Marketing Strategy and SWOT Analysis of Woolworths

Some people find getting all the essentials for a household to be the most enjoyable and therapeutic activity. While thousands of years ago, most things were not as easily acquirable, today one car trip makes miracles happen. I know, I know, it sounds funny. But just think about how much easier life is these days, that we can go to stores and buy any item that we think of. One of those destinations is a supermarket chain that has about 1051 branches, Woolworths. In this blog, we are going to take a look at the different tactics that this company uses for its marketing.

To begin with, we are going to accordingly take a look at the mission and vision statements of Woolworths.

The mission statement of Woolworths is as follows.

“United by our group purpose, we create better experiences together for a better tomorrow, create the framework for how we aspire to operate, to be better, for our customers, our team, the communities we serve, and our shareholders”.

The globe that we live in is pretty polluted at this point. That is because of our carelessness and neglect. However, it is never too late to make a change. That is exactly why this company values the importance of the future and its improvement.

How they contribute to it is with the help of an incredible team, good people that have come together to succeed.

The first step in achieving a goal is setting it. The next one is breaking it into small tasks. Eventually, the ultimate destination is reached. That is what we get from this statement.

Woolworths does not want to disappoint anyone. It wants to keep its objective and prove itself worthy. The company deeply cares for not only the customers, but as mentioned, the employees, and investors.

Secondly, the vision statement goes along these lines.

“At Woolworths Group, Sustainability is important to our customers and is now an intrinsic part of our business. We are continuing to lift our ambitions to drive the transformative change that is needed.

Our Sustainability Plan 2025 is ambitious, but we’re confident we can achieve our goals if we all get on board and lift the bar together. That’s what we mean by working together to create a better tomorrow, and tomorrow starts now”. 

The statement is so clearly explained. All the necessary details are laid out. Sustainability is a significant concept for this company. Yet, it is something that can not be turned into reality by the power of one person. This is exactly why it is especially pointed out that working together is a vital element.

The sooner the action is taken, the earlier the desirable result will be achieved. Thus, the statement insists that right now is the time to start attaining a better tomorrow.

Moving on let’s discuss the positioning strategy of Woolworths.

In the summer, especially, people prefer consuming more fruits and vegetables. To an extent, where so much of them is purchased, that the fridge is overflowing, and they are unsure what to do. In cases like such, Woolworths has got you covered.

Zucchini being more of a summery food item, can be used for a ton of recipes. It is important to enjoy the food you’re eating. It becomes more fun and satisfying when you make different things every day. Repeating the same meal over and over again gets unexciting sooner or later.

So, in this Instagram post, a few mouth-watering meals with zucchini are presented. Looks like it even can be used as a dessert ingredient, which comes as a surprise.

The caption also tells us that the website of this company posts numerous appetizing recipes. The company makes sure to come up with fresh and flavorful cooking instructions to share with its 196K Instagram followers.

The healthy and sustainable approach of Woolworths is the biggest hint that we have to come from this post. This company wishes that its consumers take good care of themselves and live a healthy lifestyle.

Over time, the intake of junk/unhealthy food can cause a great deal of damage.

With its advertising methods, this company tries to keep people from harm.

All of this is not just marketing, but an honest and genuine wish. It is not just a business, but a goal of lifestyle change for as many people as possible.

All of these mentioned points make it evident that the archetype that Woolworths belongs to is the Caregiver.

What do we know about this archetype?

Desire: protect people from harm

Aim: to help others

Strategy: do things for others

These are the messaging levels of the archetype.

Level One: seeing someone in need.

Level Two: caring for and nurturing one’s dependents.

Level Three: balancing self-care and care for others.

Level Four: altruism, concern for the larger world

The caregiver presents an appropriate identity for a brand:

• For which customer service provides the competitive advantage
• That provide support to families (from fast food to minivans) or that are associated with nurturance (such as cookies)
• For services in the health care, education, and other caregiving fields (including politics)
• That help people stay connected with and care about one another
• That help people care for themselves
• For non-profit causes and charitable activities

Coming up, we are going to review the SWOT analysis of Woolworths.

Strengths

Market leadership: Woolworths and Coles are the main leaders in the Australian market share. In fact, Woolworths literally holds about 80 % of the market share. This has resulted in the minimal threat of competition in the market.

Segment penetration: Initially, Woolworth’s targeted customers were the upper-class. Thus, they sold pricey items. However, throughout time, they also started selling lower-value goods, targeting the lower class. Thus, as of now, this company targets a whole variety of people.

Managing perceptions: The prices that the products hold in these markets are not fully affordable or entirely expensive. Thus, the middle-class makes a purchase as well. As a matter of fact, 55% percent of Woolworths consumers are from the middle-class segment. All of that has become a possibility by the company’s smart marketing tricks. Both pricing and promotion policy played a huge role in it.

Employee policies: Woolworths offers opportunities to the greatest diversity of people. Following up, the company makes sure that its employees are well-trained. Most importantly, it is considerable that the workers earn bonuses alongside their earnings. As a result, the company gets motivated and loyal employees.

Good customer tracking: Now, obviously targeting consumers is a crucial part of having a successful business. Woolworths is pretty strong in doing that. It uses different business analytics tools to consistently track its customers. Their shopping bills are also looked at. The company makes certain that the consumers are always supplied with every necessary food item.

Promotions: Woolworths promotes its products weekly. How it happens, is that the company keeps its consumers posted on fresh deals. Also, Woolworths introduces new products with entry-level prices, the minimum in the market.

Weaknesses

Confused positioning: Although it is nice to be targeting multiple income-group customers, it is also kind of a challenge. It is especially strange when the company uses the same products for this strategy. Because, as a result, the customers are confused as to whether Woolworths actually offers value prices. 

Partial behavior to certain markets: As already mentioned, Woolworths sells both affordable and higher-priced products. Even though that is the case, it looks like the company pays more attention to the higher-income segment. The belief behind that is because Woolworths markets better products and services for that segment.

Price wars: Even though the competition is negligible, it is still there. As we already said, the major competitor of Woolworths is Coles, another supermarket chain. To be at lower risk, Woolworths ended up switching up prices, which, in return, was not a favorable move. The company came across serious losses.

Opportunities

Focus on experience: Most companies in this category pretty much have the same things to offer. To make it more preferable than other supermarkets, Woolworths could change up a few matters. For instance, it could introduce self-checkout, personalized services, personalized loyalty schemes, or artificially intelligent shopping assistants. In return, this company can earn more profits while offering those services with extra charge.

Opening up New Markets Because of Government Agreement: The government has approved a free trade agreement, made possible by the adoption of contemporary technology criteria. That, in turn, provides a great chance for the company to join a newly developing market.

New Customers From Online Channel: As the technology continues to rapidly evolve it makes sense to take advantage of it. That is surely what the company has done, investing a good amount of its profits on the online platform, developing its website. Yet, there is still more that Woolworths can achieve. For instance, it can pay better attention to data analytics in order to get to know its consumers better.

Threats

Competition: Aside from Coles, companies like Amazon are becoming a threat to supermarkets as well. As Amazon is starting to put out food items and is online, it is attainable for everyone. Therefore, Amazon is turning into an alarming competitor.

No regular supply of innovative products: In the past, the overpowering amount of times that Woolworths introduced new products, were mostly an answer to the growth of competitors. That approach is pretty much still present to this day. As a result of not having a consistent product supply, the sales numbers suffer, which could potentially get worse in the long run.

Possible Lawsuits: In multiple markets, several laws regarding product standards tend to modify. As a consequence, not staying informed with the developing market could be a careless mistake.

Last but not least, let’s try to figure out which segment Woolworths has chosen to target.

But first, we are going to watch this video.

The video is all about healthy food. Specifically vegetables. We see all the stages that greens go through before they appear on our tables. They are organic, clean, and make people feel great after having a meal. The ad also mentions how Woolworths now has a digital platform where you can make a purchase. It is done much easier, and effortlessly.

The video also shows a woman on a run. Because transitioning to a healthy lifestyle is not limited to better food options only. Food is half of the job. The other half is physical activity.

In fact, the choice of healthy food options and regular exercising are the largest indicators of this segment. Being extra cautious about what you put in your body can tend to get expensive as we know that fast food is so much cheaper. However, we surely see a fridge full of greens in this video. This means that this segment does not hesitate to spend money on things that matter.

Lastly, all food items that this segment could possibly need, are available in one store. This enables faster grocery purchasing.

All of the points that we have just brought up, make it obvious that the segment that Woolworths has chosen to target is Actualizers.

Let’s dive deeper into finding out more information about this segment.

Lifestyle and values:

When they set their mind to something, the end result has to be perfect. Dividing the task into small portions is how Actualizers arrive at their destination. 

This segment is career-centered. Their job has to be something enjoyable, something that they are passionate about. Earning money is an important aspect of a career, however, it is not even close to being enough.

There is nothing that Actualizers like more, than spending time at home with their family.

Actualizers try their best to live a healthy lifestyle. They eat clean and exercise. This is an aspect in their life they don’t save money on. 

This segment chooses to stay up-to-date about events and news that are going on in the world.

The only thing that matters when it comes to style is comfort. 

Attitude to shopping:

Actualizers are well aware of the value of money. They do not purchase things they are not an absolute necessity. In case it is something important, this segment will be alright with spending extra money. 

When new products come out, Actualizers don’t wait for long before making a purchase. 

When shopping, this segment visits an area where it can get all the items on the list checked off at once. 

Interesting facts about Actualizers:

They   

• Feel good at home with family and friends  
• Like hanging out with family   
• Prefer a quiet evening at home or in the garden  
• Enjoy having weekend dinners with family  
• Care about the meaningfulness of their chosen activities  
• Love reading books, watching movies, admiring arts  
• Are drawn to films about nature and arts  
• Feel like for their kids to be provided with interesting activities, they need to often go outside to places like theaters, cinemas, exhibitions, concerts, walks, and why not even restaurants   
• Do not typically go in for sports but watch them and read about them  
• Read local and international news to stay informed about what is happening in their surroundings and the world   
• Are interested in politics, economics, environment, finance, business, and real estate   
• Really care about the development of their kids. And they will go out of their way to try fun ways of upbringing the children.   
• Are very comfortable with using the internet  
• Watch TV only for rare occasions when looking for specific programs.   
• Are above-average radio listeners.   

To recap, Woolworths is an Australian leading supermarket chain. In this blog, we discussed the marketing strategies that it uses to remain successful. Firstly, we took a look at the mission and vision statements of the company. Then, we uncovered the archetype that it belongs to. The SWOT analysis of the company was the next topic. And, we concluded the blog with an advertisement that revealed the segment that Woolworths has chosen to target.

We appreciate the time you spent reading this blog. Make sure to check out our main website for more!