Principles and Practices of Marketing

Introduction

Marketing strategic planning is the process that the corporations try to develop in order to reallocate the resources and promote the organisation for delivering the best quality products and services, including business dissertation help. A marketing strategy mainly contains the company's value proposition as well as key data on target customer demographics, brand messaging and other high-level elements, so that positive branding could be possible in long run (Mahajan, 2017). The customers can identify the products and services of a particular company in the market through the brand promotional and other marketing strategies including the products, pricing and placing tactics (Syapsan, 2019). The study aims at exploring the marketing mix strategic planning of the organisation Holland and Barrett in order to evaluate their strategies in running the operations sustainably in the UK. Through this analysis, it is also possible to review the Porter’s Generic Strategies for critically evaluating the brands positioning practice in order to sustain in the competitive UK retail industry and meet the strategic aim of the firm. The 7P marketing mix strategic planning is also evaluated along with the Porters generic strategy for analysing the internal system and tactics of the firm Holland and Barrett to strengthen their customer’s base and secure future sustainable development.

Organisational background

Holland & Barrett (H&B) is a chain of health food shops with over 1,300 stores in 16 countries, including the presence of the brand in Saudi Arabia, UAE, UK, Republic of Ireland, Belgium, Hong Kong, China and Netherlands. The company is successful to provide the best quality products and efficient customer’s services to all the clients across the international markets. The major product portfolio of the company includes vitamins, minerals, ethical beauty enzymes, vegetarian foods and herbal medicines (Holland & Barrett 2021a). The revenue of the firm is approximately £640 million and there are more than 7,000 employees, who are working efficiently in order to manage their operations and provide the quality products to the customers. The efficacy of the employees and the brand strategy of providing healthy and organic food items and medicines to the customers are the major success factors of the organisation in order to sustain in such competitive retail industry (Holland & Barrett 2021a).

Exploring marketing mix strategy of Holland and Barrett

Marketing mix strategic planning is hereby beneficial for the organisations to sustain the market and promote the available products and services so that the customers can identify their products and make effective purchase decision (Thabit and Raewf, 2018). The 7P marketing mix strategic planning includes products, pricing, placing and promotion as well as people, physical evidence and process. The organisation Holland & Barrett mainly focuses on 4P marketing strategies which include the products, pricing, placing and promotion. These marketing factors are beneficial for the organisation to expand their business across different international markets and strengthen their customer’s base in long run.

Product development strategy

Product is one of the major factors in marketing, where strong product portfolio provides a scope to the company to increase brand image and promote diverse products and quality services in the market. Through designing effective products it is possible to create customers values, where the customers can buy the best quality products as per their personal needs and preferences. In this regard, the company Holland & Barrett develops good product portfolio with diverse product range, and the products of the company includes vitamins, minerals, ethical beauty enzymes, vegetarian foods and herbal medicines. The clients across the markets can rely on the product quality and quantity that the company offers in order to maintain their brand image. In addition to this, the organisation is able to manage huge volume of production for maintaining its quality and ensuring good economies of scale. The product category is hereby one of the main strategic planning of Holland & Barrett to sustain in the market and create values for the customers (Holland & Barrett 2021a).

In addition to this, the company Holland & Barrett is efficient to manage their product packaging system in order to deliver the best quality products safely to the customers. There is paper packaging system, in order to ensure sustainable packaging system. Hence, the company is successful to maintain the quality of the products and deliver the best products to the end users safely.

The brand logo is utilised for delivering the products safely to the end users. Here, the company Holland & Barrett is able to create strong brand logo to promote their products in the market. The above mentioned is utilised to represent their authentic products in the market. Along with this, the parcel for online delivery is delivered with the brand logo on the parcel and additionally, the logo is also utilised during packaging the products for successful promotion of the company in the market. Hence, as per the Porter's generic strategy, the company utilises product diversification in order to sustain in the market and provide diverse products to the customers, so that the clients can have the options to choose the best product as per their personal choice and preferences. The diverse range of products and services further improve the product portfolio, where the company Holland & Barrett will be able to expand their business and represent the brand with the best quality and authentic health and beauty products (Holland & Barrett 2021b).

Pricing tactics at Holland & Barrett

Pricing strategy is another major factor in the marketing mix, where the corporations try to develop good strategic planning in order to provide quality products to the customers at its best price (Dost et al., 2019). The customers also can evaluate the price range and afford the products at lower cost. Setting affordable pricing is one of the best strategies to retain more clients and create values for them where the customers can make the purchase decision and buy more amounts at affordable price. The company provides essential products, for health and beauty, and in such context, setting affordable pricing is effective to create good brand image and it is also beneficial for the clients to make the purchase decision as per their personal needs and preferences.

In addition to this, there are different pricing offers which are effective for the organisation to promote their services and increase brand visibility in the market. The customers are looking for the best pricing options for the quality products as well as they also try to make their purchase decision on the basis of the discounts and offers that they can get. Holland & Barrett focuses on pricing strategy through providing several offers and discounts. The offers such as buy one get one free as well as the merry Christmas offers are effective to retain the customers towards the brand and make effective purchase decision (Holland & Barrett 2021c).

On the other hand, as per the porters generic strategy, the company focuses on cost leadership strategy in order to minimise the cost of the products which leads to improving the economies of scale. The efficacy and productivity of the organisation is increasing day by day, where there is huge volume of production in the firm in order to maintain the overall cost of the production (Hanaysha, 2017). It is possible for the firm to reduce the cost of production for which the managers at Holland & Barrett can set affordable price of their products and services. There are online and offline products in the market, where the customers can choose the basket of health and beauty products for their personal use as per the price and other discounts. Due to cost leadership strategy, Holland & Barrett is also able to minimise the cost along with maximise their profitability. huge volume of production, as well as strong supply chain and distribution network further make it possible to adopt cost leadership strategy in the firm, so that they can provide different discounts and offers for their products (Holland & Barrett 2021d).

Placing strategies of Holland & Barrett

The placing strategy is effective for brand promotion, where the multinational corporations try to sustain in the market and establish the company successfully in the market. The company Holland & Barrett mainly focuses on branding for successful placement and position of the firm in the market. The retail market of the UK is intensely competitive and it is very difficult for the organisation to sustain in the competition and gain high competitive advantage. The tag line of Holland & Barrett, health foods and natural remedies is one of the effective strategies for successful positioning of the company; it is hereby possible for the brand to provide authentic information related to the products and services. The products are in good quality, and these are also made of quality raw materials and natural ingredients to ensure good health and nutrition. the customers values can be created by providing such organic and natural products and Holland & Barrett is hereby successful to have good branding strategy by developing brand logo and tag line while position the company in the retail industry of the UK (Holland & Barrett 2021d).

Store establishment is another strategy that the company focuses on, in order to expand their business sustainably. The company establishes physical stores in the UK and other international nations such as Saudi Arabia UAE, Republic of Ireland, Belgium, Hong Kong, China and Netherland. The international presence of the brand as well as the physical stores at UK are effective for successful positioning of the company in the personal care sector, where the customers can choose the best basket of the health and beauty products as per their personal choice and preferences (Lim, 2021). The stores are established efficiently with good interior decoration and also the products are displayed in synchronise manner, by its category such as beauty care, consumed products or health conscious products. The customers can identify the products and make their purchase decision successfully in the store (Holland & Barrett 2021c).

Additionally, the delivery system of the organisation is also good, where it has online payment option and the end users can get the products safely within effective time. The company Holland & Barrett is efficient to provide the best quality products both offline and online mode of transaction. The offline stores across the markets are effective to serve the customers, who come to the store and choose their products. Additionally, the company develops mobile application for promoting their services and provide a scope to the customers to make effective purchase decision from home.

The mobile application is effective where the customers can review the products availability in the company Holland & Barrett, as well as compare the prices and different offers. The availability of the products quantity as well as prices is there in the application, which is mandatory for the customers to make their purchase and choose the products accordingly as per their personal choice and preferences (Berman and Thelen, 2018). Hence, both the offline and online mode of transactions are effective for Holland & Barrett to place their products and services in the retail industry and operate efficiently across the international markets. The strong distribution network is there in the UK where Holland & Barrett is able to manage the distributors and provide the quality products safely to the customers within effective time. In this context, the Information and Communication technology as well as the mobile GPS system are effective to track the distributors and provide the best services to the customers. On the other hand, the customers also can track their products, review the product summary and delivery status through the mobile application. Hence, the organisation is successful to have effective positioning strategy in order to establish their brand in the retail industry and gain good market share in near future (Holland & Barrett 2021d).

Promotional activities

Promotional activities are mandatory to improve brand visibility in the market and retain more customers in long run. In this context, the organisation Holland & Barrett develops several promotional strategies in order to represent the brand in the market and increase its visibility, such that it is possible to retain the customers and influence their purchase decision. Advertising is one of the effective ways to promote the brand. For successful positioning the brand, Holland & Barrett focuses on store expansion with good product portfolio management and brand logo with tagline. Additionally, the televisions advertisement is there through which Holland & Barrett is able to retain the clients across the market. The promotional practice through televisions is effective to attract wide customers group and influence them to make effective purchase decision or the natural and organic health and beauty products (Syapsan, 2019). The target audience for the advertisement are the old age group as well as the middle aged group, where the demand for the health and food products is high. On the other hand, the middle and high income groups are also targeted so that they can afford the products of Holland & Barrett. The diverse social communities irrespective of the cultural diversity are being targeted for getting the best quality natural and organic health and beauty products.

Sales Promotion tactic is being adopted by the company, where Holland & Barrett aims at promoting their brand through providing different sales and discounts, during Christmas, Holland & Barrett provide the discounts for attracting more customers. On the other hand, the offers such as buy one get one free is also effective to increase their yearly sales volume. Hence, the direct marketing through televisions and sales promotion through providing offer and discounts are the major strategic planning to sustain in the market and retain huge numbers of clients in long run. On the other hand, the staff members and employees are also efficient to enhance their sales volume through personal selling. They approach the friends and family, members for making effective purchase decision for the products of Holland & Barrett. This is also effective to retain more customers and maximise the sales volume in long run. Word of mouth marketing is also another tactic of Holland & Barrett, where the company is able to enhance brand image in the market. The customers can share the reviews of the products through online activities and posting in customer portal of the company official website as well as can share their feedback at the store. It is considered as an effective way to retain the clients and strengthen their customer’s base (Holland & Barrett 2021d).

Apart from that, the organisation focuses on developing official website of Holland & Barrett, where the customers can review the products and services and directly place their orders as per their personal needs and preferences. It is possible for the clients to review the feedback also and make effective purchase decision. There are all the options in the website related to the product availability, 24*7 services, pricing and product specifications, which are effective for promoting the brand successfully across the market.

Effectiveness of its marketing efforts

The marketing mix strategic planning is hereby effective for the organisation to sustain in the market by promoting the brand and increasing its sales volume (Hauser, Eggers and Güldenberg, 2020). Through the product and pricing strategies, the company is able to provide the best quality health and beauty products to the customers. The packaging style as well as the organic range products is also beneficial for creating good brand image (Pomering, 2017). The pricing strategies including discounts and offers are also there to retain the customers and influence their purchase decision. In addition to this, the placing strategies are also beneficial for Holland & Barrett to increase brand visibility. Store expansion is one of the best strategies of Holland & Barrett to improve the brand availability in the market, where the customers can review their products and services for final purchase. the promotional strategies through official website creation, managing online clients through providing 24*7 services, as well as sales promotion, advertisement, interactive marketing, personal selling and word of mouth are beneficial for the organisation o enhance their sales volume. Holland & Barrett is successful to generate £640m revenue, as well as there are more than 7,000 employees, who are efficient to handle huge numbers of customers across the UK and other international markets, the sales volume is also increasing year by year due to the product quality and pricing offers.

As per the porter’s generic strategy, the company mainly focuses on cost leadership and product diversification tactics in order to sustain in the market, so that it can provide the best quality products at its best price (Camilleri, 2018). The cost leadership strategy is beneficial for Holland & Barrett to provide pricing offers and discounts by maintaining its profit margin. On the other hand, the product diversification strategy is advantageous to ensure good product portfolio management and provide diverse product range, starting from health care, beauty, organic care as well as vitamins, minerals, ethical beauty enzymes, vegetarian foods and herbal medicines to the end users. The offline and online activities, by store expansion and company website management respectively are also beneficial for the company to increase the customer's retention rate and strengthen their customer’s base in long run.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that, the company Holland & Barrett is successful to promote the brand in the health and beauty care sector and also in retail industry by choosing the cost leadership and product differentiation strategy. The organisation mainly selects the marketing mix strategies including product, pricing, placing and promotional activities for successful positioning of the brand in the UK retail industry and other international markets. The leader and managers of the firm are efficient to handle the operations through stores expansion and also managing online customers by the organisational official website and mobile application. Direct advertisement, word of mouth as well as customers reviews and interactive marketing are advantageous for the brand to improve market communication and develop strong corporate relationship in order to strengthen their customer’s base in long run and sustain in the mar. Holland & Barrett is hereby successful to maximise their profitability and generate revenue by successful positioning of the brand and delivering the best quality diverse products to the customers through the physical store management and handling online customers.

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