Marketing Mix Elements and their Roles

This assignment delves into the core elements of the marketing mix, often referred to as the 4Ps: Product, Price, Promotion, and Place. It examines how each element plays a crucial role in shaping a company's marketing strategy and influencing consumer behavior. The assignment highlights the interconnectivity of these elements and emphasizes their importance for achieving business objectives.

Marketing Essentials

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Roles and responsibilities of marketing functions.................................................................1
P2 How roles and responsibilities of marketing related with wider organisational context.......4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
P3 Marketing mix of two different organisations.......................................................................5
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................10
P4 Develop a basic marketing plan...........................................................................................10
CONLCUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Marketing plays a crucial role in growth and success of an organisation so as to promote
their business in national and international markets. It is essential for marketing managers to
identify the need of a product by conducting market research as well as observing future sales of
products at marketplace. Formulating marketing campaigns on the basis of effective
identification is the most effective way of reaching target customers in a certain time period.
Corporate associations which are getting involved in producing new and innovative products,
can easily attain its goals and objectives (Baack, Harris and Baack, 2013). It is a centre of
generating customers' loyalty as well as retention. The present assignment is based upon
Barclays Plc, it is British multinational bank which provides financial services. It is a universal
bank by having global reach offerings products and services over personal and investment
banking. The overall revenue of Barclays are £21.076 billion and there are over 120000
employees are currently working with it. Apart from this, the report will various roles and
responsibilities of marketing functions and their interrelationship with overall business
organisation. There is a comparison between marketing mix of two different business units and a
basic marketing plan is develop.
TASK 1
P1 Roles and responsibilities of marketing functions
The concept of marketing is acquired in order to meet customers' needs and demands in
an effective manner so as to gain high competitive edge. It focuses on satisfying the need of
target and potential customers with an aim to driven up the marketing share of the company. For
Barclays, marketing also maximise per capita income of the country by providing job
opportunities to people; it results improvements in living standard of people. Marketing
management consists with introduction of new products and services and raising the output level
of the company. In addition, there should be regulated effective marketing strategies so as to
increase sales and profitability (Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne, 2014).
Significance of marketing -
 Marketing is a social process which supports to identify the needs and wants of customers
by creating and exchanging goods by valuing others.
1

 It also contributes in assessing market changes and trends so as to recognise how to
respond them towards effectively. If a business organisation is able to face market
challenges; it will always keep its customers happy. This is because now customers' tastes
are rapidly changing and companies which ignores it cannot survive for long run.
 Through the digital revolution, marketing become more easier and a wide of customers
get know about the products and services of the company. By using digital media
techniques, companies can easily promote their products and services in large group of
customers.
 Another purpose of marketing is to build firm's reputation in market because poor market
reputation put a huge effect on sales (West, 2012). Barclays is one of the leading
financial service provider, as this is the main the bank as large number of loyal
customers.
Thus, to implement an effective marketing strategy business owners have proper
understanding of their own business as well as of the marketing in which they will operate.
Following are several functions of marketing: -
Marketing planning – The foremost function of marketing is to make plans and policies
in order to decide how to do business activities. Marketing plans are also develop to increase the
output level, profitability, sales and promotion of goods. Barclays has an effective marketing
plan so as to attain business goals and increase market presence of the firm at global level. This
function of marketing also covers all aspects of promotions, output level and further actions. For
example- if a product is newly launched in market, then firstly managers have to prepare a
proper marketing plan so as to find out all factors which can affect its success.
Gathering and analysing marketing information – Another necessary function of
marketing is collect and assess the market information so as to develop strategies accordingly. In
this relation, it is essential for marketing managers to determine the needs and wants of
consumers and take imperative decisions regarding successful marketing (Papasolomou and
Melanthiou, 2012). While gathering information, a marketer tries to analyse what buyers' wants
to buy, on what quantity and price etc. Thus, on the basis of this overall information a product is
produced, labelled, packed, branded and promoted.
Product designing and development – It involved all decisions which are taking
regrading the quantity, quality and standards that will be used to manufacture a product. All
2

these decisions are taken in order to make a product more attractive and better to compete with
external environment. Along with this, when a product is manufactured then there should be
follow all ethics and standards as it will support in attaining and retaining consumers for long
run. The prime objective of product development is to maintain, cultivate and raise the market
share of a firm so as to satisfy customers' demand in the best possible manner.
Buying and selling – Buying is the foremost step in marketing process as it is liable for
putting goods at the right place and on the right time. It can be done by a middleman or direct
from a manufacturer. Manufactures buy raw materials to convert them into outputs whereas
retailers purchases finished goods to resale them with an aim to gain high profits. Thus, the main
motive of buying function is to extend profits of the company (Mihart, 2012). On the other hand,
selling comprises with all activities, i.e. personal or impersonal which includes in finding and
developing a demand of specific products and services. The main motive of selling is to
influence and attract customers to purchase products of the firm; in this sense prices of goods
must be lower.
Financing – Finance is known as backbone of every corporate association as it helps to
do all business activities appropriately. It consists with proper use of capital so as to maintain
stocks and caters of merchandising activities. In marketing, finance can be generated through
two sources, i.e. owned capital and borrowed capital. It is essential for marketers to keep enough
stock of inputs and outputs while expectancy of demands. Along with this, whole sellers also
need capital to make payments and storing maximum quantity of goods. On the other hand,
retailers require funds to sell services or products on credit to trusted customers.
Risk taking – There are several risks includes in all stages of marketing, risks can be
possible cause of changes of supply and demand pattern of products, natural calamities, weather
disasters, fire, floods, loss on storage, transportation losses etc. and such kind of risks cannot be
avoided. However, they only be reduced by pre-assessment of future risks and uncertainties and
frame strategies accordingly. A successful marketer is a person who is able to calculate, transfer
as well as eradicate risks effectively. In additions, hazards which can occurs due to fluctuations
in prices can be covered by hedging whereas risks are associated with natural calamities can
shifted to insurance companies (Nguyen and Simkin, 2012).
Transportation and warehousing – At last, transportation is also a most significant
activity which states with place utility of a product so as to make them available at all places
3

where it is or will consumed. Land, air, water and railways are the main modes of transportation
that aids in widening the area of marketing. Furthermore, it also expand capital and labour
movement, facilitates specialisation as well as allows large scale output through stabilising
prices. If a product will be available at demanding places then numerous people can easily attract
towards it. Aside from this, warehousing implies to places where goods are stored. In large
business units, mostly goods are produced after evaluate the future demand, thus producers held
sufficient stocks and make them present in market at the time of requirements.
P2 How roles and responsibilities of marketing related with wider organisational context
When it comes to marketing only selling is consider as major part of it but it is much
broader than that. It covers all activities in business organization. In this whole business seen
from customer's point of view. Because end user give a final result of a product. Therefore, it is
spread throughout enterprise. While dealing with other departments, marketing managers have to
take approval from top management before any action takes place (Desai, 2013). First
requirement of any product is budget to get start, and concept of a particular product. All
approvals must be taken from the top management for example CEO of a company.
It concerns development of marketing ideas which can impact on current and future
trends. It analyse about the external environment which influences on company activity.
Different operations are included in every business organisation which are interrelated with other
each other. There is a strong relationship of marketing with all departments which are stated as
under: -
Human Resource Management : It closely work with marketing department so that it
can hire skilled staff which is needed to fulfil research and development, product target,
ambitious sales team. It provide training to resources as per demand across organization culture.
Along with this, the personal department of the company also take information to serve product
and service among public (Pappas, 2017). Whenever a business releases new goods they hire a
employees and train them to distribute their final creation in marketplace.
Finance : It determines adequate budget for all operations like research, promotion,
distribution. It approves finance for overspend if require for earning profit. It calculate cost of
production on implementation of product and return on investment that give the profit statement
on total expenses. It monitor entire plan done effectively and efficiently as it was calculated
4

before. Along with this, there is needed adequate finance or capital in order to conduct all
marketing activities effectively; it will support in accomplishing all business goals and
objectives.
Operation Management: It is interrelated to production department, it ensures enough
investigation and evolution planning to satisfy customer present and future demands.
Manufacturing and quality design as per end user necessity, it helps to generate orders that meet
the market condition within schedule time. On the hand, when marketing department got an idea
for satisfying customer's need it discuss all factors with production team to construct an item.
Then it will work on it accordingly to meet customer's pleasure.
Legal Consideration: Every country has different culture and tradition, that should be
respect by organization in any aspect. This makes a business successful if it admires by others.
Ethical business can lead across world (Hsu, 2011). While making any marketing strategies and
policies, managers are required to fulfil all legal aspects and ethics to maintain the standard of
the company.
Procurement: Marketing session has a closed watch on consumer essentials that
prepares a report which is followed by procurement section so that it purchase all raw material
for developing product which is demand by customer with lower price.
Research And Development : It surveys about needs of population so that it can meet
them easily, and it also supports marketing division to tell how can they delight to customers by
offering services which they are looking for. In addition, the research and development
department collects information about current market trends and competitors' so as to formulate
marketing strategies accordingly. Marketing research is also attached with testing and
development of new products, informally requested feedbacks, conducting surveys, for existing
customers.
Customer Service : Customers directly related with customer service. Whenever they
find trouble with the product they call and consult with it. They file complaints regarding certain
trade good. It renders feedback to marketing sector that are reported from users.
5

TASK 2
P3 Marketing mix of two different organisations
While creating any product, a number of ideas are come up for this which differentiate a
product than others. Marketing mix also associated with increases product line and length in
order to make few modifications in features of a product. Thus, it helps in increase the product
portfolio so as to gain high cutting edge. Marketing mix is an intermixture of seven elements,
such as- product, price, place, promotion, process, people and physical evidence (Brooks and
Simkin, 2012). Below is described marketing mix of two different business organisations: -
(Source: Marketing mix Elements: Product Mix, Price Mix, Promotion Mix and Place Mix,
2018)
Basis Barclays HSBC
Product Barclays has a wide range of
products and its trained officers are
committed to provide banking
solutions so as to being a
multinational association. It was the
first bank which provided ATM
facilities to customers in 1967 and
adopted various houses, i.e. British
The main products of HSBC bank are –
wealth management, private banking,
retail management etc. In order to
make product differentiation, the bank
always emphasises on improving the
quality of their goods and services.
HSBC offer services to small and
medium organisation, such as- multi
6
Illustration 1: Elements of marketing mix

Linen Bank and the Woolwhich.
The current operations of Barclays
bank are – digital banking services,
investment management, retail
banking, investment banking,
commercial banking.
It also provides personal banking
services that assists to manage
money of people and handles
investments, bank accounts, loans,
insurance, individuals accounts
savings (Gamble and et. al., 2011).
On the other hand, international
banking involves opening different
currency accounts.
branch, phone banking and doorstep
banking.
Price Price is one of the most important
factor in marketing mix as if the cost
of a product are affordable then
customers' can easily attracts
towards; it supports organisations to
survive for long term in market.
Currentrly, Barclays has 50 million
customers due to its effective
operations and pricing policy which
is acceptable among service users.
The firm decided to cope its
working activities and expenses by
improving profits, thus there is seen
a reduction of $ 25 billion in its
expenses which means elimination
HSBC wants its services to be
successful and run for long time by
winning higher customer satisfaction
level. It is analysed that interest rate of
the firm are too close to LLyod TSB
and Barclays. Therefore, it can be said
that HSBC has acquired competitive
and differentiate pricing policy in order
to attain and retain large group of
buyers.
In differentiate pricing strategy, firms
charge lower to keep customers' satisfy
(Ogunmokun and Tang, 2012).
7

of 25% in operating cost.
Along with this, to build revenues
the bank charged a minimum
interest rates on premium and saving
account of people. Barclays has
acquired premium pricing policy.
Place Barclays serves its products and
services across the world and its
business is located in 50 nations.
Thus, it can said that the bank has
large network of distribution
channels which entails of
approximately 5000 branches in
which more than 1500 are located in
UK.
Barclays is member of Global ATM
alliances as it allows customers to
freely access to ATMs.
HSBC has wide area to operate and
serve its products. The base of its
operations in North and South
America, Asia, Europe, Africa etc. as it
has a huge platform of loyal customers.
HSBC provides 24x7 ATMS services,
here they can swipe their cards
whenever it is required.
The mobile application and ATM
services helps people of rural areas to
save their money and take advantages.
Promotion In order to promote itself, Barclays
emphasised to make its products
available or visible to customers. In
this relations, it creates several ads
to attract customers from worldwide.
Barclays is known the oldest
financial institutes and as per the
times passes the firm has changed
the methods of marketing. Along
with this, its all informative are
available on television, websites and
print media in order to attract large
The financial institute is very fierce
towards promoting itself. It is founded
that HSBC prefer to use bill boards,
radio, television, internet, social media
sites in order to reaching out its
customers. It has a sponsor of
MONACO (football) and Telford
Riders (rugby).
It is also an official banking partner of
Wimbledon Tennis Championship that
assists to creates an imperative market
image of the firm.
8

group of customers (KAUR, 2015).
Barclays has also undertaken several
sponsorship programmes so as to
maintain and improve the brand
value. From 2001 to till 2016,
Barclays was a member of English
Premium league. It had also
sponsored The Football league in
1987 and from 2010 to 2015 it was a
sponsor for Barclays cycle hire.
HSBC also indulge in CSR activities.
People Barclays bank acquires employee
centric approach; it focuses on
employees' satisfaction and
retention. The business organisation
offers many benefits and schemes to
staff members as they can easily
perform in well being manner. Such
benefits are – incentives,
voluntaries, pensions and further
performance related bonus.
Aside from this, Barclays also
provides the facility of insurance
and medical benefits to employees
and their family members as well.
The main motive of these schemes is
to regulate healthy and positive
working environment at workplace.
As a customer centric organisation,
HSBC tries to fulfil all needs and
demands of customers in the best
possible manner; it ensure to make a
connection over the world.
HSBC also gives the freedom to
employees as they can work freely
according to the time suited. In
addition, work from home policy,
education wavier and maternity leaves
are supportive in retaining people for
long run.
Thus, customers, management,
employees, everyone contributes in
growth and vitality of the organisation.
Process The overall banking and working
process of Barclays is totally straight
forward and easy to understand. It
In this modern era, online services, i.e.
money transfer, loans and payments are
provides the firm.
9

has taken transaction from physical
to virtual platform. Barclays also
gives ease to individuals while doing
variety of transactions from personal
accounts. Furthermore, the
relationship manager of the
company takes reviews and
feedbacks from customers who
usually visit banks so as to make its
practices smooth.
Physical
evidence
Barclays has introduced its mobile
application so as to provide mobile
banking facility to customers at
broader and efficient level. It makes
easier the process of carrying out
transactions. In addition, for a
specific region, it has created certain
services like – Barclays Ghana and
Barclays Namibia etc.
These efforts has increased
tremendously the use of online
banking customers (Caragher,
2016). This completes the marketing
mix of Barclays bank.
The organisation has a great physical
evidence as its offices and branches are
established in 40 nations. The official
website of the company provides its
full information.
Brochures, paperwork, furnishings,
business cards etc. are the main source
of physical evidence. The passbooks,
financial reports and check books are
the main source of physical evidences.
TASK 3
P4 Develop a basic marketing plan
Every business organisation prepares a marketing plan which describe how to arrive
potential customers and ensure that people are aware about products. Efforts which are getting
involved in marketing planning aims to attain a wide range of loyal customers and retain them
10

for long term period. Marketing planning brings better future opportunities to the company.
Following are the stages which involves in marketing plan of Barclays: -
Overview of the company – Barclays bank is a leading financial institute in UK; it
operates in 50 counties having assets of 3 Euro trillion nearly. The firm offers commercial and
retail banking services, including credit cards, Investment banking and management services.
The main competitors of Barclays are – Bank of Ireland, Deutsche Bank AG, Allied Irish Bank,
HSBC Holding Plc. In addition, the balance scorecard of the organisation defines what it will be
achieved in next five years. In 2016, Barclays announced to follow certain actions, like –
creation of two divisions - Barclays UK and Barclays International to sell down its 62.3% stake
in BAGL in order to increase market stability and boost up the performance level.
Aside from this, to remain competitive the organisation explore changes and develop a
corporate cultural so as to enable staff as it can be cooperative and competent; it results delivery
of efficient banking services (Purvis, 2016).
Vision and mission of the company – The vision statement of Barclays is to accomplish
higher growth by diversifying its business base as well driven up the market presence of the
company in target market. On the other hand, mission statement of the organisation is to offer
innovative products and services so meet the requirements of customers and clients.
Furthermore, the main of marketing plan of Barclays is to define the forms of notching up which
assists to improve the current market share of the firm by 1.5%. Barclays
Situational analysis – Marketing strategy of Barclays is focused on building its strength
as a transatlantic consumer, corporate and investment bank, anchored in our two homes markets
of the UK with global reach. In this relation, the firm is required to conduct a situational
analysis.
SWOT analysis of Barclays: -
STRENGTH
 Have a leadership position in different
key product segments, such as-
Barclaycard payment solutions.
 Strong brand reputation partly derived
from a long history of service planning
across 400 years.
WEAKNESSES
 Material legacy conduct issues.
 African divestiture proving to be time
consuming and costly.
11

 Leader of digital banking (De Roeck
and et. al., 2014). Establishment of different new flagship
branches with a renovation program
can be seen as an attempt to
emphasised on buyers' demands.
OPPORTUNITIES
 The bank strategy is to provide full
portfolio services and wide range of
cross selling opportunities.
 New distribution channels and
innovation of e-commerce markets. Lower personal taxes and interest rates.
THREATS
 Closing of geographical markets.
 Increasing the number of competitors.
 Government laws and legislations.
Identification of marketing strategies – After assessing internal and external factors of
the company, it comes on determination of marketing strategies. In order to get hiogh
competitive advantage form target market, Barclays follow Ansoff Matrix, which entails four
elements, i.e. market penetration, product development, new product development and
diversification. In which, market penetration and product development strategy by covering
market share of current accounts in comparison with other credit institutes which has been lessen
due to economic crises (Dhaliwal and et. al., 2014). Whereas launch of new prepaid card is a step
towards product development.
Along with this, market development strategy is carried out by launching new and tested
card into certain geographical areas that helps firm to gain high competitive advantage. Another
marketing strategy of Barclays is Porter Generic model which aims is to use board based
differentiation so as to capture high market share by ailing financial institutes.
Formulation of marketing budget – After determining an appropriate marketing strategy
marketers need to create an appropriate marketing so as to assess the amount which will be spend
in all activities.
Marketing budget
12

Particulars 1st year 2nd year 3rd year 4th year 5th year
Capital 50000 3000 4800 3000 7000
Investments 16500 15000 18000 19500
Total 50000 19500 19800 21000 26500
Marketing expenditures
Promotion 5000 6000 8000 4500 5000
Sales 2000 8000 5500 6500 1000
Marketing 1500 5000 3000 3000 1100
Internet Marketing 5000 3500 2500 4000 3000
Networking 2200 2500 7000 6000 1700
Printing 1000 1800 2200 3000 7500
Advertising 3000 7000 3500 5000 2500
Total 19700 33800 31700 32000 31700
Allocation of resources – There are several resources, like human, technical, physical
and financial required to prepare a marketing plan. Thus, marketers needs to allocate all
resources properly in order to get their maximum utilisation (Chabowski, Mena and Gonzalez-
Padron, 2011). For example – in terms of human resources Barclays provides training and
development assistance to staff members as perform in better manner.
Execution of the plan – Afterwards, marketing managers discuss the overall plan with
top management and employees, then take their suggestions so as to make improvements. Hence,
the plan get implemented within organisation.
13

CONLCUSION
From the above mentioned report, it get concluded that marketing is the key of growth
and success of every business organisations, as it will support in driving up the sales and
profitability in a certain time period. By using different marketing tactics and strategies,
marketers can easily attract customers towards the products of the firm. The main functions of
marketing are – planning, financing, risk taking, warehousing etc. if all these functions will be
managed effectively then Barclays will easily attain its goals and objectives and also get high
competitive edge.
REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Baack, D. W., Harris, E. G. and Baack, D., 2013. International marketing (Vol. 3). Sage.
Brooks, N. and Simkin, L., 2012. Judging marketing mix effectiveness. Marketing Intelligence &
Planning. 30(5). pp.494-514.
Caragher, J. M., 2016. 7 Essentials for a CPA Firm Marketing Program. The CPA Journal.
86(12). p.11.
Chabowski, B. R., Mena, J. A. and Gonzalez-Padron, T. L., 2011. The structure of sustainability
research in marketing, 1958–2008: a basis for future research opportunities. Journal of
the Academy of Marketing Science. 39(1). pp.55-70.
De Roeck, K. and et. al., 2014. Understanding employees' responses to corporate social
responsibility: mediating roles of overall justice and organisational identification. The
international journal of human resource management. 25(1). pp.91-112.
Desai, S. S., 2013. An analysis of the competitive marketing strategies of the hospitality industry
in UAE. IUP Journal of Management Research. 12(1). p.22.
Dhaliwal, D. and et. al., 2014. Corporate social responsibility disclosure and the cost of equity
capital: The roles of stakeholder orientation and financial transparency. Journal of
Accounting and Public Policy. 33(4). pp.328-355.
Gamble, J. and et. al., 2011. The Marketing concept in the 21st century: A review of how
Marketing has been defined since the 1960s. The marketing review. 11(3). pp.227-248.
Hsu, W., 2011. The vocabulary thresholds of business textbooks and business research articles
for EFL learners. English for Specific Purposes. 30(4). pp.247-257.
14

KAUR, M. N., 2015. MARKETING ESSENTIALS FOR NEW PRODUCT LAUNCH:
STRATEGIES ACROSS VARIOUS PHASES OF PRODUCT LAUNCH. Asia Pacific
Journal Of Marketing and Management Review. 3(3).
Mihart, C., 2012. Impact of integrated marketing communication on consumer behaviour: effects
4on consumer decision–making process. International Journal of Marketing Studies.
(2). p.121.
Nguyen, B. and Simkin, L., 2012. Fairness quality: The role of fairness in a social and ethically
oriented marketing landscape. The Marketing Review. 12(4). pp.333-344.
Ogunmokun, G. O. and Tang, E. C. H., 2012. The effect of strategic marketing planning
behaviour on the performance of small-to medium-sized firms. International Journal of
Management. 29(1). p.159.
Papasolomou, I. and Melanthiou, Y., 2012. Social media: Marketing public relations’ new best
friend. Journal of Promotion Management. 18(3). pp.319-328.
Pappas, N., 2017. Effect of marketing activities, benefits, risks, confusion due to over-choice,
price, quality and consumer trust on online tourism purchasing. Journal of Marketing
Communications. 23(2). pp.195-218.
Purvis, J., 2016. Human Resources Marketing and Recruiting: Essentials of Digital
Recruiting. Handbook of Human Resources Management. pp.53-71.
Silberschatz, A., Galvin, P. B. and Gagne, G., 2014. Operating system concepts essentials. John
Wiley & Sons, Inc..
West, J. B., 2012. Respiratory physiology: the essentials. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Online
Marketing mix Elements: Product Mix, Price Mix, Promotion Mix and Place Mix, 2018.
[Online]. Available through: <http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/marketing/marketing-
mix/marketing-mix-elements-product-mix-price-mix-promotion-mix-and-place-mix/
48570>.
15