MARKETING MANAGEMENT

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Corporate strategy or business strategy is the plan of action which is taken by the company to develop their condition. It includes planning of all activities which comes under management. Corporate or business strategy includes strategies such as sales, financial, marketing, etc. When a company faces loss, it is important for them to revise their marketing strategies which will again require appropriate market analysis. This report is based on the analysis of work which was performed by Loblaws when they faced crisis in 2007. Therefore, they changed their marketing strategy and introduced new products which helped to become one of the biggest company in Canada. However, at the end it was suggested that they can open lunch food counters in their shop so that they can attract working class people along with health-conscious people who are generally not fast food lovers and maintain their competitive advantage.

Introduction

Corporate strategy is the strategy which a company follows during the period of their business operations. This is mainly incorporated in order to achieve their stated business goals. Their goals can be understood from their stated vision statement (Glanz et al. 2012). These strategies include all sections of management such as sales, marketing, financial etc. Loblaw is one of the biggest firms based in Canada which have established products in both food and pharmacy. They are a part of their parent company George Weston Ltd vision. They have made strategies so that they fulfil demand of the customers in the correct time which have helped them to attain superiority. This report is based on various strategies which were taken by Loblaw in order to help them to achieve goals of their parent company George Weston Ltd vision (Loblaws, 2019).

Development of New product line to fit in to the vision and mission of the parent company

Development of new products in a company can help them to maintain their superiority as well as maintain their competitive advantage. In case if the sales go down of their company, it is very essential for them to have a review of the products released by them and change them according to new taste of the customers (Sah & Fugh‐Berman, 2013). This will help them to make a company more customer driven and maximize their profits.

Some of the common steps which are followed in this process are as follows:

• Review of current product line
• Generate new ideas for product development
• Screening of the idea
• Concept development and analysis of the concept
• Development of marketing strategy in order to increase the sale of newly developed product.
• Analysis of the business profits
• Final development of the product
• Test marketing

In order to develop a new product line, Loblaw had performed analysis of their available product line. It had revealed that they were lacking products which was correctly priced with good quality. Some of their previous products did not have even have correct name. Therefore, it was necessary to establish product which would have following features such as reduced price with superior quality. In order to match with the objectives of the parent company, Loblaws’ Innovate continued product development had established brand labels such as President’s choice and Joe Fresh. However, they started to lose their brand value since 2007 (Loblaws, 2019). For now they have all kinds of product developed starting from breakfast to all kinds of healthy snacks. However, they lack lunch items in their option. If this can be introduced in their menu, it can help them to attract working class as they can get readymade food with quality and better prices. More customers who are not fast food lovers will be attracted.

Target market for the new products developed using market segmentation

Market segmentation is one of the main practices used a firm as a part of their marketing strategies. In this strategy, they divide their potential customers into certain groups of buyers which have same kind of preferences and habits (Foster et al. 2014). This is opposite to mass marketing where the same kind of product is offered to all the customers. In targeted marketing, products are designed to specific groups so that they can assure 100 percent sale in the same product line. Different steps which were used in market segmentation are as follows:

Identification of the total market

At first, total market for a certain product is identified. The main factors that can be considered in this step are needs and purchasing pattern of the society (Cross et al. 2015). For example, if we consider Lunch items prepared by Loblaws, it is possible that this product will attract customers who lead working life and they do not have time to prepare their own food. Along with that, they are very health conscious, rather than customers who are dependent on fast food.

Choosing appropriate criteria for segmentation

In this step, Managers need to understand behavior and needs of various sections of the society. Every buyer has their own characteristics in market. Segmentation variables such as Demographics, income, education are commonly used in this section. Other segmentation variables which can be used are place of residence which commonly fall under geographic characterization. Other factors which can influence buyer’s characteristics are lifestyle along with psychology (Newton et al. 2015). For example, companies dealing in food can release innovation in their taste which always appreciated by food lovers, however some of the customers are always happy with their old taste and do not like functionality as well as durability.

Segment Profiling

Profiling is done after selecting a segmentation criteria. A segment profile contains the generalized characteristics of the everyday client within the specific section. as an example, a section profile could contain the age, behavior pattern like being a partisan and the gender of the everyday client. Next, the corporate assesses the potential gain of every sector and selects segments for targeting (Rezaei & Ortt, 2012). getting power and size of the section, gain potential and talent to serve the market square measure vital within the choice call.

Determination of strategies

After selection of segment profile, it is important for a company to create an image of the product in the mind of the customer so that he can have an idea of the advantages and readily buy it for use. For this, marketing officials need to focus more on the value of the product in everyone’s life and what are the unique attributes of the product which cannot be delivered by the products in the same field (Kim, K.Y. & Lee, 2015). For example, when Loblaws starts selling lunch items, it is very essential for them to specify that how it is different from other items which are sold by other restaurants. This can be done by giving them their nutritive value, and assure the freshness of the cooked by their quality etc. These types of strategies will help them in establishing their product in a better way (Loblaws, 2019).

Competition of developing new products

New products are developed by a company to maintain their competitiveness in the market. The innovative ideas which are used in this process can help in getting a control over the shares which will help them in earning more profit. However, these new products are difficult to penetrate the market as there might be other products of same line and features (Burchell et al. 2013). These products might be well established and therefore it would be difficult for them to increase the trust of customers.

Main type of competition which can be faced due to development of new products are as follows:

• Competition within the firm's product markets, and
• Competition within the similar type of product markets of the firm’s house owners if they're corporations further. For example, the merchandise markets of an institutional capitalist. Product market competition is of major importance in company governance because of it affects the incentives of managers and thereby the economic potency of the businesses which are managed by them (Floh et al. 2014).

General competitors of Loblaws are Sysco and Gordon food service. Both have well established foods of various ranges which also includes organic food. However, if lunch menu items such fried rice, and other curries are introduced it can help in getting and advantage over them. As they do not have any fresh food counter in their shop. In addition to this, they need to hire best chefs in order to cook fresh and introduce good pricing strategy so that customers can get attracted. (Loblaws, 2019). If there was any fault found, price zones could be restructured, and price rules could be generated again with lower retail prices. Lowering their prices would make them suffer a short-term loss which can be covered through a long term based profit. Investments can be done in the form of promotional activities which can light the advantages of the product and therefore maintain their competitive advantage in the market.

Brief Marketing program of Loblaw

Objectives

Desired of Marketing program could be as follows

• Marketing program can consist of various objectives which are as follows
• To increase current sales of the company and improve their profit margin
• Increase the level of awareness of the brand
• To help them in growing their marketing share
• To help them to target new set of customers which would eventually increase their sales.
• Penetrate both international as well as local markets which will again help them in increasing their sales.
• Enhance both customer as well as stakeholder relationship in the company.

Market Overview

Market overview can be done by performing market analysis which can help them in identification of the customers who are potential buyers and design strategies so that they educated about the advantages of the product (Canhoto et al. 2013). Market analysis can include market segmentation as well which was discussed in previous section. Segmentation will help the marketing professional to approach different customers with their different point of view which will help them to understand the use of product in their everyday and how the product is more different of the product in the same range. It is very crucial for the marketing officials to understand behavior and needs of various sections of the society. Every buyer has their own characteristics in market. Some might be choosy in selecting their product and others might be worried about the price. Segmentation variables such as Demographics, income, education are commonly used in this section (Huang & Sarigöllü, 2014). Other segmentation variables which can be used are place of residence which commonly fall under geographic characterization. In addition to this, study of the customer’s taste is important to understand so that products can be developed based on that.

Study of the whole market can also help in knowing their competition and threats in the market. Manual way of the performing this is interviewing officials in the market which will help them in getting a better idea of the market. In addition to this, Strategic tools such as SWOT, PESTLE and Porter’s five forces analysis can also be done in order to have appropriate knowledge on threats and opportunities in the market. To summarize, it can be said that study of the whole market can help in understanding the need and requirement of customers and therefore develop marketing mix according to the same.

Promotional Mix

Promotional mix becomes of the main strategies or actions which are used a company in order to promote a novel product in the market. Generally promotional mix consists of 4P’s which stands for price, promotion, place and product. However, in current companies, they mostly prefer 7P’s as an important mix where three more addition P’s are added to the former one. These are Packaging, people and positioning (Mintz & Currim, 2013).

All elements of promotional mix are dependent on each other. They can help a manager to generate a strategy or business plan which if handled properly, can lead to a great success. However, if these mixes are handled in a wrong way, company will suffer from huge loss and they will take a very long time to recover. Therefore promotional mix needs to be designed after an appropriate research done on the market and consulting experienced people in the same field (Singh, 2012).

Price: This refers to the value which is put for a particular product. Main factors which are considered in this strategy are production cost, targeted segments for sale, ability to penetrate the market with the price and demand of the product. Pricing strategies can vary from company to company. Sometimes, price can be used as a strategy to differentiate between the quality and image of products produced by the same company (Floh et al. 2014). This can help in brand establishment. Since lunch food items of Loblaw can be used to target the working-class family, the price should be able to match their standards. Even the pricing strategies of their competitors should also be kept in mind (Loblaws, 2019).

Product: This refers to the main item which has to be sold in the market. Product should be designed in a way that product should be able to penetrate the market and it can target maximum number of segments in society. Quality and performance needs to be assured in order to increase their sales and profit levels (Canhoto et al. 2013). Or else even the best designed marketing mix cannot help to improve companies’ sales. Food items which will be introduced needs to have proper quality which would match their standards or else it can spoil their brand reputation as well.

Place: Place refers to the market area where the product needs to be sold. In all industries, it has become essential for the product to be sold at a place where it can attention of the customers very easily (Kim & Lee, 2015). This is mainly done to increase the distribution of the product very easily. It is very essentials for retailers to do right amount of investment for the same or else it would be difficult for them to sell their item. Loblaws needs to target the branded hypermarkets so that they can be noticed by the customers very easily. This can be done by introducing them to their own grocery shops and then target other hypermarkets in order increase their fame. (Loblaws, 2019).

Promotion: This refers to the collection of all activities which are included in the strategy which will help them to publicize the product. These activities can include advertisement, oral talks, sale period, annual reports, press release etc. Contests and prizes along with other consumer schemes can also be included in promotional activities (Burchell et al. 2013). Promotion can help in making the product more familiar to the customers so that it would be easy for them to sell known product rather than selling an unknown product. Flyers and advertisement in their own delivery application will help in promotion. Other than that, huge banners can be used to promote that they are going to serve fresh lunch items as well.

Conclusion

From the above report, it can be clearly understood that Loblaw is one of the main food companies based in Canada. However, they have been suffering losses from 2007 to 2008. However, they have regained their position with the help if new and innovative product developments and improvements are several at distribution center, schedules of delivery system. They have made strategies so that they fulfil demand of the customers in the correct time. For this they have a separate program which Always Available Program which will help to maintain an advantage over their competitors. In order to maintain their competitive advantage, it can be suggested that they should introduce lunch items will help in attracting working class people along with health-conscious people who are generally not fast food lovers. This concept have not been seen in their competitors so it will be easy for them to penetrate their market. Along with this, they can also introduce fitness food which will attract health conscious people as they already have a brand establishment.

References

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Welcome to Loblaws - Flyers, Deals and Online Shopping | Loblaws. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.loblaws.ca/