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Contents

PART A................................................................................................................................................3
Executive Summary...............................................................................................................................3
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
Company Analysis................................................................................................................................3
Macro Environmental Analysis.............................................................................................................4
Competitor Analysis..............................................................................................................................5
Customer Analysis................................................................................................................................5
SWOT Analysis.....................................................................................................................................6
Target Market and Positioning..............................................................................................................7
PART B ……………………………………………………………………………………………......7

Description of the company...................................................................................................................7

Marketing Mix.......................................................................................................................................7
Segmentation.........................................................................................................................................7
Target Market........................................................................................................................................8
Value Proposition..................................................................................................................................8
References……………………………………………………………………………………………..9
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PART A

Executive Summary

The purpose of this paper is to bring out the importance of market plans and strategies for a
firm operating in today’s business environment. This significance is brought by taking the
example of a Spanish retail chain called Disba S.A. The first part of the paper will focus on
the current marketing strategies that are adopted by the retailer. This will include a company
and competitor analysis, macro-environmental analysis, customer, and SWOT analysis, and
finally the positioning and target strategy. After analyzing each of these areas, the report will
also look into if the current marketing strategy that Disba has in place needs any
improvement. The second part of the paper focuses on a revised marketing plan for their
marketing mixes which will eventually help them gain more market share and get ahead of
the existing competition.

Introduction

Disba S.A is one of the grocery retailers in Spain that has a huge potential to grow and
conquer a lot more market share in the future if they follow the right marketing plan.
Currently, the competition within Barcelona has increased to a great extent due to the entry of
new retail-chains into the market. Hence revising Disba’s current marketing plan is very
important.

It does not matter if a particular company is operating as a multinational corporation with

20000 employees or if it is a start-up with a barely 5 employees, marketing is what helps
generate sales and without it, you would not be able to make much profit and stay in
operation for a long time (Slater, 1995). In Disba’s case, a marketing plan will help them
decide how to sell their products to the target customers. Marketing plans and strategies are
of great importance for not just Disba, but all businesses because it makes sales easier for
them. It will help them target their ideal customer in a better manner, ultimately reducing
marketing costs in the long run and also converting potential leads into loyal customers
(Leonard, 2018). A good marketing plan will include all implicit and explicit decisions
pertaining to the firm’s competitive advantage, value proposition, target market, and
positioning (Day, 1994). In addition to developing a marketing plan, it is also important for a
business to review it periodically and make changes according to the external environment to
be agile (Kokemuller, 2018). This will help them respond to market changes and changing
customer demand in a more efficient manner.

Company Analysis

Disba S. A. is one of the leading retail chains in Spain. Their operations are mainly
concentrated in Barcelona, with a few stores outside this region. Currently, they have 130
stores that sell about 300.000.000 Euros every year. When talking about sales, Disba’s sales
have grown by 12% compared to the last year as they have added an.
When talking about the products it offers to the customer, the product category ranges from
high-quality perishable products (fruit, produce, and meat) that Disba processed and
distributed themselves, to non-food products like clothes, personal care, and kitchenware.
Within Barcelona, due to the unavailability to find larger stores, Disba mainly operates in
stores ranged in size from 150 to 1000 square meters. In such stores, they had a uniform
4.000 SKU and also offered parking spaces to customers. Disba offers products at the lowest
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price, which has been possible due to its efficient logistics system. The people who visit
Disba are usually a mix of women ranging from housewives to working women.
Within Barcelona, Disba faces competition from retailers like Caprabo, Dia, Valvi, and
several other small Catalonian supermarkets. This is different outside Barcelona. Outside
Barcelona, they largely compete with independent grocers, traditional stores (green-grocers,
butchers, bakers, etc.), and a few hypermarkets.

Macro Environmental Analysis

The macro-environmental factors surrounding Disba can significantly impact its business
cycle. Hence it is important to note how to identify these opportunities and take advantage of
them to achieve competitive advantage. The following are the macro-environmental factors
surrounding Disba.

 Technological Factors: Since Disba is a global retail chain, it is important for the

company to take advantage of and be updated with the latest technology in the market.
There is not much information in the case that shows Disba’s efforts towards leveraging
technology. In areas within Barcelona, where there are fewer parking spaces and stringent
zoning restrictions, Disba can provide online shopping services and home delivery to its
customers. This will make bring convenience for the customers since they do not have to
stand in long ques for just buying a few products. Automating several repetitive tasks
within their warehouse can also lead to cost savings, which can lead be passed on to the
customers. Therefore, with the resultant reduced prices, the store can compete and take
over retail chains like Dia.
 Economic Factors: The customer's demand has now moved towards discounters like
Disba because they prefer convenience over product range. With half of the population in
Barcelona living in neighborhoods that have an average income, discounters like Disba
will continue to benefit because the consumers seek discounted prices which are
guaranteed by Disba. Hence, if the company follows a strategic path, and is successful in
tackling competition from other retail chains, it can continue increasing its sales in the
foreseeable future.

 Social Factors: Such factors look into the demographics, wealth, and lifestyle of a
particular company’s customers. In the case of Disba, their customer base mainly consist
of women who have different lifestyles ranging from working women to housewives who
took pride in finding the store that offers the lowest prices. Disba’s products are also
tailored to the Barcelonan population’s taste and culture. One thing that the company has
to note is that customer demographics have changed significantly in the past few years. If
the company does not look into retaining its millennial generation through online
shopping or other methods, it can be very costly for the company.
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Competitor Analysis

Currently, Disba faces a lot of competition from retail chains like Dia, Caprabo, Valvi, and
several other Catalonian supermarkets. When we look at Dia in particular, it will surely
experience tremendous growth in terms of profit in the foreseeable future. Dia is a highly
standardized retail store with fewer product portfolios compared to Disba, through which it is
able to drive costs down. The store also operates in much lesser space and also keeps very
less inventory and hence is able to sell products at a lower cost compared to Disba. In
addition to this, since their stores are comparatively smaller in size, it does not face any
problem in starting new branches in urban areas. They also targeted big cities with very high
population densities and avoided areas where they could not offer more than 100 stores,
which eventually lead to higher profit estimating to an average of 1 million Euros.

Hence to keep up with the competition, Disba must focus on opening retail stores in different
areas as well as outside of Barcelona. They need to analyze competition and come up with a
competitive advantage to reduce the negative implications of the competition and proceed
ahead of them. It is quite evident from the case study that Dia is able to offer products at a
lower price range than Disba. This can pose a threat in the future. Hence instead of focusing
on making the stores bigger within Barcelona, they should focus on taking advantage of their
logistics system to provide more value to the customer in terms of cost savings. Dia being a
small store is still able to compete directly with Disba and is in a strong position to overcome
Disba in the future. Hence by cutting down costs related to inventory and distribution, they
can reduce their operational cost, and ultimately offer a variety of products at a cheaper price
to the customers, unlike Dia.

Customer Analysis

 Demographic segmentation

If we look at demographic segmentation, the three things we have to look at is the customers
age, gender, and life cycle stage, income, and occupation. Geographically, Disba caters
people living in urban areas within Barcelona and also places outside it. Disba caters to
individuals of all age. But when we look at the gender, their usual customers are women and
only a very little number of men visit their stores. These male shoppers are usually rare and
also single. If we look at life cycle stage, the women who visit the store are usually older and
younger housewives. When we take income into consideration, the people who visit Disba
are individuals from the middle to low class category. For them Disba is an excellent choice
due to the availability of a lot of products at a low price.

 Behavioural segmentation
Analysing the behaviour of the customers are also very important to come up with strategies
to attract more customers. Disba’s customers are usually a mix of working mothers and
housewives. To cater to such people, Disba offered parking spaces, which made them stand
out from other retail chains. They also provided a wide variety of products for working
mothers who did not have the time to come along and find all the items they need at once.
Disba also caters to cost conscious customers who look for low priced products. It offer the
same categories of products as most of its competitors, but in addition to that, they provide
the benefit of lower pricing to their customers.
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 Psychographic segmentation
Disba also looks into the lifestyle of its customers when coming up with strategies. For
example, they are able to effectively look into the working lives of their customers and how
much free time they have to cater to their needs and demands. Working mother who visit the
store usually does not have the time to spend going around different supermarkets. Hence
Disba tries to provide all different items at one place. Since the people who visit the store fall
into the lower-middle social class, they also tend to keep their price low.

SWOT Analysis

Strength: some of the main areas of strength for Disba are as follows:

 Disba is an already establish supermarket chain and is one of the key players in the
Spanish retail grocery business. They currently have around 130 stores within and
outside Barcelona with sales showing a tremendous improvement of 12% compared
to the previous year. They were also able to open 21 new stores. 
 Unlike its competitors, the store also has efficient logistics operations. This helps
them offer products at a much lower price point.
 Disba also offers a wide variety of high-quality products that they process and
distribute and process themselves. In addition to this, they have also expanded into
non-food areas like health and beauty aids, kitchenware, and clothes.
 Lastly, they also provide extra parking spaces for the convenience of their customers.

Weakness: some of Disba’s weaknesses are as follows:

 Disba’s growth was not quick enough when compared to some of its competitors who
are growing rapidly. For example, Dia, one of their competitors, has opened around
500 stores in its first five years of existence. 
 Disba can also not maintain the 500 square meters required to maintain the uniform
product assortment. This is mainly because of the difficulty to find such stores in
Barcelona. 

Threat: potential threats to Disba are as follows:

 The current competition around Disba is a huge threat. One such strong competitor is
Dia. Disba’s sales dropped almost in half after Dia had to open a store in the
neighborhood.
 Other than Dia, there are several other large chains in Barcelona that were rapidly
growly. For instance, Caprabo had 50 supermarkets in Barcelona and sales that were
also equal to Disba’s. Valvi and Caprabo, on the other hand, provide more categories
and more selection of merchandise. Other than this, there is also a small amount of
threat from Catalonian supermarket chains. 
 Outside of Barcelona, the competition was also very different, and they have to
compete with independent grocers, traditional stores (green-grocers, butchers, bakers,
etc.), and a few hypermarkets.

Opportunities: potential opportunities to Disba are as follows:

 There is potential for Disba to expand outside Barcelona and into different parts of
Spain.
 There is also a possibility for Disba to further reduce its product price if it turns its
logistics operations into a competitive advantage just as huge retailers like Walmart
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and Tesco did. By making their operations more efficient, they passed on the savings
to its customers in the form of lower prices.

Target Market and Positioning

Businesses need to understand their customer segment before positioning themselves. This
will help them focus on a specific need and work it to perform better in the market.

Target Market: the main target market for Disba would be housewives who took great pride
in going around stores to find the lowest prices. In addition to this, they also target working
women who appreciate finding a wide variety of goods because their shopping time is
limited, and they cannot visit multiple stores.

Positioning statement: Among price-sensitive customers, Disba is the retailer brand that

provides that a single-stop shopping for a verity of everyday products, at the lowest price
possible. With a brand identity as leading Spanish retail chain that offers the best possible
price for its customer’s, whether it be working mothers or housewives, they can provide
superior value to its customers. 

PART-B

Description of the company

Disba S.A was one of the leading Spanish supermarket chains with over 130 retail stores
within and outside Barcelona. The company has gained the reputation of being one of the
grocery retailers that offer the best value for a wide varieties of product portfolio, ranging
from food to non-food products. They can provide the lowest prices because of their efficient
logistics system. Even though they cater to a huge population within Barcelona, they still
have a lot of competition to overcome to be sustainable for a long-term.

Marketing Mix

As per the new marketing plan, it is essential to revise the 4P’s of marketing for Disba to be
able to compete in the current market. 

Product: When we look the product criteria, Disba should have more categories and more
products per category. From fresh food to pet care and organic food, they should expand their
product category to be a one stop solution for their customers. In addition to this, they can
also sell several products under their private labels.

Price: In terms of price, they can pass on more value to the customer by taking advantage of
their logistics operations. By making it more efficient, they can turn it into a competitive
advantage that cannot be imitated by their competitors. A combination of high quality and
low price will help retain customer and achieve loyalty. In terms of pricing their product, they
should also check on their competitors’ prices. If competitors are offering products at a
higher price, Disba must try to keep their price points constant or increase it at a slower rate
than its competitors.
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Place: In terms of place criteria, they can either expand outside Barcelona. This can be other
urban and towns within Spain. In addition to this, they should also consider the changing
customer preferences. For example, they can focus on providing customers an online
shopping platform that can deliver groceries to their doorsteps. 

Promotion: Other than this, Disba can also focus on increased advertising to reach a lot more
customers. There are a lot of promotional activities that Disba can engage in to increase their
publicity among consumers. The following promotional tactics can be used by the retail
chain:
i. Quantity discounts for bulk-buyers
ii. Limited time price reductions
iii. Point of sale displays
iv. Temporary reduction on price for popular demand products
 

Segmentation

As per the new marketing plan for the next 4 years, Disba should try to focus on a different
demographic area which are not as saturated with competition as Barcelona. By focusing on
regions outside Barcelona, they will be able to cater to a bigger market and also find larger
space for displaying their products. This can be of an advantage since they are trying to
expand their product lines into non-food products. 
The customers lifestyle can also vary from one region to other. Hence when demographically
spreading to regions outside Barcelona, they should tailor their marketing strategy
accordingly. In addition to this, they should try to offer deeper benefits to their existing
customers in terms of more brands of each category of product with different price ranges for
consumers to come and select according to their needs instead of going to other retail stores.

Target Market

The current target of customer they focus is very narrow which only includes working
women and housewives. This seems to be very narrow. Hence, they can have a wider range
of consumers if they carry out market research to understand the behavior of other customers
are like. This can include men, single women, millennials, and generation Z. To sustainable
business over the next few years, they must start focusing on men, who were previously not
important. In addition to this, they can also start focusing on children and older customers as
well. By being able to target a wide variety of customers, they will be able to expand their
market and also compensate for their lost sales.

Positioning

Disba should position itself as a supermarket chain for everyone. They should be able to fulfil
the needs of all types of customer. Hence, there position should go beyond just working
women and housewives to a mix of men, women, and kids.

Value Proposition 
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Disba’s current value proposition is just based on lower price. Just competing on low prices
might not be enough when the market is saturated with competition. To retain customer, they
should focus on offering a variety of product items. For this, they can start selling different
brands for different product categories. 
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References

Day, G. (1998). The Capabilities of Market-Driven Organizations. Journal of Marketing. 58.

37-55.
Kokemuller, N. (2018). Purposes of a Marketing Plan. Retrieved on 24 April,2020, from:
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/purposes-marketing-plan-61663.html

Leonard, K. (2018). The Role of Marketing Planning in Business. Retrieved on 24

April,2020, from: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/role-marketing-planning-business-
3234.html
Slater, S. (1995). Market Orientation and Learning Organization. Journal of Marketing. 59.
63-74. 10.2307/1252120.