Marketing Principles A Case Study of Coles

Question: Discuss about theMarketing Principlesfor aCase Study of Coles. Answer: Introduction As explained by Deloitte (2012), the promotional mix is one P of the four Ps of marketing mix and it can be evaluated as a combination of sales promotion, advertising, personal selling, and publicity of the products and services of the organization. The following report would argumentatively analyze the two elements of promotional mix namely advertising and sales promotion for the retail store of Coles. Some suggestions for the further improvement of the strategies used for the advertising and sales promotion of Coles has been highlighted in this report. Selection of Retail Outlet: Coles Coles is an Australian supermarket that had been providing excellent services and products to its customers since April, 1914 (Coles.com.au 2017). The outstanding services to the customers and value benefits to the millions of people of Australia has made the organization to grow in its long term commitment for developing sustainable future and development for their operations. The organization has been providing quality, value and services to its customers. The company has developed and grown with the help of rise of technology and their commitment for providing best of services. Selection and Analysis of Two Promotional Mix (Advertising and Sales Promotion) The advertisement and sales promotion are two elements of the promotional mix that can be used for promoting the operations of the Coles supermarket in Australian continent (Ward 2014). These two elements have been defined below, Advertising: Advertising is the most prominent and effective promotional strategy to attract customers. The advertising consists of the strategy for reaching huge numbers of people with the help of mass communication means to promote their services and products (Muralidharan and Xue 2015). The benefits of advertisement strategies include the encouragement of mass production of goods, mass notification to all the customers and people is possible, and economical means for promoting their products and services. Figure 1: Various types of Advertisements (Source: Muralidharan and Xue 2015, pp-226) Sales Promotion: The sale promotion is helpful for providing various offers, discounts and other attractions to the customers for making them utilize the services of the organization (Santini et al. 2015). The sales promotional offer is validate only with the sale of the goods to the customers. There are several types of sales promotion strategies that are been used by the retail outlets such as coupons, gift cards, vouchers, loyalty cards, etc. The use of these types of strategies allows the organization in making customer more happy and satisfied. Figure 2: Various types of Sales promotion (Source: Santini et al. 2015, pp-188) Discussion on Selected Promotional Mix at Coles The marketing strategies of Coles include the print and media methods for advertising and year round lower prices of commodities for their operations (Nenycz-Thiel 2012). It had been helpful for making people attracted to the visit and shop at Coles. Advertising Promotional Strategy Analysis of Coles According to Deloitte (2012), the advertising promotional strategy of Coles includes the use of Print and Media technology. Coles has been using the various magazines, newspaper and banners for advertising their supermarkets. Various places of Australia have been decorated with the holdings and road side banners of Coles. The flyers of the supermarket allow advertising the supermarket to the normal passerby people (Dwivedi 2012). The newspaper and magazines also serve the purpose of advertisement of Coles. Probable Drawbacks: The influence of digital media like Television, Online Websites, and various Social Medias has made the impact of Print and Media for advertisement very low. Most of the people nowadays prefer to look online for any commodity or services. Sales Promotional Strategy Analysis of Coles The sales promotional strategy of Coles includes the implementation of low prices of products and commodities (Hattersley 2013). The lower prices of the products and commodities from the local market have been helpful for attracting more customers for buying and shopping from Coles. The organization has been providing best quality of products at the most optimized prices to its customers all the year round. Probable Drawbacks: However, in the present scenario the lower prices of products have not been helpful for making any increase in the sales of Coles (Santini et al. 2015). The competitors of Coles have been using seasonal sales and various discounts and offers for gaining competitive advantage over Coles. Recommendations The development of technology has made it evitable for using technology for the advertisement and sales promotions of Coles. Some recommendations for improving the advertisement and sales promotion of Coles have been provided below, Use of Digital Media for Advertisement Social media and Web based platform: The various social media platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter and online ads on different websites (like Google, Yahoo, etc.) can be used for promoting the supermarket products among general people. Television and Covert advertisements: The broadcast advertising of Coles by using Televisions commercial ads would also help in improving the advertising promotions of Coles. Covert advertisement is the latest trend of advertising any product in which the ad of the product would be displayed in movie theatres before the initial credits of the movies. Providing Various Offers for Sales Promotion Offers and discounts: The various offers and discounts on products and services at Coles would also tend to attract people for shopping from the supermarket. Seasonal Sales: The festival and seasonal sales at Coles would also help in attracting more number of customers for shopping at the shop. Gift Vouchers and Loyalty cards: The inclusion of gift vouchers and loyalty cards for the regular customers would also help in diverting larger crowd of customers at Coles. Conclusion It can be concluded from the report that the use of promotional mix would help in providing increased number of customers and improved operations at Coles. The organization had been using print and media for advertisement and low price strategy for sales promotion. However, the report had shown that the use of digital media and provision of various offers and discounts would serve the purpose of improved strategies for advertisement and sales promotion. References Coles.com.au, 2017.About Coles. [online] www.coles.com.au. Available at: https://www.coles.com.au/about-coles [Accessed 17 Feb. 2017]. Deloitte, 2012. Analysis of the Grocery industry; Cole Supermarkets Australia, Sydney, Australia: Deloitte Access Economics Pty Ltd. Dwivedi, A. M. 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. Hattersley, L. 2013. Supermarket power, own-labels, and manufacturer counter-strategies: international relations of cooperation and competition in the fruit canning industry. Agriculture and Human Values, pp. 1-9. Muralidharan, S. and Xue, F., 2015. Influence of TV endorser types on advertising attitudes and purchase intention among Indian rural women: an exploratory study.Asian Journal of Communication,25(2), pp.213-231. Nenycz-Thiel, M. 2012. Value-for-money perceptions of supermarket and private labels.. Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ), 20(2), pp. 171-177. Santini, F.D.O., Sampaio, C.H., Perin, M.G., Espartel, L.B. and Ladeira, W.J., 2015. Moderating effects of sales promotion types.BAR-Brazilian Administration Review,12(2), pp.169-189. Ward, M., 2014. Coles focuses on everyday lower prices in new campaign. [online] Available at: https://mumbrella.com.au/coles-focuses-261305 [Accessed 17 Feb. 2017].