Aldi Marketing plan- Get Homework Help
Aldi is among a group of discount supermarkets which are popular for their range of products that are low priced and discounted products. The range of items sold by Aldi are groceries, garden products, and everyday collections. The company was first launched as a food shop in the year 1913 has now grown into a supermarket with much popularity and turned to become one of the biggest players in the retail industry in the region (Gerhard and Hahn, 2005). Aldi’s goal is clear and direct which is to offer consumers with items they purchase recurrently and guarantee that the items are one of the utmost possible worth that is offered at low charges. The competitive landscape for the supermarkets in the UK is fierce thus the need for different strategies brought into line for varying sections of the grocery market. The major marketing objective for Aldi is to grow its market segment within the United Kingdom grocery market. Aldi is focusing its efforts to inspire customers that are already familiar with their product to shop more often at Aldi.
PESTLE Analysis
Political | Economic | Social-cultural | Technological |
High levels of political conflict and vulnerability across the globe currently impact the sustainability of the foreign firms who may be influenced based on their nation of origin.
The Brexit issue after Britain voted to quit the EU, uncertainty in the future of European firms in the UK has remained high. This will be a great threat to the operations of Aldi since most of its stores are situated in Europe. |
As an impact of the Brexit, the price for products have gone high and the pound has gone down. This has positively worked in favor of Aldi with shoppers turning to discounts which will result in the growth of Aldi.
Inflation has been experienced in the grocery markets which translates that the shoppers will have to spend extra amount for the same goods. This is favorable for Aldi since the customers will be seeking to get products at a cheaper price. |
Aldi has currently been considered as one of the highest paying UK supermarkets after offering 300 staff members a pay rise in a bid in order for them to go beyond the extents of their fellow discounter Lidl in terms of pay and wages. Considerably, higher wages will lead to better standards of living thus enable better food, exercise means, healthcare and benefiting the society.
Aldi aims to teach more than 1.2 million children by 2020 in the UK healthy habits. |
Supermarkets are heading to technological operations to aid the provision of better services due to the increased demand for efficient self-service checkouts for the grocery providers (Mason, 2007). Aldi is adopting such technologies to be quick and efficient in offering services to their customers.
Aldi has adopted a just in time production in order for them to effectively manage their stock. This will enable Aldi to offer good value to their consumers without having to lower the quality of the products. |
Legal | Environmental | ||
Aldi is known for stocking their items from the local British farmers and producers helping to support and guarantee the sustainability of the local areas they operate in.
Aldi’s staff have been trained to carry out a variety of tasks in the store with a high pay than the minimum wage for UK workers.
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The UK supermarket industry has been often affected by scandals with regards to food products such as the horsemeat scandal.
In 2016, it is also evident that Aldi found itself in legal disagreement due to misrepresenting its sales of herbs where olive leaves were found in oregano products by watchdogs. |
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Pricing: Aldi offers discounts on products thus providing the products at low prices to the customers. Discount pricing is important in attracting and retaining customers since they are willing to purchase quality products at affordable prices. (Andersen and Poulfelt, 2007). Durable ecosystem: Aldi has been able to build a strong ecosystem which has changed the most vital parameters of food retailing. They have been able to add other elements such as multiple locations, shopping convenience and reduced waiting time for customers. Strong customer support: Aldi is a discount supermarket they have been able to enjoy a lot of support through from their consumers and a variety of product choice at a cheap and affordable price that has led to people preferring to shop for their daily needs. Great product mix: Aldi has been able to drive the biggest advantage through having a great product mix with high-quality products and quality brands for each product category. |
Weaknesses
Small margins: Aldi has thrived small margins and thus are heavily relying on the sales volume. Often the company has indulged high unethical practices such as treating their suppliers badly and price discrimination so as to guarantee that their margins are consistent. Poor employee gratitude (satisfaction): Ideally, the supermarket needs a high level of productivity in order for them to survive in stiff competition. Often, the workers need to work in multiple shifts with less pay which has created a lot of dissatisfaction among the employees. Insufficient penetration in high-income individuals: Discount stores such as Aldi have been preferred for low and middle-income individuals (Glanz, Bader and Iyer, 2012). Considerably, it is very rare to find high-income individuals in Aldi and yet Aldi has tried hard to penetrate to the high-income segments for more than 10 years. |
Opportunities
Marketing: Aldi needs to boost its marketing in order to beat the competition. Preference for consumers: The consumer needs are growing and so the propensity to spend. Customers are demanding for quality services and are willing to pay thus even the discounts can offer the products at higher prices but provide quality services. Expansion: Aldi needs to grow its sales volume through venturing into growing economies such as Africa and Asia where there are more low and middle-income individuals. Positioning– In order for the discount store to grow it needs to continue positioning itself as an affordable brand rather than just cheap item company that can boost the supermarket. |
Threats
Competition: Aldi has faced stiff competition from big players such as Best Buy and Walmart. Other retailers such as Amazon that have moved into grocery which have introduced a new threat. Regulations: Government policies and taxation can impact the business margins while venturing into different regions.
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Smart objectives to address the SWOT findings
The purpose of smart objectives is to allow that one has put significant clarification on what the business needs as the end results of the marketing that can be developed through plans and monitored to ensure that the business has effectively met the business objectives (Linstead, Fulop, Lilley and Banerjee, 2004). In the case of Aldi, there are two major Smart objectives that will rely on in order to address the SWOT findings. These include:
1: Increasing marketing efforts in order to increase the number of clients by 10 percent within 18 months. Considerably the marketing efforts will be significant in creating awareness for individuals who will be able to purchase their products. Relatively, marketing objectives are essential in encouraging the customers that are already conversant with the products to continue shopping frequently (Bennet and Bennet, 2004). This will also be important in enabling Aldi to beat its competitors in the market thus enabling the business to effectively achieve its goals.
2: Positioning Aldi as an affordable brand within 12 months. Having a marketing strategy that will enable the brand to occupy a distinct position as compared to the competitors will be important in boosting the sales and building credibility of the business. This will enable Aldi to efficiently penetrate to high-income groups as well as beat its competitors through good reputation from consumers. Positioning will also be important in boosting the sales margin thus the business will be able to offer better pay to their workers.
Marketing strategies
Marketing strategies are the foundation of generating interests, creating awareness and closing new sales and improving customer engagement. The marketing strategies are important in guiding the company culture, services mix, products as well as pricing. These are important in informing the marketing plan which lays out the timing and types of marketing activities. The marketing strategies will be used by Aldi to encourage loyal customers and increase market share. In this case, Aldi will rely on the 4ps of marketing mix which include product, place, price, and promotions. These will create a unique blend of the right price, right product, right place, and the suitable promotion methods.
Product
The product strategy for Aldi can be linked to high quality and affordable products. Aldi aims at offering affordable food items that will be of similar quality in all their products. The items sold will be sourced from the chosen suppliers which will be trademarked as their own so as to have full governance of the production as well as the ultimate charge which is the meaning motive as to why the company will price their products lower compared to its competitors. Aldi will stock fresh vegetables and fruits in order to ensure that the customers get the best experience by shopping at Aldi.
Price
Aldi will offer lower prices than its rivals without conceding on quality. Aldi believes that it will have a strong consumer base with respect to the quality and cheap charges that will provide its individual products that are not offered in other competitors (Naslund, 2013). Aldi will also rely on unit pricing strategy for the grocery in order to easily compare. Aldi will charge low prices for their new items in the market so that they can move in the market and gain share easily.
Place
Aldi has increased the number of stores to more than 8000 stores in more than 18 nations and is opening new stores in Britain. The stores in Britain will jeep a very simple layout to ensure a minimum cost for the customers. Aldi will produce bulk quality products from various stores and suppliers all the while ensuring that the brand quality is managed. This will be important in ensuring that there is least waste disposal while shipping of products will rely on environmentally friendly resources.
Promotion
Aldi will employ varying methods if advertising and promotion campaigns. In the UK Aldi will make extensive use of electronic, print and display media to promote its products. This will be the most efficient ways through the business can reach its target market. These techniques will be important in creating awareness and facilitate effective customer decisions (Kotler et al., 2007). Correspondingly, Aldi will rely on email marketing which will be used to inform all the customers about any new products or special buys. Aldi will also use promotional techniques such as save and swap to ensure that the customers switch their products to create a different brand from its competitors. Social media advertising will also be an efficient way through Aldi will reach new customer targets in the UK. Ideally, it has been realized that the Facebook user use an average of 30-40 minutes per day accessing their Facebook accounts. Thus a new business in the UK it will be an important opportunity to grasp customers.
Marketing Actions
The above are promotional techniques that will be used by Aldi to ensure that they reach the target consumers. Ideally, TV commercials, online ads, and Newspaper are a form of electronic and print media that will facilitate reaching a larger number of the target market (Cravens and Piercy, 2006). This is because most of the consumers highly rely on these forms of media to acquire information as well as to pass information. Therefore, Aldi will be able to create more awareness to the consumers as well as attract more consumers.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the marketing plan is intended to increase the sales and number of consumers in Aldi. Therefore, evaluation of the marketing plan will be essential since it will allow the elimination of those strategies that are ineffective. It will also facilitate the overall plan that will enable the growth of Aldi in the UK. With such incredible marketing techniques and plan for the marketing actions, Aldi will achieve its business goals through effective marketing of products and services.
References
Andersen, M. M., & Poulfelt, F. (2007). Discount Business Strategy how the New Market Lead. John Wiley & Sons.
Bennet, A., & Bennet, D. (2004). Organizational survival in the new world. Routledge.
Cravens, D. W., & Piercy, N. (2006). Strategic marketing (Vol. 6). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Gerhard, U., & Hahn, B. (2005). Wal-Mart and Aldi: two retail giants in Germany. GeoJournal, 62(1-2), 15-26.
Glanz, K., Bader, M. D., & Iyer, S. (2012). Retail grocery store marketing strategies and obesity: an integrative review. American journal of preventive medicine, 42(5), 503-512.
Kotler, P., Burton, S., Adam, S., Brown, L., & Armstrong, G. (2007). Marketing. Pearson Education Australia.
Linstead, S., Fulop, L., Lilley, S., & Banerjee, B. (2004). Management and organization: A critical text (pp. 497-500). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Mason, R. B. (2007). The external environment’s effect on management and strategy: a complexity theory approach. Management decision, 45(1), 10-28.
Naslund, D. (2013). Keeping the Customer (relatively) satisfied. Strategic Direction. 30 (3). P13-15.