Marketing Essentials Report: Costa Coffee Case Study

This report offers a comprehensive analysis of Costa Coffee's marketing strategies, encompassing key aspects such as the roles and responsibilities of the marketing function, its relationship with other functional units within the organization, and a detailed examination of its marketing mix in comparison to competitors like Starbucks. The report delves into the basic marketing processes, including market research, target market selection, and strategy formation, with a focus on Costa Coffee's customer-centric approaches and promotional activities. It also explores the evolution of marketing trends and their impact on the company. Furthermore, the report provides a comparative analysis of Costa Coffee's marketing mix elements—product, price, promotion, physical evidence, process, and people—against Starbucks. Overall, the report aims to provide insights into the effectiveness of Costa Coffee's marketing efforts and its competitive positioning within the coffee industry.

Marketing Essentials

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Roles and responsibilities of marketing function...................................................................1
P2 Relation of marketing functions with other functional units of organisation........................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
P3 Marketing Mix of Company..................................................................................................3
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................7
P4 Development of Marketing Plan of Company.......................................................................7
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCE.................................................................................................................................11
Books & Journal............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Marketing function is very important part in every company. Marketing is an activity
which is related to promotion of products being offered by company to its prospective buyers.
There are various activities which are undertaken by companies in this function to attract
maximum number of customers. Main aim of marketing department is to increase overall sales
of company. Company considered in this report is Costa coffee, this is a largest coffee chains in
UK. Founded in 1971 it caters needs of coffee lovers of UK. Spread across 31 countries this
coffee chain has presence throughout globe. This report deals with various marketing functions
in a company, its roles and responsibility, comparison with other functional departments of costa
coffee, marketing mix of company is done in comparison with its competitor and at last final
conclusion is drawn.
TASK 1
P1 Roles and responsibilities of marketing function
Basic Marketing process:
 first step in process of marketing is to analyse various opportunities present in
marketplace.
 Next step is to select a target market and a particular segment of market and then
according to that products and services are being offered to that segment.
 In next step strategies according to that target market strategies are planned by company.
 In the final step plan are executed and then analysis is done of how much successful
company has been in planing and execution of those strategies.
Market research: Researching of market is very important function of every marketer in
company. In context of cost coffee main role of marketing department have to research about the
target market. Responsibility in this function will be to analyse the market and their targeted
customers in depth so that they are able to collect relevant & useful information from it. This is
initial step of every marketing function which needs to be performed with most care. Any
method can be used for collecting information related to consumer, but marketer must be sure
that they are able to collect only authentic and reliable information (Pride and Ferrell, 2016).
Analysing collected information: After collection of relevant information next step will
be to make analysis of it. Role here of marketing department comes in a way that they have to

make proper analysis of that information. Responsibility of marketing department will be to
analyse collected information this will help them in future planning of company's strategies.
Marketing function is generally carried on series of steps, if collected information is properly
analysed than company will be able to attain objectives set by marketing department of company
(Pooler, 2018).
Formation of strategies: Analysing of various information requires that it has to be used
in forming effective strategies for attracting increased number of customers. This is most
important role of marketing department that they have to form strategies and their functions so
that all employees are clear what related to what they have to do to attain their respective
objectives.
Using customer centric approaches: Costa coffee uses customer centric approaches,
they try to make their products with high customization. They try to mention names of their
customers on each coffee cup they are offering to them. This helps in having a different strategy
of marketing to attract maximum number of customers (McDonald and Wilson, 2016).
Marketing campaigns and promotional activities: Marketing department has major
role in company in organization of different marketing campaigns. These all activities are
important as they help to provide information of company's products to their prospective buyers.
Current and Future trends in marketing: with changing times the marketing approach
has also been completely shifted, traditional methods print media, television are given less
emphasis by companies. In Costa coffee also company has started using social media as a very
effective tool to approach mass customers together. Apart from this, in case of future trends costa
coffee is relying on providing best quality to their customers so that there is mouth publicity
which will act as promotional and marketing tool. Also, various campaigns, events will be
organized which will help costa coffee to approach their target customers in a different way.

P2 Relation of marketing functions with other functional units of organisation
Marketing is very essential department of company as it has an effect on overall functional
department of company, its interrelationship with other functional departments is discussed
below:
Production and marketing: Marketing and production department of a company is
related to each other such that production department of company wants to increase effectiveness
of their operations and process. Marketing department aims to make products according to
requirement of customers. Thus, there is a strong need of coordination between these two
departments of company.
Marketing and Research: Research and development department is one which is
responsible for generating new products, innovations and ideas in business. This department
should have a contact with marketing department of company as they both together can work in
accordance with their customers’ requirements. Costa coffee also tries to do researching in
market so that they are able to analyse their customer’s preferences, changing choices etc.
(Linton, 2017).
Marketing and Finance: Marketing and finance department are closely connected to
each other and functions of these two departments affect each other. They both need to have
good relationship with each other as this will help Company in optimum utilisation of available
financial resources with them. Marketing department needs to adopt techniques which are very
cost effective so that all activities can be performed and within budget provided by finance
department of company. In case of Costa company makes an attempt that they ate able to set
their budget and then all functions are carried on within that pre decided budget. There are
changing trends in market and companies are planning their marketing strategies according to
that, it is need of company that they are having
Marketing and Human resource: Marketing and human resource department should
also try to plan their actions after contacting to each other. Costa coffee has an aim to provide
best quality products to their customers, for this they wish to try to maintain contact with each
other. Marketing department attracts more number of people who are qualified and competent
and are posses skills needed by company. This helps costa coffee in saving their expenses, which
otherwise they have to incur in training and development of employees. (Macarthy, 2018).

TASK 2
P3 Marketing Mix of Company
Marketing mix of any company is used to promote products, services which they are
dealing with. Companies always believe in making their strategies very attractive so that they are
able to increase their sales. Maintaining and increasing satisfaction level of customer is also a
very important aim of any company. Below mentioned is marketing mix of star busk and costa
coffee, which will help them in proper detailed analysis of different aspects of company.
Basis Costa Coffee Star bucks
product Costa coffee is a brand which deals
in coffee as their main product. They
offer a very unique and different
taste of coffee. There are many
products being offered by them such
as cappuccino, Latte, Mocha,
Espresso, coffee cream etc. these all
are some of popular products being
offered by this brand (Ryan, 2016).
Starbucks is also one of
leading chains of coffee
present globally. Main core
product of this brand is coffee
but apart from that it has also
entered in some other new
ranges to attract customers
from different segments. major
products of Starbucks include
cage-latte, espresso,
Frappucino beverages and it
has also started some of
products such as pastries,
Teavana tea products, fresh
fruit juices, snacks all these
efforts see done by company
so that they can offer their
customer wide variety to make
their choices.
Price Costa coffee has a diverse pricing
strategy. Which means that this
company is having a premium
Starbucks is coffee brand
which is adopting a policy of
competitive pricing strategy,

pricing strategy, they have 2 variants
that is small & large. They keep their
price in direct proportion of quantity
they are offering (Lewis and Ling,
201).
but sometimes also relative
pricing strategy is also
followed. They also offer
products in different quantities
such as short, demi, mini, tall,
grande, trenta and venti. These
are some of varieties in which
quantity varies and in
accordance to that price of
drink also varies.
Promotion Costa coffee is a brand which is
having very unique distribution
strategy, they don't use television
advertisements, print media as their
source of promotion instead they rely
on mouth publicity as main
marketing strategy. Company also
offers free sample to people, they
believe in keeping quality of their
products so high that it is able to
satisfy their customers. This leads to
creation of customer loyalty by
company.
Starbucks is a brand which is
involved in promoting their
products through online, print
advertisements, television etc.
they have initiated many
programs also such as
Swastha- a healthy program,
this was also an initiative by
company to aware people
about their health. They are
also focussing on using
techniques which are
environment friendly such as
recyclable cups etc. all such
efforts help them in having
some unique promotional
strategies as compared to
different competitors in
market.
Physical Evidence Costa coffee is a company which is Starbucks is brand which is

having its presence in 31 countries,
and they have total outlets more than
3000 and in UK it is approx 2100.
they also are involved in selling of
coffee mugs under their brand name
to their customers (Tan and Sousa,
2015).
offering beautiful ambience,
coffee cups, stores and their
logo printed on every physical
offering they are provided to
their customers. They are also
offering machines in different
locations.
Process Costa follows a procedure in which
they have a very attractive seating
arrangement in all it outlets. They
believe in providing comfort, quality
with attractive ambience. They also
offer wide range of options to their
customers for making payment such
as online. Debit cad, credit card, cash
etc. costa coffee also offers self-
service counters in some of it outlets.
Starbucks has initiated various
process one of most popular is
the loyalty cards they offer to
their fixed customers. Their
supply chain process used to
procure coffee beans and
maintaining advance
technology in their process is
all part of different types of
process being used by
Starbucks (Kingsnorth, 2019).
People Costa being a Global brand focuses
on people responsible for the
position company has been able to
achieve in market. They always give
importance to their customers and
also to their employees. There are
more than 20 thousand employees
who are working in this company,
they believe in providing high
amount of training to their
employees. This is reason why its
employees are always experienced
It is a company which keeps
their customers in centric and
believe in providing best
service to them. They provide
customization in their products
by writing names of their
customers on every coffee cup.
They also have a strong focus
on their employees, they are
employing around 2 lacs
employees all through it
branches across world.

and they are having politeness in
their behaviour. They are well
trained in improving their
communication skills as they have to
deal with variety of customers from
different regional backgrounds when
interacting with customers from
various regional backgrounds
(Taylor, 2015).
Place There are 3300 outlets, which are
present in 31 countries across world.
It's presence is there in more than
2100 outlets of UK.
Starbucks has a presence in 70
countries and more such as
North America, Asia, Europe,
Africa, and many others. They
are having maximum outlets in
UK. They have online
presence in form of well
designed and developed
website which consists of each
detailed information on every
different aspect of how coffee
is made, it varieties, different
sources, quality, details
regarding flavour, equipment
being used by company etc.
Above mentioned is marketing mix of two different companies dealing in similar
category of products and give strong competition to each other. From above analysis it can be
said that Costa coffee as a company has been able to create a strong brand image for its
customers this is reason why they use minimum promotional strategies and rely on quality and
satisfaction level of their customers (Deepak and Jeyakumar, 2019).

TASK 4
P4 Development of Marketing Plan of Company
Covered in PPT
CONCLUSION
Marketing is very essential function of every company and it is also important for them to
ensure effectiveness of this function so that they are able to attract large number of customers.
Marketing department of company is mainly responsible that all functions take place and there is
proper implementation in company. Based on above discussed points it can be concluded that
marketing is one function which requires maximum attention. Creativity and innovation can be
shown by company using this tool in form of their marketing efforts. Marketing mix is a tool
which can be used by companies to collect information related to seven different attributes of
company which includes product, price, place, promotion, process, physical evidence. After that
marketers can make adequate analysis and draw conclusions. All functional department of
company are interrelated with each other which helps in smooth functioning of company.

REFERENCE
Books & Journal
Baker, M.J., 2016. What is marketing?. In The Marketing Book(pp. 25-42). Routledge.
Cant, M.C. and Wiid, J.A., 2016. The use of traditional marketing tools by SMEs in an emerging
economy: a South African perspective. Problems and Perspectives in
Management, 14(1), p.64.
Chaffey, D. and Smith, P.R., 2017. Digital marketing excellence: planning, optimizing and
integrating online marketing. Taylor & Francis.
Davis, J., 2017. Measuring Marketing: The 100+ Essential Metrics Every Marketer Needs 3rd
Edition. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG.
Deepak, R.K.A. and Jeyakumar, S., 2019. Marketing management. Educreation Publishing.
Kerin, R. and Hartley, S., 2015. Marketing: the core. McGraw-Hill.
Kingsnorth, S., 2019. Digital marketing strategy: an integrated approach to online marketing.
Kogan Page Publishers.
Lewis, M.J. and Ling, P.M., 2016. “Gone are the days of mass-media marketing plans and short
term customer relationships”: tobacco industry direct mail and database marketing
strategies. Tobacco control, 25(4), pp.430-436.
Linton, I., 2017. Marketing training services. Routledge.
Macarthy, A., 2018. 500 Social Media Marketing Tips: Essential Advice, Hints and Strategy for
Business Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, and
More!. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
McDonald, M. and Wilson, H., 2016. Marketing Plans: How to prepare them, how to profit from
them. John Wiley & Sons.
Pooler, J.A., 2018. Demographic targeting: the essential role of population groups in retail
marketing. Routledge.
Pride, W.M. and Ferrell, O.C., 2016. Foundations of marketing. Cengage Learning.
Ryan, D., 2016. Understanding digital marketing: marketing strategies for engaging the digital
generation. Kogan Page Publishers.
Tan, Q. and Sousa, C.M., 2015. Leveraging marketing capabilities into competitive advantage
and export performance. International Marketing Review, 32(1), pp.78-102.
Taylor, B., 2015. Marketing in an audiology practice. Plural Publishing.