Marketing Essentials: ALDI's Plan, Mix, Roles & Responsibilities

This report provides a comprehensive overview of ALDI's marketing essentials, focusing on the key roles and responsibilities of its marketing functions and their relationship to the wider organizational context. It includes an examination of advertising, branding, pricing, sales, research, public relations, product placement, distribution, and strategy formulation. The report also compares the application of the marketing mix (7Ps) to the marketing planning processes of ALDI and Waitrose, highlighting differences in product, price, promotion, place, people, physical evidence, and process. Finally, the report outlines the production and evaluation of a basic marketing plan for ALDI, considering various factors influencing its success. Desklib offers a variety of resources for students, including past papers and solved assignments.

MARKETING ESSENTIALS ALDI

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................2
TASK 1..............................................................................................................................................3
P1 THE KEY ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE MARKETING FUNCTIONS OF ALDI...............3
P2 RELATIONSHIP OF THE ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF MARKETING TO THE WIDER
ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT.......................................................................................................5
TASK 2..............................................................................................................................................8
P3 COMPARISON OF THE WAYS FOR THE APPLICATION OF THE MARKETING MIX TO THE
MARKETING PLANNING PROCESS OF ALDI AND WAITROSE FOR ACHIEVING THE BUSINESS
OBJECTIVES..................................................................................................................................8
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................12
P4 PRODUCTION AND EVALUATION OF THE BASIC MARKETING PLAN FOR ALDI....................12
CONCLUSION.................................................................................................................................16
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................17
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INTRODUCTION
Marketing is one of the essential and undetachable functions of any business organization. It is
the management process which helps in moving the goods and services from the company to
the customers. In other words, marketing could be defined as the set of activities and processes
for producing, communicating, delivering and exchanging the goods and services offered by the
business organization for creating value for the customers and the society. Marketing activities
are majorly associated with the buying and selling of the offerings of the company (Armstrong
et al., 2015). Here in this assignment, the overall aspects and approaches of marketing will be
discussed in the context of the renowned supermarket ‘ALDI’. It is a well-recognized
organization that understands the customer needs and demands and offers varieties of
products and services to gain higher customer value and profit for the organization. This
assignment will help in highlighting the roles, responsibilities and major elements of marketing
to help in formulating an effective marketing plan for ‘ALDI'.
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TASK 1
P1 THE KEY ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE MARKETING FUNCTIONS
OF ALDI
The marketing functions are responsible for performing the marketing roles and responsibilities
of the companies to enable them to gain higher customer value and satisfaction for
contributing in the overall growth and success of the business organizations (Baker, 2014). The
marketing department of Aldi performs several marketing functions to support the company in
establishing the better relationship with the customers of the organization. The major
marketing functions of Aldi are:
ADVERTISING & BRANDING: The advertising and branding are the major functions of marketing
as it involves the process of spreading awareness and communicating about the products and
services with the potential customers (Baran, 2014). The advertisement in Aldi is been done
through the several means such as Television, newspapers, radio, internet, social networking
sites, mobile applications and etc.
Figure 1 Roles and responsibilities of Marketing Function
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[Source: https://tinobusiness.com/marketing-function-identify-satisfy-produce/]
PRICING: Aldi offers products and services at the cheap and affordable prices to its customers.
Its pricing function involves the several policies such as unit pricing strategies, competitive
pricing, psychological pricing and etc. (Baker, 2014) due to this it aims towards achieving strong
customer base in the market.
SALES: The sales function is the most essential function of the company as it is directly related
to the generation of revenue for operations and growth of the company. The marketing
department is responsible for efficiently performing this function for increasing the sales
volume of the goods and services offered by the company.
RESEARCH: The research function is related to the study of the available marketing
opportunities and threats to develop and formulate effective products and marketing strategies
by gaining the complete information about the market needs and conditions.
PUBLIC RELATIONS: The marketing department of every business organizations is responsible
for creating and maintaining a sustainable relationship with all the stakeholders of the
organization (Foxall, 2014). Aldi also works towards the establishing a better public relations
through several strategies and policies.
PRODUCT PLACEMENT: The product placement function is related to the placement of the
product and brand image in the minds of the customers to gain higher customer value and
retain the customers.
DISTRIBUTION: As a supermarket chain the distribution of products and services are the major
task of the marketing department. The distribution functions involve the movement of products
from concept to customers (Baker, 2014). The Aldi acts as a medium of distribution for the
several products and services and it distributes goods through its numerous stores.
STRATEGY FORMULATION: It is the major function of the marketing department of Aldi to
formulate effective strategies in order to perform all the above marketing functions effectively
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for achieving the marketing goals and objectives of the organization. The strategies are mainly
formulated to increase the market share or entering the new market sector.
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P2 RELATIONSHIP OF THE ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF MARKETING TO
THE WIDER ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT
The organizational structure of Aldi has been designed to meet the overall operational
requirements of the organization. All the organizational functions ate the part of the overall
organizational structure and are interrelated and interdependent to each other for executing all
the functional activities and tasks of the company effectively in order to achieve the ultimate
goals and objectives of the company (Hollensen, 2010).
The marketing function embraces the operations of the entire business. The marketing function
looks out the overall business operations from the customer’s point of view and hence, helps
Aldi in achieving the higher market share through the increased customer value and satisfaction
through its products and services. Therefore, all the functions of the organization such as
finance, human resource, sales, research & development, production and information
technology are required to cooperate with the marketing function to organizational goals
effectively (Foxall, 2014). As an assistant marketing manager at Aldi, I am responsible for
ensuring a positive relationship between the marketing and all the other functions of the
organization.
THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF MARKETING TO WIDER
ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT
FINANCE AND MARKETING:
The major roles and responsibilities of the finance function are to planning and organizing the
flow of funds within an organization to manage and maintain the continuous working of the
activities and tasks within the company. The marketing function and the finance function both
are interdependent and interrelated with each other for completing their tasks and activities
effectively (Drucker, 2012). For instance, the marketing function needs the consideration and
collaboration of finance function regarding the availability of the funds to perform marketing
functions such as advertising, promotion distribution etc. In Aldi, the marketing function needs
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to collaborate with the financing function to decide the prices of the products for ensuring the
lowest price while earning higher revenue for the company.
HUMAN RESOURCE AND MARKETING:
The human resource function is responsible for managing all the human assets of the
organization. It requires performing several human resource functions such as recruitment &
selection, training & development and other activities related to the workforce management in
the company. The marketing function requires the sufficient and skilful individuals to perform
marketing activities (Baran, 2014). For instance, in order to increase the sales of the Aldi, the
marketing function requires having an effective sales team that is able to perform the selling
task successfully. Here, human resource function plays an important role in selecting most
suitable sale steam for fulfilling the requirements of the marketing function.
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT AND MARKETING:
The research and development and marketing functions are also related with each other so as
to find new opportunities in the market and to produce new products according to market
needs and demands to maintain the organizational growth and development in the rapidly
changing business environment (Drucker, 2012). The research & development function of Aldi is
responsible for producing new products according to the needs and demands of the market
identified by the marketing function.
SALES AND MARKETING:
The sales and marketing functions are the two sides of one coin. They both are totally
interrelated and interdependent with each other. The entire roles and responsibilities of
marketing function are pointed towards the achievement of higher sales to produce higher
revenue for the company and the higher sales will also generate better brand value in the
market that will further help in promotional activities of the marketing function (Drucker,
2012). In Aldi, the increased sales are the results of the effective marketing strategies of the
company.
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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND MARKETING:
The information technology supports the marketing functions in several activities and tasks. It
helps in establishing effective communication among all the stakeholders in the organization to
create a proper flow of essential and purposeful information in the organization. The
information technology helps the marketing function to effectively communicate with all the
producers, customers, distributors and the other departments of the company to gain and
spread information for the achieving the set goals of the company (Baran, 2014).
In the context of the wider organization like Aldi, The role and responsibilities of the marketing
are also increased and needed to collaborate with all the other functions of the organization for
formulating the effective marketing strategies to gain and retain a larger customer base and
increased customer value in the organization.
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TASK 2
P3 COMPARISON OF THE WAYS FOR THE APPLICATION OF THE MARKETING
MIX TO THE MARKETING PLANNING PROCESS OF ALDI AND WAITROSE FOR
ACHIEVING THE BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
As an assistant manager of the Aldi, for effectively comparing the application of marketing mix
to the marketing planning process, I will choose an example of another expensive supermarket
chain in the country ‘Waitrose’. This will help in establishing a purposeful comparison among
the organization for gaining a better understanding of the application of marketing mix to the
marketing planning process.
Aldi and Waitrose are the two renowned supermarkets in the UK both of these organizations
use different approaches to the business and marketing strategies. The Aldi offer cheaper and
affordable quality products to the customers whereas the Waitrose offers expensive but
uncompromising quality products to the customers (Fenton and Buster, 2014). Here, a
comparison of the application of marketing mix to the marketing planning process of Aldi and
Waitrose will be studied.
The marketing mix is the combination of the major factors of marketing such as product, price,
promotion, place, people, physical evidence and process that could be easily controlled by the
business organization for influencing its customer to make a purchase of the products and
services offered (Jain, 2013). This marketing mix is the commonly known as the 7p’s of
marketing.
THE COMPARISON OF THE 7P’S OF MARKETING OF ALDI AND WAITROSE:
1. PRODUCT: The Aldi offers a wide range of products sourced from the selected suppliers
and branded as own product of the company to have control over the cost and
production of the product. Whereas, the product mix of Waitrose differ from area to
area according to the varying needs and tastes of the customers with the
uncompromised quality products (Marketingweek.com, 2014).
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2. PRICE: The Aldi creates strong customer base by offering cheap and affordable products
of its own brand and Waitrose offers expensive and high-quality products to its
customers (Businesscasestudies.co.uk, 2018). Both of the organization uses unit pricing
strategies at their stores to facilitate ease of comparison to their customers.
Figure 2 7P's of the marketing mix
[Source: https://dikraniskenderian.blog/2014/10/07/the-8-ps-of-marketing/]
3. PROMOTION: The Aldi uses cost-saving promotion strategies and invests negligible
funds for promotion to maintain the low price of products. On the contrary, Waitrose
uses contrasting promotional activities by different promotional offers for all of its
stores according to the location of the stores.
4. PLACE: As a supermarket chain both of the companies sell their products through the
numerous numbers of stores. The Aldi offers its products through more than 9600
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stores in the 18 countries (Businesscasestudies.co.uk, 2018)whereas Waitrose offers its
products through around 352 locations of Great Britain.
5. PEOPLE: The Aldi uses the strategy of employing lower staff to maintain the cheaper
price of the products and hence, could not provide better assistance to its customers
while Waitrose provides better assistance to the customers through its well-qualified
staff.
6. PHYSICAL EVIDENCE: The Aldi is known for its simple and standardized business process
and global pricing strategies and Waitrose is known for its best quality products and
upmarket image in the sector (Marketingweek.com, 2014).
7. PROCESS: The Aldi keeps the simple layout of offering good quality lowest price
products to its customers and Waitrose uses expensive layout and process for offering
higher quality products to its customers.
THE APPLICATION OF MARKETING MIX TO THE MARKETING PLANNING PROCESS OF ALDI AND
WAITROSE
The marketing planning process involves the steps of determining and formulating the
objectives of the marketing department with an effective inclusion of the elements of the
marketing mix for maximizing the customer value and profitability of the business organization
(Phil and Jim, 2010). The marketing planning process of Aldi and Waitrose involves the effective
blend of marketing mix elements for the achievement of the goals and objectives of the
organizations. The steps in marketing planning process are:
1. DETERMINATION OF THE ORGANIZATIONAL OBJECTIVES: This is the primary step in the
process of marketing planning. It involves the formulation or determination of the goals
and objective of the marketing functions through identifying the elements of the
marketing mix for setting the future activities and tasks.
2. ASSESSMENT OF ORGANIZATIONAL RESOURCES: The proper knowledge of all the
elements of marketing mix helps in assessing all the required resources for carrying the
marketing activities and achieving the marketing goals.
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