Marketing Essentials: Roles, Mix, and Planning for Organizations

This report delves into the core concepts of marketing essentials, exploring the roles and responsibilities of marketing functions such as market planning, market research, and product development. It examines the crucial interrelationships between marketing and other organizational departments, including HR, finance, and research and development, highlighting how these connections impact overall business success. The report further analyzes how organizations like L'Oréal and Beauty Giant apply the marketing mix (7Ps) to their marketing planning processes, providing insights into their product strategies, pricing models, distribution channels, and promotional activities. By comparing and contrasting the approaches of these two companies, the report offers a comprehensive understanding of effective marketing strategies and their practical application in the business world. The report concludes with a basic marketing plan outline, summarizing the key elements required for a successful marketing strategy.

Marketing Essentials

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
P1 Marketing function roles along with responsibilities.............................................................1
P2 Interrelationship of marketing with different organizational departments............................3
LO2..................................................................................................................................................5
P3 Ways in which different organisations apply marketing mix to the marketing planning
process.........................................................................................................................................5
LO3..................................................................................................................................................7
P4 Basic marketing plan for an organisation..............................................................................7
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFRENCES.................................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Marketing essentials is basically the methods and tools which helps an organization in
effectively advertising their products and services and thus provides the foundation to
differentiate them from that of competitors. L'Oréal is a personal and beauty oriented company
which came into force in 1909 Eugene Schueller and situated in France. It mainly addresses the
products related to skin and cosmetics like shampoos, hair colours etc.
Beauty giant is a popular and well known company selling and dealing in cosmetics
having 50 branches across UK. It usually addresses women as well as men toiletries from
renowned brands. This report gives a brief about Marketing function roles along with
responsibilities, Interrelationship of marketing with different organizational departments,
Comparison between marketing mix used by organizations and overall marketing plan of
organization.
LO 1
P1 Marketing function roles along with responsibilities
Marketing function defines the role that aids an organization to recognize & source the
successful and potent products for market in which they operate and finally promote the same by
distinguishing their products from substitute products. Numerous types of marketing functions
encompass
Market planning
Marketing plays the role of market planner, as it makes suitable plan that may help in
obtaining organizational goal. Market planning constitute the foremost function of marketing. It
is all about prioritizing and organizing the various activities which are required to attain the long
term task or goal. The major role of marketing is to obtain the in depth information on the
various methods to sell the products and services. An effective marketing helps the company to
align their strategic goals with their mission and vision. In contrast to this, the main
responsibility of marketing is to design a comprehensive and efficient situational analysis which
includes competitor and regional SWOT analysis. Besides this, Reviewing the market as well as
industry trends for successful business development also becomes one of the responsibility of
marketing. For example In 2016, L'Oréal prepared the marketing plan of its new brand extension
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Elvive which claims Total repair shampoo(Draper and et.al., 2015). The company incorporated 1
solution for 5 problems which includes anti-thinning, ant-brittleness, anti-damage, anti-split ends
and anti-breakage in its plan.
Market research
Another most important responsibility of marketing includes market research under
which the companies gather information about the market, its target customers and other
attributes which forms the basis of their value preposition. An extensive market analysis helps
the companies to recognize the different market opportunities that prevails for new products as
well as existing products therefore the primary role played by marketing focuses on providing
detailed information about the competitors, customer needs and demands, distribution channel
etc. On the flipside of spectrum, the major responsibility undertaken by the marketing is to
monitor and estimate the marketing along with sales trends. Beside this, collecting data
regarding consumers and competitors is another responsibility of marketing. Measuring the
efficiency of marketing strategies with programmes has also been an essential one. L'Oréal uses
the market in a most intensive way where they constantly research on their clients, competitors
and suppliers to make their experience better(Malhotra, 2015). Example in 2016, L'Oréal
penetrated the market of Brazil where they, after market research found out that since 2010,
women preference has shifted to more bold lips with natural make-up for face thus in the same
year, company launched its new revolutionary face moisturiser Revitalift containing no added
colours and having natural ingredients.
Product development
This is one of the most crucial function of marketing as each and every organization is
highly dependent on its product for their successful business. The entire value preposition is
based on product development which is basically about designing the new product and
differentiating it from the products of competitors. This function plays an important role for the
companies and help them to achieve high competitive advantage. The main function of
Marketing is to incorporate innovation and creativity in all the aspects of product and bring out a
completely different product which is dissimilar in all ways from the existing product. Another
vital role is creating a new product in order to provide brand new value either to customer or
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society as a whole. Developing the process improvements in order to ensure the great product
quality with productivity is what the main responsibility of marketing(Malhotra, 2018). Besides
this, another responsibility which revolves around the marketing is to determine the needs and
demands of customers through extensive market analysis and design the product accordingly.
L'Oréal has a proven record to maintain the value of their existing products as well as innovation
in their new product. In 2013, With an increasing demand of professional office going men and
women for mild perfumes to suit their personality, L'Oréal decided to extend its product line and
with the help of around 15 marketing teams, launched its first perfume L'Oréal Luxe and ruled
the fragrance market.
P2 Interrelationship of marketing with different organizational departments
HR and marketing
Marketing is basically the branding of products and its communication to wide audience.
It deals with how effectively an organization is able to promote and advertise its products in
broader market. On contrary to this, Human resource is actually Branding in form of employer to
potential employees which are useful for increasing value of an organization. L'Oréal focuses on
their great interrelation where they both complement one another. The impact of the HR
department of L'Oréal on its marketing is imperative in the sense that the human resource
department is responsible for hiring the great talent who have the enough potential to sell
products and communicate the brand message to wide audience. An effective marketing team
having skilled employees will eventually help L'Oréal to maintain their brand equity and expand
across the world as well as widen their customer base. On the other hand, Marketing department
is equally important and projects the same impact on HR of L'Oréal. Marketing department is
mainly responsible for conducting market analysis where they assess the needs and wants of
customers(Morgan, 2016). Once the marketing department of L'Oréal after extensive research
finds out that the customer has increasing needs for a particular product mix or line, they indicate
HR department of the company which helps the latter to estimate how much workforce would be
required in order to fulfil the needs.
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Marketing and finance
The finance is mainly focused towards revenues, profit and expenses and its major
function constitute looking out for the ways to boost up the profit. Marketing, on the other hand,
is majorly responsible for managing the organization and helping it to acquire as well as
maintain the profitable customers therefore it relates its functions to the cash flow directly. The
more marketing activities addresses customer value, enhance the intensity of product adaptation,
alleviate customer churn as well as lower down the acquisition cost, better would be the cash
flow of company Thus both the departments have an equal contribution in expansion of a
company. The marketing department of L'Oréal shares an adversarial relationship with finance
as the former publicizes and advertises the products which in turn leads to the sales of company.
Eventually, a high ratio of sales results in great profit margin and revenues which is the ultimate
task of finance. On the another note, Finance forms a powerful base for effective marketing in
L'Oréal where they set the goals for the marketing department(Pappas, 2017). They design the
sales target for them as well as compensation and rewards for sales team which eventually helps
the marketing department of L'Oréal to focus on efficient selling of products and bring new
customers for the company. Besides these targets, Finance team fix the budget for marketing
team where they allocate the various resources in market plan and the amount of fund which the
marketing department of L'Oréal are allowed to spend on promotional tools and on marketing
campaigns.
Marketing and Research and development
These two departments are commonly focused towards understanding the customer
needs. R&D department is mainly involved in the development of new product as well as
bringing innovation and modification in existing products. This department in L'Oréal enable its
marketing department to design a powerful marketing campaigns along with advertising
strategies. R&D department of the company endeavours to design the new product or add
multiple features in it whereas marketing department interpret and translate these changes with a
view to entice the customers thus establishing synergies between both the departments. But R&D
department of L'Oréal cannot work effectively in absence of its efficient marketing department
thus the collaboration between them is extremely important(Perreault, 2018). One of the most
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essential function of company's marketing department is conducting market analysis thus this
department through the research, asses the needs and wants of customers and clearly finds out
that what modifications does the consumers need in the existing product or which type of new
service are they expecting from the company. Meanwhile, this information is then supplied to
R&D department of the company which immerse themselves within the creative motion of
marketers and design the product plan. Besides this, Marketing department also provides an idea
to R&D department about the quantity of resources that would be required for launching the
product or technology that would be required to bring alteration in existing ones.
LO2
P3 Ways in which different organisations apply marketing mix to the marketing planning
process.
Marketing mix is the operational part of marketing plan. Here, Marketing mix refers to
the set of actions or practices that the L'Oréal and Beauty Giant is using to promote their brand
and market their products(Rancati and et.al., 2016).
The 7P's of marketing mix are as follows-
L'Oréal Beauty Gaint
Product L'Oréal provides cosmetics and
beauty products. It includes the lip
balm, conditioner, nourishing oils,
shampoo and hair colours etc.
Company provides shampoos like
L'Oréal Paris total repair(5) repairing
shampoo, L'Oréal Paris full repair 3x
anti hair fall shampoo. And oils like
L'Oréal Paris elvive extraordinary
oil(Perreault, 2018).
Beauty Giant is a cosmetic selling
company. The company sell men and
women toiletries. The company is
planning to launch its first own anti
ageing product ie, Forever Young.
The organisations has a plan to be a
market leader and choice of ultimate
consumer who wants to use anti-
ageing products. Beauty Giant
follows the strategic marketing plan
for promoting its product.
Price The price of the products of L'Oréal The prices of the products of Beauty
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is usually premium price and
customers are ready to pay the price
for the products owning to its quality
and reliability over its competitors.
The pricing strategy in the marketing
mix is based on premium pricing,
competition, geography served and
product demand(Perreault, 2018).
Giant is normal as compare to other
competitors. The prices of products
are set low as the purpose of the
company is to gain market share. The
company sell quality products in
reasonable prices. It impacts the
pricing decision as company set
prices in such a way that customers
can afford and company also earns
profit. The pricing strategy in the
marketing mix is based on economy
pricing and penetrating pricing
strategy(Morgan, 2016).
Place L'Oréal is a French personal care
company headquartered in Clichy
and has registered office in Paris.
Products of L'Oréal are sold almost
all over the world as it is
international brand. As international
units includes L'Oréal Australia
which is headquarter in Melbourne.
L'Oréal Nordic which has its head
office in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Beauty Giant is a cosmetic selling
company which has 50 branches all
over the UK. Company sell its
products almost in all areas of UK.
Promotion Promotional strategy used by the
L'Oréal is online website. Company
has its own website on which they
do marketing of its products. The
details of all products are mentioned
on its website(Rudden, 2016).
Promotional strategy used by the
Beauty Giant to market its products
is social media. Company uses social
media platforms such as Facebook
and Instagram to market its products.
Other platform used by Beauty Giant
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Company also uses celebrity
endorsement to do promotional tasks
as it a good way of influencing the
customers.
for marketing is television, the
company gives advertisement of its
products through the medium of
television.
People L'Oréal is a cosmetic brand so all its
products are focused on young
generation. The company acquire the
needs of people between age group
of 20-40 and makes the product
according to that. The company
prepares various training programs
for its employees so that they can
perform better(Morgan, 2016). .
Beauty Giant is also an cosmetic
selling company. The company sell
men and women toiletries. The
company is supply's anti ageing
product so it will market the people of
age group 35-50. Beauty Giant gives
incentives and bonuses to its staffs so
that they retains for a longer time.
Physical
evidence
The company focuses on packaging
of products. The packaging is done in
such a way that it attracts the
customers. L'Oréal focuses of
colour, branding and labelling while
packaging its products.
The company has good ambience.
The ambience includes good
environment, temperature, colour,
smell and noise. The good ambiance
and branding attracts more customers.
Process The company uses various
distribution channels. To distribute
its products. As effective distribution
channel is must for the L'Oréal
company. The channels includes
whole seller, retailers and
distributors(Perreault, 2018).
The company uses supply chain this
process includes product
development, marketing, finance and
customer service. Supply chain is
developed by Beauty Giant so that
they can reduce their cost and remain
competitive in market(Caragher,
2016).
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LO3
P4 Basic marketing plan for an organisation.
Executive summary
The study will describes the details of Beauty Giant company. The company sells men
and women toiletries. And now the company is launching its new product which is an anti
ageing cream named 'Forever Young'. The purpose of the company is to increase the market
share and enhance consumer experience(SHUKLA, 2016). The study will do the SWOT analysis
of Beauty Giant product “Forever Young”.
Mission
Mission of Beauty Giant is to expand knowledge in skin care, create new exceptional
products as the world of skin care is consistently changing and growing. Provides best beauty
care products to the customer in reasonable prices(Marketing essentials, 2019). Another mission
is to be a market leader in its segment.
Vision
Beauty Giant vision is to grow its core cosmetics business by increasing retail outputs all
over the UK. As the priority is economic success, shared by all the employees and to which they
devote their talent and commitment. Another objective is to make Beauty Giant a company
where all the employees(Caragher, 2016). Personally and professionally are able to attract and
retain most talented individuals.
Objectives of Beauty Giant is-
To increase sales of new product Forever Young by 10% till the end of year 2020.
To increase the market share by 30% till the end of year 2022.
To enhance consumer experience by 10% in upcoming 6 months.
To increase the profitability by 20% till the end of year 2020.
SWOT analysis of 'Forever Young'
Strength
The biggest strength of Forever Young is that it is an anti ageing product. So that it can target the
people between age group of 35-50. Effective in preventing anti ageing and removing dark spots
etc. Company is doing strong and effective marketing and promotions.
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Weaknesses
Brand image is less as compared to its competitors. Product is new so attracting customers and
facing marketing competition is difficult(Pike, 2015).
Opportunities
The biggest opportunity is that the company can explore international markets. Product
development and innovations. Company can sell the product online.
Threats
Presence of established brand names and stronger companies. Threat of new entreat in the
market. Difficult to change the brand loyalty of customers towards other brands.
Marketing Strategy 7P's of 'Forever Young'
Product
Beauty Giant is a brand which provides beauty products to all over the UK. Forever Young is an
anti ageing product which is targeting new segments in the market. The product is made of
natural ingredients.
Price
The price of forever young anti ageing cream is normal as compare to other competitors. The
price is set in such way that it can attract new buyers and gain market share(Pike, 2015).
Place
The Forever Young anti ageing cream will be sold in almost 50 branches all over the UK. This
product will be easily available at cosmetic stores, super markets and through e-commerce
websites.
Promotion
Forever Young product is promoted by using television and social media platforms such as
Facebook and Instagram.
People
The product is an anti ageing cream so it will target customers between age group of 35-50. The
company will provide training programs to employee as new product is launched(SHUKLA,
2016).
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Physical evidence
The product packaging is done is very good. It is packed in such a way that it shows the branding
and labelling of the company.
Process
The company uses supply chain so that it can reduce the cost of Forever Young and remains
competitive in the market.
Budget
Expense Amount
Rent £52
Salary £28
Total £80
STP
Demographic- Beauty Giant market their products on demographic basis. Demographic
attributes includes age, religion, gender, income etc. The company will target the between age
group of 35-50. Beauty Giant will target all those customers who are in the need of an anti
ageing products. The positioning strategy used by the company is cost position strategy in this
the company sets the price of product in such a way that it attracts customers as the aim is to gain
market share.
CONCLUSION
From the above study it can be concluded that marketing functions are necessary as
market research market planning and products development is necessary. As the functions
describes the ways of market planing and product development. The report also conclude about
the 7p's of marketing which describes the product, price, place. People, promotion and process
etc. Further the report concludes about SWOT analysis of 'Forever Young' anti ageing face
cream which details the strength, weaknesses. Opportunities and treats. Any changes which are
required can be done on the basis of SWOT analysis. The company creates marketing plans to
improve the performance and boost the sales.
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REFRENCES
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Online
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Marketing essentials. 2019 [Online] Available through
<https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/definition/marketing-mix>
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