Marketing Essentials: Comparing Marketing Mix and Creating a Marketing Plan

This document discusses the concept of marketing mix and compares how different organizations apply it to achieve business objectives. It also includes a guide on producing and evaluating a basic marketing plan for an organization. The focus is on the company Asda and its marketing strategies.

Marketing Essentials

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
TASK 2.................................................................................................................................................3
P3: Compare the ways in which different organisations apply the marketing mix to the marketing
planning process to achieve business objectives.............................................................................3
TASK 3.................................................................................................................................................6
P4: Produce and evaluate a basic marketing plan for an organisation.............................................6
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Marketing refers to activities, techniques, strategies made by the companies for promote the
buying and selling of the products and services. The process of marketing is about bringing
products and services in the suitable market. It includes various steps such as broad market
research, determining distribution and diversification, promotion and pricing strategies, determining
areas for the distribution and budgeting. This report is based on the company named Asda which is
supermarket chain headquartered in London. It is currently working in fresh groceries, general
merchandise and financial services. It was established in 1949. This report studies includes
comparison between Asda and Tesco by applying marketing mix and the marketing plan to achieve
objectives of the business along with the conclusion.
TASK 2
P3: Compare the ways in which different organisations apply the marketing mix to the marketing
planning process to achieve business objectives.
Marketing mix is a process refers to tactics, actions which are used by a company for
promotion of its brand and products in the market through various positive factors. It is used for
designing and integrating the various elements of the market in such a way to ensure the objectives
of the enterprise. There are 7P's which are considered for marketing planning which is price,
products, place, promotion, people, packaging and physical evidence. These 7P's are analysed and
compared below through the table:
Marketing mix Asda Tesco
Products Asda is a supermarket chain
which offers mobile phone with
EE network, financial services
and groceries items. It also
offers electronics and clothing
items. (Kupec, V., 2018)
Tesco is the famous
multinational organisation hat
providing various types of
products and services like
grocery products, household
products. Tesco provide good
quality products that attract lots
of customers.
Place Asda has more than 600 stores
across the world. It has moved
Tesco operating more than 6993
stores and Tesco running their

to Walmart style after the
acquisition with around 3 zones
of the simplistic shopping.
stores and supermarket in 7005
places. Tesco is considered the
most trustworthy organisation
so that their stores increasing
day by day in various locations.
People Asda has workforce of more
then 18,000 people which are
highly trained and have
knowledge of employment.
People employed at Asda is
able to understand the needs
and demands of the customers.
It spends huge funds on their
training and development.
Tesco have strength of over
423092 employees which are
focused on learning and growth
of the company. Employees of
Tesco are treated equally and
focused on motivation of
employees and training is given
to employees which tends to
make it as one of the biggest
and efficient workforce of the
company among other big
brands(Del Giude and et .al.,
2017)
Price Asda is using price penetration
strategy as it has huge volume
of products. It offers low prices
to its customers for its product
so that it can attract customers
and sell its wide range of
offering.
Tesco is following penetration
pricing strategies in the
international market. The
pricing strategy of Tesco has
played an crucial role in growth
and expansion in the market.
They provide variety of
products which contains higher
as well as low costs products.
This strategy of Tesco is made
with motive to attract average
middle and higher class
customer also.
Promotion Asda gave high importance to
promotional strategies and
tactics . Asda uses discounts
Tesco uses marketing &
promotions at minimal
spending. They have never used

and schemes as a promotional
tactic. Further its uses
traditional as well as digital
methods of promotions so that
it can take attention of people.
It also has a eye catching logo
which helps in positioning the
brand as well.
brand promotion to pull the
customers towards their brand.
It has taken care of certain
things and gave more
importance on customer
satisfaction rather then spending
huge amounts on promotional
activities. It invested in good
stores and great customer
service (Siregar and et .al.,
2021.).
Physical evidence The strength of Asda lies in
sheer size, number of stores and
locations. Its store sizes are
divided as supermarket division
which mainly caters to small
store segment.
Tesco has built a strong
business empire. It has managed
to maintain the strong presence
in the market through the
network of offline stores and
online application. The stores
are made with excellence
innovation and creativity with
creative and innovative
products.
Process Asda was initially the food
seller and later moved to retail
industry. In supermarket and
chains, it commands the
substantial market share and the
company is also involved in
financial services like
insurance. (Chandiok, and
Sharma, P., 2017)
Tesco has adopted integrated
business approach which has
brought efficiency. Tesco uses
three important features for
integration and innovate the
supply chain such as:
- They uses information
technology to manage the IT
tools.
- They monitor through audits ,
continuous improvement and
sustainability through training.
-They use information

technology to manage supply's
transparency and efficiency.
TASK 3
P4: Produce and evaluate a basic marketing plan for an organisation.
Marketing plan refers to documents or blueprint that outlines the advertising and marketing
strategies of a company which they are planning to implement in future. It is overall a business plan
which is used for achieving the objectives of an organisation.
Executive Summary: The company Asda is a large multinational company which has high
market share in UK. In order to prepare the marketing plan, the company is planning to introduce
ethnic wear so that it can grab the opportunity to capture new market. This marketing plan is being
prepare in context to Asda where it is planning to launch ethnic wear in its product line. Thus,
preparing marketing plan to help marketing members to understand their roles and responsibilities
so that formulated plan can be properly executed.
Smart objective
Smart objective is a strategical plan which is made by managers, leaders and employees of
the company to accomplish long and short term objectives.
The smart objective is to introduce the ethnic wear in UK which can increase the profit margin by
25% of company.
Specific: To introduce ethnic wear in the existing market and targeting existing as well as new
customers(Kennedy, D.S., 2018) Measurable: The measure of the smart objective is to increase the profit margin by 25% Achievable: The objective to target is challenging and motivating the members of
department to accomplish task and achieving the goal. Realistic: The objective of the company is realistic and attainable in nature and proper
functioning of the departments
 Time bound: The objectives of the company needs to be achieved within 8 months in new
market.
Segmentation, targeting and positioning
Segmentation is defined as the process of grouping the customers on the basis of common
characteristics. There are different types of segmentation which are discussed below- Demographic- It is grouping the people on the basis of non character traits such as age,
ethnicity, gender, level of education, etc.

 Geographic- This is one of the easiest way of grouping and identifying the customers on
the basis of their geographical location like country, city, region, etc. Behavioural- Here the customers are grouped on the basis of their habits like spending,
purchasing, interaction with brand, etc.
 Psycho- graphic- It is focused on grouping the customers on the basis of their interest and
personalities such as personality traits, life goals, values, etc.
Asda shall segment the customers on the basis of demographic segmentation where it will
group the customer on the basis of ethnicity and age.
Targeting is the process of identifying specific market for the particular content. In context
to Asda, it will target the customers who are aged between 18-50 and likes to carry the ethnic wear.
Positioning refers to the process of associating and developing the mental position in
customer's consciousness regarding the offering of company. Asda shall use promotional tactics like
social media and advertisement to position its market.
Situational analysis: Swot Analysis
Swot analysis is a tool which is used by the companies to analyse the strength, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats of an organisation. It is used to analyse current situations and
improvement required by future development of the company.
Strength Weaknesses
 Global presence: Asda has more then 600
stores across the globe around various
countries of the world which make it a
global brand as it has reach in various
countries of the world(Ferri, M.A. and
Palazzo., 2018)
 Involvement with community: Asda
understands and interact with customers
through social media which is a key
reason for success of the company.
 low prices: Asda offers of products at
low which sometimes creates confusion
in the minds of customer about the
quality. And also lowers its profit margin.
 Limited products: Asda does not offers a
wide variety of products but only deals in
few segments like groceries, electronic,
finance and clothing.
Opportunities Threats
 Increasing demand of premium products:
Now, a days people are switching
towards the premium products as people
has started understanding the value of the
 Competition from others: There are
various brands which gives high
competition such as Tesco, Sainsbury
and many others which posses a serious

quality which Asda must also introduce
so it must come up with some high
priced products. Emergence of new markets: In
developing countries Asda can expand its
business so that it can capture large
market share of new emerging market.
threat to the existing position of Asda.
 Threats from fake products: It is a
measure issue as unauthorized use of the
products as well as distribution of the
counterfeit products can harm the image
of Asda which is also a measure threat
for the company(Qian and et .al., 2019)
Tactics- Marketing mix
It is a marketing strategy which consists of 7' Ps. It will help in making the effective
marketing plan, keeping in mind the 7Ps of marketing so that company can come up with success
full plan. In context to Asda, 7Ps of marketing mix are illustrated below- Product- It refers to the offering which company offer to the customers. Asda shall offer the
ethnic wear to its customers so that it can attract large market share in the country. Price- It refers to the value of the product or service which the customer has to pay in order
to purchase the offering. Asda shall use the price penetration strategy in UK so that it can
attract more of the customers and expand its business share. Place- It includes the place where the offering shall be available to the people. Asda shall
make its products available through the physical outlet and gradually expand through online
medium also where the customers shall be allowed to place order directly on website and the
customer shall get the offering at its door step. Promotion- It refers to the promotional tactics which company uses in order to
communicate and promote its offering. Asda shall use the traditional method of promotion
like advertisement in newspaper, radio, TV so that it can reach large audience there. It will
also use digital media like social media to reach large audience in short span of time. People- It refers to the employees who are behind the delivery of product to the customers.
The company Asda has many skilled and talented workforce who helps in convincing the
customers to avail their products. Process- It refers to the direct and indirect activities. The company Asda shall offer the
customers discounts and coupons so that it can attract large customers.
 Physical evidence- it refers to the physical environment offered to the customers at the
company. Asda shall be having the attractive physical outlet which will offer all products to
its customers effectively (Anderson and et. al., 2020).
Action plan
It is the estimation of the revenues and the expense s for a specific period of time and is

usually compiled and re evaluated on regular periodic basis.
Budget Allocation: Asda prepares the budget as it shall assist them estimating the cost and
revenue which can be generate from the launch of new product which involves ethnic wear. It shall
also help the company to put the exact requirement of the funds to the finance unit. Budget shall
also help on one hand to keep the cost low and on other side monitor the financial performance
through comparing actual and budgeted cost per activity (Pantano and et .al., 2018). The budget
statement is given below :
Particulars Amount (£)
Marketing 10000
Promotional activity 20000
Plant and machinery 120000
Print media 7000
Total 148000
Controlling and monitoring
It is a process which helps in overseeing the task and metric which are necessary to ensure
that the authorised plan is within the scope, time and budget so that it can be proceeded with the
minimum risk. This process is used by the firm when it continuously performed throughout the life
of the plan. In context to the current marketing plan, Asda shall use the Key performance indicator
is a monitoring tool which is the measurable value that defines how the company is achieving its
objectives efficiently. It is a metric which helps the business to focus on the strategic data. It is a set
of quantifiable measure which is sued to evaluate success of company in meeting the goals for its
performance. In order to use this monitoring tool, the company must first understand the objectives
of plan and the plan to achieve it and identify the personnel who can act on this. There must be
continuous feedback from sub ordinate so that company can identify the loopholes and work
accordingly.

CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that Asda is supermarket chain which has
differentiation approach that has given competition to other international brands in the market. In
this report marketing mix, swot analysis and marketing mix is explained in context with Asda. It is
also concluded that it is not a luxurious brand with high cost prices but even then it is successful in
achieving the objectives of the company. The 7P's of Asda is compared with Tesco' s 7P' s. By
which it is resulted that it provides high cost products. Further it is concluded that a marketing plan
is being prepared in order to launch the new product which is ethnic wear in UK by Asda which
includes SMART objectives, situational analysis, tactics, action plan and controlling and monitoring
through key performance indicator.

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