Marketing Essentials: Coconut Bliss Marketing Mix and Plan Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the marketing essentials applied by Coconut Bliss, a B2C company based in Eugene, Oregon. The report begins with an introduction to the importance of marketing in modern business and then delves into the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function, including marketing information management, product planning, financing, development, advertisement, selling, and customer service. It explores the interrelations of marketing with various organizational functions such as human resources, research and development, ICT, and administration. The report then compares Coconut Bliss's marketing mix with that of McDonald's, highlighting the unique strategies employed by Coconut Bliss. Finally, it develops and evaluates a basic marketing plan specifically tailored for Coconut Bliss, offering insights into its consumer-focused approach and strategies for achieving its business objectives. The report emphasizes the importance of understanding customer needs and developing profitable relationships in the competitive market.

Marketing Essentials

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P 1 Key roles and responsibilities of marketing function relate to the wider organisational
context.........................................................................................................................................1
P 2 Main roles and obligations of marketing related to the wider organisational context ........4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
P 3 How Coconut Bliss applies marketing mix in comparison of McDonald's .........................7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
P 4 Basic marketing plan of Coconut Bliss.................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is an important tool in the modern business companies. This includes
understanding of market location, needs of customers, developing profitable relations, consumer
driving marketing strategy and provide quality among the users. The business ventures have
realised the significance of consumer relationships and they are attempting to receive an
innovative approach towards marketing schemes in business (Babin and Zikmund, 2015). The
awareness in context of marketing is very high in the existed marketing scenarios across the
whole world. The present report is based on the marketing essentials which is describing the
marketing strategies of a business enterprise named Coconut Bliss, which is located at Eugene,
Ore. It offers food to customers and are following B2C marketing structure. The number of
workers is very less which is around 11 and the turn over of this venture is approx 5,000,000 £
per year. The main reason behind the attainment of high revenues of such a small firm is due to
the consumer focused approach of the enterprise towards the market. The project is also
concentrating over the roles of marketing initially with roles of marketing functions and their
inter – relations with various other functionalities of organisation. In addition to this, it is also
comparing the ways of application of market mix in the firm for achieving the corporation – al
aims and objectives. Here, a marketing plan for Coconut Bliss is also developed and evaluated.
TASK 1
P 1 Key roles and responsibilities of marketing function relate to the wider organisational context
Marketing function can be simply defined as the roles of business ventures that aids in
identifying and sourcing the potentially successful goods for market and then assists in its
promotion as well. These functions are very common in organisations and includes market
research, planning regarding products, process of development, advertisement, sales, finance,
consumer service, etc. (Bean and Hussey, 2012)The marketing functions consist of different
responsibilities of the venture , and such functionalities are responsible for the growth as well as
expansion of firm. The roles and responsibilities of marketing functions of Coconut Bliss are
described below :
 Marketing information management : Before manufacturing any kind of goods or
services, it is important for the cited enterprise to do proper marketing information
management so that they can discover and find about the demands and requirements of
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customers. In addition to this, Coconut Bliss should also recognise the marketing strategy
of their competitors and examine the products and services offered by them to the
customers. After this, they get an idea of which type of goods they should design so that
they can earn competitive advantage.
 Product planning : After going through the surveys or market research, managers of
venture should focus on product planning. They should think about development some
innovative goods in order to grasp the attention of large number of consumers towards
their new production..
 Financing : Here the cited firm have to decide about the total costing or investments
they are going to done so that no conflict would created in future. For this, they can form
a special team who and permit them for making their budgets (Fan, Lau and Zhao,
2015). The members of team is having the responsibility of take of all the financial
activities going on. This includes purchasing of raw materials, various machineries for
the manufacturing of products, recruitment of workers, etc. How much money is going to
invest in raw materials, machines, packing, distributing, etc. all are decided effectively by
finance team members.
 Development process : After making plan about the goods and services, Coconut Bliss
should concentrate on the manufacturing or development process where by they are going
to design new products. They should create goods as per the demand of citizens. They
need to concentrate on making healthy and best quality food commodities. This will
make the huge demands of their products as every one want to eat healthy food items and
prefers to be fit.
 Advertisement : This is the next important function of venture after the creation of goods.
As they have designed some new food items, it is important for them to give this
information to the people living in their nation. For this, they have to do proper
promotional activities where by they need to advertise their newly made products and
services (Beck and Reichert, 2012). They can make effective advertisement by taking
help of social media such as Face book, You tube, What's app, etc. These are some
cheapest mode of doing promotion. In addition to this, they can do effective
advertisement by taking use of television, posters, news paper, announcements, quizzes,
etc.
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 Selling : After doing advertisement, the next step is to do proper selling of goods so that
company earn huge profitability. They can set up their new shops in different other places
where there is a crowd of people. They can also establish their branches in various other
nation in order to expand their business effectively. This can be done by shaking hands
with international stake holders and distributors. In addition to this, Coconut Bliss can
also sell their goods or services on internet by offering online services. This increases the
overall customers of venture in all over the world. People come to know about their new
production and can purchase food items and do payments very easily by sitting at their
home only. In fact, delivery of items is also done to their door within few days.
 Customer service : This is last but not the least process where by customer service is
provide to the users by the corporation. In this process, feedbacks or complaints received
by the consumers are checked and proper resolution are done to each of them. If citizens
need some modification in the present product provided by Coconut bliss then it is their
responsibility to change their existed food items and made modification as per the
feedback of users (Huotari and Hamari, 2012). This helps in making good as well as
sustainable relationships with the customers as users feel themselves important if cited
venture will prepare foods as per their wish.
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(Source : Functions of marketing, 2017)
Therefore, it can be summarised that there are some important roles and responsibilities
of marketing functions which Coconut Bliss have to perform properly in order to achieve their
goals and objectives with in a specific time frame.
In addition this, the roles and responsibilities of marketing in context of marketing
environment are described below : Marketing strategies : This is first and foremost role of marketing where formulation of
marketing strategies are done for the Coconut Bliss. Monitoring of marketing environment : This is another role of marketing where
environment of market and its impact is monitored by the venture (Garrigos-Simon,
Lapiedra Alcami and Barbera Ribera, 2012).
 Market segmentation : In this process, customers are segmented into specific target
group and as per that products are offered to them.
P 2 Main roles and obligations of marketing related to the wider organisational context
The important roles and responsibilities of marketing inter-related with functions of
Coconut Bliss are explained below :
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Illustration 1: Functions of marketing

 Human resource : This is one of the key functional area in business organisation as
hiring work force is the fundamental need of each and every enterprise. As per the case
study Coconut Bliss is a small size venture which is having only 11 employees and now
this company needs to expand its business. Thus, it is essential to recruit workers in bulk.
For such a bulk hiring, cited firm has to invest high amount of money as they have to
travel various universities or colleges in search of good employees. Besides this, they can
also arrange interview sessions at various locations where interested people can come and
take part in this session. If they are selected then get hired immediately after this for the
corporation. In addition to all this, Cited firm can take online interviews and recruit
experienced personnels from there by examining their qualifications (Volek, 2011).
After that, it is also essential to arrange training and development programmes for the
newly hired workers so that they come to know about their core functionalities or job
roles. If they understand the work efficiently then these employees can contribute in
attaining targets of company. It can be said that this department is inter- connected with
the production department because workers helps in manufacturing of goods and
services. Research and development : This is another important function of marketing where by
surveys and researches are conducted by special team of venture for determining the
current needs and demands of customers. They need to recognise carefully the living
style and culture of the civilians so that they come to know about which type of foods are
mostly used by them in their festivals or especial occasions. They have to analyse food
commodities preferred by different age group people (Wertime and Fenwick, 2011). For
example, small child or teenagers like ice creams, adults like healthy food items made up
of organic materials, etc. In addition to this, they need to focus on products provided by
their competitors so that they examine the weaknesses present in the services offered by
them and design some thing new which will be different from those. Manufacturing process : After doing deep research, it is the goal of the corporation to
develop innovative food which are designed by using organic ingredients and should use
any type of harmful chemicals. As company provides food items mainly made up of
coconut, they can think of manufacturing some different products that can all of the
customers surprise and force them to purchase their goods in large quantities. This can be
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summarised that process of marketing is inter-related with the Research and development
as products are made as per the information acquired from surveys. Information and communication technology (ICT) : This is an essential techniques that
assists venture in doing communication with the workers as well as consumers in
effective manner. The technology has improved so much and provides different modes of
communication like social media (Email, Twitter, Face book, messaging, What's app),
video conferencing, etc. This helps in saving time that gets consumed while taking orders
as well as attending meetings. All these social media applications helps in contacting with
each employees from other associates and they can take their aid in difficult situations.
Decision making now also can be done easily all workforce can take proper decisions by
discussing their ideas in effectual manner. Workers can now attend meeting arranged by
their seniors by taking use of video conference without being physically present at the
meeting venue. This saves the travelling time as well as costs. Modernisation in the field
of technology also helps in doing online business (Satit and et. al., 2012). Customers can
easily give their orders by booking goods at the internet. They can also do their payments
by using different payments making options available over the internet. But there is a
problem of hacking that can create major issues for citizens as their private data related to
their bank or accounts are present in network. So, enterprise should use secure websites
which is difficult to hack that is Shttp (Secure Hyper text transfer protocol). This can be
concluded that ICT department is connected with sales one as modern techniques helps in
selling of products more easily ad efficiently. Administration : Corporation should have an administration department related to
marketing process. For instance, all of the policies required to be made by CEO , HR and
managers of the company as they are able to take important decisions. They should make
strategies and planning for developing and selling their products. In addition this, it is the
responsibility of administration department to take care or monitors the activities of their
work force for determining their performance as well as quality of goods. Production : This is most eminent function of marketing. Here products are designed as
per the strategies formed by members of administrations (Sheth and Sisodia, 2011). Chief
Executive Officers and managers should produce food items according the demand of
consumers. If they will not do so then it badly affects on sales of venture as their products
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are ignored by them and in turn selling rate of company decreases drastically. This shows
a link between administration department and production department. Distribution : After manufacturing of products or services the next work of enterprise is
to distribute their food items to several distributors either locally or globally. Coconut
bliss can take help of distributors at the time of supplying products in different nations.
But they can do job of distribution by themselves in the case of local areas. This would
save their revenue. But while delivering goods, workers should check the quality or
condition of food items so that contaminated one will not supplied. It is to be noted that
for doing distribution, supply department should communicate with finance one in order
to obtain budgetary requirements and processes.
 Finance : If marketing department is going to run any campaign then it should surely
communicate with the finance department so that they can access revenues for doing the
same. So, both of the department that are marketing and finance are closely related with
each other.
TASK 2
P 3 How Coconut Bliss applies marketing mix in comparison of McDonald's
Marketing mix referred to those actions that can be used by organisations for achieving
their business objectives and promoting their brands. This mainly includes four principles that
are Product, Price, Place and Promotion. But in current days, different other principles are taken
into consideration that are Positioning, Packaging, people and physical evidence. The
comparison of marketing mix between these two firms are discussed below :
Coconut Bliss McDonald's
Product : This refers to the items or services
which is being offered to customers. Coconut
Bliss provides organic food items like ice-
creams which are made up of coconut. This is
healthy and full up of nutrition (Morgan,
2012).
Product : On the contrary, McDonald's offers
fast food commodities such as Burger, Pizza,
Cold drinks, etc. This is not made up organic
ingredients so are harmful for the human
health. This leads to most common disease
called obesity and are found in teenagers in
large ratio.
Price : The cited venture offers their products Price : On the other hand, Products or services
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and services at very low price so that all group
of people can afford their food items. In fact,
customers are usually satisfied in paying a little
more as venture produces best quality goods to
them.
provided by McDonald's are very expensive in
nature (Rossi, Allenby and McCulloch, 2012).
That is why, all people are not able to purchase
their high rated food items .
Place : This refers to the location where
services are provided to the customers. If
venture wants to catch the attention of large
number of consumers then they have to
establish their shops or organisations at those
places where people can reach easily without
spending more money in travelling (Malhotra,
Birks and Wills, 2013). Coconut bliss is a
small corporation so they are having their
shops at local places that are in reach of
civilians. They are also preparing to sell their
products on internet via by offering their
potential consumers to option of online
purchasing.
Place : Shops or restaurants of McDonald's are
situated at distant places or locations. This is
the reason, large sum of money of customers is
consumed in conveyance (Meissner, 2012). So,
people are loosing their interest from their food
items. But they are also offering their goods or
services through online.
Promotion : This is simply defined as those
activities that are arranged for creating
awareness about the new products so that
people from each and every nation come to
know about that. Coconut Bliss is doing its
advertisement by using social media (Face
book, You tube, What's app, etc.), mouth
publicities, television, newspapers, posters,
arranging contest and prizes for winners, etc.
By using all these tools and techniques venture
is engaged in its promotional activities.
Promotion : Coming to McDonald's, as they
are a popular brand are also doing its
advertisement by taking use same of
promotional tools but not in that manner as
Coconut Bliss are doing as they are not
interested in doing more publicity. They think
that their goods are known to every people. But
this not good because it is important to
remember about the products or services to the
citizens time to time (Laczniak and Murphy,
2012).
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People : They are commonly referred as assets
of every organisation. As the cited firm is very
small, so it consist of only 11 workers but are
focusing on the expansion of their business.
So, they are having the next aim to hire people
in bulk n order to do improve their
productivity.
People : McDonald's is a developed firm
consisting of larger number or personnels that
is around 375,000 which is very high in
relation to Coconut bliss. Even having such a
vast workforce, they are recruiting new
workers. At the same time, they are also firing
those personnels who are not performing their
work properly.
Process : This is referred to the delivery
services whereby products manufactured by
the company is being delivered to the
customers. Coconut bliss used to deliver their
products in the presence of customers (De
Mooij, 2013). A special group of workers are
arranged by them for doing this work.
Process : McDonald's is also doing the same
work but they facing some kind of issues
regarding delivery of goods (McDonald and
Wilson, 2016).
Physical Evidence : The layout of the stores
are constructed very simple so that products
can be easily find out or search by their users.
Physical Evidence : The physical evidence of
McDonald's are some how complicated or
hotchpotch. Due to this, customers remains
confused while choosing products.
Various tactics applied in the cited organisation are listed below : Regular market research : Coconut Bliss should do regular research for finding out the
current needs of potential consumers. They should also concentrate on the goods or
services offered by their competitors and provide different food items to citizens (Day,
2011). Promotions : Venture needs to use different promotional strategies for various segments
of the market.
 Pricing : Firm requires to sell their goods at affordable prices so that it can be purchased
by all kind of people either they are rich or poor.
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TASK 3
P 4 Basic marketing plan of Coconut Bliss
The marketing plan for Coconut bliss are described below :
Company's Profile: Coconut bliss is one of the biggest firm in Europe that deals in the business
of manufacturing and selling Ice-creams. It is situated in Eugene, Ore, UK. This company
despite of such a large competition in the market it is performing well. This is due to the
standards and quality of products that firm is making. This company is planning for speeding up
the pace of innovation process as it is lower side. The flavours of ice-cream that this company
has is very large and is capable of luring the taste buds of many people in the areas where it is
operational.
SWOT analysis of Coconut bliss
Strengths
 It is having a product range that is capable of luring the taste buds of many people.
 It is having higher quality products as well as they are nutritious and delicious.
 It is having stronger brand name in many regions of Europe.
 It is having the management that is capable of taking decisions at much faster rate.
Weaknesses
 This company is having less advanced machineries as compared to that of competitors
which results in higher cost of productions (Cox and Wray, 2011).
 Coconut Bliss productivity is on the lower side which may reduce its chances of
expanding its business.
Opportunities
 This company is capable of capturing more part of the market inside the Europe.
 It is also capable of making its business stretch in other parts of the world.
 It has opportunities in other products like milkshakes and juices.
Threat
 Economic instability in Europe has arisen a situation where company is restricting itself
from further investments in new markets.
There is very large amount of competition in the industry as many company have came into the
business at local and national levels like McDonald.
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Current market situation- Coconut Bliss is offer ice cream which rate is high in these days. For
understanding this PEST analysis should be done that are as under:
 Political- It is the large amount of political modifications which are going to reduced all
the chances of firm that has taken high rate of risk in proper manner (Brassington and
Pettitt, 2013).
 Economical- The growth of this industry is always reduces for generating large amount
of profit while purchasing power of people are less.
 Social- This can be seen that eating habits of the people are always changes as per the
latest trends are come in the industry. It is shown as positive sign for the company.
 Technological- Company need to adopt new and latest by which they can make fresh
products which gain attention of large number of people towards their goods and services
in effective manner.
Strategies- This is very important for the enterprise is to adopt best suitable marketing strategies
which help in dealing in the large market place (Babin and Zikmund, 2015). With the assistance
of market research it is collect data or information. There are certain strategies which has to be
adopted by firm are as follows:
 Market development- Coconut Bliss can expand their business in other locations in UK.
This will help in capturing large base of customers who willing to purchase products and
services.
 Segmentation, Targetting- This is important for the firm is to target specific area or
location which help in selling different types of goods and services in proper manner.
Segmentation is totally based on demographic, psycho-graphical and other factors (Bean,
and Hussey, 2012).
 Budget- This is essential part of marketing planning in which monetary resources of
whole plan is required for the growth of firm.
Marketing Budget for Coconut Bliss that are as under:
MARKETING BUDGET OF COCONUT BLISS FOR 2017
Particulars Amount in pounds
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Amount for marketing plan 100000
Initial money 20000
Events 10000
Social media marketing 20000
Digital marketing 30000
Direct marketing 8000
Sales promotions 2000
Printing 8000
Advertisements 2000
Total 100000
Controlling- This is very necessary for company manager is to control different business
operations and functions in the marketing that will assist in developing changes according to the
requirements and it will be capable for proving accurate results (Beck and Reichert, 2012).
The strategic marketing plan by applying the use of 7Ps are formulated below :
Elements Description
Product Coconut Bliss should manufacture innovative
products.
Place Venture should sell their goods and services at
those places where people can easily reach.
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They can also take help of retailers.
Price Mixed price strategy should be used as per the
quality and quantity of products.
Promotion They can advertise their goods by taking help
of social media as this is the cheapest source.
People Coconut bliss should recruit skilled and
qualified workers and need to hire people in
bulk as present number of workforce is very
less (Biggemann, 2012).
Process They need to use effective process of
delivering their goods and services.
Physical evidence Coconut Bliss require to offer or deliver
organic food items as per the demand of users.
CONCLUSION
From the above based report, it can be concluded that marketing essentials are very
important for the well operation of each and every venture. It has been observed that this is
giving positive as well as negative influences on the performance of Coconut Bliss. Various roles
and responsibilities of the marketing has been explained in context with marketing environment
such as market research, production, selling, finance, promotion, etc. The different other
functions of the venture has also been described which are inter-linked with these roles in this
project such as research and development, human resource management, etc. In addition to this
an effective marketing plan is made for the cited venture so that they can expand their business
in effectual manner.
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Online
What is Evidence based Marketing ?. 2017.[Online]. Available
through<http://evidencebasedmarketing.net/about-evidence-based-marketing>.
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