Aim

Marketing plays an important in the ways by which an organization is able to operate within the industry in a profitable manner. The marketing and promotional activities of the organizations belonging to any sector play a major role in increasing their profitability and revenues. The competitive advantage can be gained by an organization in the industry with the help of proper marketing strategies The marketing based activities are therefore vast and varied in nature and have been an important part of the successful operations of an organization. The awareness of the brand and its products within the customers can be increased with the help of effective marketing. The competitors of the organization in the industry can be faced in an effective manner with the help of proper marketing related activities (Daspit et al. 2017).

The report will be based on the analysis of the marketing based activities that have been performed by two different organizations. The organizations belong to different sectors and have been able to gain success in the industry with the help of their appropriate marketing based activities. The two organizations which have been considered for this report are Woolworths and Qantas Airways, which operate in Australia.

Woolworths Group Limited is an Australian organization which operates in the retail industry all over New Zealand and Australia. The company has acquired the second largest position in the retail industry in terms of the total revenues that has been earned. Woolworths has also been able to become the largest takeaway retailer of liquor in Australia. The first store of Woolworths was established in the year 1924 in Sydney. The organization has developed its unique position in the market thereafter. The customer relationship based activities have played an important role in the formation of a competitive advantage in the industry in comparison to the other organizations (Woolworths.com.au. 2018).

Qantas Airways is the flag bearer of the airlines industry of Australia. The company has been able to gain the topmost position in the industry in terms of fleet size and revenues. The company was established in the year 1920 and the international flight based operations had started from 1935. The origins of the organization are located in Sydney and the airlines at present operates in an international basis (Qantas.com. 2018).

The two organization have been able to achieve success in the market with the help of their innovative marketing strategies and the ways of operations as well. The research on marketing based activities of these two organization is based on the articles in different newspapers. The ways by which these two organizations have been able to implement their marketing strategies in different operations will be analysed with the help of the articles and newspaper stories.

Marketing Importance

The ways by which Woolworths has been able to gain a competitive advantage in the retail industry are related to the improvement of the products that are offered to them. The offers are provided to customers based on their choice and preferences. The relationship which is created by the company with local farmers and growers has been an important part of the competitive advantage of Woolworths in the retail industry. The news article that has been provided in The Sydney Herald has been able to prove that the marketing campaign which has been designed by Woolworths is successful in providing the company with the position in the market (Mitchell 2018).

Qantas Airways on the other hand has been able to maintain its sustainable position with the help of customer centred strategies. The customers have been placed at the centre of different activities which are performed by the company in the retail industry. The customer centric approach of gaining competitive advantage and share in the market has been successful for the operations of Qantas Airways. The partners of the organization have also played an important role in the ways by which rewards can be used by the customers (Gouveia 2018).

Woolworths has implemented the strategy of personalised or targeted marketing for the purpose of gaining a competitive advantage in the retail industry. The customisation of different marketing activities has been the major agenda of Woolworths in the retail industry of Australia. The mass marketing based activities of the organization have been changed to customised activities for different types of customers. The offers that are being provided to the consumers are based on their needs and demands. The customised offers are based on the buying history of the customers (Adbrands.net. 2018).

The organization has used new marketing strategies with the aim of repositioning the brand in such a manner which will help in improving the customer base. The advertisement based activities of the company have also been organized in a manner which will help in attracting a larger base of customers. Woolworths has aimed at changing the strategy of its operations from product oriented to service oriented. The management aims at communicating the customer proposition in an effective manner by changing the different buying policies. The operational issues that have been faced by Woolworths are solved with the help of the changes that are made in the marketing strategies (Financial Review. 2018).

Organizations Analyzed

The service oriented operating process of Woolworths has thereby been helpful for the company to gain a competitive advantage in the retail industry. Woolworths further went on to become the largest chain of supermarkets in the Australian retail industry by overtaking its rival Coles in the year 2006. The company has been able to acquire a dominant position in the market of local grocery with the help of the relationship which it shares with the local farmers and growers (Daspit et al. 2017).

Qantas Airways has gone through a huge transformation in the previous years in order to restructure the costs. The company however did not lose the focus that it had on the customers in spite of the rough time that it was going through. The foundation of change was also laid in the organization by keeping the major focus on its customers. The management of Qantas has mainly invested in the organization with the proper usage of technology and data in order to drive the business and the customer strategy. The company has given importance to the process of cross-functional success in order to improve the experience that is provided to the customers (Hill, Jones and Schilling 2014).

The major areas of differentiation which have been achieved by Qantas Airways in the industry are data, brand and technology. The point of difference is however developed with the help of the ways by which the organization is able to set up the employees within different organizational processes. The customer engagement based strategy has been effective way which is used by the organization in order to create a competitive advantage. The customers have always been placed at centre of their strategies and thinking and the management of Qantas was able to create an effective relationship with them. The quality of service which was provided to the customers had been changed in order to increase the customer base (James 2016).

Transparency was another important factor which has proved to be a major driving force for the confidence of customers in the brand of Qantas. The trust levels had increased the growth of the organization and sustainable earnings as well. The data of the consumers have been used in an effective manner by Qantas Airways in order to build the competitive advantage in the market. The experience which was provided by Qantas to the customers has been an important part of its operating process in the airlines industry. The rewards have also helped in creating a loyal base of customers and further increase their levels of trust as well. The market share of the company will be increased with the help of proper marketing strategies and increased trust of the customers (Michael, Storey and Thomas 2017).

Conclusion 

The report can be concluded by stating that the two organizations namely, Woolworths and Qantas Airways have used different strategies for the purpose of creating competitive advantage in their respective industries. The two organizations have been able to operate in a profitable manner with the help of different approaches which have been made by them. The approaches have however been customer centric in nature for both the organizations. The customers have been provided with huge importance by the organizations which belong to different industries or sectors. The levels of effectiveness of the marketing strategies have thereby been proved with the help of the success that has been achieved by them in the industries. Competitive advantage can be gained by the organizations with the help of approaches that are made in a customer centric manner. The sustainability of operations can also be increased with the help of effective marketing approaches.

References 

Adbrands.net. 2018. Woolworths : marketing and advertising profile at Adbrands.net. [online] Available at: https://www.adbrands.net/au/woolworths_au.htm [Accessed 1 Aug. 2018].

Daspit, J. J., Chrisman, J. J., Sharma, P., Pearson, A. W., and Long, R. G., 2017. A Strategic Management Perspective of the Family Firm: Past Trends, New Insights, and Future Directions. Journal of Managerial Issues, 29(1).

Financial Review. 2018. How Woolworths’ personalised marketing is lifting loyalty and sales. [online] Available at: https://www.afr.com/it-pro/how-woolworths-personalised-marketing-is-lifting-loyalty-and-sales-20130213-jz5jx [Accessed 1 Aug. 2018].

Gouveia, M. 2018. Use marketing and trust to deliver competitive advantage: Qantas CMO – Which-50. [online] Which-50. Available at: https://which-50.com/use-marketing-trust-deliver-competitive-advantage-qantas-cmo/ [Accessed 1 Aug. 2018].

Hill, C. W., Jones, G. R., and Schilling, M. A., 2014. Strategic management: theory: an integrated approach. Cengage Learning.

James, S.D., 2016. Strategic bankruptcy: A stakeholder management perspective. Journal of Business Research, 69(2), pp.492-499.

Michael, S., Storey, D., and Thomas, H., 2017. Discovery and coordination in strategic management and entrepreneurship. Strategic entrepreneurship: Creating a new mindset, 45-65.

Mitchell, S. 2018. Woolworths kicks off new marketing campaign. [online] The Sydney Morning Herald. Available at: https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/woolworths-kicks-off-new-marketing-campaign-20151020-gkd4dl.html [Accessed 1 Aug. 2018].

Qantas.com. 2018. Fly with Australia’s most popular airline | Qantas AU. [online] Available at: https://www.qantas.com/au/en.html [Accessed 1 Aug. 2018].

Woolworths.com.au. 2018. Woolworths.com.au. [online] Available at: https://www.woolworths.com.au/ [Accessed 25 Jul. 2018].