Developing Ethical Marketing Strategies for a Cited Firm

The provided content discusses various ethical practices adopted by firms to increase their customer base and market presence without harming the environment. The report highlights different marketing strategies and plans, including marketing planning, strategic marketing, demand chain management, and probabilistic risk assessment. It also touches upon organizational factors that influence marketing planning and the importance of incorporating ethics into business decisions.

MARKETING
PLANNING

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Reviewing changing perspective in marketing planning ....................................................1
1.2 Evaluating organization capability for planning future activities ........................................2
1.3 Techniques for organizational auditing ................................................................................3
1.4 Carrying out organizational auditing and analyzing external factors ..................................3
2.1 Barriers to marketing planning .............................................................................................4
2.2 Solutions for overcoming the barriers ..................................................................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
3.1 Marketing plan for a new service .........................................................................................6
3.2 Marketing planning essential in strategic planning process .................................................7
3.3 Examining techniques for new product development ..........................................................7
3.4 Recommendations for pricing distribution and communication mix ...................................8
4.1 Ethical issues which affects marketing activities .................................................................9
4.2 Organization responding to ethical issues ............................................................................9
4.3 Consumers ethics affecting marketing planning ..................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11
INDEX OF TABLES
Table 1: GANTT CHART...............................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Marketing planning comprises a marketing plan which is treated as a business document
and it is generally developed by business venture to describe current market position of a
corporate along with their future strategy. Marketing planning usually covers a period for
approx. 1-5 years. In this context, efforts have been incorporated to prepare this report which
involves key concepts related to marketing planning (Beamish and Ashford, 2007). Further,
marketing also helps in transferring and exchange of gods and services with help of different
mediators. Moreover, the core importance of marketing is to create employment for individuals
as functions of marketing has been spread within a decade or so. The organization undertaken for
the present study is Made. Com which is online designer furniture retailer based in England.
Organization has become so popular in half a decade that it generally broadcast two new styles
every week. Further, cited company having its operations in UK, Ireland, France, Italy,
Germany, etc.
This present report will focus on reviewing the changing perspective in marketing
planning. Along with it, this report will also have its core emphasis on organization auditing in
order to analyze the internal and external factors. This report will further access on main barriers
of marketing planning.
TASK 1
1.1 Reviewing changing perspective in marketing planning Marketing mix elements- These elements consists of product, price, place, promotion and
mentioned company consider all these things before making product available for the
consumers (McDonald, 2007). Moreover, apart from these Made. Com also focuses on
producing the best quality of furniture along with attractive packaging as this will help
organization to raise their goodwill.
 Market-led strategy- Market-led is a strategy where Made.com identifies the needs and
demands of their consumers and these needs help cited firm to develop and serve
products and services to their large consumer base in London along with different other
countries. Further, this process is only possible when mentioned organization do a
specific market research.
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 Situational analysis- Organization have to conduct a situational analysis in order to see
their effectiveness and performance. Further, Made.com can conduct SWOT, PESTEL,
Porter Five Force model for seeing the stability and competence as compared with their
other competitors. Further, this shows that cited company have to determine the market
demand, customer's taste and the strength and weakness of their major competitor in the
furniture industry (Luther, 2011). After analyzing all the necessary factors, Made.com
can compare their own position in the market place for getting competitive advantage.
 Internet marketing and social media- As technology is changing rapidly, cited firm need
to promote their furniture and other products with the help of different internet tools in
order to increase more of their productivity and efficiency.
1.2 Evaluating organization capability for planning future activities
A core competency for Made.com resulting from a specific set of skills or production
techniques that generally used to deliver additional value to the customer so that his needs and
wants get fully satisfied. Further, these core competencies are related with the mentioned
company product portfolio with the help of their core furniture products. Cited firm in order to
get a competitive advantage shall focus on conceptual skills, technical skills along with the
business skills. Organization capability is treated as an ability of organization which is generally
expressed in the form of human resource, physical and material resources, financial resource as
well as different intellectual resources in order to achieve organization goals and objectives.
Made.com started in 2010 and slowly and steadily organization able to win hearts of thousands
of consumers and the strength of employee's generally raised to 160 who are spanning across
different offices of the corporate (Stephenson, 2005). Further, cited furniture company is
focusing on a developed marketing plan which shows clearly stated objectives for coming time
period. Moreover, Made.com is also flourishing because of their major concentration on specific
country only. In this context, cited company focusing majorly on England and Ireland market in
order to increase more of their furniture sale and productivity.
Further, employees giving their best of the response in order to increase organization
revenue along with the goodwill of the firm. Further, design, architecture of furniture is s classy
that individual will seek to purchase just in a single look. Moreover, Made.com having different
range of their furniture products which are generally classified into different segments which
satisfies the customers needs till a great extent (Donnelly and et.al., 2009). Mentioned
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organization is dealing in Sofa, tables & chairs, king size as well as single bed along with
different bath fittings.
Further, in UK only, organization have a huge number of visionary and entrepreneurs
who believe in cited firms concept. Organization further, implementing different strategies in
order to attract more of the customers to increase more of their sale and profits.
1.3 Techniques for organizational auditing
There are different ways of organizational auditing which Made.com can implement in
order to increase their revenue and profit with developing their furniture Portfolio. Cited
company can conduct SWOT analysis for carrying out their internal analysis of their business
enterprise (Modesto Veludo-de-Oliveira, Akemi Ikeda and Cortez Campomar, 2006). With it,
company will come to know that what are their positive strengths which makes them different
and the weakness which not letting them to grow further. Further, cited venture can conduct a
PESTLE analysis for scanning out the external environment as it will help Made.com to increase
their productivity throughout the globe. Further, this will also help the mentioned furniture
company to know the factors which are affecting their sale and turnover. Further, for better
productivity and revenue Made.com can also focus on implementing the value chain method to
develop a valuable product.
Porter’s Five Forces Analysis for Made.com
 Threat of new entrance in this industry is quite significant as government do not imposes
any type of legal or regulatory barriers.
 Bargaining power of they buyer is high in this industry as Made.com is generally price
sensitive and organization consider the emotional factors of individuals. Further,
organization also have a large variety of furniture which they can buy.
 Bargaining power of suppliers is moderate as cited firm have different suppliers of raw
material within UK and further with the lack of differentiation between the products so
delivered increases the Made.com bargaining power.
 Threat of substitute products- This threat is also moderate as there are competitors but
they do not have the quality which Made.com produces in their furniture varieties.
 Rivalry among existing firms- This threat is high as mentioned organization getting tough
competition from their major competitors like IKEA in the same industry.
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1.4 Carrying out organizational auditing and analyzing external factors
Macro environment analysis assists Made.com to scan the environment for setting up
their new policies as per the standards and regulations of UK government (Sadjadi, S. J.,
Yazdian and Shahanaghi, 2012). Further, macro environmental analysis for cited firm is
discussed below by considering the PESTLE analysis: Political: Political factor for UK furniture industry is fine and much suitable as there are
no such challenges from the political side in UK. This generally can affect the import of
raw material and export of furniture from other countries. This is developing as a major
drawback for Made.com. Economic: Consumers will not be able to make a bulk purchase because of credit
crunches and also of the deterioration of housing market for Made.com. Inflation rate is
the other factor which will affect the business and consumers experience. Social: Social factors like changes in the different demographics variable of different
countries will influence the decisions which are made by business venture. Furthermore,
Made.com might faces problems because of customer’s perception, different lifestyles,
income level of individuals, etc (Fava Neves, 2007). Technological: With innovation and upgradation in technology taking place daily. Cited
firm can focus on different technological factors in order to improve the sale and
productivity of their furniture products. Organization can focus on social media channels
to increase more of the sale. Legal: Mentioned company should consider employees protection, health and safety at
work will demand major proximity of the business objectives. Further, Made.com should
work by following the Sale of goods act, 1979 in order to sale quality of furniture with no
faults. Environmental: Cited company should focus on factors like ethical business operations
which demonstrates the accountability towards the carbon-emission, community
development and suppliers conduct are considered as an important factor for the business
venture (Vaaland, Heide and Grønhaug, 2008).
Micro environmental analysis for Made.com is done with the help of SWOT:
Strength:
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Organization has different types of furniture products which satisfies the needs of
consumers in an effectual manner. Further, organization having a developed image in the
London as well as whole in UK.
Weakness:
Highly competitive market is bringing up the weakness for Made.com in extending their
business venture. Further, ineffective communication is also impacting the performance and
revenue for the business (Sadjadi, Oroujee and Aryanezhad, 2005).
Opportunities: Organization having opportunity of producing low-priced products which can be
quite sensitive towards the business venture. Further, doing business with physical outlets can
tend to bring more of the sale.
Threats: Global recession and the behavior of suppliers is particularly threatening the
performance of Made.com. Further, consumers having low disposable income which forcing
them to purchase the low price furniture as compared with the standard ones produced by the
cited firms.
Opportunities and threats are also considered as a part of macro environment analysis as
cited firm have to scan identify the opportunity and threats which are existing in the
environment.
2.1 Barriers to marketing planning
Cited firm has to overcome the marketing planning barriers in effectual manner and they
need to prepare their plans and policies which do not impact the business environment (Cooper,
2000). Some barriers of marketing plan has been studied below: Ineffectual leadership skills- Leaders are the one who generally bridges the gap between
employers and employees. Further, leaders who do not have efficiency to approach their
employees are not been able to collect valuable ideas which can generally decline the
growth of Made.com. Organizational culture- Organizational culture can affect the operation of organization as
employees who are working in Made.com are from different geographical areas and they
have their own language to communicate (Zwijze-Koning and De Jong, 2005). Moreover,
at times it acts as an obstacle because it leads to miscommunication.
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 Ethical issues- Hindrance arises within cited firm when some employee's comes in favor
and some against while discussing a new business plan. Further, when plan is
implemented those who are in favor gets more priority and benefits as they are the one
who have suggested this. This will lead to increase in salary and other benefits which
accidentally act as a barrier within mentioned company.
2.2 Solutions for overcoming the barriers
Made.com can overcome the barriers which are explained above by conducting a proper
market analysis of their furniture products which will help them to in better understanding of
segmentation, targeting and positioning strategy. Moreover, Further, for having a proper
communication skills, mentioned company can conduct a training and development session in
order to improve their communication both with employees and through online with their
customers and suppliers (Li and Li, 2009). Further, mentioned company can focus on their major
functions like finance, marketing and sales which will help the furniture company to increase
more of their sale and revenue.
Further, for overcoming the problems in the furniture organization, Made.com can
implement some above discussed points in order to increase sale of their furniture and also can
give stiff competition to organization like IKEA. Moreover, by implementing effective
leadership skills, employees will keen to work with best of their dedication and also with better
concentration for achieving organization goals and objectives.
Moreover, on the other side IKEA faces almost the same barriers but being a reputed
retailer of furniture in UK, they implement efficient and effective techniques to overcome them.
IKEA focusing on examining the cultural and market situation as per the customers needs and
requirements. Cited firm also having effective leaders who generally guides the employees and
divide each and every task as per the employee's capacity so that they can give best in their part.
Further, mentioned company attracts customers through their attractively designed website
which diverts the mind of the customers towards it (Morgan, Vorhies and Mason, 2009). For
Made.com, IKEA is standing as a major competitor. Further, mentioned company have to
overcome the barriers like ethical issues, culture and leadership style for improving their
goodwill and brand image. Efficient leaders will take the firm to the top and organization will
generate great revenue in coming time period.
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TASK 2
3.1 Marketing plan for a new service
Impressive planning is an important aspect of marketing plan because it assures that a
mentioned company has realizes its marketing goals for the current and future time period.
Representative of Made.com has a new service plan as they are seeking to expand their furniturel
business in Indian market. In order to set this, approx. £500,000 investment is required from
Dragons and to catch the attention of the boardroom giants, cited firm having the marketing plan
which is discussed below: Targeting Indian market- Cited furniture company will open their store at a convenient
place where they will be centralizing a large people and firm will become a center of
attraction (Proctor, 2014). Moreover, enterprise has a wide range of furniture products in
different categories which will fulfill the needs and demands of large customer base. Marketing strategy- Mentioned company is focusing on selling best of the furniture
products to the consumers at an affordable price so that firm able to win the hearts of the
customers and make therm loyal customers of the firm. The main motive of opening a
franchisee in India is country have vast population and company wants to give
individuals a brand new experience as they do not have to go out to buy their favorite
furniture as company is making everything online at tip of the customers. The furniture
which is selected by the customer will be delivered free of charge within 2 days from the
date of ordering the item. This assurance is taken by the Chief Executive of Made.com.
 Aggressive promotion- Cited firm will focus on doing aggressive promotion in order to
attract new customers for the Indian market as company will promote their well existed
products through advertisement on TV, national newspaper of the country and also with
the help of social media channels (Jüttner, Christopher and Baker, 2007).
Further, with the help of Ansoff Matrix it is evident that Made.com can expand their
designing furniture to other countries as it will help the cited firm to increase their market share
and company will also able to strengthen their brand image. Further, with the help of it, cited
firm is also able to get a competitive advantage over their major competitiors.
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3.2 Marketing planning essential in strategic planning process
Marketing planning is treated as a written document that shows necessary details in order
to achieve one or more marketing goals. This generally covers a period for one to five years and
cited firm have to implement necessary strategies to achieve their objectives. On the contrary
side, strategic planning process is adopted by Made.com in order to achieve the specific goals
and objectives with the help of organization multi skilled and talented employees.
Furthermore, the strategic planning for the cited firm will focus on the strength and
opportunities which will help them in preparing well defined tactics and goals. Further, by
scanning the Indian market, company will be able to identify all the policies and regulations
which are implemented by the Indian government and they will easily start their business in
order to achieve their goals and objectives (Constantinides, 2006). Further, marketing planning
plays a crucial role for strategic planning because it is generally priority for organization to
understand the need of customers and also protect the environment by handy and effective
activities.
The objective of a strategic planning process is to set way for organization and create its
shape and structure so that the furniture which Made.com is producing helps them to achieve
their corporate objectives. On contrary, marketing planning has a key role to play for strategic
planning because it is the job of every department whether it is IT or manufacturer within
mentioned company to understand and manage the links between the business and the
environment.
3.3 Examining techniques for new product development
Made.com in order to expand their business need to effectively discuss the strategies
which they planning to implant. Organization can focus on following steps in order to attract the
Dragons mind:
Activity Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4
Implementing Idea
Identifying resources
Setting up business
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Developing Product
Table 1: GANTT CHART
Product Development Schedule
Made.com in order to gain the attraction of Dragons have explained their product
development concept. Under this, cited firm will first designs the layout of their projections and
establishment as they will tap the metropolitan cities of the country like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata
and Bangalore and will try to capture the rest major cities in coming half a decade or soo.
Further, cited firm will take an initiative to run selected furniture products at an initial level as
this will give an idea that whether customers are loving their designs and furniture or not.
Further, the factory which they will be setting for manufacturing person need to be closer to the
city (Blater, 2006). It is because if it is far away then carriage cost will increase and organization
will not be able to earn that much of the revenue.
Furthermore, after the initiation, practical will be conducted by having a dummy example
o couriering the services. If Made.com got succeed then they will start having full development
of the business. Moreover, organization in the starting period will sell only those furniture
products which are customers like and after that they ill fully grow their market.
3.4 Recommendations for pricing distribution and communication mix
For setting up business in metropolitan cities, organization main aim will be to attract the
customers towards the new furniture product. For the pricing, Made.com will focus on following
tactics: Penetration valuation strategy- Cited firm can implement this strategy where cost of the
furniture products will be down and company will tend to have the low profit margin for
initial days (Harleigh, 2015). Further, this will be the technique which organization will
be implementing for improving the sale in the initial days.
 Skimming evaluation policy- This pricing policy will help Made.com to retrieve all the
expenses which is incurred in setting up the business in Indian metropolitan cities.
Organization generally will not implement this as in this, the price of the products is
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relatively high and organization will not be able to maintain and increase the loyal
customer base.
Further, distribution policy will have its own significance as Made.com is at initial stage
in India. In context to this, cited firm will only focus on intense distribution policy as for the
starting period consumers will get the product at the physical outlet of the firm only. Further, in
coming years they can have the distributors and other intermediaries for increasing more of the
sale (Sadjadi, S. J., Yazdian and Shahanaghi, 2012).
For communicating product to their targeted customers, cited firm can apply various
communication policies like: Advertisement- Made.com has to advertise their new establishment in the national
newspaper along with promoting their online website as well.
 Social media- Argos can promote their new venture in India with the help of social media
as corporate have its official Facebook page which has many likes from throughout the
globe.
3.5 Factors affecting implementation of marketing plan
Marketing plan for Made.com may get affected by the external forces and customers
perception whether to choose that particular product or not. It constitutes of:
 Demographic factor- Customers belong from different demographical areas and these
people have their own outlook to choose that product or not.
 Size and growth of market- Company can only extend their product if they are financially
sound and have a better market goodwill.
 Customers Composition- This affects because in some part of UK, people do not have a
better education level, purchasing frequency, income level etc. affects the demand among
their large audience.
4.1 Ethical issues which affects marketing activities
Ethical issues are those impacts the marketing activities for cited company. Further, if
Made.com commits false advertisement relating to their furniture products and home delivery
services, then they will not be able to attract customers towards their products. Negative
advertisement might also affect their sales, productivity and profits for the cited company
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(Luther, 2011). This highlights the disadvantage of the Argos services and customer will see the
bad effect of it.
However, IKEA is also a popular brand for retail furniture in the UK and with increase in
complexity and trust of customers, cited firm is not operating any false activities in their
organization as they know that it will impact their brand image upto a great extent. Further, there
are different incidents and cases of commercial frauds are pending in UK Courts and Made.com
have to take care of it.
4.2 Organization responding to ethical issues
For solving all these ethical issues in the organization, Made.com have to take some
necessary measure. Mentioned company having a dominating position in UK and Ireland but
now it is the time for them to explore their business globally. Home delivery of the product need
to be specific and also should be delivered at particular time. Being a traditional culture in
India, organization should not advertise product which affects the customer's lifestyle or their
mentality (Zwijze-Koning and De Jong, 2005). Further, pure handicraft product will be more
demanded by individuals as it is liked the most in Hindu tradition. Further, company have to
classify their products as per different segmentation.
4.3 Consumers ethics affecting marketing planning
Customers are considered as the king of market place and they are generally the
backbone of business enterprises. Made.com is centralizing on delivering products to customer's
home as they do not need to travel a single step and they can order it by online at any time during
the day. Customers must not take this service as an advantage and should not play any pranks
with service provider
Moreover, consumers have to understand these points and do not take any illegal
advantage of facilities provided by Made.com. Consumer will be stuck if organizations and
government started taking strict actions against these irrelevant people (Jüttner, Christopher and
Baker, 2007). This evident that the consumers are the only one who dominates the market and
affect the functioning of the firm.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is clearly inferred that Made.com is a dominant leader of retail
market in UK and Ireland and now trying to mark its presence in other countries as well. Further
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this report shows that firm have a large furniture varieties and these are differentiated in different
categories which satisfies individuals needs. Further, this report showcase different ethical
practices opted by cited firm in order to increase their customer base and market base without
affecting the environment.
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REFERENCES
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Beamish, K. and Ashford, R., 2007. Marketing Planning. Routledge.
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Sadjadi, S. J., Yazdian, S. A. and Shahanaghi, K., 2012. Optimal pricing, lot-sizing and
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Online
Blater, A., 2006. Ethical Issues In Contemporary Culture. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.blatner.com/adam/psyntbk/ethicissues.htm>. [Accessed on 9th September
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