Roles and Responsibilities of Marketing Function

This report discusses the roles and responsibilities of marketing function in an organization, with a focus on McDonald's. It covers the functions of product, selling, pricing, promotion, marketing information system, financing, and distribution. It also explores the interrelation between marketing and other departments such as operations, finance, HR, sales, R&D, and IT.

MARKETING
ESSENTIALS
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INTRODUCTION
In this competitive today’s world, marketing plays a crucial role in obtaining high growth
and success of every organisation. Marketing is broader concept that is used for promotion and
selling activities of goods and services to successfully reach the targeted customers. It also
involves with various activities such as understanding the market share or understanding the
market place or area, developing new strategy, analysis of needs of customers, conducting
market research and providing goods and services to customer in order to build strong
relationship. Every business firm is looking forward to adopt and implement innovative approach
in aspects of marketing strategy. Business firm are engage in creating a well-developed
harmonious relationship with consumers in an effective way. In this competitive business
environment awareness of business firm’s n concern with marketing essential is very crucial.
This report is based on McDonald, one of the competent fast food restaurant that provides French
fries, cheese burgers, soft drinks and hamburgers and many other food items. This project covers
the roles and responsibilities of marketing functions and comparison among marketing mix along
with appropriate marketing plan.
TASK 1
P1: Roles and responsibilities of marketing function
Marketing function is considered as most significant factor of business organisation in
order to provide better opportunities to business organisation along with specific targets.
Marketing function involves with various responsibilities of an organisation that are directly
responsible for growth and development of firm. Marketing is an important activity which
McDonald’s firm uses for interacting various variety of people. It is very essential for the
company for making the appropriate purchasing decision better along with this it helps in
maintaining a positive image in front of society. Moreover, employers of business firm uses
various strategies on the basis of proper analysis of market condition and consequences. In order
to attain the desired goals and objectives, it is essential to perform proper marketing activities in
appropriate manner(Clow and James, 2013). There are few of the roles and responsibilities of
marketing related function which is discussed in detail below:
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Product: Product act as basic assets of business firm which is mainly manufactured on
the basis of needs and demand of the customers. Good quality of goods and services are very
helpful in attracting a wide number of consumers towards an organisation along with enhancing
sales rate. In context with McDonald’s, it is their duty to provide better quality of services or
products as per as the demand and needs of consumers. McDonald’s is one of the competent fast
food restaurant which provides various food items like hamburgers, desserts, French fries and
many other eatable products. McDonald’s are very concerned about the food delivery services
and they continuously takes feedback from their customers in concern with their services of their
food item and make changes on the basis of taste and demand of the customers. It is essential for
the organisation to adopt new trends of market in order to achieve competitive advantage.
Selling: Selling is another role of marketing department that plays important role for an
organisation. The data or information is collected with the help of various tools by the marketing
manager in order to develop an appropriate effective strategy that directly and indirectly helps in
enhancing the sales of good and services. Marketing managers of McDonalds mainly focus and
emphasis on increasing the sales rate and generating a high profit level. Marketing manager also
focus on convenient way of delivering products and services. As McDonald’s has large number
of outlets throughout worldwide through which they can provide their quality food item to large
number of customers. The company also required to adopt and implement door-step delivery in
order to maximise buying behaviour of customers and help them in removing all difficulties that
is faced by customers. The marketing manager should require to take an effective decision for
providing effective training to their employees so that they can serve quality food products to
customers in McDonald's outlet in more effective manner (Asaduzzaman, Hossain and Rahman,
2014).
Pricing: Pricing directly impacts on the purchasing power of consumers. It is very
obvious that if the cost of goods and services will be high then consumers will buy the products
very less amount and vice versa. So, in order to increase sales rate it is necessary for the business
firm to prepare and implement appropriate pricing strategies and provide goods at affordable
cost. It will be helpful in generating high profit in a short time period (Baker and Magnini, 2016).
Right cost of goods attracts a large number of people to purchase products and services.
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Promotion: Promotion refers to those activities which are usually performed with a
motive of attracting and influencing interest of customers along with their buying behaviour.
Promotion activities generally includes making advertisements on TV, pamphlets, social media
etc. through which the management of McDonald' are capable to interact and communicate with
customers regarding the sources and information of products along with its price and quality
standards. Therefore, adopting an effective marketing tools for promotion Help Company to
achieve customer loyalty and generate high sales and revenue for increasing profitability.
Marketing information system- Marketing information system usually prepared to
support and develop appropriate decision making of marketing. In context to McDonald‘s,
manager of marketing function are potential enough to gathers the more relevant or accurate
information regarding interest, actions, needs and behaviour of consumers. Marketing
information system allows better opportunities to the manager in order to store information of
consumers and take better decisions. Under Marketing Information System, data or information
of marketing is appropriately collected, analysed, stored and then distributed to managers
according to informational needs and requirements. The manager of McDonald need to focus on
implementing advanced technologies such as MIS in order to collect, analyse and store data
which further help in guiding manager to make an effective decision.
Financing- Finance acts as the most necessary asset of business firm for appropriate
distribution in raw material, marketing, human resources and operations etc. For different kind
of activity, firm needs more funds for proper allocation of resources in a right manner and at a
correct time .Manager of McDonald’s marketing department prepared well developed plan and
also helps determining necessary resources that is needed to be carried out. This allows and
provide a better opportunity to the business organisation for better services to a large number of
consumers. Therefore, it is necessary for the McDonald’s manager to divide budget or
appropriate amount on the basis of business related activities.
Distribution: Distribution refers to the overall management of supply of goods and
services from one place to another with a motive of capturing high customer range and loyalty
As many companies ignores and fails to maintain good distribution channel in the rural areas for
the purpose of selling their products and services. On the basis of assumptions that rural areas
people are not willing to consume and afford fast food product McDonald is unable to create
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proper distribution channel in rural areas and assumption gone wrong. Therefore, McDonald's
should also require to capture rural areas to develop proper distribution channel by opening new
outlets in such rural areas which can help them in generating huge revenues and increase their
profitability.
These are main roles and responsibilities of marketing functions of McDonald's and it is
crucial to perform all such functions in an effective manner. Through this roles and
responsibilities, the company can increase their sales revenue and generate high profitability.
P2: Roles and responsibilities of marketing that is related to organisational context.
One of most important responsibility of marketing department is to maintain healthy
relation with their loyal customers along with other functional department of organisation in
order to attract new customers to ensure them about giving quality products and services at an
effective prices which directly and indirectly maximise their level of satisfaction as well. The
concept of marketing mainly includes different categories like promotion, sales, marketing and
delivery of goods and services in an effective manner. The marketing department need to build
by strong communication channel with various functional department in order to make an
effective plans and strategies. Such interrelation between marketing function with different
department are explained in detail below:
Marketing function with operation function: Manufacturing and production process of
products is implemented through the operation department of an organisation. It is the prime
duty of operations manager to maintain and manage the raw materials in an appropriate way.
(Dudu and Agwu, 2014). The main role and responsibility of operation department is to develop
services or products by following proper planning, organising, controlling and coordinating of all
the basic raw materials and resources that is required to produce services and products of firm.
To build up strong relationship with customer and make business successful, there is a need to
develop strong coordination between marketing and operational department of McDonald. Better
coordination between operation and marketing department helps in developing quality and value
in services or products of firm in an effective manner.
Marketing function and finance function: Finance department plays one of most important
role in growth and development of business. All the marketing function like establishment of
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distribution channel, advertisement etc. requires finance. Such department are liable in making
proper arrangement of funds from different sources and then allocate them to various
departments on the basis of needs and requirements. The marketing department are capable to
adopt and implement various effective promotional tools when they have enough funds raise
from the finance department. Thus, coordination among finance and marketing department is
very important. It help McDonald's to achieve their desired goals and objectives in an efficient
manner.
HR function with marketing function: Marketing department is main responsibility is
to create attractive and social message in order to spread awareness among public that is all
about product items and services offered by the business firm. HR manager need to establish
strong relationship with staff members and analyse their performance. In McDonald's, employer
had employed competent candidates in marketing department that enables and help the company
to provide adequate information to customers along with the society about food items and their
offers. They need to conduct and implement effective training and development programs to
enhance the capabilities of marketing staff members to increase sales revenue.
Sales function and marketing function: Marketing team enables firm to attract and
retain customers for long time duration by making them aware about different varieties of
product and services. Promotion tools including advertising, newspaper, magazine, online
marketing and social media sites are used by sales manager in order to spread awareness to
customers about items and services (Katengeza Okello and Jambo, 2011). This help sales team
to catch attention of customers as they have accurate information about the product items.
McDonald's uses and implemented various TV commercials and online advertisements which
benefited the firm to communicate to customer about food items, discounts, offers and coupons.
Marketing department with R&D department: Research and development main duty
is to conduct proper market survey in order to acknowledge appropriate needs and wants of
customers. Along with this, they even require to anticipate rival brands items. This help business
firm to investigate of the market position and place. In McDonald's, R&D unit helps marketing
team to analysis the taste and demand of customer. As they have information about customer
demands and wants; this help marketing staff members to provide appropriate offers and
discounts to their customer to gain customer loyalty.
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IT department and marketing function: IT department plays essential role in
organisation, as their duty is to implement modern tools and techniques in system. This help
marketing team to use latest technologies and design attractive and effective messages. In
McDonald's, marketing department is able to make system function efficiently and deliver
adequate information to public.
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Therefore, in McDonald's marketing team function effectively as they have support from
other departments that are human resource, sales, IT, research and development. Employer plays
essential role in firm whose responsibility is to conduct recruitment and selection process, so that
organisation have adequate manpower available. They require to provide duties to individuals on
basis of their skills and abilities (Kennedy and Parsons, 2014). So, it is necessary that human
resource take care that marketing team have skilled and qualified people which have good
communication skills. This help firm to increase customer base and sales. Thus, company is able
to improve market image and goodwill.
TASK 2
P3: Compare ways to use elements of marketing mix
Marketing mix refers to the combination of various factors that helps in influencing and
enhancing the interest along with buying behaviour of customers towards company's product and
services. It is very crucial element that guides and shows success path to company to enhance the
quality standard of products and services after identifying the customer's needs and requirements
Marketing Mix includes 7 components which are place, price, promotion, physical evidence,
process and people. It is essentially required for company to use such components in order to be
more effective to become more competent. Under this, comparison between marketing mix of
two companies such as McDonald and Burger King are described as below:
Marketing
Mix
Components
McDonald Burger King
Product In all over the world, McDonald is a
largest fast food restaurant. It has wide
range of food products and sell them
to consumers for fulfil their needs in
an effective manner. The products of
this firm are sandwiches, burgers,
deserts, drinks and many others. It has
announced its pledge to enhance
nutritional value of food items. The
Provide fast food products such as
Veg Menus, Frozen Dessert etc.
The company care for the culture
and religion sentiments of
consumer according which the
products are produced.

main focus of this firm is to provide
healthy food to consumers. McDonald
has separate equipment’s as well as
cooking area.
Price It refers to monetary value which is
charged by company in exchange of
their products to customers The price
must be so effective that satisfies the
satisfaction level of customers and at
the same time company also earning
huge profits. In order to attain huge
customer strength, the McDonald
required to set price which can afford
by every people of country.
The organisation when it comes to
prices focus over the premium
pricing techniques. Burger King
has carried out different costs for
different regions and types of
consumer worldwide. They produce
and provide more reasonable and
affordable services. There are more
importance to the organisation
brand and their integrity.
Place McDonald has operated its business in
more than 119 countries and has
attained almost 36,258 restaurants
through which they are providing their
fast food products. The management
of McDonald should require to search
those places where the demand of fast
products are high. This will help
company in increasing sales figure and
generate huge revenues
Located at major places and
locations of organisation, Also the
availability of its restaurants are
more convenient and in all big
places and cities along with malls,
residential areas etc.
Promotion It is important for every organisation
to interact with their customers and
tell them about the benefits of
products in order to influence their
interest and buying behaviour. The
main targeted customers of McDonald
are children and young generation
Promotional strategy is depended
around revitalizing and
reorganising concept its brands at
specific periods It has overhauled
its strategies concerned to
advertisements, menu, and
refurbishments of outlets, new
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therefore marketing policies should be
made to attract and influence their
purchasing behaviour
concept and new agencies for
restaurants. Promotion is better way
to connect with people and aware
them about the services or fast food
items.
People The uniform of McDonald staff
members is standard and its main
focus on prompt and friendly service
to its buyers from its employees. In the
decision making, manager includes its
employees. This firm gives
comfortable, clean environment
specially for families
The main focus of Burger King is
on the staff members along with the
consumers. As comparison to the
other outlets of fast foods, ration of
customer satisfaction of Burger
King is high .It gives quality food
experience to consumers with the
fast delivery. This firm provides
training to staff members so that
they can deal with consumers in a
fair manner.
Physical
Evidence
The company has good appearance in
the market influencing the operation of
business and proper functioning of
organisation. The members of staff are
organised. Hence building has good
maintenance and proper appearance
and location.
The company maintain proper
ambience and effective aura along
with using certain colours and
logos on their outlets in regard of
making it more visible. People are
organised and uniformed
maintaining the aura of building.
Process The manufacturing procedure of food
is transparent for consumer
satisfaction and gaining their
credibility. New distribution and
packaging methods are optimised by
company which is unique from other
organisations. The company has
Company has certain procedure
which they follow for building their
services and products. Different
distribution and packaging
techniques are optimised by
organisation in regard of creating
unique positioning among the
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provide licensed training to their
worker.
minds of clients. Also, consumers
are allowed to check the ingredients
that are used in their services for
their self-satisfaction.
TASK 3
P4: Marketing plan
Marketing plan is one of the most essential plan that helps to identify the overall practice
of McDonald that can be optimise for the development of organisation along with their extension
throughout worldwide. By designing and appropriate shaping the mission, vision, aims and
organisational goals of the organisation, company can easily determine and understand the
policies, terms and condition to achieve their business goals and objectives in effective manner.
This is require to frame an appropriate proper plans and activities in regard of development for
evolution of organisation for some certain period of time for achieving objectives and set goals.
Here are mentioned proper marketing plan of McDonald undertaking the required components
which is discussed as below:
Company Background: McDonald is one of the competent and largest fast food chain
founded by Maurice and Richard McDonald in 1940 firstly in American. The company was
began from the hamburger handstand which has positioned their business in more 100 nations
with approximate 36,900 outlets proven itself as the largest chain of restaurants in term of
revenues. The company provide wide range of services and products employed more than 1.5
million worker as their franchisee organisations.
Vision: The vision of organisation is to provide best and quick restaurants services and
experience along with better quality, influencing values and smile. This is required to determine
for further mission and other elements of company that can lead to growth.
Mission: Company's mission is to become the first choice of consumer in regard of
outstanding products services, cleanliness, values and quality of services in exchange of money.
Current market analysis: This is one of the significant phase to follow for developing a
proper marketing plans of an organisation (Berkowitz, 2016). This consist of various activities,
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environmental evaluation and market research that can help in meeting the business outcome.
This will undertake the SWOT analysis of McDonald which is briefly mentioned as below:
SWOT Analysis
Strengths Weakness
 The organisation has a global
recognition and is very popular fas food
brand so consumer are more loyal to it.
 Hygienic food manufacturing
procedure and very quick services
rendered to consumer.
 Happy meal is one of the most
preferred and effective offer of
enterprise.
 Wide range of services and products
including veg and non-veg (Pike,
2015).
 Company has market positioning in
more than 100 nations along with food
consistency.
 High calorie and fat affirmed to not
better for health conscious people.
 McDonald has generally been included
in the animal rights and environmental
lawsuit etc.
Opportunities Threat
 McDonald can develop their service to
home delivery.
 They can innovate their services and
products to more vegetarian market and
including more healthy products.
 McDonald can vent their services to
those market which are untouched and
preferring more globalisation.
 Health conscious consumer are
avoiding the fast food.
 Due to recession and inconstant
fluctuation in the economies,
McDonald is affected by as the
company has global recognition.
 Large competitors and eating joints can
become threat for enterprise
(Siricharoen, 2013).
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CONCLUSION
The report summon that marketing is a cluster of various activates that is undertaken for
the purpose of achieving high customer loyalty and engagement. Marketing is essential tool and
McDonald’s need to use marketing in order to build strong relation with their targeted and
focused customers. In order to achieve desired goals and objectives, the marketing department
should require to perform several roles and responsibilities with support of other functional
department to achieve competitive advantage. The concept of marketing includes promotion,
sales, marketing and delivery of goods and services in an effective manner. . Marketing plan is
essential to identify the further practice of McDonald that can be optimise for the development of
organisation along with their expansion in the international market. Marketing plan is essential to
identify the further practice of McDonald that can be optimise for the development of
organisation along with their expansion in the international market. Marketing mix refers to the
combination of factors which helps in influencing interest and buying behaviour of customers
towards company's product. Marketing Mix includes 7 components which are place, price,
promotion, physical evidence, process and people. Marketing plan is essential to identify the
further practice of McDonald that can be optimise for the development of organisation along
with their expansion in the international market.
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