Give a rationale for the desin of a retail organisation based on marketing principles - Essay Example

El Corte Ingles, a retail outlet based in Spain, expanded into Portugal and other EU countries, and signed two home-shopping channels in Spain, besides having introduced the first virtual hypermarket on the Web for that country. Sainsbury, a UK major, entered into alliance with Esselunga of Italy, Docks d’ France and Belgium’s Delhaize. This alliance provided the four companies the “opportunity to pool their experience and buying power to expand into other European markets and face growing competition” (p.415). The design of a retail organisation entails answering some critical questions regarding customers, competition, suppliers, intermediaries, and stakeholders.

A marketing plan-of-action would be the perfect, simplified nuts-and-bolts assessment to leverage an effective strategy. Here, we provide a detailed assessment on what the marketing audit for a Retail design may look like : It is important to classify your customer into demographic groups for the convenience of focused marketing efforts. The main categories being: Age, Sex, Ethnicity, Language, Income-level, Education, Occupation, Material possessions, etc.

Most data can be garnered from Census agencies and Market Research firms. Here, the objective is to run deeper into the lifestyle and behavioural pattern of targeted buyers. People have different tastes, prejudices and inclinations towards purchase decisions. The marketer’s efforts should be directed at understanding the “pulse” of the customer. Amway, e.g., has different strategies for different world markets. In much of Latin America and Asia, for instance, it pushes for direct marketing.

In Eastern Europe though,