Marketing Mix and its Applications

This assignment delves into the concept of the marketing mix, examining both the traditional 4 Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) and the expanded 7 Ps (including People, Process, Physical Evidence). It analyzes scholarly articles and online resources to understand the connections between sales and marketing, strategic alliances in innovative marketing, and the impact of socio-economic factors on marketing margins. The assignment also explores the role of the marketing mix in shaping a company's mental footprint within the boardroom and its application in international marketing channels.

MARKETING ESSENTIALS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1. Roles and responsibilities of marketing function.............................................................1
P2. Roles and responsibilities of marketing in relation to wider organisational context.......3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
P3. Applying marketing mix in marketing planning for attaining business objectives..........6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
P4. Formation and evaluation of a basic marketing plan at McDonald's...............................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
An organisation has to perform various functions so that they can achieve their mission
and vision. Marketing department is considered as one of the most important divisions. It is
related to finding the needs of consumers and then offering products or services accordingly.
McDonald's is an American organisation that is working in the fast food restaurant industry
(Friesen and Lowe, 2012). They are running their business in most of the nations and they have
around 36900 outlets all over the world. This assignment will discuss about the role of marketing
function in a wider context along with making comparison of marketing mix of McDonald’s with
one of its competitors. Also, a basic marketing plan will be formulated and evaluated in this
report for the selected organisation.
TASK 1
P1. Roles and responsibilities of marketing function
Every restaurant has to divide their work in different parts so that they can give proper
attention to every task. This can be considered as the prime reason that company make various
departments according to the function they perform. If one division has to do many work than
they cannot get expert of any field, so firms allot the work according to the speciliaty of a group
and fix their responsibility which improve their efficiency (Ko, Hwang and Kim, 2013). Earlier,
marketing was not considered to be an important department and most of the enterprises do not
have it in their organisation. Their main focus was to manufacture goods and then selling the
same to customers. After sometime, they started concentrating on quality because consumers
started demanding better products. Their bargaining power got enhanced because number of
seller were increased.
This marketing trend survived for some time but when the concept of customer
satisfaction raised, this theory went old long time ago (Strandvik, Holmlund and Grönroos,
2014). Most of the companies were offering high quality products and so, they failed to earn any
extra edge over their competitors which forced them to innovate some new programmes like
home delivery of goods, after sales services, etc. Technology played a significant role in
accomplishing these activities. In the current scenario, people want firms to manufacture
commodities without doing any harm to nature. Organisation is also getting more responsibility
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towards environment and they are following various regulations which are helping them in
getting loyal customers. Following are the main roles of marketing function:
Bring business – In corporate world, it is the responsibility of marketing department to
enhance the revenue of an organisation (Lee and Walsh, 2011). They can do anything which they
think is right in order to increase sale but it should be legal and ethical. McDonald's is operating
in highly competitive market and their marketing team is responsible for expanding business in
more locations so that they can target more customers. Sometimes, they play a crucial role in
reducing the cost of operations.
Market research – This department is accountable for gathering and recording various
information which is present in the market. So, top level management can make strategies for
restaurant accordingly. McDonald's is working in many countries and so, this task is essential for
effective planning. If they will have reliable and compete data then they can earn more benefits
in short time period. Normally, every division collects content according to their need but
marketing department is responsible for storing information which can be utilised by any
department (Armstrong and et.al, 2015). They record internal as well as external information. It
is significant for McDonald’s to gather data of every restaurant which they are running.
Promotion – It is one of the most popular works done by marketing department.
McDonald's is known for their aggressive advertising (Babin and Zikmund, 2015). This division
is redeeming their responsibility in a remarkable manner. They are spending allotted money in a
correct way which is assisting them in convincing more potential customers to visit their
restaurant frequently. It is their role to launch a new food item so that they can attract more
consumers and buy a place in mind of their buyers. They are accountable for managing TV and
print advertising which is the main way to be competitive in market.
Physical distribution – McDonald's have their outlets in most of the countries. They
have many restaurants which are far from their factories. Marketing department is responsible for
taking the material that is necessary for making a final product to the outlets (Nakata, Zhu and
Izberk-Bilgin, 2011). They are running their business through franchisee in many countries and
they cannot reveal the secret of their ingredients. So, this division make arrangement for a proper
system where they can keep their formula out of the site of world and do on-time delivery of the
items.
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Locate target market - Companies often get confused among the choices which they
have relating to the market that they have to focus. Sometimes, organisation invests in wrong
location and then suffer huge loss. It is the responsibility of marketing function to find the right
areas where they have to put their money so that they can get maximum returns within less
period of time (Kitchen and Burgmann, 2015).
Synchronisation of objectives - Every enterprise has various departments who have
their own goals. All the targets are focused towards long term objectives but it is necessary to
bring all the divisions on same page. Marketing team synchronise all the aim so restaurant can
move in one direction and two strategies do not work against each other.
Checking bad promotion – This can be considered as one of the newest functions of
marketing. They play an important role in removing incorrect information about McDonald's
which can harm the image of organisation (Marketing Management – Functions, 2017). It also
helps restaurant in improving their goodwill and valuation. Social media has become one of the
main sources of promoting an item and so, this department releases details about their eatables
on various websites and mobile applications (Gummesson, 2011).
Marketing plan – Marketing department is accountable for making plans regarding
designing and packaging. They try to understand the needs of customers and then construct their
restaurants. If they are targeting higher growth then they have to tell their production department
to increase their production so that they can meet the demands of customers on time. They are
also accountable for finding the flaws in services like in McDonald's, customers generally
complain about variety of food.
P2. Roles and responsibilities of marketing in relation to wider organisational context
A restaurant that is running their business across the globe faces many challenges. It is
difficult for them to manage their operations as laws and regulations in every country are
different. Marketing department is known for removing all the hurdles which are present in
entering a location. McDonald's adopted a strategy that they will not invest money in the
locations which are risky. They choose franchisee as a mode on entering in some of the new
regions. This division is responsible for expanding business either by increasing sale or by
cutting cost of business operations (Wilson and Gilligan, 2012). Maintaining proper balance in
between demand and supply is a complex task. Sometimes, McDonald’s expects that their new
product will get popular in short period of time and its demand will rise sharply but when things
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do not go according to them, they face severe loss. Some of their products have seen problem of
shortage in supply which irritated their permanent customers.
Marketing function plays a crucial role in solving various issues, they have to anticipate
the demand of product and then give necessary details to production department. Fast food
restaurant sector has many strong players and so, it is difficult for a restaurant like McDonald's to
hold their position in the market. Marketing department is responsible for improving and
maintaining the brand image as enterprises in this industry are highly dependent on their name. If
their goodwill is high then it also makes a positive impact on their financial health as they can
easily raise funds without paying much interest. McDonald’s is known for their surprising
events. They have a unique technique of attracting customers. Once they started a programme
where they gave gifts to children who will visit their outlets, customers could also celebrate
birthday of kids in their restaurants and McDonald's arrange fun activities for them (Le Meunier-
FitzHugh and Piercy, 2011). Marketing function is responsible for this strategy, they understand
that they have to give proper value for the money which consumers are paying to them.
Research of market is crucial for making effective plans. If McDonald’s has information
about the strategies which their competitors are going to adopt then they can get some extra edge
over them. It is the responsibility of marketing function to gather information from various
sources like internet, magazines and newspapers or may be by doing surveys. In this industry,
taste of customers changes swiftly. One product may earn higher revenue for organisation for a
year but its demand may go down to almost zero in the next year (Okwuokenye and Onemoease,
2011). This department is accountable for finding the reason of its fall and necessary changes
which they can make in that product. Below is the relationship between marketing and other
functions:
Marketing and production – If prior one does not give details about the demand of a
product then later one cannot know the quality which they have to produce. Marketing team
operates at various levels including ground so, they have better understanding about the taste of
customers. They contain necessary data which they can share with manufacturing department so
that they can get a rough estimate about the raw material which restaurant will be needing in
upcoming time (Kanjanatarakul, Sriboonchitta and Denoeux, 2014). They can also tell them the
correct timing when they have improved quality of food item so organisation can keep their
consumers loyal and hence can earn the desired profit. This relation is the main reason that
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McDonald’s is holding their position of table for a long time. Production department also assist
marketing wing by telling them speciality about their product. It helps them at the time of
formation of various strategies. It also assists employees to make customers the difference
between McDonald's and their competitors. People are always curious about ingredients which
are present in their food. They also want to get information about the production process.
HR and marketing – Human resource department is responsible for selecting right
people for a position that is present in the organisation. Employees who should work in the
marketing division of McDonald's must possess ability to conduct a research (Malshe, 2011).
Their communication skill should be better than others so that they can effectually perform in
various negotiation deals. If marketing division provides necessary information about the
candidates they need then HR team can find workers according to their requirements which will
help this department to achieve their goals effectively. Interrelation between these two divisions
can get surprising results to McDonald’s. Marketing team stores various type of data that HR
department can use in their operations.
Marketing and finance – All the major decisions relating to investment and borrowing
are performed by finance department. They cannot do this task without taking help of marketing
division as they have better understanding of market and competitors. They provide them
significant information about the resources where finance team can borrow more money at less
interest rate. Crucial decision relating to investment can become the main reason for success or
failure of an organisation (Lyus, Rogers and Simms, 2011). Marketing function support them in
this process by giving them ground knowledge relating to demand and taste of customers. They
can tell strategies of other players who are operating in the same industry which is crucial before
making any decision relating to long term investment. This relation is essential for achieving
mission and vision of cited organisation (Morrison, 2013). On the other hand, finance department
gives necessary amount to the marketing division so that they can perform various tasks like
market research, advertising, etc.
Marketing and sales – Generally these two terms may mean same but in reality, there is
a big difference between them. Marketing function analyses the need of customers and then
process it so that they can get desired information. Sales department needs data so that they can
target the potential customers and provide them satisfaction accordingly. Organisation is known
for spending a lot of money on advertising and so, if they give required information to sales team
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that they can focus on right customers and increase sale of restaurant (O'Dwyer, Gilmore and
Carson, 2011). Sales is a part of marketing department. In this era, most of the enterprises
consider it as another function because its importance is growing continuously.
TASK 2
P3. Applying marketing mix in marketing planning for attaining business objectives
Marketing mix can be defined as the combination of various P's which can assist an
organisation in achieving their goals by doing optimum utilisation of available resources. If
McDonald’s invests appropriate amount in right area then they can attain their objectives within
set period of time. Below provide are 7p's of marketing of two organisations:
Product – McDonald's is popular for their taste and their food quality is considered as
one of the best that is available in fast food industry. Restaurant offers a wide range of variety
and they also change their eatables when they think that people are starting to hate them (Huang
and Sarigöllü, 2014). Taste of consumers changes in regular intervals of time and thus, it is
important to understand buyer’s preference so that new products can be launched accordingly.
Organisation never compromises in terms of quality and they use the best kind of raw material
which is available in market. So, their final food item is up to the mark. They do not share the
ingredients which they use in making of a product because they know that someone can copy it.
Burger King is known as one of their major competitors that offers food according to the current
trends which is the main part of their policy but McDonald's do not give much preference to
current demand. They like to launch a product which has its own taste. Instead of giving
complete attention to the customers, they also take advice from experts of this field which help
them in understanding the preference of buyer in a better way.
Process – Some of the permanent customers of McDonald's complain that they have to
wait for a long time to get their order. This problem arises because of lengthy operation process.
Restaurant has a policy of self service in many countries. They can change this system by
offering food on the table of their customers (Kim and Hyun, 2011). Their self-service Kiosks
also earned a lot of popularity and they should remember this success at the time of marketing
planning. Burger King has adopted a better process which can be considered as the main reason
that their cost of operations is going down in many nations.
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Promotion – Most of the experts of fast food restaurant industry believe that McDonald's
has an aggressive marketing strategy. One of the persons in their top level management said that
they want people to think about their products for 24 hours. Organisation should involve their
current strategy in marketing planning. They should telecast their advertisement in peak time so
that more people can see it. Technology brought major changes in this area. McDonald's can do
some significant changes in their marketing plan by allotting more money for the promotion on
social media. They can bring back some of their old offers where they gave discount on various
eatables. They should continue promotion of their clown because it plays significant role in
attracting children. Their brand has a unique image which has important contribution in their
profit. In their marketing plan they are increasing their promotional budget because their
competitors are also adopted same strategies and doing aggressive promotion (Gordon, 2012).
Burger King is not active in terms of promoting their brand. They spend some money on
advertising their product but it is too less as compared to McDonald's. They have done
remarkable work in some areas like they choose one customer in their outlet and give him a
crown so he/she can get a feeling of king. This promotional event gave them a lot of popularity
in market but they are below par in other areas. They are not very active in terms of promoting
their brand on social media.
Figure 1: Marketing Mix
(Source: Marketing Mix 4P’s and 7P’s. 2015)
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Price – McDonald's always try to keep price of products affordable so that most of the
customers can afford their food. When organisation launches an eatable, they keep their price
low but if it earns popularity in short period of time then they raise its price. They can change
their pricing strategy in some countries because people are ready to pay more money but they are
demanding quality services. This can give a new direction to their marketing planning. Burger
King followed the same path which was adopted by McDonald's. They also launched some of
their burgers at 1 dollar and so they can show people that they are also affordable.
Place – McDonald's has a clear strategy that they want to open their restaurant in every
part of this world. Normally, a firm that is operating in restaurant business does not like to open
two outlets in short distance but McDonald’s does not hesitate to do it if they think that company
will get required number of customers by doing so (Definition of 'Marketing Mix, 2017). They
should follow the same strategy in their marketing planning. Burger King does not follow the
same plan. They like to open their restaurant mainly in prime locations where they are sure that
they will get necessary footfall. McDonald's take more risk as compared to Burger King. They
like to create the demand of their food items instead of waiting for a place to get developed
according to market.
Physical distribution – When people think about fast food, the first name which came in
their mind is McDonald's. This concept is related to marketplace where companies try to
manipulate customers by bring them brand name before their service or product (Peter and
Donnelly, 2011). Organisation has done remarking work in this area and they should continue
their strategies in the upcoming marketing planning. Burger King has also done impressive work
in the same area but they are behind McDonald's.
People – Almost 365000 people are working in the organisation. They like to hire
candidates who understand their culture and have capability to attain company's long term goals.
Workers are considered as one of the most important resource that is present in a restaurant and
so, their role should be clearly mentioned at the time of marketing planning. Burger King likes to
hire experienced candidates and they do not give much attention to the culture.
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TASK 3
P4. Formation and evaluation of a basic marketing plan at McDonald's
Most of the marketing plan either has direct or indirect connection with the vision of a
Restaurant. McDonald's like to become favourite place of their customers so they all of the
planning is done accordingly. They want their customers to get the value for the money which
they are paying so they have clear policy that they will never compromise in their terms of
quality. Quick service can be considered as one of their main priority. McDonald's cover various
areas in their marketing plan but the most important is the value that they are responsible to pay
against the money which customer are paying to them (Barney, 2014). They always try to
promote products which are liked by consumers. They understand that all of their outlets can not
have same demand so they make their plans according to the footfall.
Before making any marketing strategy, it is important to conduct proper research, cited
organization is operating in many nations so they have to keep focus on accuracy in research. It
is difficult to keep synchronization in all objective because management in different country
adopt various strategy so they can achieve their set targets. A single tactic can not apply to every
segment of buyers, McDonald's should target four types of consumers, first is small children,
second is business customers, third is parents with their children and last is teenagers. Their
purpose of visit is differ so they have to be attended accordingly.
Business consumers seek fast service, they can sacrifice in terms of quality but up-to an
extent. Most of the time they like to adopt service of take away where instead of spending time
in restaurant they eat their meal in their car.
Teenagers, on the other hand, look for affordability. They do not want quick service, their
main aim is spent time with their friends and use facilities like free Wi-Fi.
Parents visit McDonald's so they can have some fun with their children, they are
conscious about health of their kids so they seek better food quality and a positive atmosphere.
They also give preference to interior which is made according to demand of kids.
Small kids visit cited organization for having fun, they do not care about food quality or
fast service. Their main purpose is to play with the toys and clown which is available in some of
the restaurants of McDonald's.
For a Restaurant like McDonald's fulfil need of every costumer is important because they
main aim is to make their restaurant the best place for their buyers. If they will keep focusing on
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these areas than they can maintain their brand image which give them extra edge over other
players of the industry. Aggressive marketing was always the part of their long-term plans, they
open many outlets at short distance. This is main reason that they have so many restaurants and
in various part of this world.
Expansion - In current scenario, they are concentrating on country as a whole. But in
upcoming time they should also focus on regional basis because in countries where diversity is
high like India, taste of people changes from state to state (Yang,Su and Fam, 2012). They do not
provide facility of home delivery in many nations, they should think about this option as soon as
possible because this is one area where competitors of cited organization are beating them
(START-UP AND SME RESOURCES. 2017). They should use technology is attracting youth
who bring major part of the revenue. They are active in terms of bringing change in their menu
in developed economies but they should shift their focus on developing markets because in
upcoming time they will have more contribution in their revenue. They are still far away from
reaching their optimum level. They can launch new potato burger in existing market in order to
attract vegetarian customers.
Advertising - In evaluating their current marketing strategies, it can be analyzed that they
active in television and newspaper advertisement but they have to invest more money in
promoting their product on social media websites. If they need to cut their budget than they can
stop spending money on newspaper adverting because it does not attract more customers (Yang,
Su and Fam, 2012). Their old discount offers are not going to work in present and forthcoming
time. They need to use some innovative technique so they can target more customers without
wasting more money. They can promote new potato burger which will be for vegetarian
customers.
Product differentiation and positioning - They need to understand that people are getting
more health conscious so they have remove some of their product which are unhealthy. In some
areas people like to give preference to vegetarian food, they also want beverage with less level of
sugar so they seek better food quality and choices (Grönroos, 2011). Most of their vegetarian
customers demand that they do not get much choices in McDonald's, management of cited
organization need to address these issues on priority basis so they can retain their exiting
consumers and convince potential buyers to visit their restaurant at-least one time. Their new
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potato burger can resolve this complain of their present customers. They also need to analyses
plans of their opponents who are capturing their market.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that marketing function is significant for
achieving vision and mission of an organisation. It brings business in a Restaurant by identifying
needs of consumers. Proper planning is essential for reaching the targets as it reduces the risk of
uncertainty and shows correct path to the employees by avoiding various confusions. 7 P's are
essential for analysing the strategy of an enterprise. If connection between two departments are
good then Restaurant can reach their goals in an effective manner. It has been assessed from the
report that firm can reduce wastage of available resources by making some sound
synchronisation in between various divisions. Further, evaluation of marketing plan can reveal
many flaws in the organisation.
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