Analyzing McVitie's Marketing Strategies: A Comprehensive Report

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MARKETING ESSENTIALS
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Contents
LIST OF FIGURES.............................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................. 4
LO1.................................................................................................................................................5
P1 AND M1................................................................................................................................ 5
P2............................................................................................................................................... 7
M2............................................................................................................................................. 8
LO2............................................................................................................................................... 10
P3............................................................................................................................................. 10
M3............................................................................................................................................13
LO3............................................................................................................................................... 14
P4 AND M4.............................................................................................................................. 14
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................... 21
REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................22
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: McVitie’s Logo.................................................................................................................4
Figure 2: Marketing Mix...............................................................................................................11
Figure 3: SMART Objectives.........................................................................................................16
Figure 4: STP Process................................................................................................................... 18
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INTRODUCTION
Marketing is one of the most crucial activities performed in an organization through which the
organization is able to develop awareness among the market regarding its products and
services (Blythe and Martin, 2019). It covers all those activities through which the firm is able to
connect with the customers so that they could buy the products and services provided by the
organization.
McVitie’s is a UK based snack food brand which is known for its best-selling biscuits across the
world. Incorporated in the year 1830, McVitie’s has its headquarters in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The brand is named after its founder Robert McVitie (McVitie’s, 2019). The brand is owned by
United Biscuits who has its operations spread in about 120 countries. Under the brand, the
best-selling products are Jaffa Cakes, chocolate digestives, Rich tea, and Hobnobs.
Figure 1: McVitie’s Logo
[Source: McVitie’s, 2019]
Through this report, the importance of the marketing function in a firm has been analyzed and
its relation with other departments has been studied. The report would also cover the
implementation of 7p's through which the firm is assisted in meeting its business objectives and
overviews different tactics through which its implementation is assisted. The report would also
cover the preparation of a marketing plan through which the objectives of the organization can
be met and the organization can lead to success.
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LO1
P1 AND M1
Marketing is one of the basic functions performed within an organization so that its ultimate
objective can be attained (Chernev, 2018). The function of marketing promotes the products
and services of the organization through different strategies so that the product and services
provided by the organization can be easily accepted by the customers and the firm can face the
competition in the market.
McVitie’s is an organization which is known for providing its products with the highest
efficiency. Through the competition faced by McVitie’s is very rigid, the marketing function
allows the organization to compete against the competitors. The function of marketing plays a
very vital role in an organization (Baker, 2016). For functioning efficiently in an organization, the
marketing function performs various roles and responsibilities through which the marketing
objective of the firm can be attained. The different roles and responsibilities that the marketing
function has played in McVitie’s are as follows:
 Gathering Market Information
Of the various responsibilities held by the marketing function in McVitie’s, one of the
various crucial roles is gathering information from the market so that it can be used to
take relevant marketing decisions (Baker and Saren, 2016). Through the marketing
function, McVitie’s is able to gather the current information of the market so that it can
strategize its marketing plan to attain higher attraction form the customers and provide
them with the products the organization. To survive in the business environment,
McVitie’s is required to be updated with the current market information so that it can
use it for the benefit of the organization.
 Forming a Marketing Strategy
Development of marketing strategy is also an important role played by the marketing
function McVitie’s through which the organization is able to stand against the tough
competition faced by the firm in the market (Bagozzi et al., 2018). It is required for
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McVitie’s to develop an attractive marketing strategy so that it can convince the
customers in buying its products and services and ensure that they are satisfied with
what is being provided to them. To sustain in the rigid competition faced by McVitie’s in
the market, developing an effective marketing strategy is one of the most crucial tasks
which has to be efficiently performed by the marketing function of the firm.
 Understanding the Needs of Customers
It is very essential for the marketing function of McVitie’s to understand the desires of
the consumers so that it can develop products accordingly. The products developed by
McVitie’s are in accordance with the changing needs of the customers so that they get a
one-stop solution for all their requirements and do not have to shift towards the
competitors for fulfilling their needs (Churchill, 2017). In the business environment of
McVitie’s, customers are considered to be a very essential element as they lead to the
profitability of the organization and thus, to know their needs and desires would let
McVitie’s in increasing its profitability.
 Reviewing the Market Trends
With the globalization of industries, the preferences of customers have been rapidly
changing because of which McVitie’s has to frequently examine the current trends so
that the customers can be served with the best of the opportunities (Moorman and Day,
2016). The trends in the global business environment have been frequently changing
and thus, the marketing function of McVitie’s assist the organization matching up to the
frequent trends in the business environment attract higher customers and allows
McVitie’s in reaching out to the customers more.
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P2
The marketing function performed in McVitie’s in not just restricted to the attraction of
customers towards the products provided by the organization. The marketing function plays
very varied roles and responsibilities in McVitie’s through which the organization is able to
establish its brand across the globe and provide higher value to the customers (West et al.,
2015). The marketing function in McVitie’s assists the firm in developing new marketing tools
through which attractive products and services are developed and provided to the customers so
that their satisfaction level can be increased. Also, the marketing function aids the product and
service management of McVitie’s through various digital platforms by resolving the queries and
problems of the customers across the globe by the establishment of enthusiastic customer
support (Jobber and Ellis-Chadwick, 2012).
Operating from numerous countries of the world, the marketing function plays another vital
role in linking the marketing objectives of the different countries so that it leads to the
attainment of the ultimate objective of McVitie’s (Czinkota and Ronkainen, 2013). Though the
marketing practices and methods of McVitie’s vary from region to region, the marketing
function of the firm links the objectives of each practice with the organization’s aim and
ensures that all of the marketing activities drive to the fulfillment of the firm objective. The
marketing function has not just assisted McVitie’s in establishing a huge brand value for the
firm, it has ensured that its activities maintain a healthy relationship with the customers and
does not disrupt the competitive market with unhealthy marketing practices (Terpstra et al.,
2012).
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M2
Having its business spread into different ranges and over different countries, maintaining
harmony among the different departments of the organization is necessary for McVitie’s.
Through developing an interrelation with the different departments working in McVitie’s, sync
is created within the organization and its ability to meet the objectives of the organization is
eased (Kotler, 2012). In the following, the importance of the interrelation of the marketing
function with other departments is represented:
 Human Resource Department
The HRM function assists the marketing function by preparing the rules and regulations
that are to be followed by the marketing department while performing its functions. The
HRM department ensures that the policies of McVitie’s assist the marketing activities so
that they can achieve higher efficiency and regulates their functioning so that no
negative marketing of the brand is being done through its activities (Armstrong et al.,
2014).
 Finance Department
McVitie’s has its operations spread over various locations for which it has to incur
different costs for promotion. Since a monotonous marketing activity cannot be
conducted for all the locations, the finance department regulates the cost incurred by
the marketing function at different locations of the world as the marketing activities are
required with high investments (Barker and Milano, 2018). Also, the finance function
has to develop a strong relationship with the marketing department so that it can
determine the benefits received through the efforts of the marketing function across
the globe.
 Operations Department
McVitie’s has a variety of operations running under its brand name and thus to promote
its different operations, it has to interrelate with the marketing function. Having varied
form of operations, the marketing function of McVitie’s also has to ensure that the
marketing activities of one operation does not negatively impact the other and thus has
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to work in sync with the operations department (Sombultawee and Boon-itt, 2018).
Also, what the marketing function promotes has to be fulfilled by the operations
department and thus, these two departments have to ensure a strong interrelation with
one another.
 Research and Development department
McVitie’s has a very strong R&D department which assists the organization with
relevant data through which it strategizes its plans and requirements. Thus, to ensure
the success of the marketing activities, the marketing department is aided by the
information gathered and analyzed by the R&D department of McVitie’s so that it can
ensure higher returns from the global market through its marketing activities (West et
al., 2015). Also, the R&D department provides the marketing department with the data
through which they can plan an effective marketing plan to ensure a higher rate of
success.
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LO2
P3
The marketing mix is a technique used by the organizations so that it can produce the right
products so that they can be accepted by the customers and the right price can be charged
against it. Through this tool, McVitie's is able to provide its wide range of products to the
customers at different prices and uses different activities so that the right marketing mix is
produced (Leonidou et al., 2018). McVitie’s uses marketing mix so that it can combine all the
elements of the marketing function so that maximum efficiency through the marketing
activities can be achieved. In the following is the application of marketing mix by McVitie’s:
 Product
Product is the ultimate offering which is being made to the customers. McVitie’s has a
very wide range of products which provides different utilities to the customer. It
provides a variety of biscuits, cakes and other snacks under its brand. McVitie’s has
ranged its products on the basis of their utility and consumption (Kartajaya et al., 2019).
The variety of products include Chocolate Digestives, Nibbles, Hobnobs, Rich Tea,
Cookies, Tunis Cakes, Fruit Cakes, Jaffa Cakes, Cheddars, Cracker Crisps, etc. These
products are also made available to the customers in different quantities so that they
can purchase accordingly. McVitie’s has also introduced these products into different
flavors such as coffee, caramel, chocolate, milk chocolate, etc.
 Price
Price is what the organization receives in return of offering the products to the
customers for consumption. The pricing strategy allows the organization in determining
an accurate price for its products so that it can be easily sold in the market and is
acceptable by the customers for the value provided to them (Saidani and Sudiarditha,
2019). For the wide range of products offered by McVitie's, prices vary from the
product to product. McVitie's has priced its products using the competitive strategy
through which the products are being priced in accordance with the prices of the
competitors.
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 Place
The place is an essential element of the marketing mix which determines the reach of
the products offered in the market. It evaluates the distribution chain adopted by the
organization so that it can provide its products to the different parts of the world (JAIN,
2017). McVitie’s is a subsidiary of United Biscuits which has its operations in numerous
countries of the world. Being an important brand for the organization, its products are
made available to the customers worldwide. The organization has a diversified reach to
the markets in the world with the assistance of which McVitie’s is able to offer its
products to customers worldwide.
Figure 2: Marketing Mix
[Source: Mallik and Farhan, 2018]
 Promotion
Promotion refers to the activities undertaken by the organization through which the
customers can be attracted to buy the products. It involves all the innovative activities
through which the customer is made aware of the product and is attracted to purchase
the same (Mallik and Farhan, 2018). McVitie’s uses various innovative measures to
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promote its varied range of products. Through understanding the perception of the
customers, McVitie's has undertaken different promotional activities through which it
focuses on promoting its products as healthy snacks which can be easily consumed by
the customers.
 People
People are one of the crucial elements of the marketing mix which involve all the people
that are associated with the organization. This element of the marketing mix includes all
the stakeholders that are impacted by the marketing activities undertaken by the
organization (Saidani and Sudiarditha, 2019). McVitie’s has ensured that its customers
do not perceive the marketing activities performed by the brand in a negative aspect
and all their needs and requirements are being fulfilled.
 Process
This element of the marketing mix includes all the processes that are performed by the
organization to deliver the products and services to the consumers. McVitie's has
ensured that the processes followed for manufacturing its good quality products are
leading with the same efficiency so that the same satisfaction level is being provided to
the customers (Kartajaya et al., 2019). Using the same quality of process allows
McVitie’s in increasing its efficiency and maintaining the brand value in the market.
 Physical Evidence
Physical evidence can be defined as the representation of the product that is shown to
the customers. It includes all the aspects of the physical environment of the product
which is shown to the customer (JAIN, 2017). It includes the layout of the products, its
packaging, design, etc. McVitie’s has used attractive packaging for its products so that it
can be identified distinctively from its competitors.
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