Marketing Essentials: A Comprehensive Guide for 'Your Destination'

This comprehensive guide delves into the essential aspects of marketing, focusing on the transportation firm 'Your Destination'. It explores the roles and responsibilities of marketing functions, analyzes the interrelationship between marketing and other functional units, and develops a detailed marketing plan. The guide also compares 'Your Destination' with its competitor, National Express, using the extended marketing mix framework. This analysis provides valuable insights into effective marketing strategies for transportation businesses.

marketing essentials
YOUR DESTINATION

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................1
TASK 1- MEMO............................................................................................................2
P1 EXPLANATION OF THE ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE
FUNCTIONS OF MARKETING.................................................................................2
P2, M1 EXPLAIN THE MANNER IN WHICH THE ROLES AND DUTIES OF THE
MARKETING PROCESS PROVIDE CONTRIBUTION TO WIDER CONTEXT OF
THE FIRM ‘YOUR DESTINATION’...........................................................................4
M2 ANALYSIS OF THE IMPORTANCE OF INTERRELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
MARKETING AND THE OTHER FUNCTIONAL UNITS OF YOUR DESTINATION
..................................................................................................................................5
TASK 2..........................................................................................................................7
P3, M3 MARKETING STRATEGY............................................................................7
TASK 3........................................................................................................................10
P4, M4 DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATING THE MARKETING PLAN..............10
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................14
REFERENCES...........................................................................................................15
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INTRODUCTION
Businesses attain success through effective marketing strategy. The services and
the products of the firm are being promoted to the customers. It helps in achieving
the goals and objectives of the business. For the assignment, the transportation firm
‘Your Destination’ is taken into consideration. A memo is created for providing a
description about the duties of marketing and its relation with other organisation’s
functional units. Next, a comparison will be made with another transportation firm
using the marketing mix elements for the accomplishment of the objectives of a
business. Lastly, a business plan will be developed and investigated upon.
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TASK 1- MEMO
To: Senior management members
From: Marketing Manager
Date: 12 May 2018
Subject: In relation to recruitment of marketing officer for overcoming the
expansion plan
Dear senior management team,
P1 EXPLANATION OF THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE
FUNCTIONS OF MARKETING
Marketing can be described as the activity of seeking for, developing and providing
the value to the consumers and thus meeting their expectations. The marketing
can be advantageous in the time where the needs of people are fluctuating every
day. Using good approaches and better strategies for the process of marketing
helps in choosing the target market and making effective decisions for the firm.
The promotion of the firm’s services and products will attract new customers and
also aid in the development of better services (Armstrong, et al. 2014). The
management team of a firm makes use of different strategies for the
accomplishment of organisational goals with fewer efforts and more gains.
The variety of marketing concepts adopted by marketing officers are depicted
below-
Marketing is concerned with the promotion in target markets through provisioning
best services. This is done so as to build a brand image thus attracting a large
number of consumers.
Production- The customers prefer to avail the services and purchase products
that are convenient to reach and straightforwardly available in the market. They
must also be economic in nature.
Selling- By taking the aid of promotional activities, a firm like ‘Your Destination’
look for an increase in sales and fulfil the financial needs of the firm. This directly
helps to drive the goals of the company.
The current marketing strategy of the firm is emphasized towards 2 factors, first,
establishing a brand value and then get a rise in sales. With the aid of a large
number of platforms for marketing, the firm is always focussed towards attracting
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consumers and gain profits (Armstrong, et al. 2014). On the other hand, the
marketing prospects estimate that the marketing will be more popular in the digital
domain despite the traditional approach. The process of digital marketing in Your
Destination is moving forward towards development and the firm’s marketing
department foresees growth and development in future.
The roles of the marketing process cannot be neglected in today’s era as it drives
the development of the firms. The rivals of ‘Your Destination’ are working hard to
gain a good position with the help of deployment of innovation in the firms. The
marketing procedure also assists in establishing a better relationship with the
stakeholders. It also influences the development process of new services and the
product provided along with motivating the firms to invent new and better
strategies for promotion (David, 2011).
In the firm Your Destination, the process of marketing in the regions of Manchester
and Glasgow etc. has to be done to develop the brand image. The profit base firm
needs to implement the marketing process to gain more advantage over
competitors and enhance the business economy. The extension of the firm in new
locations helps in building a strong workforce thus together working for the growth
of the firm.
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P2, M1 EXPLAIN THE MANNER IN WHICH THE ROLES AND
DUTIES OF THE MARKETING PROCESS PROVIDE
CONTRIBUTION TO BROADER CONTEXT OF THE FIRM ‘YOUR
DESTINATION’
The organisations’ structure and the methodologies of executing of the activities of
the business are two major aspects that define the role and responsibilities of the
firm Your Destination. The company has achieved competitive victory in 3 years in
the region of London and Essex in the aspect of provisioning better facilities for
transportation. This has been done as a result of effective marketing by the firm.
The firm has utilised better technologies and effective strategies to promote its
services in the targeted marketplace (Kotler, 2011). The marketing process must
be effective enough to gain a competitive edge over National Express which is the
leader in the business of transportation.
The roles and responsibilities of the marketing process in the firm Your Destination
is described below as-
Market strategies are being developed by the promotion team of Your Destination
as per the needs of the firm. The sustenance of the firm is totally dependent on
the marketing strategy in which the top authorities of the firm are liable for
development of the tactics and strategies for the marketing process in order to
build strong relations with the clients.
Segmentation- In the marketing procedure, one of the activities is to reach the
targeted audience and provision them the amenities according to their needs. For
today’s market, the process of segmentation of the market and customer is the
need of the hour. The firm has been successful in identifying its potential and loyal
clients by using the segmentation processes such as demographic, geographic
and behavioural (Jacobs, et al. 2010).
Market investigation- In order to cater business expansion of the firm Your
Destination, the markets need to be scrutinised and researched. The market
analysis is essential for the transportation firm due to the presence of other
prominent transportation firm in the market like National Express. The firm’s
success in last three years is accounted for its effective strategies for marketing
and the rise in the demand and needs of the services provided by the company.
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6

M2 ANALYSIS OF THE IMPORTANCE OF INTERRELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN MARKETING AND THE OTHER FUNCTIONAL UNITS
OF YOUR DESTINATION
The analysis of the influence of the marketing process is a mandatory task for any
of the business that provides an effective contribution to the firm by taking the firm
to higher success levels. The influence of marketing in Your Destination can be
seen from its strategic decision to expand into new markets. The firm has the
capability to attract the loyal consumers with the help of innovative strategies for
marketing. In the different types of firms, there are a number of the department
that are emphasised towards achieving the similar types of results. In the
marketing department context, the senior manager has the responsibility to work
together with the managers of the rest of the departments (Slack, 2015).
Together, the departments of the firm have to work together win order to
accomplish some common or the interrelated goals. The influence of the process
of marketing can be seen from the internal as well as the external environment
where the internal environment includes the dealer and the stakeholder along with
the consumers and the distributors. On the contrary, the external environment
includes the aspects such as the political, legal and other socio-economic aspects.
The marketing subsection functions rely on the functions of the finance department
by the fact that any of the strategies and tactics cannot be deployed without the
financial help and budget. The department of finance has to plan a proper budget.
The rest of the activities that are carried out in the company need financial
assistance for which the marketing team can choose an appropriate budget for the
expenses to be spent on the deployment process (Stadtler, 2015). Taking an
example if Your destination wants to introduce discounts and offers on its services
then it has to consult with the finance department for the development of the plan.
One of them can provide back-end support and the other help in plan promotion.
In a similar manner, the Human resource department carries out the tasks of
recruitment and selection with the help of the finance and the marketing
department. The HR team recruits the skilled people for operating its functions in a
smooth manner. The marketing team in a similar manner coordinated with the
production department for several operations and functions (Pike and Page, 2014).
In the formation of the services, the team for marketing has the responsibility to
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promote the transportation services and then given to the management
appropriate statistics and figures to the team of management in order the services
to be customised as per the needs of the consumers.
The relations among the research and marketing sections is also important in the
way that the team of marketing is liable for providing the correct figures about the
demand of customers and then the research department conducts an analysis of
this information. In this manner, various sections and department of Your
Destination work in interrelation with each other in order to enable simplification of
the tasks and increase the effectiveness of the business activities. The firm is
planning expansion and the growth of the firm is observed from working in unison
of all the departments of the firm with each other and thus develop the services,
promote them and increase sales and gain profits.
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TASK 2
P3, M3 MARKETING STRATEGY
Extended marketing mix
In this type of marketing, the promotional activities are even carried out after the
commencement of the sales of the services and products. As compared to the
traditional marketing mix, in the extended one the aspects such as physical
evidence, people and the process are added. Here, the marketing mix is being
applied to Your Destination and its competitor National Express both are the major
transportation industries in the United Kingdom. The firms are striving hard to
establish themselves as a brand and gain immense popularity (Enache, 2011). The
add-on factors in the marketing mix are significant in order to examine the proper
functioning of the operations of the business in the extended areas. Below is a
comparison of the marketing mix elements of Your Destination and National
Express-
Element Your Destination National Express
Price The firm has tried to
decide the price of
services it offers that is
affordable by all the
people as the price is one
of the selling features of
the services (Enache,
2011)
The company is focussed
towards making its
services available for all
by through adopting the
fluctuating pricing
strategies. The price of
the products is less than
Your Destination
(National Express, 2018).
Place The firm has its
operations in Essex and
London and in future
wants to expand its wings
in Manchester and the
other UK regions. The
company is present in
The firm has its head
branch in the UK but it
has not planned to spread
its wings in other parts of
UK
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many places and this
helps it to launch a good
brand image (Jain, 2013)
Product In the process of fulfilling
the needs of the
consumers, the if
conducting strategic
planning of the
transportation services
The firm is dedicated to
satisfying the customer
needs. The firm provides
limited services of
transportation like the
bus, tam and train etc.
(National Express, 2018)
Promotion In the strategies of
promotion the activities of
marketing the services of
the firm are conducted.
The firm uses the
strategies such as digital
media and print media
marketing
The firm makes use of
marketing methods in
order to develop the
brand awareness. The
firm requires to spend
some expenses and
achieve the objectives of
the marketing process.
Process The processes in the
company comprise the
activities such as the
stakeholder’s analysis of
the process of planning of
the idea of the service
delivery.
The top management of
the firm has the
responsibility to conduct
the delivery of the
processes. The process
of the company is
emphasised towards the
proper service delivery.
People These are the individuals
who have the liability to
conduct the activities of
the firm. The firm has
divided the roles to each
of its team. The
consumers of the firm
The firm recruits the
talented individuals for
improvement in the brand
image and imparts the
better services to
individuals for achieving
the goals of the firm
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also play an important
role as they are the key
people deciding the
growth of business (Khan,
2014).
(National Express, 2018)
Physical Evidence The firm has stores for
providing the data and
information for the
transportation. This
enhances the brand
popularity.
The physical evidence for
the firm is the best quality
of services it provides.
The availability of the
outlets of the firm in some
places is its physical
evidence.
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TASK 3
P4, M4 DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATING THE MARKETING PLAN
Executive summary
For the development of a good marketing plan for the firm Your Destination, the
present situation of the market has been examined by the team of marketing of the
firm. To enable this, the external and the internal environment of the firm is done.
Company overview
The firm providing the transportation services i.e. Your Destination is based in the
United Kingdom having branches in the cities of London and Essex. The firm
provides the best services related to transportation growing at an abrupt rate with the
completion of 3 years of a successful run. The firm has its plans to operate in places
like Newcastle, Manchester, Glasgow and Aberdeen. The main aim of the firm is to
gain a competitive advantage over National Express. The firm is working hard
towards enhancing the marketing operations in order to fascinate more customers
and gain more popularity.
Current marketing situation analysis
Internal analysis
The aspects of the stakeholders of the firm, the departments which are liable for
conducting the business or the operational factors are being included. The
employees that provide services to the firm have the liability to take decisions related
to the effective performance and move forward in the operations that are being
stopped by some hindrances (Westwood, 2016). The stakeholders have a
commitment to their work to serve the consumers and work hard to delight the
stakeholders. The clients that are linked to the firm take the decisions at proper time
and situations and this is being done by the team of management of Your
Destination.
External Analysis
The external aspects that impact the firm are the political, legal, and economic and
other external aspects such as technology factors. All of the external aspects have a
major impact on the operations of the business as all the external factors are the
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factors liked with the country in which the company operates. In the market of United
Kingdom, the competitor firms such as National Express and the firm Your
destination are competing for neck to neck with each other. These transportation
service providing companies are striving hard to provide the best services and to
gain a major competitive advantage (Grant, 2016). The impact of Brexit has also
impacted the firm in terms of economic aspects and change in some taxation policies
that led to the firm to change its cost of services.
SWOT analysis
Strengths Weakness
 The firm grew at a fast rate in last
three years
 Best quality of services thus
provisioning better connectivity
 Not able to pay attention to all
class of customers
Opportunities Threats
 The request for the services the
Glasgow and other cities have
introduced new opportunities for
the firm to spread its wings in
new places and grow the
business
 The changing trends in the needs
of the consumers
 The obligation of various laws
and legislation of the government
in various places
 The firm National Express is the
major rival thus posing threat to
the firm
SMART OBJECTIVES
The main goals of Your Destination are to face a challenge to the market leader
National Express that is the multinational firm of Britain which operates the trains,
coaches, buses and the trams in the UK and in other nations as well. The firm is
moving towards gaining 100% customer satisfaction by promising the affordable
services to the customers (McDaniel and Gates, 2013). The smart objectives of the
firm are-
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 To improve the brand value and spread awareness among the consumers
about the services provisioned by the firm
 To establish a competitive edge over the market leaders like the National
Express
 To spread its wings in other parts of the nation like Manchester, Glasgow and
other above-mentioned places
Strategy
According to the Ans off matrix, the firm has planned penetration which means that
the firm will expand in the existing markets. The firm has developed the marketing
plan to do the same. In the penetration, the firm will expand in Glasgow, Manchester,
and Newcastle.
Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning
The market segmentation will be done to accomplish the sales, profit etc. The firm
has segmented the consumers according to their travelling habits those who travel
daily and travel very rarely. The firm is targeting the people who fall between the
ages of 18-35 since this is the range of age of the people who do jobs and travel for
tourism purposes (Wedel and Kamakura, 2012). The firm has its aim of providing
the best services in the manner of providing better connectivity, good services and
the better quality at affordable rates. These customers are then positioned for
providing the services and various discounts and offers.
Tactics and action
The marketing success can be seen from the tactics that firm adopt. The marketing
team has to coordinate with the other departments for contributing to the growth of
the firm through better sales and profits (Marich, 2013). The tactics adopted by the
firm is a blend of the theories researched and the personal experiences of the
employees of the firm. The people at the top position have the liability for tracking the
company activities and then evaluating the overall performance. The leaders of the
firm have to manage the actions of the marketing plan.
Budget
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ACTIONS COST (£)
RESEARCH OF MARKET £24000
DEVELOPMENT OF PLAN £17000
STAFFS SALARY £25000
TEACHING AND MENTORING £4000
TECHNOLOGY USE £43000
COST OF OPERATION £15000
TOTAL AMOUNT £128000
Control
The control of the planning for the marketing is the essential operations to be carried
by Your Destination. This involves effective monitoring and evaluating the operations
of the marketing by the owners of the business and the managers of the marketing
department.
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CONCLUSION
In the assignment, taking the firm Your Destination into consideration the marketing
function role has been depicted in detail in a memo followed by the explanation of
various departments interrelating to each other. A marketing strategy has been
conducted for the firm and its major competitors with the help of extended marketing
mix. Also, an effective marketing plan has been prepared for the form analysing its
external and internal environment.
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