Woolworths Limited Segmentation - Targeting And Positioning Free Sample

Question: Discuss about theSegmentation,Targeting and Positioning of Woolworths Limited. Answer: Evaluation of Marketability of Woolworths Limited: Woolworths Limited has been engaged in retailing activities in relation to providing groceries, home products, day to day necessities coupled with offering clothing line and fashion accessories. The company controls majority of Australias retailing market owing to heightened degree of market exposure. The variability in its product prices results towards the company succeeding to cater to the demand to a large number of market segments. The company has focused towards maintaining its market share through potentially aligning itself with authenticity and freshness in its products. Segmentation Pertaining to Woolworths: Segmentation relates to dividing total markets onto several different sections based upon multiple criteria comprising of demographical features, socio economic features and product characteristics amongst others (Kotler et al. 2015). Each segment comprises of consumers with similar quantum of product or service preferences coupled with similar consumption pattern of the product in question. The different segments that relates to the demographical features of consumers comprises of the age of the consumers, the gender that the consumer belongs with, the average education levels of the consumers. Gender play a significant role towards the inception and development of large number of retailing services and products owing to the fact a particular product is designed to cater to a particular gender. The clothing and homecare product has been differentially manufactured based upon the deviations in the preference levels of its consumers belonging to different genders. Segregation of retailing products based upon the age levels is a significant policy for mitigation of overstocking or inventory obsolescence. The infants with age group below 5 are provided with large sets of infant food products, this is followed by consumers with 6-17 years of age and finally is concluded with catering to the requirements of consumers who are above 55 years of age. Further, the segmentation in relation to the income levels of consumers has in turn facilitated the different sets of initiatives in the procurements of products from the producers or manufacturers. This is resultant from the fact that the purchasing power of prospective clients tends to dictate the growth rate of a particular product. Moreover, for a particular product line the real demand for a product can be evaluated through the actual income levels of the clients. Targeting: Targeting comprises of identification of a market segment by a firm and thereby catering to that particular segment in order to accomplish its objectives of revenue generation (Kumar and Zia 2016). Woolworths primary target has been the household segment of the retail market, this is reflected by the high quantum of sales that has taken place in terms of sales of groceries followed by home products. Moreover, the company has introduced large sets of women wear and fashion accessories aiming towards targeting the young female consumers. Further, the market share in the retailing industry in Australia has been largely dominated by Woolworths, this can be attributed from the fact that Woolworths commands over three fourths of the Australian retail market (Woolworths Online. 2016). Positioning: Positioning encompasses translating the preferences of the consumers and facilitating a distinct place in a particular market segment amongst the current sets of products catering to the particular segment (Kumar and Zia 2016). Positioning entails steps that facilitate retention of brand image onto the psyche of consumers through different sets of brand positioning initiatives. Woolworths tends to focus towards alienating itself from its competitors through promotional activities that reiterates the companys slogan of providing the fresh foods to its consumers (YouTube, 2016). The company has initiated its marketing campaigns in a manner that emphasizes upon streamlining deliverance of its products directly from farmers onto the store shelves. Moreover, Woolworths has correlated the purchase of its products with supporting Australian farmers thereby creating a highly positive perception of its products. The introduction of loyalty schemes in the form of Everyday Reward through issuance of shopping cards has been undertaken in order to improve the overall shopping experience for its consumers and thereby differentiate itself amongst other retail providers. The company has been promoting reliability and platform providing one stop solution to numerous household needs. Further, the advent of online shopping has been capitalized by the company with increasing levels of exposure to both current and prospective clients (Gordon 2012). The changing preference levels of clients can be evaluated in a streamlined manner. This is owing to the assimilation and synthesis of clients behavioral analytics and on site activities by the visitors on the company website (Hanssens et al. 2014). Woolworths limited can benefit highly from implementation of Big Data analytics along with installation of artificial intelligence programs in order to facilitate better overview of customers behavioral patterns and thereby frame better informed marketing strategies. References: Gordon, R., 2012. Re-thinking and re-tooling the social marketing mix.Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ),20(2), pp.122-126. Hanssens, D.M., Pauwels, K.H., Srinivasan, S., Vanhuele, M. and Yildirim, G., 2014. Consumer attitude metrics for guiding marketing mix decisions.Marketing Science,33(4), pp.534-550. Kotler, P., Burton, S., Deans, K., Brown, L. and Armstrong, G., 2015.Marketing. Pearson Higher Education AU. Kumar, N.S. and Zia, M., 2016. A Three Dimensional Vertical Differentiation Model: Implications for Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning.Targeting and Positioning (April 3, 2016). Woolworths Online. (2016). Woolworths Supermarket - Buy Groceries Online. [online] Available at: https://www.woolworths.com.au/ [Accessed 16 Oct. 2016]. YouTube. (2016). Woolworths: The Fresh Food People. HD. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8uvoEsLFo0 [Accessed 16 Oct. 2016].