Understanding Marketing Functions and Strategies

This assignment delves into the multifaceted world of marketing, examining its various functions and strategies. It covers key aspects such as market research, product development, pricing, distribution, promotion, and customer relationship management. The analysis emphasizes the interconnectedness of marketing with other business functions and highlights the importance of strategic planning, including setting SMART objectives and implementing effective marketing mixes. The assignment aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of how marketing contributes to organizational success.

MARKETING
ESSENTIALNESS

INTRODUCTION
In order to understand the concept of marketing completely, one must have to understand
marketing functions and their importance. Marketing functions are the tasks that must be done by
marketing executives and includes but not limited to market research, product research, product
planning, pricing decisions, deciding on distribution channels and setting the correct set of
promotional activities. Marketing functions have a broad set of activities as defined by Philip
Kotler. Marketing function; as the name suggests is the heart of marketing as without the
understanding of marketing functions, no one can claim that he knows marketing. Marketing
functions can also be understood as a process that starts from deciding the potential market and
product and goes on to setting up the product policy, pricing methods, channels of distribution
and a proper promotional campaign. Therefore in order to have a thorough understanding about
marketing function, one must have to go through it deeply (Pike, 2015).
TASK 1
P1 Roles and responsibilities of the marketing function.
Marketing includes different activities which facilitates distribution of good and services
from manufacturer to customers. McDonald is one of the reputed restaurant which was founded
in 1940. This organization uses strong marketing strategies which increases their market revenue.
Marketing basically includes coordination of four elements and those are 4P’s of marketing are
product, price, place and promotional strategy.
People working in marketing department of Mc Donald; try to attract customer’s
attention towards their organization. They use attractive slogans, interesting packaging deigns of
products, slogans, food varieties and celebrity endorsements. There are various marketing
functions which a marketing executive uses to enhance their company’s productivity and profits
and attract more and more customers. They are described below:
 Market research: It is mainly concerned with identifying and gathering information
related to target market and formulating strategies according to needs and wants of
customers. It is an important aspect as it guides the manager to focus on their customers
and fulfil their desires in effective manner. Market research helps them to know about
customer requirements and also gives knowledge about competitors (Malhotra, 2015)
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 Distribution channel: Through this channel company provide their products and
services to their target customers. It involves mainly transportation and warehousing.
Company should have strong distribution channel so that they can supply their products
and services to customers on time.
 Financing an enterprise: Money is required to set up any type of business. Finance
helps to supports organization to operate smoothly. At the time of promotion and
advertisement of products, money is required to plan these events so that customers get to
know about new offers and product of firm. Mc Donald utilizes their finances effectively
which benefits them with higher profits and revenue.
 Setting price: It is become difficult for a manager to set accurate price for the product .
As customers mainly go or economic products and in that case high price can be a flop
idea. The enterprise uses affordable price strategy for their products so that they can
attract more customers towards them. Effective planning is done by managers and prices
are set according to the market trend and customers preferences (Moll, 2016).
 Product and Service Management: After determining target market and setting the
prices of product, it is important to manage product and services effectively. This mainly
involve listening to customer’s requirement and responding to them as fast as possible, by
updating product and services fresh and up to date.
 Promotional channels: Effective promotional strategy is very essential to attract new
customers and to increase profitability of enterprise. With the help of advertisement tool,
one can display about their products and offers by using media and social websites like
face book, YouTube, Google etc. Managers can plan their promotional strategies
according to recent trends and wants of their customers. Sometime promotion of product
can be done through famous celebrities which pose great impact on buying of that
product.
 Matching product to customers: It is important to manufacture and sell products which
are liked by customers. If the products are not preferred by customers then they will not
buy it and their enterprise will suffer loss. So product should be designed in such a
manner which matches requirement of customers.
Above were main marketing functions that are used by McDonald to effectively market,
promote and advertise their products and services. They formulate strategies by paying attention
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on needs and wants of customers and make them their first priority. They keep on making
modifications in offers and products they deliver to retain interest of customers. They also focus
on providing products with best quality (Baker and Saren, 2016).
M1
Marketing functions are crucial for marketing department as this help them to increase
the efficiency of marketing plan and also ensures more profits and revenue for the company.
Marketers can identify best marketing functions suitable for their plan and implement that as
soon as possible.
P2 Roles and responsibilities of marketing.
Marketing functions helps enterprise to utilize various resources to promote their product.
This functions should be implemented in the market plan in order to make it effective and strong.
With the help of better plans, company can gain competitive advantage over other rival teams.
These functions are responsible for growth of an organization and mainly consists strategic
management, sales support system, finance team, marketing research, product developments,
distributions systems, human resource departments etc. Organizational functions are closely
related to marketing functions of an enterprise. Different departments of organization are inter-
related and inter connected to each other. If McDonald wants to implement a market plan, then
they can take required help from finance, human resource, sales and production department to
organize their activities effectively. Finance department will provide budgets for certain
activities where as marketing department will help them to formulate an effective market plan.
On the other hand, human resource department will provide them with necessary resources for
successful execution of plan. This will help to boost up their success of market plan and thus lead
to profitability to company. This is how they can accomplish their main goals and objectives.
Basically marketing concepts are divided into five Major concepts. With the help of these
concepts, company can plan their market plan efficiently. They are mentioned below:
Research and development department: This department is crucial department for
every organisation as they play very important roles in the success of company. They conduct
different types of research on target market and customers in order to know their tastes and
preferences, competition, rival companies, market share, price rates, etc. After conducting
appropriate research, they provide accurate information to marketing department. With the help
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of this information, marketers develop strong marketing strategies which has the capacity to
fulfil the desires of customers as well as company. With this, they can maximise their
profitability and increase their market share. It is crucial for Mc D to run different research in
order to know what is going on in the market and what is mostly preferred by customer and
provide only that in order to attract customers towards their products and services.
Production department: It is another important department as they are responsible for
developing and designing new products and services according to the taste of consumers.
Information provided by marketing department about customer preferences help production
department to produce products by considering all their needs. Employees and other staff who
are working in this department should ensure that quality standards are met at every steps as they
are directly dealing with customer's health.
Human Resource department: It is considered as the backbone of every organisation as
they manages, coordinate, recruit and select and provide necessary help and resources to
different departments. They provide resources and information about different changes and
advancement occurring in external environment. HR department manages all activities done by
marketing department at the time of new product launch. They also recruit talented and skilled
marketing employees and provide those employees to marketing department which can maximise
the profitability of company and also lead the company to its success.
Distribution department: This department help in managing the logistics and supply
chain of the company. It is important to deliver products to targeted customer on time in order to
satisfy them. Mc Donald have not started the home delivering system yet, but they do have
takeaway systems, where customers can their products directly from the counter. They can
improve their distribution channel by starting home delivery system.
M2
Every department is interconnected and interrelated with each other and this is one of the
key strengths of a company. If they have strong communication, then company can surely
achieve success. Better coordination of departments will provide necessary help and resources
which enable marketing deportment to perform better.
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TASK 2
P 3 Comparison of ways in which organizations apply the marketing mix.
It is applied while developing marketing plans to achieve business goals and objectives.
It is based on product and services which is offered by Mc Donald. It helps the manager to
understand about product (Shaw, 2016). marketing mix mainly involves 4 P's and they are
product, price, place and promotion and later on, it included 3 P's more.
 Product: It should be able to fulfill the requirements of customers with affordable prices
(Pappas, 2017).
 Place: This shows availability of product where customers can find it in shops. Company
has to target different places to distribute product to their potential customers.
 Price: It is referred to the amount that a customer is willing to pay for a product. It is
considered as an important aspect while planning a market plan. Price should not be too
high and too low and it should not compromise with quality of product.
 Promotion: It is an important component of marketing as it helps in boosting company‘s
profitability and brand recognition. It comprises of following elements, such as: public
relations, sales organization, advertising and sales promotion. Advertisement covers
various communication methods like advertisements, print media, radio commercials and
internet advertisements.
 People: In this, company research about their target customers and their requirements.
They identify whether their product is needed by customers or not. Employees working in
marketing department are important personnel as they have to deliver products and service
to customers.
 Process: Organization should develop standard process which can help them achieve
profits and enhances their productivity. This help in development of high quality products
which have the abilities to satisfy all needs and demands of consumers.
 Physical evidence: Organization should have physical evidence that their services was
delivered to target positions.
Marketing mix also includes 4C’s that was given by Robert F. Lauterborn and those are
mentioned below:
 Cost: Price is not only the cost which is incurred at the time of purchasing a product. It
is a part of cost ownership (Hugos, 2018).
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 Consumer needs and wants: Researchers should carefully study customer’s likes and
dislikes in order to produce best product suitable for customers.
 Communication: Main aim of managers is to check whether the needs and desires of
clients are fulfilled or not. To ensure this, they can take feedbacks from customers and
make necessary changes. (Babiuk, Braun and Campbell, 2015).
 Convenience: Company should make sure that their products and services are
available in the market so that people can easily get what they want. Marketer should
plan their distribution of products according to availability of target customers.
The 4P’s, 7P’s or4C’s plays a vital role in marketing mix plan. It is important to develop
good market plans which can balances profit, brand recognition, client satisfaction and product
availability. These strategies lead to accomplishment of ultimate goals and objectives of
organization.
McDonald uses these components in their marketing strategies to achieve their targets.
These are helpful in providing proper guidance and directions to managers and effective
formulation of market plans. It ensures that customer requirements are fulfilled and they receive
desired product on time with affordable process. Customers should find easy to reach to their
desired product as this will build loyalty and retain more and more customers. Proper
arrangements should be made while promoting and advertising as this is the only effective way
to attract customers. Other organization like ALDI, Cad-bury, and Barclays etc. uses marketing
strategies effectively to maintain their position in competitive market. Different company uses
their different way to tackle their situations. It differs with what type of product and services are
offered to what kind of target people. Effective utilization of market mix ensure increase in
profits and benefits and less losses to company. It will also build good relations with customers.
An organization always tries to retain their customers and attract more consumers with their
products and service they offer to them (Noel, 2016)C.
M3
In order to achieve marketing objectives, marketing managers use the concept of
marketing mix. This increases the worth of marketing plans and also facilitate transportation of
company's product and services. Ultimately this will lead to completion of all set target of
company.
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TASK 3
P4 A Marketing Plan
A marketing plan is a blueprint that advertising business activities and marketing efforts
in respect to attain all objectives for coming year. Business operations are attainment of all
targets in limited period of time. Description of marketing plan for McDonald is as follows:
Overview of the company: Apple is largest profit market share company in information
technology sector. They operate their stores in many countries with high profits and greater
customer satisfaction. It is quite good in gaining competitive advantage in comparison of other
business rivals (Noel, 2016) (Zeuch, 2016).
Vision of Apple: It is a written future goal of company that is firm accomplishing in more
than ten years of tenure. It is like where corporation want to see itself in certain time duration
which is definitely ahead of rivals.
Mission of Apple: These are short term basis goals of Apple company that it allots to
workers along with time duration in order to conduct all activities in systematise manner. It is
most important as it is responsible for effective and regular task performance (Ogunmokun and
Tang, 2012).
SWOT analysis: It is a most important method of gaining knowledge about company's internal
and external position at marketplace.
Strength Weaknesses
 Apple is a luxury product which is
already acquired a prominent position
in industry.
 Extraordinary quality phones and
desktops.
 High reliability of customers on
products.
 Prices of products are high.
 More number of customers could not be
high.
 Very short period upgrades in products
which everyone can not afford.
Opportunities Threats
 Company can launch low price
products.
 There are several mobile companies
have been raised in market place for
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 More funds can be used for
promotional activities.
giving tough competition to Apple.
 Company fail in making customer
satisfaction.
Goals and objectives of Apple: Objectives are related with overall goals of firm which
are to be accomplished in set time duration (Wilson, 2014). Main objective of Apple company to
manufacture most latest phones and gadgets which will be smartest in smart IT industry as per
customer demands
Segmentation: When company tries to address their products or service to particular and
potential buyers then it is called as segmentation. For example, Burger with short cold drink
glass is a combo that was offered by McDonald's to attract college and school going students
who want to spend more time with friends. Segmentation is a distribution of market place in
terms of most potential buyers who have purchasing powers. So, main target of this restaurant is
to attract attention of families and student group for large number of selling.
Targeting: Major target is to deliver ,all demands in right time to hit actual need of client.
Positioning: It is a centre which company want to place itself like Apple positioned themselves
in youth (González-Prida and et. al., 2015).
Marketing Objectives: These are activities that played by marketing department in order to
attain higher profit and outcome from marketplace. In other words, marketing objectives are
defined as some marketing strategies that are implemented for grabbing all market opportunities
like competitive advantages etc. Marketing objectives should be SMART.
 Sustainable: It is a responsibility of marketing that it frame business targets for last longer
time because this will help in conducting business operations in large duration of time.
Sustainable means existence for wide time period and in this segment, company wants
those targets which are helpful in survival of association for longest duration at
marketplace.
 Measurable: All goals should be examinable as what should be achieve in what time it
must be clear for managers because only taking assistance of this step, human resource
manager can assign task to employees as per worker’s capacity and calibre.
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 Attainable: All objectives should be achievable by employees. It must be done that set
targets are out of employee’s eligibilities. This type of behaviour is responsible for
operation failure.
 Rarity: Entire set goals should be rare so that competitors could not imitate them and
McDonald’s can achieve competitive advantages in industry.
 Time: With and every mission of company, a time duration must be attached for
achievement all objectives in most profitable time period when association could get
highest satisfaction of consumers (Panigrahi, 2017).
Marketing Strategy: A tactic is a set of steps that is executed in organization for achieving all
targets in prior set time period. In context of McDonald’s, managers can reduce their prices as
higher rates are barrier in making large number of sales. On the other hand, restaurant should
improve their service providing facilities like more comfortable chairs and larger space for
family outings (Griffitts, 2016).
Control Measures: As discussed organization is a restaurant that offers food products and in this
segment employees of organization must take care all safety standards and hygiene benchmarks
for serving clients. These control measures are those standards that describe prohibition of
unnecessary elements and ingredients in food preparing procedures in order to reduce unhealthy
features from products.
Implementation: It is a step where all marketing activities and strategies come into force
for hitting real targets very effectively and this is actual action which is compete for competitive
advantages (Khan and Adil, 2013).
Evaluation: It is an examination of all activities and tasks. It includes following methods
which are as follows:
 Sales Analysis: It is a study of sales volume on year on year basis according to
variety of products like tablets, mobiles etc.
 Market-Share Analysis: It is a study of market share whether it is low or high and
Apple have greater market share in IT industry.
 Efficiency Ratios:
◦ Asset Turnover Ratio = Revenue (Sales)/Net Assets
◦ Cost-Profitability Analysis: It considers evaluation of entire profits in respect
to cost. It is gap between sales and cost (Dessain, 2016).
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M4
As mentioned above, marketing plans provide marketers with appropriate framework
according to which they have to carry out their activities. Market plan includes several activities,
objectives, budget, resources needed, etc. which provide relevant information to marketers.
CONCLUSION
Present report is based upon all marketing functions that are conducted in every business
organization. These operations are start with generation of idea of any product and goes on till
post sale services like guarantee and warrantee. Marketing is a kind of activities that includes a
strategy that name is marketing mix which elaborates 4P’s of marketing like product, price,
place, promotion along with 4C’s of cost and these are cost, consumer needs & wants,
communication and convenience. This report revolves around functions of marketing along with
its interconnection with other divisional areas of association. Marketing is a function that set
some objectives that must be SMART that means sustainable, measurable, attainable, rarity and
time. These goals are necessary for achieving higher profit along with a secured position in
market.
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