Coles - Blog# 5

            Coles Supermarket is one of the leading retail supermarkets/groceries in Australia headquartered in Collingwood, Melbourne. The supermarket, founded in early 1914 by Ian J. W. McLeod, operates more than 700 stores across Australia and New Zealand today. Coles Supermarket has five distinct levels of private or generic label brands including Coles Smart Buy, Coles Green Choice, Coles Finest, Coles Organic, Coles Simply Less, and Coles Clothing. Both brands introduce and sell different products that are offered under the Umbrella of Coles Supermarket.  The products range from home appliances, to foodstuff and clothing.

            Coles Supermarkets, like other retail stores, widely uses social technology to conduct its operation as well as offer products and services to their customers. For example, Coles Supermarket uses social networks such as Facebook to market its products to some of its clients. Presently, the company has 803,723 likes on Facebook. This means that the company has a strong presence on social networks. Coles Supermarket has also implemented social network such as twitter in order to attract more consumers.

            Coles Supermarket has largely invested in social networks. Through this social technology, McKinsey value levers could be realized through effective communication. Through the social networking platform such as Facebook, Coles Supermarket is able to communicate directly to its consumers. Consumers can air their concerns directly to the management, and, for that reason, the management is able to ensure that their products and services matches the taste and preferences of the consumers. In conclusion, social technology has helped the company realize effective communication as well as increased productivity because it is able to listen to its customer then introduce products that reflect the needs of the customers.

 References

Coles’ official Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/coles?ref=br_tf

Coles’ official website: http://www.coles.com.au

Chui, M., & McKinsey and Company. (2012). The social economy: Unlocking value and             productivity through social technologies. New York: McKinsey & Company.