MKT601: Woolworths Digital Marketing Analysis and Recommendations

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Woolworths' digital marketing strategies. It begins by examining Woolworths' segmentation approach for both online and offline customers, focusing on demographic, behavioral, and psychological factors. The report then explores Woolworths' targeting and positioning strategies, highlighting how the company caters to different customer segments. A detailed discussion of the digital marketing tools and techniques employed by Woolworths, including website marketing, social media marketing, e-commerce platforms, and SEO, is presented, along with an explanation of their respective aims. The analysis further identifies the strengths and weaknesses of Woolworths' digital marketing strategy. The report concludes with specific recommendations for improving Woolworths' digital marketing efforts, aiming to enhance customer engagement and drive revenue growth. The report draws upon the assignment brief provided for a Contemporary Marketing course (MKT601), and adheres to the specified formatting and content requirements.

Running head: DIGITAL MARKETING TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES: WOOLWORTHS
Digital Marketing Tools and Techniques: Woolworths
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1DIGITAL MARKETING TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES: WOOLWORTHS
Executive Summery
The purpose of this report is to explore the digital marketing strategies that can be used for
better revenue generation and increased brand value. For this purpose, the Australian retail
company Woolworths has been used to determine the digital marketing tools and techniques
that they use which has led them to become one of the leaders in the Australian food and
grocery retail. Woolworths uses age based and income based consumer segmentations to
target their online and offline niche customers. For digital marketing, they use tools like SEO,
social media, website and e commerce services to increase their sales. The analysis found
several limitations to their existing digital marketing techniques such as lack of graphic
designing, email marketing, safety, and security that has limited their potential.
Recommendations to improve the present digital marketing has been given. The report
concludes that by using the recommendations, Woolworths would be able to lead both the
online and offline selling.

2DIGITAL MARKETING TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES: WOOLWORTHS
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
Discussion..................................................................................................................................4
Segmentation..........................................................................................................................4
Offline segment..................................................................................................................5
Online segment...................................................................................................................5
Targeting................................................................................................................................5
Positioning..............................................................................................................................6
Digital marketing tools and techniques and their aims..........................................................6
Website marketing.............................................................................................................6
Social media marketing......................................................................................................7
E commerce platform.........................................................................................................8
SEO....................................................................................................................................9
Strengths and weaknesses of the digital marketing strategy..................................................9
Strengths.............................................................................................................................9
Weaknesses......................................................................................................................10
Conclusion................................................................................................................................11
Recommendations....................................................................................................................11
Content marketing............................................................................................................11
Google ad words..............................................................................................................12
Info graphic and website designing..................................................................................12

3DIGITAL MARKETING TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES: WOOLWORTHS
Email marketing...............................................................................................................12
References................................................................................................................................13
Appendices...............................................................................................................................15

4DIGITAL MARKETING TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES: WOOLWORTHS
Introduction
Digital marketing has become an inseparable part of today’s business. When the
digital marketing first appeared, it was only considered as a mere alternative platform for
marketing products. Now, it has become the key towards success both for online and offline
companies (Todor, 2016). Most of the successful business has both online and offline
presence so that they are able to appeal to more people and include more people in their
target market. Woolworths is one of the leading food retailer chain and they are famous for
their easy food recipes that saves effort and time. Other than that, they sell everyday
groceries, fresh meat and vegetables, dairy products and household items. The company has
more than 900 stores all over Australia and many more all over the world (About Us -
Woolworths Group, 2020). They also have a website through which people can buy all the
products that are available in the stores. They have used different methods of digital
marketing in order to attract maximum customers. In this report, the segmentation, targeting
and positioning of Woolworths has been analyzed for both the online and offline stores.
Additionally, the digital marketing tools that they use and their purpose has also been
evaluated. Moreover, the report also identifies the strengths and weaknesses that the
company’s digital marketing strategy has. Finally, recommendations have been made which
can help them improve their digital marketing and overcome their weaknesses.
Discussion
Segmentation
Segmentation enables organization to categorize the customers according to their
demography, psychology and behavior. The aspects that are considered in this regard are the
age, income, needs, desires, behavior, preferences and many other aspects.

5DIGITAL MARKETING TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES: WOOLWORTHS
Offline segment
The offline stores targets customers based on demographic, behavioral and
psychological segmentations. People who are not comfortable with the technological aspects
of online stores mostly prefer the stores (Azeem et al., 2018). They believe in the act of
buying in stores where they are able to look at the products, take assistance and demos. For
Woolworths, the offline segment is the baby boomers and the following generations up to the
millenials. These people have mostly high income, belong to the age group of 40 and above
and are too accustomed to do things the traditional way to change their behavior now.
Online segment
The online segment is based on the demographic, behavioral and psychological
analysis as well. In this case, the consumer segment for Woolworths are the millenials and
the following generation (Kooti et al., 2016). The age group of online segment is from 25 to
35. The high-income group and the segment that have busy lifestyle are the target customers.
These people are comfortable in buying online and do not have the time to visit stores due to
their busy schedule. The millenials and the following generation are generally tech savvy.
The segmentation also includes the city dwellers as most of the high-income group resides
within the cities.
Targeting
Targeting relates to the identification of particular market segment and serving those
segments so that the organization is able to earn the most revenue. Woolworths targets both
their existing and new customers. For both online and offline customer segments, the
company takes a customer centric approach as claimed by their work mission statement.
Their customer segments are mainly middle to high-income people, living in cities and
leading busy lives (Bailey, 2016). For that reason, the products that they offer comes with

6DIGITAL MARKETING TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES: WOOLWORTHS
several varieties, size, quantity, and qualities. They target their consumer segments by
delivering them the most important things that they need which is the readymade easy dinner
recipes which has become the key to their success.
Positioning
Positioning strategy helps organizations to position their products or services in such a
way that the customers are attracted the most. Woolworths position their brand as an
affordable, easy access and one stop store for all home needs. for online customers, their
positioning strategy is based on the offers that they provide and the easy payment options
while the offline customers are attracted by the long open hours, easy navigation in the store
and the physical experience of buying (Niculescu, et al., 2019). They also position
themselves on both the market segments as customer centric and performance driven
company. Woolworths’ strategy in this regard has been successful.
Digital marketing tools and techniques and their aims
Woolworth supermarket uses different digital marketing tools and techniques in order
to increase their customer presence and revenue (Fahad & Tran, 2019). Each of these tools
have certain aims that they serve.
Website marketing
Websites are one of the most important marketing tolls for retailers. Retailers or
supermarkets like Woolworths have a variety of products to sell and online and offline
consumers need same offers and choices (Saura, Palos-Sanchez & Correia, 2019). They
should not feel stifled for their choice of medium. Woolworths have two websites, one is
their official corporate website that provides all the details about the company and the other is
the supermarket website, which is the buying and selling website (Woolworths Supermarket -
Buy Groceries Online, 2020). The supermarket website is used mostly for the digital

7DIGITAL MARKETING TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES: WOOLWORTHS
marketing platform. They engage their consumers through the offers and promotions that
they provide online.
The young consumers and the busy city dwellers to find out about the ongoing offers
use the supermarket sites. Both the website and the stores have same offers and product
selection. Both the online and offline options provide enough details about the product so that
consumers can make a conscious choice (Villiers, Tipgomut & Franklin, 2019). The aim of
the website is to attract more millenials and the city dwellers who have busy life. The website
enables them to buy products at their convenient time and get it deliver at their doorstep
according to their preferred time. The aim is also to attract more consumers to the store as the
older consumer segment are likely to be attracted to the stores more when they see the
lucrative offers going on in the websites. Evidences of how they use website marketing can
be seen in the Appendices.
Social media marketing
Social media marketing has become one of the most important machinery for
retailers. The social media is used by the organization to communicate important message
including announcements, offers or any other information that they think that the customers
need to know. They provide special discounts and offers on certain special cases
(Woolworths, 2020). For example, during the recent incident of bushfire, they used their
social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to communicate store closing information.
After bushfire, they provided special discounts to people who were involved in the rescue
missions in the incidents. They also provide notices through them. For example, they post
store opening or closing times for special circumstances (Woolworths (@woolworths) on
Twitter, 2020).

8DIGITAL MARKETING TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES: WOOLWORTHS
Their instagram page is used for promoting the easy to make dinners and they use
photos of cooked meals to attract more customers through social media. They also use social
media followers to survey their products and services. The aim of the social media platforms
are to reach a mass consumer segment and popularize their services across all consumers
(Devereux, Grimmer & Grimmer, 2019). They have a strong social media presence, which is
also aimed to compete against the competitors that they have in the market. evidence of social
media marketing can be seen in the appendices.
E commerce platform
E commerce platforms provide the online shoppers to pay for the products that they
buy. The organization Woolworths have that service through the supermarket website. The
company’s supermarket website appeals to the younger generation as the payment is hassle
free and fast. The speed and ease of payments are generally among the reasons that influence
customers to use their services. The company believes in enhancing the experience of the
customers. Moreover, the ecommerce payment options can be used anytime, which is
desirable for the postmillennial age group (Bhat & Darzi, 2019). E commerce payment
options can also be used by the baby boomer segment, as many of them are old and might
prefer groceries delivered to their houses.
The aim of the e commerce platform is to provide the online customers with better
product description and visualization. As the online customers are not able to experience the
physical store, which is an important part for the offline consumers, they create store like
experience through their e commerce platforms (Saura, Palos-Sanchez & Rodríguez Herráez,
2020). The user ratings, reviews and nutritional facts that tare written for food products give
the customers better insight into choosing the kind of products they want to buy. The speed
and efficiency of the payment gateway is also another perquisite that attracts the consumers.

9DIGITAL MARKETING TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES: WOOLWORTHS
SEO
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a digital marketing tool that organizations use
to reach to more customers (Saura, Palos-Sánchez & Cerdá Suárez, 2017). This is more
applicable in a highly competitive market. the market that Woolworths operate in is the food
retail industry and there are many competitors. Woolworths operate through the cost
leadership strategy and thus need to be visible to most of the population. For that reason, they
use SEO to increase their visibility in the search engine. Through SEO they ensure that their
website address is listed on the first page of searches that constitute products that they sale,
supermarkets or related keywords and recipe keyword search. So far, there visibility is quite
high though sometimes their website becomes second or third in the list, with other
competitors’ website preceding before them. This decreases their chances of attracting more
traffic (López García et al., 2019). The aim of SEO is to increase the ecommerce sales and to
ensure better customer services to the online and offline customers. The online customers can
reach the complaint cell or exchange items without coming to the store. The offline
customers too can access this service.
Strengths and weaknesses of the digital marketing strategy
The digital marketing tools and strategy that the company use have many strengths
and weaknesses.
Strengths
 Presence of two separate websites according to the purpose is an effective way to
create a better customer experience and distraction free shopping. There are no pop up
ads or redirection that might create any irritation for the customers.

10DIGITAL MARKETING TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES: WOOLWORTHS
 The social media marketing strategy helps the company to establish a continuous
interaction with the customers. They can also engage the consumers and attract larger
niche markets through social media platforms.
 Their e commerce platform is also powerful and are able to retail customers due to the
hassle free shopping and payment that they are able to do (Bala & Verma, 2018).
Weaknesses
 The SEO has limited reach and lacks the strategies that will lead it to the top of the
list.
 The safety and security of the e commerce platforms are in question. There has been
instances when consumers have faced problems. The motto here is to improve the
experience of the consumers so that there is maximum retention.
 Their use of digital marketing strategy is extremely similar to that of their
competitors. This leads to a fluctuation of consumer traffic to the websites (Buchanan,
2018).
 There is lack of use of other effective digital marketing tools such as email marketing
or content marketing. Both of these tools can help the company to bring both online
and offline customers. Email marketing creates a personal touch to the consumer
experience. Content marketing can create a common database for all the products so
that the description online and offline are exactly same.
 The websites has a very static design. No graphics or other interesting illustrations are
there that would attract the customers. The official website though is quite effective in
appealing to the consumers.

11DIGITAL MARKETING TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES: WOOLWORTHS
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that Woolworths has quite a powerful
presence and they use many of the necessary tools and techniques that work effectively to
attract most of the customers to their online and offline shops. Having said that, it is also
necessary to note that there are certain major weaknesses that has limited the ability of
Woolworths to attract more customers. The company has used specific consumer segments
for their marketing purpose and has positioned their brand in the market in cost leadership
and hassle free shopping. They believe in providing both the online and offline consumers
with the experience of shopping and they use tools like their e commerce websites, easy
payment gateway, better product descriptions and social media to increase their reach and
visibility. The weaknesses that surface from the discussions, such as lack of integration
between the two websites, safety and security issue of the customer details, lack of graphical
attractions on the websites, lack of use of personalized marketing tools such as email
marketing, Google ad words and content marketing limits their impact. Based on this analysis
further recommendations have been made which will help Woolworths to improve their
digital marketing strategy.
Recommendations
Content marketing
Content marketing is particularly popular digital marketing tool presently. Content
marketing allows increasing the credibility and visibility of the website by incorporating,
industry and branding keywords into the descriptions or other content inside the website and
the social media platforms (Govender, 2017). Better content marketing ensures that the
website becomes much more visible and SEO friendly. It is important to note here that
increasing the position in search engines does not only depend upon the money that is paid

12DIGITAL MARKETING TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES: WOOLWORTHS
but also the popularity of the website. The relevance and credibility, which increases
dramatically with correct content and keyword generation.
Google ad words
Google ad words create advertisements for the company and create more visibility.
Adwords specializes in improving the consumer traffic. Adwords perform specific and
focused ads for intended customer segments. As Google is the most popular search engine,
using adwords instantly keeps the company’s selling website to the top of the list. This helps
the company to overcome their weaknesses in the SEO.
Info graphic and website designing
The company can create a more dynamic website. The company can use data mining
techniques to increase the traffic. Moreover, creating more visuals and using info graphics,
more customers will be attracted to the website (Mkansi, Leeuw & Amosun, 2019). Using a
SSL or Secure Socket Layer, the company can increase the protection of the website.
Improving website increases consumer loyalty, as they feel safe while shopping through it.
They can also integrate the different platforms that they use for digital marketing to a single
unit, which will ensure better accessibility for the customers.
Email marketing
Email marketing is a very effective marketing method. Retail chains like Woolworths
can share the opening of new stores, offers and sales through email marketing. It can be used
as a way of providing personal touch to the customers and build trust among the customers
(Hudák, Kianičková & Madleňák, 2017). Moreover, email marketing provides a personal
touch to the experience of the customers. They keep the name of the brand on the forefront of
consumer’s mind, which increases sales.

13DIGITAL MARKETING TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES: WOOLWORTHS
References
About Us - Woolworths Group. (2020). Retrieved 7 February 2020, from
https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/about-us/
Azeem, M. M., Baker, D., Villano, R. A., Mounter, S., & Griffith, G. (2018). Food shoppers’
share of wallet: A small city case in a changing competitive environment. Journal of
Retailing and Consumer Services, 43, 119-130.
Bailey, M. (2016). Marketing to the Big Middle: establishing Australian discount department
stores. Journal of Historical Research in Marketing.
Bala, M., & Verma, D. (2018). A critical review of digital marketing. International Journal of
Management, IT and Engineering, 8(10), 321-339.
Bhat, S. A., & Darzi, M. A. (2019). Exploring the Influence of Consumer Demographics on
Online Purchase Benefits. FIIB Business Review, 8(4), 303-316.
Buchanan, L. (2018). The influences of digital marketing of energy drinks on the food-related
attitudes and behaviours of young adults in Australia.
de Villiers, R., Tipgomut, P., & Franklin, D. (2019). International Market Segmentation
across Consumption and Communication Categories: Identity, Demographics, and
Consumer Decisions and Online Habits. In Promotion and Marketing
Communications. IntechOpen.
Devereux, E., Grimmer, L., & Grimmer, M. (2019). Consumer engagement on social media:
Evidence from small retailers. Journal of Consumer Behaviour.

14DIGITAL MARKETING TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES: WOOLWORTHS
Fahad, Z., & Tran, H. (2019). Development of a digital marketing plan by using a
combination of digital marketing tools.
Govender, S. (2017). How social media can be used to engage and interact with consumers
in the retail industry: an analysis on Woolworths' online strategies (Doctoral
dissertation, The IIE).
Hudák, M., Kianičková, E., & Madleňák, R. (2017). The importance of e-mail marketing in
e-commerce. Procedia engineering, 192, 342-347.
Kooti, F., Lerman, K., Aiello, L. M., Grbovic, M., Djuric, N., & Radosavljevic, V. (2016).
Portrait of an online shopper: Understanding and predicting consumer behavior.
In Proceedings of the Ninth ACM International Conference on Web Search and Data
Mining (pp. 205-214).
López García, J. J., Lizcano, D., Ramos, C. M., & Matos, N. (2019). Digital Marketing
Actions That Achieve a Better Attraction and Loyalty of Users: An Analytical
Study. Future Internet, 11(6), 130.
Mkansi, M., de Leeuw, S., & Amosun, O. (2019). Mobile application supported urban-
township e-grocery distribution. International Journal of Physical Distribution &
Logistics Management.
Niculescu, A., Dumitriu, D., Purdescu, C., & Popescu, M. A. M. (2019). Enhancing Brand
Value of Modern Organizations through Digital Marketing Tools and Techniques: A
Study on Top Ten Romanian Companies. TEM Journal, 8(1), 171.
Saura, J. R., Palos-Sanchez, P. R., & Correia, M. B. (2019). Digital Marketing Strategies
Based on the E-Business Model.

15DIGITAL MARKETING TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES: WOOLWORTHS
Saura, J. R., Palos-Sánchez, P., & Cerdá Suárez, L. M. (2017). Understanding the digital
marketing environment with KPIs and web analytics. Future Internet, 9(4), 76.
Saura, J. R., Palos-Sanchez, P., & Rodríguez Herráez, B. (2020). Digital Marketing for
Sustainable Growth: Business Models and Online Campaigns Using Sustainable
Strategies.
Todor, R. D. (2016). Blending traditional and digital marketing. Bulletin of the Transilvania
University of Brasov. Economic Sciences. Series V, 9(1), 51.
Woolworths (@woolworths) on Twitter. (2020). Retrieved 7 February 2020, from
https://twitter.com/woolworths?lang=en
Woolworths Supermarket - Buy Groceries Online. (2020). Retrieved 7 February 2020, from
https://www.woolworths.com.au/
Woolworths. (2020). Retrieved 7 February 2020, from
https://www.facebook.com/woolworths/

16DIGITAL MARKETING TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES: WOOLWORTHS
Appendices
Image 1: Facebook page of Woolworths
Source: Woolworths. (2020). Retrieved 7 February 2020, from
https://www.facebook.com/woolworths/
Image 2: Twitter posts of Woolworths
Source: Woolworths (@woolworths) on Twitter. (2020). Retrieved 7 February 2020, from
https://twitter.com/woolworths?lang=en

17DIGITAL MARKETING TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES: WOOLWORTHS
Image 3: The supermarket website of Woolworths
Source: Woolworths Supermarket - Buy Groceries Online. (2020). Retrieved 7 February
2020, from https://www.woolworths.com.au/
Image 4: The official website of Woolworths
Source: Woolworths. (2020). Retrieved 7 February 2020, from
https://www.facebook.com/woolworths/

18DIGITAL MARKETING TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES: WOOLWORTHS