Principles and Practices of Marketing - Holland & Barrett Case Study

This report discusses the marketing mix elements and strategic decisions made by Holland & Barrett, a company offering healthy food items at an international level. It evaluates the effectiveness of their marketing efforts and provides insights into the subjective expected utility theory and Mintzberg's strategic decision-making. The report also covers the importance of measuring marketing effectiveness and provides key indicators to determine it. Subject: Marketing, Course Code: NA, College/University: NA

PRINCIPLES AND
PRACTICES OF
MARKETING
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.............................................................................................................................................3
Reflection upon the strategic decisions & relevant taught theories in marketing efforts..........................6
Evaluation of marketing efforts effectiveness..........................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................................11
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INTRODUCTION
Marketing refers to a procedure of promoting goods & services within the market. It
denotes to such activities within which business can advertise their items or services with an aim
to attract more customers. It is important for a business to advertise its offerings so that can attain
growth & success. This is highly essential for a company to enhance its marketing function &
categorise it as one of the significant function within business that is responsible for targeting
more customers (Ang, L., 2021). Marketing is not only aimed for promoting goods & services,
but also to provide best experience to its customer’s. In present report the company which is
being considered is Holland & Barrett (H&B) that offers healthy food items at international
level. The report covers elements from marketing mix which are important for an effective
marketing strategy. It also includes the various strategic decisions & theories which show
company’s marketing efforts. In continuation to this, the report further includes an effectiveness
of marketing efforts towards the successful achievement of objectives.
MAIN BODY
The concept of marketing mix is an essential element for a business with a purpose of
achieving goals & objectives. This is categorised as a set of technique or tool that is being
applied by the firms to achieve their objectives in their target market. The marketing mix
comprises of four different important aspects which are price, product, place and promotion. The
application of such elements assists business in reinforcing its market position within the
business environment (Bokil, and Sinha, 2021). From last three years, it has been found that the
company Holland & Barrett (H&B) is paying its emphasis upon enhancing their marketing
function so can reinforce their position within the market. This would help H&B in attaining
their objectives. It is also determined that Holland & Barrett is tripling their budget for
advertisement to 2.25 million. This represents that there is an increase in their budget as the
company identifies and understands the significance of marketing. The marketing mix has
provided numerous benefits to the firm out of which few are mentioned below:
 The company Holland & Barrett is able to enhance their strengths through the support of
utilising its marketing mix within their business operations. This would also limits
company’s weaknesses which they can improve in their performance. By enhancing
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company’s strengths Holland & Barrett can easily attain its goals or objectives along
with a sustainable attainment of competitive advantage.
 With the assistance of marketing mix elements the company Holland & Barrett is able to
take certain profitable decisions for its business. The contribution of marketing mix
element can be determined from its past data which was that the business is having a
continuous increment its sales that is nearly up to 27.5%. The major contribution in this
growth is of online marketing which is a profitable decision for the business and an
effective application of marketing mix elements.
 Along with the above analysis, the company Holland & Barrett can be able to attain
higher competitive advantage within the market. Such advantage is highly important or a
business which can be attained through an application of marketing mix elements. This
would provide a great benefit to the firm in terms of higher profitability.
 This would also help in enhancing the co-ordination and contribution of different
departments or partners that are associated with Holland & Barrett.
Above mentioned are few benefits that are being enjoyed by Holland & Barrett with the help
of marketing mix essentials. All such important essentials are being considered by the firm
within their strategies of marketing department for an achievement of organisational objectives.
It is being observed that for a successful retail business it is important to apply all four elements
of marketing mix which are product, promotion, price and place. Whereas, on the other hand, a
company is required to focus upon other three elements also which are physical evidence, people
and process. The company Holland & Barrett being a retail firm is only required to pay its
emphasis upon four major elements of marketing mix. The application of these four elements in
context to Holland & Barrett is mentioned below:
Product
Product is the first essential element in marketing mix which is highly important to
understand because this enlists the item which is going to be offer in market by the company. For
this purpose, a business is required to consider product life cycle within their organisation. This
would assist in resolving challenges which could be raised in future. It is important for a
company to identify all such challenges that can be harmful for a successful product sale in
market. Holland & Barrett is offering healthy foods like ethical beauty enzymes, herbal
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medicines, vitamins, minerals, vegetarian food, and many others. They are paying emphasis
upon diversification of food products so that they can mitigate their risk and capture large market
share. Marketers at Holland & Barrett are highly talented that they analysis and understands the
behaviour of their customers. The company analysis its market position and consumer behaviour
from last three years. They analysed that in present time the buyer’s needs quality & healthy
food products along with a high focus upon the products and their health. And because of this
changing scenario the company is paying it focus upon the health items that includes vegan,
natural beauty products, food and drink, health and wellness, sports nutrition, and different
others. Post pandemic situation, it becomes significant for Holland & Barrett to offer its best
quality items & services to its buyers so that they could enhance their health.
Price
Price is referred to as a one of the core essential element that is highly necessary for a
company to be focused within marketing strategy of Holland & Barrett. Price is denoted as a cost
that is being paid by the consumers in exchange of purchased goods or services from Holland &
Barrett. It is highly essential for company’s marketing department to link the product price with a
perceived & real value. This would help Holland & Barrett in covering its operation cost along
with a generation of higher profits and customer satisfaction. It is important to consider the profit
margin that is associated with a product before its sales because a company can only survive
through the generation of profits (Cameron and Kwiecien, 2021). It is being analysed that the
company Holland & Barrett is experiencing numerous issue from last three regular years. It is
found that within last three years, each business is facing different complex circumstance due to
the happening of pandemic situation. Because of this they are required to develop such strategy
with respect to the fixation of prices so that it can help company in reinforcing their market
position back.
Place
The place holds a significant post in selling of company’s products or services within the
market. It is extremely important for a company to consider relevant decisions related to the
place where the company sales its offerings. It is compulsory for a company in determining it
sales market so that can provide their products and services effectively to its customers. The
company Holland & Barrett is required to pay its emphasis upon determining the places that are
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feasible for their sales in the market. Decision related to place is not an easy one as this involves
different factors and is impacts highly upon the revenue and sales of business.
Promotion
The marketing mix element of promotion is a very important element that is present in
smooth functioning of business. This promotional strategy, advertising & public relations. With
respect to Holland & Barrett, it is identified that an objective of products sales could be attained
through promoting goods & services by applying effective promotional strategy. It is highly
important in respect to sell the products & services within the market. In the present digital age,
it is determined that firm is required to transform its business to digital mode in order to attain
their goals & objectives in effective manner. Holland & Barrett is planning to transform its
business operation digitally so that could achieve company’s goals & objectives. It is also found
that digitalization provides numerous opportunities with respect to competitive advantage within
the rival market (Chuatrakul and Waiapha, 2021).
Above mentioned elements comprises of a marketing mix in relation to Holland &
Barrett. These elements provides a great support to business in making growth and success
decisions for the business.
Reflection upon the strategic decisions & relevant taught theories in marketing efforts
In order to attain growth & success within an organisation, it is essential to consider
effective decisions. This is highly important for a company to analyse their decisions in a way
that helps in successful achievement of company’s objective & success. And due to this the
organisation Holland & Barrett is required to take certain strategic decisions after proper
evaluation. These are the decisions that are concerned with whole organisational environment in
which company operates their business. The strategic decision-making procedure is to assess all
the strengths & weaknesses related to a specific situation. This helps companies in gaining a
competitive advantage. When making strategic decisions, I found that company is needed to
analyses all the resources that are available to our organization so that they could effectively
utilize the resources in which they lacked. Marketing is an essential and inseparable part of an
organization, & company marketers are held responsible for the organization's sales & profits.
This shows that environment of business in industry or market is becoming more competitive &
dynamic. As a result, marketers within Holland & Barrett organization need to make strategic
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decisions with an aim of solving the issues and challenges. Marketing marketers have found that
Holland & Barrett is needed to make such strategic decisions that are significant for the process
of strategic development. Such decisions are made by the organization in response to changing
dimensions of the marketing environment to gain a high competitive advantage. It is that part of
the problem-solving process that requires proper analysis, strategic selection, & implementation.
The organization Holland and Barrett is a company that aims to make the right decisions to offer
healthy items & services to their customers. This represents that they are focusing upon business
needs which are required to attain a sustainable advantage by offering healthy food. If it is
effective not only for their customers but also for the environment, it will be healthy. For this
reason, Holland and Barrett need to adopt effective strategic decision theory to make the right
decisions. Certain theories in the respect with context to Holland & Barrett is mentioned below:
Subjective Expected Utility Theory:
This is the theory that corporate decision makers have to select from a variety of strategic
options when faced with risk. All companies know that the corporate environment is risky, so it
is very essential for Holland & Barrett marketers to analyse their situation and make decisions
when they are at risk. There are two significant exceptions to this theory that are subjective
utility and do not include objective criteria, & target statistical calculations. According to this
theory, it is based on four principles of national preference: common outcomes, transitive
relations, accounting equivalence, and independence from the monotony of outcomes. It is stated
that this theory is not widespread for two major reasons (Gbadamosi, 2019). First, assume that
decision makers are focusing upon all sorts of available alternatives that are not practical in a
business environment. The other is that people do not trusts in savage axioms.
Mintzberg's Strategic Decision-Making:
Henry Mintzberg served three major typical ways to strategic decision-making:
entrepreneurial mode, adaptive mode, & planning mode. In entrepreneurship mode, one can see
that the strategy is developed by influential people and organizations with all skills such as risk
taking & innovation. The emphasis is upon the opportunities & issues. This is one of the most
effective strategic decision-making modes. Adaptive mode, whereas, is a retroactive solution to
an existing problem instead looking for latest opportunities. This means Holland & Barrett will
make decisions to resolve existing problems & tries new opportunities. The last in the series is
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planning mode. In this mode, the organization systematically collects information to analyse the
situation, generate viable alternatives, & select the most feasible strategy. This includes a
planning mode in which the organization reviews the whole situation before making each
decision. For the organisation Holland & Barrett, this could be the best suitable mode of strategic
decision making as it comprises of both proactive search & reactive solutions.
Evaluation of marketing efforts effectiveness
Marketing activities are refereed as resources that an organization devotes entirely to
promoting a product or service within the market. The success & growth of an organization
depends on the marketing activities of the business. It turns out that companies could generate
demand and interest in their products and services with the assistance of marketing efforts. In
addition, comapny can increase visibility with potential buyers. There is a presence of four
different levels of marketing activity: strategy, tactics, initiatives, & action steps. It is highly
essential for Holland & Barrett to focus on marketing activities so to generate sales & profits. To
do this, companies need to enhance marketing effectiveness & measure it from time to time to
external stakeholders. After that, they would be able to attain their goals or objectives. For
Holland & Barrett, it's very important to be effective so that corporate marketers can do their
finest to cater more customers. In this regard, companies need to measure marketing
effectiveness using marketing strategies that enhance sales & reduce costs. Organizations
recognize that there is only one way to attract their customers through an outbound marketing
approach. However, it becomes highly difficult for companies to analyse the effectiveness of
marketing. Holland & Barrett marketers need to identify the cost as well as revenue impact of
their marketing strategy in order to make the right decisions. Today, they aim to turn their
business into a digital business. To that end, they are required to do their best in marketing. This
shows that companies are investing heavily in marketing capital like in radio, television,
magazines & billboards. In the digital world, it's very difficult for businesses to measure
performance. There are certain key indicators described below to determine the effectiveness of
company’s marketing (Guriță, 2019).
Measuring a company's sales through revenues:
It is highly essential that marketing activities to be conducted in an effective manner to
the organization. This helps organizations analysing the marketing contribution to sales. Holland
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& Barrett measure marketing effectiveness by analyzing the marketing contribution to sales.
When they realize that a business is making a lot of money, they can be confident that their
marketing activities are not in vain.
Conversion Rate:
The conversion rate refers to the amount of variated stories from the company’s
customers. This is a highly effective way for a company to figure out how many buyers have
turned into loyal consumers with the assistance of marketing efforts. The company Holland &
Barrett could easily evaluate their marketing effectiveness by analyzing your conversion rate.
Pipeline Growth & Acceleration:
These are the metrics that the Holland & Barrett is required to use to analyze pipeline
growth & acceleration. All businesses are imperfect without each other, so they need to be aware
of both acceleration as well as growth. If a company experiences variability or inequality in
pipeline growth & acceleration, it needs to pay emphasis upon efforts to keep the pipeline
flowing or full. A business could only achieve success with the assistance of an analysis of its
marketing effectiveness that could be done with the help of the growth & acceleration of the
pipeline.
Brand Awareness:
All organizations operate with the assistance of brand awareness. There is a presence of
numerous large companies that do business in the market with the contribution of their brand
image. This could be judged by marketing effectiveness. For this reason, Holland & Barrett need
to enhance its brand awareness within the market to ensure their survival. Business can easily
determine its marketing effectiveness by analyzing the brand awareness. When a company
determines that it has a good brand image in the market, it responds positively to marketing
effectiveness.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that organizations are needed to focus on
marketing because it is an essential part of the organization. Marketing is expressed as the
procedure by which an organization carries out actions to promote its products & services in the
market. In this report, we described the marketing mix element that is a tool for reaching the
target market. There are four key components to the marketing mix: product, price, location, and
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advertising. Strategic decisions are required for a company to grow its business. The above
mentioned report also assesses the effectiveness of marketing activities that are critical to an
organization's real market position. Companies can only attain success & growth with the
assistance of marketing capabilities to attract customers that is the ultimate goal of the
organization.
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