Marketing Essentials - McVities Assignment Sample

Marketing Essentials

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................................... 1
LO1............................................................................................................................................. 1
P1 Key roles and responsibility of marketing function at McVities.....................................1
P2 How roles and responsibilities of marketing relate on the wider level of organizational
context within McVities...................................................................................................... 3
LO2............................................................................................................................................. 4
P3 Compare the ways in which different organizations apply the marketing mix to the
marketing planning process to achieve business objectives.................................................4
LO3............................................................................................................................................. 7
P4 Evaluate a basic marketing plan for the Mcvities digestive biscuits...............................7
CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................... 11
REFERENCES.......................................................................................................................... 13

·INTRODUCTION
Marketing is an activity of promoting and advertising the products or services helps in
improving the sales of the company. This is an essential practice within a business which
supports the gaining of a financial stability(Baltes, 2015). It can be termed as a practice of
manufacturing the high quality goods and offering them in an interactive manner, on a
reasonable rate. The promotional measures support in improving the quality and sales of services
or goods that are manufactured at the workplace. The current assessment will cover the
promotional or advertising details of the British biscuit brand, McVities. It is a subsidiary of
United Biscuits and is well-known for its digestive Maries and Chocolate cookie based cakes.
The report will cover the details about key role and responsibilities marketing has in
chosen enterprise. The major significance of these functions related to a wider organizational
context is followed that will help in improving the interconnectivity and relativity among
different departments. The measures related to marketing mix in the planning process and
achieving the business objectives is used. Along with this, a suitable and effective promotional
plan is developed that will help in establishing a proper advertising strategy for the company.
·LO1
·P1 Key roles and responsibility of marketing function at McVities
The main role of marketing is to promote and exchange the goods and service offered by the
business in the market (Calderon, 2019) . The promotion and exchange of products and services
are done in such a manner that it increases the brand awareness of the company and meet the
satisfaction level of the customer. Marketing is long process which starts from identifying the
need of the customers and end with meeting the satisfaction level of the consumer. Here are the
marketing functions of McVities are discussed with their roles and responsibilities.
·Marketing information: This is the most basic and important marketing functions. In this
function the marketing department collects informations about the need and the demand of
products in the market. This process of collecting information includes the analysis the demand
of the product, availability of the product, competition and many more. The Marketing
department of McVities collects all the relevant information available in the market before
launching their product in the market(Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2019). The roles and
responsibility of this function is it forecast the condition of the market, trends in the market
which includes competition, demand and supply, preferences of the customers and many more.
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·Marketing Planning: Marketing planning the function of marketing which helps the business
in fulfilling their objectives of the business. Business objectives can involves the increase in
market share, enhancing the satisfaction level of the customers, improving the quality of product
and services(Durkin, and et.al., 2016). The marketing department of McVities implement proper
plan before doing any activities this helps the company in finishing the task in more effective
and efficient manner. The major role and responsibilities of these functions it helps the McVities
to achieve the objectives in realistic and more effective way.
·Exchange Functions: The exchange function of marketing includes the buying and selling of
goods and services. The main role and responsibilities is to ensure that all products of the
company are available in the market in a sufficient quantities to satisfy the demand of the
consumers. The exchange function of McVities is supported by the various promotional
activities like personal selling, advertisement and sales promotions(Franco, 2018).
· Product designing and product development: The product designing and development helps
the company to makes their products more attractive then the competitors. In the competitive
market the design, shape, size, almost every possible things matters. All these things are used by
the marketing department of McVities to attract more customers and get competitive advantage
in every possible way.
·Physical Distribution: The physical distribution is a part of the marketing function which
involves the transportation of the product and storage of the product. The transportation of the
goods include the moving of the from their final stage of production to the place where
customer's can purchase it whereas the storage involves the warehousing the products unless it is
nor required of sales(Gillespie and Riddle, 2015). The major role physical distribution in
McVities is to form a link between the company and the customers.
·Customers Support: It is the most important function of marketing functions. The customer's
support in McVities involves sales recommendation and counselling, after sales services,
maintenance services and many more. The role and responsibilities of these function is increase
the sales of the company, enhance the customers satisfaction level and improving the retention
rate of the customers(Lam and et.al., 2015).
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l壱P2 How roles and responsibilities of marketing relate on the wider level of organizational
context within McVities
Marketing department is inter related with almost every other functional department of the
company. Here are the the interrelation of marketing department with other functional
department of McVities
Marketing Department with Production Department: The marketing department of the
McVities and the production department need to work closely together because the marketing
department has proper knowledge about the demand of product , trends in market, need of the
consumer and many more(Menegaki and et.al., 2017). The job of marketing department is to
provide proper information the about all these factors to the production department so the
production unit can modify the existing product or developing new product whereas the job of
production unit is to develop a production will good quality and specification so the marketing
department can performance the marketing activities with more effectiveness
Marketing Department and Finance Unit: The Finance department and the marketing
department works together in the McVities because The finance department have the detail
information about all the functional department of the company(Menegaki and et.al., 2017). The
job of financial department department of McVities is to provide proper and sufficient funds to
perform to marking and promotional activities whereas the job of marketing department is to
inform that about the requirement of the funds to the financial department as well as to perform
the marketing activities in the most efficient and effective way in the provided fund.
Marketing Department and Human resource department: In McVities the marketing
department and the human resource department coordinate their work to increase the
performance of the company. The role of marketing department is to gather information about
the requirement of the particular skilled human resource and the training and development
programmes for the existing employees and provide them to the human resource department of
the McVities whereas the role of Human resource department is to recruit and select the best
candidates as per the requirement of the marketing department as well as to arrange training and
development programs for the employees of the organisation according to their respected fields
and the need of the market(Gillespie and Riddle, 2015).
Marketing department and Research and developing department: In the company McVities
the Research and developing department and the Marketing department coordinate their works to
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achieve the common objectives and goals of the organisation. The role of marketing department
is to provide accurate information about the conditions of the market, plans and strategies of the
competitor, products and services of the rival firm, problems in the products , structure as well
as the strategies of the company and the role of the Research and development unit is analysis
the data and information provided by the marketing department and developing a new and better
plan and strategies to overcome these problems and achieve competitive advantage in the
market(Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2019).
·LO2·P3 Compare the ways in which different organizations apply the marketing mix to the
marketing planning process to achieve business objectives.
Marketing mix comprises 7P's Analysis of the various marketing strategies used by a
company. Here we have compared McVitie's with 7P's of its competitor Hershey:-
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l壱7 P's of Marketing MixMcVitie'sHersheyProduct – Product includes various goods sold by
the company and to what extent they meet consumer's demands.McVitie's, owned by United
Biscuits, sells many kinds of biscuits, cakes and other snacks under it like Marie, Cashew,
Digestive- 0% sugar, HobNobs, Doublee Creams, Waffles, Jaffa Cake, Cheddars, Nibbles etc.
Some of them are healthy in nature for diet conscious customers while some are an easy delight.
Major revenue is generated from sale of biscuits. Their products have wide reach having
consumers distributed all over the world.There are 5 major categories of Hershey products. Each
product line has its own vast variety of products. Products offer unique features to its consumers
differentiating very highly from its competitors. Regular introduction of new products as per
market's demand keeps the brand highlighted. Since products are of a higher quality they are
readily purchased by the consumers.Price — Price should be quoted as per the product's quality
and features or benefits it provides to its customers.McVitie's practices Penetration Pricing
Strategy; Competition Based pricing and Price Bundling Strategy. The focus of McVitie's is on
Competition based pricing since it has already established itself and its products in the market. In
bundle pricing it bundles two or more products and sell them at a lower price. It's pricing
strategy is strongly backed by the well-connected distribution cycle of McVitie's making it easily
available in local stores and marts as well. Hershey uses only Competition based pricing strategy
as it has huge number of competitors and their activities need to be regularly monitored. Hershey
however, charges a greater price when it sells the products online. This discourages its consumer
base for making online purchase. It charges fixed price on the product selling them at lower
priced to retailers and its wholesalers thus earning profits (Calderon, 2019).Place – Product
should be easily available to the targeted consumer base for the convenience of
consumers.McVitie's has a strong distribution network and its products are easily available in the
supermarkets etc all over. The company has great distribution channel in urban areas but
McVitie's also need to improve its network in rural areas of the various parts of world where its
product has a good market. McVitie's has appointed various distributors in the areas where it
product are traded.Hershey basically has two marketing mediums which are direct online selling
and another through retailers and wholesalers. It has integrated its online as well as offline stores
giving easy access to its customers spread in different parts of the world. Online website of the
company is not user-friendly thus decreasing the company's online business. Also, there are very
limited self owned/operated stores of the company.Promotion – Advertising, Personal selling,
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Sales Promotion are a few strategies to make consumer familiar with the product. A customer
should retain the image of the company. McVitie's gathers all the information about its targeted
customer base through social media, feedbacks, buying habits etc. The company then uses this
data to promote its products accordingly trying to increase the sales of the company. McVitie's
also uses celebrities and influencers for marketing of their product to make customers listen and
adopt their products. McVitie's carries out extensive as well as expensive methods to make their
products popular and practices like contests, activities etc. providing reward to the winners
then.Hershey focuses on many techniques of promotion using traditional as well as modern. It
targets customers through T.V., radios etc. and also through social networking apps. It carries
out personal selling practices also to capture an even larger consumer base. Hershey however,
does not focus much on feedbacks and reviews of the consumers and neither involves their
suggestion in its decision-making about product.People – The human resource of the company is
the power house of any company. Employing right people for an organization's growth is
elementary in its working.Personnel at McVitie's are properly trained after recruitment, teaching
about quality of the personal service to both personal sellers and store managers which they
should perform whenever a consumer visits their store or during the process of selling. The staff
at McVitie's are also trained to know which after sales benefits are to be given and how their
queries are to be solved (Franco, 2018).Hershey's focus is on its sales team and the personnel
working under it. It also lays more emphasis on relationship building with its consumers as well
as suppliers. They ensure that ultimately the quality of product is not compromised with. They
do not lay much importance on after sale services provided to the customer. Also, they don't try
to retain those customers which are loyal to heir brand. Process – Process involves the whole
supply chain of the company until the product finally reaches the end customer.McVitie's focus
on integrating its different processes to exercise complete control over its products and their
availability. It also guides them about their product's reach within the customers and the position
of their product.At Hershey, they ensure that their products are never ion short supply in the
market by an extensive inventory management process. Regular market research also guides
them about how they can improve their overall process. Physical Evidence – This includes all
the packaging colours and styles, set-ups, machineries etc. everything which gives a tangible
presence to the company even if the core activity of the company is intangible.McVitie's has
different colour packaging for its products. The cost and sizes also differ creating separate image
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of its products in its customer's mind. Consumers use words like 'Crunchy McVitie's biscuit' for
Marie; 'Healthy biscuit' for Digestive- 0% sugar biscuit etc. This shows that McVities has
created a clear differentiation of its products. Hershey also uses distinctive packaging styles for
its products making them easily identifiable. However, lack of their own stores has not
encouraged their customer base to identify the company's products and consume it since they
don't have their own tag lines for various products which creates differentiation as well as easy
recognition of the product unlike McVitie's.
l弐LO3
l壱P4 Evaluate a basic marketing plan for the Mcvities digestive biscuits.
Mcvities is a brand owned by united biscuits, a British snack owned food brand. The
company work out in various sites in the cities before it settle down as the St. Andrew biscuit
work factory of Robsten revenue Street in the street in the observation.
The company is one of the best-seller of the baked biscuits in United kingdom. The company
used to produce the best-selling chocolates digestives, rich tea and hobnobs (Gillespie and
Riddle, 2015).
A continuous engagement and love for the biscuits, coupled with high profile launches
hit the sales of the biscuits in the food and beverages industry. Consumers are nowadays more
concern about their health and limited there snacks intake as compared to last 12 months.
McVities's digestive thin comes with its biggest sweet biscuits launch in the decade with sales of
$15 million in 2017 succeeding the Mcvities Digestive nibbles.
The fast moving consumable goods in the food and the beverages' industry are more than
a brand and there distribution plays a key role in driving the growth. In the fast moving
consumer goods(FMCG), McVities's digestives thins and Oreo are two of the top 10 new
launches across the market.
There are many competitor's foe the united biscuits, which mainly consist of the major
companions of Weetabix, P&G and Unilever. Weetabix also works in food processing sector and
generate 88% of the former company's revenue. Same P&G also generates $65.18 more than the
United biscuits.
SWOT
STRENGTH
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·Wide brand offering of Mcvities
·sales performance
·Strong financial performance.WEAKNESS
·Geographical concentration
·Lack of research and development
·Private ownership will help in proper development of the plans.
OPPORTUNITIES
·Potential market
·Growing demand of snacks in the market.
·diversification
THREATS
·Highly competition in the environment.
·Strict government rules and regulation.
·Global economic slow down.
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PEST ANALYSIS
·POLITICAL- The sales of the Mcvities biscuits are effected by the political factors. All the
companies have to work according to the condition of the food corporation of the country so the
trading facilities can be easily available.
·ECONOMICAL- Economic factors directly indicates about the financial position of the
Mcvities. Due to continuous hike in the sales, the growth is adding steps in the market.
Introduction of the new product in the market will examine the competitors and try to reduce the
cost.
·SOCIAL.- in this factor the company has to think about the demand of Mcvities in the market.
Mcvities been the first choice of the customer is facing many challenges in the market due to the
low pricing products of their competitors. So its is important for the company to take important
step to face its competitors (Vinerean, 2017).
·TECHNOLOGICAL- Mcvities is mainly focussing on the different latest techniques for
production of various products in the company. It is important for Mcvities to use the latest
technology so the cost can be decrease, and they can compete with their competitors and the
productivity of the company can be increased.
Objectives-
·To develop the interest of the consumer in Mcvities range of biscuits.
·Drives the sales of the core brand by the increase of 20 % in the year 2020.
·To be the global company in the ambitious expansion.
·To increase its market share from both the competitors i.e. Weetabix and P&G
STRATEGY
·Target- The company will go for the demographic segmentation in which the Mcvities is
mainly targeting the range of younger audience of the age of 18- 34 years. They are targeting the
customers that deeply care about the quality of the product and fair trade. The company want to
put the Mcvities digestive biscuits into the evoked set of customers (Lam and et.al., 2015).
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·Price – the company will introduce the Mcvities digestive biscuits as the premium quality of
product. So the company will follow the price skimming strategy in which they will target the
high income people who believe in the quality of the product.
·Product positioning.- correctly positioning the product in the market is very important for the
organization. The McVities's will go for the product benefit strategy in which the company will
focus on communicating the benefits and offer of the product to the targeted customer. Company
will let the customer know about the fibre content of the biscuit and how healthy it is.
The company will implement the diversification as the growth strategy for the Mcvities digestive
biscuit. As the concept is new in the market and the company has also targeted the new range of
customer. Hence, it is risky as the company don't have the idea of the current market.
Budget allocation
for the marketing of the new product i.e. Mcvities digestive biscuit the has allocated the
funds of £500. The budget is distributed among the various department according to there
requirement. This fund will be used by the company in having the promotional activities.
·Product- the McVities's digestive biscuits will be introduced in the market targeting the young
segmentation of 18 – 34 years. The product will be the premium product to the customer who
believe in the quality of the product. The diversification strategy will be used in the product as
the new market is targeted with new range of customers.
·Promotion strategy- Various promotion strategy will take place such as the social media
strategy, product giveaways and samples, referral incentives for customers, discounts and rebates
(Srinivasan and et.al., 2016).
·Price- the McVities's digestive biscuits will be introduced as the premium quality product on
the price skimming strategy as the company will target the new demographic range of the
customer of the age 18-34 who believe in the quality of the product.
·Distribution- the company will introduce the biscuits as the premium quality product so the
distribution strategy will be exclusive distribution strategy available at the limited outlet at the
particular location.
Forecasting
janfebMarchAprilMayJuneCash outflowMarketing expenses150170140120130120Production
supplies200250230220200150Billable staff wages150200170180120230Freight
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out502030204040Cash inflowsales8008809681064.81171.281288.408Net
profit650680798884.81051.281058.408
CONTROLLING MEASURES-
1ANNUAL CONTROL PLAN- the company annually evaluate the performance of its
marketing activities in the company. As each plan includes, setting up of objectives, allocating
of the resources, regulations and marketing mix. So the company would analysis the actual result
with estimated result. Various techniques will be used by the company to see toward the
performance of the company.
·Analysis of the sales- The company will evaluate the sales of the McVities's digestive biscuit
from the estimated targets to whether the targets are completed or not (Chaffey and Ellis-
Chadwick, 2019).
·Analysis of the market share- company will measure the Mcvities digestive biscuit sales to the
total sales of the company. It will help them to know how the Mcvities is performing as to these
competitors.
2.Financial analysis – the McVities will look after the qualitative terms after having the close
look on the quantitative term. Under this tool, the customer attitudes are measured towards the
products the company is offering them.
3.Key performance indicator are establishes to have the standards fort the development of the
products in the market. Mcvities will look after the proper indicator so that there can be proper
establishment of business.
4.Cost benefit analysis to measure the performance of the proper planning regrading the cost and
the actual cost. What is the benefit that is analysis from the proper planning of the activities.
Action plan
Action Resource OutcomeTimeChange in flow of productionHuman resources, financial
resource and technical resource.It will help in reducing the cost of the product and ultimately
increase the profit margin.2 weeksChanges in marketing promotion strategyHuman resources,
financial resourceIncrease in sales promotion activities and sales of product.1 weeks.
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·CONCLUSION
On the basis of the effective evaluation that has taken place, this can be said that the
marketing and promotional measures which are undertaken by the organization has a great
importance. The advertising measures and practices which are followed by the organization
assists in the positive growth of the firm. The assessment covers the roles and responsibilities of
the promotional measures which are undertaken by the organization with the assessment on a
wider organizational context is been evaluated. This indicates that the effectiveness and
efficiency of promotional measures which are followed by the enterprise enhances the overall
performance and execution of the promotional measures which are followed by the firm. Besides
this, the significance of marketing mix and planning process will assist in achieving the
objectives set by the firm. Along with this, a basic marketing plan for the organization is also
developed for a suitable growth of the enterprise.
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·REFERENCES
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marketing and online consumer activity. Journal of the Academy of Marketing
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Vinerean, S., 2017. Importance of strategic social media marketing. Expert journal of
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Online
Chand, S., 2019. Role of Marketing: Top 10 Important Role of Marketing in Making a Product
Successful. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/marketing/role-of-marketing-top-10-important-role-
of-marketing-in-making-a-product-successful/32289>
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