Marketing Report: Analyzing Strategies, Limitations, and Research

This report provides an introduction to marketing, focusing on techniques, limitations, and the role of market research. It examines how companies like Mark & Spencer and Starbucks utilize marketing strategies, including growth strategies, relationship marketing, and branding. The report discusses the limitations and constraints of marketing, such as the Sales of Goods Act and Consumer Protection regulations. It also explores how marketing research contributes to business planning, including primary and secondary research, as well as qualitative and quantitative methods. Furthermore, the report analyzes market segmentation, targeting specific customer groups, and developing a coherent marketing mix for new products or services. The report also includes a SWOT analysis for Mark & Spencer, highlighting its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Overall, the report offers a comprehensive overview of key marketing concepts and practices.

INTRODUCTION TO
MARKETING

Table of Contents
.........................................................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1 Marketing techniques are used to market products ...............................................................3
P2 Limitations and constraints of marketing .............................................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
P3 Company uses marketing research to contribute in plans......................................................5
P4 Marketing research for marketing planning...........................................................................6
TASK 3 ...........................................................................................................................................7
P5 Groups of customers are targeted for selected products........................................................7
P6 Coherent marketing mix for new product or service.............................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Marketing means the business related to selling and promoting goods or services,
involving the advertising of product or services and market research. It is a social process
through which the organisations identify the needs and wants of customers and then make goods
or services according to customer which can satisfy needs of customers. Mark & Spencer is a
retail company. It deals in selling of clothes, food products and home products. This company
make the products according to customers need (Anda and Temmen, 2014). In this report,
mentioned that there are some limitations of marketing and the company use market research for
planning.
TASK 1
P1 Marketing techniques are used to market products
The companies use the marketing techniques. There are two different organisations use
marketing techniques those are help to attract consumers towards the products and services to
increase the sales. The organisations are Mark & Spencer and Starbucks. These two companies
use different techniques. The Mark & Spencer is retail company and making clothes, food
products and home products which can satisfy the needs and wants of consumer. This company
uses the marketing techniques like Growth Strategies.
In growth strategies, the organisation uses this to expand the business and their
customers. It was introduced by Ansoff (Barile and et. al., 2012). Ansoff gave growth matrix
which helps in plan products and their strategies of growth. In this includes:
Market penetration- In this, company focus on selling its goods or services in to its
existing marketing to its existing customers to increase its market and gain profit.
Market Development- It means to introduce new markets foe existing products. The
company segments its market and develop new market so that, company can target new
customers for increasing their sales.
Product Development- In this, company modified its product by finding new methods or
ways.
Diversification- It means that company enlarge range of its products and varying in
operations.

The Starbucks company uses different techniques from Mark & Spencer. Starbucks is a
largest company and provides coffee, sandwiches, snacks and pastries. The techniques used by
this company are:
Relationship marketing- It is marketing activities that are focus on creating long term
relationship with customers by providing the good quality of products.
Branding- It is the process in which company making image of its products in the
customers mind by making unique name and unique images.
Brand Extension- This technique used by company at the time of introducing new
products by using existing name of products (Bhattacharya, 2010). Basically this company used
to sell the coffee but it want to expand business by manufacturing new goods like for instance
mugs and tumblers.
P2 Limitations and constraints of marketing
In the Mark & Spencer company, there are some limitations and constraints of marketing.
These are:
Sales of Goods Act, 1979- This act impact on the marketing activities related to business.
The reason is that advertising define products or services in an exact way. The type of promotion
tells about the products characteristics.
Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008- In this the business
provide fair treatment with their customers. This act does not allows to businesses use the
wrongful advertisements of products or services. And it also does not allows the company to
treat it customers in an appropriate manner.
Consumer Credit Act, 1974- It is applied on all businesses for financial help of
customers which offer goods or services (Buttery, 2011). This act stimulate all companies to give
the daily updates related to business on their account like for instance balance sheet or can say
annual statements.
Consumer Protection Act- It means direct selling. It is a kind of marketing in which the
face to face interaction between the company and customers is not accessible. Like for instance
all the online sites do not provide direct face to face interaction with their consumers. For the
interaction, they one use emails. This act stimulate companies to provide details related to goods
or services, payment, delivery details etc. to its customers.

Data protection Act, 1998- This act protects the information of consumers that is
sometimes misused by companies. In this the information and details of customers should be
used lawfully and for the particular purposes. The company have to keep the data safe and
secure.
Acceptable language- The language which is used in advertising should be proper and
acceptable through which the customers can easily understand about goods or services of
company (Gummesson and Mele, 2010). So, that customers purchase their goods or services.
TASK 2
P3 Company uses marketing research to contribute in plans
For development market plan the Mark & Spencer uses marketing research. From the
research the company can know about marketing strategies, competition in market, market
environment and can do market analysis. The marketing research helps in making the decisions
related to business by knowing the market change in which the company sell its goods. The
research helps the company when it enters in to new market. Mark & Spencer uses:
Primary and Secondary research- The company can collected information from primary
research and from the secondary research. In the primary research, the company can collect the
data by conducting survey, through questionnaires, interviews etc. This research is of two kinds
external and internal. In the external, the data is gathered from outside the business. And in
internal primary research the information is gathered from internal database of business. In
secondary data, information is collected through secondary sources like for instance internet,
journals, books, magazines etc.
Both researches have their own advantages and disadvantages. The advantages are that is
provides the precise solutions and data clarity and disadvantages are that it is very expensive and
take too much time (Jones, 2010). Because in this company conduct survey and interviews so it
take time. The advantages of secondary research are that it takes less time and it is very cost
effective and disadvantages of this research are that data is inaccurate and the information or data
is provided incomplete.
Qualitative and Quantitative Research- In qualitative research the data is measured in
terms of quality. The quality of data is subjective and it is non- numerical. This research provides
the information or data in detailed description. And in quantitative research the data is expressed

in terms of quantity or numeric terms. The data is gathered through statistical data, surveys,
questionnaire etc.
P4 Marketing research for marketing planning
For making the marketing plan the company uses the research. The Mark & Spencer
make the plan related to marketing by gathering the data and information about market. From
marketing research company can know about marketing condition, about market environment,
competitors in market place. So, that organisation prepares itself to enter in new market or
expand its business. The organisation can do SWOT analysis. From SWOT analysis company
can know about its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (Krishna, 2013). By
identifying these company can focuses on weaknesses and threats and improve it.
Strengths
 It is most famous retail brand and provides good quality of products to its
customers. And it is major strength of Mark & Spencer company.
 This company mainly focuses on customer service and make good reputation. By
providing good customer service, this company builds good and healthy
relationship with their customers.
 One of the main strength of this company is that top management of company
provides time to time training top its employees. Training system is good in this
organisation. It helps in improving skills and also helps in enhancing the work
performance of employees.
 Mark & Spencer has large number stores (Louviere and et.al., 2013). The overall
stores are 900. The large number of store and outlets helps in make the business
larger and increase in sales and profits.
Weaknesses
 The publicity of this company is not good, it is not trendy and out fashioned. And
it is a major weakness. It has large number of products and brands. The
management of this company fails to attract new consumers.
 The company makes clothes for the particular age group of people. It is a
weakness of this company.
 This company uses obsolete technology instead of new technologies which
increases the time and cost. Generally the large organisation mainly focus on

adopting new technologies to improve the efficiency of work (Malhotra, 2012).
So, to increase sales, company has to adopt the new and latest technology.
Opportunities
 Mark & Spencer has the opportunity to develop their website.
 This company can expand its business in to new market areas.
 The company uses internet technology, so it has an opportunity to enhances the
demand of goods online.
Threats
 The main threats to Mark & Spencer is policies of government for retail stores.
 Another threat is, sometimes the company is affected through the social
environment because the taste of customers are change any time. So, it affect the
productivity of business.
TASK 3
P5 Groups of customers are targeted for selected products
The groups of customers mostly targeted to selected products of company. Sometimes,
the purchases of customers are effect by many factors. The company uses marketing and
promotion campaign that should be prepare to identify the influences. It is very necessary to
understand the needs of people.
Market Segmentation- It is a strategy to dividing the larger markets in to subsets. From
this, it is easy to target the common needs and wants of customers and then producing or
designing products or services according to customers which can satisfy their needs and wants.
And from it the sales of company increases, productivity and growth also enhances. There are
four parts on which the market is segmented (Mentzer and Gundlach, 2010). These are:
Demographic- In this the segmentation is based on age, gender, occupation, qualification,
family status, income, family size, marital status etc.
Behavioural- This segmentation is based on the brand loyalty of customers, usage rates,
spending behaviour, consumption etc.
Geographical- It is mainly based on geographic, climate, region, population density and
growth rate.

Psychographic- In this type of segmentation, it is based on lifestyles, attitudes and
values.
The experience of business to business markets have much more complex in decision
making instead of that only one person decides to purchase an product (Molesworth, Scullion
and Nixon, 2010). So,n that it is easy to purchase with out any confusion.
P6 Coherent marketing mix for new product or service
The marketing mix is a combination of those factors which are controlled through an
organisation to influence the customers to buy products. There are 4p's including in marketing
mix.
Product- If company wants to develop new products then it is necessary to produce good
quality of products or services. And these should be according to the tastes and which can satisfy
the needs and wants of customers.
Price- The company set reasonable price of products or services which customers are pay
easily. The prices of products or services should not be much high and should not be much low.
The company set the prices of goods or services in a standardized way.
Promotion- The company uses the different types of promotional or advertising
techniques. In promotion includes personal selling, branding, advertisement through banners,
posters, banners, through social media (Palmer, 2012). So, the people can easily know about
goods or services.
Place- The company provides provides the products or services at those places on which
the customers can easily access the services and products. It should be accessible in right place.
Price, place, promotion and products of marketing mix are helpful in introducing the new
products.
Conclusion
It is concluded from above report that the Mark & Spencer company uses the different
techniques for making the marketing plan to increase the growth and productivity. This company
uses growth strategies to enhances the sales. In this report studied about limitation of marketing
with reference to the legal requirements like goods act, consumer protection regulation,
acceptable language etc. For making the effective marketing plan, this company conduct
primary, secondary research and qualitative, quantitative research. The organisation segments its

markets in top subsets, so it is easy for company to target its potential customers and also new
customers. For introducing the new products or services, company use price, place, promotion
and products of marketing mix.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals

Anda, M. and Temmen, J., 2014. Smart metering for residential energy efficiency: The use of
community based social marketing for behavioural change and smart grid
introduction.Renewable Energy.67. pp.119-127.
Barile, S. and et. al., 2012. An introduction to the viable systems approach and its contribution to
marketing.
Bhattacharya, C.B. ed., 2010. Introduction to the special section on stakeholder
marketing.Journal of Public Policy & Marketing.29(1). pp.1-3.
Buttery, J. P. and PAEDS/APSU Study Group, 2011. Intussusception following rotavirus vaccine
administration: post-marketing surveillance in the National Immunization Program in
Australia.Vaccine.29(16). pp.3061-3066.
Gummesson, E. and Mele, C., 2010. Marketing as value co-creation through network interaction
and resource integration.Journal of Business Market Management. 4(4). pp.181-198.
Jones, B., 2010. Entrepreneurial marketing and the Web 2.0 interface.Journal of Research in
Marketing and Entrepreneurship.12(2). pp.143-152.
Krishna, A., 2013. Introduction: What Is Sensory Marketing?. InCustomer Sense(pp. 1-18).
Palgrave Macmillan US.
Louviere, J. and et. al., 2013. An introduction to the application of (case 1) best–worst scaling in
marketing research.International Journal of Research in Marketing.30(3). pp.292-303.
Malhotra, N. K., 2012.Basic marketing research: Integration of social media. Boston: Pearson.
Mentzer, J. T. and Gundlach, G., 2010. Exploring the relationship between marketing and supply
chain management: introduction to the special issue. Journal of the Academy of
Marketing Science.38(1). pp.1-4.
Molesworth, M., Scullion, R. and Nixon, E. eds., 2010.The marketisation of higher education.
Routledge.
Palmer, A., 2012.Introduction to marketing: theory and practice. Oxford University Press.
Papasolomou, I. and Melanthiou, Y., 2012. Social media: Marketing public relations’ new best
friend.Journal of Promotion Management.18(3). pp.319-328.
ONLINE
Definition of Marketing,2017. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.ama.org/AboutAMA/Pages/Definition-of-Marketing.aspx>. [Accessed on 3rd
june, 2016].