Marketing Process & Planning: The Marketing Concept, Functions and Mix

This report on Marketing Process & Planning for Higher National Diploma in Business Management Unit 2 covers the marketing concept, functions and mix. It provides insights on Tesco's marketing strategies and a comprehensive media plan. The report also includes a situational analysis and SMART marketing objectives.

Higher National Diploma in Business
Management
Unit 2 Marketing Process & Planning
The Marketing Concept, Functions
and Mix (Part 1)
Marketing Planning (Part 2)
Name:
ID:
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Table of Content
Part 1: Briefing Paper
Table of Contents
Introduction ..........................................................................................................................................3
Main Body .............................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................8
References ............................................................................................................................................9
2

Introduction
Marketing is a business term that is related to selling and buying the products and services. It
is the activity of communicating,delivering, identifying and deciding on its price which is
based on customers preferences (Baines, Fill and Rosengren, 2017).Marketing is finding out
the needs and wants of the potential buyers and providing providing goods as well as services
that meet to their expectations. The main objective of marketing and priority of a company is
focusing on to satisfy their customer need and maximizing profits. This project report is
based on Tesco which is a British multinational groceries, headquartered in Welwyn Garden
City, UK. It is founded by Jack Cohen. It is the third largest retailer in the world measured by
gross revenue. This report covers the concept of marketing,role of marketing, marketing
startegies and marketing mix of the organization and media budget. At last it covers the
multi-media plan based on quantitative and qualitative criteria.
Main Body
Marketing definition
Marketing in the 21st century the arrival of internet transformed the concept of marketing
focuses on adding value to customers by entertaining and educating them through digital
platforms. Before 21st century, organizations had no options to advertise their business , they
only had options such as televisions,newspapers and radio to reach their customers. But
marketing in the 21st century focuses to promote the businesses into inbound marketing to
outbound marketing. Inbound marketing refers to two way communication between the
customers and the organizations which involves digital channels ,email,search engines and
social media platforms to promote and advertising their products and services. (Boshnakova
and Goldblatt, 2017).Email marketing is widely used tool for persuading customers to make
purchases by sending them individualized messages. Social media has become a platform
where people share their purchase experiences and opinions such as Instagram .
Organizations uses social networking platforms including Facebook , twitter, LinkedIn and
Instagram to promote their product and services which is helpful them to reach target
audiences. Content marketing in the 21st century helps to create brand identity and visibility
persuading the buyers in their decision marketing. Strong brands are very important for
business success but branding is not only about the logo ,colour and fonts it can give
direction and clarity to the business which helps to increase the value as well as employee
engagement.
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Marketing function
Tesco is a British multinational retailer company headquartered in Welwyn Garden City,UK.
Tesco sells a wide variety of products and services including clothing,food items, stationary
and electronics etc. The role of marketing function at Tesco has come up with a marketing
technique where they produce different quality products at different price so that a wider
range of customers can shop there. The company has able to create a strong brand image
which is helpful in its promotional activities. Tesco relied heavily on offline as well as online
promotion such as newspapers, social networking platform,television to reach its potential
buyers(Sun, Price and Ding, 2019). It also uses other forms for advertising to promote its
good and services. For example- buy one get one free offers on some of its products online as
well as in their stores. They often provide discounts and loyalty card as well which acquire
lot of customers and they turn their loyalty towards the brand. Tesco has various networks
that brings profit to the company such as online finance services,telecommunication , grocery
and providing goods to consumers. As the company has a very good competition in the
marketplace,it has micro and macro environmental factors which impact on the company's
operations either directly or indirectly. Apart from UK The company also extend their
business in other countries as well to increase sales and growth opportunities. The main
marketing function at Tesco is to meet their customer's need and preferences in order to keep
them content and happy. The role of marketing function is coordinating and producing
materials that represent the business. Marketers use mass communication tools such as
advertising,sales and promotion etc.
Marketing function and other departments
The marketing function works and relate to other departments such as marketing and sales
together closely in a business. Marketing ensures that the sales department are selling
products that meet the need and preferences of customers. The functional areas in any
business can't work alone,they interact with other departments also and have communications
with them. For example the finance department checks the invoices of the suppliers before
they are making payments to ensure that there are no mistakes .The Human Resource
department is responsible for hiring employees ,training the staff etc. The company also
ensures that the customer service and sales staff must be able to provide good customer
service to Tesco customers.
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Human Resources-
Human Resources Department of Tesco provides training to the new employees and prepare
them for deliver excellent customer services in Tesco. It is important to the HR department to
train the employees because if they don't provide them appropriate training ,the employees
may not be able to deal and meet customers expectations( Bratton,et.al., 2021). This situation
can lead to Tesco losing their customers. If the HR give training to employees in new ways
and technology then employees will be able to deal with customers needs and satisfaction and
Tesco will be achieve more growth opportunities of success.
Finance-
The finance function relates to each other department in Tesco. Human resource is link to the
finance department as it is responsible for payroll of the staff. They decide whether the
employee get bonuses or not,then they tell the finance how much to pay each employee. The
main function of Finance department is to record all money which are generated from sales.
They send out invoices to the customers after knowing the deliveries are ready to go or
dispatched. Banks are also contacted to the finance function in case of facing any issues
related to loan facilities and bank accounts.
Customer Service-
The customer service is excellent in Tesco, this leads to attract customers towards Tesco to
buy more products and become loyal customers. The sales service and customers service are
link to each other in Tesco because sales staff is able to respond the queries and question
customers have , if they don't work together then customer think that the staff is not well
trained and they prefer to go other supermarket. This is a huge loss to Tesco as it lose their lot
of customers. If the delivery service and customers service is helpful for customers then
customers choose to shopping in Tesco which has make positive impacts on Tesco
Company.
marketing mix and examples from selected supermarket
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Marketing-mix is a framework of actions used by a company to achieve marketing goals and
to promoting brand , products and services in the marketplace. It helps in evaluating the
needs of the customer as well as the company in earning higher profits & increasing sale.
The marketing mix strategy of Tesco is mention below:
 Product-
Tesco believes in the eco-friendly goods and products that's why they work hard for
achieving. They have the best quality of food, Clothes and toys etc. When it comes to
customers choices the company provides huge range of variety of products and their brand
that makes the customer satisfaction with their services. Their product packaging method is
excellent and innovative(Solimun and Fernandes, 2018). They uses sustainable methods for
manufacturing the products and reusable materials for done the best packaging of products.
For example-Tesco chopped garlic,Schwartz mixed herbs etc.
 Price-
Tesco is using cost leadership pricing strategy because the company provides good product
and services in low price. The company has its own unique brand, they have variety of
clothes, electronic items,food,toys and books etc. to reduce prices Tesco continuously work
with its suppliers to make supply chain better. Their products are sustainable and of high
quality so the company has kept competitive pricing policy that is in between medium to
low.
 Place-
Tesco operates 2,318 stores stores in 12 countries .It uses two main distribution channel
available to reach out to customers including online or offline stores. The online business of
the company is called Tesco direct while it has approx 7000 offline stores around the world.
A better place can be major attraction for buyers and helpful for company to promote
products. Tesco has been spread international places, it is an international brand which
operates more than twelve countries. Tesco must ensures its place and their sustainability.
 Promotion-
The low pricing strategy makes Tesco different from other super chain markets. The
company has able to create a strong brand image which is helpful in its promotional
activities. Tesco relied heavily on offline as well as online promotion such as newspapers,
social networking platform,television to reach its potential buyers. It also uses other forms for
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advertising to promote its good and services. They just focusing on low pricing strategy. For
example- buy one get one free offers on some of its products online as well as in their stores.
They often provide discounts and loyalty card which acquires lot of customers and they turn
their loyalty towards the brand (Lim,2021).
An evaluation of how the marketing mix adopted by the selected business
Tesco adopted the marketing mix strategies because it helps in achieving their overall
business objectives such as to maximise sales to increase their profits(Yus,2019). It helps to
learn when and how to produce product or services to customers. Tesco's aim is to providing
excellent quality of goods and services in lowest price. The other objective is to introducing
healthy eating products to customers that will attracts those customers who are interested in
buying healthy eating products.Marketing mix provides a roadmap to the company which
helps the business in marketing the right product , to the right people, at the right time and
place. Tesco also able to develop large internet shopping website and fulfil their aim by
providing products and services online to customers (Shokrani et.al., 2019).Through market
research Tesco can get to know about targeted customers needs and wants which help them
to satisfy their needs.
Recommendations
It is recommended to the manager and management team of Tesco that they should adopt
more digital channels and keep an eye on trends and the competitions. It is desirable to the
company to improve marketing strategies it helps in their competitive advantage. They can
enhance their product portfolio to add some innovation and changes , it can be major
attraction for new generation customers. Creating new product lines also help to engaged
Tesco in broad customer reach. Tesco should slow down its expansion plans and focuses on
refitting the existing stores.
Conclusion
From the above project report it has been concluded that the marketing and marketing mix
strategy of business plays very important role in the development of the organisation. This
report includes the definition of marketing in 21st century and the marketing mix strategies in
relevant to Tesco. The marketing function of Tesco coordinates with other department such
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as HR and marketing working together to create strong brand of the organization. Then it
consists internal and external stakeholder of the Tesco which are
customers,employees,finance department and HR which provides training to the new
employees and prepare them for deliver excellent customer services in Tesco.
References
Baines, Fill and Rosengren, 2017. Marketing. Oxford University Press.
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Boshnakova and Goldblatt, 2017. The 21st century meeting and event Technologies:
Powerful tools for better planning, marketing, and evaluation. CRC Press.
Bratton,et.al., 2021. Human resource management. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Lim , 2021. A marketing mix typology for integrated care: The 10 Ps. Journal of Strategic
Marketing, 29(5), pp.453-469.
Shokrani,et.al., 2019. A comparison of statistical and decision-making techniques in
marketing mix evaluation. Journal of Management Development.
Solimun and Fernandes, 2018. The mediation effect of customer satisfaction in the
relationship between service quality, service orientation, and marketing mix strategy to
customer loyalty. Journal of Management Development.
Sun, Price and Ding,2019. The longitudinal effects of internationalization on firm
performance: The moderating role of marketing capability. Journal of Business Research, 95,
pp.326-337.
Yus, 2019. Tesco Plc likely to exit Asia business, focus on home country, EU. New Straits
Times, pp.1-1.
Table of Content
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Part 2: Marketing Plan
Table of Contents
Introduction ..........................................................................................................................................3
Main Body .............................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................7
References ............................................................................................................................................9
Main body............................................................................................................................................11
A situational analysis......................................................................................................................12
comprehensive media plan .................................................................................................................16
References ..........................................................................................................................................18
Main body
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Strategic marketing plan
To clearly define the marketing objectives of the business that align with the corporate
mission and vision of the organization. The marketing plan usually assists in the growth of
the business by stating appropriate marketing strategies, such as plans for increasing the
customer base (Chernev, 2020).The strategic market plan helps Tesco to increase its market
share,revenue& profit and brand awareness. It also helps the organization when and how to
produce product or services to customers , Tesco's aim is to make shopping cheaper by
decreasing their prices and provide best quality of goods and services. The marketing plan
links with its objective that introducing healthy eating products to customers which attracts
more customers towards Tesco that will interested in buying health eating products. The
marketing objectives indicate where the organization wishes to be at any specific period in
the future.
SMART marketing objectives
Smart and clear Marketing objectives are easy,specific ,not too ambitious or possible to
achieve which also helps the business to move forward. These are often called smart goals
that are specific,measurable, achievable,relevant and time-bound.
Specific- In order to achieve the goals it is essential to analyze that it is clear and and specific
including with realistic deadlines and numbers.
Measurable- Smart goal must have the reliable criteria for measuring progress. Because it is
important to measure the progress in order to know that the progress is on the track or not.
Achievable- The Smart Objectives should be attainable or achievable and it is important to
check up that team has enough resources or capabilities to-work for it or achieve the goals.
Relevant- Realistic are those in which the chances of achieve the goal is high So the
objectives to achieve the goal must be realistic and sustainable in order to achieve it.
Time-bound- It may allow the organization,team or individual to see whether the team is
working according to the plan to hitting the goal or not ,the given deadlines are very helpful
to achieve the goals on time.
Marketing research
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Market research is crucial for the company in order to know the target market,competitors,
get opinions and feedback from the potential customers about their need and preference in the
product and services. During the new product line launch, the Company should conduct
research and development ,by doing this activity company will remain competitive in the
market place (Carlson, 2018). Marketing research links competitors to consumers to solve
marketing challenges, supplying marketing information and help in decision making process.
Therefore, the marketing research is essential to do before launching the new product line for
a better understanding of the target market.
A situational analysis
Marketing audit
The company should market audit by using appropriate analytical tools such as Swot
analysis,pestle analysis and 5c analysis. The Swot analysis is the framework of internal and
external factors of the organization that influences the company's operations in either
negative or positive way. Swot analysis of Tesco defines as the strengths,
weaknesses,opportunities and threats which are mention below-
Strengths- Tesco serves their customers in a unique way that it becomes the champion for
their customers.
Weakness-During pandemic Tesco faces issues in supply chain distribution and labour
shortage.
Opportunities-Using machine learning and AI is a game changer for Tesco to predict and
deliver street level requirement.
Threats-Tesco's one of the major threat is the horse meat scandal in 2013 , it was founded
that the fault occurs in their supply chain.
Whereas the pestle analysis describes a framework of macro-environmental factors used to
gain a macro picture of an industry environment. It is also used in the environmental scanning
component of strategic management(Trott,2017).Pestle analysis defines as the external
factors that influences the organization including
political,economical,social,technological,legal,environmental factors these factors have no
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control over organization. The 5 c analysis which refers to analyse the environment in which
the company operates including analyse the company customers, consider
competitors ,review collaborators and analyse climate.
A competitor analysis
A competitor analysis is the process of identifying the competitors in the industry and their
different market strategies. The porter five forces model helps to analysis the marketing
system and its operations. The threats of new entrants occurs when a new company begins
selling the same kind of products in existing company. Tesco can tackle the threats of new
entrants by bring the innovative and different products and services in the industry. The
threats of substitutes is the availability when the one company are forced to compete with
other which produce services and products(PANDEY, 2017). Bargaining power of suppliers:
The company has broad customer reach and large purchasing volumes ,if the supplier is not
able to fulfil its request than Tesco is confident enough to switch to other one . The
bargaining power of buyers in Tesco is assumed to low because it already provides goods and
services at cheaper cost which acquires customers. At last the in case of competitive rivalry,
although Tesco is strong market leader and sometimes it also faces challenges but able to set
their terms accordingly. Sainsbury is one of the main Competitor of Tesco and its aim to
provide high quality of product and services. This competitor use different types of
promotional marketing strategies for such as newspapers,radio and T.V etc.
Sub-segments
Tesco focuses on selling the lowest price of good and services in good quality which is a
advantage for those customers who wants to buy variety of good products in low range. The
company takes care of the need and preferences of its customers in order to achieve growth
and success. It has its own brand and it has able to understand the customers needs and wants
targets the different segments such as demographic,geographic,and psycho graphic etc. The
company makes its own things and focuses on selling cheaper cost of products and services
that what makes Tesco unique from other supermarkets.
Value-proposition in the eyes of the customer
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The new product is chosen in this report is “Luxurious” which is a range of own -brand food
product. It is best place for the people who wants to eat variety of food in superior quality.
The product and services of Luxurious food is moderate as compared to other food brand.
They also give discounts on the first purchase and buy one get two offers,this acquires the
customers attention towards luxurious food.(Kulshreshtha, et.al., 2017) . Customers who are
interested in eating delicious food in various variety, may take the advantage to buy food at
Luxurious food and seize the opportunity. They also provide the extra large grilled
Sandwiches in very less amount which is very delicious and healthy. So company can able to
satisfy the needs and wants of customers and make them happy by providing this service. It
helps the luxurious food to maximize the profit of the company.
Development of the marketing strategies
As technology is increasing day by day and people are more active on social networking
platform. In order to increase the brand awareness and competitive advantage of the
company, it should take advantage of online platforms and target the customers digitally.
Company need the right people to execute the promotion of product and service. The
extended marketing mix is helpful for the company to define their marketing strategy in a
proper way. Digital marketing is one the cheapest platform in order to reach maximum
number of audience at once. By doing this extended marketing mix company will be able to
achieve the company market share and competitive advantage.
Overall marketing budget
The size of the marketing budget is depend on how much money goals and how much the
company have to spend. According to planned marketing annual budget the digital marketing
budget is around $3,000 ,TV ads covers around $15,000 which also includes the promotions
of products and services(Agarwal and Mustafi, 2021) . Research and development team's
budget cross $46,000 .The company must spend costs on the SEO and other social media
campaign. Therefore,it can be illustrated that the overall marketing budget has been set by the
management and financial team of the company and they look into this on daily basis.
Tactical actions
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Benchmark-
Bench marking refers to a tool which is used to measure and improve an organization's
performance, procedures and process continuously. It is based on the comparing town's
performance against the similar another one in order to enhance the knowledge and learning
KPI-
KPI is a key performance indicator which aims to targeted new customers every month and
measure the success of daily basis activities in the business It is measuring system to measure
the company's overall long term performance. KPI ensures the organization to headed in the
right direction and as well as decision making process.
Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI) and Customer Lifetime Value
(CLV)
Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI)-
Return on Marketing Investment is a method to measure the ROMI that a business spend on
marketing. It is measured by calculating total revenue against marketing investment.
Marketing investment is important for the campaign to have some measured metrics,it makes
ROMI effective(Srivastava, 2019) .This tool can be helpful in formulating marketing plan.
Customer lifetime value (CLV)-
Customer lifetime value is the total amount of monetary value of a customer which is
expected to spend in particular business and products during the lifetime. It is an important
matrices because it helps that how much money to invest in acquiring the new customers
and continue the exiting ones.
comprehensive media plan
Media budget
Marketing Channel Budget
Digital platform $15000
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Social media $23789
TV and radio $32,000 and $4,000
Newspapers and magazines $7,000and $2,000
Integrated multi-media activities
From the set budget plan the highest budget outcome is TV and social media marketing
channels .So it is highly recommended to the company that in order to reach their potential
customers and to target customers they should more focus on creating the social media
channels more effective which helps to acquire the new generation attention as well the
existing customers. The company should also not stop to promote its product and services on
the television by news channels or advertisements because some watch TV on their daily
basis this includes news and ads. It will beneficial in gain competitive advantage and
maximizing the company's profit.
Social media channels for communication
The most appropriate channels for communication between digital,offline and social media is
Social media channels because it is the cheapest platform and peoples take more interest in
surfing the internet on daily basis. As 21st century is the era of internet ,people begin to
active on social media such as you tube,Instagram and Linked-in etc. The Best Social media
channel for communication is Instagram the company should deliver their messages to
acquire customers by creating hashtags, stories,feeds and uploading pictures by which
customers may excited to buy product and services from your company. .It is more efficient
way to reach targeted customers and to know about the customers needs and preferences. By
doing this company will easily reach to their potential customers and create brand loyalty.
Full justification for a multi-media plan
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Quantitative research is helps the company to gather data in numerical form and its all about
numbers and use of mathematics analysis. The qualitative criteria helps the Company in its
data information process as well as the number of people who are interested in the service ,at
which level the brand awareness takes place,the number of email subscribers,buying habit of
targeted customers etc(Bryman, 2017). while the qualitative criteria is very different from
qualitative .It involves language,words with pictures and observation. In this research the
numbers and numerical data are not included but it relies on observing,collecting opinions
motivations for developing depth ideas.
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References
Agarwal and Mustafi, 2021. Real-world automotive emissions: Monitoring methodologies, and control
measures. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 137, p.110624.
Bryman, 2017. Quantitative and qualitative research: further reflections on their integration. In Mixing
methods: Qualitative and quantitative research (pp. 57-78).
Carlson, 2018. Setting goals for success: Writing down goals and using SMART goals ups chances of
keeping them. Optometry Times, 10(5), pp.8-10.
Chernev, 2020. The marketing plan handbook. Cerebellum Press.
Kulshreshtha, et.al., 2017. Discriminating market segments using preferential green shift: a conjoint
approach. Foresight.
PANDEY, 2017. Nike Inc-Complete Analysis: SWOT, PESTLE and Marketing strategy. BookRix.
Srivastava, 2019. Social Media: Marketing & Branding. BPB Publications.
Trott, 2017. Innovation management and new product development. Pearson education.
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