Marketing Essentials: Roles, Responsibilities & Marketing Plan

This report provides a comprehensive overview of marketing essentials, focusing on the crucial roles and responsibilities within the marketing process and its internal relations with other departments in a firm. It compares the elements of the marketing mix and presents a marketing plan for McDonald's, detailing the company's strategies, structures, and marketing functions such as distribution, financing, pricing, and promotion. The report emphasizes the importance of customer-centric approaches, quality control, and risk assessment in achieving marketing success. Desklib offers a variety of study tools, including similar reports and past papers, to aid students in their academic pursuits.

Marketing Essentials

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1 ...........................................................................................................................................1
P1. Crucial roles and responsibilities of the marketing process.............................................1
P2. Internal relation of marketing with different departments existing in the firm................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
P3. Comparison of the marketing mix elements....................................................................7
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................12
P4. Marketing Plan for McDonald.......................................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
In the era where there is cut through competition between the companies who are offering
the similar product there are some of the activities which needs to be performed for its
promotion. In the business environment there is increase in the business operations but most of
them does not get success and the reason behind this is that they does not exercise proper
marketing. It is an activity through which organisations reach to their potential customers and
ask them to buy their products because they are offering some unique, classy and creative
(Baker and Saren, 2016). There exists lots of brand but people also know those who has some
presence in the advertising world. Marketing is all about promotion and selling of the goods &
service through marketing strategies. There might be difference in the marketing strategies of
every firms because they have their own way of doing work. With the marketing they try to
conserve those resource which are available to them make sure that they use it at the times of
crisis. All this report will be consisting the important facts about the marketing essentials and
what are the factors which has to be focused on. For this scenario of McDonald will be taken into
the taken.
TASK 1
P1. Crucial roles and responsibilities of the marketing process.
The concept of the companies moves to the customers through the process of marketing.
In general terms it is the deep analysis of the management of exchanging relationships.
Marketing operations deals with the developing, communicating, delivering and exchanging
products which has some value for the people who are buying it, business partners and etc. This
analysed in the bigger concept the society comes into the factor. With the marketing functions
firms wants to convince the targeted audiences that their products is creative and different from
other products. They will satisfy their customers and will ask them to buy it because if they do so
they will be benefited from this (Brady, 2014). In this era where competition has been increased
and a single product is sold by many companies. The biggest task here is that how to make
people know that there is a particular brand which exists in the market and has certain benefits
attached to it. For this marketing is an activity which will assist them in reaching to the
individuals which are to be converted into buyer. Marketing is all about the promotion and
awareness about the certain brand. Firms allocate lots of budget for the marketing campaign
1

because they know that this is the activity which can give them lots of benefits. For this they
have to make sure that their advertising or promotional activities has some creativity,
uniqueness and all the operational are managed in matter way with proper planning. They have
to understand the importance of the marketing and at the same time they should be aware that
they are also competing with the other small and bigger player in the same segment (Chamorro-
Mera, Miranda and Rubio, 2014). All the marketing activities are formulated by keeping
customer needs in mind and the aim of these is to make their demand fulfil through the products.
They have to sell the products but before this they have to carry out marketing activities to
convince consumer that why they should buy their goods and services.
With the change in the time, trends has also changed now the companies are more
focusing on the customer demands. This can be said that today the marketing has become
customer centred because the purchasing power and bargaining power of the customers has
increased. Mission of the marketing firm is to increase the consumer and with this they will able
to increase their profit margins at the same time (Fazlollahtabar, Aghasi and Forte, 2012). For
this they have to develop some marketing strategies based on the customers needs and they set
goals & objectives.
McDonald's is fast food company who has restaurant chain all across the globe. Started in
1940 and today it is successful in doing its business in almost 119 countries. They have a wide
range of products from hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chicken products, French fries, soft drinks,
milkshakes and certain kinds of desserts. They have also included salads, fish, smoothies and
fruits after facing criticism over serving the unhealthy food. They have a big market which can
be analysed through the fact that in an average they are 45 million individuals a day. With this
they have become the world's largest restaurant chain (Fırat, 2013). Most of the stores are setup
with the concept of franchisees and they had been successful in earning net profit of approx. 4
million. McDonald's use different structures like for the corporate they use functional structure,
divisional structure for the restaurants and geographical structure for the world market. Their
products are popular because they are delivering quality in them and make sure that there is no
variations in the recipes and taste. They have made this possible through the structure they
follow. They have a culture which is detailed through power, task, person and role culture. Every
one of them have its own significance like in power culture all the power remains in the hands of
certain individuals and they are responsible for various decisions. Through the task culture they
2

resolve the problems coming in the way and they attain the goals which they have set. All the
staff of McDonald's is assigned some roles on the basis of their knowledge and skills. This is
done with the help of role culture. With the task culture all the workers can be made aware about
their responsibilities in McDonald's. On the other hand McDonald's can emphasize on the
concept of product by following Marketing to Business to business(B to B) concept. All the
marketing activities will be revolving around features of the product they are offering to the
customers (Forshier, 2012). But in the marketing to business to consumer shows the benefits
which consumer can gain through the product. There is involvement of the emotional aspects in
the marketing campaigns.
There are various marketing functions which McDonald's have to perform and following
are some of them:-
 Distribution: It details about the products and services which will be distributed in the
market. So this briefs that what will be the methods which will used by McDonald's to
market their products. For example; McDonald's has included a new role in their menu
but if they does not market it properly the products will fail in the market.
 Financing: For the marketing activities, they need some budgets which will be used to
carry out these marketing campaigns.
3
Illustration 1: 7 Functions of
Marketing. 2017

 Marketing Information: This is the crucial function of the McDonald because with the
help of the market information they can know what all things customer demand for and
on the basis of it they design the marketing campaigns. This will benefit them in
delivering laity service in the market as they have already analysed the needs (Gertner,
2011). During the festival season they can bring new items for the families because
normally this is the period when all the members of the family come and spend quality
time with each other.
 Pricing: It is a tough job for deciding the prices of the products which has to be sold by
the McDonald's. What will be the best prices at which they can gain competitive
advantage because this is the deciding factors for the success of the companies.
McDonald's will make sure that they set the suitable prices because low prices may
attract the customer but decrease the profit margins.
 Goods and Management of the Service: Although they have proper prices but things
will go in waste if the services at the McDonald's are not properly managed. For this
they have to conduct market survey and what are the needs and demands of the people
4
Illustration 2: ANDRIA CHENG, 2014

who are coming in the restaurants of McDonald's. It is the duty of the manager to make
sure that all the restaurant is neat and clean and the employees are treating the consumer
with proper behaviour and gesture.
 Promotion: There are various platforms which can be used by the McDonald to market
their products and services offered by them. Advertising, which is a paid form of
promotion can also be considered into the promotion and social media is also another
way to reach a large number of people. Social media marketing is in trends and firms are
spending handsome about on it.
 Selling: Selling and marketing are the two activities which can be linked with each
other. The final aim of McDonald is to sell the products which they have produced to the
customers. In this they also ensure that consumers are getting quality in the food items.
But here the biggest problem is of the deciding the price.
P2. Internal relation of marketing with different departments existing in the firm.
Marketing area of the firm has crucial role to play in increasing their productivity and
productivity. They give information about the various tools and techniques which can be
implemented to gain competitive advantage. Functions of the marketing shows the interrelation
with various departments of the company. It states that there should be a relation with the
consumers and organisation so that they achieve all the goals they have wished for. McDonald
believes in the values which is totally dedicated to the customer's needs and demands (Jones and
Rowley 2011). They are focused to set a good image of their brand and creates a strong brand
value in the market. McDonald use various strategies and promotional operations to enhance the
performance of their in the market. By properly exercising these activities they can attain gaols
and objectives. Business becomes successful when the company have lots of customers and for
converting more number of people into the buyers they have to use these functions.
Research: No marketing function can be performed without the market research. To
know what is going in the market they research and inspect various aspects of it. By analysing
this they develops organisation activities which has to be done. To set goals and objectives they
have to know the rivals products and strategies which they have to take care.
Transportation: McDonald's needs transportation so that they can transfer their products
from one place to another. So it is necessary that they use transportation facilities which is quick
and is available at the low cost.
5

Risk assessment: In McDonald there might be the issue which can impact their
performance and market in the negative way. Risks are the negative condition which can reduce
the growth of the firm. The uncertain risks can be managed through proper knowledge the prone
areas where chances of risks are more (Joshi, 2012). They have to attain the better result so they
need to bring flexibility in their work and for that they should obstruct the risks.
Quality of products: This is the most important factor which decided the success level
of McDonald. To satisfy the customers they have to make sure that all products follows quality
level. They had been the market leader from the long years because they never comprised with
the quality concerns. McDonald's should set quality levels at the departments on regular bases
and inform everyone that these are the timings which need to be taken care off while producing
or carrying out any task.
Product Development: With the market research marketing function briefs about the
product development. Marketing people will aware the research and development department
about the needs and demands of the customers because they work in the field and has clear
insight about consumer preferences.
These are the functions which are performed by the marketing department of the
McDonald so that they can get whatever they want. Out of all there are also functions which
highlights the relation between the marketing and other areas of the organisation.
Marketing and Human Resources: The function of the HR department is to recruit staff
so that McDonald does not face the scarcity of manpower. Marketing department make them
aware that these are the number of staff which are required by them in future. They give
information to them which has to do with the human resources in the firm (Kennedy and
Parsons, 2014). They give them the list of things which they require to carry out their market
campaigns.
Marketing and Customer Service: They know that through focusing on the customer
needs they can change the marketing trends. McDonald wants to satisfy the their consumer
through their services because they know all their profits are depended upon them only. A happy
consumer brings many more profits and customers. To achieve all the goals they have to set new
bench marks in the industry that these are the firm who properly treats their customers. In the
process of knowing the interest of the individuals they uses survey method.
6

Marketing and Finance: McDonald's financial department gives insight about the
genuine cost and crucial information which shows positive action. Marketing department gives
them the information about the future expenses required by them so that they can arrange those
before time (Khan and Adil, 2013). This will assist them in estimating the budget which has to
be allocate in the coming time period.
Marketing and Administration: There are some policies of the McDonald's which has
to be followed by every employee. To ensure that all the internal members of the forms are
following those rules and regulation administration department handles this. Marketing
individuals assist them in informing the government updated policies.
Research and Development and Marketing: McDonald spends a lot of money on the
research and development area of the firm and the reason behind this is to bring unique food
items in the market. They brings new method of services to attract more number of consumers
towards their restaurants. Here role of the marketing department is to give them information
about the customer demands and what all changes they need to do at their work place.
Marketing and Production: Marketing production briefs goods which sale in the market
area to earn more profit. Interests of the customers changes frequently so they try to develop
food items by keeping their taste in mind. What product of McDonald is preferred by most of the
people and what all new things can be produced all these information is part of it.
These all gives a idea that what all products has to be focused and what service has to be
offered by them. If these functions are properly performed they can yield better results in the
form of profitability (Lehmann and et. al. 2016). Sales department and distribution department
also has a important role to play in the success of the McDonald. They have to increase their
performance and bring a satisfaction to the customer.
TASK 2
P3. Comparison of the marketing mix elements.
Marketing mix is the promotion of the goods and services sold and offered by the firms.
There are seven elements which are part of the marketing mix i.e., product, price, place,
promotion, people, process and physical evidences. There will be comparison between these
elements of McDonald's and Aldi.
McDonald:-
7

It is the world's largest groining fast food industry and has been successful in operating
their business ion almost 120 countries with 30,000 stores.
Product: They have a wide variety of food products which they deliver to their consumer
and these falls in the category of non-veg and veg fast food items. Cheeseburgers, chicken Mc
nuggets, hamburgers and French fries are part of their menu. Through delivering world class
food items they are focusing on increasing their customer base and developing brand image of
the company. They take care that they don't serve food which hurts the sentiments of any religion
and culture of the consumers.
Price: They are focusing on providing food product at suitable price range. McDonald
includes various costs while deciding the prices of the burgers. All focused is on the area where
they are serving. For example; the prices of the burgers in the McDonald restaurants of Africa
will have less price as compared to the UK restaurants (Lovelock, 2011). Cost leadership is one
of the strategy which is used by the McDonald to deliver best products. Food are also served at
the individual food and also at combo.
8

Place: When they open the restaurant at any place they make sure that it is near any some
useful locality. Mostly their stores will be founded at shopping malls, airports, highways and the
individual place. With this they confirms that all the customers has reach to their restaurant.
Promotion: This is the way through which they can communicate with their target
audience and builds a image in the market. They create awareness that McDonald is a brand and
it has certain food items for the people. McDonald use television, social media, billboards and
etc., advertising promotion for the promotion of their food items.
People: It is the extended marketing mix element and includes employees and consumer.
With this they aim at coordinating and bringing a bond between the customers and the firm.
They connect their products to the emotions of the target audience and look for making more
profits.
Process: Whatever task they do in delivering a product or services to the customer is part
of this. Effective services gives support firm in giving convenience to the customers in receiving
9
Illustration 3: Burger Lad, 2015