Marketing Essentials: IKEA, ALDI, and Barclays Marketing Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of IKEA's marketing functions, examining the roles and responsibilities within the organization. It explores various marketing concepts such as production, product, selling, marketing, and societal marketing, and discusses current and future marketing trends including social media marketing, advertising campaigns, content marketing, and artificial intelligence. The report details IKEA's marketing processes, including situational analysis, market research, and strategy formulation. It also evaluates the effectiveness and ineffectiveness of key marketing elements. Furthermore, the report delves into the roles and responsibilities of marketing managers, emphasizing coordination of campaigns, employee integration, CRM, market research, and risk-taking. The analysis extends to the interconnections between marketing and other departments like finance, HR, R&D, and production. The report also briefly touches upon the marketing mix of IKEA and ALDI and concludes with a note on the development of Barclays' marketing plan.

Marketing Essentials

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
P1 Roles and Responsibilities of marketing function in IKEA...................................................1
P2 Roles and Responsibilities of marketing related to organisational context of IKEA............3
TASK 2 ...........................................................................................................................................6
P3 Marketing Mix of IKEA and ALDI.......................................................................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
P4 Development of Barclays' Marketing Plan............................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is a continuous process in which various types of activities relating to creation,
promotion and delivering of goods and services takes place (Akbar, 2017). It is a wide concept,
which include numerous factors such as, goods, people, experiences, information, property,
organisation and ideas. In a simple term, it is a process in which day-to-day process of
communication, creation, delivering and regular exchange of offering takes place that generate
creation set of value for company partners, society and clients at large. Present case study has
been conducted, IKEA which a multinational group engaged in the process of designing and
selling ready-to assemble, furniture and home ware. Company was founded in the year 1943 and
headquarter in Leiden, Netherlands. In this report, discussions has been made on, roles and
responsibilities of marketing function in IKEA and organisation marketing mix. Moreover,
project include production and evaluation of marketing plan.
P1 Roles and Responsibilities of marketing function in IKEA
Marketing is an ongoing process which makes formative connections in between
consumer and product and services of a company. It include various activities in relation to
outward communication, promotion, pricing, branding in order to achieve company goals and
objectives and satisfy needs of consumer in best possible manner. Mentioned below there are
some certain concepts of marketing described in brief:
Production Concept: It is first and foremost step which is conducted after the process of
inception of marketing. As per according to this concept consumer prefer those goods and
services which are easily available in a market and are affordable. It is important for an
organisation to formulate effective marketing strategies in order to achieve high production
efficiency by expensing low cost.
Product Concept: It is one of the most important concept which is wholly depend on the
product. This concept states that only those goods and services are preferred by consumers that
have high performance quality and feature while some prefer product that are simple and easy to
use. Therefore, it is essential for an organisation to implement strategy of continuous
development in their production process.
Selling Concept: According to this concept, a consumer will not purchase a product or a
service unless they are not attracted towards that product. Organisation is required to focus on
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their selling effort and undertake certain measures to promote their products and services
effectively in a marketplace.
Marketing Concept: As the name suggests, organisation is required to adopt formative
strategies in order to evaluate market needs and fulfil consumer expectations. It will remarkably
help them to increase their profit (Scarborough, 2016).
Societal Marketing Concept: This concept supports a notion that an organisation must
engage in the offerings that will not only benefit company but also provide to society. For this, it
is important for an organisation to adopt strategy of human welfare in their working structure in
order to develop product and services.
Marketing is a traditional concept which plays an important role in growth prospect of an
organisation. Therefore, there are some various current and future trend in marketing which is
required to be follow by an organisation as to accomplish their goals and objectives. Mentioned
below there are some basic trends of marketing:
Current Trends
In recent current scenario, companies are adopting numerous ways in relation to
marketing as to gain maximum amount of consumer attraction towards their offerings. There are
certain trends of marketing described below in brief:
Social Media Marketing:In this digitally advanced world, where technology is taking
important place in every individual life they are highly aware of products and services through
various medium. They acquire necessary and related information of a product and services
before making their decision to purchase. Organisation is taking advantage of different online
portals like, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to show case their offerings to wide range of
consumer.
Advertising Campaigns:Current trends concept include different set of campaigns that an
organisation utilize to demonstrate their product specifications through the medium of internet
platforms, radio and televisions. It will remarkably help them to attract attention of large amount
of consumer base.
Future Trends:
Content Marketing: It is one of the most important factor of future trend of marketing in
which organisations use different types of technological measures and machines as to gain
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formative knowledge in order to advertise their different range of products and services in
marketplace.
Artificial Intelligence:Artificial intelligence in marketing is a revolutionizing way which
significantly helps an organisation to increase their marketing efficiency. With help of this, a
company can analyse behaviour of consumer touchpoints in relation to a product or services.
This will benefit them to conduct creative work, replace their manual targeting and campaign
bidding with the help of available data.
Mentioned below there are different types marketing processes adopted by IKEA
described below in brief:
 Organisation is required to conduct formative situational analyses in order to increase
their identifying and determining opportunities for company (Rowley, 2016).
 IKEA is required to create effective research plan as to evaluate current trends and
perceptions of consumers.
 Company must allocate necessary required informations and data in relation to strategies,
resources and methods as to conduct marketing analysis in order to gain knowledge about
recent marketing and consumer trend.
 IKEA is required to adopt certain strategies and policies to to formulate suitable
marketing strategies in order to effectively fulfil marketing objectives of company.
 End step of this process states that company must take necessary review of each and
every step as to modify them on same time according to required changes.
Effectiveness and Ineffectiveness of key elements of marketing functions
Marketing effectiveness is mainly related to a measure in order to measure company
marketing strategy towards accomplishment of goals and objectives in best possible way.
Effectiveness of marketing function include high rate on marketing investment along with
marketing ROI. While on the other hand ineffectiveness of marketing functions include no clear
target market, losing of customers over lower priced competitors and lack of interest.
P2 Roles and Responsibilities of marketing related to organisational context of IKEA
IKEA is a multinational organisation in which there are different heads of departmental
undertakings. Company marketing manager continuously engage themselves in formulating
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various types of strategies in order to analyse most appropriate opportunities for company in
order to gain high growth (Truong, Garry and Hall, 2014). Mentioned below there are some
certain roles and responsibilities of marketing:
Co-ordination of Marketing Campaigns: Marketing manager of IKEA plays an essential
role in order to control and coordinate overall marketing campaigns of company. For this, it is
required for them to coordinate efforts of their departments so to develop campaigns and
evaluate effectiveness of in a regular basis in order to achieve goals and objectives of company
in effective way.
Integration with Employees: Employees are one of the most important factor in IKEA
and marketing manager of company is fully authorised and responsible to formulate regular
employee engagement in organisation workplace. For this they are required to, build effective
competencies in them and fulfil their personal needs in order to integrate goals and objectives of
company.
Effective CRM: Marketing manager of IKEA have most important role that is to develop
new consumer base of IKEA. Managers are responsible to analyse formative marketing
opportunities and develop new strategies in order to expand growth opportunities of company.
Organisation is require to create consumer oriented products and services that can be done by
making regular communications with them (Pappas, 2017). It will help them to effectively
develop positive relationship with their consumers.
Market Research: It is must for marketing manager of IKEA to conduct formative
marketing research in order to analyse and evaluate current and future perception of consumer
and market. In addition to this marketing research benefits manager to find new and innovative
opportunities in order to create niche for their products and services. Marketing manager can also
generate various opportunities by evaluating their rival strategies and policies as to develop their
products with superior quality.
Risk Taking: In order to attain growth and earn more profit risk taking plays an most
important factor. In relation to this factor, risk taking ability reflects a situation in which new
product is generated that will offer to consumer in future.
Marketing department is a most important factor that plays a key essential role in IKEA.
For this it is essential to develop effective interrelation in each department of organisation as to
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increase organisation success scope. Mentioned below there are some certain interconnections of
various marketing department of IKEA among other functional unit:
Finance Department and Marketing:Both finance and marketing department plays
important role in IKEA in order to develop formative and positive interrelationships as to
increase scope of opportunities for both departmental units (Aghazadeh, 2015). All plans of
marketing in IKEA include certain segment of financial data not only for existing offerings but
also for new ones. Therefore, in order to maximise profitability of organisation it is required for
marketing department of IKEA to frame formative advertising and promotional campaigns as to
increase sales margin of company. While, is is important for IKEA finance department to aid
marketing department of company by providing them adequate financial support in order to
achieve their marketing objectives.
HR Department and Marketing:Each and every departmental unit of an organisation
need potential and talented personnels as to achieve overall objectives of organisation in
formative manner (Griffitts, 2016). It is the basic role of HR manager to recruit skilled and
effective labour force that will help company to achieve their overall rate of consistent
profitability. While, marketing department of IKEA benefits in advertising numerous required
job descriptions and vacancies that is required to be filled as per according to job role. In
addition to this, HR department of IKEA helps in developing positive work environment which
will help company to increase their level of overall rate of production.
R&D and Marketing: Market is constituted with various dynamic factors and situations,
that changes according to preferences and taste of consumers. R&D department of IKEA
provides proper related informations to company marketing department in relation to numerous
cost-effective techniques as to evaluate needs of consumer and offer them wide range of products
and services in order to gain more profit (Groucutt and Hopkins, 2015). Cross-functioning is
essential in R&D and marketing department of IKEA as to create and offer effective and
qualitative products and services to consumers.
Production and Marketing department: IKEA marketing department perform their role
in coordination with production department in order to make sure that research and
developmental activities of organisation are conducted in best possible way with great quality as
to fulfil needs of consumer in predefined way (Podnar, 2014). In addition to this, by taking
surety of exact order volume by marketing department production department can effectively
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conduct their process as per according to set time. It will benefit company to reduce their overall
rate of wastage.
Marketing department in IKEA perform a very important role to satisfy needs of
consumers in best effective way. It is essential for company to create their strategies and policies
in a consumer centric manner. It will not only help IKEA to offer their products as per according
to consumer and market perception but also benefits them to give immense level of satisfaction
to their customers. For this, interrelationships plays an key essential role as to generate collective
growth of company. Therefore, effective strategies and objectives are required to be framed as to
ensure short and long term benefits (Gillespie and Riddle, 2015). This will help company to
accomplish their goals in a functional way and in best effective manner as to gain more
advancements.
TASK 2
P3 Marketing Mix of IKEA and ALDI
PRODUCT :- IKEA is serving ready to assemble furniture, kitchen appliances, home
accessories and useful goods and home services. On the other hand, ALDI deals with
manufacturing of food beverage, household essentials and sanitary products.
PRICE : IKEA follows pricing strategy that depends upon competitive offerings ,
customer demands and regulatory influence. Whereas ALDI is a retail industry that uses price
discrimination as its pricing strategy. This company first evaluates different markets and then set
its price.
PLACE :- ALDI is having around 10,000 stores in 20 countries and it's profit is around
50 billion dollars. Whereas IKEA is a Swedish clothing brand which serves in around 424
locations around the world including North and South America, Asia, Europe and Africa. With
such a vast scope of operation, the company also provides immense services to its customers.
PROMOTIONS:- IKEA uses 360 marketing and branding. The firm focuses on robust
and comprehensive marketing plans. They involves word-of mouth, sales promotion, website
advertisements, sport sponsorships, etc. Aggressive promotions are adopted by ALDI which
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works towards capturing all media forms possible to capture widest market area. This company
is also involved in various CSR activities.
PEOPLE :- IKEA focuses on employee relationship and developing healthy relation
among individuals working in the company. The firm provides different schemes like flexibility
discounts scheme which permits individuals in deciding the best benefit. Whereas in ALDI, it is
directly related with customers. They are the most important stakeholder of the company.
Trainings are provided to benefit customers.
PROCESS:- IKEA manufacturing process is friendly and effective for customers. It gives
proper and easy access to consumers to acquire variety of diversified services using their online
websites. ALDI offers customised and personalised service to customers. This company is
functioning on interconnections. Services provided by ALDI are fully automated and this gives a
reliability to customers.
PHYSICAL EVIDENCE:- There are a number of facilities which are provided by IKEA
in serving its people. It provides both offline and online portals as per the convenience of their
customers (Wirtz and Lovelock, 2016). IKEA has launched mobile application and providing
ready-to-assemble furniture and home ware services. ALDI provides offline branches, website
where people can have their do their shopping.
Effectiveness and ineffectiveness of Marketing Mix:
Effectiveness of marketing mix include formative measures that contributes those
marketing strategy that has been applied to business. Effectiveness of marketing mix are more
financially driven. While on the other hand, marketing mix ineffectiveness include some of the
basic stock that either be under priced and overpriced. IKEA bought mobile application and
furniture who are ready-to-assemble. While ALDI offer related to sanitary products, household
essentials and manufacturing of food beverage
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TASK 3
P4 Development of Barclays' Marketing Plan
IKEA is one of the world's leading multinational organisation in UK. Thus, it is essential
for organisation to formulate developmental strategies and policies offer their products and
services in effective way in global market. Proper marketing plan allow IKEA to frame their
strategies as to gain more competencies in a profitable manner. Technology is changing with it's
fast phase and there are numerous advancements, IKEA is looking forward to offer a new
product to their consumer “ Smart cupboard” which will provide benefit to a consumer in which
they can operate it by their cell phones. Mentioned below there are marketing plan of IKEA:
Organisational Overview: IKEA is a world leading multinational group of retail industry
that provide offerings like, ready-to-assemble furniture, home accessories and kitchen appliances
and other home related good and services. Company was founded in the year 1943 by Ingvar
kamprad and serve their services worldwide.
Vision and Mission: Main vision of IKEA is to ensure their consistent growth by
maximising their product diversification range and increase their overall base of marketing
presence. In addition to this, company vision is to develop formulate effective marketing
opportunities that benefits them to gain more profitability and attract large consumer base.
Mission of IKEA by brining Smart cupboard is to provide innovative product to their
consumers in a competitive manner. This will help them to increase their competitiveness and
make their organisation consumer centric by offering services in innovative manner. In addition
to this, while bringing their new product in market IKEA is planning to satisfy needs of their
existing and new consumer in effective way.
Strategic Goals: Through the development of Smart Cupboard, IKEA is looking forward
to maximise their overall rate of profitability by 4.5% in next upcoming 10 months of their
market release. Main strategy of company by bringing Smart cupboard is to utilize formative
marketing methods and robust their marketing campaigns.
Offerings: IKEA offer wide range of ready-to-assemble furniture and other home ware
products in a personalised manner. Company provide different types of useful products and
occasionally home services.
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Market Analysis and Research: Before launching their product in market, it is important
for IKEA to conduct a formative market analyses in a deep manner and allocate required
necessary current prevailing future trends. It will help them to accomplish their target by taking
care of both market and consumer need (Duffett, 2017). In order to accomplish their goals in
effective manner it is required for IKEA to implement formative primary and secondary research
method. In this company can take advantage of questionnaires and online puzzles and acquire
knowledge of current market trend of retailing industry from Google Analytics.
IKEA Target Market:
After conducting marketing research, it is required for IKEA to determine current
segment of market trends through which company can effectively channelise their marketing
strategies. With the help of proper STP approach IKEA can effectively determine appropriate
market for their Smart Cupboard.
Segmentation: In this company mainly divide whole market in numerous segment. These
segment help IKEA to to select their target group which will help company to implement their
effective strategies. Mentioned below there are market segment of IKEA:
Geographical: IKEA chooses urban and rural area situated in United Kingdom as an
appropriate segment.
Demographical: There are various factors included in demographical factor that include,
age, occupation and income. According to this, IKEA segregates their market in which they set
age group of above 18 year to offer their product. In addition to this company chooses more than
2000Euro business class personnels.
Behavioural: In this company divide their market on the basis of behavioural pattern. In
context with smart furniture people who are inclined towards technology help company to gain
more profitability.
Targeting:
IKEA is required to further segment their strategies and determine their narrowed target
market. IKEA have characterised their market segment by taking individuals form urban
localities (Dioko, 2016). In addition to this, age group of more than 18 years with a income level
of more than 2000 Euro those are technically inclined segmented by company.
Positioning:
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IKEA chooses their market segment of Smart Cupboard in online and offline mode
simultaneously. With the help of formative marketing company provide related information to
their consumer related to appropriate information through the medium of social media sites,
newspapers and TV.
Mentioned below there are some certain effectiveness of STP:
 It will benefit marketing Team of company to formulate appropriate marketing mix in
relation to specific group and help IKEA to satisfy needs of their existing and new
consumers.
 With the help of proper targeting IKEA can effectively formulate marketing strategies in
relation to branding, consumer experience and advertising.
Marketing Mix:
By implementing overall range marketing mix IKEA will get immense benefit to
showcase their product in a marketplace and encourage large number of consumer base to by
their offering. In addition to this, company is required to analyse each and every aspect and
element of market in order to develop formative strategies with the help of which they can ensure
their competitive image of Smart Cupboard in a marketplace and fulfil overall objectives of
company.
Marketing Budget:
MARKETING BUDGET
Particulars 1st year 2nd year 3rd year 4th year 5th year
Initial Amount 17000 7300 13400 13200 16460
Investment 14000 10000 24600 2900 13300
Total 31000 17300 38000 16100 29760
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Marketing Outlay
Promotion 4500 2600 4160 3600 2420
Sales publicity 2100 1600 2850 1900 1400
Direct selling 4600 2900 4000 4000 6850
Total 11200 7100 11010 9500 10670
As per the above mentioned budget, it has been evaluated that estimated amount of 1400
Euro is required to be invested by IKEA, while approximately 4500 Euro will be invested by
company to promote their Smart Cupboard in a marketplace.
Effectiveness and Ineffectiveness of Marketing Plan
Marketing Mix: With the help of marketing mix company can able to effectively
evaluate current situation prevailing in a marketplace. Along with this, effectiveness of this
factor of marketing plan include identification of opportunities, leverage core competencies and
avoidance of threat.
Marketing Budget: With the help of formative marketing plan company can able to
make an estimation related to estimated amount of cost that is require in order to make
promotion of products and services.
CONCLUSION
As per the above mentioned report, it has been concluded that marketing plays most
important role in an organisation. It is essential for a company to analyse roles and
responsibilities of marketing department in order to promote organisation overall growth in
effective way. In addition to this, marketing mix helps an organisation to effectively determine
their strategies in order to achieve their predefined goals. While with the formative of
appropriate marketing plan as to offer their products and services in effective way.
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