Marketing Essentials: Roles, Strategies and Business Objectives

This report provides a comprehensive overview of marketing essentials, focusing on the roles and responsibilities of the marketing function within an organization. It explores the nature of marketing, its evolution, and the influence of the external environment. The report details the structure and operations of marketing departments, emphasizing the importance of analysis, strategic planning, and the marketing mix. It also discusses the relationship between marketing and other business functions, such as production, finance, and HR. Furthermore, the report compares how different organizations apply the marketing mix to achieve their business objectives, highlighting the shift from the 4Ps to the 7Ps. Finally, it evaluates various marketing tactics used by organizations to demonstrate the achievement of business goals.

Marketing Essentials
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Table of Contents
Introduction........................................................................................................................3
P1 Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function. (450 words)......4
P2 Explain how roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organizational
context...............................................................................................................................8
P3 Compare the ways in which different organizations apply the marketing mix to the
marketing planning process to achieve business objectives...........................................10
P4 Evaluate different tactics applied by organizations to demonstrate how business
objectives have been achieved.......................................................................................13
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................21
Reference List..................................................................................................................22
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Introduction
Marketing is an essential part in an organization’s business plan and the process by
which organizations make people aware of the business and its activities. There are
different concepts, theories and tools of marketing that influences the marketing plan of
an organization. All these have been incorporated in the assignment. In the assignment,
role of marketing in respect to both B2B and B2C, strategic planning and marketing mix
have been discussed. In marketing mix, 7 components of marketing mix have also been
discussed in depth. How all these tools and analysis help an organization in achieving
its goals and objectives have also been incorporated in the report. Marketing Plan and
its importance and value have also been briefly discussed in the assignment. In terms of
marketing plans, situation analysis tools and techniques have also been discussed in
the assignment. The assignment gives an overview of marketing and its essential
components that plays an important part for an organization.
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P1 Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function. (450
words)
Definitions of marketing and the nature of marketing
Marketing is a systematic activity and planning conducted by organizations with the help
of which they bring buyers and seller together and make people aware of the business
and it products and services (Armstrong et al., 2015).
Nature of marketing can be studied with the help of the following mentioned points:
Human activity: Marketing is known to be a human activity where human needs are
satisfied by effort of humans
Art and Science – Marketing requires both art and science to choose a target market.
Customers are also satisfied by creation, communication and delivering and meet
superior customer value.
Consumer-oriented – An organization manufactures products and designs services for
the needs and wants of consumers and ultimately satisfying them. The aim of most of
the organization is to sell their product with reasonable profit and earn customer
satisfaction.
The development of the marketing concept, including current and future trends
As per marketing concept, an organization should analyze the needs and wants of
customers and consumers, and make decisions to make develop their product so
satisfy the needs of the customers and meet the business objectives (Varadarajan,
2010). ASDA has also adopted certain marketing concepts keeping in mind the current
and future trends.
Production concept
In concept of production, it has been found that product with high quality and of low
prices is preferred by customers. Therefore, production efficiency is mainly
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concentrated by the management of ASDA. Maas distribution also helps in lowering the
cost of the products that helps the customers buying the products in low cost.
Product concept
Customers prefer innovative and sustainable products. The management of ASDA
therefore focuses on the making sustainable and variety of products.
Current Marketing Trends
 Relationship marketing – Organizations in recent times focus more on building
relationship with customers to build a bond (Miquel-Romero et al., 2014). After
sales service is an effective process of influencing repeat purchase by the
existing customers and help in influencing word of mouth publicity (Alrubaiee and
Al-Nazer, 2010).
 Industrial Marketing-Industrial marketing is also preferred by most of the
organization currently. This is a B2B prospect where an organization prefers to
sell their product in large quantity and with marginal profit.
Future Marketing Trends
 Capitalization of Application – Emphasis on mobile application needs to be
considered by ASDA as this the growing trend. In future, this will make a big
impact on the marketing activities of all organizations (Kirby, 2012).
 Big data – Big data has created a buzz in the recent times and believed to gather
more attention in future. Incorporation of Big data will give ASDA an added
advantage against its competitors looking at the advertising platforms and
marketing outreach.
How the external environment influences and impacts upon marketing activity
External environment has affects on the marketing activity of ASDA in various ways.
The identified external environment factors are; technology, competition, demography,
government policies and others. They all play a role in influencing the marketing
activities. Due to advancement in technology, marketing activities have changed a lot.
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Use of digital media has significantly increased (Sashi, 2012). Due to increase rate of
competition, marketing activities have to be more innovative and frequent.
The structure and operations of marketing departments
Figure 1: Marketing Department Structure of ASDA
(Source: Created by the learner)
Marketing department of an organization has different roles and responsibilities that it
has to maintain effectively. The Vice President looks after the overall marketing
strategies and plans conducted by the organization. He has the last say in any of the
plans and strategies. Marketing manager analyses the plans and strategies that have
been implemented by an organization, He is also involved in developing the strategies
and plans. Market researchers conduct researches to find out the trends in market.
They also identify the needs and wants of the customers in recent time. Public Relations
Department is responsible maintaining relationship with the customers. They make the
customers aware of any discount or offers and influence repeat purchase. Creative
services team identifies the current trends in terms of services and tends to adopt
innovative service options.
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VicePresidentCreativeServicesPublicRelationsMarketingManager

Overview of marketing processes that include analysis, strategic planning and
the marketing mix
Marketing process is a process of analyzing any opportunities in a market, identifying
the target market, designing marketing mix and implement strategic planning
accordingly (Kotler, 2015). Situational analysis, marketing mix and marketing strategies
are developed in this process. At first in this process, opportunities in the market are
identified. Analysis is done based on needs and wants of the population. This helps an
organization in adopting effective marketing strategies for long run. ASDA also has
incorporated this strategy in their marketing process. After the needs and wants of a
population have been identified, marketing mix is done and the components are
developed accordingly.
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P2 Explain how roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider
organizational context.
Marketing as a business function
The department of marketing plays an essential role in endorsing the business and
objectives of ASDA. It acts as the profile of the company, while producing all materials
representing the commercial organization and coordinating them. The department of
marketing of ASDA is responsible for the job of reaching out to the desired customers,
prospects, financiers and the community, and marketing also creates an absolute front
picture which represents ASDA under a positive light. Marketing in a business
organization is an important process which leads to its success in eventual stages. The
different functions and responsibilities that are involved in marketing have been
discussed hereunder.
 Marketing defines the goals of a company. This involves the details of the
principle objectives of ASDA. It also gives the customers a preview on what their
experiences are going to be like while dealing with the company.
 The marketing team of a company conducts market researches which help the
organization to determine the fiscal status quo of the markets, demands and risks
involved.
 The marketing department produces the materials that promote the core product
and services of the company.
 It conducts campaign management proactively by identifying the benefits of the
products and services to focus over the course of the company’s sale cycle.
 The marketing department create content for the products and service of the
company and provides for search engine optimization of the company.
 Marketing in many companies are responsible for communication of employees
through intranet or newsletters.
 It conducts a keen observation on other market vendors and keeps a track of
competition in the market.
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The different roles of business units and the interrelationships between these
functional units and marketing
Marketing and production department: These departments are interrelated as they
have to look after the quality control issues that are managed by the production
department of a company. The quality of product of a company is directly related to
customer demands and complaints which are handled by the marketing department of
the company.
Marketing and financial department: Marketing and finance are the two basic
foundation on which a company’s growth and profits are depended on. If a company
does not amalgamate marketing and finance then it will invite big trouble in the running
of the business. Both the departments are needed to be collaborated for the purpose of
producing great results. The finance department is concerned with all monetary aspects
like profits, feasibility of projects, costs, financial performance at the end of year, sales,
growth in competition and so on. On the other hand marketing is essentially concerned
with advertising, sales quantity, sales targets, transactions of business in comparison to
market competitors, data mining and publicity of the product and services, which
operate as an interrelated organ of the company (Parikh, 2018).
Marketing and HR department: human resources and marketing are not as
disconnected as one might think. A corporation for the course of marketing requires to
draw the attention of profitable clients to attain marginal sales figures. And these
functions are performed by the employees managed by the department of Human
Resource in a company (Smallbusiness.chron.com, 2018).
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P3 Compare the ways in which different organizations apply the marketing mix to
the marketing planning process to achieve business objectives.
The shift from the 4Ps to the 7Ps and the significance of the extended marketing
mix
In past, marketing mix used by organizations had only four elements. Product, place,
price and promotion were the basic elements that were considered in the marketing
tool. It was later noticed that to build a more effective strategy some elements in the
marketing mix needed to be incorporated. So marketing mix was extended with three
more elements namely, people, place and physical evidence. The extended marketing
mix helps in determining the right marketing strategy and designs an effective business
plan (Huang and Sarigöllü, 2014). With the help of his tool marketing segmentation,
targeting and promotion can also be designed. The extended marketing plan is widely
used and this serves the need of the organizations in building a proper marketing plan.
As a critical component of the marketing plan, the marketing mix is very important to
strategise and create an effective output for organisation such as ALDI. By
encompassing the different elements that have an effect on a business’s operations, the
marketing mix helps in the eventual success of all operations and processes (Armstrong
et al., 2014).
By using an extended marketing mix, business strategies are able to encapsulate a
wider range of elements such as product, place, promotions, people, process and
the physical space (Borden, 2015). By using these seven elements, marketing
strategies will be more effective and ensure that the company, ALDI is able to derive a
more successful output from their investments into the market.
As ALDI operates in the retail industry, they will have a specialised marketing mix,
which relates to their unique operations and marketing practices. This marketing mix
helps with the subsequent growth strategies of the company (Huang and Sarigöllü, 2014)
Product- ALDI offers affordable retail products that they source from a variety of
suppliers around the world. By providing their own types of products, ALDI extends
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control to production techniques and the prices that they set. The company sells food,
household and other consumer products. The company also adopts product
diversification in terms of the different markets in which they operate.
Price- ALDI commands a very strong customer base, which are attracted by the cheap
prices. Competitive pricing ensures that ALDI are able to navigate through the market
situation in a very effective manner. ALDI also uses a penetrative pricing strategy that
allows the company to gain a market share in an equitable manner (Ododo et al., 2015).
Place- The organisation has more than 8000 countries across 18 countries. By using a
simple store layout, the customers are able to shop in a more effective manner, while
keeping costs low. The equipment that ALDI uses are considered environmentally
friendly, which keeps waste disposal at a minimal level. ALDI also maintains very high
standards in their stores so that customers feel welcome and comfortable during their
shopping experience. ALDI also maintains a vital presence in the online market space
that allows them to gain access to a wider range of customers. The online market also
allows the company to offer a wider range of products and extensive host of delivery
options that would help them hold onto customers more effectively.
Promotion- This is a comprehensive strategy used by the company to ensure that they
are able to extend market operations in an effective manner. As the company gives so
much importance to cost effectiveness, the promotion activities that they partake in
are low. In fact, the company does not have any marketing output in Germany; similarly,
they rely on their effective operation, a wide variety of offerings and very cheap prices to
attract their customers. The company also has a weekly newsletter that they use to
inform the customer about latest offerings and discounts. The company also used
email marketing to promote their products.
People: The employees in ADSA are well trained and are the main driver in the
organization. The employees of ASDA provide excellent sales assistance. This helps in
building a string customer bonding.
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Physical evidence: ASDA has a strong physical presence both online and offline.
ASDA has its reach in many places of UK and can expand their presence in the global
market to acquire more customers.
Process: The process maintained by ASDA is designed in such a way that the
customers do not have any problem. The store layout has been designed keeping in
mind the accessibility of the products.
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