Marketing Plan for McVities: A Comprehensive Report

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Marketing essentials
McVities

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................2
COMPANY OVERVIEW..............................................................................................................3
LO1 THE ROLE OF MARKETING AND ITS INTERRELATION WITH THE OTHER FUNCTIONAL
UNITS OF THE COMPANY......................................................................................................... 4
THE KEY ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE MARKETING FUNCTION.............................4
ANALYSING THE ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF MARKETING FUNCTION IN THE
CONTEXT OF THE MARKETING ENVIRONMENT....................................................................5
HOW MARKETING ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES RELATES TO THE WIDER
ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT................................................................................................6
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF INTERRELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MARKETING AND OTHER
FUNCTIONAL UNITS OF AN ORGANIZATION.........................................................................7
LO2 COMPARING THE WAYS IN WHICH THE ORGANIZATION USES THE ELEMENTS OF THE
MARKETING MIX TO ACHIEVE THE OVERALL BUSINESS OBJECTIVES.......................................9
WAYS IN WHICH DIFFERENT ORGANIZATIONS APPLY THE MARKETING MIX TO THE
MARKETING PLANNING PROCESS TO ACHIEVE BUSINESS OBJECTIVES................................9
DIFFERENT TACTICS APPLIED BY THE COMPANY TO ACHIEVE BUSINESS OBJECTIVES.......12
LO3 DEVELOPING AND EVALUATING A BASIC MARKETING PLAN..........................................14
MARKETING PLAN FOR MCVITIE’S......................................................................................14
CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................... 20
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................... 21
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INTRODUCTION
Marketing is the quintessential business activity that deals with the procurement of
the customer’s attention to the products and services of the company. Marketing also
supports the development and production of customer-centric products that effectively
fulfil their needs and demands along with the achievement of the company's objectives. In
the present business, scenario marketing is become more dynamic and requires greater
planning for creating value in the market and managing the customer relationship
(Hollensen, 2010). The large business organizations are putting more and more efforts on
marketing by identifying the importance of market understanding, strategies, customer
relationship. This report will present a detailed marketing analysis of the large confectionary
organisation ‘McVities’ to gain a clear understating about the role of marketing in the
organisation and its relationship with the other functional units. Moreover, the report will
also discuss the key elements of the marketing mix of the company and its importance in
the marketing planning process of the organisation. Lastly, a marketing plan will be
developed to have an overview of the major aspects of a marketing plan. Thus, this
assignment report will provide an enhanced knowledge of the different aspects of
marketing to attain higher growth for the organisation.
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COMPANY OVERVIEW
McVities is a world-famous snack food brand based in the UK. The company is
owned by United Biscuits. The company was established in 1830 in Scotland. The company
was founded by Robert McVitie. It is one of the bestselling biscuit producers in the UK with
prime products like Hobnobs, Chocolate Digestives, Rich tea and Jaffa cakes. In last year the
company has re-launched the brand under its new marketing campaign ‘Sweeter Together’
with the aim of encouraging sharing among the people (McVities, 2019).
[Source: McVities, 2019]
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LO1 THE ROLE OF MARKETING AND ITS INTERRELATION WITH THE
OTHER FUNCTIONAL UNITS OF THE COMPANY
The term marketing refers to the activities for promoting the exchange of goods and
services between the customers and the organization (Kotler, 2012). The American
marketing association has defined marketing as a set of the institution, a process or activity
that creates, communicates, delivers and exchanges the offerings that provide value to the
client, partners, customers and the society at large (Dann, 2010). Being an FMCG brand,
McVities requires greater planning and strategies to maintain its current market position,
create higher customer value and gain competitiveness in the market. Marketing plays a key
role in the management and growth of the company.
THE KEY ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE MARKETING FUNCTION
The major role of the marketing department is to promote the business among targeted
customers and support the organization in achieving the ultimate mission and vision of the
company (Kotler, 2012). Some of the major duties of the marketing department of McVities
includes:
 Defining and managing brand: the marketing department is responsible for defining
the company in the market about its values, products, and actions. That would in-
turn creates market awareness about the company.
 Conducting campaign management for marketing initiatives: it relates with
identification of the core products and services to focus during the sales cycle and
then designing of communications and materials to get the word out.
 Producing marketing and promotional material: the marketing department is
responsible for producing promotional materials that could effectively dictate the
core products and services of the company (Kotler, 2012).
 Serving as media liaison: the marketing department is required to act as the
spokesperson for the organization and provide guidance on dealing with the media.
 Conducting customer and market research: regular market research supports in
identifying the market needs and evolving the products and services according to the
needs and requirements of the customers.
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 Overseeing outside agencies and vendors: the agencies and vendors play a great
role in providing marketing support to the company and thus, the marketing
department needs to select the best suitable vendor for the company (Kotler, and
Armstrong, 2010).
ANALYSING THE ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF MARKETING FUNCTION
IN THE CONTEXT OF THE MARKETING ENVIRONMENT
The marketing department of the organization serves as the key supporting factor in
coping with the external and internal environment of the organization. A proper
understanding of the marketing environment enables a company in achieving the marketing
goals along with the ultimate aims and objectives of the organization. The marketing
environment is classified into two categories; macro environment and microenvironment
(Armstrong, et al., 2015). The macro environment is consisting of all the external factor that
is not directly connected with the company but may have a significant impact on the
organisational strategies and performance. On the other hand, the microenvironment
factors involve are those that are directly connected with the organisation such as
competitors, customers, employees and suppliers etc. the marketing department of
McVities is responsible to monitor all these factors to formulate effective strategies and
business decisions.
The macro environmental factors like government policies, social values, economic
status, technological change, and environmental and legal constraints are some of the key
macro-environmental factors that could affect the functioning of the business (Hill, et al.,
2012). The marketing function plays a great role in analysing the changes in the macro
environmental factors and their impact on the organisation and its products. The marketing
department is responsible for formulating effective strategies to gain the utmost advantages
of positive changes and mitigate the risks caused due to changes in the macro
environmental factors.
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HOW MARKETING ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES RELATES TO THE WIDER
ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT
Marketing is an essential part of every business and is one of the five key business
functions namely human resource, finance, production & operations, and research
&development. All these key business functions are related and dependent on each other to
achieve the ultimate goals and vision of the organization (Baker, 2014). The value chain
analysis can be effectively performed to determine the marketing responsibilities with the
wider organization. A value chain analysis covers all the key functional areas of the company
and supports in analysing their relationship.
PRIMARY ACTIVITIES
 Inbound logistics: it relates to building a strong relationship with the suppliers to
procure, store and distribute products. McVities is largely based on cereals suppliers.
The company is highly based on natural agriculture.
 Operations: it relates to the transformation of raw material into finished products. It
involves the whole steps in producing and packing of products (Davis, 2016).
 Outbound logistics: McVities undertakes outbound logistics to distribute and deliver
products to the end customers through a channel of supply. It involves activities such
as storing, transportation, wholesaling, retailing etc.
 Marketing and sales: McVities perform these activities to create a means to
facilitate customers to buy the company's products. It involves promotion, pricing,
channel selection and sales management etc. (Davis, 2016)
 Services: it involves additional services and maintenance for delivering an enhanced
experience to the customers. The services could be pre-sales and post-sales.
SUPPORT ACTIVITIES
 Procurement: it is related to the collection of required resources to produce quality
products. The procurement activity is aimed at producing the best quality food
within as lowest price as possible.
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 Technology development: technology development is the key source to gain
competitiveness in the company. In McVities, the technologies are used for field
testing, feature design, process engineering and technology selection (Davis, 2016).
 Human resource development: it includes activities like recruitment, selection,
orientation, and training of skilled staff along with effective skills management to
perform different activities at the firm.
 Firm infrastructure: it relates with the general management, quality management,
planning, finance and legal services etc. at McVities finance and planning is managed
at the corporate level while quality assurance is the duty of production and
operations unit (Davis, 2016).
The above-presented analyses have shown that all the functional units of the
organisation are needed to work together and perform respective roles and responsibilities
to achieve the ultimate business goals and objectives.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF INTERRELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MARKETING AND
OTHER FUNCTIONAL UNITS OF AN ORGANIZATION
The value chain analysis has shown the different activities and functions of the
company that are linked and related to each other to perform the business operations
effectively. The interrelationships between all these functions are discussed below in brief:
Marketing and finance:
The finance function is responsible for managing the flow of funds in the company through
regular recording and monitoring of the finances. The finance department is responsible for
formulating financial plans and budget to perform different business activities including
promotion and marketing of products (Le Meunier-FitzHugh and Lane, 2013). The marketing
function has to manage and perform marketing activities within the budgeted marketing
cost planned by the finance department.
Marketing and human resource:
The human resource is responsible for acquiring talented staff to perform different
activities in the company. To perform marketing activities like research and promotion the
human resource function supports in selecting best staff members through interview and
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tests. On the other hand, the marketing function also supports Human resource in the
recruitment procedure.
Marketing and operation:
The operations function is responsible for managing business operations like
production, packaging and distribution. The marketing function provides leads regarding the
market demand and the operations function is required to manage production according to
the market demand (Le Meunier-FitzHugh and Lane, 2013).
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LO2 COMPARING THE WAYS IN WHICH THE ORGANIZATION USES THE
ELEMENTS OF THE MARKETING MIX TO ACHIEVE THE OVERALL
BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
In order to effectively perform the marketing activities, the marketing manager at
McVities is required to develop an effective marketing planning. To develop an effective
marketing plan is very important to compete in the current market scenario. Here, the
marketing planning of the United Biscuit’s ‘McVities’ is compared with one of the top
competitor ‘Oreo’ in the UK.
Oreo is a sweet snack brand that offers sweet crème filled cookies. The Oreo biscuits
are available in around 100 countries. Oreo is produced by Nabisco global cookies and
snacks manufacturers (Oreo, 2019). Both McVities and Oreo has a great share in the UK's
Biscuit market. Therefore, the marketing planning of both organizations is analyzed below to
identify the way in which the company plans its marketing strategies and uses the elements
of the marketing mix
WAYS IN WHICH DIFFERENT ORGANIZATIONS APPLY THE MARKETING MIX
TO THE MARKETING PLANNING PROCESS TO ACHIEVE BUSINESS
OBJECTIVES
A marketing planning process is a systematic approach that facilitates the organization in
developing an effective marketing plan (McDONALD, 2016). The marketing planning process
and marketing mix elements of Oreo are compared below. The key stages in the marketing
planning process of are;
 DECIDE MARKETING OBJECTIVES:
The first and foremost stage of marketing planning is to decide the
marketing goals and objectives of the business. The company should know the
ultimate vision to direct its marketing efforts in the right way (Smartsheet, 2019).
The marketing objective of McVities and Oreo is to increase global market share in
the biscuits industry.
 ANALYZE MARKET SITUATION:
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The next step is to gain an overview and examine the present market
situation of the company. Both the company analyses the market situation by
auditing market and conducting a situational analysis of the current business
environment. This enables in determining the risks and favours related to the
products and supports in devising an effective marketing strategy.
 DEVISE MARKETING STRATEGY:
The third stage in the marketing planning process is to develop a suitable
marketing strategy (Wilson, 2010). It is related to the determination of the target
audience, the development of measurable marketing goals and deciding the
marketing budget.
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[Source: Smartsheet, 2019]
 DEVELOP MARKETING MIX:
The fourth stage is to develop a comprehensive mix of marketing elements to
ensure that all the marketing activities are performed effectively. The marketing mix
elements are the core elements of the marketing planning that needs to be
considered while developing a marketing strategy for the company. The right blend
of marketing mix elements is a very important and critical task (Haugum and Grande,
2017). There are 4 core elements of the marketing mix; Product, price, promotion,
place, these are also known as 4P's of marketing. However, in the case of service
organizations, 3 more elements are extended in the marketing mix; physical
evidence, people and process and known as 7P's of the marketing mix.
Since McVities and Oreo both are product-oriented organizations, they apply 4P's of
marketing mix while planning for marketing for the company. The marketing mix
elements of McVities and Oreo are compared below:
 Product: it refers to the goods that the company offers in the market (Haugum
and Grande, 2017). The product range of McVities involves the Digestive Biscuits,
whole-wheat Marie, Hobnobs, Jaffa cakes, Rich tea etc. McVities offers Varieties
of snack food products in the global market (McVities, 2019). while the main
product of Oreo is sandwich cookies. There are different variants of Oreo cookies
are available such as double stuffed Oreo, Golden Oreo, Oreo thins, and etc.
 Price: the price is the exchange rate of products for the ultimate customers. Both
McVities and Oreo follow the competitive pricing strategy and kept the product
price low and competitive to target middle-income group (Bhasin, 2019). There
has been a lot of competition in the industry and both the companies have
succeeded in capturing market share. Both the organisations offer their products
in different size at a different price range to gain better market leverage.
 Promotion: promotion is related to captivating customer’s interest in the
company's products. The McVities and Oreo both follow an aggressive
promotional strategy and uses different media for promoting its products among
the targeted customers (Bhasin, 2019). Both organizations focus on using digital
and print media for promoting their brands. Television and social media
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