Principles & Practice of Marketing- PDF

Principles and Practice of
Marketing

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Application of SOSTAC Model to the marketing strategy.........................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
Effectiveness of current marketing strategy of Burberry Plc, based on SOSTAC Model..........6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
Recommendation for better implementation of marketing plan as per SOSTAC Model............6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFRENCES...................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Marketing refers to the most crucial function of an organisation that mainly use to identify,
anticipate and satisfy the demands of potential customers. In order to promote brand of a
company, it incorporates a number of ideas and practices, so that high competitive advantage can
be gained (Rowley, 2016). The present is going to highlight those practices and principles of
marketing, on which an enterprise runs as well as expand its business, in international market. As
brands of London refers to the great choice of providing iconic fashion brands in the world,
therefore, Burberry Plc is taken in this report for describing its marketing principles to establish
business in clothing market. For this purpose, an evaluation of current strategy of respective
company which is based on SOSTAC model is described. Along with this, recommendation also
being provided for Burberry to use the given application for opening business in new country.
TASK 1
Application of SOSTAC Model to the marketing strategy
In today’s world, organisation whether deal at domestic level or international, cannot
penetrate the market without a proper marketing strategy (Resnick and et. al., 2016). The entire
operations of business that are finance, human resource management, production, sales and
more, can only achieve their set objectives with the support of marketing function. It helps in
sustaining their action plans by providing data about current trend of marketplace, changing
demand of customers, bargaining power of suppliers and more (Slack and Brandon-Jones, 2018).
In clothing market, taste of people changes in regular manner, they always seek to wear most
trendy clothes that suits their fashion style and fit in budget. Therefore, to penetrate such
demands, companies that deal in this sector, concern more on framing marketing strategy into
best model like SOSTAC. It stands for Situational Analysis, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics,
Action and Control, which helps in marketing planning more effectively (Meynhardt, Chandler
and Strathoff, 2016). In this regard, Burberry Group of Plc which is a luxury fashion house of
UK and headquartered in London, use a number of marketing strategies to sustain its brand in
high fashionable market. It manufactures and sales a range of clothing, fragrance as well as
fashion accessories in more than 51 countries like Asian market, Africa, Europe and more
(Kumar, 2017). In order to gain high profitability, this company seeks to launch its business in
other countries such as Thailand, Mongolia, Egypt etc., where with changing lifestyle of people,
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demand of trendy clothes and fashionable accessories increases more. For this purpose, it frames
its business planning by using SOSTAC Model in following way –
Situational Analysis: It is the initial stage of SOSAC model that analysis the current
position of organisation in competitive market. It provides an overview of existence of company
in terms of – strengths, weaknesses, interaction of business and more (Robson, 2017). In this
regard, to analyse current situation of Burberry Plc for framing marketing plan, a brief analysis is
done by evaluating its micro environment in following way –
SWOT Analysis – Strengths: Burberry Plc has a long history of having more than 156 years in retail market,
that entails its competitive image in iconic fashion brand (SWOT Analysis of Burberry –
Burberry SWOT Analysis, 2019). This company always known for its high quality of
product in clothing market, like different unique patterns of trench coat that offer on
amazing price rates. It also has a large global presence where it operates business in near
about 51 nations. To revamp its brand and expand it on large level, marketing division of
Burberry has made smart decisions – like offer trendy fashion clothes with prestigious
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design, serving as an icon of cult status, class, tradition, and luxury (White, 2018). In
order to target audience of Asian, African and other global nations, Burberry interacts
and engages with them via social media or e-marketing strategy. The success of its social
media marketing strategy can be evident from its number of followers on digital channels
like Twitter, You Tube, Facebook pages and more. Weaknesses: Penetrating only Asian, African and European market, considers as major
disadvantage factor for Burberry Plc, because changes in demands of customers of these
area highly affects its profitability margin (Lim, 2016). Another strategy that shows main
weakness of this company is offering products on high rates. Although it produces best
quality of apparels but sells them on such high prices, has made the same reachable to
customers belong from upper class. Therefore, people having low purchasing power
especially young age population that wish more to purchase high trendy fashionable
clothes, cannot afford its high-priced clothes (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2019). Opportunities: Entering into new era of emerging marketplace, where potential
customers can easily be targeted gives opportunity to Burberry Plc (SWOT Analysis of
Burberry – Burberry SWOT Analysis, 2019). Therefore, plan to launch business into
Thailand will help this company to increase its sales and earn high profitability as well
(Zook and Smith, 2016). For this purpose, it also needs to adopt the product
differentiation marketing strategy so that, it can highlight the clothing items from other
organisation that offer same on low price rates and attract minds of potential customers
more easily. Threats: Changing lifestyle of customers, creates threat for Burberry and other companies
that deal in apparel market, by decreasing the product life cycle (Fletcher and et. al.,
2017). Similarly, increasing competition also affect the current marketing strategy (social
media or e-marketing) and unauthorised use of intellectual property damages its brand
image as well.
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Objectives: It is the second section of SOSTAC Model, which entails the main objective of
digital marketing plan (Erkmen and Bozoglu, 2016). In this regard, to launch business in
Thailand market, Burberry Group of Plc is going to use e-marketing strategy again. For
summarising the realistic objectives of marketing plan and entails benefits of same, management
of this company, uses concept of 5S (Sell, Serve, Speak, Save and Sizzle) in following way –
 Sell: By selling products on competitive price rates and create product differentiation,
will lead Burberry in increasing its sales in new emerging marketplace of Thailand.
 Serve: In order to penetrate potential of trendy apparel market, respective needs to serve
clothes and other accessories on amazing offers and discount rates (Robson, 2017).
 Speak: As Burberry Plc already use e-marketing strategy, therefore, it can make online
discussion with new customers to identify their demands and purchasing power. Along
with this, insights of targeted audience can also be collected by creating blogs on social
sites about launching of business in apparel market of Thailand (White, 2018).
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 Save: To save higher production and distribution costs, this company needs to make
effective relationship with local suppliers and distributors (Kumar, 2017).
 Sizzle: For attracting more customers towards its products, it can develop some effective
marketing campaigns like Buy one get two free on occasions, vouchers on purchasing of
some limited amount etc.
Strategy: It refers to third step of marketing plan as per SOSTAC model which concerns on
developing most powerful strategy for a company, to penetrate new market (Meynhardt,
Chandler and Strathoff, 2016). Therefore, to launch business in apparel market of Thailand, it is
better for Burberry Plc to use STP tool as –
 Segmentation: it is essential for marketing department of respective company to
segment its targeting audience as per demographic, psychographic and behavioural
basis (Slack and Brandon-Jones, 2018). Along with this, it also needs to develop a
number of marketing campaigns to attract segmented customers accordingly.
 Target market: As it offers trendy and high fashionable clothes on best quality
therefore, targeting customers belong to upper and upper-middle class having age
group 20 to 45 will help in increasing market sales more effectively.
 Positioning: Burberry also needs to implement price positioning strategy to launch
its business in emerging area of Thailand, so that targeted audience can be attracted
as well as retained for longer period of time (Resnick and et. al., 2016).
Tactics: To promote business in new area of Thailand by Burberry, this fourth stage of
marketing plan focusing on developing strategy as per marketing strategies. Its management
mainly concerns on Product, Promotion and Place while developing tactics as –
 Product: It will introduce a range of trench coats with unique design and pattern, scarves
and other fashion accessories on reasonable rates, to targeted audience (Rowley, 2016).
 Promotion: As Burberry already use e-marketing strategy to promote its business,
but to bring awareness in targeted audience, it will circulate its advertising
campaigns on personal blogs and Facebook pages on continue manner.
 Place: This company will implement both online and offline concept of selling its
product in marketplace of Thailand (Fletcher and et. al., 2017). So, the customers can
easily access its fashionable items by visiting its stores, websites and online
applications.
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Actions: Under this stage of SOSTAC Model, management of Burberry will take following
actions, which are designed for fulfilment of above marketing strategies and objectives –
 Hiring technical expert: It refers to most demanding action plan, where respective
will hire experts in project management team (Erkmen and Bozoglu, 2016). The
main responsibilities of them is to make a proper project plan which includes
financial requirement to launch business, proper utilisation of resources and develop
attractive strategies to attract customers (Zook and Smith, 2016). They will also help
in suggesting ways so that both online and offline stores in Thailand more
efficiently.
 Risk management: Under this action, to get success and achieve high growth in new
market area of Thailand, managers of Burberry Plc will also develop proper risk
management techniques (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2019). It includes taking
intellectual property rights to protect branding strategies from other retailers that
deal in same marketplace, monitor and prevent online sales from cyber attackers etc.
All these processes will aid in taking risk of launching business in new country in
adequate way.
Control: It is the last stage of marketing plan, where to control and implement every
strategy in proper manner, managers of Burberry Plc will monitor performance of same via
taking regular feedbacks of customers about their level of satisfaction, evaluating market share
rate and more (Lim, 2016). This would help in analysing where company stays at marketplace
after launching business, so that if necessary, can make modification.
TASK 2
Effectiveness of current marketing strategy of Burberry Plc, based on SOSTAC Model
To expand business globally into new marketplace, it becomes highly essential for every
company to develop an adequate marketing plan (White, 2018). In this regard, present company
i.e. Burberry Group of Plc that operates already its business in international market, has used
SOSTAC Model for development of digital marketing plan to launch business in Thailand
(Robson, 2017). This model helps in developing more effective strategies for penetrating new
marketplace and achievement of marketing objectives, that also makes able to get high success
and growth in emerging area of Thailand (Kumar, 2017). Through adopting the concept of
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diversifying its product line and offers items on competitive pricing strategy seems to be
effective, in terms of increasing of sales and market share. Along with this, via analysis of micro
environment, this company has gained advantage to analyse its current strengths and weaknesses,
as well as opportunities through which higher competitive factors can be earned (Meynhardt,
Chandler and Strathoff, 2016). In addition to this, usage of e-marketing strategy also gives
advantages to take customer insights for offering products as per their demand. But its
management team has failed to present situational analysis as per external business environment
of Thailand (Slack and Brandon-Jones, 2018). If this company analyse factors present in macro
environment then it will give more advantage to understand the political laws, economical
condition and more. This would help in penetrating marketplace of new country more
effectively, so that success factor of obtaining higher outcomes can be earned.
TASK 3
Recommendation for better implementation of marketing plan as per SOSTAC Model
For usage of SOSTAC Model more effectively in developing marketing plan, it is
recommended to Burberry Plc to use certain tools at some stages. It includes PESTLE Analysis
for analysing macro environment and factors that can affect its business strategies in both
negative and positive manner (Resnick and et. al., 2016). For example – By evaluating political
and legal factor of Thailand, Burberry can frame its business policies and trading strategies in
more effective manner. While evaluation of economical condition, will help in offering products
on best deals so that attention of new targeted audience of Thailand can gain. Furthermore, it also
needs to develop more efficient tactics on the basis of overall 7Ps (People, Product, Place,
Promotion, Process, Price and Physical Evidence) instead of using only product, place and
promotional techniques. This would help in strengthening the marketing strategies and increasing
growth in new market area as well (Rowley, 2016). This company also needs to increase its man
power by hiring workers at workplace, who are talented and experience in same field, so that
better competitive advantage can be gained.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from this assignment that to expand business at global market, it
becomes highly essential for a company to develop effective marketing plans, by adopting
appropriate practices. This would help in promoting, planning, implementing and running
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business successfully at international market. Along with this, by taking a number of approaches
like analysing micro and macro environment, usage of SOSTAC model and more, organisations
can develop strategies to penetrate new market and gain high attention of targeted audience
towards its business, for attainment of high growth and sales.
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REFRENCES
Books and Journals
Fletcher, J. and et. al., 2017. Tourism: Principles and practice. Pearson UK.
Rowley, J., 2016. Information marketing. Routledge.
Resnick, S. M. and et. al., 2016. Marketing in SMEs: a “4Ps” self-branding model. International
Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 22(1), pp.155-174.
Slack, N. and Brandon-Jones, A., 2018. Operations and process management: principles and
practice for strategic impact. Pearson UK.
Meynhardt, T., Chandler, J. D. and Strathoff, P., 2016. Systemic principles of value co-creation:
Synergetics of value and service ecosystems. Journal of Business Research, 69(8),
pp.2981-2989.
Kumar, V., 2017. Integrating theory and practice in marketing.
Robson, C., 2017. Small-scale evaluation: Principles and practice. Sage.
White, L.A., 2018. Social marketing in the Caribbean: Philosophy, programs, projects, and
pedagogy. Social Marketing Quarterly, 24(1), pp.35-44.
Lim, W. M., 2016. A blueprint for sustainability marketing: Defining its conceptual boundaries
for progress. Marketing theory, 16(2), pp.232-249.
Chaffey, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2019. Digital marketing. Pearson UK.
Zook, Z. and Smith, P. R., 2016. Marketing communications: offline and online integration,
engagement and analytics. Kogan Page Publishers.
Erkmen, O. and Bozoglu, T. F., 2016. Food microbiology: Principles into practice. John Wiley
& Sons.
Online
SWOT Analysis of Burberry – Burberry SWOT Analysis. 2019. [Online] Available Through:<
https://www.marketing91.com/swot-analysis-of-burberry/.
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