Target Market – describe their apparent target market
The domestic market of Woolworth’s is based on Australian regions. On average, the company serves around 2.1 million customers per week. The company has a reward member program which has around 10.9 million members. It has around 1008 food stores in Australia which is only one part of its 3240 total store networks. The company has 201,522 employees of which 54% are females, and 46% are males (Woolworths Limited, 2018).
The product positioning of the store provides a wide range of options in the grocery, fresh food, general merchandise, liquor, and many other alternatives. Liquor and fresh food is the largest driver of the business. Woolworth currently holds 36.8% of the market with West farmers’ limited holding 30% as product positioning is a significant part of marketing for the company (Akpoyomare et al., 2013).
The Australian supermarket shopper prefers to visit the stores on Thursday evenings, with the men and women equally frequenting in the supermarkets. Research conducted on around 300,000 users of mobile in the five main cities of Australia; Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, and Brisbane showed the shopping habits of the professionals, homemakers, students, and affluent. Melbourne had the most grocery shoppers with 43% and Sydney with 41% of its sampled population. All the other three cities made up less than 20% of the general and grocery retail shopping. Homemakers were found to be the prime grocery shoppers followed by the professionals. The above-mentioned facts show demographic segmentation of supermarket shoppers in the country (Barry & Weinstein, 2009).
It shows that the target market of Woolworths lies majorly in these five cities with Sydney and Melbourne having a fairly similar population size of 4.84 million and 4.44 million respectively. Sydney has a higher number of active mobile users than Melbourne. The Melbourne supermarket market is composed of individuals aged 16-24 years old and also those over 36 years. Sydney showed an age group of 25-35 years. Woolworths has been found to be more popular in Melbourne while its competitors IGA supermarkets in Melbourne and Sydney both, and Coles in Sydney. Both cities showed a majority of male shoppers. Therefore, it can be said that target marketing strategies of Woolworths will be based/adopted according to age of its customers (Aghdaie & Alimardani, 2015).
This information can yield information on the specific target market of each demographic. For example, male, female, aged 16 to 40 years homemakers, professionals, and students consider the main general target market for Woolworths. Other than this, Woolworth’s target market demographics show their preference for organic, healthy, and low-calorie foods. It is also one of the main trends of the market, which is focused on the company.
The supermarkets are designed and have products as per the need of these demographics of the market. The trend towards low calorie and high fiber products, fresh produce, organic material, and healthy choices are considered as well. The use of smart phones is also used by providing online groceries to the shoppers. Asian-Australian, European Australian and Australian borne are the main target of the grocery supermarkets. As the preference for iOS has been found by the grocery shoppers, Woolworths should consider it better utilizing the customer preferences in its shopping experience. The use of customer preference information would enhance the opportunity of attracting more shoppers to Woolworths.
References
Aghdaie, M.H. & Alimardani, M., 2015. Target market selection based on market segment evaluation: a multiple attribute decision making approach. International Journal of Operational Research, 24(3), pp.262-78.
Akpoyomare, O.B., Adeosun, L.P.K. & Ganiyu, R.A., 2013. Approaches for Generating and Evaluating Product Positioning Strategy. International Journal of Business Administration, 4(1), pp.46-52.
Barry, J. & Weinstein, A., 2009. Business psychographics revisited:from segmentation theory to successful marketing practice. Journal of Marketing Management, 25(3), pp.315-40.
Woolworths Limited, 2018. Woolworths Group 10K Report. [Online] Available at: https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/icms_docs/195396_annual-report-2018.pdf [Accessed 12 September 2018].
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