Argos_ A Catalogue Retail Outlet

Argos was founded in 1973 and is now the UK's leading general merchandise retailer with sales
of over £3.3 billion. Argos is owned by GUS plc and is part of the Argos Retail Group with
over 580 stores in the UK and Republic of Ireland, as well as distribution centres, call centres
and its head office in Milton Keynes, employing over 23,000 people in total. Approximately
98% of the UK population live within 10 miles of an Argos store.

In the modern world of retailing consumers can have their needs met in a variety of ways such
as High Street shopping, out of town shopping centres, and by direct delivery from Internet
orders. Competition among retailers is increasingly getting tough. Differentiation is therefore
the key to developing a compelling competitive advantage and winning loyal customers.
Differentiation is the processes of making your business stand out from rivals - making it
different and better.
Marketers at Argos therefore are continually concerned with addressing the questions:
• Who are our customers? (Argos needs to find out as much as possible about its customers
in order to meet their needs.)
• Are we offering the right combination of choice, value and convenience?
• How can we create a compelling competitor advantage? (How is Argos different from the
competition?)
• How can we defend what business we already have and how can we grow?
• How do we effectively communicate to our customer base?
•
Since it first started, Argos has established a very strong, trusted brand focused on value, choice
and convenience. It is the UK's number one retailer for toys and small electrical appliances; it
has a major presence in many other markets including DIY and gardening, consumer
electronics and furniture and a significant market share in jewellery (being No.1 in terms of
volume) and sports equipment. Consumers are offered a multi-channel approach to shopping.
Argos publishes two catalogues a year, the spring/summer edition in January and the
autumn/winter catalogue in July.
Argos provides a very convenient way for customers to shop. It sells all its products through
catalogue, not pick from the display of products in the shop. Customers are able to look through
a catalogue at their leisure and choose from an extremely broad product range. The range of
what is offered is not limited by the display space in-store and can be accessed in a variety of
ways.

One of the prime reasons these customers choose to shop with Argos is because they know that
they will get value for money. In general, retail space is very expensive. The more goods there
are on display in a shop, the more space is taken up and the higher the prices as you will only
be too aware when you examine prices in High Street shops. Amidst, Argos is able to offer the
customer value for money prices, because it has a low-cost business model with limited product
displays. In addition, it benefits from economies of scale because as a popular national chain,
it is able to buy in bulk and, by organising national distribution systems, is able to reduce
logistics costs to a minimum.

Argos' strategy today is one of growth. Growth can be achieved in a number of ways such as
opening new stores, increasing the product range, expanding the website or increasing the value
and volume of sales.
To increase the sales and customer loyalty, Argos tested out demographic approaches but found
that this was not a very accurate basis for segmentation. A much more helpful basis has proved
to be the frequency of visitors (i.e. the number of times customers visit the website, or visit
stores).

Argos' strategy involves driving frequency and maintaining the loyalty of existing customers.
There is a significant amount of customers who buy infrequently from Argos. Argos classifies
this group as the 'Don't quite get its'. Have identified 'Don't quite get its' are the potential
business customers. It is planning to persuade the "Don't quite gets its" i.e not a frequent buyer
to attract for this Christmas season.

Their study also has identified, about 80% of Argos customers have already decided what they
want to buy before visiting the store.

Questions:
1. What are your suggestions to increase the frequency of shopping of the 'Don't quite gets its"
category of customers for Argos? (10 Marks)
2. Which segment should Argos concentrate during the Christmas season to increase the sale
and Why? (5 Marks)