Dollar General Marketing Strategy & Marketing Mix (4Ps)
Marketing Strategy of Dollar General analyzes the brand with the marketing mix framework which covers the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion). These business strategies, based on Dollar General marketing mix, help the brand succeed in the market. Let us start the Dollar General Marketing Strategy & Mix to understand its product, pricing, advertising & distribution strategies:
Quick Glance:
Dollar General Product Strategy:
The product strategy and mix in Dollar General marketing strategy can be explained as follows:
Dollar General is a popular retail chain brand based out of USA which has a USP of selling products at only $1. Dollar General stores are retail stores that sell multiple items from various brands and try to sell them as cost effectively as possible. The idea that the store initially started with was to offer a number of products at the price of $1, of course this today is not quite possible.
But, the idea led to immense brand awareness. Further, the shopping experience is not much concentrated upon, it is all about offering a value inside the store to customer who falls under the targeted category.
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Dollar General Price/Pricing Strategy:
Below is the pricing strategy in Dollar General marketing strategy:
As mentioned earlier, a Dollar General store is all about offering great value to the customer. Prices are kept as low as possible as the target audience is not very well off.
Customers that walk into the stores belong to an average-middle class category and are usually lured by great discounts and bulk buying. Hence the brand focuses on competitive and low pricing strategy in its marketing mix to live upto the brand positioning of Dollar General store.
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Dollar General Place & Distribution Strategy:
Following is the distribution strategy in the Dollar General marketing mix:
With 13,000 stores across the United States, Dollar General has a great reach to its target audience. Excluding some states like – Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Washington and Wyoming, Dollar General enjoys good traction in all the other states. The point of sale for the brand is in Retail, stores are operated by employees that help customers in their buying decision.
The brand has also initiated an e-commerce business to stay in trend and not lose out on the digital action.
Dollar General Promotion & Advertising Strategy:
The promotional and advertising strategy in the Dollar General marketing strategy is as follows:
Dollar general tries to maintain a database of its customers and then reaches out to them through E-mails, Phone messaging and other digital mediums to keep them in sync with recent discounts and offers. Dollar General also advertises in local newspapers to make potential customers aware of stock clearance sale, discounts, etc. All promotions are directly aimed at encouraging customers to visit the Dollar General store. And In a way, once a customer walks in they are most likely to buy something. Even though the brand does not do too many TVCs or print ad campaigns, the strong word of mouth has helped Dollar General brand grow.
Since this is a service marketing brand, here are the other three Ps to make it the 7Ps marketing mix of Dollar General.
People:
Key people involved in Dollar General corporation are employees at the store. They form a major chunk of the employee base for Dollar General. Other than them, there are various departments for Marketing, Finance, HR and operations as these are of utmost important for the brand as well.
Process:
The shopping process at a Dollar General store is quite simple. The customer walks in, looks for products that are placed on different shelves, category wise, and then compares prices. Once he finds the best option available, he checks out the product and pays for it. The process, now, has also gone online where a customer can order products and have it delivered to his/her place.
Physical Evidence:
Dollar General ideally provides its customers with brochures and pamphlets as a mean of delivering information using which the customer can shop. Prices of products are mentioned on every shelf and discounts available are mentioned along with the price. As Dollar General deals in tangible products, it is easy for the customer to check expiry date, content in the product, actual price, etc. at the shop itself. This concludes the marketing mix of Dollar General.
About Dollar General:
Dollar General Corporation, today, manages over 13000 stores in the United States. The company has its headquarter in Tennessee and has managed to outgrow itself since it was founded in the year 1939 as J. L. Turner and Sons.
The company was initially founded with a funding of $10,000 and eventually it led to annual sales of over $2 million in the next decade. In 1968 the company went public and was renamed as Dollar General.
This article has been researched & authored by the Content & Research Team. It has been reviewed & published by the MBA Skool Team. The content on MBA Skool has been created for educational & academic purpose only.
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