Marketing Essentials Report: Marketing Plan for Beauty Giant

This report provides a comprehensive overview of marketing essentials, focusing on Beauty Giant, a cosmetics firm operating in the UK. The report begins with an introduction to the concept of marketing, defining its role in modern organizations and emphasizing its importance in driving sales and customer satisfaction. Task 1 delves into the core definitions of marketing, exploring various marketing concepts such as production, product, selling, marketing, and societal marketing concepts. It also examines the roles and responsibilities of the marketing function, including managing customer needs, tracking trends, transmitting brand values, ensuring coordination, and driving innovation. Furthermore, it explores the interrelationships between the marketing department and other functional units such as finance, production, and IT. Task 2 focuses on applying the marketing mix to the marketing planning process, using Beauty Giant and Avon Products, Inc. as case studies. It analyzes how these companies utilize the product, price, place, and promotion elements of the marketing mix to achieve their marketing goals. The report includes a comparison of product and pricing strategies, and concludes with the development of a marketing plan for Beauty Giant's new product, designed to attract and retain customers in the UK market. The report highlights the importance of adapting to market dynamics and customer preferences in the competitive cosmetics industry.

MARKETING
ESSENTIALS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Definition of Marketing..........................................................................................................1
Marketing Concept.................................................................................................................1
Roles and responsibilities of the marketing function.............................................................3
Interrelationships of marketing department with other functional units................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
Application of marketing mix to the marketing planning process.........................................6
Marketing Plan for Forever Young........................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Marketing refers to the art of effectively persuading customers to buy offerings of an
organisation. It is very essential for modern organisations to use effective marketing tools and
techniques to improve their sales figure. The modern marketers must possess or adapt necessary
skills in order to enhance the acceptance and improve sustainability of their products and
services (Pike, 2015). Without marketing, companies will not be able to sell their commodities to
customers who are aware and have dynamic demands. The report below is based on Beauty
Giant, a cosmetics firm with around 50 branches all over in UK. The report shows an essay on
the role of marketing in modern organisations, along with different use of marketing mix in
various companies to achieve their business goals. It also covers creation and evaluation of a
marketing plan for Beauty Giant's new product to attract and retain its customers in the UK
market (Dibb and Simkin, 2013).
TASK 1
Definition of Marketing
Marketing is a function undertaken by almost every organisation to promote its offerings
and sell them after effective market research. This function also includes presenting the products
and the services to the target audience by advertisements.
Marketing Concept
It is crucial for modern day organisations to develop effective strategies to achieve profit
maximisation and eliminate competition. Marketing concept is one such strategy through which
firms evaluate customer needs and take effective decision for their satisfaction. The agenda of
the firm applying marketing concept is to satisfy customers better than its rival firms. There are
five marketing concepts that firms take into consideration. These are as follows: Production Concept: One of the oldest marketing concepts, it focuses on commodities
that could most efficiently be produced by the company. The idea was to develop
products at very low cost that could itself create a demand in the market. This concept
was a success at the time when firms created offerings of basic necessities (Baker and
Magnini, 2016). However, in the current scenario, firms adopting this concept are risking
their operations by emphasizing on its own activities rather than the actual objectives. Product Concept: The idea that is supported by this concept is that only those offerings
that would possess utmost innovative features, high quality and maximum performance
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would be preferred by the customers. Marketing strategies of companies adopting these
concepts emphasize on continuous improvement in their products (Griffitts, 2016). Selling Concept: This concept takes the selling part into consideration and supports the
idea of aggressive promotion and large-scale selling to sell the products offered by the
company. More emphasis is given upon creation of sales transactions rather than
customer relationships. The aim is to sell the offerings regardless of market needs. Marketing Concept: The most widely used concept in modern marketing methods is
marketing concept. This concept emphasize on dynamic market needs rather than hard
selling. With rise in customer awareness and discrete income, the buyers have become
selective in whatever they purchase. Thus, this concept encourages the companies to
develop offerings that satisfy the market needs (Chernev, 2018).
 Societal Marketing Concept: The adoption of this concept has risen with rise in
corporate social responsibilities. It supports the agenda of developing those strategies that
help the customers to get the products at the most adequate value that raises the well
being of customers as well as of society (Walliman, 2015).
Beauty Giant uses marketing as well as societal marketing concept to effectively market
their offerings in the UK market.
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Source : 5 Marketing Concepts, 2017
Roles and responsibilities of the marketing function
Customer awareness is enhancing towards the products and services offered by modern
organisations which has an impact on their ever-changing demands. Almost every product or
service has a substitute in the market, which is an important reason for organisations to market
their positions well in the market (Gillespie and Riddle, 2015). The roles and responsibilities of
marketing function in modern day organisation is mentioned below:
 Managing Customer Needs:
The most important role of marketing is to satisfy customer needs. Product-based
marketing cannot be applied in the current scenario where customers are considered as an
integral part of a company's business environment. Marketing the products and services would
help the modern organisations to satisfy these needs by establishing effective communication
system which allows the customers to give spontaneous feedbacks. Beauty Giant is planning to
create online website and mobile app which would help the communicate better with the
customers.
 Tracking of Trends and Competition Monitoring:
No customer wants to purchase outdated offerings as it is crucial for firms to develop
commodities and services that are in trend. Modern day customers are attracted aggressively
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Illustration 1: 5 Marketing Concepts

towards latest offerings and which to possess major trendy services or products that companies
have to offer. Marketing Department helps to track these trends and help the company develop
products according to these trends. It also helps them to monitor competition and stay ahead of
the competitive firms in every aspect (Soboleva and et. al., 2016).
 Transmission of Brand Values:
It is very important that brand values be effectively communicated to people. Marketing
function creates messages, images and ideas that effectively communicate these values to its
customers all over the world. Beauty Giant is required to work effectively and enhance its brand
value by creation of products according to market needs.
 Coordination:
One of the most effective responsibility of marketing is to ensure coordination in internal
as well as external departments of an organisation. To ensure better management companies look
out for ways in which this coordination could be established. Externally, there are many
departments that contribute in strengthening the marketing function of a firm. These departments
are designers, publishers, consultants, journalists and so forth. Marketing function is responsible
for establishing coordination among these external departments with the organisation (Burns,
Bush and Sinha, 2014).
 Innovation:
Unless the company is operating on a big scale and have extraordinary customer loyalty,
it is very difficult to sell standard products and services for long term. Marketing departments in
companies helps to identify the needs and methods required to innovate the existing products and
services so that the firm could innovate its offerings and add value to its commodities (Kladou
and et. al., 2016). Beauty Giant is working towards new product ideas to specify this need of
innovation to sustain and enhance its business performance in the marketplace.
Interrelationships of marketing department with other functional units
Marketing is a very crucial and necessary activity that enhances the sustainability and
profitability of the firm in changing business environment. With such bottleneck competition and
dynamism in needs of the market, the most important task for any business firm is to develop its
internal strength and coordinate its departments so that stronger strategies could be created to
satisfy more customers and stay ahead of the competitive companies.
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Marketing department of companies is bound to collaborate effectively with other
functional departments to ensure growth in the business operations. These interrelationships are
explained below: Marketing and Finance: The most crucial interrelationship within any business
organisation is between the marketing and sales departments of the firm. For modern
organisations, these two departments act as a supporting pillars that help the organisation
to sustain and grow. It is very important that both these departments support each other
in order to develop effective strategies to stay ahead in the market. Finance department is
required to treat marketing decisions as potential investment decisions (Aswathappa,
2013). They must provide adequate funding for the marketing department to conduct its
operations on an appropriate scale which is necessary to penetrate deeper markets. In
case of marketing department, it must develop strategies according to the budget
available for its operations. Furthermore, marketing supports the financial department
when it comes to financial planning. The revenue and sales forecast included in
marketing plans set a base for all the financial aspects and strategies of the business
(Mueller and et. al., 2015). Marketing and Production: Marketing department in modern organisations support the
production department which undertakes development of new offerings for a company.
Marketing department ensures various aspects required to produce quality products. It is
responsible to supervise the range in which R&D would satisfy the needs as well as
current trends. It also supports the production department by ensuring that the design and
quality of the offerings are according to requirements of the customers. It also ensures
that the delivery of the generated orders is as per the decided time schedule.
 Marketing and IT: Information Technology is a term widely used in modern
organisations. The marketing department supports the IT department in organisations by
determining and improving the use of technology to gather, store and retrieve
information. It ensures the use of intranet and extranet to supply various information
about the products and services to the employees as well as to customers (Larson and
Draper, 2015).
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TASK 2
Application of marketing mix to the marketing planning process
Marketing mix is an effective amalgamation of various marketing tools used by
companies to attain the marketing goals. The process of developing, marketing and selling
services and commodities of a firm gets very complex without proper use of marketing mix
(Puddle, 2015). As per the case study, Beauty Giant is a cosmetics selling company operating in
the UK. Following are the ways in which the firm as well as another similar firm in the UK by
the name of Avon Products, Inc. use marketing mix to achieve their marketing goals. These steps
are mentioned below:
BASIS BEAUTY GIANT AVON PRODUCTS, INC.
PRODUCT
The product strategy of Beauty
Giant is to sell commodities of
renowned brands all over UK.
The offerings includes various
toiletries and cosmetic
products for women as well as
men. However, to penetrate
deeper in the UK market and
to expand its operations, the
company is planning to launch
a new product in the market
which would be one of its kind
and would help the firm
expand its customer base.
The product strategy of Avon
has always focused on
innovation. Earlier it used to
sell diversified products for
women, but now it develops
and sells products essential for
men. Furthermore, the
company has now started to
develop products under its own
brand which includes offerings
for make-up, fragrance, skin
care etc. The focus of the
company is to develop quality
products for every skin type to
satisfy large number of
customers.
PRICE The firm adopts competitive
pricing strategy to sustain in a
dynamic and competitive
market. It analyses the market
The pricing strategy of Avon
changes according to the
market. It adapts its production
methods according to the
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well and sells its products at
prices after comparison with
the rival firms. It also offers
various discounting techniques
to attract more customers in
purchasing its products.
business environment of the
market its operating in. For
instance, in UK, it adopts
premium pricing strategies due
to its high quality products and
high standard of living of the
public, else, in countries like
India, the firm has adopted
competitive pricing strategies
to eliminate existing
competition.
PLACE
Beauty Giant has 50 outlets in
UK itself. To effectively sell
its product, the firm plans to
open different outlets specific
for product types. This way it
plans to ease the buying
process of the customers.
People would now be able to
locate the necessary offerings
easily which would attract
more customers who don't
prefer going through various
product ranges to locate the
desired product.
Avon Products, Inc. is a
widely recognized firm in UK
as well as overseas. With a
history of more than 130 years,
the firm operates in more than
100 countries. Direct Sales is
the method adopted by the
company to distribute its
offerings in these countries.
Effective sales representatives
are hired to sell the offerings
directly to the customers. It
allows the company to briefly
explain the advantages of
choosing their products over
other competitive firms.
PROMOTION The firm focuses on television
and print media to promotes is
diversified range of premium
For effectively promoting its
products, Avon uses
competitive advertising to
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quality products. The strategy
behind this method is to cut
the cost of marketing and
promoting the offerings.
build a stronger brand image in
front of its customers. For
enhancing the popularity, the
firm has several ambassadors
for instance, Lauren Conrad,
Lucy Hale and so forth.
PEOPLE
The organisation has more
than 1,000 employees to
support the company in
becoming a market leader.
Effective training and
development programmes are
conducted by Beauty Giant to
make them competent to
address the needs of the firm
according to the business
environment.
The company has more than
10,000 employees which are
skilled and talented. The
recruitment and selection
procedure of the firm focuses
on hiring creative staff with
innovative capabilities. The
firm as approx. 6.5 million
independent active Avon Sales
Representatives (Avon
Products, Inc, 2018). These
employees focus on effectively
selling the firms offerings to
wider range of customers.
PROCESS The company adopts indirect
distribution channel to acquire
the products from other
companies and sell them in
their outlets. To enhance the
procedure and ensure safety of
the products, the firm keeps
close monitoring on the
channels and switches them if
the need arises.
For production, the firm uses
both the company-owned
manufacturing as well as third-
party manufacturing facilities.
The inclination is majorly on
the firm-owned facilities but
the firm works closely with
third parties to supply
remaining products. Also, to
ensure customer safety, the
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firm has global quality and
safety assurance policy and
their products are made in
compliance with the local and
international regulations.
PHYSICAL EVIDENCE
The firm sells products of the
renowned companies in the
UK. Firm makes sure that the
products are easy to handle
and all the necessary
information about the usage,
expiry and other specifications
are quite clearly mentioned.
Furthermore, the company
outlets are easily located and
accessed and customers could
locate their desired products
quickly due to proper
arrangements.
Avon has its market in almost
every major country. Through
direct sales, the firm is
successful in penetrating
markets of many developed
and developing countries
where outside firms are
restricted to operate. E-
commerce websites and
mobile applications are being
developed to supply the
commodities by the company
at a much wider range.
Marketing Plan for Forever Young
For any organisation to sustain and grow in foreseeable future, it is essential that the
company introduce a new and innovative product that could answer the unaddressed needs of the
customers (Rudden, 2016). As per the scenario, Beauty Giant wishes to become a market leader
and expand its customer base. To achieve this, the company is developing a new product by the
name of “Forever Young”. Its an anti-ageing product and possibly first of its kind in the UK.
Marketing plan for this new product is described below:
 Company Overview:
Beauty Giant is a cosmetics and toiletries organisation operating in UK. The company
sells commodities of various renowned companies of the world. So far the firm has 50 branches
in the country and it aims at penetrating deeper markets of the nation.
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 Vision and Mission:
The vision of the company is to become a market leader in the cosmetic industry of the
UK whilst being the first preference for customers all over the country. To achieve this vision,
the mission of the firm is to effectively develop, market and sell Forever Young to ensure
customers of its high quality production capabilities (Dessain and Zeuch, 2015).
 Strategic Objective:
With Forever Young, Beauty Giant aims at enhancing 4.5% profitability in the UK
market along with 15% rise in the number of customers within 7 months of the product's release.
 Products and Services:
The firm acts as a distributor for the products of some of the most famous cosmetic
brands all over the UK. The products includes cosmetic and skin care products as well as
toiletries for both men and women of the country. Forever Young would the first product
developed by the firm and it aims at making it one of the most successful and useful products in
the market (Blakeman, 2018).
 Market Research:
For its new product, Beauty Giant has extensively researched market of the UK. The
company has adopted primary research methods like surveys, focus groups, interviews,
observation and so forth (Caragher, 2016). Through research Beauty Giant analysed that there
was a need for an anti-ageing product in the market that could be affordable for the public.
 Target Market:
The approach of Beauty Giant to determine the potential target market for Forever Young
was a standard approach that is described below:
▪ Segmentation: The firm for its new product has divided the market in groups or
segments based on various factors which are mentioned below:
 Geographical: United Kingdom
 Demographical: General public above age 30 and below 65, with earning
more than 5,000 pounds yearly, having any decent occupation.
 Behavioural: Since Forever Young is a new product, the firm divides a
segment of current and potential users as well as first time users.
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