Research Proposal On The Current Issues At Woolworths
Background
Pertinent information of the company
Woolworths supermarkets trades as Woolworths and is a chain of Supermarket/grocery stores owned by the Woolworths Limited The company along with that of Coles Supermarket are two of the top supermarkets of Australia and accounts to more than 80% of the Australian supermarket (woolworths.com, 2018). The company offers almost every kind of different things from grocery to beauty and health products, DVD’s, electronic items, household products and every other different thing to the consumers of the company. The company has more than 1000 different major stores in the island continent. The company earns more than $45 billion and supports employee strength of more than 111,000 (woolworths.com, 2018). The companies also have some own brands that are sold to the customers through the different stores of the organization and also own a few subsidiaries in the country.
The supermarket and the grocery stores industry is one of the most fiercely competitive industries in Australia. The presence of Woolworths and Coles and the rapid expansion of the other industries like that of ALDI over the past few years in the country have helped in the growth and development of the industry (Kumar & Pansari, 2016). The main strategy of Coles and Woolworths has been to ensure the cutting of the prices and the expansion of the private label product ranges in response to the growing demand of the customers of the company in the market. The Australian supermarket industry is projected at $103 billion and has been projected to grow at the rate of 2.1% each year till 2019. After 2019, the industry will see another major change, as the companies will adapt themselves to new trends and technology to innovate and provide much more varieties in goods and services. According to, woolworths.com (2018) currently the industry employs more than 400,000 people in Australia.
As mentioned in the introductory part of the following presentation Woolworth’s market is the largest Supermarket chain of Australia and it implements all the strategic objectives in such a way that provides them the unique competitive advantage in the market (Albrecht, Bakker, Gruman, Macey & Saks, 2015). However, the presentation has strikingly contrasted the above mentioned views by providing the current issues that are being faced by the organization in the Australian market. The abrupt departure of Tony Philips, the chief marketing officer of Woolworths caused a haywire in the company. This was followed by the departure of most of the high profile executives in the recent months. The disappointing set of quarterly sales figures has been cited to be the main reasons for such a administrative crisis in the company. The marketing experts predict the following happenings to be a threat to the organization. The sudden such issue has been the main reason for the conduction of the research.
Problem Statement
The sudden decline in sales and the loss of market share is a serious concern to Woolworths. The management of the company has flagged that the sales growth of the company dropped off early in the new financial year. The result of the sales drop has taken a toll on the financial projections of the Company (Landy & Conte, 2016). The company expects to sum up to a huge loss in the coming months which will create a great impact on the business of the organization. However the largest impact will be the loss of the market share to old rival “Coles Supermarket” and also loss of significant customers to newcomers in the market “ALDI Supermarkets”. Apart from this the sudden ban of plastic bags by the Government in the supermarkets is also a major problem that can have a negative impact over the organization. The sales of the company have impacted as the customers have found it hard to adapt to the phasing out of the single use plastic bags (Burt, 2017).
The vision and strategy of the company have already taken a backseat as the management of the company has been unable to achieve the vision of generating a sustainable sales momentum in the following condition of the market (woolworths.com, 2018). Though Woolworths is a lean retailer and provides products at the most competitive and affordable price, the changed situations have forced them to come out of their strategic vision and increase the cost accordingly. The company also needs to change the end to end process and systems excellence to mitigate the loss.
The problem of the business currently is the sudden decrease in the sales of the different products that are sold by the company in their stores. The sales figure of the last few months has not been encouraging for the management as it has touched a new low. The last quarter of the company saw a meager growth of 0.2% in sales of liquor and other beverages (Hansen & Taylor, 2017). The main reasons cited for the same is believed to be the lack of proper promotional innovation. The Cheap-Cheap campaign which was launched by the management of the organization, a few years back, though well received by the customers has failed to improve anything considering the price perception of the organization. The main reason for the failure is believed to be the strategy of the following campaign itself as because most of the experts believe that the organization made a hasty decision to start such an unorganized and visionless campaign to counter the threat produced by ALDI and Coles. The absence of a proper visionary leader is also one of the major problems for the organization.
Research Questions
The information provided in this presentation when accessed by the organization will increase the activity of the Company. The problems highlighted in the following presentation can help the management of the organization to put more focus on the current situation on the business. The presentation will help to ensure the implementation of an immediate action plan by the organization to counter the other companies and increase the sales of the organization to the desired levels.
The implementation of a strategic action plan by the management of the organization will have a number of benefits. They are as follows;
- Secure a proper and efficient sales value for the business
- Ensure the competitive advantage of the organization in the market
- Improve the branding of the products in the market
- Ensuring the loyalty of the customers and the shareholders of the organization in the market
Research Question
The research questions that can be formulated from the following projects are as follows;
- What are the current problems faced by Woolworths?
Validation Statement- The current problems faced by the company in the organization is certainly the main topic of the research and thus it is the most important question in this particular regard.
- What are the reasons behind the problems of Woolworths?
Validation Statement- The reasons behind the problems of Woolworths will help in the construction of the literary review of the research and is thus one of the main necessities of the following research.
- What are the current consumer trends in the Australian Supermarket industry?
Validation Statement- The identification of the trends of consumer in the Australian Supermarket industry is important because it will be necessary to formulate a proper strategy to recover from the current situation.
- Why has been Coles and ALDI been more successful in the recent years than Woolworths?
Validation Statement- The information regarding the success of Coles and ALDI will be important as it provides a thorough analysis of the competitive environment faced by the organization.
- How can the existing campaigns be changed to make it more presentable and attractive to the customers of Woolworths Supermarkets?
Validation Statement- The description of the existing campaign and how to make it more presentable and attractive will help the organization to improve on the existing set of campaigns.
- Suggest some recommendations that can change the sales condition to avoid market failure in the future?
Validation Statement- The suggestion or the recommendations will help to address the problems in a proper and efficient manner.
High Level outcomes of the Business information Collected
The high level outcomes of the research will necessarily be based on the proper implementation of the strategies and performing a thorough level market research. The performance of the market research is important in the sense that the research helps to determine a number of different results that are very much important to the success of the organization in the future (Albrecht, Bakker, Gruman, Macey & Saks, 2015). This includes the likes of the consumer trends of the business, the perceptions of the consumers towards the products and the services sold by the organization. The strategy where the company has been failing regularly in the market can also be learned from the conduction of the market research in the organization.
Attitudes and Perceptions of customers towards the brand
Objectives
The attitudes and the perceptions of the customers towards the products of the company have been certainly in a declining state as sales figures have hit a new low in the last quarter. The consumers of the company have preferred the use of more innovative and advanced range of brands (Hansen & Taylor, 2017). As seen by Podsakoff, MacKenzie & Podsakoff (2016) the customers are also more sensitive to the behavior of the employees as better and friendly behavior are now seen to be the key to achieving the loyalty of the customers. Apart from this the consumers nowadays prefer competitive and discounted prices for the products sold by the company in their stores.
The choice of a totally new campaign to attract customers to the organization will be necessary to pull off success in the market. The campaign will be designed in such a manner that it helps the organization to attract the customers in the organization. The existing campaigns can also be redesigned according to the new trends in the market. The redesigning of the campaigns can be completed by providing a new name and some new features to the campaign. The addition of the new features will help in the increase of sales in market.
The presence of substitute trends in the market offered by the likes of Coles and ALDI is seriously hampering the sales of the market. The change thus can be formulated by studying the market in detail and implementing the necessary changes accordingly (Podsakoff, MacKenzie & Podsakoff, 2016).
References
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Kumar, V., & Pansari, A. (2016). Competitive advantage through engagement. Journal of Marketing Research, 53(4), 497-514. (doi.org/10.1509/jmr.15.0044?)
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{{metaController.metaData.title}}. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.woolworths.com.au
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