Marketing Essentials Report

This report examines the role of marketing in ALDI, a leading discount supermarket chain. It analyzes the marketing mix, the interrelationship of the marketing department with other departments, and develops a marketing plan for ALDI. The report also includes a comparison of ALDI's marketing strategies with its competitor, LIDL.

Marketing Essentials

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1..........................................................................................................................................................3
P1.............................................................................................................................................................3
P2 ............................................................................................................................................................6
TASK 2..........................................................................................................................................................7
P3 ............................................................................................................................................................7
TASK 3........................................................................................................................................................12
P4 ..........................................................................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is known as the activity and procedures for developing, communicating,
exchanging and delivering offerings that have some value for partners, clients, customers and
community at large (Baker and Saren, 2016). This is the function that helps firm in
communicating value and benefits of its product to customers in an effective way. The
contribution of marketing is high in increasing sales and profit ratios of organization. Chosen
organization for this assignment is ALDI which is a discount supermarket chain headquartered in
Essen, Germany. The manager of company applies new marketing strategies to develop and
satisfy market condition and customer such as product that supporter for environmental, healthy
and nutrition. Manager are more concern with their promotion activity, they have establish
different E marketing process like like promotion on their Facebook page and also line
promotion such as television, radio, magazines and newspaper etc.
This report covers key responsibilities and roles of marketing function and its interlink
with other departments. Apart from this marketing mix is applied to planning process for
attaining business objectives. At last marketing plan is developed for ALDI in this project.
TASK 1
P1
In the competitive business market, it is highly essential for every business organization
to effectively promote its goods and services in market and convey benefits to customers. The
marketing concept refers to the strategy that companies execute to satisfy needs of customers,
maximize sales, increase profits and beat market competition. There are five concepts of
marketing which companies adopt and implement. These concepts includes production, process,
marketing, selling and societal marketing concept. In Cadbury, marketing plays vital role in
developing good relations with customers. The process of marketing includes 4 steps, i.e.,
situation analysis, marketing strategy, marketing mix decisions and implementation and control.

(Source: Steps of Marketing Process, 2018)
Concept of marketing:
The concept of marketing is a belief that organizations should analyses needs and
preferences of customers and make rational decisions for satisfying those needs and beat the
competition. It is a business philosophy in which main focus of firm is to satisfy needs of target
market. There are five concepts of marketing including production, product, selling, marketing
and societal marketing concept.
Current and future trends of marketing:
In present scenario, marketing plays crucial role in growth and success of company.
Firms are more emphasize on satisfaction and retention of customers instead of generating high
sales. With the help of marketing, company can develop strong relationship with customers. The
marketing exist in today's society is the mixture of previous trends that have been enhanced upon
like print and TV ads with new strategies emphasize on inbound practices. Today, the most
commonly used marketing tactics includes social media marketing, targeted emails, text message
advertisements etc. In future, it is expected that the trends in marketing would continue to grow
Illustration 1: Steps of Marketing Process

as easy access to goods and services and technology increases. Telemarketing and TV
advertisements will continue to decline in effectiveness as forum options ongoing to become
common place.
There are various responsibilities and roles of marketing function in ALDI that are
defined below:
Defining a managing brand: Marketing plays vital role in defining and managing brand
of company. It helps in creating effective brand image of firm in market. In ALDI, marketing
function helps in developing eye catching image of brand in eyes of customers that helps in
attracting them more towards firm (Desselle and et. al., 2016).
Market research: One of the key responsibility of marketing function is research which
assist company in determining market opportunities and get better understanding regarding needs
of customers. It also assists firm in understanding strengths and weaknesses of competitors so
that effective actions can be taken for protecting business with existing competitors. By
understanding industry reports, contacting customers to survey their attitudes and needs and
analyses market data, the marketing department of ALDI conduct its own research.
Communication: Marketing department develop communication materials and plan
campaigns to promote goods and services in market. Depending on the budget availability,
company develop email marketing programs, advertising campaigns, create promotional content
for firm website and right product Publications or press release. In ALDI, marketing function
helps in developing effective Communications with customers and satisfying their needs and
requirements in more effective way (Brassington and Pettitt, 2013).
Sales support: Marketing function highly contributes in increasing sales of the company.
Its main responsibility is to promote goods and other offerings of enterprise in market which in
turn results in increasing sales and maximizing profitability. In ALDI, marketing function plays
crucial role in communicating its products to market which supports in generating sales for
product. It assists maximizing profit ratio and attaining goals and objectives of company.
P2
Roles and responsibilities of Marketing department are interlinked with other
departments of business enterprise. Functions and activities of one department are highly linked

with others. It is very important for a company that marketing department and other functional
unit must be interlinked just because it will have the responsibilities for growing revenue,
increasing market share and contribute to company growth and profitability. Its is basic that
customer needs and wants should be the main motive of every organization and all its activities.
So manager of company mainly focus to increase the responses and improve the relationship
between marketing and other department of company. For collecting proper information about
market trends, manager of ALDI requires to conduct research. Interrelationship of Marketing
function with other department are defined below:
Human Resource Department and marketing
Human Resource Department and Marketing department are interrelated with each other
as human resource hire skilled employees for marketing department so that all its activities can
be carried out in an effective way (Dibb and Simkin., 2013). The main role of Human Resource
Department is to recruit and select skilled workforce which is able to accomplish predetermined
goals and objectives of company. ALDI, a crucial role played by Human Resource Department
for marketing by hiring skilled and Competent workforce for company so that its operations are
carry out effectively and firm is enable to promote its goods and services in more appropriate
manner.
Marketing and Finance
Marketing and Finance are considered as the essential pillars of company on which the
whole revenues and profits rely upon. The main role of finance department is to prepare budgets
and allocate funds to each department so that at all the activities can be performed successfully.
It helps in running day to day operations of company so that at its goals and objectives can be
accomplished. In ALDI, Marketing department it is interrelated with finance department as it
allocates budget to marketing for conducting its activities in proper way and attains set targets of
company (Jones and Rowle., 2011).
Marketing and production department
The main responsibility of production department is to convert raw materials into final
goods for fulfill requirements of customers. Effective products can be developed only when
company has the knowledge and understanding about needs and preferences of customers. In

ALDI, Marketing department provide information regarding market trends customer needs to
Production department which helps it in manufacturing products as per the market needs. In this
way, both departments are interlinked with each other and together contribute in the expansion of
business.
Sales and marketing function:
Activities of sales and marketing department are interrelated with each other. Effective
marketing is the way through which managers enable to improve sales and profits of business.
The contribution of marketing department is high in maximizing sales by attracting numerous
customers towards firm. In ALDI, marketing department use various tools and techniques that
helps in conveying value and benefits of product to customers. Effective promotion of product
by marketing department helps sales department in generating higher sales and competing their
sales target. All this will help firm in generating high profits and maintaining its sustainability in
market for longer term (Desai, 2013).
It is observed that marketing alone cannot be the reason for the improvement of
performance and productivity of an organization. All other department of firm are linked with
marketing department and perform specific function that have important part in improving the
market place of company. Such as marketing section does effective promotion activity in order
to attract more customer and sales section supplies goods according to the demand of people.
TASK 2
P3
One of the fundamental tool in marketing is the "Marketing Mix". It is mainly defined as
the set of marketing tool principally uses by company to pursue its defined marketing objectives
in the target market. In simple words, it is a collection of series of factors that can be controlled
by a company in order to influence customer purchasing pattern regarding a particular product or
service.
7P’s of Marketing ALDI LIDL
Product The Company affirm to
provide reasonable or
affordable food products
It is also a supermarket chain
that gained popularity for
selling products at discounted

usually made of same quality
like any other branded
product. Products of Aldi
generally sourced from
selected supplier and further
branded under their own
name as to have an adequate
control over the ultimate cost
and total production
(Zgarrick, 2015). Other than
beverages and food product,
the firm also deals feeling
fresh vegetable and fruits,
stationery, beauty and health
products, household goods,
electronic items, clothes and
soft tools. Apart from this, it
is also having a mobile
virtual network operator in
countries like Germany,
Australia, Netherland and
Belgium.
price. Also it has positioned
itself as "go to shop" where
customers can get mediocre
range products at reasonable
prices. It offers large variety
of products including fruits
and vegetables, frozen item,
bakery products, health
related items, baby products,
cleaning and household
goods, spirits and beers
(Desselle and Alston, 2016)..
Place: ALDI is selling its product in
more than 18 countries.
According to a source, it has
been identified that almost
every week company open a
store in Britain. It procures all
its items or products in bulk
quantity from its suppliers
It operates in more than
10000 locations via 28 US
and European Countries. Its
main distribution center is
situated in U.S. The
distribution channel of Lidl is
well organized as eliminates
the concept of mediator or

and store them at their
warehouses (Lamb and et. al.,
2011). The company is
gaining popularity for
maintaining a regional
appearance like placing the
name of it stores according to
specific region. For example:
In Switzerland, Aldi is well
known as Aldi Suisse. Apart
from this, aims to satisfy its
customer by selling its
product online.
middle man i.e. it believes in
doing direct dealing from the
local market.
Price The company
gains popularity for selling
cheap price and quality
products which ultimately
results in making their
customer base stronger. As a
result, Aldi gives tough
competition to its available
competitors. Apart from this,
there are various other pricing
policies used by firm like
psychological pricing,
competitive pricing and unit
pricing strategy (Hauer,
2011).
The company gains high
competitive advantage
because of its unique strategy
called as zero waste and no
frills (Dibb and Simkin,
2015). As per these strategy,
products are displayed in the
cartons which are actually
going to be delivered to
customer. The store also
keeps a minimum level of
required staff in order to
avoid extra cost. The
company mainly targets
middle Class Section of the
society who are little price
sensitive because of their

limited budget of spending.
The company claims to offer
such products that value their
money and provide them
satisfaction. Some of its
common pricing policy
include penetration pricing
and competitive pricing
strategy. The result of
adopting such strategies
enable firm to gain high
competitive advantage over
its competitors.
Promotion: Aldi claims to use cost saving
strategy for promoting its
product i.e. it believes in
investing very small
proportionate or negligible
amount for promoting its
products in the market. In
fact, in Germany it is not
keeping a marketing
department for advertising its
goods or services. All it
offers are some Swap and
Save & Super Buys that
seizes the attention of
customer. Although in
countries like Australia,
United Kingdom and United
The company has adopted
several promotional strategies
for seizing the attention of
customers. Apart from
focusing on providing best
quality product at affordable
prices, Lidl also laid stress on
bringing the consumer inside
a store so that he/she can
actually buy (Jones and
Rowley, 2011). Some of its
popular channel of promotion
include newspapers,
magazines, leaflets,
television, ad campaigns and
hoardings. Along with this, it
also believes in taking the

States, company is making
large use of electronic,
display and print media to
advertise its stores
(Papasolomou and
Melanthiou., 2012).
advantage of digital
marketing in sending SMS to
regular customer and keep
them updating about latest
offers.
People: The firms lack in providing
lower customer service
because their employees do
not assist its consumers in
selecting product. This is
probably because Aldi has
kindly design store layout
where everything is classified
into proper section which
minimizes the requirement of
number of employees on
every floor. This ironically
gives high competitive edge
to the firm over its others
competitors as Aldi become
more focused on giving
training to its employees and
making them more effective
and efficient.
At Lidl, employees are
getting attractive salary for
their hard work whilst on the
job. However
their performances are
evaluated on the basis of
number of items scanned
during the whole day. High
training standards are set only
to ensure one can scan
maximum number of product
fastly and conveniently that
ultimately results in meeting
customer needs (Lamb and
McDaniel, 2011). It
employees more than 315000
employees who all are well
trained and groomed with an
aim to satisfy customers.
Process As the firm has designed its
store layout in a very
thoughtful manner which
results in finding product
The primary process of
company is mainly
emphasizing on buying and
selling as much as good as

easily or in less time. Also
the company focused on
keeping limited number of
products that are made of
high quality and selling it at
reasonable rate. Along with
this, its products usually have
large barcodes which help
their employees in quick
identification and fast billing
(Perreault., 2010).
possible at an affordable
price. Involvement of
customer in any of their
procedure is minimal.
Everything in the store is
placed or kept in a well-
organized manner that makes
easier for consumer to look
after products without
creating much chaos.
Physical Evidence: The company gained
popularity all across the
world for its global pricing,
standardization and business
processes. Nearly about
85%of its total stock are sold
under its own private label
and rest all from well famous
brands. Its strategy of
keeping everyday low prices
remains same even at global
level which results in giving
them high competitive
advantage over their
competitors.
Traditional and linear laid out
manner of Lidl gives them
high competitive advantage
over its competitors. This
help customers in finding
goods in easiest manner. Also
because of its Yellow and
Blue brand logo colors, it
become easier for customer to
recognize and find it
throughout their surrounding
areas (Malhotra and Birks,
2012).

TASK 3
P4
Marketing plan: It refers to the formal document that provides direction to marketing
manager of firm for their future course of action. It includes all the information that helps firm in
promoting its product effectively (Rossi and McCulloch., 2012).
Company overview:
ALDI is one of the well-known multinational supermarket chain which is operated in
around 20 countries. The company is headquartered in Essen, Germany and it is operated more
than 10,000 stores at different places. It was established in year 1946 by Karl Albrecht and Theo
Albrecht. The company wants to introduce new payment service for customers which makes it
easy for them to made payments of their purchases without wasting their time. This will help
company in attracting more number of customers towards firm.
Mission: The mission statement of ALDI is “To satisfy needs of customers by providing them
high quality products.”
Vision: The vision statement of ALDI is “to be a leading discount supermarket chain in all over
the world and gain high loyalty of customers”.
Objectives:
 To increase sales of products by 20% in next 2 years.
 To maximize market, share from 15% by year 2021.
STP:
Segmentation: It refers to the process of dividing market into homogeneous subgroups.
ALDI divides its market on the basis of behavioral segmentation.
Target group: The target group of ALD includes household and individuals.
Positioning: ALDI positioned itself strongly in Germany. Its unique selling point is spending a
little, live a lot. Firm sale high quality products at affordable prices which creates good brand
image of company in market.

Situational analysis: In business, world it is also defines as the activities that manager
uses to examine the internal and external environment to get the knowledge about customer and
capabilities of company. Manager does SWOT analyses to determine the marketing behavior of
company.
Strength:
 The company has achieved extra ordinary growth in last few year just by providing goods
and a very low offering.
 Company have a strong supplier relationship that maintain an effective demand and
supply chain.
Weakness
 They do not focus on single product and keep on changing the goods that might effect the
buyer.
 The manager of company are not able adapt the technology changes.
Opportunities.
 They manager have the chance to increase the brand loyalty and awareness.
 The company can focus to expand their business by offering more organic and fresh food
items.
Threats
 There are number of competition in retail industry so product are available at lower price.
 Nowadays customer prefer to buy goods online rather visiting to stores.
Marketing budget
Particulars 1st year 2nd year 3rd year 4th year 5th year
Initial money 6000 7000 10000 14000 18000

Investment 15000 24000 29000 12000
Total 6000 22000 34000 43000 30000
Marketing outlay
Promotion 6000 3000 4000 3000 3000
sales publicity 3000 3000 3000 3000 2500
Direct selling 4000 1500 4000 4000 4000
Total 13000 7500 11000 10000 9500
Monitoring and control: After preparing the overall plan, it is the responsibility of
marketing manager of ALDI to implement it successfully and monitor and control all the
activities in order to ensure that all activities are done in right way. Firm also take corrective
measures if required. Manager of company applies different types of tool in order to control and
monitor various project such as APOP( Advance product quality planning), PPAP (Production
part Approval process) that help in increasing the efficiency of company (Silver and et. al.,
2012).
CONCLUSION
From the above given project, it can be summarized that marketing plays crucial role in
success and growth of organization. It helps firm in generating high sales and profit ratios and
attaining preset goals and objectives of company. There are various key roles and responsibilities
of marketing including promoting and maintaining brand image, communication etc. Different
departments within firm are interlinked with marketing department and work collectively to
attain objectives of company. Marketing mix includes set of marketing tools which are used by
company for perusing its market objectives. Marketing plan is a blue print that depicts about

future course of actions that are going to be taken by firm. Successful implementation of plan
helps in attaining goals and objectives of company.
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