Marketing Essentials: Tesco Marketing Plan and Strategy Report

This report provides a comprehensive overview of marketing essentials, using Tesco as a case study. It begins by outlining the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function, including gathering market information, marketing planning, product development, branding, and customer support. The report then explores how the marketing function interacts with other departments within an organization, such as human resources, information technology, research and development, and finance. The analysis includes a comparison of how different organizations apply the marketing mix (7Ps) to their marketing planning processes. Finally, the report culminates in the development of a new marketing plan specifically tailored for Tesco, incorporating the discussed principles and strategies. The report offers insights into the practical application of marketing concepts within a real-world business context, emphasizing the importance of integrated marketing strategies and their impact on organizational success.

Marketing
Essentials

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK1.............................................................................................................................................3
P1. Key roles and responsibilities of marketing function...........................................................3
P2. Roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organisational context.............6
TASK2.............................................................................................................................................8
P3. Comparison of ways in which different organisation apply the marketing mix to the
planning process of marketing....................................................................................................8
TASK4 ......................................................................................................................................12
P4. Marketing plan for TESCO. ...............................................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCE.................................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is a very important and crucial function in present business atmosphere. Each
and every organisation adopts different marketing strategies for the purpose of attaining
competitive advantage. Business environment changes very quickly and the marketing
department needs to be essentially flexible in nature so that they can rapidly design the new
products, services, methods of marketing, etc. This helps in making people aware about the new
products and services which are produced by the organisation. Organisation undertaken in this
report is TESCO which was founded in 1919 in UK and entirely deals in retail industry. It serves
various products and services like supermarkets, convenience shops, hypermarket, etc. in which
they serves groceries, beauty essentials, clothing, etc. to the customers. This report will explain
the role of marketing and its inter relationships with other functional heads. It will also
demonstrates the comparison of ways in which different firm applies 7P's of marketing. The last
part of the report will concentrate on developing new marketing plan for the company.
TASK1
P1. Key roles and responsibilities of marketing function.
Marketing is the function of business organisation which makes people aware about the
new products and services. It is the act of selling and purchasing the products and services in the
business market. Each and every company is dependent on the efficient marketing program in
order to accomplish the business goals and objectives. Without effective marketing, no business
organisation can initiate the sale of its products (Baker and Magnini, 2016). In present business
scenario, where competition is extremely high in the market, the organisations requires to put
greater focus on effective marketing plans and strategies. Marketing is the part of everyday life
and can be applied at anywhere at any point of time. Every products and services which are
produced by the organisation for the sale to the customers requires some form of marketing. It
helps in identifying the needs and requirements of the customers and produces such products
which satisfies the demand of the customers. Therefore, marketing department of the TESCO
plays a very crucial and role and they have various responsibilities towards the organisation
which are discussed below :

 Gathering and analysing market information : The marketing function of TESCO is
responsible for collecting and analysing the various information about the market which
will help the company in framing an interpretation. This role of marketing function is
very crucial because it helps the marketer in knowing the tastes, preferences and demands
of the customers. By collecting such information and data, the TESCO will be able to
produce those products which are required to the customers. For instance, people are now
a days becoming very health conscious and by keeping in mind this thing, the TESCO
will work hard to produce healthy and fat free food products.
 Marketing planning : The marketing function plays a very crucial role in effectively
planning for the various marketing activities which will maximise the sale and production
in the TESCO. When all the events of promotion and its various tools will be planned in
advance by the marketing department, then the organisation will be able to attain the
business objectives in a more effective manner (Baker and Saren, 2016). For instance,
when the TESCO produces new healthy food products, then they will need to adopt
various promotional strategies like social media, advertisements on newspaper, internet
marketing, etc. to market their new product in an effective way in order to gain attention
of customers.
 Product designing and development : The role of marketing department of TESCO is
very important in designing the products and its development. In this, the marketing
department will involve in decisions relating to the standard of quality which will be used
to give a relevant shape or design for a product. It will also take into consideration the
packaging, style, colours, labelling, logo, etc. which will help in attracting the customers.
For instance, the new healthy food products will be packed in a glass jars of different
sizes which will attract customers and this is because the items will be visible from
outside only.
 Standardisation and grading : Standardisation is the procedure which helps in
determining the standard of the products produced by TESCO in relation to its colour,
weight, size, design, quality, etc. in relation to the specific products. For instance, the
new healthy product of TESCO will have a unique taste, attractive looks through which
the marketing manager will influence customer to give a try to this product. Whereas
grading the process which is useful in classifying the products on different characteristics

and features (Blythe and Martin, 2019). For instance, TESCO will do this in its grocery
products like vegetables, etc. and the marketing manager will be responsible for assigning
different grades to the products.
 Branding : The role of marketing department in branding is to assign a brand name to a
product which will help the customers in differentiating the offerings of the TESCO from
its competitors. The marketing department also works effectively to promote the brand
name of the company and emphasises on developing loyalty of the customers. For
instance, TESCO is selling all its products under their brand name like TESCO cookie
free from gluten and oats, etc.
 Customer support services : The marketing departments play a very crucial role in
TESCO for the purpose of assisting customers and providing them with adequate support
and services. It understands the importance of managing customers and handling their
queries effectively and quickly because if customer does not receive proper support then
this may create negative word of mouth for the company (Campbell, Martin and Fabos,
2018). For instance, giving customer after sale services in TESCO, taking their feedback
and those who provides negative feedback then they will take quick action on it and
leaves customers with the feeling of satisfaction.
 Produces internal communication : Marketing department of the TESCO is responsible
for initiating communication in the internal system of the organisation. By
communicating internally. Marketing manager of TESCO helps in making people clear
about the business goals and objectives because then the employees will be aware of their
work and task which is required to be performed by them.
 Storage and warehousing : The marketing department is responsible for keeping the
large stock of essential and required materials so that proper demand and supply can be
maintained. For this purpose, the marketing manager of TESCO will store the products in
the warehouses of storage areas owned by the company. Such storage can be used during
the rise in prices or shortage of products (Zimmerman and Blythe, 2017). For instance,
the TESCO will store the vegetables like potatoes and other grocery products like wheat,
sugar, etc. which can easily be stored for longer duration and can be used at the time of
shortage.

P2. Roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organisational context.
As discussed above, marketing department of the TESCO plays a very crucial role but it
is not possible for them to work alone and attain the business objectives successfully. For
accomplishing the goals and objectives, it is highly recommended that the marketing department
will closely work with other functions of the management which will help them in making
different plans and policies. Marketing is important in every business organisation because it
helps in sustaining the business for longer duration of time (Hugos, 2018). Therefore, it is
important that marketing works effectively with other business functions in order generate proper
results and sales for the company. For this purpose, TESCO will work with following
departments :
 Human resource management : This department of the organisation is concerned with
recruiting, selecting, motivating, providing training to the employees, etc. roles. The
marketing department of the TESCO will work closely with the human resource
department. This is because, when the human resource team of the company will need to
recruit new candidates then the requirements and job description will be provided by the
marketing department to make people aware about the kind of candidate required and
accordingly the human resource team will hire a person. Apart from this, marketing
department helps the HR department in doing various advertisements of jobs for which
the company uses various internet advertisements, direct marketing, etc. Also there is a
crucial communication role which is closely related to the marketing. For instance, if the
HR department organises training programmes for the employees then this will require
news letter and other promotional tools which is part of internal marketing effort.
 Information technology department : Technology is playing a very crucial role in
present business scenario because it is emerging at a greater pace. This includes
computer, information software, hardware, programming languages like c++, Java,
Oracle, etc. Marketing works with information technology department in the organisation
as the company requires its own website that is TESCO.com where it can promote its
various products and also other relevant informations (Lane, 2016). This website is
designed and managed by information technology department where marketers regularly
places advertisements of their new products and services. These website are used for
numerous reasons in order to attract customers. Thus, it helps the marketing department

to build strong customer relationship management with the customers through official
website of the company. Thus, technology is regarded as the cornerstone of the marketing
department of the company. Furthermore, the technology enables the company to
enhance the online shopping which is increasing day by day and with the help of
technology only, the marketers are able to promote and sale their products on their online
shopping application.
 Research and development department : Business environment is highly dynamic in
nature and for this purpose it requires research and investigation on new products,
creative and innovative ideas, thoughts, etc. Every organisation works for satisfying the
customers and their needs changes very quickly which places a great work for research
and development department of TESCO to regularly identify the growing needs of the
customers and develop products in accordance with it (Morgan, 2016). This department
will work closely with the marketing department. For instance, the marketing department
has investigated the growing need for healthy and sugar free products due to increasing
obesity and diabetes among the people and for this purpose, the research and
development department has taken an initiative of producing new products which are
beneficial for the customers like baked snacks, gluten free cookies, etc.
 Finance department : The finance department of the company is responsible for
managing the funds and establishing budgets for different organisational activities. This
department will be responsible to insuring that adequate funds are available with the
company in order to meet daily expenses. The finance department of the TESCO will
work closely with the marketing department, as it will assign the budget to the marketing
department regarding various promotional activities like advertisements, personal selling,
sales promotions, internet marketing, etc. and the company will need to design the
promotional plan such that it will not exceed the amount which is specified by the finance
department (Muller, 2019). Without adequate finances, no organisation can commence it
business. Apart from this, for various marketing activities like designing products,
identifying customer needs, etc. each and every step of the organisation requires finances
which are allocated by the finances department.

TASK2
P3. Comparison of ways in which different organisation apply the marketing mix to the planning
process of marketing.
Marketing mix is concerned with the numerous areas which are operating for different set
of actions and strategies which are used by the organisation in order to promote the brand or
product in the market (Nirschl and Steinberg, 2018). This is the act of putting the right products
and services of the company at the right time and at the right place. There are 7P's of marketing
which will be taken into consideration and they are discussed below :
 Product : It is the physical commodity or offering which has really been sold to the
customers. They must be in accordance to the reliable quality and performance to
accomplish the business objectives and goals.
 Price : It is referred to as the economic value of the product. There are various types of
pricing strategies which can be used by the companies for marketing the product in the
market.
 Place : It is concerned with the location or area where finale sale has been made. The
organisation needs to create a proper place where the customer can go and purchase the
products.
 Promotion : It is concerned with the various ways and manner in which the organisation
can communicate with the audience regarding their new products and services.
 Physical evidence : It is something very important aspect for the company because
physical evidence like packaging is the first thing which attracts the customers. So
company must focus on improving the exterior packaging of the products of the company
which will influence them to purchase the products.
 People : It is concerned with the various people who have a strong contribution in the
operations and functions of the management (Pike, 2016). It includes sales person,
employees and others who are directly or indirectly associated with the business.
 Process : This is concerned with the relevant procedure through which products and
services can be delivered to the customers. The effective process involves efficiency and
saves lot of time.
For better understanding of ways of comparison in which different organisation can apply
the marketing mix is explained with the help of taking two companies who are operating at the

same level in the same market (Scarborough, 2016). So, the two organisations are TESCO and
Mark and Spencer. Both these organisation deals in retail sector, they are UK based and have
large companies which are operating globally.
Marketing mix TESCO Mark and Spencer
Product TESCO provides numerous
range of products to the
customers like food, clothing,
electronics, etc. In order to
accomplish the business
objective of providing all the
products under one roof, the
company offers various brands
in different product categories
like international food, etc.
Mark and Spencer has a
business objectives of attaining
eco friendly products and has
worked harder with full
potential on it. It service wide
range of products like women
apparel, accessories, footwear,
kids clothing, beauty products,
home furnishings, wine, food,
flowers, etc.
Price The business objective of
TESCO is to make their
customer satisfied and for this
purpose they keep their prices
low and does not compromise
with the quality also. This is
also because they believe
customers are price conscious
and in order to make them
loyal and retain in the
company, they must provide
affordable products with
effective and efficient quality.
The business objective of the
Mark and Spencer is to
maximise its market share for
which the company has
adopted the competitive
pricing strategy. The company
has its own brand in clothing
which have superior quality.
The company has kept the
prices between medium to high
range. This is because of the
higher level of competition in
the market (Rowley, 2016).
Place The TESCO is selling its
products though out the world.
Its stores are distributed in
The Mark and Spencer is
selling its products globally in
order to accomplish the

different areas and they have
two main channels of
distribution of their products
and services that is online and
offline. In offline way, the
company sell the products
from store like TESCO
express, TESCO extra,
TESCO superstore, etc. and in
online manner it sells the
products through its official
website.
business of objectives of
expanding business
successfully in different
countries. For this purpose,
they are selling their products
through their official outlets
which are designed and
selected in such a manner in
order to gain highest visibility
of the brand and its customers.
The ambience of the outlet is
so soothing that people will
love to shop from the
company.
Promotion The primary objective of
TESCO is to continuously
improve its brand image and
for this purpose advertisements
of the company are focussed
towards low pricing. It
provides ample of attractive
offers and discounts to its
customers like buy1 get 1 or
50 per cent discounts, etc.
The company aims to attract
maximum number of
customers and for this, the
company is using above the
line and below the line
marketing strategies so that its
existence can be felt among
the people. It has chosen
various platforms for
promoting the brand like print
media, business magazines,
digital platforms, radio,
billboards, etc. It also has a
loyalty program which attracts
customers by adding the
reward points each time when

customer purchases.
People TESCO has a huge number of
employees which are working
globally for the attainment of
business objectives. These
people have strong
contribution in the success of
the company and also the
employees have higher level of
competency. The company
also invest huge amount of
money in providing effective
training and development
sessions to the people.
Mark and Spencer also has a
huge number of people who
are working for the company
globally. For instance, they
have people at the retail stores
who will help the customers in
choosing the products which
will be highly suitable for
them according to their needs
and requirements. They also
have people who work with
suppliers and play a crucial
role in maintaining the quality
of the products.
Physical evidence TESCO physical evidence has
a number of aspects which
makes them easily identifiable.
Its offline stores are well
organised which makes them
different and customer can
easily shop. Furthermore, the
company has excellent logo
which makes it easily
recognisable (Shaw, 2016).
Mark and Spencer has a wide
range of products and
company sells the products in
different packaging which are
well organised in the shelves
of the retail stores.
Furthermore, its online
shopping website is user
friendly and enables customers
to see the image in high
resolution.
Process The business objective of the
TESCO is to provide ease and
effective customer services.
For this purpose, in TESCO,
Mark and Spencer has the
business objective to always
meet the demand and supply
requirements. For this purpose,

the customer picks up the
product and go to the customer
assistant to pay. Apart from
this, they can also use self
service machine which will
enable them to make payments
on their own in the offline
store (Zgarrick and. et. al.,
2016).
the organisation in their retail
stores has installed a technical
equipment which will always
inform them regarding the low
level of inventory of a specific
product. Though in the online
shopping, the company has a
strong focus that only those
products are placed on the
shopping application which are
available in stock and based on
such orders the product is
shipped.
TASK4
P4. Marketing plan for TESCO.
A marketing plan is set of written document which outlines the various strategies and
manner in which the business goals can be accomplished. It helps the company in establishing
the mission, vision, business objectives, situational analyses, etc. so that the attainment of goals
and objectives can be done effectively and efficiently (SHUKLA, 2016). The new product which
will be launched by the TESCO is fat free baked snacks. These snacks will essentially be made
for those people who have higher obesity and diabetes and have to reduce weight. The following
is the marketing plan of new product of the TESCO which will be explained with the help of
SOSTAC model.
SOSTAC model
This model was developed by P.R Smith and is used by wider section of business
organisations in order to make business plans and strategies for the company. This tool will be
used by companies whenever they have to focus on improvising the individual channel,
strategies relating to the digital marketing and creating an overall marketing plan for the
company. Therefore this, model will be used by the TESCO in the following manner:

Situation: In this, the proper situation analyses of the organisations takes place.
Therefore, the internal and external business environment is taken into consideration. For
internal the SWOT analyses will be conducted.
SWOT Analyses
It is a framework which is used to analyse the internal and external factors that has a
impact on the organisation. Strength and weakness are the internal part of an organisation. Where
as on the other hand threat and opportunities are the external part of an organisation which
cannot be controlled. Below is the SWOT analysis of TESCO:
Strength
 TESCO is one of the leading
supermarket in the world which helps
in drawing the attention of large
number of customers.
 It is running the operation in more than
14 countries with around 6800 stores
across the world.
 The company is dealing in large
number of product segment mainly
clothing, home products and financial
services and so on.
Weaknesses
 Being TESCO operating in almost all
part of the world. Its various outlets are
not able to perform well because of its
insufficient market research.
 The pressure of cutting down the price
as there are number of substitute
available in the market place dealing
with same type of product.
 Earlier the company has its operation in
America and Japan but due to the poor
operation TESCO was forced to their
operation in the year 2012
Opportunities
 TESCO can introduce new product in
the market inn order to attract large
number of customers.
 By upgrading the online business and
its website TESCO is able to grow and
expand the operations.
 By developing the partnership with
other companies TESCO has the
opportunity to offer more products in
Threat
 The trade of TESCO has effected to a
great extent because of the impact of
Brexit.
 There are so many competitors
available in the market which are
dealing with the same products such as
Asda, Marks and Spencer and so on.
 TESCO is not able to perform in certain
region because of the government rules

order to attract the customers. and regulations.
Objectives: This is the second most important aspect in the SOSTAC model where the
organisation is involved in developing SMART objectives.
Mission : The mission statement of the TESCO is that “they make those products which
are better and fulfils the needs together”.
Vision : TESCO' s vision statements is “that it must be needed all around the world, the
business will be growing at greater pace with ample of new opportunities, adopting modern and
innovative ideas, encouraging and gaining customers trust by effectively fulfilling their needs
and requirements”.
Business objectives : TESCO aims to maximise its sales by 10 per cent within 4 months
by serving health conscious products to the customer.
Strategy: They are the plan of action which are required to be taken by the managers
within an organisation in order to attain business objectives and goals. Thus, the following are
some of the strategies which are followed by the TESCO explained below:
Segmentation, targetting and positioning
Segmentation : This is concerned with dividing or separating the market on the basis of
various segments (Stern and Porr, 2017). So TESCO, will do this segmentation of new health
conscious products on the basis of demographics where it will target the people of lower and
middle level, on the basis of age they will target young people who are already health conscious
and goes to gym and middle age people who are suffering from obesity and diabetes.
Targetting : This is concerned with the market for whom the new product will be best
fitted and suitable. So TESCO will target those people who are highly health conscious and need
to reduce body weight. Apart from this, their major target people are those who are suffering
from obesity and diabetes.
Positioning : It is concerned with the place where the product of the company stands in
comparison of the other similar products in the market. For establishing the place in the market
and attain the competitive advantage, it is highly essential that TESCO have USP of their new
product which makes them different and customers can easily make differentiation. The USP of
the TESCO will be to provide real taste with natural food.

Tactics: This step of the model will involve various tactics that will be used by the
organisation in order to accomplish the business goals and objectives effectively and efficiently.
With the various tactics, TESCO will be able to make people aware about the various products
and services. For instance, they will use different tools of marketing promotion or
communication like social media, ads on print media, television, hoardings, discounts, vouchers,
etc.
Actions: This step of the model is concerned with the various plan of actions which are
required to be performed. In TESCO, the management will assign the different responsibilities to
different individuals so that business goals can be accomplished. Furthermore, it will have proper
and organised structure in the company that will work in accordance with the mission and vision
of the company.
Control: This is the step which is concerned with controlling the actions in the TESCO.
This will identify that the plan is executed as per the devised strategies and if any deviation
occurs then proper actions is to be taken. Under TESCO, they will regularly take the feedback of
the customers and ensure that they are satisfied and if any problem is faced by them then it must
be solved with due care. This will also use the 5's model which stands for sort, set in order, shine,
standardize and sustain. By adopting this mode, the TESCO will insure that by using particular
set of tools and mind set in order to create value and efficiency.
Illustration 1: SOSTAC MODEL. 2019

CONCLUSION
From the above file it has been concluded that marketing is very important in every
business organisation. Without effective and proper marketing strategies no business
organisation can sustain for longer duration in the market. In this report the various roles of
marketing has been discussed like gathering information, marketing planning, etc. which plays a
very essential aspects in the company. The marketing function also related to other
organisational functions like it needs to work closely with finance department so that proper
budgets can be assigned. The 7P's of marketing has explained in detailed by comparing two
different companies and the manner in which business objectives can be fulfilled. Furthermore,
the new marketing plan of health conscious products has been developed by elaborating the
mission, vision, objectives, etc.

REFERENCE
Books and Journals
Baker, M.A. and Magnini, V.P., 2016. The evolution of services marketing, hospitality
marketing and building the constituency model for hospitality marketing. International
Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.28(8). pp.1510-1534.
Baker, M.J. and Saren, M. eds., 2016. Marketing theory: a student text. Sage.
Blythe, J. and Martin, J., 2019. Essentials of marketing. Pearson UK.
Campbell, R., Martin, C. and Fabos, B., 2018. Media essentials: A brief introduction.
Bedford/St. Martin's.
Hugos, M.H., 2018. Essentials of supply chain management. John Wiley & Sons.
Lane, P., 2016. Human resources marketing and recruiting: essentials of employer branding.
Handbook of Human Resources Management. pp.23-52.
Morgan, D.L., 2016. Essentials of dyadic interviewing. Routledge.
Muller, M., 2019. Essentials of inventory management. HarperCollins Leadership.
Nirschl, M. and Steinberg, L., 2018. Einstieg in das Influencer Marketing. Grundlagen,
Strategien und Erfolgsfaktoren. Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien.
Pike, S.D., 2016. Destination marketing organizations–research opportunities in an era of
uncertainty. In Book of Abstracts-6th International Conference on Tourism.
International Association for Tourism Policy (IATOUR).
Rowley, J., 2016. Information marketing. Routledge.
Scarborough, N.M., 2016. Essentials of entrepreneurship and small business management.
Pearson.
Shaw, S., 2016. Airline marketing and management. Routledge.
SHUKLA, P., 2016. Essentials of marketing research.
Stern, P.N. and Porr, C.J., 2017. Essentials of accessible grounded theory. Routledge.
Zgarrick and. et. al., 2016. Pharmacy Management: Essentials for All Practice Settings, 4e.
Zimmerman, A. and Blythe, J., 2017. Business to business marketing management: A global
perspective. Routledge.