Sample Dissertation Marketing Strategies 66x6s

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

Submitted By:

Dissertation Thesis The impact of marketing strategy of TESCO and Sainsbury's on customer's satisfaction.

LAST DATE

28-08-09

SUBMITTED TO:

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE COVENTRY UNIVERSITY

ID NO.:

PAGES 1 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the name of Allah (God) who is Beneficent and Merciful. All praise to Allah, the Almighty, on whom ultimately we depend for sustenance and guidance. First and foremost I offer my sincerest gratitude to my research supervisor, Dr Joy Joseph, who has ed me throughout my thesis with his patience and knowledge whilst allowing me the room to work in my own way. I attribute the level of my Masters degree to his encouragement and effort and without him this thesis, too, would not have been completed or written. One simply could not wish for a better or friendlier supervisor. I convey special acknowledgement to my uncles in UK, Naveed Mussarat and Nasim Ali for their indispensable help dealing with funds, special care, politeness, and all types of help in the accommodation in UK. I won’t forget for what they have done for me. Without their efforts, it could have not been possible for me to do MBA from UK. Their encouragement and kind will remain in my mind throughout my whole life. I am very thankful to my uncles, Khawaja Nazir Ahmad, Khawaja Bashir Ahmad, Khawaja Muhammad Aslam and Khawaja Muhammad Aslam Makai and cousins, Khawaja Tariq Iqbal, Yasir Aslam, Atif Aslam, Nasir Aslam, Asim Aslam, Shahzaib Bashir, Jhanzaib Bashir, Hassam Nazir, Abdullah Bashir, and Haris Nazir (Cute) and all Female cousins and Aunts in Pakistan who had been ing me by their true love, affectionate, prayers, good wishes and encouragement. I was extraordinarily fortunate in having Shahid Zaman Kiani, Ajmal khan, Malik Mushtaq, Abdul Rashid, Basit Usmani, Habib Khan, Babar khan, Mustafa Mir, Jawad Ali, Ismail khan, Qayyum, Annayat, Javed, Hashim Khan, Haji Laiq, Obaid, and Dr Atta as my true and well wisher friends in UK. It is my pleasure to express my gratitude wholeheartedly to them for their kind hospitality in the whole stay of London UK.

ID NO.:

PAGES 2 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

Words fail me to express my appreciation to my Fiancée (A.A.) whose dedication, love and persistent confidence in me, has taken the load off my shoulder. I owe her for being unselfishly let her intelligence, ions, and ambitions collide with mine.

I would like to thank my MBA class mates whose knowledge sharing, team work and professional attitude formed this program more target oriented. My special thanks are to Tahir Makhdum, Shahzad Habib, Khurram Butt, Zahid Rathore and Kulsoom Akhtar who had always been available for discussion and study during this course and research. Very special thanks to Raja Rabail Tashfeen and Adnan Khan for their kind in all parts of MBA Program. Their help and guidance was very crucial for me to achieve one of the dream tasks of my life. I was very lucky to have them as my real well wisher. Even I don’t have words to pay gratitude to them. They may succeed in their future life. This is my kind wish to them. Finally, I am thankful to academic and istrative staff at BITE and Coventry University who designed and managed such an interesting MBA program which will help me in my career development. I offer my Special thanks to Dr Former (Principal of BITE) and Anayath Khan (Chief coordinator of MBA program), and all Professors and Lecturers. Your efforts and hard work will always be ed.

ID NO.:

PAGES 3 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

DEDICATIONS This thesis is dedicated to My Mother who has ed me all the way since the beginning of my life. I won’t forget her sacrifice, love, motivation and inspiration in building up my character and personality. Also, this thesis is dedicated to my brothers, Khawaja Amjad Majeed and Khawaja Asif Majeed and three loving sisters who have been a great source of motivation and inspiration. Finally, this thesis is dedicated to my two nice 2 year and 1 year old nieces, Ayesha Tariq and Zainab Tariq. I wish that they may succeed in their whole life. I really miss them.

ID NO.:

PAGES 4 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

ABSTRACT The marketing concept of building an organization around a profitable satisfaction of customer need has helped firms to achieve success in high growth, moderately competitive markets. However, to be successful in markets in which economic growth has levelled and in which there exist many competitors who follow the marketing concept, a well developed marketing strategy is required. Such marketing considers a portfolio of products and takes into the anticipated moves of competitors in the market.

ID NO.:

PAGES 5 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER .1

INTRODUCTION

1.1

Research Background and scope

09

1.2

Aim and Objectives of Research

11

CHAPTER .2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1

Marketing

2.1.1

What marketing means

14

2.1.2 Marketing is a management process

14

2.1.3 Marketing is about giving customers what they want

15

2.1.4 Marketing identifies and anticipates customer requirements 15 2.1.5 Marketing fulfils customer requirement profitability:

15

2.1.6 Marketing offers and exchange ideas, goods and services

16

2.2

17

The Marketing concept in the organization:

2.2.1 The external organizational environment:

17

2.2.2 Current and potential customers:

17

2.2.3 Competitors:

17

2.2.4 Intermediaries:

18

2.2.5 Suppliers:

18

2.3

19

The Marketing Environment

2.3.1 The internal Organizational Environment:

19

2.3.2 Finance:

19

2.3.3 Purchasing:

19

2.3.4 Production:

20

2.3.5 Research and development and engineering:

20

2.4

21

Marketing Mix:

2.4.1 Product:

21

2.4.2 Price

22

2.4.3 Place:

22

2.4.4 Promotion:

23

2.4.5 People:

24

2.4.6 Processes:

25

2.4.7 Physical evidence:

25

ID NO.:

PAGES 6 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

2.5

What is Strategy?

27

2.5.1 The classical approach:

27

2.5.2 The evolutionary approach:

27

2.5.3 The process approach:

28

2.5.4 The systematic approach:

28

2.6

30

Marketing Strategy

2.6.1 Influence on Marketing Strategy:

32

2.7

34

Strategic Marketing Plans and Planning:

2.7.1 The Marketing Planning Process:

34

2.7.2 Corporate Objectives and Values:

35

2.7.3 The Marketing Audit:

35

2.7.4 SWOT Analysis:

36

2.7.5 Marketing Objectives:

36

2.7.6 Marketing Strategies:

36

2.7.7 Marketing programs:

36

2.7.8 Marketing Budgets:

37

2.7.9 Marketing Control & Evaluation

37

2.8

Customer Satisfaction

38

2.8.1

Who is the Customer?

38

2.8.2

Knowing the customers

38

2.8.3

How are customers satisfied?

39

2.9

Consumer Behaviour:

40

2.9.1 The decision making process:

40

2.9.2 Problem Recognition

40

2.9.3 Information Search:

41

2.9.4 Decision:

41

2.9.5 Buying Situation

42

2.10

Impact of marketing strategy on Customer satisfaction 43

2.10.1 The customer comes first

43

2.10.2 Market segmentation

43

2.10.3 Products and Services:

44

2.10.4 Customer strategy

44

ID NO.:

PAGES 7 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

CHAPTER .3 METHODOLOGY 3.1

Introduction

46

3.2

Aims and objectives

46

3.3

Methodology Employed:

48

3.4

Qualitative/quantitative analysis:

49

3.5

Research Instruments:

51

3.6

Data collection method:

53

3.7

Sample size/sampling

55

CHAPTER .4 ANALYSIS & FINDINGS 4.1

Introduction

56

4.2

Findings and analysis

56

4.3

Summary and Conclusion:

85

CHAPTER .5

CONCLUSION

5.1

Conclusion of the study:

86

5.2

Contribution and beneficiaries of this dissertation:

87

5.3

Implications to Management

87

5.4

Research Limitation:

88

5.5

Future Research

89

REFERENCES

90

APPENDIX Copy of Questionnaire Completed Questionnaire

ID NO.:

PAGES 8 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

CHAPTER - 1

1.1

INTRODUCTION

Research Background and Scope:

This research is focused on the impact of marketing strategy of TESCO and Sainsbury’s on customer’s satisfaction. A marketing strategy is a process that can allow an organization to concentrate its limited resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. A marketing strategy should be centered on the key concept that customer satisfaction is the main goal. The grocery industry sector in the UK is controlled and directed by supermarket giants most of which are household names. Between the high-end niche market players like Waitrose and Marks & Spencer and the cheap bulk discounters like Iceland, the top five players operating in the largest mid-market segment remain TESCO, Sainsbury, Asda, Somerfield and Safeway. Striving to capture consumer attention and in the effort to retain it, the strategies of the supermarkets swing between loyalty schemes and price wars. Alongside continuous attempt to retain a hold over the home market, many of the organizations view overseas opportunities as another lucrative way to inflate profits and expand the brand name. On the other side of the coin, invasions from foreign companies like Walmart/Asda and the slightly over-efficient supply mechanism of the industry present UK supermarkets with the challenges of mergers, acquisitions and the positive and negative effects of globalization. TESCO is a British-based international grocery and general merchandising retail chain. It is the largest British retailer by both global sales and domestic market share with profits exceeding £3 billion. It is currently the third largest global retailer based on revenue, behind Wal-Mart and 's Carrefour but second largest based on profit, ahead of Carrefour. Originally specializing in food and drink, it has diversified into areas such as clothing, consumer electronics, financial services, telecoms; home, health and car insurance; dental plans, retailing and renting DVDs, CDs, music s, Internet services, and software.

ID NO.:

PAGES 9 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

Sainsbury's is a supermarket chain based in the United Kingdom. Sainsbury's originally sold only food, but it now sells other things like mobile phones, DVDs and videos, clothing and books. Sainsbury's is the third biggest supermarket in the UK (behind TESCO and Asda). The clothing range at Sainsbury's has changed a lot over the years. It started off with, Jeff & Co, and then another range was brought in, after that Adams Kids. Now it's called TU. To achieve its marketing objectives and customer's satisfactions, an organisation must develop a marketing strategy, or a set of marketing strategies. The set of marketing strategies that are implemented and used at the same time is referred to as the organisation's marketing programme. Most marketing programmes centre on a detailed marketing mix specification and include internal controls and procedures to ensure that they are implemented effectively. Through the process of strategic market planning, an organisation can develop marketing strategies that, when properly implemented and controlled, will contribute to the achievement of its marketing objectives and its overall goals. Companies operating for the customer's satisfactions market, particularly the big two (TESCO & Sainsbury's), primarily rely on generic marketing strategies. To formulate a marketing strategy, the marketer identifies and analyses the target market and develops a marketing mix to satisfy individuals in that market. Marketing strategy is best formulated when it reflects the overall direction of the organisation and is co-ordinated with all the company's functional areas. The strategic market planning process is based on an analysis of the broader marketing environment, by which it is very much affected. Marketing environment forces such as legal forces, political forces, technological forces, economic and competitive forces, societal/green forces, and regulatory forces, can place constraints on an organisation and possibly influence its overall goals; they also affect the amount and type of resources that a business can acquire, Eppendorfer et al. (2002). Marketing environment variables play a part in the creation of a marketing strategy. When environment variables affect an organisation's overall goals, resources, opportunities or marketing objectives, they also affect its marketing strategies, which are based on the factors mentioned previously. They impact consumers needs, desires and they affect competitors' plans. Corporate branding is a serious undertaking that entails more skills and activities than just an updated glossy marketing facade with empty jargon. A strong corporate branding strategy can add significant value in of helping the entire corporation ID NO.:

PAGES 10 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

and the management team to implement the long-term vision, create unique positions in the market place of the company and its brands, and not the least to unlock the leadership potential within the organization. Hence a corporate branding strategy can enable the corporation to further leverage on its tangible and non-tangible assets leading to branding excellence throughout the corporation, Polito (2005). TESCO & Sainsbury's as stated in the latter has in recent years acquired a vast number of companies across the globe and adopted them fully under its international corporate brand with great success and within a surprising short timeframe. A strong brand is about building and maintaining strong perceptions in the minds of customers.

1.2 Aim and Objectives of research: The main aim of this study is judgment of the supermarket sector highlights a number of bright factors, which have contributed, to the development of the world’s major supermarket centres. This study includes a well-developed financial infrastructure, a Conducive rigid environment and sound supervisory process, market planning, a modern and effective planning capabilities and environmental scanning. This research is about the impact of marketing strategy of the TESCO and Sainsbury's on customer's satisfaction. This research highlights all the factors which should be necessary and important for the marketing strategy and customer satisfaction. One of the most important aims of the research is to compare both big supermarkets in their marketing strategies and customer's views and arguments about TESCO and Sainsbury's. Some of the important aims are mentioned below. • How important is the marketing strategy on the customer’s satisfaction and what the key features of marketing strategy are. • What are the main and important issues of marketing strategy of TESCO and Sainsbury’s? • Main and important aspects of the success of TESCO and Sainsbury’s and comparison of both of them. • Main and important points need to improve the marketing strategies. ID NO.:

PAGES 11 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

• Exploration of customer’s satisfaction and consumer’s behavior. The main objective of the research is to find the impact of marketing strategy of TESCO and Sainsbury's on customer's satisfaction. To find this objective, there are some objectives need to achieve the major goals of the research.

1). Establish a theoretical framework of strategic marketing and customer satisfaction. Bray (2002) states that strategic marketing cannot be formulated in isolation. It has to reflect the objectives of the organization and be compatible with the strategies pursued elsewhere in the organization. This means that marketers must refer back to cooperate goals and objectives before formulating their own strategy, to ensure consistency, coherence and relevance. So, marketing strategy is the main part of the organization. It is a combination of all objectives of the organization. Customer benefits are at the roof of marketing and selling, because, in order to satisfy their needs, customers are not so much looking for particular products and services, they are looking for the benefits that these may be able to provide. If two or three identical products have the same kind of benefits but prices are different, customers, obviously, tries to take the product which is the cheapest of all. This shows that prices are also the way which can solve the problem of the customers. Chapter no 2 (Literature View) reflects fully according to the Objective no 1.

2). Explore the marketing strategies of TESCO & Sainsbury's. TESCO and Sainsbury’s have a lot of identical marketing strategies. All of those are discussed and explored in further research and questionnaire. Some strategies, explored by the researcher are given below. •

Availability of staff for information and advice

•

Staff helpfulness

•

Make up of Shop

•

Presentation of products

•

Cleanliness of shop

ID NO.:

PAGES 12 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

•

Quality and Freshness of goods

•

Choice of Products

•

Value of price

•

Access to the Shop

•

Shopping Hours

•

Waiting time at checkout

•

Ways of payment

•

Price marking on goods

•

Availability of special offers and Promotions.

3). Analyze and the impact of marketing strategies of TESCO & Sainsbury's on customer's satisfaction. All strategies mentioned above are analyzed and discussed in Research & Findings with full detail which describes the customer’s satisfactions on those strategies.

4). Comparison of marketing strategies of TESCO & Sainsbury's. This research is based on two different organizations. It is very difficult to compare two organizations which have similar marketing strategies. After analyzing and discussing those strategies, researcher compared the marketing strategies of both organizations.

5). Suggest the measures to improve the effective marketing of TESCO & Sainsbury have to improve the customer's satisfaction. All things in this world need improvement. After completely analyzing and discussing, all the suggestion for the further improvement is mentioned in the research work. The main question of the dissertation is as follows. Impact of Marketing Strategy of TESCO and Sainsbury’s on customer’s satisfaction.

ID NO.:

PAGES 13 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

CHAPTER - 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

This section is going to explore what marketing is and its evolution. First we shall look at currently accepted definitions of marketing, and then history behind those definitions

2.1

Marketing

2.1.1 What marketing means? Here are two proper and widely definitions of marketing. The first is the definition preferred by the UK’s Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), while the second is that offered by the American Marketing Association (AMA). “Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitability” (CIM, 2001)

“Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchange and satisfy individual and organizational objectives”. (AMA, 1985) Both definitions make a good attempt at capturing concisely what is actually a wide and complex subject. Although they have a lot in common, each say something important that the other does not emphasize. According to the all definition, it comes to know that all definitions agree on the following points. •

Marketing is the management process

•

Marketing is about giving customers what they want

•

Marketing identifies and anticipates customer requirements

•

Marketing fulfils customer requirements profitably

•

Marketing offers and exchanges ideas, goods and services

ID NO.:

PAGES 14 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

2.1.2 Marketing is a management process Avlonitis, G. et al. (1997) expressed that marketing is just as much legitimacy as any other business function, and involves just as management skill. It requires planning and analysis, resource allocation, control and investment in of money, appropriately skilled people and physical resources. It also, of course, requires implementations, monitoring and evaluation. As with any other management activity, it can be carried out efficiently and successfully. It can be poorly, resulting in failure.

2.1.3 Marketing is about giving customers what they want Anderson et al. (1972) argued that all marketing activities should be geared towards this. It implies focus towards the customer or end customer of the product or service. If “customers requirements” are not satisfactorily fulfilled, or if customers do not obtain what they want and need, then marketing has failed both the customers and the organization.

2.1.4 Marketing identifies and anticipates customer requirements This phrase has a stable edge to it that does not come through strongly in the American Marketing Association definition. It is saying that the market creates some sort of offering only after researching the market and pinpointing exactly what the customers will want. The American Marketing Association definition is ambiguous because it begins with the planning process, which may or may not be done by the reference to the customers.

2.1.5 Marketing fulfils customer requirement profitability: This pragmatic phrase warns the marketer against getting too carried away with the altruism of satisfying the customer! In the real world an organization cannot please all of the people all of the time, and even sometimes marketers have to make compromises. The marketer has to work within the resource capabilities of the organization, and specifically the work within the agreed budget and performance targets set for the marketing function. Nevertheless, profitability can still be

ID NO.:

PAGES 15 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

questionable. Marketing practice, and in part, marketing thinking, is now accepted within many non-profit organizations, from schools and universities to hospitals, voluntary organizations and activist groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of The Earth. Each must manage its dealings with its various publics and groups and manage them effectively, but no for profit. That important context aside, most commercial companies exit to make profits, and thus profitability is a legitimate concern. Even so some organizations occasionally accept the need to make a loss on a particular product or sector of a market in order to achieve wider strategic objectives. As long as those losses are planned and controlled, and in the longer run provide some other benefit to the organization, and then they are bearable. In general , however, if an organization is consistently failing to make profits, then it will not survive, and thus marketing has a responsibility to sustain and increase profits..

2.1.6 Marketing offers and exchange ideas, goods and services: This statement is close to the UK’s Chartered Institute of Marketing’s “profitability”, but a little more subtle the ideas of marketing as an exchange process is an important one, and was first proposed by Alderson (1957). The basic idea is that I’ve got some thing you want and you’ve got something I want, so let’s do a deal. For the most part exchange is a simple one. The organization offers a product or service, and customer offers a sum of money in return for it. Red bull offers you a can of drink and you offer money or payment; you sign a contract to offer your services as an employee and an organization pays you a salary. In the same way we can take many examples from our life. You pay money to the school and school pays you back by giving you good study atmosphere. Hence we can prove from all of the following examples that both sides want some kind of services. It’s all up to the marketer to provide best possible services to the customers according to the need of them.

ID NO.:

PAGES 16 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

2.2

The Marketing concept in the organization:

Kotle et al (1999) stated in their book “Principal of Marketing” that the understanding of the marketing concept is very essential to understand for the whole management. It is not the only duty for the managing department to understand or learn but it is the duty of the whole organization to adopt and understand the marketing concept. It is the main philosophy or way of doing business. All the staff from top management level to the lowest level of the department should know the needs, wants and satisfaction of the customers. They should understand that customer comes first. To bring the external and internal environments together, this section is summarized by looking at marketing as an interface.

2.2.1 The external organizational environment: Su-Chao Chang and Ming-Shing Lee (2008) expressed in their Journal “Journal of Knowledge Management” that external organizational environment plays very important part in the marketing. External effect change the condition of the organization. All big organizations are in high pressure because of the change of the external organizational environment. There are many groups forces and people that have some skills, indirectly or directy, the way in which organization conducts its business. The organizational environment includes both the imidiate operating environment and the border issues and trends that effect business in the longer term. 2.2.2 Current and potential customers: Anders P. Fundin and Bo L.S. Bergman (2003) imply that the customers are always a key part of any organization. It is, therefore, very important for the of the organization about the customer’s needs, desires, and wants and then communicate to them and promise them to provide those things which they want to buy. Those promises have to be delivered and followed up to ensure that customers are satisfied. It is very essential for the management of the company to locate the customers. 2.2.3 Compititors: Richard Ball (1987) argued that compititors make the organization”s liason with customer group a little more difficult, since by definition they are largely pursuing the same set of customers. Customers will make comarisons between different offerings, and will listen to compititors messages. The organization, therefore, has not only to monitorwhat its compititors are doing now, but also to try to anticipate what they will do in the future in order to develop counter-measure in advance. ID NO.:

PAGES 17 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

2.2.4 Intermediaries: Dwyer. F.R. et al. (1987) argue that Intermediaries often provide individual services in getting goods from manufacturers to the end buyer. Without the cooperation of the network of wholesalers, many manufacturers would have immense problem in getting their goodsto the end customers at the right time in the right place. The organization, therefore, think carefully about how best to distribute goods, and the build appropriate relationship with intermediaries. Again, this is an area in which compititors can interface, and organizations cannot always obtain access to the channels of distribution that they want, or trade on the that they want. 2.2.5 Suppliers: Grant. J. (2002) argue that supplier is one the most important and crucial chain of this important link. Losing a key supplier of components or raw materials can mean that production flow is interrupted, or that a lower quality or more expensive substitution has to be made. This means that there is danger that the organization will fail in its promises to the customer, for example by not providing the right product at the right time at the right price. Choice of suppliers, negotiation of and relationship building therefore all become important task.

ID NO.:

PAGES 18 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

2.3 The Marketing Environment 2.3.1 The internal Organizational Environment: Jamal, A. & Goode, M. H. (2001) express that as well as fostering and maintaining relationship with external group and forces, the marketing function has to interact with other functions within the organization. Not all organization have formal marketing departments, and even if they do they can be set up in different ways, but wherever the responsibility for the planning and implementation of marketing lies, close interaction with other areas of the organization is essential. Not all business functions, however, operate with the same kind of focus, and sometimes there can be potential conflict where perspectives and concerns do not match up. This subsection looks at just a few other functions typically found in all but the smallest organizations and some of the points of conflict between them and in the marketers. 2.3.2 Finance: Marsh, P. (2001) finance is considered one most important part of the internal organization. The finance function, for example, sets budgets, perhaps early in the financial year, and expects other functions to stick to them. It wants hard evidence to justify expenditure, and it usually wants pricing to cover costs and contribute toward profit. Marketing, on the other hand, tends to want the flexibility to act intuitively, according to fast changing needs. Marketing also takes a longer, strategic view of pricing, and may be prepared to make a short-term financial loss in order to develop the market or to further wider strategic objectives. In of ing and credit, i.e. where finance comes into with customers, the finance function would want pricing and procedures to be as standardized as possible for istrative ease. An ant would want to compose tough credit and short credit periods, preferably only dealing with customers with proven credit records. Marketing, however, would again want some flexibility to allow credit to be used as part of negotiation procedure, and to use pricing discounts as a marketing tool. 2.3.3 Purchasing: Barber, A. (2000) argue that the purchasing function can also become somewhat bureaucratic, with too high a priority given to price. A focus on economical purchase quantities, standardization and the price of materials, along with the desire to purchase as in frequently as possible, can all reduce the flexibility and responsiveness of the ID NO.:

PAGES 19 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

organization. Marketing refers to think of the quality of the components and raw materials rather than the price, and to go for non standard parts, to increase its ability to differentiate its product from that of the competition. To be fair to purchasing, this is a somewhat traditional view. The rise of relationship marketing and the increase acceptance of just-in-time system means that marketing and purchasing are working more closely than ever in building long-term flexible, cooperative relationship with the suppliers. 2.3.4 Production: Agede, p. (1998) explores that production has perhaps the greatest potential to clash with marketing. It may be in production’s interest to operate long, large productions run with a few variations on the basic product as possible, and with the changes with the product as infrequently as possible, at least where mass production is concerned. This also means the production would prefer to deal with standard, rather than customized, orders. If new products are necessary, then longer the lead time they are given to get production up to speed and running consistently, the better. Marketing has a greater sense of urgency and a greater demand for flexibility. Marketing may look for short production runs for many varied models in order to serve a range of needs in the market. Similarly, changes to the product may be frequent in order to keep the market interested.

2.3.5 Research and development and engineering: Research and development and engineering prefer long lead times. If they are to develop a new product from scratch, then the longer they have to do it, the better. The problem is, however, the marketing will want a new product available as soon as possible, so fear of the competition launching their version first. Being first into market can allow the organization to establish market share and customer loyalty and to set prices freely, before the effect of the competition make customers harder to gain and lead to downward pressure on prices. There is also a danger that Research & Development and engineering may become focused on the product for the product’s sake, and loose sight of what the eventual customer is looking for. Marketing, in contrast, will be concentrating on the benefits and selling points of the product rather than purely on its functionality.

ID NO.:

PAGES 20 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

2.4 Marketing Mix: David A. Aaker, (2001) defines marketing mix as, ‘‘it includes all activities involved in transferring products from point of production to consumers’’. It is considered as the core of all marketing activities. Cartwright (2002) explains that for the success of a firm, it is essential to have the product or service needed by the customer, at an accurate price, promotional channels such as advertising to give details about product to customers and location or place that suits to the customer. Dibb, S., Simkin, L., and Bradley, J., (1996) argue that understanding the nature of customers and their needs and wants is only the first step. The organization, however, needs to act on that information, in order to develop and implement marketing activities that actually deliver something of value to the customer. The means by which such ideas are turned is known as the Marketing Mix. They further argue that the concept of the Marketing Mix as combination of the major tools of Marketing was first developed by Borden in 1950s, and mnemonic “4Ps” (Product, Price, Promotion and Place) describing those tools was coined by McCarthy (1960). For many years, these 4Ps served very well in all organizations. More recently, however, it has become apparent that 4Ps as they stand are not always sufficient. In the services sector in particular, they cannot fully describe the marketing activities that are going on, so as extended marketing mix, the 7Ps, was proposed by Booms and Bitner (1981), adding people, Processes and physical evidence to the traditional 4Ps. The marketing Mix creates an offering for the customers. The use of the word mix and combination are important here, because successful marketing relies as much on interaction and synergy between marketing mix elements as it does on good decisions within those elements themselves. 2.4.1 Product: Buxton. P. (2000) states that the area of product is always covered with everything to do with creation, development and management of products. It is about not only not what to make it, but when to make it, how to make it, and how to ensure that it has a long and profitable life. ID NO.:

PAGES 21 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

A product is not just a physical thing. In marketing , it includes peripheral but important elements, such as after sale service, guarantees, installation and fitting, anything that helps to distinguish the product from its competition and make the customers more likely to buy it. Particularly with the fast moving consumer goods, part of a product’s attractiveness is, of course, its brand imagery and its packaging. Both of these are likely to emphasize the psychological benefits offered by the products. With B2B purchases, however, the emphasis is more likely to be on fitness for functional purpose, quality and peripheral services (Technical , delivery customization etc). Although much of the emphasis is on physical products, it must also be ed that service markets are an increasingly important growth area of many European economies. 2.4.2 Price: Cavaye, A., (1996) explains that price is not clear cut as it might seem at first glance, since price is not necessarily a straight forward calculation of costs and profit margin. Price has to reflect issues of buyer behavior, because people judge “value” in of their perceptions of what they are getting for their money, what else they could have had for that money and how that money meant to them in the first place. Pricing also has a strategic dimension, in that it gives messages to all sorts of people in the market. Customers, for example, may use price as an indicator of quality and desirability for a particular product, and thus price can reinforce or destroy the work of other element of the marketing mix. Competitors, on the other hand, may see price as a challenge, because if an organization prices its product very low it may be signaling its intention to start a price war to the death, whereas very high () prices may signal that there are high profits to be made or that there is room for the competitor to undercut and take market share away. Overall, price is a very flexible element of the marketing mix, being very easy to tinker with. It is also, however, a dangerous element to play around with, because of its very direct link with revenues and profits, unless management think very carefully and clearly about how they are using it. 2.4.3 Place: Borden, N. (1964) states that place is a very dynamic and fast moving area of marketing. It covers a wide variety of fascinating topics largely concerned with the movement of goods from A to B and what happens at the point of sale. This is about ID NO.:

PAGES 22 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

availability. It includes the physical place, availability and timing. It involves the structure of channel of distribution, from mail order companies that deal direct with the end consumer, to long and complex chains that involves goods ing between several intermediaries, and the roles they play in getting goods to the right place at the right time for the end buyer, as well as the physical distribution issues involved in making it all happen. These channels are not only about the movement and transfer of goods, but they are also about power, control, manipulation and competitive advantage. For consumer goods, the most visible player in the channel of distribution is the retailer. Manufacturer and consumers alike have to put a lot of trust in the retailer to do justice to the product, to maintain stocks, and to provide a satisfying purchasing experience. Retailers face many of the same marketing decisions as other types of organization, and use the same marketing mix tools, but with a slightly a different perspective. They also face unique marketing problems, for example store location, lay out and the creation of store image and atmosphere. 2.4.4 Promotion: This is about the communication. It is about telling potential customers about a product. The aim is to persuade customers to buy the product. The extent to which this ingredient is important will depend on: •

The competitiveness of the market- where no alternatives are available the customers will have less choice. There will be less need to persuade the customer to buy.

•

Availability- if product is in short supply there will be little need to promote it. In Russia, toilet paper is scarce. Russian customers are less concerned about the thickness, softness or number of sheets in the roll than people in the West, where several products are competing for customer approval in crowded markets.

•

How easily the product can be differentiated in the market- if the differences are obvious to the customer there may be less need for the promotion.

•

The stage of the product life cycle- a new product will usually need promotional . Promotion will tell the customers that the product is available. It will persuade them to try new product. If the product has been altered, promotion will tell customers of the changes.

ID NO.:

PAGES 23 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

The promotion should be: 1. Informative 2. Persuasive 3. Reassuring. There are many forms of promotion. It is not just advertising. Promotion includes: •

Advertising- this includes direct advertising such as through the TV, Radio and Newspapers. It also includes indirect advertising such as product placement.

“I know half the money I spent on advertising is wasted, but I can never find out which half” (Lord Lever Hume, British Industrialist) Source: The Ultimate Book of Business Quotations, Stuart Crainer, Capstone Publishing, 1997 •

Direct selling- customers are approached directly. This may be by direct . Telesales is a growing business.

•

Direct marketing- this will include mailshots, perhaps ed by sales catalogues.

•

Point-of-sale- promotional material is often used where product is being sold. It may include displays, free samples of special offers.

•

Incentives- these includes loyalty cards, bonus points and sometimes price incentives.

•

Public relations- this is not direct marketing but involves insuring that the company or product is name is known and is well thought of by customers. This will include activities such as sponsorship of sport or arts.

2.4.5 People: Benady, D. (2001) argues that Services often depend on people to perform them, creating and delivering the product as customer waits. A customer’s satisfaction with hairdressing and dentistry services, for example, has as much to do with the quality and nature of the interaction between the customer and service provider, trust them and has a rapport with them that is a relationship that a competitor would find hard to break into. Even where the service is not quite so personal, sullen assistance in a shop ID NO.:

PAGES 24 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

or a fast food outlet, for example, does not encourage the customer to come back for more. Thus people add value and the dimension to the marketing package way beyond the basic product offering.

2.4.6 Processes: Manufacturing processes, once they are set up, are consistent and predictable and can be left to the production management team, and since they go on out of sight of the customer, any mistake can be weeded out before distribution. Services, however, are “Manufactured” and consumed live, on the spot, and because they do involve people and the performance of their skills, consistency can be rather more difficult than with the normal manufacturing. The marketer therefore has to think carefully about how the service is delivered, and what quality control can be built in so that the customer can be confident that they know what to expect each time they consume the service product. Balestrini, P. (2001) further explains that the processes can also involve queuing mechanisms, preventing waiting customers from getting so impatient that they leave without purchase; processing customer’s details and payment; as well as ensuring the high professional quality of whatever services they are buying. 2.4.7 Physical evidence: This final area of particular relevance to retailers, or those who maintain premises from which a service is sold or delivered to the consumers which signals out some of the factors, such as atmosphere, ambience, image and design of premises. In other service situations, physical evidence would relate to the aircraft in which you fly, the hotel in which you stay, the stadium in which you watch a big match or the lecture theatre in which you learn. Other than in the services arena, the 4Ps are still widely accepted as defining the marketing mix. It has never been suggested, however, that the same mix applicable in all situations or even for the same organization at different times, so the task of the marketing manager is to review and change the mix to suit emerging circumstances. The marketing mix is simply therefore a set of categories of marketing variables that has become standard in marketing education. The particular combination of the 4Ps used by any one organization needs to give it competitive edge, or differential advantage. This means that the marketer is creating ID NO.:

PAGES 25 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

something unique, that the potential customer will recognize and value that distinguishes one organization’s product from another. In highly competitive, crowded markets, this is absolutely essential for drawing customers toward the product. The edge of the advantage may be created mainly through one element of the mix, or through a combination of them. A product may have a combination of high quality and good value (price and product) that a competitor cannot match; an organization may have established a 24-hour telephone ordering and home delivery service (place) that cannot easily be imitated; an effective and unique communication campaign combine with an excellent product living up to all its promises (promotion and product) can make an organization’s offering stand out above the crowd.

ID NO.:

PAGES 26 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

2.5 What is Strategy? “Thus it is in the war the victorious strategy only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.” “In warfare, first lay plans which will ensure victory, and then lead your army to battle; if you will not begin with stratagem but rely on brute strength alone, victory will no longer be assured.” (SUN TZU, 500 BC) The word strategy has become one of the most common and badly used words in business writings. Everywhere we look we see such as business strategy, cooperate strategy, marketing strategy, marketing strategy, strategic marketing, product strategy, pricing strategy, advertising strategy and even discount strategy.

2.5.1 The classical approach: Abell, D. and Hammond, J. (1979) stated that the classical approach to strategy formulation is probably the oldest strategy approach. They believe that the profit maximization is the major key of an organization and the job of the strategies is then to position the organization into those markets where most profits can be made. The underlying belief is that strategy is best created through a rational and intellectual analysis, often carried out in the isolation from the normal ups and downs of any market place. They strongly believe that high quality planning is what is needed to take control over both internal and external environment. Strategy, based on objective analysis and “rational economic man” will make the difference between success and failure in the long term. 2.5.2 The evolutionary approach: Carr, H. and Pomeroy, J. (1992) expressed their own ideas that the main thrust of the evolutionary argument is that the organization cannot control the environment in which it operates- markets are more power full than the company. Since large organizations tend to be slow to react or respond to change, the power of an allembracing strategy may be overrated. They even argue that investing in a long term strategy could be counterproductive for the organization. Since best result always be achieved by matching the needs of the environment now, the organization investing in the long term can always be undercut by the organization focusing on short term cost reduction processes. ID NO.:

PAGES 27 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

Tom Peter further argue that short term focus tends to stimulate the number of organizational liquidations over time this is a good thing since it ensures that the “gene pool” is constantly refreshed as talent is released from dying organizations. So now even survival may be an unsound objective. Moving away from some of the ideas seems to be that top managers don’t make profits, markets do. In a competitive marketplace the organizations should launch as much small initiative as possible and see what works. The competitive processes inherent in the market place should then allow the best initiatives to flourish and an overall strategy should begin to emerge as a pattern from the market place. In this way we can see that the idea is that the market dictates the strategy not the manager, the strategist, the planner or even the market.

2.5.3 The processual approach: Henry Mintzberg (1990) analyzed and mentioned that an effective and practical strategy will only from close involvement in every day operations of the organization. He believes that the environment is too strong for it to be overcome through intellectual analysis alone, but on the other hand seem to be less sure that the marketplace is sufficient enough to ensure profit maximizing results. He states that every organization is a coalition of individuals with their own personal objectives and ambitions, and, cooperate goals are therefore the result of a bargaining process driven by profit and non-profit motivated values. Gary Hamel (1991) further argued that planning which is not followed by implementation is an exercise in futility, what is the point then, he argues that strategy is a craft rather then a science and business strategy is best created by a series of small steps that slowly emerge into a pattern. He and others also argued that without the right competences in place in an organization many strategic plans cannot be implemented anyway. Therefore the whole process should be one of slow development, construction and consolidation. 2.5.4 The systematic approach: The arguments behind the systematic approach have been a long time coming to the surface. Writing in this area is still quite rare and often originate in areas other than straightforward business strategy so are not always easy to find. ID NO.:

PAGES 28 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

Hooley, G.J. et al. (1990) believe in the ability of organizations to plan forward and act effectively within the market environments, he argues that both the ends and means of the strategy depend on, and are deeply embedded in, particular social system. What it means is that we shouldn’t view strategies as cool, calculation professionals but normal human beings (radical thinking this!) who are simply part of the social system and calculate from which they operate. Factors such as the family, the state, the professional and educational backgrounds, religion and even ethnic origin determine what acceptable behavior is for their and therefore acceptable objectives for the organization in which they work. This is obvious an important aspect for international multinational organizations who embrace a variety of cultures in one company. It is equally important, if not as easily identified, within a particular country, culture or industry. Wise, P. (2001b) relates the example of Western Business and argues that Western Business works within a culture that respects profit, values, scientific methods and sees the free market as an article of faith. Any individual organization or leader, who rejects the classical form of strategy making, places his or her reputation at stake. Perhaps this explains the reason why so many organizations insist on developing on logical, analytical strategy after another while consistently failing to implement anything. Wood, L. (1999) argue that the principal message then behind the systematic approach is that there is no such thing as a single strategy model that is applicable to all organizations. The objectives and strategy process will depend upon the social, cultural background of the strategist and social context within which they operate and these must be ed for before an organization can plan forward. A pluralistic society creates a potential range of unique and creative strategies. He also believes that implementation is critical and warns us that strategy must be sensitive to the sociology of the organization is it is to be successful.

ID NO.:

PAGES 29 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

2.6 Marketing Strategy Marketing strategy is the process by which the organization translates its business objectives and business strategy into market activity. (Paul Field) The marketing strategy concept can be encapsulated into two core elements: the product-marketing investment decision which encomes the product market scope of the business strategy, its investment intensity and the resource allocation in a multiple business context. “The development of a sustainable competitive advantage is to compete in those markets. This core concept encomes underlying distinctive competences or assets, appropriate objectives, functional area politics and the creation of synergy.” (Aaker) “Marketing strategy is the process of strategically analyzing environmental, competitive and business factors affecting business units and forecasting future trends in business areas of interest to the enterprise. Participating in sitting business objectives and formulating cooperate and business unit strategy. Selecting target market strategies for: the product market in each business unit, establishing marketing objectives, and developing, implementing and managing program positioning strategies for meeting target market needs.” (Cravens) The marketing strategy defines target markets, what direction needs to be taken and what needs to be done in broad term to create the defensible competitive position compatible with overall cooperate strategy within those markets. It is therefore concerned with many of the aspects considered in buyer behavior, as well as the decision to target particular market segment. Marketing mix program can then be designed to best match organizational capabilities with target market opportunities. Many of the cases and example show how various marketing mix strategies are used to achieve marketing objectives. Although chosen strategies vary, depending on the context, they all share the same marketing-oriented philosophy. Around the world corporations are increasingly becoming aware of the enhanced value that corporate branding strategies can provide for an organization. ID NO.:

PAGES 30 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

According to Weitz and Wensley (1988), they define marketing strategy as an indicator that is specific towards which activities are to be targeted and the types of competitive advantages that are to be developed and exploited. Implicitly, the strategy requires clear objectives and a focus in line with an organization’s corporate goals; the right customers must be targeted more effectively than they are by its competitors, and associated marketing mixes should be developed into marketing programmes that successfully implement the marketing strategy, Varadarajan (1999). A strategic market plan is an outline of the methods and resources required to achieve an organization’s goals within a specific target market. It's very important that company should adopt those policies or strategies which can fulfill the customer's desires and satisfaction. It takes into not only marketing but also all the functional aspects of a business unit that must be coordinated. These functional aspects include production, finance and personnel. Environmental issues are an important consideration as well. The concept of the strategic business unit is used to define areas for consideration in a specific strategic market plan. Each strategic business unit (SBU) is a division, product line or other profit centre within a parent company. Each sells a distinct set of products to an identifiable group of customers, and each competes with a well defined set of competitors, Dibb et al. (2001). Each SBU's revenues, costs, investments and strategic plans can be separated and evaluated apart from those of the parent company. SBUs operate in a variety of markets, which have differing growth rates, opportunities, degrees of competition and profit making potential. TESCO & Sainsbury's business units include personal financial services, consumer satisfaction, commercial activities, corporate investment plans and markets, and finally, customer’s satisfactions. Strategic planners within the group therefore must recognize the different performance capabilities of each business unit and carefully allocate resources or strategically implement its business objectives in order to meet the company's long term goals. They must also ensure that the business units complement each other for the greater good of the overall business. The process of strategic market planning yields a marketing strategy that is the framework for a marketing plan. A marketing plan includes the framework and entire set of activities to be performed; it is the written document or blueprint for implementing and controlling an organization’s marketing activities. Thus a strategic market plan is not the same as a marketing plan; it is a plan of all aspects of an organization’s strategy in the marketplace, Dibb et al. (1996). A marketing plan, in ID NO.:

PAGES 31 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

contrast, deals primarily with implementing the marketing strategy as it relates to target markets and the marketing mix, Abell and Hammond (1979).

2.6.1 Influence on Marketing Strategy: There are various influences on an organization’s marketing strategy, some of them are

1)

•

Organizational objectives and resources.

•

Attitude to change and risk

•

Market structure and opportunities

•

Competitor strategies. Organizational objectives and resources:

Dibb, S., Simkin, L., Pride, W.M., and Ferrell, O.C., (2001) argue that marketing strategists need to be guided by what the organization as a whole is striving for what its objectives are and what resources it has to implement them. Some organization might have very ambitious growth plans, while others might be content with fairly study growth or even no growth at all, that is, consolidation. Clearly each of these alternatives implies different approaches to marketing. Resources are not only financial. They also include skills and expertise, in other words any area of the organization that can help to add value and give a competitive edge. The exploitation, through marketing, of things that the organization does well, such as manufacturing, technical innovation, product department or customer service, might help to create non-financial assets such as reputation and image, which are difficult for the competitors to copy. 2)

Attitude to change and risk:

Charles, G. (2002a) states that the corporate view on change and risk often depends on the approach of top management. Risk tolerance varies widely from individual to individual and from management team to management team. Manager will, of course, be guided by the nature of the organization and their interpretation of its business environment. The managing director of the small businesses may not want to take on high risk projects, feeling that the firm’s size makes it more vulnerable to failure through its lack of resources. A larger firm might be able to absorb any losses and therefore feel that the risk is worth taking. The performance group (1999) in its studies of corporate innovation has found that enterprise depends on the willingness to accept mistakes rather than punish them, and ID NO.:

PAGES 32 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

that this stance, along with the tolerance of risk and innovation, is essential for the culture that welcomes change and significant development. Henry Mckinnell, chairman of Pfizer, is often quoted as saying that the pharmaceutical industry has a 99 percent failure rate. The organization that creates a culture for failure avoidance may often fail a lot quicker, because innovation is necessary in most sectors to remain competitive, as can be seen from many of the example from our surroundings. 3)

Market structure and Opportunities:

Carr, H. and Pomeroy, J. (1992) argue that markets vary considerably in their structure and dynamics. Some are fairly stable and not a great deal happen in them unless one of the major players decides to become aggressive and seeks to improve its competitive position. Some markets are simply too complacent. A good example would be the Dutch agriculture sector, which has been criticized for failing to keep up with market changes and increased level of European competitiveness. Although competitiveness has been maintained in cut flowers and seeds, ground has been lost in the dairy, vegetable and pork sectors. The real problem has arisen from change in the marketing environment, as customers have sought a wider variety of products and higher product specifications, and European super market buyers have sought greater efficiency. The impact of the increasing internationalization of organizations is that previously dormant markets can be suddenly transformed into dynamic competitive arenas by the entry of the new, foreign competitor. This can be seen in UK construction industry. Companies suffered badly in 1990s, partly because of the depressed state of the construction market generally, but also because of increasing difficulties in competing with European, American and Japanese rivals entering in UK market. 4)

Competitor Strategies:

The competitive structure in different product markets will vary to create conditions of strong or weak condition. In markets such as computer chips, the dominant competitor has a strong influence over the level and nature of competition. Challenges still can arise, but nevertheless, within constraints set by governmental competition policy and public pressure, a dominant competitor is effectively able to decide when and how to compete. The dominant competitor is likely to be confident that it has sufficient strength through its market position, volume sales, and thus perhaps through its cost base to fight any serious challenger successfully. ID NO.:

PAGES 33 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

2.7 Strategic Marketing Plans and Planning: Planning can be defined systematic process of forecasting the future business environment, and then deciding on the most appropriate goals, objectives and positions for best exploiting that environment. Organizational and functional strategies and plans provide the means by which the organization can set out to achieve all that. Anderson (2002) explained that planning is an activity, a process in business that provides a systematic structure and framework for considering the future, appraising options and opportunities, and then selecting and implementing the necessary activities for achieving the stated objectives efficiently and effectively. The marketing plans provide a clear and unambiguous statement concerning what strategies and actions will be implemented, by whom, when and with what outcomes. He stated that adaptability and flexibility are necessary to cope with the rapid rate of environmental change. It’s important to distinguish between plans, the outcomes of planning process, and planning, the process by which plans are derived. While the process of planning is fairly standard and can be transferred across functions and organizations, there are often wide variations in the actual use of plans to guide strategy

2.7.1 The Marketing Planning Process: Abell (1982) stated that the strategic marketing plan differs from an operational marketing plan on two key dimensions. First the strategic marketing plan deals with the total strategy in a market linking customers, competitors and organizational capability. Operational marketing plans, on the other hand, normally deal with the marketing mix strategy that will be used to gain leverage in the market. The strategic marketing plans therefore guides all planning and activities at the functional level, not just in marketing but across the whole organization. Second strategic marketing plans tend to be prepared at company level, while the operational marketing plan is more often concerned with products and market segments. The main purpose of the marketing planning has been defined as: “To find a systematic way of identifying a range of options, to choose one or more of them, then to schedule and cost out what has to be done to achieve the objectives.” (McDonald, 1989, p. 13)

ID NO.:

PAGES 34 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

If this definition is to work in practice, an organizational structure is needed to ensure that the process is properly managed. Without such a structure, there is a danger that key stages may be omitted, or give insufficient attention. Although the structure will vary according to the complexity and variability the organization, and emphasis may vary according to the turbulence in the environment. The main stages in planning process have these processes. •

Corporate objectives and values

•

Marketing Audit

•

SWOT Analysis

•

Marketing Programs

•

Marketing Strategies

•

Marketing Objectives

•

Budgets

•

Control and Evolution

2.7.2 Corporate Objectives and Values: This is at the heart of the planning process, since they describe the direction, priorities and relative position of the organization in market. These objectives help to create guidelines for marketing plans, since the output of the corporate planning process act as an input into the marketing planning process. Objectives are normally presented in of different kinds of targets. •

Qualitative targets

•

Philosophical targets

•

Quantitative targets

2.7.3 The Marketing Audit: Audit is a term more commonly used in financial management to describe the process of taking stock of an organization’s financial strength, weaknesses and health, through checking and analyzing changing in its assets and transactions over a given period. The philosophy of the marketing order is very similar, in that it systematically takes stock of an organization’s marketing health, as the formal definition implies:

ID NO.:

PAGES 35 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

“The Audit is the means by which a company can understand how it relates to the environment in which it operates. It is means by which a company can identify its own strength and weaknesses as they relate to external opportunities and threats. It is thus a way of helping management to select a position in that environment based on known factors.” (McDonalds, 1989 p. 21) 2.7.4 SWOT Analysis: The commonest mechanism for structuring audit information to provide a critical analysis is the SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) The SWOT Analysis helps to sort information systematically and to classify it but still needs further creative analysis to make sense of it. The magnitude of opportunities and threats, and the feasibility of the potential courses of action implied by them, can only really be understood in of the organization’s strengths and weaknesses.

2.7.5 Marketing Objectives: Objectives are essential for clearly defining what must be achieved through the marketing strategies implemented, and also provide a benchmark against which to measure the extent of their success. Marketing objectives have to be wide ranging as well as precise, as they have to link closely with corporate objectives on a higher level but also descend to the fine detail of products, segments etc.

2.7.6 Marketing Strategies: A marketing strategy is the means by which an organization sets out to achieve it marketing objectives. Marketing strategy has been discussed a lot of times in this research earlier.

2.7.7 Marketing programs: This is the detailed implementation of the deg marketing strategies. The marketing program will precisely specify actions, responsibilities and timescale. Within the market program, each mixed element is considered individually, covering all the decision areas. This is in contrast to the marketing strategy itself, which stresses the independency between elements of the mix for achieving the best synergy between them.

ID NO.:

PAGES 36 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

2.7.8 Marketing Budgets: The marketing plan must specify and schedule all financial and other resource requirements, otherwise might not be able to accomplish the task set. This is partly about costs, such as those of the sales force which include their associated expenditures, advertising campaigns, dealer , market research etc., and partly about forecasting expected revenues from products and markets. 2.7.9 Marketing Control & Evaluation: Control and evaluation are both essential if managers are to ensure that the plans are being implemented properly and that the outcomes are those expected. As part of the planning process, managers will have to specify what will be measured, when, how and by whom. Control and evaluation can take either a short- or a longer term perspective. In the short term, control can be monitored on the daily basis through reviewing orders received, sales, stock turn or cash flow.

ID NO.:

PAGES 37 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

2.8

Customer Satisfaction

This is one of the most important parts of the business. Before discussing this, some important points are important to discuss. 2.8.1

Who is the Customer?

Tim Hannagan (2002) stated in his book “Mastering Strategic Management” that the customer is the person who pays for the product or service, and it is possible to define the customer in these . The customer of any organization can also be described as the ‘end ’ of its product or services, the person who receives benefits from them. This is often the person who pays. However this is not always the case, because someone who is not the end may pay. For example, children’s products tend to be bought by adults and then given to children. In these circumstances, from the point of view of strategic Marketing, both of these people are customers. This illustrate the fact the there are different levels of customers. The one who gets the advantage from the product is the customer. They all can be in chain form. The view of the customer as the people who receives benefits from a product or services is the other side of the coin to the view that a product or services should satisfy customer needs if it is to be successful. In all organizations, public or private, there is a circular or spiral type relationship between the organization and the customers. The organizations produce products and services which are bought by customers and the money obtained by these sales is recycled into the provision of more products and services. In the private sectors, income is obtained directly or indirectly from central or local governments, fees and subsidies. Instead of profits, public sector organizations may have surpluses which may be added to the budgets. 2.8.2

Knowing the customers:

In order to understand the ‘end s’ of their product and services, organizations need to be clear about what business they are in. this may appear, and in fact be, obvious in some organizations. Once the company knows what the business it is in, it is beginning to identify marketing as an essential element of strategy because the company is viewing its business from the position of its final customer. For example, a car showroom is in the business of selling cars, but even though this is obvious the questions still arise: to whom are they selling? Is the company hoping to sell to anybody who wants to buy a car, or it is selling to a particular group of car buyers? Group of buyers may be determined by the income levels, or by whether they ID NO.:

PAGES 38 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

want new or second hand cars, or by family as against business buyers and so on. Unless the company identifies which of these groups it wants to serve, it will not be able to concentrate its efforts on this groups needs. Once it has established its target groups, it is able to find out about their needs and meet them. 2.8.3

How are customers satisfied?

Customer benefits are at the roof of marketing and selling, because, in order to satisfy their needs, customers are not so much looking for particular products and services, they are looking for the benefits that these may be able to provide. If two or three identical products have the same kind of benefits but prices are different, customers, obviously, tries to take the product which is the cheapest of all. This shows that prices are also the way which can solve the problem of the customers. For example, customers may be looking for the benefits of warm house which is cheaper to heat than at present. Double glazing provide will provide these benefits, but if there was some other method of providing these benefits that was more attractive and cheaper, double-glazing will be more difficult to sell. Putting the satisfaction of the satisfaction of customer needs at the root of the marketing process emphasizes that company should be producing what can be sold, not selling what they can make. In order to survive and prosper a company has to produce what the people want to buy, rather than providing goods and then attempting to sell them. This does not stop managers attempting to anticipate customer demands, but they need first of all to determine the demands and wants of their target market, and benefits people want or will want to satisfy. The marketing approach starts with the needs of the target customers, while the selling approach starts with the existing product and searches for ways of promoting it to achieve profitable sale.

ID NO.:

PAGES 39 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

2.9

Consumer Behaviour:

The consumer is a part of marketing environment, and is shaped to some extent by the influences. It is very important to understand the more personal and specific influences affecting consumers and the nature of the decision-making process through which they go. For all of this, it is important to understand the decision making process, which is one of the most important part of the buyer behavior.

2.9.1 The decision making process: According to the model of Eagle Blackwell and Miniard (1990), they provide a framework that still allows us to consider, through discussion, many of the more complex elements. It traces the progress of a purchasing event stage by stage from the buyer point of view, including the definition of likely information needs and a discussion of the level of rationality and analytical behavior leading to eventual decision. There are some important stages of decision making process given below:

2.9.2 Problem Recognition: Bruner and Pomazal (1988) describe about the problem recognition that if any customer buy something from the store, there should be a special and attractive product for the customers to let him buy more from the store. For example, if a tired customer comes in the store from work. He decides to buy a lot of things from the store, for that he fills his trolley with the potatoes, bread and milk he intends to buy, but he also slip a bar of chocolate in there on the basis that it will cheer him up as he drives home. The problem here is less definable, based on a vague psychological feeling, and it follows the solution is also definable. It could be chocolate, cream buns, wine or clothing, whatever takes the purchaser’s fancy. The customer identifies or recognizes the problem, independently from the marketer, and looks for a solution. It is also possible, however, for marketers to trigger the process by using the marketing mix to bring a problem to bring the consumer’s intention. If one was to be cynical, one could accuse them of deliberately creating problems in order to stimulate purchase.

ID NO.:

PAGES 40 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

2.9.3 Information Search: Bloch et al. (1986) distinguish between ongoing search (browsing and storing for future reference) and purposeful search with a particular objective in mind. Daily, consumers are exposed to a wide range of media all designed to influence awareness and recall of particular products and services. For example, the Cheltenham & Gloucester mortgage ment is designed to appeal to someone who is already considering house purchase. It is hardly likely to inspire consumers to move house, but it could be useful if customer is worried about finding the right mortgage for their circumstances before they start looking seriously. In some cases, a consumer might not be planning to move immediately, but C&G would hope that they will recall the ment when the time does come. Ha et al (1993) emphasis the fact that time pressure can interface with the information search. They found that consumers spend less time searching for different sources as pressure increases. At the other hand of the spectrum, however, information overload may cause problems for the potential purchaser. There is evidence to suggest that consumers cannot cope with too much information at pt product level. Thus the greater the relevance of the information to customers, such as the key benefits and applications of the product, the easier is for them to assimilate and process that information as part of their decision making.

2.9.4 Decision: Su-Chao Chang (1980) and Ming-Shing Lee (1987) argue that the decision is a natural outcome of the information search, if one supplier is noticeably more impressive on all the important criteria than the rest. If choice is not as clear cut as this, the customer may have to priorities the criteria further, perhaps deciding that price or convenience is the one overriding factor. Sometimes it is conscious act to make the decision, whereas with the impulse purchase of chocolate, the decision may be made unconsciously. In any case, the consumer must finalize the proposed deal, and this may take place in the retail store because it is always easy to take a bar of chocolate and rest of the luggage and put them into the trolley. But if a customer is doing any complex deal, he has to think himself hard about the deal and cash payment. If the outcome of the negotiation is not satisfactory, then the customers may regretfully decide not to go ahead with the purchase after all, or rethink the decision in

ID NO.:

PAGES 41 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

favor of another supplier. No one can be certain of his customer until he has either handed over his money or signs the contract.

2.9.5 Buying Situation: Nolan, A. (1977a), argue that in the discussion of the decision making process, it has been made clear that both the flow and the formality of the process, and the emphasis that is put on each stage will vary from situation to situation. A routine problem solving is one that the customer is likely to experience on regular bases. Most of the grocery shopping falls into this category, where particular brand are purchased habitually without recourse to any lengthy decision making process. Ehrenberg and Goodhart (1980) proposed a simple three stage model that covers many routine problem solving purchases. Stage 1 is awareness of the brand or product, stage 2 is trial, and if the outcome of the trial is satisfactory, stage 3 is repeat purchase. Overtime, therefore, the repeat purchase becomes habitual, with little or reevaluation of the decision. This explains why many manufacturers invest in many promotions to generate awareness and trial of new products, as these are necessary foundations for longer-term repeat purchasing behavior.

ID NO.:

PAGES 42 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

2.10 Impact

of

marketing

strategy

on

Customer’s

satisfaction: Customers play the most important part in any organization. If a company has a good number of customers, it runs successfully. This topic is, however, divided into the different topics. 2.10.1 The customer comes first: Narver, J. and Slater, S. (1990) argues that meeting customer needs is the foundation of any successful organization. Without customers, the organization is without purpose, so that the customer comes first, second and third in of the organization’s priorities and its strategic management. Customers have always been important to the companies but, with the increase in the competition created by world trade, the priority given to them has changed and so has the urgency with which their needs are considered, customer service is the main factor which distinguish one organization from another in the same business. At the same time, customers have changed. They have become more demanding and they have more choice, and this is in turn has changed the strategic role of managers. Strategic management has become more and more involved with producing contingency plans to deal with the uncertainties of outside influences. Management need to be flexible and to apply the appropriate techniques to factors such as the size and situation of an organization. In particular, managers need to understand to know the specific requirements of each customers in order to meet their needs better. Organizations need to know the specific requirements of each customer and whether these requirements can be segmented. 2.10.2 Market segmentation: Mason, T. (2000) feels that market segmentation is important for the customer’s satisfaction and good services because some segments may be more profitable and attractive than others. Large segments may have low profit margins but their size make them attractive, and small segments may have high margin profit and loyal customers. Some segments may have more competition than other, so that, for example, a specialized segment may have only a limited number of competitors. Also some segments may grow faster and offer more opportunities than others. Market segmentation is useful in strategic only if customers can be distinguished. Not all s of the product or services are the same; each can have

ID NO.:

PAGES 43 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

different characteristics and needs, behave differently and so on. Customers must be distinguishable so that they can be isolated in some way. At the same time, the distinguishing criteria must relate to the differences in the market demand, so that for example some customers may be prepared to pay higher prices for the better quality goods. The segment has to be sufficiently large, even as it can be described as a niche, to justify the resources needed to reach it. It must also be possible to access the segment. 2.10.3 Products and Services: The Chief Executive of the Revlon Company argued that ‘in the factory we make cosmetics, in the store we sell hope’. He further argued that at the most fundamental level, every product or service can be seen as the packaging of a problem solving service. In buying a coat hanger in order to hang up the coat, the consumer is not so much buying the hanger as solving the problem of how to hang up the coat. When ordering a portion of chips in a restaurant, the customers are satisfying their hunger. So in all of these, the manager’s role is the most important part, his duty should be to provide a best customer services, best possible products and services to solve the consumer problems and provide them benefits. The marketing of products or services and selling them may concentrate less on the basic need that they satisfy as on the value added by a range of features which provide consumer benefits. At the same time, managers need to take of all aspects of the target market. Some aspects can be summarized in the ‘the six Os’: Occupants- which individuals make up the market? Object- what do they want to buy? Occasions- when do they make their purchase? Organizations- who decide what to buy? Objectives- why do they buy particular goods and services? Operations- how do they buy products and services?

2.10.4 Customer strategy: Green, D. (1995) argues that in order to develop the strategy to satisfy their customers, managers need to fully understand their customers and their customer needs. Companies will attempt to segment customer requirements in an attempt both to satisfy as many people as possible, and also avoid the need to tailor-make every ID NO.:

PAGES 44 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

item for each individual. ‘Getting to know the customers’ involve being aware of how many different people are involved in the purchasing decision and the different kind of requirements they may have. In keeping close to their customers, organizations need a sense of urgency and have to become customer driven, so that they not only meet customer expectation but exceed them. The customer can be seen as the driven force behind corporate strategy and it is customers, through their purchasing decisions, who define quality in products and services. The structure of a company or institution can help to monitor feed back from customers and inform all parts of organizations.

ID NO.:

PAGES 45 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

CHAPTER – 3

3.1

METHODOLOGY

Introduction:

The research approach was carried out using the positivist case research approach. According to Cavaye (1996), positivist epistemology tries to understand a social setting by identifying individual components of a phenomenon and explains the phenomenon in of constructs and relationships between constructs. The theoretical constructs describing the phenomenon are considered to be distinct from empirical reality. Hence, empirical observations can be used to test theory. This looks at the world as external and objective. Positivism employs four major research evaluation criteria: a good research should make controlled observations, should be able to be replicated, should be generalizable and should use formal logic. Under positivism, case research findings are not statistically generalizable to a population, as the case or cases cannot be considered representative of a population, however case research can claim theoretical generalizability. This will also include comparing, contrasting and critically evaluating past and present papers, articles, journals, questioners and established theories that have been published on the subject matter.

3.2

Aims & Objectives:

The following are the main aims of this research work and the researcher tied to find out answers to these aims/questions which are as follows:

•

How important is the marketing strategy on the customer’s satisfaction and what the key features of marketing strategy are.

This is an important aim of the research. Marketing strategy is always applied for the satisfaction of the customers. The main purpose to achieve this aim is to discuss the main and important parts of the marking strategy and those processes which are helpful to apply the marketing strategy on the organization. This area gives the clear idea about the relationship of marketing strategy and customer’s satisfaction.

ID NO.:

PAGES 46 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

•

What are the main and important issues of marketing strategy of TESCO and Sainsbury’s?

TESCO and Sainsbury’s are two big supermarkets of the UK. . Both supermarkets are the largest British retailers by both global sales and domestic market share. The main aim is to find those marketing strategies, by which they are so successful in this field. •

What are the main and important aspects of the success of TESCO and Sainsbury’s? And comparison of both of them

As mentioned above that both organizations have been successful on bases of profits, business and retail markets. How they achieve their goals? What are the main reasons which have made them so successful in UK? All of these questions are answered in the light of marketing strategies adopted by them. One important aim is also to compare both of them in their strategies. If one supermarket is performing better than other, what is the main reason of this? •

Main and important points need to improve the marketing strategies.

After analyzing both of them, conclusions of those are them in order to improve them in those weaknesses. This is very important; every one has their own opinion. So this question is a compulsory question to improve them.

•

Exploration of customer’s satisfaction and consumer’s behavior.

It is very important to find a customer satisfaction in a business. Customer’s satisfaction is very necessary in an organization. It is very obvious that if a customer is happy to go and buy from a store, he will go there. It is a very important part. The main aim to ask this question is to find and explore the customer’s satisfaction and consumer behavior in these stores.

ID NO.:

PAGES 47 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

The main objectives of the research are given below. 1). Establish a theoretical framework of strategic marketing and customer satisfaction. 2). Explore the marketing strategies of TESCO & Sainsbury's. 3). Analyze and the impact of marketing strategies of TESCO & Sainsbury's on customer's satisfaction. 4). Comparison of marketing strategies of TESCO & Sainsbury's. 5). Suggest the measures to improve the effective marketing of TESCO & Sainsbury have to improve the customer's satisfaction.

3.3

Methodology Employed:

Multiple-Case Study Design This project uses the multiple case study method in order to enable analysis of data across cases and relating it to the theoretical perspectives in the available literature of marketing strategy. This enables the researcher to that findings are not merely the result of idiosyncrasies of research setting (Miles and Huberman, 1984). According to Yin (2002), in such a method it is important to use: multiple sources of evidence. The appropriate number of cases depends, firstly, on how much is known about the phenomenon after studying a case and secondly, on how much new information is likely to emerge from studying further cases (Eisenhardt, 1991). This paper detailed analysis about the marketing strategies employed by TESCO in comparison to its other major competitor, namely Sainsbury's. Analysis of the marketing strategy of TESCO & Sainsbury's is evaluated with regard to the organization meeting customer needs and requirements, advertising strategies and the need to increase its customer base are all addressed. One wants to see if there are any matches with regard to the theoretical literature of marketing strategy and what the empirical evidence gathered says and also any mismatches.

ID NO.:

PAGES 48 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

3.4

Qualitative/quantitative analysis:

Gordon & Langmaid (1988) mentioned that a best and a proper research always has a characteristic that it is always verified by different ways and processes. For getting the data concerning the research, researcher needs to get data from all the possible ways. This can be done with the help of questioners, articles, journals, newspapers and websites etc. They also mentioned that qualitative data is very important, because, this is the proper way to get the information from the people of different origins, categories and groups, which could be the best possible way to get the right information. Jick (1983) argued that, for a best and reliable research qualitative and quantitative data is needed to be considered. This is a nice thinking from a great scholar, because, if a research has both forms of analysis included, this could help anyone to understand the theme of the research. Jarratt (1996) claimed that it is not possible every time to get the both analysis together in a research. This is a time taking and difficult to get.

Qualitative Data Cavaye (1996) states that qualitative investigation refers to distilling meaning and understanding from a phenomenon and is not primarily concerned with measuring and quantification of the phenomenon. Direct and in-depth knowledge of a research setting are necessary to achieve contextual understanding. Hence, qualitative methods are associated with face-to-face with persons in the research setting, with verbal data (Van Mannen 1989) being gathered. Qualitative data was collected in a number of forms. One major form of qualitative evidence is interviews and questioners from customers, which was recorded and later transcribed. Qualitative data are rich, full, holistic 'real' their face validity seems impeachable; they preserve chronological flow where that is important (Miles 1979). In spite of the abovementioned, qualitative data have weaknesses (Miles 1979; Miles and Huberman, 1984). Collecting and analyzing data is time-consuming and demanding. In addition, data analysis is not easy, as qualitative data analysis methods are not well established. Recognized rules of logic can be applied to verbal data in order to make sense of the evidence and to formally analyze the data. Rubin and Rubin (1995) state that it is most desirable to disclose the identities of both the case and the individuals interviewed because, The reader is able to recall any other ID NO.:

PAGES 49 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

previous information he or she may have learned about the same case from previous research or other sources in reading and interpreting the case report. The entire case can be reviewed more readily, so that footnotes and citations can be checked, if necessary, and appropriate criticisms can be raised about the published case. Nevertheless, there are some occasions when anonymity is necessary. The most common rationale is that when the case study has been on a controversial topic, anonymity serves to protect the real case and its real participants. The second reason is that the issuance of the final case report may affect the subsequent actions of those that were studied.

Quantitative Data This is concerned with measuring aspects of a market or the population of consumers making up the market. This includes soft approaches such as consumer attitudes as well as the hard things such as market size, brand shares, purchase frequencies etc. Quantitative data on a market or consumer group can be obtained through carrying out a census, obtaining the relevant measures from every single consumer or player in the market. In practice, research through a census collection is very rare; for one thing it is usually prohibitively expensive to obtain data from every individual (the government only carries out a population census once every 10 years) and even if the money is available the timescales involved are likely to be too long to meet commercial deadlines. Quantitative research is, therefore, nearly always based on more or less rigorous sampling methods which have in common the assumption that the data from the samples can be taken to represent, within estimated levels of accuracy, the population or universe from which they are drawn, (Hague 2002). The most important tool for data collection under quantitative research is face to face interviewing. However, in situations where over a hundred customers need to be interviewed, due to the cost attached to carrying out such a task, doing a telephone interview would seem more appropriate. The methods used to record data and data analysis here, is predominantly through questionnaires. Most questionnaires used in quantitative research involve a predominance of pre-coded or closed questions and the layout of the response points can help to minimize problems of miss-recording. More problematical, however, is the recording of open-ended questions, such as why did you buy this product, then? This usually leads to a lengthy or rambling response from ID NO.:

PAGES 50 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

the individual, in which what is said is then summarized or abbreviated and there is no way of knowing whether what is recorded reasonably reflects the response given. In the case of this paper, due to the short deadline associated with writing this paper, researcher was able to get interviews (primary data collection method) from some of the customers on the basis of the quality and standard and marketing strategies of the products of both TESCO & Sainsbury's about their own satisfactions in the London area. This research work is based on qualitative analysis which is mainly due to the nature and objectives of research. In qualitative analysis, it is possible to make a prediction and judgment of future but it is not possible to calculate and measure consumer’s behavior and attitude numerically. The elasticity and maneuverability of preferences and decision making process are also another reason of this method being adopted by the researcher.

3.5

Research Instruments:

There are a lot of methods to do a research work. Some of them are surveys, case study and interviews etc which are useful to gather the important and reliable data for the research purpose but this research is qualitative nature that’s why researcher preferred survey to gather the data related with this research. Henry Assael and John Keon (1982) argued in the “Journal of Marketing” that the survey questionnaire is considered very important in the field of marketing research. To get the more reliable and qualitative data, survey questionnaire plays a most important part of the total research. They further argued that one must minimize total error and its components, sampling and non-sampling error to increase the validity and reliability of survey data. Marvin B. Lieberman and David B. Montgomery (1998) stated that the survey has a lot of strengths and weaknesses, as it is a most important part of the qualitative research. Some of the strengths and weaknesses of the survey are given below.

Strengths: •

Surveys are relatively inexpensive (especially self-istered surveys).

•

Surveys are useful in describing the characteristics of a large population. No other method of observation can provide this general capability.

•

They can be istered from remote locations using mail, email or telephone.

ID NO.:

PAGES 51 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

•

Consequently, very large samples are feasible, making the results statistically significant even when analyzing multiple variables.

•

Many questions can be asked about a given topic giving considerable flexibility to the analysis.

•

Standardized questions make measurement more precise by enforcing uniform definitions upon the participants..

•

There is flexibility at the creation phase in deciding how the questions will be istered: as face-to-face interviews, by telephone, as group istered written or oral survey, or by electronic means.

•

Standardization ensures that similar data can be collected from groups then interpreted comparatively (between-group study).

•

Usually, high reliability is easy to obtain--by presenting all subjects with a standardized stimulus, observer subjectivity is greatly eliminated.

Weaknesses: •

A methodology relying on standardization forces the researcher to develop questions general enough to be minimally appropriate for all respondents, possibly missing what is most appropriate to many respondents.

•

Surveys are inflexible in that they require the initial study design (the tool and istration of the tool) to remain unchanged throughout the data collection.

•

The researcher must ensure that a large number of the selected sample will reply.

•

It may be hard for participants to recall information or to tell the truth about a controversial question.

•

As opposed to direct observation, survey research (excluding some interview approaches) can seldom deal with "context."

There are a lot of instruments to do research as researcher has mentioned already. Case study is also one of those instruments. Kathleen M. Eisenhardt (1989) argued that case study is the main and building process to prepare a valid research. It is used in most of the qualitative research in most of the research areas such as business, planning, marketing, psychology etc.

ID NO.:

PAGES 52 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

Some theorists argued that on the bases of practicality and nature of the case study, it is evident that there exists an unclear and blurred view between researchers. It seems that that there exists an “anything goes” approach unless it is not still by nature and as long as it cannot be characterized as a test, a survey, or a historic study (Merriam 1998, Winegardner 1998, cited in Grunbaum 2007). According to all of these statements about case study, researcher got some of the important strengths and weaknesses of case study. Strengths: •

Develops analytic and problem solving skills.

•

Allows for exploration of solutions for complex issues.

•

Allows student to apply new knowledge and skills.

Weaknesses:

3.6

•

May not see relevance to own situation.

•

Insufficient information can lead to inappropriate results.

•

Not appropriate for elementary level.

Data collection method:

It is very important for the researcher to achieve the objectives in the research through different process and instruments. For a good, valid and reliable research, primary data plays the most important part in a research work. Researcher, in this research, uses questionnaire process to get the primary data for this research. Most of the questions on the printed questionnaire are focused on the objectives of the research. Later on, those printed questionnaire papers were distributed to the customers after making sure that they had enough time to answer the questions of the questionnaires. Researcher used very simple and easy questions in the questionnaire to help the customers to answer most of the questions. Questionnaire consists of 19 total questions, 14 of those from A to N are easy to answer, in which, respondents have to tick on one of the four options and rest of the 5 questions are about their suggestions and selections about their needs. A variety of questions are combined together by the

ID NO.:

PAGES 53 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

researcher in order to evaluate and analyze the data and to achieve the overall aims of research.

Objective no 1: Establish a theoretical framework of strategic marketing and customer satisfaction. This objective is a theoretical because of its nature. Researcher put a big and comprehensive note on Strategic Marketing and customer’s satisfaction in the Literature view of the research very thoroughly. Objective no 2: Explore the marketing strategies of TESCO & Sainsbury's. All following questions from A to N of survey questionnaire highlight the marketing strategies adopted by TESCO and Sainsbury’s. All of those questions fulfill the objective no 2. Objective no 3: Analyze and the impact of marketing strategies of TESCO & Sainsbury's on customer's satisfaction. The main aim of the researcher to ask the questions from A to N is to analyze the impact of marketing strategies on customer’s satisfaction. It is always difficult to find the satisfaction of the customers towards the organizations. To find the customer’s satisfaction toward the marketing strategies, 4 options (Very satisfied, Satisfied, Dissatisfied and Very Dissatisfied) are given by the researcher in the following questions. These options are, therefore, further chosen by the respondents according to what they personally feel about the questions. Answers by the respondents in the questionnaire are highlighting the objective no 3, results of those are mentioned in findings and analysis. Objective no 4: Comparison of marketing strategies of TESCO & Sainsbury's. All answers of the questions from A to N are then further checked and observed by the researcher in order to compare the strategies of TESCO and Sainsbury’s which is further mentioned in the following answers in findings and analysis. Objective no 5: Suggest the measures to improve the effective marketing of TESCO & Sainsbury have to improve the customer's satisfaction. At the end of tabulation and graphs, all types of suggestions are mentioned by the researcher to improve the marketing strategies of specific questions of TESCO and Sainsbury’s on customer’s satisfaction.

ID NO.:

PAGES 54 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

3.7

Sample size/sampling

Sampling for this research is done on the basis of random samples selected from among general public. Selected sample comprised of (the of the general public target group or consumers) comprised individuals who go to the TESCO and Sainsbury’s. The researcher distributed questionnaires to sample group prior to asking them some questions which include following: 1. If they are willing to take part in this academic research. 2. Do they go to TESCO or Sainsbury’s for their shopping? 3. Would they be able to complete the questionnaire and return it to the researcher? The questions of the questionnaire were easy to answer as in most of them respondents need to tick the appropriate option. Researcher distributed 35 questionnaires to the customers of TESCO and Sainsbury’s. 32 of them were able to return the questionnaire after filling them comprehensively.

ID NO.:

PAGES 55 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

Chapter – 4 4.1

Analysis & Findings

Introduction:

In this chapter, the analysis of the primary data is conducted which is collected using the survey questionnaire. For any research to accomplish its objectives the importance of primary data can not be neglected but a key to successful research is to analyse the collected data in a systematic manner that it is realistic and understandable. The researcher has offered a variety of questions, from open ended to the quality or interest level measurements which is discussed in the following pages.

4.2

Findings and analysis:

In this section, all the questions are analyzed and then presented with the help of graph and tables. The sample size for survey is 35 of general public selected on random, out of those 35 questions, 32 customers filled and completed the questions and returned the questionnaire to the researcher. All questions were filled and completed by the customers that showed a great interest of customers in survey. Total response is 91%. Question no 1:

Age

The aim of this question is to know and survey the average age of customers of TESCO and Sainsbury’s. Although both supermarkets have the products which are not bound on ages, because, almost all the products are used in all types of ages. There are 5 different options and categories given in the questionnaire for the customers to choose from.

ID NO.:

PAGES 56 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

But it is seen that the customers who are between 20 to 30 and 30 to 40 have shown a great interest to answer the questions

Age No. of

Less than 20

20-30

30-40

40-50

More than 50

2

12

11

5

2

Respondents

Source: From the study

It is observed that the age group of between 20 and 30 has more numbers of customers as compare to the other age groups. It is further observed that most of the customers that come for the shopping in TESCO and Sainsbury’s have age between 20 and 40.

No. of Respondents

14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Less than 20

20-30

30-40

40-50

More than 50

Ages

ID NO.:

PAGES 57 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

Question no 2:

Gender

The main aim of this question is check the belief of the different sex on both big supermarkets. This question is also compulsory to see the product of which sex are more available in both big supermarkets. Most of answers are given by men and all the detail are given in the following table.

Gender

Male

Female

Unspecified

No. of Respondents

22

10

0

Source: From the study

In the following table, out of 32 respondents, 22 of them are male and 10 are females.

No. of Respondents

25 20 15 10 5 0 Male

Female

Unspecified

Gender

Question no 3:

ID NO.:

Education

PAGES 58 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

Education is a most important question of the survey questionnaire. This shows the validity of the survey answers; because those who are educated have broad view of analysis and thinking as compare to those who are uneducated. In this question, because of plenty of educational fields, researcher doesn’t provide the options for the customers to choose from. An empty blank is provided to the customers to specify their education. After getting information from the customers about their education, researcher put them in a category of 5 different options in a table with all their details. Most of the graduate customers lead the table with more survey questionnaire answers. Following is a full detailed table with the number of answers. Education

No. of

Masters

4

Graduate

12

Under

Diploma

Graduate

Holder

10

1

Others

5

Respondents

Source: From the study

In the given table, graduate customers lead the rest with 12 out of 32 customers, 10 customers are those who are under graduate, one customer is diploma holder in computer sciences and 4 of them are Master degree holders. All of theses details are then further classified with the help of bar graph chart.

14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Masters

ID NO.:

Graduate

Under Graduate Diploma Holder

Others

PAGES 59 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

Question no 4: which store do you prefer to shop? The main reason to ask this question is to check and analyze the customer’s preference and interest toward the store. This question was also crucial and important to find out one of the objectives of this research. It was found through different research that a lot of people from most of the areas are interested to shop from TESCO. They have a firm belief on TESCO more than Sainsbury’s. Researcher, even, had to go to some of those places where both organizations were working but most of the people of those areas preferred TESCO for a best supermarket.

Which store do you prefer to shop? Store

TESCO

Sainsbury’s

No. of Respondents

19

13

Source: From the study

Given table clearly shows that out of 32 respondents, 19 customers like TESCO for their shopping with a good percentage of 60%. 13 out of 32 customer which is about 40% of the total like Sainsbury’s for their shopping. Following is a bar graph chart of the given table.

ID NO.:

PAGES 60 OF 99

No. of Respondents

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

20 15 10 5 0 TESCO

Sainsbury’s

Name of Stores Question no 5: How many times you shop at any TESCO / Sainsbury’s store? The main aim of this question was to find out the customer’s reliability on the store, most of the customers answer that they go one time a week. it is also found that most of the customers don’t go daily because of rush and less time they have.

Occasions

No. of

Daily

9

Once a

More than

Once every

week

once a week

two weeks

11

3

9

Others

0

Respondents

Source: From the study 11 customers out of 32 go for shopping once a week which is about 35 percent of the total 32 customers. A bar graph chart is given to give a good view of the answer mentioned in the table.

ID NO.:

PAGES 61 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

No. of Respondents

12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Daily

Once a week

More than once a week

Once every two weeks

Others

Occasions

Question no 6: Do you have a TESCO Club card / Sainsbury’s Nectar Card? The main and important reason to ask this question is to find the loyalty of the customers with the store. It is seen through observations that the customers who have club card or nectar card are more reliable for the store, because they know that as more as they buy from the store they get more points. The data is represented in the table which is then further explained in the bar grapg chart. Options

Yes

No

No. of Respondents

20

12

Source: From the study According to the given data in the table, 20 customers have club cards or nectar cards, which clearly show the customer’s loyalty and reliability on the stores. In the data, 12 respondents were those who don’t have club or nectar cards. Following is a bar graph chart for the given data in the table.

No. of Respondents

25 20 15 10 5 0 Yes

No Options

ID NO.:

PAGES 62 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

After asking some personal and formal questions about the store, researcher further asked some easy questions about customer satisfaction of the strategies of both TESCO and Sainsbury’s. This area of questions is very easy for the customers to answer. There are only four options given for the customers to choose from, in which respondent needs to answer one of the following. Options of all questions are identical which are “Very satisfied, Satisfied, Dissatisfied and Very Dissatisfied”. All following questions are according to objective no 2, 3, 4 and 5.

A- Availability of staff for information and advice? In any organization, staff plays a very important and crucial role. Behavior of the staff is very important for an organization to progress by leaps and bounds. This is very obvious, if staff acts politely and give information correctly to the customers and are always available for the customers to help them from any inconvenience. Customers prove loyalty with that organization. If staff doesn’t act politely and are not available for their help, customers don’t come in that organization any more. Aim of this question is to ask the staff’s attitude with the customer which is one of the main points of strategic marketing. Data of the answer is compiled in the following table. Options

Very

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

Very

Satisfied No. of Respondents

3

Dissatisfied 28

1

0

Source: From the study Out of 32 respondents, 28 of them are satisfied with the questions which showed that they agree the question asked by the researcher but they don’t fully agree. 3 of 32 respondents are very satisfied with the questions. 1 respondent is dissatisfied. Data in the form of bar graph chart is mentioned in the following.

ID NO.:

PAGES 63 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

No. of Respondents

30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Very Satisfied

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

Very Dissatisfied

Options

Objective no 2: Marketing strategy This question is very much concerned on marketing strategy that’s why this fulfils the objective no 2. Objective no 3: Impact on customer’s satisfaction Most of the given answers are either satisfied or very satisfied. This shows a good impact on customer’s satisfaction.

Objective no 4: Comparison From the given table, 2 out of 3 respondents from TESCO are satisfied while 1 out of 1 respondent from Sainsbury’s is dissatisfied. It shows that TESCO is much better than Sainsbury’s in this field. Objective no 5: Suggestion The main duty of Sainsbury’s is to improve their staff’s attitude with the customers. This can be done by the proper training of staff by the upper management.

B- Staff helpfulness.

ID NO.:

PAGES 64 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

This question is bit similar to the question A, which gives the clear idea of the staff’s motivation in an organization. The main purpose of this question is to determine the staff’s behavior with the customers. An organization’s moral gets low when it doesn’t provide a good customer relationship. Staff helpfulness is a main pain part of customer relationship. After asking this question, given answers were revealed by the customers that are mentioned in the following table. Very

Options

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

Satisfied No. of Respondents

4

Very Dissatisfied

27

1

1

Source: From the study According to the given table, 27 customers are satisfied with the staff helpfulness out of 32 respondents, 4 of them are those that are very satisfied with the staff helpfulness. One respondent is dissatisfied and 1 is very dissatisfied. Bar graph is mention in the following

No. of Respondents

30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Very Satisfied

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

Very Dissatisfied

Options

Objective no 2: Marketing strategy Staff helpfulness is a part of marketing strategy and it fulfils the objective no 2. Objective no 3: Impact on customer’s satisfaction Most of the customers are satisfied which clearly describe a good impact on customer’s satisfaction. ID NO.:

PAGES 65 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

Objective no 4: Comparison 3 out of 4 respondents from TESCO are satisfied with the staff helpfulness, 1 out of 1 respondent from Sainsbury’s is dissatisfied and 1 out of 1 respondent from Sainsbury’s is very dissatisfied with the staff helpfulness. TESCO is comparatively better than Sainsbury’s in this field. Objective no 5: Suggestion Main duty of the Sainsbury’s is to train their staff in order to improve the customer relationship with customers.

C- Make up of Shop (Overall appearance of store) This is an important part of marketing strategy. Customers like to go in that store which are very nice and attractive. The main aim and purpose of this question is to observe the customer’s satisfaction towards the make up of shops. 32 respondents delivered their different remarks which are mentioned in the following table.

Options

Very

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

Satisfied No. of Respondents

3

Very Dissatisfied

29

0

0

Source: From the study

This table is, therefore, further delivered in the bar graph chart.

ID NO.:

PAGES 66 OF 99

No. of Respondents

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Very Satisfied

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

Very Dissatisfied

Options

Source: From the study From the given table 29 out of 32 customers voted in the favor of satisfied while 3 of them were very satisfied.

Objective no 2: Marketing strategy The make up of the shop is a marketing strategic tool of an organization. Make up of the shop also involve proper shelving, good and nice system of lights, appropriate places of stuff, easy system for the customers to take stuff and proper place of paying for the stuffs. So this question clearly fulfils the objective no 2.

Objective no 3: Impact on customer’s satisfaction Make up of the store put a good and nice impact on customer’s satisfaction. A good, nice and attractive store have more satisfied customer than a less attractive store. From the given table, majority of the people were satisfied with the make up system of TESCO and Sainsbury’s.

Objective no 4: Comparison

ID NO.:

PAGES 67 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

From 3 respondents of very satisfied option, 2 are from Sainsbury’s and 1 is from TESCO which gives a clear edge of Sainsbury’s over TESCO.

Objective no 5: Suggestion TESCO needs to improve in this area. They need to be much more systematic as they are now in the area of Make up of store.

D- Presentation of products (On shelves) In this question, respondent was asked to tell about the presentation of products on shelves. The following result was gained from different respondents. Satisfied

Very

Options

Dissatisfied

Satisfied No. of Respondents

4

Very Dissatisfied

28

0

0

Source: From the study

28 respondents out of 32 were satisfied with the product representation on shelves while 4 of them were very satisfied with the question. As a whole, all respondents were happy with the presentation of product on shelves. Table is further explained in the bar graph chart.

No. of Respondents

30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Very Satisfied

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

Very Dissatisfied

Options

ID NO.:

PAGES 68 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

Objective no 2: Marketing strategy In this question, presentation of product is a part of marketing strategy. All types of products should be placed so that they should look eye catching to the customers. The products which are best seller should be easily in the reach of the customers. So this question clearly fulfils the objective no 2.

Objective no 3: Impact on customer’s satisfaction Those goods are sold very quickly who have proper and nice shelving strategies. The goods which are placed nicely on the shelves put a good impact on customer’s satisfaction. In this question, most of the customers are satisfied which shows a nice impact on customer satisfaction. Objective no 4: Comparison From 4 respondents of very satisfied option, 3 of them are from Sainsbury’s. This shows that Sainsbury’s is very strong in this area. Their customers are very satisfied with the presentation of goods and products on shelves.

Objective no 5: Suggestion According to the statistical analysis, Sainsbury’s is much better than TESCO. So TESCO needs to improve in this area. They should introduce a good and nice system of shelving of their products on the shelves.

E- Cleanliness of shop. The main aim of this question is find the customer’s satisfaction towards the cleanliness of the shop. The following result was got through the research survey which is then tabulated in the following table. Options

ID NO.:

Very

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

Very

PAGES 69 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

Satisfied No. of Respondents

2

Dissatisfied 28

2

0

Source: From the study 28 out of 32 respondents were satisfied with the question asked by the researcher. 2 of them were very satisfied and 2 of them very dissatisfied with this question.

No. of Respondents

The bar graph chart is given which shows the result concerning of this question.

30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Very Satisfied

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

Very Dissatisfied

Options

Source: From the study

Objective no 2: Marketing strategy Cleanliness of the shop is a part of marketing strategy. In UK, where almost all people are educated, cleanliness plays a most important part. So this question clearly fulfils the objective no 2.

Objective no 3: Impact on customer’s satisfaction Cleanliness of shop is a very important factor in the customer’s satisfaction. It is seen that most of the customers of TESCO and Sainsbury’s are educated. They know the importance of cleanliness. In this question, most of the customers are satisfied with ID NO.:

PAGES 70 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

the cleanliness of the shop. 2 of 32 respondents were dissatisfied with the cleanliness. They could be either because of extra ordinary conscious about the cleanliness or they might have been buying the goods from those stores which have comparatively lower in cleanliness department but majority of the people are satisfied with the cleanliness of the shop.

Objective no 4: Comparison According to the gained data, 2 respondents who are from TESCO are dissatisfied with the cleanliness of the shop. 1 customer each from both TESCO and Sainsbury’s are very satisfied with the cleanliness.

Objective no 5: Suggestion TESCO needs to improve in the area of cleanliness. They should take some extra measures in order to improve all the stores of the TESCO. Sainsbury’s is comparatively better in this department but they should take some more steps to keep themselves better to save from any inconvenience in this field.

F- Quality and Freshness of goods. The main purpose of this question is to determine the quality and freshness of goods in both big Supermarkets. According to the analysis and findings, researcher got the following results which are presented in the given table.

Options

Very

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

Satisfied No. of Respondents

5

Very Dissatisfied

25

2

0

Source: From the study Out of 32 respondents, 25 were satisfied with the quality and freshness of goods. 5 of them are those who are very satisfied and 2 of them are dissatisfied with the quality and freshness of goods. Data is further represented in the following bar graph chart. ID NO.:

PAGES 71 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Very Satisfied

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

Very Dissatisfied

Objective no 2: Marketing strategy Freshness and quality of goods is a very important part of marketing strategy. Almost every people love to buy those products which are comparatively more fresh and qualitative. This question fulfils the objective no 2. Objective no 3: Impact on customer’s satisfaction Quality and freshness both play a main part in the product’s marketing. Almost all customers don’t compromise on quality whether they have to pay more on goods and qualitative food or product. From the given statistical analysis, it is clearly mentioned that most of the customers are satisfied with the freshness and quality of food. But both supermarkets have to be careful in this department because from the given statistics, it’s also found that 2 of the 32 were dissatisfied with the freshness and quality.

Objective no 4: Comparison 5 out of 32 respondents were satisfied as a whole and all were from TESCO stores while 1 respondent each from both organizations were dissatisfied. It is proved that quality and freshness wise TESCO is far better than Sainsbury’s.

ID NO.:

PAGES 72 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

Objective no 5: Suggestion Sainsbury’s needs to improve in this area because in quality and freshness, customers don’t compromise, while one customer was also from TESCO was also dissatisfied. So both organizations should take some precautions to improve themselves.

G- Choice of Products. The main and important aspect of this question is to find the choice of products in both big Supermarkets. It is a nature of human being that a store which has more products has more customers. According to the question asked by the researcher, following gained result has been mentioned in the following table.

Options

Very

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

Very

Satisfied No. of Respondents

4

Dissatisfied 27

1

0

Out of 32 respondents 27 of them were satisfied with the choices of products in the store while 4 of them were dissatisfied with the result and 1 respondent was dissatisfied with the question. Bar graph chart is mentioned below according to the given table. 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Very Satisfied

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

Very Dissatisfied

Objective no 2: Marketing strategy

ID NO.:

PAGES 73 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

Choice of product is a part of marketing strategy. It is commonly observed that a shop that has a lot of options in goods and stuffs has more customers. So this question fulfils the objective no 2.

Objective no 3: Impact on customer’s satisfaction Choice of product plays an important role in customer satisfaction. According to the given results, 27 respondents are satisfied with the choice of products while 4 of them are very satisfied and 1 of them is dissatisfied. It shows the impact on customer satisfaction that most of them are satisfied.

Objective no 4: Comparison All 4 very satisfied respondents are from TESCO, while one customer is dissatisfied with Sainsbury’s. TESCO has clear edge over Sainsbury’s in this department.

Objective no 5: Suggestion It is necessary for Sainsbury’s to improve them in the choice of product. They should more and standard products in their stores to compete with TESCO.

H- Value of price. The main aim of this question is to explore the value of prices in both supermarkets. Researcher got the following results in his survey.

Options

Very

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

Satisfied No. of Respondents

ID NO.:

2

Very Dissatisfied

24

5

1

PAGES 74 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

From the given table, 24 respondents out of 32 were satisfied with the value of prices. 2 of them are those which are very satisfied, 5 respondents are dissatisfied and 1 respondent is very dissatisfied. Given result is, therefore mentioned in the following bar graph chart.

30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Very Satisfied

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

Very Dissatisfied

Objective no 2: Marketing strategy Value of prices is a part of marketing strategy. Customers buy from those shops which are cheaper than others. This also reflects objective no 2.

Objective no 3: Impact on customer’s satisfaction 24 out of 32 respondents satisfied which put a good impact on customer satisfaction. 2 of them are very satisfied which is also a good sign, but the main problem is that 6 respondents out of 32 are either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with this question, and it is seen first time that any respondent chose 4th option “very dissatisfied”. This makes this question very interesting. It shows that there are some customers who are not satisfied with the values of prices. It could be because of the recession or credit crunch and it could have any other reason for this. Objective no 4: Comparison All answers of dissatisfied and very dissatisfied have been gained from TESCO. It means TESCO is comparatively expensive than Sainsbury’s while 2 respondents agree that Sainsbury’s is very satisfied place for the value of prices.

Objective no 5: Suggestion ID NO.:

PAGES 75 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

According to the answers, TESCO needs to decrease their prices to compete its rivals. This is a recession time; people prefer to go to those places where they get cheap products.

I- Access to the Shop. The main aim of this question is to find the location and distance of these supermarkets from the colonies and those areas where a majority of people live. The result of this question is described in the following table.

Options

Very

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

Very

Satisfied No. of Respondents

9

Dissatisfied 19

4

0

According to the given table, 19 respondents are satisfied, 9 of them are very satisfied and 4 of them are dissatisfied with the access of shop from their houses. Bar graph chart is given for the following table.

20 15 10 5 0 Very Satisfied

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

Very Dissatisfied

Objective no 2: Marketing strategy Access of the stores from customers is one of the main and important issues of marketing strategy. People prefer to buy the products which are under the reach of the customers. This also fulfils the objective no 2.

ID NO.:

PAGES 76 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

Objective no 3: Impact on customer’s satisfaction From the given table and graph, it comes to know that most of the respondents are either satisfied or very satisfied with the access to the shops from their houses. 4 of the 32 respondents were dissatisfied because of living very far from the stores of TESCO and Sainsbury’s.

Objective no 4: Comparison 3 of the 4 customers from Sainsbury’s are dissatisfied with the access to the shop from their houses. From 9 customers, 7 of them are from TESCO. It proves that TESCO is under the reach of customers as compare to Sainsbury’s.

Objective no 5: Suggestion Sainsbury’s should do something for the customer’s access to their stores. They must open their new stores on those places where customers feel easy and comfortable to reach.

J- Shopping Hours. The main and important purpose of this question is to find the shopping hours and opinion of customers on them. Researcher got a result which is mentioned in the following table.

Options

Very

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

Satisfied No. of Respondents

8

Very Dissatisfied

20

4

0

According to the following table, 8 of 32 respondents are very satisfied, 20 are satisfied with the shopping hours while 4 respondents were dissatisfied with the shopping hours of the stores. ID NO.:

PAGES 77 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

This data is further mentioned in the bar graph chart which is given below.

25 20 15 10 5 0 Very Satisfied

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

Very Dissatisfied

Objective no 2: Marketing strategy Shopping hours is a marketing strategy. It is seen that a big number of stores are open 24 hours; customers go in those places in order to buy the products.

Objective no 3: Impact on customer’s satisfaction 8 of 32 respondents were very satisfied with the shopping hours of the store and 20 of them are satisfied. This put a great impact in customer’s satisfaction. Majority of customers are satisfied. From the following result, 4 respondents were not satisfied which may be because of the timings of TESCO or Sainsbury’s store or it could be because of customers own shopping timing.

Objective no 4: Comparison 6 out of 8 respondents of TESCO are very satisfied and 1 out of 4 respondents of TESCO are dissatisfied with the shopping hours of the stores. This shows that the customers of TESCO are much happier than Sainsbury’s in shopping hours.

Objective no 5: Suggestion Sainsbury’s must extend their timing; they should organize those timings which are convenient for their customers. They should open most of their stores 24 hours a day in order to make their customers loyal.

ID NO.:

PAGES 78 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

K- Waiting time at checkout This is one of the most important questions of the questionnaire survey. It is seen that most of the people don’t buy from the stores where they have to wait so long in the queue. Data is given in the following table.

Options

Very

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

Very

Satisfied No. of Respondents

1

Dissatisfied 18

10

3

In the given table, only one respondent is very satisfied with the question asked by the researcher, 18 of them are satisfied and 10 respondents are those which are dissatisfied and 3 out of 32 respondents were very dissatisfied. This is a first question in all the previous questions which have a majority of people who don’t like the waiting time at checkout of these stores. Bar graph chart is mentioned below. 20 15 10 5 0 Very Satisfied

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

Very Dissatisfied

Objective no 2: Marketing strategy “Waiting time at checkout” is a part of marketing strategy. This question also represents the objective no 2.

ID NO.:

PAGES 79 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

Objective no 3: Impact on customer’s satisfaction 19 respondents are either satisfied or very satisfied with the point of view of this question, but on the other hand a majority of people are not satisfied with the time at checkout. This put a bad impression in customer’s mind. Most of the customers don’t buy because of this reason.

Objective no 4: Comparison 1 respondent out of 1 from TESCO is very satisfied, 14 from 18 customers from TESCO are satisfied with the time at checkout while 4 out of 10 respondents are dissatisfied with the time at check out. Rest of all data is from Sainsbury’s which is quite alarming for them. Most of dissatisfied and very dissatisfied respondents are from Sainsbury’s.

Objective no 5: Suggestion It is important for Sainsbury’s to bring some more innovated system to solve this problem. It is seen that most of the people don’t go to the Sainsbury’s because of waiting time at checkout.

L- Ways of payment. This is also an important part of marketing strategy. The main aim of this question is to find the customer’s satisfaction on ways of payment. The following data is got from the survey questionnaire.

Options

Very

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

Satisfied No. of Respondents

3

Very Dissatisfied

10

18

1

3 respondents out of 32 are very satisfied and 10 from 32 respondents are satisfied with the ways of payment system. 18 respondents are those who are dissatisfied and 1 from 32 is very dissatisfied with the ways of payment in these stores. ID NO.:

PAGES 80 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

Bar graph chart is mentioned to explain the following table.

20 15 10 5 0 Very Satisfied

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

Very Dissatisfied

Objective no 2: Marketing strategy Ways of payment is an important part of marketing strategy of TESCO and Sainsbury’s. Majority of people like to pay themselves without any help, some of them who cannot use machines like to pay to sales manager of the stores. There should be multiple processes to pay the bills in order to satisfy the customers. This also reflects the objective 2.

Objective no 3: Impact on customer’s satisfaction In this question, it is seen that most of the customers are not satisfied with the way of payment which has put a bad impact on customer’s satisfaction. Only 13 customers are satisfied which is 40.6% of the total. Rest of respondents (59.4%) is not satisfied with the ways of payment system.

Objective no 4: Comparison 1 out of 3 respondents from Sainsbury’s is very satisfied, 3 out of 10 respondents from Sainsbury’s are satisfied with the ways of payment system while 8 out of 18 respondents are dissatisfied and 1 out of 1 respondent is very dissatisfied. This shows that a big ratio of Sainsbury’s customers is not very happy with the way of payment, a big number in the customers of TESCO are also not satisfied but if it is compared with the Sainsbury’s. This ratio is very low.

ID NO.:

PAGES 81 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

Objective no 5: Suggestion In this department, both supermarkets have to bring some innovated and easy system of payment. The main reason of this problem could be either because of less knowledge of using payment machines or it could be because of most of the machines problems during payments.

M- Price marking on goods. The main aim of this question is to explore the customer satisfaction in price marking on goods. After analyzing deeply, following result is found.

Options

Very

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

Very

Satisfied No. of Respondents

4

Dissatisfied 22

6

0

From the following data, 4 of 32 respondents are very satisfied, 22 of them are satisfied with the price marking on goods while 6 of the total are dissatisfied with the price marking on good. A bar graph is given in the following. 25 20 15 10 5 0 Very Satisfied

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

Very Dissatisfied

Objective no 2: Marketing strategy This is one of the parts of marketing strategy which fulfils the objective no 2.

ID NO.:

PAGES 82 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

Objective no 3: Impact on customer’s satisfaction A huge majority of respondents either are satisfied or very satisfied. Some of them are not satisfied. Total result is satisfactory which delivers a good impact on customer’s satisfaction. Objective no 4: Comparison 3 out of 4 respondents from Sainsbury’s are very satisfied, 9 out of 22 are satisfied from Sainsbury’s are satisfied and 1 out of 6 respondents from Sainsbury’s are dissatisfied. This result is very satisfactory for the Sainsbury’s. Most of the customers of TESCO don’t like the price marking system on goods. It might be lack and laziness of staff towards the price. Objective no 5: Suggestion The management of TESCO should take serious notice of their price marking systems. A lot of the people claim that the price marked on the goods is not the right one.

N- Availability of special offers and Promotions. The main aim of this question is to find the customer’s satisfaction on Availability of special offers and Promotions. Researcher got the following result which is given in the form of table.

Options

Very

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

Satisfied No. of Respondents

ID NO.:

9

Very Dissatisfied

20

3

0

PAGES 83 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

From the following table, 9 out of 32 respondents are very satisfied and 20 are satisfied with the availability of special offers and Promotions while 3 out of 32 are dissatisfied with the Availability of special offers and Promotions. The following graph is given in order to clarify the data.

25 20 15 10 5 0 Very Satisfied

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

Very Dissatisfied

Objective no 2: Marketing strategy This is a part of marketing strategy. These supermarkets are well known because of presenting offers and promotions on different goods. This also fulfils the objective no 2.

Objective no 3: Impact on customer’s satisfaction Majority of respondents are satisfied with the promotion and offers by TESCO & Sainsbury’s which shows a good impact of these organizations over other stores. Objective no 4: Comparison 7 out of 9 respondents of Sainsbury’s are very satisfied and 1 out of 3 respondents of Sainsbury’s are dissatisfied with the offers and promotions. Sainsbury’s is better in this field.

Objective no 5: Suggestion Both organizations should improve more in this field because customers buy the products from these organizations because of promotion and offers.

ID NO.:

PAGES 84 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

4.3 Summary and Conclusion:

This section focuses on the overall objectives, analysis and findings from the data. It is evident in the business and marketing management studies that the importance of Marketing Strategy cannot be neglected at anytime. Importance of Marketing Strategy is accepted throughout this research work but after careful analysis of primary data, some other factors came to the forefront which are equally or more important for customers. Comparison of primary and secondary data is of great advantage to achieve the main objectives of research. With all the importance and impact of Marketing Strategies, customer’s satisfaction is the major part of the entire thing. The primary data collection has proven that every respondent has his own opinion about the marketing strategies. It is therefore up to the organizations to remove their weaknesses in order to give more satisfaction to their customers.

ID NO.:

PAGES 85 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

CHAPTER – 5

5.1

CONCLUSION

Conclusion of the study:

The research work mainly focused on the following issues. •

How important is the marketing strategy on the customer’s satisfaction and what the key features of marketing strategy are.

•

What are the main and important issues of marketing strategy of TESCO and Sainsbury’s?

•

What are the main and important aspects of the success of TESCO and Sainsbury’s? And comparison of both of them.

•

Main and important points need to improve the marketing strategies.

•

Exploration of customer’s satisfaction and consumer’s behavior.

The research is aimed at developing a behavioral impact of consumers and their perception about Marketing Strategy. Qualitative analysis is considered as the best way of conducting such type of research work, so the nature of this research is qualitative because it mainly depends upon description and narration of decision making. The literature (secondary- data) focused on importance and characteristics of Marketing and Marketing Strategy which make them strong. The relationship between marketing strategy and customer’s satisfaction is also very important to consider for marketers because the stability of this association is dependent upon internal and external forces. After analyzing all points of objectives, it is concluded that a good and effective Marketing strategy is the main and important thing for an organization to achieve their goals.

ID NO.:

PAGES 86 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

These factors or forces help customers form their purchase decisions or stay loyal with these big supermarkets. Also, in the mid part of literature, importance of marketing strategy is discussed because any change in Marketing Strategy is directly related to consumer’s purchase decisions. The literature mainly focuses on the important feature of marketing strategy but after collection of primary data (Questions from A to N in questionnaire); it is proved that customers are equally interested in Marketing Strategy of both big Super Markets. Moreover, utilization of good marketing strategy is very crucial which could bring a lot of benefits for an organization in a long term.

5.2

Contribution and beneficiaries of this dissertation:

After findings and analyze of primary and secondary research, the aim and objectives of this research is achieved and answer of the questions are taken. It is concluded through qualitative and quantitative data that marketing strategy has a great impact on the satisfaction of the customers. It is also observed through qualitative data that customer’s feeling about marketing strategy is very crucial and important for an organization. Central to achieving a company's corporate vision is the need to build up a loyal customer base of satisfied customers. TESCO & Sainsbury's did not overtake its major competitors by chance in acquiring foreign financial institutions; it developed a clear marketing strategy based on a desire to fully satisfy a carefully targeted set of market segments. In the primary data in finding and analysis, there are some lessons for the management of both supermarkets. Findings and analysis could also help the management to learn how to improve the marketing strategy in order to satisfy the customers.

5.3

Implications to Management

After extensive study and research about the aims and objectives, the researcher suggests the following recommendations for management: It is seen with the help of questionnaire survey that most of the respondents were happy and satisfied with the marketing strategy of TESCO and Sainsbury’s but there are some areas where both supermarkets need to improve themselves. ID NO.:

PAGES 87 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

In the questionnaire, researcher also mentioned a question about suggestion. After observing and analyzing it comes to know that; •

Most of the respondents were not happy about the car parking system of these stores. They argue that they often don’t get a parking place in most of the stores. Management should take the notice of this, because, most of the customers of these supermarkets shop for a week or for a month. So, they bring their cars and other vehicles for the purpose of taking their shopping materials to the home.

•

Most of the customers were not satisfied with the waiting time at checkout. They argue that it always takes 20 to 25 minutes to reach for their numbers. Top management of these stores should understand these problems and try to solve them. Now-a-days, the importance of time is very crucial. Top management should introduce a proper and reliable system to save the customers from this problem.

•

A majority of the people were not satisfied with the payment system of both supermarkets. It could be either because of the lack of knowledge to use the machines or it could be because of any other technical problems. Both supermarkets should solve these problems by increasing the numbers of staff on that place where payment machines are kept.

5.4

Research Limitation:

Research has following limitation,

Sample Size: Although this research was related to those companies, which have a wide range of customers in UK, but, because of the limited time, it was not possible to take the survey of 50 or 100 customers. Researcher, therefore, decided to take the sample size of 35. But, later on, it was revealed that only 32 respondents were able to reply in time.

Age Limit: There is no age limit in this survey because almost all ages of people buy the product from these stores but it was difficult to take survey report from a child under 14, or an old man over 75. Researcher, therefore, restricted the survey between 14 to 75 years to provide more validity. ID NO.:

PAGES 88 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

5.5

Future Research The research work can be extended in following areas 1). How are marketing strategies applied by Supermarkets and Hypermarket inside their establishments? 2).An investigation of the importance of customer’s satisfaction in the istration of TESCO and Sainsbury’s.

ID NO.:

PAGES 89 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

References

•

Abell, D. and Hammond, J. (1979), Strategic Market Planning, Prentice Hall.

•

Abell, D.F., and Hammond, J.S., (1979), Strategic market planning, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, P.10.

•

Abrahams, P. and Barker, T. (2002), ‘Ebay: The Flea Market that Spanned the Globe’, Financial Times, 11 January, p. 24.

•

Agede, p. (1998), ‘Le marketing a aussi ses mythes’, L’Enterprise, 151 (April), pp. 84-9.

•

Alderson, W. (1957), Marketing Behaviour and Executive Action: A Fundamentalist Approach to Marketing, Homewood, Irwin.

•

Allmon, D., Chen, H., Pritchett, T. and Forrest, P. (1997), ‘A Multicultural Examination of Business Ethics Perceptions’, Journal of Business Ethics, 16 (2), pp. 183-188

•

AMA (1985), ‘AMA Board Approves New Marketing Definition’, Marketing News, 1 March, p. 1.

•

Anders P. Fundin and Bo L.S. Bergman. Measuring Business Excellence. Vol. 7 Issue 2, P55, 2003

•

Anderson, W. and Cunningham, W. (1972), ‘The Socially Conscious Consumer’, Journal of Marketing, 36 (3), pp. 23-31

•

Avlonitis, G. et al. (1997), ‘Marketing Orientation and Company Performance: Industrial vs Consumer Goods Companies’, Industrial Marketing Management, 26 (5), pp. 385-402.

•

Balestrini, P. (2001), ‘Amidst the Digital Economy, Philanthropy in Business as a Source of Competitive Advantage’, Journal of International Marketing and Marketing Research, 26 (1), pp. 13-34.

•

Barber, A. (2000), ‘Mittelstand Still The Backbone’, FT Survey: BadenWurttemberg in Financial Times, 28 May.

•

Barnett, A. (2000), ‘Times to Pay off the Piper’, Director, August, p. 29.

•

Benady, D. (2001), ‘Burst Bubbles’, Marketing week, 22 November, pp. 2427.

ID NO.:

PAGES 90 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

•

Borden, N. (1964), ‘The Concept of Marketing Mix’, Journal of Advertising Research, June, pp. 2-7.

•

Brand Finance (2000) b, Brands and the Internet, by Marketing International.

•

Brand Finance (2001), Brand valuation - applications in financial services,

•

Bray, R. (2002), ‘Internet Booking on the Increase’, Financial Times, 12 February, p. 17.

•

Brown – Humes, C. (2000), ‘Sweden: Sector Enters Sober Times’, Financial Times, 4 December.

•

Buck, S., (1990), People matters, in Birn, R., Hague, P., and Vangelder, P.,(eds), A handbook of market research techniques, Kogan Page, London.

•

Buckley, N. (2002), ‘Levi Reports Loss of $80.9m’, Financial Times, 21 June, p.17.

•

Buxton, P. (2000), ‘Companies with Social Conscience’, Marketing, 27 April, pp. 33-4.

•

Caroll, A. (1991), ‘The Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility: Towards the Moral Management of Organizational Stakeholders’, Business Horizons, 34 (July/August), pp. 39-48.

•

Carr, H. and Pomeroy, J. (1992), Fashion Design and Product Development, Blackwell.

•

Carroll, A. (1999), ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’, Business and Society, 38 (3), pp. 268-295.

•

Cavaye, A., (1996), Case study research: a multi-faceted research approach for IS. In Information systems Journal, 6, pp. 227 -242.

•

Charles, G. (2002a), ‘Wrigley Prospers By Sticking With Gums’, Marketing Week, 7 February, p. 18.

•

Christian Gonoroos, (1990), ‘The Marketing Strategy Continuum: Toward a Marketing Concept For the 1990s’, Journal Management Decision, Vol. 29. Issue 1. pp. 23-27.

•

CIM (2001), accessed via http://www.cim.co.uk

•

Clarke, P.D. et al. (1988), ‘The Genesis of Strategic Marketing Control in British Retail Banking’, International Journal of Bank Marketing, 6 (2), pp. 519.

ID NO.:

PAGES 91 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

•

David A. Aaker, (2001), ‘John Wiley & Sons’, Journal Marketing Research, pp. 1-36.

•

Deng, S. and Dart, J. (1999), ‘The Market Orientation of Chinese Enterprises During a Time of Transition’, European Journal of Marketing, 33 (5), 631654.

•

Dibb, S., Simkin, L., and Bradley, J., (1996), The marketing planning workbook (London: Rout ledge, 1996).

•

Dibb, S., Simkin, L., Pride, W.M., and Ferrell, O.C., (2001), Marketing concepts and strategies, Houghton Mifflin, Fourth European Edition.

•

DTI (2001), ‘Business and society’, via http://www.societyandbusiness.gov.uk, August 2001.

•

Dunfee, T., Smith, N. and Ross, W. (1999), ‘Social Contracts and Marketing Ethics’, Journal of Marketing, 63 (3), pp. 14-32

•

Dwyer, F.R. et al. (1987), ‘Developing Buyer –Seller Relationships’, Journal of Marketing, 51 (2), pp. 11-27.

•

Eppendorfer, C., Beckmann, R., and Neimke, M., (2002), Market access strategies in the EU Banking sector, obstacles and benefits towards an integrated European retail market. Ruhr - University of Bochum. [email protected].

•

Financial Times (2002), ‘BMI Losses Threaten US Flights’, Financial Times, 30 March, p. 20.

•

Grant. J. (2002), ‘Can Levi’s Engineer a Reversal of Fortunes?’ Marketing, 18 April, p. 3.

•

Green, D. (1995), ‘Healthcare vies With Research’, Financial Times, 25 April 2009, p. 34.

•

Gronroos, C. (1997), ‘From Marketing Mix to Relationship Marketing – Toward a Paradigm Shift in Marketing’, Management Decision, 35 (4), pp. 332-339.

•

Hall, W. (2002), ‘Profits at Holcim Drop By 8%’, Financial Times, 5 April, p. 25

•

Henderson, S. (1998), ‘No Such Things as Marketing Orientation – A Call for no More Papers’, Management Decision, 36 (9), pp. 598-609

ID NO.:

PAGES 92 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

•

Henry Assael and John Keon (1982), Journal of Marketing, VOL 46 (spring 1982), 114-123

•

Hill, R.W. and Hiller, T.J. (1977), Organizational Buying Behaviour, Macmillan.

•

Hooley, G.J. et al. (1990), ‘The Marketing Concept: Putting Theory into Practice’, European Journal of Marketing, 24 (9), pp. 7-23

•

Hunt, S. and Vitell, S. (1986), ‘The General Theory of Marketing Ethics’, Journal of Micromarketing, 6 (Spring), pp. 5-16.

•

Hunt, S. and Vitell, S. (1993), ‘The General Theory of Marketing Ethics: A Retrospective and Revision’, in N Smith and J. Quelch (eds), Ethics in Marketing, Richard D. Irwin.

•

Jamal, A. & Goode, M. H. (2001) ‘Consumer and brands, a study of the impact of self-image congruence on brand preference and satisfaction’, Journal of Marketing Intelligence & Planning. Vol. 19 No. 7, pp.482-492. MCB University Press.

•

Jarratt, D. G. (1996) ‘A comparison of two alternative interviewing techniques used within an integrated research design’, Marketing Intelligence & Planning Vol. 14/6, pp. 6-15, MCB University Press

•

Jick, T.D. (1983) ‘Mixing qualitative and quantitative methods’, (Ed.), Qualitativ- Methodology, Sage, London.

•

Johnson, W.J. and Bonoma, T.V. (1981), ‘The Buying Centre: Structure and Interaction Patterns’, Journal of Marketing, 45 (Summer), p. 143-156.

•

Kathleen M. Eisenhardt (1989), Building Theories from Case Study Research, Vol 14, No 4, 532-550

•

Kinnear, T., Taylor, J. and Ahmed, S. (1974), ‘Ecologically Concerned Consumers: Who are They?’, Journal of Marketing, 38 (2), P. 20.

•

Kotler, Philip, and Gary Armstrong. Principles of Marketing. 8th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999.

•

Marsh, P. (2001), ‘Step By Step into New Market Niches’, Financial Times, 20 January, p. 17.

•

Marvin B. Lieberman and David B. Montgomery ‘Strategic Management Journal’, Vol. 19, No. 12 (Dec., 1998), pp. 1111-1125

ID NO.:

PAGES 93 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

•

Mason, T. (2000), ‘The Importance of Being Ethical’, Marketing 26 October, P.27.

•

Mazur, L. (2002), ‘Innovation and Branding Make a Powerful Mix’, Marketing, 28 March, p. 16.

•

Narver, J. and Slater, S. (1990), ‘The effect of Market Orientation on Business Profitability’, Journal of Marketing, 54 (4), pp. 20-35.

•

Nolan, A. (1977a), ‘Watching the Directives’, Supply Management, 27 February, pp. 14-15.

•

Paul Field, (2006), ‘Chartered Institute of Marketing’, Marketing Strategy, pp. 34-43.

•

Sheth, J. (1973), ‘A Model of Industrial Buying Behaviour’, Journal of Marketing, 37 (October), pp. 50-56.

•

Su-Chao Chang and Ming-Shing Lee. Journal of knowledge Management. 1st ed. Page 3

•

Van Mannen, J., (1988), Tales of the field; on writing of ethnography. Chicago: University of Chicago press.

•

Varadarajan, P.R., (1999), Strategy content and process perspectives revisited, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 27, no. 1, winter 1999, pp. 88 - 100.

•

Webster, F.E. and Wind, Y. (1972), Organizational Buyer Behaviour, Prentice Hall.

•

Weitz, B.A., and Wensley, R., (1988), Readings in Strategic Marketing, Chicago: Dryden, 1988.

•

Wilson, D. F. (2000) ‘Why divide consumer and organisational buyer behaviour?’ European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 34 No. 7, pp. 780-796. MCB University Press, 0309-0566.

•

Wilson, R., Gilligan, C and Pearson, D (1992), Strategic Marketing Management, Butterworth-Heinemann.

•

Wise, P. (2001b), ‘Cement Group is a Vital Ingredient in The Global Mix’, Financial Times, 21 August, p. 22.

•

Wood, L. (1999) ‘Market power and its measurement’, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 33 No. 5/6, pp. 612-630. MCB University Press, 0309-0566

•

Yin, R.K. (2002), Case study research, design, and methods.

ID NO.:

PAGES 94 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

Appendix Copy of questionnaire:

QUESTIONNAIRE Impact of Marketing Strategy of TESCO and Sainsbury’s on Customer Satisfaction. I am an MBA student of the British Institute of Technology and E-commerce, London. As part fulfilment of the requirements of the course I am conducting a research on the ‘Impact of Marketing Strategy of TESCO and Sainsbury’s on Customer Satisfaction’. Could you please devote some of your precious moments to answer the following questions? Your and co-operation are crucial for the quality of research. There is no right or wrong answer, please make your own judgements. The information provided will be kept confidential and only used for academic purpose. The researcher is grateful for your co-operation. Age:  Less than 20

 20-30

 30-40

 40-50

 More than 50

Gender:  Male

 Female

 Unspecified

Education: _____________________________________________

Which store do you prefer to shop? A.

TESCO

B.

Sainsbury’s

How many times you shop at any TESCO / Sainsbury’s store? A.

Daily

B.

Once a week

C.

More than once a week

D.

Once every two weeks

ID NO.:

PAGES 95 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

E.

Others………………………….

Do you have a TESCO Club card / Sainsbury’s Nectar Card? A.

Yes

B.

No

Please select the option which accurately reflects how much satisfied or dissatisfied you are with each factor.

A- Availability of staff for information and advice?  Very satisfied

 Satisfied

 Dissatisfied

 Very Dissatisfied

 Satisfied

 Dissatisfied

 Very Dissatisfied

B- Staff helpfulness.  Very satisfied

C- Make up of Shop (Overall appearance of store)  Very satisfied

 Satisfied

 Dissatisfied

 Very Dissatisfied

D- Presentation of products (On shelves)  Very satisfied

 Satisfied

 Dissatisfied

 Very Dissatisfied

 Dissatisfied

 Very Dissatisfied

 Dissatisfied

 Very Dissatisfied

E- Cleanliness of shop.  Very satisfied

 Satisfied

F- Quality and Freshness of goods.  Very satisfied ID NO.:

 Satisfied

PAGES 96 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

G- Choice of Products.  Very satisfied

 Satisfied

 Dissatisfied

 Very Dissatisfied

 Satisfied

 Dissatisfied

 Very Dissatisfied

 Satisfied

 Dissatisfied

 Very Dissatisfied

 Satisfied

 Dissatisfied

 Very Dissatisfied

 Satisfied

 Dissatisfied

 Very Dissatisfied

 Satisfied

 Dissatisfied

 Very Dissatisfied

 Dissatisfied

 Very Dissatisfied

H- Value of price.  Very satisfied

I- Access to the Shop.  Very satisfied

J- Shopping Hours.  Very satisfied

K- Waiting time at checkout  Very satisfied

L- Ways of payment.  Very satisfied

M- Price marking on goods.  Very satisfied

 Satisfied

N- Availability of special offers and Promotions.  Very satisfied

ID NO.:

 Satisfied

 Dissatisfied

 Very Dissatisfied

PAGES 97 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

Which TESCO / Sainsbury’s shop you regularly shop from?

…………………………………………………………………………………………

Do you confront with any specific problems while you shop at Tesco or Sainsbury’s? ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………….. Additional comments / Suggestions for improvement

.......................................................................................................................................... .......................................................................................................................................... .......................................................................................................................................... .......................................................................................................................................... .......................................................................................................................................... ..........................................................................................................................................

Annual Income of the family (Approx):  Less than £10k

 £10k-£20k

 £20k-£30k

 More than £30k

Thank you very much for your cooperation. ANJUM MAJEED KHAWAJA MBA (Innovative Management) Coventry University ID NO.:

PAGES 98 OF 99

BRITISH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND E-COMMERCE

ID NO.:

PAGES 99 OF 99