Analysis of Marketing Essentials: Roles, Responsibilities, and Plan

This report provides an overview of marketing essentials, focusing on the roles and responsibilities of the marketing function within an organization, particularly in relation to the broader organizational context. It uses Marks & Spencer as a case study to illustrate these concepts. The report compares the marketing mix of Tesco and Marks & Spencer, analyzing their product, price, place, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence strategies to achieve business objectives. Furthermore, it includes the production and evaluation of a marketing plan for an organization, covering aspects such as customer satisfaction, promotional strategies, brand building, target market identification, budget management, intermediary relationships, and pricing decisions. The document emphasizes the interconnectedness of the marketing department with other departments like HR, finance, IT, and operations, highlighting how marketing insights aid in overall organizational efficiency and strategic decision-making. Desklib offers this document as a solved assignment for students.

MARKETING
ESSENTIALS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function....................................1
P2 Explain how roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organisational
context.........................................................................................................................................3
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................4
1) Compare the marketing mix of two different organisations to achieve business objectives:.4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
P4) Produce and evaluate a marketing plan for an organisation ................................................7
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is a general process which is concerned with the developing, promotion and
offering products for the purpose of satisfying the needs and wants of the customers in order to
build strong customer relationship with the customers of the company. Marketing function helps
the organisation to gain competitive advantage in the business environment (Ahmad, 2018).
Marks & Spencer is a UK based company which was founded in 1884 deals in the variety of
retail products such as home essentials, food products and a range of clothing outfits. The above
report includes the roles, importance and the various marketing used by the company to excel in
the market.
MAIN BODY
TASK 1
P1 Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function.
The marketing performs different roles and responsibilities for performing the operations
of the business for the purpose of generating high revenue along with the profit so that it leads to
success. Below are some of the roles and responsibilities explained:
 Attainment of customer satisfaction: The marketing department is concerned with
identifying the needs and wants of the customers by analysing their feedback obtained
through the intermediaries. This information is used by the marketing department for
making the improvements in the products and services so that the needs and wants of the
customers would be fulfilled. The department should focussed on making the
advancements in the product as per the changing business environment as with the
change, the expectations of the customers also get increased (Al Badi, 2019). In the
context of Marks & Spencer, the organisation is getting the data from the outlets through
their feedback system so that the department can get to know about the shortcomings in
the products and services being offered by the company to their customers which helps
them to make strategies to make improvements in the products and services.
 Promotional strategies: The department is involved in making the business strategies
for the promotion of the products and services based on the analysis of the potential
customers so that promotion decisions can be taken which generally includes promotion
method, target customers, budget allocation etc. In the regard of Marks & Spencer, the
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organisation are promoting its products and services on the various platforms such as TV
ads, search engine optimization, print advertising etc. which helps the organisation to
attract a large number of customers to the company's products and services.
 Brand Building: The department is engaged in developing the image of the company at
the market place in the eyes of the customers which helps the organisation to build its
brand through a range of high quality products and services which are being sold to the
customer. Building a brand is essential for the organisation as it helps in retaining the
customers for a longer period of time (Avila-Robinson and Wakabayashi, 2018). In the
context of Marks & Spencer, the organisation is making efforts through providing
excellent after sales services for the purpose of building strong image among the
customers which helps the company to retain their customers for a longer period of time.
 Identification of target market: The department helps in the identification of the target
marketing by analysing the features of the product and evaluating that the product would
be suitable for which category of people. It helps the organisation to segment the market
and develop their marketing strategies for the purpose of promoting the products and
services to a large number of potential customers. In the context of Marks & Spencer,
there are different variety of products available to different target market which aids in
gaining competitive advantage for the company.
 Managing marketing budget: The department involves in raising funds for the
marketing operations and allotting the available funds for the purpose of promotional
campaigns, product development, market research and so other activities. It helps the
organisation to get the optimum utilization of the funds available in the organisation. The
marketing department of the Marks & Spencer allot its marketing budget to different
departments for the purpose of making effective marketing strategies which helps the
organisation to achieve higher financial results along with the satisfaction among the
customers of the organisation (Brown, Crosno and Tong, 2019).
 Maintaining relationship with intermediaries: The department is also involved in
developing a healthy relationship among the wholesalers, retailers and customers by
continuously dealing with them and providing relevant information to them which
increases the satisfaction among them in respect to the organisation. The marketing
department emphasize much on their suppliers and customers by providing timely
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information and benefits which helps the organisation to maintain good working
environment in the changing business environment.
 Pricing decision: Marketing department also helps in deciding the price of the products
by analysing the aspects such as competition from rivalry companies, demand in the
market, category of customer etc. The department should set the price to be competitive
so that it aids in getting more customers of the product which will eventually leads to
higher profits of the organisation (Caliskan, 2019).
 Segmentation decision: Marketing department decides about in which markets the
product should be placed for the purpose of being available to the customers so that they
can buy the products conveniently at their ease.
 Marketing channel: Marketing department also decides on the number of intermediaries
the organisation like to involve for the distribution of product to the final consumer. The
marketing department decides the intermediaries on the basis of budget which is being
available and the target customers which they are approaching. The number of
intermediaries depends on the size of the market, if there is large of customers for the
product then the company will go for higher number of intermediaries such as
wholesaler, retailer and jobber for the distribution of product.
P2 Explain how roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organisational context.
In the changing business environment, marketing department is the one who helps the
organisation to compete with the other companies. The marketing department of the Marks &
Spencer aids the other business department for the purpose of their functioning so that all the
department can work together. Below are the inter connection of different departments:
 Marketing and Human Resource department
Marketing department aids the functioning of the human resource department by
estimating the requirement of the personnel for performing the operations of the business. The
marketing department analyse the amount of work in involved in developing, communicating
and delivering value to customers and accordingly they plan the number of employees which are
required to perform those operations (Eletxigerra, Barrutia and Echebarria, 2018). so that the
human resource department can plan the activities of recruitment and selection for getting the
required skilled workforce for the organisation which will eventually raise the quality of the
work. Marks & Spencer is being benefited from this as through this the entity can perform its
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operation through the maximum efficiency by getting quality employees with a unique set of
skills \and knowledge which helps the organisation to gain higher profits for increasing the sales
of the organisation.
 Marketing and Finance department
Marketing department also aids the finance department for taking their decisions on a
range of aspects such as raising of funds, fund allocation etc. Marketing department provides
necessary information to the finance department such as funds needed for product development,
promotional campaigns etc. so that the finance department can accordingly raise the required
funds from a range of sources for the purpose of the fulfilment of the operations of the business.
The finance department of Marks & Spencer can effectively plan its funds by analysing the fund
requirement at various outlets by identifying the requirement of funds at each center (Hanzaee,
Sadeghian and Jalalian, 2019).
 Marketing and Information Technology department
Marketing department performs with the information technology department as it helps the
department to share the valuable market research information to the different departments of an
organisation to improve the aspects such as product innovation, getting the skilled employees
etc. Marketing department also provides necessary information such as product development
needs, customer base, market information etc. which helps the IT department to get certain
information which can be shared to the overall organisation.
 Marketing and Operations department
Marketing department helps the operations department by providing certain information
such as target market, number of workforce required, needs and wants of customers etc. It makes
them to plan their activities to approach their customers effectively to generate the leads for the
organisation.
Task 2
1) Compare the marketing mix of two different organisations to achieve business objectives:
Marketing mix deals with sets of actions and strategies regarding to promote brands and
product or any kind of services that an organisation wants to sale with a view to achieve its
objectives and tasks. Marketing mix basically refers to the technique and tactics related to how
the marketer will approach about their product by promoting and advertising into the market to
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reach the large customers base and attracting their focus towards the particular product and
services. Through the marketing mix company will attract their target customers ,marketing mix
consists of 7p's which are contributing in the course of marketing tactics which will explained in
terms of comparing two different company having a same industry type:
Basis Tesco M&S
Product Tesco provides lots of varieties of
product ,due to their multinational
retailing industry they cover almost
every aspect of product line such as
clothing department, electronics
services, groceries,
cosmetic ,stationary , foods, financial
services as well (Hoque, Hashim and
Azmi, 2018).
Mark and Spencer deals in a wide
range of covering all the group of
customers in relation to reach all the
maximum customer base line. They
are provider of clothing of all age
group women, men and kids, foot
wears ,bags and accessories and
deals in home décor and furnitures.
Place Tesco follow both the channel of
distribution as they are dealing in
offline and online marketing with a
view to handle the customers in
large ,have around 6810 stores all
over the world.
M&S is an international brand
having more than 1000 stores
operating all over world and almost
850 stores in UK and 50+ stores in
India, hey are having a channel of
both ways of distribution in offline
and online marketing.
People They are having almost 4,60000
employees working in the industry an
due to their large customer dealing
handling by employees working in it
will easily assist them this factor is a
They are dealing in 85000
employees working in this industry
for a long term goals and attainment
of large number of customers
catering .
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major contrast of their success.
Price Tesco follows cost leadership strategy
to set the price of their products by
which they keep low price of their as
low as possible without compromising
to the quality.
M&S follows competitive based
pricing strategies because of they
have large number of competitors.
Process Process is a set of activities that has
been performed to fulfil the need and
demand of customers thus Tesco cares
all the process of dealing with their
customer's.
M&S always make sure that their
products are always available in the
stores for that retailers specify the
level of inventory as that they
balance the storage of products.
Promotion Tesco gets the helps in terms of
promotion as they have the strong
brand image (Okumus and Cetin,
2018) .
M&S uses various channel to
promote their product and services
by social-media, newspaper.
Advertisement etc.
Physical evidence Tesco has the most effective logo and
colour that make it easy for the
customers to get attract towards the
product.
M&S sell their product by making
different and unique packaging that
makes their product different from
others.
This is the difference between two companies in respect of their 7p's in the market that shows
the difference between the working pattern of the two industry of promoting the brands and
products and the services . These are the base of these companies cause marketing mix refers to
the longer aspect of working pattern .
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Tactics are strategy which are considered as micro-tactics that will help the organisation in
making the objectives clear and specified the targets by achieving them in accordance of
particular period of time .The different tactics followed by Mark & Spencer are by STP and 4p's.
STP includes segmentation of the market with their working department and deal with
different strategies to build the growth and success of the company. M&S includes mass
marketing with the view to cover large target market by fulfil the needs and requirement
generation in the market scenario. Segment of market depends upon the working structure of a
company by inducing the strategy to formulate it (Perreault, 2018). These are the sources which
are necessary in any industry likewise in Marks and Spencer the main focus of company is to
deals the different age group customer by analysing the market what sort of products that are
trends, customer preferences and the value on to which the company serves its customers its
comprises with the brand and image of the company as M&S are indulge in the activity of
serving with both online and offline mode the major role is to define the target market to whom
they will cater and on what intensity is the product will flow in the market it should be clearly
defined by the strategy. They are working on some of the basic tactics plans are positioning and
targeting of the market the market they play an important role in establishing the growth and
determine the market level by improving the efficiency of performance with channelising the
goals and target as a retailing market M&S has work on their positioning approach to because it
will decide the branding image of any company and a physical evidence for the customer's too.
TASK 3
P4) Produce and evaluate a marketing plan for an organisation
Marketing plan is basically a blue print that is required to develop and design various
marketing strategies in clear manner so that rate of an organisation to make profitable change is
considered in sustained mode.
M&S positioning defines the company image and their goodwill into the market, by
initiating the branding image across the countries they are dealing in retail outlet or stores which
are having their own basic platform and these stores are properly defines the sanitizer product
value in respect of the customers and retain them for longer period cause of their brand image.
7P's under M&S are :
Strategies:
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Segmentation: It is a process by M&S deals with properly categorized segment of
customer to whom they are catering, its a strategy which involves the differentiation of a group
according to the target base on which these company will work and comprises of age group,
gender, population growth on demographic manner, sex (Sharma, Ahuja and Alavi, 2018). In
context of M&S they are having the segmentation on a particular basis which are catering of
customers with all age group.
Targeting: It is a process by which M&S will work on their specific target base it
involves to cater maximum number of customer in today scenario due to pandemic platform like
internet and social media application are the platform onto which more customer are available
and they will reach to their choices of product or services in respect of the Mark and Spencer.
Positioning: As the multinational company in the retailing industry they are more
emphasis on platform on which they are serving their customer like online and offline these are
the important channel of distributing product for the this industry as they are having most of their
stores in UK and its necessary for them to establish standard product as per the brand image.
Tactics
Product: This relates with the company product or servicing which are offering by them
into market and what sort of product line they are dealing are the base of any market .In context
of M&S they are dealing in the product like clothing, bags ,accessories and footwear so they are
catering in different product line which relates with retail industry type. They have launched a
new product of sanitizer as most of the audience get used to of it and it enhance the market
attractiveness by which ability to gain higher competitive advantage and advancement both get
enhanced in systematic manner.
Promotion: The M&S chooses both digital as well as platform to launch the new product
and tackles the advertising and promotional activities at there as well . These industry work on
the basic principle of doing the promotion on the basis of technological advancement and any
kind of activities which are concerned with the proper strategies formations ,promotions are
giving advertisement on the social media and on particular websites.
Price: M&S because of their multinational brand and having the brand image ,they are
dealing in standard price this will remain same as customer are more emphasis on branding of
the product due to the product quality it will generates more option to the customer but pricing
strategies of the industry will change according to the market scenario(Uncles, 2018) .
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Place: M&S are offering their products and services with a medium of online and offline
marketing in which they deals their customer and also generates sources form here to achieve the
maximum target and retailing stores offers direct services to their customer base .
People: M&S are focuses on all age group with having different product according to the
requirement , basically they are the retail industry having lots of product line according to the
customer is that comprises of clothing and accessories .
Process: This are related with the process on which the company work on platform like
distributing from the retail end and provide the appropriate team into the market by initiating in
the working structure of the organisation this will leads to the employees retention too .
Physical evidence: To attract the customers, M&S are working on the physical outlet by
product packaging that will help the customer to go for the accurate brand product and value will
be certain on that , labelling and tags of product brand will also attract the customers .
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above report that marketing essential is a basic
fundamental that is followed by the business in order to maintain clear and sustained level of
modifications as with this long term success and development is attained manner. In this
marketing has performed different roles and responsibilities that is interrelated with the different
functional units. Furthermore, report consist of comparison in between different organisation that
is required to achieve marketing objectives as with support of marketing mix. Moreover,
sustained marketing plan is developed through which adequate knowledge developed that assist
to gain higher competitive advantage.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ahmad, N., 2018. Toward advancing debates on Islamic marketing: a renewed
perspective. Journal of Islamic Marketing.
Al Badi, K., 2019. Implementation of marketing concept and organizational culture in SMEs in
Al Buraimi–Oman. Benchmarking: An International Journal.
Avila-Robinson, A. and Wakabayashi, N., 2018. Changes in the structures and directions of
destination management and marketing research: A bibliometric mapping study, 2005–
2016. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management. 10. pp.101-111.
Brown, J.R., Crosno, J.L. and Tong, P.Y., 2019. Is the theory of trust and commitment in
marketing relationships incomplete?. Industrial Marketing Management. 77. pp.155-
169.
Caliskan, A., 2019. Applying the right relationship marketing strategy through big five
personality traits. Journal of Relationship Marketing. 18(3). pp.196-215.
Eletxigerra, A., Barrutia, J.M. and Echebarria, C., 2018. Place marketing examined through a
service-dominant logic lens: A review. Journal of Destination Marketing &
Management. 9. pp.72-84.
Hanzaee, K.H., Sadeghian, M. and Jalalian, S., 2019. Which can affect more? Cause marketing
or cause-related marketing. Journal of Islamic Marketing.
Hoque, M.E., Hashim, N.M.H.N. and Azmi, M.H.B., 2018. Moderating effects of marketing
communication and financial consideration on customer attitude and intention to
purchase Islamic banking products. Journal of Islamic Marketing.
Okumus, B. and Cetin, G., 2018. Marketing Istanbul as a culinary destination. Journal of
Destination Marketing & Management.9.pp.340-346.
Perreault, W.D., 2018. Essentials of marketing. New York: Mc Graw Hill.
Sharma, R., Ahuja, V. and Alavi, S., 2018. The future scope of netnography and social network
analysis in the field of marketing. Journal of internet commerce. 17(1). pp.26-45.
Uncles, M.D., 2018. Directions in higher education: A marketing perspective. Australasian
Marketing Journal (AMJ). 26(2). pp.187-193.
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