Marketing Essentials Report: Your Destination and Competitor Analysis

This report delves into the marketing essentials for a transportation company, using Your Destination as a case study. It begins with an introduction highlighting the significance of marketing in reaching consumers and promoting products. Task 1 focuses on the roles and responsibilities of the marketing function, detailing how the marketing department coordinates with other departments and manages branding, campaigns, and market research. Task 2 examines the interrelation between the marketing department and other functional areas like finance, operations, human resources, inventory management, and customer service. Task 3 provides a comparative analysis of marketing mix elements between Your Destination and National Express, discussing product, price, place, and promotion strategies. The report concludes with a marketing plan for Your Destination, summarizing key strategies and recommendations. The report emphasizes the importance of understanding consumer needs, competitor analysis, and effective marketing strategies for business success.

Marketing Essentials

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1. Roles and responsibilities of the marketing function of Your Destination...........................1
P2. Roles and responsibilities of the marketing with other functional area................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
P3. Comparison of Marketing Mix Elements.............................................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
P4. Marketing Plan for Your Destination...................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Marketing has become a crucial activity for the companies as this is the only way through
which organisations can reach to a large number of people in less period of time. This is the way
by which they promote their products and convince targeted consumers to buy it as there are
certain advantages attached to it. It can be said that this is a path for the firm which assist them in
reaching to the individuals which can be converted into the potential buyers (Forshier, 2012). But
to sell their products in the market they have to design a marketing campaigns which is unique
and creative and this can only happen if there is proper use of the marketing essentials. This
whole report will be dealing with various marketing strategies and platform which can be used to
attain the goals and objectives. For this the case scenario of Your Destination is taken which is a
newly established transportation company.
TASK 1
P1. Roles and responsibilities of the marketing function of Your Destination.
Manager who is involved in the selling process has important role to play in the firm as
they have to perform certain activities as the representative of the company. It is the marketing
department who has to coordinate and cooperate with the other other departments. It is the sales
area of the company who brings limelight to the products and services offered by the
organisation and at the same time they also increases the brand value in the market where they
are operating their business (Gertner, 2011). Through performing these duties organisation can
easily attain the goals and objectives which they have set. Following are the duties and
responsibility of the marketing department:-
Briefing and managing the brand:- It is the areas which has power to impact the
market share of the organisation as it assist them in creating a value in the market. They are
indulged in the activities where they are making employees aware that what are their role and
why they are here in the company (Fırat, 2013).
Conducting Campaign Management:- It is the responsibility of the marketing manager
to have full detail and inspection of the sales of almost each product. In this a person try to
collect all the necessary information and then compare that with the expenses of each division.
Budgets are provided by the financial department so that all the things can be done in time with
effective manner.
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Promotion of the Products:- The success of this company totally depends on the
operations of the marketing department and so they carry out the advertising campaigns for the
promotion of their products. They aim at creating awareness in the communities and puts their
vision of the consumer in the business strategy. Almost every new products should be there in
the newer market where they are thinking to expand.
Provide content for website:- Consumer feel easy in buying the products online so this
sector give them information about the services offered by Your Destination so that they can
easily order the services they want. They give them all the current data on the website of the
company.
Carrying out consumer and market research:- They have the duty to research and
develop the services through knowing the current trend in the market. The reason behind this is
that they are easily able to identify the fact that what is trending and what things to be produced
to attain the business goals through attracting customers towards them (Jones and Rowley,
2011).
Overseeing outside vendors and agencies:- It is the role of the marketing manager to
increase the productivity of the firm. So they set strategy for the company to reach the targets.
Sales Report:- There can be improvement in the sales performance of the company if
they brings quality products for the customers but for this there has to be coordination between
the departments.
Knowing potential market:- Knowing identifying the current and future market they
can predict the market condition and for this all will be based on the elements like age, per capita
income and interest of each person.
Budgeting:- They are the people who give information to the finance department about
the cost of the advertising campaigns which will be carried out for the promotion of the business
products. It is an important task as finance of the company act as assets which has been acquired
through different ways so it should be managed properly (Joshi, 2012).
Assessing external factors:- There are certain factors which are available in the outside
environment so they needs to be assessed so that the company does face any losses. There are
frequent variation in these so it becomes necessary to keep an attention on the changes which are
coming in these.
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Monitor Competition:- This thing has become important for the growth of the company
as there are lots of players who are dealing in the transportation segment so it is necessary to
know that what strategy is followed by them. It highlights their position in the market and give
them more insight.
Obstructing Repetitive task:- There are some operations which consumes lots of time
and money as they are done again and again. So they have to adopt the single task and eliminate
the repetitive one.
Consumer Review:- For any change and to achieve more sales it is necessary that they
should take feedback from the consumer on regular basis so that they be aware about the things
which has to do to attract more clients. It is basically a deciding factor which informs the Your
Destination about the loopholes in their services (Kennedy and Parsons, 2014).
All the above mentioned points highlights the duties and responsibilities of the marketing
department in the company. Marketing area of the firm can help Your Destination in attaining
marketing goals and business objectives as they are developing promotional activities for
different media platforms.
P2. Roles and responsibilities of the marketing with other functional area.
It has been analysed that the marketing department has interrelation with the other
departments of the firm so a coordination is required between them to gain maximum output.
Without the contribution of the marketing department no department can perform their duties
effectively. Functional, operational, human resource are some of them and the marketing
department with the help of the customer views can attain the goals.
Finance Department:- It is the duty of the selling department to set coordinate with the
marketing so that they can know budget which is required. It is necessary that whatever budget
has been allocated for the particular task should be used properly by all the areas. Whatever
profit is obtained is distributed equally among the department and it is the combine effort which
has made this thing possible (Khan and Adil, 2013). It is the finance department who allocate the
money so they have to look for the sources from where they can earn money so for that the
marketing department have to build strategy to target a particular type of people thus increasing
their productivity and profitability.
Operational Department:- This is the department who is involved in production area so
they require that someone should give them information about the current trends in market and
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according to it they will modify their services. Marketing department who acts as a mediator
between both company and the consumer are well aware of the concept that what are the demand
of the customers and how they can be satisfied. After that they set a deadline in which they have
to perform all their activities. Their brand image will go up if they provide transportation
facilities according to the demands of the people.
Human Resource Department:- It is the HR department of the company who has the
responsibility of managing human resources available to the company. If they have to achieve
the sakes target HR area of the company has to motivation the staff and give them certain
training so that they cope up with the business environment and put more efforts in it (Lehmann
and et. al. 2016). They regularly carry out organisational audit to know if there is dispute among
employees or not and it is the marketing department who give them the information that how
much employees are required for performing any work and according to the information they
recruit new staff for them.
Inventory Chain Management:- They are the suppliers for the organisation who pro
bides them the raw material and that raw material is converted into finished goods. They are the
middle men in the business activities and they holds a key position as it depends on them that
how they brings a competitive advantage. Whatever goods are coming in the company should be
checked and their detail so that it could be ensured that whether that thing is beneficial or not.
Customer Service:- This is the crucial department who take care of the demands and
requirement of the consumers so they have the duty to address them and try to resolve any issue
coming in their way. So whatever demand they have should be fulfilled and through the market
survey they modify their services with this (Fazlollahtabar, Aghasi and Forte, 2012). If they gain
success in this they can easily attain customer satisfaction and with this they will able to improve
their rank in the market.
It was an crucial analysis as through it they can know which are the department where
more emphasis has to be put on and if the organisation performs well there there will be increase
in the market share. Through analysing the scenario of Your Destination it could be said that
sales and distribution here has major part in the success.
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TASK 2
P3. Comparison of Marketing Mix Elements.
Marketing mix is the things which are used during developing any marketing plan for the
products and services. In this there are seven factors which are included in this that is products,
place, price, promotion, people, process and physical evidence. There will be comparison
between Your Destination and National Express (Chamorro-Mera, Miranda and Rubio, 2014) .
Both the companies deal in transportation and both are focusing on delivering quality products so
that they can increase their market share in UK. But it might happen that they are using different
strategies according to their will and decisions.
 Product:- There are various products and services which are offered to the clients like
they offer packets services, mail services, delivery of the raw materials from one place to
another. At one hand Your Destination is dedicated to provide quality services so that
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Illustration 1: 7Ps of Marketing Mix, 2017

they increase their customer service and on the other side National Express is focusing on
services at 24*7.
 Price:- Your Destination has the fixed prices and they are relevant also, no bargaining is
done with the clients. Before setting up the prices they include all the costs which has
been incurred during the processes. It could be said that Your Destination is focusing on
cost leadership strategies. National Services has to maintain a suitable prices and make
their customer believe that they offer more services than the prices which has been given
to them.
 Place:- They have set their offices at the places which are in urban areas which helps the
transportation for small business and family members. On the other side they have also
using internet if anyone wants to avail their services they can give them a call on the
number they have provided on their website (Lovelock, 2011). National Express is
targeting the oil companies and the retail sector which is boosting their market.
 Promotion:- It is the source through which they market themselves in the market and
reach to their targeted customers. Your Destination is reaching to their clients and
customers through social media campaigns and other than this they are also giving ads on
television and billboards. National Express has brought certain PR strategies so that they
can maintain good relation with their customers and media partners. They regularly
organise certain promotional events in the cities of UK to show their presence in the
market.
 Process:- It is the way through which they deliver the services to their clients. So, they
make sure that they have quality and pace in their services so that the clients does not
have difficulty in anything. While packaging special equipments are used so that no
damages is done to the products of the clients and they also give free insurance to the
clients which creates a good image in the eyes of their clients. National Express has put
tracking device so that they can give real time information to their clients that at which
place there products has reached.
 People:- It is one of the extended mix of marketing which includes customers and the
employers. They try maintain good relation with the employees so that they can put
efforts in accomplishing any goals (Malhotra, 2015). Special training is provided to the
staff of Your Destination in order to train them that how they have to deal with the
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clients. On the other hand National Express has set a criteria that there will be different
teams for various tasks shows speciality in the operation.
 Physical Evidence:- There are certain things which are not seen so this is an advantage
for the companies, they can increase the cost of their transportation to increase their profit
margins.
TASK 3
P4. Marketing Plan for Your Destination.
Marketing plans are those plans which helps company to achieve its desired target in
available resources in specific time decided by it. Transportation industry needs proper research
plans and right marketing model to survive in this competitive environment for long run.
Marketing plan includes future plans either in the report form, graphical format, or power point
presentation which can demonstrates in easy way so that it will be understandable to every
managers. It helps in smooth running of business activities of transport industry (Ogunmokum
and Tang, 2012). Company should analyse internal and external factors to support its marketing
strategies and plans.
Mission of Company: To deliver courier packets properly and providing quality services to its
customers
Marketing objectives: Transport companies main objective is to minimise the delivery time in
transferring its products to its customer's
Basic objectives: The main aim of Your Destination courier services is to reach more and more
customer's and also to open the source where they can share their issues and problems.
Business Aim: My Destination has basically three business aims:
 Expand their business in the place, where the companies branches are not available.
 It aims to increase its services more than 25%
 It wants to be popular on those places where people don't knows about it.
Strategic objectives: My Destination has to increase its market base through expanding its
business all around the world.
Situational analysis: There are many present and other factors which are influencing MY
Destinations performance, these factors can be explained below:
Strength Weaknesses
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 Cost reduction policies usage
 Providing high quality services and
facilities
 Best offers in the season's
 Enough resources to generate high
sales and revenues
 Expertise and professionals available
for developing long term strategies and
policies
 Positive feedback from customer's end
 Doesn't have enough reach at several
areas
 Due to critical situation and crisis
company able to make this current
position
 Firm is incapable to increase the
employee services and development
 It is only customer centric, thus
ignoring employee centric factors
which is backbone of company
Opportunities
 It can increased its revenue by
expanding to the places where they
don't reach yet
 Modification of services is possible for
improving its services qualities
 External sources of transportation can
be utilized to reduce delivery time.
Threats
 There are many new entrants which are
providing same services at low cost
 There are several variations in the
currency which also affects fluctuations
in its price in other country.
Main Competitors:- There are various companies who are giving a tough fight to Your
Destination and the organisation which is very close to them is National Express.
PESTLE Analysis:-
Political:- Brexit and unexpected results of national election has impacted the market
thus creating a crisis in the market. There will be new visa norms and transportation between the
UK and European countries thus making the market down of the New Destination as they have
to increase the transportation rate.
Economic:- Taxation is one the factors which is affecting Your Destination most and
other than this increase in the fuel rate as made transportation expansion. To keep up the profits
company have no other option rather than increase their fares.
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Social:- The habits and tastes of people are changing as it is observed that in UK people
travelling through buses has increased by 4% in the year. This can be a good sign for Your
Destination.
Technological:- Your destination is developing new technologically advanced buses to
comfort the travel of people. They are also giving free Wi-fi services to passengers who are
travelling with them.
Legal and Environment:- There are certain laws which are impacting the business of
Your Destination and some of them are transport vehicle emission laws. Front facing cameras
has become necessary to halt the speeding motorists.
Target Market Segmentation:- Through the segmentation they are emphasizing on
placing the factors at right position and trying to concentrate on geographical segmentation.
There target customers are the youths and the small companies who wants to avail the services of
transportation thus transporting their raw material from suppliers to the production unit (Baker
and Saren, 2016). Following are the two strategies which can be followed by them:-
 Market Development:- In order to increase their revenues and capital they can acquire
small transportation companies and after that use certain promotional techniques to build
their market in better way.
 Market Penetration:- They are giving discounts on certain services if someone avail
there services for more than 2 times. They can focus on the sustaining the current clients
which will saves their time and the operational costs.
Budgets:- The company has to execute the things in better way so that they can prepare
budgets according to the needs and demands. They have to analyse all the necessary activities
and then estimate their cost of implementation so for this manager has to take care of all the
factors. So that they can make things better and effective (Brady, 2014). This way they will
easily able to carry the advertising campaigns at different media platforms as half of the budget
has been given to them so that they cannot maximum output can be obtained from it.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been summarised that for promotion of any products or
brands marketing is essential. There are various marketing functions which involves distribution,
selling, product services management, management of the market information obtained from
different sources and the final is the promotional. The marketing mix can be analysed through
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