Marketing Essentials: Role, Functions, and Strategic Plan

This report provides a comprehensive overview of marketing, beginning with a definition and exploration of its crucial role in organizational success. It examines the key elements and functions of marketing, highlighting their interrelation with other organizational functions like research, human resources, finance, and production. The report then shifts to a practical application, developing a strategic marketing plan for a new product, "Forever Beauty." This plan includes an executive summary, current marketing situation analysis utilizing PESTLE, Porter's Five Forces, and SWOT analyses, and the application of the Ansoff matrix and STP model. The report concludes by outlining the marketing mix (7 Ps), budget considerations, and change control measures, offering a well-rounded view of marketing strategy and implementation. This assignment, published on Desklib, showcases how to apply marketing principles to real-world scenarios.

MARKETING ESSENTIAL

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PART 1............................................................................................................................................1
Task- Essay on role of marketing and the factors of functions of marketing and the relation
with the other functions...............................................................................................................1
PART 2............................................................................................................................................4
Task- Strategic marketing plan for new product 1750.................................................................4
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is defined as an activity or process which is used in order to create a product
or the services and to communicate the product or the service made and to support and present
the goods and services in front of the consumers, clients & society. The marketing essential
involves the process of identifying, understanding, learning and evaluating the basics of the
marketing management and theories and practices related to the marketing management (Latif,
Islam and Noor, 2014). The report will discuss an essay on the role of marketing along with the
elements within the functions of marketing and also the link between the marketing function with
the different functions of the organization. At the end the report will devise a strategic marketing
plan for a new product named Forever Beauty.
PART 1
Task- Essay on role of marketing and the factors of functions of marketing and the relation with
the other functions
Definition of marketing
The marketing can be understood as the social process through which the organization
comes to know what are the customers wants and requirements regarding any product or services
and the company tries to develop the products in keeping in mind those requirements and wants.
The marketing function aims at creating value according to the needs of the customer's and
delivering those values to the customers.
Role of marketing
The concept of marketing shows a really essential and crucial role regarding the success
or the failure of the organization. The leading function of marketing is to assist the company in
facing the competition and maintaining the competitive position and the competitive advantage
over its competitors. The modern organizations work in a cut throat competitive working
environment where it is very tough and hard to deal with the competitors. If the company is not
good in marketing then it will lack the competitiveness in the market and will lose the market
share. For this the company constantly needs to do the marker analysis of the business
environment and what are the marketing strategy adopted by the competitors and then to devise
the strategy for its own and to develop a new marketing plan in accordance with the plan of the
competitors (Kull, Mena and Korschun, 2016).
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Also, the another duty of marketing in a advanced system is to delight, influence or
impress and earn the support and trusts of their customers and encourage loyalty and trust
towards our products over the competitors. For performing this role the marketing has to do
many task such as planning, packaging, pricing, distribution, product development etc. The
another role of the marketing department is to identify the target markets along with the most
appropriate strategies helpful and useful in developing new products and also creating a
sustainable competitive advantage over the uncountable competitors (Facca-Miess and Santos,
2014).
Marketing concept
It is a philosophy which is analyzed by the firms in order to gain knowledge of customers
need and then they make decisions in order for need satisfaction.
 Production concept – This concept is concerned with production that is highly available
as well as affordable. The company beauty giant cannot use this concept.
 Sales concept – In this concept, the consumers does not buy the products without
promotions efforts and large scale selling. The company can also use this concept for
attaining sales target.
 Product concept – In this concept, there is a regular improvement is undertaken by the
company in their product. This concept is adopted by the company beauty giant.
 Marketing concept – This concept is depend on needs of market which is targeted and
provides satisfaction to their customers more than their competitors. The company will
use this concept. Societal concept – This concept holds concern for society's welfare as well as their
consumers. The company can also follow this concept to satisfy needs and wants of
future generations and can attain sustainability.
Elements of marketing
The elements of the marketing refers to as the parts which encompasses the whole
marketing which means all the parts or elements which comprises whole marketing process. The
elements of the marketing are as follows-
 Product- product refers to the thing which the company produces, it may also be a
service. The product are the substances which the company produces and the details of
the products like the features of the product or the service, the strengths or the
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weaknesses of the product and core value that the products or services inherent in
themselves.
 Place- next comes the place. The place is defined as a way or a channel through which a
product is sold to the end users. The place or the channel of distribution must be such that
the normal consumers can have access and reach to those places of distribution of the
products.
 Price- the next element is pricing. The price refers to the monetary value of the product
or the services which the company charges to the customers in exchange of the product
delivered or the service rendered.
 Promotion- Promotion includes all the ways in which the company conveys the products
or the services with the potential customers and tells them about the products or services
and their features and qualities. The promotion aims or intents to increase the sale of the
product or the service by use of various techniques like advertising, social media
marketing and many other techniques of sales promotion.
 People- This element includes all the people or the manpower which are connected or
related with the system or the company in some or the other way. People includes the
management of the company, the CEO, board of director, customers of the company,
investors, employees and all the other people related to the company.
 Process- this refers to as the actual systems and operational processes of the organization
which are used in developing or creating the product or the services. Great processes will
ensure that costs are minimized (Tollin, Christensen and Wilke, 2015). The use of
process is very critical for the success of the organization because if the process is not
properly followed then the product produced of the services rendered will not be viable. Physical Evidence- it refers to everything which the customer sees while interacting with
the business like packaging of the product, the environment of the business and many
more (Meidan, Moutinho and Chan, 2015).
Role and responsibilities of marketing department
 The department of marketing is responsible for product marketing and other promotional
materials.
 Their role is to provide support to sales team.
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 They are responsible to conduct proper analysis and research of current market needs and
opportunities.
Relation with other functions of the organization
 Marketing and research- one of the major interrelation with the marketing department
is with the research function. The research deals with continuously studying the market
and the competitors. For marketing it is very necessary to do proper research of its
competitors in order to develop the marketing plan and the marketing strategy.
 Marketing and the human resource- the HR is the department which is accountable
and answerable for the recruitment and the selection of the manpower or the human
resource in the company. The marketing is a department which requires the most of the
manpower. So both the functions are crucially important and interrelated to each other.
This is so because marketing is a function which requires the maximum number of
employees. So the marketing department access its requirement of the manpower and
then passes it on to the human resource department. And then the human resource
department recruits the employees according to the requirements of the marketing
department.
 Marketing and finance- the marketing function is very much interrelated with the
finance function. The marketing function is the most expensive function of the
organization because it deals with promotion of the products or the services which
involves huge cost and expenditure. The finance is the function of providing money to all
the departments within which the marketing function requires the maximum money.
 Marketing and production- the production function performs the task of producing the
goods or the services. The products or the services are prepared according to the needs
and the requirements of the customers (Li, Wang and Yu, 2015). These needs, wants,
specification and requirements of the consumers are assessed through with the help of the
marketing functions. The marketers do the survey about what are the requirements of the
consumers and then the marketers passes on this information to the production
department then the production function produces the goods or the services according to
the needs of the customers.
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PART 2
Task- Strategic marketing plan for new product 1750
About company
The company Beauty Giant is a cosmetic selling company which has their 50 branches all
over the UK. The product they decided to launch is “Forever young” which is an anti aging
product.
Executive summary
The marketing plan has covered all the necessary inputs which are required in the process
of making the marketing plan (Alshurideh, Alhadid and Barween, 2015). Firstly it gave a detail
about the company's overview and with that the detail about the current marketing situation
analysis with help of PESTLE analysis, Porters five forces model and the SWOT analysis.
Further it discussed about the Ansoff matrix application on the Beauty Giant. After that it
outlined the STP model and the 7 P's of the company. At last it highlighted the budget and the
controlling the changes.
Current marketing situation analysis
PESTLE analysis- the PESTLE analysis is an analytical tool which helps the company
in studying the changes taking place in the macro or the external environment and the effects
thereof on the company and its working. The factors of the PESTLE are discussed as below-
Political factor- it helps in determining the factors which affects or impacts the long term
profitability of the beauty giant due to the governmental or political interference. Factors such as
political stability and importance of personal products' sector in the country's economy, risk of
military invasion, level of corruption especially levels of regulation in consumer goods sector,
bureaucracy and interference in personal products' industry by government, legal framework for
contract enforcement, intellectual property protection act and many other political interference
all consists of the political factors which impacts the working of the Beauty Giant.
Economic factors- these are the factors which affects the company beauty giant such as interest
rates, foreign exchange rates, changes in the economic cycles, inflation and many more
(Eidelman, Fakhrutdinova and Galimov, 2016). Factors such as certain interference of the
government relating to consumers goods, exchange rates & stability of host country currency,
labor costs and productivity in the economy, infrastructure quality in personal products' industry,
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comparative advantages of host country and consumer goods sector in the particular country are
some of the economic factors which affects the working of the company.
Social factors- these are the factors relating to the society which have a great impact on the
organization. It includes the attitude, shared beliefs of the population, customers thinking all
affects the company's working majorly. Changes in the demographics and skill level of the
population, class structure, hierarchy and power structure in the society, education level as well
as education standard in the beauty giant products' industry, culture (gender roles, social
conventions etc.) are some of the different social factors which affects the operations of the
beauty giant.
Technological factors-the beauty giant must keep a special check on the technological
advancements going on in the business environment. This is because of the reason that the
competition is very high and tough and to beat the competition the Beauty Giant needs to use
high technology.
Environmental factor- the firm should carefully evaluate the environmental standards that are
required to operate in those markets before entering into new markets or starting a new business
in existing market (Lichrou, O’Malley and Patterson, 2014). Changes in the weather, climatic
change, laws regulating environment pollution air and water pollution regulations in personal
products industry recycling and many other factors are some environmental factors that a
company like Beauty giant consider beforehand.
Legal factors- In different countries the legal framework and institutions are all different
because every country has its own legal structure (Gonzalez-Zapatero, Gonzalez-Benito and
Lannelongue, 2016). The Beauty giant operates in many countries so it has to follow the rules
and laws of many countries because every country has its own rules, regulations and laws which
are to be abides and followed by the company. Some rules and laws are like anti discrimination
laws, consumer protection laws etc.
Porters five force factors- the porter five forces is an analytical framework which helps
the company in taking the decisions which are of strategic importance and helps in analyzing the
competitiveness of the company in the market. The five forces are as follows-
 Threat of new entrants- because of new entries in the beauty and cosmetic industry it
has become very competitive market where the companies have an opportunity to gain
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large market share. The Beauty Giant operates at high market share in the cosmetic
industry but it has to face much competition due to the entry of new competitors.
 Threat of substitutes- because the competition is very high so there is high chances of
getting the product substituted by the product of the competitors. The consumers have so
many options being available with them so if they are not satisfied by the products of
beauty giant there will be high chance of substitution.
 Bargaining power of customers- when the consumers have too many substitutes options
being available with the consumer so they have opportunity to shift to another substitutes.
 Bargaining power of suppliers- it is applicable when the suppliers are less than the
companies are dependent on the suppliers (Cătălin, Andreea and Adina, 2014). Here the
suppliers are in power and they use this power to manipulate the companies and negotiate
the prices according to the suppliers.
 Industry rivalry- because of high competitors the rivalry in the industry is very high.
This rivalry is the reason for the Beauty Giant to keep in mind the strategies of the
competitors before elaborating its own strategies.
SWOT analysis- The SWOT analysis is a type of analysis which is done by the company
in order to know the internal strengths and the weaknesses along with the external opportunities
and the threats present in the market (O’Keeffe, Ozuem and Lancaster, 2016).
Strengths
 The beauty products of the Beauty Giant has experienced manpower and marketing team
which helps the company in entering into the new markets and making them successful.
 The company also has a hefty and dependable supplier of material used as raw materials
which helps the company to overcome the problem of limited supplier.
Weaknesses
 The net contribution % and profitability ratio of Beauty Giant products are below the
industry average.
 For the purpose of expansion the Beauty Giant products needs to put more money in
technology because the technology develops in minutes and the company's currently used
technology becomes obsolete in no time.
Opportunities
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 Decrease in the cost relating to the transportation is an opportunity for the Beauty Giant
because it lowers the shipping cost of the raw materials which provides an opportunity to
the company to boost its profitability.
 The market development will lead to dilution of competitor’s advantage and enable
Beauty Giant Products to increase its competitiveness compare to the other competitors.
Threats
 Changes in the buying behaviour of the consumer from online channel can also be a big
threat to the existing company because the company still uses and relies upon the direct
selling method only (Mullin, Hardy and Sutton, 2014).
 The technological up gradations and the advancement in the environment and there
adoption by the competitors can pose a serious threat to Beauty giant.
Objectives
The objectives of the Beauty Giant is as follows-
 To strengthen the sales by 25 % by the year 2020.
 To enter into the new markets and to increase the market share till 2021.
Strategy
Ansoff matrix- it includes the following-
 Market penetration- The Beauty Giant will keep continuing in the same business for next 3
years to gain a market share and more customers (Amirkhanpour, Vrontis and Thrassou,
2014).
 Market development- The Beauty Giant is planning to expand in other main cities by launching
a new anti aging cream Forever Young (Fan, Lau and Zhao, 2015).
 Product development- the idea is to add a new product for international market and also to
introduce a new range of fairness creams for the men.
 Diversification- this can be planned by implementing new branches with facility of parlors and
salons as well.
Segmentation, targeting and positioning
Element Description
Segmentation It includes segmenting the population into some segments based on some
common characteristics like on basis of age, gender, income level,
geographical areas and many more. The company is targeting to
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population of UK and age group of people about 50 are chosen for the
companies product.
Targeting Out of the segmented population the company tries to target on some
particular group who are interested in buying the product. The target of
company is creating customer base in UK who want to use anti aging
product.
Positioning It involves positioning the target that whether the target group liked the
products or not. The company beauty giant will position their product as
increase in aged population and increase in sale of new product.
Tactics and action
7 P's
 Product- Beauty Giant is a leading cosmetic company offering beauty products for
women and men both. It provides a variety of products like make up color for lips, eyes,
nails, face (Burns, Bush and Sinha, 2014). Also it has a range of product relating to skin
care which includes brightening, line collectors, fairness and nourishing creams,
cleansing lotions. Beauty Giant has a large range of product offering for men also in
terms of fairness creams and perfumes. The new product launched is anti aging cream
named Forever Young.
 Price- The pricing policies used by the Beauty Giant varies depending upon the target
market and the category of the product the company is selling like is it a lip color or a
fairness cream (Chang, Yu and Lu, 2015). The company is following competitive pricing
strategy and will charge same price as their competitors.
 Place- the company prefers direct selling because of the reason that they think that direct
selling will promote their products more better than the other distribution channels. It
uses door-to-door distribution systemand also has a smart phone application in their
mobile.
 Promotion- A promotional technique adopted by Beauty Giant is catalogue. It also uses
different promotional techniques like advertising, print media, social media marketing,
sales promotion, direct selling, free samples and many more.
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 People- This element includes the Board or management, employees, customers, vendors
and so on of the Beauty Giant.
 Process- the process of Beauty Giants refers to the actual systems and operational
processes of the organization which are used in developing or creating the product or the
services.
 Physical Evidence- the company's physical evidence includes everything which the
customer sees while interacting with the business like packaging of the product, the
environment of the business and many more.
Budget- It refers to estimating beforehand for the future working. In simple words it means
creating a statement of expenses and the revenues which are going to be happen in the future
(Flora, Schooler and Pierson, 2018).
Forecasted cash flow statement:
Particulars Initial investment 1st year 2nd year
Product
forever
youth
forever
youth
number of consumers 4000 4400
average selling cost of product 205 265
Total revenue (cash inflows) 820000 1166000
Operating expenses
packaging 200 250
advertisement 300 300
machinery 4000 0 1500
equipment 2000 700 0
salaries 800 800
Total operating expenses (cash
outflows) 6000 2000 2850
Net cash flow -6000 818000 1163150
Capital invested 200000
Opening balance of cash 200000 194000 1012000
Closing balance of cash 194000 1012000 2175150
Control- it refers to a process through which the company compares the budgeted
performance with the actual performance. It helps in detecting the deviations between the
budgeted and the actual performance and if there is any deviation then corrective actions are
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