Marketing Strategy & Implementation

This assignment explores the crucial elements of marketing strategy. Students are tasked with analyzing and applying the 7Ps of the marketing mix (Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process, Physical Evidence) to develop a comprehensive marketing plan. The STP model (Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning) is also examined for effective market identification and strategy formulation. Furthermore, the assignment delves into creating competitive advantage through strategic marketing initiatives.

MARKETING ESSENTIALS
STUDENT NAME
STUDENT ID
PROFESSOR NAME
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Table of contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
LO1..................................................................................................................................................3
P1 Analysing the roles and the main responsibilities of marketing function..................................3
P2 Analysing the interrelations of marketing with other units of the business organisation..........5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
LO2..................................................................................................................................................7
P3 Process of applying the marketing mix and the ways to achieves the objectives of McDonald's
.........................................................................................................................................................7
TASK3...........................................................................................................................................11
LO3................................................................................................................................................11
P4 Evaluation a basic marketing plan for McDonald's..................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................13
Reference list.................................................................................................................................14
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Introduction
Marketing is a kind of term where the customers would be able to know about the products
details and the selling information about the products as well. Various roles and the
responsibilities of marketing have been included in this report. In this report, the researcher has
chosen McDonald has to make the entire report effective and efficient. McDonald is an
American based fast food chain that serves approximately 68 million people worldwide. It
operates over 119 countries having more than 36615 outlets. The report aims to compare the
marketing functions of McDonald’s and Aldi in order to understand the effectiveness of the
process of marketing planning to achieve organisational objectives. The various marketing
functions have been stated in this report. The researcher has shed light on the 7Ps to make the
marketing mix more efficient. Finally, the evaluation of the marketing strategies of McDonald's
has been briefly discussed.
TASK 1
LO1
P1 Analysing the roles and the main responsibilities of marketing function
The primary function of the marketing is as follows-
Business development- According to Grönroos and Gummerus (2014, p.206), the main goal of
the marketing is to develop the entire business. It is crucial to identify the weakness of the
business organisation and to turn the weaknesses into strength. To make various implementation
plans for the betterment of the entire business organisations, and how to make the business more
effective and competitive with other business organisations is another important purpose of
marketing. In the case of MacDonald’s the marketing, functions play a vital role to develop the
entire business.
Product development- To make the product of the business organisations is the main priority of
the marketing (Piercy, 2014, p.25). To know about the product quality and to take the feedback
from the customers is another function of the marketing. Product quality of the business
organisations must be the main factors that can be able to draw the customers. By developing the
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product of the business organisations, the business organisations must gain profit from the
market. Product development is another vital role and responsibilities of MacDonald’s.
Marketing development- To develop the market for sell the product is an important factor for the
business organisations. To make the market facilities better is another crucial role of the
marketing that can help to provide a better market for the business organisations (Boone and
Kurtz, 2013, p.58). The marketing functional managers of MacDonald’s always try to know
about the market demand for making the product. Based on the marketing demands the
management of MacDonald’s make their business to gain extra profit.
Marketing research-, this is an important factor to run the business organisations successfully.
Marketing research can be able to know about the market conditions. That can help to make the
business well. In different geographical locations, the marketing demand is different so by
marketing research McDonald's can introduce their branch in the popular location for the
betterment of the organisation. For MacDonald’s marketing research is an important factor.
Competitor analysis- The management of the marketing is always analysis their rivalry and the
main competitor in the market (Baker, 2014, p.23). It can help to make the business well. At the
place where the competition is healthy at there, the business organisations could take different
strategies to run the business well. The marketing managers of MacDonald’s always analysis the
competition and there are many competitors in the market for McDonald's.
Pricing strategy- Pricing is the most effective factor to make the business well ad good and
profitable as well (Leeflang, 2014, p.1). The marketing managers of the business organisations
always make research on the price of the product and the managers of the business organisations
always put the effective price tag for the customers. In the case of McDonald's as a manager of
marketing, the main priority is to make the price of the product effectively for the satisfaction of
the customers and it can help to make the business profitable.
Public relations- According to Wagner and Eggert (2016, p.27), public relations is the most
important factor for running the business well. The marketing managers of the business
organisation always try to make the public relations more effective and efficient. Good public
relations with the business organisation can be helpful to run the business successfully. In the
case of MacDonald’s the marketing managers always try to maintain a good relationship with the
people for the betterment of the organisation. MacDonald’s provides different schemes and offer
for the public.
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Service for the customers- Service for the customers is another important factor for the
marketing (Gummesson et al. 2014, p.228). The marketing management of the business
organisation always tries to provide the best kind of service to the customers. The marketing
management of the business organisation also tries to improve the service for making the service
more effective. In MacDonald’s the marketing management always provide the best quality of
service to the customers. To satisfy the customers is always the main priority of MacDonald’s.
Promotions- The marketing management of the organisations use promotions at different seasons
for making the sell more effective (Piercy and Evans, 2014, p.69). At the time of various
festivals, the business organisations start their promotions for the customers on the product. In
the case of MacDonald’s the marketing management of the organisation always provide the
promotional offers for the customers. It can help to gain extra profit.
Company identity- To make the identity of the business organisation can be another primary aim
of the marketing management (Payne and Frow, 2014, p.213). The marketing management of the
organisation always tries to make their promotion through different T.V channels, social media,
newspaper and website as well. McDonald's is a well-renowned organisation and the marketing
management still making a different programme to provide more information about the entire
organisations. The various advertisements are another important aspect that is made the
marketing management of MacDonald’s.
P2 Analysing the interrelations of marketing with other units of the business
organisation.
Marketing is an important unit that can be related to the other department of the organisations
such as finance department, operations department, sales department, production department,
research, and development as well.
Marketing is essential for the finance to the department of the business organisations (Luo et al.
2016, p.52). Marketing can help to the finance department by making new plans about the new
products and the new budgets for the improvement of the entire organisations. Apart from this
marketing can help to make the various forecasts for the sale of the products and help to the
investment plan of the organisations. Marketing can be able to help to the finance department of
the business organisations when to invest the money and it also makes aware about the different
kind of marketing situations. The finance department can be able to know when to invest. In the
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case of McDonald's the finance department always keep contact with the marketing management
to understand the market needs for the matter of investment.
Marketing can help to the product department by giving the product demand of the customers
(Boonpradub, W. and Thechatakerng, 2015, p.8). So that the product department can be able to
make more product to fulfil the demand and the need of the customers and this way the entire
organisation can get various benefits. Marketing can help to get the information about the right
amount of marketing demand of any such products. Therefore, it can be said that marketing can
be helpful for the production department of the business organisations. The product management
of McDonald's can get help from the marketing management for making the product to fulfil the
demand of the customers.
R&D of the organisation can get help from the marketing information (Liu and Chou, 2016,
p.298). To implement the product or to get new ideas about the product can be essential for the
business organisations. Marketing management can be able to provide all the new ideas about
making the product more effective that can be extremely beneficial for McDonald’s.
The sales department of the business organisations can get help from the marketing department.
To make good relationship with the customers marketing can be essential. Marketing can give
much information about the customers and it can be helpful for the sales department of
McDonald's.
The operations department of the business organisations can be able to get information about the
market that can help them to make the entire organisation more effective and efficient.
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TASK 2
LO2
P3 Process of applying the marketing mix and the ways to achieves the
objectives of McDonald's
Figure 1: 7Ps marketing mix
Source: (Eshuis et al. 2014, p.151)
The marketing mix is an effective process for marketing. It is a kind of tool that can be used for
achieving the goal and the objectives of the organisations. 7Ps of marketing mix to achieve the
objectives of McDonald's are stated below-
Product- Product is the most important factor for satisfying the customers of McDonald's.
Products help to fulfil the demand and the need of the customers. McDonald's can use the
product design to draw more customers. By making the quality of the product customers can be
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satisfied and it can help to the organisations to meet the objectives. The product packaging and
designing can be essential for selling the product (Gameti and Preko, 2014, p.23). The policies of
return and warranty can be essential to make the customers happy. By providing proper service
for the product to the customers can be able, to make the entire organisation more profitable.
McDonald's use their product options more effective by making the quality and the design of the
product more effectively. It can be profitable for the organisation. On the other hand, Aldi is
another leading retail sector who used to make the product design and quality with the most
important priority. Aldi always tries to satisfy the customers by providing them with the best
kind of products. Aldi is a retail sector so they provide good kind of service facilities to the
customers so that they can draw more customers and they provide the most features branded
product to the customers.
Price- Price is all about the amount that is paying by the customers (Wang, 2016, p.1007).
McDonald's put the price of their product after making marketing research so that they can
satisfy the customers. They always take various different strategies to make the price tag
effective for their foods. McDonald's always put the reasonable price to satisfy the customers.
They have various discounts offers for the target customers as well for the new customers.
McDonald's uses credit card option for payment. It helps to the customers for their payment. For
the old customers, McDonald's always provides extra discounts that can make the old customers
happy.
On the other hand, Aldi uses the price strategies like McDonald's. After marketing research, Aldi
put the price that is efficient for the customers. The management of Aldi always tries to make the
target customers happy so that they could buy more products. For the old customers like
McDonald's, Aldi also provides various extra facilities and discounts for buying the products. To
draw the attention of the new customers Aldi tries to prove many discounts and offers. In Aldi,
the payment mode is in both online and offline. Therefore, the customers have no problem to
make the payment.
Promotion- Promotion is all about making marketing communications (Liu and Wu, 2013,
p.221). The main elements of promotion are such as various advertising, different sales
promotion, and so on. Promotion is an important factor for all the business organisations to sell
the product and to gain the maximum benefits. It also helps to satisfy the customers. Promotion
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can help to increase the awareness of the products and it helps to grow the interest of the
customers.
McDonald's use the promotion strategy effectively, they use is often for all types of customers.
However, for the old customers, they provide extra discounts to make the old customers happy.
For the new customers McDonald's use different strategies to promote the option of discounts of
the products. By using different newspapers, websites of the organisation, social Medias and by
E-mail all the promotional offers are reached to the customers. Sometimes the employees of
McDonald's make a direct communication to provide the information about the promotion to the
customers. For the target customers McDonald's use E-mail option.
On the other hand, Aldi uses direct communication with the customers. Apart from this they also
use Television to promote their promotional offers for the customers.
Place- Place is all about where the customers can be able to access the products of the company.
This McDonald's use the population place where people are more and there they provide the
facilities to the customers. Customer’s availability is an important factor to make the business
well and to run for a long time. At the time available product, the customers can easily access the
product but the place must be suitable for the organisations as well as for the customers. The
organisation just provides the facilities of the products where the customers can be able to reach
and access the products. The branch of McDonald's must be near to the customers and it can help
to gain more profit.
On the other hand, Aldi always makes their branches where the population is enough to access
the products of the organisations. Aldi always keeps in mind about the demand and the need of
the product at the different place so that they can provide facilities to the people. Aldi alway tries
to provide the facilities to all the customers equally and the customers could be able to access the
products by physically visiting the organisation.
Physical evidence- This is a kind of tool for making interaction with the customers for delivering
the service to the customers. This strategy is the most useful tool by most of the business
organisations. McDonald's provide various facilities to the customers and when the organisation
make deals with the customers it needs to keep the bill. The environment of McDonald's is good
enough to attract the customers and the customers feel comfortable. McDonald's always provided
with the best kind of food to the customers. McDonald's always trying to fulfil the demand and
the end of the customers and as per the need and the demand of the customers, McDonald's make
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their production. McDonald always keeps a feedback form for the customers for the betterment
of the service for the customers where the customers can make their personal feedback on the
service as well as for the quality of the food.
On the other hand, Aldi tries to make happy the customers and provide the best kind of facilities.
However, Aldi does not use feedback form like McDonald's. All the service providers for the
customers in Aldi are well trained and they always provide the best facilities.
People- According to Hollensen (2015, p.23), the staffs of the organisations are the most
important part to provide the facilities to the customers. Therefore, it is an important factor to
make training to the employees to make the performance more improved. The employees are the
responsible for keeping the values of McDonald's. McDonald's always giving effective training
to the employees so that they can put their best effort to make happy the customers. The
employees of McDonald's have their own dress code. The complaint handling procedures are
excellent in McDonald's. The organisation has feedback and complaint form to make the service
facilities more effective. For any such complaint made by the customers the management of
McDonald's try to resolve within a minimal amount of time. In the case of any kind of service
failures, the management of McDonald's always tries to maintain patient to handle the situation.
The social interaction of McDonald's is extremely good. The management of McDonald's always
pays attention to the customers who give feedback after using the facilities. Apart from this Aldi
use same strategies; they have their own dress code, problem-handling team to make an
immediate solution of any such issues. The training process of Aldi is effective enough to meet
the goal and objectives of the entire organisations.
Process- The business process of the organisation to deliver the facilities to the customers is
always the most crucial factor (Slack, 2015, p.36). The process of providing service of
McDonald's is in both online and offline. They have monitoring process to measure the
performance of the employees. In the time of any such critical situations, the organisation has a
quick response team to mitigate the problem. In the case of Aldi, the process of making the
business is same as McDonald's. Aldi has the monitoring process of the performance. They give
value to the decisions of the customers for the betterment of their service facilities.
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TASK3
LO3
P4 Evaluation a basic marketing plan for McDonald's
The main purpose of McDonald's is to provide fast foods to the people of UK and the foods are
such as hamburgers, soft drinks and desserts and so on. McDonald's is a very growing company
in the worldwide. The management of the organisation is effective enough to make the business
more effective and to gain the benefit the employees of the organisation are making their best
effort. The environment within the organisation is good enough to satisfy the customers. In the
market, the demand of McDonald's is always in high. Therefore, McDonald's is trying to fulfil
the demand and the need of the customers. They have effective strategies to provide the best
facilities to the customers.
The main objectives of McDonald’s can be stated below-
● To provide the best service facilities to the customers of McDonald’s
● To encourage the employee to put their best effort in the workplace
● To provide the service to the worldwide customers
● To resolve the various issues of the customers
● To identify the interest of the customers
● To make more expand the business
● To make the product more efficient
To make the business plan all the below-stated factors can be included-
Strategy for marketing- To achieve the objectives of McDonald's it is necessary to make some
effective strategies. Therefore, the business can be properly organised. Make the marketing more
effective it is an important factor to take important strategies like to know about the demand of
the new customers. It is a vital factor to know about the opinion of the young generation for
making the quality effective.
Strategy for advertising- It is an important factor to make advertise attractive for the customers
so that the customers can be easily drawn toward McDonald's. Social media is an important place
to make a various advertisement about the new product of McDonald's. It can help to sell the
products effectively.
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Strategy for sales- To sell the product of McDonald's it needs to make some effective strategies,
the management of McDonald's can use various promotion and offer so that the sale of the new
and old products of McDonald's can be easily sold. Apart from this new emerging technique can
also be included.
Figure 2: STP model
Source: (West et al. 2015, p.65)
STP model can be included to make the plan more effectively. The factors of STP model is
stated below-
Segmentation- Segmentation always plays the most vital role in making the strategy more
effective and efficient (Toledo et al. 2014, p.48). In this factor the entire market, customers can
be divided into different groups. Therefore, that to provide the facilities to the group of people
according to the geographical location can be easy for the employees. It helps to make the work
more efficient for McDonald’s.
Targeting- In this step, the vast population of any areas of customers can be divided into
different group and then the group of customers can be easily drawn toward McDonald's. The
employees of the organisation can be able to easily reach to the target customers.
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Positioning- In McDonald's the segmentation and the process of targeting must focus on the
position of the organisation. Based on the position of the organisation, the management of
McDonald's could take steps for the betterment of the new plan.
Budget- To make the organisation more effective it needs to make the budget of the organisation
more effectively. For the entire plan and the strategies of the organisation, the management must
make a proper budget to meet the goal and the objectives. To make all the plan into reality
McDonald's must make their budget effectively.
Control- controlling the entire system of McDonald's can help to measure the performance. It is
an important factor to review the daily plan. The entire plan must be according to the latest
marketing trends as well as technologies. McDonald should also look forward to focus on the
needs of their customer while maintaining their brand value and reputation in the current market.
However, the internal management should also take care regarding the daily plan which
ultimately leads to show increment in marketing trends and their market value.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that the entire report is based on the various roles and the responsibilities of
the marketing function. All the roles and the responsibilities help to meet the goal and the
objectives of McDonald's. The marketing management of the organisation would provide the
most important information to the other department of McDonald's. The interpretation of 7Ps
helps to bring out the ways to achieve the target of the organisations. Apart from this, the
strategies of Aldi have been also included to make the report effective and efficient. The business
plan of McDonald's can be able to make the organisation more efficient to make the business
more effectively.
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