Sample Dissertation Marketing Strategies

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

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Dissertation Thesis

The impact of marketing strategy of TESCO and Sainsbury's on customer's satisfaction.

LAST DATE

28-08-09

SUBMITTED TO:


COVENTRY UNIVERSITY



ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In the name of Allah (God) who is Beneficent and Merciful.

All praise to Allah, the Almighty, on whom ultimately we depend for sustenance and

guidance.

First and foremost I offer my sincerest gratitude to my research supervisor, Dr Joy

Joseph, who has supported me throughout my thesis with his patience and knowledge

whilst allowing me the room to work in my own way. I attribute the level of my

Masters degree to his encouragement and effort and without him this thesis, too,

would not have been completed or written. One simply could not wish for a better or

friendlier supervisor.

I convey special acknowledgement to my uncles in UK, Naveed Mussarat and Nasim

Ali for their indispensable help dealing with funds, special care, politeness, and all

types of help in the accommodation in UK. I won’t forget for what they have done for

me. Without their efforts, it could have not been possible for me to do MBA from

UK. Their encouragement and kind support will remain in my mind throughout my

whole life.

I am very thankful to my uncles, Khawaja Nazir Ahmad, Khawaja Bashir Ahmad,

Khawaja Muhammad Aslam and Khawaja Muhammad Aslam Makai and cousins,

Khawaja Tariq Iqbal, Yasir Aslam, Atif Aslam, Nasir Aslam, Asim Aslam, Shahzaib

Bashir, Jhanzaib Bashir, Hassam Nazir, Abdullah Bashir, and Haris Nazir (Cute) and

all Female cousins and Aunts in Pakistan who had been supporting me by their true

love, affectionate, prayers, good wishes and encouragement.

I was extraordinarily fortunate in having Shahid Zaman Kiani, Ajmal khan, Malik

Mushtaq, Abdul Rashid, Basit Usmani, Habib Khan, Babar khan, Mustafa Mir, Jawad

Ali, Ismail khan, Qayyum, Annayat, Javed, Hashim Khan, Haji Laiq, Obaid, and Dr

Atta as my true and well wisher friends in UK. It is my pleasure to express my

gratitude wholeheartedly to them for their kind hospitality in the whole stay of

London UK.



Words fail me to express my appreciation to my Fiancée (A.A.) whose dedication,

love and persistent confidence in me, has taken the load off my shoulder. I owe her

for being unselfishly let her intelligence, passions, and ambitions collide with mine.

I would like to thank my MBA class mates whose knowledge sharing, team work and

professional attitude formed this program more target oriented. My special thanks are

to Tahir Makhdum, Shahzad Habib, Khurram Butt, Zahid Rathore and Kulsoom

Akhtar who had always been available for discussion and study during this course and

research.

Very special thanks to Raja Rabail Tashfeen and Adnan Khan for their kind support in

all parts of MBA Program. Their help and guidance was very crucial for me to

achieve one of the dream tasks of my life. I was very lucky to have them as my real

well wisher. Even I don’t have words to pay gratitude to them. They may succeed in

their future life. This is my kind wish to them.

Finally, I am thankful to academic and administrative staff at BITE and Coventry

University who designed and managed such an interesting MBA program which will

help me in my career development. I offer my Special thanks to Dr Former (Principal

of BITE) and Anayath Khan (Chief coordinator of MBA program), and all Professors

and Lecturers. Your efforts and hard work will always be remembered.



DEDICATIONS This thesis is dedicated to My Mother who has supported me all the way since the

beginning of my life. I won’t forget her sacrifice, love, motivation and inspiration in

building up my character and personality.

Also, this thesis is dedicated to my brothers, Khawaja Amjad Majeed and Khawaja

Asif Majeed and three loving sisters who have been a great source of motivation and

inspiration.

Finally, this thesis is dedicated to my two nice 2 year and 1 year old nieces, Ayesha

Tariq and Zainab Tariq. I wish that they may succeed in their whole life. I really miss

them.



ABSTRACT

The marketing concept of building an organization around a profitable satisfaction of

customer need has helped firms to achieve success in high growth, moderately

competitive markets. However, to be successful in markets in which economic growth

has levelled and in which there exist many competitors who follow the marketing

concept, a well developed marketing strategy is required. Such marketing considers a

portfolio of products and takes into account the anticipated moves of competitors in

the market.



TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER .1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research Background and scope 09

1.2 Aim and Objectives of Research 11

CHAPTER .2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Marketing 14

2.1.1 What marketing means

2.1.2 Marketing is a management process 14

2.1.3 Marketing is about giving customers what they want 15

2.1.4 Marketing identifies and anticipates customer requirements 15

2.1.5 Marketing fulfils customer requirement profitability: 15

2.1.6 Marketing offers and exchange ideas, goods and services 16

2.2 The Marketing concept in the organization: 17

2.2.1 The external organizational environment: 17

2.2.2 Current and potential customers: 17

2.2.3 Competitors: 17

2.2.4 Intermediaries: 18

2.2.5 Suppliers: 18

2.3 The Marketing Environment 19

2.3.1 The internal Organizational Environment: 19

2.3.2 Finance: 19

2.3.3 Purchasing: 19

2.3.4 Production: 20

2.3.5 Research and development and engineering: 20

2.4 Marketing Mix: 21

2.4.1 Product: 21

2.4.2 Price 22

2.4.3 Place: 22

2.4.4 Promotion: 23

2.4.5 People: 24

2.4.6 Processes: 25

2.4.7 Physical evidence: 25



2.5 What is Strategy? 27

2.5.1 The classical approach: 27

2.5.2 The evolutionary approach: 27

2.5.3 The process approach: 28

2.5.4 The systematic approach: 28

2.6 Marketing Strategy 30

2.6.1 Influence on Marketing Strategy: 32

2.7 Strategic Marketing Plans and Planning: 34

2.7.1 The Marketing Planning Process: 34

2.7.2 Corporate Objectives and Values: 35

2.7.3 The Marketing Audit: 35

2.7.4 SWOT Analysis: 36

2.7.5 Marketing Objectives: 36

2.7.6 Marketing Strategies: 36

2.7.7 Marketing programs: 36

2.7.8 Marketing Budgets: 37

2.7.9 Marketing Control & Evaluation 37

2.8 Customer Satisfaction 38

2.8.1 Who is the Customer? 38

2.8.2 Knowing the customers 38

2.8.3 How are customers satisfied? 39

2.9 Consumer Behaviour: 40

2.9.1 The decision making process: 40

2.9.2 Problem Recognition 40

2.9.3 Information Search: 41

2.9.4 Decision: 41

2.9.5 Buying Situation 42

2.10 Impact of marketing strategy on Customer satisfaction 43

2.10.1 The customer comes first 43

2.10.2 Market segmentation 43

2.10.3 Products and Services: 44

2.10.4 Customer strategy 44



CHAPTER .3 METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction 46

3.2 Aims and objectives 46

3.3 Methodology Employed: 48

3.4 Qualitative/quantitative analysis: 49

3.5 Research Instruments: 51

3.6 Data collection method: 53

3.7 Sample size/sampling 55

CHAPTER .4 ANALYSIS & FINDINGS

4.1 Introduction 56

4.2 Findings and analysis 56

4.3 Summary and Conclusion: 85

CHAPTER .5 CONCLUSION 5.1 Conclusion of the study: 86

5.2 Contribution and beneficiaries of this dissertation: 87

5.3 Implications to Management 87

5.4 Research Limitation: 88

5.5 Future Research 89

REFERENCES 90 APPENDIX

Copy of Questionnaire

Completed Questionnaire



CHAPTER - 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Research Background and Scope:

This research is focused on the impact of marketing strategy of TESCO and

Sainsbury’s on customer’s satisfaction. A marketing strategy is a process that can

allow an organization to concentrate its limited resources on the greatest opportunities

to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. A marketing

strategy should be centered on the key concept that customer satisfaction is the main

goal.

The grocery industry sector in the UK is controlled and directed by supermarket

giants most of which are household names. Between the high-end niche market

players like Waitrose and Marks & Spencer and the cheap bulk discounters like

Iceland, the top five players operating in the largest mid-market segment remain

TESCO, Sainsbury, Asda, Somerfield and Safeway. Striving to capture consumer

attention and in the effort to retain it, the strategies of the supermarkets swing

between loyalty schemes and price wars. Alongside continuous attempt to retain a

hold over the home market, many of the organizations view overseas opportunities as

another lucrative way to inflate profits and expand the brand name. On the other side

of the coin, invasions from foreign companies like Walmart/Asda and the slightly

over-efficient supply mechanism of the industry present UK supermarkets with the

challenges of mergers, acquisitions and the positive and negative effects of

globalization.

TESCO is a British-based international grocery and general merchandising retail

chain. It is the largest British retailer by both global sales and domestic market share

with profits exceeding £3 billion. It is currently the third largest global retailer based

on revenue, behind Wal-Mart and France's Carrefour but second largest based on

profit, ahead of Carrefour. Originally specializing in food and drink, it has diversified

into areas such as clothing, consumer electronics, financial services, telecoms; home,

health and car insurance; dental plans, retailing and renting DVDs, CDs, music

downloads, Internet services, and software.



Sainsbury's is a supermarket chain based in the United Kingdom. Sainsbury's

originally sold only food, but it now sells other things like mobile phones, DVDs and

videos, clothing and books. Sainsbury's is the third biggest supermarket in the UK

(behind TESCO and Asda). The clothing range at Sainsbury's has changed a lot over

the years. It started off with, Jeff & Co, and then another range was brought in, after

that Adams Kids. Now it's called TU.

To achieve its marketing objectives and customer's satisfactions, an organisation must

develop a marketing strategy, or a set of marketing strategies. The set of marketing

strategies that are implemented and used at the same time is referred to as the

organisation's marketing programme. Most marketing programmes centre on a

detailed marketing mix specification and include internal controls and procedures to

ensure that they are implemented effectively. Through the process of strategic market

planning, an organisation can develop marketing strategies that, when properly

implemented and controlled, will contribute to the achievement of its marketing

objectives and its overall goals. Companies operating for the customer's satisfactions

market, particularly the big two (TESCO & Sainsbury's), primarily rely on generic

marketing strategies. To formulate a marketing strategy, the marketer identifies and

analyses the target market and develops a marketing mix to satisfy individuals in that

market. Marketing strategy is best formulated when it reflects the overall direction of

the organisation and is co-ordinated with all the company's functional areas. The

strategic market planning process is based on an analysis of the broader marketing

environment, by which it is very much affected. Marketing environment forces such

as legal forces, political forces, technological forces, economic and competitive

forces, societal/green forces, and regulatory forces, can place constraints on an

organisation and possibly influence its overall goals; they also affect the amount and

type of resources that a business can acquire, Eppendorfer et al. (2002). Marketing

environment variables play a part in the creation of a marketing strategy. When

environment variables affect an organisation's overall goals, resources, opportunities

or marketing objectives, they also affect its marketing strategies, which are based on

the factors mentioned previously. They impact consumers needs, desires and they

affect competitors' plans.

Corporate branding is a serious undertaking that entails more skills and activities than

just an updated glossy marketing facade with empty jargon. A strong corporate

branding strategy can add significant value in terms of helping the entire corporation



and the management team to implement the long-term vision, create unique positions

in the market place of the company and its brands, and not the least to unlock the

leadership potential within the organization. Hence a corporate branding strategy can

enable the corporation to further leverage on its tangible and non-tangible assets

leading to branding excellence throughout the corporation, Polito (2005).

TESCO & Sainsbury's as stated in the latter has in recent years acquired a vast

number of companies across the globe and adopted them fully under its international

corporate brand with great success and within a surprising short timeframe. A strong

brand is about building and maintaining strong perceptions in the minds of customers.

1.2 Aim and Objectives of research: The main aim of this study is judgment of the supermarket sector highlights a number

of bright factors, which have contributed, to the development of the world’s major

supermarket centres. This study includes a well-developed financial infrastructure, a

Conducive rigid environment and sound supervisory process, market planning, a

modern and effective planning capabilities and environmental scanning.

This research is about the impact of marketing strategy of the TESCO and Sainsbury's

on customer's satisfaction. This research highlights all the factors which should be

necessary and important for the marketing strategy and customer satisfaction.

One of the most important aims of the research is to compare both big supermarkets

in their marketing strategies and customer's views and arguments about TESCO and

Sainsbury's.

Some of the important aims are mentioned below.

• How important is the marketing strategy on the customer’s satisfaction and what the

key features of marketing strategy are.

• What are the main and important issues of marketing strategy of TESCO and

Sainsbury’s?

• Main and important aspects of the success of TESCO and Sainsbury’s and

comparison of both of them.

• Main and important points need to improve the marketing strategies.



• Exploration of customer’s satisfaction and consumer’s behavior.

The main objective of the research is to find the impact of marketing strategy of

TESCO and Sainsbury's on customer's satisfaction.

To find this objective, there are some objectives need to achieve the major goals of

the research.

1). Establish a theoretical framework of strategic marketing and customer

satisfaction.

Bray (2002) states that strategic marketing cannot be formulated in isolation. It has to

reflect the objectives of the organization and be compatible with the strategies

pursued elsewhere in the organization. This means that marketers must refer back to

cooperate goals and objectives before formulating their own strategy, to ensure

consistency, coherence and relevance. So, marketing strategy is the main part of the

organization. It is a combination of all objectives of the organization.

Customer benefits are at the roof of marketing and selling, because, in order to satisfy

their needs, customers are not so much looking for particular products and services,

they are looking for the benefits that these may be able to provide. If two or three

identical products have the same kind of benefits but prices are different, customers,

obviously, tries to take the product which is the cheapest of all. This shows that prices

are also the way which can solve the problem of the customers.

Chapter no 2 (Literature View) reflects fully according to the Objective no 1.

2). Explore the marketing strategies of TESCO & Sainsbury's.

TESCO and Sainsbury’s have a lot of identical marketing strategies. All of those are

discussed and explored in further research and questionnaire.

Some strategies, explored by the researcher are given below.

• Availability of staff for information and advice

• Staff helpfulness

• Make up of Shop

• Presentation of products

• Cleanliness of shop



• Quality and Freshness of goods

• Choice of Products

• Value of price

• Access to the Shop

• Shopping Hours

• Waiting time at checkout

• Ways of payment

• Price marking on goods

• Availability of special offers and Promotions.

3). Analyze and the impact of marketing strategies of TESCO & Sainsbury's on

customer's satisfaction.

All strategies mentioned above are analyzed and discussed in Research & Findings

with full detail which describes the customer’s satisfactions on those strategies.

4). Comparison of marketing strategies of TESCO & Sainsbury's.

This research is based on two different organizations. It is very difficult to compare

two organizations which have similar marketing strategies. After analyzing and

discussing those strategies, researcher compared the marketing strategies of both

organizations.

5). Suggest the measures to improve the effective marketing of TESCO &

Sainsbury have to improve the customer's satisfaction.

All things in this world need improvement. After completely analyzing and

discussing, all the suggestion for the further improvement is mentioned in the research

work.

The main question of the dissertation is as follows.

Impact of Marketing Strategy of TESCO and Sainsbury’s on customer’s satisfaction.



CHAPTER - 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This section is going to explore what marketing is and its evolution. First we shall

look at currently accepted definitions of marketing, and then history behind those

definitions

2.1 Marketing

2.1.1 What marketing means?

Here are two proper and widely definitions of marketing. The first is the definition

preferred by the UK’s Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), while the second is

that offered by the American Marketing Association (AMA).

“Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and

satisfying customer requirements profitability”

(CIM, 2001)

“Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing,

promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchange and

satisfy individual and organizational objectives”.

(AMA, 1985)

Both definitions make a good attempt at capturing concisely what is actually a wide

and complex subject. Although they have a lot in common, each say something

important that the other does not emphasize.

According to the all definition, it comes to know that all definitions agree on the

following points.

• Marketing is the management process

• Marketing is about giving customers what they want

• Marketing identifies and anticipates customer requirements

• Marketing fulfils customer requirements profitably

• Marketing offers and exchanges ideas, goods and services



2.1.2 Marketing is a management process

Avlonitis, G. et al. (1997) expressed that marketing is just as much legitimacy as any

other business function, and involves just as management skill. It requires planning

and analysis, resource allocation, control and investment in terms of money,

appropriately skilled people and physical resources. It also, of course, requires

implementations, monitoring and evaluation. As with any other management activity,

it can be carried out efficiently and successfully. It can be poorly, resulting in failure.

2.1.3 Marketing is about giving customers what they want

Anderson et al. (1972) argued that all marketing activities should be geared towards

this. It implies focus towards the customer or end customer of the product or service.

If “customers requirements” are not satisfactorily fulfilled, or if customers do not

obtain what they want and need, then marketing has failed both the customers and the

organization.

2.1.4 Marketing identifies and anticipates customer requirements

This phrase has a stable edge to it that does not come through strongly in the

American Marketing Association definition. It is saying that the market creates some

sort of offering only after researching the market and pinpointing exactly what the

customers will want. The American Marketing Association definition is ambiguous

because it begins with the planning process, which may or may not be done by the

reference to the customers.

2.1.5 Marketing fulfils customer requirement profitability:

This pragmatic phrase warns the marketer against getting too carried away with the

altruism of satisfying the customer! In the real world an organization cannot please all

of the people all of the time, and even sometimes marketers have to make

compromises. The marketer has to work within the resource capabilities of the

organization, and specifically the work within the agreed budget and performance

targets set for the marketing function. Nevertheless, profitability can still be



questionable. Marketing practice, and in part, marketing thinking, is now accepted

within many non-profit organizations, from schools and universities to hospitals,

voluntary organizations and activist groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of The

Earth. Each must manage its dealings with its various publics and user groups and

manage them effectively, but no for profit. That important context aside, most

commercial companies exit to make profits, and thus profitability is a legitimate

concern. Even so some organizations occasionally accept the need to make a loss on a

particular product or sector of a market in order to achieve wider strategic objectives.

As long as those losses are planned and controlled, and in the longer run provide some

other benefit to the organization, and then they are bearable. In general terms,

however, if an organization is consistently failing to make profits, then it will not

survive, and thus marketing has a responsibility to sustain and increase profits..

2.1.6 Marketing offers and exchange ideas, goods and services:

This statement is close to the UK’s Chartered Institute of Marketing’s “profitability”,

but a little more subtle the ideas of marketing as an exchange process is an important

one, and was first proposed by Alderson (1957). The basic idea is that I’ve got some

thing you want and you’ve got something I want, so let’s do a deal. For the most part

exchange is a simple one. The organization offers a product or service, and customer

offers a sum of money in return for it. Red bull offers you a can of drink and you offer

money or payment; you sign a contract to offer your services as an employee and an

organization pays you a salary.

In the same way we can take many examples from our life. You pay money to the

school and school pays you back by giving you good study atmosphere. Hence we can

prove from all of the following examples that both sides want some kind of services.

It’s all up to the marketer to provide best possible services to the customers according

to the need of them.



2.2 The Marketing concept in the organization: Kotle et al (1999) stated in their book “Principal of Marketing” that the understanding

of the marketing concept is very essential to understand for the whole management. It

is not the only duty for the managing department to understand or learn but it is the

duty of the whole organization to adopt and understand the marketing concept. It is

the main philosophy or way of doing business. All the staff from top management

level to the lowest level of the department should know the needs, wants and

satisfaction of the customers. They should understand that customer comes first.

To bring the external and internal environments together, this section is summarized

by looking at marketing as an interface.

2.2.1 The external organizational environment:

Su-Chao Chang and Ming-Shing Lee (2008) expressed in their Journal “Journal of

Knowledge Management” that external organizational environment plays very

important part in the marketing. External effect change the condition of the

organization. All big organizations are in high pressure because of the change of the

external organizational environment. There are many groups forces and people that

have some skills, indirectly or directy, the way in which organization conducts its

business. The organizational environment includes both the imidiate operating

environment and the border issues and trends that effect business in the longer term.

2.2.2 Current and potential customers:

Anders P. Fundin and Bo L.S. Bergman (2003) imply that the customers are always a

key part of any organization. It is, therefore, very important for the members of the

organization about the customer’s needs, desires, and wants and then communicate to

them and promise them to provide those things which they want to buy. Those

promises have to be delivered and followed up to ensure that customers are satisfied.

It is very essential for the management of the company to locate the customers.

2.2.3 Compititors:

Richard Ball (1987) argued that compititors make the organization”s liason with

customer group a little more difficult, since by definition they are largely pursuing the

same set of customers. Customers will make comarisons between different offerings,

and will listen to compititors messages. The organization, therefore, has not only to

monitorwhat its compititors are doing now, but also to try to anticipate what they will

do in the future in order to develop counter-measure in advance.



2.2.4 Intermediaries:

Dwyer. F.R. et al. (1987) argue that Intermediaries often provide individual services

in getting goods from manufacturers to the end buyer. Without the cooperation of the

network of wholesalers, many manufacturers would have immense problem in getting

their goodsto the end customers at the right time in the right place. The organization,

therefore, think carefully about how best to distribute goods, and the build appropriate

relationship with intermediaries. Again, this is an area in which compititors can

interface, and organizations cannot always obtain access to the channels of

distribution that they want, or trade on the terms that they want.

2.2.5 Suppliers:

Grant. J. (2002) argue that supplier is one the most important and crucial chain of this

important link. Losing a key supplier of components or raw materials can mean that

production flow is interrupted, or that a lower quality or more expensive substitution

has to be made. This means that there is danger that the organization will fail in its

promises to the customer, for example by not providing the right product at the right

time at the right price. Choice of suppliers, negotiation of terms and relationship

building therefore all become important task.



2.3 The Marketing Environment

2.3.1 The internal Organizational Environment:

Jamal, A. & Goode, M. H. (2001) express that as well as fostering and maintaining

relationship with external group and forces, the marketing function has to interact

with other functions within the organization. Not all organization have formal

marketing departments, and even if they do they can be set up in different ways, but

wherever the responsibility for the planning and implementation of marketing lies,

close interaction with other areas of the organization is essential. Not all business

functions, however, operate with the same kind of focus, and sometimes there can be

potential conflict where perspectives and concerns do not match up. This subsection

looks at just a few other functions typically found in all but the smallest organizations

and some of the points of conflict between them and in the marketers.

2.3.2 Finance:

Marsh, P. (2001) finance is considered one most important part of the internal

organization. The finance function, for example, sets budgets, perhaps early in the

financial year, and expects other functions to stick to them. It wants hard evidence to

justify expenditure, and it usually wants pricing to cover costs and contribute toward

profit. Marketing, on the other hand, tends to want the flexibility to act intuitively,

according to fast changing needs. Marketing also takes a longer, strategic view of

pricing, and may be prepared to make a short-term financial loss in order to develop

the market or to further wider strategic objectives.

In terms of accounting and credit, i.e. where finance comes into contact with

customers, the finance function would want pricing and procedures to be as

standardized as possible for administrative ease. An accountant would want to

compose tough credit terms and short credit periods, preferably only dealing with

customers with proven credit records. Marketing, however, would again want some

flexibility to allow credit terms to be used as part of negotiation procedure, and to use

pricing discounts as a marketing tool.

2.3.3 Purchasing:

Barber, A. (2000) argue that the purchasing function can also become somewhat

bureaucratic, with too high a priority given to price. A focus on economical purchase

quantities, standardization and the price of materials, along with the desire to purchase

as in frequently as possible, can all reduce the flexibility and responsiveness of the



organization. Marketing refers to think of the quality of the components and raw

materials rather than the price, and to go for non standard parts, to increase its ability

to differentiate its product from that of the competition. To be fair to purchasing, this

is a somewhat traditional view. The rise of relationship marketing and the increase

acceptance of just-in-time system means that marketing and purchasing are working

more closely than ever in building long-term flexible, cooperative relationship with

the suppliers.

2.3.4 Production:

Agede, p. (1998) explores that production has perhaps the greatest potential to clash

with marketing. It may be in production’s interest to operate long, large productions

run with a few variations on the basic product as possible, and with the changes with

the product as infrequently as possible, at least where mass production is concerned.

This also means the production would prefer to deal with standard, rather than

customized, orders. If new products are necessary, then longer the lead time they are

given to get production up to speed and running consistently, the better. Marketing

has a greater sense of urgency and a greater demand for flexibility. Marketing may

look for short production runs for many varied models in order to serve a range of

needs in the market. Similarly, changes to the product may be frequent in order to

keep the market interested.

2.3.5 Research and development and engineering:

Research and development and engineering prefer long lead times. If they are to

develop a new product from scratch, then the longer they have to do it, the better. The

problem is, however, the marketing will want a new product available as soon as

possible, so fear of the competition launching their version first. Being first into

market can allow the organization to establish market share and customer loyalty and

to set prices freely, before the effect of the competition make customers harder to gain

and lead to downward pressure on prices. There is also a danger that Research &

Development and engineering may become focused on the product for the product’s

sake, and loose sight of what the eventual customer is looking for. Marketing, in

contrast, will be concentrating on the benefits and selling points of the product rather

than purely on its functionality.



2.4 Marketing Mix:

David A. Aaker, (2001) defines marketing mix as, ‘‘it includes all activities involved

in transferring products from point of production to consumers’’. It is considered as

the core of all marketing activities.

Cartwright (2002) explains that for the success of a firm, it is essential to have the

product or service needed by the customer, at an accurate price, promotional channels

such as advertising to give details about product to customers and location or place

that suits to the customer.

Dibb, S., Simkin, L., and Bradley, J., (1996) argue that understanding the nature of

customers and their needs and wants is only the first step. The organization, however,

needs to act on that information, in order to develop and implement marketing

activities that actually deliver something of value to the customer. The means by

which such ideas are turned is known as the Marketing Mix.

They further argue that the concept of the Marketing Mix as combination of the major

tools of Marketing was first developed by Borden in 1950s, and mnemonic “4Ps”

(Product, Price, Promotion and Place) describing those tools was coined by McCarthy

(1960). For many years, these 4Ps served very well in all organizations. More

recently, however, it has become apparent that 4Ps as they stand are not always

sufficient. In the services sector in particular, they cannot fully describe the marketing

activities that are going on, so as extended marketing mix, the 7Ps, was proposed by

Booms and Bitner (1981), adding people, Processes and physical evidence to the

traditional 4Ps.

The marketing Mix creates an offering for the customers. The use of the word mix and

combination are important here, because successful marketing relies as much on

interaction and synergy between marketing mix elements as it does on good decisions

within those elements themselves.

2.4.1 Product:

Buxton. P. (2000) states that the area of product is always covered with everything to

do with creation, development and management of products. It is about not only not

what to make it, but when to make it, how to make it, and how to ensure that it has a

long and profitable life.



A product is not just a physical thing. In marketing terms, it includes peripheral but

important elements, such as after sale service, guarantees, installation and fitting,

anything that helps to distinguish the product from its competition and make the

customers more likely to buy it.

Particularly with the fast moving consumer goods, part of a product’s attractiveness

is, of course, its brand imagery and its packaging. Both of these are likely to

emphasize the psychological benefits offered by the products. With B2B purchases,

however, the emphasis is more likely to be on fitness for functional purpose, quality

and peripheral services (Technical support, delivery customization etc).

Although much of the emphasis is on physical products, it must also be remembered

that service markets are an increasingly important growth area of many European

economies.

2.4.2 Price:

Cavaye, A., (1996) explains that price is not clear cut as it might seem at first glance,

since price is not necessarily a straight forward calculation of costs and profit margin.

Price has to reflect issues of buyer behavior, because people judge “value” in terms of

their perceptions of what they are getting for their money, what else they could have

had for that money and how that money meant to them in the first place.

Pricing also has a strategic dimension, in that it gives messages to all sorts of people

in the market. Customers, for example, may use price as an indicator of quality and

desirability for a particular product, and thus price can reinforce or destroy the work

of other element of the marketing mix. Competitors, on the other hand, may see price

as a challenge, because if an organization prices its product very low it may be

signaling its intention to start a price war to the death, whereas very high (premium)

prices may signal that there are high profits to be made or that there is room for the

competitor to undercut and take market share away.

Overall, price is a very flexible element of the marketing mix, being very easy to

tinker with. It is also, however, a dangerous element to play around with, because of

its very direct link with revenues and profits, unless management think very carefully

and clearly about how they are using it.

2.4.3 Place:

Borden, N. (1964) states that place is a very dynamic and fast moving area of

marketing. It covers a wide variety of fascinating topics largely concerned with the

movement of goods from A to B and what happens at the point of sale. This is about



availability. It includes the physical place, availability and timing. It involves the

structure of channel of distribution, from mail order companies that deal direct with

the end consumer, to long and complex chains that involves goods passing between

several intermediaries, and the roles they play in getting goods to the right place at the

right time for the end buyer, as well as the physical distribution issues involved in

making it all happen. These channels are not only about the movement and transfer of

goods, but they are also about power, control, manipulation and competitive

advantage.

For consumer goods, the most visible player in the channel of distribution is the

retailer. Manufacturer and consumers alike have to put a lot of trust in the retailer to

do justice to the product, to maintain stocks, and to provide a satisfying purchasing

experience. Retailers face many of the same marketing decisions as other types of

organization, and use the same marketing mix tools, but with a slightly a different

perspective. They also face unique marketing problems, for example store location,

lay out and the creation of store image and atmosphere.

2.4.4 Promotion:

This is about the communication. It is about telling potential customers about a

product. The aim is to persuade customers to buy the product. The extent to which

this ingredient is important will depend on:

• The competitiveness of the market- where no alternatives are available the

customers will have less choice. There will be less need to persuade the

customer to buy.

• Availability- if product is in short supply there will be little need to promote

it. In Russia, toilet paper is scarce. Russian customers are less concerned

about the thickness, softness or number of sheets in the roll than people in the

West, where several products are competing for customer approval in

crowded markets.

• How easily the product can be differentiated in the market- if the

differences are obvious to the customer there may be less need for the

promotion.

• The stage of the product life cycle- a new product will usually need

promotional support. Promotion will tell the customers that the product is

available. It will persuade them to try new product. If the product has been

altered, promotion will tell customers of the changes.



The promotion should be:

1. Informative

2. Persuasive

3. Reassuring.

There are many forms of promotion. It is not just advertising.

Promotion includes:

• Advertising- this includes direct advertising such as through the TV, Radio

and Newspapers. It also includes indirect advertising such as product

placement.

“I know half the money I spent on advertising is wasted, but I can never find out

which half”

(Lord Lever Hume, British Industrialist) Source: The Ultimate Book of Business Quotations, Stuart Crainer, Capstone Publishing, 1997

• Direct selling- customers are approached directly. This may be by direct

contact. Telesales is a growing business.

• Direct marketing- this will include mailshots, perhaps supported by sales

catalogues.

• Point-of-sale- promotional material is often used where product is being sold.

It may include displays, free samples of special offers.

• Incentives- these includes loyalty cards, bonus points and sometimes price

incentives.

• Public relations- this is not direct marketing but involves insuring that the

company or product is name is known and is well thought of by customers.

This will include activities such as sponsorship of sport or arts.

2.4.5 People:

Benady, D. (2001) argues that Services often depend on people to perform them,

creating and delivering the product as customer waits. A customer’s satisfaction with

hairdressing and dentistry services, for example, has as much to do with the quality

and nature of the interaction between the customer and service provider, trust them

and has a rapport with them that is a relationship that a competitor would find hard to

break into. Even where the service is not quite so personal, sullen assistance in a shop



or a fast food outlet, for example, does not encourage the customer to come back for

more. Thus people add value and the dimension to the marketing package way beyond

the basic product offering.

2.4.6 Processes:

Manufacturing processes, once they are set up, are consistent and predictable and can

be left to the production management team, and since they go on out of sight of the

customer, any mistake can be weeded out before distribution. Services, however, are

“Manufactured” and consumed live, on the spot, and because they do involve people

and the performance of their skills, consistency can be rather more difficult than with

the normal manufacturing. The marketer therefore has to think carefully about how

the service is delivered, and what quality control can be built in so that the customer

can be confident that they know what to expect each time they consume the service

product.

Balestrini, P. (2001) further explains that the processes can also involve queuing

mechanisms, preventing waiting customers from getting so impatient that they leave

without purchase; processing customer’s details and payment; as well as ensuring the

high professional quality of whatever services they are buying.

2.4.7 Physical evidence:

This final area of particular relevance to retailers, or those who maintain premises

from which a service is sold or delivered to the consumers which signals out some of

the factors, such as atmosphere, ambience, image and design of premises. In other

service situations, physical evidence would relate to the aircraft in which you fly, the

hotel in which you stay, the stadium in which you watch a big match or the lecture

theatre in which you learn.

Other than in the services arena, the 4Ps are still widely accepted as defining the

marketing mix. It has never been suggested, however, that the same mix applicable in

all situations or even for the same organization at different times, so the task of the

marketing manager is to review and change the mix to suit emerging circumstances.

The marketing mix is simply therefore a set of categories of marketing variables that

has become standard in marketing education.

The particular combination of the 4Ps used by any one organization needs to give it

competitive edge, or differential advantage. This means that the marketer is creating



something unique, that the potential customer will recognize and value that

distinguishes one organization’s product from another. In highly competitive,

crowded markets, this is absolutely essential for drawing customers toward the

product. The edge of the advantage may be created mainly through one element of the

mix, or through a combination of them. A product may have a combination of high

quality and good value (price and product) that a competitor cannot match; an

organization may have established a 24-hour telephone ordering and home delivery

service (place) that cannot easily be imitated; an effective and unique communication

campaign combine with an excellent product living up to all its promises (promotion

and product) can make an organization’s offering stand out above the crowd.



2.5 What is Strategy? “Thus it is in the war the victorious strategy only seeks battle after the victory has

been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for

victory.”

“In warfare, first lay plans which will ensure victory, and then lead your army to

battle; if you will not begin with stratagem but rely on brute strength alone, victory

will no longer be assured.”

(SUN TZU, 500 BC)

The word strategy has become one of the most common and badly used words in

business writings. Everywhere we look we see terms such as business strategy,

cooperate strategy, marketing strategy, marketing strategy, strategic marketing,

product strategy, pricing strategy, advertising strategy and even discount strategy.

2.5.1 The classical approach:

Abell, D. and Hammond, J. (1979) stated that the classical approach to strategy

formulation is probably the oldest strategy approach. They believe that the profit

maximization is the major key of an organization and the job of the strategies is then

to position the organization into those markets where most profits can be made. The

underlying belief is that strategy is best created through a rational and intellectual

analysis, often carried out in the isolation from the normal ups and downs of any

market place. They strongly believe that high quality planning is what is needed to

take control over both internal and external environment. Strategy, based on objective

analysis and “rational economic man” will make the difference between success and

failure in the long term.

2.5.2 The evolutionary approach:

Carr, H. and Pomeroy, J. (1992) expressed their own ideas that the main thrust of the

evolutionary argument is that the organization cannot control the environment in

which it operates- markets are more power full than the company. Since large

organizations tend to be slow to react or respond to change, the power of an all-

embracing strategy may be overrated. They even argue that investing in a long term

strategy could be counterproductive for the organization. Since best result always be

achieved by matching the needs of the environment now, the organization investing in

the long term can always be undercut by the organization focusing on short term cost

reduction processes.



Tom Peter further argue that short term focus tends to stimulate the number of

organizational liquidations over time this is a good thing since it ensures that the

“gene pool” is constantly refreshed as talent is released from dying organizations. So

now even survival may be an unsound objective.

Moving away from some of the ideas seems to be that top managers don’t make

profits, markets do. In a competitive marketplace the organizations should launch as

much small initiative as possible and see what works. The competitive processes

inherent in the market place should then allow the best initiatives to flourish and an

overall strategy should begin to emerge as a pattern from the market place. In this way

we can see that the idea is that the market dictates the strategy not the manager, the

strategist, the planner or even the market.

2.5.3 The processual approach:

Henry Mintzberg (1990) analyzed and mentioned that an effective and practical

strategy will only from close involvement in every day operations of the organization.

He believes that the environment is too strong for it to be overcome through

intellectual analysis alone, but on the other hand seem to be less sure that the

marketplace is sufficient enough to ensure profit maximizing results. He states that

every organization is a coalition of individuals with their own personal objectives and

ambitions, and, cooperate goals are therefore the result of a bargaining process driven

by profit and non-profit motivated values.

Gary Hamel (1991) further argued that planning which is not followed by

implementation is an exercise in futility, what is the point then, he argues that strategy

is a craft rather then a science and business strategy is best created by a series of small

steps that slowly emerge into a pattern. He and others also argued that without the

right competences in place in an organization many strategic plans cannot be

implemented anyway. Therefore the whole process should be one of slow

development, construction and consolidation.

2.5.4 The systematic approach:

The arguments behind the systematic approach have been a long time coming to the

surface. Writing in this area is still quite rare and often originate in areas other than

straightforward business strategy so are not always easy to find.



Hooley, G.J. et al. (1990) believe in the ability of organizations to plan forward and

act effectively within the market environments, he argues that both the ends and

means of the strategy depend on, and are deeply embedded in, particular social

system. What it means is that we shouldn’t view strategies as cool, calculation

professionals but normal human beings (radical thinking this!) who are simply part of

the social system and calculate from which they operate. Factors such as the family,

the state, the professional and educational backgrounds, religion and even ethnic

origin determine what acceptable behavior is for their members and therefore

acceptable objectives for the organization in which they work. This is obvious an

important aspect for international multinational organizations who embrace a variety

of cultures in one company. It is equally important, if not as easily identified, within a

particular country, culture or industry.

Wise, P. (2001b) relates the example of Western Business and argues that Western

Business works within a culture that respects profit, values, scientific methods and

sees the free market as an article of faith. Any individual organization or leader, who

rejects the classical form of strategy making, places his or her reputation at stake.

Perhaps this explains the reason why so many organizations insist on developing on

logical, analytical strategy after another while consistently failing to implement

anything.

Wood, L. (1999) argue that the principal message then behind the systematic

approach is that there is no such thing as a single strategy model that is applicable to

all organizations. The objectives and strategy process will depend upon the social,

cultural background of the strategist and social context within which they operate and

these must be accounted for before an organization can plan forward. A pluralistic

society creates a potential range of unique and creative strategies. He also believes

that implementation is critical and warns us that strategy must be sensitive to the

sociology of the organization is it is to be successful.



2.6 Marketing Strategy

Marketing strategy is the process by which the organization translates its business

objectives and business strategy into market activity.

(Paul Field)

The marketing strategy concept can be encapsulated into two core elements: the

product-marketing investment decision which encompasses the product market scope

of the business strategy, its investment intensity and the resource allocation in a

multiple business context.

“The development of a sustainable competitive advantage is to compete in those

markets. This core concept encompasses underlying distinctive competences or assets,

appropriate objectives, functional area politics and the creation of synergy.”

(Aaker)

“Marketing strategy is the process of strategically analyzing environmental,

competitive and business factors affecting business units and forecasting future trends

in business areas of interest to the enterprise. Participating in sitting business

objectives and formulating cooperate and business unit strategy. Selecting target

market strategies for: the product market in each business unit, establishing marketing

objectives, and developing, implementing and managing program positioning

strategies for meeting target market needs.”

(Cravens)

The marketing strategy defines target markets, what direction needs to be taken and

what needs to be done in broad term to create the defensible competitive position

compatible with overall cooperate strategy within those markets. It is therefore

concerned with many of the aspects considered in buyer behavior, as well as the

decision to target particular market segment. Marketing mix program can then be

designed to best match organizational capabilities with target market opportunities.

Many of the cases and example show how various marketing mix strategies are used

to achieve marketing objectives. Although chosen strategies vary, depending on the

context, they all share the same marketing-oriented philosophy.

Around the world corporations are increasingly becoming aware of the enhanced

value that corporate branding strategies can provide for an organization.



According to Weitz and Wensley (1988), they define marketing strategy as an

indicator that is specific towards which activities are to be targeted and the types of

competitive advantages that are to be developed and exploited. Implicitly, the strategy

requires clear objectives and a focus in line with an organization’s corporate goals;

the right customers must be targeted more effectively than they are by its competitors,

and associated marketing mixes should be developed into marketing programmes that

successfully implement the marketing strategy, Varadarajan (1999).

A strategic market plan is an outline of the methods and resources required to achieve

an organization’s goals within a specific target market. It's very important that

company should adopt those policies or strategies which can fulfill the customer's

desires and satisfaction. It takes into account not only marketing but also all the

functional aspects of a business unit that must be coordinated. These functional

aspects include production, finance and personnel. Environmental issues are an

important consideration as well. The concept of the strategic business unit is used to

define areas for consideration in a specific strategic market plan. Each strategic

business unit (SBU) is a division, product line or other profit centre within a parent

company. Each sells a distinct set of products to an identifiable group of customers,

and each competes with a well defined set of competitors, Dibb et al. (2001).

Each SBU's revenues, costs, investments and strategic plans can be separated and

evaluated apart from those of the parent company. SBUs operate in a variety of

markets, which have differing growth rates, opportunities, degrees of competition and

profit making potential. TESCO & Sainsbury's business units include personal

financial services, consumer satisfaction, commercial activities, corporate investment

plans and markets, and finally, customer’s satisfactions. Strategic planners within the

group therefore must recognize the different performance capabilities of each business

unit and carefully allocate resources or strategically implement its business objectives

in order to meet the company's long term goals. They must also ensure that the

business units complement each other for the greater good of the overall business.

The process of strategic market planning yields a marketing strategy that is the

framework for a marketing plan. A marketing plan includes the framework and entire

set of activities to be performed; it is the written document or blueprint for

implementing and controlling an organization’s marketing activities. Thus a strategic

market plan is not the same as a marketing plan; it is a plan of all aspects of an

organization’s strategy in the marketplace, Dibb et al. (1996). A marketing plan, in



contrast, deals primarily with implementing the marketing strategy as it relates to

target markets and the marketing mix, Abell and Hammond (1979).

2.6.1 Influence on Marketing Strategy:

There are various influences on an organization’s marketing strategy, some of them

are

• Organizational objectives and resources.

• Attitude to change and risk

• Market structure and opportunities

• Competitor strategies.

1) Organizational objectives and resources:

Dibb, S., Simkin, L., Pride, W.M., and Ferrell, O.C., (2001) argue that marketing

strategists need to be guided by what the organization as a whole is striving for what

its objectives are and what resources it has to implement them. Some organization

might have very ambitious growth plans, while others might be content with fairly

study growth or even no growth at all, that is, consolidation. Clearly each of these

alternatives implies different approaches to marketing.

Resources are not only financial. They also include skills and expertise, in other

words any area of the organization that can help to add value and give a competitive

edge. The exploitation, through marketing, of things that the organization does well,

such as manufacturing, technical innovation, product department or customer service,

might help to create non-financial assets such as reputation and image, which are

difficult for the competitors to copy.

2) Attitude to change and risk:

Charles, G. (2002a) states that the corporate view on change and risk often depends

on the approach of top management. Risk tolerance varies widely from individual to

individual and from management team to management team. Manager will, of course,

be guided by the nature of the organization and their interpretation of its business

environment. The managing director of the small businesses may not want to take on

high risk projects, feeling that the firm’s size makes it more vulnerable to failure

through its lack of resources. A larger firm might be able to absorb any losses and

therefore feel that the risk is worth taking.

The performance group (1999) in its studies of corporate innovation has found that

enterprise depends on the willingness to accept mistakes rather than punish them, and



that this stance, along with the tolerance of risk and innovation, is essential for the

culture that welcomes change and significant development.

Henry Mckinnell, chairman of Pfizer, is often quoted as saying that the

pharmaceutical industry has a 99 percent failure rate. The organization that creates a

culture for failure avoidance may often fail a lot quicker, because innovation is

necessary in most sectors to remain competitive, as can be seen from many of the

example from our surroundings.

3) Market structure and Opportunities:

Carr, H. and Pomeroy, J. (1992) argue that markets vary considerably in their

structure and dynamics. Some are fairly stable and not a great deal happen in them

unless one of the major players decides to become aggressive and seeks to improve its

competitive position. Some markets are simply too complacent. A good example

would be the Dutch agriculture sector, which has been criticized for failing to keep up

with market changes and increased level of European competitiveness. Although

competitiveness has been maintained in cut flowers and seeds, ground has been lost in

the dairy, vegetable and pork sectors. The real problem has arisen from change in the

marketing environment, as customers have sought a wider variety of products and

higher product specifications, and European super market buyers have sought greater

efficiency.

The impact of the increasing internationalization of organizations is that previously

dormant markets can be suddenly transformed into dynamic competitive arenas by the

entry of the new, foreign competitor. This can be seen in UK construction industry.

Companies suffered badly in 1990s, partly because of the depressed state of the

construction market generally, but also because of increasing difficulties in competing

with European, American and Japanese rivals entering in UK market.

4) Competitor Strategies:

The competitive structure in different product markets will vary to create conditions

of strong or weak condition. In markets such as computer chips, the dominant

competitor has a strong influence over the level and nature of competition. Challenges

still can arise, but nevertheless, within constraints set by governmental competition

policy and public pressure, a dominant competitor is effectively able to decide when

and how to compete. The dominant competitor is likely to be confident that it has

sufficient strength through its market position, volume sales, and thus perhaps through

its cost base to fight any serious challenger successfully.



2.7 Strategic Marketing Plans and Planning: Planning can be defined systematic process of forecasting the future business

environment, and then deciding on the most appropriate goals, objectives and

positions for best exploiting that environment. Organizational and functional

strategies and plans provide the means by which the organization can set out to

achieve all that.

Anderson (2002) explained that planning is an activity, a process in business that

provides a systematic structure and framework for considering the future, appraising

options and opportunities, and then selecting and implementing the necessary

activities for achieving the stated objectives efficiently and effectively. The marketing

plans provide a clear and unambiguous statement concerning what strategies and

actions will be implemented, by whom, when and with what outcomes. He stated that

adaptability and flexibility are necessary to cope with the rapid rate of environmental

change.

It’s important to distinguish between plans, the outcomes of planning process, and

planning, the process by which plans are derived. While the process of planning is

fairly standard and can be transferred across functions and organizations, there are

often wide variations in the actual use of plans to guide strategy

2.7.1 The Marketing Planning Process:

Abell (1982) stated that the strategic marketing plan differs from an operational

marketing plan on two key dimensions. First the strategic marketing plan deals with

the total strategy in a market linking customers, competitors and organizational

capability. Operational marketing plans, on the other hand, normally deal with the

marketing mix strategy that will be used to gain leverage in the market. The strategic

marketing plans therefore guides all planning and activities at the functional level, not

just in marketing but across the whole organization. Second strategic marketing plans

tend to be prepared at company level, while the operational marketing plan is more

often concerned with products and market segments.

The main purpose of the marketing planning has been defined as:

“To find a systematic way of identifying a range of options, to choose one or more of

them, then to schedule and cost out what has to be done to achieve the objectives.”

(McDonald, 1989, p. 13)



If this definition is to work in practice, an organizational structure is needed to ensure

that the process is properly managed. Without such a structure, there is a danger that

key stages may be omitted, or give insufficient attention. Although the structure will

vary according to the complexity and variability the organization, and emphasis may

vary according to the turbulence in the environment.

The main stages in planning process have these processes.

• Corporate objectives and values

• Marketing Audit

• SWOT Analysis

• Marketing Programs

• Marketing Strategies

• Marketing Objectives

• Budgets

• Control and Evolution

2.7.2 Corporate Objectives and Values:

This is at the heart of the planning process, since they describe the direction, priorities

and relative position of the organization in market. These objectives help to create

guidelines for marketing plans, since the output of the corporate planning process act

as an input into the marketing planning process.

Objectives are normally presented in terms of different kinds of targets.

• Qualitative targets

• Philosophical targets

• Quantitative targets

2.7.3 The Marketing Audit:

Audit is a term more commonly used in financial management to describe the process

of taking stock of an organization’s financial strength, weaknesses and health, through

checking and analyzing changing in its assets and transactions over a given period.

The philosophy of the marketing order is very similar, in that it systematically takes

stock of an organization’s marketing health, as the formal definition implies:



“The Audit is the means by which a company can understand how it relates to the

environment in which it operates. It is means by which a company can identify its own

strength and weaknesses as they relate to external opportunities and threats. It is thus

a way of helping management to select a position in that environment based on known

factors.”

(McDonalds, 1989 p. 21)

2.7.4 SWOT Analysis:

The commonest mechanism for structuring audit information to provide a critical

analysis is the SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats)

The SWOT Analysis helps to sort information systematically and to classify it but still

needs further creative analysis to make sense of it. The magnitude of opportunities

and threats, and the feasibility of the potential courses of action implied by them, can

only really be understood in terms of the organization’s strengths and weaknesses.

2.7.5 Marketing Objectives:

Objectives are essential for clearly defining what must be achieved through the

marketing strategies implemented, and also provide a benchmark against which to

measure the extent of their success. Marketing objectives have to be wide ranging as

well as precise, as they have to link closely with corporate objectives on a higher level

but also descend to the fine detail of products, segments etc.

2.7.6 Marketing Strategies:

A marketing strategy is the means by which an organization sets out to achieve it

marketing objectives. Marketing strategy has been discussed a lot of times in this

research earlier.

2.7.7 Marketing programs:

This is the detailed implementation of the designing marketing strategies. The

marketing program will precisely specify actions, responsibilities and timescale.

Within the market program, each mixed element is considered individually, covering

all the decision areas. This is in contrast to the marketing strategy itself, which

stresses the independency between elements of the mix for achieving the best synergy

between them.



2.7.8 Marketing Budgets:

The marketing plan must specify and schedule all financial and other resource

requirements, otherwise might not be able to accomplish the task set. This is partly

about costs, such as those of the sales force which include their associated

expenditures, advertising campaigns, dealer support, market research etc., and partly

about forecasting expected revenues from products and markets.

2.7.9 Marketing Control & Evaluation:

Control and evaluation are both essential if managers are to ensure that the plans are

being implemented properly and that the outcomes are those expected. As part of the

planning process, managers will have to specify what will be measured, when, how

and by whom. Control and evaluation can take either a short- or a longer term

perspective. In the short term, control can be monitored on the daily basis through

reviewing orders received, sales, stock turn or cash flow.



2.8 Customer Satisfaction This is one of the most important parts of the business. Before discussing this, some

important points are important to discuss.

2.8.1 Who is the Customer?

Tim Hannagan (2002) stated in his book “Mastering Strategic Management” that the

customer is the person who pays for the product or service, and it is possible to define

the customer in these terms. The customer of any organization can also be described

as the ‘end user’ of its product or services, the person who receives benefits from

them. This is often the person who pays. However this is not always the case, because

someone who is not the end user may pay.

For example, children’s products tend to be bought by adults and then given to

children. In these circumstances, from the point of view of strategic Marketing, both

of these people are customers. This illustrate the fact the there are different levels of

customers. The one who gets the advantage from the product is the customer. They all

can be in chain form. The view of the customer as the people who receives benefits

from a product or services is the other side of the coin to the view that a product or

services should satisfy customer needs if it is to be successful.

In all organizations, public or private, there is a circular or spiral type relationship

between the organization and the customers. The organizations produce products and

services which are bought by customers and the money obtained by these sales is

recycled into the provision of more products and services. In the private sectors,

income is obtained directly or indirectly from central or local governments, fees and

subsidies. Instead of profits, public sector organizations may have surpluses which

may be added to the budgets.

2.8.2 Knowing the customers:

In order to understand the ‘end users’ of their product and services, organizations

need to be clear about what business they are in. this may appear, and in fact be,

obvious in some organizations. Once the company knows what the business it is in, it

is beginning to identify marketing as an essential element of strategy because the

company is viewing its business from the position of its final customer.

For example, a car showroom is in the business of selling cars, but even though this is

obvious the questions still arise: to whom are they selling? Is the company hoping to

sell to anybody who wants to buy a car, or it is selling to a particular group of car

buyers? Group of buyers may be determined by the income levels, or by whether they



want new or second hand cars, or by family as against business buyers and so on.

Unless the company identifies which of these groups it wants to serve, it will not be

able to concentrate its efforts on this groups needs. Once it has established its target

groups, it is able to find out about their needs and meet them.

2.8.3 How are customers satisfied?

Customer benefits are at the roof of marketing and selling, because, in order to satisfy

their needs, customers are not so much looking for particular products and services,

they are looking for the benefits that these may be able to provide. If two or three

identical products have the same kind of benefits but prices are different, customers,

obviously, tries to take the product which is the cheapest of all. This shows that prices

are also the way which can solve the problem of the customers.

For example, customers may be looking for the benefits of warm house which is

cheaper to heat than at present. Double glazing provide will provide these benefits,

but if there was some other method of providing these benefits that was more

attractive and cheaper, double-glazing will be more difficult to sell.

Putting the satisfaction of the satisfaction of customer needs at the root of the

marketing process emphasizes that company should be producing what can be sold,

not selling what they can make. In order to survive and prosper a company has to

produce what the people want to buy, rather than providing goods and then attempting

to sell them. This does not stop managers attempting to anticipate customer demands,

but they need first of all to determine the demands and wants of their target market,

and benefits people want or will want to satisfy. The marketing approach starts with

the needs of the target customers, while the selling approach starts with the existing

product and searches for ways of promoting it to achieve profitable sale.



2.9 Consumer Behaviour: The consumer is a part of marketing environment, and is shaped to some extent by the

influences. It is very important to understand the more personal and specific

influences affecting consumers and the nature of the decision-making process through

which they go. For all of this, it is important to understand the decision making

process, which is one of the most important part of the buyer behavior.

2.9.1 The decision making process:

According to the model of Eagle Blackwell and Miniard (1990), they provide a

framework that still allows us to consider, through discussion, many of the more

complex elements. It traces the progress of a purchasing event stage by stage from the

buyer point of view, including the definition of likely information needs and a

discussion of the level of rationality and analytical behavior leading to eventual

decision.

There are some important stages of decision making process given below:

2.9.2 Problem Recognition:

Bruner and Pomazal (1988) describe about the problem recognition that if any

customer buy something from the store, there should be a special and attractive

product for the customers to let him buy more from the store. For example, if a tired

customer comes in the store from work. He decides to buy a lot of things from the

store, for that he fills his trolley with the potatoes, bread and milk he intends to buy,

but he also slip a bar of chocolate in there on the basis that it will cheer him up as he

drives home. The problem here is less definable, based on a vague psychological

feeling, and it follows the solution is also definable. It could be chocolate, cream

buns, wine or clothing, whatever takes the purchaser’s fancy. The customer identifies

or recognizes the problem, independently from the marketer, and looks for a solution.

It is also possible, however, for marketers to trigger the process by using the

marketing mix to bring a problem to bring the consumer’s intention. If one was to be

cynical, one could accuse them of deliberately creating problems in order to stimulate

purchase.



2.9.3 Information Search:

Bloch et al. (1986) distinguish between ongoing search (browsing and storing for

future reference) and purposeful search with a particular objective in mind. Daily,

consumers are exposed to a wide range of media all designed to influence awareness

and recall of particular products and services.

For example, the Cheltenham & Gloucester mortgage advertisement is designed to

appeal to someone who is already considering house purchase. It is hardly likely to

inspire consumers to move house, but it could be useful if customer is worried about

finding the right mortgage for their circumstances before they start looking seriously.

In some cases, a consumer might not be planning to move immediately, but C&G

would hope that they will recall the advertisement when the time does come.

Hauser et al (1993) emphasis the fact that time pressure can interface with the

information search. They found that consumers spend less time searching for different

sources as pressure increases. At the other hand of the spectrum, however,

information overload may cause problems for the potential purchaser. There is

evidence to suggest that consumers cannot cope with too much information at pt

product level. Thus the greater the relevance of the information to customers, such as

the key benefits and applications of the product, the easier is for them to assimilate

and process that information as part of their decision making.

2.9.4 Decision:

Su-Chao Chang (1980) and Ming-Shing Lee (1987) argue that the decision is a

natural outcome of the information search, if one supplier is noticeably more

impressive on all the important criteria than the rest. If choice is not as clear cut as

this, the customer may have to priorities the criteria further, perhaps deciding that

price or convenience is the one overriding factor. Sometimes it is conscious act to

make the decision, whereas with the impulse purchase of chocolate, the decision may

be made unconsciously. In any case, the consumer must finalize the proposed deal,

and this may take place in the retail store because it is always easy to take a bar of

chocolate and rest of the luggage and put them into the trolley. But if a customer is

doing any complex deal, he has to think himself hard about the deal and cash

payment. If the outcome of the negotiation is not satisfactory, then the customers may

regretfully decide not to go ahead with the purchase after all, or rethink the decision in



favor of another supplier. No one can be certain of his customer until he has either

handed over his money or signs the contract.

2.9.5 Buying Situation:

Nolan, A. (1977a), argue that in the discussion of the decision making process, it has

been made clear that both the flow and the formality of the process, and the emphasis

that is put on each stage will vary from situation to situation.

A routine problem solving is one that the customer is likely to experience on regular

bases. Most of the grocery shopping falls into this category, where particular brand

are purchased habitually without recourse to any lengthy decision making process.

Ehrenberg and Goodhart (1980) proposed a simple three stage model that covers

many routine problem solving purchases. Stage 1 is awareness of the brand or

product, stage 2 is trial, and if the outcome of the trial is satisfactory, stage 3 is repeat

purchase. Overtime, therefore, the repeat purchase becomes habitual, with little or re-

evaluation of the decision. This explains why many manufacturers invest in many

promotions to generate awareness and trial of new products, as these are necessary

foundations for longer-term repeat purchasing behavior.



2.10 Impact of marketing strategy on Customer’s

satisfaction: Customers play the most important part in any organization. If a company has a good

number of customers, it runs successfully.

This topic is, however, divided into the different topics.

2.10.1 The customer comes first:

Narver, J. and Slater, S. (1990) argues that meeting customer needs is the foundation

of any successful organization. Without customers, the organization is without

purpose, so that the customer comes first, second and third in terms of the

organization’s priorities and its strategic management. Customers have always been

important to the companies but, with the increase in the competition created by world

trade, the priority given to them has changed and so has the urgency with which their

needs are considered, customer service is the main factor which distinguish one

organization from another in the same business. At the same time, customers have

changed. They have become more demanding and they have more choice, and this is

in turn has changed the strategic role of managers.

Strategic management has become more and more involved with producing

contingency plans to deal with the uncertainties of outside influences. Management

need to be flexible and to apply the appropriate techniques to factors such as the size

and situation of an organization. In particular, managers need to understand to know

the specific requirements of each customers in order to meet their needs better.

Organizations need to know the specific requirements of each customer and whether

these requirements can be segmented.

2.10.2 Market segmentation:

Mason, T. (2000) feels that market segmentation is important for the customer’s

satisfaction and good services because some segments may be more profitable and

attractive than others. Large segments may have low profit margins but their size

make them attractive, and small segments may have high margin profit and loyal

customers. Some segments may have more competition than other, so that, for

example, a specialized segment may have only a limited number of competitors. Also

some segments may grow faster and offer more opportunities than others.

Market segmentation is useful in strategic terms only if customers can be

distinguished. Not all users of the product or services are the same; each can have



different characteristics and needs, behave differently and so on. Customers must be

distinguishable so that they can be isolated in some way. At the same time, the

distinguishing criteria must relate to the differences in the market demand, so that for

example some customers may be prepared to pay higher prices for the better quality

goods. The segment has to be sufficiently large, even as it can be described as a niche,

to justify the resources needed to reach it. It must also be possible to access the

segment.

2.10.3 Products and Services:

The Chief Executive of the Revlon Company argued that ‘in the factory we make

cosmetics, in the store we sell hope’. He further argued that at the most fundamental

level, every product or service can be seen as the packaging of a problem solving

service. In buying a coat hanger in order to hang up the coat, the consumer is not so

much buying the hanger as solving the problem of how to hang up the coat. When

ordering a portion of chips in a restaurant, the customers are satisfying their hunger.

So in all of these, the manager’s role is the most important part, his duty should be to

provide a best customer services, best possible products and services to solve the

consumer problems and provide them benefits.

The marketing of products or services and selling them may concentrate less on the

basic need that they satisfy as on the value added by a range of features which provide

consumer benefits. At the same time, managers need to take account of all aspects of

the target market.

Some aspects can be summarized in the ‘the six Os’:

Occupants- which individuals make up the market?

Object- what do they want to buy?

Occasions- when do they make their purchase?

Organizations- who decide what to buy?

Objectives- why do they buy particular goods and services?

Operations- how do they buy products and services?

2.10.4 Customer strategy:

Green, D. (1995) argues that in order to develop the strategy to satisfy their

customers, managers need to fully understand their customers and their customer

needs. Companies will attempt to segment customer requirements in an attempt both

to satisfy as many people as possible, and also avoid the need to tailor-make every



item for each individual. ‘Getting to know the customers’ involve being aware of how

many different people are involved in the purchasing decision and the different kind

of requirements they may have.

In keeping close to their customers, organizations need a sense of urgency and have to

become customer driven, so that they not only meet customer expectation but exceed

them. The customer can be seen as the driven force behind corporate strategy and it is

customers, through their purchasing decisions, who define quality in products and

services. The structure of a company or institution can help to monitor feed back from

customers and inform all parts of organizations.



CHAPTER – 3 METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction: The research approach was carried out using the positivist case research approach.

According to Cavaye (1996), positivist epistemology tries to understand a social

setting by identifying individual components of a phenomenon and explains the

phenomenon in terms of constructs and relationships between constructs. The

theoretical constructs describing the phenomenon are considered to be distinct from

empirical reality. Hence, empirical observations can be used to test theory. This looks

at the world as external and objective. Positivism employs four major research

evaluation criteria: a good research should make controlled observations, should be

able to be replicated, should be generalizable and should use formal logic.

Under positivism, case research findings are not statistically generalizable to a

population, as the case or cases cannot be considered representative of a population,

however case research can claim theoretical generalizability.

This will also include comparing, contrasting and critically evaluating past and

present papers, articles, journals, questioners and established theories that have been

published on the subject matter.

3.2 Aims & Objectives: The following are the main aims of this research work and the researcher tied to find

out answers to these aims/questions which are as follows:

• How important is the marketing strategy on the customer’s satisfaction

and what the key features of marketing strategy are.

This is an important aim of the research. Marketing strategy is always applied for the

satisfaction of the customers. The main purpose to achieve this aim is to discuss the

main and important parts of the marking strategy and those processes which are

helpful to apply the marketing strategy on the organization. This area gives the clear

idea about the relationship of marketing strategy and customer’s satisfaction.



• What are the main and important issues of marketing strategy of TESCO

and Sainsbury’s?

TESCO and Sainsbury’s are two big supermarkets of the UK. . Both supermarkets are

the largest British retailers by both global sales and domestic market share. The main

aim is to find those marketing strategies, by which they are so successful in this field.

• What are the main and important aspects of the success of TESCO and

Sainsbury’s? And comparison of both of them

As mentioned above that both organizations have been successful on bases of profits,

business and retail markets. How they achieve their goals? What are the main reasons

which have made them so successful in UK? All of these questions are answered in

the light of marketing strategies adopted by them. One important aim is also to

compare both of them in their strategies. If one supermarket is performing better than

other, what is the main reason of this?


After analyzing both of them, conclusions of those are them in order to improve them

in those weaknesses. This is very important; every one has their own opinion. So this

question is a compulsory question to improve them.


It is very important to find a customer satisfaction in a business. Customer’s

satisfaction is very necessary in an organization. It is very obvious that if a customer

is happy to go and buy from a store, he will go there. It is a very important part.

The main aim to ask this question is to find and explore the customer’s satisfaction

and consumer behavior in these stores.



The main objectives of the research are given below.

1). Establish a theoretical framework of strategic marketing and customer satisfaction.

2). Explore the marketing strategies of TESCO & Sainsbury's.

3). Analyze and the impact of marketing strategies of TESCO & Sainsbury's on

customer's satisfaction.

4). Comparison of marketing strategies of TESCO & Sainsbury's.

5). Suggest the measures to improve the effective marketing of TESCO & Sainsbury

have to improve the customer's satisfaction.

3.3 Methodology Employed:

Multiple-Case Study Design This project uses the multiple case study method in order to enable analysis of data

across cases and relating it to the theoretical perspectives in the available literature of

marketing strategy. This enables the researcher to verify that findings are not merely

the result of idiosyncrasies of research setting (Miles and Huberman, 1984).

According to Yin (2002), in such a method it is important to use: multiple sources of

evidence.

The appropriate number of cases depends, firstly, on how much is known about the

phenomenon after studying a case and secondly, on how much new information is

likely to emerge from studying further cases (Eisenhardt, 1991).

This paper detailed analysis about the marketing strategies employed by TESCO in

comparison to its other major competitor, namely Sainsbury's. Analysis of the

marketing strategy of TESCO & Sainsbury's is evaluated with regard to the

organization meeting customer needs and requirements, advertising strategies and the

need to increase its customer base are all addressed. One wants to see if there are any

matches with regard to the theoretical literature of marketing strategy and what the

empirical evidence gathered says and also any mismatches.



3.4 Qualitative/quantitative analysis: Gordon & Langmaid (1988) mentioned that a best and a proper research always has a

characteristic that it is always verified by different ways and processes. For getting the

data concerning the research, researcher needs to get data from all the possible ways.

This can be done with the help of questioners, articles, journals, newspapers and

websites etc. They also mentioned that qualitative data is very important, because, this

is the proper way to get the information from the people of different origins,

categories and groups, which could be the best possible way to get the right

information.

Jick (1983) argued that, for a best and reliable research qualitative and quantitative

data is needed to be considered. This is a nice thinking from a great scholar, because,

if a research has both forms of analysis included, this could help anyone to understand

the theme of the research.

Jarratt (1996) claimed that it is not possible every time to get the both analysis

together in a research. This is a time taking and difficult to get.

Qualitative Data Cavaye (1996) states that qualitative investigation refers to distilling meaning and

understanding from a phenomenon and is not primarily concerned with measuring and

quantification of the phenomenon. Direct and in-depth knowledge of a research

setting are necessary to achieve contextual understanding. Hence, qualitative methods

are associated with face-to-face contact with persons in the research setting, with

verbal data (Van Mannen 1989) being gathered.

Qualitative data was collected in a number of forms. One major form of qualitative

evidence is interviews and questioners from customers, which was recorded and later

transcribed. Qualitative data are rich, full, holistic 'real' their face validity seems

impeachable; they preserve chronological flow where that is important (Miles 1979).

In spite of the abovementioned, qualitative data have weaknesses (Miles 1979; Miles

and Huberman, 1984). Collecting and analyzing data is time-consuming and

demanding. In addition, data analysis is not easy, as qualitative data analysis methods

are not well established. Recognized rules of logic can be applied to verbal data in

order to make sense of the evidence and to formally analyze the data.

Rubin and Rubin (1995) state that it is most desirable to disclose the identities of both

the case and the individuals interviewed because, The reader is able to recall any other



previous information he or she may have learned about the same case from previous

research or other sources in reading and interpreting the case report.

The entire case can be reviewed more readily, so that footnotes and citations can be

checked, if necessary, and appropriate criticisms can be raised about the published

case.

Nevertheless, there are some occasions when anonymity is necessary. The most

common rationale is that when the case study has been on a controversial topic,

anonymity serves to protect the real case and its real participants. The second reason

is that the issuance of the final case report may affect the subsequent actions of those

that were studied.

Quantitative Data This is concerned with measuring aspects of a market or the population of consumers

making up the market. This includes soft approaches such as consumer attitudes as

well as the hard things such as market size, brand shares, purchase frequencies etc.

Quantitative data on a market or consumer group can be obtained through carrying

out a census, obtaining the relevant measures from every single consumer or player in

the market.

In practice, research through a census collection is very rare; for one thing it is usually

prohibitively expensive to obtain data from every individual (the government only

carries out a population census once every 10 years) and even if the money is

available the timescales involved are likely to be too long to meet commercial

deadlines. Quantitative research is, therefore, nearly always based on more or less

rigorous sampling methods which have in common the assumption that the data from

the samples can be taken to represent, within estimated levels of accuracy, the

population or universe from which they are drawn, (Hague 2002).

The most important tool for data collection under quantitative research is face to face

interviewing. However, in situations where over a hundred customers need to be

interviewed, due to the cost attached to carrying out such a task, doing a telephone

interview would seem more appropriate. The methods used to record data and data

analysis here, is predominantly through questionnaires. Most questionnaires used in

quantitative research involve a predominance of pre-coded or closed questions and the

layout of the response points can help to minimize problems of miss-recording. More

problematical, however, is the recording of open-ended questions, such as why did

you buy this product, then? This usually leads to a lengthy or rambling response from



the individual, in which what is said is then summarized or abbreviated and there is no

way of knowing whether what is recorded reasonably reflects the response given.

In the case of this paper, due to the short deadline associated with writing this paper,

researcher was able to get interviews (primary data collection method) from some of

the customers on the basis of the quality and standard and marketing strategies of the

products of both TESCO & Sainsbury's about their own satisfactions in the London

area. This research work is based on qualitative analysis which is mainly due to the nature

and objectives of research. In qualitative analysis, it is possible to make a prediction

and judgment of future but it is not possible to calculate and measure consumer’s

behavior and attitude numerically. The elasticity and maneuverability of preferences

and decision making process are also another reason of this method being adopted by

the researcher.

3.5 Research Instruments: There are a lot of methods to do a research work. Some of them are surveys, case

study and interviews etc which are useful to gather the important and reliable data for

the research purpose but this research is qualitative nature that’s why researcher

preferred survey to gather the data related with this research.

Henry Assael and John Keon (1982) argued in the “Journal of Marketing” that the

survey questionnaire is considered very important in the field of marketing research.

To get the more reliable and qualitative data, survey questionnaire plays a most

important part of the total research. They further argued that one must minimize total

error and its components, sampling and non-sampling error to increase the validity

and reliability of survey data.

Marvin B. Lieberman and David B. Montgomery (1998) stated that the survey has a

lot of strengths and weaknesses, as it is a most important part of the qualitative

research. Some of the strengths and weaknesses of the survey are given below.

Strengths:

• Surveys are relatively inexpensive (especially self-administered surveys).

• Surveys are useful in describing the characteristics of a large population. No

other method of observation can provide this general capability.

• They can be administered from remote locations using mail, email or

telephone.



• Consequently, very large samples are feasible, making the results statistically

significant even when analyzing multiple variables.

• Many questions can be asked about a given topic giving considerable

flexibility to the analysis.

• Standardized questions make measurement more precise by enforcing uniform

definitions upon the participants..

• There is flexibility at the creation phase in deciding how the questions will be

administered: as face-to-face interviews, by telephone, as group administered

written or oral survey, or by electronic means.

• Standardization ensures that similar data can be collected from groups then

interpreted comparatively (between-group study).

• Usually, high reliability is easy to obtain--by presenting all subjects with a

standardized stimulus, observer subjectivity is greatly eliminated.

Weaknesses:

• A methodology relying on standardization forces the researcher to develop

questions general enough to be minimally appropriate for all respondents,

possibly missing what is most appropriate to many respondents.

• Surveys are inflexible in that they require the initial study design (the tool and

administration of the tool) to remain unchanged throughout the data collection.

• The researcher must ensure that a large number of the selected sample will

reply.

• It may be hard for participants to recall information or to tell the truth about a

controversial question.

• As opposed to direct observation, survey research (excluding some interview

approaches) can seldom deal with "context."

There are a lot of instruments to do research as researcher has mentioned already.

Case study is also one of those instruments.

Kathleen M. Eisenhardt (1989) argued that case study is the main and building

process to prepare a valid research. It is used in most of the qualitative research in

most of the research areas such as business, planning, marketing, psychology etc.



Some theorists argued that on the bases of practicality and nature of the case study, it

is evident that there exists an unclear and blurred view between researchers. It seems

that that there exists an “anything goes” approach unless it is not still by nature and as

long as it cannot be characterized as a test, a survey, or a historic study (Merriam

1998, Winegardner 1998, cited in Grunbaum 2007).

According to all of these statements about case study, researcher got some of the

important strengths and weaknesses of case study.

Strengths:

• Develops analytic and problem solving skills.

• Allows for exploration of solutions for complex issues.

• Allows student to apply new knowledge and skills.

Weaknesses:

• May not see relevance to own situation.

• Insufficient information can lead to inappropriate results.

• Not appropriate for elementary level.

3.6 Data collection method:

It is very important for the researcher to achieve the objectives in the research through

different process and instruments. For a good, valid and reliable research, primary

data plays the most important part in a research work. Researcher, in this research,

uses questionnaire process to get the primary data for this research. Most of the

questions on the printed questionnaire are focused on the objectives of the research.

Later on, those printed questionnaire papers were distributed to the customers after

making sure that they had enough time to answer the questions of the questionnaires.

Researcher used very simple and easy questions in the questionnaire to help the

customers to answer most of the questions. Questionnaire consists of 19 total

questions, 14 of those from A to N are easy to answer, in which, respondents have to

tick on one of the four options and rest of the 5 questions are about their suggestions

and selections about their needs. A variety of questions are combined together by the



researcher in order to evaluate and analyze the data and to achieve the overall aims of

research.

Objective no 1: Establish a theoretical framework of strategic marketing and

customer satisfaction.

This objective is a theoretical because of its nature. Researcher put a big and

comprehensive note on Strategic Marketing and customer’s satisfaction in the

Literature view of the research very thoroughly.

Objective no 2: Explore the marketing strategies of TESCO & Sainsbury's.

All following questions from A to N of survey questionnaire highlight the marketing

strategies adopted by TESCO and Sainsbury’s. All of those questions fulfill the

objective no 2.

Objective no 3: Analyze and the impact of marketing strategies of TESCO &

Sainsbury's on customer's satisfaction.

The main aim of the researcher to ask the questions from A to N is to analyze the

impact of marketing strategies on customer’s satisfaction. It is always difficult to find

the satisfaction of the customers towards the organizations. To find the customer’s

satisfaction toward the marketing strategies, 4 options (Very satisfied, Satisfied,

Dissatisfied and Very Dissatisfied) are given by the researcher in the following

questions. These options are, therefore, further chosen by the respondents according

to what they personally feel about the questions. Answers by the respondents in the

questionnaire are highlighting the objective no 3, results of those are mentioned in

findings and analysis.

Objective no 4: Comparison of marketing strategies of TESCO & Sainsbury's.

All answers of the questions from A to N are then further checked and observed by

the researcher in order to compare the strategies of TESCO and Sainsbury’s which is

further mentioned in the following answers in findings and analysis.

Objective no 5: Suggest the measures to improve the effective marketing of

TESCO & Sainsbury have to improve the customer's satisfaction.

At the end of tabulation and graphs, all types of suggestions are mentioned by the

researcher to improve the marketing strategies of specific questions of TESCO and

Sainsbury’s on customer’s satisfaction.



3.7 Sample size/sampling Sampling for this research is done on the basis of random samples selected from

among general public. Selected sample comprised of (the members of the general

public target group or consumers) comprised individuals who go to the TESCO and

Sainsbury’s. The researcher distributed questionnaires to sample group prior to asking

them some questions which include following:

1. If they are willing to take part in this academic research.

2. Do they go to TESCO or Sainsbury’s for their shopping?

3. Would they be able to complete the questionnaire and return it to the researcher?

The questions of the questionnaire were easy to answer as in most of them

respondents need to tick the appropriate option. Researcher distributed 35

questionnaires to the customers of TESCO and Sainsbury’s. 32 of them were able to

return the questionnaire after filling them comprehensively.



Chapter – 4 Analysis & Findings

4.1 Introduction: In this chapter, the analysis of the primary data is conducted which is collected using

the survey questionnaire. For any research to accomplish its objectives the importance

of primary data can not be neglected but a key to successful research is to analyse the

collected data in a systematic manner that it is realistic and understandable. The

researcher has offered a variety of questions, from open ended to the quality or

interest level measurements which is discussed in the following pages.

4.2 Findings and analysis:

In this section, all the questions are analyzed and then presented with the help of

graph and tables. The sample size for survey is 35 members of general public selected

on random, out of those 35 questions, 32 customers filled and completed the questions

and returned the questionnaire to the researcher. All questions were filled and

completed by the customers that showed a great interest of customers in survey. Total

response is 91%.

Question no 1: Age

The aim of this question is to know and survey the average age of customers of

TESCO and Sainsbury’s. Although both supermarkets have the products which are

not bound on ages, because, almost all the products are used in all types of ages.

There are 5 different options and categories given in the questionnaire for the

customers to choose from.



But it is seen that the customers who are between 20 to 30 and 30 to 40 have shown a

great interest to answer the questions

Age Less than 20 20-30 30-40 40-50 More than 50

No. of

Respondents

2 12 11 5 2

Source: From the study

It is observed that the age group of between 20 and 30 has more numbers of

customers as compare to the other age groups. It is further observed that most of the

customers that come for the shopping in TESCO and Sainsbury’s have age between

20 and 40.

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Less than 20 20-30 30-40 40-50 More than 50Ages

No. o

f Res

pond

ents



Question no 2: Gender

The main aim of this question is check the belief of the different sex on both big

supermarkets. This question is also compulsory to see the product of which sex are

more available in both big supermarkets. Most of answers are given by men and all

the detail are given in the following table.

Gender Male Female Unspecified

No. of Respondents 22 10 0


In the following table, out of 32 respondents, 22 of them are male and 10 are females.

0

5

10

15

20

25

Male Female Unspecified

Gender

No. o

f Res

pond

ents

Question no 3: Education



Education is a most important question of the survey questionnaire. This shows the

validity of the survey answers; because those who are educated have broad view of

analysis and thinking as compare to those who are uneducated. In this question,

because of plenty of educational fields, researcher doesn’t provide the options for the

customers to choose from. An empty blank is provided to the customers to specify

their education. After getting information from the customers about their education,

researcher put them in a category of 5 different options in a table with all their details.

Most of the graduate customers lead the table with more survey questionnaire

answers. Following is a full detailed table with the number of answers.

Education Masters Graduate Under

Graduate

Diploma

Holder

Others

No. of

Respondents

4 12 10 1 5


In the given table, graduate customers lead the rest with 12 out of 32 customers, 10

customers are those who are under graduate, one customer is diploma holder in

computer sciences and 4 of them are Master degree holders.

All of theses details are then further classified with the help of bar graph chart.

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

Masters Graduate Under Graduate Diploma Holder Others



Question no 4: which store do you prefer to shop?

The main reason to ask this question is to check and analyze the customer’s

preference and interest toward the store. This question was also crucial and important

to find out one of the objectives of this research. It was found through different

research that a lot of people from most of the areas are interested to shop from

TESCO. They have a firm belief on TESCO more than Sainsbury’s. Researcher, even,

had to go to some of those places where both organizations were working but most of

the people of those areas preferred TESCO for a best supermarket.

Which store do you prefer to shop?

Store TESCO Sainsbury’s

No. of Respondents 19 13


Given table clearly shows that out of 32 respondents, 19 customers like TESCO for

their shopping with a good percentage of 60%. 13 out of 32 customer which is about

40% of the total like Sainsbury’s for their shopping. Following is a bar graph chart of

the given table.



0

5

10

15

20

TESCO Sainsbury’s

Name of Stores

No. o

f Res

pond

ents

Question no 5: How many times you shop at any TESCO / Sainsbury’s store?

The main aim of this question was to find out the customer’s reliability on the store,

most of the customers answer that they go one time a week. it is also found that most

of the customers don’t go daily because of rush and less time they have.

Occasions Daily Once a

week

More than

once a week

Once every

two weeks

Others

No. of

Respondents

9 11 3 9 0


11 customers out of 32 go for shopping once a week which is about 35 percent of the

total 32 customers.

A bar graph chart is given to give a good view of the answer mentioned in the table.



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1012

Daily Once a week More thanonce a week

Once everytwo weeks

Others

Occasions

No.

of R

espo

nden

ts

Question no 6: Do you have a TESCO Club card / Sainsbury’s Nectar Card?

The main and important reason to ask this question is to find the loyalty of the

customers with the store. It is seen through observations that the customers who have

club card or nectar card are more reliable for the store, because they know that as

more as they buy from the store they get more points.

The data is represented in the table which is then further explained in the bar grapg

chart.

Options Yes No

No. of Respondents 20 12


According to the given data in the table, 20 customers have club cards or nectar

cards, which clearly show the customer’s loyalty and reliability on the stores. In the

data, 12 respondents were those who don’t have club or nectar cards.

Following is a bar graph chart for the given data in the table.

0

5

10

15

20

25

Yes No

Options

No. o

f Res

pond

ents



After asking some personal and formal questions about the store, researcher further

asked some easy questions about customer satisfaction of the strategies of both

TESCO and Sainsbury’s. This area of questions is very easy for the customers to

answer. There are only four options given for the customers to choose from, in which

respondent needs to answer one of the following. Options of all questions are identical

which are “Very satisfied, Satisfied, Dissatisfied and Very Dissatisfied”.

All following questions are according to objective no 2, 3, 4 and 5.

A- Availability of staff for information and advice?

In any organization, staff plays a very important and crucial role. Behavior of the staff

is very important for an organization to progress by leaps and bounds. This is very

obvious, if staff acts politely and give information correctly to the customers and are

always available for the customers to help them from any inconvenience. Customers

prove loyalty with that organization. If staff doesn’t act politely and are not available

for their help, customers don’t come in that organization any more.

Aim of this question is to ask the staff’s attitude with the customer which is one of the

main points of strategic marketing.

Data of the answer is compiled in the following table.

Options Very

Satisfied

Satisfied Dissatisfied Very

Dissatisfied

No. of Respondents 3 28 1 0


Out of 32 respondents, 28 of them are satisfied with the questions which showed that

they agree the question asked by the researcher but they don’t fully agree. 3 of 32

respondents are very satisfied with the questions. 1 respondent is dissatisfied.

Data in the form of bar graph chart is mentioned in the following.



05

1015202530

Very Satisfied Satisfied Dissatisfied VeryDissatisfied

Options

No.

of R

espo

nden

ts

Objective no 2: Marketing strategy

This question is very much concerned on marketing strategy that’s why this fulfils the

objective no 2.

Objective no 3: Impact on customer’s satisfaction

Most of the given answers are either satisfied or very satisfied. This shows a good

impact on customer’s satisfaction.

Objective no 4: Comparison

From the given table, 2 out of 3 respondents from TESCO are satisfied while 1 out of

1 respondent from Sainsbury’s is dissatisfied. It shows that TESCO is much better

than Sainsbury’s in this field.

Objective no 5: Suggestion

The main duty of Sainsbury’s is to improve their staff’s attitude with the customers.

This can be done by the proper training of staff by the upper management.

B- Staff helpfulness.



This question is bit similar to the question A, which gives the clear idea of the staff’s

motivation in an organization. The main purpose of this question is to determine the

staff’s behavior with the customers. An organization’s moral gets low when it doesn’t

provide a good customer relationship. Staff helpfulness is a main pain part of

customer relationship. After asking this question, given answers were revealed by the

customers that are mentioned in the following table.

Options Very

Satisfied


Dissatisfied



According to the given table, 27 customers are satisfied with the staff helpfulness out

of 32 respondents, 4 of them are those that are very satisfied with the staff

helpfulness. One respondent is dissatisfied and 1 is very dissatisfied. Bar graph is

mention in the following

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Very Satisfied Satisfied Dissatisfied Very DissatisfiedOptions

No. o

f Res

pond

ents


Staff helpfulness is a part of marketing strategy and it fulfils the objective no 2.


Most of the customers are satisfied which clearly describe a good impact on

customer’s satisfaction.




3 out of 4 respondents from TESCO are satisfied with the staff helpfulness, 1 out of 1

respondent from Sainsbury’s is dissatisfied and 1 out of 1 respondent from

Sainsbury’s is very dissatisfied with the staff helpfulness. TESCO is comparatively

better than Sainsbury’s in this field.


Main duty of the Sainsbury’s is to train their staff in order to improve the customer

relationship with customers.

C- Make up of Shop (Overall appearance of store)

This is an important part of marketing strategy. Customers like to go in that store

which are very nice and attractive. The main aim and purpose of this question is to

observe the customer’s satisfaction towards the make up of shops. 32 respondents

delivered their different remarks which are mentioned in the following table.

Options Very

Satisfied


Dissatisfied



This table is, therefore, further delivered in the bar graph chart.



05

101520253035

Very Satisfied Satisfied Dissatisfied Very Dissatisfied

Options

No. o

f Res

pond

ents


From the given table 29 out of 32 customers voted in the favor of satisfied while 3 of

them were very satisfied.


The make up of the shop is a marketing strategic tool of an organization. Make up of

the shop also involve proper shelving, good and nice system of lights, appropriate

places of stuff, easy system for the customers to take stuff and proper place of paying

for the stuffs. So this question clearly fulfils the objective no 2.


Make up of the store put a good and nice impact on customer’s satisfaction. A good,

nice and attractive store have more satisfied customer than a less attractive store.

From the given table, majority of the people were satisfied with the make up system

of TESCO and Sainsbury’s.




From 3 respondents of very satisfied option, 2 are from Sainsbury’s and 1 is from

TESCO which gives a clear edge of Sainsbury’s over TESCO.


TESCO needs to improve in this area. They need to be much more systematic as they

are now in the area of Make up of store.

D- Presentation of products (On shelves)

In this question, respondent was asked to tell about the presentation of products on

shelves. The following result was gained from different respondents.

Options Very

Satisfied


Dissatisfied



28 respondents out of 32 were satisfied with the product representation on shelves

while 4 of them were very satisfied with the question. As a whole, all respondents

were happy with the presentation of product on shelves.

Table is further explained in the bar graph chart.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Very Satisfied Satisfied Dissatisfied Very DissatisfiedOptions

No. o

f Res

pond

ents




In this question, presentation of product is a part of marketing strategy. All types of

products should be placed so that they should look eye catching to the customers. The

products which are best seller should be easily in the reach of the customers. So this

question clearly fulfils the objective no 2.


Those goods are sold very quickly who have proper and nice shelving strategies. The

goods which are placed nicely on the shelves put a good impact on customer’s

satisfaction. In this question, most of the customers are satisfied which shows a nice

impact on customer satisfaction.


From 4 respondents of very satisfied option, 3 of them are from Sainsbury’s. This

shows that Sainsbury’s is very strong in this area. Their customers are very satisfied

with the presentation of goods and products on shelves.


According to the statistical analysis, Sainsbury’s is much better than TESCO. So

TESCO needs to improve in this area. They should introduce a good and nice system

of shelving of their products on the shelves.

E- Cleanliness of shop.

The main aim of this question is find the customer’s satisfaction towards the

cleanliness of the shop. The following result was got through the research survey

which is then tabulated in the following table.

Options Very Satisfied Dissatisfied Very



Satisfied Dissatisfied



28 out of 32 respondents were satisfied with the question asked by the researcher. 2 of

them were very satisfied and 2 of them very dissatisfied with this question.

The bar graph chart is given which shows the result concerning of this question.

05

1015202530

Very Satisfied Satisfied Dissatisfied VeryDissatisfied

Options

No. o

f Res

pond

ents



Cleanliness of the shop is a part of marketing strategy. In UK, where almost all people

are educated, cleanliness plays a most important part. So this question clearly fulfils

the objective no 2.


Cleanliness of shop is a very important factor in the customer’s satisfaction. It is seen

that most of the customers of TESCO and Sainsbury’s are educated. They know the

importance of cleanliness. In this question, most of the customers are satisfied with



the cleanliness of the shop. 2 of 32 respondents were dissatisfied with the cleanliness.

They could be either because of extra ordinary conscious about the cleanliness or they

might have been buying the goods from those stores which have comparatively lower

in cleanliness department but majority of the people are satisfied with the cleanliness

of the shop.


According to the gained data, 2 respondents who are from TESCO are dissatisfied

with the cleanliness of the shop. 1 customer each from both TESCO and Sainsbury’s

are very satisfied with the cleanliness.


TESCO needs to improve in the area of cleanliness. They should take some extra

measures in order to improve all the stores of the TESCO. Sainsbury’s is

comparatively better in this department but they should take some more steps to keep

themselves better to save from any inconvenience in this field.

F- Quality and Freshness of goods.

The main purpose of this question is to determine the quality and freshness of goods

in both big Supermarkets. According to the analysis and findings, researcher got the

following results which are presented in the given table.

Options Very

Satisfied


Dissatisfied



Out of 32 respondents, 25 were satisfied with the quality and freshness of goods. 5 of

them are those who are very satisfied and 2 of them are dissatisfied with the quality

and freshness of goods.

Data is further represented in the following bar graph chart.



0

5

10

15

20

25

30



Freshness and quality of goods is a very important part of marketing strategy. Almost

every people love to buy those products which are comparatively more fresh and

qualitative. This question fulfils the objective no 2.


Quality and freshness both play a main part in the product’s marketing. Almost all

customers don’t compromise on quality whether they have to pay more on goods and

qualitative food or product. From the given statistical analysis, it is clearly mentioned

that most of the customers are satisfied with the freshness and quality of food. But

both supermarkets have to be careful in this department because from the given

statistics, it’s also found that 2 of the 32 were dissatisfied with the freshness and

quality.


5 out of 32 respondents were satisfied as a whole and all were from TESCO stores

while 1 respondent each from both organizations were dissatisfied. It is proved that

quality and freshness wise TESCO is far better than Sainsbury’s.




Sainsbury’s needs to improve in this area because in quality and freshness, customers

don’t compromise, while one customer was also from TESCO was also dissatisfied.

So both organizations should take some precautions to improve themselves.

G- Choice of Products.

The main and important aspect of this question is to find the choice of products in

both big Supermarkets. It is a nature of human being that a store which has more

products has more customers.

According to the question asked by the researcher, following gained result has been

mentioned in the following table.

Options Very

Satisfied


Dissatisfied


Out of 32 respondents 27 of them were satisfied with the choices of products in the

store while 4 of them were dissatisfied with the result and 1 respondent was

dissatisfied with the question.

Bar graph chart is mentioned below according to the given table.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30





Choice of product is a part of marketing strategy. It is commonly observed that a shop

that has a lot of options in goods and stuffs has more customers. So this question

fulfils the objective no 2.


Choice of product plays an important role in customer satisfaction. According to the

given results, 27 respondents are satisfied with the choice of products while 4 of them

are very satisfied and 1 of them is dissatisfied. It shows the impact on customer

satisfaction that most of them are satisfied.


All 4 very satisfied respondents are from TESCO, while one customer is dissatisfied

with Sainsbury’s. TESCO has clear edge over Sainsbury’s in this department.


It is necessary for Sainsbury’s to improve them in the choice of product. They should

more and standard products in their stores to compete with TESCO.

H- Value of price.

The main aim of this question is to explore the value of prices in both supermarkets.

Researcher got the following results in his survey.

Options Very

Satisfied


Dissatisfied




From the given table, 24 respondents out of 32 were satisfied with the value of prices.

2 of them are those which are very satisfied, 5 respondents are dissatisfied and 1

respondent is very dissatisfied.

Given result is, therefore mentioned in the following bar graph chart.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30



Value of prices is a part of marketing strategy. Customers buy from those shops

which are cheaper than others. This also reflects objective no 2.


24 out of 32 respondents satisfied which put a good impact on customer satisfaction. 2

of them are very satisfied which is also a good sign, but the main problem is that 6

respondents out of 32 are either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with this question, and

it is seen first time that any respondent chose 4th option “very dissatisfied”. This

makes this question very interesting. It shows that there are some customers who are

not satisfied with the values of prices. It could be because of the recession or credit

crunch and it could have any other reason for this.


All answers of dissatisfied and very dissatisfied have been gained from TESCO. It

means TESCO is comparatively expensive than Sainsbury’s while 2 respondents

agree that Sainsbury’s is very satisfied place for the value of prices.




According to the answers, TESCO needs to decrease their prices to compete its rivals.

This is a recession time; people prefer to go to those places where they get cheap

products.

I- Access to the Shop.

The main aim of this question is to find the location and distance of these

supermarkets from the colonies and those areas where a majority of people live.

The result of this question is described in the following table.

Options Very

Satisfied


Dissatisfied


According to the given table, 19 respondents are satisfied, 9 of them are very satisfied

and 4 of them are dissatisfied with the access of shop from their houses.

Bar graph chart is given for the following table.

0

5

10

15

20



Access of the stores from customers is one of the main and important issues of

marketing strategy. People prefer to buy the products which are under the reach of the

customers. This also fulfils the objective no 2.




From the given table and graph, it comes to know that most of the respondents are

either satisfied or very satisfied with the access to the shops from their houses. 4 of

the 32 respondents were dissatisfied because of living very far from the stores of

TESCO and Sainsbury’s.


3 of the 4 customers from Sainsbury’s are dissatisfied with the access to the shop

from their houses. From 9 customers, 7 of them are from TESCO. It proves that

TESCO is under the reach of customers as compare to Sainsbury’s.


Sainsbury’s should do something for the customer’s access to their stores. They must

open their new stores on those places where customers feel easy and comfortable to

reach.

J- Shopping Hours.

The main and important purpose of this question is to find the shopping hours and

opinion of customers on them.

Researcher got a result which is mentioned in the following table.

Options Very

Satisfied


Dissatisfied


According to the following table, 8 of 32 respondents are very satisfied, 20 are

satisfied with the shopping hours while 4 respondents were dissatisfied with the

shopping hours of the stores.



This data is further mentioned in the bar graph chart which is given below.

0

5

10

15

20

25



Shopping hours is a marketing strategy. It is seen that a big number of stores are open

24 hours; customers go in those places in order to buy the products.


8 of 32 respondents were very satisfied with the shopping hours of the store and 20 of

them are satisfied. This put a great impact in customer’s satisfaction. Majority of

customers are satisfied. From the following result, 4 respondents were not satisfied

which may be because of the timings of TESCO or Sainsbury’s store or it could be

because of customers own shopping timing.


6 out of 8 respondents of TESCO are very satisfied and 1 out of 4 respondents of

TESCO are dissatisfied with the shopping hours of the stores. This shows that the

customers of TESCO are much happier than Sainsbury’s in shopping hours.


Sainsbury’s must extend their timing; they should organize those timings which are

convenient for their customers. They should open most of their stores 24 hours a day

in order to make their customers loyal.



K- Waiting time at checkout

This is one of the most important questions of the questionnaire survey. It is seen that

most of the people don’t buy from the stores where they have to wait so long in the

queue.

Data is given in the following table.

Options Very

Satisfied


Dissatisfied


In the given table, only one respondent is very satisfied with the question asked by the

researcher, 18 of them are satisfied and 10 respondents are those which are

dissatisfied and 3 out of 32 respondents were very dissatisfied. This is a first question

in all the previous questions which have a majority of people who don’t like the

waiting time at checkout of these stores.

Bar graph chart is mentioned below.

0

5

10

15

20



“Waiting time at checkout” is a part of marketing strategy. This question also

represents the objective no 2.




19 respondents are either satisfied or very satisfied with the point of view of this

question, but on the other hand a majority of people are not satisfied with the time at

checkout. This put a bad impression in customer’s mind. Most of the customers don’t

buy because of this reason.


1 respondent out of 1 from TESCO is very satisfied, 14 from 18 customers from

TESCO are satisfied with the time at checkout while 4 out of 10 respondents are

dissatisfied with the time at check out. Rest of all data is from Sainsbury’s which is

quite alarming for them. Most of dissatisfied and very dissatisfied respondents are

from Sainsbury’s.


It is important for Sainsbury’s to bring some more innovated system to solve this

problem. It is seen that most of the people don’t go to the Sainsbury’s because of

waiting time at checkout.

L- Ways of payment.

This is also an important part of marketing strategy. The main aim of this question is

to find the customer’s satisfaction on ways of payment. The following data is got

from the survey questionnaire.

Options Very

Satisfied


Dissatisfied


3 respondents out of 32 are very satisfied and 10 from 32 respondents are satisfied

with the ways of payment system. 18 respondents are those who are dissatisfied and 1

from 32 is very dissatisfied with the ways of payment in these stores.



Bar graph chart is mentioned to explain the following table.

0

5

10

15

20



Ways of payment is an important part of marketing strategy of TESCO and

Sainsbury’s. Majority of people like to pay themselves without any help, some of

them who cannot use machines like to pay to sales manager of the stores. There

should be multiple processes to pay the bills in order to satisfy the customers. This

also reflects the objective 2.

Objective no 3: Impact on customer’s satisfaction In this question, it is seen that most of the customers are not satisfied with the way of payment which has put a bad impact on customer’s satisfaction. Only 13 customers are satisfied which is 40.6% of the total. Rest of respondents (59.4%) is not satisfied with the ways of payment system.


1 out of 3 respondents from Sainsbury’s is very satisfied, 3 out of 10 respondents

from Sainsbury’s are satisfied with the ways of payment system while 8 out of 18

respondents are dissatisfied and 1 out of 1 respondent is very dissatisfied. This shows

that a big ratio of Sainsbury’s customers is not very happy with the way of payment, a

big number in the customers of TESCO are also not satisfied but if it is compared

with the Sainsbury’s. This ratio is very low.




In this department, both supermarkets have to bring some innovated and easy system

of payment. The main reason of this problem could be either because of less

knowledge of using payment machines or it could be because of most of the machines

problems during payments.

M- Price marking on goods.

The main aim of this question is to explore the customer satisfaction in price marking

on goods. After analyzing deeply, following result is found.

Options Very

Satisfied


Dissatisfied


From the following data, 4 of 32 respondents are very satisfied, 22 of them are

satisfied with the price marking on goods while 6 of the total are dissatisfied with the

price marking on good. A bar graph is given in the following.

0

5

10

15

20

25



This is one of the parts of marketing strategy which fulfils the objective no 2.




A huge majority of respondents either are satisfied or very satisfied. Some of them are

not satisfied. Total result is satisfactory which delivers a good impact on customer’s

satisfaction.


3 out of 4 respondents from Sainsbury’s are very satisfied, 9 out of 22 are satisfied

from Sainsbury’s are satisfied and 1 out of 6 respondents from Sainsbury’s are

dissatisfied. This result is very satisfactory for the Sainsbury’s. Most of the customers

of TESCO don’t like the price marking system on goods. It might be lack and laziness

of staff towards the price.


The management of TESCO should take serious notice of their price marking

systems. A lot of the people claim that the price marked on the goods is not the right

one.

N- Availability of special offers and Promotions.

The main aim of this question is to find the customer’s satisfaction on Availability of

special offers and Promotions. Researcher got the following result which is given in

the form of table.

Options Very

Satisfied


Dissatisfied




From the following table, 9 out of 32 respondents are very satisfied and 20 are

satisfied with the availability of special offers and Promotions while 3 out of 32 are

dissatisfied with the Availability of special offers and Promotions. The following

graph is given in order to clarify the data.

0

5

10

15

20

25



This is a part of marketing strategy. These supermarkets are well known because of

presenting offers and promotions on different goods. This also fulfils the objective no

2.


Majority of respondents are satisfied with the promotion and offers by TESCO &

Sainsbury’s which shows a good impact of these organizations over other stores.


7 out of 9 respondents of Sainsbury’s are very satisfied and 1 out of 3 respondents of

Sainsbury’s are dissatisfied with the offers and promotions. Sainsbury’s is better in

this field.


Both organizations should improve more in this field because customers buy the

products from these organizations because of promotion and offers.



4.3 Summary and Conclusion:

This section focuses on the overall objectives, analysis and findings from the data. It

is evident in the business and marketing management studies that the importance of

Marketing Strategy cannot be neglected at anytime. Importance of Marketing Strategy

is accepted throughout this research work but after careful analysis of primary data,

some other factors came to the forefront which are equally or more important for

customers. Comparison of primary and secondary data is of great advantage to

achieve the main objectives of research. With all the importance and impact of

Marketing Strategies, customer’s satisfaction is the major part of the entire thing. The

primary data collection has proven that every respondent has his own opinion about

the marketing strategies. It is therefore up to the organizations to remove their

weaknesses in order to give more satisfaction to their customers.



CHAPTER – 5 CONCLUSION

5.1 Conclusion of the study:

The research work mainly focused on the following issues.

• How important is the marketing strategy on the customer’s satisfaction and

what the key features of marketing strategy are.

• What are the main and important issues of marketing strategy of TESCO and

Sainsbury’s?

• What are the main and important aspects of the success of TESCO and

Sainsbury’s? And comparison of both of them.



The research is aimed at developing a behavioral impact of consumers and their

perception about Marketing Strategy. Qualitative analysis is considered as the best

way of conducting such type of research work, so the nature of this research is

qualitative because it mainly depends upon description and narration of decision

making. The literature (secondary- data) focused on importance and characteristics of

Marketing and Marketing Strategy which make them strong. The relationship between

marketing strategy and customer’s satisfaction is also very important to consider for

marketers because the stability of this association is dependent upon internal and

external forces. After analyzing all points of objectives, it is concluded that a good

and effective Marketing strategy is the main and important thing for an organization

to achieve their goals.



These factors or forces help customers form their purchase decisions or stay loyal

with these big supermarkets. Also, in the mid part of literature, importance of

marketing strategy is discussed because any change in Marketing Strategy is directly

related to consumer’s purchase decisions. The literature mainly focuses on the

important feature of marketing strategy but after collection of primary data (Questions

from A to N in questionnaire); it is proved that customers are equally interested in

Marketing Strategy of both big Super Markets.

Moreover, utilization of good marketing strategy is very crucial which could bring a

lot of benefits for an organization in a long term.

5.2 Contribution and beneficiaries of this dissertation:

After findings and analyze of primary and secondary research, the aim and objectives

of this research is achieved and answer of the questions are taken. It is concluded

through qualitative and quantitative data that marketing strategy has a great impact on

the satisfaction of the customers. It is also observed through qualitative data that

customer’s feeling about marketing strategy is very crucial and important for an

organization.

Central to achieving a company's corporate vision is the need to build up a loyal

customer base of satisfied customers. TESCO & Sainsbury's did not overtake its

major competitors by chance in acquiring foreign financial institutions; it developed a

clear marketing strategy based on a desire to fully satisfy a carefully targeted set of

market segments. In the primary data in finding and analysis, there are some lessons

for the management of both supermarkets. Findings and analysis could also help the

management to learn how to improve the marketing strategy in order to satisfy the

customers.

5.3 Implications to Management

After extensive study and research about the aims and objectives, the researcher

suggests the following recommendations for management:

It is seen with the help of questionnaire survey that most of the respondents were

happy and satisfied with the marketing strategy of TESCO and Sainsbury’s but there

are some areas where both supermarkets need to improve themselves.



In the questionnaire, researcher also mentioned a question about suggestion. After

observing and analyzing it comes to know that;

• Most of the respondents were not happy about the car parking system of these

stores. They argue that they often don’t get a parking place in most of the

stores. Management should take the notice of this, because, most of the

customers of these supermarkets shop for a week or for a month. So, they

bring their cars and other vehicles for the purpose of taking their shopping

materials to the home.

• Most of the customers were not satisfied with the waiting time at checkout.

They argue that it always takes 20 to 25 minutes to reach for their numbers.

Top management of these stores should understand these problems and try to

solve them. Now-a-days, the importance of time is very crucial. Top

management should introduce a proper and reliable system to save the

customers from this problem.

• A majority of the people were not satisfied with the payment system of both

supermarkets. It could be either because of the lack of knowledge to use the

machines or it could be because of any other technical problems. Both

supermarkets should solve these problems by increasing the numbers of staff

on that place where payment machines are kept.

5.4 Research Limitation: Research has following limitation,

Sample Size:

Although this research was related to those companies, which have a wide range of

customers in UK, but, because of the limited time, it was not possible to take the

survey of 50 or 100 customers. Researcher, therefore, decided to take the sample size

of 35. But, later on, it was revealed that only 32 respondents were able to reply in

time.

Age Limit:

There is no age limit in this survey because almost all ages of people buy the product

from these stores but it was difficult to take survey report from a child under 14, or an

old man over 75. Researcher, therefore, restricted the survey between 14 to 75 years

to provide more validity.



5.5 Future Research

The research work can be extended in following areas

1). How are marketing strategies applied by Supermarkets and Hypermarket

inside their establishments?

2).An investigation of the importance of customer’s satisfaction in the

administration of TESCO and Sainsbury’s.



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Appendix Copy of questionnaire:

QUESTIONNAIRE

Impact of Marketing Strategy of TESCO and Sainsbury’s on Customer

Satisfaction.

I am an MBA student of the British Institute of Technology and E-commerce,

London. As part fulfilment of the requirements of the course I am conducting a

research on the ‘Impact of Marketing Strategy of TESCO and Sainsbury’s on

Customer Satisfaction’. Could you please devote some of your precious moments to

answer the following questions? Your support and co-operation are crucial for the

quality of research. There is no right or wrong answer, please make your own

judgements. The information provided will be kept confidential and only used for

academic purpose. The researcher is grateful for your co-operation.

Age:

Less than 20 20-30 30-40 40-50 More than 50

Gender:

Male Female Unspecified

Education: _____________________________________________

Which store do you prefer to shop?

A. TESCO

B. Sainsbury’s

How many times you shop at any TESCO / Sainsbury’s store?

A. Daily

B. Once a week

C. More than once a week

D. Once every two weeks



E. Others………………………….

Do you have a TESCO Club card / Sainsbury’s Nectar Card?

A. Yes

B. No

Please select the option which accurately reflects how much satisfied or

dissatisfied you are with each factor.

A- Availability of staff for information and advice?

Very satisfied Satisfied Dissatisfied Very Dissatisfied

B- Staff helpfulness.


C- Make up of Shop (Overall appearance of store)


D- Presentation of products (On shelves)


E- Cleanliness of shop.


F- Quality and Freshness of goods.




G- Choice of Products.


H- Value of price.


I- Access to the Shop.


J- Shopping Hours.


K- Waiting time at checkout


L- Ways of payment.


M- Price marking on goods.


N- Availability of special offers and Promotions.




Which TESCO / Sainsbury’s shop you regularly shop from?

…………………………………………………………………………………………

Do you confront with any specific problems while you shop at Tesco or

Sainsbury’s?

…………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

Additional comments / Suggestions for improvement

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..........................................................................................................................................

..........................................................................................................................................

..........................................................................................................................................

Annual Income of the family (Approx):

Less than £10k £10k-£20k £20k-£30k More than £30k

Thank you very much for your

cooperation.

ANJUM MAJEED KHAWAJA

MBA (Innovative Management)

Coventry University

Sample Dissertation Marketing Strategies

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