Marketing Essentials: Roles, Mix, Planning, and Strategies Report

This report provides a comprehensive overview of marketing essentials, using Marks and Spencer as a case study. It begins by defining marketing and its importance, then explores the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function, including understanding economic conditions, identifying target markets, and developing appropriate strategies. The report also examines how the marketing function relates to the wider organizational context, including its interactions with human resources, finance, and production departments. Furthermore, it analyzes the application of the marketing mix (product, price, place, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence) to the marketing planning process, with a focus on achieving business objectives. The report concludes with a basic marketing plan outline.

Marketing Essentials

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 The key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function................................................1
P2 Role and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organisational context................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
P3 The ways in which different organisations apply the marketing mix to the marketing
planning process to achieve business to objectives.....................................................................5
P4. Development of marketing plan............................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Marketing refers to a process in which the organisation promotes it products to the target
market. Marketing involves researching, advertising, selling and distribution of products and
services. This process is very essentials for every business because their aim is to seek the
attention from potential audience. Business performs these marketing processes through many
methods and approaches. Marketing is important as it educates the customers about the product
availability and its features with price (Baines, Fill, and Page, 2013). For reference this report
has taken an example of a company, Marks and Spencer. Marks and Spencer is a British
multinational retailer which specialises in offering high quality of clothing, home products and
food products. The company was founded in the year 1884 by Michael Marks and Thomas
Spencer. It has around 959 stores in UK which includes 615 stores which sells food products
only. By 2019, the company successfully established its stores over 1463 locations.
This report will talk about the essentials and functions of marketing and how marketing
function benefits the organisation in wider terms. The report also covers the application of
marketing mix to the marketing planning process and at last a basic marketing plan for an
organisation is also presented.
TASK 1
P1 The key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function.
The roles of marketing function are as follows-
Understanding the economic and competitive features of a sector- The role of marketing
function is to understand the economic condition of its target market. It is the role of a marketer
to does the research work regarding the economic conditions prevailing at a region. Along with it
the level of competition prevailing in that country or region also get analysed before making any
marketing plan (Baker and Magnini, 2016). As in case with Marks and Spencer, they did an
whole understanding of economic situation and competition prevailing into the market, then sets
its marketing plans and programmes accordingly.
Identifying target markets- Target markets are the selected market which an organisation will
position its products or services. The role of marketing function is to search for the markets, and
segments it into groups according to many factors such as demographic factor, social factor,
technological factor, economical factor and so on. Then after these segments, the company dos

the analysis and selects the segments which they think will best to serve. The segment that is
selected by the company for catering is refers to as target market. Marks and Spencer, before
establishing or opening its store identifies its target market to whom they can serve or cater. The
target market should matches with their mission, vision and values and also yields them with
profits.
Identification of appropriate strategies- The role of marketing function also to search for
alternatives available for marketing strategies and choose an appropriate strategy which is best
for the company (Brennan, 2014). As in case with Marks and Spencer, the company finds the
alternatives available for the strategies and then the analysis is done of available alternatives.
After performing analysis, the appropriate strategy is chosen. The strategy which was chosen
must satisfies the organisational marketing purpose. It should advantage the business through
properly educate the target market about the new product or services.
Auditing customer's brand experience- The marketing function also has a role to gather the
customers feedbacks and remarks which they has with their product or service. From these feed
back and remarks a company gets to know the area for improvements and tries to resolve it for
better servicing. Marks and Spencer, takes this feedback from their customers while billing time,
they make them to fill a form in which the customer rate his experience while shopping and write
any suggestions if necessary. From this the company gets to know about his customers wants and
need and then accordingly they bring the changes (Brooks and Simkin, 2012).
The responsibilities of marketing function are as follow-
Listening to customer needs- To establish a strong strategy, it is necessary for the company to
get close to their customers as much as possible and get to know them better. Any company can
get closer with their customers through surveys, digital media platforms that help to understand
the market better and etc. Marks and Spencer, keeps monitoring on customers needs, wants, taste
and preference of them. By monitoring on such, they get a close view of the demand of
customers and provide them with same. This helps the company in not only making their
customers satisfied but also converting new people their customers.
Track trends and monitor competition- Knowing about the competition and their offering to
the customer is major task to perform by any business. Analysing and monitoring the
competition will help the company to know their next step. Through the former information of
competition plans, the company can take the advantage of first movers or can make its future

plans accordingly (Clow and James, 2013). As in case with Marks and Spencer, the company
track their competition's next move and makes their plan in accordance with it. They also make
sure that their competition should not get any blink about their future or coming plans because it
make get a chance of imitation and the competition will get the opportunity to be first initiator.
Work and brand values- A brand image is the representation of feelings and emotion the
customers have in them regarding to the brand. A brand value is the present value that brand
carries in the market place. It is the responsibility of marketing to create such brand image and
value for the company which leaves a positive and emotional impact on its customers. Marks and
Spencer, the company offers quality and sophisticated clothes which are usually can afford by
above average people. This brand has created a image of sophisticated brand which provides
sophisticated and quality clothing to its customers.
P2 Role and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organisational context.
Marketing is vital role to play for whole organisational benefit. If marketing not done,
how will the target market get to know about the product or services. Marketing main purpose is
to attract the target audience. That's why company puts major focus on preparation of its
marketing plan and tries that their marketing strategy puts major influence on target audience.
The marketing roles and responsibilities have wider impact on organisation, because of the
following reasons-
Marketing and Human Resources- The marketing department keeps an very close
work with human resource management to make sure that appropriate and desirable staffing are
taking place. The employees hired will help the marketing in achievement of targets by creating
an competitive and ambitious sales team. Marketing department update the HR department about
the number of employees they will be needing to achieve the task. Then accordingly the HR
department will conduct its recruitment and training programmes for the new employees. New
employees will bring new ideas and creativity to the organisation which ultimately foster the
whole organisation (Joshi, 2012). As in case with Marks and Spencer, the company's marketing
team informs the Human resource team about the employees they would be needing at present
and in future. Then the human resource department of the company takes application by sending
them invitation to potential people and holds the recruitment and selection process. By acquiring
workforce, the marketing department trains according to the work they are required to perform.
The marketing team then gives his level best to market for his company. Marketing can be

through managing the brand at social platform, taking field surveys and feedbacks from
customers and by maintaining close relations with its customers.
Marketing and finance department- The marketing department keeps its work close with
finance department. In marketing the adequate funds are needed to research, promotion and
distribution of the products. For all this purposes the company requires funds which only can get
provided by finance department. The finance department of every organisation has the whole
brief of business operations within its financial capabilities. They allot the budget and funds to
all business department and expect them to to perform their working with in that allocated funds.
Similarly the marketing department of Marks and Spencer needs funds for activities like
promoting, advertising and distribution of products and services for which they has to present its
budget to finance department for approval. After presentation of budget, the finance department
will go through it and approves it by providing them the required budgets. The marketing
department of company will focus on increasing sales volume and building market share whereas
the finance department concentrates on cash flow, covering costs and paying back to creditors as
early as possible (Hashim and Hamzah, 2014).
Marketing and production or operations department- Operations management refers to the
management of converting the inputs into outputs in such a very which yields maximum
productivity and minimum costs. The marketing department need to closely work with
production department to make sure adequate research and development plans are carrying out to
satisfy the current trends and need of customers. The production of an item can be done
accordingly to the demand of customers. As in case with Marks and Spencer, the company's
production department will do research by keeping in mind the needs and trends of customers,
for which the data is being provided by the marketing department itself. The surveys and
feedbacks taken by the marketing department, lately gets analysed and the conclusion or remarks
is pass on to production department. The production department then taking in consideration all
those conclusion tries to matches with customers expectations. The production department
produces the volume of their product according to the actual demand calculated by marketing
department. It is likely to get possible that marketing department will set deadlines to production
department because the company wants to set its product out into the market as soon as possible
to gain competitive advantage. Therefore, here the marketing and production department of

company, Marks and Spencer, work closely with each other for the attainment of organisational
whole goal.
That's how marketing department work gets related with all other departments of an
organisation (Larson and Draper, 2015). The role and responsibility of marketing impacts the
working in wider view, that's why it is taken at paramount importance by any business.
TASK 2
P3 The ways in which different organisations apply the marketing mix to the marketing planning
process to achieve business to objectives.
Marketing mix also refers as E. Jerome Mccarthy's four Ps: product, price, placement,
and promotion which later on adds up to 7 P's: people, process, physical evidence along with
above states 4 P's. The marketing mix is the set of tactics which is used by any company to
promote its brand or product.
Marks and Spencer is a British retailer that sells high quality clothing, home products and
food products. The company was founded in the year 1884 by Michael Marks and Thomas
Spencer. In 2019, the company manages to locate its stores at around 1463 location worldwide.
The objective of company is to: Sell sophisticated clothing to its target customer (Lipsman,
2012). It has make its brand image such that only above average people can afford it. Its
objective is to satisfy the customers by providing the products they want or are in trend. The
company clothing line provides the combination of young and simple clothes which attracts their
customer a lot. Marks and Spencer also provides good quality household products which are very
strong and reliable for customers. The home products of company are prefer by many customer
due to the quality they offer. Along with it the company also deals in food products. From 959
stores opened across UK 615 sells only the food products. The company has opened many
variety of retail stores for food products which the customer also prefers to go more often.
Debenhams is again a British retailer in United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark with
franchise stores in other counties also (Perreault, 2018). The company was started in the
eighteenth century in London as a single store and now has grown itself to 178 locations across
the counties. The company products are clothings, household items and furniture.
Comparison basis Marks and Spencer Debenhams

Product It refers to the item which is
meant for sell (Pike, 2015).
For marks and Spencer, the
products are clothes, home
products manufactured by the
company and food products
which they sell in their retail.
For Debenham products which
they meant to sell to their
customers are clothes, home
products and furniture. By
offering these products to the
target market, the company
makes its profit.
Price It refers to the value of the
product. For Marks and
Spencer, it is decided by the
cost, segmented targets, ability
of market to purchase, supply
and demand for product. The
company follows price
penetration strategy where it
offers its products lower price
than its competitors to gain
competitive advantage.
For Debenhams, they uses
psychological pricing in which
the prices of products seems
lower to the customers. For
example- a product price may
be higher at $100 but lower
and cheap at $99. which
actually increases the sales for
company.
Place It refers to the place of sale. It
can a physical place, virtual
place or both. As in case of
marks and Spencer, the
company puts it products at
both the platforms, physical
stores as well as virtual stores.
The company have 1468 stores
worldwide
Debenhams are set up in 178
locations.
Promotion It refers to the activities which
company undertakes to get
known to their target audience.
Where as the company,
Debenhams follows the
discounts strategy for its

The company follows the
strategy of competitive
pricing.
promotion purpose.
People People refers to the workforce
the company hires. The
company hire talented and
passionate people. Apart from
it they also provide them with
required trainings and
development programmes.
The company hired people
whose skills and knowledge
matches with vacant position.
Physical evidence Every company tries to
maintain an physical
relationship with its customers.
And customer want to build an
authentic relationship. This
could be in form of physical
evidence such as products,
brochures, information pages
such as PDFs.
Debenhams provides physical
evidence by regular feature on
Lorraine Kelly's high street
fashion award (Piñeiro-Otero
and Martínez-Rolán, 2016).
The company is present in
about 27 countries covering 3
continents. Debenhams ha
more than 20 exclusive
designer contracts also which
proves for its physical
evidence.
Process This P covers the interface
between organisation and
consumer and how they deal
with one another at each stage
of the service. Marks and
Spencer takes its service
delivery as an important
consumer touch point and
The company only meet the
suppliers who met the
minimum standard.

concentrates on it to get it
better and better with time.
P4. Development of marketing plan
Marketing plan can be describe as the set of activities that is required by organisation to
effective promote products and services. It is essential for Marks and Spencer company to
develop effective strategies and plan for implementing marketing activities in required manner.
Marketing plan is a frame work that includes development of smart objective, analysing situation
for developing strong strategies, implementation of plan, analysis of financial budget and taking
controlling measures for achievement of objective. This plan will support respective company to
use accurate and appropriate tactics to enhance promotion of products and services in market.
Marketing plan in context of Marks and Spencer company is explain below in detail.
Objective100 -
Marks and Spencer company needs to develop SMART objective for conducting
marketing activities in effective manner. Objective of marketing plan refer as the aim and goal
that is set by respective business to enhance performance. This is the first step of marketing plan
and on the basis of set goals respective company will develop strategies. It is crucial to creative
SMART objective that could be achieve with in set period of time frame. Objective for this
marketing plan is mention below.
 To launch new skin care products in different part of world in order to increase sales of
business by 25 %.
 To develop strong relationship with potential customers by enhancing customer services
in order to increase profits 30 %.
Situation analysis – Once objective is developed Marks and Spencer company needs to analyse
the market situation effectively. This is an important part of marketing plan as this will support
in creating effective strategies. Situational analysis includes identifying and analysing internal
strength and weakness of respective company as well as determining external opportunities and
threat that will affect performance of organisation.
SWOT analysis
This is an effective tool that can be used by business to analysing strength, weakness,
opportunities and threats. SWOT analysis of Marks and Spencer company is mention below in
detail.

Strength Weakness
This is one of the well known organisation that
has developing strong image in market area.
Marks and Spencer is developing high quality
products and services which is as per
requirement of customers. This company has
strong network and supply chain management
system that support in increasing sales.
Incapability to manage financial resources in
effective manner is considers as the weakness
of organisation. Poor financial performance of
respective company will affect profits. Marks
and Spencer company is weak in managing
employees in required manner. Lack of
effective employees affect productivity of
business.
Opportunities Threat
There are various opportunity for Marks and
Spencer company in external market area.
This organisation should adopt new and
emerging technology for conducting business
activities in better manner. It is crucial for
respective organisation to use innovative and
creative marketing strategies in order to attract
large number of customers towards business.
High competition in market is considered as
the major threat for this company. It is crucial
for Marks and Spencer company to identify
strategies of rival company as this will lead to
have direct impact on business. Changes in
rules and regulation of government will lead to
have impact on performance of business.
Thus, SWOT analysis is very supportive in taking better decision for organisation as well
as creating effective strategies for managing marketing activities.
Strategy development – At this stage of marketing plan, Marks and Spencer company
needs to develop strong and effective strategies that will support in attaining objective of
organisation. Strategy can be describe designing of action plan that is developed by experts of
organisation for achieving set targets. In order to develop effective strategies, Marks and
Spencer company needs to use STP model. This will support in taking better decision for
implementation of marketing plan.
 Segmentation – This refers as the process through which organisation can classify large
market area into smaller parts. Marks and Spencer organisation is offering its products
and services to different part of the world. For implementation of marketing strategies

and attaining goals respective organisation needs to segment its customers on the basis of
geographical region, behaviour, demographic and psycho graphic. This will helps in
targeting right and potential customers to selling skin care products.
 Targeting – Targeting is the way through which respective company can identify and
analyse potential customers. Marks and Spencer company is targeting customers form all
over the world who have capability to purchase high quality products and services of this
company. In this respective company is targeting and selecting most attractive segment in
order to focus on this marketing. It is crucial for respective organisation to target right
and potential customers to increase sales. This company is targeting both men and
women above age 20 to sale various skin care products.
 Positioning - This is the last step of this model and in this organisation will focus on
creating high value inn customers mind. So that they purchase products of Marks and
Spencer company. This organisation is positioning its skin care products as high quality
goods that is developed with natural and organic ingredients. Marks and Spencer
company will be able to sales its products in more effective manner.
Action Plan – This stage of marketing plan includes actual implementation of plan in
market area. Marks and Spencer company will be able to successfully execute marketing
activities with the support of marketing mix model. This will help in carrying out activities of
plan in right and accurate manner. Marketing mix for execution of this plan is mention below.
 Product – This refer as the goods or commodity developed by respective for selling in
market area. It is important for Marks and Spencer company to develop high quality
products that is as per need and want of customers. Respective organisation is creating
range of skin care products which includes natural and organic ingredients. This product
is beneficial for resolving various skin care problems.
 Price – This can be define as the amount that is charged by company for offering its
products to customers. Marks and Spencer organisation is developing natural products
with top quality ingredients. So it is setting price that is appropriate to the quality of
products. Respective company is charging high prices for skin care products. This will
help in enhancing profits.
 Place - It is describe as the area in which company is offering its products to customers.
Marks and Spencer company is a multinational organisation that is providing its offering

to large number of customers. Its is placing skin care products in Marks and Spencer
physical outlets that is located in different regions all over the globe. It is also placing its
products in online market in order to increase sales.
 Promotion – This is essential element of marketing mix and this will help in determining
different ways though which respective company can offer its products to targeted
customers. There are different ways through which Marks and Spencer can promote its
products and services. Respective company is promoting its products through modern and
traditional methods. It includes new paper advertisement, promotional sales, social media
marketing and so on.
Marketing budget – This is the document that will include information and detail about
the cost and funds that is required by organisation for performing marketing activities. Marketing
budget is very helpful in estimating the financial amount the is required by organisation to
conducting different task. Marketing budget for Marks and Spencer company is mention below
in detail.
PARTICULARS 1st Year 2nd Year 3rd Year
Initial investment 4000 8500 10000
Borrowings 5500 4500 6000
Retained Earning 3500 6000 9000
TOTAL 9400 19000 25000
MARKETING OUTLAY
Promotional expenses 5000 6000 7500
Publicity 4000 7500 9500
Distribution expenditure 2500 5500 5000
TOTAL 11500 19000 22000
Controlling measures – This is the last stage of marketing plan and in this step organisation will
take necessary actions to manage and control activities of marketing plan. There are different
tools and techniques that could be used by Marks and Spencer company monitor and control
marketing plan. It is important for organisation to identify and compare the actual performance

with the set standards. Through this Marks and Spencer company will be able to identify whether
company will be able to attain targets or not. This step will help in taking corrective measures
for achieving set targets of the company. Different controlling actions that can be taken by
Marks and Spencer company is mention below.
 Feedback from customers – Employees of this organisation needs to communicate with
customers in order to take their feedback. This will help in analyse the actual
performance of skin care products and attitude of customers towards its. This controlling
method will support respective organisation to take corrective measures for increasing
sales.
 Target sales – In this method Marks and Spencer company needs to set sales targets that
should be achieved with in particular time frame. Respective company needs to analyse
the actual sales of skin care products as compare to set targets.
CONCLUSION
From the report presented above, it can conclude that function of marketing plays a
paramount role in every business activity. Through marketing roles and functions the target
audience gets to know about the product or services offered to them. Along with it the
importance of marketing with wider organisational view has also been discuss here. Apart from
it the report provides a framework for marketing plan. For reference, the report takes an example
of a company, Marks and Spencer. The marketing plan of Marks and Spencer has also presented
at last.

REFERENCES
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