Marketing Essentials

This document discusses the key roles and responsibilities of marketing in organizations, including understanding customer needs, monitoring competitors, and developing new marketing tools. It also compares the application of the 7 P's of marketing in M&S and Tesco. Additionally, it provides a marketing plan for M&S.

Marketing Essentials

Table of Contents
Marketing Essentials........................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LO1..................................................................................................................................................3
P1 key roles and responsibilities of the marketing......................................................................3
P2 Roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organisational context...............4
LO2..................................................................................................................................................5
P3 Comparison of M&S and Tesco about application of 7 P's of marketing in their respective
organisation..................................................................................................................................5
LO3..................................................................................................................................................8
P4 Marketing Plan of M&S.........................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Marketing which is an essential function of organisations is carried out for various
different interrelated purposes that eventually seeks to fulfil organisational objectives. Activities
undertaken in marketing starts before production and ends at after selling the product and giving
after sales services. These activities are production, packaging communication through
advertisements and giving exciting offerings to customers and providing after sale services.
Marketing is not a function that is concerned with only itself but affects other functions of
organisation as well. This projects include various important roles and responsibilities that come
under marketing and their relation with other organisational functions like production, sales,
finance etc. this project also analyses marketing functions of M&S which is a UK based
multinational retail organisation. Later report also addresses comparison of marketing mix in
different organisations. Along with that in which ways organisation can use marketing mix.
Lastly marketing plan have also been included in this report.
LO1
P1 key roles and responsibilities of the marketing
Marketing a set of various different but interrelated activities that is used to achieve
objectives of an organisation. This function includes various roles and responsibilities in M&S
which are:
Understanding needs of customers- most important and first role of marketing in organisation
is to understand needs and requirements of customers as organisations have become customer
oriented and provides products that are required to customers instead of selling what they are
making. Marketing in M&S plays important role and identify needs of customers and later
understand and then communicate this information to organisation so that they can produce
products as per customers requirements. To do this they use various mediums that can provide
information about customer requirements. Marketing has to ensure that company is producing
and selling products that are being required by customers this is important to survive and grow in
highly competitive market.
Monitoring competitors and identify trends in market- Other important responsibility of
marketing is to monitor trends in the market that are concerned with their product and
organisation and also to monitor competitors like Tesco and their moves and actions in order to
see what they are doing and what threats can there be to organisation from its competitors and
their activities and also where competitors are lacking and organisation can advantage of that.
This is important that M&S monitor trends otherwise company will continue working on its old
trends and once they become obsolete it will start loosing its customers as they are more
interested in buying products that can are in trend. It will affect its profitability and image at the
same tome and will require additional efforts to gain those customers back which has been
loosed.
Brand value and work- Brand value refers to feelings and ideas M&S wants to communicate
with its customers and prospective customers and in order to do that marketing is responsible
that they are able to communicate these values and ideas in a most effective manner that
customers can properly understand that helps company to build its brand image. Brand value is
very important to attract people towards products of a company it ensures that product and
services that are being provided by the company are qualitative and build a trust in customers
about company and its offerings.

Identify and develop new marketing tools- Marketing has a responsibility to find out and
develop new marketing tools that can help organisation to communicate its message to more
people and more effectively. This helps M&S to gain more customers and increase its
profitability and that can contribute to achieve its other objectives. There are various new tools of
marketing are already have been developed and companies can use this and marketing through
innovative tools is also very effective in grabbing customers' attention towards products of a
company.
Communicate with other functional departments- Marketing also concerned with
communicating all other functional departments of organisation that are production, sales,
finance, human resource and other departments that are there in organisation and affect
marketing and its function directly and indirectly. This is required in M&S because marketing
affected by all other departments like production departments need to be communicated in order
to communicate customers requirements related with their product and communicating them
demand of the products.
Ensure survival and growth of organisation- Marketing have one most important role to play
in organisation and that is to ensure its survival and growth because marketing play important
role customers are attracted towards using offerings of M&S and when marketing is doing it
effectively customers will be attracted towards it and this will ensure organisation's survival. In
order to do this marketing has to ensure that the message company wants to deliver to customers
and prospective customers is communicated effectively so that they understand that what kind of
their need is being fulfilled by organisation. Other important role is in growth of organisation
that once organisation has ensured its survival then taking it to other level of growth and for that
various things are required like strong customer base, effective strategies that can ensure
grabbing new customers for organisation. This will help organisation to increase its productivity
and profitability and in its growth.
P2 Roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organisational context
Wider organisational context include various other functions of organisation in itself they
are like production, research and development, sales, finance, human resource, customer service ,
distribution etc. This report includes relation of marketing with these functions in M&S.
Research and Development- Marketing is concerned with providing innovative and new
developed products that can cater needs of customers. This is a very important role of marketing
manager and its success is dependent on how well it can fulfil customer requirements. In order to
do that it is responsibility of marketing to inform research and development departments and
teams to develop products as per customer requirements. To do that it is responsibility of
marketing department is to identify and research about customer requirements and then
communicate the same to research and development departments and teams in M&S. Marketing
manager checks whether the product which has been developed is as per the requirements of
customers as they are directly linked with customers and have a better idea about their
requirements.
Production- it is considered a responsibility of marketing department to generate demand of
company's products in market. Various techniques and tools are used by them in order to do this.
Once marketing has done this effectively next step comes as providing information about the
demand of the product to the production department. Marketing is also required to communicate
changes in the product design and characteristics as per demand of customers to production
department so that they can produce products accordingly and fulfil customers' demand.

Marketing manager is responsible that adequate information that is required of production is
available to production department on time and that is correct and complete.
Distribution- It is concerned with physical delivery of products to the point from where
customers can buy them and presently these are also being done that customers can buy products
from the company by various online sites and companies sell their products to the end
consumers. This is responsibility of marketing to design and develop distribution channels so
that customers can buy products and services without any barrier. Marketing is also needs to
communicate about the demand of product at a location so that distribution channels can
distribute products accordingly. This helps organisation to fulfil customer demands and avoid
situation like shortage of the product or delay in delivering the products to customers.
Human resources- One of the major departments that requires most of the employees in
organisation is marketing. Marketing needs to communicate what kind of and in what number
customers are required to carry out its functions effectively. Along with this marketing function
also sees that in which manner its employees can be motivated and kept engaged and later
communicating the same to human resource department. Along with this marketing also requires
providing information regarding training needs of its employees so that human resource can
develop and design training programmes accordingly. Being a marketing manager it is an
important responsibility to design job description and specification for the requirement of
employees in department.
IT department- This refers to information technology and people working on it in an
organisation. For marketing IT has become very popular choice and effective technique. Through
information technology marketers can communicate their message to a wide range of people in
short time span and in less cost. Marketing also have to deal with various other issues that are
concerned with IT like many organisations practice online survey and most importantly e-
commerce websites that are also concerned with IT and this is how marketing s related to IT
department. Advertising and communication which an essential pert of marketing is now has
become an important concern of IT department in the organisation and marketing manager have
to work in collaboration with IT department and people working in the department as they design
and develop various type of online and digital marketing campaign that are designed by
marketing manager and their teams.
Success of all these functional areas depends on hoe well they can coordinate and
collaborate with each other. All these functional areas of organisation are dependent on each
other in one form or other like production is dependent on marketing about the required quantity
and quality of the product being produced. Marketing is dependent on HR about fulfilling
requirements regarding employees in its functional area.
LO2
P3 Comparison of M&S and Tesco about application of 7 P's of marketing in their respective
organisation
Basis of Difference M&S Tesco
Product Product mix in M&S has wide
mix of products for all group
for men and women and kids.
Major portion of M&S is
devoted to clothing and
Wide range of products are
provided by Tesco like food,
clothing, electronics and
financial services. Their line
products has everything that

accessories and in other
portion it includes furniture
and home appliances. M&S
also offers food and wine of
different types and other items
like gift items and flowers and
most of them are house brands.
can fulfil every requirement of
its customers. Thus Tesco has
also expanded to online
marketing. Retail stores of
Tesco exhibits around 40000
products like groceries and
others. All products are offered
in a variety like brands, type
etc.
Price It has competitive price
strategy for its product
portfolio. M&S its own in
house brand for cloths and
these are priced as per their
quality from medium to high.
It also adopts strategy of
discounted price and that time
sell its old stock.
Tesco's pricing policy includes
as low price as possible
without reducing quality of its
products and also does not run
itself in loss. This keep their
customers happy and it enjoys
economy of scale. Tesco
believes in strategy of every
low counts and thus keep its
prices less in big stores and
little more in small stores due
to overhead costs.
Promotion M&S have advertising strategy
that it uses digital marketing
and in house marketing
strategy. M&S advertise and
message from all mediums like
TV, mobile and social media.
M&S also uses its own website
to promote its brand. M&S
also promote itself from
season sale and offering
discount and offers to its loyal
customers.
The Biggest advantage of
Tesco is its low prices. This
strategy not only differentiate
it from other supermarkets but
also have build up its brand
image. Tesco focus on being
true to its words and lowering
its prices and increasing
profitability. To market its
products Tesco uses television
advertisements, offer
promotional discounts and
organise charitable event.
Place M&S operates in more than 50
countries having around one
thousand stores. M&S also
have its website from where
customers can buy items
which are delivered at home
and some of the products are
also delivered internationally.
Place in relation to Tesco is
spread worldwide and
distribution channels are
working online and offline. In
offline mode and channels of
distribution Tesco has 6 types
of stores including big stores
that have everything in itself
and small stores for easy
accessibility.

Physical Evidence Stores of M&S work as
physical evidence for te
company. And products of
M&S are also act as physical
evidence for the company.
Tesco does not believe in
spending more amount on
furbishing its stores like other
retail and grocery stores.
Tesco's stores are claimed as
being clean attractive. And all
the products that are in store
are easy to find and navigate.
Process Beautiful and well maintained
stores of M&S having
different sections and floors
for different type of items. All
these stores have a bill counter
on each floor and customers
can select and pay bill at the
same floor. Customers can also
make online purchase using its
website.
Success of process in case of
Tesco is keeping its customers
happy by speed billing and
easy acquirement of products
in offline and online as well.
This has achieved by Tesco
through competent employees
and adequate attention to
customer complaints.
People M&S have around 83000
employees and give special
attention to them and follow a
competitive pay strategy to
retain them in organisation.
Performance based rewards are
also provided to its customers
along with basic salary.
Employees also enjoy discount
on products of M&S.
Very effective sales assistant
of Tesco are a big reason
behind its success. Tesco uses
various techniques and
programmes to earn loyalty of
its workers and employees.
Employees are also
compensated very high and are
highly competent too.

LO3
P4 Marketing Plan of M&S
Executive Summary
The following plan addresses marketing and related factors of stainless shirt which is
being launched by M&S. The plan firstly addresses mission of M&S foro launching new
product. Thereafter, it includes objectives in order to achieve its mission. Later PESTLE
analysis will be carried out for this product and STP strategies. It also includes marketing
budget and control strategies.
Mission- To offer the best quality clothing products in the country and to meet the changing
preferences and needs of people of UK.
Objectives
 To generate awareness in customers about availability of the product.
 To increase market share of M&S by 15%.
PESTLE-
Political- this is concerned with governments rules and regulations and political stability in UK
is good so product launch will not face any challenge from governmental side.
Economical- stainless shirts are going to be very contributing portion in profits of M&S and
will also not get affected by the any kind of economical condition as company has decided a
moderate price for the product which can be afforded by everyone.
Social- this is an innovative product and chances of it being liked and adopted by everyone are
very high and it also suggests as product launch will be a success.
Technological- This refers to technological advancement of UK that have made it to produce a
shirt and clothing piece that is made from nano fabric technology.
Legal- legal environment of M&S and UK both are favourable for this launch as UK's legal
environment have always encouraged those who are doing innovative practices.
Environmental factor- This stainless shirt is being produced using nano fabric technology and
is sustainable product that does not harm environment. Additionally, fair trade policy of M&S
is a favourable factor and environmental factor does not harm and affect launch of stainless
shirt.
Segmentation, Targeting and positioning-
This are three important factors that are required to be considered by companies while
launching new products.
Segmentation- it refers to dividing customers on the basis of various factors like age, choices,
gender and demography. In case of launching stainless shirt which are useful for and designed
for men. This further divides them on the basis of age and demography. The product is bieng
launched in UK so only customers of UK will be able to buy it initially. Policy of M&S will
now focus on marketing of the product to men in UK of all age groups and specially those who
like to try something new and innovative.
Targeting, This is concerned with potential market size for each segment and visible difference
between segments. In relation with stainless shirt of M&S marketing size of young people who
are segmented on the basis of people who like to experiment with their fashion and clothing are
high and then size of kids are second big market and lastly people of old age who can buy
stainless shirts comes which are having a small market size.
Positioning, this product will be positioned as functional because this is not a luxury product
but a product to cater need and requirement of having a cloth that is stainless and does not get

stains on it saving them from the efforts of cleaning and also looks good and provide a
satisfaction that they are wearing something unique and fashionable than others.
Budget-
Budget of this marketing plan have been allotted is approximately 8000 pounds.
Control and Evaluation-
This plan will be put under proper control by focusing the objectives of the plan which is to
generate customer awareness and any deviation in the plan will be addressed. Also, there will
proper evaluation of the plan on regular basis in order to make it a success.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of above report it can be concluded that marketing is a very essential
business function. Success and growth of business is directly linked with effectiveness of
marketing. Marketing has various sub functions like generating awareness in customers about
product of the company and build trust in customers about the brand M&S. Marketing is also
directly linked with various other functional areas in organisation. These functional areas are
production, information technology, human resources and finance and accounting. This report
also includes comparison of To increase market share of M&S with Tesco both are retail
companies based in UK. From the comparison it can be concluded that Tesco have a better and
bigger product mix and include everything to cater all kinds of needs of its customers. Lastly
report includes a marketing plan where M&S is about to launch an stainless shirt and plan
addresses initial marketing of the stainless shirt.

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