Marketing Communications Management: Analysis of Woolworths Australia

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Woolworths Australia's marketing communications management. It begins with a brief history of the brand, highlighting key milestones and its evolution. The report identifies core brand elements such as the logo, slogan, mission, attitudes, and values, emphasizing Woolworths' commitment to quality, customer service, and sustainability. An evaluation of brand equity follows, including financial values, market value trends, and a comparison with competitors like Coles, Aldi, and IGA, showcasing Woolworths' market leadership in both grocery and fresh food segments. The report details Woolworths' unique selling proposition (USP) and competitive advantages, such as its long history, financial strength, strong public relations, and focus on sustainability. It also describes the target market and brand loyalty activities, including loyalty programs and social media engagement. Finally, the report addresses potential threats to the brand, including competition, economic factors, technological risks, and changing market needs. The media plan section outlines communication objectives, target audience, media selection rationale, a detailed media schedule, measurement methods, and contingency plans, providing a holistic view of Woolworths' marketing strategies. Desklib offers more solved assignments and study resources for students.

Running head: MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS MANAGEMENT
Marketing Communications Management
-Woolworths Australia
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Contents
Part A: Report............................................................................................................................5
Brief Snapshot History of the Brand......................................................................................5
Brand Elements:.....................................................................................................................5
Logo:..................................................................................................................................5
Slogan:................................................................................................................................5
Mission:..............................................................................................................................6
Attitudes:............................................................................................................................6
Values:................................................................................................................................6
Brand Equity..........................................................................................................................6
Financial Values:................................................................................................................7
Trends in market value.......................................................................................................7
Value compared to main competitors:...............................................................................8
Market Positioning.................................................................................................................9
USP:...................................................................................................................................9
Competitive Advantage:.....................................................................................................9
Target Market:..................................................................................................................10
Brand Loyalty Activities......................................................................................................10
Brand Loyalty Programs:.................................................................................................10
Social Media Communities:.............................................................................................11
Potential Threats to the brand..............................................................................................11
Competition:.....................................................................................................................11

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Economic Threats:...........................................................................................................12
Technological Threats:.....................................................................................................13
Changing Market Needs:..................................................................................................13
Summary of the future outlook of the brand........................................................................13
Part B Media Plan....................................................................................................................15
Media Communication Objectives.......................................................................................15
Target Audience...............................................................................................................15
Frequency.........................................................................................................................15
Reach................................................................................................................................15
Coverage..........................................................................................................................15
Key Message Objectives:.................................................................................................15
Justification/Rationale for media selection..........................................................................15
Academic Articles:...........................................................................................................16
Customer Journey:...........................................................................................................16
Advertising Theory:.........................................................................................................16
Media Schedule....................................................................................................................16
Media Scheduling:...........................................................................................................16
Justification for schedule proposed..................................................................................17
Schedule for first year of launch......................................................................................17
Media measurement.............................................................................................................17
Evaluation Measures to determine Media Success..........................................................17

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Contingency Plan:............................................................................................................17
Indication of likely media costs...........................................................................................18
References:...........................................................................................................................22

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Part A: Report
Brief Snapshot History of the Brand
Woolworths Supermarket or Woolies is an Australian Supermarket giant that was
established on 1924 and is one of the oldest Supermarket stores in Australia along with Cole
and started as Woolworths Limited. In two years the company started increasing the number
of branches to about 20 and by 1940, they started expanding the range of groceries to include
a large range of food, fresh fruits and meat. By 1982, the company acquired two crockery
brands of Tasmania: Purity and Roelf Vos whoch by 2000 was converted to Woolworths
stores. By 2017 Woolworths designed a new logo to show its focus on environmental
sustenability (Woolworths.com.au. 2019).
Brand Elements:
Logo:
Figure 1: Woolworths Logo source: Woolworths.com.au. 2019
Slogan:
“Australia’s Fresh Food People”
The slogan aims to relay to the customers the company’s goal to provide fresh food
and thereby preserve its original quality. The slogan was changes from “Fresh Food People”

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to “Australia’s Fresh Food People” to reflect upon the nationality of the company and
promote its local influence in the region.
Mission:
“We are on a mission to deliver the best in convenience, value and quality for our
customers.”
Attitudes:
Since 2016, the company have developed an attitude of improving the brand
reputation by “doing the right thing”. The company have developed a positive attitude that
supports better workplace behavior, customer service, responsible purchasing. Overall, the
company have developed an attitude of improving brand value and reputation through
operational excellence.
Values:
The organization is founded on 7 core values that guides its operations and processes.
These values include:
 Quality and style (delivering the best quality products)
 Offering best value for money (a simple and fair deal)
 Customer Service (keeping the customers’ needs and expectations first)
 Innovation
 Integrity (delivering to the promises)
 Energy (being passionate to deliver)
 Sustainability (creating a better future)
(woolworthsgroup.com.au 2018).

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Brand Equity
Financial Values:
As of 2018, the company generated a net revenue of AUD 56,726 Million, with an
EBIT of AUD 2,548 Million, Free Cash Flow before dividends AUD 1,420 Million, 22.6%
increase in Dividend per Share since 2017, return of funds of 24.1%. The company have also
served approximately 29 million customers every week across Australia, across more than
2900 pickup locations with 1.5 billion transactions in the year. The company made gross
profit of 29.5% of sales and 25% cost of doing business was 25% of sales. Moreover the
revenues have also increased by 3.4% since 2017 (woolworthsgroup.com.au 2018).
Trends in market value
In 2018 Woolworths had a net market capitalization of AUD 31 billion which
improved since 2017 (AUD26 billion). The price of the company’s shares have fluctuated
between AUD 25 to 31 since March 2018 with the highest achieved during July 2018 at 31
and lowest during April with 25. Since 2015, there has been a steady decline in the market
value of Woolworth shares reaching an all-time low of AUD 22.5 mid 2016. Since then the
market value have slowly developed to reach AUD 30 by 2019. This highlights an improving
trend in the market for Woolworths and offers a chance towards the development of the
business.

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Figure 2: Change in share prices in the last year (2018-2019) source: Woolworths.com.au.
2019
Figure 3: Change in share process in the last 5 years (2015-2019) source:
Woolworths.com.au. 2019
Value compared to main competitors:
In grocery market segment, Woolworths holds approximately 32.2% percent of the
market and is the largest market holder, followed by Coles Group which holds 28.8% of the
market. Companies like ALDI and IGA holds 12.1% and 7.4% of the market respectively. In
Fresh Food segment, Woolworths holds 26.7% of the market, closely followed by Coles

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Group at 24.5%, while Aldi and IDA holding 9% and 6% of the market respectively. This
makes Woolworths a market leader in both grocery and fresh food segments.
Figure 4: Market Share of Woolworths, Coles Group, Aldi and IGA source:
Woolworths.com.au. 2019
Market Positioning
USP:
The Unique selling proposition of Woolworths is to deliver high quality products for
working class people with a freshness guarantee.
Competitive Advantage:
Long history of the company: Woolworths is one of the oldest businesses in the supermarket
and retail industry along with Coles. Established in 1924, Woolworths has been able to gain
customer trust and loyalty over the years and secure a stable position as market leaders.
Financial Strength: With revenues of more than AUD 50 billion in the last year and with an
annual growth rate of revenues at 3.4%, Woolworths is one of the most financially stable
company.

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Strong public relations: The Company also has strong public relations that was able to
improve the image of the brand in the last five years and helped improvement in its stock
process.
Strong Transformational Leadership: This helped Woolworths to improve and develop its
operational practices and improve its performance as well as brand image.
Improved focus on sustainability: Woolworths also increased focus on sustainability which
helped to gain confidence of environmentally conscious customers.
Branding as ‘Fresh Food People”: This helped to establish the commitment of Woolworths
towards delivering quality and fresh food all the time.
Experience: The Company has almost 95 years of operational excellence which can
significantly help it to sustain in the future and gain advantage over competitors.
Target Market:
Currently Woolworths is targeting mainly upper and middle class customers who are
employed and are environmentally conscious. The company also focuses its marketing on
vegetarian and vegans as well as sports people, athletes, and health conscious individuals in
Australia. The age group of the target market is from 12 to 65 years. Moreover, young and
trendy customers are also considered as potential markets for the company. This market
exhibits a diverse demography of people from various cultures and ethnicities but with a
common focus on food quality and freshness.
Brand Loyalty Activities
IN order to increase and retain more customers, Woolworths have introduced several loyalty
programs over the years. These programs include:

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Brand Loyalty Programs:
In order to attract new customers, retain existing customers and improve loyalty of the
customers to the brand, the company have launched new brand loyalty programs such as:
Offering point based rewards for every dollar spent (Woolworth Rewards): Woolworths
offers its customer’s one point for every dollar spent which they can accumulate and use for
fuel discounts, member only deals from various stores, converting the points to Quanta’s
Points and thus get flight discounts, bank it for a Christmas Gift. This program provides the
customer a variety of choices from where they can use the reward point and therefore offer
value for money for customers with a wide variety of needs, preferences and lifestyles.
Discounts: Woolworths also provides discounts on some products to attract customer loyalty.
Community Development program (Corporate Social Responsibilities): Woolworths actively
engages in several community development programs across Australia, spending
approximately AUD 100 million every year on the programs.
Competitions: Woolworths Also holds various competitions such as Jamie’s Magazine
Competition, Double Your Data Competition, Big Night in Competition, Fresh Magazine
Letter of the Month competition, Fresh Magazine Cook & Win competition, Lonely Planet
Giveaway competition, Cook the Cover competition and 150th Fresh Magazine Celebration
competition. These competitions offers cash prizes and discount vouchers.
Social Media Communities:
Woolworths have a very strong presence on the social media, and has about 20
channels (communities) in social media that is operated from 12 nations and has a total of
about 12 million fans and followers leading to 35,000 interactions and posts every month.
The Facebook page of Woolworths has more than a million followers from Australia.