Marketing Functions and Strategies

The provided assignment is a comprehensive study on marketing functions and strategies. It begins with an introduction to the importance of marketing in an organization, highlighting its various roles and functions. The document then delves into the marketing department's interrelation with other departments, such as finance, research & development, and human resource. Additionally, it discusses the analysis of PEST (Political, Economic, Social, Technological) factors and SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis to identify market barriers. The marketing mix is also explored, providing insights into product, price, promotion, place, people, process, physical evidence, and performance. Finally, the assignment concludes with a summary of key points and references to relevant literature.

Marketing Essentials

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1 ...........................................................................................................................................1
P1 Roles and responsibilities of the marketing function.............................................................1
P2 Roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to wider organisational context....................2
M1 Roles and responsibilities of marketing in the context of the marketing environment........3
M2 Significance of Interrelationship between marketing and other functional units of an
organisation.................................................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P3 Comparison the ways on which different organisations apply marketing mix to the
marketing planning process.........................................................................................................4
M3 Different tactics applied by Coca-Cola ...............................................................................5
TASK 3 ...........................................................................................................................................6
P4 Evaluate and produce market plan.........................................................................................6
M4 Produce a detailed coherent evidence based marketing plan................................................9
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Marketing can be defined as a business process of creating relationship with & fulfil all
the needs and demands of customers. Coca-Cola is an American multinational manufacturer
retailer. This company was founded in May 8, 1886 by John Stith Pemberton. Headquarter of
this company is in Atlanta, Georgia, US. It operates Worldwide and have 62,600 employees.
This study covers and shows about the importance of marketing in an organisation. It plays
various roles as making marketing strategy (Baker, 2016), collecting marketing informations,
maintain internal communication in order to achieve organisational determined goals. This
marketing department has interrelationship with other functional units of an organisation.
Further it will describe marketing mix of 2 different sector companies for understanding
and making its customers understand the importance of their services and products. There are
various tactics which the company uses for developing its products and increasing sales. This
report will also show marketing plan and PEST analysis in order to analyse factors that influence
and have impacts on its operations.
TASK 1
P1 Roles and responsibilities of the marketing function
The marketing concept is a strategy which an organisation implement on order to satisfy
its targeted and potential customers needs with aim of increasing sales and beat the competition.
The main purpose of Coca-Cola of marketing is to identify the needs and goals of its customers
and then create that type of products to fulfil them.
Gathering market information: Roles of marketing manager in the context of
marketing environment is they collect informations related to market and customers. In this
function it tries to analyse the needs of customers, quantity of products and services, at what
price they would like to purchase etc. In this function it also finds out the ways of distribution
and advertisements (Blythe and Martin, 2019). It also identifies about factors can which affect its
operations and activities and the ways of removing that.
Marketing planning: After collecting all the necessary informations it makes the best
marketing plan in order to achieve organisational goals. The main aim of Coca- Cola company is

to raise and increase market share about its particular products. So it makes the plan in respect of
promotion and production efforts.
There are various factors that affects its operations and it identifies those factors. With
the help of PEST analysis it can identify all that factors.
Political factors: Political condition like civil conflicts, changes in governmental and the
ability of penetrating in developing and emerging market are some factors which need to be
determined by marketing manager before developing plan.
Economic analysis & factors: Due to governmental actions loan interest rates raises as
the economy returned. Gross domestic products and exchange rates analyses the economic
condition of a country.
Social analysis: Coca-Cola sells its products to hundreds of countries. People of different
countries have different tastes, cultures. Different age of people have different choices so its also
can impacts on the company. Most of the people are becoming health conscious so manager
should focus on making minimal efforts to move in that direction (Ryan, 2016).
Technological factors: This analysis and factors include the efficiency of its marketing,
advertising and promotional programs. Ways of its competitors for promoting products may
influence its sales and productivity (Stead and Hastings, 2018).
P2 Roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to wider organisational context
Marketing department of Coca-Cola plays an important role as they have the overall
responsibility for increasing sales and profitability of the company. For achieving this goal ut
plays various roles define and manage company's brand, conduct campaign for marketing
initiative and interrelate with other functional units of the company.
Conduct customer & market research: The main role of marketing department is to
conduct market research because this activity helps them to define their target and potential
market. In research it identifies all opportunities and threats which support them in understanding
that how their services are perceived (Gnizy and Shoham, 2018).
Produce internal communication: Employees play a vital role and help marketing
department by producing products according to the demands of the customers. So it is very
important for employees to have clear understanding about company' value and its priorities.
Marketing department of Coca-Cola company maintain internal communication.

Monitor and manage social media: Marketing department helps and supports other
functional units of the company and work with finance department. Marketing department
manage accounts by overseeing and carefully watch on social media that what the other company
is posting and what the customers wants. It manages social media pages and give updates to
other departments.
M1 Roles and responsibilities of marketing in the context of the marketing environment
In context of environment, marketing plays various roles as it analyse its strengths and
weaknesses in order to identify the barriers as weakness which influence it's in marketing
environment. The main aim of marketing is to identify current and market trends (Rowley,
2016).
Strengths: The main strength of marketing is it uses the best distribution channels as
compare to its competitors. It provides strong brand value of the company among customers
which increases honesty and loyalty of customers.
Weaknesses: Weakness of this company and marketing is increment costs of raw
materials by which it increases its prices on the soft drinks. Rising raw material costs can have
negative impact on it.
M2 Significance of Interrelationship between marketing and other functional units of an
organisation
Marketing function encloses various different function such as research & development,
finance, human resource, finance, distribution etc. Interrelation and functions of marketing with
other departments are explained below:
Marketing and Research & development: It is the most important function of
marketing as it is interrelated with research and development department (Kozlenkova and et.al.,
2015). For achieving informations it requires researching that helps them in getting all type of
information which includes finance, raw material, resources etc.
Marketing and finance: Finance department and finance manager are concerned with all
aspects of finance like costs, profits, financial performance and sales growth at the end of the
year (Feng, Morgan and Rego, 2015). Marketing department is also concerned with sales
volume, sales target. Both department wants to increase the level of sales so there is an
interrelationship of marketing with this department.

TASK 2
P3 Comparison the ways on which different organisations apply marketing mix to the marketing
planning process
The marketing mix can be applied in the marketing planning process in order to gain the
company's objectives and goals. It is the best tool by which Coca-Cola can make them beneficial
as it helps marketing manager to understand the services and products effectively (McDONALD,
2016). Marketing mix involve 7 P's such as price, product, promotion, place, process, people &
physical evidence.
Basis Coca-Cola Oxfam
Product Coca-Cola sells various products and drinks
such as soft drinks, carbonated drinks, diet
carbonated drinks, fruit juices, fruit tea and
coffee, energy drinks etc.
It sales used donated merchandises
through its outlets and also sells
decorative gift items & merchandises
which are being created by the
skilled employees and volunteers of
this voluntary company.
Price It's pricing strategy is based on season and it
uses different prices in different season. In
summer season it raises its prices. On the
other hand in winter they reduce their prices.
As it is the non-government
organisation so the amount are used
which are received by donation. It's
pricing strategy is based on the
condition of merchandising.
Place This company uses 23 types of selling which
includes direct selling and indirect selling. In
direct selling, they provide their products at
their shops. On the other hand in indirect
selling they deal with agencies and whole
sellers (Macarthy, 2018).
It is NGO so the place for this
organisation means movement of
resources and it serves worldwide
via its Website.
Promotion For promoting its services and products it
uses various methods which include sales
promotion, direct marketing, public relation,
This non profit organisation uses
direct marketing strategy as
promotional strategy. It allows them

personal selling and advertising. In order to
promotion through advertisement it spends a
significant amount of money on magazines,
television, radio, internet and on billboards.
to interact directly to the prospective
customers by E-mail, telephone and
promotional letters.
Process The process of Coca-Cola company is
transparent as whole process is hidden to the
customers.
The process includes the method of
delivering their products and services
to the society by offering assistance
to attaining social justice and the
poor.
People People are those who defines services and for
this company employees have a standard
uniform. They focus on providing friendly
services to its customers from their workers.
People are the person and employees
who work for them It includes brand
ambassadors of this organisation.
Physical
environm
ent
This company's physical environment or
evidence is supported by its artefacts,
symbols and signs which influence customers
to take their decisions.
Place and physical evidence in case
of this organisation customers come
and visit to the office of Oxfam and
try to understand their philosophy in
order to work as volunteers.
M3 Different tactics applied by Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola uses various methods and tactics as previously it uses 4 P's in marketing mix
which involved price, product, promotion and place bit now it extended to 7 P's which includes
price, place, people, promotion, process, product and physical environment. The main aim of 7
P's is to clearly understand and make customers understand about their services and products. It
uses various marketing strategies such as target market, segmentation, competitive analysis
strategy (Liu and et.al., 2017). All these strategies helps marketing manager in marketing
planning process which includes planning, analysing, implementing and control.
Marketing mix and 7 P's helps marketer in order to develop its new products and
services. It also helps them in increasing the products' portfolio. Different tactics which Coca-
Cola uses supports them in their decision making process.

TASK 3
P4 Evaluate and produce market plan
Covered in PPT
M4 Produce a detailed coherent evidence based marketing plan
Covered in PPT
CONCLUSION
From the above study it has been concluded that marketing functions played a vital role
ion an organisation. It played various functions and roles like making marketing plan, pricing,
branding, promotion which helped marketer in achieving company's vision. Marketing
department of an organisation has interrelation with other departments like finance, research &
development and human resource. Marketing manager analysed PEST and its strengths and
weaknesses in order to remove the barriers in the path of success. Marketing mix also played a
significant role in marketing environment as it supported the company on order to have clear
understanding of its products and services. With the help of market plan the company can defines
its goals and the way of achieving them in an effective manner. It included various elements such
as marketing goals, target customers, SWOT analysis, Different marketing channels used by the
company and a detailed action plan.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
ABBASI, H., 2017. Marketing Strategies Of Coke: An Overview. Kaav International Journal of
Economics, Commerce & Business Management. 4. pp.194-199.
Baker, M.J., 2016. What is marketing?. In The Marketing Book(pp. 25-42). Routledge.
Blythe, J. and Martin, J., 2019. Essentials of marketing. Pearson UK.
Cong, M. and et.al., 2018. A Social Media Plan for the Changemakers’ Playground.
Feng, H., Morgan, N.A. and Rego, L.L., 2015. Marketing department power and firm
performance. Journal of Marketing. 79(5). pp.1-20.
Gnizy, I. and Shoham, A., 2018. The power of international marketing functions: antecedents
and consequences. Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing. 25(2). pp.67-89.
Kozlenkova, I.V. and et.al., 2015. The role of marketing channels in supply chain
management. Journal of Retailing. 91(4). pp.586-609.
Liu, Y. and et.al., 2017. The effects of products’ aesthetic design on demand and marketing-mix
effectiveness: The role of segment prototypicality and brand consistency. Journal of
Marketing. 81(1). pp.83-102.
Macarthy, A., 2018. 500 Social Media Marketing Tips: Essential Advice, Hints and Strategy for
Business Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, and
More!. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
McDONALD, M.A.L.C.O.L.M., 2016. Strategic marketing planning: theory and practice. In The
marketing book (pp. 108-142). Routledge.
Rowley, J., 2016. Information marketing. Routledge.
Ryan, D., 2016. Understanding digital marketing: marketing strategies for engaging the digital
generation. Kogan Page Publishers.
Stead, M. and Hastings, G., 2018. Advertising in the social marketing mix: getting the balance
right. In Social Marketing(pp. 29-43). Psychology Press.