SIM337: Business and Management Report on Advanced Plastics Ltd

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Advanced Plastics Ltd, a plastic fabrication company based in the UK. It begins with an introduction to contemporary business developments and the importance of understanding external market factors. Task 1 delves into the primary external influences on the company, including political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors, and assesses their impact on Advanced Plastics Ltd's operations and performance. The report highlights how these factors affect the company's strategic decisions and market position. Task 2 examines the relevance of the marketing communication mix, including advertising, personal selling, discounts, and promotions, and their influence on the company's policies and decision-making processes. The report evaluates the effectiveness of the company's responses to these influences and identifies areas for improvement. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and recommendations for Advanced Plastics Ltd to enhance its market position and achieve long-term sustainability.

Contemporary Developments
in Business and Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Overview of the primary external influences and their importance for the firm....................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
Relevance of Marketing communication mix and its impact on the policies and decision
making of firm........................................................................................................................6
Influence of marketing communication mix on policies and decision making of Advanced
plastics Ltdd plastics Ltd........................................................................................................8
Critically evaluate the effectiveness of the firm's response..................................................10
Explain some areas for improvements in response of the organization...............................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Contemporary development is stated as the business development of the business in the
current prevailing market situation with a view to grasp market changes which are emerged
within this changing era. Further this can be defined as changes which are seen and accepted by
business manager by examining all the past business experiences. All the development
opportunities are required to be utilised by the business if it is willing to have market growth and
expansion. For recognising market opportunities businesses are requisite to examine their
external market factor is appropriate manner so as to get to know about market situation.
External factors analysis helps the business to take out effective results and achieve their targets
in desirable manner. In current scenario market is dynamic in nature and customers get attracted
towards those company which is have capacity to meet their needs and demands in most
effective way as there are numbers of substitute present in the market. This report is prepared to
understand all these concepts and in order to understand this concept company has considered is
Advanced plastics Ltdd plastics Ltd, this is a plastic fabrication company and headquartered in
Bergen Way, UK. This file is having two parts and both the part portrays different significance.
Within first part of the report external environment so as to get to know about market
opportunities and in the second part of report deep examination of marketing communication
mix has been portrayed (Chang, 2016).
TASK 1
Overview of the primary external influences and their importance for the firm
In this scenario Advanced plastics Ltd is the top company in manufacturing technical
injection mould. The company consist of 32 injection mouldings which are ranged from 40ft to
1500 ft. which are able to manufacture 2000 moulds at a single time. The machines are
associated with vibrating wielding, 6 axis within single line and many more. More than 200
employees are engaged in meeting up their customer’s demand as their primary objectives. The
company is having variety of product in which they have thread forms, co-moulded material,
welded plastics, modular plastic assemblies, plastic lenses and so many others. Advanced

plastics Ltd was found in the ear of 1922 and they are dealing in manufacturing of solely plastic
products only (Leonidou, and Hultman, 2019).
Business performance is having high impact from so many factors which are present in the
market. These factors are having somewhere direct or indirect impact over the business so every
small factor is considered as prominent one. The macro environmental factors are having huge
impact on which and they includes political, economic, legal, technological, social, economic
and environmental factors. With the help of following discussion the effect of these factors on
the business of Advanced plastics Ltd can be understood in deep manner:
Political environment: These factors are associated with trade restrictions, labour laws, foreign
trade guidelines and many more. These factors are giving major impact their business as being a
plastic manufacturer as government is having intervention in this business. Within this machines
are very expensive and high investments are needed in that, on the contrary quality of machines
are decided by the government so Advanced plastics Ltd is requisite to follow governmental
guidelines. For minimising negative impact of political factors Advanced plastics Ltd is focusing
on increasing capacity of their product line with diversification. They are focusing on tapping
within new product market such as product made of glasses and poly lactic as these product lines
does not contain any excess intervention of government. By adopting these steps Advanced
plastics Ltd will able to achieve distinct market edge and this will help them to flourish within
marketplace (Sadgrove, 2016).
Economic factors: These factors are associated with tax policies, GDP rate, currency
fluctuations, wage rate, inflation rate, employment rate etc. If a country is having sound
economic position then it allows their in-house businesses to grow and get sustainability.
Similarly price of a product is truly dependent on economic condition as there are so many
factors of price which have direct impact of tax policy and wage rate as well. In the current
scenario UK is suffering from high inflation rate by which cost of running and shipment has
increased tremendously that is obtaining negative impact on Advanced plastics Ltd and their
business operations. On the contrary the company is having problem of increased cost by which
they have to sacrifice their profit or they can increase product price which can hamper their
goodwill in adverse manner. In order to come up with this situation, Advanced plastics Ltd is

focusing to recycle their waste so as to control extravagant cost and utilise procured resources in
effective manner.
Social factors: These factors are associated with taste and favourites of customers and
their effectiveness to adopt the new product which is having distinct feature in them. Advanced
plastics Ltd has considered UK as their gold coin as they are achieving high sales and
profitability over there. This is an important factor for Advanced plastics Ltd and they are
modifying their offerings in order to cater customer’s need in more effective manner. This factor
is having prominent impact over competitive edge of the company and long term sustainability
as well. The company is highly focused on social demands and changes so they are having high
market success as they are having continual improvement in their products. In order to compete
with their rivals the company is emphasised on meeting their customer’s needs by giving them
high quality product. On the other hand Advanced plastics Ltd is adopting these changes to
motivate their business in many ways and to maintain their goodwill within marketplace.
Technological factors: These factors are associated with usage of new and emerging technology
within business and their impact over business. In the process of moulding raw material into their
finished goods by using latest and highly Advanced plastics Ltdd technology within their
machineries. This is helpful for them to process their finished goods in more effective manner in
order to get best outputs with high quality. This factor is having positive implication on
Advanced plastics Ltd as they are using emerging technology within their manufacturing process
which is giving them uniqueness to mould their finished goods. The problem with this factor is
that all the employees do not possess the same skills set in order to operate these Advanced
plastics Ltdd machineries. So to overcome form this situation Advanced plastics Ltd is arranging
various training sessions in order to give proper training and to make their employees learn about
how to use those machineries in more effective way (Schaltegger and Burritt, 2017).
Legal factors: These factors are associated with those legal laws and legislative
proceeding which is required by business to follow so as to avoid any law suits. Advanced
plastics Ltd is highly focused in enforcing these laws as employment laws, fair dismissal act,
safety act and many more. These factors put high impact on Advanced plastics Ltd as they are
having more intervention of government so they are having high implications of safety laws so
they are operating their manufacturing process within these limitations only. For this company

has hired legal personnel who are responsible to manage all the legal proceedings and providing
legal advices to the business. In UK government has enforced limitation via legal laws to plastic
companies so Advanced plastics Ltd is requisite to operate their business in that boundary.
Environmental factors: These factors are associated with impact on environment on business
and impact of business on environment. As plastic is not decomposable in nature so it is having
high negative implications on nature and earth. Advanced plastics Ltd is having high
manufacturing of Bi-product in their process of manufacturing so this is rendering negative
impact on nature and environment. These negative impacts affect profitability of the company
and affect their goodwill in adverse manner. So in order to nullify these effects Advanced
plastics Ltd is making those policies in their production by which they can minimise these affect
and minimise harm to the environment (Schultz and Malthouse, 2017).
TASK 2
Relevance of Marketing communication mix and its impact on the policies and decision making
of firm.
Marketing communication mix
Marketing communication mix is an art which starts with promotion of goods within
marketplace with a view to spread awareness about those products which a company is offering.
This is a concept which is wide in nature and more than just promoting and advertising; this is a
broader concept which includes development, distributing, pricing and channels of
communication. With the help of promotion awareness can be spread about the product and
feature or specifications so it is considered as an essential tool for business. Similarly with the
help of marketing activities customers can be targeted and offering can be conveyed to them with
reference to the company so this is also taken as an essential tool. On the other hand marketing
communication is a method which is helpful for the company to advertise their offerings within
marketplace so as to attract more customers form their target market. This tool allows the
business to market their offerings within marketplace and enhance their sales and revenue.
Within this context Advanced plastics Ltd is having high opportunities to meet expectation of
their customers by taking help of this concept. Similarly with the help of this concept
management is able to enhance their market opportunities and possibilities to achieve success.

By using this tool management is able to use resources in impactful manner in order to get long
term business sustainability (Bruhn and Schnebelen, 2017). Every possible market opportunity is
giving high end over market edge and product recall within customer. There are six essentials in
marketing communication mix which are expounded as under:
Advertising Element: This is one of the major essential of marketing communication mix.
Advertisement is defined as a non-personal presentation which is made by a company in order to
present their goods or services within market with a sole purpose to attract them by spreading
awareness and increase their footfall for the product. Advertising is used so as to reach out to
most possible customer in order to obtain positive output for them which may help the business
to enhance its goodwill. This method is used by Advanced plastics Ltd in order to get positive
feedback over their profit and sales by attracting so many customers from their influential
advertising.
Personal Selling: Personal selling is sort of direct marketing. The main objective of personal
selling is to establish one to one communication from their potential customers and remove those
blockades which are creating interruptions in smooth communication (Adebiyi and Bello, 2018).
For personal selling a person is appointed by the company and he is having role to encourage
awareness of their offerings which can directly impacts sales of the company in positive manner.
A face to face communication is involved in direct selling and the main focus of this aspect is to
obtain highest customer satisfaction. With this context Advanced plastics Ltd has appointed a
proficient sale person who is expertise in handling customer and establish effective
communication form them. This communication is going to help the company is knowing about
latest trends and needs of their customers by which they can modify their product in order to get
high customer satisfaction. This dimension of communication mix is helpful for Advanced
plastics Ltd to enhance their sales and meet expectations of their customers as well.
Discounts and Promotions: Discount and promotions are having essential role in
communication mix as this is equivalent to advertising as these both concepts are used by
business to enhance sales and profitability. On the other side these both terminology is having
distinct meaning as advertising is concerned about spreading awareness about product and used
to convey features of the product or services whereas promotions are used to promote sales and
attract customer by giving them additional discounts and exciting offers. Discount and coupon is

the tool of communication mix which is used for the major purpose to boost up sales and
customer footfall. In the context of Advanced plastics Ltd they are using this aspect so as to
attract larger people and to invite rivalry inside their competitors. With this tool business
efficiency can be improvised and profit can be hike in very less time period (Adetunji, Rashid
and Ishak, 2018).
Public relation and messaging: Public relation is a procedure within marketing
communication mix which involves building up strong relationship with clients. With the help of
public relation strong relationships with clients can be made by using communication as
mediator tool and this is going to help the business in developing in overall manner. Public
relations are helpful for the business organisation for the purpose to enhance their goodwill and
market image. This tool involves direct communication so with communication to potential
customer business offerings can be modified as per their demand and needs. With the context of
Advanced plastics Ltd this method is used by them in enhancing their customer base and keeps
them happy by giving them high edge products and grabs their loyalty for those products.
Direct marketing: This method is having wide scope and meaning in which offerings are
conveyed to the customer by directly connecting with them and establish one to one
communication as well. Under this method customer are directly informed for business offering
whether it is a product or usable services which are offered by them in marketplace. Direct
marketing includes brochures, coupons, telephone, emails and many more (Hanssens and
Pauwels, 2016). In order to communicate with customer in direct manner these methods are
used. These are the most effective methods of marketing as this is a two way communicational
tool and feedback can be gathered at instant manner. When product is made for niche market
then this method is proven to be the best method in making brand position and attract customer
(Marino and Lo Presti, 2019).
Event sponsorship: This concept is emerging concept and an effective tool or marketing
communication mix. Within this method company’s takes participation in various events with a
view to advertise their offering at a public in large. This method is used by Advanced plastics
Ltd as they are willing to capture more market segments and event sponsorship is helpful for
them in giving them high market publicity with the help of word of mouth. By this they will be

able to develop their positive brand image within marketplace and this will increase their market
share and profitability in most considerable manner.
Influence of marketing communication mix on policies and decision making of Advanced
plastics ltd.
Marketing communication is having prominent role in a business organisation as this is a
helpful tool in decision making within most effective manner. In order to have business
development and expansion these concepts are having significant role. In the context of
Advanced plastics Ltd marketing communication mix is impacting their business and business
policies which are framed in decision making of the company. The detailed description of
influences of policies over decision making within Advanced plastics Ltd has been elaborated as
under:
Advertising activities includes huge capital investments so in order to arrange capital it is
not an easy task which can be carried out without any efforts. This factor directly or indirectly
influences business and its operations. In this context Advanced plastics Ltd is implementing
plans related to advertising and handling those difficulties which are arising in the process with
the sole purpose to boost sales and earn profits (Blakeman, 2018).
Discounts and promotions are having prominent role in the business as they are helpful to
attract more number of customers towards business offering and play a significant role in
enhancing sales and customer loyalty. There are so many decisions which are taken by the
management to boost up sales are having direct implication over performance of the business.
Major problem faced by Advanced plastics Ltd is that they are unable to decide value of discount
to be rendered to customer by view to attract them for their product offerings. This company is
having their operation in plastic moulds and it is a difficult task for them to decide upon
percentage of discount to be given. Similarly the company is having certain policies which are
having direct relationship with their profitability so the management has revised those policies.
The management of Advanced plastics Ltd has taken a decision of event sponsorship
which is having major impact on their business and business activities. The management of
Advanced plastics Ltd is required to take decision regarding investment over this sponsorship as
they are profit generating or not. This tool is having prominent impact over business as this helps

them to enhance their sales in considerable manner and enhance customer base as well. With the
help of event sponsorship they may boost up their sales and customer engagement in less time
and higher inclination within profitability. Customers can be communicated in direct manner
with this method and offerings can be modified as per needs and demands of customers (Finne
and Grönroos, 2017).
The company had taken decision to sell their product with the use of direct selling as their
prominent tool. This tool is having a major task to get effective communication with their
customer. This process is a time consuming process and customer coverage value is quite low in
this method so this is the problem which is seen by Advanced plastics Ltd within this process.
Similarly this helped them to boost their sales in limited time and to develop their business
within marketplace.
Advanced plastics Ltd has decided to enhance their public relations with their potential
and existing customers. Within this activity the major issue faced by them is to take out time as
this process consumes high time. This method helped them to improvise personal relationship
with their clients due to that feedback can be gathered and product offering can be modified as
per needs and demands of customer. This methods maintained transparency with their customer
and helped the company to get long term profitability within their business.
From the above discussion it can be concluded that there are several dimensions which
are having prominent role in marketing communication mix and these are helpful for the
business to get advantages over profit and sales. Advanced plastics Ltd faced so many problems
while implementing those tools in their marketing process but with the help of marketing tools
and tactics they resolved them (Piercy, 2016).
Critically evaluate the effectiveness of the firm's response
It is important for every business organization to regularly monitor, tackle and adapt to market
changes to ensure business stability for long period. Keeping this in mind it is essential for
Advance plastics limited to maintain proper mix of communication, as it is most crucial tool to
achieve organizational goals effectively. Advanced Plastics Ltd. Major marketing strategy is
focused on discount and promotional offers to boost their sales and consumer market at the same
time. They adopted this technology in advantageous manner to achieve their desired goal by

enhancing customer base. In addition to this, there has been high focus on advertising activities
to create awareness among customers regarding their products (French and Gordon, 2019).
This technology has assisted Advanced Plastics Ltd. to great extent to be stayed connected with
their existing clients across UK, which helped them in spreading awareness and enhancing sales.
Major issue faced by every company in advertising is collection of funds as it is high investment
activity, which at some point may disturb the profitability of company. In order to reduce this,
bank loan was taken by them having terms of payment in instalments. In addition to these, a
creating team was formed to make decisions regarding advertisement and its investment to make
this process optimized and effective.
Explain some areas for improvements in response of the organization
Planning is important and continuous process, and it is important for every organization to
prepare a development plan to make every activity effective and efficient and to ensure proper
decision making which provides satisfactory customer benefits regarding product’s quality as
well as cost. With view of enhancing performance of business and management to its highest
efficiency and effectiveness, every organization has to formulate better relationships with their
customers through effective public relation feedback method to be generated for customers,
which would be beneficial in deciding modification of business activities and processes as per
opinion of customers. It would help them to identify and form portfolio of loyal customers who
are being part in high business growth and development. Besides this, it is recommended for
advanced plastics Ltd. to improve their sales promotional strategy as it is noticed that company is
not much focused on event promotion area, which is the area with high customer involvement
opportunities (Talebpour and Mahmassani, 2016).
CONCLUSION
From the details provided above it can be concluded that Contemporary Development is a
very much-required aspect of the business as it helps organization in tackling with any form of
negativity business influence, which is or might have big impact on profitability and revenue or
business. External factors of PESTEL can be referred and analyzed here to get a clear idea about
business opportunities and existing threats for industry within market place. Evaluation of Six
factors i.e. Political, Environmental, Social, Technical, Economical and Legal are required as

part of PESTEL analysis. They have immense impact over business operations. By analyzing
these six factors, it would be easy and helpful for business to identify threats and their mitigation
solutions to ensure smooth flow of business operations and its sustainability. On the other hand
Marketing communication Mix is major tool to cover higher market size and customers by
promoting and spreading their product within that particular market place.