Marketing Environment and Strategy

The provided assignment focuses on understanding the marketing environment, including prevailing market trends, customer needs, and level of competition. It emphasizes the importance of formulating policies and strategies to cater to customers' requirements, ensuring customer delight. The assignment references various books, journals, and online resources that discuss marketing essentials, strategies, and the impact of big data analytics on business intelligence.

MARKETING
ESSENTIALS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1. Roles and responsibilities of the marketing function............................................................3
M1 ..............................................................................................................................................5
D1 ...............................................................................................................................................6
P2 How roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to organisational context.......................6
M2 ..............................................................................................................................................8
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................8
P3. Comparing the ways in which IKEA applies marketing mix in its market plan..................8
M3.............................................................................................................................................11
D2..............................................................................................................................................11
P4 Produce and evaluate common marketing plan for an organisation....................................12
M4.............................................................................................................................................15
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................16

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is a process by which products and services are distributed from manufacturer
to consumer. Activities which are included in marketing are buying, selling, advertising,
promotion, etc. Employees which are working in marketing department have to generate
strategies which can produce maximum profits to the company. Their main aim is to fulfil
requirements of their customers and satisfy them in every aspects. IKEA is a private company
which mainly deals in manufacturing furniture, kitchen appliances and home accessories. It is the
world's largest retailer in furniture. IKEA was founded in Sweden in 1943 with its headquarters
in Netherlands (Lusch and Webster Jr, 2011 ). The company implement innovative designs while
developing furniture. It operates in more than 48 countries with number of stores. This
assignment will mainly describes the roles and responsibilities following with analysis of
different market functions. Different ways in which IKEA uses marketing mix in their strategies
to make it efficient and how it helps the company to achieve their goals has also been described
in this assignment.
TASK 1
P1. Roles and responsibilities of the marketing function.
As described above, marketing includes certain activities which allow company to sell
their products in market. Marketing department analyse their target market and formulate best
market plan which can enhance their profitability and revenue. For a company to maintain and
retain their position in market they have to continuously work hard and implement innovative
ideas in their marketing plan. IKEA is well established company in the market and holds a strong
reputation. It deals in manufacturing modern type of furnitures with interesting designs. They
also manufacture kitchen appliances and different home accessories. As mentioned above,
company is operating in many countries with many stores and has a leading market. They
become successful in operating in these countries because they have talented marketing staff
which have formulated strong market plans and gained strong hold in the markets of furnitures.
To make market plan effective, it is important to inculcate marketing functions and it is
responsibility of employees to ensure its effective implementation (Strzebicki, 2014). These
provide managers with appropriate idea about target market, customer preferences, and other
critical areas. By analysing their strong points, managers can gain more attraction of customers
towards their company. This will lead in more profits and revenue coming to company. Hard

work and team working are required to make efficient marketing plan to achieve maximum
benefits for company. Some of marketing functions are described below:
Analysis of market information: It is necessary for managers and employees
associated with marketing department to analyse all critical areas of market to formulate best
possible strategies. Before designing any product, company perform research on market area,
customer desires, appropriate price for that product, suitable distribution channel, best
advertising and promoting tools, how to organise events to launch their new products, etc. After
proper research, its become easy for employees as well as for managers to make their best plan
and execute it in appropriate market (Strauss, 2016). IKEA is a leading brand in furniture,
managers should focus on customer preferences, their suggestions for new and interesting
designs which can be implemented for making good designs, best price for suitable furniture,
their target market, etc. If manager consider suggestions of customers than they can satisfy more
customers with their products which is the main aim of company.
Market planning: Proper planning is done after analysing target areas of market. This
function enable managers to analyse and make strategies according to that. If IKEA wants to
achieve their best, then they have to plan their market accordingly. With this function, they can
achieve their goals and objectives in effective manner. Supervisors should ensure that there plan
is producing good outputs or not, whether there efforts are done in right manner or not, etc. To
achieve maximum benefits, this function should be critically analysed by marketing department
and plan their activities. They can upgrade their furniture style with recent trends and customer's
interest. This will lead in more sale of their products. They can advertise and promote their
furniture products along with kitchen appliances in front of customer through media, pamphlets,
newspaper advertisements, television, radio, etc. This will attract more customers toward their
products.
Product designing and development: If IKEA wants to retain its position, then they
have to design their furniture in such a manner which can seek attention of more customers.
Attractive and creative designs have more probability to get sold out whereas unattractive
designs are not preferred by customers and clients (Dawson, 2014). Company should know about
customers requirements and then they should design their plan by preferring customer interests.
This will increase their sales of products and ultimately company will earn profits.

Standardisation and grading: This functions help in evaluating different standard
related to design of a product. These standards are size, design, weight, raw material, quality, etc.
that should be considered accurately while manufacturing a product. Different features display
unique qualities of product. Similar products are sometime placed in a group which is termed as
grade. High quality of products are given best grades and worse quality of products are given bad
grade. Grading system is mainly used in food, agriculture, cotton, tobacco and fruit industries.
Packaging and labelling: With the help of proper packaging, production department can
provide their products with desired strength and support which prevents any type of degradation
of contents. Benefit of packaging are that, it avoid breakage, damage, spoilage, degradation, etc.
of products during the time of transportation and distribution. Different packaging materials that
can be used are – tin, bottles, containers, plastic, glass, jute box, wooden packing, etc.
Sometimes customers get impressed by watching attractive packaging of product and tend to buy
it more frequently. Managers should ensures that every product that is manufactured should
contain appropriate label. This label provide customers with relevant information about the
products and its contents (Rundh, 2013). It should contain every specific details of products and
these details include - manufacturing and expiry dates, ingredients used in formulation of
product, batch number, license number, price, etc. Proper packaging with labelling enables more
buying by the customers. As IKEA does not manufacture such type of products which can be
spoiled, but they can mention the quality of wood they are using in manufacturing their furniture.
Branding: IKEA has a high reputation and has a strong brand name in United Kingdom.
They have a leading market in furnitures and this was possible due to the hard work their staff
put in every situations. If any company wants to increase their sales, they should focus on
strengthening their brand name in market as well as in eyes of customers because customers
mainly prefer high brands instead of local brands. IKEA can enhance their profitability by
expanding their business in different countries and with its brand name, more customer will first
prefer them instead of other furniture company.
M1
IKEA critically analyse their market and plan their activities according to that. They can
implement different marketing functions at different stage to enhance their productivity. With the
help of these function, they can strengthen their market position and can attract more customers

towards them. They should give prime importance to preferences of customers and manufacture
their products according to that.
D1
According to Huang and Sarigöllü, (2011) marketing functions are critical for every
marketing plan to make it more successful then before. Proper analysis of every function should
be done before formulating marketing strategies. All marketing functions are inter- related to
each other and managers should implement them to achieve their business objectives.
P2 How roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to organisational context.
Marketing is a process which is necessary for every company to carry out to distribute
their products to customers and satisfy them with their services. To make profits and increase
company's sales, it is important to have a strong marketing department with talented employees
and managers which are masters in marketing skills. Employees can give their best ideas and
opinions to their supervisors to improve their market plan. Certain activities which are crucial to
make effective plan are research of market area, innovative and creative designs of products,
generation of standard procedures, etc. Marketing managers have to perform various duties to
make their company more productive so that it can gain more and more profits. They analyse
every critical area and assigns respective tasks to their team members and guide them to do it in a
proper manner (Armstrong and et al, 2015). They ensures that whatever they are launching and
distributing, customers should be satisfied with their performance. They should make some
strategies which can retain more customers with the company. If customers are satisfied with
performance, then they will prefer them over others. This will increase company's profit.
Company should timely update their plans to avoid possible threats. Some of roles and
responsibilities of managers are mentioned below;
Strategy: Mainly head of departments, managers and leaders are responsible for making
effective and productive strategies which can benefit company in every aspects. Before making
any strategy, manager should analysis all critical areas and perform proper research of market.
By considering all facts and information obtained after research, manager can devise best
strategies. This will help company to achieve their desired vision (Kim and Hyun, 2011).
Product development:Manager are responsible to develop new designs of product at
some interval of time. They can develop their products according to customer preferences and
recent ongoing trend in market. This will make company up to date with new designs which are

popular within market and customers. To stay ahead from other competitors, managers should
develop such a product which can satisfy all requirements of customers. Managers can make
improvements in old product strategies and can implement some innovative ideas. After
development of products, manager can set appropriate price of that particular product (Leonidou,
Katsikeas and Morgan, 2013).
Communication: This is the best way to regulate necessary information among different
departments of organisation. If company lacks proper communication, then they won't be able to
achieve their goals and objectives on time. Communication ensures faster completion of goals as
all departments get appropriate information on time.
Events: Marketing department organises events which can attract the attention of
customers. They are mainly responsible to launch their finished products to target customers.
They can display their products through seminars, workshops, sales conferences, exhibitions etc.
In these type of events employees provide customers with necessary information about products
and services their company is offering. Managers tend to attract and retain its customers by
satisfying their needs and wants.
Above mentioned were some responsibilities of marketing manager which they have to
perform to ensure that company is gaining profits. Managers should also analyse various
marketing concepts while generating strategies. They are given below:
Product concept: This concept brief managers about development of new products so
that they can earn more profits and retain their customers. They can enhance features and quality
of new product to differentiate it from other products. IKEA can implement new designs while
manufacturing their furniture.
Selling concept: If company has strong selling criteria, then it will increase their
revenue. Managers and employees try to sell more of their products to increase their profits.
Marketing concept: This allow managers to distribute their products to target customers.
This require effective marketing skills to sell their products to desired customers. More
marketing of products leads to more profit earning by company.
Marketing have some role which decides effectiveness of a company and they are
mentioned below:

Marketing information system: This system provide relevant information to managers
to designs effective plans. It provide idea about various factors that are-planning,
implementation, product, controlling and managing marketing strategies.
Monitoring marketing environment: This allow managers to effectively monitor their
marketing environment. By proper analysis of environment, supervisors can make effective plans
and can make alternate strategies to tackle any kind of threats.
Marketing research: It is critical for every company to perform market research. This
help them to decide their activities and production and plan accordingly. This also provide
relevant information about customer preferences and competitors present in market.
M2
According to Fan, Lau and Zhao , (2015), each functions have its own importance and are
inter – related to each other. Managers should try to consider and implement these functions in
their market plan to make it more productive. It will ult8imatley leads to increase in profits and
more satisfied customers, which is the main aim of IKEA company
TASK 2
P3. Comparing the ways in which IKEA applies marketing mix in its market plan
Marketing mix is considered as an essential element which is vital for a company to
analyse while developing its marketing schemes to make it successful. A marketing mix is a
business strategy that tries to perfectly amalgamate the 4Ps of marketing -Product, Place, Price,
Promotions and 7Ps in case of service- including Physical Evidence, People and Process so as to
design those products and render services which qualify the customers requirements and provide
them maximum satisfaction. Marketing mix also includes conducting surveys about customers
taste and preferences, competitors strategies, prevailing market trends and so on which help the
enterprise in taking various marketing decisions including selecting the best suitable promotion
technique for sales promotion to create positive brand image. IKEA is the world's leading home
décor and furnishing brand with its base in Sweden, Europe. They give critical attention to its
marketing mix plans for creating demand in the market as well as for attracting new customers
and retaining old ones.
Following is the comparative study of IKEA with its leading competitor TESCO
regarding the various marketing mix strategies used by them.

Marketing mix
tools
IKEA TESCO
Product IKEA is a leading global organisation
dealing in home décor and gardening. It
offers a wide range of product such as
outdoor furniture, bathroom stage, baby
and children's products, desks, mirror,
beds, safety and decoration products
etc.
TESCO is the global retailing
brand which offers a huge variety
of products to cater every need
and wants of it customers. It
products includes Beverages,
bakery products, home and garden
products, baby and toddler
products and many more.
Price IKEA focuses in matching product
price with its quality. By adopting low
price strategy the firm provided
affordable products with high quality.
Focus on cost control and efficient
operational details. It also makes use
various pricing strategies controlling it
cost and efficient management such as
market penetration and competitors
based strategies.
The firm endeavours to provide
lowest prices products with high
quality by adopting cost leadership
approach in its pricing strategy.
To further reduce its cost, it cuts
down its expenses incurred on
sales promotion.
Place IKEA has one of the most efficient
distribution strategies as a part of its
marketing mix. It has a large
distribution network all around the
world with more than 25 distribution
centres and around 240 stores operating
in over 50 countries (Dibb and Simkin,
2013). Ikea's effective supply chain
management is also one of the factor in
reducing handling and transport costs.
The company has around 6900
stores in 11 countries situated in
city centres. Its stores provide a
wide variety of products under one
roof including essential
merchandise and groceries giving
a complete shopping experience to
its customers.

Promotions IKEA give special stress when it comes
to marketing activities. It uses a
combination of different promotional
tools such as print media, ad
commercials on TV, website, billboards
catalogues and brochures for
communicating information related to
company’s latest offers, new products
etc. to its customers. And make
intensive use of social media for its
product and brand promotion. The firm
is also associated with NGOs like
UNICEF which is enhancing its brand
image in customer’s mind.
It has a strong brand image due to
its low pricing strategy. The firm
relies on promotional tools like
TV ads, hoardings etc. for
attracting its customers and
circulating information about
various discounts and offers.
People The enterprise gives significant
importance to its people both its
customers and employee. The
organizational culture followed in
IKEA is based on enthusiasm,
togetherness and fun giving utmost
focus on customer's satisfaction. It has
an employee base of around 183,000
(Malhotra, Birks and Wills, 2013).
TESCO is one of the leading retail
firm employing more than 480,000
employees in around 11 markets
around the globe. It encourages its
staff to be customer supportive by
providing various promotional
opportunities to them.
Process The company operates several business
process comprising 44 production units
in an across 10+ countries. IKEA with
its clean environment slogan in its in-
house production unit produces high
quality furniture by using latest
technologies. It is known for its
The process followed is based on
giving special attention on the
market task. It is formulated in
such a way that deviating from the
core policies of the firm can be
minimised.

distinctive supply chain and inventory
management techniques. It produces
goods and services of high quality by
managing their limited resources and
controlling cost.
Physical
Evidence
IKEA has a huge store layout providing
full shopping experience to its
customers in approx. 350 stores across
50 countries. The distinctive feature of
the store layout is the use of specific
path and guiding arrows that support
customers in achieving desired
outcomes. Besides this, it has
restaurants, baby handling area,
separate smoking zone, parking area
and many more for customers.
The well recognised logo,
authentic products, satisfied
customers and high brand value
are the indication of firm’s
physical evidence.
M3
For attaining success and growth in the long term an enterprise has to make objectives,
vision and mission as it supports the firm in achieving positive outcomes. For capturing
consumers attention its is important for IKEA to formulate such marketing strategies that help it
in building a positive brand image (Lamb, Hair and McDaniel, 2011). Price of products should
be kept reasonable for retaining the buyers and satisfying the customer so as to gain competitive
advantages over business rivals.
D2
As per Wirtz, (2012), marketing plan consists of effectively using '7 Ps - people, price,
place, promotion, process, product and physical evidence for formulating strategies to provide
goods and services as per the requirement of the customers. Such plans enables a firm to get an
idea about the purchasing powers of customers as well as of suppliers.

P4 Produce and evaluate common marketing plan for an organisation
Marketing plan of an enterprise is totally based on making effective strategies which has
to be made for analysing the direct or indirect impact of business activities on customers demand
and needs. This includes different type of firm activities which can used for attaining future goals
and objectives in effective way. This is mainly included various stages such as research and
planning, making effective marketing strategy, determining control and actions etc. Marketing
plan also provides appropriate direction to company members for doing several activities as per
the customers and market demand.
 Overview of the Company
IKEA is known as one of the world's renowned home furnishing retailing brand in the world.
The firm was established in 1943, in Sweden with its headquarters in Netherlands with the core
features of affordability, functionality and quality. Along with this, IKEA has around 318 stores
in over 38 countries which serves the reasons behind its global presence. The organisation
stands for providing a high quality home furnishing at affordable prices to its customers.
 Vision and mission of the company
A vision for companies outshines the purpose of its existence about what a firm want to
achieve. It serves as an inspiration for a firm to be focused and works in one direction for
attaining its goals and objectives. Ikea's vision is to be accessible to its customers so that more
people can experience better life in their “'home'. It reinvests a majority of its profits so as to
provide sustainable solutions in affordable price to its customers (Lovelock, 2011).
Mission of the firm is to create better life for its people by offering a wide variety of well
designed home furnishing products at reasonable prices for its customers.
 STP of IKEA
Segmentation: Segmentation helps the company to divide the whole market into different
segment on the basis of different characteristics. It is one of the very effective strategy applied by
a a company to identify and reach its target audience in a particular market. This helps in
catering the needs and wants of the target group audience, leading to generating higher profits
goals of an organisation (Joshi, 2012).
Target group: Targeting involves selecting specific group from the identified market
segment. The choosing specific groups identified as a result of segmentation as consumers for

the brand. The target market of IKEA is very broad. The organization aims at targeting people
who are cost conscious and has price preference..
Positioning: Positioning refers to selecting the most attractive marketing mix so as to
capture the attention of the target consumer segment. IKEA uses mono-segment type of
positioning to fulfil the needs of those target group who refer value for their money.
SWOT Analysis of IKEA
Strength Weakness
 IKEA is a world top home furnishing
brand having a large customer base
 It offers a large variety of well-designed
products at reasonable prices for its
customers
 The brand maintains a perfect balance
between function, quality, design and
price

Its partnership with UNICEF in
supporting various of its programs for
children benefits has created a positive
and reliable brand image
 Handling large bushiness operation
around the globe makes it difficult to
maintain quality and managing of
supply chain also becomes crucial
task.
 The biggest lacking of IKEA is that
its products are easy to be replicated
by the local suppliers which serves as
the biggest loss for the company.
 IKEA limited manufacturing
capabilities make it depended upon
sub contracted manufacturers due to
which firm faces problems in
coordination and controlling quality
standards.
Opportunities Threats
 Due to current prevailing market trend of
purchasing less expensive products , the
firm has an opportunity to cater the
increase demand for low cost
merchandise.
 By following market expansion following
 IKEA has to face large competition as
more and more firms are entering into
low price home furnishing market.
 With the growing popularity of retail
marketing the mainstream retailers
are also copying the same strategies

IKEA can opt for e-commerce to
enhance its customer service level.
of low price , high quality goods.
 Due to financial crisis all around the
world the purchasing power of
customers is reduced impacting the
sales volume of the firm.
Budget formulation – Creating a marketing budget helps to determine the amount which will be
spend on different marketing activities (Brady, 2014). It covers major aspects of business, such
as- market planning, development of financial projections and product planning in order set out
pricing objectives, advertising and distribution method.
Marketing budget
Particulars
1st
year
2nd
year
3rd
year 4th year 5th year
Capital 50000 2000 3800 3000 4000
Investments 16500 16100 17000 19500
Total 50000 18500 19900 20000 23500
Marketing expenditures
Promotion 6000 7000 5000 7000 3000
Sales 5000 6000 1000 6000 4000
Marketing 2100 3000 1100 3000 2300
Internet Marketing 4000 2000 3000 2000 3000
Networking 8000 1000 1700 1000 13000
Printing 600 600 7500 600 200
Advertising 6000 4000 2500 4000 1300

Total 23600 25000 31700 26800 21800
M4
By preparing a marketing plan, a organisation gains the understanding of the future
customer requirements. It contains different procedures and strategies aiming towards
satisfying the customers requirement so as enables an enterprise to meet its goals and
objectives in a desired manner (Wilson and et al, 2016). Marketing plan helps IKEA to
take better decisions regarding matters concerning growth, performance
level ,productivity and so on. It also give a brief about the probable market threats that
can be avoided and opportunities that can be grasped.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that marketing plays an important role in the
success of an company. Marketing plans formulated by a firm should be effective
enough so as to provide manager with an idea of prevailing market trends, customers
needs and preferences, level of competition in the market etc. This will enable the
company to formulate policies and strategies aiming towards attaining customer delight
by catering their requirements.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Pike, S., 2015. Destination Marketing: Essentials. Routledge.
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Online
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