Roles and Responsibilities of Marketing Function in Marks and Spencer

Marketing Essentials

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO1..................................................................................................................................................1
P1 Key roles and responsibilities of marketing function.............................................................1
P2 Interrelationship of marketing with other functional departments of the organization..........2
LO2..................................................................................................................................................3
P3 Comparative analysis of marketing mix.................................................................................3
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................7
P4 Marketing Plan........................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is the process or set of activities undertaken to promote product and
services of the organization. It includes researching, selling, advertising and delivering
products to the end consumers. It involves all the actions company undertakes to draw
customer attention and maintaining a relationship with them by meeting up with the
customer’s needs and wants. In this report Marks and Spencer is taken. It is a leading
British multinational retailer, founded in 1884, specialized in selling high quality clothing,
food products and home products. It has over 850 stores in UK. This report includes the
key role and responsibilities of marketing function and its interrelation with other
functional units of the organization, comparing and analysing the ways organizations
apply 7Ps of marketing mix in order to achieve its business objectives and developing
and evaluating the strategic business plan to introduce new product in the market.
LO1
P1 Key roles and responsibilities of marketing function
Marketing plays a key role in promoting and establishing the business and
marketing department is the key to good sales and marketing. It is the way through
which people are made aware of the new product and services in the market in such a
way that people are interested in it and desires to acquire it. Some key roles and
responsibilities are described below.
Expand market: Marketers uses various communication tools, for instance, advertising,
promotion, event marketing, sales etc. to promote its products and services (Kotler,
2015). Emerging sources of marketing have made it more interactive. Marks and
Spencer emphasizes to provide common message through advertisement in TV, print
media and other social media campaign. It also participates in various events and
shows which helps in market expansion, increasing brand value and enhancing
revenue.
Meeting customers need and demand: Marketers needs to identify the consumer
needs and accordingly implement the marketing strategies. The needs of the customers
are influenced by the culture, belief, personality, lifestyle etc. Marks and Spencer has
used a selective targeting strategy to make its products attractive to the targeted
segment. Its proper positioning has also helped in positioning the brand in the minds of
the consumers. It has always tried to highlight the key benefits of its products and
services which create a sense of pride and satisfaction among consumers and
persuade them to buy its products.
Pricing products: Price plays a crucial role in marketing a product or services.
Marketer needs to undertake proper market research and analyse target market in order
to adapt right price for its product. A little variation in the price may increase the demand
for competitor’s product. Marks and Spencer follows competitive pricing strategy. It has
its own house brands so it has priced it from medium to higher category because of it
premium quality. It also follows dynamic strategy during seasonal times to offer huge
discount and other offers to its customers.
Market planning: Market is a dynamic place which keeps on changing so marketing
manager needs to create a marketing plan explaining the key marketing elements and
how it will be implemented in attaining business objectives (VERDOY ALVARO, 2013).
Marks and Spencer keeps on evaluating its marketing plan to make the relevant
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changes with the changing conditions, to be competitive on every step and take
competitive advantage over its competitors.
Being creative and innovative: Marketing department is known for its innovation
whether it is for launching new product or for any promotional activity. It needs to come
up with innovative ways to position its products into the mind of consumers. Marks and
Spencer has a wide range of product portfolio for all age group which are distinguished
from its competitors based on its designs and appearance. It also tries to be innovative
in its promotion strategy to grab customer attention which will increase its revenue and
profitability.
Customer support services: The success of marketing is measured through the
satisfaction level of its customers, so it is the important responsibility of the marketing
function to take care of its customers. It needs to provide customer support services
such as customer grievance handling, after sales service, consumer information etc.
Marks and Spencer has a structured customer support system. It has its blog, presence
over other social networking sites where it can handle its customer’s complaints. This
will help in getting and retaining the customers.
Keeping up with the competition: Marketing department needs to carry out market
research on a regular basis to identify emerging changes in the environment and look
for the solution for the same (Yu, Ramanathan and Nath, 2017). This will help in
overcoming the threats that may hamper the business operation. Marks and Spencer's
research team continuously works on analysing the market in order to identify the key
market threats in terms of competition, technological change, consumer needs and
preferences etc. so that a proper plan of action can be formulated to tackle with the
same.
P2 Interrelationship of marketing with other functional departments of the organization
An important task an organization faces while developing a business plan is to
coordinate and integrate plans with other functional departments to achieve overall
business objectives. Marketing function cannot work alone to achieve success, it is the
combine effort of all the departments and marketing is the centre point of this. Marks
and Spencer has several functional units which forms a direct relationship with the
marketing department which has been shown below.
Marketing and Finance: Every plan has a finance dimension. Money is the basic factor
in every organization. Finance department provides funds to carry out the marketing
plans based on projected financial statements, it also provides helpful information about
the pricing of the product as per customer expectation (Friesner Tim, 2014). Apart from
this, the development of plan involves the complete analysis of cash flow, capital
requirement and other financial policies which requires marketing information. In big
organization like Marks and Spencer, finance department provides forecasted profit and
loss statement and cash flow statement for short term and long term which helps in
forming financial and marketing policies.
Marketing and Human Resource: The HR department always tries to provide
personnel that will help in increasing the productivity of the organization. HR function
looks for recruitment, selection, training and development of the employees as per the
organizations need. Marketing department needs to accompany HR department in
formulating job description, designing training programs and creating incentive system.
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