Boots is the greatest pharmacy chain in European countries with an with a fantastic reputation for differentiated health insurance and cosmetics and customer support. Our strategy is to build up Boots into the world's leading pharmacy-led health and beauty retail brand, focused on healping people appear and feel their best. Alliance Professional medical is the backbone of Alliance Boots general and distributions service with double daily deliveries to around 5, 700 pharmacy retailers in the united kingdom exclusively. Internationally, Alliance Boots distributes drugs and beauty products to around 150, 000 outlets and operates from 360 delivery depots. Furthermore to providing Alliance pharmacies, the Alliance Health care distribution subsidiaries also deliver to NHS central warehouses and private hospitals in the united kingdom, alone with private hospitals, GP surgeries, local health centres and private pharmacies throughout Europe, Asia and Australia.
Marketing Strategy Options.
Boots is an associate of Alliance Boots, an international pharmacy-led health and beauty group. Our goal is to help our customers look and feel better than they ever thought possible.
Our customers are at the heart of our business. We're committed to providing exceptional customer and patient treatment, be the first choice for pharmacy and medical care, offer impressive products 'only at Boots', with great value our customers love.
Our people are our power and they reveal that Boots is a superb place to work. We have been continually be the employer of choice, attracting and retaining the most proficient and passionate people. The strategy is to concentrate on its two key business activities of pharmacy led health and beauty retailing and pharmaceutical wholesaling and distribution, while significantly growing and intenationalising our product brands to make a third aspect. growing the center businesses in existing trading markets, continuing to provide productivity advancements and other cost savings, pursuing development opportunities in selective new high expansion markets and releasing our product brands in new marketplaces. This strategy is underpinned by our continue concentrate on patient or customer needs and services selective partnerships and our strong financial diciplines. were commited to providing exceptional customer and patient attention be the first choice for pharmacy and health care offer impressive products only at Boots, with great value our customer love.
Pharmacy-led health insurance and beauty strategy :--
Boots is the most significant pharmacy chain in European countries with an excellent reputation for differentiated health insurance and beauty products and customer care. Our strategy is to build up Boots in to the world's leading pharmacy-led health and beauty retail brand, centered on helping people look and feel their finest.
The key steps we live taking in the united kingdom to do our strategy are:-
-Making Boots far more convenient and accessible for our customers.
-Developing our people to be at their absolute best for our customer
-Improving our customer in store shopping experience
-creating a engaging multi-channel health and wellbeing consumer offering
-Increasingly differentiating our product offering
-Continuing to provide customers with excellent value
-Opening new stores in marketplaces where Boots is already well established
-Developing new store in markets where Boots has already been well established
-Developing country specific Boots branded trading platforms to meet local needs.
SWOT analysis
STRENGTHS
Boots to be one of the bigest UK pharmacy-led health insurance and beauty group market, its brand has been well-known and already developed its reputations over Healthy and Beauty Product retailing.
Under the command team with Alex Gourlay, the chief professional of Health & Beauty Division it is showing tremendous upsurge in its revenue.
It also helps to keep into account the renewable and environmental issues. Because of this it has a positive effect on consumer brand especially the green activists consumers.
Strengths
Weaknesses
Strong Brand Equity
Low profitability
Store Network
Lack of International Presence
Opportunities
Threats
Store expansions in UK
Intense price competition
Expanding product offerings
High regulatory oversight
Reference: Data keep an eye on, 2006
WEAKNESSES
Boots is merely shown in UK. Therefore there can be a concern if the business wants to have development in the retailing Health & Beauty Section sector.
Declining Reputation
OPPORTUNITY
Boots different business, investing in properties can have major progress in the future.
Staff which works at Boots are crucial - customers, administrators, systems designers, finance workers and so on all are part of the whole team that must interact to make things operate easily and efficiently
Online sales are a great opportunity for future expansion.
THREATS
Boots operations have become a subject on various issues like environmental, planning and other factors.
As an outcome there needs to be investment related to environmental and green issues.
Porter's 5 pushes analysis
Competitive rivalry
The retail market is loaded with high opponents as increasingly more companies want to step into the Health & Beauty industry
All the other vendors have different competitive advantages.
Boots reach in various stores allows it to attain large numbers of customers.
The other factors which contend with the Boots loan company is different lenders and building societies
Barriers for entry
Barriers to accessibility is high anticipated to a number of factors:
Firstly, company seeking to set up its business in UK requires lots of investment, brand development, which will take years to establish.
Secondly, company in retail areas are increasing, which itself means you can find very less chance for any new entrances.
Local knowledge is necessary for a new business to be able to determine, which is highly problematic for new firms to reproduce.
Threats of Substitutes
The threats for beginners or substitutes is less, as the consumers views that as essential, especially in the developed world.
The retail market is definitely trying to look around for new innovations with respect to Health & Beauty products, alternative businesses. Due to which it is difficult for substitution.
The only major threat of substitute is an internal industry threat, wherein one supermarket can lap up the business of other supermarkets.
Buyers power
Because of the presence of too many competition in the retail Health & Beauty sector providing the same product, buyer ability is high in the industry.
During enough time of recession consumer's desires are used into more demand, in so doing increasing their power.
Supplier power
Suppliers in itself is huge company providing products to the supermarkets.
If the merchandise aren't sold, consumer will alter loyalties, making suppliers more powerful. And in addition when the products do not reach the supermarket, sales do get damaged hugely.
Competitive strategy by Michael Porter
MARKETING STRATEGY TO ACHIEVE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES -
The primary goal of Boots is to provide Health & Beauty Product to the consumers, providing the products of outstanding quality and great service. It always looks for profit growth through the balance of strong sales growth, reduction in cost and continuing margin improvements.
There are many techniques in order to achieve its aims and goals
PORTERS GENERIC STRATEGY
MARKET MATRIX
PORTERS GENERIC STRATEGY:
Michael Porter acquired argued a company's strength will depend on two headings: cost benefits and differentiation. By applying these advantages three universal strategies direct result:
Cost leadership
Differentiation
Focus
Target scope
Low cost
Product uniqueness
Broad (industry vast)
Cost leadership
Strategy
Differentiation
Strategy
Narrow (market section)
Focus
Strategy (low cost)
Focus
Strategy( differentiation)
Cost leadership strategy:
Cost leadership is a technique built on supplying a customer a lower pirce than competitors and maintaining an edge by ensuring the price are lower than those of opponents.
Factories are built; labor is recruited and trained in a variety of knowledge for the cheapest cost of production. Along the way cost advantage is the concentrate.
However low cost not necessarily allows low price. Providers could price at competitive parity, apart from the competitors. For instance, such as Toyota, are good in producing autos at a minimal price, but have the brand and marketing skills.
Differentiation strategy:
It is a technique that involves offering a product which differs to, is differential from, those of competitors. The advantage of the product will appeal to the whole market and not in a narrow segment.
The company that succeeds in differentiation strategy often uses the internal strengths
Access to medical research
Highly skilled and creative development team.
Strongly sales team with the ability to successfully connect the perceived advantages of the merchandise.
Corporate reputation for quality and development.
Focus:
The concentrate strategy strives on a narrow section and within that segment tries to attain the cost benefit or differentiation. A business following the target strategy often enjoys a high degree of customer loyalty, which in turn causes more customer life time value.
The concentrate strategy has two variations.
In cost concentration a firm looks for a cost advantages in its aim for segment, while in
Differentiation focus a company seeks differentiation in its concentrate on segment.
Cost focus exploits differences in expense behavior in a few sections, while differentiation target exploits the special needs of customers using segments
A company following narrow market concentration and pursuing a concentrate strategy, have lower volumes of bargaining ability with their suppliers.
A company following differentiation focused strategy might be able to pass higher costs on to customers since close alternative products wouldn't normally exist.
Firms that succeed in a emphasis strategy are able to lead a broad selection of product development strengths to a relatively thin market segment
Finally, other focusers might be able to carve out sub-segments that they can serve even better.
Industry Force
Cost Leadership
Differentiation
Focus
Entry
Barriers
Ability to low cost in retaliation deters potential entrants
Customer commitment can discourage potential entrants
It develops main competencies that can act as an access barrier
Buyer
Power
Ability to offer lower price to powerful barriers
Large potential buyers have less capacity to negotiate.
Large customers have less power to negotiate
Supplier
Power
Better insulated from powerful suppliers
Better in a position to pass on provider price raises to customers
Suppliers have power because of low volumes
Threat of
Substitutes
Can use good deal to defend against substitutes
Customer's become attached to differentiating attributes, reducing risk of substitute
Specialized products and key competency drive back substitutes
Rivalry
Better able to compete on price
Brand commitment to keep customers from rivals
Rivals cannot meet differentiation-focused customer needs
TASK2
MARKETING ENVIRONMENT
Using of PESTEL analysis, marketing combine elements can be produced to add the goals and values of Boots, after studying the existing marketing environment.
PESTEL analysis:
Political factors:
Increasing globalization, gives challenges and opportunities to Boots. Using this company can enter new market segments through partnerships.
The ongoing analysis of price correcting among the united kingdom stores which can have a poor impact to the industry which will make the consumer feel cheated and my lead to a poor effect on the trustworthiness of the business.
Economic factors:
Because of the food crisis all around the globe, can cause the purchasing cost of the company, which can improve the Health & Beauty Product prices which impacts the purchasing ability of the consumers.
Because of credit crunch, the consumers purchase electric power would decrease, nonetheless they would still consider that as its basic necessity.
Lot of bonuses is directed at the consumers. This influences Boots as prices need to be reduced the majority of the times.
Social factors:
There seems to be more attention on fresh and easy style cooking food. Thus giving Boots an possibility to encourage new Health & Beauty Product.
Recently federal has given more emphasis to market healthy eating as a result of increasing obesity. As a result the buyer would move to healthy eating which will be an opportunity to Boots to stock in more of healthy Health & Beauty Product and because of this of which there would be an increase in consumer's quantity.
Technological factors:
The internet occurrence seems to be growing more rapidly. Boots can use internet because of its advantage.
Standing in the queue system for few items in the shopping market is frustrating. By setting up the personal checkout machines it can reduce the queue system that the customer wouldn't normally have to hold back for few items which subsequently will raise the sales for Boots.
Environmental factors:
It should be compulsory to reduce carbon footprint and increasing energy efficiency.
One of the key and honest issues is, like sales of organic food and honest treatment of pets or animals, this can evidently have an impact on Boots on various levels. This is a sensitive issue. This is done by preserving on the general public stand and environment.
Legal factors:
The current UK grocery store market is highly governed in many aspects, which is commonly in the developed countries.
The recent inquiry by OFT could act as one example, which would potentially reduce the profitability of the supermarkets. In addition, Trade Union would also protect employees to get lack benefits, which would make the grocers difficult to lay down off employees.
Marketing audit:
Mckinsey's 7-S platform may be used to design an internal appraisal of a business. The 7-S platform of Mckinsey is a management model that details 7 factors to organise a corporation in a alternative and effective way. They may be -
Strategy - Strategies for the allocation of organizations frighten resources, overtime, to attain discovered goals.
Structure - How organisation's unit relate to one another centralised, de-centralised and matrix.
Systems - The strategies, processes and exercises that characterise how the work is usually to be done like financial systems, recruiting and performance appraisal systems.
Staff - Amount and types of employees within the organisation.
Style - The design of organisation and exactly how key professionals behave in achieving the organisations goals.
Skills - Distinctive functions of staff or of the company all together.
Shared principles - What does indeed the organisation are a symbol of and its own central beliefs and behaviour.
Conclusion
To survive in such a competitive market place, Boots must continue steadily to build a strong brand in order to make a strong differentiation on the market, get customers with a credible value proposition and constantly engage customers with techniques that could endear those to the brand and the company. This can help enhance their market talk about especially during cycles of tough economy when lower priced private brands are searched for by consumers. And in doing so achieve competitive advantages and long-term expansion.
