Introduction

7-Eleven, primarily operating as a franchise, is the world's largest operator,

franchisor and licensor of convenience stores with more than 39,000
outlets. The 7-Eleven store is known for offering one stop location for
fulfilling its customer’s need. It was founded by J. C. Thompson in 1927 as
The Southland Ice Company in Dallas, Texas. Started as an ice vendor, the
company eventually began offering milk, bread and eggs on Sundays and
evenings when grocery stores were closed. This new business idea
produced satisfied customers and increased sales, spawning the precursor
of the modern convenience retail concept.

Marketing Mix of 7-Eleven

7-Eleven Product Strategy:
The product line in the marketing mix of the company can be divided into
food and drinks for breakfast, lunch, evening snack, dinner and late night
snack. The company offers:-

• Sandwiches: Some of the famous offering in this segment are classic

cheese burger, cubano melt, double bacon cheddar melt, chicken bacon
ranch melt sandwich and many more. There are 16 different sandwich that
the store offers.

• Snacks and sides: Some of the famous offering in this segment are
chicken tenders, 7-Select Potato Chips, 7-Select GO!Yum Kettle Popcorn
and many more.

• Bakery: Some of the famous offering in this segment are Fresh Brownies,
7-Select Cinnamon Roll, 7-Select Iced Danishes etc.

• Ice cream: Some of the famous offering in this segment are 7-Select
Strawberry Crunch Bar, 7-Select Cookie Ice Cream Sandwich etc.

• Salads, pizzas, Taquitos are also offered by the brand

• Wireless accessories and personal care products like Connect by 7-

Eleven Powerbank, 7-Select Comb & Pik Set etc.

7-Eleven Price/Pricing Strategy:

7-Eleven stores keep the price of items as competitive with respect to other
stores. The generic items includes brand sold on every convenient store
like coffee, chips, bread, eggs etc. But for its privately labelled products like
Slurpees, Big Gulp etc the pricing is a bit higher. The reason for increased
pricing for its private labelled products is simply because these product are
liked by its customers and are exclusively available at 7-Eleven stores only.
Moreover as the store offers one-stop shopping solution for all the needs of
customers and the time length (7 am to 11 pm and some stores are opened
for 24 hours also) at which the store operates, the customer are happy
paying some premium pricing for the offering made by 7-eleven stores. This
gives an insight in the marketing mix pricing strategy of 7-Eleven stores.

7-Eleven Place & Distribution Strategy:

7-Eleven stores was started in Dallas,Texas in the year 1927 but by the end
of 1950s the stores were spread to Florida, Maryland, Virginia and
Pennsylvania. In the year 1969 the company crossed international border
and launched stores in Canada and currently the company has about
60,000 stores spread across 18 countries. The company also provides its
franchise to potential owners which can be applied directly from 7-Eleven
website. In order to better serve its customers, the 7-Eleven company has
come up with 7-Eleven mobile app which caters to the needs to internet
friendly generation of customers. Through the app the 7-Eleven stores are
able to better serve customers by delivering food, paying bills online, give
reward points to customers etc.

7-Eleven Promotion & Advertising Strategy:

7-eleven stores follow an Omni-channel approach for its promotional
strategy from digital promotion to events to physical store sites promotion.
The 7-Eleven company is engaged in enhancing its sales through
‘shoulder’ campaign for its Slurpee product that cited the benefits of the
produc t beyond just refreshment. The company has also started
celebrating 7-Eleven day as a promotion strategy to get more customers to
its stores. On this day the 7-Eleven stores offers free Slurpee from any of
its stores. Also the company started offering small Slurpee on fuel purchase
to get new customers. The company also offers gift cards, 7-Eleven
Universal Fleet Card, Prepaid Cards to give special offers to its customers.
7-Eleven has also been engaged in many events like Shelter Makeover
Project, Unisel Voice for Refugee, Slurpee Tasting Test etc to attract the
audience and build brand awareness.

SWOT Analysis of 7-Eleven

Strengths
· Real estate availability

· Localized assortment

· Convenience

· High margins

· Franchise model allows for faster expansion

· Relatively standardized stores allow for more optimized operations

Weaknesses
· High margins/prices

· Limited assortment offering

· Not perceived as a place to buy a complete meal

 · Not a first choice destination for shoppers

· High turnover of staff

Opportunities
· Fresh food offerings

· Increase share of meals (i.e., breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks)

· Private label development

Threats
· C-store competition and other small-box retailers like Fresh & Easy,
Marketside.

· QSR or similar companies such as Starbucks, McDonald's, etc.

· Higher shrinkage on fresh food could potentially impact margins.

Market Position And Strategy of 7 Eleven

7 eleven deeply feel that the meaning of convenience is full satisfaction of
customer to do everything that is why they introduced “convenience for the
customer”. They provide some free facilities to their customer such as the
parking lot without fees, open free charge toilets for the customer. If
Customer buys something they also provide free handful, water bottle, fan
tunzi. The convenience stores always open from seven am to eleven pm.
However nowadays to develop a small business, it will be open for 24
hours. Golden hours of each shop are different according to the different
store location. To buy drinks and lunch, a huge number of customers go to
the convenience store.

Importantly, provide a better service to every customer is the main efficient

key of the centre. In the retail market, this efficiency key plays a wide role
via an individual role. This type of business model is the most diverse and
lively model because they (convenience store) sell not only food and
beverages, magazines, health care products, tobacco, the newspaper but
they also sell three meals a day, pre-order code, ATM and payment
services, and another financial ticket .They launched a received email
service recently.

7 eleven products are classified in various category. These products are

classified according to the time morning-night, afternoon, evening-last
nights. Their worker fallow according to the acronym – ICARE:

I- Integrity

C- Customer focus

A-Accountability

Re-Recognition

E- Excellent execution

These Strategies helps the 7 Eleven in gaining competetive advantage and

providing best service to its customers.

Recommendation for 7 Eleven

Incorporated into Annual Objectives

The new entrants are providing a unique retailing experience that 7-

Eleven is lacking. Moreover, 7-Eleven annual objective is to continue
becoming the most convenient retailer. This would be done by the range of
products and services they offer, as well as the number of stores they open
annually. The ready-to-eat food can be accessed from numerous stores for
segments who have the lifestyle of eating their food on the go. Thus,
continue being the number one choice, 7-Eleven should incorporate
these strategies
Focus on Rural Areas

Rural areas lack convenience stores that offer a wide range of products.
The competitors of 7-Eleven do not target these areas, because they do
not have enough brand recognition and community presence.The
strategies of opening in rural areas and introducing ready-to-eat food will
help them become more convenient.

Change in Policies

7-Eleven will have to develop new policies regarding the handling of

fresh food. Assuming that 7-Eleven is able to obtain halal certification,
they must uphold to the values of the halal regulations and laws. These
standards of procedures in relation to handling of fresh food will make
sure their food meet the requirements of halal standards. They also need to
make sure the quality is up to standard and meets or exceeds the
expectations of the consumers. If new policies are not implemented to
support the changes that the strategies caused, then the quality and
the success of the new ready-to-eat food products will not improve.

Changes in Operations and Human Resource Management

In relation to the operations of the 7-Eleven stores, there will be new

changes to personnel. For instance, the fresh food product requires
the new material procurement and handling, new food processing
facilities, and employees who specialize in the logistics and movement of
fresh food products. Moreover, in relation to production, there is the
involvement of material processing, conversion, adding value, packaging,
and shipment therefore the product will reach it’s location of
distribution. The changes in operations and human resource
management are integral towards the success of the strategy.