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Coles
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Coles
Introduction
Australia is a country brimming with many successful businesses; after all it is a big economy. These business ventures include a number of industries that work and compete in different areas. Some of these are production ventures that manufacture and sell their products, and some are services based businesses, which provide services to their customers or clients as an exchange of different kind of services (Phillipov, 2016, pp, 589). One of the subtype of services business is self-service business. One of the best examples of this kind of business in Australia is Coles Supermarket.
Founded in 1914, Coles Supermarkets Australia Pty Ltd, trading as Coles, is a leading name in the Australian Supermarket Industry. It is a kind of self-service, retail and consumer services chain, with headquarters lying in Melbourne as part of the Coles Group.
Discussion
Just like every other established and well-run business, Coles Supermarket has also developed various strategies to handle the market it is working in. It has developed elaborated and well-thought put marketing and branding strategies so that it can attract maximum number of customers in the market (Cameron, Sayers, Sacks, and Thornton, 2015, pp. 115). These strategies help the self-service supermarket chain in selling a high number of products from its racks and capture the maximum share from the Australian market.
Product Or Service’s Brand Positioning
Coles had been calmly watching its competitor Woolworths claim for its extravagant positioning and branding strategies. It rival had been boasting about it symbol of being the “The Fresh Food” People from a long time and claiming to provide the most fresh food all over Australia. The supermarket brand under discussion itself had been adopting various sorts of positioning and branding strategies to bring up its position since a long time and had been considerably successful in it.
Since the supermarket came under the ownership of Wesfarmers almost 3 years ago, the market has seen a smooth surge in its marketing approach and in return in sales as well. Along with displaying it products, especially the food products at attractive locations at the store, the supermarket is also focus on its price positioning strategies.
Market Leaders from Coles Supermarket
Established in 1914, Coles Supermarket had made a huge name in the Australian market. It has come a long way since its establishment and has made a good name in the industry of supermarket and food industry. Coles Supermarket, also known commonly as Coles, is among the top market players in the industry of grocery and food chain along with Woolworth, Aldo (or Aldi) and Metcash. If the statistics are concerned, Coles is currently holding a total share of 30.3 % of the Australian grocery market after Woolworths, which has a total market share of 37.2% (Team, 2018).
2018 has not been a very lucky year for Coles but still the supermarket giant is working on its strategies to improve the situation. With 807 supermarkets throughout Australia, and more than 100000 employees, is still on the second position of the leading grocery and food chains, with 80% of the market share in hands.
Identification of Niche
With a whopping revenue of A$ 39.288 billion in 2018, the supermarket giant has surely come a long way since its establishment in 1914. Coles has been offering a number of products in its super stores just like any other super market but the most attractive or glittering feature of its super stores is its food. The quality of food served by Coles is one of the best and the supermarket leader also tries to keep this quality on the top (Neo, 2019).
The Supermarket Giant also identified the extreme need for starting an online presence and hence started it project Coles Online. Coles Online was started in 2003 when Coles purchased Sydney based internet grocery store, Shopfast. The online store offers “click and collect” and home delivery services to its customers at the ease of their homes.
Is The Product Or Service Going To Be A Leader, A Follower Or A Challenger To The Well-Established Brands In The Market?
Coles Supermarket is not a new brand in the market, in fact it has been here since 1914. People have known and even appreciated Coles for its various factors like consistency, service quality, product quality check and innovative marketing strategies. The supermarket brand has not only made a considerable place in the market but in the hearts of Australian people as well due to all the above factors. Considering all the above facts and figures in mind and keeping the definitions of market leader, market follower and market challenger in consideration it can be surely said that Coles Supermarket is a market leader and challenger in the true sense. It has challenged some seriously rigid and conventional marketing norms and set bright examples for the upcoming names in the market.
Consumer Adoption Process for the New Products
The customer adoption process in any business case, whether it is related to any product or service, consists of five essential steps; Product Awareness, Product Interest, Product Evaluation. Product Trial and Product Adoption. The consumer product adoption process in the case of Coles is very much fast and elaborated (Kumar, 2008). The success ratio of the products and services of Coles is due to the fact that consumers are well-aware of the quality of the food products of the supermarket leader. The supermarket giant has made a good reputation in the Australian market regarding the quality and delivery of its products; hence people trust the name of Coles. This trust is the reason that this consumer adoption process takes very less time. People seldom do for evaluation or trail adopt or purchase the product.
Pricing Decision Strategies for the New Products
Coles has been providing cost-effective and economic products to its customers since long time. It is the type of business that not only focusses on generating profits for its own self but also giving maximum benefit to the consumers. This benefit includes providing the highest quality of products and ensuring maximum savings to its customers (Baviera-Puig, Buitrago-Vera, and Escriba-Perez, 2016, pp, 1216). In this respect, the supermarket leader in Australia takes many steps. One of the main steps out of it is to keeping the prices low on its products, especially the new ones. Coles focuses on the establishment and anchoring of its product in the market, instead of generating profits from it, so that it can make a firm place in the market as well as the eyes of the consumers.
Coles Supermarket Retailing Plan
Although the introduction of new supermarket like Aldi, Costco and Amazon have posed to be a real threat for an old player like Coles, still the supermarket leader is stick on its position and applying multiple level of strategies to keep its hold in the market. The main retailing strategies that are being applied by the super market giant is inculcation of technology and cost saving strategies for its consumers (Palmatier, Stern, and El-Ansary, 2016. Pp, n.d.). Coles has understood the need of online presence long time ago thus it is providing the services of online shopping to its customers. In addition to this. Customers can order the grocery at their home.
Coles Supermarket Wholesaling Plan
The business of grocery store does not only depend on the retail services but also wholesaling services that it provides to its customers. The 807 super-store chain has also mastered the art of devising, and implementing the strategies of whole selling over its long period of existence in Australian market. Coles whole selling plan includes a number of strategies that have been especially devised keeping in mind customer as the most priority. The super market giant keeps rolling out certain types of offers to attract its customers especially on the bulk of products.
Coles Supermarket Logistical Marketing Plan
The grocery and food chain dealer does not only how to attract its customers by rolling out lucrative offers but also how to manage its internal operations. Coles implements an intelligent set of logistic strategies to manage its daily operations. It is extremely important in the life of a super market to handle its transportation and warehousing services so that the customers get the products on time (Volpe, and Cho, 2017). In order to keep a balance and coordination in its operations, Coles has outsourced services from the largest warehousing services in Australia, where a non-perishable stock of 30 days is always present.
Conclusion
Hence, in a nut shell, it can be seen that in such a tough phase of competition between different rivals, Coles Supermarket has kept its place successfully intact in the Australian market. It has been a favourite of Australian generations since the last 105 years. Coles Supermarket, also known as Coles, adopt as sophisticated marketing strategy especially in the case of its food products. It has committed to provide the best to its customers and hence, the superstore leader always serves the best to its customers. Hence, this supermarket is famous for the quality and authencity of its products and the freshness of its food products.
Works Cited
Baviera-Puig, A., Buitrago-Vera, J. and Escriba-Perez, C., 2016. Geomarketing models in supermarket location strategies. Journal of Business Economics and Management, 17(6), pp.1205-1221.
Cameron, A.J., Sayers, S.J., Sacks, G. and Thornton, L.E., 2015. Do the foods advertised in Australian supermarket catalogues reflect national dietary guidelines?. Health promotion international, 32(1), pp.113-121.
Kumar, S., 2008. A study of the supermarket industry and its growing logistics capabilities. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 36(3), pp.192-211.
Neo, P. (2019). Supermarket wars: Woolworths takes commanding lead over Coles in battle for Australian grocery sales. [online] foodnavigator-asia.com. Available at: https://www.foodnavigator-asia.com/Article/2019/04/30/Supermarket-wars-Woolworths-takes-commanding-lead-over-Coles-in-battle-for-Australian-grocery-sales [Accessed 14 Sep. 2019].
Palmatier, R., Stern, L. and El-Ansary, A., 2016. Marketing Channel Strategy: Instructor's Review Copy. Routledge.
Phillipov, M., 2016. ‘Helping Australia Grow’: supermarkets, television cooking shows, and the strategic manufacture of consumer trust. Agriculture and human values, 33(3), pp.587-596.
Team, M. (2018). IBISWorld reveals state of the supermarkets and grocery industry | IBISWorld Industry Insider. [online] Ibisworld.com. Available at: https://www.ibisworld.com/industry-insider/press-releases/checkout-update-q1-2018-ibisworld-reveals-the-state-of-play-in-the-supermarkets-and-grocery-stores-industry/ [Accessed 14 Sep. 2019].
Volpe, R.J. and Cho, C., 2017. Market Structure Determinants of Performance for Independent Supermarkets.
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