Aldi’s Marketing Strategy

Aldis Marketing Strategy Aldi have made great strides in entering the UK grocery market. Please analyse Aldi’s current marketing strategy and provide recommendations for how Aldi can enhance their marketing strategy to gain a greater share of the UK Grocery Market. Introduction Marketing in simple terms can be described as offering a right product at a right place at the right time and with a right price. The Management Gurus emphasise on the four Ps of marketing which are often called the marketing mix. These four Ps are Product, Place, Price and Promotion. Marketing mix is an important tool to make an efficient marketing plan for a successful product offering. These four Ps of marketing mix can help achieving the business targets of sales, profit and consumer satisfaction. The essay examines marketing strategies of a German supermarket chain named Aldi, in the UK. The paper is divided in to four sections. The first section gives a brief history about Aldi. The second section talks about its positio n in the UK market. The third section analyses the marketing strategy of Aldi on the basis of the four Ps. The last section gives recommendations on marketing strategies for the future growth of the company in UK market. A brief history of Aldi Aldi, one of the world’s largest privately owned companies, is a grocery supermarket chain with a base in Germany. The name Aldi has come from the abbreviation of Albrecht (family name) Discount. The business started in 1913 with a food store in the town called Essen in Germany. By 1960s this family business was expanded to 300 stores in Germany and that is when the business was separated into two groups Aldi Nord (North) with a headquarter in Essen and Aldi SÃ ¼d (South) with a headquarter in MÃ ¼lheim an der Ruhr (Emsell, 2011). The business was separated over a disagreement on whether to sell cigarettes in the stores or not (Ruddick, 2012). These two organisations now operate independent to each other. On international levels, Ald i Nord operates in Portugal, Denmark, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg, Spain, and Poland. Aldi SÃ ¼d is functional in Ireland, United Kingdom, Hungary, Switzerland, Australia, Austria and Slovenia and United States of America with over 8000 stores in total (Aldi UK website, 2015). Aldi in the United Kingdom Taylor and Lee (2007) have stressed the adverse effects on the international buyer behaviour due to cultural disparities. KPMG (2014) states that the shopping culture in UK is associated with the quality and not necessarily with price. It further mentions that higher level of customer services is one of the main attributes of this culture. That is the reason why in spite of the dominance of the ‘big four’ -Tesco, Sainsbury’s, ASDA and Morrison’s – M&S and Waitrose have done huge investments in the grocery industry. However Aldi has not only managed to attract the customers in the UK by overcoming the hurdles but also has acquired a signi ficant market share. Table 1- Market share of Supermarkets in the UK in March, 2015 Supermarket Market Share (In %) Tesco 28.4 ASDA 17.1 Sainsbury’s 16.4 Morrison’s 10.9 The Co-operative 6.0 Aldi 5.3 Waitrose 5.1 Lidl 3.7 Iceland 2.1 Source: BBC, 2015

Is the EU merger control regulation necessary Is it a good system Dissertation

Is the EU merger control regulation necessary Is it a good system - Dissertation Example The European Merger Control Law is designed to protect European consumers against unnecessary price increases or fluctuations as by-product of monopolies or companies gaining total control of the free market. Theorist opines that total control of the market of a single company can lead to economic dislocation if not contribute heavily to the economy’s collapse. The Merger Control Law prevents monopolistic prices to reign and ensures that the market is always at its equilibrium prices2 (Navarro, Font, Folguera, & Briones, 2002). Companies with vast financial resources use mergers and acquisitions as a strategy to control a substantial portion of the market instead of using the product’s merit to gain a good hold of the market. By buying off the competition and then killing that competitor’s product ensures total control of the primary product by the purchasing company. This would enable them to dictate the price of their product in the market by regulating its sup ply. Another strategy is to make use of the production or manufacturing facility of the purchased company to produce its product, thereby killing the presence of the competitor’s product in the market3 (Serdareviaa & Teply, 2010). However, not all mergers and acquisitions are intended for these purposes as some mergers and acquisition are conducted to ensure the survival of a product line as a viable alternative to the main line or flagship line of the company. These refer to products that are basically the same but cater to different market demography. Normally, in these instances, brand names are different but the products are basically the same only leveraged and marketed for a specific market segment4 (Hawk & Huser, 1996). The creation of the European Union saw the emergence of more laws and restrictions to regulate mergers and acquisitions of companies within the same industry covering the whole European market. Recognizing the potential and actual possibility of larger corporations merging or acquiring smaller companies from developing nations within the European Union, more stringent laws were enacted to regulate, control and govern merger and acquisition. Symmetrical laws from member nations already existing were aligned or harmonized with the European Union Law on Competition. The rules of procedure for the determination of whether the merger or concentration falls within the allowable parameters was laid down, including modes upon which to ventilate any opposition or dispute to the merger, suspension or annulment thereof. The purpose of the merger law is laudable but nonetheless it has been criticized as anti-establishment and counter-productive. Critics have postulated that the law impedes the natural progress or evolution of the free market as its protectionist nature favours smaller companies or shields those companies that are hard-pressed from competing against larger corporations from take-over whether hostile or friendly. If this line o f reasoning is followed however it is manifest that merger control is not necessarily advantageous as the options available for smaller companies to find other resources to enhance its market viability is similarly impeded or limited. There would be no other recourse

The Ongoing Evolution of Electronic Music and Its Impact on Music Essay

The Ongoing Evolution of Electronic Music and Its Impact on Music Culture and the Production and Performance of Music - Essay Example People listen to some sort of music every day in their lives, from the moment they are born till the day that they die. Music brings joy, a kind of joy which nothing else can offer especially in times of loneliness and despair. Music has a peculiar strength which captivates and mesmerizes the listeners, and they emerge rejuvenated on listening to it. One of the greatest accomplishments of humanity is developing songs, lyrics, beats, tunes and such other innovative musical strands that connect and create music culture. Music, as we know today is very far from what it was centuries ago. The ability of human beings to mimic the sounds they hear in the environment and converting them into their own music using the different tools he can find is one distinctive facture of human being race. It is believed that music has been around since the times humans, or as referred to during that time ‘cavemen,’ have existed. As it is known, musical instruments did not exist continues ago. The people then just made music out of things they could lay their hands on, like banging stones together, rubbing sticks together, clapping, and humming and so on. Evolution of Electronic Music: Music, like every other art form, has evolved over times to keep in tandem with the transformations in human aesthetics. Similarly, the advent of technolog y in the modern world has revolutionized all spheres of human life including music. â€Å"Key subjects in the music industry range from music production policy and consumption of popular music† (Wiechmann 2009). The evolution of music into electronic form, thus owes it allegiance to a great deal to the developments in technology. The first acknowledged form of an electronic music device is the telharmonium or dynamo phone, invented by Thaddeus Cahill. The evolution of electronic music indicates the type of music that uses various electronic musical devices and technologies of electronic music in its production. In general a difference can be made between the sound created using electromechanical ways and that which is formed using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound creating instruments are Hammond organ, Telharmonium, and the electric guitar. Pure electronic sound can be created by using instruments such as the sound synthesizer, computer and Theremin. The Effects of New Technology on the Approaches to Creating Electronic Music and Artists/DJs etc who Utilize Such Technologies: The effect of new technology has created lots of advantages in the process of creating artists, music or DJs who utilize such kind of technologies. The growth of new instrumental idiom and verbal idiom some of the outstanding phenomena of current music. There are undoubtedly certain contributing factors in the current music forms: the effect of folk instrument methods; the influence of jazz, and, afterwards, rock methods; the emancipation of percussion devices (a growth for which Bartok is particularly important); and at last, the arrival of a growing number of young singers and instrumentalists who specialize in the performance of current music, and who themselves play attention in questioning the idiomatic resources of their devices. The growth of idiom, obviously, has been an ongoing procedure over the centuries; in fact, it is incumbent upon every age to "reinvent" devices as modes and styles of expression change. â€Å"The music industry is one industry that has been greatly affected by technology† (Jones 2005). The influence of technology on music is devastating. A DJ gives all types of music.