Roles and Responsibilities of Marketing Function in Cox & Kings

This report discusses the roles and responsibilities of the marketing function in Cox & Kings, a renowned travel organization. It covers topics such as market research, product development, pricing, and the interrelation of marketing with other organizational departments. The report also compares the marketing mix of Costsaver and Cox & Kings.

MARKETING ESSENTIALS
FOR TRAVEL AND
TOURISM

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................3
P1 Roles and responsibilities of marketing function...................................................................3
P2 Interrelation of marketing with other organizational departments.........................................4
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................6
P3 Comparison between marketing mix .....................................................................................6
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................9
P4 Marketing plan........................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
........................................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is basically the series of activities which an organization carries out in order to
promote its products on the wider platform. Marketing essential is the inseparable part of
marketing which helps organization to decide which communication mix to use. Cox & Kings is
primarily one of the renowned travel organization being established in 1758 by Richard Cox and
headquartered in UK.
This report gives a brief about Roles and responsibilities of marketing function,
Interrelation of marketing with other organizational departments, Comparison between
marketing mix and marketing plan.
MAIN BODY
LO 1
P1 Roles and responsibilities of marketing function
Marketing is basically the series of activities and actions which the organizations carry
out in order to promote and advertise their products ans services to the wider audience. There are
different types of marketing functions within which the roles and responsibilities of marketing is
imperative. Marketing concept on the other hand is strategy which organizations implement for
satisfying the customers needs and demands and for increasing sales. The marketing concept has
gone through gradual change since the inception of globalization for example
Production-oriented philosophy- In this, the main assumptions are that anything which can be
manufactured can also be sold. Thus, the older concept states that consumer favors products
which are affordable. Nowadays, the companies are increasing the efficiency of their production
process.
Product concept- This mainly stresses that consumers mainly favour the products that has high
quality and performance along with innovative features. Initially, quality did not matter to the
customers and they were not quality-oriented Today, the customers wants reliability and quality
in services and products.
Marketing concept- Initially marketing was only focused towards achieving goals. The main
aim was to increase the profit. Nowadays, the prime goal of marketing department in any
organization is to satisfy the customers need and demands prior to increasing profit.
Selling concept- This concept states that initially the firms were engaged in creating sales and
leads for the products and did nit focused on retaining them. With the evolution of globalization,

the main focus of organizations is to build a long lasting ad long-term relation with the customers
and go beyond their expectations.
Market research
This is one of the most important function of marketing wherein organizations conducts
and carry out the extensive research of market in order to know the market trends, needs of
customers, major competitors, suppliers etc. Cox & Kings is highly involved in conducting the
market research in order to make their products and services better. The major role of marketing
in this marketing function in Cox & King is to develop a well-through analysis of the market and
recognize the various threats as well as the opportunities which prevails in the market. Another
most important role of marketing is to develop the appropriate communication mix through
assessing the market properly (Vellas, 2016.). On contrary to this, the primary responsibility of
marketing in market research is to collect the data and information about various products and
services which fulfills the needs and demands of the consumers.
Product development
This is the another most significant and remarkable marketing function under which the
organizations are mainly involved in developing the new products or bringing modification in
the existing one in order to satisfy the needs as well as demands of the consumers. The major
role of marketing in product development is to gather the information about various products
which the competitors are providing and gaining an in-depth analysis of them. Marketing
department in the product development is generally involved in determining the pros and cons of
the products and thus bringing innovation in it. On the other hand, primary responsibility of
marketing in product development is to consult with the customers and solicit their feedback
regarding the products to know where improvement is necessary. Besides this, another
responsibility is to generate a thorough report and ensure that the opportunities about the new
product and market trends does not miss out (Alford and Page, 2015).
Pricing
This is one of the most important function of marketing without which the organization
cannot survive in the market. In this, organizations set the prices for their products after having a
thorough market research and thus communicate these prices to the consumers for attracting
them. Cox & King set the prices of their services after knowing the expectation and willingness
of the consumers and thus revise their prices annually to survive in the competitive world. The

most important role of marketing in Pricing is to analyse the various prices which is being set by
the competitors and then analyse the pricing policy for enticing the customers. The major
responsibility of marketing in Cox & King within this marketing function is to prepare the
budget and then allocate the resources as per that budget to endure the maximum utilization of
available resources (Moutinho and Vargas-Sanchez, 2018). Along with this, another most
important responsibility is to analyse the willingness of the customers to spend on various
products and then fix the prices of various aspects like communication mix, advertising etc.
M1 Analysis of roles and responsibilities
The different roles and responsibilities of the marketing in different marketing function is
has a profound effect on the organization and thus helps them to understand the various
constraints of market. For example in market research, roles and responsibility of marketing in
Cox and king helps them to know the current trends through which they can decide their various
attributes like product mix etc.
P2 Interrelation of marketing with other organizational departments
The various roles and responsibilities of the marketing function eventually helps the
organization to achieve their goals and objectives and thus enlarge the customer base.
Marketing with HR
Marketing and the HR department of Cox & King are highly interlinked with each other
and thus complement one another. Marketing is basically concerned with advertising and
promoting the products and services at large platform whereas the major role of HR department
is to hire the competent employees for the organization and thus retain them. Marketing and the
HR shares an unbreakable relation with each and the functioning of both the department impacts
one another (Pike, 2016). Marketing division of Cox & King is highly involved in promoting the
products and services. This department undergoes an extensive market research through which
they come to know the needs and demands of the customers and their expectation from the
company. This information is being supplied to the HR department which comes to know about
the number of employees which will be required for fulfilling the needs. Thus, through this
information they design their recruitment strategy for recruiting specific number of employees.
On contrary to this, As HR department is highly engaged in hiring and selecting the talented and
skilled employees, they recruit the most qualified employees for the marketing department who

have the potential to serve the customers better. Thus, in this way HR department supplies the
marketing department with talented employees and help them to achieve their targets.
Marketing with finance
These two departments plays an important role in Cox & King and thus are inseparable.
In short, both the departments cannot work inn isolation and thus requires coordination of one
another. The main role and responsibility of the finance department is setting the over all budget
and is mainly concerned with the various aspects like profit, loss, cost, sales growth and the
overall financial position of the company. The marketing department of Cox & King prepares the
various reports regarding promotion of the product, advertising campaigns, sales promotion etc.
This report helps the finance department to know how many resources and money to be allocated
to which activity and where the investment will give profitable outcome (Gretzel and
Fesenmaier, 2016). Besides this, through the effective promotion of products and overall brand,
marketing department brings greater sales for the company and this helps the finance department
to effectively manage sales report and increase financial position of company. On the other hand,
Finance department allocate the budget and funds to various activities which assist marketing
department as to how much money to invest in particular activity. Finance department of Cox &
King set various goals for marketing department like sales target, compensation which indicates
the sales department about how to perform the work and how to achieve the targets.
Marketing with research and development
Research and development department of Cox & King is basically concerned with
designing the new products or making modifications in the existing ones to meet the needs and
demands of the consumes. These both departments plays a vital role in Cox & King and thus are
interrelated with each other to serve the customer better and attracting them. The marketing
department after consulting the market research comes to know about the fluctuating needs and
demands of the customer and the changing expectations of them (Camilleri, 2018). Through this
information, R & D become aware where to make changes in their services what new services to
evolve as per the customer demands. Thus, the information gathered by the marketing
department helps R & D to focus on the specific products and improve the equality of the
services. On the other hand, research and development department of Cox & King after
designing the new services informs the marketing department and thus this helps latter
department to effectively promote the services to customers and fulfill their needs and wants.

The information and new product which is being supplied by the R & D department helps
marketing department to take the brand message to wider audience and hence make them aware
of the new services offered by the company.
M2 Significance of interrelationship
The importance of this interrelation of marketing with other functional units helps the
organization to coordinate the various departments and hence gain competitive advantage. When
each and every department works in liaison with each other, then the overall performance of
company increases and thus helps them to sustain competitive advantage.
LO 2
P3 Comparison between marketing mix
Costsaver Cox & King
Product
Costsaver provides a range of products to their
customer which generally includes leisure
services, hotel accommodation, destination
amenities, financial services etc. The company
provides a diversified range of products and
services and thus entice the customers (Jolliffe,
2016).
Product
Cox & King provides a diversified range of
products and services to their customers which
encompasses leisure travel, Forex, Travel
insurance, Corporate travel, Visa processing
etc. Company also provides some non-financial
services to students as well as adults travelling
through them (Alford and Page, 2015).
Price
This company uses the penetration pricing
strategy where the price of the services are
generally kept low and the products are offered
at low price. Costsaver use this strategy to gain
the market share and expand in the wider
geographies (Backer and King, 2015).
Price
Company generally uses premium pricing
strategy where the price of services and
products are kept high due to great brand
image and brand equity. Besides this, company
also sometimes follows product-line pricing
where they provide highly competitive prices
to the customers (Hassan and Sharma, 2017).
Place
This company is generally present in not more
than 5 countries and thus focuses their
Place
The company operates in around 250 points
and more than 160 locations and thus have an

marketing strategy within these countries. It is
headquartered in UK and thus supports the
various other travel agencies. Besides UK, it is
present in some international countries and
have its presence in their market (Camilleri,
2018).
extensive network of the branch offices, sales
agents etc. Its international location where it
has its presence includes Europe, USA, Africa,
New Zealand etc (Gretzel and Fesenmaier,
2016).
Promotion
Costsaver generally makes use of mixture of
promotional strategies in order to reach the
customers. Company generally markets its
services and products on digital platform like
You-tube and thus attracts the customer by
both online and offline mode like newspaper
(Hassan and Dadwal, 2018).
Promotion
The promotion and the advertising strategy of
Cox & King is highly imperative and thus uses
a mixture of offline as well as online modes for
attracting customers. The most traditional
source used by this company is TV
advertisement where it uses various innovative
messages to increase brand recall (Hassan and
Sharma, 2017).
People
The company have a bunch of highly talented
and trained staff who are mostly customer-
oriented and thus offers them the best services
at cheapest prices. They keep flexible working
hours fort the staff and thus currently have a
strength of more than 4000 staff distributed at
different locations (Jolliffe, 2016).
People
The key asset of this company are their
employees which are extremely trained and
qualified to make the experience of customers
unforgettable. It has around 5000 trained staff
and professionals which are distributes across
different networks. The highly dedicated
workforce serves across the globe and is
present is different department of the company.
Process
Costsaver have a well-defined process to
ensure the smooth flow of the services and
operations. Their online process usually
involves the list of place as well as the dates
which makes it convenient for the customers to
Process
The company incorporates diligent process for
making the experience of customers convenient
and for deploying better services to them.
Company make use of CRM tool for delivering
high valuable services to the customer and for

book their hotels and other things (Lumsdon,
2016).
making the operations well-defined (Moutinho
and Vargas-Sanchez, A, 2018).
Physical evidence
The outlets of the company have a defined
physical evidence and thus their well-
structured presence of the outlets where the
tour operators operates attracts the customers.
They have an online portal through which
customers can book their services online (Pike,
2016).
Physical evidence
Cox & King has around 56 franchised shops
which are present at various locations and thus
caters domestic as well as inbound travels. It
has its subsidiaries in Australia, UAE, UK,
Japan, USA etc. and have made the joint
ventures agreement with other tour operators
like IRCTC (Sotiriadis and Gursoy, 2016).
M3 Evaluation of tactics
Organizations applies various tactics and the marketing mix which eventually helps them
to achieve the competitive advantage. They are constantly involved in designing new products,
evaluating prices, expanding in different geographies, reaching the customers through
appropriate communication mix and thus these various tactic help them to establish their position
inn market and sustain competitive advantage (Hassan and Dadwal, 2018).
LO 3
P4 Marketing plan
The strategic marketing plan is the one in which organizations requires the thorough
understanding as well as analysis of the various trends prevailing in the market while on the
other hand tactical marketing plan is the normal advertising and promotion of the product which
does not have a well-through strategy.
Executive summary
Cox and Kings is one of the renowned travel and tourism company which is serving the
customers and employees from past few years. The marketing plan of Cox and Kings
incorporates its mission and vision which are highly defined. It contains its SWOT analysis and
4Ps which helps them to achieve competitive advantage and establish position in market.
Company uses a well-defined monitoring and controlling techniques which helps them to

measure the effectiveness of their marketing plan and various strategies (Backer and King,
2015).
Mission
To become the first and foremost choice of the travelers and provide the first-hand
information for finding their ideal hotel and other services.
Vision
To provide the world-class services to the customers by fulfilling their needs and work
towards the interest of all the stakeholders.
Objectives
 To increase the profitability ratio by more than 20% by the termination of year 2020.
 To increase the sale of services and products by more than 40% towards the end of 2020.
 To generate brand awareness and brand recognition among customers in upcoming 2
months
 To increase the market share by 30% and more in the forthcoming 5 months.
SWOT analysis
Strength
The biggest strength of Cox and kings is their presence across the world. Company is
present in wide geographies and due to this their brand image has been the biggest strength
which has helped them to capture the great market share. Another strength is their tie-ups with
well-known brands like IRCTC and thus have assisted them to diversify in various other
businesses.
Weakness
The major weakness which has dominated Cox and kings is their weak workforce. Even
though the company has its presence almost all the big countries, their half of the workforce is
basically based in UK only. Besides this, service differentiation is their another weakness where
the services sold by them are generally of same nature and not unique (Lumsdon, 2016).
Opportunities
The changing lifestyle of the consumer is the golden opportunity for the company. The
consumers due to their luxurious lifestyle like to spend their time in traveling and thus mote and
more people now migrate to different destination. This has been a great opportunity for company
to increase their market share (Hassan and Dadwal, 2018).

Threat
The biggest and important threat which might hinder the operations of Cox and King is
the intense competition within market. This industry has a wide range of competitors and due to
this, the level of competition has risen up. This might make Cox & King to lose their position.
Another threat is legal regulation laws. As company operates in wide geographies thus it remains
exposed to different laws and rules which might stop their growth (Lumsdon, 2016).
Marketing mix
Product
There are diversified range of products being offered by Cox and King like leisure travel,
Forex, Corporate travel, Travel insurance etc. These products forms the core value of the
organization.
Price
Company mainly uses premium pricing where the price of products and services are key
high due to high brand image. As the company provides the best quality and luxury services thus
the prices remains high even during occasional seasons.
Promotion
Cox & King applies mixture of online and offline advertising strategies where they
promote their products online through their website, E-mail marketing etc. For the offline mode,
they make use of newspaper, ads in television which increase their viewership and hence the
exposure of advertisement.
Place
The company operates across the world and is present in more than 160 locations. It has a
wide network where its branch offices and sales agents are distributes across the different
location. It has its presence in five continents and around 50 countries.
STP
Segmentation
The company generally uses geographic market segmentation where it divides its
customers on the basis of their location. As the company is present in around 50 countries thus
its services are generally designed to attract the customers of that location.
Targeting

Cox and king make use concentrated targeting where they target the niche group of
customers and thus concentrate all their efforts on single group of customers. They generally
target high income group of individuals.
Positioning
The company use price-quality positioning where the prices of various services and
products are based on the type of quality provided to them. Due to the luxurious services and
high level of quality, Cox and king generally keep their prices high and thus uses price-quality
positioning.
Budget
Particulars 1st Year 2nd Year 3rd Year 4th Year 5th Year
Initial money 3000 7000 12000 13500 20000
Investment 11000 11500 23500 31000 15000
Total 14000 18 500 35500 44500 35000
Marketing Outlay
Particulars 1st Year 2nd Year 3rd Year 4th Year 5th Year
Advertisement 2500 2000 3750 1500 1500
Promotion 5000 1700 4500 3000 2000
Direct selling 3000 2500 4000 2000 5000
Total 10500 6200 12250 6500 8500
Monitoring and controlling

Cox and king uses various key performance indicators which helps them to measure the
effectiveness of their marketing efforts and the success of a particular product
Number of visitors
This is the total number of customers who visited their official website for gaining
information. High number of visitors means highly effective the product is and the marketing is
worth. This helps them to analyze the efficiency of their advertising efforts (Sotiriadis and
Gursoy, 2016).
Sale per customer
This is the ratio which tells the sale of number of units of product per customer. This
helps the company to monitor their marketing campaign and assess its effectiveness. High ratio
of sales per customer means the communication mix and the product is extremely effective.
M4
The marketing plan helps the organization to assess their strength and weakness as well
as their product mix and then along them to the mission as well as vision of the company.
Organization develops the marketing plan for knowing the target customers and then positioning
them through various methods to generate leads. Thus, a well-through marketing plan is essential
to measure the success of product and overall company.

CONCLUSION
It has been summarized that marketing plays an essential role in organization and thus
helps them to gain the competitive advantage and enlarge customer base. The various roles and
responsibility of marketing interrelates with other department of organization like HR, Finance
and thus organization cannot function without this interrelation. In order to gain market share,
organization develops its marketing mix effectively like product, price which helps them in their
strategic planning. Organizations develops the marketing plan which eventually helps them to
achieve their goals and objective and establish position in market.

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