Assignment Sample on BFA439 Marketing ,Sales and Negotiation Skills
1. Introduction
This report is based on the study of Morrison’s plc discussions made on its PESTLE factors and SWOT analysis. Morrisons remains the 4th largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom, headquartered in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The company provides both offline and online food retail shopping in the country with 18 manufacturing sites and 7 logistic sites to provide for the customers. The company in the retail sector has created a name for itself amongst its competitors such as Tesco, Aldi and several others. This report has discussed the factors affecting the company along with its marketing mix and negotiation skills possessed by Morrisons.
2. PESTLE and SWOT Analysis
PESTLE Analysis
The PESTLE analysis of Morrisons is shown below
| FACTOR | DESCRIPTION |
| Political | The retail market has exposed itself to different political stabilities and instabilities affecting the country’s economy. The risk of military invasion, corruption, legal frameworks, trading partners, anti-trust laws and price regulations affect the company (Szum and Nazarko, 2020). These factors affect the wage legislation, employee benefits and product labelling in the supermarket. |
| Environmental | The environmental factors that hamper the integrity of Morrisons are weather, climate change, laws for environmental pollution, waste management and several others. According to Křupka et al. (2018), different environmental laws can impact profitability due to different norms in different regions. |
| Social | The social factors that affect the profitability of Morrisons are the demographics and skills of customers as well the level of education. These factors are crucial to impact the culture of the organisation in a demographic with the power structure in the societal realm (Singh, 2017). |
| Technological | The technologies used by Morrisons affect profitability include the development of recent and advanced technical amenities namely Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things and others. In consideration of the studies of Merritt and Zhao (2021), technology impacts the offering on the product and costs along with the value chain structure[Refer to Appendix 1] |
| Legal | The factors of legality that affect the company of Morrisons are the anti-trust laws, discrimination laws in different countries. These factors comprise consumer protection laws, employment laws, data protection laws as well (Szum and Nazarko, 2020) |
| Economic | The economic factors affecting Morrisons are the governmental intervention related to consumer services. In accordance with Singh (2017), the exchange rates and stability of the economy provide strength to the company and efficiency of the financial markets. These factors cater for the skill level of the economy as well as labour costs and productivity. |
(Source: Singh, 2017)
SWOT Analysis
The SWOT analysis of Morrisons can be done as the following
Strengths
- Morrisons has good food marketing and making skills with a strong distribution network to cater for the customers. The company has an efficient supply chain system to provide better transportation and service (Ellickson et al. 2018).
- The company is highly customer-oriented with different features and programmes to attract customers and increase their brand image.
- Morrisons comprises large product diversity and portfolio to provide for different needs and requirements of the customers that are customised for different ethnicities (Eger and Mičík, 2017).
Weaknesses
- Morrisons, despite being a supermarket chain, has a limited geographic presence which has lowered the number of customers and innovation in the company (Abidemi et al. 2017).
- The company has the weakness of delayed response to the changes that occurred that has caused the loss in the market as well as customers. The lack of prompt response discourages the brand image and customer loyalty (Eger and Mičík, 2017).
- Morrisons creates a notion of low customer recall and weak loyalty programs despite being customer-oriented in comparison to its competitors.
Opportunities
- Morrisons can establish a global presence by sharing the supermarket chain geographically to become the largest grocery retailer by providing convenience and discount channels (Andriole, 2018).
- The company can expand its territories into non-food retailing and diversify the product line even more that can boost the growth of the company.
Threats
- Morrisons is threatened by the changing rules and norms in the country due to the pandemic of coronavirus. This has increased competition as well for the company against its competitors to survive in the retail industry (Andriole, 2018).
- The company is at a risk due to the increasing technological risks with the advancements and innovations in the digitalisation of the retail industry.
3. Discussion and Analysis of Marketing Mix
Morrisons uses the 7 P’s marketing mix framework to market its products and services within the United Kingdom. The 7 P’s marketing mix encompasses the product, place, price, promotion, physical, people and process. The 7 P’s of Morrisons can be depicted as:
Product: Morrisons sells its products under broad categories of food namely meat and poultry, seafood, fruits, vegetables, bakery products and several others. As mentioned by Ellickson et al. (2018), the product line of Morrisons serves different product lines yet sold under the same brand name of the company. The products are highly differentiated from each other allowing the customers to select the product variety suiting best for them that is not offered by the competitors (Morrisons.com, 2021). This makes the products unique and of higher quality than the others with a traditional design encompassing practicality.
Place: Morrisons uses online and offline channels of marketing, where it sells directly to the customers and another is to sell to wholesalers. The company has over 500 retailers to sell their products all over the country following an omnichannel distribution system to allow customers easy access to products (Abdemi et al. 2017).
Price: The current pricing strategy of Morrisons is set to the price level of competition from other retail stores and supermarkets to attract customers. As analysed by Eger and Mičík (2017), Morrisons takes into consideration the information of other companies’ pricing strategies and offers better quality and a tad high pricing than the others. The product bundle, original product pricing, higher price for online selling pricing strategy is used as well to allow retailers and wholesalers to earn their margins (Morrisons.com, 2021).
Promotions: The Company uses multiple media channels to promote the product line possessed such as traditional media including televisions, radio and others. Social media marketing has been implemented by Morrisons to increase its sales promotions for various trade exhibitions (Wongkitrungrueng et al. 2020). The company undergoes personal selling as well to increase its presence in retail stores.
Physical Evidence: Morrisons sells its products in a distinct coloured packaging easily identifiable in retail stores with unique shelves provided by the company. In addition, the company has a user-friendly website for customers to provide services that encompass images of high quality from different angles to give a clear knowledge regarding the product (Paurova and Nadanyiova, 2020). However, the company should collect feedback from customers and set up its own stores to create more appealing physical evidence.
People: Morrisons has a huge number of employees under its sales and marketing team to play an important role in the viability of marketing efforts who have been trained in different persuasive techniques. These techniques have to be in consideration of respect towards the customers and business partners as well as their preferences (Jamaludin et al. 2018). Different employees are hired to look after the supply chain, suppliers, retail stores helping the customers in cases of any issues.
Process: Morrisons uses different processes to make sure of the seamless availability of the product with the help of systems installed at different retail stores to inform inventories. As stated by Paurova and Nadanyiova (2017), Morrisons is actively involved in the research and developments with opportunities to understand the customer needs through feedback collected.
4. Sales and Negotiation Skills of the Company
Morrisons is underpinned by the strategy of fix, rebuild, grow and sustain in its marketing strategies to strengthen the brands as well as the business. The sales skills are supported by the notion of customer first, teamwork, listening hard, providing freedom in the framework to drive sales of the company (Morrisons-corportae.com, 2021). The company uses the skills of putting the customer first to manoeuvre the teamwork to recognise the paths taken in the betterment of Morrisons. The company uses the context of listening to the feedback of customers that enables Morrisons to gain a competitive edge with the help of consumers as well as supporting managers who help each other. Communication between customers and managers is done timely to ensure transparency in the framework of the company.
The company provides freedom in the framework where colleagues are entrusted with the decisions they make for the company. According to Naftali et al. (2017), these sales skills of Morrisons have led it to be a successful business by offering market street experience and industry-leading deals. The advertisements done for the company have been impeccable catering for customers to join the availability, flexibility and competitive pricing deals of food deals. Morrisons uses the negotiation skills of manipulation and collaboration to drive the success of the company. As mentioned by Wongkitrungrueng et al. (2020), the company uses manipulation to acquire more customers by being subtle and clever in offering products and services in a skilful manner. This enables Morrisons to get to the core competency to move other parties or competition away while holding the ground in the retail industry.
The collaborative skill of negotiation helps Morrisons to consider the approach of a constructive or interest-based negotiation treating the relationships of the company as an important element. As analysed by Eger and Mičík (2017), the collaborative skill of negotiation allows the company to seek an equitable and fair agreement in sustaining relationships with customers and business partners. However, the negotiation process is constructed within the processes of preparation, opening, bargaining and closure. It is depicted that the skills of manipulation and collaboration help in these processes in building the strategy, processing the tools and tactics for the same. However, settling the differences is made easy by either compromising or reaching an agreement amidst argument and dispute. I believe that the negotiation processes used by Morrisons have led it to supreme heights and made it the 4th largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom.[Refer to Appendix 2]
5. Conclusion
The above report deals with the PESTLE and SWOT analysis of Morrisons plc. The report has found that the 4th largest supermarket chain has strengths of making and marketing skills along with being highly customer-oriented. The company has a diverse product line yet a limited geographical presence and the weakness of responding late. It has been depicted the political, economic, legal and technical factors have affected the company with its rapidly changing technologies and demography.
However, the company possesses opportunities for expansion and indulging itself in different sectors of retailing. The growth of the company has been remarkable with the implementation of the 7 P’s marketing strategy and skills of sales and negotiation. Morrisons has been helped out with the strategy of the marketing mix of 7P that has enabled the company to make its pricing strategies and promotional values. The rest of the marketing mix segregations have helped the company to be more customer-oriented, helping it with the negotiation and gaining a competitive edge.
References
Abidemi, B.T., Halim, F.B. and Alshuaibi, A.I., 2017. Service marketing mix, market orientation and Organizational Performance: A proposed conceptual model. Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 5, p.7. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bello_Taofik/publication/324286376_Service_marketing_mix_market_orientation_and_Organizational_Performance_A_proposed_conceptual_model/links/5aca1522aca272abdc6197db/Service-marketing-mix-market-orientation-and-Organizational-Performance-A-proposed-conceptual-model.pdf
Andriole, S.J., 2018. Skills and competencies for digital transformation. IT Professional, 20(6), pp.78-81. Available at: https://www.computer.org/csdl/api/v1/periodical/mags/it/2018/06/08617737/17D45XvMceq/download-article/pdf?casa_token=96Xu7M_HN34AAAAA:rcixTKckmanjWGHLobKRBN3sazWdKbZe14pCtI3cm8EY3XBCllF8NvyuyaAKEdFwEumxq9-R3z4
Braciníková, V. and Matušínská, K., 2017, December. Marketing mix of financial services from the customers perspective. In Forum Scientiae Oeconomia (Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 36-48). Available at: http://ojs.wsb.edu.pl/index.php/fso/article/download/168/118
Eger, L. and Mičík, M., 2017. Customer-oriented communication in retail and Net Promoter Score. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 35, pp.142-149. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michal_Micik/publication/311959613_Customer-oriented_communication_in_retail_and_Net_Promoter_Score/links/5e5d2fbf4585152ce800d150/Customer-oriented-communication-in-retail-and-Net-Promoter-Score.pdf
Ellickson, P.B., Kong, P. and Lovett, M.J., 2018. Private labels and retailer profitability: Bilateral bargaining in the grocery channel. Available at SSRN 3045372. Available at: https://economics.uwo.ca/about_us/Workshops/applied_econometrics_docs_2017_2018/RetailBargaining.pdf
Haleem, F. and Jehangir, M., 2017. Strategic Management Practices by Morrison PLC, UK. Analysis, Lessons and Implications. Middle East Journal of Business, 55(4182), pp.1-7. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Fazal_Haleem/publication/318129380_Strategic_Management_Practices_by_Morrison_PLC_UK_Analysis_Lessons_and_Implications/links/595b6ca4a6fdcc36b4dc25fe/Strategic-Management-Practices-by-Morrison-PLC-UK-Analysis-Lessons-and-Implications.pdf
Jamaludin, A., Huridi, M.M.H. and Hashim, M.R.A., 2018. The Relationship between E-Marketing Strategy and Competitive Advantage: A Conceptual Framework. International Journal of Managerial Studies and Research (IJMSR), 6(12), pp.19-25. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Azahari_Jamaludin2/publication/329962669_THE_RELATIONSHIP_BETWEEN_E-MARKETING_STRATEGY_AND_COMPETITIVE_ADVANTAGE_A_CONCEPTUAL_FRAMEWORK/links/5c25c48d458515a4c7fcd2c4/THE-RELATIONSHIP-BETWEEN-E-MARKETING-STRATEGY-AND-COMPETITIVE-ADVANTAGE-A-CONCEPTUAL-FRAMEWORK.pdf
Křupka, J., Kantorová, K. and Haile, M., 2018. Swot analysis evaluations on the basis of uncertainty-case study. Scientific papers of the University of Pardubice. Series D, Faculty of Economics and Administration. 43/2018. Available at: https://dk.upce.cz/bitstream/handle/10195/71495/SWOT%20ANALYSIS%20EVALUATIONS%20ON%20THE%20BASIS%20OF.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Merritt, K. and Zhao, S., 2021. An Innovative Reflection Based on Critically Applying UX Design Principles. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity, 7(2), p.129. Available at: https://www.mdpi.com/2199-8531/7/2/129/pdf
Morrions.com SWOT Analysis of the company, 2021. Available at: https://www.morrisons.com
Morrisons-corporate.com About Us, 2021. Available at: https://www.morrrisons-corporate.com
Naftali, C., Nursiana, A. and Brahmantyo, H., 2017. Marketing Mix Factors that Influence Visitors Choose Aeon Mall as a Shopping Tourism Destination. TRJ Tourism Research Journal, 1(1), pp.22-36. Available at: http://trj.stptrisakti.ac.id/index.php/trj/article/download/4/2
Paurova, V. and Nadanyiova, M., 2020. MARKETING MIX AS PART OF MARKETING STRATEGY USED IN THE SERVICE INDUSTRIES. Economic and Social Development: Book of Proceedings, pp.649-657. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Venelin_Terziev/publication/342719710_Tools_for_strategic_research_of_the_national_security_system_-_methodology_for_research_using_simulation_business_game/links/5f036587a6fdcc4ca44ec088/Tools-for-strategic-research-of-the-national-security-system-methodology-for-research-using-simulation-business-game.pdf#page=660
Singh, T.P., 2017. Organized Retailing-A SWOC Analysis. International Journal of Research in Management & Business Studies, 5. Available at: http://ijrmbs.com/vol4issue3SPL2/tina.pdf
Statista.com Market Shares of Grocery Stores in UK, 2021. Available at: http://www.statista.com
Szum, K. and Nazarko, J., 2020. Exploring the Determinants of Industry 4.0 Development Using an Extended SWOT Analysis: A Regional Study. Energies, 13(22), p.5972. Available at: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/22/5972/pdf
Wongkitrungrueng, A., Hildebrand, D., Sen, S. and Nuttavuthisit, K., 2020. Is Salesperson Attractiveness a Boon or a Bane? The Moderating Role of Perceived Labor Cost‐To‐Price Ratio in Retail Bargaining. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 30(3), pp.447-465. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Diogo_Hildebrand/publication/339229322_Is_Salesperson_Attractiveness_a_Boon_or_a_Bane_The_Moderating_Role_of_Perceived_Labor_Cost-To-Price_Ratio_in_Retail_Bargaining/links/5f68b29e92851c14bc8be86b/Is-Salesperson-Attractiveness-a-Boon-or-a-Bane-The-Moderating-Role-of-Perceived-Labor-Cost-To-Price-Ratio-in-Retail-Bargaining.pdf
Know more about UniqueSubmission’s other writing services:
