Business Marketing Essentials: A Comprehensive Report on Ben Sherman

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Business Marketing Essentials
Student Name: MONICA COSER
Student ID: LCC20196264
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
LO1 (Task 1)....................................................................................................................................4
LO2 (Task 2)....................................................................................................................................6
LO3 (Task 3)..................................................................................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................18
Reference List................................................................................................................................19
Appendix........................................................................................................................................21
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Introduction
Marketing is a practice that allows the companies to trade their products as well as services. Ben
Sherman is a clothing brand of the United Kingdom that sells sweaters, shirts, shoes, suits, and
other products for men. Ben Sherman has founded it in the year 1963. The annual revenue
generated by the firm is around 67,218,000 dollars as per the report of 2013 (bensherman.com,
2019). The present task would have discussion on marketing responsibilities and duties. The
comparison will take place of Ben Sherman and Burberry concerning their making mix strategies
as well as a marketing plan will be produced for the former business.
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LO1 (Task 1)
P1 Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function.
Define marketing
Marketing is the action of promoting as well as trading goods or services of the firm that
incorporates advertising and researching the market.
Explain the importance of marketing for the selected organisation
Marketing will be beneficial for Ben Sherman, as the business would need to promote the goods
in order to sell the products. The process of marketing will assist the business in creating new
ideas to generate profit by applying various strategies in business. It helps in making decision in
Ben Sherman to increase the visibility of the brand in the market (Kotler and Armstrong, 2013).
Define marketing function
Marketing function is the duty of a company to recognise the effective products and source hem
from reliable channels in order to sell them in market. Marketing function includes promotion f
commodities by differentiation them from products of other companies.
Identify the key marketing functions
Market analysis is one of the key functions of marketing department of Ben Sherman that helps
in identifying the need of the customers and position of the firm in the fashion retail market of
UK. Through market analysis, Ben Sherman’s marketing department would be able to determine
the aspects of competitors and develop strategies in developing promotional techniques as well
as quality of products and services.
Pricing is one of the major functions of marketing section of Ben Sherman. This function
includes determining price range of the products based on the targeted market and quality of the
goods.
Distribution is the function of marketing that includes distribution of the goods manufactured
and designed in the firm to different stress of various countries. This allows movement of the
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products in the market and ensures availability in different areas where there is demand of the
commodities (Jobber and Ellis-Chadwick, 2012).
After sales service is marketing function that has the role of communicating with the customers
after selling the products through online mode or by using their data to contact with them. Ben
Sherman can enhance the customers’ experience by having feedback from them concerning the
products.
Their role and responsibilities for selected company
Market analysis has the role of conducting market research to analyse the preference of the
customers of Ben Sherman. It has the responsibility of assessing the reference of customers
through surveying as well as targeting the specific market to generate income.
Pricing function of marketing has the role of determining price of Ben Sherman’s merchandises
considering the buying power of the customers and quality of materials used in the
manufacturing of goods. Pricing function of marketing department has the responsibility of
determining the price of products considering that it would be justifiable and reveals the quality
of materials used in the merchandises (Groucutt and Hopkins, 2015).
Distribution is the marketing function that has the role of supplying the products to different
regions to make more sales and generate profit through different regions. It has the responsibility
of ensuring that here is availability of gods in diverse outlets of Ben Sherman so that there would
not be shortage of goods.
After sales service is one of the marketing functions that has the role of interacting with the past
customers to have feedback from them concerning the quality of services and products delivered
to them by the company. It has the responsibility of being attentive to the customers and
converse with them politely to maintain the image of the firm.
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LO2 (Task 2)
P3 Compare the ways in which two organisations of your choice apply the marketing mix
to the marketing planning process to achieve business objectives.
Define business objectives and its importance for the organisation.
Business objective is the aim of business in achieving a particular goal. Business objectives
usually have a time-frame and strategies to attain the objectives. The firm in order to reach the
goals should have sufficient resources, both monetary and human resources for performing the
functions. Business objective is essential for Ben Sherman as it creates a path that needs to be
followed by every member of the company to attain success and generate profit. Determining the
business objective is essential for Ben Sherman, as it would help the company to improve its
operations and enhance the capabilities of the members. Thus, ensuring growth of the
organisation and ensuring maintenance of its position in the market. Developing market
strategies would help the corporation by making the members responsible towheads the company
and perform their duties efficiently.
Define and explain marketing mix
Marketing mix includes some factors that should be controlled by the organisations for
influencing the consumers in making purchase of their commodities. The elements of marketing
mix are product, place, price, people, promotion, physical evidence, and process. These factors
should be controlled by the businesses to affect the customers’ perception about the company in
a positive way.
Discuss the application of marketing mix to the marketing planning process to achieve
business objectives.
Marketing mix elements Burberry Ben Sherman
Product The company specialises in luxury
clothes.
It has differentiation in its
products’ design.
The products of the firm are
Ben Sherman sells clothing
products especially for men.
There are variety of ranges of
products of this company such
as button-down shirts,
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durable and made of good quality
material.
There is diverse range of products
such as Timepieces, Burberry
London, and others
(burberryplc.com, 2019).
colourful shirts for vacation,
and others (bensherman.com,
2019).
The materials used for
manufacturing the apparels are
of high quality and emphasis
placed on stitching of the
garments.
The firm also has beachwear
collections to affect the
travellers’ buying decision.
Price The price range is based as per the
quality of premium products and
their innovative designs. The high-
price range gas been made for the
elite zone buyers as they are the
targeted customers.
The price of the goods of Ben
Sherman is of moderate range.
It provides discount offers to
the customers in online
shopping mode
(bensherman.com, 2019).
Place Burberry has worldwide presence
and the products are sold through
franchises and dealers.
The stores are present in
prominent areas from where the
luxury buyers can buy products.
It has also presence in online sites
as well as the company has official
website to sell the products.
Ben Sherman trades the
products in the native country
as well as has locations in
foreign countries such as U.S,
New Zealand, Canada, and
others (bensherman.co.uk,
2019). It also sells products in
different countries through
online method.
Promotion The promotion carried out the
business with the use of celebrities
and models to influence the
purchasing decision of fashionable
customers.
The firm promotes the
products through its official
website as well as by
providing subscription offer to
new customers. It also
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provides travel tips to the
customers through its online
website to increase the number
of viewers and ensure sales of
products.
It shares videos of the
products in the YouTube
channel as well as is active in
social media platforms such as
Twitter, Instagram, Facebook
to share updates to the
customers concerning latest
goods (bensherman.com,
2019).
Process The management process is
effective in the company. The
functions are carried out without
harming the culture
(burberryplc.com, 2019).
It has recently announced to
boycott using fur for
manufacturing products for
sustainable environment (Li,
2019).
The process of manufacturing
goods has been unique as the
founder has incorporated
buttons of the shirts on the
backside of collar and used
quality fabrics form America
to manufacture the goods
(bensherman.com, 2019).
People The company provides bonus to
the employees based on their
performance as well as does not
differentiate between men and
women in determining their
remuneration (burberryplc.com,
2019).
Ben Sherman provides
employment to native people
in its stores thus, helping them
in enhancing their living
condition.
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Members are provided with
training to develop their abilities
and skills.
Physical evidence The physical evidence of the firm
as effective as it has attractive
logo.
Ben Sherman’s physical
evidence that is its logo has
been modified in the year
2011 to give the brand a
standard look.
Table 1: Comparison between Ben Sherman and Burberry's marketing mix strategies
(Source: Created by the learner)
Find the similarities and dissimilarities of both discussions.
Similarities
Both Ben Sherman and Burberry have developed some strategies in promoting goods. Both the
companies have logo to make their identity in the market. Both the companies have presence in
online stores to sell goods through online method.
Dissimilarities
It has been observed from the provided comparison of marketing mix of Burberry and Ben
Sherman that the former is a luxury brand that sells products at high range whereas Ben
Sherman is a fashion retailer of UK that sells products at discounted range to the customers.
The process of manufacturing products is quite different in these two companies as Burberry
uses high quality materials and designs and Ben Sherman include different designs in producing
moderate quality products. Ben Sherman is much more active in social media than Burberry for
promoting the products. While Burberry is present in many more countries than Ben Sherman.
Burberry has diverse brands while Ben Sherman does not.
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LO3 (Task 3)
P4 Produce and evaluate a basic marketing plan for organisation of your choice.
D2 Design a strategic marketing plan that tactically applies the use of the 7P’s to achieve
overall marketing objectives.
Executive Summary
The present task has demonstrated a marketing plan on Ben Sherman Company. SOSTAC model
has been used to produce the marketing plan. The significance of marketing plan has been
explained as well.
Define marketing plan
Marketing plan is the documentation of advertising strategies that the firm can incorporate to
reach the goal and generate sales (Wilson and McDonald, 2011). In a marketing plan, the details
are provided concerning the tactics that the firm can use to influence the marketing function.
Explain the importance of marketing plan for the organisation
The marketing plan is necessary for Ben Sherman to create strategies in order to meet the goals
and focus on the specific target and need of the company to become successful. Marketing plan
is significant in assessing the factors that can affect marketing of services and products in either
affirmative or negative manner.
Identify the key terms
Marketing plan should consider the key points such as objectives of marketing, segmentation,
target market, which includes specific group of people or region to generate profit from the
targeted people. The plan of marketing includes determining goals, objectives, and conducting
analysis of environment both internal and external that can affect the operation of Ben Sherman.
Allocation of resources is essential to plan the budget in order to avoid wastage or shortages of
supply. Marketing plan also incorporates control measures and monitoring of the human
resources for effective implementation of the plan in promoting and selling of goods.
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Produce a marketing plan for organisation based on those key terms
SOSTAC model will be used for developing the plan of marketing.
Figure 1: SOSTAC model
(Source: Chaffey and Smith, 2017)
Vision of company
The vision of Ben Sherman is to create unique products to influence the customers’ decision of
purchasing apparels (bensherman.com, 2019).
Situational Analysis
PESTLE
Elements Factors Effects on Ben Sherman
Political Brexit has affected the supply
chain of British fashion retail
industry by increasing the
Ben Sherman will be
influenced in a negative way
due to Brexit as it imports
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tariff rates on importing goods
(voguebusiness, 2019).
goods from foreign countries
such as U.S.
Economic The economic rate of UK has
been reduced from 0.5% in
May to -0.2% in August 2019
(tradingeconomics.com,
2019).
The reduction in growth of
economy of the country will
have negative influence on
Ben Sherman, as it would not
be able to improve the
functions of company by
investing in machineries and
technology.
Social Social factor such as products’
preference of the customers
has been changed as they have
become attracted towards the
luxury goods.
The change in shopping
preference can affect Ben
Sherman negatively as it does
not produce luxury products.
Technological The use of social media in
promoting products affect the
decision of buyers of UK as it
is a convenient method of
shopping without stepping out
of home.
The technological factor will
influence positively Ben
Sherman as provides online
shopping option to the
customers along with
subscription offer to the first
time users.
Legal “National Minimum Wage
Act 1998” provides
regulations to the naive
companies in providing
sufficient salary to the workers
based on the type of labour as
well as educational skills and
experience (legislation.gov.uk,
2019).
Ben Sherman will be affected
by the legislation of UK’s
government as in order to
comply with the rules it has to
provide adequate
remuneration to the
employees.
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