Marketing Process and Planning Analysis: Morrisons Case Study

This report offers a comprehensive analysis of Morrisons' marketing strategies, focusing on the marketing process and planning within the context of a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Business Management. The report examines the definition of marketing in the 21st century, the role of marketing functions, and their interaction with other departments within Morrisons. It delves into the extended marketing mix, including people, process, and physical evidence, and evaluates how the marketing mix contributes to the company's overall business objectives. The analysis includes discussions on product, price, place, and promotion strategies, along with recommendations for improvement. The report concludes with an overview of Morrisons' current market position and the need for strategic adjustments to address financial challenges and maintain market share. The report is a valuable resource for students, as Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments.

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:
1

Table of Content
Part 1: Briefing Paper
1.0 Introduction 3
2.0 An explanation of the concept/definition of marketing in the 21st century
3
3.0 Description of the role of marketing function with examples from the
chosen organisation 3
4.0 An analysis of how the marketing function works and interacts with other
departments 5
5.0 An explanation of the extended marketing mix and examples from selected
supermarket 5
2.0 An evaluation of how the marketing mix adopted by the selected
business (or business unit) contributes to the success of the organisation in
meeting their overall business objectives 6
3.0 Recommendations 8
9.0 Conclusions 8
References
2

1.0 Introduction
Marketing refers to the process of making the products and services available in the
market. The company selected in this file is Morrisons, which is UK based supermarket chain
which was established in 1899 and has been carrying out it's business for almost 120+ years.
In the part 1 of this task, there have been presented the concept and definition of the
marketing and along with these, there have been described the role of marketing function in
relation with Morrisons and how the marketing functions work and interact with the other
departments. On the other hand, in the part 2 of this task, there have been discussed with
reference to luxurious range of own brand food products. the linkage of strategic marketing
plan with overall organisational mission, corporate strategy and objectives, situational
analysis, competitor analysis, tactical actions to be taken and its marketing strategy and the
monitoring of the actions opted.
2.0 An explanation of the concept/definition of marketing in
the 21st century
The term marketing depicts the several functions and processes which create the value
for targeted customers to fulfil their needs. It is an activity that creates and maintain the
relationships among those who are willing and able to buy and sell goods, services and even
ideas. Basically marketing means to sell the product to the proposed consumers by
communicating the merits about the given products and services. The types of marketing are
product marketing, place marketing, augmented marketing, organisational marketing, de-
marketing etc.
3.0 Description of the role of marketing function with
examples from the chosen organisation
Marketing functions mean that how the marketing work to make the product and
service available to consumers. Marketing functions include distribution, financing, pricing,
promotion, market research, management of goods and services and selling.
Distribution
Distribution refers to the methods of delivery through which the company tries to
make the goods and services available to the proposed customers. Having a product is fair but
3

if the company does not have any distribution channel then it will resist the company to reach
its goals. Morrisons has come into agreement with Ocado to attain license of using its in store
picking technologies and logistic services. Through this Morrisons has launched its own
online delivery service through Ocado's Dordon distribution centre.
Financing
Financing is related to monetary terms and is very crucial function of marketing. It
refers to find and manage finances, through investments, loans or self owned capital, for
advertising the goods and services.
Pricing
Pricing means the value to be paid by the customer for the products and services.
Morrisons charges almost same prices irrespective of its marketplace whether be it online or
in store. Morrisons uses low prices strategy and also the competitive pricing strategy.
Promotion
Promotion means communication of merits of Products and services to the willing
consumers. Morrisons uses promotional pricing like it offers its customers coupons and
vouchers to promote its name and products.
Market research
Market research means gathering information about the targeted consumers as to what
kind of the products, the people are looking for? Morrisons target only the young families to
serve their services.
Management of goods and services
Once the target market has been determined and the price has been set, then the focus
should be on managing products and services. Since Morrisons deals in grocery and foods,
thus it serve its products through its stores and online mode as well.
Selling
Selling is very crucial function of the company, it is the activity for which marketing
is done. Morrisons sells the grocery and food at a very competitive price across the UK
through the e-commerce and traditional commerce mode.
4

4.0 An analysis of how the marketing function works and
interacts with other departments
Apart from marketing there are many departments in the organisation such as human
resource, supply chain, finance etc. and for marketing every other department plays a very
crucial role. For a proper conduct of marketing organisation needs to recruit the personnels
with good communication skills who can manage to sell the product easily. After marketing
of the product, selling them can be difficult task for the organisation, so for the distribution a
flawless supply chain is important which can enhance smooth delivery. Finance department is
also a relevant department in the organisation for marketing. This department focuses on how
to manage finances for the marketing, this can be done through raising fund for marketing
through investment or debts. Thus it can be said that marketing in conjunction with other
departments may gain an edge which neither might be gained on its own.
5.0 An explanation of the extended marketing mix and
examples from selected supermarket
The extended marketing mix includes 3Ps which means people, process and physical
evidence. Usually, all the organisations use a combination of 4Ps in some form, however the
4Ps of marketing mix are not exhaustive. It is important to discuss a few more elements, that
too are part of an organizational marketing mix strategy (El-Amir and Hamdy, 2019). This
extended marketing mix can be explained with reference to Morrisons as follows:
People :
People includes all personnels who play a part in delivery of the product and service
and through their ability they can influence the buyer's perception about the products and
services they offer. Morrisons usually concentrate on the employees and the customers and
try to satisfy them (Fill and Turnbull, 2019). The company hires skilled employees who are
capable to manage the several issues arising in the company's operational activities. The
people in customer service department are helpful in resolving several issues regarding the
products and services. Personnels in sales team play a very significant role to increase the
sales volume of the company.
5

Process :
Process means the procedures, mechanisms and sequence of activities through which
the products and services are delivered. Morrisons' operational processes are very effective to
make them more productive in the retail industry. The company's focus is on enhancing the
logistic and supply chain management that will make sure that their products will always be
sufficiently available in their outlets across the UK. Morrisons possesses an efficient online
delivery process and the technological infrastructure make the process very effective and
efficient.
Physical evidence :
Physical evidence is the ambiance in which the market offerings are delivered and
where the organisation and customers interact. Morrisons always concentrate on making
attractive packaging to enhance their product's distinctness. They also make investment to
improve the quality of the packaging. Their websites are customer-friendly, which are
beneficial to enable the consumers to see the product packaging's high quality images from
several sides (Kerguignas, 2020).
2.0 An evaluation of how the marketing mix adopted by
the selected business (or business unit) contributes to the
success of the organisation in meeting their overall
business objectives
To understand the marketing strategy, it is must to understand the understand the
underlying concept like marketing mix. Marketing mix forms a relevant part of overall
competitive marketing strategy that includes 4Ps of marketing mix which stand for product,
price, place and promotion. It is the set of controllable marketing variables that is the blend to
produce the response that firm wants to target market. The marketing mix consists of
everything that the firm can do to influence the demand of its products and services. These
marketing mix can be described as follows:
Product :
Product stands for the combination of products and services that the organisations
offer to the target customers. This strategy is used to manage existing products over time,
6

adding new ones and discarding the non performing products. These decisions can also be
made regarding branding, packaging and other product features such as guarantees and
warranties (Haley, 2018). Morrisons serve more fresh products by maintaining good quality of
their product by facilitating the manufacturing departments so as to ensure that they provide
the best quality products.
Price :
The component 'price' represents the amount that consumer is willing to pay and the
company charges for the product and services served. There are many pricing strategies
available for a market to be chosen for pricing of products such as firm can opt for cost
leadership strategy for some products and product differentiation for the other ones.
Morrisons apply several pricing strategies as per the requirements of the market trends.
Generally they opt for competitive pricing strategy, but for the niche customers they use
premium pricing strategy and for selling bulk amount of products they opt product bundle
pricing (Sharma, 2021). Apart from the above mentioned pricing strategy company also opts
for promotional pricing strategy by offering various coupons and vouchers.
Place :
Place refers to the company's activities that make the product available to target
consumers. It is the marketplace where customers and the organisation interact to negotiate
for a given product and services. Strategies should be opted for the management of channels
through which the ownership of product is transferred from producer to consumer. Morrisons
serves the people through both physical and virtual mode, they have around 500+ outlets
across the UK and apart from their shops they also serve through e-commerce sites
(Tillyaxodjayev, 2020). Morrisons also has a significant distribution channels across the country
to make the delivery effective and efficient, of their products and services.
Promotion :
Promotion stands for the activities, by which the sales personnel communicates the
merits of the products to attract customers. For promotions, there many marketing mix
strategies to be applied, such as personal selling, advertising, publicity and sales promotion.
Personal selling involves face to face interaction of sales personnel with the prospective
customers. Advertising is a non personal, flexible and dynamic promotional way of
promotions that involves newspaper, magazines, hoardings, display boards etc. Publicity is
too non personal form of promotions like advertising however, no payments are made to
7

promote sales. Morrisons has opted for a very effective promotional strategy to attract
customers through rewarding schemes to the customers to boost the sales volume (Weiss and
et.al. 2020). As a promotional strategy they use various social media platforms to increase the
brand awareness and increase the brand value.
3.0 Recommendations
As a recommendation, it can be described that the Morrisons is doing well in recent
time but if it wants to go like the way it is now then company should focus on some parts of
its marketing strategy like it has to change its financing pattern of marketing it would have to
opt for self financing rather raising funds through loan. To promote its products company
issues vouchers and coupons which are up to an extent is good but if this practice goes
beyond the limit then it will lead the company into financial crisis.
9.0 Conclusions
On the basis of above explanation, it can be concluded that Morrisons is a
supermarket chain registered in United Kingdom and it is one of the leading company in the
industry in UK that serve the people with groceries, grooming product chain. Currently
Morrisons is facing financial crisis and as a result it is set to lose its market share, for
recovery the company has to slightly change its current strategy to gain advantage.
8

REFERENCES
El-Amir, H. and Hamdy, M., 2019. Deep learning pipeline: building a deep learning model with
TensorFlow. Apress.
Fill, C. and Turnbull, S., 2019. Marketing communications: touchpoints, sharing and disruption.
Pearson UK.
Haley, B., 2018. Integrating structural tensions into technological innovation systems analysis:
Application to the case of transmission interconnections and renewable electricity in Nova
Scotia, Canada. Research Policy. 47(6). pp.1147-1160.
Sharma, A. P., 2021. Consumers’ purchase behaviour and green marketing: A synthesis, review and
agenda. International Journal of Consumer Studies. 45(6). pp.1217-1238.
Tillyaxodjayev, A. A., 2020. The importance of marketing communications in the development of kind
of sports in Uzbekistan. South Asian Journal of Marketing & Management Research. 10(12).
pp.18-29.
Weiss, M. Y. and et. al. 2020. Design and validation of a cervical laminectomy simulator using 3D
printing and hydrogel phantoms. Operative Neurosurgery. 18(2). pp.202-208.
9

Table of Content
Part 2: Marketing Plan
1.0 How the strategic marketing plan links with the overall organisational
mission, corporate strategy and objectives 12
2.0 Clear and SMART marketing objectives 12
3.0 Marketing research to support the new product line launch 13
4.0 A situational analysis 14-18
4.1 Marketing audit, making use of appropriate analytical tools including
SWOT, Pestle and 5C analysis 14
4.2 A competitor analysis including the market segments 16
4.3 Sub-segments 16
4.4 Articulation of the new product value-proposition in the eyes of the
customer 17
4.5 Development of the marketing strategies applied to the extended marketing
mix 17
4.6 Setting of an overall marketing budget, including allocation of planned
spend 17
4.7 Tactical actions 18
4.8 Identifying appropriate control and monitoring measures to ensure
achievement of objectives including metrics to measure success such as
Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI) and Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
18
5.0 A comprehensive media plan that supports the planned marketing
campaign 19-20
5.1 A media budget 19
5.2 Recommendations and rationale for selected and integrated multi-media
activities within the set budget that meet the marketing objectives 19
10

5.3 Appropriate digital, offline and social media channels for communication
19
5.6 Full justification for a multi-media plan based on quantitative and
qualitative criteria 19
References 21
11

1.0 How the strategic marketing plan links with the overall
organisational mission, corporate strategy and objectives
Organizational Mission :
Basically the mission statement describes the operations of the business and it is
important for the company to understand the mission for flawless operations. If any company
fails to understand the mission statement then it will result in major consequences for the
company (Aljanabi, 2020). If a company is willing to gain an edge over its competitors then its
marketing strategy have to move in line with the company's mission statement.
Corporate Strategy :
Corporate strategy is formulated by the top managers such as chief executive officer,
managing director etc. Such strategies include plans for stability, expansion, diversification,
liquidation etc. Marketing plan can also form part of corporate strategies, marketing is a
function of the company's business as the corporate level describes that what kind of product
and services which are to be sold by the company.
Organizational Objectives :
Objectives are the base of measurement which is time based, close ended and
measurable target that the organisation attempts to achieve which help organisation to
accomplish its goals. Marketing is an integral part of the business that the companies have to
consider while planning for new product launch.
2.0 Clear and SMART marketing objectives
The activity of objectives is a continuous process so as to organisations sustain
themselves in the competitive marketplace. Organisations need to be clear about their
objectives as where they want to reach within the stipulated time frame and what they want.
The structure of the organisations should be designed in the manner in which the resources
are allocated around the objectives to facilitate their achievement (Confetto and et.al. 2020).
Objectives should be SMART, which are discussed as follows:
 Objectives should be specific and visible.
 It should be measurable and manageable.
12