MKT 600
MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Final Exam
MBA
Questions
Please answer three (3) of the following four (4) questions. Your answers should not exceed
one (1) page EACH.
Case Data
Company Overview
James Kemsey (JK) Wilkinson opened his first Wilkinson Store in Charnwood Street, Leicester (in the
East Midlands of England) in 1930. After the Second World War, the 1950s saw a rise in the use of
labour-saving devices and DIY. Wilkinson responded by making this type of product the focus of its
sales.
In the 1960s customers wanted more convenience shopping. Wilkinson started selling groceries and
supermarket goods and created the Wilko brand. In the 1980s Wilkinson extended its range of lowcost products to include quality clothing, toys, toiletries and perfumes.
In 1995 it opened a central distribution centre in Worksop, serving stores in the north of England and
in 2004, a new distribution centre opened in Wales. In 2005 Wilkinson launched its Internet shopping
service, offering over 800,000 product lines for sale online.
Wilkinson opened 17 new stores in 2011 and currently has 350 stores, which carry an average of
25,000 product lines. 40% of these are Wilko 'own-brand' products.
The company also operates an on-line store carrying the traditional stores’ product lines which are
the following:
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o
o
o
Wilkinson Premium Ranges
Cutlery,
Crockery,
Dinnerware,
o
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Towels
Health & Beauty
Gardening, Sheds &
Greenhouses
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Toys, Games & Bikes
Furniture & Office
Storage Solutions
Home Furnishing
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DIY, Wallpaper & Paint Deals
Flooring, Tiling & Accessories
Decorating Essentials
Electrical
Security & Outdoor Lighting
Switches, Sockets & Door
Handles

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Power Tools
Hand Tools
Abru Ladders
Shelving, Brackets & Hooks
Curtain Poles & Accessories
Curtains
Insulation
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Roofing
Car Care
Household Appliances
Kitchen & Laundry
Baby & Kids
Pets
Marketing Strategy Development
In order to develop its marketing strategy Wilkinson embarked on a large scale marketing research
project.
First, they obtained quantitative data from various internal and external sources, including: coupon
redemption rates, sales analysis, footfall in stores analysis and competition analysis.
Their position in the UK overall retail and their specific store category is shown in Table 1.
.Table 1: Major players in the UK ‘Mixed Goods’ Sector
Overall
Rank in
the retail
sector
5
20
29
Company
Fasciae
2008-09
Sales
000,000£
Marks & Spencer
Woolworths*
Marks & Spencer, Simply Food
Woolworths
8,160
1,720
Wilkinson Hardware
Stores
Wilkinson
1,364
Notes
Administration,
November 2008
The UK retail market is set to increase in size by 15% over the next five years, taking its value to just
over £312bn (UK Retail Futures 2011: Sector Summary, Datamonitor). However this represents a
slowing down of annual growth and with operating costs and the cost of credit set to rise, the retail
sector faces challenging times. Companies who cannot compete against shrinking margins will suffer.
The electricals sector is currently the best performer, with a predicted growth of 24% (UK Retail
Futures 2011: Sector Summary, Datamonitor), while the home sector retailers face a tough period as
falling house prices make people more cautious about moving home. Moreover, the UK faces the
recessionary pressures of the rest of the EU with consumer debt, interest rates, and inflation rising
whilst consumer confidence and job security are rapidly falling
Then, they researched the student market segment. Wilkinson involved 60 universities in this
research, using questionnaires distributed to students initially in Years 2 and 3 of a range of
universities and then in-depth interviews with 'freshers' (new students). Participants were rewarded
with Amazon vouchers to encourage a good take-up. The research focused on two areas:


student awareness of the Wilkinson brand
reasons why students were currently not using the stores regularly
The research identified motivation factors for the student audience which would help to encourage
future purchase. Key factors included products being cheaper than competitors and easy access to
stores. 23% of students questioned gave 'distance from university' as a reason for not regularly
visiting the store. The layout of the store was another major problem affecting repeat visits.
A marketing campaign was launched which focused on a range of promotional tactics, specifically
designed to appeal to university students: Wilkinson attended University and Higher Education fairs
and handed out free goody bags with sample Wilko products directly to students. They also used
direct mail flyers to homes and student halls, prior to students arriving, they put print
advertisements in youth magazines with a fun theme, for example, showing frying pans as tennis
racquets. Finally, they put web banners on select sites and blogs related to university study offering
discounts of 15% with first purchase using the online store, gift vouchers and free wall planners and
they upgraded their Facebook presence with applications, games and offers.
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Researching students' opinions after the campaign showed that:
awareness of Wilkinson brand had significantly risen from 77% to 95% of those interviewed. This
brought it in line with Morrison supermarkets, a key competitor.
17% of students who received a goody bag fairs used the 15% discount voucher. A further 58%
intended to use the voucher. The campaign had either got students to enter the Wilkinson stores or
increase their intention to visit the store.
Of particular importance to Wilkinson was that the campaign had made the company more appealing
to 67% of students interviewed. This fulfilled one of the main objectives of the campaign and was
reinforced by figures from existing students. Prior to the campaign 13% shopped at Wilkinson at least
once a month. After the campaign this had risen to 33%.
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In 2009 Wilkinson freshened up and updated their logo and in 2014 they re-branded to Wilko.
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The former Wilkinson logo, from 1978-2009. A shortened version, "Wilko", was used on own brand
merchandise.
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The modernised Wilkinson logo, used from 2009-2014, although many stores retained the original logo
until the Wilko rebrand.
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Exhibit 1: Wilkinson Visions & Values from their web-site
Exhibit 2: Marketing research results
Exhibit 3: Wilkinson print ads in student and youth magazines
Wilkinson rebrands to Wilko in TV campaign
By James Swift, campaignlive.co.uk, Wednesday, 09 April 2014 10:07AM Be the first
to comment
Wilkinson, the household goods retailer, has launched a TV campaign
featuring ship-proud pirates, to announce its rebrand as Wilko.
TBWA\Manchester created three humorous TV spots as part of the campaign, which
takes the idea of domestic one-upmanship back to pirate times.
In each spot, a pirate captain sees a rival ship approaching and orders his men to go
to Wilko to buy supplies to spruce up his vessel.
The first TV spot airs today. The campaign was written by Zoe Harris, art directed by
Ant Harris, and directed by Zak Emerson through Blink. Manning Gottlieb OMD
handled the media planning and buying.
The campaign is the first work TBWA\Manchester has created for Wilko
since winning the brand’s creative account in January. Wilko used True Story for its
2013 ad campaign.
Fergus McCallum, TBWA\Manchester’s chief executive officer said: "Wilko wanted to
take a brave and disruptive approach, which for us makes for a great brief.
"We’ve developed what is hopefully a memorable rallying cry that encapsulates
Wilko’s can-do spirit and have brought this to life with an ad campaign designed to
excite and entertain people to reappraise the quality, value and breadth of their offer."
Wilko has 370 shops across the UK, with 23,000 employees and sales of £1.5 billion.
This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk
Exhibit 4: Article in a dedicated advertising website about the wilko re-branding.
Watch the ads here:
http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/1289424/