(Solved) Marketing Mix of ASDA

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is an essential business function that aids every company in determining what their customers want
from their products and services. Every company's marketing department is in charge of increasing revenue,
profit margins, and contributing to growth and profitability (Dibb and Simkin, 2013). The current report is
based on an analysis of ASDA Plc, a global retailer with headquarters in London, United Kingdom. ASDA's
management also places a strong emphasis on expanding the company's global marketing efforts. The
marketing function's numerous responsibilities and functions, as well as their interrelationship with the
organizational in a broader context, have been discussed in this report. Furthermore, the marketing mix of
ASDA and its major competitor in the retail sector, TESCO plc, has been compared. Marketing strategy.
LO1. The Roles and Responsibilities of the marketing and how it interrelates with other functional units
of an organisation.
Roles and Responsibilities of the marketing
Another key step is marketing planning, which entails finding, assessing, and designing new products and
services to fulfil customer needs while also establishing a brand image and client loyalty. The marketing
department of Asda performs a variety of tasks, including market research, strategy management, sales support
system development, product development, finance teams, distribution systems, and human resource
management. Managers in organizations are primarily concerned with implementing various strategies that
will increase product and service sales and profitability. The key roles and responsibilities of Mark are listed
below.
Market research: The marketing department's task is to conduct research in order to identify current and
future trends in order to analyze customer needs for products and services (Pike, 2015). This will assist
ASDA's managers in demonstrating the product and service management changes that are required.
Customers' attitudes toward organizations will be influenced by these changes in products and services.
Finance: The marketing function, which is carried out by managers, is also responsible for the
organization and allocation of funds to carry out marketing activities. In Asda, marketing prepares and
sends a proposal to management outlining the funds needed to carry out the activities, as well as an
estimate of marketing's return on investment.
Product development: In business, marketing is also critical in the creation of products and services.
Marketing in the B2C context tends to identify end user demands for products in order to make changes to
the organization's existing products (Joshi, 2012). Marketing will examine the needs of their retailers who
sell the products to end-users in a B2B setting. ASDA sells its products directly to customers and operates
its own stores in various countries. Marketing manager’s needs will identify customers’ in order to make
decisions about price, location, promotion, and customer service.
Communication: Asda's marketing department is also responsible for identifying effective
communication channels through which the company can inform a large number of customers about its
new and existing products and services. In an organization, marketing is in charge of attracting customers
who want to buy products. Customers may believe, for example, that a company is dynamic and creative
because of its advertising message.
Planning: Planin is the process of creating plans to suit the needs of customers. By forecasting demand for
its products and services, the marketing functional unit makes plans to analyze and meet customer needs
(Wirtz, 2012). They also intend to reduce the impact of substitute products on Asda's market sales.
Marketing managers are in charge of analyzing competitor policies in order to differentiate their products
from those of their customers.
Promotion: In order to meet the sales target, the marketing function is also responsible for selecting
effective ways to promote products and services. ASDA managers to improve the popularity of their

business and products among customers have utilized all newspaper ads, discounts, digital video
advertisements, celebrity endorsements, events, social media, and ecommerce.
Selling: Marketing is also important in identifying potential customers to assist sales departments in
meeting their goals. Marketing managers conduct a variety of surveys to determine which customers are
loyal to their products and services.
Distribution: Following the sharing of information, marketing managers must establish an effective
product distribution network that is easily accessible to customers. Marketing managers at Asda are also in
charge of product development and distribution across all of the company's countries. There are several
important marketing concepts that are divided into five categories:
Production: This is typically determined by consumer perception, which determines that Asda
customers are drawn to specific products that are available in good quality and quantity in the
market at low prices. As a result, Asda's operational capability should be focused on increasing
production rates.
Product: It was stated that consumers buy products that have good value for money, good quality,
and an innovative approach (Malhotra, Birks and Wills).
Selling: This concept is based on the assumption that promotions influence customers' attitudes
toward products. Consumers are more likely to pay attention to Asda's products and services that
are aggressively promoted in the market.
Marketing: This concept is primarily concerned with analyzing and meeting the needs of
customers. To stay competitive, Asda needs to improve the value of its products and services.
Societal: This marketing concept primarily demonstrates their focus on target consumers' values,
perceptions, and needs. If Asda wants customers to pay more attention to their brand than their
competitors, they must meet their needs and offer their products at the lowest possible prices.
How roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organizational context
Marketing is a crucial business unit that involves a wide range of tasks and duties that are connected with the
rest of the organization's functional divisions. The Marketing function at Asda is interlinked with the
company's other functional units and executes its duties with the goal of attaining the company's goals.
Important key roles related to the larger organizational context are listed below:
Setting objectives: By partnering with other departments to ensure that everything is in sync, marketing
plays a key role in defining business objectives. When creating targets that must be completed within a
given time frame, Asda's marketing managers incorporate comments from all other departments.
Production: It is vital for marketing to have a relationship with an organization's goods or purchasing
department in order to supply product information to them (2013Hair and et.al. 2015). Both ASDA
departments work together to introduce items that are profitable for the firm while also meeting the
needs of customers. To provide a marketing plan, the marketing functions require accurate descriptions
of the organization's products and services from the production department. Marketing executives at a
firm inform executives about client needs and changes in pricing, quality, and quantity. The purchasing
department will also notify the marketing department of the availability of raw materials or products to
suit client requirements.
Finance: In this purpose of developing, researching, evaluating, and implementing significant marketing
strategies and plans in businesses, the marketing function necessitates a significant amount of financial
resources (Babin and Zikmund, 2015). Marketing's responsibilities are linked to finance because it
provides an overall estimate of budget requirements to the finance department, as well as data on
previous budget allocations and expenditures.
Human resource management: According to the literature, the marketing department's operations must
be communicated to and considered by other Asda departments. For example, in order to hire qualified

employees and increase enterprise sales, HR policies in businesses must be aligned with marketing
departments. In order to perform marketing activities, marketing departments must have access to
information about current and future human resource requirements. HR collaborated with marketing to
analyze the performance of current employees in order to meet their monetary and non-monetary needs.
Research: It is critical for marketing to obtain information about customer requirements from the
organization's research department in order to develop successful marketing plans and strategies
(Wilson, 2014). The market research functional unit also identifies improvements that are needed in
marketing strategies in order to improve business functions. This aids marketing in the development of
more effective strategies for achieving organizational goals. As a result, these marketing functions are
linked to all other business functional units.
In ASDA, the marketing functional unit has a lot of interrelationships with other functional units. It
encompasses a variety of distinct business functions, including advertising, finance, and distribution, among
others. Interrelationships between marketing departments and other organizational functional units are
extremely important. This can be explained by the fact that marketing functions require the support of the
organization's other operational departments in order to function effectively. If a company needs to plan and
implement a marketing strategy, it will need the help of the financial department, human resources, sales
department, and production department (Hugos, 2018). It is critical for the organization's success that all
functional units work together to achieve the organization's objectives. The primary goal of the marketing
department is to increase Asda's profitability by increasing sales, which can be accomplished by involving all
of the company's departments at the same time. In a business, the finance department allocates a budget to the
marketing department for the planning and implementation of the marketing strategy. To meet product demand
and supply, the production functional unit will communicate with logistics or operations. Human resource
policies will be developed in accordance with market trends, sales, and targets. The marketing department also
provides this crucial information to HR in order to ensure that business operations are properly regulated. The
market department collaborates with research to gather information about customers' current and future needs.
As a result, all of Asda's functional units work together to achieve a successful marketing strategy for the
company.
Key elements of marketing function and interrelationship with other functional unit.
The marketing function encompasses a variety of important and diverse functions such as advertising,
distribution, and finance, among others. The following are the key elements of marketing functions:
Research: In business, market research is critical because it aids in the gathering of valuable information
about all aspects of the business process. It provides logistics, finance, raw materials, resources, and
other business aspects that can only be obtained through research, in addition to marketing information.
Strategy: After gathering data, it's time to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the various business
operations. Furthermore, the data was processed, which allowed for the creation of effective strategies
that led to the achievement of goals.
Planning: The marketing department will carry out effective planning in order to implement the
strategies in business operations and achieve success.
Tactics: The marketing function's fourth key role is tactics, which entails short-term plans that have been
implemented to attract target customers.
According to the above analysis, Asda's marketing function is intertwined with the organization's other
functional units. This can be demonstrated by the fact that the marketing function requires financial resources
to carry out its activities and plans. To do so, they'll need to work with the finance department to get the
marketing budget approved. They also work with the human resources department to find qualified marketing
candidates. As a result, marketing functions in Asda are intertwined with other departments.
LO2 Compare the marketing Mix of two different types of organizations in the marketing
planning process