BTEC Level 7 Advanced Professional Diploma In Management Studies

Unit 17: Strategic Marketing Management

An organisation of your choice wishes to introduce a comprehensive marketing information system with the following objective, and requires you to write a report to the managing Director evaluating the advantages and problems. A) To improve customer service levels. B) To provide marketing and sales managers with more accurate information required. This report has been prepared for the Managing Director of ASDA Stores Limited to help design and implement a new Marketing Information System (MIS) that can deliver on improving customer service levels and provide marketing and Sales Managers within the organisation with more information. Asda is one of the largest retailers in the UK, specialising in the supermarket sector employing over 170,000 colleagues across our business throughout the UK, including Northern Ireland. The company is part of the WalMart group which is one of the worlds largest retaillers with over 7,000 stores and two million employees worldwide1. The Walmart Group purchased ownership of Asda in 1999 and implement much of the same strategies and technoligies utilised by their successful WalMart stores in USA. Asdas head office is based in Leeds, in the UK with 25 supply depots across the country serving all their 400 stores around the UK. The depots operate 24 hours a day and now so do many of the large supermarket branches. The need for a new improved MIS has arisen from the increasing competitive nature of the UK retail industry. A report in the Guardian2 from the 1st February 2011 higlights the trend of some customers moving away from traditional retaillers such as ASDA and Tesco to more cheaper rivals such as Aldi and Lidl in an attempt to save money. However in the same article Kantar Worldpanel analyst Edward Garner suggested the food market was polarising with some customers feeling better off from their lowered monthly mortgages and trading up to retaillers such as Waitrose and Sainsburys who enjoyed a sucessful christmas retailling period. The objectyive of the new MIS will therefore be to improve customer service levels and retain existing customers and to improve their experience to improve customer loyalty. The MIS will also be a living mechanism that is regulary maintained and utilised so marketing staff are able to know what customers want and work with all stakeholders to deliver those goods and services.
A) The key elements of such a marketing information system (MIS)

A MIS is used to collect data, analyse information and distribute this information amongst the organisation. The data needs to be efficiently organised so it is relevant to the user and the needs of the user. A MIS is the operational management of data and will be maintained
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http://www.asda.jobs/all-about/who-we-are/index.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/feb/01/retail-industry-discount-stores

constantly and updated with regular intervals (in this case, across the 24 hours of Asdas working business).

Organisational Levels in Asda

There are various levels of management in Asda, starting from the Executive Board who meet and set the Corporate Strategy and mission statement for the organisation, which is then set into plan by Management and Marketing Staff who will arrange the sale and purchasing of products and services for customers to buy. At all these levels of the organization, decisions are made. But also at all these decisions data is collected and contact is made with other stakeholders internally and externally in the organisation. Primary and secondary information will be collected to help make decisions effectively. The intended MIS will contain the following: Internal Reports Asda has a Finance Department which comprises of Management Accountants, Financial Accountants for external accounting, and an Accountants Payable Department3. They collect financial figures from the stores, from internal staff at other departments in Asda and from external sources such as suppliers. Figures such as sales, stock levels, budget and forecast data can be included as part of the Internal Reports. This can be accessed by a wide number of departments such as Store Managers updating their sales data whilst checking their sales targets. The Finance Department will be part of the Management Planning and Control activities that are responsible for setting and arranging this part of the MIS, that are vital for the Operational Areas of the organisation to access and utilise.

http://www.asda.jobs/what-can-i-do/house/non-trading.html#Finance

Marketing Intelligence The Marketing Department at ASda House will collect data internally and externally and upload onto the MIS. For example Customer Research and surveys can be uploaded here which can be obtained either from ASda staff conducting surveys or employing external marketing consultancies. Industry trends and press coverage of ASDA and their rivals can also be included. Most of the data here will be qualitative data, with a mixture of primary and secondary information. Marketing Research General Industry trends, combined with macroeconomic data form this element of the MIS. Consumer behaviour, their financial habits and other socio-economic data will be included as a general overview. Such a system can be used to assess marketing strategies, their opportunities and their effectiveness. Marketing managers can assess whether their tactics are relevant in the socio economic context. Analytical Marketing Systems This element is usually computerised and calculates the effectiveness of marketing models to give direction to decisions. For example Time-series data can be used here to assess sales, discounted cash flow models , scenario models for whether or not to change tactics. Data is used and statistically analysed to determine various marketing and management decisions. Management Information System (Kotler) - MkIS

Internal Reports System

Marketing Intelligence System

Marketing Information System (MIS)

Marketing Research System

Analytical Marketing System

B) What technology can support the system The proposed MIS involves qualitative and quantitative data. It also contains primary and secondary sources of data. It will require some staff to be employed to help maintain and upload information onto the MIS. The best way to collate and distribute the data will be through a electronically maintained database, accessible to staff online through communication networks (eg. Internet, intranet, Virtual Private Network). The MIS will be hosted on internal servers maintained by the IT department at Asdas Headquarters. Various levels of data will be accessible and available to amend depending on the users positions in the organisation. Private data that is not for public knowledge will be securely maintained and control orders will be issued on who can access the data and what data is allowed to be downloaded offsite. A budget as well as staff will neeed to be allocated for this project. The IT department has experience maintaining and developing sales IT systems, stock control and despatch systems which will be included in the MIS. A variety of software can be used to upload information onto the MIS including software such as Microsoft Excel, or other software such as SAP Enterprise Software. Alternatively external consultancy firms can be employed to help design and maintain the technological software solutions for the MIS. Firms such as Accenture, Fujitsu, Siebel, Oracle, IBM, Peoplesoft and many other smaller technological consultancies perform such functions for other supermarkets, banks and industries. This is an example of outsourced technology. Inside the software element of the MIS will be packages sucha as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. This is used to store data on customers, their purchases, the amount of their orders, delivery data etc. Supermarkets such as Tesco and Sainsbury have store cards (e.g. Clubcard and Nectar) which are used by shoppers. CRM software has all the customers details stored in the system ffor marketing and communications purposes. ASda does not have such a loyalty card but could develop systems for further details on customers should they wish to contact trhem with promotional and marketing material. Supply Chain Management (SCM) software is currently used at store (i.e. operational) and depot level (i.e. Management planning and control activites) to keep details on stock, their delivery dates and much other stock related issues, such as when supplies are running low and need to be reordered. This can be included in the MIS so that management are able to keep tabs on what products are selling fast and what stock is not selling at all. They can also plan stock and deliveries for promotional sales programmes. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software can also be used to automate the order processing function and other finance or accounting activities related to the back office function. Mobile technologies such as Smartphones, Blackberry, Apple Iphone and other PDA devices can be used by staff on the move between stores to update information or access statistics. Results and notices can be published through SMS or email messages to staff.
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Front office technological application can help the marketing automation with e-commerce playing a big role in the modern world. This can be via the internet sales site for Asda, or linking instore point of sales (POS) systems with the MIS. Telemarketing solutions are rarely used now modern e-commerce has firmly been established. Further instore data can be collected through traditional retail technologies such as door counters recording the number of customers coming in. Marketing agencies or instore marketing research can come into the store to conduct their surverys and observations. Access to the database for them to upload their results should be provided for and the results able to view by marketers and sales staff. Web search programs can also be set up to scan for press news or reports on Asda and their rivals to upload onto the marketing research element of the MIS. Google keyword seach or Google Alerts can be set up for such a feature. C) An outline plan of how you propose to investigate and design such a system

Preliminary Investigation

The problem has arisen from an awareness of increasing marketing competition for customers from rivals within the industry. The company mission to deliver quality food and other products to the customers at good value remains, however to attract and retain customers we need to improve our marketing and sales efforts. Effective use of our resources is vital to ensure we can do this on time and on budget so a new updated MIS has been suggested.

The magnitude and scope of the project has been determined that the MIS should match the 24 hours, 7 days a week operation of ASda. All levels of operations will be included and communication links will be established between strategic levels of management down to store and operational level of management. This is a wide and extensive programme but will reflect Asdas corporate values of a team atmosphere, and that all workers are just as important as eachother in achieving success. Store staff can feel satisfied that they know just as much as higher levels of management which cannot be said for all companies.

A quick analysis of alternatives to MIS can be carried out, via a SWOT analysis. Such examples include use of solely ERP software which has vastly improved over the last ten years. The cost effectiveness and viability of alternatives to MIS, such as off the shelf ERP software can assessed. This will be at the highest level of strategic management, such as the Managing Board who will decide whether to undertake this MIS programme. However it is recommended that a new MIS is implemented as it will be wide reaching and far more extensive than any current available ERP software. Also rivals such as Tesco and Sainsbury has invested heavily into their MIS and technology departments leaving Asda lagging behind.
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Requirments Analysis

The users of the programme will be identified, such as Marketing Managers and Sales staff who work at implementing strategy. Stores will defintitely be included as they are at the foreground of Asdas work and have most contact with the customers. The MIS will be used by all levels of Asda, from finance and procurement, to depots and the logistic staff to finally store staff.

User needs will be assigned, to keep the system streamlined. For example, store staff will not need to know all the data to help them with their work. An example of this is payroll data for the whole operation, whereas the Finance department will need to know such data. User rights and accessibility will be defined with provisions made for staff to know more information if they need by requesting access from higher levels of management.

Primary and secondary sources of data will be organised and provisions made for uploading secondary sources of data from external sources. This is a technological decision and will require assessment of the design and development needs of the project. External consultansies such as IBM and Oracle can be contacted to help devise the technology setup of the MIS.

Systems Design The four key elements of the MIS will follow Kotlers MIS model, so they include Internal Reports, Marketing information systmens, Marketing research systems and Analytical marketing systems. A database will be created and compartmentalized for these input areas. Data can then be processed either manually, requiring staff to upload and maintain data and data can be uploaded automatically by linking sales data with supply chain data for example.

Storage of the MIS will be electronically through hosted network servers. This can be in-house at Asdas IT department requiring financial and space resources or it can be hosted externally at another companys IT infrastructure (e.g. IBM and Oracle can make provisions). This will be at a cost so a budget needs to be allocated for this feature and a system of procedures established for who is responsible for maintain and protecting the MIS. Human Resources will also need to be included for updating job profiles relating to working alongside the MIS.

Procurement
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The accquistion of sotftware and technologies needs to be monitored and managed effectively. Organisations such as the NHS have suffered badly when trying to install complex MIS technologies and have suffered financially. The technologies acquired in this procurement need to be compatible with other technologies existing at ASDA such as POS sytems, logistics and supply chain systems at the depots. This will be measured by the cost effectiveness of the MIS proposal and performance standards will be established to measure the success of the procurement process. Plans for after-service care of the technology and provisions for technoligcal failure need to be made just in case there are problems. Back up processes need to be planned just in case of any issues with deployment.

Implementation/installation

Once the MIS application has been developed, it will be slowly trialled and tested. This will identify any teething problems or any bugs in the software. The deployment will be staggered to ease integration and procedures and training for staff will be undertaken. After the system is integrated, maintenance and upgrading programmes will be dated for the future and responsibilities of the MIS will be given to either the IT department or external consultancies who created the MIS.

D) A marketing plan linked to the corporate plan

Asdas corporate mission is to be Britains best value retailer exceeding customer needs.. everyday4. This is backed up by their purpose to save money everyday and they believe the best way to do this is by using a dedicated team of colleagues committed to ensuring the customer is first in everythuing they do. As discussed earlier in this report, an improved MIS with a new marketing plan can help achieve this corporate objectives. Every level of staff will be included in the proposed MIS and marketing can take place at all levels to help givthe customers the products they want, with the best service they want at the best prices.

http://www.asda.jobs/all-about/index.html

Corporate Objectives linked with Marketing Plan

Mission

Production

Finance

HRM

The Marketing Plan will be based around the 4Ps of Product, price, place and Promotion. This Marketing Mix will use information from the MIS and allow production and operations at Asda to be integrated and deliver excellent results. The Marketing Research element will require marketing managers to observe promotions undertaken by other rival retailers such as Tesco and Sainsbury. Keen pricing will match prices of products where possible and undercut when possible. Staff already go into rival stores to record prices, and this can be done online with automated online research such as the website mysupermarket.co.uk5.
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https://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/

It is the Sales and Marketing Management who will undertake such research as well as customer survey to find out what products and offering customers are looking for. This is what will bring the 4Ps plan into action. Account managers will be set up in every single product category such as Milk, Cheese, Tea etc. These account managers will talk directly to manufacturers and food producers and share MIS data on the customer research they have undertaken. The sharing of certain MIS with external partners will try to foster long term partnerships. The finance and purchasing control departments will arrange budgets and forecasts aimed at undercutting rivals sale prices. Success will come from the account management staff managing relationships with suppliers effectively so that they can meet their targets as well as ASDA. Account Management will also work with Category Planning staff in marketing to arrange Promotional plans for customers. For example, one week Asda will try to promote the cheapest bread in like for like against other rivals. The following week Asda will try to promote the cheapest like for like Tea. This will be part of an advertising and marketing strategy that reminds customers of Asdas low pricing strategy for the same quality products. Asda POS sales staff will work with manufacturers to create signage and promotional material at POS within stores. Sharing costs for such marketing merchandise can be a possibility. The promotion will need to be sufficiently timed and organised to prepare such a promotion. The sales staff will ensure high product distribution, effective space allocation for the promotion both within store and in depots, launch of any new products and good communication with the suppliers at all times. The MIS and improved ERP software will help allocate stock effectively between the different sized stores and work alongside the yearly sales forecast for the stores. This means the right amount of stock will be held at any one time avoided over stocking and using too much space. The supply chain and logistics staff will communicate with the marketing department to let the food manufacturers know when to produce and when to supply. All areas of Marketing, Sales, HRM, Finance and logistics will be needed to work together to achieve such a complex and fast moving promotion. However the integration of the MIS with notifications of plans, budgets and forecasts distributed to all increases the amount of communication between departments which wil help deploy such a marketing strategy and deliver the right products to customers at the lowest possible prices.

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Bibliography

Brassinton F and Pettit S Principles of Marketing, Third Edition (FT Prentice Hall, 2002) Chaffey D E-Business and E-commerce (FT Prentice Hall, 2003) Chaston I E-Marketing Strategy (McGraw-Hill 2000) Dibbs S et al Marketing: Concepts and Strategies, Fourth Edition (Houghton Mifflin, 2000) McDonald M Marketing Plans: How to prepare them, how to use them, Fifth Edition (Butterworth-Heinnemann 2002) Websites http://www.asda.jobs/all-about/who-we-are/index.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/feb/01/retail-industry-discount-stores http://www.asda.jobs/what-can-i-do/house/non-trading.html#Finance http://www.asda.jobs/all-about/index.html https://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/

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