Contemporary Marketing Practices Assignment Sample

Get the best assignment sample on contemporary marketing practices.

Executive summary

The service marketing mix linking to a marketing strategy with various marketing mix is the contemporary marketing strategy. It is a modern practice including the product-service mix, presentation mix, communication mix to continuously develop, create and sell the products. The main purpose of this study is to service the marketing mix of Waitrose and Partner’s reference to the marketing strategy. It ensures to determine the service marketing mix adopted by the company to retain the existing and the new customer base in the UK.

Introduction

The marketing mix helps in determining the marketing strategies that are arranged as per the demand of the market that tends to achieve profitable marketing decisions. In this particular report, the Waitrose and Partner’s contemporary marketing practices will be discussed to understand the marketing strategy adopted by them to sustain in the market. Therefore, the main focus is on the service marketing mix that will highlight the marketing strategies of the company that affects the service management experience used by the company.

Organization Overview

Waitrose and Partners have almost 332 shops in the UK and 61 little shops with a 5.1 % share of the market (Shipper et.al. 2020). It is one of the eight-largest retailers of groceries in the UK with exporting services to 52 countries. The company has the royal image of providing groceries, wines, etc. to Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles with organic food distribution.

Explanation of how service marketing mix links to an organization’s marketing strategy

7P’s marketing strategy of the business

7P’s marketing mix is a systematic process that helps the business to plan the marketing strategies to sustain itself in the market (Thabit et.al. 2018). The satisfaction of the customer is the main objective of the company and to obtain the satisfaction level it is very important to analyze the 7P’s for profitable marketing decision that helps to retain the existing and new customers. The product, place, price, promotion, process, physical evidence, and people examination can help understand the need of the target market which will help in profitable marketing decisions.

STP analysis

It is the most commonly used marketing model in practice. The model analyzes the products or services that show a way to communicate the benefits to the target customer segment (Saputra, 2020). It helps in identifying the customer group that can be targeted to create an effective marketing strategy to position the leading business to the target customer group. The customer group will be segmented to penetrate the market by positioning the brand image in the mind of the customer influencing them to buy the products.

The link between service marketing mix and organization’s marketing strategy

The marketing mix overall plans the marketing strategies which tends to provide the desired results to the target customer group. This plan helps to increase the demand for the products by properly executing them. The service marketing mix has an interconnection with the marketing strategy because the 3P’s shows a way to communicate with the customer providing valuable service that satisfies them (Solimun et.al. 2018).  The service marketing mix positions the product to the target group of customers effectively. The low is the service marketing mix the low will be the customer satisfaction. The customer interest increases with the accurate marketing strategy and the marketing strategy can be implemented with accurate analysis of the service marketing mix by the marketers.

Marketing strategy of Waitrose and Partners

Segmentation: The target segmenting of the group of the customer involves the Middle British and Middle East country mostly by providing quality and fresh foods. The segmentation is based on geographical and behavioral.

Targeting: The company is targeting the people looking for hygienic and quality food products (O’Higgins, 2018). Therefore, the value of the product is high with an affordable price range.

Positioning: The company is positioning the brand as a premium range of food products that were delivered to the royal house several times (STP Marketing Model, 2019). Therefore, the price is high and is only targeting the premium segment looking for hygienic products.

STP analysis

Figure 1: STP model

(STP Marketing Model, 2019)

Product: Products are fresh and organic. Vegetables, fruits, skimmed milk, duchy organic fresh whole Chicken, cookies, etc. variety of products are displayed to attract customers who are looking for hygienic products. Now extended its business to Wine and flowers.

Price: Product range of the company is known for providing premium price with number 1 quality products variety. The pricing is never compromised in the case of this company.

Place: The stores are mostly situated in Scotland, England, and Wales. The places are from towns to the high streets and it differs in size from 56,000 square feet to 7000 square feet depending on the population and demand (Blythe et.al. 2019).  The stores are also located in middle east countries.

Promotion: The promotional strategy is quite different from competitors. The loyal customers are provided members of the loyalty scheme rather than lowering the price.

Process: The process is the way of deciding to buy the product from pricing till buying decision. The process of this company is to decide to choose the product items that are satisfying the need of the customer which helps them to make the buying decision.

Physical evidence: The infrastructure and the appearance keeps the customer base. The customer sees an attractive layout that provides clean and hygienic products at the store of the Waitrose and partners.

People: People of Waitrose are not only Employees but are the partners who get the chance to own a part of the shares (Marketing Mix, 2016). This strategy helps the employee to work more for increasing the profit of the company and constantly works to give a better customer experience.

Evaluation of Services Marketing Mix for Analysis of Services

Existing Marketing Service Experience Management of Waitrose and partners

The customer experience regarding the services of the company is very positive. Waitrose and its parent company John Lewis is known for valuing customer service (Baker, 2018). The open feedback and dropbox facilities are available in the stores and on the website to consider the opinion of the customer. The management tries to communicate with the cashier, delivery workforce, and the store manager to interact with the customer. Mostly, the company is found to win awards consecutively for many years because of the best customer service. The company management tries to monitor the service rendered by the workforce and change the process when required. One example: one of the store customers complained about the behavior of the Cashier who was not responding professionally and the next day customer was apologized for the inconvenience. The delivery on time is the motto of the company and they consider to fetch everything on time.

Evaluation of how well the Organisation manages its Service Experience aligned with its marketing strategy

Identification of positive and negative aspects of the services

The Waitrose is maintaining a good service aligning with the marketing strategy. The plan of the Waitrose to interact with the supplier and local farmers to the customers in the stores had an excellent result. The local farmers are knowing the demand of the customer related to organic food products. The Waitrose also reduces the saturated fat in the dessert and beverages for the healthy lifestyle of the customer. The strategies are implemented only to provide the best customer experience to the target customer group. The standard of LEAF is obtained by Waitrose which is the only store providing British food products like beef, chicken, fish, fruits, vegetables, etc that is wholly organic. The CSR is maintained by the company managing the policies and objectives set by the company every year. It is a customer-centric company so it makes sure that everyone is connected to the company and follows rules and maintains the guidelines without loopholes (Tench et.al. 2017). The Waitrose is providing nutrition and healthcare advice to the customers and meets the demand for health and nutrition information. On the contrary, the negative aspect of the service is the customer complaints about the home delivery timing. The delay of the delivery and the cash counter queue made the stores very unpleasant for the customers. Customer dissatisfaction means the degradation of the brand image.

Justification of judgments

The powerful marketing strategies are justifying the increasing number of the customer base. The premium products with excellent quality have differentiated the brand from other competitors. Henceforth, increasing customer satisfaction. The brand image and the John Lewis partnership is justifying the public relation of the company (Kevany, 2019). the understanding of the marketing mix is justifying the customer segment acquiring the brand loyalty which ultimately increases the demand of the customers. The customer service department working continuously to improve the customer base is justifying the authentic relationship of the customer service management and the customer experience with professionalism.

Recommendation

High price

The pricing of the Waitrose and Partners is very posh. The company is only targeting the premium and affordable middle-class families who are ready to pay for quality products. But only one customer segment is not able to grab the whole market and as a result, the company is experiencing loss. the feedbacks like the customer has to pay a real price for getting gifts which don’t add more flavors and options made quite a negative impression on the company. Therefore, the suggestion is to capture the low price market to avoid such controversies as people are very price sensitive. The premium, middle and low range will be the best suggestion to overcome the crisis.

Availability of the organic products

The Waitrose and partners supermarkets are well known for the British organic food products. But the feedback of the customers complaining about the unavailability of the organic food products and skimmed milk degraded the brand image of the company (Arrowsmith, 2017).  The company is recommended to understand the importance of the availability of the product at ease. The customer demands the product for regular usage and once the customer is turned down the company will lose the loyalty of the customer. A good relationship with the suppliers will help receive the products smoothly and that way the customer will not be disappointed for the nonavailability of the products.

Optimizing the customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is the main goal for all business ventures. The Waitrose must work on customer service experience for positive word of mouth. The complaint must be handled with good care for offering loyalty towards the customer. Addressing the problems and delivering quality service to the customer following the guidelines increasing customer satisfaction. The optimum utilization of the people to deliver quality service to the customer must be the main motive of the organization.

Conclusion

The customer service experience can be improved by providing quality service to the customer along with quality products. The marketing strategies are implemented by the company to empower customer satisfaction that constantly increases the demand for the company’s product. Therefore, it can be concluded that the above recommendation is applied in customer service management to improve the customer service quality that helps to retain the customer for the long term.

References

Books and Journals

Aras, M., Syam, H., Jasruddin, J., Akib, H. and Haris, H., 2017, July. The effect of service marketing mix on consumer decision making. In International Conference on Education, Science, Art and Technology (pp. 108-112).

Arrowsmith, J., 2017. A better way of doing business? Lessons from the John Lewis partnership, by G. Salaman and J. Storey, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2016, 223 pp.,£ 30 (hardback), ISBN 9780198782827.

Baker, J., 2018. An analysis of the affective commitment amongst John Lewis Partnership employees and the implications for word-of-mouth communication. Journal of Promotional Communications, 6(2).

Blythe, J. and Martin, J., 2019. Essentials of marketing. Pearson UK.

Kevany, K.M., 2019. 14 Succulence and sustainability for life. Plant-Based Diets for Succulence and Sustainability, p.217.

O’Higgins, E., 2018. The Ethos of Partnership: The John Lewis Partnership. In Progressive Business Models (pp. 193-220). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Saputra, I.F., 2020. Analysis Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning (STP) Toward The Development of Halal Hanwoo Beef in South Korea (Doctoral dissertation, Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta).

Shipper, F. and Hoffman, R.C., 2020. John Lewis partnership approaching 100 years–what now?. The CASE Journal.

Solimun, S. and Fernandes, A.A.R., 2018. The mediation effect of customer satisfaction in the relationship between service quality, service orientation, and marketing mix strategy to customer loyalty. Journal of Management Development.

Tench, R. and Topić, M., 2017. Evaluating CSR, Sustainability, and Sourcing within the UK Supermarket Industry. CSR, Sustainability, and Leadership, 5, p.100.

Thabit, T. and Raewf, M., 2018. The evaluation of marketing mix elements: A case study. International Journal of Social Sciences & Educational Studies, 4(4).

Online

STP Marketing Model. 2019. [Online]. [Accessed Through]: https://www.google.com/search?q=STP&rlz=1C1CHBF_enIN851IN851&sxsrf=ALeKk00dZi7-

Marketing Mix. 2016. [Online]. [Accessed Through]: https://www.google.com/search?q=7p%27s+marketing+mix&rlz=1C1CHBF_enIN851IN851&sxsrf=ALeKk01CzGSyfnhzFpAVU4MI1lmbZF7wag:1614583757604&source=lnms&tbm