‘To be Britain’s best value fresh food and clothing superstore, by satisfying the weekly shopping needs of ordinary working people and their families who demand value.’ idea.
ASDA also emphasizes the need to:
-The need to keep low prices and increase quality:
-Reduce waste to a minimum
-Listen to the needs and wants of the consumer
-Strive for better results and a good all round service
ASDA’s mission statement reveals that ASDA’s main concern is providing economical goods for a broad consumer base this is important as to maintain a competitive advantage ASDA must carefully identify its target consumer group, and cater for their needs in this case those with lower incomes, unlike another company like Marks and Spencer's who focus on quality, although ASDA maintains that it’s products are of good quality, they are certainly not premium goods.
ASDA is owned by Wal Mart which is one of the largest supermarket chains in America. This gives ASDA the ability to offer it’s goods at cheaper prices than it’s competitors and match the quality and offers of the major supermarket while still making more profit that it’s rivals due to the large economies of scale involved in bulk buying by Wal Mart. A simple price comparison of generic goods can demonstrate ASDA's competitive edge over rival supermarkets in price.
In Ansoffs marketing strategies, organisations would be seeking to increase the number of sales or number of customers. Jenkins present four types of customer growth options that organisations may follow to achieve sales and customer growth
Below is the customer growth matrix
Source Jenkins M (1997 The customer Centred strategy)
They summarise the marketing mix by the four P’s of marketing
- Product
- Price
- Promotion.
- Place
Asda and Waitrose are continually producing new products to keep up with the market, they are continually providing new services like Waitrose offers a delivery service for flowers, they provide a free quarterly magazine which shows recipes Asda does not have a pricing policy except on core items which it price matches.
Asda and Waitrose are not like many other stores, most supermarkets have reward cards which gives customers points, where they can get money off selected items or win holiday/cars.
Waitrose basis It’s advertising through paper and only recently have they started advertise on T.V. It is in joint partnership with John Lewis which aims to combine the convenience of a supermarket with the expertise and service of a specialist shop. They offer customers a Price Commitment to ensure that customers always get good value for money where each week hundreds of everyday items are checked against other leading supermarkets.
Asda unlike Waitrose, advertise commercially, paper advisements, and through their own radios station. They offer ‘Asda Promise – Keeping price permanently low’.
The Jenkins theory
Is to do with customer loyalty which brings in greater profitability. Faith full customers will affect profit directly by purchasing products and services over an extended period of time. Which I think applies to both of the two chains of course word of mouth telling friends, neighbours and relatives is the best way for publicity to tell them about the products and services.
Customer Extensions
This is when a consumer extends the range of products or services that is available for a customer to purchase from the organisation. Increasing sales by extending the range of products and services available to the customer, which involves following strategies of a product development and diversification.
Also the way a store is advertised helps for example you always remember the Asda add by at the end they always say that’s Asda price which is there slogan.
Waitrose on the other hand hasn’t got a catchy slogan it has only 3 orange lines which not very many people recognise.
Both Asda and Waitrose have online facilities to order online, which is helps the consumer as if they do not have the time to go and shop they can easily order food or other items on the internet and get the order delivered to there door for a small price.
Asda also does travel insurance for consumers going on holiday.
From the start Asda have had there own products like there own drinks, as well as the well known brands like Robinson drinks. Waitrose have also got there own brands but are not as well known as Asda.
Waitrose has recently been vamped and all of there stores have been changed to a new more modern look which looks good. This shows that they are concentrating on how the store as a whole is.
So has Asda they have opened up a number of new stores where they have good parking space, a wider store so that they can fit in, pharmacy’s and also in a couple of
there stores they have actually a bank i.e Abbey National which is unusual, so consumers can go shopping and also go and pay in cheques in at the same time.
Waitrose on the other hand there stores are mainly small one of the oldest ones that come to mind would be the one in Brent Cross which is a very small store and recently it has been vamped also a fairly new store is the one in Harrow Wealdstone which is a bigger and offers wider services. When I talked to a manager at Waitrose the manager had no hesitation in telling me that they thrive on customer loyalty he said that they do not need a catchy slogan to attract customers unlike Asda as they have high competition which is why they advertise so much and have a good slogan.
Although Waitrose has been around a lot longer than Asda. which is more recognised than Waitrose.
Waitrose is aimed at more at the higher end of the market. Waitrose has more stores in the South Of England, as it is known that well off people mainly live in the South of England.
In this assignment I have found that there are a lot of strategies that effect a supermarket especially in Asda since they have merged with Walmart the company has been growing rapidly and is becoming a well known establishment.
Most of the factors that effect one supermarket effect the other. Both the supermarkets seem to have the same strategies and work a long the same way although. Up until recently Asda use to be the supermarket that used to be the supermarket that advertised more but recently Waitrose have started to advertise more as they are trying to get more of a variety of people in there store since they have been vamped. Although competition between two of the stores is huge both the supermarkets attract different hierarchy’s of people.
