Marketing Planning Report: Tesco's Strategies, Barriers, and Ethics

This report provides a detailed analysis of Tesco's marketing planning, encompassing various aspects of its strategies and challenges. It begins with an introduction to marketing planning and its significance, followed by an examination of Tesco's capabilities and external factors influencing its marketing activities. The report then delves into organizational auditing using SWOT and PESTLE analyses, providing insights into Tesco's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, as well as the political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors impacting its operations. The report identifies and discusses the main barriers to marketing planning, offering potential solutions to overcome these obstacles. Furthermore, it presents a marketing plan for a product, highlighting the importance of marketing in strategic planning and outlining techniques for new product development, alongside recommendations on pricing, communication, and distribution. The report also explores the ethical issues that influence marketing planning, including consumer ethics, and provides examples of Tesco's responses to these issues. The conclusion summarizes the key findings and recommendations, emphasizing the importance of effective marketing planning for Tesco's continued success.

Marketing Planning

Table of Contents
INTROCDUTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Changing perspective in marketing planning........................................................................1
1.2 Organisation's capability for planning future marketing activity..........................................2
1.3 Technique for organisational auditing and analysation of external factors which affect
marketing planning......................................................................................................................2
1.4 Organisational audit and analysation of external factors......................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
2.1 Main barriers of marketing planning.....................................................................................5
2.2 Ways for overcoming barriers...............................................................................................7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
3.1 Marketing plan for a product ................................................................................................7
3.2 Importance of marketing plan in strategic planning.............................................................8
3.3 Techniques for development of new product........................................................................8
3.4 Recommendation on pricing policy, communication mix and distribution of new product.8
3.5 Factors affecting implementation of market plan.................................................................8
TASK 4 ...........................................................................................................................................9
4.1 Ethical issues that influence marketing planning..................................................................9
4.2 Examples of how Tesco respond to ethical issues................................................................9
4.3 Examples of consumer ethics that effect marketing planning............................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11
.......................................................................................................................................................12

INTROCDUTION
Every organisation want to plan the activities which they are going to perform in
upcoming years so they can minimise risk and prepare themselves for uncertainty. Marketing is
considered as one of the most important function in a company, it planning basically relates to
advertising and other efforts so an enterprise can achieve their set objectives. Tesco is one of the
leading company of retail sector, they are running approximately 4500 stores in more than 12
countries (Constantinide sand Fountain, 2008). This file will discuss about external factors that
has capacity to marketing planning, it will also include main barriers which can create problem
in attaining short as well as long term goals. Product development techniques will also become
part of this assignment. Some ethical issues like consumer ethics, will get cover under this
project.
TASK 1
1.1 Changing perspective in marketing planning
In order to cope up with different kind of challenges and uncertainties, every firm make
some plans so they can move in right direction and do not get confuse by policies of other
organisations. Marketing planning is a process where managers analyse a market place so they
can develop appropriate strategy for surviving and completing in an industry. It starts with
finding the goals of company and than identifying risks and opportunities. The last step of this
procedure is implementation and monitoring proposal.
Earlier firms were focusing on production and selling concept but in this era trend is
changing swiftly. Instead of quality marketing plans are concentrating on loyalty. If customers
have faith in a company than they will buy their goods, they may ignore better quality and less
price. One of the most important part of marketing is selling, but in time frame it is also changing
(McDonald and Wilson, 2011). Nowadays enterprises are not trying to sell a product by
convincing customers that they should use them because it has so many benefits, they keep their
focus on concept of ''well known''. They want t people to get familiar with an item or company
and if they think that certain commodity will satisfy their need than they should purchase it.
Loyalty and well know are the new prospective of this era.
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1.2 Organisation's capability for planning future marketing activity
Tesco is considered as the table leader in domestic market because they hold maximum
market share. They are capable for investing huge amount in their marketing plan because they
have deep pocket, experienced and talented employees. People have trust in their products and
brand which will help them in launching new organic items (Katsikeas, Morgan and Vorhies,
2012). An organisation's capability mainly relates to core competency, their strengths and
weaknesses and available resources. Cited company has strong presence in food section which
generates major part of their revenue. Their goodwill is better than other player of this sector
which provide them some extra edge over their competitors. They have a huge burden of debt
which can create hurdle in expansion of business activities. One of the biggest advantage that
Tesco can encash and include in their marketing plan is quality of their products. They have
large number of loyal customer who provide stability to their business because they do not buy
goods from stores of other companies.
Although cited organisation have quality workforce but in recent times they face some
big strikes which affected them at more than one level. Their store were closed because
employees denied to work, in upcoming time their marketing plan has to find some solution for
these kind of problem because customers were not happy with these kind of incidents.
1.3 Technique for organisational auditing and analysation of external factors which affect
marketing planning
An enterprise has various options relating to technique for organisational audit. First is
SWOT analyses where a firm evaluate strength of a company. It can be related to finance or
brand image, these factors gives some extra edge to an organisation over their competitors. 'W'
stands for weakness, in this point areas where they need to improve are determined so they can
remove their shortcomings and move toward their goals. 'O' means opportunities, every
enterprise has some opportunities which can be related to expansion of business in new country
or development of a new product. Threats are part of business, these care challenges which
create various types of hindrances in achieving pre-determined goals (Metaxas, 2009).
PESTLE analysis is considered as the best option for evaluation of external factors. 'P'
stands for political where rules and regulations and political stability are taken into account for
making a decision. 'E' is for economy, elements like economic growth and interest rate comes
under this point. 'S' means social, culture, religion, taste and preferences are covered under this
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factor. 'T' stands for technology, it is considered as one of the most important element because
technology has changed the way of doing business. 'L' is for legal, it is related to taxation and
other type of laws which are made by government or their concerning authority. 'E' mean
environmental, it covers major issues relating to atmosphere like pollution.
These factors should be considered at the time of formation of marketing plan because
they have capacity to change decision taken by top level management (McDonald, 2011). They
play crucial role in success or failure of an organisation because made a huge impact on business
operation of a company either directly or indirectly.
1.4 Organisational audit and analysation of external factors
Organisational audit of Tesco is as follows:
Strength
 High brand value, people have faith in their products
 Their items are available online which is increasing their sales in regular interval of time.
 Low cost of operation and strong concentration on sustainability.
Weakness
 High dependence on market of UK
 Weak presence in developing markets like China, India
 Huge burden of debt reduction
Opportunities
 They can exploit non food segment where scope of earning is very high
 Maximise production and sale of organic product.
 Invest in developing countries like Brazil, China, India
Threats
 Their competitors like ASDA, Walmart are getting more and more strong.
 The money they have in overseas market may not deliver desired return.
 Incidents like Brexit created new challenges like decrease in demand of goods (Olson,
Slater and Hult, 2005).
Porter's five force analysis discuss about competitive advantage that an organisation can get on
other player of industry. Below is porter's five force analyse of Tesco:
Threat for substitution of a product or service
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Cited organisation will not face any major challenge in food segment because grocery
retail market do not see any high fluctuations. Normally convenience store and organic shop are
considered as main substitutes but they do not have capacity to made a significant amount of
influence of company like Tesco because they offer much better quality at low price. But in case
of non food segments like clothing, chances of substitution is bit high because specialised shops
have capacity to offer better discounts and designing (Payne and McDonald, 2012). They also
introduce new trend in short period of time.
Threat from new entry
It is very difficult to enter in retail sector because it involves huge amount of capital
investment and there are already large number of major player who have capture complete
market. If someone want to establish a brand like Tesco than they have to deliver better quality at
low rate for along period of time.
Supplier's power
They do not have much ability as their bargaining power is low. Cited organisation has so
many suppliers so if one of them leave them or create any issue than they can switch to other
one. Most of the negotiations go in positive direction.
Buyer's power
Tesco has to give them importance because they pay money against the product which
they buy from store. They are main source of revenue which is the main reason that their
bargaining power is high (Hollensen, 2015). If they not find anything right about a commodity
than they can move to other stores.
Competitive rivalry
Tesco hold majority of the UK retail market but the have direct rivalry with companies
like Asda, Sainbury etc. Their price of product and quality do not have much difference. Cited
organisation hold around 30% share of the market but on the other hand their key competitor
Asda have approximately 16 % share.
PESTLE analyse of Tesco
Political – Political incidents like Brexit made a huge impact on business of cited
organisation because demand of retail items is not growing according to the expectation of
industry. This company also did huge amount of investment in some countries who are now
facing problems relating to political instability.
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Economy – Economic growth rate of European nations is low. UK is considered as the
main source of revenue for cited organisation which is facing severe threats relating to interest
rate and national income (Moutinho, 2011).
Social – People in UK is ageing. Population of old public is much higher if it is compared
to young generation. Old age people do not eat more food so instead of focusing on food
segment Tesco should focus on non food segment because in upcoming time it has potential to
become generate high profit.
Technological – Cited organisation is affected by online retail stores, there growth rate is
much hire if it is compare to physical retail store. This can be considered as the main reason that
Tesco has also started selling their products through internet. They
Legal – Recently government took an important decision that they will reduce the
subsidiary which they were giving to farmers. This firm buy lot of raw material from peasants. If
farmers will not get financial assistance from government than they reduce the quality of raw
material in order to bring the cost down. This will make a huge impact on quality of items which
enterprise is offer and ultimately it will decrease the revenue of organisation.
Environmental – Tesco took an important decision that they use reusable bags instead of
plastic bags. They are also committed to work in field of carbon omission and reducing
pollution.
TASK 2
2.1 Main barriers of marketing planning
Malcolm McDonald gave ten potential barriers for marketing planning which are as
follows:
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 Manger who make plans get confuse between small goals and overall objective. If they
try to focus on tactics than they have to sacrifice their long term strategies and vice-a-
versa.
 Bifurcating functions of marketing from operations. Employee do not understand the
difference between two activities and take wrong decisions (Musibau, Oluyinka and
Long, 2011).
 Lack of certainty between marketing concept and function. They do not know difference
between sales, advertising, consumer service etc.
 Barriers with in organisation. It mainly relates to functions like finance, operations etc.
Sometime task performed by one department create issues between two divisions.
 Absence of deep analyses – It only cover main areas like increase in price or reduction in
cost of production which do not reveal real cause of problems.
 Confusion between the process which they follow and its output – Some time
organisations make only give importance to result which made a negative impact on the
process which have equal significance.
 Absence of proper knowledge and skills – When a company do not have proper
knowledge regarding marketing techniques or their implementation, they fail to achieve
their set targets.
 Unavailability of systematic approach in marketing planning – Planning of marketing
activities involve a fixed procedure, if it does not get follow than firm may face serious
issue relating to formation or execution of plans.
 Fail to set priority in objectives – Company have more than one target which they have to
achieve in set period of time. If planning focuses on one goal than other will not hegt
necessary resources for its accomplishment.
 Warlike corporate culture – Enterprises adopt culture like top down, botton up which sets
class of every employee and generate a hostile culture in company.
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2.2 Ways for overcoming barriers
An organisation should focus on strategy instead of tactics, they have to make a
connection between marketing and other operations so various types of conflicts can be
minimised. Objectives of a company should be set in a sequence so they can adopt strategy of
'one step at a time'. Process should be given equality importance like of results, they should be
managed in systematic way. Deep study of every marketing concept should be done, analyses
like SWOT and PESTLE can used in this process.
TASK 3
3.1 Marketing plan for a product
Organic butter is new the new product which cited organisation can launch in
marketplace. It main competition will be existing inorganic butter which is sold by other retail
stores. This commodity will have great quality and it will be available in all the stores of Tesco.
It will be promoted through internet and television advertisement and its price will be bit high
than normal butter. It will target customers of all age group and it will be launched in different
part of UK. New skilled and talented people will be required for its production and it will be
introduced at the end of 2018. If it capture 25% of market and 20% of revenue before 2022 than
it can be considered as success for company.
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3.2 Importance of marketing plan in strategic planning
Marketing plan collects various types of information which is significant for strategic
planning because it provide them necessary data which reveals them right picture of industry.
Cited organisation can get get vital input from marketing planning which will support them in
execution of right strategies. It plays signifiant role in SWOT analysis and formation of a team. It
also make a impact on daily business activity which are important for achieving long term goals
(Sadjadi and et.al., 2012).
3.3 Techniques for development of new product
Tesco can adopt various types of techniques for development of a new product. In first
method, they can ask customers what they are using and make same product. They do not need
to ask them about their desires. In second method, they can daily lifestyle of customers so they
can determine what they need and than fill the gap. Another technique is innovation where Tesco
can make a commodity which can satisfy current as well as future demand of consumers . They
have to use create approach for this process.
3.4 Recommendation on pricing policy, communication mix and distribution of new product
Price of product will be more than its competitor item because it contains better quality
(Nijssen and Frambach, 2013). It is healthy and its production involve more cost. Customer will
not get the kind of quality in the current rate, they will get proper value for their money. Product
will be available in at all the stores of Tesco which are present in every part of UK. Buyers can
also book order it online and they will get commodity at the home. Advertising and sales
promotion will be proper element of communication mix. They can also work on public relation
by interacting with media (Musibau, Oluyinka and Long, 2011).
3.5 Factors affecting implementation of market plan
 Economic condition – It mainly include tax and interest rate, inflation, demand and
supply of the products.
 Growth and size of market – It is related to industry where company is operating. If a
sector will grow than enterprises who are doing business in that field which also gets its
benefit.
 Customer composition – Income of customers, their occupation, hobbies, age is included
in this point.
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TASK 4
4.1 Ethical issues that influence marketing planning
Company faces various kind of troubles in formation of marketing plans but ethical
issues are considered as one of the most important element because they can put a manager into a
situation where he has to take decision between right or wrong, sometime the situation is more
complex where they have to choose between two rights. These issues mainly relative to society
and environment. Marketing plan of a company can not do bad promotion of other enterprise.
They have to take care of various kind of religion and culture that exist in a country.
4.2 Examples of how Tesco respond to ethical issues
Suppliers of cited organisation gave an argument in a survey that this company do not
follow code of practice. They also charged them with some other serious allegations. Tesco gave
a statement in no time that they will start an investigation and they will find people who are not
complying code of practice. They consider them heart of business and they will change heir way
of doing business. In another case, employees of cited organisation went on a strike because they
were not satisfied with the facilities they were getting at stores (O'Cass, Ngo and Siahtiri, 2012).
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Tesco took some time but address all of their major issues which can be considered as the main
reason that they are most attractive company to work in retail sector of UK
4.3 Examples of consumer ethics that effect marketing planning
Consumer ethics is related to behaviour of company towards their customers. Cited
organisation can offer a product which says that it best in industry but at the same time one can
find same product of much better quality. Cheating, lying, etc. are the areas which are covered
under this topic. They are selling organic food which is known good for health of people, but if
they will promote it by saying that it can also work as medicine than they will be lying to their
customers (Whalen and Holloway, 2012). Consumer ethics should be given importance at the
time of marketing planning because it deals buyer are the main source of revenue for cited
organisation. Company should make a proper plan for dealing with issues relating to ethics.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that marketing planning plays crucial role in
success or failure of an organisation because they include various activities like market research,
promotion strategies, etc. The data they collect in this process provide great assistance to other
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departments. Their are various types of techniques for development of a new product which a
company can adopt in their enterprise. Perspective of marketing planning are changing
continuously and they get affected by internal as well as external factors.
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REFERENCES
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implementation, export marketing capabilities, and export venture performance. Journal
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Sadjadi and et,al., 2012. Optimal pricing. lot-sizing and marketing planning in a capacitated and
imperfect production system.Computers & Industrial Engineering. 62(1). pp.349-358.
Musibau, A. A., Oluyinka, S and Long, C.S., 2011. The relationship between strategic planning
and the effectiveness of marketing operations.International Journal of Innovation.
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capability interface and customer-centric performance in SMEs. Journal of Strategic
Marketing. 20(6). pp.463-481.
Whalen, P.S. and Holloway, S.S., 2012. Effectual marketing planning for new ventures. AMS
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Online
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