Grocery Store Marketing Plan

Whole Foods Market’s first retail location was in Austin, Texas. Today there are 342 stores in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The growth of this health conscious conglomerate happened over the years by strategic acquisitions of profitable independent stores throughout United States. Mackey’s idealism and respect is exhibited in his openness about the contributions of these retailers to the success of WFM, as the website provides an in depth summary of each acquisition and its contribution to promoting healthier food choices (Whole Foods Market History, 2014). After four years in Austin, Texas WFM branched out into the city of Houston when it purchased the Whole Foods Company, and shortly after, on the west coast, a new store was built in Palo Alto, California. Subsequently WFM began aggressive acquisitions over the next few years, which help to accelerate the growth rate of WFM in other geographical locations. In 2002 WFM opened in Canada and in 2004 through the acquisition of United Kingdom’s grocery chain Fresh & Wild, it opened seven stores. Holistic eating is a worldwide affair that WFM is taking advantage

PetSmart is one of the largest specialty pet retailers of service and solutions for the lifetime of pets. More than 1008 stores are open in the United States and Canada that provide pet foods and supplies that are priced reasonably. PetSmart provides all types of services for pets including pet training, pet grooming, pet boarding and adoption services. In addition to providing impressive value PetSmart has the broadest, deepest product range in the industry, including thousands of products exclusive only to PetSmart. Every year PetSmart takes care of the grooming for hundreds of thousands of pets in what PetSmart calls its PetSmart Salons. These animals are groomed and pampered by stylist who have

This marketing plan focuses on the repair of marketing strategies of SAM’S CLUB’s brand image. The main focus is implementing a dynamic data-driven retargeting marketing strategy through data-driving apps to consumers. The company’s message is for consumers to install the Sam’s Club app so that they can successively retarget users in their campaign who most likely to create an account for membership. Sam’s Club will collect data about its consumers attached to the device ID’s, similar to behavior and demographics, to decipher which ones have the greatest potential in becoming high-value users and which ones are most likely to defer. Moreover, with this data, the emphasis will shift to increasing the run-of-the-mill income per user, driving

* Whole Foods Market was founded in 1980 working with natural and healthy foods in Austin, Texas; it’s one of the world’s largest of natural and organic foods supermarkets. In 2009, the sales total $8 billion and had 289 stores in the U.S. The Whole Foods Market plans to come up with strategies to help improve the company but to do so understanding the core values plays a major role in the company’s planning. The strategies

Whole Foods has become the world’s largest retail chain of natural and organic foods supermarkets. Not only is their focus to transform the way consumers look at food and its natural benefits, Whole Foods is looking to make a difference in the world with their products. Whole Foods appears to be in a rapidly growing market. Whole Foods has worked hard to set their products apart from other grocery retail chains and while their prices might still be considered high across the board, their products are geared towards a more health conscious individual who is willing to pay more for a healthier product.

Consumer food demands has made a corner mom- and – pop grocer to a fast, mass, and globally producing supermarket and there is a price to pay.

For my individual assignment, I chose the company Whole Foods Market (WFM) which deals in selling products that are organic and fresh to its customers. WFM was founded by John Mackey and Renee Lawson Hardy, owners of Safer Way Natural Foods, and Craig Weller and Mark Skiles, owners of Clarksville Natural Grocery in Austin, Texas where the original store opened in 1980 and consisted of a staff of only 19 people. WFM was founded because those four local businesspeople decided the natural foods industry was ready for a supermarket format and at that time there were less than half a dozen natural food supermarkets in the United States (http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/company-info/whole-foods-market-history). For the rest of this paper, I will be going more in depth about the company’s history and background, why I chose this company, the organization’s environment, mission, culture, and if the company will change or needs to change.

Whole Foods Market Inc. has developed into one of the most prominent supermarket chains that only market foods without artificial preservatives, colors, flavors and etc. Starting in 1978 as a small vegetarian store and now has developed into a $13.7 billion that has just recently been bought by Amazon. Whole Foods started the efforts in the grocery industry to base its food based on healthy living. This calls for food products to be sourced responsibly and call on innovative solutions that can improve Whole Foods environmental footprint. By doing so the company provides a strong contribution to the communities it does business in. While there is no argument to the accomplishments of Whole Foods, the company has not been free of criticisms. For example, the company has been accused of placing local stores out of business which has resulted in mixed responses from some of its customers. Some other ethical issues also include the questionable activity by CEO John Mackey and an antitrust investigation. This analysis will provide a background on the ethical dilemma Whole Foods had to undergo.

Marketed as ‘America’s healthiest grocery store’ the company has successfully grown to 408 stores across the world with sales of $14 billion in 2014 (Whole Foods Market, 2015). The firm is positioned as an upmarket grocery due to the emphasis on natural, organic origins, and as a result are able to charge a premium for their products. Through efficiently running its operations and stores, Whole Foods are able to maintain healthy 4.02% profit margins (Financial Times, 2015) and operating margins well above the American grocery store industry average at 6.58% (Bloomberg, 2015). Looking at 2015’s quarter 1 figures it is clear to see that Whole Foods have had a hugely successful year with sales of $4.7 billion, up 10% from the same period last year. Furthermore, they opened 9 new stores and have signed a further 11 new leases.

The grocery industry is a high volume, low margin industry that is heavily competitive. It can be characterized as a fragmented mature industry. As of 2014, it is estimated that there are 37,716 supermarkets (with $2 million or more in annual sales) in the United States which make $638,338 billion in sales a year. (Food Marketing Institute, 2015) Within this industry there are a variety of retailers, ranging from specialty neighborhood markets to health food specialty markets. The following chart shows the number of different channels used by customers and what percentage of the time customers use such channels for their purchasing needs. The source of the chart is from a study conducted by the Hartman Group for the Food Marketing Institute, Retrieved from: http://www.fmi.org/docs/default-source/research/presentation.pdf?sfvrsn=0

There are over 1.1 million men and woman amateur and pro bodybuilders alone in the United States. The IFBB has competitors age ranges from as young as 16 years to as old as 83 within a range categories for competition, The NutiBullet Pro is a necessary tool to assist the competitors in preparing for competitions fulfilling a need for a quick, convenient and easy way for bodybuilders to create their protein shakes, whey smoothies or one of their required 6 to 7 meals a day.

Whole Foods Market began in 1970 as a local supermarket. Over the past 31 years, Whole Foods Market has grown from a single store in Austin, Texas, to becoming one of the worldwide leaders in providing consumers with natural and organic foods. They have grown to over 300 stores in both North America and the United Kingdom. (Whole Foods Market, Inc., 2011) This report examines the chief elements of the strategy that Whole Foods Market has put into place. Also, it uses past financial data to provide an assessment of the condition of the company going forward. Those assessments include recommendations of future actions, along with concerns I have about the way the company is currently operating and some difficulties that may be on the way.

In the industry, competition is high in most areas of the United States. There are usually two to three Supermarkets in a given location depending on the population. Whole Foods has an advantage with the organic and natural food buying trends, but many other businesses in the industry such as Kroger, Costco, etc. have taken notice to the trend.

Inside the front doors of a grocery store, customers are presented with a diverse, vibrant display of fresh fruits and vegetables. With its inviting rainbow of bright colors, the produce section leads past the wafting, sweets smells of bread and pastries in the bakery and through winding aisles stocked with an assortment of goods. Linings the aisles and fillings shelves are rows and rows of boxes of pasta, pre-made meals, processed foods, and more snacks and sweets than one would know what to do with. Grocery stores present shoppers with a myriad of choices. The shelves and displays are filled with a variety of different brands and options to choose from, which offers customers a tough and potentially stressful decision when shopping. However, before a customer decides upon a specific brand or item, whether that happens to be a name-brand product, competitor, or store-brand, they are faced with an even more important choice; they must first make a decision on whether they want to buy whole foods and produce, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and other healthy choices, or more processed “junk” foods like sugary drinks and snacks or enriched breads and pasta. Not only must costumers decide between specific brands and deals, but they must also choose which of these types of food is best for them and their interests. Consumers must constantly weigh the different factors that are presented when comparing foods; between price, ingredients, health, availability, and overall

- Economical: these factors are so important to the supermarket industry because they can influence the costs and prices but also the demand. It also includes the economical cycle from growth to decline that affects so much the different industries in the world (Cheverton, 2004). It is crucial to understand the economical trends as businesses can then plan their next move.