Marketing Essentials: Roles, Mix Techniques, and Planning for Amazon

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Amazon's marketing strategies. It begins by outlining the roles and responsibilities of the marketing function, including research and development, product design, marketing planning, packaging, customer service, and brand awareness. The report then explores the importance of marketing within the broader organizational context, highlighting its interrelationships with operations management, finance, human resource management, and sales. A comparative analysis of marketing mix techniques is presented, contrasting Amazon's strategies with those of eBay, focusing on product, price, place, and promotion. Finally, the report discusses the development of a marketing plan for Amazon, covering key elements such as market analysis, setting objectives, and selecting marketing strategies. The report concludes by emphasizing the significance of marketing in driving Amazon's success in the competitive e-commerce market.

MARKETING ESSENTIALS

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
P1. Role and responsibility of marketing function.................................................................3
P2. Explain roles and responsibility of marketing in wider organisation context..................3
P3. Comparison of marketing mix techniques.......................................................................5
P4. Explain the marketing Plan which can be used by the organisation................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is the process of promoting the awareness of product in the market and to
understand the need and requirement of the customer. Amazon is the American company mainly
focussed on providing e-commerce services to the customer. Amazon was founded in the year
1994 by the founder Jeff Bezos (Atwal and Williams, 2017). This assignment highlights the roles
and responsibility of the marketing function in the organisation. Further this assignment
highlights the importance of marketing in wider context by interrelating the function of
marketing with other department. Further this report explains the marketing mix implication of
different organisation and in the end it shows the plan for the organisation to grow in the
competitive market.
MAIN BODY
P1. Role and responsibility of marketing function
Marketing Functions and Key roles- marketing functions plays a vital role to satisfy costumers
needs and requirement. it is an exchange of goods and services. It is a continuous process by
letting know that what customer wants and full fill their needs in order to make huge profits.
Functions of the marketing are as follows
Research and Development: Marketing used to help the company in knowing what is asked by
the customer in the market and on the basis of that product are developed. here the needs of the
customers like what they want, in what quantity, at packaging what prices fall in this criteria.
Here the relevant information of the costumer is analysis and on behalf of this amazon company
got to know that which product is most desirable in the market. Marketing function is responsible
for gathering necessary information about market so that actual needs of buyers can be identified
and company can offer them products accordingly. By gathering information organisation can
know more about market and can make good strategies so that it can gain competitive advantage.
Its identify needs, want and demand of the costumers and analyse identified information to take
decision for successful marketing. Amazon analyse marketing environment for know about
competitors.
Product designing and development- Marketing plays a very crucial role in the product design
has the product design in the organization are designed on the basis of the information gather
from the market and the same are implemented in the new project of the company. design of the
product plays an important role in selling. The company whose design and quality is better and
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attractive sells more product as compare to the company whose design and quality is weak and
unattractive. Nowadays amazon not only maintained the design but also maintains its quality by
taking care of health and environment.
Marketing planning- it involves the blueprint of the overall marketing’s efforts of the Amazon.
it ensures the marketing strategies which is used to selling the product and helps to run the
business of the amazon successfully. Some benefits of the marketing planning are, it provides the
internal communication among the employees of the amazon and it also defines the assignments
of tasks and responsibilities and sets the schedule for implementation. It also helps in monitoring
evaluating the performance of the marketing strategy of the amazon. The main responsibility of
marketing function is to make plan so that forecasting can be done and demand can be met. By
the marketing planning company increase their customers. Marketing function responsible to
increase amazon customers and increase market shares by marketing planning. In the marketing
planning company responsible for added more new product which are not available on the
another e-commerce firm. The company need to decrease product price for increase amazon
business and selling more product.
Packaging and labelling- Amazon's packaging aims to minimize the products from physical
damage, destruction and breakage. Such as mechanical shock, vibration, electrostatic discharge
and compression and temperature and Barrier Protection (provides oxygen absorbers to extend th
shelf life of the product).packaging minimizes the security risk of the shipment with improved
tampered resistance may also include authentication seals and use anti-theft devices and also
security print so the content is not spurious. Marketing has to ensure product designing and
effective labelling that can gain attention of buyers. The labelling means putting all information
of about specific product and packaging process is use for product security. Amazon is
responsible for secure packaging of the product. Company’s packaging plays important role in
order to make consumers loyal towards the brand.
Customer support service- Marketing also plays a very crucial role in improving the customer
relation as the main objective of the Marketing used to assess the difficulty which is faced in the
market and the organization used to conquer the same to achieve the organizational goal.
Customers support is important function of marketing. Through marketing Amazon can analyses
issues of consumers and can resolve through social sites immediately. If Amazon provides great
customer support service then it would aid in raising customer satisfaction. The marketing
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responsibility involves sale service, credit service, solve customers’ problems, technical services,
maintenance services, technical services and consumer information.
Raising brand awareness
Through marketing Amazon can raise awareness among consumers about products and
services. Marketing assists in reaching to mass audience and influencing their buying decision.
This is beneficial in increasing number of customers in the organisation.
P2. Explain roles and responsibility of marketing in wider organisation context
Marketing, Marketing does not only mean to promote the awareness of the company
product in the eye of the customer, Marketing also helps or assist many departments in the
organisation as through the help of the Marketing only that department used to increase the
efficiency of their work. The primary function of the Marketing is to sell the product to the
customer but is not an only function of marketing, In the big organisation like Amazon
marketing policy of the organisation also plays a vital role for the different department as in the
end all the policy and department work to achieve the organisational goal of the business (Pike,
2015).
Marketing inter-relationship with Operation management or Production: As Amazon
is well known for selling the product of the other brand on companies' portal or website but as
from last few years’ companies has started to manufacture own product and also started to give
the own services to the customer in the form of Amazon prime video streaming and Amazon pay
(Peattie, 2016). Marketing has played a very crucial role in the success of these products as
marketing has helped the company in adequate research and development process as company as
enter into the video streaming and mobile wallet market in the developing stage itself which has
helped the company in gaining good name in the industry. Not only that the product which are
designed by the Amazon is always designed with the good quality which has helped the
company in gaining good goodwill and the most important function of marketing is to promote
the awareness of the product or service to the customer which was developed by the operation
management or Production department in the organisation. Marketing also helps the company to
deliver the order which is placed by the customer from all across the globe.
Marketing with Finance Department: As Finance is the live blood of the organisation it
is essential for the organisation to have an adequate Finance at every time in the organisation and
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as Marketing function requires a very good amount of finance so marketing department used to
regularly be in touch with the Finance department as they need an adequate finance or budget for
the research and development process of the business. Sometime the area covered by marketing
or implication of marketing policy depend upon the present of Finance in the organisation as the
Finance department used to look at all the operation of the business and try to uncertain the
maximum profit as Finance department used to direct the department to work in the budget
which was assigned to the particular department and that's the big reason of maximizing profit
for the organisation which helps the marketer to cover wider market area as adequate finance can
be provided to the marketer for marketing function.
Marketing with Human Resource Management (HRM): As HRM plays a crucial role
in maintaining the talent in the organisation and recruiting the best talent from the market,
marketing shares a good relationship with the HRM in accomplish the above responsibility as
marketing is the one which helps the organisation in understanding the skills and ability which
are required by the market to be competitive in the market (Fill and Turnbull, 2016). In the big
organisation like Amazon also market used to provide the information about the current scenario
of the market as marketing includes the very wide research about the market and on the basis of
the information which was provided by the marketer. HRM department used to develop the
employee by giving them proper timely training to increase the efficiency of the employee and
also they used to attract the best talent from the market to carry out the activity on the basis of
information provided by the marketer (East and et.al., 2016).
Marketing with Sales Department: This is the department which shares a very good
relationship with the marketing department as marketing is the initial process for the sales
department used to work as marketing is the process in which Amazon uses to aware the
customer about the requirement of the product and then sales team used to attend the customer
by approaching them through the different sales tool to sell the product to the customer. At the
same time sales team also helps the Marketer in the Amazon as sales team used to give an
information about the product to the marketer which helps the marketer to select the area which
can be targetted to get a good outcome for the company's product. Generally sales and marketing
department used to make the joint policy in the organisation as both the department requires each
other help in the proper working of the department.
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P3. Comparison of marketing mix techniques
Basis Amazon E-Bay
Product Amazon uses competitive product
strategy to take advantage in the
industry over its competitors. It
gives guarantee of 2-day shipping
and other benefits (Sajid, 2016).
Amazon provide good quality
products and also provide high
quality description which helps
customer to purchase product.
The product can also be
customised according to
customers need. Users can design
and see before ordering online.
Amazon now looking to develop
the own product as amazon has
developed the Amazon stick and
the Amazon pay as own product
by looking at trend.
E-bay in contrast with amazon
consider itself as “seller
focused”. E-bay has guaranteed
delivery system to compete with
amazon. It provides warranty i.e.
money back guarantee as it
ensures to take care of shipping,
returns, etc in case of any
damage. E-bay is a auction site,
that means anyone can buy and
sell at e-bay thus e-bay
personally does not verify the
product quality, so customers
have to trust the seller.
Price Amazon uses competitive based
pricing strategy, the price of
product and services are based on
what competition is charging.
This method carry less risk. It
also provide value added services
like “prime” where users pay
subscription charges for one-day
delivery and early access to deals.
It charges different price for same
products depending on the place
E-bay offers vide range of priced
items. As e-bay is a website to
facilitate transaction only, it
charges the seller fees for putting
up the product. Pricing strategy
used by seller on e-bay is
penetration pricing (7 P’s of
marketing, 2015). The fee
charged is not very high so that
more and more people put their
items in e-bay. Ebay generaly
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of customers. used to vary the profit margin in
the auction rate to maximize the
profit from the platform.
Promotion Amazon uses aggressive
marketing strategy to promote its
brands. It promotes through
newspapers, creative television
commercials and social media
marketing and target customers
through their browsing pattern.
Websites and blog owners also
advertise amazon product link in
their platforms. It also gives
discounts during holidays and
festivals which result in high visit
of website and to improve public
brand image it has launched
amazon smile which donates to
charity organisations. The most
used plat form for the amazon
now a day is the social media
which helps the amazon to attend
the large number of the customer
as compare to previous.
E-bay uses several media to
promote itself to create a strong
brand awareness e.g. TV, print
media, online ads, billboards etc.
It also promote itself like a
shopping mall in the pockets of
the consumer. It also promoted
online payment gateways and
portals so that more customers
could trust online transaction. It
can take advantage of social
media to reach people and grow
business. It can create
customized discounts and
coupons for buyer to motivate
them to spend more. E bay now
have taken the help of the special
tag line to promote the product in
front of the customer.
Place It is a global brand and its
presence all over the world. It has
huge warehouses constructed in
strategic location to reach even in
remote areas (Churchill, 2017). It
uses local postal and courier
It has a strong presence in online
shopping in over 30 countries
worldwide. It is a website,
company is where customer is. It
allows customers to buy and sell
goods across countries.
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services for transportation. Now it
is coming with its own
distribution network for delivery
of packages.
Consumers can purchase direct
from manufacturers cutting out
retailers. The time of delivery
varies according to the nature of
product, physical location of
buyer and seller and other
factors.
Physical evidence Amazon's biggest physical
presence is its website. Its logo
very well resemble what amazon
stands for (one can buy anything
on amazon). Its app and website
is very user-friendly and built
with great design. Its warehouses
are very large. It releases bits
financial information for investors
and users yearly.
E-bay has physical store in
certain locations names e-bay
fulfilment centres which
receives, store, ship and look in
returns. Its website, packaging
boxes also add to the physical
presence of the brand. It sell its
product in a different colour that
is easily identifiable. It allows
customers to view its products in
high quality image through
various angles.
People Workforce has a great importance
in amazon. Employees get
benefits that include health,
financial, assistance programs and
time off like vacations and equity
plans irrespective of what level
and domain they belong. It also
provide training and development
activities to employees. There are
2,30,800 employees working
across the globe (Järvinen, and
Taiminen, 2016).
It employees 12600 people. It has
multichannel inventory and it
employs its most of the
employees in logistics of goods.
It has people working under its
sales team, customer service
department, with suppliers and at
retail stores. Its employees
receives several options for
pension, tax deduction for their
contribution and also provide
health, dental and vision
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insurance. E-bay also provides
development workshops,
work/life balance toolkit and
ESOP's . E bay has also well
known for understanding the
need of the customer and full
filling the same.
Process Association with websites like
twitter, by reacting to any tweet
can add product to their cart. It
uses business technology to
support its daily activities and
provide location information of
their package. New technology
has made easy for the customers
to communicate and give
feedback. This process very
useful for the company to
improve themselves and satisfy
customers need.
E-bay gives a platform for easy
selling and buying with best
price. On the buyer side, highest
bid gets the product, the bids are
time bound and highest bid in
less time gets the product. On the
seller side, seller has to upload
picture and describe the product.
Once the bidding is done the
product is shipped and payment
is received. It understands
customer need through feedback
collected at store, its helpline or
social media pages.
P4. Explain the marketing Plan which can be used by the organisation
Executive Summary
Amazon is American company mainly focussed on providing e-commerce, cloud computing,
digital streaming and artificial intelligence to the customer. Amazon was found in the year 1994
by the founder Jeff Bezos. Amazon is one of the big technology company out of top four
companies in the world. Amazon has more that 650000 employee working for them to carry out
their day to day activity (Churchill, 2017). Amazon in the initial stage was well known for
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selling other brand product at the company portal but after that company has stated to
manufacture own product and also started to serve the people in other industry also such as video
streaming and mobile wallet.
STP
Segmentation
Amazon has to segment or need to make a different group of the customer depending on the
basis of the customer need and requirement. Amazon need to take care that all the group which is
made is relevant to the digital watch product.
Targeting
After that Amazon need to evaluate all the group on the basis of the need and requirement of all
the group and need to select the best group which can be satisfied by the Amazon and increase
the current situation of the business. Amazon need to take care that the group which is selected
by the company is easy for the marketer to reach.
Positioning
In the end company need to position the digital watch toward the selected group in the previous
points. Amazon requires using the best suitable marketing tool to promote the awareness of the
product in the customer eye.
Objective
Main objective of the Amazon is to increase the sell of the product up to 15-20 percent and to
increase the satisfaction level of the customer by 20-25 percent and the main objective of the
company is to produce the product with the best available quality company will achieve these all
by introducing new product in the face of digital watch as Amazon has looked and search in the
market that there is a need of the product in the market so it will help the company in satisfying
the customer need as well.
Mission and vision
Amazon is looking to produce more technology product in the market as amazon has a good
goodwill in the market which will help them in selling the product more proficiently. The main
mission of the Amazon to take a competitive advantage in the market as the technology is
evaluating at the timely basis and the company is having the vision that these is the best
opportunity for the company to capture good market as many new companies are trying to come
in the market but finding it difficult to find a place but with good resources' amazon can do it.
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Situational Analysis
Amazon is doing well in the current market, SWOT is the best way to find out current situation
of the company. SWOT analysis of the Amazon is as follows:
Strength
Amazon main strength is the customer trust and believe in the product as Amazon is well known
for selling the top quality product to the customer which has build a good name of the company
and the competitive advantage which is enjoyed by the Amazon is also a big strength for the
Amazon, huge investment in research and development plays a crucial role in competitive
advantage.
Weaknesses
As Amazon is looking for diversification of the business in last few years in the industry like
video streaming and wallet which has loose the share of Amazon in the e-commerce business to
the new entrant and to other competitive organisation (Ryan, 2016).
Opportunities
Amazon has good opportunity to grow the business as the industry in which company is looking
to grow with the diversification is the new and developing industry and will help the business in
getting the competition advantage in the initial stage itself.
Threats
One of the big threat which is faced by the Amazon is that there is rapid change in the
technology for the business and it asks a good effort from the Amazon to cope up with the same
and also keeping the privacy of the data of the customer as Amazon has the data about all the
customer.
Budget
Amazon will require at least of 75000 pound budget to introduce the product in the market.
New Resources (Machinery) 35000 pounds
Rent 5000 pounds
Electricity 5000 pounds
Raw Material 10000 pounds
Conveyance 5000 pounds
Employee wages 15000 pounds
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