Marketing Essentials: Your Destination and National Express Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of marketing essentials within the transportation sector, focusing on the companies 'Your Destination' and National Express. It begins by outlining the responsibilities of a marketing officer and proposes an organizational structure for the marketing department, emphasizing market research, expense planning, brand image management, expansion strategies, customer service, and advertisement planning. The report then delves into how the marketing officer's roles contribute to the wider organizational context, highlighting the importance of collaboration with finance, human resources, purchase, and production departments. Furthermore, it compares 'Your Destination' and National Express based on the 7Ps of marketing, examining their product offerings, pricing strategies, place of service, promotional activities, processes, physical evidence, and people involved. Finally, the report concludes with a marketing plan designed for the national-wide expansion of 'Your Destination', offering strategic recommendations for growth and market penetration.

Marketing Essentials

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PART 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Responsibilities of marketing officer and proposed structure of marketing department.......1
P2. Roles and responsibilities of marketing officer contribute in wider organisational context
.....................................................................................................................................................1
PART 2 .........................................................................................................................................2
P3 Comparison of ''Your destination'' and Nation express of the basis of 7Ps of marketing.....2
P4 Marketing plan for national wide expansion ......................................................................6
CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Marketing division is known for expanding the business of an organisation. They have to
perform various kind of activities in order to assist the company in earning more revenue. ''Your
destination'' is a new transportation firm, they are running their business in London and Essex
and planning to expand it in other parts of UK (Schutz, Rezg and Léger, 2013). This report will
explain the crucial role of marketing manager operations of this division. ''Your destination'' and
National Express will be compared in this report by applying & Ps. A marketing plan will be
made under this assignment, its main purpose will be expansion of business.
PART 1
P1 Responsibilities of marketing officer and proposed structure of marketing department
Marketing is the process of promoting a commodity or service to increase its sales
through different mode of communication conveying the purpose and need of the same to its end
user. Marketing is not a one time activity but it is a regular process which has to be followed
over frequent interval so as to create a continuous demand for it. Its main purpose is to attract
new Clients, satisfy them and convert them into loyal Clients. The essential link through which
good produced at one place is sold all over the globe through a continuous demand is
“Marketing”. This is because if the want is not created by promoting the product or service there
will be no demand for the commodity produced and hence no sales (Opute, Dedoussis and
Tzokas, 2011).
Following are responsibilities of marketing officer of “Your Destination” and operations of
this department:
Market research – It is the duty of marketing manager to collect all the information
about the products and services of various companies who are operating in transportation sector.
He/she must analyse the gather data in order to make effective marketing plans in upcoming
time.
Plan expenses: It is the responsibility of manager to not only create high level marketing
plans but also to know the expenses that it will incur. This is because all the promotional
expenses will also add up to the cost of product. If the cost on product will increase it will have
an direct impact on its demand and sales.
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Brand image:It depends on many factors like price, quality, goodwill of company,
promotions. As a marketing officer its his duty to create a positive brand image in peoples mind
towards the product. He might even be required to manipulate its image to increase the profit for
firm.
Expansion: A successful campaign increases sales and profits. Marketing manager play
significant role in increasing the market share of company by launching a new product or
enhancing the sale of existing one. With concentration on market trends and research, he can fill
the demand gap as per Clients need.
Customer service:Its officers duty to reduce the gap between company and customer by
a good back-end team. The officer is required to check that the products sold have positive
feedbacks and if there are any problems with the same it must be compensated by the company.
Make advertisement strategy – Promotion of products in very important for convincing
the Clients to take service from the company. Marketing managers make plans relating to
advertisements, this is considered as the key operation of this division (Okewu. and Iheanacho,
2015).
Marketing structure:The organisational structure of marketing department varies from
company to company. The structure is divided in different channels describing the role and
function of each department. Marketing structure is divided in two parts namely- Traditional
marketing and Digital marketing.
Traditional Marketing:It refers to all modes that the company has been using for years
like newspaper ads, pamphlet, billboards, flyers,print ads. Its mainly focuses on local market.
Public relations and offline advertising are important part of traditional form of marketing.
 Public Relations:The aim of PR team is to get the coverage of company in all major
publication like television, radio and newspapers. Its PR team duty to increase brand
awareness among people. PR team can use a popular television show to endorse the
brand and product. But its response take a longer time as you cannot know how many
people have read or have seen your advertisement.
 Offline Advertising: Most famous offline advertising modes are Signs. Word of mouth,
Print Ads, Events and exhibitions,postcards etc. In this free samples along with discount
voucher can be provided to the target audience. If the person likes a product and buys it
by providing voucher or its code he can be given promotional discount. Moreover for
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teenage target products student discounts can be given. In addition to this sponsoring an
event or cause generates a great amount of popularity. Radio can be used to provide free
gift hampers to winners or free lunches and dinner with the brand ambassador
Digital Marketing:It includes modern techniques of marketing and is majorly related to
online marketing. Through online media you can target a large number of audience not only in
your society or country but globally crossing the international borders. There are several ways to
advertise online like social media sites, you tube video, blogs which enables the user to view as
per their convenient time not unlike ad calls and mails.
 SEO: Search Engine Optimisation is an important part of online marketing. It ensures that
the company webpage ranks higher on search engines thus enabling more and more user
to visit your web portal (Mazak, and Huemer, 2015).
 Social Media:It refers to promotion of business or product on multiple social media
websites like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter. If the advertisement campaign
is good it can be very successful for the company as a very large number of people are
registered on it and use them numerous times a day.
Although these are different medium of communicating product to target audience its
success can only be determined if all the departments work as one big team. While they both are
an entirely different concept they have to go hand in hand for a product to be successful. A
company just cannot work on any one medium unless it wants to target only a particular section
of society.
P2. Roles and responsibilities of marketing officer contribute in wider organisational context
Increasing complexity in business has increased challenges for every organisation.
Marketing division has to perform crucial work like market research, making plans for
promoting products and services etc. Besides these functions, they also have to do other
important work which are related to assisting various divisions of company. ''Your destination''
wants to expand their business and they can attain this goal if all departments perform their
duties in an effective manner. Below are some significant responsibilities of marketing officer
towards different departments of the Your Destinations:
Finance department – This division of company is responsible for managing the
financial resources of firm in a proper manner. They make decisions relating to short and long
term investment. One of the most important functions of finance team is to identify the best
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source of finance that is available in the market. They also make budget for various work and
play a crucial role in reducing the total cost of business operations for company. It is the duty of
marketing manager to provide necessary knowledge about the market to finance division. This
will help them in finding the profitability of setting up business in new destination (Martensen
and Mouritsen, 2014). Marketing manager works at the ground level. He/she knows the source of
finance and financial position of every competitor. If they provide this significant information to
the finance department then they can raise funds without offering much equity or take loans at
less rate of interest. When ''Your destination'' will enter in new cites, they have to buy office and
more vehicles. Marketing manager can help finance division in the process of purchasing offices
at new place. They have proper data and knowledge about the best location to set up the office
and if they communicate this vital information to the finance department then they can easily
make right decision relating to purchase of fixed assets.
Human resource division – HR team is responsible for selecting right people in the
company. ''Your destination'' is going to expand their organisation which means that they will
need more human capital. Marketing manager knows the correct people who are required in the
department. If he/she communicates this important content to the HR department then it will
assist them in hiring appropriate candidates in enterprise. One of the most difficult tasks of HR
team is to find skilled workers. Marketing officer has sound knowledge about the people who are
working in transportation industry. They are responsible for referring talented workers to the
human resource division. Both departments do not have any direct connection but they can assist
each other in attaining long term goals of organisation (Lamb, Hair and McDaniel, 2011).
Purchase/marketing department – Buying vehicles and other essential goods which are
necessary for smooth running of business operation is the responsibility of procurement
department. They get necessary amount of funds from finance team and then explore market in
order to find essential commodities at the best price. Marketing manager plays a significant role
in the complete process. He/she has proper information about various companies that are
operating in the same sector and they communicate this knowledge purchase department so they
can buy fixed assets like buses from the right source. Without having support of marketing
division, procurement team cannot accomplish their task in an effective manner. They may have
some information about potential vendors but without complete data and knowledge, they cannot
make the major decisions.
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Production department – This department plays a crucial role in deciding whether
company will attain success or failure in their business or not. They are responsible for running
vehicles on time and providing better services to the customers. It is the duty of marketing
manager to communicate feedback and thinking of service users to operational team so that they
can find the areas where they are committing mistakes and improve them in the future (Ko,
Hwang and Kim, 2013). ''Your destination'' is entering in various other cities and if they will fail
to impress customers at initial stage then it may result in failure to achieve long term goals of the
corporation. Marketing manager has some idea about the future threats, it is their duty to
communicate this crucial information to operational division so that they can plan their work
accordingly and provide better facilities to the customers. If marketing team analyses and
communicates the working style of various competitors of organisation then it can adopt positive
changes from the strategies of other enterprises.
PART 2
P3 Comparison of ''Your destination'' and Nation express of the basis of 7Ps of marketing
Marketing mix basically a tool which provide help to managers regarding brand offering.
Below is 7Ps of marketing mix of ''Your destination'' and Nation express:
Illustration 1: Elements of marketing mix
(Source: The Marketing Mix 4P’s and 7P’s Explained, 2017)
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Basis ''Your destination'' Nation express
Product This company basically focus
on quality of their service
(Kim and Hyun, 2011). Their
transportation vehicles have all
the latest features and they are
very comfort. This
organisation always run their
vehicles on right time and they
rarely face the problem of
delaying. Providing luxury
amenities to the Clients is their
prime goal because their main
target is rich and upper class
people. Instead of increasing
number of their transportation
vehicles, they focus on
improving current condition of
the service which they are
offering to the Clients.
This enterprise mainly target
laymen. They are operating at
large level so the product of
delaying is normal for them.
''Your destination'' only have
one product i.e. transportation
vehicles but this company also
runs trains and trams.
Condition of their vehicles is
decent but some of them
misses the latest features like
WIFI or toilet in the
transportation vehicles.
Price This corporation charge more
money compare to the
standard rate this present in the
industry. The main reason
behind this expensive tickets is
the fast and better service
which ''Your destination''
provide to their Clients. But if
someone choose various offers
and plans offered by this
National Express have a policy
of keeping ecionm8ic price.
They run their service for
every class of people and this
is the prime reason that they do
not charge much amount for
various services. Their main
aim is to serve more people
and if they keep their prices
high then they will miss their
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organisation then they can
travel from one place to
another at low price. The main
objective of this company is to
capture the share in premium
segment and they can attain it
by keeping their price high so
they can cover their cost in
effective manner. They have
adopted market skimming
price strategy.
key objectives. They always
believe in following neutral
pricing strategy.
Place They do not offices in bucolic
areas. They only have offices
in prime locations of the city
and their transportation
vehicles do not have much
stoppages. They set large
offices and book most of the
tickets through online mode.
Offices of this organisation is
present at various places. Their
transportation vehicles and
trains have more stoppages
compared to ''Your
destination''. Customer can
reach them at various locations
for booking tickets. They set
up small offices and online
facility of ticket booking is
also available for from their
side.
Promotion This company spend most of
their promotional cost on
social media advertising. They
have a PR team who make
various kind of attractive
offers for their permanent and
premium class Clients. They
This company is still using old
mode of promotion like they
are giving advertisements in
newspapers. They do not
spend much amount on social
media advertising but now
they are spending significant
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are also promoting their brand
on nation television but they
do not spend much amount on
it.
amount on promoting their
brand on mobile applications.
Physical evidence This company is currently
operating in London and
Essex. In these cities they are
have brand image, when
people talk about using luxury
service in transportation sector
the first name that comes in
their mind is ''Your
destination''. One can say it is
a physical evidence but at the
same time it will also be
considered as the a
psychological evidence.
They are known for affordable
pricing and people choose
them first option because of
the balance which they offer
between price of tickets and
offered facilities.
People Targeting right Clients is
crucial for every business. This
company like to recruit those
candidates in the company
who are passionate about their
work. They do not seek best
person available in the market,
they like to hire someone who
enjoy his/her work.
This organisation has a clear
process of selection which is
set by government authorities.
They normally like trained and
skilled worker who can
understand organisational
culture and work according to
it.
Process This company has a clear
strategy that they will use
latest technology in various
process. They offer more
They have adopted latest
technology in their operation
but still they need lot of
modification in their ticket
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discount on online payment
and their transportation
vehicles also have latest
features. They have a rigid
process and this is the prime
reason that their transportation
vehicles rarely late. Sometime
this rigid procedure become
the main cause of less
customer satisfaction.
booking process. This
organisation is have tracking
device in their transportation
vehicles which help Clients in
finding their the exact location
of the truck. They believe in
adopting flexible process.
P4 Marketing plan for national wide expansion
Marketing plans a basically a blueprint of all the activities relating to advertising and
marketing efforts, they assist a company in achieving their objectives by using their resources in
effective manner. Below is the marketing plan for ''Your destination'':
Mission of company – To provide premium quality transportation system in the market by using
innovation and sustainable techniques of working.
Marketing objective – To increase the popularity of the brand ''Your destination'' in new
markets where company is planning to expand their business (Khan, 2014).
Basic objectives – To help organisation in expansion of business and increase the level of
customer satisfaction in service users.
Business Aim – Below are their two prime target:
 Increase revenue by 15% in next 2 years
 Reduce the number of incident, by 5%, relating to delaying in delivery.
Situational analyses – SWOT analyses of ''Your destination''
Strength – This organisation has trained staff
and their productivity is much higher
compared to employees of the other
companies. They are using latest technology
which his reducing their cost of business
Weakness – They are services are expensive so
a large segment of clients do not like to use
their services. They financial position is not
sound and their liquid assets are also
decreasing.
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operations. They have captured significant
amount of share in premium class segment in
short period of time. Their brand value is
continuously increasing.
Opportunities - They can open new offices in
bucolic areas because this will help them in
targeting a significant number of clients
without spending much amount on fixed assets.
They can buy more transportation vehicles in
order to speed up the process of delivery. The
can also make efforts to reduce their cost of
business operations. Currently they are
focusing on premium class clients, in
upcoming time they can concentrate on
affordable services to economic section.
Threats – Transportation industry is
continuously growing and this can be
considered the prime reason that many new
firm are entering in this sector. The increasing
cost of fuel and Brexit will also bring new
challenges in the industry and ''Your
destination'' may have to face negative impact
because of low demand (Jones and Penaluna,
2013).
Main competitor – National Express is their main competitor, currently they hold significant
amount of shares in the market and their revenue is much higher compared to ''Your destination''.
Target market segmentation – In current scenario the companies running in cites are using
services provided by ''Your destination''. Most of the clients of the cited enterprise are MNCs,
they have capacity to pay more amount in order to avail better and fast service. Below are some
tactics which cited firm can adopt:
Market development – Mentioned firm can buy some of their small competitors, this will
increasing their number of clients in short period oft time. They can also buy more transportation
vehicles so they can proper expand their business in new locations.
Market penetration – This organisation can offer heavy discount when they start their
operation in cities. This will increase their popularity and they will capture significant amount of
market share in short time period.
Budget – 625000 pounds will be the total budget for this expansion plan. Most of the amount
from this budget will be spend on digital marketing and discount offers. This organisation is
entering in more than one cities in single time so the funds should be utilised in an appropriate
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way. In present scenario, company cannot afford wastage of financial resources (Huang and
Sarigöllü, 2014).
CONCLUSION
At the end, it can be concluded that the role of marketing manager is very important, they
are responsible for growth of business. Marketing department also assist other division in the
company, they support these wings by giving them necessary information. Marketing plan can
minimise the waste of resources and it can help whole organisation in moving in one direction.
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The Marketing Mix 4P’s and 7P’s Explained. 2017. [Online]. Available through:
<http://marketingmix.co.uk/>. [Accessed on 23rd September 2017].
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