Marketing Essentials: Marketing Role, Processes, and Influences on M&S

This report provides a comprehensive overview of marketing essentials, focusing on the roles and responsibilities of marketing managers, marketing processes, and the interrelation of marketing with other functional departments within an organization. It explores key marketing concepts such as production, product, selling, and societal marketing, highlighting current trends like relationship and industrial marketing. The report uses Marks and Spencer (M&S) as a case study, detailing their marketing mix, strategies, and the influence of marketing on finance, production, and R&D. It also compares M&S's marketing mix with that of Asda. The analysis emphasizes the importance of effective marketing management in achieving competitive advantage, boosting sales, and enhancing company reputation, concluding that interdepartmental coordination is crucial for business growth. This assignment solution is available on Desklib, a platform offering a wide range of study resources for students.

2 – MARKETING
ESSENTIALS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
1. Introduction to the concept of marketing including current and future trends.......................3
2. Overview of different marketing processes............................................................................4
3. Roles and responsibilities of marketing manager...................................................................5
4. The ways marketing influences and interrelates with other functional departments..............6
5. The value and importance of marketing role..........................................................................7
6. Conclusion about the importance of effective interrelationship among different functional
departments.................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Marketing refers to the activity a company proceeds in order to promote the selling and
purchasing of goods and services. This is the foremost element of business management and
trade. For the accomplishment of business objectives, the organization have to take help from
various departments such as human resource, finance, accounting, production, marketing, etc.
But out of all, marketing is most important because it helps the company in selling their products
along with promoting their business in order to get competitive advantages within the
marketplace (Nikiforova, 2018). In order to describe the marketing essentials, the Marks and
Spencer firm has been taken which is a British multinational retailer headquartered in London,
England. Company specialises in selling clothing range, home products and food products.
This report will highlight the role of marketing and their interrelationship with different
functional units. Apart from this the ways in which company utilises elements of marketing mix
along with evaluation of marketing plan also will be described.
MAIN BODY
1. Introduction to the concept of marketing including current and future trends
Marketing is a concept that company should utilise in order to evaluate customers needs
and make decisions accordingly in order to get competitive advantages in front of other
competitors by satisfying the requirements of consumers. Company follows various concepts of

marketing such as production concept which describes that good quality and cheap products are
most preferred goods by the consumers, product concept illustrates that managers within the
organization have to focus on making high quality products then improving them over time,
selling concept is based on serious promotions of goods and services, marketing concept
describes the principles through which the firm can beat their competitors and societal marketing
concept according to which the firm determines the needs , wants and interests of target market.
Trends in marketing has been described as relationship marketing which emphasises on
consumer satisfaction and retention rather than sales volume (Kumar and Mishra, 2019). This
strategy is different as it emphasise on extended communication which are beyond promotional
messages. This marketing trend relates to the short term arrangement in which two parties have
an interest in giving more pleasurable exchange. Another is industrial marketing in which the
firm sell their products to other organizations to resell them later. The revolution within the
technology is the primary cause of these marketing trends.
2. Overview of different marketing processes
The marketing process is a measurable series of different steps to help the organization in
order to identify and reach their goals (Malhotra, 2018). Moreover, the firm also able to discover
the requirements of the clients and develop products according to their needs.
Marketing planning involves the setting of objectives and goals, evaluation of external
and internal factors of business, planning of products, their implementation and tracking of
progress. In context of Mark and Spencer, the marketing process of the firm described as:
 Mission: To prepare aspirational quality approachable to everyone through the
diversified range of their products.
 Situation analysis: M&S competitive advantage is driven by their commitment to
understand the consumers needs, focusing on products which is main mission and
introducing new and innovative products within the marketplace.
 Marketing strategy: Company focuses more on products and their investment into
digital and social channels rather than any other form of advertisement of marketing
strategy.
 Marketing mix:
Product Price

 Design
 Technology
 Quality
 Perceived usefulness
 Value based
 Penetration
 Cost leadership
Place
 Retail
 Wholesale
 Direct sales
 Internet
 Multi channel
Promotion
 Special offers
 Advertisements
 Campaigns
 Joint ventures
 Implementation and control: Each offered product by the M&S complements the value
and pricing strategy of the product according to the requirements of the consumers. So,
customers tends to stay connected with the brand and thus brand able to create loyal
clients.
3. Roles and responsibilities of marketing manager
In ancient times the people focuses only on the maximisation of profits but now the
companies are more into the satisfaction concept of customers. In order to control and manage
the marketing activities, the firm appoints managers within their organization who plays various
roles and responsibilities so that the firm will able to get huge development and market growth.
There are various tasks which should be completed by managers such as promotion of goods and
services, their advertising and fulfilment of all production requirements because it is the basic
function upon which business success depends (Fill and Turnbull, 2019). Apart from this, the
managers are also responsible for coordinating, organising, directing as well as controlling
functions. With theses functions the firm is able to attract more and more consumers towards
their offered services. Moreover, there are some other roles and responsibilities that includes:
 Market research: For surviving into competitive market space, the managers of M&S
has to be well informed of the particular customer needs and market trends. With the full
knowledge about clients requirements, the firm is able to make changes accordingly and
satisfy the consumers needs.

 Promotion and advertisement: This activity is important for marketing managers as it
helps M&S with other competitors and attract large number of customers.
 Brand management: The methods that adopts by managers of M&S includes activities
which increases the brand equity of the firm within the market space.
 Product development: The managers are responsible to improve production process in
order to produce high quality of products in highly cost efficient manner.
 Internal communication: The most important role is to create good relationship among
all business sections in order to communicate and cooperate with each other in proper and
structured manner.
4. The ways marketing influences and interrelates with other functional departments
Marketing is the only business function that interrelates with other departments within the
organization such as R&D, production, finance and so on. With the proper accomplishment of
roles and responsibilities by managers of M&S, they are able to help other departments as well in
accomplish company goals and objectives (PHAM, 2020) . The functions that are coordinated
with the marketing managers are:
 Finance: In order to build a successful business plan, finance department of M&S plays a
vital role as in order to execute the plan activities it requires enough amount of capital.
For the allocation of financial resources, marketing managers have to deal with finance
people.
 Production: The managers of M&S are responsible for research current market trends
and then consult with production managers so that they can make changes in production
process according to the requirements of clients. Necessary changes have been done with
mutual consents.
 Research and development: This department within the Marks and Spencer is
responsible for researching new desires of customers and developing good quality of
goods which helps the firm to reach greater heights and earn maximise profits. Thus, the
coordination among the R&D and marketing department helps the firm to achieve desired
goals.

5. The value and importance of marketing role
Marketing management is crucial in order to meet competitive requirements and
development of strategies to reduce production cost and thus enhanced profit margin (Lancaster
and Massingham, 2017). Fro effective marketing management, managers have to plays vital role
within the organization. The managers are extremely important for the firms like Mark and
Spencer who focuses completely towards the innovation part within their products with effective
pricing strategies.
 Introduce new products: Marketing managers are important for M&S to understand the
requirements of customers in order to make them satisfied with their improved products.
They are able to expand the technique to approach potential buyers and adopt right tool at
the right time and appropriate place to save company time and cost.
 Boosts sales volume: Managers are crucial for enhancement of sales volume as they are
the ones who are responsible for making strategies that fulfil the requirements of the firm
with increased sales volume.
 Increase company reputation: With the involvement of all the activities, marketing
managers are the ones who are responsible to build effective brand image in the mind of
consumers.
 Source of new marketing channels: Marketing managers are responsible to adopt
various strategies and opt for different marketing channels according to the latest trends
and requirements of the situation.
6. Conclusion about the importance of effective interrelationship among different functional
departments
From the above complete analysis, it has been identified that the marketing section of
M&S coordinate with other functional units so that they can operate business activities in most
appropriate manner. For example, at the time of preparing budget for marketing plan, manager
has to coordinate with finance department to allocate financial resources. Apart from this,
marketing manager collects information about latest desires of consumers according to market
trends so that production section can produce goods accordingly. All these measures influence
positive impacts on business growth and help the M&S to achieve their pre determined goals.

7. Comparison of organization within similar competitive marketplace
Marketing mix P's Marks and Spencer Asda
Products: It is something that
has power to satisfy some
specific need of the customer
(Saidani and Sudiarditha,
2019).
The M&S have mainly 5 board
varlets which are highly
differentiated from others with
high quality then its
competitors.
Asda sale highly unique
variety of its products, mainly
deals in electronics, clothings,
mobile, financial services and
grocery products.
Price: Is the value that
customer pay in return to buy
the product or services.
M&S is having medium to
higher range for its products as
per the quality they offer.
Asda offers its products with
lower price strategy to develop
wider customer base.
Place: Where the company
uses to distribute its products
and services.
M&S have around 1500 stores
in more than 62 international
markets and also offer online
food delivering services.
Asda has developed different
stores and also merge it to
Walmart. More than 341
superstores and 211
supermarkets in the market of
Britain (Febriansyah 2019).
Promotion: The activities that
helps to present the products as
well as the company to the
customers.
M&S is highly active on the
social media and
advertisements that are helping
the company to reach its
customers more effectively.
Asda usually focus on the
discounts and schemes that are
helping the company to attract
its customers. The TV
advertisement are used by
Asda to show what they offer
to the customers.
People: which are involved in
the process of marketing and
other promotional activities.
The people in M&S are
effective and resolve all the
issues of the customer
regarding the products they
offers.
Asda employees are highly
skilled and trained on the
regular basis. They are having
convincing employees in the
physical store that uses answer
all the question related to the

needs.
Process: in this the activities
are undertaken which are used
by the company to deliver its
products to final customer.
M&S make sure its products
are also available to its
customers in its stores and also
provide online delivering
process (Ray, 2017).
Asda also research about the
marketing strategy that can
used by the company to get the
need of their customers.
Physical evidence: An
interaction which the company
uses to do with customers.
M&S have attractive stores as
well as packaging of its
products also have its website
which is modified regularly.
Asda supermarket are very
clean and attractive to the
customers.
Marketing plan
Vision: To be the best retailer brand with innovative technology in the Britain as well as
international market.
Mission: To engage more and more customers through making use of digital technology for
benefits of organization.
SWOT analysis
Strength
 The company is well experienced in the
Britain and international market.
 Having different variety of products
(Hanlon 2018).
Weaknesses
The products prices are comparatively higher.
Highly reliance to the UK Market and less in
international market.
Opportunities
Online presence to increase the brand
awareness worldwide.
The company should segment their market.
Threat
Higher competition in existing market.
Changing the clothings trends on regular basis.

STP
The segmentation, targetting and positioning of the company can be identified with the help of
this framework. With this the profit measures that M&S can take and with this new market and
new customers are also identified (Dasser, 2019).
Segmentation: The company mainly segment is market according to demographical and
behavioural basis. In demographic the gender, education, age are considered. Behavioural factors
are also undertaken by the M&S to offer its products.
Targetting: From the segmented market places the company uses to target the demographic
pattern of the market to offer its products. Accordingly, to this market the company has
evaluated the opportunities and threats so that they can effectively target the customers.
Positioning: The company has favourable positioning in the respective market, and they are
making use of marketing mix to improve more effectively.
Marketing mix Product: the product range of M&S is comparatively very large, and they are offering a
higher quality products to their customers (Pike, 2018). Women categories clothes and
accessories are the main products of the company.
 Price: the pricing of the product are as per the quality they provide in their product which
basically lies between medium to high. M&S follows comparative price approach for its
customers.
 Place: online as well as physical stores are offered to the customers to purchase the
products of the company. Further the digital technology use is going to be more by M&S
to target more customer base.
 Promotion: the digital technology and innovation advertisements are used by company to
reach to the target base of the customer. Social media, information technology and other
modern source of promote are being used by M&S to aware its customer about the
product of the company.

Budget
Particular Amount
Machinery $ 3000
Wages and salary $ 2000
Marketing and promotion $ 2500
Selling and distribution $ 800
Administration $ 1000
Other expenses $ 700
Total $ 10000
Action plan
To increase the digital technology uses in the M&S, company need to invest more in the
research and development regarding the technology (Hollensen, 2019). They will also make use
of social media platform such as Facebook, Instagram, link din etc. to reach the targeted
customers in the market.
Control and monitors
As the Marks and Spencer is comparatively larger organization in the current market in
which they have evaluate the performance of all the employees towards the common goal. They
will make use of key performance indicators in this to measure the success they will identify the
sales of the company after enhance the digital techniques uses. M&S will check the reaction of
the customer about the product they are selling and the market share they are covering. When
there is difference in the expected sales and initial sales then company will make efforts to
remove that gap.

CONCLUSION
From the absolute report presented above, it has been concluded that marketing is most
significant function of the business enterprise as it enables the firm in promoting and advertising
their offered products. The report highlighted various marketing roles and responsibilities that
contribute a lot while accomplish business objectives. The marketing mix is the most important
concept which is followed by M&S for accomplish competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Moreover, the marketing plan also have been described in the above report in order to provide
detailed evaluation according to the topic.

REFERENCES
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Saidani, B. and Sudiarditha, I.K.R., 2019. Marketing Mix-7ps: The Effect on Customer
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