ALDI Strategic Marketing PLAN PDF

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The strategic marketing plan is basically meant to formulate an analytical report that will serve the institution’s interest in bettering its opportunities and customer relations....

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Running Head: STRATEGIC MARKET PLAN

STRATEGIC MARKET PLAN Student Name Institutional Affiliation

STRATEGIC MARKET PLAN STRATEGIC MARKETING PLAN: ALDI COMPANY, UK Summary of the ALDI company foundation and operation ALDI is a UK-based business organization whose repute has gone far and wide across the globe due to the institution’s prowess in the business industry. The company has over ten thousand branches worldwide, due to the vast investment done by its pioneers, the Albrecht’s. ALDI UK runs its operations in the United Kingdom through supermarkets based in various regions in the said country. The goods on sale from the company include, inter alia; foods, beauty products, health, a variety of pet care products, drinks, clothing, travel and sports products and electrical gadgets. These include groceries, recipes for a variety of dishes, wines and spirits and other soft-drinks. The company is famed for its quality goods and services which include free delivery at one’s doorstep. To make its worth better and bolster its entrepreneurial muscles, I will submit a report centered on how best the said institution can offer a competitive environment amongst its competitors through raising the bar in as far as business is concerned, quality of services and how to win over customers. The bold step in this case shall be a preparation of a strategic marketing plan for the said company. The strategic marketing plan is basically meant to formulate an analytical report that will serve the institution’s interest in bettering its opportunities and customer relations. ALDI company was founded by Theo Albrecht and Karl Albrecht. The company has since grown to the heights it is popularly known for in the current world market. The noble idea was primarily meant to make sales of goods at a discounted price which has since been the epicenter of the company since its inaugural years. The trend has not deviated since it has still managed to maintain the aspect of discounting prices in the supermarket. This has been one of the reasons why the company has been preferred to others in the food industry. The strategy has

STRATEGIC MARKET PLAN been a success since its inception and thus, even in the marketing strategy plans, the same has to be encompassed and cited in a manner that it will ultimately boost the company more in the execution of its businesses. ALDI’s Mission Statement The mission statement of the above-mentioned company is to craft living solutions and provide high quality products affordable and convenient to the consumers by partnering with the suppliers to deliver products at the best possible price, to inspire the staff to run the business in the most efficient manner, to continue setting standards for retailing businesses and further expanding the market position of the ALDI Group. From the mission statement herein, it is apparent that the company is destined to ensure that their customers or clients receive the best of services and quality products. The expansion of their market is also a notable idea in the mission statement. The market position is not limited to the physical location, but the diversification of services such as having online orders made and subsequent deliveries from a common point. For the success of the business, there has to be multiple stores running across the country so as to reach to as many customers as possible. Thus, this also has to be a priority in meeting the mission of the ALDI Company. The vision of the company is: to be a successful and the most affordable brand across the world. It is indubitably right to state that the vision of ALDI company has, in a larger extent been achieved. This is because of the aforementioned reasons as to the reputation that the company has amongst the privileged group who have used their services and goods. The realization of this vision is centered on every department in the company’s broad team. Each and every individual be it an employee or management team has a vital role towards the realization of this vision. It

STRATEGIC MARKET PLAN encompasses the basic values necessary for the success of the company and thus working towards that is just but a step away. The ALDI company values providing services to their esteemed customers since they are the group that makes their operations efficacious. To obtain excellence in the industry, the company envisages customer relations as a pillar towards the realization of its mission and vision. Evidently, this has been seen in the long-standing company policy of discounting their goods’ prices. The policy, as seen above has its underpinnings through which the institution was founded. Upholding this noble idea has seen ALDI grow to the levels it has and be endeared by the ever-growing population of customers. ALDI’S products Since the commencement of the Company in the 90s its products have immensely grown, although its products might not be as much as those found in a supermarket which might be in a bigger space. At the moment, the Company trades with about 2,000 products on its shelves. These products mostly comes in private labels specially made for the Company. Its products range from fresh meat, fresh fish, dairy products such as milk, cheese and yoghurt, wines and spirits, paper products, groceries, eggs, organic foods and spices, chips, cereals, canned goods, recipes for variety of dishes, toys, detergents, and pastry products among other products (Fuseini, Wotton, Knowles, & Hadley, 2017). Groceries are deemed to be its main products.

Pricing Strategy

STRATEGIC MARKET PLAN Competitive pricing is what will distinguish out the company from its competitors in the market. Being a discount retailing chain, the company will majorly focus on retailing high quality products at the lowest price possible without making alterations to their quality. It has to work on economies of scale in its operations. The company will as a result achieve these by having exclusive brands for their products, this is so by partnering with leading manufactures who will produce their own brand products. It also ensures that it has the products in limited range, and by also purchasing these products in in large quantities from its suppliers as an efficient way of providing an arena for negotiations to the lowest possible purchase price. Another way in which the company uses to achieve and maintain their competitive prices is by focusing on the core business. They are strategic when it comes to expanding their retail in terms of introducing more products instead their focal point is on what is fundamental. The company’s pricing policy is to always be the first company to charge the lowest price on products and to always be the last to increase their product prices when the economy rises. It is also of great importance to be noted that the company does not operate on a 24*7 hour basis as it strives to cut down its expenses on commodities such as electricity hence operating for a limited time and specific hours of the day. It also operates with a small number of employees thus economizing on the employee costs. By so doing, the company gets to save and stay within their accounts even when they sell their high quality products at low levels. Distribution channels. The company has over 350 stores situated in the United Kingdom. These stores are considered as the primary distribution channels for the company. As it is well known, when there

STRATEGIC MARKET PLAN are many intermediaries involved in the distribution of a product, then the price of that product has to increase with the number of the intermediaries (Kenton, 2020). Selective distribution is a distribution strategy in business where the producers of certain products limits the number of outlets where these products are to be sold. The selective distribution method is therefore the appropriate mode of distribution for ALDI. Inevitably, due to the close relationship that the company has with its suppliers, ALDI is able to apply the push marketing strategy in its business operation. This strategy entails the offering of incentives by a manufacturer to its distributors of retailers such as ALDI to sell it products to the end consumers (Iacobacci, 2013) The company therefore effects these distribution by offering their goods and services at their various stores within the country where its customers gets to purchase the products physically. It also offers home delivery services to its esteemed customers as a way of embracing the technological advances and creating convenience shopping from home. Customers can then make their purchases from the comfort of their homes and have their purchased goods delivered to their door steps. Promotion strategy For ALDI to achieve its goals it has to use both the above-the-line promotion and the bottom-the-line promotion with much focus on the ‘Like Brands’ and the swap & save campaigns. The above-the-line promotion consists of a balance of the marketing mix. These balance is achieved by establishing a peculiar blend in the market by providing the right products and selling them at affordable prices in the right place while using the most suitable methods for promotion.

STRATEGIC MARKET PLAN Promotions will help the company in increasing awareness of the products it sells and will refine the brand recognition within the market. Promotion will also increase the demand for the products. Further, promotion will create brand loyalty and improve the brand image of the products it sells. Consequently, promotion will inform its customer and eventually persuade them to purchase them. This may also be used as a platform in introducing new products to the customers. Above-the-line promotions aims at the mass audience as it is majorly done through the media such as the newspapers, magazines, televisions, radio amongst other media targeting the large audience. These type of promotions are always costly. Therefore, ALDI can employ this promotion method targeting its customers and the potential customers as well. The above-the-line promotion can be done through advertisements on the television focusing on the ‘Like Brands’ campaigns focusing on specific products. These advertisements can run for as low as thirty seconds on the television screens. These campaigns will act as a benchmark for the quality of the exclusive products sold at ALDI and the products sold by its competitors stating that they are of the same qualities but found at cheaper price at ALDI. This way, the company will build trust in its target audience. The company can further extend these advertisements and campaigns in the newspapers by promoting the ‘swap and save’ message. The ‘swap and save’ campaigns speaks into the value for money that company has and the amount of money that a customer can save is they swap and start shopping at ALDI’s. Additionally, ALDI can print out brochures to distribute within their stores and also to their customers who reside within the reach of their stores.

STRATEGIC MARKET PLAN On the other hand, the company may also use the below-the-line promotion which uses different ways of approaching its customers from those used in above-the-line promotion. Most of the methods used here targets specific customers and audience by granting the company a wider control level over their communications. Some of the practicable modes of these promotion method includes but not limited to social media such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter which will provide a platform for the company to interact with its customers and get to know their opinion about the products they sell. From these platforms they can also get people who will advocate for their store and their competitive price. Other modes would be by the third party endorsements, targeted messages to customers such as targeted e-mails and also by awarding of its customers. Further, the company may create a website which will aid in the campaigns and for the purposes of promoting its employers brand messages and the career opportunities at their stores. Competitors strategy ALDI UK’s main competitors are Walmart, Sainsbury, SuperValu, Marks & Spencer, Macy’s and Costco companies. The above companies were founded years before ALDI UK and are ALDI’s main competitors. ALDI is premised on making her services better in comparison to her counterparts in the sector. This has been proved by the years of inception to the industry where ALDI is a relatively younger company compared to the named above. Conclusion In conclusion, this strategic marketing plan will act as a great guide to the ALDI company. The ALDI, as a retailing company, will have a greater advantage in the pervaded

STRATEGIC MARKET PLAN marketplace in the United Kingdom through the implementation of the competitive pricing strategy in its business operations. In furtherance to this, owing to its peculiar characteristic of balancing the marketing mix, the company is therefore in the best position to provide high quality products which will be bearing their own labels at the lowest possible price in the market. Finally, the two major campaigns of promotion strategy, the ‘Like Brand’ campaign and the ‘swipe and save’ campaign will improve the brand’s sensation in the market leading to the achievement of its mission, vision and values as a company.

Recommendations From the foregoing, there are various aspects that the ALDI company can successfully improvise in the course of their operations to yield profits for the company. The methods or simply necessary steps towards this limb of discussion include; Enhancing technological advancements and keeping up-to-date with the ever growing mechanisms of technology. Examples in this case include the distribution mechanism. Recent innovation in the transport industry has seen the introduction of automotive vehicles in the industry. The automotive vehicles may cut travel costs up to 40%, significantly saving close to 80 billion hours spent in transport and congestion as well as consequently reducing man-power (ITS Digest, 2018). This is a rare opportunity especially bearing in mind the costs of hiring transport and/or using human resources to purely execute this. This innovation of the automotive vehicles will enable ALDI company to successfully transport goods to their customers in an efficient manner, cutting the cost of having a driver thus increasing the profitability of any

STRATEGIC MARKET PLAN particular deal. Talking this COVID-19 period as an advantage for this case, the supply of foods to individuals working from home, those denied the access to public places due to quarantine would be a good step forward. Such eventualities happening in the future would mean that there is a paradigm shift with regards to how companies supply or distribute their goods. Drones would also work but limitations regarding their use due to the aerospace regulations would hinder its immediate use. In furtherance to the above, proper utilization of the social media platforms where most consumers can be found is another mechanism to bolster trade and supply of goods. ALDI has an array of social media platforms ranging from Facebook pages, Twitter handles, Instagram and LinkedIn accounts, Pinterest, YouTube, Reddit and Quora. The above mentioned platforms are arguably the most used cites or social media platforms (Thompson, 2020). Apparently, a whopping 60% of the world populace use social media due to their ownership of gadgets such as internet-accessing phones, tablets, computers among others which is equivalent to 3.8 billion people of the 4.5 billion who gain access to the internet (Kemp, 2020). This makes it easy to reach out to the said population who would be regarded as the awaiting customers. Marketing of goods and services in these platforms would enable the company to reach out to a very big number of would-be customers. In addition to that, checking out on the demand-and-supply channels would be a plus for ALDI. The primary reason I chose this as one of the recommendations was because of the necessity to know which regions or areas are best suited for ALDI to introduce new centers for supply of goods. The demand in highly populated regions would definitely be higher compared to the less populated regions. Having a branch in every of the big cities in the United Kingdom other than London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Brighton, Liverpool among others would

STRATEGIC MARKET PLAN make it easy for the customers to access the goods from ALDI without necessarily having to overstretch in accessing the same from one point of supply. The use of advertisements boosts the chances of a company to showcase their products to the public thus creating wanted curiosity. A customer would trust an organizations goods due to how they are advertised (Sendian Creations, 2020). Whether the products are expensive or not, in comparison to other of their competitors, it is highly likely that a customer’s impression of seeing the products adverts on Television would make them consider purchasing goods from the respective company. Therefore, ALDI should embrace investing heavily on advertisements to boost the business. Some employees in an organization play a vital role in the growth of the institution. This is because of their experience in the industry. ALDI should consider hiring highly qualified supply chain managers who are able to cite the future challenges that are unprecedented in the company so as to promote the supply chain department. Another approach would be hiring quality-assurance managers (Forte Group, 2020) so as to enhance the quality of both goods and services in the company through analysis and evaluation. The quality assurance team helps the organization in meeting the customer needs, building trust with the customer as well as warding off competition due to production of quality goods. The said team further helps the company in detecting a problem and addressing it prior to its negative impact in the production of goods. This is an area that needs bolstering in ALDI. Finally, offering free goods – freebies to customers who purchase large packages as promotion to their loyalty (White, 2013) would be a good initiative for ALDI. This method would mean that production in the company be raised with respect to certain products. The same

STRATEGIC MARKET PLAN products would then be attached to the already-purchased commodity for a customer. This would motivate them to use goods and services from ALDI other than their competitors.

STRATEGIC MARKET PLAN REFERENCES Forte Group, (2020): Why quality assurance is essential to any delivery team. Retrieved from https://fortegrp.com/why-qa-is-essential-to-delivery-team/ on 9th December, 2020. Fuseini, A., Wotton, S. B., Knowles, T. G., & Hadley, P. J. (2017). Halal Meat Fraud and Safety Issues in the UK: A Review in the Context of the European Union. Food Ethics, 127-142. ITS Digest, (2018): 10 Advantages of Autonomous Vehicles. Retrieved from https://www.itsdigest.com/10-advantages-autonomous-vehicles on 9th December, 2020. Kemp, S. (2020): Digital 2020: 3.8 billion people use social media. Retrieved from https://wearesocial.com/blog/2020/01/digital-2020-3-8-billion-people-use-socialmedia#:~:text=More%20than%204.5%20billion%20people,the%20middle%20of%20this %20year. On 9th December, 2020. Kenton, W (2020): Distribution Channel. Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/distribution-channel.asp on 9th December, 2020. Lacobucci, D (2013) Marketing Management (MM), 4th Edition, South Western, Cenage Learning, Mason, Chapter 10, Channels of Distribution and Logistics. Sendian Creations, (2020): 7 Benefits of effective advertisements for your business. Retrieved from https://www.sendiancreations.com/benefits-of-effective-advertisements/ on 9th December, 2020. Thompson, N. (2020): The Best Social Media Platforms for Business: Your Ultimate Guide. Retrieved from https://optinmonster.com/best-social-media-platforms-for-business/ on 9th December, 2020.

STRATEGIC MARKET PLAN White, M (2013): 5 Ways Companies Win by Giving Stuff Away. Retrieved from https://business.time.com/2013/06/24/5-ways-companies-win-by-giving-stuff-away/ on 9th December, 2020....