Positioning Strategies in Retail - A Study of the Swedish Grocery Market

It has become easier for companies to operate across the borders in Europe. From being a domestic market, the Swedish grocery market is now going through an internationalisation process. A trend today is that many retailers produce their own private label. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine positioning strategies on the Swedish grocery market with focus on private label products and product range. We will compare Swedish grocery retailers with Lidl, a German grocery retailer on the Swedish market, to show the differences in their positioning strategies. The purpose is further to examine if the customers’ apprehension of the stores agrees with the observed positioning strategies. No research of the Swedish grocery market regarding positioning strategies has included Lidl before. Primary data was collected through observations in the grocery stores and also through questionnaires that were handed out to the customers in the stores. The analysis, about the stores’ positioning strategies, shows that the largest difference is between the two Swedish stores and Lidl. The Swedish stores offer large ranges with a small share of private label products, while Lidl offers small ranges with a very large share of private label products. The largest differences are Lidl’s customers’ apprehension of the stores’ share of private label products The position is supposed to reflect benefits and advantages to the consumers. ICA Maxi’s and Willy:s’ have been able to attain a position in the consumers’ mind that agrees with the observed positioning strategies, but not Lidl