Differentiation/Cost leadership: Caters to multiple different market segments by offering different pricing structures
The report helps in analysing and identifying the mission, vision and core values of the respective organization named Walmart that is based in The United States of America. The internal and external factors of the environment have to be analysed as this will help in analysing the present market situation effectively. The target market positioning is required to be identified effectually as to analyse the marketing strategies that will help the company in benefitting from the competitors.
The main aim and purpose of the report is to identify the strategic marketing plan objectives in an effectual manner as this will help in analysing the different techniques to achieve the desired objectives appropriately.
The structure of the report includes the marketing vision and objective along with understanding the internal and external analysis of the environment effectually. The target market along with positioning has to be done as this will help in solving issues with implementation of marketing communication tools.
Walmart is the American retail corporation that operates chain of supermarkets along with grocery stores. The headquarter of the respective supermarket is based in Bentonville in the United States of America. Sam Walton is the founder of Walmart and the company is situated in more than 11,718 locations. The number of employees who are working in Walmart 1.4 million, U.S. and the operating income of the company is US$17.301 billion (Walmart.com., 2018).
Marketing Strategy of Walmart has to be used in an effectual manner as this will help in increasing the emphasis on the different customers as the means to achieve the goals of the company as well. The mission of the company is to satisfy the customers along with partners with proper experience of shopping based on commitment of employees. The vision of company is to be innovative, sustainable and cooperative as they will be able to provide goods and services at reasonable prices in comparison with the competitors. In order to achieve the vision of the company, Walmart needs to implement marketing strategies that are as follows:
- Maintain the range in an effectual manner as this will help them in identifying the different requirements of the customers effectually (Armstrong et al., 2015)
- Proper operational and strategic marketing has to be adopted by the organization as this will help them in understanding their clients and develop strategies that will prove to be successful in comparison to the competitors in the market (Kotler, 2015)
- Lastly, the strategic planning is essential in nature for Walmart as this will help the company in and developing financial goals that will help them in attracting customers in the market
With the help of different marketing strategies, it is essential for the company to achieve the long-term goal approach as to achieve the sustainable competitive advantage in the market. Marketing strategies will help the company Walmart in increasing their market share and improve the loyalty among the customers as well (Kotler, 2015).
The current offerings of Walmart Supermarket include that it provides benefits flexibility in delivering different kind of products and services in an effectual manner. The pricing strategy that is applied by Walmart helps them in attracting large population of the customers in an effective manner. The financial results of Walmart are they have earned a revenue of 50,034 crores USD (2018) and this has helped them to compete with the competitors in the market. The key business relationships in Walmart is maintained with the suppliers, employees and customers in an effectual manner. Proper customer relationship management is essential in nature that has helped them in gaining competitive advantage in the market (Tomczak, Reinecke & Kuss, 2018).
Product Innovation: Digital hospitality which focuses on guest experiences and their privacy using digital technology.
The core competencies of Walmart are focusing strictly on their price with the inclusion of different strategies such as cost leadership and focus on own brands strategy (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2016). The current customers of Walmart are the household individuals as they help them in increasing their sales. Walmart gains competitive advantage by offering their customers with same kind of products and services at an affordable rate in comparison of the competitors (Papadopoulos & Heslop, 2014).
Walmart has to ascertain the different kind of external factors that can create huge affect on the respective supermarket Walmart. The PESTLE analysis is as follows:
- Political Factors is considered by Walmart in retail market that includes the different government rules and regulations that includes high stability of the politics that is opportunity along with support politically for globalization. However, there can be political kind of pressures for the high wages that is a threat for Walmart (Sheth & Sisodia, 2015).
- Economic Factors is the other one wherein Walmart is under pressure from different kind of economic changes that include stability of the major economies and the continued growth for the different developing countries. It has helped in decreasing rate of unemployment in USA (Lusch & Vargo, 2014)
- Social factors are the third one wherein it helps in influencing the perception of the customers along with preferences. It helps in providing lifestyle trend that is healthy in nature along with proper opportunity of cultural diversity and urban kind of mitigation
- The technological factors affect the competitive landscape of the company wherein it helps in increasing automation of business and increasing the usage of mobile among the different customers
- The environmental factors help in pertaining the business of Walmart as per the conservation of environmental concerns. It includes providing opportunity for sustainability in the business along with generating environmentally friendly trends of the products (Kotabe & Helsen, 2014)
- The different legal factors help in analysing that Walmart is based on different kind of tax rates and law policies. It helps in including opportunity for the food safety regulations and employment regulations. However, there are threats included in it that are the different kind of tax reforms.
The current marketing situation of Walmart helps in understanding that there are few recommendations that Walmart has more number of opportunities in comparison to the different threats in the macro environment. The external factors of Walmart help in providing different kind of significant opportunities. The firm needs to take and implement the proactive approach as to address the different threats and it has been seen that most of the efforts of Walmart is focusing on the different kind of exploiting different kind of opportunities that are identified in the retail kind of business environment (Solomon et al., 2014). Walmart needs to improve the different HR management practices along with boosting the investments in the technology as this will help in enhancing the standards of the quality and it will help them in expanding the business worldwide after the analysis of PESTLE analysis.
The target market of Walmart includes and comprises of different kind of potential customers wherein the company is trying to understand the potential demands of the customers (Elenkov, 2014). Walmart uses the mono segment kind of positioning and they appeal to single segment customers in the market who will create huge and greater value on the attributes of the price as compared to the other attributes. Kotler defined the market segment as the dividing market into different kind of group of buyers who have similar kind of needs and behaviour (Armstrong et al., 2015).
Segmentation: Walmart uses the market segmentation as this will help in determining where to open and introduce their own stores and the items that are required to stock up with in comparison to the different competitors (Schmidt, Spann & Zeithammer, 2014)
Targeting: Walmart credo is to save money and live better wherein the target customers are the lower middle class and the low-income customers. The different kind of loyalty programs has been introduced by Walmart as to increase retention of the customers and gain valuable customer insights as well. Walmart is presently trying to strict their focus on LSM groups and growing black middle class as this will help the company in gaining competitive advantage in the market.
Product Leadership: world’s largest point based vacation ownership company.Cost leadership: Lower prices to serve economy and middle class guests as well as the rise of traveling millennials.
It is seen that Walmart is trying to attract both existing and new customers in their market especially the households as this will help them in providing growth opportunity for the company in an effectual manner. The target market has helped the company in prioritizing the resources in an effectual manner and this has increased the growth of sales in the entire competitive market as well. the target customers of Walmart are the end users as this will help the company in sharing similar traits and they are the ultimate purchaser of goods and services as well.
Positioning: It is essential in nature for Walmart to position their different products and services in an effectual manner. The strategy of the product includes low prices and providing customer service that is effective in nature. They generate the competitive advantage by providing satisfaction to the customers and penetrate the market in an effectual market as well.
Walmart has successfully tried to cultivate the family and household-based image wherein they have implemented the unique functional attributes that include the offering of the products to the customers at an affordable rate and supply chain management and distribution networks are having strong link as well. The different products are analysed in such a manner that this will help the customers in purchasing the products at an affordable rate.
Walmart needs to use the different kinds of media platforms that includes the different kind of advertising techniques such as print media, internet along with the usage of social media as well. According to the diagram, it can be analysed that proper segmentation, targeting and positioning is essential in nature as this will help in meeting different customer requirements and solve the issues and gain competitive advantage as well.
Proper and effective strategic marketing plan is essential in nature as this will help Walmart in analysing the change as per the conditions of shifting market and the objectives has to be SMART in nature as well. The main objective of Walmart are as follows:
- To create customer centric kind of business
- To be brand value driven business
- To build profitable relationships with customers
- To lower the entire cost of doing the business
- To improve availability and sourcing capability
In order to achieve the desired objectives, Walmart needs to understand and analyse the marketing plans that is strategic in nature.
Figure 2: Strategic marketing plan of Walmart
(Source: Armstrong et al., 2015)
It has been seen that Walmart is focusing on some of the generic strategies that will help the company in gaining sustainable competitive advantage that are as follows:
- Proper development of one team is essential in nature as this will help the company in attracting customers and gain competitive advantage (Zeriti et al., 2014)
- Secondly, reduction of the costs as to improve the different processes is essential in nature as this will help in updating the offering of the products effectively
- Lastly, development of the cohesive brand is essential in nature as this will help the company in refreshing stores and meet the requirements of the customers as well.
Figure 3: Marketing Mix of Walmart
(Source: Created by author)
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that the marketing strategies was conducted on Walmart wherein the internal and external analysis was conducted that has helped in understanding the opportunities and threats of Walmart. The marketing strategies has been useful in nature as to understand the different kind of strategic goals and plans of the company in an effectual manner.
References
Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M., & Brennan, R. (2015). Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education.
Baker, M. J. (2014). Marketing strategy and management. Palgrave Macmillan. (Baker, 2014)
Chaffey, D., & Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2016). Digital marketing. Prentice Hall.
Elenkov, D. (2014). Experiential Exercise with Multinational Student Teams: Researching Together a Multinational Corporation and Developing Jointly a Strategic Marketing Plan for IT Using Blackboard. Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning, 41.
Kotabe, M., & Helsen, K. (2014). Global marketing management.
Kotler, P. (2015). Framework for marketing management. Pearson Education India.
Lusch, R. F., & Vargo, S. L. (2014). The service-dominant logic of marketing: Dialog, debate, and directions. Routledge.
Papadopoulos, N., & Heslop, L. A. (2014). Product-country images: Impact and role in international marketing. Routledge.
Schmidt, K. M., Spann, M., & Zeithammer, R. (2014). Pay what you want as a marketing strategy in monopolistic and competitive markets. Management Science, 61(6), 1217-1236.
Sheth, J. N., & Sisodia, R. S. (2015). Does marketing need reform?: Fresh perspectives on the future. Routledge.
Solomon, M. R., Dahl, D. W., White, K., Zaichkowsky, J. L., & Polegato, R. (2014). Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being (Vol. 10). Pearson.
Tomczak, T., Reinecke, S., & Kuss, A. (2018). Introduction. In Strategic Marketing (pp. 1-18). Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden.
Walmart.com. (2018). Retrieved 29 March 2018, from https://www.walmart.com/
Zeriti, A., Robson, M. J., Spyropoulou, S., & Leonidou, C. N. (2014). Sustainable export marketing strategy fit and performance. Journal of International Marketing, 22(4), 44-66.
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