Strategic Public Relations Plan for Tesco Assignment

Strategic Public Relations Plan for Tesco - Assignment Example An application of SOSTAC is applied here to Tesco. SOSTAC is a strategic marketing process introduced by Paul R. Smith (1990). This is being made a model in marketing throughout the business world. It has many features that involve SWOT, 5Ps, Marketing Mix, and other marketing tools. TESCO sees to it that it helps British shopping public. Tesco aims to make shopping simpler, more convenient and affordable for the customers. If these issues are directly addressed, customers reward the company with their loyalty. The company aims to communicate to the customers through its many subsidiaries, benefiting customers wherever they shop. Consumers have an easy way of switching between stores, that is, they choose to shop in a different store from one month to the next. They have a wide range of retailers to choose from including Wall Mart/Asda, Saisbury, Morrison, Waitrose, M&S, Somerfield, Aldi, Lidl and Netto, other smaller supermarkets, Costco and Makro, the Co-Ops, Symbol groups, and thousands of independent retailers. (Talking Tesco) TESCO then is in a very stiff competition. The management has to apply an effective PR strategy to cope with the challenges. Everyday too, the organization has to apply innovations to its various marketing infrastructures to be able to satisfy customers. Application of SOSTAC starts w... situation, the question that needs to be asked is "Where are we now" This means analyzing the entire organization, on how it has gone through after years of operation. Situation After its founding in 1919 by Jack Cohen, then the first Tesco store opened in 1929 in Burnt Oak, Edgware, North London, the organisation has grown into a large business venturing not only on food but also on electrical goods, clothes and other services such as insurance, banking, etc. It has 30 distribution centres, of which six are dedicated to non-food and clothing. It is now the largest online grocery shopping service in the world. Fourth biggest online retailer in the UK, behind Amazon, Dell and Argos. Its revenues grew by 29.2% in 2007. Tesco.com, the online shopping alternative accounts for 66.2% of all UK online food and grocery shoppers. (Datamonitor.com) The 3,262 stores wordwide go through multiple formats including: Extra, Superstore, Metro, Express, and Fresh and Easy. Tesco is now the leading retailer in the UK with about 30% of the total UK grocery market, and the largest food retailers in the world employing about 318,300 people. Tesco 2007 profits exceeded 2.55 billion. (Datamonitor.com) Marketing Mix applied on Tesco The Marketing Mix model (also known as the 4 P's) is used by marketers as a tool to assist in defining the marketing strategy. Marketing managers use this method to attempt to generate the optimal response in the target market by blending 4 (or 5, or 7) variables in an optimal way. It is important to understand that the Marketing Mix principles are controllable variables. The Marketing Mix can be adjusted on a frequent basis to meet the changing needs of the target group and the other dynamics of the marketing environment. (12 Manage website) PRODUCT The