Woolworths Marketing Strategy: Detailed Analysis of Business Factors

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of Woolworths' marketing strategy, examining key factors such as organizational structure, environmental influences, customer engagement, and competitor landscape. The organizational analysis highlights Woolworths' mission to provide convenience, value, and quality, emphasizing its commitment to customer satisfaction and innovation across its various subsidiaries. The environmental analysis employs Porter's Five Forces to assess the competitive dynamics, including buyer and supplier power, threats of entry, and existing rivalries, noting the impact of political policies and new market entrants. Customer analysis focuses on Woolworths' initiatives to build trust, offer value, and engage with communities through programs like Free Fruit for Kids and partnerships with food rescue organizations. Finally, the competitor analysis benchmarks Woolworths against major players like Carrefour, Tesco, and Coles, highlighting its growth and competitive pricing strategies. The essay concludes that Woolworths' strategic approach and focus on customer satisfaction have contributed to its success in a competitive market.

Marketing strategy

Woolworths
Woolworths
In this essay the discussion will be made on the Woolworths Company. It is one of the largest
Australian companies with more than 205,000 workers (WOOLWORTHS, 2019).The essay will
highlight the different factors in relation to the company such as organizational analysis,
environmental analysis, customer analysis and competitor analysis. These all the different factors
that will be elaborated in relation to overall functions of the Woolworths company.
The organizational analysis of the company can be examined by emphasizing on the different
operations and objectives. The mission of Woolworths is to provide the best in convenience,
value and quality for the customers. The company has the large market share and there are more
than 3,000 stores that serve more than 29 million customers across the brands. Woolworths
emphasizes on maintaining commitment to hard work and integrity. The goal of the company is
to serve the customers on the 1st priority, so to attain this they emphasize on connecting and
personalizing the shopping experience of the customers and also they unlock the value in the
portfolio (WOOLWORTHS, 2019).
(Source: WOOLWORTHS, 2019).
The differentiation has been created in the all businesses such as differentiation is made in the
food customers propositions, they accelerate the innovation in the business drinks and also they
unlock the value in the overall portfolio. Woolworths also emphasizes on redesigning the E2E
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Woolworths
operating model in which the emphasis is given on “better for the customers with the simple
stores”. There are various subsidiaries of the company such as Woolworth’s supermarket, Big W,
BWS and also Dan Murphy’s (WOOLWORTHS, 2019). The organizational structure of the
company can be analyzed through the picture
(Source: WOOLWORTHS, 2019).
The organizational structure of the company is systematically designed which means that there
are directors, chairman and non-executive directors on the upper level. Then on the next level
there is group managing director and CEO. The group managing director and CEO is
representing and controlling the operations of different departments in which there are director of
supermarkets, chief financial officer and also the head of human resource. Then there are GM
business developer, supermarket operations, Mercury program and also corporate service head.
They take assistance from their top management (WOOLWORTHS, 2019). So, by analyzing the
organizational structure, it can be stated that the overall structure is properly design that helps in
managing and controlling the operations of the business.
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Woolworths
Environmental analysis
The environmental analysis of Woolworth can be explained with the help of Porter Five force
model. This tool helps to examine the current situation and performance of the organization. The
first factor in this model relates with the bargaining power of the buyers, in which it is evaluated
that it is high as the customers have a wide choice to select from the range of products. They
have the option of choosing the best out of the wide range of the products. The next is bargaining
power of suppliers in which is also high (Jie and Gengatharen, 2019).
It is high because the supply in food is impacted by the seasonal changes. If the supply reduces
because of the seasons then suppliers have more powers. The company focuses on considering
the efficient supply chai so that customer satisfaction can be boosted. Threats of entry is the next
factor that states that it is high as the investment cost required to enter into the market is high
(Nenycz-Thiel and Romaniuk, 2012). The new entrance of the company such as Aldi has
impacted the profits of the Woolworths. Rivalry among the existing companies is also one of the
factors of environment that affect the growth of the business. The competitors are Coles, Asda
and Aldi. The rivalries among the existing firms are Asda and Coles and due to this the profits of
the company has been reduced (Keith, 2012).
There are also various other factors that can be related to the business environment of
Woolworths. The political policies of the company have adversely affected the retail sector in
Australian market. The fair business policy enacted by the Australia and New Zealand
competition and commission has impacted the performance of the company. So, it can be said
that these are the factors that has affected the overall business operations of the company in the
competitive business environment (Biddle, 2016).
If emphasis is given on customer analysis it has been examined that focus is on maintaining trust
and also to give value to the customer. The company has the aim to listen to the customers and to
roll out the initiatives so that trust and rewards can be offered to the customers. With the
presence in the different cities, regions and remote areas the company utilizes the resources and
skills to partner with the communities (Richards, Lawrence and Burch, 2011). It helps in
improving the health and well-being of the customers and it create the employment opportunities
for the young Australians and New Zealanders. The emphasis is also on supporting the
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Woolworths
communities that are facing natural disasters with the emergency relief and also post disaster
recovery. There are various initiatives considered by the company such as Free Fruit for Kids,
Earn and learn, White Ribbon and programs with food rescue partners like Ozharvest and Food
bank (Azeem et al., 2018).
The Woolworths also have the direct contribution towards the partnership and they assist the
customers to focus on contribution directly to the charitable companies. There are various
Australian and New Zealand communities that have the business of the Woolworths and they
offer the opportunity to involve the consumers, team members and also supplies to boost the
awareness in relation to funding in the community programs. So, the main emphasis of the
company is to offer the best services so that it could be easy to enhance the customer base.
Wools worth considered the customers as the asset of the company and they give more value as
they are the one who is the reason behind their success. Therefore, in relation to customer
analysis, it can be said that the main aim of the company is to boost the satisfaction level of the
customers so that large market share can be grabbed in the competitive business world. This can
also be the best approach as it creates positive image in the mind of the customers in relation to
the products and services offered in the market (Pickles, Barrientos and Knorringa, 2016).
Competitor’s analysis in relation to the Wools worth relates with the different competitors
present in the market. It has been examined that there are various competitors such as Carrefour,
Tesco, Kroger, Amazon and Wal-Mart. These are the major competitors of the company and due
to this the company has to face the issue in relation to the downfall of the sales. The competitive
benchmarking of company can be done with the competitors (Nastasoiu and Vandenbosch,
2019).
The benchmarking of the company is done against the mix of the international retailers and
companies in context to the heavy companies. In 2010, it has been examined that Citi Group
Global markets safety spotlight in relation to the ASX companies. Woolworths was also
showcased for its overall improvement in the business of logistics. In 2018, the Woolworth has
recorded the strong growth in the sales. The growth of the company as compared to the
competitors is high. The performance of Coles has been enhanced by 2.1% but on the other hand
the Woolworth has attained the growth of 3%. In UK, Tesco has achieved the growth by 2.4% in
the second quarter of 2017. The overall performance of the company has been enhanced and due
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Woolworths
to this the success has been attained by the organization in the competitive market (News Daily,
2019).
(Source: Statista, 2019).
If compared with Coles it can be analyzed that Wools worth has bet on every single matrix. In
terms of pricing strategy, Coles has the ratio of 6% and Woolworths is on 6.6%. The competitive
pricing of the company of Coles is on 6.6% and of Woolworths 6.8% (Statista, 2019). So, in
relation to all the factors it has been seen that company has attained the growth in the
competitive market in relation to the other competitors present in the market. The strategies that
are considered by the company and it have helped to accomplish the set goals and objectives set
by the company (News Daily, 2019).
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Woolworths
(Source: News Daily, 2019).
It can be concluded that Woolworths is one of the largest company and has considered different
ways to accomplish the overall goals. In relation to the organizational analysis, it is examined
that proper organizational structure is maintained that has helped to boost the working structure.
There are also various environmental factors that have affected the growth but still it has been
managed by the company. The customer analysis states that Woolworths focuses on boosting the
satisfaction level of the customers by offering quality products and services. Also, the
competitors of the company are many in the market such as Asda and Aldi but Woolworths
maintained the quality of the services and products. This has assisted in attaining the set goals
and also created positive image of the customers in the market.
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Woolworths
References
Azeem, M.M., Baker, D., Villano, R.A., Mounter, S. and Griffith, G., 2018. Food shoppers’
share of wallet: A small city case in a changing competitive environment. Journal of Retailing
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Biddle, I., 2016. The Wesfarmers/Woolworths duopoly war: The Bunnings vs. Masters
battle. Busidate, 24(3), p.3.
Jie, F. and Gengatharen, D., 2019. Australian food retail supply chain analysis. Business Process
Management Journal, 25(2), pp.271-287.
Keith, S., 2012. Coles, Woolworths and the local. Locale: The Australasian-Pacific Journal of
Regional Food Studies, 2, pp.47-81.
Nastasoiu, A. and Vandenbosch, M., 2019. Competing with loyalty: How to design successful
customer loyalty reward programs. Business Horizons, 62(2), pp.207-214.
Nenycz-Thiel, M. and Romaniuk, J., 2012. Value-for-money perceptions of supermarket and
private labels. Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ), 20(2), pp.171-177.
News Daily, 2019. Woolworths is totally pummelling Coles in the supermarket wars. [Online]
Available at: https://thenewdaily.com.au/money/finance-news/2018/02/02/woolworths-pummels-
coles/. [Accessed on 10 June 2019].
Pickles, J., Barrientos, S. and Knorringa, P., 2016. New end markets, supermarket expansion and
shifting social standards. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 48(7), pp.1284-
1301.
Richards, C., Lawrence, G. and Burch, D., 2011. Supermarkets and agro-industrial foods: The
strategic manufacturing of consumer trust. Food, Culture & Society, 14(1), pp.29-47.
Statista, 2019. Change in Tesco like-for-like sales in the United Kingdom (UK) from third
quarter 2014/15 to fourth quarter 2017/18. [Online] Available at:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/490796/tesco-group-sales-performance-share-united-
kingdom-uk/ [Accessed on 10 June 2019].
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WOOLWORTHS, 2019.Management structure. [Online] Available at:
https://orreconomics.weebly.com/management-structure.html [Accessed on 10 June 2019].
WOOLWORTHS, 2019.Staretgy and objectives. [Online] Available at:
https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/about-us/our-approach/strategy-and-objectives/
[Accessed on 10 June 2019].
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