Marketing Essentials: Roles, Mix, and Plan Evaluation at Primark

This report explores the essentials of marketing with a focus on Primark, an Irish fast-fashion retailer. It covers the roles and responsibilities of marketing, the interrelationship between marketing and other organizational units, and the application of the marketing mix to achieve business objectives. Key areas discussed include gathering and analyzing market information, marketing planning, product designing and development, standardization and grading, packaging and labeling, branding, customer support services, pricing, promotion, and transportation. The report also examines the interrelationship between marketing and other units like HR, finance, and research and development. Finally, it evaluates how Primark uses the marketing mix (product, price, place, promotion) to meet its business goals, comparing its strategies with those of competitors like Marks & Spencer.

MARKETING
ESSENTIALS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION- .........................................................................................................................4
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................4
P 1 Roles and Responsibilities of Marketing- .......................................................................4
P 2 Interrelationship between marketing and other units ......................................................6
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................8
P 3 Marketing mix to the marketing planning process so that they can achieve the objectives
of business..............................................................................................................................8
LO 3...............................................................................................................................................12
P 4 Marketing plan for an organization................................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION-
Marketing is the study of promoting and selling products through advertising and research and
development to satisfy the consumers. Primark is an Irish fast fashion retailer with operations in
Europe and the United States. This report covers questions such as roles and responsibilities of
marketing, Interrelationship between marketing and other units of an organization, ways in
which organizations can apply the marketing mix to the marketing planning process so that they
can achieve the objectives of business. This theory covers questions such as Roles and
Responsibilities of Marketing, Interrelationship between marketing and other units of an
organization, Ways in which organizations can apply the marketing mix to the marketing
planning process so that they can achieve the objectives of business, Evaluate a basic marketing
plan for an organization.
LO 1
P 1 Roles and Responsibilities of Marketing-
Gather and analyse the market information-
Primark finds out the demand in the market and what will satisfy the customer and according to
that they take various decisions which also results in marketing of products successfully. In this
stage Primark tries to focus on the motive behind the purchase that is what is the reason that he
or she is buying he product is it a necessity or just so that they can cope up with trends. After
completing all the analysis and obtaining the information, they pack, promote and label the brand
according to that (Folinas and Fotiadis, 2017).
Marketing Planning-
Primark makes plans so that they can increase their production and sales and so that they can
increase the promotion of their product. For instance if a product is popular in one country and
organization want to increase it to the other parts of the world and for this Primark plans before
executing an action.
Product designing and development-
This function focuses on designing and development of the product. Primark makes decisions
which fulfils the quality of standards that are required in shaping and designing of the product so
that they can design the product more attractively which seeks the interest of customers and
better than the product of competitors.

Standardization and Grading-
Process of Standardization refers to production of goods which are needed to be match with
standards which are predetermined. Primark uses it so that they can achieve consistency and
uniformity in the products.
Primark grades their products so that they can divide the products
according to the suitable groups. This method is mainly used in clothing and agricultural
products.
Packaging and Labelling-
Primark believes in them as they both are the main pillars of marketing. Not only they provide
protection to their products but the company also uses them to promote the products so that it can
attract the consumers at the time of purchase. Some customers believes that if the packaging of
the product is good then quality will also be good and it has helped many companies to achieve
success (Zimmerman and Blythe, 2017).
Branding-
This process helps in differentiating the product from the product of competitors. It also helps
Primark to gain loyalty of customers as well as promoting the brand. Important decision left for
Primark is to name the product same or different for every products.
Customer Support Services-
Satisfying the customer is the main key role of marketing. That is why Primark provides a good
and decent after sales support such as handling the complains of customer, keeping record of
information of customers. These services help Primark to grow and retent the no. of customers
they serve.
Pricing of Products-
Primark has divides its range of products and set their price according to the target customers. As
good or bad pricing has a great influence on the demand of the products. That is why before
setting the price Primark conducts a full analysis of the market in which they are going to serve
and what type of products to the type of customers they are going to target.
Promotion-
Primark uses this aspect as it provides customers with information of their products. It also tells
them about the features of the product and its description. Primark uses various promotional

tools such as publicity, sales promotion, personal selling and advertising. Primark has set a
different budget for different departments so that it doesn't disturb the marketers.
Transportation-
Every company has to use this aspect and so does Primark because goods are produced
somewhere and sold at different places so that goods can be reached to final consumers. This
method is not used only for delivering finished goods but also for delivering raw materials which
help to convert a product a finished good.
P 2 Interrelationship between marketing and other units
As many of us know resources are no longer maintained only by HR. they don't focus on
departments such as recruitment development or engagement. Now both the department that is
marketing and HR handle the operations of the organization. Earlier one used to focus on the
external factors of the organization and the latter one was concerned with handling the internal
forces of the organization. That is why Primark studied that what is beneficial for them because
department of marketing was only able to communicate their brand to employees but now after
joining hands and working together they are able to communicate the brand to their employees.
With the help of tools like social and technological they are emphasizing on making a message
that is universal, which means that it will help the company to communicate their brand with
consumers, employees and applicants altogether. Working together of both the departments has
been beneficial for the company as it has helped Primark to build their brand and promote it.
After this step taken by Primark many other companies are taking it as they have understood the
importance of communication of the brand to not only consumers but to employees too. Primark
is seeing great results and outcomes after taking this step.
Through the help of this step both the departments can make the
employees help to become a brand ambassador so that when it comes to marketing it will
strengthen the task of marketers which is to spread the message of the brand to their consumers
and for HR they get help of the team of marketing in a way when the department of HR is
looking for employees who have potential and they also help HR in adapting different
communication methods.
Marketing with Finance-

They both are the pillars in establishing a brand and if any company thinks that they are not
needed to be integrated then it is gonna be hard for them to survive and build their brand in the
market. Primark has integrated both the aspects together as they wanted to achieve great results
and outcomes for the future of the company. Finance includes concerns which are related to
issues such as profit, costs, growth in sales, project feasibility and the performance of the
company at the end of the year etc. whereas marketing includes concerns which are related to
such issues such as target of sales, sales against their competitors, volume of sales, mining of
data, publicity and advertising. Primark focuses on publicity and advertising because without it
sales of the company won't improve and without that there will be no improvement in profits so
the centre of point is that if Primark doesn't focuses on sales then there will be no profit which
will lead to dissolve the whole function of finance and it goes on the other way around too
without finance even marketing of the brand is not possible. To check and set the targets of sales
and prices of product and to compensate people of sales a strong base of finance is required to
handle these situations. These matters always have a difference of opinion but they always have
to go together as they cannot function in isolation they can only function when they both are
interrelated that is why Primark has set different departments but are allowed to work together so
that they can achieve the goals (Umbach, 2017)..
Marketing in interrelationship with research and development-
When both the elements work together it makes the work easier for Primark which results in
getting more productive results. This is a powerful competitive tool for the company. No
function will reach to its potential without the coordination and cooperation of others. In some
situations R&D can learn the skills of marketing and marketing can art the skills of R&D that is
they will need to work with each other. Marketing has way too much power that is why Primark
uses it at the end. By R&D Primark knows the report of marketing and sales and from that the
company knows that how the technologies will influence the customers. Primark is considered to
be one of the best because they think of their customers as the companies who put these two
elements to work together are considered to be a strong and competitive company.

LO 2
P 3 Marketing mix to the marketing planning process so that they can achieve the objectives of
business.
Product- Primark is one of the retail brands which is currently leading the market. They offer
multi brand products with range of products for men and women such as their accessories for
adults and children, their footwear, lingerie, hosiery, home wear etc. Most of the customers of
the company are women whereas in case of Marks & Spencer most of the customers who prefer
their brand is men. That is why focus of Primark is more on women. Apart from this their focus
is not just specific for products but also for the space of shop and strategies used in marketing.
Primark only deals in multi brand retail of clothing, products of make up and tech products. The
company also as few sub brands such as Opia, Atmosphere and Cedarwood estate whereas
Marks and Spencer has a variety of product line under different brand names. For instance apart
from clothing they have Food Hall for FMCG consumable items, they also have their own beer
and wines which Primark doesn't. The company keeps focus on engaging the customers by
maintaing the consistency of new arrivals so that they can keep them curious about following the
trends of market and to cope up with the people of their neighbourhood and that will help the
people to improve their lifestyle too. Primark follows the strategy of limited stock edition so that
they can attract the target customers more and more and it helps the company to increase the
perceived value of the brand as they want to give the customers feel of exclusivity. Marks and
Spencer believes that their quality of clothing will attract the customers. (Boschetti and
Massaron, 2015)
Price-
This aspect states the comparison between the pricing of Primark and Marks & Spencer. With no
doubt Marks & Spencer offers a superior and premium quality whereas Primark offers a
reasonable quality according to the price. That is the reason behind high charging of Marks &
Spencer and low charging of price for Primark. Primark follows the trends which are simple and
they manufactures the size of dresses which are common to most of the people and that is how
the company match up with the economies of scale so that they can offer their products in low
prices. With the help of Amazon and their strategy of dynamic prizing Primark has been able to
set the price of their products on the basis of the behaviour and buying patterns of the people
who buy online. On the other hand Marks & Spencer follows the latest trend and gives the

customer a feel of self satisfaction they set the price of their products according to the latest trend
and material of the cloth in the market.
Place-
This aspect is concerned with the distribution strategy of Primark and Marks & Spencer.
Primark positioned their brands exclusively for tweens that is the age group of people who age in
between 16 to 30 years. As the company offers their products in the range of low pricing these
type of age group are suitable for the company because people who are earning high and are
above that level of age won't prefer the products of Primark. On the other hand Marks &
Spencer have positioned themselves for the age group of people who are above 30 as people who
are young cannot afford to buy their products. Both the companies have more than hundreds of
stores but the hold of Marks & Spencer in UK is on another level. They have a strong channel of
distribution with more than 400 stores in Europe with a lot of stores in other countries as well.
Now they are looking to expand the base of their customers. The customers of Primark feels they
are wearing poor quality whereas customers of Marks & Spencer feels that they are wearing
high quality products.
Promotion-
Primark comes under those brands who don't use the medium of advertisements through TV,
newspapers, social media etc. the company only relies on the strategy of word of mouth. There
could be many reasons for this as the company may have the pressure of unskilled workers,
advertisers and digital marketers because it is a budget oriented company. On the other hand
Marks & Spencer uses various tools for promoting their products and brand such as through print
media, ads on TV, ads on mobile, and through other social media campaign. The company also
promote their brand on their own website for announcing offers to attract people. (Hair Jr and
et.al., 2015)
People-
Primark has employed and maintained a staff of people around 70,000 employees and their pay
scale is similar to companies such as Zara and H&M even though they are high range clothing
brand. On the other hand Marks & Spencer has employed people over 85,000 which is the
highest in this industry and among all the competitors (Le and Karlsson, 2017).
Process-

Primark has a distribution channel with strong force and movement but in time of peak hours it
disrupts the services which are needed to done for customers. The company needs to improve
their customer service, training of employees etc. whereas in the case of Marks & Spencer they
have maintained and prepared their team for such factors so when the time arises it doen not
disturbs the flow of goods.
Physical Evidence-
Primark faces strategy of low pricing as a downside but they have several stores for presenting
their physical evidence same applies in the case of Marks & Spencer as both the companies deal
in the same line of industry which tells that their physical evidence can only be seen either
through their stores or their presence in online market. Primark has more than 300 stores in
Europe where as Marks & Spencer has more than 600 stores.
Marketing mix of Primark brand /company which cover 4ps product,price,place,promotion.
And explain the Primark marketing strategy. The 4p is enplane the pricing, advertising,
distribution strategies used by the company .
Primark marketing mix
product:
Primark is one of the leading brand in the market Primark is multi brand product company .
Many products are available in the Primark. Primark has a large range of product from men
wear , woman wear, children wear, accessories,footwear,lingerie, home wear,hosiery and much
more. This company is focused on woman wear. just because woman buyers are more interested
in this brand . (Rowley, 2017)
This company is wide offering men's wear,woman wear,kid wear,home accessories,beauty
products,tech product etc. it also has a sub brands like opia, cedarwood estate and atmosphere in
its armour as well. Primark use product mix for increase the productivity.
Price: Pricing strategy is very important for every organization . Primark also has a pricing
strategy.

Pricing is very important for the competition market. The company produces simple trends
manufactures the most popular sizes and therefore utilize economic of scale to pull the prices
down for the end users .pricing is the part of marketing mix . Pricing is helpful in increase the
customer base. Pricing is important for Primark. (Rancati, Gordini and Capatina, 2016)
Promotion: promotion is most important part of every organization . Promotion increase the
customer base promotion increase the selling . Promotion attract the customer . Promotion is the
key objective of the every organizational. promotion has a different modes digital marketing,
advertising, newspaper, television,roadshow etc but few brands of Primark which does not
resort to any sort of marketing . It will be use word of mouth marketing. because the reason
behind it lack of skilled workers,digital marketers,advertisers,etc .another reason of lack of
flexibility by the top management to resort to any kind of change in promotion strategy. Primark
use promotion strategy.
Primark has provide clothes to people at lower price.
Place:
the distribution strategy of Primark Primark distribution according to the age group the age
group between 16-30 years. Primark has hundred of stores across UK., USA, Ireland , Europe.
Prime location of these stores like Manchester, Liverpool, Cardiff,Belfast,Oxford street, new
castle etc .
Primark has a strong distribution channel with more than 300 stores in Europe and lot of similar
kind of stores in other countries. Primark also expand in Germany, Spain and France etc. and
also increase the customer base. Primark also offer product at low cost. Customer perception
about this brand is that low price means poor quality. (SHUKLA, 2016)
Primark has 70000 employees, Primark has strong distributive channel ,which timely delivery to
the product to the customer. Primark biggest physical evidence are their stores .product price is
low but on the online platform shipping charge will be higher than the product price so price
will be increase. that will be affect to the customer. when customer will purchase the single
product. it is beneficial only on that case when customer will purchase bulk of the stock .

So the user can say four p is very important part of the every organization
LO 3
P 4 Marketing plan for an organization
Mission – Mission of Primark is to provide high quality products to their prospective customers
in the industry they deal in and with low prices so that they feel value for money when they buy
their products. From the statement that was made by Primark it can be clearly understood that
Primark is pursuing the strategy of leadership and cost which means they are committed to
providing products which are offered at low prices and which offers them high quality. (Stern
and Porr, 2017)
Vision – The vision of the company is to follow the statement of mission and to focus on new
promotional strategies with supplying the goods at affordable prices with high quality.
Objective - To increase the sale of new product by 20% till the end of year 2020
To enhance consumer experience by 10% in upcoming 6 months
To increase profitability by 20% till the end of year 2021. (Abbate, S., 2017)
CONCLUSION
From the above studies it has been concluded that Primark offers quality products at affordable
prices though their quality does not match with that of their competitors. The winning point of
the company is their method of pricing. If they charge high prices for these products then they
will loose their buyers. That is why company targets to age group of people who are young and
under the age of 16 to 30 years because people who are older and earn a large amount of money
won't buy the products of Primark. This report covers issues where they are competing with the
competitors and whether or not they have the competitive advantage there. This point of
competition was clearly explained by using the 7 P theory between Marks & Spencer and
Primark. Mission, vision and objectives of the company are completed under this report and
interrelation with marketing is done in relation with finance, research and development and in