Marketing Essentials Report: ASOS Plc and Yardley Comparison

This report delves into the core principles of marketing, examining its pivotal role within modern organizations, using ASOS Plc as a case study. It explores the multifaceted responsibilities of a marketing department, including market research, product development, pricing strategies, promotional techniques, and distribution channels. The report further analyzes and compares the marketing mixes of ASOS Plc and Yardley, highlighting their approaches to product, price, place, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence. The report also outlines a marketing plan for ASOS Plc, specifically for the launch of a new product, "Forever Young", offering a comprehensive overview of marketing essentials and strategic applications.

MARKETING ESSENTIALS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 & P2 The role of marketing in modern organizations............................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P3 Comparing the ways in which different organisation apply marketing mix..........................4
P4 Marketing Plan........................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is the function of the organization which looks at developing, promoting and
selling the product of the organization. ASOS Plc is the cosmetic brand which is taken into
consideration for this study. This report highlights the role and responsibility of the marketing
function. Further this report highlights the role of marketing in related to the wider organization
context. Further this report highlights the comparison in between the two company on the basis
of the marketing mix used by them. In the end report highlights, the marketing plan of the ASOS
Plc regarding the launching of the new product “Forever Young”.
TASK 1
The role of marketing in modern organizations.
Marketing refers to the activity of developing, interacting, communicating, delivering and
exchanging the offering to create value for the clients, partners and whole community in large.
Marketing includes planning, developing products, packaging, setting prices and distributing
products to ultimate customers (Lovelock and Patterson, 2015). Marketing plays an important
role in every type of organization whether it is non-profit, small, large organization or
manufacturer of industrial products.
Marketing used to play variety of roles and responsibility such as. Marketing department
of the organization is responsible for performing different types of functions. It helps the firm to
determine the best opportunities that are available in the market to grab them with the help of
available resources that will help to achieve the objectives of the organization.
One of the most important role of marketing is to conduct research of the market to
collect information regarding needs and demands of the customers. Marketing department helps
the organization to take decisions regarding effective marketing of the products.Another major
responsibility of marketing department is to design and develop the products for consumers. For
effective product designing, marketer plays an important role in taking decisions related with
quality, packing of goods to influence the buyers to purchase them.Marketing department of the
company plays an important role in taking decision regarding effective packaging and labelling
of the products. Therefore, attractive packaging will help the firm to promote the products in the
market. Pricing is a major factor that affects the demand of customers regarding products and
services. Marketing department is responsible to develop pricing strategy for offering the goods
to ultimate buyers. While determining the price, marketer considers various factors like
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competition, type of customers, demand of product, objectives of firm etc. Pricing of the product
should be proper otherwise, customers will shift towards the product of competitors. It is the
process of informing target customers regarding features, benefits, usage and price of the
products. Marketer is responsible to decide the type of promotional tools to be use for promoting
the goods such as Publicity, Personal selling etc. Moreover, they also help to develop marketing
budget, promotional mix etc. (Grudin, 2017). Another major role marketing department plays is
to take decisions regarding the channels of distribution for distributing products to the customers.
Marketing department is responsible for determining channels of distribution like wholesalers,
dealers, retailers etc., level of inventory, warehousing etc. Customer satisfaction is very
important for success of the product in the market. Marketing department of the organization is
responsible for handling the grievances of the buyers, maintaining customer information,
procuring service of credit, providing after sale service etc. Therefore, marketer play an
important role in attracting, maintaining customers.
The functions of Marketing department are interrelated with other functional units of the
organization. It helps to achieve the goals of the company. Satisfying the need and demands is
not the sole responsibility of marketing department but is the responsibility of other departments
also. Interrelationship between marketing and other functional units is as follows -
The functions of Research and development should be properly linked with the efforts of
marketing department. Organization climate is one of the essential factor that encourage the
efforts for successful new product development. Every stage of developing the product requires
proper link between marketing department and research department of the company. Research
plays an important role to collect information regarding demands and preferences of the buyers
that helps marketing department to develop innovative products for the customers (Sombultawee
and Boon-itt, 2018). Procurement is considered as one of the most important function of the firm.
Marketing department of ASOS Plc helps purchase department to buy raw material for
developing products on the basis of marketing research. Procurement department of the
organization helps marketing department by managing the expenditure on marketing activities
not only regarding cost of the product but also on other side such as measuring the creative side
of the marketing functions.
The marketing of products also depends upon the capabilities of production department.
For example – Marketer of ASOS Plc firm has to ensure that volume of orders of the customers
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generated by marketing department will met out within the schedule of production department of
delivering products. It also helps to ensure that quality of goods should be according to
specifications of the customers (Whitler, K.A., Krause, R. and Lehmann, 2018).
Human resource department is responsible for recruiting, training human resource of the
firm. For example – Human Resource Manager of ASOS Plc is responsible for hiring employees
in marketing department. Marketer should collaborate with human resource department for
designing job description, developing training programs for employees etc. Interrelationship
between marketing and human resource department helps to ensure that skilled workers are
recruited for meeting production targets, to conduct research activity for generating new product
development ideas. All types of marketing plan involve financial dimension. Cost of the product,
profit, budget etc. are essential for creating marketing plans. To evaluate the decision of
marketing department various financial tools are used to determine the return on investment.
This type of decision is not limited only to new product development but, it also helps to take
decisions regarding marketing mix, price, distribution channels, advertising etc. (Feng, Huang
and Avgerinos, 2018). Cash flow analysis, financial policies etc. are essential for developing any
type of financial plan and also these things requires marketing inputs. Marketing activities such
as launching a new product also affects the market price of shares of the firm. Effective and
efficient decisions of marketing department require the support of other non-marketing
departments for conducting marketing planning, product design and development, to implement
marketing strategies etc. Other functional units also help to perform marketing functions by
offering new methods and concepts.
TASK 2
P3 Comparing the ways in which different organisation apply marketing mix
Marketing Mix ASOS Plc Yardley
1) Product There are different products
manufactured by ASOS Plc
and some of them are like
 skin care products like
soap, shampoo
 it has different salons
Yardley is a very famous
cosmetic brand known for its
quality products. It is a very
old company and known by
many people. It manufactures
different cosmetics products
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 cleansing products and
more
ASOS Plc uses quality
material to manufactures
products and it does not have
any bad effect on the skin.
under its name and some of
them are:
 Perfumes
 Creams
 Beauty products
 Make-ups
2) Price ASOS Plc uses different
pricing strategies for its
product. Some of pricing
strategies are penetration
pricing, value pricing, pricing
for quality. ASOS Plc uses
penetration pricing in its
company. It tries to capture the
maximum market by
penetrating in it. This will
help the company to increase
its customers base and this will
increase the profits of the
company in the long run
(Jackson and Ahuja, 2016.)
Every company uses different
pricing strategy. It depends
upon the profits and marketing
department of the company to
choose which strategy they
want to adapt in their business.
Yardley uses two strategies
which are high price for good
quality product and value for
good. The goods of Yardley
are expensive but they are of
very good quality and does
need to be used again and
again.
3) Place Here place means that the
goods are manufactured in one
country and sold at other
country. The products of
ASOS Plc are manufactured
and sold in the same country .
It combines all the products
and then all the products are
Yardley is that company which
get all its raw material from
UK and it sells its product to
different countries of the
world. Place decides the price
of the product and if a product
is manufactured in one place
and raw material is also taken
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sent to different countries. The
main consumer of ASOS Plc
products is UK and the
company gets it 70% revenue
from here only.
from there only then the price
of the product will be less in
comparison to other products
which are produced and sell at
different places. Yardley is a
very big company and it gets
raw material from different
countries and it sells its
product also to different
countries.
4) Promotion Company uses different forms
of promotion techniques to
promote its product. It can use
different ways like social
media marketing,
advertisement and many ways
to market its product in the
world. Promotion plays a very
important role in increasing
the profits of the company and
innovative marketing will
surely increase the sales of the
company(Rajavi, Kushwaha
and Steenkamp, 2019.)
Yardley spends a lot on its
promotion. There are different
products which are recognised
just by the name of Yardley. It
has used various source to
market its product. It uses
target marketing technique. It
targets a market and it does all
the efforts to capture that
market. This reduces the
competition in that segment.
5) People People means the employees
working in the company. If a
company wants to perform
good in market, then it should
have good work force which is
efficient and effective. Good
Employees working in Yardley
are experienced and they are
chosen by proper selection
technique. Employees of
Yardley are given proper
training before giving them
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human resource always gives a
competitive edge to a company
over other companies. A
company performs better if the
employees are skilled and
experienced. ASOS Plc
employees are educated and
they are innovative and are
ready to take risk for the
company.
actual work. This gives them
an idea about the work and
they get friendly with the
working conditions. Yardley
employees are given training
from time to time and they are
very normal to changes.
6) Process Process means the steps which
should be followed by the
company to achieve the goals.
ASOS Plc manufacturing
process is simple and it can be
followed by different people.
The employees know the
process of marketing, finance
and every other segment. The
process of the company
generally does not change
again and again but in case of
ASOS Plc it changes with
change in situations.
Yardley process is still and it
does not change with change
in small situations. Yardley
has to incur a lot of
expenditure if it changes its
process. The process of
Yardley is same in all the
departments and it is not
affected by change in any one
situation.
7)Physical Evidence Physical evidence in the
marketing means the services
that are tangible. The services
provided by various sectors
which can be seen and used
come under physical evidence
Physical Evidence also include
the signs, symbols, brochure,
paperwork etc. There are
various services which are in
the form of physical evidence
provided to the employees.
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of marketing. ASOS Plc
provides various services to
the people in the form of salon
and customer services etc. The
service of cutting hair comes
in service industry but it has
some physical existence and
can be seen (Xie, 2019.)
The services provided in the
shop like product testing,
services of parlours and more.
Different tactics applied by the company to achieve organisational objective
Managers apply different tactics in their company so that organisational objective can be
achieved. Depending upon the size off the company, tactics are used. Some tactics are:
1) Profitability: In this tactics the business tries to achieve the target of earning maximum
profit. To earn this target, business does all those activities which can help in earning
maximum profit. This tactics is usually chosen by companies like Yardley as they are
well established in the market already. They already have many customers and they just
do those activities which can help them in earning maximum profits.
2) Market Growth: This type of tactics is chosen by those companies which have less
customers in the market. ASOS Plc follows this tactic as they have less customers in the
market and they want to increase their market share. This will give them long term profit
and it will increase the goodwill of the company.
3) Quality: This tactic is usually chosen by most company as quality is very important factor
which decides the future of the company. Customer will buy the product second time
only when he finds that the quality of the product is good and it is available at right price.
ASOS Plc as well as Yardley follows this tactic to have loyal customers (Yee and et.al.,
2016.)
P4 Marketing Plan
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Marketing plan refers to the document that defines overall marketing efforts of the
company. It describes the way in which firm will implement its strategy for promoting the
product in the market. The following marketing plan is regarding launching new product of
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ASOS Plc that is Forever Young. The plan will outline external and internal analysis, STP ,
marketing mix of new product, budget etc (Kotler and et.al., 2015). Further this plan has
explained the Tactics 7p's and monitoring and controlling policy of the company.
COMPANY OVERVIEW
ASOS Plc is the local company of the UK which looks at the cosmetic selling in the UK
by the direct channel of 50 branch(Dib, 2018). All the products will be sold through parent
company. Now the organization is looking to expand the business by launching own product in
the market as in past company was performing well in the market.
SMART OBJECTIVES
To introduce company own cosmetic product into the market with the main objective of
increasing the revenue of the company by 20 percent in coming 2 years.
PESTLE ANALYSIS
It is a tool that helps the firm to analyse the impact of external factors on the performance
of the company. ASOS Plc will conduct PESTLE analysis to evaluate the positive and negative
impact of all macro enviornment factors on the firm.
POLITICAL FACTOR: ASOS Plc company needs to follow strict rules and regulation
for the launching its product in new market. The company many times import its product from
other countries for manufacturing of its product which makes the company to follow certain rule
regarding the import of ingredients that are required in manufacturing of 'forever beauty' cream.
The negatively impact on the company is that it will have to follow strict guidelines for
importing. The positive impact is company when introducing its new product 'forever beauty',
the government can give some flexibility in certain rules like reducing the cost on custom duty,
reducing tax, discount on shipping charges for importing raw materials, etc (PESTLE
ANALYSIS, 2019).
ECONOMIC FACTOR: The economy which is stable in its economic condition will
help the company to launch its product in the same economy. The positive impact on the
company is when the economy is wealthier it will make consumers to purchase the product even
at higher rate (Perreault,2018). Which will enable the company to increase its sales and the
revenue generated by the company will be higher. Hence the income of person is more the
purchasing power will also be increased. The negative impact is that if the economy is poor than
the company will not able to sale its product because the purchasing power of consumers are less
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and they will focus on fulfilling the basic necessities of life which are more important.
SOCIAL FACTOR: The social ethic is important to be fulfilled by the company as the
company need to satisfy the needs of consumer in terms of providing herbal products. ASOS Plc
company needs to provide quality product which does not harm the skin of consumers as herbal
product can be manufactured by the company with less use of chemicals (Campbell, Martin and
Fabos, 2018). The positive impact of social factor to the company is that the consumers are aware
regarding the product quality and use of herbal products will influence the company to
manufacture good quality product with less use of chemicals. The negative impact on the
company is that due to more consumer’s awareness the company will have to give more attention
on increasing product quality, ingredients used, following the rules of FDA, etc.
TECHNOLOGICAL FACTOR: In this factor the company will mainly focus on use of
advance technology which will increase the company sales. Its positive impact is that ASOS Plc
company will able to operate its operations on the large economies of scale . The negative impact
will be that the employee is required to given training on the introducing of new technology in
the company.
LEGAL FACTOR: ASOS Plc company needs to fulfil the legal rules and regulations
regarding the cosmetic manufacturing in the company (Haywood, 2019). The impact company is
that legal rule makes the company to follow the ethics regarding the FDA regulation which is
Federal Food Drug and cosmetic Act this act makes the cosmetic industries to follow rules and
make proper labelling and packaging which shows the ingredient used by the company are safe
for consumers.
ENVIORNMENTAL FACTOR: In the environmental factor the company tries to
provide eco-friendly products that can put less stress on the environment. This factor gives more
emphasis on the 'go green' concept which will able to preserve environment without causing any
damage to natural resources. The impact on company will be that the packaging will done as use
of eco-friendly product the company will us less plastic and the mostly it will focus for optimum
utilisation of available resource and recycling of waste material. The negative impact for
company is that it needs to introduce one more unit for recycling which will increase the
operating cost of the company (Arendt and Allain, 2019).
SWOT
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Strength
Goodwill: One of the major strength of the
company is goodwill. ASOS Plc is able to earn
good name in the market because of the high
quality of products which are offered by the
company in the market. (Gürel and Tat, 2017).
This strength will help the company in
marketing the new product in front of the
targeted customer.
Weaknesses
Competition: It is the biggest weakness of the
ASOS Plc as there are many big competitor
who used to sell the product by their own name
in the market. Which hampers the growth of
the company. New product also has to dealt
with such competition
Opportunity
Technology: Technology is the good
opportunity in front of the ASOS Plc as it will
help the company in developing the new
product and expand the business by launching
the unique product by the help of the
technology which has not used by anyone in
the past.
Threats
Profit Margin: Biggest weakness which is
faced by the ASOS Plc is that the company has
to sacrifice the profit margin to be competitive
in the market. It can prove to be big threat as
new product which company is launching is to
be at lowest price only (Bjerke and Renger,
2017).
SEGMENTATION, TARGETING, POSITIONING
SEGMENTATION: The strategy is used to divide the population in different segment.
The segmentation done by ASOS Plc company according to the demographic segmentation
which divides the population according to their income, age group, gender, occupation, etc. In
income the consumers who are having higher purchasing powers to spend money on the
cosmetic product will be targeted. In occupation the consumers who are professional like
dancers, actors, artists, etc. According to the gender the mainly the product will be manufactured
according to the female perceptions and their requirements.
TARGET : In this strategy the particular section is being targeted and the product is
manufactured specifically for that section of society. The company will target 30 different
markets and the age group between 18-45 are mainly targeted. With the help of targeting
strategy, the company will focus on particular section for fulfilling the needs of the consumers.
POSITIONING: In this strategy the company focuses on getting customers satisfaction
by fulfilling the needs and requirements of the customers. The company will use the strategy to
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