Marketing Campaign Plan for ALDI

Introduction – Marketing Campaign Plan for ALDI

Marketing campaign plan is associated with various activities like product promotion and product branding. As a Marketing Consultant of ALDI Supermarkets, this is my roles and responsibilities to design the marketing campaign plan for ALDI in such way that will be helpful for achieving marketing goals and objective that is increasing sales, growing market share with customer satisfaction. To run this intensive Marketing Campaign, it is very essential to construct a marketing TOWS analysis, set marketing objectives, examining the marketing mix plan and providing proposals for improving customer service and increasing customer satisfaction. Here, the Marketing Tagline for this campaign is Expressing Ourselves.

Background of the Company (ALDI)

ALDI is known as grocery store and they are leading the market in selling grocery items, In Germany, ALDI started business since 1946 and founded by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht. They operate over 10,000 stores worldwide. In the year of 1990, they started business in UK.

Marketing Audit

Marketing audit is demonstrated as comprehensive analysis of marketing objectives, goals and activities by which it is possible to take a look regarding the marketing efforts and how the marketing efforts are designed, planned and managed, and also performing the goals of marketing with original marketing plan.

So, the marketing audit for Aldi will be undertaken as follows to design the marketing campaign plan for ALDI:

The internal (Strengths and Weakness) and external (Opportunities and Threats) environment analysis of ALDI Supermarket for getting future direction.

• Internal Analysis Covers the Strengths and Weakness of the company ALDI regarding its customer, customer choices, market segmentation and competitive offerings provided by ALSI Supermarkets.
• External analysis covers the Opportunities and Threats of the company ALDI regarding economic factors, social factors, cultural factors, technological factors, political factors and legal factors.

TOWS Analysis for Aldi:

The TOWS analysis of Aldi is as follows to design the marketing campaign plan for ALDI:

• Threats
• Low Price Low Quality perception

It is a great threat for ALDI supermarket that there is a perception that their products are in low quality and also offering low price.

• Competitive rivalry

In this super market area, there are so many recognized brand established like Zara, Tesco and ASDA. So, the competitive rivalry is increasing day by day.

• Price war with other brands

Some other Brands like Tesco is increasing price war by offering quality product at minimum price, then it becomes tough for ALDI for setting competitive price.

• Latest technology

There are some other brands like Tesco, ASDA are taking advantage of latest technology for expanding the externally, but ALDI is lagging behind to deal with latest technology to expand the business.

• Competitors have highly skilled labour.

The competitors like Tesco and ASDA is very much renowned for using their highly skilled labour. As a result, the wattage rate of this firm is decreasing day by day, and labour productivity is increasing (Winer, 2014).

• Opportunities
• To expand the market share through new offerings

New market offering is always better for attracting customers. It could be offered to pay a premium for services, discount offers, introducing new product category.

• Can increase customer by introducing loyalty programs

Loyalty program is a good initiative. If the customer become loyal then they become our regular customer and it must increase the sales.

• Can take advantage of increase in market share through high advertisement.

Advertisement as a product promotion purpose is very helpful to increase market share and it is beneficial for increasing sales.

• They can open new modern store to attract more customers

The opportunity to expand business will be dependent on opening new modern store to attract customer (Winer, 2014).

• Weaknesses
• Smaller range of product

The product range of ALDI super market is not large rather they are smaller, it is obviously weakness for it because customer will lost interest to buy product from it.

• The use of “Just-In-Time” production system.

Just-In-Time means that when store runs-out of any product it’s possible that they may have to wait for a number of days for the delivery

• Not utilizing technology for operations

Technology is very useful in business operation from inventory management to human resource management, but has the lacking on this area.

• Advertisement is less focused by Aldi

ALDI has not so many famous advertisement by which they can divert new customer in their shop (Winer, 2014).

• Strengths
• Strong associations with supplier

The supply chain management system of ALDI very strong as because they are capable to keep regular communication with their other stakeholders.

• Low priced quality products

They are also in the position of offering lower price product for special segmented product, and the feedback is also huge for taking the advantage of cist leadership.

• Ethical trade & protect the environment

The business practice regarding product import and then product distribution all are maintained with ethical business practice.  ALDI is very common to trade product ethically.

• Loyal customers

They are the customer who is loyal with customer. And then they provide different facilities to keep the customer loyal and increasing sales (Winer, 2014),

Marketing Objectives

Marketing objectives means those goals of a business set by them to promote its product and services for potential customers. It is important business to have marketing objectives because it sets the goals to achieve ultimately to survive in the market.

Marketing objectives needs to be followed by SMART principle because it provides the full marketing path to follow to get success to design the marketing campaign plan for ALDI.

Three Marketing Objectives of ALDI for the `Express Ourselves` Marketing Campaign

For the marketing campaign named “Express Ourselves” which will be running for 12 month it is important for find out the most suitable objectives to justify the tagline of the campaign. The tagline of the campaign should be focused on the business aim and goal of Aldi. Here the objectives of the marketing campaign Express Ourselves need to justify the need of the customers and importance of Aldi in their life.

As Aldi has already developed a well-balanced business philosophy and guiding principles for the business functions. It is necessary to match the campaign objectives with their vision of maintaining the top quality at incredibly low prices. The ideology of the organization formed based on the five prime concepts they are: huge savings, great quality, better value, special buys and confident buying (Cundiff, Richard Ralph Still and Govoni, 2017). So the focus of the marketing objectives of the campaign need to relate with them appropriately.

As per SMART principles, SPECIFIC marketing objectives like to increase sales, MEASURABLE marketing objectives like to increase sales by 20%, ACHIEVABLE marketing objectives like to achieve customer satisfaction, REALISTIC marketing objectives like to earn 4% market share by sales, TIMELY marketing objectives like to increase sales by 20% within 6 months. According to my research and knowledge the marketing campaign “Express Ourselves” of Aldi need to focus on the following three objectives:

1. Better exposure with more new customers: The campaign need to focus on the exposure grabbing and reaching maximum numbers of people by using social media and other electronic media. They need to ensure the highest exposure of the campaign to get the new customers and try to express their latent need through the campaign. The campaign need to focus on the customer’s latent desire, dreams and their expectations for the organization. They need to related their needs, wants and demands with their daily necessity which can be only fulfilled by the brand name Aldi.
2. Make people feel the connection with the brand: It is important for Aldi consumers to feel the connection and bonding with the brand. They need to experience and share their shopping days with Aldi. They need to relate the campaign with their regular life and make the bonding really strong with their regular customers (Cundiff, Richard Ralph Still and Govoni, 2017). It is a way of saying thank you to the loyal customers of the brand and make them feel appreciated by being with the brand and be a part of the journey of Aldi.
3. Portraying the brand with new definition: the campaign “Express Ourselves” will also focus on providing the brand Aldi opportunity to redefine their mission, vision, goal and objectives along with the campaign goals. It will express the entire journey of the brand with their customers and their experiences in the business world for so many years. It will also be able to reintroduce the brand among the people of new generation to express that Aldi is always here to meet their any needs with affordable price and better quality (Czerniawski and Maloney, 2012). Aldi is already a successful grocery retail market with the mix of market and sales orientations. They just need to refocus on their target market and redefine their brands with their customer base to express their business goals and aims in near future.

Marketing Mix

Marketing mix are set of those strategies used by company to attract customer or to promote business product and services. There 7P of marketing mix, they are product, price, place, promotion, people, process and physical evidence.

For achieving the objectives of Aldi through their “Express Ourselves” campaign they to focus on the marketing Mix for the effective and better management of the campaign. Here the marketing mix strategies to design the marketing campaign plan for ALDI are described below:

ALDI Marketing Mix Plan:

• Product: The product strategy and mix in of Aldi marketing strategy need to focus on the claims of the brand of providing the affordable food products in the same quality as other renowned brands. Here the products of the Aldi need to get from selected suppliers and maintain their control over the production and cost strategy. It is important for Aldi to focus on their price by keeping the higher quality intact in the products lower than other supermarkets offers to their customers.

Other than Food products and beverages Aldi also need to create a better and efficient stock of fresh fruits and vegetables, health and beauty products, electronic products, household goods etc. they need to focus on the product improvement with the campaign and be prepared to fulfill the demand of the customers who will get interested to the brand based on the campaign(Czerniawski and Maloney, 2012). To retain the new customers it is important for Aldi to stay concentrated on the objectives and tag line of the campaign.

• Price: Aldi has developed a very strong customer base by offering affordable and low rate price strategy and top notch quality products in the name of the brand. Mostly their offerings are not available to their competitors mostly. So they can manipulate the pricing and use the following pricing strategy for their products and goods of the shop under the “Express Ourselves” campaign.
• Unit pricing Strategy: Aldi can introduce their unit pricing strategy based on the variation of the groceries. It will help the customers compare their pricing with their other competitors.
• Market Penetration: The brand can also start to charge low prices under their campaign policy for the new products. It will help them to enter the marketplace and grab new customers and market share easily (Czerniawski and Maloney, 2012).
• Competitive Pricing: Under the campaign policy to tackle the higher competition level they can issue their prices of products below the competitor by using the advantages of economies of scale in the purchase process where buying in a bulk will help the customers to get the advantage of the pricing. It will also benefit the customers with the new customer base and increased sale
• Psychological Pricing: A small difference can also make a huge impact on customers mind. Especially for the price sensitive customers from all over the world(Dominici, 2009). Here the minor decrease in the product prices of Aldi for the campaign purpose can grab them more customers in the long run of the business.
• Loss leader pricing: Gere Aldi can also offer their non-food products at cheap prices under the campaign. It will help them to bring customers at the store to buy groceries by letting the company make some foregone profit from their consumers.
• Place: Aldi already has 8000 stores in 18 countries which helps them to get the excellent exposure for their campaign purpose from the stores. Here the store layout are very attractive and made with the minimum costs for the customers. For the campaign purpose the company need to get all the desired products of the customers in a bulk from various suppliers and store them at local warehouse after ensuring their quality. With the campaign facility they need to target and ensure minimum waste in the transportation process of the goods and ensures environmental friendly equipment for the improvement of the store to portray the brand the customer friendly organization (Dominici, 2009). Here the organization need to maintain the regional appearance and local vibe in the stores to make the consumers feel comfortable and ensure their convenience through the campaign. They also need to ensure the online presence and proper maintenance to reach the customers whenever they need the brand and their products.
• Promotion: The promotional and advertising strategy for the campaign of Express Ourselves should be designed based on the overall marketing mix strategy of the organization. Here the company need to focus on their cost-saving strategy with their design and promotion of the campaign as they do not focus extensive promotional activities mostly (Fifield, 2016). They need to focus on the involvement of the customers with the campaign, promote their campaign through word of mouth and store displays to let the customers know about it. They also need to focus on the social media and encourage their customers to share their experiences with Aldi through the campaign process. For the more exposure and improvement of the campaign they can arrange weekly contests with exciting gifts for the customers to involve them more with the brand and grab more attention with the branding pf their products (Winer and Dhar, 2014).

Customer Service

The role of customer service is to create satisfied customer towards the business because it is important to increase sales as customer satisfaction is much needed.

Recommendations for improvement Customer Service for ALDI

Providing excellent customer service is the prime way to grab the attention of the customers and also retain them for the longer period of the time. They need to focus on the accurate information from external sources about the customers’ needs and maintain proper cooperation with the suppliers for the better exchange and collection of information for improving the service (Fifield, 2016). Here some of the steps Aldi can take to improve their customer service process with their marketing campaign of “Express Ourselves”

Identify customer types and find the sources of information investigate: Here Aldi needs to understand their customer’s type and get a clear idea about how they need to be served. They also need to identify internal and external customers and focus on understanding their expectation from the company depending on the type of the customers (Gordon, 2012). The company also need to find out the issues and opportunities of the customers differences through their marketing campaign as because TESCO is efficient to identify their customer types for each product category. They need to focus on improving the service process based on the type of the customers.

Conduct internal & external satisfaction reviews of the customers: Aldi needs to focus on customer’s likes, dislikes, and preferences to serve them well. They also need to find out the issues, risks and the significance of the factors from the perspective of the customers (Gordon, 2012). They need to identify the customer’s level of satisfaction and ensure the improvement of the opportunities by collaborating with customers with the expansion of business opportunities as TESCO fulfill customer satisfaction at large scale.

Measure performance of each customer service process: Through the process of campaign “Express Ourselves” the company need to identify the current level of performance with the target of the campaign. The company need to find out the key performance indicator to improve the performance level of satisfying customers by finding out the gaps of the customers’ service process and try to align customer satisfaction responses with performance results (Hart, 2016).

Create a process map for the customer service for improvement: Customers need to understand their way of taking the customer service from the people, activity and technology of Aldi. They need to let the organization know about their expectation and suggestion for the future improvement purpose.

Benchmark against similar ‘best practice’ of other competitors: Aldi need to develop the understanding about the other similar companies and learn from their efficiency successes to ensure the improvements of the organization through the campaign (Hart, 2016). They also need to ensure the perfect benchmark of the campaign to get their desired outcome for the company.

Identify opportunities of improvement for customer service process: They need to improve customer service for the effective retention process of the existing customers and attracting new customers through the campaign. Here the increase in the capacity of business the campaign can be very helpful to reach out more customers by increasing company revenue and creating value from the customer service process (Tzempelikos et al, 2015). It will also help Aldi to increase their productivity, capability and performance by maximizing their efficiency, effectiveness and customer service process of all the stores and overall the organizational management.

Develop an implementation plan: After all the previous process the company need to focus on the improvements on their campaign planning over a period of time to set the priority for the customers and identify requirements for resources, equipment, training and cost of implementation in the campaign. Here the impact of improvements will enrich the progress of the campaign internally and externally. So the business will get extra advantage in the long run of the business activities.

Establish a performance measurement and improvement plan for the campaign: The improvement initiatives need to be developed based on the morale and quick wins strategies through step by step improvement. By establishing incremental performance targets the campaign will ensure the companies continuous improvement in the customer service management and improve each performance by achieving these performance targets by the senior management (Tzempelikos et al, 2015).

Conduct ongoing Customer Satisfaction Surveys: Finally Aldi need to monitor their campaign activities to identify their internal and external customer’s satisfaction level based on the services (Winer and Dhar, 2014). The company also need to identify what else needs improving to promote and celebrate customer service improvements with the participation of the existing and new customers.

Conclusions

So, the marketing campaign named “Express Ourselves” is done by me very successfully because it is a great experience for me to prepare a good report with the help of supervisor, and some analysis issues regarding setting marketing objectives, goals and designing marketing audit.

Reference list

1. Alexis, M. (2013). Marketing Laws and Marketing Strategy. Journal of Marketing, 26(4), p.67.
2. Assael, H., Patton, M. and Reed, P. (2018). Marketing : principles & strategy. Sydney: Harcourt Brace.
3. Cundiff, E.W., Richard Ralph Still and Govoni, N.A.P. (2017). Fundamentals of modern marketing. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
4. Czerniawski, R.D. and Maloney, M.W. (2012). Creating brand loyalty : the management of power positioning and really great advertising. New York: Amacom.
5. Dominici, G. (2009). From Marketing Mix to e-Marketing Mix: a literature overview and classification. International Journal of Business and Management, 4(9).
6. Fifield, P. (2016). Marketing strategy. London: Routledge.
7. Gordon, R. (2012). Re-thinking and re-tooling the social marketing mix. Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ), 20(2), pp.122–126.
8. Hart, L.C. (2016). Essentials of Successful Marketing: A Case History in Manufacturer-Distributor Collaboration. Journal of Marketing, 13(2), p.195.
9. Tzempelikos, N., Kooli, K. and Lichtenthal, J.D. (2015). Innovation in Business-to-Business Marketing. Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing, pp.1–4.
10. Winer, R. and Dhar, R. (2014). Marketing management. Harlow, Essex: Pearson.

Marketing Campaign Plan for ALDI, Marketing Campaign Plan for ALDI, Marketing Campaign Plan for ALDI, Marketing Campaign Plan for ALDI is prepared by:

Written by

Md. Shadequr Rahaman

Email: [email protected]