Marketing Essentials: Roles, Mix Application, and Plan for McDonald's

This report provides a comprehensive overview of marketing essentials, using McDonald's as a case study to illustrate key concepts. It begins by explaining the core roles and responsibilities of the marketing function, including market research, distribution channels, pricing strategies, and promotional activities. The report then examines how these marketing functions relate to the organizational context within McDonald's, emphasizing the importance of interdepartmental coordination and the application of various marketing concepts such as product, selling, marketing, production, and social marketing. Furthermore, it compares different ways organizations apply the marketing mix, focusing on the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) and the extended 7Ps, highlighting the importance of aligning these elements with customer needs and market trends. The report concludes with a brief overview of developing a marketing plan, underscoring the strategic importance of marketing in achieving business goals and objectives. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and past papers for students.

MARKETING ESSENTIALS

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function....................................1
P2 How roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the organizational context.................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
P 3 Comparison of ways in which organizations apply the marketing mix................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
P4 A Marketing Plan...................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
In order to understand the concept of marketing completely, one must have to understand
marketing functions and their importance. Marketing functions are the tasks that must be done by
marketing executives and includes but not limited to market research, product research, product
planning, pricing decisions, deciding on distribution channels and setting the correct set of promotional
activities. Marketing functions have a broad set of activities as defined by Philip Kotler. Marketing
function; as the name suggests is the heart of marketing as without the understanding of marketing
functions, no one can claim that he knows marketing. Marketing functions can also be understood as a
process that starts from deciding the potential market and product and goes on to setting up the product
policy, pricing methods, channels of distribution and a proper promotional campaign. Therefore in
order to have a thorough understanding about marketing function, one must have to go through it
deeply.
TASK 1
P1 Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function.
Marketing is a process through which goods and services move from manufacturer
to customers. McDonald is rapid growing fast food company which was founded in
1940. It is world’s largest restaurant chain by revenue serving in more than 100
countries. This organization uses strong marketing strategies which increases their
market revenue. Marketing basically includes coordination of four elements and those
are 4 P’s of marketing are product, price, place and promotional strategy.
People working in marketing department of Mc Donald; try to attract customer’s
attention towards their organization. They use attractive slogans, interesting packaging
deigns of products, slogans, food varieties and celebrity endorsements. There are various
marketing functions which a marketing executive uses to enhance their company’s
productivity and profits and attract more and more customers. They are described below:
 Market research: It is mainly concerned with identifying and gathering
information related to target market and formulating strategies according to needs and
wants of customers. It is an important aspect as it guides the manager to focus on their
1

customers and fulfill their desires in effective manner. Market research helps them to
know about customer requirements and also gives knowledge about competitors.
 Distribution channel: This function allows the company to distribute their product
and services from manufactures to customers. Accomplishment of this task can be done
through transportation, inventory control, warehousing and order processing. Company
should have strong distribution channel so that they can supply their products and
services to customers on time.
 Financing an enterprise: Money is required to set up any type of business. Finance
helps to supports organization to operate smoothly. At the time of promotion and
advertisement of products, money is required to plan these events so that customers get
to know about new offers and product of firm. Mc Donald utilizes their finances
effectively which benefits them with higher profits and revenue.
 Setting price: It is a tough task to decide price for a particular product. As
customers mainly go or economic products and in that case high price can be a flop idea.
The enterprise uses affordable price strategy for their products so that they can attract
more customers towards them. Effective planning is done by managers and prices are set
according to the market trend and customers preferences.
 Product and Service Management: After determining target market and setting
the prices of product, it is important to manage product and services effectively. This
mainly involve listening to customer’s requirement and responding to them as fast as
possible, by updating product and services fresh and up to date.
 Promotional channels: Effective promotional strategy is very essential to attract
new customers and to increase profitability of enterprise. With the help of advertisement
tool, one can display about their products and offers by using media and social websites
like face book, YouTube, Google etc. Managers can plan their promotional strategies
according to recent trends and wants of their customers. Sometime promotion of product
2

can be done through famous celebrities which pose great impact on buying of that
product.
 Matching product to customers: It is important to manufacture and sell products
which are liked by customers. If the products are not preferred by customers then they
will not buy it and their enterprise will suffer loss. So product should be designed in such
a manner which matches requirement of customers.
Above were main marketing functions that are used by McDonald to effectively market, promote
and advertise their products and services. They formulate strategies by paying attention on needs
and wants of customers and make them their first priority. They keep on making modifications in
offers and products they deliver to retain interest of customers. They also focus on providing
products with best quality.
P2 How roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the organizational context.
Marketing functions helps the enterprise to utilize various resources to
promote their product. These functions are very common in an organization and include
research of market area, development of product plan, formulation of procedures and
processes, finances, sales of product, customer service etc. These functions are
responsible for growth of an organization and mainly consists strategic management,
sales support system, finance team, marketing research, product developments,
distributions systems, human resource departments etc. Organizational functions are
closely related to marketing functions of an enterprise. Different departments of
organization are inter- related and inter connected to each other. If McDonald wants to
implement a market plan, then they can take required help from finance, human resource,
sales and production department to organize their activities effectively. Finance
department will provide budgets for certain activities where as marketing department
will help them to formulate an effective market plan. On the other hand, human resource
department will provide them with necessary resources for successful execution of plan.
This will help to boost up their success of market plan and thus lead to profitability to
3

company. This is how they can accomplish their main goals and objectives. Basically
marketing concepts are divided into five Major concepts. With the help of these
concepts, company can plan their market plan efficiently. They are mentioned below:
 Product concept: In this, company should manufacture innovative product so that
they can retain customers and attract new customers as well. Company should also
ensure that product manufactured should be of highest quality.
 Selling concept: This concept should be crucially focused as it will attract
customers. It should be planned in such a way that it can attract number of customers at a
time. Through various promotion and advertisement tool manager can plan their event in
effective manner. Customer mainly focuses over the products and services which are
aggressively promoted in market.
 Marketing concept: This involves the requirement of target customers for delivery
of their product and services. In order to stand in competitive market, organization has to
make strong and effective market plans. They should make quality of product as their
main priority. This concept shows that, brand value of organization needs to be enhanced
in order to connect with target customers. If there is increase in brand value of company,
then customers will automatically prefer them against other companies. Same is the case
with Mc Donald’s, the have built a strong reputation in market and customers prefer
them first as compared to other fast food restaurants.
 Production concept: This concept is based on customer perception, which shows
that customers tend to prefer those products which have with highest quality and are
easily available in the market at affordable prices. Company focuses on prices of product
and keeps them at economic and affordable rates. This strategy attracts number of
consumers at a time.
 Social marketing concept: This concept studies needs and requirements of target
consumers. It lists down all likes and dislikes of people and formulates strategies
4

according to their needs. Mc Donald focuses on products with affordable prices that is
why customers prefer the over other contemporaries present in market.
Various roles of marketing are mentioned below:
 Marketing information system: MIS provides information related to factors such
as product, planning and implementation, controlling and managing marketing strategies.
This system gives an accurate idea about how to plan good strategies which can benefit
the organization.
 Monitoring of marketing environment: Marketing process helps in identifying
new developments in market environment. These new developments involve change in
market traits, internal and external charges of market, political and legal changes, socio-
economic forces etc.
 Marketing research: It is considered as major role of marketing. It involves
specific knowledge of price of products, consumer tastes and preferences, other
competitors in market, recent trends, etc. The manager of marketing department helps to
identify customers in large diverse market and promotes their goods and services of the
company among them.
 Brand equity: The customers tend to incline over those brands that provide
additional offers and benefits with products they offer. Thus, strong marketing helps in
building good image among people. This process directly helps business organization to
increase their sales volume.
 Production: Marketing is all about selling manufactured products and for
conduction this task very efficiently, marketing department has to keep an eye on
production function to maintain adequacy in product and service quality as McDonald
deals in both goods and facilities. It is a responsibility of marketing function that it
should try to meet all market demand and for this number of produced item should be
measured by senior marketing manager.
5

 Human Resource: If manager wants to know about his team member’s capabilities
then it takes help of human resource department in order to gain full knowledge about
strengths about employees for making SWOT analysis very prominent and remarkable. It
is human resource department that is responsible for assigning task to every worker as
per their skill and talents in order to accomplish all tasks whether complicated or regular.
 Management Information System: This is the software that records and store
information that is connected with all functional areas of McDonald and this is easily
accessible from anywhere by every kind of employees whether it is line staff or top
management.
 Customer Service: It means after sale services that company provides to its
consumers. In context of McDonald’s, customer service is take home facilities in which
facility providers provide packaged items like burgers, French fries etc.
TASK 2
P 3 Comparison of ways in which organizations apply the marketing mix.
Marketing mix is applied in planning marketing procedure to achieve business goals
and objectives. The organization uses different methods for application of marketing mix
among their enterprise. It is mostly based on product and services of company, market
demographics, size of market and company’s size. It helps the manager to understand
about product. Common applications of marketing mix involve 4 P’s f marketing which
involves product, price, place and promotion. This was later extended to 7 P’s of
marketing which include following:
 Product: It should be able to fulfill the requirements of customers with affordable
prices.
 Place: This shows availability of product where customers can find it in shops.
Company has to target different places to distribute product to their potential customers.
6

 Price: It is referred to the amount that a customer is willing to pay for a product. It
is considered as an important aspect while planning a market plan. Price should not be
too high and too low and it should not compromise with quality of product.
 Promotion: It is an important component of marketing as it helps in boosting
company‘s profitability and brand recognition. It comprises of following elements, such
as: public relations, sales organization, advertising and sales promotion. Advertisement
covers various communication methods like advertisements, print media, radio
commercials and internet advertisements.
 People: In this, company research about their target customers and their
requirements. They identify whether their product is needed by customers or not.
Employees working in marketing department are important personnel as they have to
deliver products and service to customers.
 Process: Organization processes and procedures affect the execution of the service.
So, they have to make a well defined process in place to minimize cost of production.
Processes also help workers to operate in a standard manner and utilize resources in
effective manner.
 Physical evidence: Organization should have physical evidence that their services
was delivered to target positions. It also pertains to how a business and its products are
perceived in market place.
Marketing mix also includes 4 C’s that was given by Robert F. Lauterborn and those are
mentioned below:
 Cost: Price is not only the cost which is incurred at the time of purchasing a
product. It is a part of cost ownership.
 Consumer needs and wants: Researchers should carefully study customer’s likes
and dislikes in order to produce best product suitable for customers.
7

 Communication: According to Lauterborn, communication is “cooperative”
whereas promotion is “manipulative”. Managers should aim to create an open dialogue
with potential clients based on their needs and wants.
 Convenience: Product which is manufactured by company should be available for
customers every time. Marketer should plan their distribution of products according to
availability of target customers.
The 4P’s, 7P’s or4C’s plays a vital role in marketing mix plan. It is important to devise a
plan that balances profit, brand recognition, client satisfaction and product availability.
These strategies lead to accomplishment of ultimate goals and objectives of organization.
McDonald uses these components in their marketing strategies to achieve their
targets. These are helpful in providing proper guidance and directions to managers and
effective formulation of market plans. It ensures that customer requirements are fulfilled
and they receive desired product on time with affordable process. Customers should find
easy to reach to their desired product as this will build loyalty and retain more and more
customers. Proper arrangements should be made while promoting and advertising as this
is the only effective way to attract customers. Other organization like ALDI, Cadbury,
and Barclays etc uses marketing strategies effectively to maintain their position in
competitive market. Different company uses their different way to tackle their situations.
It differs with what type of product and services are offered to what kind of target
people. Effective utilization of market mix ensure increase in profits and benefits and
less losses to company. It will also build good relations with customers. An organization
always tries to retain their customers and attract more consumers with their products and
service they offer to them.
8

TASK 3
P4 A Marketing Plan
A marketing plan is a blueprint that advertising business activities and marketing
efforts in respect to attain all objectives for coming year. Business operations are
attainment of all targets in limited period of time. Description of marketing plan for
McDonald is as follows:
Segmentation: When company tries to address their products or service to
particular and potential buyers then it is called as segmentation. For example, Burger
with short cold drink glass is a combo that was offered by McDonalds to attract college
and school going students who want to spend more time with friends. Segmentation is a
distribution of market place in terms of most potential buyers who have purchasing
powers. So, main target of this restaurant is to attract attention of families and student
group for large number of selling.
Marketing Objectives: These are activities that played by marketing
department in order to attain higher profit and outcome from marketplace. In other
words, marketing objectives are defined as some marketing strategies that are
implemented for grabbing all market opportunities like competitive advantages etc.
Marketing objectives should be SMART.
 Sustainable: It is a responsibility of marketing that it frame business targets
for last longer time because this will help in conducting business operations
in large duration of time. Sustainable means existence for wide time period
and in this segment, company wants those targets which are helpful in
survival of association for longest duration at marketplace.
 Measurable: All goals should be examinable as what should be achieve in
what time it must be clear for managers because only taking assistance of this
step, human resource manager can assign task to employees as per worker’s
capacity and caliber.
9