Marketing Essentials: Roles and Responsibilities, Marketing Mix Comparison, Basic Marketing Plan

This document discusses the key roles and responsibilities of marketing function in an organization, compares the marketing mix of Apple and Samsung, and provides a basic marketing plan. It covers topics such as identifying customer requirements, anticipating customer needs, satisfying customer needs, and making profit. The document also explores the marketing strategies and tactics used by Apple and Samsung, and provides a step-by-step guide to developing a marketing plan. It is a valuable resource for anyone interested in understanding marketing essentials and applying them to achieve business objectives.

MARKETING ESSENTIALS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LO1..................................................................................................................................................3
P1 Key roles and responsibilities of marketing function.............................................................3
P2 Key roles and responsibilities of marketing function in an organisation...............................5
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................7
P 3 Comparison of ways in which different organisations (Apple and Google) apply the
marketing mix to the marketing planning process to achieve business objectives......................7
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................9
P 4 produce a basic marketing plan for.......................................................................................9
RECOMMENDATION.................................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1
Online:.........................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
In every organization marketing play important role. Marketing considers different
factors such as advertising, publicity, promotion and different sales techniques. It plays vital role
in company and its profit-loss and sales all are depend on marketing. It assists firm to attract
customers and sales their products and rise profit. This report will help to understand Apple
marketing essentials. Apple is a computer manufacturer company which specially designed to
manufacturer personal computers, smart phones, computer software etc. This report will explain
the key roles and responsibilities of marketing functions (Paurva, 2019). This report also analysis
the various features and functions that are associated with Apple company and it also analysis
the significance if interrelationship between marketing and other department. Comparison with
regards to various organizations is carried with the help marketing mix with a marketing plan for
Apple organization.
LO1
P1 Key roles and responsibilities of marketing
About the company:
Apple company is regarded as a world's best company and it deals with majorly manufacturing
and selling consumer electronic computer software and other online services which made it a
globally renowned company with its quality products that is originated in California USA. The
founders of the company are Steve Jobs with Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. Initially the
company started as a manufacturer of personal computer and now it has extended into all the
possible factors with its wide range of products that are being introduced into the market. Amidst
of all other phone manufacturers the company Apple is considered to be one of the largest
manufacturers of mobiles. In terms of revenue generation Apple company is regarded as the
world's largest IT company. The company is set to operate in 500 retail stores all over the world
which employs around 120000 people globally.
Current trend in marketing:
There are different Trends that occur around the organisations in different factors.
Internet marketing: The digital marketing used internet as the major tool which plays a crucial
role in marketing the products of many branded companies and multinational agencies. Apple
company uses digital marketing through the website marketing where the products are being

displayed in the company's website and on the social media where the advertisement of the
newly released product are depicted.
Brand:
Apple company is known for its quality. The company never failed to deliver the products which
are of major quality and concern. The pricing strategy that is employed by the company is the
premium pricing policy which will speak of the brand (Dewi and et.al, 2019). In the coming
years for over a long run there will not be a decrease or decline in the graph of the performance
that the company is undergoing.
Content marketing: there is a long-term scope in the aspect of content marketing. One of the
major forms of attracting customers is through the content marketing technique. The content
marketing technique will drive the customers through the explanation that is provided upon the
products that are depicted in the brochure on the websites.
The buying and selling processes that are associated with the goods with the aim of satisfying the
needs of the customer and the consumer is called marketing. Marketing plays a crucial role in
every organisation right from transportation of goods till storage and then collecting market
information and later on striving to take them to the customers. The function of marketing is
nothing but to identify the requirements of the consumers and then providing the consumers with
the anticipated goods which will result in profits. The key roles and responsibilities of marketing
functions are as follows:
Identifying the requirements of customers:
Every marketing initiative start with identification of the needs of consumers which plays a
major role in providing the goods that are essential to satisfy their needs. With identification
comes the provision. The process of identification is related with observing the needs wants
attitude and habits of the customer.
Anticipating customer requirements:
With anticipation of customer requirements, the organisation can take the initiation with first
mover advantage and can help the company to develop strategies in order to meet the demands
and needs of consumers.
Satisfying customer needs:

After the process of identification and anticipation there comes the next step called as satisfying
of customers need which is regarded as the final stage of every initiation. This is regarded as the
prime role of the marketing function since it results in drawing profit and sales to the company.
Making profit:
Every organisation ultimate goal is to draw profit from the strategies they adopt in selling the
goods to the customers. The main marketing function in order to make profits will have to come
up with new and innovative ways of selling products to customers which will rise the share and
sales of the company.
The company will have to develop value added packages which will not only increase the
profitability but also the customer satisfaction with regards to the company. Situation analysis of
the company will define more about the role of marketing of that organisation. Corporate goals
are being refined from producing marketing objectives which will in return develop factors like
cost saving, profitability and growth in the market share. The objectives that are adopted will
define the goal of the company and the targets with the company will have to attain in the near
future. On introducing new products every now and then will increase the customer potential and
will result in increasing demand of that particular product.
P2: Key roles and responsibilities of marketing function in an organisation
Marketing is a science that contains countless strategies, activities and techniques in
order to promote a product and to understand the needs of customers.
Development of Marketing Strategy
A perfect marketing strategy will help the company or an organization to set the business
objectives. It is not only meant to set the goals for the organization but will also direct the way
for the organization to reach those goals. If the marketing strategy isn’t planned in a way good
way then it will show the affect on the company’s business, slowly leading to the downfall of the
company’s growth. To develop the marketing strategy, there are certain steps to be followed,
Identify goals: When business goals are identified the marketing goals can be setup to
support the business goals.
Stating the Marketing Goals: The marketing goals will help the team members by
cherishing and motivating them towards the success of the organization.

Research: Research is always the main part of marketing strategy. The information that is
gathered during the research process will help to create a marketing strategy for the organization.
Market Research
A research is important before developing any marketing strategy for the organization.
The market research plays a crucial role for the success of the company. Through market
research one company can understand the outside market before launching their product and will
also be helpful in analysing the competitors. Over the years, the main idea regarding the
marketing research is to find the information such as what a customer and a consumer wants.
This information is done through several research processes, like conducting survey, testing the
products and many other ways in the form of getting the opinions, feedback and the interest
about the product from the consumers and customers. This entire information so obtained will be
helpful in creating a marketing strategy for the company. A company gathers information in two
ways,
The type of information that is gathered by the person working in the company and the type of
information gathered by the outside entity.
Product Development
It is the process of delivering, designing, creating and updating a product to the
customers. The following are the steps involved in product development, namely;
Identifying Market Need: The problems in the market can solve through various
products. These problems should be discussed with the customers and consumers to understand
the market.
Quantify the Opportunity: The problem aroused can be solved by the members in the
organization depending upon the level of affect of problem on the organization.
Conceptualizing the Product: The team will be designing the product to serve as per the
solution for the problem occurred in the market.
Validating the Solution: Before designing the product as per the solution, i first needs to
be seen whether it is valid or not.
Building Product Roadmap: Through Product roadmap, the vision and the direction that
the product is offering is shared with others. So the long term and short term goals of the product
can be achieved.

Developing MVP: MVP stands for Minimum Viable Product, which means this is a type
of product which has enough features that can be used by the early customers.
Communication:
Communication is always the key or route map for the success. When there is no
communication one cannot understand or predict the outside market. Through communication
one can understand the pros and cons of a product, what the market needs, what sought of
development can be stilled done to the product, and understand the competition in the market.
For an organization or a company to survive in the market, communication is very important. For
instance, when a product is launched by a specific Company X in the market it is through
communication only how well the product is doing the marketing can be known, like feedback
from the customers. It is not only about the customer’s feedback but the companies can convey
information about the products and brands that are launched in the market. For this the
communication process uses different tools and channels to launch a product in market which is
also known as Marketing Communication.
LO 2
P 3 Comparison of ways in which different organisations (Apple and Samsung) apply the
marketing mix to the marketing planning process to achieve business objectives
Marketing mix can be defied as a kind of framework or a tool which is used by organizations for
perusing their marketing objectives (Jackson and Ahuja, 2016). Comparison of marketing mix (7
P’s) of Apple and Samsung has been explained below:
Marketing mix
elements
Apple Samsung
Product Products and services provided
by Apple are iPhones, iPods,
MacBook, iTunes, iCloud storage
etc.
Samsung only product electronic
products like TV, mobile, laptops
and many more.
Place Most of the outlets of Apple are
found in malls or on high streets.
They also have their own website
for online shopping
Samsung also have their own
outlets but there is no specific
location for their outlets and they
also have online presence as they
have their own website, their

products can be sold on ecommerce
websites as well (Samsung
Marketing strategy, 2020).
Price Apple sell their products and
services premium pricing strategy
and sell its products and services
at high price (Wu and Li, 2018).
Samsung adopts competitive
pricing strategy and sell their
products and services by making
sure that their products and
services are in line with their
competitors.
Promotion Samsung uses both online and
offline promotion channels for
promotion such as social media
promotion, search engine
advertising, PR, etc.
Apple also uses varied types of
promotion channels but mostly
nowadays they uses digital
advertising, social media marketing
and online advertisements (Baltes,
2016).
People Apple recruits highly trained and
skilled employees. Not only this
they also provide advance time to
time training to their employees
so that positive innovative culture
can be developed and maintained.
They also have diverse workforce
for managing all of their main
operations successfully.
Samsung provide time to time
training to their employees and also
provide various kinds of benefits in
order to retail highly skilled
employees.
Process Apple has adopted a systematic
process though which products
are delivered to their customers
(Fotiadis, Mombeuil and Valek,
2018). After purchasing
customers need to create their
Apple id for accessing all of its
Samsung has both the options of
delivering their products and
services i.e. through online and
offline. Customers of Samsung do
not need to create any kind of id to
access its services.

services like Apple store, iCloud
storage etc.
Physical evidence Apple has their outlets as well as
has their own website and they
majorly focus upon simplicity and
tech focused.
Samsung also has their own outlets
and their own website.
LO 3
P 4 produce a basic marketing plan for
Marketing is one of the most important part of Apple. In order to reach their target
customers, inform customers about new products and services introduced by Apple and inform
customers about ways in which Apple maintain overall quality of their products and services etc.
company does market of their products and services (Hao and et. al., 2018). Development of
marketing plan helps an organization in developing a strategy that they can use for marketing of
their products and services. Marketing plan of Apple has been explained below:
Mission
Main mission of Apple is to provide best user experience to customers through
innovative hardware, software and many other kinds of internet offering or services.
Objectives
Main objectives required to be achieved are:
 To enhance overall sales of their iPhone by 10 percent within 12 months.
 To enhance customer base by 15 percent within 12 months.
STP
 Segmentation: It helps in dividing target customers into groups on the basis of certain
characteristics. Some of the most common characteristics that target customers of Apple
prefer are design, quality, and performance (Pandey, 2017). Apple uses demographic
segmentation in order to divided their customers into group on the basis of age and income.
Apple focuses upon customers who are between 20 to 45 years of age and high- income
customers or whose family income is high.
 Targeting: Main targeted customers of Apple are high class or upper middle- class people
with high income. Other than this Apple has created three target groups: first target group are

people who love music and music related products like Apple iPod and iTunes service.
Second group are professionals or teenagers who are technology oriented and prefer branded
products like iPhones, tablets, MacBook etc. Third type of target group are people are loyal
customers who uses only Apple products and services like iBook’s, etc.
 Positioning: Apple has always appealed people’s emotions as well as their feeling which has
always been a position strategy especially for iPhone (Omer, 2019). Apple has also
positioned themselves as a lifestyle product for people who love innovative technological
products, wealthy people or people with good jobs and high- income.
PESTLE analysis
There are various kinds of macro environmental factors that can impact overall business
of Apple.
 Political factor: Apple is majorly dependent upon low- cost manufacturing in China but due
to current pandemic situation of Covid-19 there is political unrest in China as most of the
countries are withdrawing their support from China. Due to this political unrest Apple need
to focus upon shifting their manufacturing from China to other low- cost countries like India.
 Economic factor: Current pandemic situation of Covid-19 has directly affected disposable
income of people in most of the countries as most of the products and services of Apple are
of premium priced it directly affected their overall sales (Omer, 2019). Due to this Apple has
focused upon introducing new products for people in lower prices in order to increase their
overall sales.
 Social factor: Increasing use of mobile access and dependency on digital systems has
changed preference and buying patter of people. This has further helped Apple in attracting a
greater number of customers. For this Apple ahs focused upon developing and introducing
more innovative and high- quality products with high security for their customers.
 Technological factor: Due to advancement in technology, usage of digital technologies has
increased. Today a greater number of people are using cloud computing services and
applications, growth of online or digital services has increased like sales of new products and
services has increased. This has provided Apple with an opportunity to enhance their sales
and attract a greater number of customers like by producing iCloud storage to customers by
offering first 5 GB free of cost and then demanding price for additional storage space.

 Legal Factor: increasing privacy regulations is one of the main threats for Apple that can
impact their business because today a greater number of countries are increasing ort
developing new legislation of for enhancing overall security of customers data (Omer, 2019).
It is an opportunity for Apple as it is well known for producing high security to customers.
But it is also a threat for them because they need to bring some changes within their security
regulations.
 Environmental factor: Today a greater number of countries are developing legislation for
controlling carbon footprint. Due to this Apple need to focus upon developing energy effect
products that emit lower carbon dioxide. Not only these various countries have developed
laws on limiting level of radiation emission from electronic devices. Due to this Apple need
to focus upon manufacturing of their products in order to reduce radiation emitted by
devices.
SWOT Analysis
 Strengths: Apple is considered as most valued luxurious brand with excellent brand image. It
is one of their main strength that helps them to attract a greater number of customers (Omer,
2019). Products and services Apple are recognized globally and is one of the most trusted
brand that manufacture most trusted, personalised and advance technological devices that
helps them in increasing loyalty of their customers.
 Weaknesses: one of the main weakness of Apple is its high or premium priced products and
services because of which middle class or low- income customers cannot afford its products
and services. Apple is expanding their services into non-competency areas like in content
streaming, video streaming or games streaming etc. these are the areas in which dominant
players are already present like Netflix, Disney, etc. Other than this another weakness of
Apple is their incompetency with other software’s because of which customers need to
purchase other apple products and services.
 Opportunities: Apple can focus upon expanding their distribution network as current
distribution network of Apple is limited. By expanding distribution network their overall
sales can also be increased (Omer, 2019). Apple lack green technology adoption. They can
focus upon adopting green technology for development of their products and services this
will further help them in attracting customers who prefer buying environment friendly
products and services.

 Threats: Apple is highly dependent upon low cost manufacturing ibn China but due to
current pandemic situation of Coronavirus their manufacturing and supply chain has been
impacted drastically due to which their sales has been impacted drastically. competition in
this technological field is increasing drastically many other companies are focusing upon
providing advance technological products to customers in lower prices which is affecting
customer loyalty of Apple. In order to achieve main marketing objectives Apple can focus
upon using porters generic differentiation strategy where they can introduce unique features
within their products in order to attract more number of customers and enhance sales.
Monitoring, control and KPI:
For digital marketing software of systems like google Analytics can be used for
monitoring of marketing plan and its success. It can also help in tracking and evaluating whole
marketing process as well. Monitoring of social media marketing can be done by monitoring its
likes and shares. Social metrics is one of the best key performance index that can be used to
evaluate success of social media marketing efforts.
RECOMMENDATION
From above explanation and analysis it is recommended to the Apple that they must
follow all roles and responsibilities of their marketing functions because they are interrelated to
other business operations which help company to increase their overall profit and rise their
revenue. It's recommended to the company that for competitive advantages must use marketing
mix strategies it also beneficial in providing strategic marketing plan which help in overall
growth of the company. (Blythe, and Martin, 2019). It also suggested to the Apple company
before applying market strategies properly understand local market need and develop their
product according to consumer requirement it helps company to attract more customers. To thee
company it also recommended that create an effective marketing plan which help Apple to fulfil
their objectives and targets. Company should follow these recommendations and suggestions for
effective growth in the company and improve company performance.
CONCLUSION
The entire report concludes that marketing is essential part in Apple and other
organization. It is important because it helps company in various ways such as marketing helps
in advertising, sales promotion, promotional activities etc. Marketing functions different roles
and responsibilities also play importance in business and as the different functions are

interrelated with various department in the company that why marketing affect all over the profit
of the company. As above mention various marketing strategies such as marketing mix are
beneficial for the company because it provides competitive advantages to the company and the
competitive advantages help company to rise their profit in the industry and help Apple company
to create their brand name in the industry It also beneficial for the company to increase
productivity and profitability of the company. Although marketing essentials help company to
fulfil their objectives and beneficial to achieve long term and short term goals of the company
and marketing plan also help company in their sustainable growth of the company.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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University of Brasov. Economic Sciences. Series V. 9(1). p.33.
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da Costa and et.al, 2018. The role of marketing capabilities, absorptive capacity, and innovation
performance. Marketing Intelligence & Planning.
Dewi and et.al, 2019. The Role of Marketing & Competitive Intelligence In Industrial
Revolution 4.0. Jurnal Manajemen Bisnis. 16(1). pp.1-12.
Fotiadis, A., Mombeuil, C. and Valek, N.S., 2018. Designing and implementing a marketing
plan. In The Emerald Handbook of Entrepreneurship in Tourism, Travel and
Hospitality. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Jackson, G. and Ahuja, V., 2016. Dawn of the digital age and the evolution of the marketing
mix. Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice. 17(3). pp.170-186.
Omer, S.K., 2019. SWOT analysis implementation's significance on strategy planning Samsung
mobile company as an example. Journal of Process Management. New
Technologies. 7(1). pp.56-62.
PANDEY, B.C., 2017. Nike Inc-Complete Analysis: SWOT, PESTLE and Marketing strategy.
BookRix.
Paurva, S., 2019. Essentials of marketing research.
Wu, Y.L. and Li, E.Y., 2018. Marketing mix, customer value, and customer loyalty in social
commerce: A stimulus-organism-response perspective. Internet Research.
Online:
Key roles and responsibilities of marketing function: [ONLINE] Available through<
https://ukacademicpapers.blogspot.com/2020/02/p1-explain-key-roles-and.html>
Samsung Marketing strategy. 2020. [Online]. Available
through<https://proechosolutions.com/asheville-marketing/how-samsungs-marketing-
strategy-turned-them-into-a-technological-powerhouse>
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