Marketing Essentials: A Comprehensive Guide to Marketing Strategies and Tactics

This comprehensive guide delves into the fundamental principles of marketing, exploring key roles and responsibilities, the marketing mix, and strategic planning. It examines the evolution of the marketing mix from the traditional 4Ps to the extended 7Ps, highlighting the significance of each element in achieving business objectives. The guide also provides a detailed analysis of marketing plans, objectives, and strategies, using ASDA as a case study to illustrate how organizations can effectively implement marketing tactics to achieve their goals. Through a combination of theoretical frameworks and practical examples, this resource offers valuable insights for students and professionals seeking to master the essentials of marketing.

Marketing Essentials
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Table of Contents
Introduction........................................................................................................................3
P1 Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function. (450 words)......4
P2 Explain how roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organizational
context...............................................................................................................................8
P3 Compare the ways in which different organizations apply the marketing mix to the
marketing planning process to achieve business objectives...........................................10
P4 Evaluate different tactics applied by organizations to demonstrate how business
objectives have been achieved.......................................................................................13
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................21
Reference List..................................................................................................................22
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Introduction
Marketing is an essential part in an organization’s business plan and the process by
which organizations make people aware of the business and its activities. There are
different concepts, theories and tools of marketing that influences the marketing plan of
an organization. All these have been incorporated in the assignment. In the assignment,
role of marketing in respect to both B2B and B2C, strategic planning and marketing mix
have been discussed. In marketing mix, 7 components of marketing mix have also been
discussed in depth. How all these tools and analysis help an organization in achieving
its goals and objectives have also been incorporated in the report. Marketing Plan and
its importance and value have also been briefly discussed in the assignment. In terms of
marketing plans, situation analysis tools and techniques have also been discussed in
the assignment. The assignment gives an overview of marketing and its essential
components that plays an important part for an organization.
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P1 Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function. (450
words)
Definitions of marketing and the nature of marketing
Marketing is a systematic activity and planning conducted by organizations with the help
of which they bring buyers and seller together and make people aware of the business
and it products and services (Armstrong et al., 2015).
Nature of marketing can be studied with the help of the following mentioned points:
Human activity: Marketing is known to be a human activity where human needs are
satisfied by effort of humans
Art and Science – Marketing requires both art and science to choose a target market.
Customers are also satisfied by creation, communication and delivering and meet
superior customer value.
Consumer-oriented – An organization manufactures products and designs services for
the needs and wants of consumers and ultimately satisfying them. The aim of most of
the organization is to sell their product with reasonable profit and earn customer
satisfaction.
The development of the marketing concept, including current and future trends
As per marketing concept, an organization should analyze the needs and wants of
customers and consumers, and make decisions to make develop their product so
satisfy the needs of the customers and meet the business objectives (Varadarajan,
2010). ASDA has also adopted certain marketing concepts keeping in mind the current
and future trends.
Production concept
In concept of production, it has been found that product with high quality and of low
prices is preferred by customers. Therefore, production efficiency is mainly
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concentrated by the management of ASDA. Maas distribution also helps in lowering the
cost of the products that helps the customers buying the products in low cost.
Product concept
Customers prefer innovative and sustainable products. The management of ASDA
therefore focuses on the making sustainable and variety of products.
Current Marketing Trends
 Relationship marketing – Organizations in recent times focus more on building
relationship with customers to build a bond (Miquel-Romero et al., 2014). After
sales service is an effective process of influencing repeat purchase by the
existing customers and help in influencing word of mouth publicity (Alrubaiee and
Al-Nazer, 2010).
 Industrial Marketing-Industrial marketing is also preferred by most of the
organization currently. This is a B2B prospect where an organization prefers to
sell their product in large quantity and with marginal profit.
Future Marketing Trends
 Capitalization of Application – Emphasis on mobile application needs to be
considered by ASDA as this the growing trend. In future, this will make a big
impact on the marketing activities of all organizations (Kirby, 2012).
 Big data – Big data has created a buzz in the recent times and believed to gather
more attention in future. Incorporation of Big data will give ASDA an added
advantage against its competitors looking at the advertising platforms and
marketing outreach.
How the external environment influences and impacts upon marketing activity
External environment has affects on the marketing activity of ASDA in various ways.
The identified external environment factors are; technology, competition, demography,
government policies and others. They all play a role in influencing the marketing
activities. Due to advancement in technology, marketing activities have changed a lot.
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Use of digital media has significantly increased (Sashi, 2012). Due to increase rate of
competition, marketing activities have to be more innovative and frequent.
The structure and operations of marketing departments
Figure 1: Marketing Department Structure of ASDA
(Source: Created by the learner)
Marketing department of an organization has different roles and responsibilities that it
has to maintain effectively. The Vice President looks after the overall marketing
strategies and plans conducted by the organization. He has the last say in any of the
plans and strategies. Marketing manager analyses the plans and strategies that have
been implemented by an organization, He is also involved in developing the strategies
and plans. Market researchers conduct researches to find out the trends in market.
They also identify the needs and wants of the customers in recent time. Public Relations
Department is responsible maintaining relationship with the customers. They make the
customers aware of any discount or offers and influence repeat purchase. Creative
services team identifies the current trends in terms of services and tends to adopt
innovative service options.
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VicePresidentCreativeServicesPublicRelationsMarketingManager

Overview of marketing processes that include analysis, strategic planning and
the marketing mix
Marketing process is a process of analyzing any opportunities in a market, identifying
the target market, designing marketing mix and implement strategic planning
accordingly (Kotler, 2015). Situational analysis, marketing mix and marketing strategies
are developed in this process. At first in this process, opportunities in the market are
identified. Analysis is done based on needs and wants of the population. This helps an
organization in adopting effective marketing strategies for long run. ASDA also has
incorporated this strategy in their marketing process. After the needs and wants of a
population have been identified, marketing mix is done and the components are
developed accordingly.
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P2 Explain how roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider
organizational context.
Marketing as a business function
The department of marketing plays an essential role in endorsing the business and
objectives of ASDA. It acts as the profile of the company, while producing all materials
representing the commercial organization and coordinating them. The department of
marketing of ASDA is responsible for the job of reaching out to the desired customers,
prospects, financiers and the community, and marketing also creates an absolute front
picture which represents ASDA under a positive light. Marketing in a business
organization is an important process which leads to its success in eventual stages. The
different functions and responsibilities that are involved in marketing have been
discussed hereunder.
 Marketing defines the goals of a company. This involves the details of the
principle objectives of ASDA. It also gives the customers a preview on what their
experiences are going to be like while dealing with the company.
 The marketing team of a company conducts market researches which help the
organization to determine the fiscal status quo of the markets, demands and risks
involved.
 The marketing department produces the materials that promote the core product
and services of the company.
 It conducts campaign management proactively by identifying the benefits of the
products and services to focus over the course of the company’s sale cycle.
 The marketing department create content for the products and service of the
company and provides for search engine optimization of the company.
 Marketing in many companies are responsible for communication of employees
through intranet or newsletters.
 It conducts a keen observation on other market vendors and keeps a track of
competition in the market.
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The different roles of business units and the interrelationships between these
functional units and marketing
Marketing and production department: These departments are interrelated as they
have to look after the quality control issues that are managed by the production
department of a company. The quality of product of a company is directly related to
customer demands and complaints which are handled by the marketing department of
the company.
Marketing and financial department: Marketing and finance are the two basic
foundation on which a company’s growth and profits are depended on. If a company
does not amalgamate marketing and finance then it will invite big trouble in the running
of the business. Both the departments are needed to be collaborated for the purpose of
producing great results. The finance department is concerned with all monetary aspects
like profits, feasibility of projects, costs, financial performance at the end of year, sales,
growth in competition and so on. On the other hand marketing is essentially concerned
with advertising, sales quantity, sales targets, transactions of business in comparison to
market competitors, data mining and publicity of the product and services, which
operate as an interrelated organ of the company (Parikh, 2018).
Marketing and HR department: human resources and marketing are not as
disconnected as one might think. A corporation for the course of marketing requires to
draw the attention of profitable clients to attain marginal sales figures. And these
functions are performed by the employees managed by the department of Human
Resource in a company (Smallbusiness.chron.com, 2018).
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P3 Compare the ways in which different organizations apply the marketing mix to
the marketing planning process to achieve business objectives.
The shift from the 4Ps to the 7Ps and the significance of the extended marketing
mix
In past, marketing mix used by organizations had only four elements. Product, place,
price and promotion were the basic elements that were considered in the marketing
tool. It was later noticed that to build a more effective strategy some elements in the
marketing mix needed to be incorporated. So marketing mix was extended with three
more elements namely, people, place and physical evidence. The extended marketing
mix helps in determining the right marketing strategy and designs an effective business
plan (Huang and Sarigöllü, 2014). With the help of his tool marketing segmentation,
targeting and promotion can also be designed. The extended marketing plan is widely
used and this serves the need of the organizations in building a proper marketing plan.
As a critical component of the marketing plan, the marketing mix is very important to
strategise and create an effective output for organisation such as ALDI. By
encompassing the different elements that have an effect on a business’s operations, the
marketing mix helps in the eventual success of all operations and processes (Armstrong
et al., 2014).
By using an extended marketing mix, business strategies are able to encapsulate a
wider range of elements such as product, place, promotions, people, process and
the physical space (Borden, 2015). By using these seven elements, marketing
strategies will be more effective and ensure that the company, ALDI is able to derive a
more successful output from their investments into the market.
As ALDI operates in the retail industry, they will have a specialised marketing mix,
which relates to their unique operations and marketing practices. This marketing mix
helps with the subsequent growth strategies of the company (Huang and Sarigöllü, 2014)
Product- ALDI offers affordable retail products that they source from a variety of
suppliers around the world. By providing their own types of products, ALDI extends
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control to production techniques and the prices that they set. The company sells food,
household and other consumer products. The company also adopts product
diversification in terms of the different markets in which they operate.
Price- ALDI commands a very strong customer base, which are attracted by the cheap
prices. Competitive pricing ensures that ALDI are able to navigate through the market
situation in a very effective manner. ALDI also uses a penetrative pricing strategy that
allows the company to gain a market share in an equitable manner (Ododo et al., 2015).
Place- The organisation has more than 8000 countries across 18 countries. By using a
simple store layout, the customers are able to shop in a more effective manner, while
keeping costs low. The equipment that ALDI uses are considered environmentally
friendly, which keeps waste disposal at a minimal level. ALDI also maintains very high
standards in their stores so that customers feel welcome and comfortable during their
shopping experience. ALDI also maintains a vital presence in the online market space
that allows them to gain access to a wider range of customers. The online market also
allows the company to offer a wider range of products and extensive host of delivery
options that would help them hold onto customers more effectively.
Promotion- This is a comprehensive strategy used by the company to ensure that they
are able to extend market operations in an effective manner. As the company gives so
much importance to cost effectiveness, the promotion activities that they partake in
are low. In fact, the company does not have any marketing output in Germany; similarly,
they rely on their effective operation, a wide variety of offerings and very cheap prices to
attract their customers. The company also has a weekly newsletter that they use to
inform the customer about latest offerings and discounts. The company also used
email marketing to promote their products.
People: The employees in ADSA are well trained and are the main driver in the
organization. The employees of ASDA provide excellent sales assistance. This helps in
building a string customer bonding.
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Physical evidence: ASDA has a strong physical presence both online and offline.
ASDA has its reach in many places of UK and can expand their presence in the global
market to acquire more customers.
Process: The process maintained by ASDA is designed in such a way that the
customers do not have any problem. The store layout has been designed keeping in
mind the accessibility of the products.
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P4 Evaluate different tactics applied by organizations to demonstrate how
business objectives have been achieved
The importance and value of marketing plans
The purpose and aim of marketing plan is to coordinate an organization’s goals and
objectives, define the market and create a proper market segmentation and incorporate
the marketing mix systematically implement the activities of the incorporated marketing
activities. Developing en effective marketing plan is needed by an organization to stand
out from its competitors (Westwood, 2016).
Importance of an effective marketing plan is to follow up with the marketing activities
and identify its effectiveness. With the help of marketing plan, organization like ASDA
can analyze the chosen market and gain knowledge about the target audience, market
segment, weakness, opportunities, strengths and threats of the organization. An
effective market planning is also important to adopt with the current trends and changes
of the marketing strategies and tactics and identify the time to change those tactics and
strategies. By creating cost-effective budget for the marketing activities business
organizations can enjoy high ROI form the marketing activities.
The links between marketing plans, marketing objectives and marketing
strategies
Strategic planning components include goals, strategies, objectives and tactics (Steiner,
2010). Goals are of long-term and taken designed for long term. Goals also provide
direction of what the marketing department has in mind to achieve. Objectives are part
of goal that provide preferred, measurable and specific outcome. Marketing plan is the
overall planning of the marketing strategies that are incorporated by an organization.
Marketing strategy, market plan and marketing objectives are interrelated with each
other, as without one any of the action remains incomplete.
Marketing Plan
Executive Summary
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ASDA has to concentrate on the new product development. They have planned to
include sustainable clothing and organic food in their product range. To do this first the
company overview has been mentioned along with its mission and vision statement.
The internal and external factors have been identified with the help of SWOT and
PESTEL analysis. Keeping in mind the factors marketing objectives have been set.
Then the marketing plan has been drafted along with the after activities starting from
implantation, evaluation and control.
Company Overview
The founder of ASDA is Roger Bumley. ASDA is a supermarket retailer located in
Leeds, West Yorkshire of Britain. The company was established in the year 1965. The
company has been expanding since then in various parts of UK. In 1970s and 1980s,
ASDA expanded in to the South of England. Core supermarket retail format has been
incorporated by the company. Financial services, grocery and general merchandises
are some of the products of ASDA. ASDA is the subsidiary company of Walmart that
has been established in the year 1999. Recently, the CEO of the company is Roger
Bumley (asda.com, 2018).
Business Vision and Mission
ASDA has set their mission “to be the best value chain retailer in Britain, exceeding
customer needs always.”
Vision of ASDA is to respect all individuals, service to their customers and strive for
excellence.
Current Marketing Situation Analysis
Internal analysis (SWOT analysis)
SWOT analysis is an analyzing tool that helps an organization in identifying its
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Below is the SWOT analysis of the
chosen company ASDA. This will help in better understanding on determining the
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components of SWOT analysis with reference to an organization (Helms and Nixon,
2010).
Strengths Weaknesses
 ASDA has a strong management
team
 ASDA develops sustainable
products
 Innovation culture of ASDA attracts
the retailers and draws them
towards ASDA
 Economy of scale and superior
technology of ASDA is also
considered to be one of their
strengths
 Unavailability of mini stores like its
competitors Tesco and Sainsbury is
a disadvantage of ASDA
 Customer retention policy is weak
of ASSA
 Unavailability of loyalty cards has
an impact on customer retention as
well
 Product quality is inferior to its
competitors
Opportunities Threats
 Expansion of e-commerce gives
ASDA an advantage of exploring
more in the online business
 There are potential in the UK
market as well as abroad market.
They can grab the opportunity by
market penetration in UK and
expansion in other potential
markets like Asia
 High competition from small
retailers like Lidl and Aldi is a threat
to be concerned about for Aldi
 Constant changes in the pricing
strategy of its competitors like
TESCO has also proved to be a
threat for Aldi
Table 1: SWOT Analysis of ASDA
(Source: Created by the learner)
External analysis (PEST analysis)
Factors Analysis
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Political Different national, international, and Europe legislations affect the
rules and policies of companies like the employment, consumer rights,
taxes and others. Political instability and wars also affect in the
decision-making process of an organization. It is difficult to take any
decision when the political condition of a country or region is unstable
as regulations keeps changing with the change in government. This
also affects ASDA in making strategic decisions.
Economical ASDA like any other organizations needs to consider the economic
factors. Pay levels, labour supply, cost of credit and competitive
pressures all gets influenced and affects ASDA in terms of economical
factors. The main impact is on the pricing strategies of ASDA in a
certain way.
Social Health and lifestyle, ageing in population, celebrity trends are some of
the social factors that affect ASDA and needs to be considered by the
company as well. Clear understanding of the social factor and its
changes helps ASDA in introducing new product development and
enhancement in services. Considering these factors also help ASDA
in developing proper market segmentation.
Technology Technology is in the process of continuous development,
enhancement and adopting to these changes helps ASDA is
delivering to the current needs and wants of the population. The click
and collect service of ASDA has helped them attract more customers
in their supermarkets. Competitions of ASDA are also finding the best
ways to adapt to the changes in technology and serve their customers
in a better and efficient way.
Environmenta
l
Effect like global warming has created an alarm in the mind of the
consumers. Industrial pollution has also grown due to which the
environment gets affected regularly. ASDA must consider the factors
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of environment such as carbon footprints, green economy, organic
foods, hazardous waste and other things The increased awareness of
the population towards the environmental factors needs ASDA to
consider these factors and work on them to improve their reputation n
terms of social activities.
Legal The company must adhere to the rules and regulations of the country
and region to avoid any legal issues. Employee Act, consumer act,
health and safety act and other rules and regulations must be followed
by ASDA to avoid any prosecution or legal penalties.
Table 2: PESTEL Analysis of ASDA
(Source: Created by the learner)
Marketing Objectives
 To increase awareness regarding the new product development of sustainable
clothes and organic food
 To increase sales by 10%
 To acquire new market
 To enhance customer relationship
Segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP)
Market segmentation is the process of dividing the target audience into certain groups
(Cleveland et al., 2011). Market segmentation has been done by using demographic
segmentation, where consumers have been divided according to their age, gender and
income groups. ASDA has identified its target market as majority of its population,
because it has a wide product range that serves the needs of most of the population. In
terms of demography, it attracts consumers of all age group starting from child to old.
ASDA serves products like groceries, food items, general merchandise and others that
are required by all. ASDA focuses on both sections like B2B and B2C. As already
mentioned above, ASDA has tie ups with different organizations where, they sell bulk
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products in marginal profit and the other organizations resells them. In B2C as it has
been already known ASDA has their own supermarkets where individuals can buy.
The targeting and position of ASDA has different strategies as they have a wide
segmented market. In targeting ASDA has chosen targeting online and customer
lifecycle targeting. Online targeting has been chosen due to increase in the use of
online media and products of ASDA are such that it supports customer lifecycle
targeting. In terms of positioning online value, proposition and healthy and
environmental friendly positioning have been chosen (French, 2017).
Core Strategies
 The 7Ps marketing mix:
Marketing mix have been used as a tool to help in the new product development of
ASDA. To make the new product development successful, a new marketing mix has
been proposed for ASDA.
Product - In new product development ASDA has chosen to launch sustainable
clothing and organic food looking at the needs and wants of the market.
Price – Price skimming strategy can be incorporated by ASDA as this is the best pricing
strategy for launching a new product in the market (Lowe and Alpert, 2010).
Place – Market penetration needs to be done in UK. Launching their new product in UK
would give them an added advantage, as they have a strong and loyal customer base in
the country.
Promotion – Looking at the current trends, they can focus on promoting their products
online. Use of social media will be an effective way to promote their new products
(Stokes, 2011).
People – Training in terms of sustainable clothing and organic foods needs to be given
to the employees, as they are responsible for demonstrating the products and educating
the customers when they come to their supermarkets.
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Physical evidence – ASDA already has a moderate physical presence in both online
and traditional marketplace. The store layout of the supermarkets has been designed
keeping in mind the accessibility of the products.
Process – The sales process has been kept simple for the ease of customers.
Customers in terms of services do not have to wait in queue for their billing.
Budget
To promote their new products ASDA has chosen social media marketing due to its cost
effectiveness. ASDA will still require an amount of 60,000 pounds to achieve the
marketing objectives. In this budget they can also build a marketing campaign to
increase awareness about health and environmental issues and why customers should
prefer more on their newly launched products.
Tactics and Action
Marketing
Need
Marketing
Objective
By whom By when Resources
required
To connect
with the
customers
To increase
awareness
Marketing
department of
ASDA
2 months Computers,
laptops,
internet, Ad
spaces and
others
To acquire
new customers
To increase
sales by 10%
The
management
of ASDA
2 months Investment,
Social media
platforms
Table 3: Marketing Plan of ASDA for new product development
(Source: Created by the learner)
Evaluating and monitoring marketing plans
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After the marketing plan is designed, it is necessary to implement it effectively, evaluate
how the plan is progressing and control the process by making necessary changes to it
(McDonald and Wilson, 2016). With the help of evaluation control and monitoring sales
analysis can be done to identify the sales performance of the new products. Market
share analysis will be used for evaluating the implementation of the marketing plan,
along with efficiency ratio and cost profitability.
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Conclusion
This assignment gives us an overall knowledge of the marketing strategies and its
application. In the first segment, marketing and its concept have been discussed. The
development of marketing concept including the present and future trends has been
discussed as well. Structure and operation of marketing department of ASDA have also
been incorporated in the assignment. The interrelation with various departments of
ASDA has been provided in the assignment including the extended marketing mix of the
chosen organization. In the assignment, a proper marketing plan has been developed
for the new product development of ASDA including SWOT, PESTEL and STP has
been discussed.
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