Food Industry Policies and Commitments †Free Samples to Samples

Question: Discuss about the Food Industry Policies and Commitments. Answer: Introduction: The Australian retail market continues maintaining its momentum which is mostly driven by the social and economic developments of the country. The retailers contribute more than merely selling the goods. This service industry has different roles in introducing new and innovative products to the consumers along with helping them assessing and comparing the products and prices with the other goods (Arli et al., 2013). In addition to that the retail market also enables the customers to find out a wide range of different ancillary service. There are around 140000 retail companies within the Australian retail market where around 1.2 million people or around 10.7 percent of the entire employment are employed within the industry (Pulker, Scott Pollard, 2017). Therefore the retail industry is considered to be one of the largest employers in the country. It should also be noted that the retail industry makes a large and major contribution to the economy of Australia as has generated around 4 percent of the GDP in the past economic year. Where the share of GDP has shown to have declined in the other industries, the retail industry has shown a continuous growth in Australia (Connell McManus, 2016). Since the retail industry covers several sectors, therefore it indicates few distinct characteristics. The following figure indicates the combination of the retail sector such as electronics and electrical goods, furniture, clothing and many others. This industry is diverse by region, by sector, by exposure and competition and by the size of the business. The work force of the retail industry is mostly of the low skilled workers and there is a high share of the female workers. Mostly the workers are employed on a part-time basis with casual arrangements of work (Sacks et al., 2015). Therefore there is a higher employee turnover rate in the industry. As far as the macroeconomic factors of the retail sector is concerned, the political atmosphere of Australia has had a great impact of the on the growth of the business. The political stability of the country has a contributed to the growth of the industry, however there have been few political disturbances as well which had influenced the businesses to move out of the market and increased the risk of the failure of the businesses. As the retail industry has a great economic contribution on the GDP of the country. Sacks et al. (2015) has indicated that the retail sector has faced an economical decline due to their low sales and low price of the goods. Other than these factors, the retail sectors has identified that the consumers experiences has had a huge impact on the business of the retail sector. The businesses also require including affordable goods according to the customers. Therefore, the organizations have to offer products and services to the consumer in lower prices in orde r to increase the sales. Also, the store locations make a great influence on the customer experiences. The customers are more health conscious nowadays; therefore the organizations have to merchandize their products in that approach (Lovelock Patterson, 2015). In addition to that, the taxation policies and the employment managements are a primary part of the legal framework of the country. However the organizations have to maintain the quality of the products as well. Description of nature of competition in retail industry. The primary concept of the business of supermarket is offering various products for the consumers for their daily usage. However, the most significant characteristics of the retail sector are also providing the best quality products within best price. Therefore most of the supermarkets try to provide the better products within lowest prices. Within the retail market of Australia, Woolworths is a brand that has been leading the market for a long time. It has been one of the leading brands in the market. The organization has already achieved a major level of growth and development across the entire retail market in Australia (Lewis Huber, 2015). There are several factors that have great contribution in the constant development of Woolworths, such as the major strategies that the organization has adopted. The supermarkets in the retail industry have been quite competitive in the Australian market as there are several continuous challenges in the market (Charlton et al., 2015). As the r etail market provides higher engagement of the customers, Woolworths has achieved its position in the market with the help of strategic management tools as there are higher rate of new entrants in the retail market. Other than the new entrants, there are other competitors of Woolworths in the market such as Aldi and Coles group. From a long time, Woolworths has been identified as the strongest leader in the market, however Coles group has been the biggest challenge of the market. In addition to that, Aldi has also become a challenge to the brand as it offers lowest price to the consumers as a German food chain. Coles group has occupied around eighty per cent of the market, where Woolworths has been the greatest competitor of the brand. Coles has also offered lower prices for its products and services in order to reach the leadership. Coles has around 700 outlets all across the country, where Woolworths has over 870 stores all around Australia (Charlton et al., 2015). Both the brands have shared around 80 per cent of the market; however Aldi has been a big challenge for both the brands. Woolworths has also created own brands of the organization such as Select and Home Brand. Aldi has been a great challenge for Woolworths as the brand has a great market presence with around 374 stores all around the country. The origin of the supermarket is in Germany; however the brand still has a great presence in the international market such as in Australia, UK, Denmark and France. Both the companies, Coles and Woolworths have applied different strategies for attracting the consumers towards them. Woolworths has implemented different reward cards, flyer points and several other loyalty programs which has a great impact of their consumer loyalty. However, Coles has occupied the leading position in terms of online shopping of the clients. However, later Woolworths has also followed the similar strategy as Coles and scrapped the extra charges for the online shopping purpose. According to Chan (2015), the price difference of three of these brands are not much, as the difference vary from $114 in Coles, where Woolworths charge $113 and Aldi charge $87. Both the Coles and Woolworths have imple mented same strategies and concentrated of the freshness and variety of the vegetables and fruits where Aldi has a different strategy of offering less cost for the products. Brand Characteristics Woolworths Has own internal brands Leading position in the market Strong customer loyalty program Brand value is around $11 billion Aldi Provides low cost International presence Brand value is around $12 billion Coles Leading brand in the Australian market Offers low and flexible price Brand value is approximately $8.3 billion Outline of major market segment Woolworths has already succeeded in understanding and meeting the expectation and requirements of the customers but this does not imply for all the customers. This is noted as the segmentation, which is also identifying the targeted customers and meeting their needs. The first time Woolworths focused on the targeting and segmenting part was on the year of 1980s in order to continue retailing as well as trying the implementation of the process of mass marketing. To be precise, the segmentation has three elements that provides the complete meaning to the process. However, this part will discuss only about the segmentation that varies from market to market (Rundle-Thiele, Dietrich Kubacki, 2017). Proper segmentation of market opens the door to many market opportunities and introduces the tactics that will help in exploring of those opportunities while having the idea of the customers needs. In case of Woolworths, they try to segment their market by the business type as well their custo mer type. In the present world, businesses adapt the process of digitalization; Woolworths need to focus on the online market facility to attract more customers. The market segmenting process of Woolworths is only to provide the customers the products which will be of daily use and that are why the customers of Woolworths do not compare the products with others (Armstrong et al., 2014). Every market segment has different customers with mostly the same choice and Woolworths try to focus on their specific market segment to have the update of the customers. Considering the last, few researches on business industry of Australia it can be said that Woolworths mark itself to be the leading market within the country. Woolsworth just needs to focus on strengthening their position in this competitive marketing system and they can try to expand their market and experience the low labour cost in many Asian countries. It is already discussed that Woolworths have a very loyal to their customers and that is why in spite of the growing competition still their customers are satisfied to use their products and they are not seen comparing it to others as well. It can be hence said that the market that their primary target for market segmenting is having and satisfying the customers. In order to compete in a better way they need to focus on their online marketing segment so that they are able to attract more customers and understand their needs. Their another target must be expanding their market overseas to increase the customer response as well as have the opportunity to trade in countries like China, which has low labour cost (Irvine Moerman, 2017). However, after leading the market for almost 80 years they have a strong marketing segment still with this changing demography of business they need to change theirs as well and this will work as an effective solution against the lessening of their debts (Lees Winchester, 2013). The positive impact that Woolworths have due to the need of daily product use across the world they must try to focus on manufacturing more products for daily use and satisfying the customers at the same time. Level of involvement with the primary market segment As Woolworths sells a large range of products such as clothing, food, home wares and other digital products and services, the primary target market segment is the middle income group of the Australian market. There are around 870 stores across the market and the brand has been known for the quality products. The suppliers of Woolworths has their own firms, therefore the organization is capable of providing fresh vegetables and fruits to the customers. The primary target market segment contributes to the decision making of the organization to a great extent (Mialon et al., 2016). As the middle income group customers are also concerned about the quality of the products along with the lower price, therefore the mission and vision statement of the brand has been greatly influenced by this market segment. The vision statement of the organization is providing the high quality services and market for the customers through its favorable price strategies, fresh foods and other strategies rela ted to human resources. Also the organization contributes adequately in providing a nice shopping experience for the consumers as well. In addition to that, the primary market segment has also contributed in fixing the short term and long term goals for the organization. Mostly the organization decides on its goals on the basis of its products. For a long time, Woolworths has continued in providing higher quality and delicious food products within the best possible prices to the consumers (Armstrong et al., 2014). As Woolworths still have plans for opening more stores in the Australian market as they want to make the shopping experience more comfortable for their customers. Woolworths is also planning for improving their current products and provide tastier and more nutritious products for their customers (Mialon et al., 2016). Other than that, Woolworths is also planning to drive the social development focusing on the environmental requirements. In order to sustain the development along with the environment, the organization is planning to start environmental awareness projects all over the country. The middle class consumers are more interested in buying products that are organic, therefore Woolworths is also planning to launch more products in the market that are organic. Therefore, Woolworths is planning to be more consumer-centric and being a business that is driven by its brand value. Positioning Map of Woolworths Woolworths is one of the most trusted brands in the Australian retail market. The organization decides on its strategy where the primary factor is its branding strategy. All the strategy of the organization is the combination of several researches and analysis of the market. Therefore, the organization has focused on different areas for positioning the brand in the retail market. The price or the value of the products plays a significant factor in positioning Woolworths as a brand in the Australian retail market. According to Dlodlo (2017), not only the higher prices, the lower prices can also devastate the brand image in the market. Therefore in accordance to the quality and the usage of the brand products, the price should be decided. Mostly, the researchers have shown that the general consumers do not believe if a brand is providing products in lower prices as well as they consider those products to be of lower quality. Therefore Woolworths have considered this psychology and it has developed its pricing strategy as not too high or low. The organization has considered the benefits of the consumers before fixing its strategic movement. Therefore the positioning of the brand depends highly on providing the benefits for the consumers that also considers creating the consciousness of the products and work amongst the customers (Mortimer, 2016). The organization also utilized this strategy for popularizing their brand in the market. This is also helpful of the customers as they can select the products according to the requirements. As the Australian retail market is full of several competitors, the brand positioning strategy is related to the competitor. Therefore the brand is trying to grow more in the market. Therefore Woolworths is also considering the strategies considering the competitors such as Aldi, Myer and Coles, therefore positioning of the brand is entirely related to the positive brand image in the market (Sacks et al., 2015). The organization also focuses on providing digital and printing advertisements in order to create the brand image in the market. 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