and thus must be implemented in the new
stores of India. The making of segments in India should be based on beliefs / values,
lifestyle and demographics.
 Targeting – This factors works in identifying some uncovered segments of the market
and their potential and selecting one or few from them through their needs. Walmart uses
differentiated targeting strategy to capture global market to do not make the customers
feel partiality among each other. There several basis on which Walmart can use this
factor in India, these are as follows:
◦ The difference in each segments must be measurable for clear classification.
◦ As the high potential of the company, the segments should be large enough to be
justified clearly as small segments will involve less quantity of customers that will
have a minimal effect on the sales.
◦ The money that is used in the process of making marketing plans must recovered
easily through exceeding the profits.
◦ The each segment that is targeted must be easily accessible to the marketing agents of
the company to keep the customers informed and attached with them (Puthussery,
2020).
◦ The different segments must be consisted of different benefits according to the needs
of the customers involved in it to make a deeper effect on them.
 Positioning - The use of this factor is to ensure the brand that they occupy a trustful spot
in the mind of the customers. Through this the product and services of a company are
differentiated from one another, providing a valid reason to the customers to buy. It is
consisted of two key elements, the first tells about the physical attributes, function and
capability of the product that a brand offers. The second one is about the way in which
the consumers has perceived the product of a brand comparing it with the other substitute
and complementary products provided by other competitors. Walmart uses this factor
through positioning itself as a company that offers products at the lowest price in the
relative market. The organisation is able to provide this facility due to its less cost on
dealing on larger basis and this provides it with a big competitive advantage over small
retailers.

Tactics (marketing mix 7 ps) :
These are the different set of actions / tactics or strategies that a company uses to boost
the value of its brand or certain product in the market. It is made up of many different types of
elements concluded as 4 Ps or 7 Ps. Following is the marketing mix of Walmart through
elaborating the 7 different Ps in reference of making its strong presence in the Indian market :
 Place – This states about targeting the area in which a company is going to sell its
product and service to provide it to the customers. This does not specify with
particularly point of selling as there are many ways through which an organisation can
deal and sell its product or service without having any specific area or place such as
online selling (social media, website) and trading(buying from one and selling to
different). The audience and Custer that are targeted plays a major role in identifying a
perfect place as different customer segments can have different behaviour and
preference. Walmart started from a city (Arkansas) of US where it headquartered now.
It sells across hundreds of cities of 26 countries. The company also uses online
methods for selling (Roy, 2017). It uses a complex supply chain for the distribution
process in all of its diversified stores. The place that Walmart could use in India for
opening its stores must be easily accessible to the consumers.
 Product – This refers to the commodity that is been sold by an company such as a
physical product, service or experience. It is the main element affecting the value and
revenue of a company. If it does not provide the needed satisfaction to its customers,
the other factors such as promotion, place and pricing strategy will not prove to be
much effective in getting a market share. Walmart provides a vast variety of physical
product line. It has also grown its range of products in the online market. The present
variety of products include different category – grocery category, health and wellness
category, baby care product category, household products category and beauty related
category. Most of its products are its own private labelled brands. It should start with
selling grocery and certain household related products with a limited stock of baby
care and health products in stating of its store in India. This can help it to view its
value and brand awareness in the Indian, with a good response it can build the product
line which will provide it less chances to be liable to losses. It can also provide
products according to the needs of the customers through researching the market.

 Promotion – This is the activity of making the customers and market know about the
variety of its product, some particular product/ service or the brand itself. It helps in
raising awareness towards the related commodity in the market. Promotion strategy
can used in various forms and work on multiple level. The equipping of a promotional
activity should based on the accessibility of the target customers. The targeted
customers of Walmart are middle class people in India. For attracting them it can use
promotional activities such as advertising in televisions, banners and providing
discounts (Rysavy, Michalak and Daly 2021).
 Price – This states about the amount of money that is being charged by the customers
for a particular product or service provided by a company. This is one of the most
important factor that influences the buying behaviour a consumer. Pricing of a product
depends on several factors such as cost, spending and income distribution of the
customers. Walmart uses low pricing strategy that can prove to be helpful in gaining
customers in India. The price must be included of all the cost involved with a less
profit margin.
 Physical evidence – It is the proof of purchase that gives the customers a security and
improving experience with the organisation. This ensure the overall existence of a
brand. The physical evidence of Walmart includes its 11300 retail stores, credit cards,
gift cards and many other distribution facilities (online platform) which help it in
serving various parts of the globe. Walmart can focus on its social media performance,
post purchase thank you email, packaging of products and stores décor to give secure
experience to the customers in India.
 People – This involves all the involved people with the company directly or indirectly.
Being one of the most employing company, Walmart has laths of involved people,
these people can be – counter person, marketers, sellers, product designers, company
representatives, recruiters and many other. The company needs to keep an eye on its
involved people in India to obstruct involving in an activity that could have a negative
impact on it (Wagner and Boatright, 2019). It can also provide training programs to
improve the behaviour and skills of involved people.
 Process – It consists of all the activities that are involved in whole process from
manufacturing to providing them to the customers with the product or service such as

delivery, sales funnel, shipping and packaging. Walmart practices cost cutting process
optimisation to achieve lowest cost in the market. With the use of this process the
company can also invest in digital technology to make the process easier and this can
lead to better customer satisfaction and revenue generation (Yadav and Rahman,
2018).
Budget (Action plan):
Budget is the estimation formed through considering revenues and expenses for a
specified future period and is usually rectified and modified on a fixed periodic basis by
considering the changes in the revenue, expenditures and future plans. This can be made for
anything that makes and spends money such as an individual, a business organisation or
government (Βολίκα, 2020). This can help in providing the overview of the ability to spend.
Particulars Amount
Machineries 200000
Media house 10000
Promotions 25000
Advertising 15000
Total 150000
Controlling and monitoring :
 Benchmark – This can be said as the process of analysing the execution and
performance of a business firm's product or service in the market to be leader in aspects
of their operations. It provides direction to a business entity and motivation to work. The
point of benchmarking is to determine opportunities by considering the internal
environment for its improvement.

CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that, marketing plan is one of the essential
element that is needed in the growth procedure of a company by helping it to make market know
about its existence and to raise awareness regarding its products / services or of the brand itself.
It is a part of a business plan. Walmart is a giant retailer brand that should consider the idea of
diversifying and opening its stores in India due to different many reasons. SOSTAC is a tool that
covers a seven marketing tactics and modals. It is an acronym made up of different elements,
these are – Summary, Objectives, Situation analysis (consists of SWOT and STP analysis),
Tactics (7ps of marketing mix), Action plan (budget) and Controlling and monitoring
(benchmark). These elements further include many other factors that help in making a marketing
plan for a business organisation.
REFERENCES:
Books and Journals:
Bao, H., 2018. Marketing of Tourism Services/Experiences. In The Emerald Handbook of
Entrepreneurship in Tourism, Travel and Hospitality. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Bhatia, V., 2020. Drivers and barriers of permission-based marketing. Journal of Research in
Interactive Marketing.
Crutchfield, T.N., 2017. Critical service learning across two required marketing classes. Journal
of Education for Business, 92(8), pp.371-379.
King, J., 2018. How to measure marketing success and find your cost per new student
acquisition. Journal of Education Advancement & Marketing, 3(3), pp.266-278.
Larkin, T., 2020. A Dissertation of Practice of Superintendents’ Perceptions on the Strategic
Marketing of K-12 Public Schools(Doctoral dissertation, Lamar University-Beaumont).
Payne, A., Frow, P. and Eggert, A., 2017. The customer value proposition: evolution,
development, and application in marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 45(4),
pp.467-489.
Puthussery, A., 2020. Digital marketing: an overview.
Roy, R., 2017. Designing and marketing greener products: the Hoover case. In Greener
marketing (pp. 126-142). Routledge.
Rysavy, M.D., Michalak, R. and Daly, B., 2021. Library Marketing: Sending Text Messages and
Emails to Online Library Users During COVID-19. Journal of Library Administration, 61(3),
pp.358-365.

Wagner, S. and Boatright, B., 2019. Generating and Framing Content: Strategic Multi-Platform
Content Marketing in Academic Libraries. Public Services Quarterly, 15(1), pp.59-67.
Yadav, M. and Rahman, Z., 2018. The influence of social media marketing activities on
customer loyalty: A study of e-commerce industry. Benchmarking: An International Journal.
Βολίκα, Δ., 2020. " Social network media και marketing": Μια μελέτη περίπτωσης.