Marketing Essentials: Analyzing Asda's Strategies and Marketing Plan

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Asda's marketing function. It begins with an introduction to marketing and its significance, followed by a critical analysis of key marketing elements such as research, strategy, and planning. The report then explores the interrelationships between the marketing department and other functional units within Asda, including finance, human resources, and production. It evaluates the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function, including product management, pricing, promotion, marketing information systems, and customer support. Furthermore, the report compares how Asda and other organizations apply the marketing mix to achieve business objectives and evaluates different tactics used to achieve these objectives. Finally, the report concludes with the design and evaluation of a basic marketing plan for a new offering within Asda, applying the use of the 7Ps.

MARKETING
ESSENTIALS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
Critical analysis and evaluation of key elements of the marketing function..........................1
Explanation of how roles and responsibilities is related to the wider organisational context2
Analysis of significance of interrelationships between marketing and other functional units3
Critical Evaluation of key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function....................4
Analysis of roles and responsibilities of marketing in context of of the marketing environment
................................................................................................................................................5
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................5
Comparison of ways in which different organisations apply marketing mix.........................5
Evaluation of different tactics applied by organisations to achieve business objectives.......9
LO 3...............................................................................................................................................10
Production and Evaluation of a basic marketing plan for the organisation..........................10
Designing a strategic marketing plan that applies the use of 7Ps.........................................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................16

INTRODUCTION
Marketing refers to all the activities, processes and techniques which an organisation
adopts, as well as implements in order to communicate and position their offerings within the
marketplace. Furthermore, this concept is generally applied to ensure that a prominent
awareness, along with an appeal for the services and products of the company is created amongst
the target market of the company (Akbar and et. al., 2017).
Hence, in this relation, the report below is based on Asda, which is one of the most
recognised supermarket chains operating within the United Kingdom. The report emphasises on
the marketing function of this company, for which, the assignment covers a detailed explanation
of the role of marketing, as well as how it interrelates with other functional unit of the company.
Moreover, a detailed and precise comparison has also been undertaken for ways in which firms
utilise elements of marketing mix to attain their overall organisational objectives. In addition to
this, the report undertakes development, as well as evaluation of a basic marketing plan for a new
offering within Asda.
LO 1
Critical analysis and evaluation of key elements of the marketing function
There are certain key elements of marketing which are required to be critically analysed
in perspective of the organisation, in order to understand the implementation of marketing
function within the company. Hence, for Asda, the key elements of marketing function are
explained below:
 Research:
This is an important element of marketing which requires the company to analyse the
market place in order to place or promote its offerings. In this context, Asda adopts primary
research where it gives in questionnaires and surveys to customers for feedbacks. However, its
market analysis is not the effective as the company does not position its products in a preferred
way.
 Strategy:
This element of marketing is related to the strategy of the company in context of
marketing its products. The firm's strategic marketing plans are focused upon enhancing the sales
in context of offering high quality products at lower prices.
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 Planning:
This element is related to forecasting and planning which allows the firm to position its
strategy in an effective manner. Asda ensures that all the strategic goals of the company are
being met due to tracking the performance and anticipating the demand effectively (Hair Jr, Page
and Brunsveld, 2019).
Explanation of how roles and responsibilities is related to the wider organisational context
There are various department that are together responsible to perform the particular roles
and responsibilities within an organisation. Although the role of different functions like HR and
Marketing are different but they are interrelated with one other in order to collective attain the
firm's objective.
 Marketing and finance department:
The role of finance department is to overview all the monetary transaction of an
organisation for better flow of funds and management of internal activities. It also involve the
budget preparation that help Asda company to control the unnecessary expenditure by effectively
managing the optimum use of the capital in different department. Similarly, marketing
department is responsible to accommodate the changing requirement of customer by encourage
the desirable changes. Both the department function in separate field for unique purposes but
they are interrelated to one other. As marketing function on the basis of budget utilise funds to
conduct research and accordingly run brand promotion programmes. Along with that financial
department analyse market research based on which they take decision to raise the funds from
suitable source (Faßmann and Moss, 2016).
 Marketing and human resource:
HR department is considered as finest department because it involve different functions
like conducting recruitment and selection round, placement, staffing, articulate appraisal
program as well as training and development. Such function are together responsible to manage
the performance of personnel. The role of marketing department is to enhance the footfall of the
Asda outlet in order to enhance the profit margin. Further, both the department are interrelated
with one other as marketing function rely upon HR to enhance the skill of their sales
representative that comes with training and development programme organised by HR manager.
This encourages the knowledge and capabilities of the manpower in order attain the collective
target. Thus, due to strong interrelation the manpower gets the growth and development
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opportunity due to which they become the part of respective organisation and participate to gain
long term success.
 Marketing and production department:
Production department of the Asda company helps in making the effective use of the
resources as well as efforts of manpower in order to systematically carry out production of the
final good or services. On other side marketing department determine the necessity to bring
changes in the existing product as well as launch new product to widen company sales. These
function closely work with each other as marketing department interact with operational area in
order to carry out the procurement process and bring vital modification in order to cover
prospects significantly.
Marketing and Consumer: Marketing help consumer to get informed about the product
as consumer is the important part for any organisation because the product is sold to them an
profit is achieved thereafter. Marketing helps in identifying and then supplying the needs of
customer.
Marketing and Competitors: Marketing identifies competition and uses it to set a
standard so that product and services can be improved accordingly. By knowing how competitors
are performing Asda company can alter marketing accordingly so that product and service
quality can be improved and customer satisfaction can be attained.
Marketing and Political environment: It is important to be informed about change in
legal and political policies so that marketing can be done according. Marketing works on to
change political factors in companies favour so that opportunities can be created out of them
which will ultimately help the company to develop and attain profit for long term.
Marketing and shareholder: If the marketing is done properly it will result in increase
sales, as rise in sales will result in higher profit which will give higher amount of dividend to the
shareholder of Asda company. So marketing helps in increasing the wealth of shareholders.
Marketing and economic environment: If the marketing technique used is proper it will
create positive impact on company which means greater sales resulting in generation of income
that will ultimately contribute GDP of the country. In case if the economy if company is good the
individual will purchase more and more will leads to higher profit for Asda company.
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Analysis of significance of interrelationships between marketing and other functional units
Marketing department of an organisation has an effective interrelationship with each of
the other functional units of the business. These interrelationships are very necessary to be
evaluated in order to understand the role of marketing within the overall functions of the firm.
Hence, in this regard, this element with respect to Asda is explored below:
Relationship between Marketing and Human Resources:
One of the most evident relationship of marketing is with the human resource function of
Asda. Its importance could be explained by an example, that if the marketing manager needs
employees for the department, then HR team would help in recruiting and selecting the most
effective candidates for the same. However, in order to do so, marketing department would be
developing advertisements and job descriptions for newspapers and other social media portals to
ensure marketing of the vacancy.
Relationship between Marketing and Finance:
These functions share a correlation with one another, which is important to understand.
This is because while the marketing focuses on more budget for effective promotion of the firm's
products, finance emphasises on cutting up the cost of marketing to save for the working capital.
However, marketing function helps in enhancing sales of the company, that ultimately provide
the finance team with more earnings. On the other hand, finance fund marketing for its
operations which helps the team in promoting the offerings in an effective manner (Uncles,
2018).
Critical Evaluation of key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function
Marketing function refers to the significant practice that assist the company to gather
essential marketing information and effectively examine the changing requirement of customer.
It encompasses various role as well as responsibility that together help to flourish the operations
of business by deriving value to the customer. Explanation of different functions in context to the
Asda company are demonstrated below:
 Product management:
Product or services are basically the offering in which company deals and generate
significant amount of revenue. So within marketing environment the core role of Asda's
marketing manager in terms to product management is to effective manage the long term
relationship with customer. Further, for this focus is given to constantly modifying the services
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and giving better experience to customer according to prevailing demand. Along with that it is
essential to reduce the chances of dissonance otherwise the customer will switch to other options
of retail stores.
 Pricing:
It is one of the crucial marketing functions that help to enhance the sales of company by
setting appropriate prices of the product. It is the role of marketing manager to understand the
behaviour of customer and set justified price which need not to be either over charged or under
charged. Asda company successfully adopt the competitive pricing strategy due to availability of
high competitive pressure. Thus, carrying out price wars on the basis of competitive marketing
environment effectively promote Asda firm to offer discount prices and maintain its market
share. Promotion:
This tool is used to gather the attention of customer in terms of the availability of product
in particular geographical market. Based on this the customer remain familiar about the existence
of brand according to competitive market environment which help in setting final purchasing
decision as it helps in selecting right promotional tool. So to position the brand in customer's
minds respected company mainly depend upon the digital options like SEO, website, social
media and so on. Along with that print media like magazines are used to cover wide market
effectively.
 Marketing Information System:
Due to the emergence of wide competition within external market environment led to the
availability of options has affected the social factor because of constant change in fashion, desire
as well as requirement of people. So cope up with market dynamics it is the roles and
responsibility of company to maintain the data of customer. Herein, Asda company manages the
centralised database of their existing customer and accordingly analysing changing trend in term
of demand. For instance, with the increasing awareness amongst people about fitness respected
company have add various organic food item in their shelves (Brychkov and Domegan, 2017). Customer Support Service:
Marketing function is not only restricted to improve the sales of company but in involve
after sales services as well to maintain customer's interest of external market. Within this stage
the role of customer support service is to address the grievances of customer in order to mitigate
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the chances of dissonance. In relation to selected company offer the helpline service where with
the help of contact detail or email customer can directly communicate with the internal manager.
This assist the company to successfully manage the pre and post sales which leads to sustainable
growth of market environment.
Hence, the role and responsibility of diverse marketing functions is to gather the attention
of customer and maximise the sales by derive out satisfaction for the convenience of customer.
It helps in managing the sales of innovative product and remain update in terms to promote the
modified product as well as services effectively.
Analysis of roles and responsibilities of marketing in context of of the marketing environment
Marketing environment encompasses the impact of internal as well as external factors
which help to gain deep insight based on which activities are carried out in terms to perform
systematic functioning. The marketing department of the Asda company comprises of different
roles as well as responsibility such as building pricing or promotion strategy and maintaining
customer support services that help marketing manager to favourable process their function and
function according to dynamic environment. Based on which the company articulated essential
strategy in order to incorporate sustainable relationship with existing as well as potential
customer (Sawant, 2017).
LO 2
Comparison of ways in which different organisations apply marketing mix
Marketing Mix refers to the amalgamation of several elements of marketing that are
associated with effective promotion of a company's products or brand. Furthermore, it also helps
in achieving the overall business objectives of the company, which is necessary for its growth
and sustainability.
In context with Asda, its prime business objectives are profitability, as well as higher
revenue upon which the overall marketing strategies and tactics of the firm is applied. Moreover,
these objectives are also essential for the organisation to deal with the competition within the UK
retail sector. Hence, one such competitor of the company is Sainsbury's, which is another
supermarket chains within the UK that operates widely within the overall country. Hence, in this
regard, below is a detailed comparison of how both the organisations apply the elements of
marketing mix to achieve their overall business objectives:
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MARKETING MIX
ELEMENTS ASDA SAINSBURY'S
Product
As for the product strategy,
Asda adopts differentiation, as
it has a range of differentiated
products and services within
the marketplace. Moreover, it
focuses on developing a wide
product portfolio to ensure
higher revenue generation and
market share. For instance,
apart from retail, the firm also
differentiates its competitors
through offering mobile
phones, as well as financial
services.
In comparison to Asda,
Sainsbury's adopt product
diversification as its key
product strategy. In this
regards, the organisation offers
products such as groceries,
fresh food, home appliances,
clothing and so forth, to ensure
that the firm has a wide variety
to offer to its customers in an
appropriate manner (Okumus
and Cetin, 2018).
Price
In context of pricing, Asda is
very much particular in
providing its offerings at a
cheaper rate than its
competitors. Hence, pricing
penetration strategy is adopted
by the firm to generate high
profits and revenue. This is
because the firm has a low cost
agenda which is a strategy to
attract customers through
enhanced value for money.
In relation to Sainsbury's, the
organisation provides majority
of its products by using
premium pricing strategy. This
is because the firm is believed
to target high-end customers to
generate higher revenue by
providing them products with a
very high quality, which the
firm believes to have justified
its price range.
Place The firm has distribution
channels spread across both
In comparison with Asda,
Sainsbury's has a wider
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offline and online platforms.
As for the former, the firm has
“Simple and Fresh” approach
to all of its store formats with
provision of simplified
shopping at bigger spaces. For
online, however, the firm has a
rather smaller delivery scope
with just its application as one
of the key tools to attract
customers (Piñeiro-Otero and
Martínez-Rolán, 2016).
distribution channel as its
strategy has equal focus upon
the offline and online
channels. For instance, the
firm operates with more than
600 supermarkets and 800
convenience stores within the
UK. In addition , quite
recently, the firm had an
effective distribution to almost
1.7 million customers within
an hour as an extension of the
firm's Chop Chop app scheme
(Marketing mix of Sainsbury’s,
2019).
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Promotion
In relation to promoting the
products and services, the firm
uses television and newspapers
primarily to attract people
from far off regions with
limited or no access to digital
channels. Moreover, the firm
also focuses on online
promotion through online
media channels as well.
However, Sales promotion is
the firm's biggest promotional
aspect where the company
emphasises on price reduction
and other discounted offers to
ensure customer attraction.
Sainsbury's pay a lot of
attention in context of
promoting their products and
services. For this purpose, the
firm uses all the types of
traditional and modern media
channels from newspapers and
radio to social media portals
such as Facebook and Twitter.
Moreover, in comparison to
Sainsbury's it uses celebrity
marketing by using celebrities
to become brand ambassadors
of the firm which saw a growth
in sales of the company and
better marketing position.
People The firm focuses on all its
stakeholders. However, two of
the prominent ones are
employees and customers. In
relation to the former, the
company uses on the job, as
well as off the job training to
ensure development of
employees at a desirable level.
In context of customers, the
firm offers them several
schemes under which they
could ensure several benefits
related to the company and its
offerings (Rancati, Gordini
Sainsbury's emphasises on
providing essential training to
ensure their specialisation
within their respective job
roles, as well as cross
functions. For example, the
company within its sales team
are provided training in
communication and persuasion
which allows them to
contribute in marketing as
well. Moreover, Nectar is one
of the loyalty scheme by the
firm which ensures customers
to gain points at every
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and Capatina, 2016). purchase which helps them in
enhancing the benefits from
the company and its offerings.
Processes
Asda has a simplified process
within the organisation where
in the firm's products from
suppliers are stored in the
firm's warehouse and later are
stocked in their respective
sections for customers to
purchase the same.
Sainbury's emphasises on a
rather digital format within
their stores where systems are
installed to notify the retailers
about low inventory levels.
Furthermore, it has an online
delivery process, which is
associated with a better and
structured delivery to the
customers.
Physical Evidence
Asda's physical evidence
involves the its store formats,
for which includes superstores,
super-centres along with
supermarkets. In addition, the
firm's website is highly
effective and user friendly
which is very important for the
company to ensure marketing
and purchasing its products.
In context of Sainsbury's, its
physical evidence is more
focused upon the products of
the company and is focused
upon product packaging of
distinct colours to be identified
amongst others in stores. As
for its websites, the firm
emphasises upon making the
site more attractive, along with
making the same user friendly.
This is achieved through using
high quality images, which
markets its product in a better
manner.
Justification:
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