Marketing Essentials Report: Role of Marketing and Planning

This report delves into the core principles of marketing, focusing on the role and responsibilities of marketing functions within an organization, and how marketing interrelates with other departments. It examines various marketing concepts, including production, selling, product, marketing, and societal marketing. The report then discusses the relationship between marketing and other departments like finance and HR. Furthermore, it compares the marketing mix strategies of Marks & Spencer with those of McDonald's and Starbucks. Finally, the report culminates in the formulation and evaluation of a basic marketing plan specifically tailored for Marks & Spencer, covering key aspects such as market research, product design, and segmentation strategies to enhance the company's performance and achieve its business objectives.

BUSINESS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1 Demonstrate the role and responsibilities of marketing functions.........................................3
P2 Discuss how role and responsibility of marketing is related with the other departments
within company...........................................................................................................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
P3 Compare the ways in which different organisation apply marketing mix to marketing
planning ......................................................................................................................................7
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................12
P4 Formulate and evaluate a basic marketing plan for marks & Spencer................................12
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................16
REFERENCE.................................................................................................................................17

INTRODUCTION
The term marketing refers to all those activities that are undertaken by the company in
order to carry out promotion about goods and services with the aim of enhancing sales and profit
margin of firm. It is considered as a core business of company and that is adopted by all
organisation for promoting business function in effective manner (Martin, 2017). The following
report is based on marks and Spencer company in order to explore all the terms that are related
with the marketing. It is a multinational retailer organisation with headquarter in London, United
Kingdom. This company was founded by Michel Marks and Thomas Spencer in 1884. they
operates their business across globally and serves their services in clothing, home products, food
products and so on. In this report discussion about role of marketing function within organisation
is carried out as well interrelationship between among department with marketing is covered.
Apart from this, it included a comparison between M&s and two different organisation i.e.
MacDonald and Starbucks on the basis of marketing mix by which company will able to attain
their goal in effective way. At the end of the report a marketing plan is formulated for marks and
Spencer for full filling the business functions.
MAIN BODY
TASK 1
P1 Demonstrate the role and responsibilities of marketing functions.
Marketing can be defined as a process that enables the each and every individual will
become familiar with the product and services offered by firm to employees. For the same
management team of company needs to adopt some effective promotional strategies and plan
which assist them in order to sustain their employees in effectual manner for a larger period
(Pooler, 2018). In which there are various kinds of promotional activities like digital marketing,
social media marketing, personal selling, direct selling, advertisement, public relation and so on.
In era of developed world most of the firm are mainly use digital and social media marketing for
carry out promotional activities to meet the demands and requirements of people. In context of
chosen firm they are also using social media platform like Instagram, Facebook etc. for
promotions. Apart from this there are various marketing concepts that needs to be considered by
the management team of Marks and Spencer so that they will able to conduct their organisational

function in efficacious manner. In context of given firm some of the most effective concepts of
marketing are discussed below:-
Production concept- This concept is mainly provision on enhancing the supply of goods
and services by reducing their cost. As well as it also depicts that those company which are
mainly focuses on production believes in economic scale too. Hence by producing goods in mass
quantity the overall cost of goods will ultimately reduces and leads towards enhancement of
profitability. This concept need to be change or modified over a period of time as consumers are
more likely to prefer trendy products and in order to retain the base of consumer for longer
period, management team of Marks and Spencer need to offered high quality goods to their
buyers.
Selling concept- On the basis of this concept, organisation highlights the main elements
which are consumers in which they only buy all products that is offered by company when
company will sell it in combative manner. Their main purpose is to sell goods instead of making
relationship with them (Reic, 2016). This concept is created or modified by each passing as
institution consider or believes to form effective bond with consumers rather than just selling
product and goods to them.
Product concept- This concept is primarily based on the assumptions that consumers
only preferred high quality services which tends to expensive outcome. As well as the entities of
company produces innovative and unique products to meet the demand and requirements of
consumers and which makes the whole services more expensive. In relevance to this, the
management team of Marks and Spencer seeks to produce high quality products in affordable
prices in order to grab more peoples toward their products and this will ultimately enhances the
overall profitability of firm.
Marketing concept- In this concept the consumers are the primary elements or factor of
company. The mangers of company offers goods and services according to the needs and
demands of end users. And this concept remain same for a longer period of time as consumer
acts as king for the company and the product developed by them is on the basis of their needs for
satisfying and make them happy.
Societal marketing concept- IN such kind of concepts company emphasis to adopt this
methods with the aim of providing benefits to whole society. In this the main focus of
management team of company is to developing consumers base long with society by their

offering (Appah and George, 2017). This concepts remain unchanged over a period of time as
company carry out their business function for the well-being of society.
Besides that there are various role and responsibility of marketing function that is
performed by the management team of Marks and Spencer. In which few role are as follows:
Market research: It has been found that it vis the most essentials role that is performed
by the management team of marketing as they need to analyse all the trends and preferences of
consumers. This will assist them in devising effective marketing strategies and policies for the
future meetings of consumers. In context of given firm, the role that is executed by manger of
marking is to conduct effective marketing research for gathering information and that
information can be useful for making effective plan.
Product designing:-In this the manager of marketing mainly focus on developing new
innovative and creative designs of products in order to catch more peoples towards their services.
In relevance to Marks and Spencer, the marketing manager design the products in effective
manner according to marketing trends. So that they will able to meet the goal of consumers
satisfaction. On the other hand, the responsibility that manger posses is to create unique product
for combatting with other players of marketing and to gain the competitive advantage in the
market.
Monitoring- This is considered as the most effective and essential marketing function of
company as it assist in monitoring all internal and external factors of environment. In context of
social factors it is addressed as external force and that posses capabilities to influence the
function of company as well as the policies and strategies of company is also affected.
Segmentation- It has been analysed that marketing function mainly adopt an approach
like STP as it assist them in identifying various sections for company as well as helps in
determining effective segment in which they can target (Folkvord, 2019). For example income
level and the age group are the basis of segmentation.
P2 Discuss how role and responsibility of marketing is related with the other departments within
company.
The marketing function is reflected as the most essential and important factor of
company. It is a business function that is inter related with another department too within
company. As all thee assist in attaining the predetermined goal and objective of company within
stipulated time period (Sample, Hagtvedt and Brasel, 2020). In context of given firm, the

marketing department of company is inter related with other function of company and which are
obstinate beneath:
Marketing and finance:- It has been found that finance departments plays a vital role in
company as it manages all the cash outflows and inflows of institution. In context of Marks and
Spencer, it has been identified that both marketing and finance department is inter linked with
each other. The function that is performed by the entities of finance department is that they
manage all monetary funds for delivering services to consumers in effective way. Besides that
the role that is performed by the marketing team is to develop effective promotional and
advertising activities for promoting goods or service in appropriate mode. For instance, if
marketing departments department needs any funds for carry out promotional activities then they
need to ask to finance department for investment (Chaffey and Smith, 2017). Therefore,
managers needs to maintain the coordination and collaboration among marketing and finance
dependent for the enhancement of overall growth and development of company.
Marketing and HR :- Human resources department mainly associated with the hiring and
section process in order to recruit highly qualified and skilled candidates within company. both
of the department shares positive and effective bond with each other and that will lead them
towards growth of company at marketplace. Marketing department of company promote vacant
job position in market which help HR manger hire best and capable candidate for attaining the
goal and objective of company. In context of chosen firm, the HR managers take full
responsibility for hiring suitable personnel which assistance the HR managers as this cross
sectional relationship aids company to get appropriate human resource within firm.
Marketing and sales :- The main motive of sales managers is to increase the sales ratio
of company. In context of sales managers, their responsibility is to retain their potential
consumers by offering high quality services on the basis of end users requirements. For this the
managers of given firm needs to determine the trends and preferences of buyers before delivering
them services (Deepak and Jeyakumar, 2019). Hence consumer base need to make strong for
increasing sales and profitability of company. In current time, marketing team of Marks and
Spencer identify the most of the people preferred vegetarian food along with non-vegetarian,
hence the management team of company needs to considered this for increasing the sales and
profit margin of firm in this competitive marketplace.

TASK 2
P3 Compare the ways in which different organisation apply marketing mix to marketing
planning
Marketing mix is defined as the plan or set of action which is used by many of company
and organisation to promote its brand or product in the market. Its also helps company to achieve
their objective in the target market. The marketing mix include 4ps and 7ps which is decided by
the level of market. 4Ps include: product, price, place, promotion, and 7ps include: physical
evidence, process and people (Lockhart, 2016). There are different organisation which follow
this tactics to penetrate the market and achieve the goal of company. The marks and Spencer
with two organisation McDonald and Starbucks and their marketing mix are discuss below
before that a intro parts is discussed on the base of organisation.
The marks and Spencer is retail store brand of UK where they produce every single item
which is used in home or related to clothing, and other gifts section, they have largest investment
in every sector, the firm create its own housing brand which by proper planning and execution
can make the success brand. The McDonald is a food and beverages industry which produce
maximum number of quality food in the country, they deals with sandwiches, burger, pizza and
other food item. The firm deals with food and service where their initial approaches is to collect
the customer, as per the many survey the most liked brand in food is McDonald. By their food
quality and services (Petrescu, Krishen and Bui, 2020). The Starbucks is brand which famous for
the coffee in the various countries, they have richly level of coca coffee which is based on the
customer centric. Their service pattern is organic where they greeted every customer and they
have good food quality in the aspect of local and international market. The marketing mix of
these organisation are discussed below:
Marks & Spencer McDonald Starbucks
Product Marks and Spencer is a
popular brand and op
retail store in UK. The
product is segmented in
the different age groups
They deals in food and
beverages product. The
components of the
marketing mix cover the
various organisational
Starbucks offers very
good scale of food and
drink options. The
main product of
Starbucks are

of people. They have
wide range of variety for
the different class of
people. For men, women
and kids. Product for
women are blazers,
cardigans, cashmere,
jeans, linen, shirts and
many more. They also
have footwear section
which include boots,
sandals, loafers, pumps,
heels etc. Marks and
Spencer also offers food
and wine section which
sells launches and dinner.
They also sells flowers
and gift item.
output that the company
provide to the target
market. The product are:
sandwiches, salads,
snacks, beverages,
desserts and shakes. Its
provide customer with a
variety of option in the
food menu like gg
McMuffin, Egg White
Delight McMuffin,
Hotcakes, Hash Browns,
Quarter Pounder with
Cheese, Double Quarter
Pounder with Cheese,
Hamburger,
Cheeseburger, Double
Cheeseburger, Vanilla
Shake, Vanilla Cone, Hot
Fudge Sundae, Kiddie
Cone, Hot Caramel
Sundae, Strawberry
Sundae, Baked Apple Pie,
McCafé Chocolate Shake,
McCafé, and McCafé
Frappé Mocha are some
of the products option
which is provided by
McDonald to the
respected customer
(Layton, 2019).
breakfast , coffee,
muffins, filter cake,
cold brews and etc.
they usually focus and
famous for richly
brewed coffee.
doughnuts, fresh fruit,
bottled soft drinks, tea,
espresso beverages,
filter Coffee,
frappuccino blended
beverages, refresha,
and cold brew.

Price Marks and Spencer
follow the competitive
pricing. They have their
won house brand so they
priced the product
between medium and
higher category because
of its premium quality.
But overall they follow
the competitive pricing
strategy as per the
customer now have more
option to choose form the
enhance market
competition.
They follow many pricing
strategy which are: bundle
pricing strategy,
psychological pricing
strategy. Likewise they
follow @99 which is
helps to collect more
customer by
psychological pricing
which encourage to buy
the product.
Starbucks follow
many of strategy like
premium, cost plus,
loss leader, and going
rate are some pricing
decision.
place Marks and Spencer is a
international brand which
have 1000 store in 50
countries. The major
country is UK, where the
company have 850 stores.
They have their own
website form where the
customer can buy product
online and M&S provide
the home delivery
facility.
McDonald have fixed
restaurants where the
company product are
distributed. The places are
restaurants, kiosks,
McDonald mobile apps,
post mates website and
app and others. The
McDonald have also their
franchise which is
operated by many of
owner.
They offer lots of the
product through the
Starbucks cafe. They
have 31,256 store in
76 countries. They
also develop apps for
iPhone, android for
window for those who
can't wait to drink
coffee. So they booked
the seat and coffee in a
scheduled time
(Polonsky, 2017).
promotion Marks and Spencer uses
print media, TV ads and
The promotional mix are
advertising, sale
Starbucks uses many
promotional activities

mobile ads and social
media campaign to
promote the product.
M&S promote its
seasonal sale to
permanent customer by
giving special discounts.
promotions, public
relations, and direct
marketing. They lower the
pricing by creating combo
session of food, where
two food product are
available in lower cost.
for customer like they
start to give loyalty
scheme called
Starbucks rewards
which acts as
membership. People
collect 2 stars for
every $1 they spend in
store or online. Every
125 stars they collect
makes them eligible
for rewards which is
redeem at a time
interval for to take
advantage for a drink
or food items.
physical
evidence
Marks and Spencer have
1000 store which is act as
physical evidence for the
company.
McDonald have their fix
store and they provide the
franchise to many of store
which is act as a physical
evidence (Juska, 2017)
Physical evidence of
Starbucks is not
limited to its store,
designs, logo, napkins
they always adopting
new approaches to
store designs.
process Marks and Spencer have
separate store for the
clothing, gifts and flowers
furniture and also for
other home accessories.
They used to follow
ground floor is for home
The company have a fixed
standard operating
procedure to follow the
standard protocol. The
SOP provide best services
while in preparing food
and to delivery it. In some
The process function
of Starbucks as per the
customer service is
like they start with
greeting, customer
take their seats and
order what they want

equipments and first floor
for clothing and second
and third floor for gifts
shops and food and others
items. And customer can
pay bills in their
respected counter.
countries they provide self
service chance, in which
customer decide own food
from the counter and after
preparation they just take
what they ordered from
the counter.
to drink or eat and
order being served by
the Starbucks
employee and farewell
being given.
people M&S have 83000
employee around the
world. The company
follow competitive
payment policy to retain
its employees. The
company also provide
pension benefits, life
insurance scheme, share
buy, health insurance
scheme to employee
because they focus and
understanding the
contribution to
organisation (Baines, P.,
and et.al., 2017).
McDonald is the major
biggest employee
company in USA and UK.
70% of the restaurants in
UK is operated by local
businessman and women.
They invested lots of
money to employee for
training and development.
The customer service is a
good part to promote the
firm name because a good
service always remember
so organisation invest
money in the learning
aptitude and skills of
approaches to customer
for visit again.
Starbucks recruit
around 240,000 people
although the world.
They invested money
in employee for
developing skills and
training process.
Starbucks is a
customer centric
company where
customer are the focus
point.
As per the above, almost three of organisation follow the different strategy to promote the
brand and product, the selected firm are good in their quality and store quantity, they are now
success brand in the own market and other countries. Some of the companies follow the same
pattern of strategy to grow the business. Many of organisation provide the franchise to those
local firm who have capabilities to grow the name of organisation in the top level. So well, it is

concern of companies to make policies regards with marketing which helps to promote the brand
and product in the region of countries. Which is more profitable with the business aspect and
eventually grow for the companies as well as the employee who give their best to respected
organisation.
TASK 3
P4 Formulate and evaluate a basic marketing plan for marks & Spencer.
Marketing plan refers to a detailed report which includes various marketing strategies of
company which is required to communicate with consumers. It helps in determining the
competitors and the consumers whom they can target at marketplace (Turner and Lecoeuvre,
2017). In which the business which constantly achieves growth and those business which newly
start their operation all these firm require a fruitful marketing plan for achieving success. There
are different courses and step of marketing plan which are underneath :
Company overview: Marks and Spencer is one of the leading multinational organisation
in retail industry with headquarter in London, United Kingdom. They operates their business at
global level and services their services in foods, clothes, home products and so on with their own
labelling on products. Offering good quality and fashionable products makes them well known
brand at marketplace. In 2008 this company makes joint ventures with the Reliance retail
company in order to makes marks and Spencer reliance within 51 % stake towards parent brand
marks and Spencer.
Vision and mission: The main mission of company is to make more inspirational and
qualitative products for the consumers. And the vision of company is to work with smart
different countries foe producing more innovative products.
Strategical objective: The most effective objective of chosen firm is to increase the sales
ratio by 15 % within four months. As well as to increase the overall profitability by 10 % within
6 months of execution of new fashionable products at marketplace.
STP model: It can be defined as the most effective and useful model that is generally
used by the researcher so that t5hey can carried out all marking activities in effective manner.
The word STP stand for segmentation, targetting and positioning that means to sub divided the
potential uses on the basis of some criteria then target those segmented peoples by positioning
the services at marketplace (Hisrich and Ramadani, 2018). In context of Marks and Spencer, it is

very important for the entities of company target appropriate market for their new offerings for
gaining the competitive advantage. In context of Marks and Spencer, the STP approach is
obstinate below:
Segmentation : It refers to the sub-division of market into small segment so that
company will able to reach out all potential consumers. In relevance to chosen firm they divided
on the basis of some criteria and which are going to be discussed as follows:
Geographical- In this the market is apportioned on the basis of areas or location. In
context of Marks and Spencer they majorly segments the customers who belongs to urban areas
of UK.
Demographical- Apart from this in this characteristic, company segments consumers on
the basis of gender, income, age group etc. in case of given firm it has been found that 57.3 % of
M&S shoppers are the women over national average of 51.1 %. As well as they mainly focus to
attract younger consumers (Katsikeas, 2018).
Targetting:- It includes all those people who are segmented according to some
characteristics. Besides that the management team of Marks and Spencer targets the younger
consumers in order to maintain the consumer base in garments sector. As well as targets the
grater London peoples by offering fashionable products.
Positioning:- It tends to image and value of company at marketplace in front of
consumers. It is totally depends on marketers. In context of marks and Spencer, they posses a
strong brand loyal consumers as the end users believes to purchase qualitative and durable
clothes (Kumar, 2017). In order to maintain this position of company, the management team use
social media marketing so that they will able to meet more consumers and war them about their
services.
SWOT analysis- It is a model that is used by the management team of company in order
to determine the strength, weakness, opportunity and threat of firm. As all these will help them in
making effective strategies according to the conditions. In context of given firm manages carry
out SWOT analysis for identifying the capabilities and potential. Elements of SWOT are going
to be described below:
Strength Weakness
 Marks and Spencer is well known and
most powerful brand within the retail
 Have strong competition with other
brands like Tesco, ASDA, Aldi etc. and

industry.
 The posses their own branded labels.
 They have more than 1000 stores
across 40 countries.
 More the 80000 employees work with
them and form diverse workforce
environment (Vijayan, 2019).
this will leads them towards limited
market share.
 As this brand is very well known and
established so they have to protect their
brand from miss use of fake imitation
products.
Opportunity Threat
 They have biggest opportunity of
diversification where the are not yet
reached like in China and India.
 They can create their own websites to
offers products in online mode.
 They can introduce their product at
new marketplace which increase the
profit ratio of company.
 Due to cost effective leadership other
company offers discount on their
product and which acts as threats for
M&S company.
 Government policies are the biggest
threat of retailer stores.
 M&S is a multinational firm which
operates its business across global that
means they are exposing into various
political factors. Which may affects the
business operation of company .
Marketing mix:- It is considered as the most crucial component of marketing strategies
that assist the management team of company in gaining the competitive advantage at
marketplace. In context of Marks and Spencer, the management team conduct marketing mix and
which are as follows:
Product:- The most effective and best strategy for product is innovation and creation like
fashionable and trendy clothes offered by M&S firm for influencing large number of peoples as
well as to retain peoples for longer period.
Price – With the help of cost leadership strategies (by offering product at affordable price
without compromising on quality) company can set their price as well as on the basis of
competition in marketplace.

Place- By producing their own website they can initiate to offers goods online too. This
will aids them in increasing sales and profit of company.
Promotions- With the help of advance digital technologies they can aware people about
their innovative and unique products.
Physical evidence- According to this products need to be user friendly in order to acquire
services that would aid in increasing the affectivity of work as well as new offerings.
People- By using CRM ( customer relationship management) company can analyse the
trends, preferences and the demands of consumers (Sun, Price and Ding, 2019).
Process-New advancement in technologies need to adopted by the company for offering
unique and fashionable product to consumers.
Marketing budget- The amount the is required by the marketing team to carry out their
all promotional activities is termed as marketing budget. The below table shows the budget that
is required by Marks and Spencer company for their business operations.
Marketing budget
Particulars 1st year 2nd year 3rd year 4th year 5th year
Initial money 7000 7500 13000 14500 19350
Investment 12000 14000 28500 32000 14500
Total 19000 21500 41500 46500 33850
Marketing outlay
Promotion 6500 3200 4300 3300 3250
Sales publicity 2200 2100 3300 2200 2000
Direct selling 4200 2500 6000 3000 4650
Total 12900 7800 13600 8500 9900

Monitoring and controlling – There are several tools and techniques that is used by an
organisation in order to monitor the marketing plan. In which the most effective tool that is begin
used by the given firm if key performance indicator tool (Stewart and Ladik, 2019). In which the
management team of company will able analyse the performance of workers like they are able to
perform their allotted task according to the predefined plan for the accomplishment of
organisational goal. In relevance to given firm they monitor as well as control all marketing
function with the aim of tracking, recording, and evaluating all task in appropriate way.
CONCLUSION
From above discussed report it has been analysed that marketing plays very essential role
in grabbing and influencing the consumers towards company. In which an analysis, concepts,
role and responsibilities of marketing function helps company in performing various business
function in effective manner. Moreover the interrelation of various segments of company with
marketing helps organisation to produce high quality and fashionable services to consumers. The
comparison between different firm on the basis of marketing mix assist them to develop effective
marketing strategies as well as policies so that predetermined target of company will be attained
within stipulated time period. At the end, with the help of effective marketing plan, entitles of
company will able to provide services according to the requirement and demands of consumers
at marketplace.

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