Analyzing Marketing Functions in Business Organizations

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MARKETING ESSENTIALS
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MARKETING ESSENTIALS
Glossary
Marketing concept: The marketing Concept is the philosophy that an organisation should
analyse the requirements of consumers before making decisions
Brand awareness: The amount of familiarity the consumers show about the specific product of
any particular brand
Digital marketing: It is the marketing process that is conducted by using digital technologies
like website publication
Search Engine Optimization: The process of maximizing the number of visits of consumers to
a particular website to develop brand awareness.
Marketing function: The marketing functions are the various business operations carried on by
the marketing department of an organisation.
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
LO1: The role of marketing and its interrelation with a various functional unit of the organisation
.........................................................................................................................................................5
Explanation of the key roles marketing function and its key role with wider organisational
context..........................................................................................................................................5
Analysis of the major roles and responsibilities of marketing....................................................7
Analysis of the interrelationship between marketing and other departments..............................8
Critical analysis of the key functions of marketing and its relations with functions of other
departments................................................................................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13
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Introduction
The marketing concept is one of the most significant concepts in the present situation of
globalisation. The marketing includes performing extensive research on the target market or
audience to identify their specific requirements and demands. After that, the promotional
programs are being performed by the organisation according to the market demand and the
requirement of the product. In this study, the concept of marketing will be analysed and the role
of the marketing Department of Coco-cola will be depicted in detail. Moreover, there is a good
amount of interrelationship among the marketing department with the sales, finance
administration and the information technology departments which will be analysed in the study.
Furthermore, the marketing functions include the formulation of different promotional strategies
and development of collaboration in a wider context in the form of business to business and
business to consumer. The major roles and responsibilities of marketing with respect to the
marketing environment will be discussed in the study. Critical evaluation of the key function of
marketing and its interrelationship with the other functions of the other departments will be done.
In the end, a conclusion summarizing the main point will be added.
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MARKETING ESSENTIALS
LO1: The role of marketing and its interrelation with a various functional unit of the
organisation
Explanation of the key roles marketing function and its key role with wider organisational
context
The marketing concept is one of the most essential concepts present within the organisation that
helps to create brand awareness among the consumers in an efficient way. There are major
marketing functions that include the collection and documentation of the detailed market trend
and market information (Kerr, and Patti, 2015). The market information should include the
detailed buying trends of the consumers and the brand awareness of the end users as well. Based
on this research the marketing strategy of the Coca-Cola Company will be formulated by sharing
the views with the administration and the finance department of the company. The marketing
department should formulate the marketing budget of the company and requisition is send to the
finance department so that the finance department may allocate appropriate fund for the
campaign. The wider organisation context includes collaboration with other companies. In the
case of the present situation, it is evident that almost 70 % of the consumers are present in digital
and social media (Sidorchuk, 2015). Marketing through social media and digital mode has
become important. One of the major tools is search engine optimization that may be performed
by the marketing department in collaboration with the Information technology department.
Moreover, additional help from expert content maker may be taken to prepare extravagant
content for the product so brand awareness in the market may be increased by almost 20%.
It is seen according to Rowley, (2016), the marketing function has a key role with wider
organisational context like the generation of the revenue and establishing a proper competitive
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edge over its competitors in the global market. According to the marketing strategy formulation,
the sales target of the sales personals is developed. The sales department’s employees should
have the basic concept of marketing. During selling the product they need to focus on the Unique
selling proposition of the product of Coca Cola to differentiate the product from the products of
rival companies. If aggressive marketing strategy like physical marketing through endorsement
and digital marketing through SEO is done it attracts the investors and the company may get
more funding to develop new products (Miles et al., 2015). This may also enhance the product
diversity that’ should help the organisation in the wider competition in the global market.
Furthermore, the discount package formation is done by the marketing department of the Coca-
Cola Company. It is done according to the wider market situation as the economic condition of
the country and the buying capacity of the consumers is considered while the formulation of
these strategies.
The marketing department should consider the wider organisational context that is performing
perfect compliance with the legal aspects of the countries in which business operations are done
(Ingenbleek et al., 2015). There are some legal aspects considering the promotional campaign
and digital campaign that should be kept in the mind of the marketing department before the
formulation of the marketing strategies. These are in short the relation between the marketing
functions and the wider organisational context of the Coca-cola.
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MARKETING ESSENTIALS
Figure 1: Core Concept of Marketing
(Source: Rowley, 2016)
Analysis of the major roles and responsibilities of marketing
The major roles and responsibility of marketing include the five major concepts that are
mentioned below:
Formulation of the marketing strategies: The formulation of marketing strategy is dependent
on the marketing managers of the company. According to the collaboration with finance and
admin department the finance is allocated and according to the statistics, the promotion is being
performed according to the buying trend of the consumers. According to the market situation, the
strategy should be developed.
Planning: Planning of promotional activities is one of the essential roles of the marketing
department. It is the major role of the marketing managers to discuss in detail the concepts of
marketing with the departments of manufacturing, sales, and finance department (Heimbach,
Kostyra, and Hinz, 2015). It is essential to critically analyse the situation by a group effort and
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formulate the marketing budget in compliance with the holistic general budget of the Coca-cola.
Moreover, the planning includes the meeting and preparation of the action plan with the supply
chain department and the Information technology department
Making compliance with the Human resource department: The marketing strategy should be
aligned with the recruitment policy of the human resource department. One of the major
examples is that if the marketing department decides to focus on digital marketing then enhanced
tech-savvy human resource will be required on the other hand if physical promotion and
endorsement is given priority then individuals with splendid soft skills and communication skill
will be taken in the organisation.
Analysis of the interrelationship between marketing and other departments
In any business organisation, the marketing and other functions are interrelated, and this
interrelation affects the business efficiency of the organisation. However, this interrelationship
with the marketing department is not of the same degree for all the departments. For instance,
Gnizy and Shoham (2018) opined that some of the core departments, such as the procurement
department, the production department, the logistics department the accounts department, the
customer service department and the general administrative department, have a very close
relationship with the marketing department, since they have to function in a collaborated manner
in order to deliver their product or service to their customers.
As for the procurement and production departments, their function in an organisation is of
purchasing the raw materials and managing the resources of the organisation. According to
Harmeling et al. (2017), this allows them to arrange for the resources for the production
department, which delivers the actual finished products or services. In case of The Coca-Cola
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Company, their procurement department purchases the various raw materials for their beverage
products, such as the cola nuts and coca leaves. Naturally, they have to maintain a good level of
collaboration with the marketing department, since their marketing department conducts market
surveys in order to determine the customer demands of their beverages containing these
ingredients. Conversely, their marketing department also have to take note of the procurements
in order to design their marketing statements and strategies.
On the contrary, Stolze et al. (2018) argued that the production department is generally tasked
with the manufacturing or delivery of their core products or services to their customers, and so
they have to maintain coordination with the marketing department in order to ensure the
customer satisfaction of their products or services. For instance, in case of The Coca-Cola
Company, their production department manufactures their beverage products, and they have to
maintain a continuous collaboration with their marketing department in order to keep adjusting
their beverages according to the customer demand. Conversely, the production process of the
beverages of The Coca-Cola Company is also very important for their marketing department,
since the information given by their production department allows the marketing department to
identify the competitive edges and efficiently design their product marketing strategies.
Moreover, Kitchen and Burgmann (2015) opined that all of the marketing activities has their
own fair share of expenses, and this requires the marketing department to maintain a constant
connectivity with the accounts department. In case of The Coca-Cola Company, since they are a
large multinational corporation, their marketing department publish their advertisements in
various printed and digital media. Moreover, they also provide sponsorship to various programs
and events worldwide in order to promote their beverage products across their target customer
segments. However, it can be easily understood that the expense for this immense. In fact, it is
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known that The Coca-Cola Company uses approximately 37.3% of their total annual expenses in
advertisements and promotional activities (The Coca-Cola Company, 2019). Thus, their
marketing department have to maintain collaboration with the accounts department in order to
optimize the annual expenditure of the organisation.
Figure 2: Marketing Functions
(Source: Krush, Sohi and Saini, 2015)
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MARKETING ESSENTIALS
Critical analysis of the key functions of marketing and its relations with functions of other
departments
The key functions of the marketing department in an organisation are usually numerous. Some of
the most important functions include market research and planning, design and development of
products, determining and applying the grades and standardization of the products, designing the
labels and packages of the products and designing the brands of the products. Moreover, the
determination of the range of feasible price of the products or services, and delivering the follow-
up customer services are also functions of the marketing department. However, Krush, Sohi and
Saini (2015) opined that this is not a strict list, and not all of these functions are given the same
level of priority by the marketing departments of the all the business organisations in the UK.
For instance, in case of The Coca-Cola Company, the main functions of their marketing
departments include formulating the marketing plans, design the package labels of their
beverages and enhancing the brand image among their target customer segment by
advertisements, promotional events and sponsorships. However, handling the complaints of their
customers is not the job of their marketing department, and The Coca-Cola Company has a
separate department named ‘customer grievance cell’ for it.
Although these functions are conducted by the marketing department of The Coca-Cola
Company, they do not conduct it without the help of other departments. In other words, just like
most of the business organisations, the functions of their marketing department is closely
interrelated and depended on the functions of various other departments. For instance, Gonzalez-
Zapatero, Gonzalez-Benito and Lannelongue (2016) argued that in case of the design and
development of the products, this marketing function is closely related to the function of the
production department. Even though the marketing department of The Coca-Cola Company
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designs the packaging of their beverage products, the actual production is conducted by their
production department. Moreover, even the planning of the marketing strategies is the duty of the
marketing department of The Coca-Cola Company, they have to do it while maintaining a close
collaboration with the production department, the logistics department and the accounts
department. The reason behind this is that the key attractions of their beverage products can be
expressed best by their production department, while the expenses for the marketing activities
can only be sanctioned and managed by their accounts department.
Thus, it can be said that the functions of the marketing department is closely related with the
other departments of a business organisation, especially the production and accounts department.
Conclusion
The above report has evaluated the various aspects of marketing, along with the various forms of
interrelationships between the marketing departments and various other departments in the
modern business organisations while taking The Coca-Cola Company as an example. It has been
seen that the marketing department of an organisation functions while closely collaborating with
the other departments, and enhances the brand reputation of the organisation.
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