Marketing Essentials: eBay's Marketing Strategies and Plans Report

This report delves into the core concepts of marketing essentials, using eBay as a case study. It begins by outlining the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function within eBay, an international e-commerce corporation, and examines how these roles relate to the broader organizational context. The report then compares the marketing mix of eBay with that of Walmart, analyzing the product, price, place, and promotion strategies of both companies. Finally, it culminates in the development of a comprehensive marketing plan specifically tailored for eBay, providing insights into strategic decision-making and implementation within the dynamic e-commerce landscape. The report covers market research, competitive analysis, and strategic recommendations.

Marketing Essentials

Table of Contents
INTROUCTION..............................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 key responsibilities & roles of marketing function...........................................................1
P2 How roles & responsibilities of marketing relate to organisational context.....................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P3 Comparison of marketing mix of two companies.............................................................4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
P4 Marketing plan for the company.......................................................................................6
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTROUCTION
Marketing is the management and study of exchanging relationships between customers
and company. This is termed as business process for creating and developing relationships with
customers by offering quality products and services. These include various activities in order to
promote and advertise good services and products. In general terms, marketing is all about
advertising, selling, delivering and promoting products and services to company (Campbell,
Martin, and Fabos, 2018). The company considered in the following report is eBay Inc. This is
an American multinational e-commerce corporation that is situated in San Jose, California. This
facilitates business to consumer and consumer to consumer sales by the help of it's website. This
company was founded in the year 1995 by Pierre Omidyar. This is a multibillion dollar business
which is operating in more than 30 countries across the globe. The following report includes
roles and responsibilities of marketing in this company's success. The interrelationship between
marketing and other departments is also discussed and at last, marketing plan is made for this
company.
TASK 1
P1 key responsibilities & roles of marketing function
Marketing plays an important role in identification and sourcing products and services in
market. An organisation is benefited by successful promotions of services and products
(Cavusgil, and et. al., 2014). Different functions involved in marketing are development of
product plan, market research, promotions, sales, customer service, finance, etc. In context of
eBay, as it is operating worldwide the marketing managers have to perform following roles and
responsibilities -
Roles of marketing
Defining and managing brand – eBay is a well recognised organisation that operates
across the world. Marketing department of eBay adopts different ways for promoting and
advertising services and products offered by the company. Defining and managing of brands is
known as how products offered by company are helpful for customers. eBay offers different type
of products that are delivered to people appropriately.
Conducting campaigns – Marketing function of the company ensures that products and
services are promoted in an effective manner. The marketing managers of eBay conducts various
1

campaigns that helps in meeting demands and needs of customers. Marketing managers of eBay
emphasizes on sales cycle & communication.
Production of marketing and promotional materials – There is development of
promotional materials in order to reach potential customers. eBay is multinational firm and it
keeps itself updated about new trends and demands of customers in order to provide them right
type of product. This creates customers satisfaction and gradually helps in success of the
company.
Website development - Website is the only way by which customers get information
about offerings of the company(Dioko, 2016). Thus it is necessary for the organisation to keep
websites updated regarding new information. eBay uses promotional offers and discounts and
attractive sales so that customers can see them on website and buy products through their
website.
Monitoring & management of social media – The marketing mangers are contributing in
managing and maintaining social media that is associated with company. This company operates
internationally so it has to maintain image and reputation in front of customers. Social media is
used by marketing managers to create good image among customers.
Conducting market research – Each and every organisation has to conduct effective
researches in order to attract more number of customers. In context of eBay, it is seen that
marketing department conducts strong and effective market research so that products and
services are enhanced as per the requirements of customers (Duffett, 2017).
Responsibilities of marketing
Developing strong strategies - Marketing department of eBay uses strong strategies in
order to promote it's services to people in an effective manner. This department works for
increasing sales and profit of the company. eBay deals with online selling of products. Thus,
managers have this strategy to sell their products online and not at physical shops. This
minimises renting and property required for establishing physical stores.
Fixing price of products – eBay has to ensure that it is offering products at
comparatively lower rates than other competitors (Groucutt, and Hopkins, 2015). This provides
products at affordable price and thus market share of company will increase in different
countries.
2

Sales of products - Another function of marketing department is to develop and create
products and services of company as per the requirements of customers. eBay needs strong
market research in order to increase it's sales. When this company will conduct effective
reseraches, it can easily able to develop good image in front of customers. eBay attracts
customers and clients by adopting various promotional tools such as offers, discounts, personal
selling, etc (Hugos, 2018). The main focus of eBay is on availability of stock of products with
suppliers and retailers. It is done in order to retain customers and not allowing them to shift to
other brands.
Market research - This is an essential responsibility of marketing department. A strong
market research by eBay will help in identifying opportunities in market and analysing needs
and demands of customers. An effective market research is required in the company for
increasing sales of the company. eBay has a lot of competitors in market so it is essential for
this company to do a perfect market research for increasing the customer base. Marketing
department conducts research for making effective decisions for increasing sales of company.
P2 How roles & responsibilities of marketing relate to organisational context
Marketing functions plays an important role in attaining organisational goals and
objectives. eBay is an American company which is operating in different countries. When
marketing functions are done in an effective manner, organisations do not face problem in
enhancement of market share. Marketing managers of eBay has to manage and handle
operations and activities involved in advertising quality products and services. The main aim of
marketing function of eBay is to increase sales and profits of the company (Kladou, and et. al.,
2016). There are different departments in this company which collaboratively work with
marketing department in order to contribute in increasing sales of products. The interrelationship
between of various departments of eBay with marketing department are given below -
Marketing and finance – Both these departments are interrelated with each other. eBay
marketing managers develops strong and effective strategies for promoting and advertising
products appropriately. of Tesco is involved in developing effective strategies and conducting
market research. As eBay wants to increase sales and profit of the company so it has to make
plans and strategies. Finance department of this company has to make budgets and profit ratios
for plans made for selling products. Finance department of eBay gives funds and money to
marketing department for organising marketing campaigns and promotional events. There is
3

good collaboration among finance and marketing department as it helps in smooth functioning of
the organisation. Dependency and collaboration is essential for attaining business objectives
objectives and aims.
HR and marketing – HR department of eBay has to recruit and select best candidate who
can achieve organisational goals. Marketing department has to post vacancies and promote
services and products offered by company. Besides this, marketing department of eBay is
responsible for carrying out market research and identifying needs and demands of customers.
The marketing department has to provide requirements of candidate to the HR department (Lane,
2015). This coordination and cooperation helps eBay to hire employees who have all requisite
abilities. Another objective of is to increase the profitability of company. When HR department
and marketing department are collaborating and working effectively, this helps in enhancing
sales and profits of the company.
Marketing and IT department – eBay is an online seller of products. It is essential for
this company to adopt new technologies and provide quick services to people. Marketing
department of eBay provides information about new launch products and offers, discounts that
this company is offering. IT department of eBay is adopting latest techniques and tools for
marketing products effectively. Managers of IT department continuously updates websites and
put promotional events and offers on this website. These offers are suggested by marketing
department of eBay.
TASK 2
P3 Comparison of marketing mix of two companies
The basic term which defines the fact opf marketing mix represents that any business
organisation uses all such tools to gain their aim and all their target market. This tool is also
known as the foundation tools such as for the business purpose (Malhotra, 2015). All such
elements of marketing mix have to be a correct mixture of product, prices, place, promotion ,
people, and physical evidence. The correct emphasis of this method s lets all the managers a
company the strategies correctly and create a new strategic plan of launching any new product in
market. The marketing mix of E-bay therefore the marketing mix of E-bay and is mentioned
below and is based upon the correct analysis:
4

Basis Cadbury Walmart
Product The product range of this company
is huge and has always offered
products of good range and price in
market. Here, they launch their
products as per seasons and
holidays in country, people are
making strategies as per the rulings
and reforms of trends in market. It
has a huge brand and show online
where m mostly all products are
sold and bought by customers
across the globe. This company is
leading in their marketing stream
and has provide one of the best
outlet for selling and purchasing
things with good price range and
quality at the same time.
Products of Walmart are sold with a lot of
variety and they have various features that are
offered to customers. This company sells
products which are higly differentiated and
it’s products are said to be unique. The
products of Walmart are perceived to be of
higher quality than it’s competitors
(Muller., 2019). This company sells products
which are famous for traditional design.
Price he prices mentioned of the products
at E-bay is as per their skills and
job they perform. Since here the
price is decided by the seller as
well so it depends of the
assumption one makes to receive
for the products. Generally the
products are very high priced and
in seasons the prices drop since
there are may reasons as to the
demand and supply at such times
increase and decrease at the same
Walmart follows competitive based pricing
strategy. This is due to easy availability of
data on competitors of the industry. It sells
products at higher rates than competitors.
Walmart has fixed price for final products.
Retailers, channel members and wholesalers
buy the product at lower price and earn by
margins.
5

time. The products are offered in
all sizes and types which makes it
vulnerable to purchase and makes a
bad impression on certain
customers online.
Place eBay has an advantage of cost as it
operates on an online portal. This is
present on each and every
computer. It has optimum
distribution of products. Users can
easily use this site for comparing
products, specifications, price and
looks of product. It has distribution
centres which are located
strategically. In metro cities, eBay
offers one day delivery.
Walmart sells its products through two
marketing channels (Pappas, 2017). This
company has its products present on over 500
retailers throughout the country.
Promotion . This does not take part in above
the line promotions. This company
attracts customers by providing
advertisements on blogs, websites
and social networks (Pike, 2016).
This company also uses search
engine optimisation SEO so that
when a customer starts searching
for a product online, then eBay’s
word is thrown first. Other type of
promotion used by eBay is self-
promotion. Ebay is able to
penetrate market in a better way by
dropping margins and providing
Walmart uses multiple media channels to
promote its products. It uses traditional media.
This consists of advertising products and
services on television and radio (Piñeiro-
Otero, and Martínez-Rolán, 2016) . This
benefits Walmart in reaching wide range of
customers Walmart also uses online and
social media advertising. This is cheaper and
beneficial as usage of internet is increasing at
high rate.
6

discounts to sellers and customers.
People . Employees hired by eBay are
skilled and generally they hire
people who have AI knowledge.
They hire technicians who are
aware of making software that can
enhance selling of products online.
. Walmart has people working under its sales
team that play a vital role in its marketing
efforts.
Process The people who are in list of eBay
are charged an insertion fees. When
item is sold, the buyer is charged a
final value fees. The main cost of
selling product on eBay is insertion
fees plus final value fees. Ebay
facilitates transactions by giving
daily deals to customers.
This company ensures that products are
always available at retail stores (Purvis, 2015.
). This company buys products in stock so
that they are available to customers.
Physical
Evidence
.The headquarters of eBay are
located in Hamilton, California.
This has introduced a new fashion
category. This company has
enabled products review tab that
enables user to find right product at
best price (Rancati, Gordini, and
Capatina, 2016. ). eBay provides an
international site visibility feature
that allows some listings which are
created on ebay.com.
Walmart is involved in selling of products in
distinct color packaging so that customers can
easily identify them on retail shelves.
Products are placed on special shelves that are
given by organisation. This is also having
distinct color and design. It becomes easy for
customers to locate products and shelves.
7

TASK 3
P4 Marketing plan for the company
Marketing plan is defined as report which outlines marketing strategy for future year,
month or quarter. There are different aspects involved in marketing plan. This include overview
of the company, description of current marketing position of business, timeline of tasks and
strategy, key performance indicators and description of target market and customer needs of
business. The main aim of marketing plan is to write marketing objectives for attaining them in
future. Marketing plan provides overview of the company, strategy of marketing adopted by the
company, content marketing, influencer marketing and event marketing. The marketing plan of
eBay is given below -
Executive summary
eBay is a well known company that is operating across the world. This is leading online
marketplace that started in the year 1995 by Pierre M. Omidyararand. The headquarters are
situated in California. This company has created special platform for sales of goods and services
8

This company started out under the brand name Auction web with an image of auctioning
collectibles (Rowley, 2016)
.
Vision – The vision of eBay is to become the favourite destination of world in order to discover
great value and unique selection.
Mission – The mission statement of this company is to provide a global trading platform in
which every individual can trade.
Ebay's marketing and corporate strategy
This company uses strategy of good word of mouth and piggyback it's competitor's
efforts to retain market recognition. This company focuses on developing strong brand image.
Ebay's growth depends upon various strategies listed below -
Concentration on local and international trade
eBay has acquired local e-commerce organisations that delivers regional flavour for customers
and users who want to have products that are hard for shipping. The company has built a global
presence with users in more than 150 countries.
Expanding the trading platform
eBay faced lot of competition due to presence of other e commerce companies like
Amazon and Yahoo. Ebay has extended its core business into other attractive niches. This
company has used both offline and online auctions (Scarborough, 2016). These help customers
in placing real time bids for items on offline auction house floors. Consumers are increasingly
shopping through mobile phones.
Developing and maintaining a strong community affinity
eBay is involved in fostering a positive, direct interaction between customers and sellers
who are having same interest. This has enabled organisation for creating loyal, active community
of users. This company keenly observe behaviour of customers for identifying growing trends
for developing business for new products and services.
Constantly enhancing and evolving site functionality and features
The startegy of eBay is to be as hands-off as possible when related to transactions.
Organisations have to provide a transparent, straightforward and reliable system for customers .
This helps in managing process of the company. The main motive of marketing is to made
selling and buying easy for customers.
9

Objectives
The objective of eBay is to increase market share by 10% in an year.
STP (Segmentation, targeting and positioning)
STP means segmentation, targeting and positioning of products and brand in market. This
is helpful in building cohesion between market and strategy of company. The main objective of
this technique is to formulate marketing mix that will help eBay in growing it's market share.
The STP of eBay is as follows:-
Segmentation- This marketing strategy is concerned with dividing whole market into
smaller parts of consumers, countries, businesses with the objective to identify about common
needs, interests and priorities which are helpful in developing and implementing strategies to
target them (Smith, 2014). The market segmentation of eBay is done on following basis:-
 Psycho-graphic segmentation- The products are divided on the basis of size such as bars,
large and small blocks.
 Geographic segmentation- The market segmentation is done on the basis of region like
rural, urban and semi-urban
 Behavioural segmentation- The segmentation done by eBay is on the basis of same
behaviour and perception.
Targeting- A target market is group of customer's which organisation will focus on
influencing their behaviour by effective marketing strategy. Ebay is targeting people of all ages
and especially ones who use internet for shopping.
Positioning- It is concept of marketing which tells how business can place it's product or
service in customer's mindset. It is associated with developing an image of product in minds of
prospective clients by using different tools like Product, promotion, price and place.
SWOT analysis of eBay
SWOT analysis is important for analysing strength and opportunities that a company is
having for increasing it's profits. eBay expands it's business in online marketplace, ticket
exchange markets, classified listings by using strategies in an effective manner. eBay has
weakness, strength, opportunities and threats as it is dealing in online selling sector (Westwood,
2013). Strength affects ability of the company to respond to threat in retail industry environment
and online auction. SWOT analysis of eBay Inc. provides insights for managers about internal
factors and external factors that affects business strategies. For instance, this analysis is helpful
10

in determining level of impact of weakness on competitiveness of online marketplace platform of
the company. So, strategic management of eBay must consider SWOT factors for improvising
performance of multinational trading business. The SWOT analysis of eBay is given below -
Strength – As per this aspect of SWOT, internal strategic factors that helps in global
competitiveness and business growth are considered. In context of eBay, the internal factors are
strength for increasing profitability and maintaining robust business. The main strengths of eBay
are strong brand, cost effectiveness based on economies of scale, region specificity of operations
and high effectiveness of service. eBay has strong brand and this is major strength that this
company possess. Due to popularity of eBay, this brand is recognised by customers and
merchants. This internal strategic factor makes the organisation competitive against other e-
commerce firms (Wirtz, and Lovelock, 2016). Cost effectiveness is strength of company which
helps in fulfilling visions and mission statements of the company.
Weakness - As per this aspect of SWOT analysis, main focus is on internal strategic
factors that limits development and growth of business. In context of eBay, internal factors are
weakness which impose problem in improving performance of retail marketplace platform and
online auction. The various weaknesses that eBay is having are limited focus on innovation,
limited flexibility to market variations and imitable business model. Innovation have become
priority of companies. This is weakness of eBay that stops it form growing and expanding in
global markets. Organisational structure of eBay maintains centralised functional units. A strong
centralised unit supports cohesiveness and consistency of organisation. This limits flexibility of
business type variations in international markets. Another weakness of eBay is it's business
model.
Opportunity – eBay has opportunity for expanding online operations in market. This
company is generating classifieds, marketplace and ticket exchange revenue mostly in European
markets and United states. This can increase revenue and develop risk among e-commerce
markets. These expansions capitalise on increasing technological trends and online purchase
rates. eBay has opportunity of improving it's innovation for competitiveness by product
development. When eBay will improve it's innovation in products for better user accessibility
through internet will increase customer base of companies and merchants. This company can
diversify for improving business resilience. Due to this external strategic factor, organisation is
able to create new revenue streams.
11

Threats - The major threat to eBay is strong competition in online selling industry. This
company faces rivalry with other big e-commerce organisations like Amazon, Flip-kart, etc.
This is barrier in growth in this industry (Zolkifly, and Baharom, 2016). Also, imitation is also
threat for this company as other firms or new entrants can copy business model of eBay by using
technologies for operations of website.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it is clear that marketing is an essential function that
contributes in attaining goals and objectives of organisation. There are different roles and
responsibilities of marketing that are followed in effective manner. Marketing department is
related to all other departments for making functioning of business operations smooth. Marketing
mix is the technique helpful for analysing place, product, process and other aspects of the
company. Marketing plan tells about opportunities a company is having in market and how goals
can be achieved in less time.
12

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Akbar, F., and et. al., 2017. Niche marketing strategy framework for SMEs: A conceptual
framework.
Armstrong, G. and et. al., 2015. Marketing: an introduction.
Baker, M. A. and Magnini, V.P., 2016. The evolution of services marketing, hospitality
marketing and building the constituency model for hospitality marketing. International
Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 28(8). pp.1510-1534.
Campbell, R., Martin, C. and Fabos, B., 2018. Media essentials: A brief introduction. Bedford/St.
Martin's.
Cavusgil, S. T., and et. al., 2014. International business. Pearson Australia.
Cohen, W. A., 2005. The marketing plan. John Wiley & Sons.
Dioko, L. D. A., 2016. Progress and trends in destination branding and marketing–a brief and
broad review. International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research.
10(1). pp.5-13.
Duffett, R. G., 2017. Influence of social media marketing communications on young consumers’
attitudes. Young Consumers. 18(1). pp.19-39.
Gillespie, K. and Riddle, L., 2015. Global marketing. Routledge.
Griffitts, M., 2016. Human resources marketing and recruiting: Essentials of internship
management. Handbook of Human Resources Management. pp.103-118.
Groucutt, J. and Hopkins, C., 2015. Marketing. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Hair Jr, J. F., and et. al., 2015. Essentials of business research methods. Routledge.
Hugos, M. H., 2018. Essentials of supply chain management. John Wiley & Sons.
Kladou, S., and et. al., 2016. The role of brand elements in destination branding. Journal of
Destination Marketing & Management.
Lane, P., 2015. Human resources marketing and recruiting: essentials of employer branding.
Handbook of Human Resources Management. pp.1-30.
Larson, J. and Draper, S., 2015. Internet marketing essentials. Idaho Falls, ID: Stukent
Incorporated.
Malhotra, N. K., 2015. Essentials of marketing research: A hands-on orientation. Essex:
Pearson.
Muller, M., 2019. Essentials of inventory management. HarperCollins Leadership.
Pappas, N., 2017. Effect of marketing activities, benefits, risks, confusion due to over-choice,
price, quality and consumer trust on online tourism purchasing. Journal of Marketing
Communications. 23(2). pp.195-218.
Pike, S., 2015. Destination marketing: essentials. Routledge.
Pike, S. D., 2016. Destination Marketing Organizations–Research opportunities in an era of
uncertainty. In Book of Abstracts-6th International Conference on Tourism.
International Association for Tourism Policy (IATOUR).
Piñeiro-Otero, T. and Martínez-Rolán, X., 2016. Understanding Digital Marketing—Basics and
Actions. In MBA (pp. 37-74). Springer, Cham.
Purvis, J., 2015. Human resources marketing and recruiting: Essentials of digital recruiting.
Handbook of Human Resources Management. pp.1-19.
13

Rancati, E., Gordini, N. and Capatina, A., 2016. Conceptualizing and Measuring Content
Marketing in Luxury Firms: An Exploratory Analysis. In Global Marketing Strategies
for the Promotion of Luxury Goods (pp. 109-132). IGI Global.
Rowley, J., 2016. Information marketing. Routledge.
Scarborough, N. M., 2016. Essentials of entrepreneurship and small business management.
Pearson.
Smith, A., 2014. Breaking the chain: The screen industry and disintermediation. Metro
Magazine: Media & Education Magazine. (182). p.104.
Westwood, J., 2013. How to write a marketing plan. Kogan Page Publishers.
Wirtz, J. and Lovelock, C., 2016. Services marketing. World Scientific Publishing Company.
Zolkifly, N. H. and Baharom, S. N., 2016. Selling Cars Through Visual Merchandising:
Proposing Emotional Design Approach. Procedia Economics and Finance. 37. pp.412-
417.
14