Strategic Management

STRATEGIC MARKETING  is a process that can allow an organization to concentrate its limited resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. A marketing strategy should be centered around the key concept that customer satisfaction is the main goal.

Marketing strategy is a method of focusing an organization's energies and resources on a course of action which can lead to increased sales and dominance of a targeted market niche. A marketing strategy combines product development, promotion, distribution, pricing, relationship management and other elements; identifies the firm's marketing goals, and explains how they will be achieved, ideally within a stated timeframe. Marketing strategy determines the choice of target market segments, positioning, marketing mix, and allocation of resources. It is most effective when it is an integral component of overall firm strategy, defining how the organization will successfully engage customers, prospects, and competitors in the market arena.

(http://en.wikipedia.org, 2010)

Porter’s Five Forces Analysis

An analysis of the structure of the industry should be undertaken in order to find effective sources of competitive advantage (Porter, 1985). Therefore, in order to analyse the competitive environment of Tesco, Porter’s five forces analysis has been used by the researcher as follows:

Threat of substitute products and services

* The threat of substitutes in the grocery retail market is considerably low for food items and medium to high for non-food items.

* In the food retail market, the substitutes of major food retailers are small chains of convenience stores, off licences and organic shops which are not seen as a threat to supermarkets like Tesco that offer high quality products at considerably lower prices (Financial Times, 2009).  Moreover, Tesco is further getting hold of these shops by opening Express stores in local towns and city centres creating a...