Marketing Functions and Interrelationship with Different Departments

This study explores the role and responsibilities of marketing functions in different units of an organization, as well as the interrelationship between marketing and different departments such as Human Resource and Finance. It also compares the 7P's of marketing between Ebay and Amazon.

MARKETING ESSENTIALS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
P1 Marketing functions role and responsibilities for different units of the organization............1
P2 Inter relationship between marketing and different departments of organization..................3
P3 Comparison of 7P's between Ebay & Amazon.......................................................................4
P4 Marketing plan........................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Marketing Essentials help in identifying whether the products and service needs to grow
or needs an innovative touch and repositioning. It is the soul of an organisation which helps them
and its offerings with different marketing techniques.
Ebay is the multinational corporation of e-commerce which had its headquarter in San
Jose, California. It is the largest selling company which sales from their personal websites for
consumer to consumer and business to consumer in the world and has formulated activities in
various field in which customer sale and purchase the goods and services across the world. The
websites of the eBay is free for all the customer and buyers of the world from which they could
purchase their products and services.
The following study states the role and responsibilities of marketing function in different
units of the organization. Depicting the interrelation of marketing with the Human Resource and
the Finance.
Further the study carried forward with the application of marketing mix to the process of market
planning to attain the objective of the company. The study ends with the evaluation of marketing
plan for the company to achieve the success among the competitive rivals with the effective
strategies and plans.
MAIN BODY
P1 Marketing functions role and responsibilities for different units of the organization
Marketing functions helps the organization to determine and source potentially successful
products and services for the consumers within the marketplace in which they operate their
business and helps them to differentiate themselves from the similar products which are available
in the market. It is the very important part of the company. The aims and the focusses of the
marketing function is to fulfil the needs and wants of the customer by their services and
products. For the successful operations of the business customer plays an important role in the
business of the eBay. So the eBay achieve the needs and wants of the customer for their success
and growth
Market Planning -
Marketing planning is a comprehensive plan which helps the organization's overall
marketing efforts. It is the continuous processes of marketing function where marketing plans,
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procedures, polices and programs are determined according to the marketing objective of the
company.
Roles:
The role of marketing functions this helps the company to establish differentiate product
which should vary from similar products in the market and promote them effectively so that they
can directly influence the customers. The company spends a high amount for their promotional
activities as they believe that the profit will increase after the advertisements.
Responsibilities:
 The major responsibility of the marketing function in making a business more
profitable and viable (Pike, 2015).
 It can be done by engaging customers, creating awareness among the customers,
researching different products and their competitors and various promotional
activities which help the organization to increase the sales and profit margin.
 Ebay launches different products from its other competitors. The company offers
make-up remove towel with the make-up cleaner. So somehow the existing
customers among with the new customers easily will be attracted to the product
because of their product differentiation.
In 2016, Ebay has updated the marketing plan and launched a new product Total repair shampoo
in which the company offers the one solution for 5 hair problems that includes anti-damage, anti-
thinning, anti-split-ends, anti-breakage and anti-brittleness (Functions of marketing, 2018).
Marketing Research
Marketing research is the key element for the marketing function to attract the customers
and develop the product according to the needs and demands of the customers.
Roles:
The role of marketing is to avail management with accurate, relevant, valid, reliable and
up to date information about the market. The goal of marketing is to identify and access how the
marketing mix that is product, price, place and promotion effects the buying behaviour of the
customers.
Responsibilities:
 Main responsibility of marketing is to render relevant information and making the
marketing decision as per the market research.
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 They are updated with the new market trends and implement the best practice to
achieve the organizational goal (Malhotra, 2015).
 The Ebay group is continuously making a major investment in the research and
innovations.
The company has its four branches in innovation and research which includes the – advance
research in which evaluation of scientific models are take place and knowledge is developed in
major scientific field, applied research includes the creation and development of new products,
development in which they develop and prepare new formulas for their brand safety and
innovatory products and support functions helps in patenting, customer surveys and regulatory
affairs etc. Ebay has developed the active ingredients, evolution technologies and formulation
procedure for hair and skin care with the help of great innovations and research.
Market Development
Market development is the strategic step taken in marketing function of an organization
to develop existing market other than moving to new marketplace. It is the two-step process
which is begins with the market research in which segments are analysed and short-listed and
can necessary steps are taken for using the existing products and services which can easily attract
the customer's.
Roles:
The major role of marketing is to raising the living standard in the society, raising the
opportunities for employment, hike in national income, protect from business drop-off.
Responsibility:
 The responsibility of marketing is to review the competing products, sales and services in
the market and suggest changes in the current plan and formation of new plans if it is
necessary.
 The marketing helps the Ebay to develop a range of products and globally establish a
brand image (Perreault, 2018).
 To develop the global strategies, development processes for products and subordinating
the strategies for development in various countries where the group is situated.
For example, In their Professional Products Division, that is responsible for prestigious salon
brands, their marketing development team works with the education teams as they are expertise
and knowledge are exchanged with the hair dressers by the engine of their marketing creations.
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P2 Inter relationship between marketing and different departments of organization
Marketing in relation with Human Resource
In the competitive market companies need to find different ways to attract the customers
and right talent for their products and services. Marketing and Human resource are co-related
with each other in marketing process company concentrate on attracting the large number of
people and achieve the target sale and with the help of Human Resource company can avail the
top talent for the growth of the company. Effective marketing of the Ebay is the key in future
success for the HR departments to get the right individual at the right time. Collaboration with
Human resource of Ebay helps the marketing to achieve the success for the organization with the
help of tangible product and brand platform for communication with customers (Lane, 2016). As
marketing team is directly connected to the customers they can spread the mission and vision of
the company so that they can attract the potential employees for their company. The HR
department promotes and recruit the efficient candidates for marketing which helps the Ebay to
enhance their marketing practices and effectively attract the customers. Skilled and intelligent
employees with the effective knowledge of marketing could be selected by the human resource
management which will helps in success and growth of the business of the Ebay.
Marketing in relation with Finance -
Marketing and Finance are the two main pillar of the company on which the growth and
the profit of the company are depended. Finance is concerned with the all financial aspects like
costs, profit, practicability of projects, growth in the sales and the financial performance during
the financial year and whereas the marketing is concerned with the targets for the sale, sales
volume, comparison of sales with competitors, data mining, advertising and publicity of the
products and services. The Ebay marketing team work's collaborate with the finance team
prepares the advertisement programs and sales promotion activities according to the budget of
the company (Bhatt and Gupta, 2018). Finance and marketing works closely to maintain the ratio
for marketing expenses and advertising expenses to the gross sales of the Ebay at the end of the
financial year. Finance department prepares the budget for the future expenses for the advertising
and marketing. So the company can use the budget for their future marketing campaigns which
will help the company to raise their profit by attracting the customers to their products. The
finance department of the eBay provides the funds and gives the budget to the department of the
marketing to do the activities marketing and increase the customers of the business while on the
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other hand marketing department helps to increase the success and growth of the business of the
eBay
Marketing with R&D: This department will bring new techniques and innovation in the business
of the eBay which satisfy the needs and wants of the customer. To fulfils the demands of the
customer both the department works together in the business which increases the profits and
sales of the business.
Marketing with the production department: The department of marketing provides the
information about the needs and wants of the customer so that the production department makes
changes in the development of the products and services as per the needs of the customer. To
achieve the success of the company there is need to maintain the interconnection between these
department is necessary
P3 Comparison of 7P's between Ebay & Amazon
Marketing mix is basically a well structured set of different tactics and strategies which
the organizations utilizes in order to promote and advertise their products and brand as a whole
within the market. It is predominately integrated with 7P's and thus encompasses 7P's within the
marketing. Although based in same industry, the two well renowned brands Ebay and Amazon
still uses these marketing mix in the entirely different ways.
Illustration 1: 7 P's Marketing Mix
[Source: The 7 Ps of marketing, 2019]
Basis Ebay Amazon
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Product Ebay have a broad portfolio of
different brands under which it
is the auction sites which sales
the vintage items the services
of the eBay have three
divisions namely marketplace,
stub hub, classifieds platforms.
Under these departments, Ebay
majorly develops the products
and services (Purvis, 2015).
Besides this, Ebay is also
endowed with kids and herbal
products. The ebay provides
the products and services from
their online websites which is
easier for the customer.
The portfolio of Amazon
accommodates a larger
products and mainly addresses
the needs and wants of the
customer. The products of the
amazon is divided into four
categories i.e. websites of the
amazon, electronics devices,
content of the media, amazon
web services.
Price Due to its leading global
image, Ebay mainly focuses on
cost leadership pricing and sell
their products at superior price
without compromising in its
reliability and high quality
which compels the customer to
pay even the high prices. The
company emphasizes to
maintain its value based
strategies of pricing for their
products.
Amazon mostly caters both the
genders thus in order to
penetrate urban as well as rural
market, it adopts reasonable
pricing strategy where it
realizes that the affordability
rate of the consumers will lead
to large volume and thus
eventually result in reaching
masses and earn profit (Baker
and Saren, 2016).
Place Ebay have a wide distribution
channel and networks where
With high brand name and
establishment, it generally
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their products and services are
made accessible to consumers
and thus uses exclusive
distribution strategy. The
customer gets the products and
services from the websites like
www.ebay.com and from the
apps of the eBay. These are the
places from which the
customer easily purchase their
products and services. It has its
products and services on the
online sites in more than 120
countries along with efficient
dealers and retailers.
utilizes selective distribution
strategy where the services of
distributors and retailers are
spread in various branches
where the sales are high
within UK. It has a centralized
point of distribution where the
products arrive at their
production plant, and they
directly interacts with
wholesalers for price-
expediency. In this manner,
they sell the products of
acclaimed brands & their
distribution network remains
cost effective.
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Promotion Ebay generally adopts several
media in their promotional
strategy where their products
are advertised via marketing
messages (Rowley, 2016). It
uses the media such as print,
television, online
advertisement and billboards
which increase the awareness
of the brand and increase the
sales of the business of the
eBay. Besides this, it uses
online platform to send
customized messages to its
customers.
Although having low social
media presence, Amazon stills
advertises their products via
radio, billboards newspaper
etc. It generally focuses on
word of mouth promotional
strategy and offline modes
through a wide range of
promotional campaigns.
Sometimes, customer
satisfaction surveys are being
carried out and then their
results are used as a part of
promotion.
People Ebay has a trained staff on
which they rely on for
promoting their products. They
have trained more than 20000
which increase the sales of the
ebay. Besides this, the well
efficient and trained retailers
and wholesaler helps the
company to place their unique
position within market. There
are 12600 employees in the
eBay which gives their full
efforts to increase the sales of
the company.
Amazon has a well trained
staff along with the sales floor
staff a which eventually helps
the customers to obtain full
accuracy (Rancati, Gordini and
Capatina, 2016). Apart from
this, the managers of the
company are well-equipped
with the professional skills
which aids them to make the
right choice for customers and
provide better experience. The
people are the in the company
are those people who bring the
products to the customer.
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Process Ebay has a well defined
process of delivering high
quality services to the
customers and thus depends on
refined process (Rowley,
2017). Its process mainly
includes mental stimulus
generation via magazines,
Vogue etc. Besides this, it also
includes job shop operations.
Amazon, prior to marketing of
its products, undergoes
through a rigorous process of
testing their products. They
uses technological processes
for producing their goods as
well as electronic processes
like EPOS and barcodes which
increases the loyalty among
consumers.
Physical evidence The layout as well as design of
Ebay products within their
store are more extravagant and
has an eye catching display.
Besides this, it focuses on
sustainable and lighter
packaging along with refillable
packaging in order to entice its
customers.
Amazon provides a subtle,
plain as well as dark packaging
of their products which gives a
contemporary vibe to the
customers. This packaging
promotes a more classier look
and thus increases the daring
colours which eventually
attracts more mature crowd.
The products and services of the eBay are way better than the products and services of
the amazon. Ebay have the wide channels of distribution and networks which sells the products
and services to the customer on the other hand amazon uses the selective distribution channels to
sale their products and services. Ebay uses the social media for promoting the brand while
Amazon uses the promotion campaigns for their promotions
P4 Marketing plan
Executive summary
E- bay is basically the company, selling cosmetics in across the UK region and currently
have more than 40 branches. It usually deals in men as well as women toiletries of renowned
brands but does not produce their own products (Hugos, 2018). Currently, E- bay has planned to
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launch a brand new anti-ageing product which is Forever Young to target the masses above 30
years of age. Company has an aspiring plan of becoming the great market leader through this
product.
Mission
E- bay is one of the biggest online retail companies in the world whose main aim is to
provide a global trading platform to all types of organizations and businesses where they can
trade in an effective manner. Its mission statement indicates and shows that multinational retail
businesses is essentially a global venue.
Vision
Its vision statement is quite different from its mission as it wants to become the world's
best and favourite destination forgetting great value and operating business. Vision statement is a
long term goal that push the company to perform all activities and align its strategies with its
structure efficiently. So, it can be said that from its long term goal and vision statement that it
wants to provide qualitative services to all type of people.
Objectives
 To capture a large market share of around 30% before the closing of year 2022.
 To increase the experience of customer by 10% in forthcoming 5 months.
SWOT analysis of Amazon
Strength
The major strength of E-bay is that it is the biggest platform and allow different types of
businesses to sell large variety of cosmetic products of acclaimed brands which ultimately
broadens its product portfolio (Allen, 2016). Besides this, it is now moving into launching its
own brand which will target the age group of 30 or above. It has high effectiveness of services
which makes it able to become financial stable and take several competitive opportunities. In
addition, it is also stated that it has increased its revenue in the year of 2013 as compared to
2012.
Weaknesses
The prime weakness which has dominated E-bay is that its weak position and
increased number of counterfeit products which leads to some lawsuit to notable brand. It is also
stated that this company has taken responsibility of some criminal activities that decreases its
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brand image in the market. Besides this, being the seller of large number of brands, it has less
subdivisions to handle the different departments and products.
Opportunities
E-bay can take the advantage of increasing awareness among the consumers regarding
selling and trading online products (Pappas, 2017). There is a rising popularity of online \trading
that can gives it opportunity to increase sales and attract several businessmen. In addition, it has
a feature of alternative payment system by which its suppliers and different traders find it
effective. So, it can be said that it can take competitive advantages by all its strengths.
Threats
The main threat for the company in the near future would be the use of high technologies
(Folinas, and Fotiadis, 2017). providing access to all type of businesses it becomes difficult for
E-bay to collect sales tax on merchandise sold through online website. Due to online and E-
commerce, internet fraud and threat of personal informations risks is also increasing which is the
biggest threat for this company.
7P's for Forever Young
Product
E- bay has recently planned to launch its brand new product Forever Young which is
basically an anti ageing cream. This product will target the people of 30 years of age or above
and will become E- bay first parent product.
Price
Being the first product, E- bay will use penetration pricing strategy where the initial price
would be set low in order to acquire quick market share and to make the consumers aware about
the product.
Place
This new product will generally be made available at a large location in more than 30
branches like supermarkets, general stores, retail outlets etc. It will usually be present at the
places where middle and old age people frequently visit like departmental stores.
Promotion
The company will make the use of Email marketing and where they will first spread the
message of new product through customized Email (Zimmerman and Blythe, 2017). Besides
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this, it will also promote the product through free sample and sales coupons by hosting trade
shows at specified locations.
People
E- bay through wholesalers and retailers will generate the awareness among the
customers for Forever Young. Apart from this, a separate marketing team designed for this
product would take this product to the general public and the trained staff will describe its
features and attributes to the consumers.
Process
Through a well defined supply chain, E- bay will take the Forever Young to the
customers and will focus on fast delivery at their doorstep. Along with it, it will depend on
electronic process for providing more customized product.
Physical evidence
Packaging of Forever Young would be sustainable and multi-purpose which can be used
by the consumers after using the product. Besides this, the packaging will be light enough to
carry and would be attractive and appealing to give a tough fight to competitors.
Budget
The budget of the marketing plan is of the 2400 £ through which the company increases
the sales of the new products.
STP
Segmentation£
E- bay segments the market on the basis of demographic factors like for Forever Young,
it has segmented the target market on the grounds of age where this anti ageing cream will focus
the audience of 30 years of age or above.
Targeting
The company will target the niche market and hence will use concentrated marketing
under which Forever young will be promoted to small group of consumers generally to middle
and old age people and will sell the product to that specific market.
Positioning
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E- bay will emphasize on price quality positioning where the price of Forever Young will
be affordable without deteriorating its quality. In short, price-quality attribute will be the centre
of attraction where customers will get the high quality cream at reasonable price.
Monitoring & controlling
Once Forever young is launched, the company will monitor the activities of the
employees so that they will focused to increase the sales and productivity of the new products.
Controlling
After monitoring the entire outcome of the product, E- bay controls the business
operation and gives the instruction to the employees so they work as per the direction of the
manager of the E- bay
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CONCLUSION
From the above study it is concluded that the marketing plays an essential role in the
organization to achieve the targeted sale and profit margin of the company. With the help of
marketing customers can easily attracted to the products and services rendered by the company.
So more and more consumer's attraction somehow increases the sale of the company and thus the
brand reputation will also increase in the market. The company can vary their products according
to the needs and the demands of the consumers and thus they can also attract the talent to the
company which can help the company to achieve its objective. Marketing somehow directly
affects the sales volume of the company and marketing is interlinked with each and every
prospectus of the company thus it is the essential part of the organization to raise the profit
margins of the company and compete with the other rivals efficiently.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Online
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