A few years ago, the South Korean grocery outlet Homeplus was the second largest grocery retailer in Korea. Trailing behind E-Mart, the largest grocery retailer in Korea, Homeplus could not close the gap between itself and its chief rival through conventional means chiefly due to the fact that E-Mart’s grocery outlets outnumbered Homeplus stores 7:5.

So, Homeplus decided to launch a new advertising campaign that focuses on two specific components of the marketing mix: place and promotion.

Homeplus initiated an unconventional advertising campaign at subway stations, posting pictures of store items on the walls and labeling each item with QR codes. Customers could literally get all of their grocery shopping done by using their smartphones to scan the QR codes of items they wanted and these grocery store items would be delivered to the homes of customers.

Homeplus was able to target new substantial locations with this promotion. Korean subway stations are jam packed with busy people who often tend to be both professionals or school students who do not have the time to go to a grocery store to shop. This advertising campaign targeted these individuals and increased the brand’s online presence to the status of the leader in online grocery shopping.

By creating this innovative promotion, Homeplus didn’t even have to invest in physical stores to create more locations. Costs were kept to a minimum.

The use QR codes also provides the company with a source of data. The shopping data of each customer is linked to his or her account on Homeplus’ website. This allows another avenue of place in the marketing mix as Homeplus also utilizes data mining to find out purchasing patterns of certain customers and uses the information to alert consumers on saving opportunities.

Homeplus’ innovative marketing tactics have really efficiently utilized many aspects of marketing, especially places and promotion.