The UK Food Retail Sector Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The UK Food Retail Sector - Essay Example Narver, J.C. & Slater, S.F. (1990) The effect of a market orientation on business profitability, Journal of Marketing 54(5) pp.20-35. A substantive journal resource that also describes the methodology behind delivering superior value to customers by attaining a market orientation. The article has strengths to support the changes occurring in the UK food sector as it describes how to disseminate information relating to customers and competition and what actions to take to ensure manifestation of total customer value. The authors link knowledge with business processes to describe market orientation and their potential effects on industry profitability with the customer always the focus of business changes. Smith, N. (2009) Vertical focus food retail: delivering the goods, New Media Age London. 28 May, p.17. A substantive and popular media source that focuses specifically on food retailing and the competitive activities of Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda as they operate in this oligo poly. The article maintains strengths to support knowledge regarding the food sector by describing the unique differentiation strategies of the supermarkets that either build or remove market share against competition. There is a specific focus on pricing strategies for the major food retailers related to consumer sentiment and the current economic recession in the UK. Whitelock, N. (2003) Tesco’s new recruits see the big picture, Training & Management Development Methods 17(1) pp.801-804. This scholarly resource focuses specifically on Tesco in order to understand how it develops internal management and employee talent to assist in creating a market orientation. The article... In the end, the author sums up with findings and analysis. Based on the research findings, the supplier and consumer controls in the external market drive the majority of the business innovations and competitive marketing that occurs with each major UK food retailer. Where these businesses once used face-to-face concepts for customer service and satisfaction, they are now turning toward technology as part of the changing social demographic in this country. Social media has become more mainstream and so has subscribership to Internet services and consumers are demanding more convenience related to their food purchases. This change in social attitude has significant impact on how the business structures its capital investments and also how they provide goods and services through technology. The recession also shapes the market-orientation of major food retailers in the UK, which has led to more value-conscious and price-sensitive buyers. Since companies in the oligopoly must mimic many of the competitive actions, there are always pricing wars that occur on products that continue to increase and then subsequently decrease market share with major competitors such as Asda and Tesco. Price will shape the future of UK retailing until the recessionary environment has changed and become more stable. The demands of customers and their significant buying power and willingness to defect based on price or perceptions of quality will also determine the shape of the food retailing environment over the next three years.