Contemporary Developments in Business and Management - Report

This report examines the contemporary business developments of Advanced Plastics Ltd, a plastic fabrication company based in the UK. The report is divided into two main sections. The first section analyzes the primary external influences affecting the company, including political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors. The second section focuses on the relevance of the marketing communication mix and its impact on the company's policies and decision-making, including advertising, personal selling, discounts, and promotions. The report evaluates the effectiveness of the firm's responses to these factors and suggests areas for improvement, offering insights into the company's strategic approach to navigating its business environment and market dynamics. The analysis provides a detailed overview of the company's operations and its response to various market challenges, highlighting the importance of adapting to the changing market conditions.

Contemporary Developments
in Business and Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Overview of the primary external influences and their importance for the firm....................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
Relevance of Marketing communication mix and its impact on the policies and decision
making of firm........................................................................................................................6
Influence of marketing communication mix on policies and decision making of Advanced
plastics Ltd..............................................................................................................................8
Critically evaluate the effectiveness of the firm's response..................................................10
Explain some areas for improvements in response of the organization...............................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Contemporary development is defined as business development of an organisation within
existing situation so as to adopt prevailing market changes which are taking place in this
emerging era. Furthermore this is defined as those changes which are adopted by business
manager by analysing past experiences within business. When a business wants to grow then it is
essential that business utilises their development opportunities in an efficient manner. In order to
examine market situations the business is required to analyse external market factor in prominent
manner. By analysing external environment productive results can be drawn which helps the
business in achieving business objectives (Renwick, 2018). As market is dynamic in nature so it
is essential to satisfy emerging needs of customer so as to remain in the market rivalry. With this
context the following report is prepared and the company taken in this report is Advanced
plastics Ltd which is a plastic fabrication company headquartered in Bergen Way, UK. This file
is divided into two parts and both the part is having separate significance. In the first part
external analysis has been performed and in the second part detailed examination of marketing
communication mix has been done.
TASK 1
Overview of the primary external influences and their importance for the firm
In the current scenario Advanced plastics Ltd is one of the leading technical injection
mould manufacture company. The company is having 32 injection moulding machines ranging
from 40ft to 1500ft which covers more than 2000 moulds at a time. These machines include
vibration wielding, 6 axis in a single line automation and others. Company is having more than
200 employees which are having their primary objective to meet emerging demands of their
consumers. The company is having portfolio of products in their product line which includes
Thread Forms, Co-Moulded materials, Welded Plastics, Modular Plastic Assemblies, Plastic
Lenses and many forth. Advanced plastics Ltd was founded in the year of 1922 and from initial
time only the company is working in manufacturing of plastic products only.
Performance of a business gets effected form so many factors which are existed within
marketplace. These factors may have direct or indirect impact over business but it is considered

that a tiny factor is also having prominent impact over business. These factors are considered as
macro factors from which business is having prominent impact. These factors include political,
economic, legal, technological, social, economic and environmental factors. The impact of these
factors on Advanced plastics Ltdcan be understood from following discussion:
Political environment: These factors include trade restrictions, labour laws, foreign trade
policies and many more. These factors are having high impact over business as in plastic
business government is having high imposition. As due to government interventions the business
is required to follow rules which are made for this business by which profitability of the business
gets affected (Anastase and Grigoruț, 2016). Furthermore machine used by this business are very
expensive and needs high investment but at the same time quality of machine has been decided
by government so Advanced plastics Ltd is required to obey those rules. In order to minimise
effect of this factor Advanced plastics Ltd is required to enhance their product line and enter in
some new products such as glass products, ploy lactic as these product line do not have
restrictions from any governmental bodies. This movement of the company will give them
separate edge over market and help them to grow within market place.
Economic factors: Economic factors include GDP rate, tax policies, currency fluctuations,
wages cost, inflation rate and many more. If economic condition of a country is high then
definitely all the business of the business will flourish and this gives immense opportunities for
business to grow within marketplace. On the other hand it can be said that product’s price is
wholly dependent upon economic condition of a country as there are so many factors which are
directly linked to economy such as taxes and wage rate. In current time inflation rate within UK
in increasing at a very progressive rate due to which shipment and cost of running has been
increased which is having negative impact over business of Advanced plastics Ltd. . On the other
hand due to high tax rates overall costing for the company of their products are increasing so
which the company is having two option either to sacrifice their profit margin of to increase cost
of their products. For this situation management of Advanced plastics Ltd is highly emphasised
on recycling their product waste so as to minimise their cost and to earn more with their procured
resources (Black, 2019).
Social factors: Social factors include taste and preferences of consumers in which how
they adapts a new product which is having new and innovative features. UK has been considered

as gold coin for Advanced plastics Ltd as in that Place Company is having high sales revenue
and rapid growth of their business. These factors are essential for the business as according to
market trends and social needs products are modified by Advanced plastics Ltd. . These factors
are helpful for the company in gaining market competitive edge so as to have high business
sustainability. The major reason behind success of Advanced plastics Ltd is that they are highly
focused on social demands and accordingly they modify their products. Advanced plastics Ltd is
highly focused on meeting consumer demand and rendering better quality product so as to
compete their rivals. Furthermore to deal with this factor Advanced plastics Ltd is required to
adopt social changes in their business so as motivate people to use plastic in many ways by this
they will have high goodwill within marketplace.
Technological factors: These factors include Advanced plastics Ltd technology which are
emerging in the market and used by businesses. To mould plastic into fine finished good
Advanced plastics Ltd technology is used by Advanced plastics Ltd in the form of latest
technology machines. This helps them to prepare their finished goods in more innovative and
Advanced plastics Ltd manner so as to get better outcomes (Schaltegger and Burritt, 2017). This
factor is having positive impact over Advanced plastics Ltd as they are using Advanced plastics
Ltd technology in their manufacturing process which is giving them unique ways to mould
plastic into finished goods. On the other hand the problem associated with this factor is unskilled
employees are not able to perform their operation on new technology in absence of appropriate
training so in order to overcome this problem Advanced plastics Ltd organises training session
for their employees so as to make them used to latest machines which will help them to perform
their task in more effective and easier way.
Legal factors: These factors are associated with legal legislative laws which are required to be
followed by business in order to avoid any law suits litigations. Advanced plastics Ltd are
following so many legal laws such as Copyright law, discrimination law, import law, fraud law
etc. This factor is having huge impact over Advanced plastics Ltd as they have high
governmental interventions within their business so they are required to frame policies and
procedure within their manufacturing process. The company has hired a legal advisor which
helps them to manage their law application within manufacturing process and provide legal
advices when they need this. On the other hand UK government has enforced laws on plastic

manufacture company so being in this boundary Advanced plastics Ltd is required to follow
rules which are described by government (Graetz and Franks, 2016).
Environmental factors: These factors are associated with those business practices which
are having high impact on environment and nature. As plastic is a material which does not get
decomposed and reflects high pollution in atmosphere. Advanced plastics Ltd is a plastic
moulding company so bi products are generated such as plastics Thread Forms, Co-Moulded
materials etc. These products are having high negative implication on environment. These are
having negative implication on profit of the business as well as they have reduced their profits.
In order to get market sustainability Advanced plastics Ltd is highly focused on nullifying
negative implications by making rigid policies within their manufacturing process so as to
minimise harm to the environment.
TASK 2
Relevance of Marketing communication mix and its impact on the policies and decision making
of firm.
Marketing communication mix
Marketing communication mix is defined as the art in which products are promoted within
marketplace in order to spread awareness about a company’s offering within marketplace. This is
a wider concept than promotion and marketing as this aspect includes development,
merchandising and distribution, pricing and communication channels. Promotion is an important
tool for business as this assists them to spread awareness about a product’s feature and
specifications within marketplace. On the other hand marketing is also an important tool in
which customers are targeted and then awareness has been spread about business offerings.
Marketing communication mix is a method which assists the company to advertise their product
within target market and their potential customers (Dickmann, Brewster and Sparrow, 2016).
This is a helpful tool for businesses as it allows them to market their product at a large public
with high efficiency which helps them to boost their sales and revenue as well. In this context
Advanced plastics Ltd they will get immense opportunity to meet their customer’s expectation
by using this concept in their business. Furthermore management will get opportunity to enhance
their business within market place and grab more opportunity for business. On the other hand by

this tool management will able to find such ways by which impactful material can be utilised in
business so as to get high sustainability within marketplace (Möller and Halinen, 2017). Each
and every opportunity for business will give them high growth and immense to have market
edge. There are six elements in marketing communication mix which are elaborated as under:
Advertising Element: This is the most essential tool within marketing communication mix.
Advertisement is a non-personal form of presentation of goods and services by the company to
their potential customer in order to spread awareness and to enhance customer foot fall as well.
The major objective of advertising is to reach out to maximum customer so as to have positive
impact over sales and goodwill of the business. This is the method which is highly used by
Advanced plastics Ltd so as to get positive impact over their profit and to cater more customers
by their product with a view to boost their sales and market capture.
Personal Selling: Personal selling is a sub part of direct marketing. The major aim of personal
selling is to reach to the potential customers by one to one communication so as to avoid any
barrier in between which may cause interruptions. For this company appoints a salesperson and
they had given work of this so as to enhance customer base and spread awareness about their
offerings. This involves face to face communication in which high emphasis has been put on
customer satisfaction. For this Advanced plastics Ltd appoints skilled salesperson in field who
are experts and handed over this work to interact with customer and get to know about their
emerging needs and then fit the company’s offering within those needs by using certain tactics.
This will help the company to boost their sales and receive a distinct market edge (Parson,
Maclaran and Chatzidakis, 2017).
Discounts and Promotions: Discounts and sales promotion are very parallel to advertising
as these both aspects are used by businesses so as to enhance their sales and customer base. On
the contrary they both are different at one point that promotion are only subjected to enhance
sales but advertising is all about spreading awareness about features of product and using those
features in enhancing sales. Furthermore discounts and coupons are major tool which can be
used by business so as to enhance their sales within communication mix. In this context
Advanced plastics Ltd may use this tool so that to attract major number of customer towards
their offerings and to give tough competition to their rivals within marketplace. If the company
focuses on this tool then overall profit of the company can be improvised in effective manner.

Public relation and messaging: Public relation is a strategic communication procedure
that is utilised by businesses so as to build strong relationship with their clients. The major
objective of public relation is to make positive and effective communication and relations with
their client so as to provide advantages to the company in overall. Public relation is helpful for
business to upkeep their goodwill and enhance market image so as to get long term benefits from
them (Bruhn and Schnebelen, 2017). This tool is the most effective tool of communication mix
as it involves direct communication with potential customers and this will assist the company in
modifying their product as according to the needs of customer. In this context Advanced plastics
Ltd can use this method to enhance relations with their client so as to maintain brand loyalty at a
large.
Direct marketing: This method is used in a wide and popular way by businesses as this
method is used by businesses so as to convey their customer about business offerings in a very
prominent way. This is a direct method to inform customers about product and services which
are given within marketplace by the company. Direct marketing include emails, brochures,
coupons, telephone call etc. These all methods are used so as to communicate to customers
directly. This is the most effective form of advertising as it involves two way communications
and any doubt of customers can be solved instantly. This is the best advertising methods for
niche markets such Advanced plastics Ltd. , so the company can use this method to position their
brand in market.
Event sponsorship: This is a new and emerging tool of communication mix in which
companies take participation in some event and there advertise their product or services by
showcasing them. So this method can be used by Advanced plastics Ltd as the company needs
high market publicity and this will help them to enhance their publicity through word of mouth.
This will help them to develop their brand image and enhance market share.
Influence of marketing communication mix on policies and decision making of Advanced
plastics Ltd.
Marketing communication plays a prominent role in an organisation as this helps them to
take decisions in a very effective mode. These decisions are helpful for the business in so many
aspects of their development and market expansion. In the context of Advanced plastics Ltd their
marketing communication mix has huge business impact as this is influencing the policies of the

business in decision making process (Porcu, Del Barrio-Garcia and Kitchen, 2017). The detailed
description of influences of policies over decision making within Advanced plastics Ltd has been
elaborated as under:
As advertising activity involves huge investment so it is not an easy task for any business
to be carried out. This is having high impact on business in direct or indirect manner. Within this
context Advanced plastics Ltd faces difficulties in making plans and policies which are related to
advertisement as this is an essential decision to be taken by business with the purpose of boosting
their sales.
Discount and promotional activities helps the business to perform in a better way so as to
attract number of customers towards their products and other offerings. In other words it can be
said that all the decisions which are taken by business in order to enhance their sales is having
direct influence on business performance as well. Major problem which is faced by Advanced
plastics Ltd is that they are not able to decide amount of discount which is to be given to their
customer in order to attract them towards their offerings. The company is dealing in plastic
moulds so the major issue with them is about percentage of discount to be rendered to their
clients. On the other hand there are some policies which are having impact on profit that should
be revised by Advanced plastics Ltd. . These were the major areas where Advanced plastics Ltd
is required to put their focus in the process of decision making (Pratama and Prasandya, 2018).
Event sponsorship was a decision taken by management of Advanced plastics Ltd which
is having high impact on their business and business operations. This decision is to be taken by
management of Advanced plastics Ltd that whether this investment is profitable for the company
or not. This tool is going to help the business in prominent manner as it will attract customer
which will enhance sales of the company in tremendous manner. This tool is helpful for the
company to boost their sales and customer base as well very less span of time. By this Advanced
plastics Ltd will be able to communicate with their customer in direct manner and deal with their
offerings within marketplace effectively.
The company has decided to sell their product by using direct selling as their main tool;
this will be a difficult task for them to connect those customers who can be their potential buyer
in future. This is a time consuming process and customer capture under this method is quite low,

so this was the major problem faced by Advanced plastics Ltd during implementation of direct
selling. On the other hand this tool helped them to enhance their sales in a very low span of time
by which business is getting high opportunities to grow within marketplace.
Another activity adopted by Advanced plastics Ltd is public relation and messaging
which was adopted by them. They faced high issues in this context as it takes time to build
relations with public so this consumer high time and results of public relations can be seen after
long time. On the other hand this method helped the company to maintain transparency with their
customer so as to maintain long term profitability within business (Naumovska, 2017).
These were some of the important aspect of marketing communication mix which is
helpful for the business so as to have long term benefits over sales, goodwill and profitability as
well. Advanced plastics Ltd faced so many time where they had to take decision regarding these
methods as company had high expenses. This was the major issue which were faced by them, but
somehow by marketing tactics they managed them and benefitted their organisation.
Critically evaluate the effectiveness of the firm's response
It is essential for the business to tackle the entire market situation and adopt market
changes so as to maintain business sustainability and profitability for long run. Within this
context it is essential for Advanced plastics Ltd to adopt proper communication mix as this is the
most helpful tool for them to achieve their business goal effectively within stipulated time
period. Advanced plastics Ltd is majorly focused on giving discounts and promotional offers to
their customers so as to boost their sales and customer base at the same time. They adopted this
technique in a very advantageous manner and achieved their business goal of enhancing
customer base. On the other hand they put their high focus on advertising activities so as to
create awareness about their product within marketplace (Wu and Li, 2018).
This helped them to stay connected with their client across UK which helped them to
enhance awareness and sales as well. The major issue which was faced by the company in
advertising was collection of fund, as advertising needs high amount of investment which may
hamper profitability of the company. In order to reduce this they have taken bank loan which
could be paid in some instalments. Along with this a creative team was formed for the decisions
regarding advertisements so as to create most effective advertisement.

Explain some areas for improvements in response of the organization
In the current scenario, it is essential for any business organisation to prepare a
development plan so as to make their activities more effective in order to take appropriate
decisions which are giving high benefits to customer regarding product’s quality and cost as
well. With the view to enhance performance the business is required to formulate better relations
with their customer by that business can have its high efficiency and management for change. By
effective public relation feedbacks can be generated by their customer who is helpful for the
business to modify their processes and business as per opinion of customers. This will help the
company to make portfolio of loyal customer so as to get high business growth and development
as well. Besides this Advanced plastics Ltd is required to have betterment in their sales
promotion area. It is examined that company is not very much focused on event promotion which
is an area where they can have high customer involvement.
CONCLUSION
Form the above detailed report it can be concluded that Contemporary Development is a
required aspect in business as it help organisation to cop up with any negative influence of
business which is having high impact on profitability and revenue of business. With the help of
PESTLE analysis external factors can be analysed so that to get an idea about business
opportunities and threats within marketplace. PESTLE analysis includes examination of six
factors which are evaluating political, environmental, Social, technological, economical and
legal. These factors are having prominent impact over business operations. By analysing these
factors deeply it will be easier for the business to cover up all the market threats which are
prevailing and can hamper business operation and its sustainability. On the other hand marketing
communication mix is essential for the business to acquire high market size and customer by
promoting their product within marketplace (Pomering, 2017)
.

REFERENCES
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