Company and Industry Profile
Company and industry profile:
Australia is the country that has a great and stable economy. The trend of the supermarket in the country has established very early and most of the people in the country are dependent on the supermarkets for their daily routine shopping for fulfilling their daily needs. Thus, it is one of the most competitive and the most talked about industry in Australia. Coles is one of the companies in Australia that operates in this industry and also considered as one of the market leaders, this is because along with another company called Woolworth, it acquires around 80% of the overall market. As far as the history of the company is considered, it has been identified that the company has started its operation in 1914 in Australia and then expanded its business to New Zealand as well. It is the company that focuses on providing the quality products to the customers. The company follows some of the values such as serving quality products, being passionate about the business, being consistent in their products and processes etc. The company focuses on many elements but the foremost major elements that the company has its focus on are innovation that helps the company to be in the leading companies (Allaway, Huddleston, Whipple and Ellinger, 2011). Another is the responsibility. Responsibility is the element that allows the company to be responsible for the society, for the employees and for all other stakeholders. Third one is the team work. It is the basis of the company and the last one is the customer focus that helps the firm to be in contact with the customers.
5 c’s: Company
Every company faces many challenges and has some of the strength to ace those challenges. The SWOT analysis of the company helps in analyzing the internal as well as the external environment of the firm (Walker, Mullins, Boyd and Larreche, 2005). Internal analysis provides the knowledge about the strength and the weakness of the company and external analysis helps in providing the knowledge about opportunities and threats of the company.
Large market share: Coles is the company that has the great market share in the industry. As discussed earlier that the company is the leading firm in the industry after Woolworth, so it accounts for large market share as well as the customers segment.
Range of products: It is important for the firm like Coles to serve the customer with large range of products because the company is so big and has to compete with the competitors like Woolworths (Roberts and Toleman, 2007).
Management issues: The Company has been analyzed to be having some of the management issues. This may be because of the internal communication issues between the departments.
Issues with supplier’s relationship: It has also been analyzed that the relationship of the company with its suppliers has been questioned these days. This is because of the negotiation issue from the side go the company (Peter, Olson and Grunert, 1999).
Expansion to global market: The major opportunity that is available with the company is the expansion of the business to the global market. The company is operating in Australia and New Zealand so the company should adopt new strategies to expand its market.
5 Cs Analysis of Coles Supermarkets
Targeting new market segment: The Company also has the opportunity to launch new products to target the new segment of the market. The recommended product that should be launched by the company is fresh fruit juices (Noble and Mokwa,1999). Fresh fruit juices may target the new market segment of the market such as people who are against soft drinks who wants to have drinks that are much healthier then the soft drinks.
Competitors: It is the fact that every company faces some of the competition from the companies which are operating in the same industry. The biggest competitor for the company is Woolworth and also the new entrance such as Aldi.
Legal framework: As the Australian government is interfering so much in the industry of retailer market, so it becomes a threat for the big market players because the government is framing laws to suppress the power of these market leaders.
Coles is the famous supermarket in Australia and according to the concept of supermarket, it is the place that serves the customers with all sorts of the products of daily use such as grocery, fruits, vegetables, other kitchen stuffs etc. therefore, the company serves all the segments of the market in terms of class such as middle and the higher class people. It depends on the customers that what type of products the customers is choosing to buy. Most of the women do the shopping from this supermarket because it has so much of products that are shopped by women. The consumer behavior of the people is such that they do not go for loyalty in this case. This is because they are buying regular daily needs products and thus do not have so much of concern about the brand.
Collaborators are the one to whom the company collaborates in order to complete the functional actions of the company. In case of Coles, it has been analyzed that Coles generally collaborates directly with the farmers and not the mediators (Merrilees and Miller, 2001). This helps the company to save its cost of the mediators and also helps the famers to earn more money directly from the company. The suppliers of the company such as the farmers have great relationship with the company but the recent news about the disputable relationship between the supplies and the Coles has affected the company’s image. Collaborators also include the distributors. There are many distributors of the company. Some of the suppliers of the company are MG farms, mountain blue farms, etc.
Competition for the company can be analyzed by identifying many elements such as different threats of the industry. The company like Coles does not have any threat with the new entrants. This is because it is the industry that requires investing a large amount of money to enter the industry and lot of companies does not have that much amount to spend (Matsa, 2011). In case of the already existing companies, Coles have to compete with Woolworth the most because both of these companies are the leading companies of the market. Aldi is also the company that has entered Australia to give competition to the companies. As the switching cost in this industry is very low so people switch to other brands very easily and thus it is very difficult for the companies to attain the customer’s loyalty.
Issue 1: Company and Industry Profile
PESTLE analysis is the process that helps in analyzing various factor such as political factors, economic factors, social factors, technological factors, legal factors and environmental factors.
Political factors:
Political factors are the one that are related to the government involvement in the industry. As far as the Australia supermarket industry is concerned, it has been analyzed that there are many regulatory such as Food standards Australia etc. regulate the quality standards of the products. In recent years, the federal government of Australia has taken steps against the duopoly that exists in the industry.
Economic factors: Economic factors are related to the economy and the spending power of the customers in the country (Kumar, 2008). It has been analyzed that the slowdown in the economy affects the purchasing power of the Australian people and thus most of the middle class people moved towards independent retail stores rather than shopping from the big supermarket chains. This affects the business of the same.
Social factors: Coles is the company that has received the Fair trade retail of the year. This signifies that the company conducts the fair activities of business with its collaborators. Coles is fulfilling its responsibility towards society, the company has collaborated with the firm called Redkite in order to help the cancer victimized children in their curing and care (Keith, 2012). Both the companies have taken initiative to provide scholarship to the students who are suffering from such diseases.
Technological factors: In terms of technology, Coles is very much update. This can be said because the company use internet in almost all the segments such as internal communication, marketing, promotion etc. different types of online facilities are also provided by the company to convenient the customers in order to pay for the purchase they made. Introduction of self-check out facility is also a technological advancement in the company that helps the customers to have good experience without waiting in a long queue.
Legal factors: ACCC has imposed many legal frameworks that need to be followed by the company. As Coles and Woolworth are leading the market with their duopoly and setting the prices of the products so it ruins the customer and thus the government took legal step against this action of these two companies (Chevalier, J.A., 1995). This results in reduction of prices of the products at both the stores.
Environmental factors: Sustainability is the basic fundamental that has been followed by the company. Even the company is increasing the number of stress in the country but also succeeded in reducing the co2 emission and this suggests that the company is playing its part towards environment efficiently.
Market research is very important processes that need to be conducted by the company (Byrne, 2014). This is because it helps the company to analyze the market and the position of the company. The market research answers various questions that are necessary for the company to be answered.
Cols customers are such that wants the quality products. This is because the company claims to be very efficient in its quality so the customers expect the same from the company (Jones, 2005). The company’s online portal and the ratings of the customers for the products and the experience help the firm to knowledge about the customer needs and necessities from the company.
Issue 2: 5 Cs Analysis
Which competitors pose the threats?
As per the market research, it has been identified that Woolworth and Aldi are the biggest threat for the company. This is because Woolworth shares an almost equal market with the company and has same image in the minds of the customers while Aldi is the foreign player that may acquire the market share of the company in future.
In terns f context of the business, it has been analyzed that there ream nay contextual factors that affect the business such as globalization, culture etc. culture is the main contextual factors that brings changes to the organization (Johnston, Stafford, Pierce and Daube, 2016). This is because the culture is dependent on the beliefs and lifestyle of the people and this may change with time.
As discussed earlier in the report that the company is very much dependent on collaborators for the raw material and the products to be manufactured and transported to the consumers. It is very much mandatory for the companies to have great relationship with the suppliers who are the farmers in case of Coles.
Marketing strategy of the company has been developed in order to plan out the marketing activities that are important for the company. The strategy below discussed in regard with the launch of new frits juices category in Coles. These fruit juices will be launched as a specialized brand.
Target market: Target market is the market segment that is being targeted by the company for particular products (Jobber and Ellis-Chadwick, 2012). It is not necessary that all the products are for the same target market. As Coles is the company that serves the customers with range of products so the target market for each product is also different in terms of age, se, class etc. the new fruit juice brand of the company that is being recommended should be marketed to all the segments because people with every age, every gender, every class and every culture drink fresh juices. Focus should be maintained on teenagers so that the market of soft drinks can be diverted towards these fresh fruit juices (Ellickson, 2011).
Value proposition is the aspect of the products that helps in adding the value to the product. In case of fresh juice, the company needs not to make extra efforts in adding the value or making the value proposition. This is because the fresh juice has the value that attracts the people who wants to be healthy. Even the parents try to buy fresh juice for their kids rather than buying them cold drinks that affect their heath in negative way (Delforce, Dickson and Hogan, 2005). The juices of seasonal fruits also help the people to take the benefits of the seasonal fruits without making efforts in buying and eating them.
This section of the report discusses about the recommended marketing mix for Coles in order to launch the fresh fruit juice range:
Products: As discussed, the products that will be launched by the company are fresh fruit juice range. The packing of the products will be so attractive that it attracts the people in large umber. Small packs for kids will also available with attractive packaging.
Issue 3
Price: Price should be kept according to the price of the seasonal fruits (Dwivedi, Merrilees, Miller and Herington, 2012). But, the price should not be so high as fruit juice is the basic necessity of the people and the price of the juices should be kept according to the price of the cold drinks is that people finds it affordable . The strategy should be penetration pricing.
Place: Coles has any stores in the country at different place. The best place to sell the fresh fruit juices is the location near schools, gyms, hospitals etc. this is because the customers at these places require juices at large number.
Promotion: Promotional activities that can be used to promote the products are advertising. Advertising in a way that attracts the people and targets all segments of customers. Distributing the samples at schools and campaigning at colleges can also helps in making the people aware about the brand and the products.
People: People are the very important resource that helps in running all the functions of the company. This is because all the functions from manufacturing to marketing are done by the human resource of the firm (Cravens and Piercy, 2006. Suppliers and the distributors play a major part to maintain the relation with them helps the company a lot.
Process: The process involves the activities of the function. The company should research about the fruits and the brands that are already available and then should come up with innovation in the existing ones (Churchill and Iacobucci, 2006). The company should deal with the farmers and should buy fresh fruits for manufacturing of the fruits.
Physical evidence: the physical evidences associated with the products are its packaging. The packaging should be of different types according to the need. The first one is the plastic bottles that are colored with the color of the fruit juice inside it, a glass bottle with little less juice and the tetra packs for kids.
Conclusion:
The study concludes that marking is the subset of any company in order to sake its products Coles is the firm operating in supermarket industry is facing challenges n marketing as well as market share (Churchill Jr, 1979. To face such challenges a recommendation regarding the launching of new fresh juice product is done. This helps in gaining and maintaining the top position in the industry by the company.
References:
Allaway, A.W., Huddleston, P., Whipple, J. and Ellinger, A.E., 2011. Customer-based brand equity, equity drivers, and customer loyalty in the supermarket industry. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 20(3), pp.190-204.
Byrne, D.P., 2014. Fuelling Australia: structural changes and new policy challenges in the petrol industry. Australian Economic Review, 47(4), pp.523-539.
Chevalier, J.A., 1995. Capital structure and product-market competition: Empirical evidence from the supermarket industry. The American Economic Review, pp.415-435.
Churchill Jr, G.A., 1979. A paradigm for developing better measures of marketing constructs. Journal of marketing research, pp.64-73.
Churchill, G.A. and Iacobucci, D., 2006. Marketing research: methodological foundations. New York: Dryden Press.
Cravens, D.W. and Piercy, N., 2006. Strategic marketing (Vol. 7). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Delforce, R., Dickson, A. and Hogan, J., 2005. Australia’s Food Industry: Recent Changes and Challenges. Australian Commodities: Forecasts and Issues, 12(2), p.379.
Dwivedi, A., Merrilees, B., Miller, D. and Herington, C., 2012. Brand, value and relationship equities and loyalty-intentions in the Australian supermarket industry. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 19(5), pp.526-536.
Ellickson, P.B., 2011. The evolution of the supermarket industry: From A&P to Wal-Mart.
Jobber, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2012. Principles and practice of marketing (No. 7th). McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Johnston, R., Stafford, J., Pierce, H. and Daube, M., 2016. Alcohol promotions in Australian supermarket catalogues. Drug and Alcohol Review.
Jones, E., 2005. Liquor retailing and the Woolworths/Coles juggernaut. Journal of Australian Political Economy, The, (55), p.23.
Keith, S., 2012. Coles, Woolworths and the local. Locale: The Australasian-Pacific Journal of Regional Food Studies, 2, pp.47-81.
Kumar, S., 2008. A study of the supermarket industry and its growing logistics capabilities. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 36(3), pp.192-211.
Matsa, D.A., 2011. Competition and product quality in the supermarket industry. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, p.qjr031.
Merrilees, B. and Miller, D., 2001. Innovation and strategy in the Australian supermarket industry. Journal of Food Products Marketing, 7(4), pp.3-18.
Noble, C.H. and Mokwa, M.P., 1999. Implementing marketing strategies: Developing and testing a managerial theory. The Journal of Marketing, pp.57-73.
Peter, J.P., Olson, J.C. and Grunert, K.G., 1999. Consumer behavior and marketing strategy (pp. 122-123). London: McGraw-Hill.
Roberts, B. and Toleman, M., 2007. One-size e-business adoption model does not fit all. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research, 2(3), p.49.
Walker, O.C., Mullins, J.W., Boyd, H.W. and Larreche, J.L., 2005. Marketing strategy. McGraw-Hill Education.
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
