Full case study in Jobber, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2012) Principles

Full in Jobber, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2012) Principles and Practice of Marketing (7th ed). London, McGraw-Hill H - Case Study Example This would reveal the extent to which the company followed the formal process of marketing planning. Dixons was a product oriented company when it stated its journey in electrical retail segment. Their followed the strategy â€Å"stack-em high – sell-em cheap in brightly coloured stores.† This strategy validated the fact that Dixons focused more towards selling good product in well-designed stores, but customer satisfaction was overlooked and it did not occupy centre position in the strategic approach of the company. A general formal marketing planning process is segregated into four parts that is goal setting, analysing present situations, create marketing strategies and allocate the marketing monitoring system and resources. In the goal, setting segment companies set their mission and objectives. Dixons also established its mission to stock products and sell them in brightly coloured stores. Their objective was to offer variety of products and generate lucrative retur ns. However, the company missed customer service, which its competitors took advantage of. So it can be said that Dixons followed the first step of marketing planning process. The second step is to analyse current situation. The company came to know about its drawbacks during the economic crisis in 2006. It identified that there were major threats of recession in the global market and its competitors Best Buy started grabbing market share by providing better services to customers. At this juncture, Dixons revolutionised its move towards customers. This proves that the company followed the second step of marketing planning process too. The third step is to create marketing strategies, which Dixons rolled out in order to face the intense competition. It can be also called a transformation strategy of the company because it changed the focus of the company from being product oriented to customer oriented. The new business model also re-defined five specific objectives for the company. The fourth and final stage was to allocate resources and monitor the plan. The major focus was now on after-sales and support and customer choice, value and service was the major function in the new business model. This discussion proves how Dixons followed and applied marketing planning process for devising the strategies (Jobber and Ellis-Chadwick, 2012). Another superior marketing strategy that the organization applied is the integration of technology in their marketing strategy. In the company’s service-led business model the internet was a core component of the customer insight. Gay, Worth and Esen (2007) point out that online marketing is a superior tool for marketing in a technology driven society. In online marketing, Dixon employed a multi-channel approach to allow customers to research about the organization order their desired good, reserve and even purchase goods. To reach to this approach, the organization noted that those people who purchased goods online prefer red to collect them by themselves at a later date. Consequently, applying a multichannel approach provided a customer value method by allowing them to have a flexible purchase plan in the company. The success of this strategy can be associated with the global trends of internet penetration that is growing each day. By developing an information rich website, it is possible for an organization to roll out their products to their target customers