Roles and Responsibilities of Marketing Function in IKEA

MARKETING ESSENTIALS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................4
TASK 1..........................................................................................................................................................4
P1. Roles and responsibilities of marketing function...............................................................................4
M1 Roles and responsibilities of marketing.............................................................................................7
M2 Significance of interrelationships between marketing and other functional units............................7
D1 Key elements of the marketing function............................................................................................8
P2 Roles and responsibilities of marketing related to organisation.........................................................8
M3 Various tactics are used through IKEA...............................................................................................9
TASK 2........................................................................................................................................................10
P3 &M4& D2 Comparison of marketing mix of two organisations........................................................10
TASK 3........................................................................................................................................................12
P4 Marketing plan.................................................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................................17
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................................19

INTRODUCTION
Marketing means developing, promoting and also delivering of products as well as
services to businesses and customers. Marketing is an activity, procedure for developing,
communicating, exchanging and delivering offering which have some values for consumers,
society, partners and many others (Babin and Zikmund, 2015). It is essential that firm should
provide its goods on the basis of needs and demands of consumers by conducting research. This
report is based on IKEA organisation. IKEA is multinational group and it designs as well as sells
kitchen appliances, home accessories and furniture. This firm is one of the biggest retailers of
furniture and it was established in year 1943. This company is known as its attention in order to
operational details, product development, cost control which permitted IKEA business firm to
reduce its costs. It provides better quality of its products on reasonable cost so that each and
every person can avail its goods in an effective or better manner. In this given report mentions
about roles as well as responsibilities of the marketing function in a business firm. Comparison
among the marketing mix of two different business firms will be discussed under this present
business report. Preparation of marketing plan will be discussed in mention report.
TASK 1
P1. Roles and responsibilities of marketing function
Overview of company
IKEA is multinational organisation which designs and sells ready to assemble furniture
items, kitchen appliances and home accessories (Baines, Fill and Page, 2013). It is considered as
the largest retailer organisation of furniture from 2008. It was established in Sweden in 1943. It
is recognised due to having their innovative designs of furniture and home appliances which are
eco friendly. There are many steps are taken by the organisation regarding cost control,
operational details, continuous product development and corporate attributes which helps in
lowering their prices by two to three percent in 2010 at the time of global expansion. The
revenue which is earned by organisation from their different business functions and providence
of diversifies business products is €35.074 billion in 2016. Also, the organisation have large
amount of assets. The amount of assets in 2016 is €53.967 billion.
Marketing

It is important function which is used by the management of organisation is to provide
their goods and services to their end customers. The main part of marketing activities is to
advertise about their existing products to bring awareness among the customer's. It provides the
opportunity regarding improvement of their sales and profitability. It includes the coordination of
4P's of marketing which is defined below:
 Selection of the most appropriate product
 Determination of effective price
 Adoption of effective distribution approaches which helps to expand their reach towards
customer places.
 Implementation of effective promotional strategy
Marketing is one of the important technique which helps the organisation is to improve
their revenue and attain sustainability in their business operations. It also includes about the
research of market which helps in determination of the current preferences of customers. It
provides the opportunity is to manufacture goods as per their preferences and attain their trust. It
helps the multinational organisation like IKEA is to improve their market share through
attraction of large number of customer globally (Baker and Magnini, 2016). It helps in analysing
the competitors which prevail in market and strategies adopt by them. It contributes in
formulation of effective strategies which drive their competitors out of the market and attain
good position in market.
Roles and responsibilities of marketing function
Marketing manager has different roles and responsibilities which is need to perform by
them for the success of IKEA in future. The different roles and responsibilities which are provide
by then in organisational context is defined below:
 Product: It is the duty of marketing manager to identify the different preferences of
customer's and bring changes in the existing features of their product. In this regard, they
also have the duty to analyse the features of their competitor’s products to get some idea
and their customers also. For adoption of such changes, management is needed to adopt
new technologies which help to manufacture the furniture and home appliances of good
quality. There are many advantages are gathered by IKEA like high market share, large

number of profits etc. IKEA is needed to conduct market research to ascertain the views
of customers about their furniture’s and home appliances. It helps in determination of
discrepancies in their product. So, for success it is important for organisation is to adopt
new trends of market.
Selling: One of the main role of marketing manager is to adapt innovative techniques to expand
their sales. In this regard, need to prepare effective strategies and policies on the basis of
information which is gathered from market research. One of the important aspect which help to
expand their sales is to improve their end process where final products are easily available to end
customers under the time period which stipulated by them (Collins, J. and Stern, E.J., 2012). It
provides the opportunity regarding satisfaction of their needs and demands. To make this process
more enhances need to adopt effective distribution channels and tools which contribute in easy
access of products in market. Another important tactic which contributes in the process of
improvement of sales is advertisement of their products. It helps to bring awareness among
customers about their new featured products. Through use of advertisement approaches buying
behaviour of customers is influenced and they attracted towards their products (Desai, 2013). It
helps the organisation in enhancing their number of revenues and becomes world leading retail
organisation.
Pricing: It is the duty of marketing department of organisation is to decide the prices of their
products. Price of the product has direct link with the buying behaviour of customers. If the
prices are affordable then organisation is able to attract the customers of their competitors also
(Durand and Barlow, 2012).
 In this regard, marketing manager of IKEA is needed to analyse their current pricing
policies and the strategies which are adopt by their competitors. It provides opportunity
regarding formulation of new strategy which is more enhanced and effective. Through
fixing of reasonable cost of their furniture’s and home appliances able to attract middle
income group individuals. It helps in earning large number of profits in short span of
time.
Promotion: One of the most important function which done by the marketing department is to
promote and advertise their products in market. This will includes the use of different tools and
medium which provides opportunity to reach between the customers. Such different methods are