Roles and Responsibilities of Marketing Function in ASOS

This report discusses the roles and responsibilities of the marketing function in ASOS, a UK-based e-commerce company. It explores the strategic marketing plans, market research, product management, and communication and promotion activities performed by the marketing department. The report also highlights the interrelationship between marketing and other functional units within the organization. Additionally, it discusses the marketing mix used by ASOS to achieve its business objectives.

Marketing Essentials

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................4
P1: The roles and responsibilities of the marketing function.................................................4
M1: Role and responsibility of marketing in relation with marketing environment..............6
P2: Role and responsibility of marketing in wider organisational context............................7
M2: Significance of interrelationship.....................................................................................9
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................9
P3: Marketing Mix for the organisation to achieve the business objectives.........................9
M3: Tactics used by organizations to achieve objectives......................................................1
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................1
P4, M4: Marketing plan for the organisation.........................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5
.........................................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Marketing can be defined as an study of exchange relationship which is formulated to
satisfy customers by producing appropriate goods and services (What is Marketing?. 2019). The
success of business lies in the hands of marketing which made it one of the significant
component of a business. For long survival of a business, it is very important for any business
enterprise to properly utilise all the necessary elements of marketing. ASOS is a UK based e-
commerce company that deals in fashion segment that provides fashion accessories, sunglasses,
cosmetics, and ready to wear outwear. In this report, roles and responsibilities of marketing and
its interrelation with other functional departments in given enterprise is discussed. The report
includes different ways in which companies uses marketing mix by using 7P's of marketing. It
also covers an appropriate market plan for new collection of sports shoes for both men and
women with the help of SWOT analysis and STP model. It also includes overview, mission,
vision, objectives, controlling and monitoring of new market plan.
TASK 1
P1: The roles and responsibilities of the marketing function
Marketing involves all the activities undertaken by an organisation to promote or increase
sales of its product and services (Bauer, 2018). It not only deals with increasing sales but also
helps in creating good image for product and increase goodwill and reputation of overall
organisation. Ultimate goal of marketing function is to achieve the objective and targets of
organisation through increasing profitability.
In today's modern era, marketing is not limited to sales and promotion of product, there
are many more functions formed by marketing department. The main functions of marketing
includes conducting timely market research, designing a marketing plan, product development as
per demand of customers, selection of proper distribution channel and all customer related
services. It includes attracting new customers and maintaining healthy and long lasting
relationship with current as well as with future customers, to secure the future growth and
expansion of organisation. ASOS is a British fashion house deals in clothes, fashion accessories,
sunglasses, cosmetics and also providing fashion accessories along different parts of World.
Being in an fashion market, ASOS face a lot of competition and thus it become necessary to
make proper use of marketing function to remain ahead of its competitors. The different role and

responsibilities a marketing function performs in growth and success of organisation are as
follows:
 Define strategic marketing plans : It is the responsibility of senior mangers of
marketing department to properly define and implement a marketing strategy properly
aligned with overall objectives and goals of organisation (Campbell Martin and Fabos,
2018). This strategy plans may include increase in market share by targeting new market
or attracting more customers through launch of new product, etc. The marketing
department must take approval from board of directors and top management before
implementing any new strategic marketing plan to reduce chances of failure in future. In
ASOS, marketing department is very active and always try to get best marketing plan for
growth and success of organisation. It properly in line with whole organisation and also
report and take advice from higher authorise.
 Conducting market research : To conduct timely market research is the responsibility
of marketing department that a helps in understanding the current situation of market
which includes costumers, competitors and all kinds of opportunities and threats. Market
research is conducted to interpret the taste and preference of customers. Behaviour and
demands of consumers keeps on changing, so it becomes necessary to conduct market
research after every fixed span of time. This also helps in early detection of opportunities
and helps in disclosing the strengths and weakness of competitors so that timely action
can be taken to compete with them. In ASOS, proper market research is conducted to
properly understand the new desire and demands of customers, so that timely efforts can
be made to attract more customers and increase the sales and profitably of whole
organisation (Chatterjee and Chatterjee, 2019).
 Product Management : Marketing department is the one which remain in close touch
with customers and have direct relation with them, hence they understand the demand
and desire of customer. Thus, it is the responsibility of marketing department to provide
all relevant information about latest trends and present needs and preference of customers
to manufacturing department. This helps in introducing new features in existing product
and developing a fresh product. Marketing department also deals with analysis of sales of
existing products and try to identify that whether the actual target of sales is meet or not.
They are also responsible for setting product price and deciding the most attractive

packaging for product to attract more customers. ASOS is having an effective and
talented marketing department which understands the needs of customers, thus they are
able to provide best quality product to their customers. ASOS is also making use of
colourful and attractive packaging so that customers can easily identify its product
(Grimmer, 2018).
 Communication and Promotion : It is the most important role of marketing function as
overall profitability and growth of organisation depends on this. It is very essential to
establish good communication with customers so that all relevant information regarding
launch of new product or about introducing new feature in an existing product can easily
reach to them. This communication can be established through proper promotion strategy
which includes aggressive advertising through different media like TV or social media.
Only communication of information is not always sufficient to establish better relations
with customers, hence timely seminars and other promotional events are also organised
by marketing department to develop and maintain effective relationship with both
potential and current customers. The main aim of all these activities is to generate
awareness and knowledge about product and organisation which tends to increase the
sales volume and ultimately increases the profitably. Marketing department of ASOS
always focused towards their promotional strategy and make use of different modes of
networking like print media, online websites, etc. to reach its customers and promote its
products. Its promotional strategy and customer services makes it better and superior than
other competitors (Dangelico and Vocalelli, 2017).
M1: Role and responsibility of marketing in relation with marketing environment
Marketing is becoming very essential for all organisations in today's dynamic and highly
competitive environment. Proper marketing is essential to understand the change in taste and
preference of customers and to determine the latest and current trends of market or external
environment, so that proper strategy can be made to satisfy that demand. Effective marketing
helps in identifying new opportunities and also provide a chance to grab that opportunity before
it can be taken or grabbed by any other competitors. 4Ps of marketing mix is used so athat
competitive advantages can be gained in open market place. It is tool used to achieve the set
objectives of the organization in proper manner. The 4ps includes product, price, place and
promotion. Product and prices are set by examining the emerging needs of the customers. And

the prices of the good keeps on fluctuating as per the demand of the customers. Both online and
online place are used to promote the goods in the intense competitive world. Digital marketing
tools are used to advertise the product and to gain huge profit. the Thus, marketing also helps in
defeating the competitors and helps in achieving a better position in the market. This reputation
and goodwill is very helpful for growth of overall sales and profit. ASOS is dealing in a fashion
world, which is having a cut throat competition, thus marketing function is very important for
them to remain ahead of their competitors and to attract more customers for its product. The
ultimate aim of ASOS is to increase its sales and market share to gain high profits and to ensure
future success (Hanlon, 2019).
P2: Role and responsibility of marketing in wider organisational context
Marketing function is very essential for achievement of organisational goals and
objective, but this can not be achieved by marketing alone (Hugos, 2018). For proper and timely
achievement of targets, coordination of marketing department with all other departments of
organisation is very essential. In ASOS, all the departments are properly linked and are working
parallel with each other to facilitate easy completion of task and timely achievement of
objectives.
Interrelation between marketing and other functional units
 Marketing and Finance : Finance department is highly concerned about profitably,
revenue, expenses, budget,etc. It is the responsibility of finance department to maintain
proper balance between income and expenditure, so that they prepare timely budget for
all department. Thus, it also help marketing department to evaluate the return that
organisation will get from present marketing strategy and can also suggest some
measures to improve the cost efficiency of a current plan. On the other hand, marketing
helps in increasing sales and profit, thus providing grater revenue to finance department
to accomplish its task properly. Requirement of funds of ASOS for marketing and
promotion is high, thus it is the responsibility of finance department to provide adequate
amount of money for marketing function, so that they can reach to maximum number of
customers, which will ultimately increase sales and revenue of organisation (Holbrook,
2018).

 Marketing and Human Resource Management: HRM department is related with
timely requirement and selection of new individuals as per the requirement and need of
organisation. It also involve proper training and development of current employees to
increase the overall productivity and efficiency of organisation. Marketing is dealing with
branding and communication with audience which is necessary for creating a good image
for organisation. This good image and brand name is helpful for HR department to get
best pool of individual, making it easy to select the most appropriate individual for the
organisation. These talented and skilled employees will ultimately form a effective
marketing team which is highly skilled and innovative. Thus, proper coordination of
Marketing and HRM department ensures batter quality of workforce and proper brand
image of organisation. In ASOS, marketing department is providing signifiant help to
HRM department by properly designing attractive advertisement containing proper job
description for inviting suitable individual for organisation, thus helps in maintaining
proper quality of workforce. Efficient workforce is must for achievement of objectives of
marketing department as well as organisation (Malhotra and Burgess, 2018).
 Marketing and operation : Operations department includes all activities necessary to
convert a raw material into finished goods and also includes proper distribution channels.
Operation function includes manufacturing or production process, proper packaging and
distribution process. Marketing department provides all valuable information about taste
and preference of customers, which is very essential for manufacturing department to
deliver or produce a product best suited for fulfilling the demands of customers and
provide maximum customer satisfaction. Better quality product with more features make
it easy for marketing department to cater more customer and to increase the target market
for organisation. ASOS is famous for its unique and best quality product, as its market
department keeps a close eye on latest trend and desire of customers. This help
production department in delivering a product that provide maximum satisfaction to its
consumer. Thus, increasing the reputation and popularity of ASOS in target market
(Malhotra, 2018).
M2: Significance of interrelationship
Proper interrelationship of all departments is essential and also very signifiant for
improving overall performance and productivity of an organisation. Proper collaboration of

departments facilitates proper communication which reduces the chances of conflicts and
confusion. Thus, promotes easy and timely completion of work without any kind of chaos. This
helps in reducing wastage of resource and time through maintaining a proper balance between
demand and supply of product. As marketing department provides early estimation or for cost of
sales thus, operation department will produce only that much amount of units as estimated by
marketing department. For ASOS, proper relation between all departments helps it achieving
targets on time and more easily. This also provides better quality product to customer and
enhancing customer satisfaction, this creating better reputation for this organisation.
TASK 2
P3: Marketing Mix for the organisation to achieve the business objectives
Marketing Mix can be determined as a combination of various forces by which a
company can influence customers to purchase its products and services. It is a set of tools, used
by firm to pursue its marketing objectives in a target market. These forces revolve around
customer satisfaction and produce such goods and services that meet customers needs and
desires. Thus, it refers to seven broad levels which are product, price, place, promotion, people,
process and physical evidence. These tools makes sure that all the activities are on right track
and working towards achieving organisational goals and objectives. ASOS can use marketing
mix to determine preferences and wants of existing customers prevailing in a market. Here,
marketing mix of ASOS is compared with another UK based retail organisation that is Mark &
Spencer (Wells and Ellsworth, 2016).
Element Description ASOS Mark & Spencer
Product It can be determined
as what marketers are
offering to its
potential and targeted
customers in return
for price.
This organisation is
one of leading retail
firm that deals with
various products for
men, women and kids.
It includes coats,
jackets, shirts, tops,
trousers, skirts,
It is one of the top retail
company that covers
wide range of clothes for
men, women and kids. It
deals with blazers, skirt,
shirt, jeans, cardigans,
shoes, and so on. It also
offers home appliances

cosmetics, sunglasses,
fashion accessories,
fragrances, etc. of high
quality. ASOS also
offers various set of
fragrances.
which includes furniture,
lightings, home
accessories,etc.
Price It is a cost which is
paid by customers for
a product or service
that is offered by
marketers or sellers.
Basically, it targets
high class people and
follows high price
strategy. Its pricing is
done on basis of
evaluating marketing
and determining
competitor's pricing. It
also charge prices to
its products on basis of
demand of customers
and their willingness
to buy that product.
Skimming pricing
tactic is adopted by
ASOS In order to
attract huge customer
for their product.
It is one of the top retail
company that covers
wide range of clothes for
men, women and kids. It
deals with blazers, skirt,
shirt, jeans, cardigans,
shoes, and so on. It offers
price between high to
medium because of
premium and high
quality of its products.
Penetration pricing is
adopted by M&S in order
to capture huge market
ratio across the globe.
Place It refers to a process
in which product or
service is moved to
its potential customer
or users.
It is a e-commerce
company which deals
with their customers
through their website.
Due to this they do not
have any physical
It has more than 1000
stores in around 50
countries. It also has its
website from which
customers can easily
purchase its products and

store. France,
Germany, Russia,
Australia etc. are the
various nation where
firm is serving it's
product to meet the
expectation level of
customers.
get home delivery. UK,
US, Ireland, India,
Dubai, china etc. are the
places where M&S is
operating it's business
successfully.
Promotion It is a technique that
is used by marketers
to inform its targeted
audience about
existence of a product
or service.
ASOS focuses on its
marketing and
promotional activities
for promoting its
products among
customers. For this it
uses different modes
like television, print
media, online,
billboards, etc. It also
uses social media
platforms in order to
promote its products.
It basically uses digital
marketing to promote its
products. Other
promotional media used
by it are print media,
mobile advertisement,
television etc. It also
gives fashion tips and
blogs (Marques, 2015).
People It consists of people
that indirectly or
directly affect
profitability of an
organisation.
The marketing team of
ASOS plays vital role
in selling of its
products and services.
Customer service
department and digital
marketing team is
always available to
answer questions
asked by customers.
It has an efficient digital
marketing team that
constantly work hard to
promote and develop its
website and application.
It also employ more
female employees in its
organisation to bring
diversity in every outlet.

Also, the retailers
helps consumers to
find out product that
suits best for their
needs and preferences.
Process It includes the steps
that are needed to
deliver goods and
services to its users or
consumers.
This organisation
makes sure that there
is availability of
complete stock on its
website as it has an
online process of
delivery which helps
and it is also involved
in research marketing
opportunities to
identify customers
needs and desires.
As it has a large number
of stores, customers can
easily get its products. It
also has a user friendly
mobile application by
which customer can
easily make a purchase
and get home delivery.
Physical
Evidence
It refers to elements
or components that
are involved in a
particular goods or
service which makes
it measurable, visible
and tangible (Cant
and Wiid, 2016).
It has a different
colour packaging to its
various products that
can be easily
recognised by
customers. It also has
a user friendly
website that allow
consumers to view
images of various
products in high
quality.
This organisation has
clean and well managed
stores which attracts
large number of
customers. It also has a
mobile application which
is daily updated if any
new product is launched.

M3: Tactics used by organizations to achieve objectives
There are various techniques used by different organisations in order to achieve its
overall objectives. ASOS target rich people and for this it uses premium price strategy because it
knows that customers believes high price high quality. Mark & Spencer do a lot of efforts in
promoting its products by using various promotional technique like digital marketing, mobile
advertisement, television media and so on. Skimming pricing tactic is used by firm in order to
attract the customer for the product. By this tough challenges can be created for others in cut
throat competitive world. Through this pricing strategy huge market ratio can be captured and
sales volume can be raised accordingly.
TASK 3
P4, M4: Marketing plan for the organisation
Marketing plan : It is basically a report or a document that outlines marketing strategy of
an organisation and tactics used by it. A market plan determines target audience and produce
goods and services according to demands and preferences of its targeted customers (Bauer,
2018). It is basically prepared to identify competitive advantage of company and what
promotional strategy a company can use. An appropriate market plan includes objectives,
overview, mission, vision, controlling, budgeting, monitoring, SWOT analysis and STP model.
ASOS is launching new collection of sports shoes for which is targeting both men and women.
Company Overview : ASOS is a United Kingdom e-commerce organisation that operates
in around 190 countries. It deals with cosmetics, sunglasses, fashion accessories, clothing,
footwear, and so on. It has a significant market share in UK and now it is launching its latest
collection of sports shoes for both men and women that basically targets health conscious
customers.
Mission: Its mission is “To maintain integrity of its brand by producing products that
satisfy customer needs and preferences. ” ASOS works hard to gain customer satisfaction by
producing quality goods and services to them in order to gain large market share.
Vision: The vision of ASOS is “To become a brand that is recognized globally and loved
by people all over world.” It aims to cover large market share by covering large number of
customers.
SITUATION :
1

SWOT analysis- This model and approach is used by a organisation in order to evaluate its
competitive advantage by formulating certain strategies in order to achieve overall target of an
enterprise. It is basically a set of internal factors such as strengths and weaknesses and external
forces like opportunities and threats that can affect an organisation and its functioning (Grimmer,
2018). This approach is very essential for any organisation to measure its overall performance.
ASOS can use this approach to identify its strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats by
evaluating its competitive advantage.
Strengths Weaknesses
 This organisation has large share of
market and it is expanded in around
190 countries from their website. It
offers wide range of products of
premium quality. It has association
with various international celebrities
and had good advertising and brand
presence.
 Its weakness is that it offers premium
pricing strategy which fails to cover
middle class and lower class people. It
results in decrease in market share as it
fails to cover all customers.
Opportunities Threats
 It can collaborate with other brands
and make fashion affordable. It can
also expand its business in more
countries and increase its market
share.
 It faces certain threats from
competitors in terms of affordable
pricing as well as availability.
Objectives: It can be defined as a set of goals, targets and aims towards which organisation
perform its various functions (Malhotra, 2018). ASOS is launching new set of sports shoes in
order to achieve some specific objectives which are-
 To generate revenue up to 10% in upcoming year and be able to face competition
prevailing in market.
2

 To increase sales of an organisation by 15% in upcoming year by providing quality goods
to its customers.
STP Model- This model is used to create marketing plans for helping marketers to develop
strategies and to carry on marketing functions more efficiently and effectively. It consists of
segmenting a market, targeting potential customers and position the image of a brand in the mind
of customers. It is divided into three broad categories that are segmentation, targeting and
positioning which can be utilised by ASOS in order to develop an efficient marketing plan. Segmentation: It can be defined as a process used by marketers in order to split and
divide market into various categories. ASOS can divide target market into different
groups and than position its products. Segmentation are of four types, demographic,
geographic, psycho graphic and behavioural. For launching new collection of sports
shoes, ASOS is segmenting market on demographic basis . Hereby, specially the
segmentation is done in accordance with gender that is, male and female segmentation. Targeting: It is used by marketers to identify its target audience and target market. Positioning: It is what marketers do to the minds of prospective customers by creating an
image of a particular product or brand (Drucker, 2018).
4p's of Marketing mix: It is set of marketing tool which is adopted by firm so as to full-fill
marketing objectives. The points included in the 4ps of marketing are explained below:
Product: Firm frame product by scanning the market so that sales ratio of the designed
product can be raised. By this customer base for the product can be increased gradually and
huge profit can be raised accordingly which is a positive mark for the company. ASOS is
launching its latest collection of sports shoes for both men and women in the marketplace in
order to full-fill their emerging needs. By this sales volume of the shoes can be raised as to a
large scale which is a positive mark for the business.
Price: In the initial days the prices of the good is less and gradually as the demand raises
the prices changes in order to generate revenue. The prices of the sports shoes designed for both
men and women are reasonable. And they can easily purchase it from the market.
Place: ASOS shoes for both men and women are distributed in both urban and rural
area so that every section of the people can use the good. By this brand recognition can be done
at a large scale. Additionally, huge revenue can be gathered which can be further used for
growth and development of the business in other nation.
3

Promotion: Online platform is selected to commercialize ASOS shoes for both men and
women for health conscious customers. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook etc. are the social sites
where latest collect of shoes are promoted in order to pull large section of men and women for
shoes. As people are more active on social sites it will be beneficial for the company to advertise
their product in this sites. By this attention of large section of customers can be dine which leads
raising sales ratio at a tremendous scale.
ACTION PLAN :
Budget : To keep all the activities under control and efficient utilisation of the resources they
can formulate budget which will help them to allocate their resources and manage their expenses
and revenues.
Basis Amount($)
Promotion activity expenses 5000
Advertisement expenses 6000
Plant and machinery installation 10000
Travelling expenses 5000
Total 26000
Forecasting : For every organisation it is important to forecast various elements such as cost,
profits, market share etc. as on the basis of this they will determine the prices of their products.
The cost that is estimated for their product is minimum 1800 on which ASIS can add on their
profit margin of 20% and accordingly they can price their products.
Controlling and Monitoring
For formulating an appropriate market plan, it is very essential to control and monitor its
activities time to time. It includes monitoring that plan in order to identify if all the activities are
on track or not. ASOS while formulating market plan for new collection of sports shoes need to
keep an eye that whether activities taking place are towards achieving organisational goals or not
(Chegwe and Anaehobi, 2015).
4

CONCLUSION
From the above report, it has been concluded that marketing is an vital function of every
organisation that serves various activities. With the help of promotion, customers can know the
existence of a particular product or service. It also summarised interrelation of marketing with
other functions of an enterprise. Marketing creates an idea and finance provides adequate
monetary resources to transform that idea into action.
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