Marketing Essentials: Roles, Responsibilities, and Importance of Marketing Function

This report discusses the important role and responsibilities of the marketing function and how they relate to the organizational context. It also analyzes the importance of the relation among various functional units and marketing. The report compares how different organizations apply the marketing mix to marketing planning and produces and evaluates a basic marketing plan for an organization.

Marketing Essentials

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
PART 1............................................................................................................................................3
Mention the important role and responsibilities of the marketing function...........................3
Discuss the relation of roles and responsibilities of marketing to wider organisational context.
................................................................................................................................................4
Analyse the importance of relation among various functional units and marketing..............5
PART 2............................................................................................................................................6
Compare how different organisations in order to achieve business objectives apply the
marketing mix to marketing planning....................................................................................6
Produce and evaluate a basic marketing plan for an organisation..........................................8
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Marketing refers to the set of activities undertaken by the company to promote and sell its
products and services in the market. It includes researching, selling, advertising and delivering
goods to its customers. At present, it is one of the most important function of the management.
Marketing mix defines the tactics used by the companies to promote their product. It focuses on
multiple areas and helps in developing a marketing plan (ParAwaysheh and et. al., 2020). The
company chosen is Tesco. It is a UK based retail company founded in 1919. The firm deals in
groceries and general merchandise. The following report discusses about the important role and
responsibilities of marketing function and how they relate to the organisational context and their
importance. It also mentions how different companies use marketing mix to attain business goals
and a basic marketing plan for the company to launch new product.
PART 1
Mention the important role and responsibilities of the marketing function.
The main aim of Marketing is to attract its customers and retain them with the business.
For this, the department of Tesco keeps itself involved in the research process to evaluate the
market condition, its customers as well as its competitors. This will facilitate the company in
analysing all its threats and opportunities.
Here are the roles, a marketing function have in a business.
 Fulfil customer needs- It analysis the consumer needs and frame strategies accordingly.
Tesco keeps an eye on the prevailing trends, upcoming needs of its customers and offers
the products accordingly. Offering the desired products and that also in time will make
the customers stay with the company and not shifting to their competitors.
 Offering the right price- It is an important element for generating revenue, which needs
to be decided keeping all aspects in mind like the cost of production, customers readiness
to pay that price. Tesco being a brand, do not follow competitors for its pricing strategy.
Their change in pricing strategies can make their customers go away. (Leza and et. al.,
2021).
 Widening the market- Marketers use various tools to advertise their products to wider
their areas of network. The company at present holds more than 7000 stores and that too
in highly populated areas to generate higher revenue. Marketing department of the

company keeps on researching the ground levels to look for the upcoming opportunities
and the trends and tastes of that area (Lo and Campos, 2018).
Responsibilities of marketing are as follows:
 Setting marketing strategies- Marketing department frame the strategies to boost the
demand of the product and comes out with the plans of offerings discounts to the
customers. Tesco' s marketing section often brings the offer of club card system in which
customer collects points of the card at the time of shopping and further converts it into
cash for purchase.
 Promoting the product- It is the responsibility of the marketing section to advertise and
promote its product through whatever channel suits the company as per the budget and
reach to customers. It can be newspaper, radio, pamphlets, social media. This section of
Tesco from time to time keep advertising the offers to be launched, availability of new
products in the stores.
 Market research- This department conducts research about the impression of the
product on customers mind and communicate it to the other departments which helps
them in deciding further production size. The marketing unit of Tesco also analyses the
demand of product in the market to generate the information regarding what new needs to
be launched. For example, Tesco's marketing department analysed the need of farm
products in their store in order to increase their number of customers.
Discuss the relation of roles and responsibilities of marketing to wider organisational context.
Whenever an organisation ought to frame a business plan, its first important task is to
coordinate all its functional areas so as to attain its organisational objectives. Though marketing
department deals directly with the customers and competitors but it cannot work in isolation as
other departments put an equal impact on generating customer value. Here is the relation among
the marketing and different departments of the firm (Gu and et. al., 2020).
 Marketing and Finance- All the plans made by the marketing department of Tesco
include financial part in it. Let it be- advertising any product, introduction of a new
product or related to distribution channel. All these activities relate to finance which will
be issued by the later department and that too as per budget. On the other hand, monetary
terms like percentage to sales, budget required for any marketing strategy are important
aspects in marketing. Thus both the departments of the company works interdependently.

 Marketing and Production- Both these departments work hand in hand, where on one
side, production capacity decides for the former the type of products to be marketed and
on the other side, accurate sale prediction by marketing helps the later in efficient
production. Marketing department of Tesco, while designing a new product or design
checks out for the capacity and availability of skills with its production department and if
required asks the firm to acquire the needed skills or machinery for gain competitive
advantage (Laperche, 2018).
 Marketing and Purchase- Procurement department is responsible for the purchase of
raw material of any sort of machinery. This department work in accordance with the data
provided by the marketing. It helps the company in deciding the requirement for the raw
material by providing an estimated data of the demand of the products. It also helps in
researching new possible suppliers for the firm.
 Marketing and Research and Development- These departments work closely for the
development of the product. There major link revolves around either at the various stages
of development of a new product or developing or redesigning an existing one. Starting
from the generation of ideas of new product to the production and sale of the product, the
marketing team of Tesco is totally involved in conducting market research regarding the
need of the product, potential customers, acceptance of the idea as well as product by the
customers.
 Marketing and HR- The later department is concerned with the management, hiring and
training the marketing staff. Marketing personnel of the company aids the HR by
developing job descriptions, designing training programmes, specifying the skills
required by new recruit etc. HR also keeps a check on the staff about their working
potential and the results brought up by them. They conduct various training sessions for
the employees who are not performing as per requirement.
Analyse the importance of relation among various functional units and marketing
The success of any organisation depends upon the coordination among the departments of
firm. No department can work in isolation. The interface between the marketing and the other
departments helps an organisation to achieve its desired goals. They lead the other departments
in producing, developing, and servicing products and services to the customers (Farooq and
Raju, 2019). For example, a timely prediction by the marketing related to the demand forecast

will help purchase department to acquire raw material on time and at low cost. Further, aiding
production department to start production on time. Lack of cooperation among the departments
will harm the objectives of the firm as it will create conflicts among the people, leading to an end
in communication and confusion in the tasks.
PART 2
Compare how different organisations in order to achieve business objectives apply the marketing
mix to marketing planning.
Marketing mix is defined as the tools and techniques used by the companies to plan the
successful offering of the product. The term is normally classified into 7P's (Mills and
Thompson, 2020). Marketing team of Tesco uses the following P's while marketing their
products.
 Product- It is the product or service to be sold in the market. It is the central element of
every strategy.
 Price- It is strategy of deciding the price of the product taking in consideration the cost
of the product and how much are the customers ready to pay.
 Place- This refers to the place where to and how to display for selling the product such
that it is easily available to the customers.
 Promotion- It includes the strategies to promote the product through advertising, in-store
promoting and social media.
 People- Having the right people at right place is important. Offering product to the
customer and convincing to purchase it, is a skill which is required in the employees of
any firm.
 Processes- The mode of delivering the goods needs to be designed in such a way that is
not only efficient but also environment friendly.
 Physical Evidence- It takes into consideration the facts which makes the customer hear,
see or smell the product (Howcutt, Barnett, and Smith, 2018).
The report studies the comparison between marketing mix of Tesco and ASDA
7Ps Tesco ASDA
Product It deals in wide range of products of
food, electronics, clothing and financial
The company offers groceries,
clothing, mobile network and

services. ASDA money.
Price It works on cost plus pricing strategy
without reducing the quality of its
products. The company offers club card
system which allow customers to collect
points which is further converted into
cash for purchases.
It adopts penetration pricing
policy which attract customers and
its sale. The company offers
discounts and other incentives on
some particular days.
Place Two main channels employed by the
company are online and 6 types of
offline stores like Tesco Express, Extra,
superstore etc.
The company has several stores
depending on the locations. It has
super-centres, ASDA living,
depots.
Promotion It uses television advertisements,
sponsors charitable events, offers
promotional discounts.
It creates commercials and
advertise them using leaflets,
hoardings, newspapers, TV
channels and social media. It also
uses celebrity endorsements.
People It has well skilled sales assistants. They
are highly competent are compensated
well for the contributions made by
them. Tesco different programs like
Buy as you earn for the loyalty of the
staff.
The company uses on the job and
off the job training to its
employees at all levels. The
company offers higher wage for
new projects.
Processes It provides speedy billing service and
easy availability of products online as
well offline stores. Tesco focussed on
addressing customer grievances.
The products in their stores are
well organised and they also
provide self service machines for
making self payments. There
stores are opened 24*7.
Physical Evidence They do not wish to spend more than
what is necessary. The offers are
Size and location where there
stores are located is their strength

displayed at a place where it can lure its
customers. Its website is easy to
operate.
in addition to logo, brochures and
website.
Produce and evaluate a basic marketing plan for an organisation
SUMMARY
A marketing plan is a document which frames an advertising strategy which a firm will
adopt to reach its target market and generate a lead over competitors. It includes the objective of
marketing, analysis of the environment it is going to target, current market position of the
company, timeline to achieve the goal and the technique to monitor its impact. This marketing
plan is about the new product to be launched by Tesco, which are sports accessories. In present
time, it is not the product to be used by sports person only. General public is also interested in
this segment now (Awaysheh and et. al., 2020). These segment will include mouth guards,
helmet, shin, elbow and shoulder pads, Jock straps and many more.
OBJECTIVES
 To enter the new segment for product within 6 months.
 To target the general public and sports person and make its place within 1 year.
 To boost its sale within a period of 2 years.
SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS
For the purpose of conducting situational analysis, the report has used the framework of
SWOT analysis in order to know the key competencies and weak points of the firm while
drawing a plan and marketing the product. SWOT analysis is a planning tool which enables a
business to analyse its strengths and weaknesses and identify the opportunities and threats.
Strengths Weakness
Tesco being an old company enjoys economies
to scale and has a large customer base of all
sections of society. This will help the firm to
gain confidence of the customers with ease.
At present Tesco is not able to generate the
required amount of profits due to providing
goods at cheaper prices. The company can face
shortage of funds at the time of launching its
new product line.
Opportunities Threats

With time the people are becoming health
conscious and are motivated more towards
health and exercise. When the accessories
related to sports products will be available at
their general merchandise stores and that too at
nominal prices, they will be attracted to buy
these products.
Competitors are the biggest threat the the
corporation. If its competitors also invested in
the same area and provided products in cheaper
prices than Tesco, it will effect the profits of
the company.
STRATEGY
A business before promoting its product needs to frame a strategy to define some aspects
like whom to target, the geographic segmentation etc. The plan is using STP strategy.
STP STRATEGY
STP stands for Segmentation, Target, Positioning. Its makes the marketing process easy
for the company.
Segmentation divides the customers in different groups on the following basis. Demographic-It distinguishes on the basis of age, income, gender, religion and
occupation. Geographic-It considers region, state or country. Behavioural- It is based on the lifestyle and loyalty of the customers.
 Psychographic- It focuses on the beliefs, attitude and values of the buyers.
The new product of Tesco will focus on geographic segmentation, limited to the stores of
state. It is important to launch the product on short scale for the time being and analyse its
results.
Targeting means to identify the group of potential customers who will be ready to buy
the product. The company will target the customers of all age groups as people of all ages are
interested in sports today.
Positioning defines as the where the company stands that is its position in the market or
the differentiation is firm's product with that of competitors. At present, competitors of Tesco
are not providing sports accessories in their merchandise stores.

TACTICS
In order to frame the technique to launch its new product line, Tesco will have to analyse
the 7Ps of marketing (Zitkiene and et. al., 2021).
 Product- The company is going to deal in sports accessories like knee and elbow pads,
helmets, gloves, nets.
 Price- It is the policy of the business to provide its customers with a low price goods so
that it is in reach of all. So, the price of the product will be genuine following the value-
based pricing strategy.
 Place- The accessories will be available at the existing merchandise stores and online.
 Promotion- Modes of social media and television advertisements will be used to promote
the product along with banners at the stores.
 People- The employees of the stores will be educated about the usage of the various
products and their quality. They will also be trained to convince the customers to
purchase the product.
 Process- The distribution channel adopted by the company will be fuel efficient and a
short time delivery.
 Physical Evidence- To make sure that the customers can easily locate the accessories,
samples will be displayed at the entering area and at the billing counters. Also, its section
will be localised at the place where it is in direct vision of the customers.
ACTION PLAN
Budget in a marketing plan is an estimation of cost which be required to launch and
promote the product or services. It is a very crucial part of this process. It includes all the costs
related to promotion of product, training of staff or any other cost which relates to marketing.
Budget Allocation
Particulars Amount (£)
Marketing 10000
Promotional activity 20000
Equipment 120000
Print media 7000

Total 148000
CONTROLLING AND MONITORING
The process of continuous tracking of the performance of the project and reviewing it
according to the project and taking corrective measures in time is known as controlling and
monitoring. It also identifies the areas which needs special attention while executing the plan.
This plan has used the technique of Benchmarking to measure the discrepancy in the execution
of the project (El-Omari, 2019). Benchmarking is process to measure the performance of the
actual results to the budgeted or planned results. It analyses the level of disagreement among the
two and recommends an action to rectify it. The model will also mention the base on which
various factors will be compared by the Tesco. For example, business can establish a standard
that a particular number of products are required to be sold in a month. Then this standard is
compared to the actual result and differences will be analysed along with the reason behind them
(Mkhitaryan, Thakurta and Bialek, 2017).
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that Marketing is an essence of the success of
any business. It is equally responsible for the sales and profits of the company. While
coordinating with the other departments, marketing department uses the tool of marketing mix to
frame the strategy to promote the product and beat the competition prevailing in the market. A
marketing plan regarding the new product launch– sports accessories for Tesco has been
discussed in the report.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Awaysheh, A. and et. al., 2020. On the relation between corporate social responsibility and
financial performance. Strategic Management Journal. 41(6). pp.965-987.
El-Omari, H.A., 2019. Marketing information, management and use: the case of Saudi
Arabia. Journal of Islamic Marketing.
Farooq, M. and Raju, V., 2019. Impact of over-the-top (OTT) services on the telecom companies
in the era of transformative marketing. Global Journal of Flexible Systems
Management. 20(2). pp.177-188.
Gu, Q. and et. al., 2020. Understanding the wine tourism experience: The roles of facilitators,
constraints, and involvement. Journal of Vacation Marketing. 26(2). pp.211-229.
Howcutt, S.J., Barnett, and Smith, L.A., 2018. Research recruitment: A marketing framework to
improve sample representativeness in health research. Journal of advanced nursing.
74(4). pp.968-975.
Laperche, B., 2018. Enterprise Knowledge Capital and Innovation: Definition, Roles and
Challenges. Collective Innovation Processes: Principles and Practices. 4. pp.1-26.
Leza, M. and et. al., 2021. Six years of controlling the invasive species Vespa velutina in a
Mediterranean island: The promising results of an eradication plan. Pest Management
Science. 77(5). pp.2375-2384.
Lo, F.Y. and Campos, N., 2018. Blending Internet-of-Things (IoT) solutions into relationship
marketing strategies. Technological Forecasting and Social Change. 137. pp.10-18.
Mills, L. and Thompson, S., 2020. Parental Responsibilities and Rights during the “Gender
reassignment” Decision-making Process of Intersex Infants: Guidance in Terms of
Article 5 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The International Journal of
Children's Rights. 28(3). pp.547-570.
Mkhitaryan, M., Thakurta, P.G. and Bialek, J., 2017, June. Quantification of benefits achieved
by coordinated control of power flow controlling devices. In 2017 IEEE Manchester
PowerTech (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
ParAwaysheh, A. and et. al., 2020. On the relation between corporate social responsibility and
financial performance. Strategic Management Journal. 41(6). pp.965-987.k, S.,
2020. Marketing management (Vol. 3). Seohee Academy.
Zitkiene, R. and et. al., 2021. Model of Impact of Social Networks on Internet Marketing of
Enterprises. In SHS Web of Conferences (Vol. 92). EDP Sciences.