Marketing Essentials: Marketing Officer Roles, 7Ps & Expansion Plan

This report delves into key marketing concepts, focusing on the roles and responsibilities of a Marketing Officer within an organization, particularly in the context of a transportation company named 'Your Destination.' It outlines the duties of marketing officers, including market research, marketing plan formulation, product development, advertising, and after-sales services. The report proposes a geographical marketing structure for 'Your Destination' as it expands into new areas, emphasizing the importance of maintaining public relations, sales, distribution, and increasing brand awareness. Furthermore, it compares 'Your Destination's' approach to the 7Ps of marketing with that of National Express, analyzing product, price, place, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence. The report concludes with a basic marketing plan for the nationwide expansion of 'Your Destination,' detailing objectives, strategies, and tactics across various marketing functions.

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Marketing Essentials

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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Part1............................................................................................................................................................4
a) Explain the key duties and responsibilities for a Marketing Officer and a proposed structure and
operations of the marketing department...................................................................................................4
b) How the roles and responsibilities will contribute to the wider organisational objectives...................7
Part 2...........................................................................................................................................................8
a) Using the 7Ps compare ‘Your Destination’ approach to applying the marking mix to that of National
Express in achieving the business objectives...........................................................................................8
b) Produce a basic marketing plan for the nationwide expansion..........................................................11
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................18
References.................................................................................................................................................19

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Introduction
The overall concept of the term marketing has been changed a lot. The evolving concept of
marketing includes the satisfaction of the needs and wants of the customers first and then earns
the profit for the company. As per the definition given by Philip Kotler, marketing is an
important term for the organisation that includes the satisfaction of the customers and also
includes earning the profit through the exchange process. Thus, the marketing could be defined
as the process of the management which is executed by the organisation so that the satisfaction
of the need of customers could be provided and in return the company could achieve its financial
goals and objective.
The current paper highlights some basic concepts of marketing that includes the roles and
responsibilities of marketing towards the organisation and its functions. The concept of
marketing mix would be described in the second part of the assignment that also explains the
marketing plan of a company. For the better understanding a scenario of Transportation
Company “Your destination” is given which is applied while answering the tasks given in paper.

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Part1
MEMO
To,
Management
From,
Marketing Manager
Date: 2018, April 16th
Subject: Hiring of two marketing officer for the new branches of the company.
As known, the company is planning to expand the market so that more profit could be
earned by the company. On the other hand, “Your destination” is also planning to compete with
the National Express so new marketing officers are needed to be hired. Here, the main
responsibilities of marketing officer and their benefits to the company “Your destination” are
explained:
a) Explain the key duties and responsibilities for a Marketing Officer and a proposed
structure and operations of the marketing department.
Key duties and responsibilities of marketing officer
Main key duties and responsibilities of the marketing officer in “Your destination” would be:
 Conducting the marketing research: the hired marketing officers of the company would
be responsible for conducting the marketing research. The marketing research could be
on various topics like identifying the needs of the customers, anticipating the marketing
trends, analysis of competitors etc (Wood, 2011).
 Formulating the marketing plan: Only conducting the marketing research is not
responsibility of the marketing officers, they also would be responsible for formulating

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thee marketing plan so that the marketing objectives of the company “Your destination”
could be achieved and the profit could be gained.
 Product development: With the help of the marketing research, marketing officers also
would be responsible for developing the product to the next level so that the benefits of
the product and services could be enhanced and the more satisfaction could be provided
to the customers.
 Doing advertising and promotion: Marketing officer of “Your destination” would be
responsible for doing the promotion and advertising of the transportation services of
“Your destination” (Rafiq and Ahmed, 1995). All these would be done after analysing the
interest of the customer of the company so that the promotion could get the success into
the market.
 Provide after sale services: After sale services also would be provided by the marketing
officers of the company “Your destination” as this would be their responsibilities to keep
the record of all the sales so that the after sales services could be provided to enhance
thee customers satisfaction.
Proposed structure of the marketing department:
Along with the functions and roles of the marketing department, the structure of the marketing
department also plays a very important role in success of the organisation. The structure of the
marketing department must be as per the needs and objective of the organisation.
As “Your destination” is planning to enter in new areas i.e. Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow and
Aberdeen, here, the company needs to structure of the marketing department so that the different
operations and functions of marketing could b executed effectively. Here, for the different
geographical locations, “Your destination” needs to use the geographical marketing structure
where the operations and functions of marketing department of different locations would be run
separately so that they could not put the negative impacts on each other. The example of
geographical structure is given below:

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Figure 1: Geographical structure (Constantinides, 2006)
For example: for the Manchester branch of “Your destination”, the marketing department would
be separate from the other branches of Newcastle, Glasgow and Aberdeen. The main benefits
that “Your destination” would get through using this organisational structure is that it would be
able to focus on all the customers of its territory. Hence, the productivity of the organisation
could be enhanced. Besides this, another benefit that the company “Your destination” could get
through geographical structure is that the company would be able to gather maximum
information from the market which could be used by the company in formulating thee strategies
and policies.
Operations of marketing department:
Along with the roles and responsibilities of the marketing officers, studying the operations of
marketing department is equally important. Here, the main operations of marketing department
of “Your destination” are explained:
 Maintaining the public relation: the main operation of the marketing department is to
maintain the good and effective relationship with the customers so that the trust of them
could be gained and sale of the services of “Your destination” could be increased (Piercy
and Morgan, 1994).
 Selling and distribution: Selling and distribution also come under the operation of
marketing department as this helps in making the services of “Your destination” in reach
of the customers so that the sale of the transportation services offered by “Your
destination” could be enhanced.

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 Increasing the awareness: Increasing the awareness of the services offered by the
company “Your destination” is also the operation of marketing department of “Your
destination” as this would help the company in creating the knowledge among the
customers.
b) How the roles and responsibilities will contribute to the wider organisational objectives
The roles and the responsibilities play by the marketing department helps the company in
achieving the organisational goals and objectives because the marketing is a process that helps
the other functional department of the company to achieve their objective too. Such as the main
motive of the human resource department of “Your destination” is to hire the skilled and talented
employees so that the objective could be achieved properly. Here, the marketing department and
process helps the human resources in identifying the main skills and the talents that the
employees must have in achieving the goals of the company (Kenneth, 1988). Thus it could be
said that the main objective of human resource department would be achieved with the help if
marketing department. Like the human resource department, the marketing department of the
company also helps the other departments in achieving the goals which works for achieving the
overall goals and objective of the company. Along with this, the organisational goals and
objectives such as gaining the market share and growth in the leading market also could be
fulfilled with the help of the marketing department of “Your destination”.

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Part 2
a) Using the 7Ps compare ‘Your Destination’ approach to applying the marking mix to that
of National Express in achieving the business objectives.
Marketing mix is a very important concept of the marketing that explains the organisation about
the various terms like product, place, promotion etc. so that the services of the company could be
sold and the profit could be gained by the company. Here, the nature and the type of the offering
play very important role as if the company offers the product then the 4P’s would be used which
is also known as product marketing mix and if the company offers the services then the element
of the marketing mix is increased to seven (Cohen, 1988). In this way, this is known as the 7P’s
of marketing mix or service marketing mix or extended marketing mix. “Your destination” and
national express both provides the transportation services so it is obvious then these company
uses the concepts of service marketing mix in taking the decisions on product.
Figure 2: Product and service marketing mix (Borden, 1964)
Comparison in the marketing mix of “Your destination” and National Express:
Elements of
marketing mix
Your destination National express
1. Product: it
refers the
The transportation service could be
measured through:
As national Express operates
nationwide and the company is

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offering of
the company
that could
satisfy the
needs and
wants of the
customers.
 its quality
 performance
The services provided by “Your
destination” are very good as the
company is able to maintain the
quality of the services and the
performance of the service is also
very high (Booms and Bitner,
1981).
market leader of the transportation
service then it could be said that
the services that national express
provides to the customers is very
high in quality and the
performance is also better in
comparison of “Your destination”.
2. Price: this
refers the
amount that
the customers
have to pay
to get the
services.
As “Your destination” is small in
the comparison of national express
and the company also run in the
small area and the customers base
is limited. Here, the company
provides the services at low cost so
that the current customer base could
be maintained.
National Express is market leader
and it is obvious that it carries a
great customers base. National
Express is a brand in the
transportation industry. In this
way, it set the price of the services
very high so maximum profit
could be gained.
3. Place: this
refers the
distribution
of the
services at
the various
place so that
thee
customers
could get this.
The distribution of the
transportation services are done
with the help of the stores. “Your
destination” also has enrolled in the
online agencies to provide the
services to the customers.
National Express is very well
aware of the distribution strategy,
in this way, the company has opted
for the online distribution along
with own stores and online
agencies. Here, the company
provide the service directly to the
customers. The place element of
national express is more effective
than “Your destination” (Berry,
1995).
4. Promotion:
this refers the
strategies
As the working area of “Your
destination” is very small in this
way, the promotion of the service is
As national express is operating in
larger area then the company has
to use the different mediums of the

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that the
company
formulate to
make the
customers
aware of the
services of
the company.
done with the help of posters,
banners, leaflets and sales
promotion. All these mediums of
the promotion are used in different
location of London and Essex.
promotions that includes
advertising in news paper and TV,
sales promotion and online
marketing
5. People: this
refers the
talent and
thee skills
that the
company
have.
The skills and talents of “Your
destination” are high in the term of
the transportation industry
knowledge and information
(Armstrong, Kotler and Brennan,
2015).
National express hires the
experienced employees and the
company also provides the training
and development program to the
employees so that their skills could
be enhanced to the next level.
6. Process: this
refers the
procedures
followed by
the company.
All the processes that have been
following in “Your destination” are
smooth and effective and this is the
reason of why the customers are
happy with the services of “Your
destination”.
National express also provides the
effective and smooth services so
that the customer could be happy.
7. Physical
evidence:
This includes
the
environment
lay out,
design and
infrastructur
e of the
company.
The physical evidence elements of
“Your destination” are attractive.
The company is trying to enhancing
the physical evidence features so
that the more attention of the
customers could be gathered.
National Express takes care of the
physical evidence very much as
the company know the importance
of the physical evidence in
providing the services. The
employees of well dressed and
well behaved that put a huge
impression into the mind of the
customers.

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b) Produce a basic marketing plan for the nationwide expansion.
Marketing plan of “Your destination”
Step1: Executive summary
Creating the marketing plan is very important for the company as it helps the company in taking
the step by step decisions that could be helpful in achieving the marketing goals and objectives.
Here, the marketing plan for the company “Your destination” is created that would help the
company in expanding its business at new areas. As mentioned that “Your destination” is
planning to entering in Manchester, Newcastle, Aberdeen and Glasgow. Here, the marketing plan
for expanding the business of “Your destination” to nationwide would be discussed.
Step 2: Company overview
“Your destination” provides the transportation services to the customers and the customers of the
company are happy with what they are getting from “Your destination” (Rafiq and Ahmed,
1995). “Your destination” is operating in London and Essex and also earning the huge profit
from these braches too. Company is also planning to enhance its business to the new area of
Newcastle, Aberdeen and Glasgow.
Step 3: Marketing situation analysis:
This is the analysis where the environment (internal and external) of the company is examined
with the help of the various analyses. It is very important for the company to examine the factors
involved in the environment so that the company could be on a conclusion to formulate the
effective strategies.

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Figure 3: Internal and external environment of company (Kotler, 1984)
The examination of the environment of “Your destination” is explained below:
 Internal environment: the internal environment of the company also includes the
various factors that could affect the decisions of the company (Piercy and Morgan, 1994).
The examination of the internal environment of “Your destination” could be done
through:
Value chain analysis: With the help of this analysis, the internal activities and processes
of the organisation “Your destination” could be examined. The value chain analysis for
“Your destination” is given below:
 Primary activities: the primary activities include the main activities and
processes of the organisation. For “Your destination”, the primary activities
include inbound and outbound activities, marketing, service and operations.