The impact of poor marketing strategies on business organizations
Question:
Discuss about the Critical Analysis of Inadequate Marketing as a Failure of Business Organization.
Marketing strategies are essential for any business organization in order to make the utmost usage of all the available resources and enumerate the best way to position the company in the market. Marketing strategy forms a crucial element of business plan which should possess an overall structure on attracting potential customers, product differentiation as well as overall business strategies and achievements. According to Molyneux and Holton, (2015) poor marketing strategies can affect the company during market penetration, cost control policies and introducing new products to the customers. Woolworth’ product sale and business reputation have repeatedly failed to revive itself due to its poor marketing strategies like lack of social media presence. Woolworths has therefore failed to compete in the face of strong competitors. An organization can face number of problems with poor or no marketing strategies like face loss of customers leading to lack of revenue growth and downsizing.
In the sector of retailing, shaping customer opinions and views towards a product in favor of the company is crucial. If a company fails to formulate a strong marketing strategy it can lag behind its competitors. Woolworths should make use of potential advertising tools to generate awareness of its brand name amongst the population. As a part of marketing plan every company need to focus n customer segmentation that would influence strategic choices those customers would make for themselves (Shim & Yang, 2016). Therefore it is significant for every company to have a clear view of the market they are operating in and carefully decide on marketing tools. The paper would identify where the company is falling short in doing so as well as what measures can eradicate the shortcomings.
Woolworths Group is a famous Australian company which focuses extensively on retailing that once focused heavily on advertising via radio and newspapers to focus on the marketing development of the company. In a very short amount of time, it successfully created a brand name in the market. It slowly managed to acquire 500 shops in Britain and maintain a strong customer loyalty base. Over the years it has developed its goals of developing a sustainable approach to marketing, customer-oriented store culture and technologically advance the system of shopping at Woolworths so that it can have larger access to the upcoming generation who depend on shopping apps for grocery marketing. Woolworths currently has 202, 000 employees with its headquarters based in New South Wales Australia.
The problem of poor marketing can hamper customer loyalty and their dependency on the product since in an ever-growing competitive market, advertising and marketing of a product can pave the way for better market penetration. If a company has to maintain a strong brand image, the main focus should be on marketing to achieve product differentiation. Some of the business problems that this research paper can address are the fluctuations in customer loyalty that can immensely hamper the reputation of the brand. For an effective sale of product, companies need to have a clear idea about their customers and market to maximize the appeal of the product (Molyneux & Holton, 2015). Issues like failure to identify market and strategy devising is a major problem of many business settlements. The research paper could therefore address the major business problems like radical shift in customer preference for a brand and loyalty. Recommendations could consequently be drawn as to mitigate the immediate problem as much as practicable.
The significance of customer segmentation in marketing strategies
According to Çifci et al., (2016) Woolworths should be focused both internally and externally as internally it has the power to engage its employees in a superior quality working environment that would pay due attention to their needs and grievances. The marketing sector should primarily be concerned with understanding customer values and the management of operation that would ensure maximum satisfaction of these values. The problem area is loss of the customer loyalty from the brand can therefore be managed with the appropriate framework of marketing.
Customer retention should be the key strategy of any retail store since the cost of acquiring new customer is more than maintaining the old ones. According to Armstrong et al., (2014) customer loyalty can be defined as the customer attitude or behavior towards the brand or products under the brand. Marketing and management can be strategically used to maintain the repetition of behavior that customers have previously shown towards the product. If Woolworths repeatedly fails to enrich its marketing strategies like the introduction of rewards program, it could lose its brand image and adversely impact customer behavior and motivation in buying the product.
Marketing and advertising is necessary on the part of companies to form a strong emotional attachment with the customer who would slowly associate the brand with their concept of self and personality. According to Armstrong et al., (2014) if Woolworths emphasizes on its marketing activities it could improve its branding. The process would help the customers develop a mental image of the brand and attach symbolic meanings with it in order to find a solution to the problem area of fluctuating customer loyalty. The emotional perceptions that the customers would attach with the brand would therefore help Woolworths in improve its sales and ensure the highest customer satisfaction. The customer loyalty would be based on the repeated purchase of the products by customers and their willingness to do so in the long-term. In the views of Petersen, Kushwaha & Kumar, (2015) with the help of marketing and strategy making companies can establish commitment and trust as important mediating variables in the relationship between the brand and customers. Therefore it can be established that customer loyalty is an important aspect of customer commitment towards the brand. Marketing is also essential in influencing a customer’s relative attitude to a special brand as well as ensuring repeated purchase behavior of the customer (Armstrong et al., 2014). It can be firmly asserted that for any retail store or business to survive in the long-run marketing and advertisement should be tailor made to suit the brand image that the owner wants to create within the consumers in order to facilitate long-term customer involvement with the product and continuous identification with the brand. An organization continuously needs to create a dynamic relationship with customers to mitigate some of the obvious problems of sustaining in a market. As per the opinion of Katsikeas et al., (2016) an effective marketing strategy would also be helpful in identifying the core factors that influence customer commitment towards a particular brand or product. As the traditional means of marketing often prove inefficient of improving sales growth the primary aim of marketing for the smooth operation of a business organization would help to fetch customer satisfaction. This would help any organization to achieve the continuity of a harmonious relationship with the customers. Marketing and strategy formulating would be based on evaluating the target market so that it leaves a strong appeal on the chosen section of buyer, Woolworths can achieve an effective strategic marketing by product type segmentation and taking into consideration the buyers needs and motivational factors beyond those needs (King & Thobela, 2014).
The importance of customer retention for business organizations
Some of the prevalent marketing strategies that an organization implements in the approach are-
- rational marketing strategy
- emotional marketing strategy
- maintenance marketing strategy
- Dual oriented marketing strategy
An organization can choose to swear by emotional marketing to establish a link between the company and consumer (King & Thobela, 2014). If a company is repeatedly failing to achieve this the brand can lose its social presence, poor word of mouth brand endorsement of the brand, and customer referrals. For the long-term sustenance of the brand this could be a negative aspect. Constant rejuvenation of brand name is essential to maintain relevance in the market and therefore make competitors irrelevant. If a company is consistently failing to do this, it is a presence of weakened market presence and opportunity of creating new markets. Marketing strategy is one of the many ways by which a company can assure its long term survival in the market, provide job security to the employees and continue providing service as per customer expectation.
- What are the main concepts intricately woven with advertising and marketing that could influence consumer buying behavior?
- What are the reasons behind the failure of strategic marketing and management of a company?
- How can be marketing and advertising be approached so that it has a wider mass appeal? How can it improve brand image and customer loyalty?
- How can the relationship between customer loyalty and marketing strategies be assessed in respect to customer segmentation?
The suitable research methodology chosen for the topic is qualitative research method that would comprised of in-depth interviews that would be fundamental in collecting primary information. Qualitative research method is chosen for the formulation of elaborate details and opinions on the current business problem and elaborate opinions and current thinking about the issues that would help the research progress. For the research study, the qualitative research method would help in collecting data that would determine how people perceive the notion of marketing and advertising as a serious part of company. As qualitative research method is executed through human instrument by which one can also study the surrounding environment and context which are responsible for prompting those answers. The research study shall be conducted by taking interviews of the employees and the mangers at Woolworths. The responses would be further evaluated in order to have a better understanding of how lack of proper marketing and advertising is a serious concern of Woolworths as an organization.
The questionnaires for the participants of interview are:
- What is your organizational approach towards marketing as well as traditional mode of marketing in today’s era?
- Why is it essential to maintain a consistent brand image through marketing? How can it be customized to influence customers’ perception of the brand and product?
- How can marketing change or create criteria through which customers evaluate a particular brand and service?
- How should you draft a competent budget for undertaking marketing and advertising issues in your organization?
The research proposal has a specific set of aims and objectives to achieve, the primary of which is to identify the crucial problem of Woolworths which is their lack of marketing. It is therefore essential to collect enriched quantity of data is required to be collected that would give a glimpse into interviewees’ personal opinions and experiences regarding the issues. It would also allow for an opportunity to study the facial expressions of the respondents to sync with the answers they are providing. The research method would be fundamental in learning from the participants who have themselves witnessed the phenomenon of marketing ad advertisement and its multifaceted benefits on the organization. It can help in creating new ideas and vision of seeing the current problems and in better analysis of the crisis.
Issues to be identified:
The main issues that would be identified during the interview process are
- Scope of marketing and advertising in an organization
- How lack of marketing of product affect the will of employees working for the organization?
- What are the major hindrances while propagating a brand?
- Limitations of a good marketing in targeting customers
- The relevance of digital marketing in retail stores
- Decreasing of customer motivation due to poor marketing strategies
- How can wrong marketing affect the brand image? What are the possible ways by which it can be averted?
- How can marketing enable the customers react proactively towards the products or company?
Interview Guide:
- Arriving on time
- Reconfirming of consent
- Encourage unbiased responses
- Recording the total span of time for each answers
- Provide clear transition between each question
- Repeat respondents if they want to elaborate on anything
- Sticking professionally for the interview schedule
- Eliminating any sort of body language that can generate biased answers.
2 groups and one round of interview is recommended.
5 open-ended questions
The participants would be selected in a standard manner so as to eradicate the selection of random participants who can steer the research towards a wrong direction by giving amateur or incorrect answers to the interview questions. Decision regarding the selection of participants would be based on their profession and relevant experience in marketing and advertising that they have chosen for the purpose of selling their brand. The chosen sample should be capable enough of providing both the negative as well as the positive side of the crisis from which organization could learn. They would be also responsible for providing valuable perspectives and insights that can open new avenues for the research. The number of participants is generally based on their capability to answer all the required questions so that it could help in the identification of issues and perspectives that can otherwise get overlooked.
The role of advertising in creating brand awareness
The chosen location of interview would take place at their respective offices so that they are in their comfortable surroundings to reflect on and answer the questions.
Analysis of the qualitative data would be necessary to form a thorough explanation of the collected data and answer in order to frame them in a comprehensible manner. The first part would the identification of important passages and labeling them in a precise manner so that it could be helpful in proving a particular theory or concept. Secondly, interpreting the opinions and insights so that data can be derived for further usages in research papers is necessary. Thirdly, organizing the data by careful understanding and assessing so that the process of coming to conclusions becomes smoothened. Interconnection of the passages and opinions so as to come at substantial conclusions for the completion of research is also necessary. The quantitative data should only be transformed into quantitative data if it helps in generating a clearer picture of the scenario.
With qualitative research problems one has to confront with a number of ethical considerations which are always imperative to adhere by during the execution of a research. In accordance to Data Protection Act published in 1998, it is essential to ensure that no respondents are receiving any kind of verbal threat or pressure going against their will. Moreover, they should be bestowed with the choice of leaving the interview survey anytime they are willing to. It is also essential to make sure that none of the questions are framed in a very biased manner therefore hurting the sentiments of the respondents. Additionally it is also necessary to keep confidential any of the details that the respondents want to. No single information or details would be published violating the trust of the interviewees. Lastly, anonymity would be maintained if the respondents seek so.
References:
Armstrong, G., Adam, S., Denize, S., & Kotler, P. (2014). Principles of marketing. Pearson Australia.
Biddle, I. (2016). The Wesfarmers/Woolworths duopoly war: The Bunnings vs. Masters battle. Busidate, 24(3), 3.
Bolton, S. (2015). Woolworths workers back at work. Green Left Weekly, (1065), 3.
Çifci, S., Ekinci, Y., Whyatt, G., Japutra, A., Molinillo, S., & Siala, H. (2016). A cross validation of Consumer-Based Brand Equity models: Driving customer equity in retail brands. Journal of Business Research, 69(9), 3740-3747.
de Noronha, I., Coca-Stefaniak, J. A., & Morrison, A. M. (2017). Confused branding? An exploratory study of place branding practices among place management professionals. Cities, 66, 91-98.
Katsikeas, C. S., Morgan, N. A., Leonidou, L. C., & Hult, G. T. M. (2016). Assessing performance outcomes in marketing. Journal of Marketing, 80(2), 1-20.
King, L., & Thobela, S. (2014). Woolworths farming for the future. International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, 17(B).
Lovelock, C., & Patterson, P. (2015). Services marketing. Pearson Australia.
Methner, N., Hamann, R., & Nilsson, W. (2015). The Evolution of a Sustainability Leader: The Development of Strategic and Boundary Spanning Organizational Innovation Capabilities in Woolworths. In The Business of Social and Environmental Innovation (pp. 87-104). Springer, Cham.
Mishra, S. S., & Sharma, P. (2017). DO BRANDS MATTER IN BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING? A QUALITATIVE INVESTIGATION OF B2B BRANDING PRACTICES.
Molyneux, L., & Holton, A. (2015). Branding (health) journalism: Perceptions, practices, and emerging norms. Digital Journalism, 3(2), 225-242.
Petersen, J. A., Kushwaha, T., & Kumar, V. (2015). Marketing communication strategies and consumer financial decision making: The role of national culture. Journal of Marketing, 79(1), 44-63.
Shim, K., & Yang, S. U. (2016). The effect of bad reputation: The occurrence of crisis, corporate social responsibility, and perceptions of hypocrisy and attitudes toward a company. Public Relations Review, 42(1), 68-78.
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