Marketing Essentials Report: Analyzing Boots UK's Marketing Strategies

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Marketing Essentials
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Table of Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................... 3
LO1 (P1, P2).................................................................................................................... 4
LO2 (P3)...........................................................................................................................7
LO3 (P4).........................................................................................................................12
Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 18
Reference list................................................................................................................. 19
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Introduction
Marketing is the process of creating interest among customers regarding a product or
service. It refers to the activities undertaken by an organization for promoting the selling
or buying of a good or service. It includes advertisement, promotion, selling as well as
delivering of goods to customers. As per the consideration of modern market
researchers, marketing is the key process of researching, advertising as well as selling
goods to the actual target customers. Modern business scenario is highly competitive
and in order to sustain reaching out more numbers of customers and meeting the sales
target is such necessity. Marketing provides these opportunity business organizations.
“Boots, UK” is one of the famous British retail companies across the UK premises that
deal with beauty, pharmacy and health products. It a subsidiary of Sainsbury’s and it
was founded in 1849, over 169 years ago. It has 2500 shops across the country and
more than 5800-trained employees perform diverse business activities across those
stators (boots.com, 2019).
In this study, the roles of marketing as a function and department of an organization will
be evaluated. Its interrelation with other functional units will be showed as well. Lastly, a
basic marketing plan will be prepared for better consideration of the entire project.
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LO1 (P1, P2)
Explain the role of marketing and how it interrelates with other functional units of
an organisation.
P1 Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function.
The marketing functions can be referred to as the role, which assists an organisation to
assess as well as source products that will be potentially successful for the marketplace
in which the company operates (Rosenbloom, 2013). This helps with gaining
competitive advantage by differentiating own products or services from the similar ones
available in the market. Thus, it can be stated that, it is an extremely essential segment
of every establishment. In a large organisation, for instance Boots UK, which is a
pharmacy chain and deals in health along with beauty retailing, is comprised of a
number of complex tasks. These include performing marketing research and developing
marketing plan, looking after product or service development. In addition to that, tasks
for instance, looking after the pricing of the products or the services, distribution for sale,
public relation, and other as such in a strategic manner, are also inclusive within the
marketing functions.
The definitive goal of marketing is exchanging of products or services from the
producers to the end consumers in such a manner, which will assist the organisations to
maximise the satisfaction of the customers through meeting their requirements,
demands and expectations (Chernev, 2018). The roles as well as the responsibilities of
the marketing functions within the company, Boots UK is explained as follows:
 Defining as well as managing the Brand
One of the key roles of the marketing functions within boots UK is to not only define but
also manage its brand. This requires the company defining to its consumers what it
stands for, what products or services it deals in, the manner in which the organisation
acts and many other as such. This in turn assists to define the manner of experiences
the company Boots UK want its consumers as well as partners and other stakeholders
to have during the time of interaction.
 Carrying out campaign management
This requires to be done for marketing initiatives. The marketing functions of Boots UK
in a proactive manner identify the products or the services to put emphasize on over the
course of its sales cycle in order to produce materials as well as communications, which
will be capable of informing the consumers and others.
 Development of marketing along with promotional materials
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Another key responsibility of the marketing functions within Boots UK is creating
appropriate materials, which will describe as well as promote its core products and
services in the market. Therefore, the organisation is required to remain aware
regarding the trends in the market in order to evolve the products and services with the
contemporary demands and needs.
 Creation of content for “Search Engine optimisation”
The website of an organisation, such as Boots UK and many others is frequently the
first and potentially the sole source from which individuals seek different kinds of
information regarding the company (Carrel, 2013). Thus, the roles and responsibilities of
the marketing functions include updating the web content with time and making sure
that the company website is easily spottable when a person searches for similar types
of businesses.
 Monitoring as well as managing social networking sites
Managing along with maintaining the social networking sites of Boots UK is another
crucial responsibility of marketing functions. In addition to that, the different social media
accounts have to be managed effectively and monitor the consumer perceptions posted
online.
 Developing communications as well as promotional materials
Creating the communications and promotional materials is a marketing function role,
which is conducted for promoting the products and services of Boots UK to the
consumers and prospects. Relying on the accessible budget, the advertising campaigns
are planned, programmes of email marketing are developed, and promotional content is
created for the organisational website along with many others as such as a part of the
marketing functions.
 Developing internal communication
As the workforce of Boots UK requires understanding the different organisational
aspects such as its values, priorities, goals, and others as such, it is the responsibility of
the marketing functions to look after staff communications through mediums such as
intranet, newsletter and many others.
 Providing service as media liaison
Times in which the media cite Boots UK, the role of the marketing functions is to act as
a spokesman for the organisation as well as guide the executives regarding the manner
in which they must respond to the queries of the media (Eagle et al., 2014).
 Carrying out market as well as customer research
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This is also an important role of the marketing functions within the Boots UK. This
assists the organisation to define the target markets as well as possible opportunities.
This in turn assist the company to comprehend the manner in which its products and
services are perceived in the market.
P2 Explain how roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider
organisational context.
Wider organisational context of Boots UK can be referred to as its other functioning
departments, such as finance and accounting, production, research and development
along with many others. These roles are explained as follows:
 Finance and Accounting
This department focuses on assessing the benefits of the different marketing strategies,
along with the rewards, which these might bring along with it. Additionally, this
department also estimates the cost that required for implementing the marketing ideas
(prezi.com, 2019).Therefore, the above-mentioned department within Boots UK
examines the possibility of accomplishing the idea within the lowest amount of budget.
 Production
When an idea is generated by the marketing functions for satisfying the different
stakeholders, it is discussed with the production department in order to transform the
concept in products or services (Lusch and Vargo, 2014). This is necessary for Boots
UK for producing appropriate and effective products and services.
 Research and Development
Similar to the marketing functions, the research and development of Boots UK seeks to
assess the demands and requirements of the contemporary consumers. Thus is can be
mentioned that, R and D assist marketing functions to acknowledge the different
manners in which it can satisfy the consumers.
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LO2 (P3)
Compare ways in which organisations use elements of the marketing mix (7Ps) to
achieve overall business objectives
P3 Compare the ways in which different organisations apply the marketing mix to
the marketing planning process to achieve business objectives.
Marketing mix is a technique of guiding the consumers for choosing goods and
services instead of electing the goods of rival competitors. It includes several important
factors such as product, place, price, promotion, people, physical evidence and process
(Huang and Sarigöllü, 2014). Most of the successful companies like Boots, UK use
effective marketing mix strategy for better sales and growth of the company. In the
below section, the comparison of Boots, UK and “Morrisons” in terms of marketing mix
has been provided.
Factors “Boots UK” “Morrisons”
Product Products are those
important items that are
actually served to
customers (Londhe, 2014).
Business organizations like
Boots, UK always focus
upon manufacturing their
products in such manner
that it can create value to
the customers. Boots UK is
one of the famous retail
forms across the UK that
deals with mainly health,
pharmacy and beauty
products. They have
created a segment of
business, where they are
actually dominating. Apart
from this, it is a subsidiary
of Sainsbury’s so that the
company has adequate
resources and stocks to
supply products to wide
range of customers.
“Morrisons” is also popular
retail firm that has large
product portfolio including
food and drink, books,
DVD, clothing, magazine
and others. However, due
to this large portfolio, the
company faces high
competition from all sides,
which results in lower
sales performance.
Price Pricing is one of the most On the other hand,
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important factors that
influence engagement of
customers. “Boots UK”
generally uses dynamic
pricing just similar to
parent company
Sainsbury’s for assorting
prices of its goods
(boots.com, 2019). “Boots
UK” checks the market and
conducts survey for
understanding the
competition standard about
the economic condition of
customers along with the
amount of money they can
spend on an item. Just
similar to parent company
Sainsbury’s, “Boots UK”
also focuses on setting the
price of the product at the
most affordable rate.
Company knows that
customers are likely to
purchase affordable
products so that the
organization can generate
higher seals revenue
easily. Compared to other
rival companies, “Boots
UK” always try to keep
their price rate lower to
attract more customers to
their firm.
“Morrisons” follows
premium pricing and they
set price rates mostly
higher compared to other
companies. In recent
business scenario,
companies with lower price
rates have more priority
and more customers due
to affordable price rates.
“Morrisons” has targeted
loyal and high status
customers to sell their
costly products. The
company also conducts
market research and
competitors’ analysis, but
as they have segmented
their business at premium
standard, they sell
premium products only
along with costly price rate
(morrisons, 2019).
Place Appropriate place is
mandatory for selling
products to wide range of
customers. Keeping this in
mind, “Boots UK” has
selected both market place
“Morrisons” has such no
segmentation about place,
where they can sell their
goods. They conduct
business operations in
local market place and
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and online platforms as
their best places for
performing diverse
business activities. The
company mainly tries for
selling their products
visible to their valuable
consumers through serving
to the items to that place
that can be accessed by
customers with an ease. In
this process, “Boots UK”
tries to keep their store
attractive so that more
customers can be attracted
to the stores effectively.
Additionally, the online
facility has flourished the
organizational sales
performance as they are
selling products online
platforms as well.
other business locations
for attracting multiple
customers to the firm and
meet the sales target.
Apart from this, the
company provides time-to-
time delivery and excellent
customer service system
that is extended the
customer experience and
satisfaction level.
Additionally, nowadays,
due to high fascination of
using online facility, the
company has started its
own website as well.
Promotion Promotion is the technique
of informing the customer
about a new products and
its value. “Boots UK” uses
both traditional and
modern promotional
techniques to reach out
maximum numbers of
customers and informing
them regarding their
products. Company
advertise in multiple
magazines and billboards
as traditional promotional
mediums, where online
platforms and social media
channels such as
Facebook, twitter,
“Morrisons” mostly
depends on the social
media channels for
promotion of products.
They invest huge amount
of capital in promotion to
reach out more numbers of
customers and inform
them regarding the
product’s value. While it
comes to traditional
promotional mediums, the
company shows less
interest as they capturing
more numbers of
customers at affordable
costing through online
platforms.
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Instagram and others are
being used as modern
promotional techniques
(Tuten and Solomon,
2017). It is untenable that
the company has focused
upon online promotion
rather than traditional
techniques that have
resulted in higher sales
revenue.
People This is necessary to
appoint the right person for
performing the job for the
scarified company. Hence,
the organization recruits
staffs, which are able to
increase their sales as well
as marketing and sales
assistants those are
capable of attracting
customers as well as
display goods with skills
(boots.com, 2019).
“Morrisons” trains their
staffs for performing better,
when this comes to
accomplishing business
targets. They engage
staffs more for creating a
sustainable business.
Additionally, employees of
“Morrisons” go through
multiple training sessions
and workshops for learning
their craft as well as this
assists the company in
maintaining high revenue.
Process Boots, UK always maintain
a good process for making
the exhaustive task going
in the right direction. They
try for increasing their
efficiency of production to
use less amount of capital.
The staffs of the
organization are sincere
about their customer’s
emotion. They all
implement strategies and
system within the company
for increasing the
satisfaction level of the
The organization has
multiple processes for
managing their entire
process. However, the
organization tries for
serving good quality. All
the systems and strategies
are adopted by the
company is for increasing
the satisfaction level of the
customers.
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customers (Tiago and
Veríssimo , 2014).
Physical evidence The company is extremely
serious regarding
maintaining the hygiene
and cleanliness across the
stores. They design their
stores in such manner that
it can attract more
numbers of customers,
which results in higher
sales revenue.
“Morrisons” is also very
conscious regarding
maintaining their stores.
The focus of the company
is its beautiful decorated
luxurious stores that are
completely appropriate to
grab attention of
customers. Apart from this,
the light decoration is also
terrific. They are conscious
regarding packaging of
products. They are
improving packaging style
as well as to increase
customer satisfaction.
Table 1: 7P’s comparison between Boots, UK and “Morrisons”
(Source: Created by learner)
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LO3 (P4)
Develop and evaluate a basic marketing plan.
P4 Produce and evaluate a basic marketing plan for an organisation.
Definition of marketing plan
Marketing plan is considered as an approach developed through organizations in order
to set up new business or sell new product (Paley, 2017). As per the consideration of
McDONALD (2016), marketing plan assists in understanding both internal as well as
external factors of business, which can be helpful to develop new strategies. Most of the
successful companies like Boots, UK always make an effective marketing plan before
launching a new product in market. However, marketing plan includes resource
allocation, monitoring and determining capabilities, staffing and budgeting. Boots, UK is
one of the most famous retail companies across the UK premises that deal with beauty,
health and pharmacy products. The company has been planning for launching a new
Anti Tan cream that will assist the women who travels outside of the home in sunlight.
Additionally, this product will work as Anti Ageing product as well.
Key objectives of the marketing plan
Key objectives of creating this marketing plan are as follows:
 To accelerate sales revenue by at least15% by 2020
 To increase market shares
 To provide the customer a new beauty product that can actually mitigate the
women’s Tanning and Ageing issues.
Company’s target market
It is undeniable that every business organization must have their separated target
market and customers for any specific product or service (Aghdaie and Alimardani,
2015). Like all the companies, for this product and business plan the company has
considered women of age group of 22-32 years. A woman, who travels outside of the
home in the sunlight, especially within the specified age group faces this tanning and
ageing issues so that the company has targeted them.
PESTEL analysis
Political
Political atmosphere of UK is unstable and the brexit has affected over the political,
economic and business aspects of UK (Clarke, 2017). The taxation is high in UK that is
also not good for business venture.
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