Role and Significance of Marketing

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Contents
1. Marketing...........................................................................................................................................3
1.1. Role and Significance.................................................................................................................3
1.2. Marketing and Functional Departments of Walmart.............................................................4
1.3. Internal Environment & Walmart...........................................................................................4
1.4. External Environment & Walmart..........................................................................................5
2. Walmart.............................................................................................................................................7
2.1. Costco.........................................................................................................................................7
2.2. Marketing Mix...........................................................................................................................7
2.2.1. Marketing Mix of Walmart...............................................................................................8
2.2.2. Marketing Mix of Costco...................................................................................................9
2.2.3. Differences Between Marketing Mix of Walmart and Costco......................................10
2.3. Marketing Strategy..................................................................................................................11
2.3.1. Marketing Strategies Used by Walmart.........................................................................11
2.3.2. Marketing Strategies Used by Costco.................................................................................13
2.4. Conclusion................................................................................................................................14
2.5. Recommendations................................................................................................................14
3. Marketing-Media Plan....................................................................................................................15
3.1. Executive Summary.................................................................................................................15
3.2. Mission Statement....................................................................................................................15
3.3. Vision Statement......................................................................................................................15
3.4. Marketing Objectives..............................................................................................................15
3.5. Industry Analysis.....................................................................................................................15
...........................................................................................................................................................17
3.6. Identification of the Pakistani Market...................................................................................17
3.7. Situational Analysis.................................................................................................................17
3.7.1. PESTLE Analysis.............................................................................................................17
3.7.2. SWOT Analysis................................................................................................................19
3.8. Marketing Mix for Walmart...................................................................................................19
3.9. Market Segmentation..............................................................................................................20
3.10. Target Market/ Targeting...................................................................................................20
3.11. Brand Positioning................................................................................................................21

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3.12. Media Plan............................................................................................................................21
3.12.1. Channels For Communication........................................................................................21
3.12.2. Media Budget...................................................................................................................22
3.13. Action Plan...........................................................................................................................22
3.14. Evaluation and Control.......................................................................................................23
3.15. Conclusion............................................................................................................................23
References................................................................................................................................................24

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1. Marketing
Marketing is an important aspect of today’s business world. It includes consideration and
acknowledgment of the marketplace, requirements of people, establishing profitable connections,
consumer driver market tactics, and offering good quality products to them (Kotler et al., 2011).
Companies nowadays understand the significance of constructive connections with consumers and that is
why organizations all over the globe are trying to have an advanced methodology regarding marketing.
The concept of marketing essentials is common and every business understands that it’s a must to operate
successfully in today’s competitive business world. This assignment is based on the marketing strategies
and aspects related to the marketing of Walmart and its competitors. It’s an American-based organization
that manages a chain of superstores, department retailers, and grocery stores. It’s a gigantic organization
that has more than 10,000 stores in at least 25 countries. It has over 2.3M employees and its revenue’s
calculated at hundred billion dollars every year. The reason for such high revenue is the customer-focused
strategy of Walmart and the outstanding marketing of the company (Baker and Hart, 2016).
1.1. Role and Significance
Marketing is vital as it facilitates a company is selling its products. No matter what is the objective of any
firm, but the goal, in the end, is to make money and generate profits. For that, marketing is significant.
Business experts say that many companies would not exist if there was no concept of marketing.
Marketing drives the need for a product or a service among people. It brings awareness about a particular
product and that ultimately drives sales of a company. The marketing function is described as the
functions of companies that facilitate it to recognize and locate possibly successful goods for the
community and then assists in its advertising too. These functions are mostly the same and roles of
marketing include Product development,
promotion, generating revenues etc.
(Armstrong et al, 2014). Basic functions are
given in figure 1.
Figure 1: Functions of Marketing

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All these functions have some tasks related to them and they’re the reason behind a company’s
development and success. Furthermore, they comprise different departments within a firm including HR,
finance, sales support, etc. Now, marketing functions are directly linked with the functional departments
of a firm (Kotler and Keller, 2012). Each role of marketing is significant for companies in general and for
Walmart. Their relationship with each other in Walmart is given below;
1.2. Marketing and Functional Departments of Walmart
The interrelationship among marketing and functional departments of Walmart is elaborated as;
marketing is an element of Walmart, just like any product Walmart offers, and thus all the functional
departments are linked to each other. For effective marketing and successful marketing campaigns, all the
departments play a very vital role and without their collaboration or interference, it’d be very difficult to
carry it out. To formulate and execute any marketing strategy Walmart has, finance is required and that is
handled by the finance department, the team is formulated by the HR unit, and other functions are taken
care of by the sales and manufacturing department of Walmart. Walmart often offers discounts and
special events offers, for that purpose the marketing team makes sure to communicate with the finance
and the manufacturing unit as this decision can’t be made by the marketing department alone. The
research department analyzes the market trends and customer’s buying patterns for marketing purposes.
The purpose of Walmart is to provide everything to people under a single roof and to provide good
quality products at low prices. To ensure the effective achievement of this purpose, all units unify and
work together to enhance profitability and provide customers with whatever stuff they want. A complete
plan is provided to the marketing team of Walmart by the finance team regarding the budget. They
illustrate how much will it cost for marketing campaigns and their execution. The manufacturing unit of
Walmart notifies the logistics unit about the requirements and fulfillment of users. HR plans and
guidelines are formulated based on market trends, and target audience. This, all departments of Walmart
are interrelated with marketing and they all work together to achieve the goals, mission, and vision of the
company (Strydom, 2004).
1.3. Internal Environment & Walmart
There are some internal elements that have helped Walmart in the past in achieving organizational
integration and are still helping the firm in this regard. These elements and components are the Suppliers,
Customers, technology, organizational structure and strategy, Employees, and the management style. All
these people, their skill sets and approaches have helped Walmart in achieving organizational integration

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as they’re all aligned with the aims and objectives of the company. From the CEO to an entry-level
employee, everyone’s aim is to work on towards the same target. For this, Walmart offers exceptional
training to its employees, uses PR to keep stakeholders informed, and maintains communication with
everyone related to Walmart (Kampf, 2007).
1.4. External Environment & Walmart
The external environment of Walmart has been analyzed through PESTEL analysis to see how it has
contributed to the overall organizational integration.
Political
Political factors include aspects like political situation, taxes, rules and regulations. Walmart is a huge
business where billions of people visit the stores every day. If there’s any road blockage, or protest, the
distribution of products will be greatly impacted. Similarly, if the political aspects are positive and there’s
political stability, then Walmart will operate successfully. These aspects are unpredictable but Walmart is
flexible enough to tackle any issue coming in the way. Till yet, Political aspects haven’t caused any
trouble for the company (Hemphill, 2008).
Economic
Many elements come in this factor and these include inflation, income per capita, and other economic
regulations. A country having slow economic growth will greatly impact businesses. But Walmart
formulates strategies based on all these factors and ensures to offer products at prices that will not harm
the company. If the rate of inflation is too high and people are unable to buy products at high prices,
Walmart then offer products at lower prices to increase the sales. That’s how the economic conditions
become favorable for the company (Holme and Watts, 2000).
Social
Aspects that are a part of this factor include customer satisfaction, interaction among employees and
customers, interaction of management with the employees, and integrity. The organizational culture of
Walmart is constructive and positive that ultimately encourages positive attitude. All the work staff of
Walmart is kind and nice to customers. Such customers then help in fostering a positive image of
Walmart in the society. Similarly, Walmart ensures to sell products based on the region they’re operating.
For example, fresh meat and vegetables is a must in Asian countries. Stocked and frozen products are sold
in Europe, just the way people like it (Hemphill, 2008).
Technological
Technology greatly helps a business in a number of ways. Walmart has spent billions on establishing
technology to facilitate the employees in doing their jobs with ease and in providing excellent customer
service. During the Covid-19 pandemic, everything was online and many businesses found it hard to

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survive because they didn’t have enough finance to invest in technology. But Walmart has invested in
Robotics that helps in cleaning, performing basic manufacturing tasks and much more. This has increased
efficiency of employees and the company as they don’t have to waste time in doing basic work
(Ghazzawi et al., 2014).
Legal
The retail sector is sometimes impacted by legislation conditions. Majorly the issues are with customers,
government, trusts and monopolies. Legal factors have caused issues for the company in the past. As
Walmart used to discriminate and pay less salary to female employees as compared to male employees.
Similarly, working conditions were poor for employees. Lawsuits were filed and the company had to pay
million dollars to resolve the issues. But now, the company has understood the importance of such
matters and has worked on them to move a step forward to achieving its goals (Holme and Watts, 2000).
Environmental
Walmart’s amazing strategy regarding eco-friendly products has won hearts of many individuals. The
company has initiated many projects like “Gigaton” where the company has planned to reduce the waste
by 2030. The company has promised to reduce waste and create products that support nature. This
initiative has given Walmart a competitive edge and many customers came in the support of this plan
(Holme and Watts, 2000).