Discrimination Essay Essay

Discuss this statement in relation to the human resource practices and the issues relating to personality, perceptions and values of managers. This essay argues that discrimination is a likely occurrence during the recruitment process. It will focus upon the various forms of discrimination faced and the issues relating to personality and perceptions resulting from the mainstream perspectives, stereotypes and ideologies held by Anglo-Saxon Australians. It will then examine the human resource practices and the selection process, highlighting the discrimination that occurs due to the unrealistic and unnecessarily high standards of recruitment criteria and specifications laid out by managers for candidates. Finally it will address the impact and influence that the managers values can have upon the recruitment criteria and the final selection made. Discrimination has long been a likely occurrence during the recruitment process, becoming a major problem throughout Australian society. Dating back through Australia’s history we have continually seen society empirically group people according to their country of origin and culture. The idea of ethnocentrism has surfaced as a result of the pre-existing culture of intolerance of cultural difference. As Ho and Alcorso demonstrate, ‘Australian employers and local workers in the post-war decades had a clear interest in utilizing a workforce that was not only ethnically distinguishable from the local workforce but also considered to be largely unskilled and little educated’ (2004, p. 254). The reluctance that many employers have in their willingness to recruit migrants and those of ethnic backgrounds, as a result of a pre-disposition held, is seen consistently in the workplace and is reflected in the long-term. As Wooden notes, ‘differences in pay, occupational status and probability of employment’ between migrants and people of ethnic background, in comparison to Anglo-Saxon Australians ‘reflects differences in the average productive capabilities of the two groups’ (1994, p. 220; cited in Ho and Alcorso, 2004, p. 239).

Decision Making Essay

The decision making approach that will be employed by the organization is based on a model where all members of the organization will be involved. A decision is made when the organization is faced with some problems in its operations or when the organization plans to redraw its operation so as to plan for the future. The top management, after realizing the need for change on the specified areas that may either be controversial or whose effect is organization wide, instigates a research that will involve all the members of the organization including the investors. The research must be through in that it should analyze the internal operational environment, the industry conditions, market trends and predicts any change in the environment. Moreover, the research must accurately determine the compatibility of the range of opinions and thus solution to the organizational culture and their profitability or effects on the organization productivity. The findings must be presented before the board of management who will ascertain the viability of the solutions and choose the one that best address the needs of the organization and is sustainable with respect to its resources. The board will at all time be constituted of all stakeholders in the organization including departmental representatives, departmental heads, top managers, trade union representatives and investors each of whom have equal right of expressing their points of view. The top management is charged wit the responsibility of evaluating the recommendations made by the research team and ensuring that the whole organization implements the decisions passed. The organization understands that in any community where the members are actively involved in any form of economic or social undertaking that involves their interaction and varied output, problems must always be present. The organization adopts the Osborne-Parnes problem solving methodology that is based on creativity. The first stage in the solution of a problem is the determination of the goals and challenges that the organization works for. After which the management is charged with the responsibility of instructing the research teams to find all data, facts and emotional responses involved. The data and findings will help in bringing out the problems that will affect the achievement of the goals. In clarification of the problem the two main concerns are the needs that should be addressed and the problems that should be focused on. The decision in this phase is based on the perceived impact of the problems as per the research findings. The next stage is the generation of ideas which involves all stakeholders in the organization. The research department and teams are responsible for the implementation of the idea generation process. The main concern at this stage is finding out all the solutions to the problems without any consideration of their effectiveness. The main methodology in the generation of ideas is brainstorming which is implemented in groups. The next stage is implemented by the board of management with the help of the research teams. The main concern at this stage is finding out how the solutions can be made better. Pareto analysis is used in determination of the best method though the implementation of a cause effect analysis will also aid in determining a range of good solutions to the problems. The last phase is a decision making process as the whole organization takes step that are aimed at implementation of the solutions. The decision making model is adopted in this last phase. ii. Behavior The organization appreciates the effects of behavior on the operations and other aspects such as investor confidence and the respect the organization will receive from all in the organization. The employees and all stakeholders will at all time endeavors to uphold a code of conduct that is respectful of their colleagues and all that they may relate to in the course of their activities. The main methodology that will be used in the assessment of the organization employees’ behavior is based on Osborne-Parnes approach. The methodology involves the creation of a code of behavior that all employees are expected to follow. Research is then undertaken to establish the organization behavior with the aim of establishing its relationship and association to the code of behavior. Conformance and other areas of divergence are accurately determined and their exact nature established. The causes of the divergence must be determined through wide research and the results presented to either the top management or to the department heads depending on the level of the investigation and who instigated it. The impact of the diversion on the end consumer of the services and product is determined and the impact on the organization’s operation and thus productivity noted. The problem solving mechanism is then applied to solve the area of divergence and any anomalies in the code of behavior corrected.

The Seventeen-Article Constitution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Seventeen-Article Constitution - Essay Example The Seventeen Article Constitution was written in a period of Chinese expansionism. Previously insulated from Chinese cultural and political influence because of geographical separation by the sea, the Japanese rulers noticed the Chinese with more concern as they made forays into the Korean peninsula. With a desire to consolidate their own government in a more structured and unified form, Shotoku sent his missions into China to study the centralized structure of the Tang kingdom. The results of these missions had a great influence on the constitution Shotoku was going to write. Even though there is no evidence that the constitution was promulgated practically as a law, it remained a guideline for how the rulers expected the standards of statehood to be and set the direction for future reforms, such as the Taika reforms (Lu 23). Two of the key precepts of the constitution were the rights of the sovereign and the establishment of a bureaucracy. These were both designed to change the then current structure from being clan-based to that governed by a central monarchy. In espousing the powers and rights of the monarchy, the constitution made undiluted references to the monarch being â€Å"likened Heaven† and if not obeyed â€Å"ruin will be automatically result† (Lu 24). The reference to the monarch being like heaven itself was borrowed from the Confucian descriptions of imperial government in China which emphasized the monarch’s status as being the link that creates â€Å"harmony† between â€Å"what is above† and â€Å"what is below† resulting in prosperity if obeyed (Kasulis 86). Supplementing the monarch based central government was the idea of a bureaucracy which was selected on merit rather than heredity. It may be pointed out that the entire Confucian theory was n ot used in the constitution and in the adaptation some elements were skipped. For example, in Confucianism, if the monarch did not rule as he was

System Analysis and design (case study) Case Study - 1

System Analysis and design ( ) - Case Study Example At Emory, a collection of mobile apps have been rolled out to cater for research, medicine, running school services and human resources. The school has 20 apps focusing on delivery of digital information and creation of an efficient and cost-effective infrastructure. The apps find usage in the memorial hospital where a clinical mobile app is used in massive transfusion1. Bring-your-own-device (BYOD) is a movement that has brought radical transformations in various enterprises helping organizations to boost their productivity to unimaginable heights. The employees to the organizations have also been more engaged. However, the technology has been faced with some challenges2. For instance, the major challenge is increased mobile security breaches. Employees in most organizations especially in the U.S are allowed to carry their mobile devices to the work place. However, following policies set on the use and management of the devices is a problem the organizations have to contend with. The mobile devices have a great potential of transforming how the daily activities of an organization are conducted. However, to realize the full potential, employees have to be educated on how the mobile devices can be fully utilized. There is lack of an organization-wide awareness about the mobile capabilities which is hurting the productivity of the organizations. To realize the value of the mobile enterprise, there has to be aggressive collaboration between the employees and the organizations3. The employees must be trained on the various ways of utilizing the apps on their mobile devices for the good of the organization. Training has to go beyond the basics of exchanging emails and sending instant messages4. If the companies are to succeed in the future, they will have to meet the high standards and requirements that are offered by Millennials for the mobile technologies and functions. The IT departments should consider working on apps such

Choose one from the document that i uploaded Essay

Choose one from the document that i uploaded - Essay Example The recently established Securities and Exchange Commission has already charged more than a hundred culprits in crisis related cases as of July 18 this year. The federal law enforcers focus mainly on placing civil charges instead of criminal penalties against senior executive officials from the Wall Street business organizations. In the process of seeking justice in the United States economy, the federal law enforcers were forced to carry out in depth investigations in the American financial industry. Currently their mandate is to assess the current policies and modify the set of orders. The clock is quickly ticking and the law enforces have no other role rather than to finally make sure justice is attained in the American economy (Kuttner 243). According to the report written by Williams, it is evident that during the economic crisis, individuals vandalized the economic stability through fraud. According to the report which was featured by the Reuters and the Bloomberg, rigging was done on the LIBOR, i.e. the London interbank offered rate. This had a major repercussion on the returns that the banks were to make and in turn, the amount that was to go to the state. So much rigging would obviously be reflected in the state’s economic balance. Additionally, corruption and impunity masked the entire process since traces to the lost money

Science Fiction Genre Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Science Fiction Genre - Movie Review Example With the advancements in genetic engineering there is a possibility of human beings becoming super humans. We have seen mutant characters like Wolverine, Professor Xavier, Jean Grey, etc., of the famous animated series 'X-Men' in comics or television but within a century or two they are going to become a reality and one day as it was depicted in the comics' humans and mutants may fight with each other for their rights. Since there is always insecurity among the countries worldwide genetic engineering is going to be their ultimate weapon against the enemies. Welcome to the world of science fiction that seems to be realistic but in reality it's only a fiction that takes reader or viewer into an imaginary world. Based on these science fiction stories movies are made, and the producers invest millions of dollars and willing to take any financial risk to make the movie a big hit. Terminator trilogy and Blade runner are some of the movies that fall into this science fiction category. These movies are made with huge investments from the producers to make the movies a box office hit in every possible way. Almost every science fiction movie is an action-oriented thriller and lots of killing and other kind of bloodshed scenes is shot and picturised. Terminator trilogy and Blade runner are no exception. They are totally action packed movies with lots of fighting and killing. Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines comprises Terminator trilogy. Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day was written and directed by James Cameron. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines was directed by Jonathan Mostow. Hundreds of millions of dollars were invested in 20 years in making this trilogy. The trilogy is about saving John Connor who becomes the future leader of human resistence forces against the machines. The movie Terminator revolves around the character named Sarah Connor who would become mother of John Connor. This movie is about saving Sarah Connor. http://www.movieposter.com/posters/archive/main/14/A70-7230 The above poster is from Terminator movie, in which the cyborg played by Arnold Schwarzenegger is holding a pistol. The above poster gives a message to the viewers of being stylish and looking cool and making a fashion statement. Making a fashion statement is not at all inappropriate but the way in which it was photographed was unacceptable. Young adults and especially children are easily attracted when they see their favorite stars in these photographs. To imitate their favorite actors they act like the stars by holding toy pistols and playing with them. Thus from young age itself unknowingly we were engaging a relationship between children and arms. Generally movies are made to have a positive impact on the society and make them think how they can improve the living standards of normal human being. In this movie the character Sarah Connor was being relentlessy being hunted down by a killing machine that kills every women in the town who share Connor's name. In one of the scenes adesk seargent doesn't allow the cyborg (Arnold Schwarzenegger) to see Sarah, after the cyborg says his famous phrase "I'll be back" comes back to the seargent in a car and crushes him to death. When scenes like these are shown how come any could see a science

How to make eggroll Speech or Presentation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

How to make eggroll - Speech or Presentation Example It is believed that the spring roll led to the emergence of egg roll. It is rather unpleasing to mention that Kyle Wilson also played a major role in the creation of egg rolls when he rolled his penis in egg (Thomas, 2002). Despite the fact that most Asian countries claim that the dish originated from them, Southern China is considered the most likely source in which the dish originated since it stems from Cantonese cuisine features (Myer, 2002). An egg roll is normally made by wrapping a mixture of chopped vegetables in most cases cabbage and meat using a sheet of egg dough. Either in a closed or open ended form it is deep fried to obtain the latter result. Many Chinese immigrant communities in the world predominantly refer to the egg roll as the egg based, flute shaped pastry containing yellow like flaky crust mostly eaten as a dessert by Asians. In West Bengal, they refer to egg roll as a fried egg wrapped by paratha flat bread which is also known as Kati roll. Most of you may be wondering how about United States, how does it refer to the egg roll Most restaurants in the United States refer to the egg roll as a Tex-Mex dish which is made up of a deep fried flour tortilla and mixture of other ingredients such as black beans, corn, Monterey jack cheese, peppers and spices. Having given a brief analysis on the history of egg rolls, I will go ahead and explain on how to make an egg roll. ... The following are the main ingredients for the wrappers: 4 eggs, 1 cup floor, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 cup water, while the main ingredients for the fillings include: a piece of cabbage, Ib chopped turkey ham, 1 grated carrot, 1 teaspoon sugar and 1 teaspoon salt, ginger, and garlic (Allan, 2005). For the wrapper, begin by thoroughly beating two eggs using a wooden spoon in a small bowl or you can mix the eggs in any other way, add some salt to taste and then add 1 cup floor, mix by hand or a mixer until it is smooth. Gradually add some water while mixing so as to come up with lump free mixture. With the dough ready, place a pan on medium heat and lightly grease it, pour the lightly formed mixture unto the pan. Slightly cook the pancakes over the pan however you should ensure that the pan cakes do not overcook as this would render them crunchy and hence it would be hard to fold them. Considering the amount of flour used, 12 pancakes should be made. Place them in a clean container and wait for them to cool down. As you await for them to cool down, move on the next stage and prepare the fillings. In the preparation of fillings, take the chopped turkey ham and slice it into small pieces. Prepare the other ingredients; cabbage, tomatoes, ginger, onions and garlic. Place the pan on medium heat and add a teaspoonful of oil and onions. Wait for the onions to cook until brown then add the other flavoring spices (ginger, garlic and salt). After 1-2 minutes add the turkey ham and properly mix with the rest of the ingredients in the pan. Cook the mixture until the turkey ham is ready, this could take around 20-30 minutes. With the shredded carrot and cabbage, put them inside the ready turkey ham and mix them thoroughly. With the

Financial Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Financial Analysis - Essay Example They will have to use some money and time before recovering and making sales. Barriers to entry are conditions that stop or obstruct a potential competitors ambition to participate in the market. Several barriers to entry exist in other industries that allow certain firms to operate as a monopoly. Legal restrictions and licensing requirements from the government can restrict domestic or international competition (Dilek and Colakoglu, 2013). In addition, brand loyalty provides a barrier to entry, for instance, through product differentiation. It is difficult for people to compete with a valued brand like Coca Cola. The ability to control natural resources is another barrier to entry that facilitates a monopolistic market (Dilek and Colakoglu, 2013). For example, diamond-mining companies, such as De Beers, keep the value of diamonds high because they allow only limited mining of the natural resource. Fortunately, the barriers are contestable because other players in the market see the potential in the market and can fight for a place. Market forces are dominant enough to break a monopoly (Dilek and Colakoglu, 2013). Normally, a monopoly enjoys government protection, and for the case of Forrest, he have no protection, other than the fact that there are no boats. A perfectly competitive market results from a less contestable market. Even so, at times it these barriers are not contestable. A good example is the use of application software like Microsoft Word. Most people will use it simply because they want to enjoy compatibility with other users and face fewer challenges in its use. In such a case, the barrier to entry is not

Moral Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Moral Development - Essay Example Indeed, transparency is very significant in professional and working ethics where it reveals all actions, plans, motives, and data of individuals and organizations to the relevant stakeholders (Learn Well Resources, 2012, p.1). Where stakeholders may include shareholders of certain organizations the directors and management of such organizations should avail all information pertaining to the status of the organizations to enable the shareholders to make necessary decisions on the same. Additionally, transparency is a legal requirement that all organizations should adhere to enable the government make a financial follow up on public organizations. Lawrence Kohlberg is a scholar that concentrated on both psychology and philosophy. He put much emphasis on moral development and proposed a 6-stage theory of moral thinking that advances the Piaget’s theory on moral development. He relevantly interviewed both children and adolescents about moral dilemmas to deduce three levels of mor al development classified in six stages. The three Kohlberg’s levels of moral development include pre-conventional morality, conventional morality, and post-conventional morality levels (Crain, 2010, p.18-20). Level1. Pre-Conventional Morality The first stage of this level is the obedience and punishment orientation stage. According to Kohlberg, this stage is common with young children though adults can also express their reasoning at this stage. Children in this case obey rules in response to consequences of punishment involved. They do not do things because they are right but only obeys what the authorities’ permits. They do not have a societal voice but term morality as an external command from the adults. The second stage of this level is the individualism and exchange stage. At this stage, children value actions in relation to how they satisfy individual interests and not necessarily their morality. They recognize that there are varieties of right things permitted by the authorities with the best option serving one's own interests. Again, they realize that punishment from authorities or adults is just a natural risk that one needs to avoid. As such, their voice is still isolated from that of the society, as they do not identify with members of society (Crain, 2010, p.19-22). Level 2. Conventional Morality This level entails stage three of moral development that is interpersonal relationships. At this level, individuals seek to live up to social expectations and roles. This clearly affects the interpersonal relationship in a society depending on the choices different people make. At this stage, teens see morality as the way people should live and behave as expected by the family and society. They regard morality as having good motives and interpersonal feelings like compassion, kindness, love, and trust. Stage 4 involves maintaining social order. At this stage, individuals tend to consider the entire society while making personal judgments. T hey aim at being responsible, following set rules, and respecting the authorities with an aim of maintaining social order. This stage boils down to one-to one relationship where one considers the others feelings and offers help where they can (Crain, 2010, p.22-27). Level 3. Post conventional Morality This level entails stage five of moral development that involves social contract and individual rights. At this stage, individuals seek to accommodate others different opinions, values, and beliefs. They agree on rational standards to apply in the society. They adopt the common belief where all are entitled to benefit from what they do. Universal Principles is the last stage of moral development according to Kohlberg. He based it on universal ethical principles and abstract reasoning. This stage defines the

Terrorism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 5

Terrorism - Essay Example ook place at a railway station in Kunming where it is reported that a group of assailants emerged and started attacking passengers at random with swords and knifes regardless of age. Such incidences of random attacks have been on the rise in various regions of the world and this is regarded terrorism. However, police showed up and neutralized the threat where 4 assailants were killed and one apprehended. Reports came later on that the rest of the assailants were arrested moments after the attack. It is believed that the attacks were as a result of the group’s inability to leave the country. After several attempts to leave, the group grew desperate hence the attacks on innocent civilians. Motives of departure are quite unclear since some claim it was to participate in jihad activities while others claim the group was running from fears of being arrested by police. Nevertheless, whatever the reason there is no moral justification for attacking innocent civilians and this should be regarded an act of terrorism and those responsible ought to face the law. Terrorism has quite received significantly many definitions with scholars across the world debating on the real meaning of terrorism. The sparked confusion can arguably be attributed to the fact that even those responsible for committing attacks do not consider their actions acts of terror. Furthermore, increased rise of significantly many groups linked with violent attacks has sparked further confusion as to what ingredients really constitute terrorism. For instance in the modern day there has been increased rise of rebellions in different parts of the world most of whom use violence to pass their messages. As a result there is really a thin line between terrorism and rebellions and times the term terrorism is used to refer to violent rebellions. However, it is almost obvious that whenever the term is used it refers to attacks on innocent civilians regardless of the justifications given by the perpetrators. The

The coronation explain Essay Example for Free

The coronation explain Essay Between 1947 and 1959, the amount of television licences that had been sold increased very rapidly from only 0. 1 million to almost 10 million. The coronation was in 1953 and the largest increase in the amount of televisions that had been sold was between 1953 and 1959. This tells us that most of the people that brought televisions during this time period did not only buy them because of the coronation as the majority were sold in the years following it. Therefore, from this evidence we can tell that there must have been other reasons besides the coronation why the television became such a popular accessory. In 1953 queen Elisabeth was crowned. All of the people in England were able to view this on television sets, and it became clear that seeing it on television would be a lot better, and you would see a lot more than if you went to London and saw it in real life, because obviously access to the cathedral and the grounds around it would be very limited. People idolised the monarchy, and respected them hugely. As a consequence, the amount of television sets increased that were being sold. The coronation of the queen was quite a significant reason that the number of televisions that had been sold increased so much from 1947 to 1959. However, there were a lot of other reasons resulting in huge increases in television sales. Firstly, the television was an extremely riveting source of entertainment, like it is nowadays too. Television prices also dropped very rapidly in the year or two leading up to the coronation. People wanted not only to be entertained by the coronation of the queen, they wanted more from their money, they brought televisions so as to give them more options for things to do. It was thought that children especially would benefit from the new entertainment that was given by the television, as they were expected to amuse themselves. A man in 1920 remembers what life was like for him when he was a child we played marbles, tip-cat, flicking cigarette cards, hide and seek, hopscotch, all in the due seasons. Most children could not afford wooden hoops when that season came around, but an old bicycle wheel with a tyre made a good substitute. This extract from a conversation with a friend in the 80s tells us that there were a few things for children to do, but most of them involved being outside, and to be outside, the weather must be good, and you can never rely on the weather. If it was raining or snowing and the children could not go out, it would leave very little for them to do, and the few things that they could do, would probably get boring after a while. So a television would mean that the children always had something to occupy them, and no one could ever get bored of television because there are so many different programs it was a better quality of entertainment than had been seen before. Secondly, peoples wages and liesure time were increasing at this time, which meant that more people could afford televisions when they could not before. And if they still did not earn enough to buy a television straight away because they wanted to see the coronation, they could take up the option of hire purchase. This was when poorer people who could not afford to buy a television all in one payment, were allowed to pay the shop owner who sold them the television back in smaller, more manageable instalments but people still needed these higher wages to pay the instalments. Thirdly people were beginning to be given a lot more leisure time from their employees and this meant that they needed more to occupy them and so this reason (along with their increased wages) meant that a lot more people decided to buy televisions simply because they could and because they had more spare time to watch them, so it was not a waste of money at all. Fourthly many people simply brought televisions because they were a form of new technology, and they were so fascinated by them. They wanted and needed a part of this extraordinarily intelligent machinery in their homes. Also, people were more inclined to buy televisions because the number of television transmitters increased, meaning that television was available to a lot more people, and there were a lot more programs on show. Fifthly, probably one of the most important reasons that television sales increased so much was because to have a television aerial up on your roof, was a huge status symbol, and, in the words of a man aged 60, describing his early memories of television You could tell from the aerials who had and hadnt got sets. I remember that we were one of the first three in the road to get one. If you had a car and a TV set, youd really arrived. From this extract, we can see how very important having a television was to a lot of people and just for a slightly higher status. And lastly, there were bound to be other popular national events happening that would be broadcast on television, and a lot of people also brought televisions so as to ensure that they had a television to see them. So, in conclusion, the coronation did help a little in starting the sudden rise in the amounts of televisions being sold, but mostly, people brought televisions for more personal reasons, i. e. for a better status, for better entertainment, and simply to have a little bit of the new technology that was sweeping the nation and completely fascinating everyone.

Poverty and American Humane Association Essay Example for Free

Poverty and American Humane Association Essay You see it in movies, books, and even real life. The cycle of poverty is an endless cycle that entraps those who have become its victims. Poverty has become one of the largest troubles within America today. It repeats the questions of fear, like, whether or not you will have food on the table? Will I be able to pay the mortgage for the house? How can I pay for my child’s doctor visits if their sick? Families who fall into poverty cycle are usually never able to recover, but there are a select few who find a way to strive and leave its menacing hands, through education. There are kids just like you and me, who are living in conditions unimaginable and have to deal with it almost their whole life. Many people fall to poverty because of the loss of a job, expenses, wages, incomes, and other such money problems, but through the success in education they can prevent this from happening. Poverty has become a universal flaw in both our country and many others. Education is one of the possible reasons why people fall into poverty, because many who do not have an education or a high school diploma usually will cause themselves and their families to fall into poverty. According to roastedpinebark at hubpages. com, people in the U. S who have a high school diploma will have a more likely chance of receiving at least $40,000 yearly salary paying job while those who are dropouts would receive a $20,000-$16,000 yearly salary job. This may sound like a lot of money for all of you but really, it’s not. If you think about it on a $20,000 yearly salary you would only receive about $1,666 a month probably barely being able to pay for mortgage for their house, not including water, electric, and gas bills too ([emailprotected] paragraph 2). That is a lot of money. What it comes down to is that a good education is a divided pathway to getting an average paying job or ending up in poverty. If a family is already in the cycle of poverty then those kids are even more likely to continue that cycle to their next generation. Three years ago in 2010, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released that â€Å"For [all] Americans without a high school diploma the unemployment rate is significantly higher than the national average at 14. %† (Employment Policies Institute). The idea of never getting out of the cycle of poverty moved me, because there can be kids just like you and me who try and try to do well in school but end up failing. According to Celia Baker on Deseret News posted on October 22, 2012 that â€Å"earning a high school diploma can help break the cycle of multi-generational poverty†(Baker paragraph 6). The reason for this is because of the lack of money, family issues, and their social life. It may not make sense as to why a child’s social life effects their education, but it’s because they do not receive the skills to develop their brains to learn or adapt. Another problem that is found through poverty is the backing of a loving and stable family. Generally I assume all of us have a warm loving family that we have the greatest times with. Some kids aren’t so lucky. When they come home from school they are sometimes abused, exposed to drugs, and some may have no family. I know that without my family I wouldn’t be able to be the person I am today. Our families give us the necessary love and attention we need to function as people. According to American Humane Association, kids in poverty are often neglected and abused because their parent or parents are aggravated with being unable to pay bills or even hold a job. It seems horrid but it’s the truth. If you think about your younger siblings or cousins, if you have any, they want a lot of attention right? I know my little sister does, and if a parent just ignores their child and neglects them it breaks their heart, so they keep trying and trying to live up to the approval of their parents only to get rejected again. According to Dr. ’s Ashlee Loughan and Robert Pern, â€Å"brain growth advances in the first 6 years of life and are further supported with high nutrition, appropriate stimulation, attention, and emotional support† (http://www. apa. org/pi/families/resources/newsletter/2012/07/neurocognitive-impacts. spx). So as you can see domestic life is very important in the early stages of life. Other research has found that the kids found in poverty are not given that nutrition, emotional support, or attention therefore they are more likely to have depression or any other psychological or mental illness. The cycle of poverty causes many problems for people; it is a chain reaction that is impossible to get out of. It affects many aspects of a person’s life and I b elieve it is one of the worst things that could happen. Many students in high school, like ourselves, are faced with the decision of staying in school or having to drop out to be able to put food on the table for their families. This is where the rates of student dropouts increases and many wonder why. Some say it’s because the kids are lazy and don’t care about school, but only a few percentage of them are like that. The other percentage of students who drop out of school that live in poverty, make the decision to get a job just to be able to make sure their family gets food on the table, or even keep the place they currently live in. Nowadays, you teenagers, even me, we take it for granted that we have a home to live in, food to eat every day, a bed to sleep in, and all of those things are just something we expect to be there; and for some it is not the case. Studies shown by Chris Isidore proved that those kids who leave school to take on jobs are more likely to become the 20% of adults who earn the bare minimum under a full time job which is $10. 65 at a minimum wage of $7. 45 (Isidore paragraph 2 3). The topic of poverty is sometimes an overlooked topic among students, I believe that it is one that should be more paid attention to; and I believe that there should be a lot more relief efforts to get people out of it. I hope today, that this speech has changed you mind on the topic of poverty and moved you to want to try and help. If so check out to learn more about how you can help stop poverty and get involved in creating a better world (www. peopleagainstpoverty. com). Known to many officials even the President, poverty, is a virus in America that cannot be ridded of until it is right medicine. To help prevent the beginning of epidemics like these from spreading, I suggest you become a good parent when you are an adult, help guide you children, acknowledge their mistakes, help them learn from it, and to create or join any clubs that de-motivate the dropping out of school. Traits such as these will allow your children to strive to do well in school forming a better future for them-selves. To learn more about how to prevent teens and children from going into poverty go to this link and scroll down to the subheading â€Å"What Can We Do? †

Marketing Analysis of Tesco

Marketing Analysis of Tesco 1.ORGANIZATIONS ORIENTATION An organization orientation depends upon the marketing concept and the market orientations, which are the foundations of strategic marketing. Marketing concept exists on the fusion of all marketing activities. When they are combined, the company can achieve higher profitability (Hooley 2008: 6, 7). Tesco has developed a strategic customer relationship management which builds and keeps a valued customer awareness and powerful brand engagement. Its position in UK is strengthened by overtaking Sainsbury in 1995 and by its online home grocery service (Jobber 2010:583). 2. MARKET SEGMENTATION, POSITIONING, TARGET MARKETING Market segmentation is the process of understanding the characteristics and demand of different individuals. Tesco gather customer information from the loyalty card scheme and identifies their purchasing habits and behaviour patterns, which are used for segmenting customers based on their needs. Customers are grouped based on their similarities. With this information, Tesco introduced different clubs like the kids club, the food club, the baby and toddler club, Healthy living Club. Market segments are chosen for targeting and a marketing mix strategy is selected for that target market (Jobber 2010:262,584).To develop an effective strategic marketing there should be an upstanding positioning of product and services in the market. Positioning is an iterative and vital process in retail marketing. The main goal of positioning is to develop and maintain a remarkable place in the market for the company and its product. Positioning starts with the product (Kalafatis 2000).Nevertheless, Tes co has a brand image and they are proud of its brand value ( Martenson 2007).Keys to successful positioning is clarity, consistency, competitiveness and credibility. Repositioning is carried out when customer needs or target market changes. Repositioning strategies include image repositioning, product repositioning, intangible repositioning, tangible repositioning (Jobber 2010:285,288). 3. MARKET ORIENTATION Marketing orientation is achieved by marketing concept (Blois 2000: 21). It is defined as all the departments working together to develop and understand customers current and future needs and to meet them to keep the customers satisfied (Hooley 2008: 8). The elements of market orientation include Customer orientation, Competitor orientation, and inter functional orientation. 4. CUSTOMER ORIENTATION Marketing oriented companies are primarily focused on customers. They get the needs and problems of their customers and find a better solution for them (Blois 2000: 22). Tesco strategy is based on loyalty card scheme and gets information about individual customers and their different needs. The club card helps the customers to save their money when they accumulate points in the card. Club card can be used at any Tescos partners (Jobber 2010:583). Tescos objectives and guidelines are aimed directly at customer satisfaction and it is assessed regularly (Hooley 2008: 11). Customer orientation depends on the employee performance. It results in positive outcomes of the company. It determines the relationship quality of the organization and relationship quality highly depends upon the company loyalty (Macintosh 2007). 5. COMPETITOR ORIENTATION The organization should identify the short-term and a long-term capability of the competitors. A deep understanding of the competition is needed. For Tesco the competitive positioning applies at the level of the companies. In UK the leading grocery retailing competitors include Tesco, Sainsburys and Asda (Hooley 2008: 208).We need to understand the competitors profit sources, position in the market, marketing strategies (Best 2004: 7).Tesco collects information about the activities and conduct regular benchmarking against the competitor offerings (Hooley 2008: 12). 6. LONG-TERM PROFIT FOCUS This is the ultimate objective of all the business. The main objectives of Tesco are to be a successful international retailer, to be strong in non-food as in the food business, to open more stores across the world. The International strategy of Tesco requires a long-term approach (Tesco PLC 2009).The decisions of Tesco are guided by long- term plans rather than short -term benefits (Hooley 2008: 12). 7. INTERFUNCTIONAL COORDINATION Interfunctional coordination concerns with the coordination of all company resources to create a value for target customers. To create an impenetrable competitive position, we have to rely on the coordinated efforts of various functions and people within the organizations. Cross-functional relationship plays a decisive role (Hooley 2008: 12). Tesco has a dedicated team approach to develop and deliver market-based customer solutions (Best 2004: 48).They work together and support each other to serve customer .The financial and management department work closely with the operators of the retailer world. Commercial departments make decisions to deliver best products at best possible prices. Corporate purchasing departments work with suppliers. The graduates in Tesco strive to generate revenue. Distribution team works to deliver products in the right time to different stores. The effective systems IT department improve online shopping for customers and they raise the contacts between vari ous business areas to streamline the entire processes. The marketing team of Tesco works with customers to understand their needs and current trends. The property and engineering department do all the support works of the stores (Hooley 2008: 12). 8. ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE Marketing orientation can be described as a variety of organizational culture that places the highest priority to establish and maintain the best customer value while considering the interests of stakeholders like investors, employees, suppliers (Blois 2000: 21). The core purpose of Tesco is to create value for customers to earn their lifetime loyalty (Tesco PLC 2009). All the staffs work like a team .They gives respect each other and treat customers in a way they feel satisfied. Face to face meetings, trips are conducted and Staffs are rewarded for their work they do. They offer discounts and benefits for the staffs also provide more salaries, training, flexible working hours and health and safety measures are observed as compared to other retailers. Tesco welcomes all people regardless of age, sex, ethnicity etc. Human rights policies are applied to all members (Tesco PLC 2009). Store Loyalty is the output of customer satisfaction and customers will visit the store regularly. All e mployees understand their responsibilities to create satisfied customers (Martenson 2007). 9. TESCO STRATEGIES Tesco has a well-established strategy for their business success. About 70% of the trading and profit is from UK. They are the market leaders in markets outside UK. They have four different store formats like Express, Metro, Superstore, Extra and one trial format Home plus, for non-food and clothing. As an international retailer, they mainly focus on the local customer needs and understand them. They make sure the board appeal. They have various own brands of superior quality to customers to compliment their style of living. Tesco looks after the people working with them (Tesco PLC 2009). Market Corporate responsibility is an opening for growth. The values are the no one tries harder for customers and treat people how they want to be treated (Tesco PLC 2009). The Tesco steering wheel represents performance and is a strategy-driving tool. (Tesco PLC 2009). A sale in non-food is a key part of the strategy. They provide with the best quality and price. Tescos non-food includes electrical, home entertainment, clothing, health and beauty, stationery, bookshop and soft furnishings, seasonal goods, opticians and pharmacies (Tesco PLC 2009). In retailing services, Tesco offers more to the customers. Tesco personal finance has products from credit cards to insurance. Online grocery shopping is made effortless with Tesco.com. Tesco Telecoms offers a wide range of services from mobile network, home phone service, internet access and an internet phone service (Tesco PLC 2009). The Success of Tesco depends on trust and satisfaction of the customers. Overall, Tesco has a strong marketing orientation and compelling marketing strategies which results in the customer satisfaction and the higher levels of profitability. Every Little Helps Tesco to be a market leader (Tesco PLC 2009). 10. COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE As Armstrong (2005) defined, competitive advantage is the advantage over competitors obtained by providing better value to customer. It is important to company who wants to win the customers and establish a profitable relationship with them (Armstrong Kotler, 2005). Before the organisation is choosing the right competitive advantage on which to build up its competitive strategies it must analyze the industry environment normally by using the porters 5 forces analysis. 11. Porters Five Forces Analysis Introduced by Michael Porter in 1979, Porters 5 Forces is a powerful tool to analyse the attractiveness of an industry. This framework involves a relationship between competitors within an industry, potential competitors, suppliers, buyers. It helps management to understand both the strength of the current competitive position, and the strength of a position organization want to be. (Michael Porter, 2008) A diagram below shows the Porters 5 forces clearly. 12. Threat of New Entry: As porter said the ability of people who newly enter your market might affect your power. If the barrier to entry the market is low and your have little protection for current position, then the new competitors can easily enter the market and weaken your position. (Michael Porter, 2008). In terms of new entrants Tesco does not have much threat because of the high barriers for new comer to entry into the supermarket industry. According to the TNS (Taylor Nelson Sofres, the leading market research group) data Tesco occupies over one third of grocery market share in UK, and is along with Asda, Saintsburys, Morrisons become the big four which has hold over 68% of UK overall grocery market. This strong solid position makes Tesco the market leader and giant in UK supermarket industry. Due to the massive market share has been hold by the big four, the barriers for new entrants are obviously quite high. It is hard for new retailer to obtain the market share and challenge the existing powerfu l player such as Tesco. In addition, another high barrier for new entrants is the supermarket industry needs huge capital and personnel involved but needs long time to get the return. Therefore, there are high barrier for new retailers entry into the existing supermarket industry dominated by big four. Thus, if Tesco sustains its strong position in the market it will have less threat from new entrants. 13. The power of buyer: According to Porter the buyers have the power to drive price down. Small number of buyers and powerful buyers for a company can likely having greater power on driving the price (Michael Porter, 2008). Generally say, in supermarket industry there is little bargain power for buyers with supermarket because all the prices are fixed price. Moreover, the bigger number of consumers will reduce the power of buyers. Therefore, it is little power of buyers to Tesco due to huge number of customers and little bargain power of buyers in this industry. However, customers can still switch buying from one supermarket to another by many factors. First, the price is the primary factor determinates customers buying activities. In this respect, Tescos strategy is based on its cost advantages. The organization aims to be the best value retailer. Tesco stated its price has been cut by 17% between 2000 and 2006; even facing the higher energy price challenge during the recent recession Tescos price has bee n dropped down by 1.8% last year. Second, due to the differentiation of product is little in the supermarket industry; customers can switch buying easily, thus, to attract and keep customers is relying on their loyalty to the store. Tescos report claims it has the UK number one loyalty card scheme and it has over 13 millions active Clubcard holders. Overall, the power of buyer is little to Tesco and Tesco has big advantages on low price and customer loyalty. 14. Power of suppliers Porter said the suppliers also have power to drive up the price. The power of driven is determined by the number and the strength of suppliers. To the Britain biggest grocery supermarket Tesco, the power of supplier is very little because Tesco has vast numbers of supplier across overall markets. The overwhelming market power of Tesco makes suppliers have no bargain power to it; instead, some of suppliers rely on Tesco. As a buyer Tesco has huge demand and great power to the supplier. However, Tesco also relys on their suppliers to achieve its objectives, without those suppliers Tesco could not deliver best value goods to the customers. Therefore, Tesco has established the long term constructive partnership with suppliers. According to Tescos report, it has over 1,500 suppliers who have been working with Tesco for five years or more. Based on a survey taken in 2008 by Tesco, there were over 90% of UK suppliers thought Tesco was trustworthy. Moreover, Tesco also provide the opportunit ies to small producers and local suppliers. For example, Tesco has opened five new regional buying offices around Britain and hosted regional road shows to attract and increase the number of local suppliers for selling their goods through Tesco. As the result, the small suppliers get more business opportunities meanwhile they help Tesco getting hundreds of new lines into stores. In sum, Tesco has little threat from power of supplier and company achieved its objectives by establishing the trustable partnership with suppliers. 15. The Threat of substitutes Porter introduced this threat as the other industry or business has the ability to substitute you and attract your customers. Although Tesco has head position in the supermarket industry, somehow, the substitutes still exist. For example, eating-out is a substitute to buying food from supermarket. However, a recent survey by analyst Buckingham Research has found that 75% of British families will stay at home during the recession rather than eating out. Under recession, the threat of eating-out to supermarket is less than ever. Another substitute worth to be considered is the online shopping. Nowadays, as the technology growing fast the online shopping becomes easy and trendy. However, it can not completely substitute the real life shopping especially for the food purchase. The technical problem, delivery problem and communication problem may bother people to buy online. Moreover, the real life shopping is also a part of social life to most of people, which would be simply substitute by clicking screen. In sum, the threat of substitute to Tesco is higher than buyer, supplier and new entrant. 16. The Threat of Competitive Rivalry: This threat comes from the competitors and also is affected by the new entry, substitute, power of buyer and supplier. The threat of competitive rivalry to Tesco is high although it is the largest grocery supermarket in UK. Asda, Sainsburys and Morrison are the three main competitors of Tesco. These three companies also have big portion of market share and compete with Tesco through price, product and promotions. The competition between the main grocery supermarkets remains fierce. Tesco has been reported that the market share has been losing and dipping in UK market since 2009 by many main Medias such as Times, BBC news and Guardian. Reports said according to the last figures of 2009 Tescos market share dropped from 31.3% to 30.7% of UK grocery sales. Meanwhile, Asdas market share rose to 17 % from 16.7 % and Morrisons went up to 12.1% from 11.7 %. TNS reported against the UK grocery sales rise 6%, Tescos sales rose 4% which below the market growth. However, Morrisons and Asda were all found beyond the growth of the market, seeing sales rise 9.7% and 7.2%. Moreover, the discounter supermarkets Aldi and Lidl also compete with Tesco as consumer cut back on spending during the recession. In addition, TNS also claimed that Waitrose, the John Lewis-own supermarket as the up-market grocer is fast growing in grocery market. On the other hand, because Tesco also set foot in non-food industry there are so many competitors such as Shell, BP, Amazon, O2, etc. To sum up, Tesco has highly threat from many competitors in both food and non-food industry. Therefore, Tesco must take its competitive advantages to prevent from threats of competitors. 17. Competitive Advantage of Tesco Through the porters 5 forces analysis the competitive advantages of Tesco can be outlined. First, the significant market power is the big advantage of Tesco. The great market power makes Tesco is able to put up barrier to new entrants and weaken the power of buyer and supplier; it also gives Tesco ability to beat the competitors. Second, namely cost advantage, the big economic scale enables Tesco to reduce the cost at extremely low level and thereby providing the low price to customers. Third, diversification makes Tesco has a further advantage to win the market because Tesco expands the broad markets such as financing, telecom and retail service rather than just food market and spread its business worldwide. To sum up, if Tesco follows its competitive strategy by aware of the threats and competitive advantages, it will keep the strong position in the industry and beat its competitors. 18. MARKETING MIX Firstly, the term Marketing Mix was widely adopted after Neil H. Boren published his article The Concept of the Marketing Mix in 1964, where he described marketing managers as a mixer of ingredients. The ingredients in Borens marketing mix included product, planning, pricing, packaging, branding, distribution channels, personal selling, advertising, promotions, display, servicing, physical handling, fact finding and analysis. Which was later grouped into four categories by E. Jerome McCarthy, today know as the 4Ps of marketing, shown below However, some people argue that along with the Marketing Mix 4 Ps concept, we should add another 2 Ps, which are people and packaging. 19. PRODUCT It is rare to discuss price without the presence of a product and to enable us understand the link between Price and Product. Kotler Armstrong (2006) define a product as anything that can be presented to a consumer for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a want or need. They further define a consumer product as the product bought by the final consumer for personal consumption. According to Ferrell (2005), the product is the core of the marketing mix strategy in which retailers can offer consumers symbolic and experiential attributes to differentiate products from competitors. However, it is also concerned with what the product means to the consumer. Product is about quality, design, features, brand name and sizes (Borden, 1984). Wulf et.al. (2005) found that private label products could offer even better quality than national brands but at a lower price. The domestic competitor reacts to the intensifying price competition by engaging in selective price cha nges. A product is a physical good, service, idea, person, or place that is capable of offering tangible and intangible attributes that individuals or organizations regard as so necessary, worthwhile or satisfying that they are prepared to exchange money, patronage or some other unit of value to acquire it. (Blythe 2007) Core products: Core Products are the core benefit that is being sought by the consumer by buying the product, like the cheaper call rates and ease of recharge top up available to Tesco Mobile customers. Actual /Tangible products: Actual Products are all the tangible features/benefits that are associated with the core product such as its features or design, level of quality, packaging, size. There is no clear distinction between a pure tangible product and a service. The Tescos give away deals for the new 3G i-phone deal Augmented products: are the intangible features/benefits associated with the core actual product such as the branding, warrantees, delivery, guarantee, and after sales service. Tesco mobile, for example, is a tangible product, but it often comes with a warranty and software updates. A firmsproduct line refers to the variety of similar commodities that the firm holds, Tesco for example, makes a large range of inter-related goods, Many of Tesco stores stock over 40,000 product lines. Even a Tesco Express stores stock a choice of well over 2,000 lines. ProductDepthrefers to the variety of commodities offered within each product line. Tesco stores stock : Healthy Living products, Free From products for people with food allergies and intolerances, Special healthy Kids snacks and Organic product lines and the recent announcement by the Tescobank CEO Benny Higgins of plans to launch an assault on the mortgage market by the end of 2010, hoping to take advantage of the current problems in the sector. Targeted at providingTescocustomers with financial advice, car and home insurance credit cards, mortgages and current accounts.(MINTEL 2009). Products often go through alife cycle.Initially, at the introduction stage a product is launched. Since the product is not well known and is usually expensive (e.g. the , as). Eventually, many products reach agrowthphase where sales increases dramatically. More firms enter with their models of the product, sometimes with added innovations. Unfortunately, the product reaches amaturitystage where little growth is sighted. For example, in the UK, almost every household has at least one stereo sound system. Some products may also reach adeclinestage, usually because the product is swapped for something better. For example, CDplayers experienced declining sales as more consumers switched to MP3 players and i-pods. Ansoff Theory is a series of suggested growth strategies that set the direction for the business plan. illustrated below Market Penetration: here the business strategy focuses on selling existing products in existing markets.This strategy aims at four major objectives: Maintaining the market share of current products Securing growth market Dominance Drive out competitors with support of an aggressive promotional campaign and favorable price strategy Increase product usage by existing customers e.g. With the Tesco Loyalty Club card scheme. Market Development: here the business strategy seeks to sell its existing product into a new market. The various approaches to this include: New geographical markets e.g.- exporting Tesco UK products to the Express shops in Ireland and Malaysia New Product Dimension or Packaging New Distributional channel Implementing different pricing policies for different markets segments Product Development: refers to a growth strategy where new products are initiated in existing markets. This often requires development of new competencies in the case of Tesco Bank and its new job vacancies for competencies in the financial sector. Diversification points to the growth strategy where a business markets a new commodity in a new market. Unfortunately, for this strategy to be adopted a clear objective of its advantages should be explored and risk assessments carried out seeing as the business may have little or no experience in the new area. Roughly one quarter of Tescos sales, was own label. Many leading retailing companies have substantial grocery interests. Of the top 25 companies in 1978, 22 were involved in groceries retailing, of which 10 can be considered leading firms in the groceries sector [Akehurst, 1983: 169, Table 5] 20. Price : Price refers to the value assigned to something by the seller to something purchased, offered for sale, to a buyer as their willingness to pay for the product and services delivered (Gilbert 1999). Price is the only element in the marketing mix that is revenue generating- all of the others are costs. It should therefore, be used as an active instrument of strategy in the major areas of marketing decision making. Pricing in the international setting is more complicated than in the domestic market, because of factors such as government influence and additional costs (Becker and Thorelli 1980). The price of an item is an important influence on the value of sales made. In theory, price is really determined by the discovery of what customers perceive is the value of the item on sale. Recent research has shown that demand-based pricing is associated with higher retailer gross margins; whereas past price dependence is associated with, lower retailer gross margins (Nijs, Srinivasan, and Pau wels 2007). There are a number of pricing policies used by Tesco today, which include: 21. Market-led Pricing: also known as competitive pricing, this simply accepts the price which competitors are charging for a product and then price its product at the same level or slightly lower in order to gain some advantage over competitors. Significantly found in markets where there is close competitors. For a company like TESCO it is important to monitor other competitors and in order to maintain customer loyalty against discounters, the adoption of a more aggressive pricing strategy was launch by the advent of budget private label ranges and backed up by advertising focusing on price comparisons. Despite challenges due to rising energy prices, but with innovations such as the reusable plastic trays, which was introduced in the fresh food areas have helped make savings these savings are pass on to customers. According to the OFT this led to a fall in real food price between 2000-2005.as shown below 22. Cost-Based Pricing: also known as cost plus Pricing, involves working out the businesss total fixed and variable costs and then adding a percentage of profit. Here the business has to consider the total number of items that it plans to produce and sell. The big advantage of cost-based pricing for TESCO is that the company is guaranteed to make a profit on its sales since it has covered its costs. However, in operating cost-based pricing it is very important to be aware of competitors price. However, this poses a threat when businesses are unable to sell the expected quantity of the product, perhaps because competitors are offering the same goods at a lower price. 23. Price wars In a competitive market such as grocery market, businesses sometimes engage in price wars in which prices of some goods are slashed to a very low price in order to secure sales. Price wars swamped grocery retailers, as the switch to private labels from branded packaged food continued to gather pace. For instance, Tesco and ASDA propose freezing of tax on some products at 15% despite an increase in rates to 17.5%(MMR 2010) This is risky because advantages gained are short-lived and rival, businesses tend to respond by slashing prices even further. If pursued long enough, price wars would cut profits seriously and in the end, only customers benefits by the low prices. 24. PENETRATION PRICING 25. ECONOMY PRICING: Stores such as TESCO, which allegedly charge the lowest prices, attract many consumers based on this conception alone (Peter Donnely, 2007). Among retail stores, the pricing strategy has become the fundamental point, as they need to compete in terms of pricing to lure more customers. Berman (1996) added that among the pricing policies which are of major concern to retail store outlets are the High-Low Pricing and Every Day Low Pricing (EDLP) strategies. This is sighted in operators who have significant economies of scale and buying power (Gilbert 1999). 26. VALUE PRICING This ensues where external factors such as the recession or increased competition forces companies to provide VALUE product and services to retain sales, they are especially important to families on a budget and have made a significant contribution to making healthy food accessible to all. Tesco now has in store 95 fresh fruit and vegetable value lines, and are working with the Pre-School Learning Alliance to help parents and children in some of the UKs most deprived areas make healthier choices. Value pricing may have a negative impact on the profit margin of the company (tesco.com N.D). 27. GEOGRAPHICAL PRICING This is evident where there are variations in price and demand in different parts of the world. TESCOs prices are a little higher in some town centre and neighbourhood stores because of higher overhead costs (mainly rents and rates). These costs are spread over a smaller volume of sales, and can only be recovered by charging prices that are, on average, higher. Example was when Tesco first moved into Ireland the products it sold was more expensive than they were in their UK stores (Irish Times 1998). This was because the UK suppliers were charging the Ireland stores more than they were charging the UK stores. This triggered some conspiracies and allegiances between key stakeholders in the industry resulting in a widespread anti-Tesco campaign (Poole and Clark 2002). In Conclusion Pricing a product too high or too low could mean a loss of sales for the organization. Therefore, appropriate pricing strategies and policies should be put in place for the various market segments, to ensure 28. PROMOTION Significant P in Marketing Mix 4P (Product, Price, Promotion and Place). Although the 4P characterization has led to widespread use of the term promotion for describing communications with prospects and customers, the term marketing communications is preferred by most marketing practitioners as well as by many educators. Consider that we may want to use marketing communications to refer to the collection of advertising, sales promotions, public relations, event marketing, and other communication devices. Promotion is considered as Sales Promotion (Shimp 2007). Marketing Communication is used by organisations to communicate with customers with respect to their product offerings. In this sense, Marketing Communication is one side of the communication process with customers. Market research, in which suppliers seek to elicit information on consumer requirements from consumers, is the complementary component of the communication process. The following summarises this very simply: (Rowley 1998). According to Rowley (1998) producer should communicate to reach the customers and in turn should listen to the customers needs and requirements to enhance the product and service. Tesco proudly announced that one of the reasons to its Success is listening to their Customers and its suppliers. Tesco has adopted multiple qualitative research techniques to reach their customers such as focus groups, accompanied shops, home visits to collect the feedback and respond quickly with corrective measures. Modestly they say, Its simple we listen and respond, providing customers with Marketing Analysis of Tesco Marketing Analysis of Tesco 1.ORGANIZATIONS ORIENTATION An organization orientation depends upon the marketing concept and the market orientations, which are the foundations of strategic marketing. Marketing concept exists on the fusion of all marketing activities. When they are combined, the company can achieve higher profitability (Hooley 2008: 6, 7). Tesco has developed a strategic customer relationship management which builds and keeps a valued customer awareness and powerful brand engagement. Its position in UK is strengthened by overtaking Sainsbury in 1995 and by its online home grocery service (Jobber 2010:583). 2. MARKET SEGMENTATION, POSITIONING, TARGET MARKETING Market segmentation is the process of understanding the characteristics and demand of different individuals. Tesco gather customer information from the loyalty card scheme and identifies their purchasing habits and behaviour patterns, which are used for segmenting customers based on their needs. Customers are grouped based on their similarities. With this information, Tesco introduced different clubs like the kids club, the food club, the baby and toddler club, Healthy living Club. Market segments are chosen for targeting and a marketing mix strategy is selected for that target market (Jobber 2010:262,584).To develop an effective strategic marketing there should be an upstanding positioning of product and services in the market. Positioning is an iterative and vital process in retail marketing. The main goal of positioning is to develop and maintain a remarkable place in the market for the company and its product. Positioning starts with the product (Kalafatis 2000).Nevertheless, Tes co has a brand image and they are proud of its brand value ( Martenson 2007).Keys to successful positioning is clarity, consistency, competitiveness and credibility. Repositioning is carried out when customer needs or target market changes. Repositioning strategies include image repositioning, product repositioning, intangible repositioning, tangible repositioning (Jobber 2010:285,288). 3. MARKET ORIENTATION Marketing orientation is achieved by marketing concept (Blois 2000: 21). It is defined as all the departments working together to develop and understand customers current and future needs and to meet them to keep the customers satisfied (Hooley 2008: 8). The elements of market orientation include Customer orientation, Competitor orientation, and inter functional orientation. 4. CUSTOMER ORIENTATION Marketing oriented companies are primarily focused on customers. They get the needs and problems of their customers and find a better solution for them (Blois 2000: 22). Tesco strategy is based on loyalty card scheme and gets information about individual customers and their different needs. The club card helps the customers to save their money when they accumulate points in the card. Club card can be used at any Tescos partners (Jobber 2010:583). Tescos objectives and guidelines are aimed directly at customer satisfaction and it is assessed regularly (Hooley 2008: 11). Customer orientation depends on the employee performance. It results in positive outcomes of the company. It determines the relationship quality of the organization and relationship quality highly depends upon the company loyalty (Macintosh 2007). 5. COMPETITOR ORIENTATION The organization should identify the short-term and a long-term capability of the competitors. A deep understanding of the competition is needed. For Tesco the competitive positioning applies at the level of the companies. In UK the leading grocery retailing competitors include Tesco, Sainsburys and Asda (Hooley 2008: 208).We need to understand the competitors profit sources, position in the market, marketing strategies (Best 2004: 7).Tesco collects information about the activities and conduct regular benchmarking against the competitor offerings (Hooley 2008: 12). 6. LONG-TERM PROFIT FOCUS This is the ultimate objective of all the business. The main objectives of Tesco are to be a successful international retailer, to be strong in non-food as in the food business, to open more stores across the world. The International strategy of Tesco requires a long-term approach (Tesco PLC 2009).The decisions of Tesco are guided by long- term plans rather than short -term benefits (Hooley 2008: 12). 7. INTERFUNCTIONAL COORDINATION Interfunctional coordination concerns with the coordination of all company resources to create a value for target customers. To create an impenetrable competitive position, we have to rely on the coordinated efforts of various functions and people within the organizations. Cross-functional relationship plays a decisive role (Hooley 2008: 12). Tesco has a dedicated team approach to develop and deliver market-based customer solutions (Best 2004: 48).They work together and support each other to serve customer .The financial and management department work closely with the operators of the retailer world. Commercial departments make decisions to deliver best products at best possible prices. Corporate purchasing departments work with suppliers. The graduates in Tesco strive to generate revenue. Distribution team works to deliver products in the right time to different stores. The effective systems IT department improve online shopping for customers and they raise the contacts between vari ous business areas to streamline the entire processes. The marketing team of Tesco works with customers to understand their needs and current trends. The property and engineering department do all the support works of the stores (Hooley 2008: 12). 8. ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE Marketing orientation can be described as a variety of organizational culture that places the highest priority to establish and maintain the best customer value while considering the interests of stakeholders like investors, employees, suppliers (Blois 2000: 21). The core purpose of Tesco is to create value for customers to earn their lifetime loyalty (Tesco PLC 2009). All the staffs work like a team .They gives respect each other and treat customers in a way they feel satisfied. Face to face meetings, trips are conducted and Staffs are rewarded for their work they do. They offer discounts and benefits for the staffs also provide more salaries, training, flexible working hours and health and safety measures are observed as compared to other retailers. Tesco welcomes all people regardless of age, sex, ethnicity etc. Human rights policies are applied to all members (Tesco PLC 2009). Store Loyalty is the output of customer satisfaction and customers will visit the store regularly. All e mployees understand their responsibilities to create satisfied customers (Martenson 2007). 9. TESCO STRATEGIES Tesco has a well-established strategy for their business success. About 70% of the trading and profit is from UK. They are the market leaders in markets outside UK. They have four different store formats like Express, Metro, Superstore, Extra and one trial format Home plus, for non-food and clothing. As an international retailer, they mainly focus on the local customer needs and understand them. They make sure the board appeal. They have various own brands of superior quality to customers to compliment their style of living. Tesco looks after the people working with them (Tesco PLC 2009). Market Corporate responsibility is an opening for growth. The values are the no one tries harder for customers and treat people how they want to be treated (Tesco PLC 2009). The Tesco steering wheel represents performance and is a strategy-driving tool. (Tesco PLC 2009). A sale in non-food is a key part of the strategy. They provide with the best quality and price. Tescos non-food includes electrical, home entertainment, clothing, health and beauty, stationery, bookshop and soft furnishings, seasonal goods, opticians and pharmacies (Tesco PLC 2009). In retailing services, Tesco offers more to the customers. Tesco personal finance has products from credit cards to insurance. Online grocery shopping is made effortless with Tesco.com. Tesco Telecoms offers a wide range of services from mobile network, home phone service, internet access and an internet phone service (Tesco PLC 2009). The Success of Tesco depends on trust and satisfaction of the customers. Overall, Tesco has a strong marketing orientation and compelling marketing strategies which results in the customer satisfaction and the higher levels of profitability. Every Little Helps Tesco to be a market leader (Tesco PLC 2009). 10. COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE As Armstrong (2005) defined, competitive advantage is the advantage over competitors obtained by providing better value to customer. It is important to company who wants to win the customers and establish a profitable relationship with them (Armstrong Kotler, 2005). Before the organisation is choosing the right competitive advantage on which to build up its competitive strategies it must analyze the industry environment normally by using the porters 5 forces analysis. 11. Porters Five Forces Analysis Introduced by Michael Porter in 1979, Porters 5 Forces is a powerful tool to analyse the attractiveness of an industry. This framework involves a relationship between competitors within an industry, potential competitors, suppliers, buyers. It helps management to understand both the strength of the current competitive position, and the strength of a position organization want to be. (Michael Porter, 2008) A diagram below shows the Porters 5 forces clearly. 12. Threat of New Entry: As porter said the ability of people who newly enter your market might affect your power. If the barrier to entry the market is low and your have little protection for current position, then the new competitors can easily enter the market and weaken your position. (Michael Porter, 2008). In terms of new entrants Tesco does not have much threat because of the high barriers for new comer to entry into the supermarket industry. According to the TNS (Taylor Nelson Sofres, the leading market research group) data Tesco occupies over one third of grocery market share in UK, and is along with Asda, Saintsburys, Morrisons become the big four which has hold over 68% of UK overall grocery market. This strong solid position makes Tesco the market leader and giant in UK supermarket industry. Due to the massive market share has been hold by the big four, the barriers for new entrants are obviously quite high. It is hard for new retailer to obtain the market share and challenge the existing powerfu l player such as Tesco. In addition, another high barrier for new entrants is the supermarket industry needs huge capital and personnel involved but needs long time to get the return. Therefore, there are high barrier for new retailers entry into the existing supermarket industry dominated by big four. Thus, if Tesco sustains its strong position in the market it will have less threat from new entrants. 13. The power of buyer: According to Porter the buyers have the power to drive price down. Small number of buyers and powerful buyers for a company can likely having greater power on driving the price (Michael Porter, 2008). Generally say, in supermarket industry there is little bargain power for buyers with supermarket because all the prices are fixed price. Moreover, the bigger number of consumers will reduce the power of buyers. Therefore, it is little power of buyers to Tesco due to huge number of customers and little bargain power of buyers in this industry. However, customers can still switch buying from one supermarket to another by many factors. First, the price is the primary factor determinates customers buying activities. In this respect, Tescos strategy is based on its cost advantages. The organization aims to be the best value retailer. Tesco stated its price has been cut by 17% between 2000 and 2006; even facing the higher energy price challenge during the recent recession Tescos price has bee n dropped down by 1.8% last year. Second, due to the differentiation of product is little in the supermarket industry; customers can switch buying easily, thus, to attract and keep customers is relying on their loyalty to the store. Tescos report claims it has the UK number one loyalty card scheme and it has over 13 millions active Clubcard holders. Overall, the power of buyer is little to Tesco and Tesco has big advantages on low price and customer loyalty. 14. Power of suppliers Porter said the suppliers also have power to drive up the price. The power of driven is determined by the number and the strength of suppliers. To the Britain biggest grocery supermarket Tesco, the power of supplier is very little because Tesco has vast numbers of supplier across overall markets. The overwhelming market power of Tesco makes suppliers have no bargain power to it; instead, some of suppliers rely on Tesco. As a buyer Tesco has huge demand and great power to the supplier. However, Tesco also relys on their suppliers to achieve its objectives, without those suppliers Tesco could not deliver best value goods to the customers. Therefore, Tesco has established the long term constructive partnership with suppliers. According to Tescos report, it has over 1,500 suppliers who have been working with Tesco for five years or more. Based on a survey taken in 2008 by Tesco, there were over 90% of UK suppliers thought Tesco was trustworthy. Moreover, Tesco also provide the opportunit ies to small producers and local suppliers. For example, Tesco has opened five new regional buying offices around Britain and hosted regional road shows to attract and increase the number of local suppliers for selling their goods through Tesco. As the result, the small suppliers get more business opportunities meanwhile they help Tesco getting hundreds of new lines into stores. In sum, Tesco has little threat from power of supplier and company achieved its objectives by establishing the trustable partnership with suppliers. 15. The Threat of substitutes Porter introduced this threat as the other industry or business has the ability to substitute you and attract your customers. Although Tesco has head position in the supermarket industry, somehow, the substitutes still exist. For example, eating-out is a substitute to buying food from supermarket. However, a recent survey by analyst Buckingham Research has found that 75% of British families will stay at home during the recession rather than eating out. Under recession, the threat of eating-out to supermarket is less than ever. Another substitute worth to be considered is the online shopping. Nowadays, as the technology growing fast the online shopping becomes easy and trendy. However, it can not completely substitute the real life shopping especially for the food purchase. The technical problem, delivery problem and communication problem may bother people to buy online. Moreover, the real life shopping is also a part of social life to most of people, which would be simply substitute by clicking screen. In sum, the threat of substitute to Tesco is higher than buyer, supplier and new entrant. 16. The Threat of Competitive Rivalry: This threat comes from the competitors and also is affected by the new entry, substitute, power of buyer and supplier. The threat of competitive rivalry to Tesco is high although it is the largest grocery supermarket in UK. Asda, Sainsburys and Morrison are the three main competitors of Tesco. These three companies also have big portion of market share and compete with Tesco through price, product and promotions. The competition between the main grocery supermarkets remains fierce. Tesco has been reported that the market share has been losing and dipping in UK market since 2009 by many main Medias such as Times, BBC news and Guardian. Reports said according to the last figures of 2009 Tescos market share dropped from 31.3% to 30.7% of UK grocery sales. Meanwhile, Asdas market share rose to 17 % from 16.7 % and Morrisons went up to 12.1% from 11.7 %. TNS reported against the UK grocery sales rise 6%, Tescos sales rose 4% which below the market growth. However, Morrisons and Asda were all found beyond the growth of the market, seeing sales rise 9.7% and 7.2%. Moreover, the discounter supermarkets Aldi and Lidl also compete with Tesco as consumer cut back on spending during the recession. In addition, TNS also claimed that Waitrose, the John Lewis-own supermarket as the up-market grocer is fast growing in grocery market. On the other hand, because Tesco also set foot in non-food industry there are so many competitors such as Shell, BP, Amazon, O2, etc. To sum up, Tesco has highly threat from many competitors in both food and non-food industry. Therefore, Tesco must take its competitive advantages to prevent from threats of competitors. 17. Competitive Advantage of Tesco Through the porters 5 forces analysis the competitive advantages of Tesco can be outlined. First, the significant market power is the big advantage of Tesco. The great market power makes Tesco is able to put up barrier to new entrants and weaken the power of buyer and supplier; it also gives Tesco ability to beat the competitors. Second, namely cost advantage, the big economic scale enables Tesco to reduce the cost at extremely low level and thereby providing the low price to customers. Third, diversification makes Tesco has a further advantage to win the market because Tesco expands the broad markets such as financing, telecom and retail service rather than just food market and spread its business worldwide. To sum up, if Tesco follows its competitive strategy by aware of the threats and competitive advantages, it will keep the strong position in the industry and beat its competitors. 18. MARKETING MIX Firstly, the term Marketing Mix was widely adopted after Neil H. Boren published his article The Concept of the Marketing Mix in 1964, where he described marketing managers as a mixer of ingredients. The ingredients in Borens marketing mix included product, planning, pricing, packaging, branding, distribution channels, personal selling, advertising, promotions, display, servicing, physical handling, fact finding and analysis. Which was later grouped into four categories by E. Jerome McCarthy, today know as the 4Ps of marketing, shown below However, some people argue that along with the Marketing Mix 4 Ps concept, we should add another 2 Ps, which are people and packaging. 19. PRODUCT It is rare to discuss price without the presence of a product and to enable us understand the link between Price and Product. Kotler Armstrong (2006) define a product as anything that can be presented to a consumer for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a want or need. They further define a consumer product as the product bought by the final consumer for personal consumption. According to Ferrell (2005), the product is the core of the marketing mix strategy in which retailers can offer consumers symbolic and experiential attributes to differentiate products from competitors. However, it is also concerned with what the product means to the consumer. Product is about quality, design, features, brand name and sizes (Borden, 1984). Wulf et.al. (2005) found that private label products could offer even better quality than national brands but at a lower price. The domestic competitor reacts to the intensifying price competition by engaging in selective price cha nges. A product is a physical good, service, idea, person, or place that is capable of offering tangible and intangible attributes that individuals or organizations regard as so necessary, worthwhile or satisfying that they are prepared to exchange money, patronage or some other unit of value to acquire it. (Blythe 2007) Core products: Core Products are the core benefit that is being sought by the consumer by buying the product, like the cheaper call rates and ease of recharge top up available to Tesco Mobile customers. Actual /Tangible products: Actual Products are all the tangible features/benefits that are associated with the core product such as its features or design, level of quality, packaging, size. There is no clear distinction between a pure tangible product and a service. The Tescos give away deals for the new 3G i-phone deal Augmented products: are the intangible features/benefits associated with the core actual product such as the branding, warrantees, delivery, guarantee, and after sales service. Tesco mobile, for example, is a tangible product, but it often comes with a warranty and software updates. A firmsproduct line refers to the variety of similar commodities that the firm holds, Tesco for example, makes a large range of inter-related goods, Many of Tesco stores stock over 40,000 product lines. Even a Tesco Express stores stock a choice of well over 2,000 lines. ProductDepthrefers to the variety of commodities offered within each product line. Tesco stores stock : Healthy Living products, Free From products for people with food allergies and intolerances, Special healthy Kids snacks and Organic product lines and the recent announcement by the Tescobank CEO Benny Higgins of plans to launch an assault on the mortgage market by the end of 2010, hoping to take advantage of the current problems in the sector. Targeted at providingTescocustomers with financial advice, car and home insurance credit cards, mortgages and current accounts.(MINTEL 2009). Products often go through alife cycle.Initially, at the introduction stage a product is launched. Since the product is not well known and is usually expensive (e.g. the , as). Eventually, many products reach agrowthphase where sales increases dramatically. More firms enter with their models of the product, sometimes with added innovations. Unfortunately, the product reaches amaturitystage where little growth is sighted. For example, in the UK, almost every household has at least one stereo sound system. Some products may also reach adeclinestage, usually because the product is swapped for something better. For example, CDplayers experienced declining sales as more consumers switched to MP3 players and i-pods. Ansoff Theory is a series of suggested growth strategies that set the direction for the business plan. illustrated below Market Penetration: here the business strategy focuses on selling existing products in existing markets.This strategy aims at four major objectives: Maintaining the market share of current products Securing growth market Dominance Drive out competitors with support of an aggressive promotional campaign and favorable price strategy Increase product usage by existing customers e.g. With the Tesco Loyalty Club card scheme. Market Development: here the business strategy seeks to sell its existing product into a new market. The various approaches to this include: New geographical markets e.g.- exporting Tesco UK products to the Express shops in Ireland and Malaysia New Product Dimension or Packaging New Distributional channel Implementing different pricing policies for different markets segments Product Development: refers to a growth strategy where new products are initiated in existing markets. This often requires development of new competencies in the case of Tesco Bank and its new job vacancies for competencies in the financial sector. Diversification points to the growth strategy where a business markets a new commodity in a new market. Unfortunately, for this strategy to be adopted a clear objective of its advantages should be explored and risk assessments carried out seeing as the business may have little or no experience in the new area. Roughly one quarter of Tescos sales, was own label. Many leading retailing companies have substantial grocery interests. Of the top 25 companies in 1978, 22 were involved in groceries retailing, of which 10 can be considered leading firms in the groceries sector [Akehurst, 1983: 169, Table 5] 20. Price : Price refers to the value assigned to something by the seller to something purchased, offered for sale, to a buyer as their willingness to pay for the product and services delivered (Gilbert 1999). Price is the only element in the marketing mix that is revenue generating- all of the others are costs. It should therefore, be used as an active instrument of strategy in the major areas of marketing decision making. Pricing in the international setting is more complicated than in the domestic market, because of factors such as government influence and additional costs (Becker and Thorelli 1980). The price of an item is an important influence on the value of sales made. In theory, price is really determined by the discovery of what customers perceive is the value of the item on sale. Recent research has shown that demand-based pricing is associated with higher retailer gross margins; whereas past price dependence is associated with, lower retailer gross margins (Nijs, Srinivasan, and Pau wels 2007). There are a number of pricing policies used by Tesco today, which include: 21. Market-led Pricing: also known as competitive pricing, this simply accepts the price which competitors are charging for a product and then price its product at the same level or slightly lower in order to gain some advantage over competitors. Significantly found in markets where there is close competitors. For a company like TESCO it is important to monitor other competitors and in order to maintain customer loyalty against discounters, the adoption of a more aggressive pricing strategy was launch by the advent of budget private label ranges and backed up by advertising focusing on price comparisons. Despite challenges due to rising energy prices, but with innovations such as the reusable plastic trays, which was introduced in the fresh food areas have helped make savings these savings are pass on to customers. According to the OFT this led to a fall in real food price between 2000-2005.as shown below 22. Cost-Based Pricing: also known as cost plus Pricing, involves working out the businesss total fixed and variable costs and then adding a percentage of profit. Here the business has to consider the total number of items that it plans to produce and sell. The big advantage of cost-based pricing for TESCO is that the company is guaranteed to make a profit on its sales since it has covered its costs. However, in operating cost-based pricing it is very important to be aware of competitors price. However, this poses a threat when businesses are unable to sell the expected quantity of the product, perhaps because competitors are offering the same goods at a lower price. 23. Price wars In a competitive market such as grocery market, businesses sometimes engage in price wars in which prices of some goods are slashed to a very low price in order to secure sales. Price wars swamped grocery retailers, as the switch to private labels from branded packaged food continued to gather pace. For instance, Tesco and ASDA propose freezing of tax on some products at 15% despite an increase in rates to 17.5%(MMR 2010) This is risky because advantages gained are short-lived and rival, businesses tend to respond by slashing prices even further. If pursued long enough, price wars would cut profits seriously and in the end, only customers benefits by the low prices. 24. PENETRATION PRICING 25. ECONOMY PRICING: Stores such as TESCO, which allegedly charge the lowest prices, attract many consumers based on this conception alone (Peter Donnely, 2007). Among retail stores, the pricing strategy has become the fundamental point, as they need to compete in terms of pricing to lure more customers. Berman (1996) added that among the pricing policies which are of major concern to retail store outlets are the High-Low Pricing and Every Day Low Pricing (EDLP) strategies. This is sighted in operators who have significant economies of scale and buying power (Gilbert 1999). 26. VALUE PRICING This ensues where external factors such as the recession or increased competition forces companies to provide VALUE product and services to retain sales, they are especially important to families on a budget and have made a significant contribution to making healthy food accessible to all. Tesco now has in store 95 fresh fruit and vegetable value lines, and are working with the Pre-School Learning Alliance to help parents and children in some of the UKs most deprived areas make healthier choices. Value pricing may have a negative impact on the profit margin of the company (tesco.com N.D). 27. GEOGRAPHICAL PRICING This is evident where there are variations in price and demand in different parts of the world. TESCOs prices are a little higher in some town centre and neighbourhood stores because of higher overhead costs (mainly rents and rates). These costs are spread over a smaller volume of sales, and can only be recovered by charging prices that are, on average, higher. Example was when Tesco first moved into Ireland the products it sold was more expensive than they were in their UK stores (Irish Times 1998). This was because the UK suppliers were charging the Ireland stores more than they were charging the UK stores. This triggered some conspiracies and allegiances between key stakeholders in the industry resulting in a widespread anti-Tesco campaign (Poole and Clark 2002). In Conclusion Pricing a product too high or too low could mean a loss of sales for the organization. Therefore, appropriate pricing strategies and policies should be put in place for the various market segments, to ensure 28. PROMOTION Significant P in Marketing Mix 4P (Product, Price, Promotion and Place). Although the 4P characterization has led to widespread use of the term promotion for describing communications with prospects and customers, the term marketing communications is preferred by most marketing practitioners as well as by many educators. Consider that we may want to use marketing communications to refer to the collection of advertising, sales promotions, public relations, event marketing, and other communication devices. Promotion is considered as Sales Promotion (Shimp 2007). Marketing Communication is used by organisations to communicate with customers with respect to their product offerings. In this sense, Marketing Communication is one side of the communication process with customers. Market research, in which suppliers seek to elicit information on consumer requirements from consumers, is the complementary component of the communication process. The following summarises this very simply: (Rowley 1998). According to Rowley (1998) producer should communicate to reach the customers and in turn should listen to the customers needs and requirements to enhance the product and service. Tesco proudly announced that one of the reasons to its Success is listening to their Customers and its suppliers. Tesco has adopted multiple qualitative research techniques to reach their customers such as focus groups, accompanied shops, home visits to collect the feedback and respond quickly with corrective measures. Modestly they say, Its simple we listen and respond, providing customers with