Marketing Plan

Marketing Plan of Tesco

Executive Summary

This marketing plan is developed for Tesco to expand its business operations to Italy. Tesco is considered as biggest retail chain of U.K. The marketing plan has covered different phases of business expansion to the market of Italy. In the beginning the objectives are discussed, that Tesco want to accomplish in the new market. Assessment of market environment are also discussed that could externally and internally affect the organization and servicing of identified markets. In market identification, the specific segments that will be targeted in Italy are discussed. The targeted objectives are discussed with respect to its achievability, time line and flexibility. In marketing strategies, the generic strategies that will be undertaken by Tesco in Italy are discussed. The best combination of the marketing mix and the action plan to make this expansion successfully is also a part of the marketing plan. In last, the marketing budget and its allocation is discussed along with the required monitoring and evaluation measures. The critical Issues forms the concluding part of the market plan defining the alternative strategies to adopt in case of failure and challenges.

Marketing Plan of Tesco

Introduction

Objectives

Tesco is Britain's leading and the third largest food retailer in the world. Tesco started its first store in 1929 in London, and by 1960s Tesco became a familiar mark of most of the UK high streets. In 1990, company started pioneering new innovations in food retailing business by introducing a new concept of stores such as Tesco Metro, a city center store entitled to meet the needs of local shoppers and Tesco Express, the first UK petrol convenience store. In 1995, the company formed a joint venture with the Royal Bank of Scotland to put forward a range of financial services.

Objectives to Accomplish

Besides the UK, Tesco expanded its business to international markets by operating in Ireland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Turkey and Poland. By the end of the financial year of 2012, Tesco operated 185 stores in the US market (Market Lin 2013, pp. 4). Tesco has now planned to target the international market of Italy. Tesco's decision of expanding to Italy is a direct result of the generation of strong cash flows in its home market. Tesco has chosen Italy for expansion because of few numbers of capable competitors in the emerging markets of Europe and Asia and strong trends of growth in such markets.

Assessment of the Market Environment

Unlike other European nations, the Italian retail sector has been resistant to change. The traditional grocery stores followed by open markets in Italy are remained to be the largest segment of the food retail sector. In Italy, consolidation is slowly gaining momentum as local Italian and foreign food retail operators are starting to expand their network of stores. The market environment of Italy is based on diversified industrial economy, separated into a developed industrial north dominated by private companies and a less developed agricultural south distressed with high unemployment. The percentage of retail supermarket in Italian market is 53% located ...