Shaw’s Supermarket With Osco Pharmacy, Essay Example

Company Background

Star Market is an England’s chain of supermarket firm located in Greater Boston under the ownership of Mugar family (Paul, 2008). The company started in 1918 by Sarkis Mugar but was later bought by The Jewels Company in 1964. In the 1960s, the company acquired Brigham’s Ice Cream, a local company based in England. The company built a combination of drug and food stress that were later rebranded as Star-Osco. At the time, the company had separate management teams but common check stands. Later the company was bought by Investcorp, a company that later sold it to Shaw’s Supermarkets. The company boasts of international brands such as Osco Drug, Home Life, Culinary Circle, and Market Fresh. In 2011, the company, under the management of Shaw’s Supermarket, renamed all its brands to “Essentials Everyday.” The company was planning to phase out its domestic products to ensure that their new names have an international appeal (Sletten, 2008).

CRM – Customer Relationship Marketing Strategy

Star Market’s marketing campaign focuses on the entire population since its products sweeps across all age groups. The company features wild harvest departments that offer preservative-free and organic foods. As a new customer to the supermarket, I have enrolled to the company’s database for online requisition of products. I have receiving short message on new products in the market as well as those products with discount incentives (Paul, 2008). These services are open to any of the company’s ninety locations, both locally and internationally. Additionally, the company proposes its own brands such as Happy Tails, Esquiline, and Home Life to registered customers since they represent the company’s prestige (Roberts & Zahav, 2012). Star Market’s CRM has been designed with various characteristics. The system has a customer-oriented feature with a response platform based on customer input, customer service, and direct online communication. The importance of this system is to ease the process of communication among all stakeholders. For instance, direct online communication ensures that information can be conveyed to masses within a short period. Additionally, the system has adopted sales force automation to improve both the quality and quantity of sales. For instance, the direct online communication is automated to improve the process of communication.

Social Media

Under the new management of Shaw’s supermarket, Star Market has extended its marketing strategies in social sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. The social media has helped the company to be in touch with the rest of the world. For instance, the company has well over eighty thousand likes (Paul, 2008). The company provides real time updates on its products and responds to issues raised by its members. Positive feedbacks improve the company’s reputation, which in turn, increases both its competitive capacity as well as its marketability. Negative feedbacks are also important since they enlighten the company on its weak points. As a result, the company is compelled to improve on its service delivery in order to improve on its market scope. The company has open social site pages to ease access and membership. Each member is entitled to post updates as well as comment on other updates to improve on the process of information sharing. In addition, all valid comments are respondent to notwithstanding their nature.

Proposal (Mobile App)

The company should develop a QR, Quality Response, code that is based on cloud computing to improve on its service delivery (Roberts & Zahav, 2012). The beauty of cloud computing technology is that necessary data can be accessed any location irrespective of internet connectivity. A QR code can easily be scanned using mobile devices such as smartphones. A Quality Response code can be used to store large quantities of data that can be accessed through mobile devices. This application is easy to put into place since it requires the interested party to download a reader, which is later installed into a system. This technology is deemed to replace the idea of dropping business cards in fishbowls during events. This technology is a new way of adding “likers” in Facebook. The beauty of this system is that it reduces the time spent during real sales lead since the QR code is easily scanned through a computing device. The QR code will be essential for Star Market since it will increase the company’s competitive ability through social media (Littleton, 2010). Apart from linking the company with online customers, the code will also be essential in provide information about products. Consequently, it will act as a marketing strategy for the company. Reasonably, the company will have more “likers” than other similar companies, and consequently, it will stand out in the competition.

Conclusion

From the discussion above, it is necessary for the company to increase on its online customers. This is important in implementing the four strategies for CRM. Increasing online customers increases the international appeal for Star Market. Additionally, QR code will increase the quantity of “likers” in social media to increase the market scope of the company. As a result, the company will not only increase on its “likers,” but also on its cumulative quantity of sales.

References

Littleton. (2010). Shaw’s Supermarket with Osco Pharmacy. Accessed on July 2, 2014 from <http://www.munters.us/upload/External%20website/Commercial%20Products%20rev%2001/Shaws%20Case%20Study.pdf>

Paul, J. (2008). International Marketing: Text and Cases. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited.

Roberts, M.L., & Zahav, D. (2012). Internet Marketing: Integrating Online and Offline Strategies. Illinois: Northern Illinois University Press.

Sletten, T. (2008). The Impact of Price Advertising on Store Choice and Retail Competition. Miami: ProQuest LLC.