Comparative strategies employed by giant supermarkets in the UK- A critical comparative study

Introduction:

Morrisons & ASDA are the 2 giant leading supermarkets in London. They obtained wide popularity with their products & services in UK market. This perspective study will be focusing on the analytical review of the strategies adopted by them in the business process. It will intend to make comparison of their strategic norms in the business with in depth examination & comparative analysis to arrive at the suitable conclusions & recommendations for their regular business policies. Morrisons is the 4th largest supermarket chain in UK It is having 11.5% share of the grocery sector in UK It is established in 382 superstores serving around 10 million shoppers in a week. Its business strategy is customer oriented & focusing on selling groceries at the lower prices. Its establishments dealing only in the large superstores. It does not offer its customers an online shopping service & it has not yet arrived in the financial services market.

ASDA is too one of the leading supermarket in London, it is a part of the Wal-Mart family. They committed to provide services to their customer in the bright welcome environment. They strategically aimed to offer excellent standard of the customer service based on the customer service programme giving the right staff training to fulfil the needs of the customers. Varieties of products of the different brands are offered by ASDA in their superstores to achieve the customer satisfaction.

Research Questions:

This academic study will be purely focusing on the market strategies adopted by the leading supermarkets in their business processes. On going for the analytical review following are some of the research questions raised in my mind

1] What is the area of the business development of Morrison & ASDA in UK?

2] What are the strategies adopted by Morrison & ASDA for the growth & expansion of their business activity in UK?

3] What are the suitable, feasible & acceptable tools for their strategic analysis & comparison in the business?

4] What are the comparative advantages of their strategies, policies in the business in UK?

Research has been undertaken with the directions of all the subjective analysis in depth.

Literature Review:

Central issue behind this study analysis will be to make analysis of the recent strategies adopted by both of these supermarkets for their business development in UK & to suggest them further improvements for their expansion in the area of activity in UK based on the detailed study. Martin Headen & his associates has done analytical study on this topic in Jan 2009 which is purely focused on the Market Development of the ASDA & Morrison in comparative analysis. They clearly stated that “Morrison is the supreme dealer of groceries in an international market seeking their promotion of sales & services throughout the world, It has derived its rank with their optimum capability face to face contracts & in door presentation for achieving the customer satisfaction, they are having the boom technology in the business planning premises” In the technical analysis of ASDA business strategy it has been stated in their perspective study as “ 15.6 % of the grocery market is controlled by ASDA in UK ,it is only a supermarket based petrol retailer to react a Safeway’s promotion, it swiftly cut its prices 0.8p per litre” [Martin et.al,2009] In his opinions given by a retail analyst he stated that “Price can make customer switch temporarily to a competitor, but it is not enough to make them stay. If the price is the only factor grocery shoppers considered, then Aldi would win every time, yet the budget chain has a UK market share of just 1.7%” [Fredric,2008] It is showing that price comparison is an important factor pointed out in this research journal for making the comparison of the strategies adopted by the supermarkets.

However, it is aiming to find out that only the price is not to be treated as the sole successor for the market analysis, even for the increasing level of quality of the product in the stores price is considered to be subsidiary with in the limit of the budgets of the customers. In many cases for purchasing of the qualitative products customer prefers to spend excess & above the budget, it is therefore strategic aim of the supermarkets is not always price based rather it is quality based in the product development. In the studies done by Antony Marric in his research analysis in sept.2009 he had given focus on the sustainable marketing strategies of the business developments adopted by supermarkets in Uk.He had analysed the related factors coming in the background of the research towards the porters 5 forces as a business strategy tool. He focused on the buyers power, suppliers power, market rivalry, threat of new entrants & entry barriers with their inter relative impacts on each other in the process of the strategic business development. In his literature he has written that the “ Sustainable Marketing strategy is based on the four P,s which are Price,Product,Place,Promotion & the four E’s which are Economy,Ecology,Ethnology,Ethics.” [Antony,2009] Antony’s study purely focused on the scientific marketing strategies of the supermarkets in their business developments. It has been studied from the perspective of the customer orientation as well as the seller orientation in the market analysis. Economy is related to the cost control in the business ,Ecology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the business interactions between the business organisms & their impact on their environment analysis, Ethnology is an analytical comparisons of the origins ,distribution,technology,language,religion with that the social structure of the ethnic ,racial & national divisions of the humanity where as Ethics are the benchmarks of the standard, rational code of conducts of the business which can be helpful for the survival & stability of the business in the Market.

Especially in ASDA & Morrison there are extensive researches & developments in the products to absorb the new customers in the market” [Henry,2009] In his scientific analysis Henry precisely focused on the socio cultural influences of the people leaving in the society on the food retailing .Now there are changes in the quality of the food products in Uk,Desire of the exotic fruits, fish in the past trends has gone now & changed in the healthier food in the attractive packages suitable in the environmental scanning. He focused on the developments in the 21st century about the customer appearances towards the acceptability of the food products & so far it has been closely impacted on the strategy of the appearance of the saleable product of the supermarkets. He also focuses on the changing habits of the customers changing habits of the customers towards eating food & in this trend of the new culture how the supermarkets responded to the consumer preferences to stabilise their activity in the market. “ Every supermarket has its own implemented strategy ,ASDA is the lowest price offers the cheapest one among all the supermarkets in UK which is closely followed by the Morrison , However it is having different impacts on the consumer behaviour might be due to the brand identity of the products sold in the both supermarkets.” [Peter,2008] The norm of study of Peter clearly pre-screened towards the view of the strategic development of the supermarkets in UK,it is based on the price fixation of the products in the supermarkets & its relative impact on the consumer preferences & their psychology towards accepting the products. He also stresses on the brand identity of the products which are sold by the supermarkets.

Methodology:

Methods will be used for the proposed study, will be based on the pure analytical trend of the supermarkets strategy in their area of activity of the business. The process will be divided into 3 aspects of the research. The proposed study is giving importance to the systematic & exploratory research based on the survey ,observations & analytical review. The research will be prepared in the aiming at the perspective direction of the users towards the suitable, feasible & acceptable planning & decision-making. It is appropriate to choose the exploratory research to focus in depth on the competitive strategies of the supermarkets for their business development in the emergent market.Survey is important to guess the impact of the strategies developed & applied by the supermarkets on the consumer behaviour,Analytical review is to pre-screening the implications of the strategic management of the supermarkets based on the responses given by the consumers.

Data Gathering –

Primary data will be gathered with the regular visits in the supermarkets at the periodical intervals. Data will be collected with conducting the regular interviews of the working persons in the supermarkets about their policies & strategies in the expansion of the business. Why do interviews with workers offer policy insights? Observations on the consumer preferences & information about impacts of the business strategies adopted by the supermarkets will be gathered. Observations can be helpful to make analysis of the changes in the consumer behavioural patterns & their buying behaviour towards the policies implemented by the supermarkets. Survey of the potential customers with getting replies from them through customers will be gathered to gather data about the consumer responses. Secondary data will be collected from the journals,brouchers,product magazines of the supermarkets. Secondary data will be collected to know about the average consumer opinion about the products & services living in a particular area.It can give the consumer preferences as per the living area,age group along with the trends in the market.

Data Analysis –

Qualitative & quantitative data will be analysed to arrive at the validate conclusions. Grounded theory will be used in the analytical comparisons of the supermarkets. For the statistical analysis of the quantitative measurements Statistical Package of Social Sciences [SPSS] will be used to make the perspective analysis of the gathered data. Data will be analysed in the Strenths, Weaknesses, and Opportunities & Threats to study the potential norms of the strategies adopted by the supermarkets with their impact on the business policy developments. Strategic norms in the business can be assessed with clubbing of the advantageous & disadvantageous factors along with the internal & external factors in the business. Study will be analysed in the cause & effect relationships of the facts & circumstances of the business developmental strategy in the supermarkets. How the circumstances leading to or caused to the potential effects in the business will be perspective analysed in the cut throat competition & the comparative academics. Statistical Techniques of Mean,Mode,Median,Standard Deviation,Range,Chi-square test, Co-relation, integration will be used wherever necessary in the statistical strategic comparisons.

Data Presentation:

The structured data will be presented in charts, diagrams ,histograms, graphs to make precise focus of the study towards the analytical review & desired topic to obtain readers attention towards the research study analysis. Statistical measurements will be presented in the bar charts to have an in depth focus on the result orientation of the study with the suitability for attention & understandibility of the user.

Conclusion:

The determined research study is an analytical view of the comparison of the business strategies of the 2 leading giant supermarkets in London.ie ASDA & Morrison etc. The study will give precise focus on the implementation of the strategic tools in their business processes for the comparative study. It will be pre-screening their norms of the business development in terms of the area of operations along with their ideas & prospective for the growth & expansion of their business activity in the competitive UK market. Along with the tools of the strategic analysis it will be focusing on the merits & demerits of the recent strategies of supermarkets with their complementary impact on the consumer behaviour in the Market. Even quantitative analysis will be done through the help of the statistical measures to arrive at the efficient, effective & realistic findings of the academic research work.

References:

1] Martin et.al,(2009),Research in Supermarkets,7 th edition, Boycott

2]Misher,F.(2008),Price Discrimination in Supermarkets, Toronto books

3]Ganguly,A.(2009),Strategic Marketing in Supermarkets, Tools & Analysis of Business Strategies, 3rd edition, Sudan county publishers.

4]Adorten,H.(2009),Business Development in Supermarkets,1st edition,Antop Hill (ISBN14567512)

5]Disuza,P.(2008), Rationals of the Business strategy,2nd edition,Waffer