Marketing Essentials Report: Southern Fried Chicken, Task Analysis

This report provides an in-depth analysis of marketing essentials, focusing on the case of Southern Fried Chicken (SFC). It begins with an introduction to marketing concepts, emphasizing the importance of promotional tools and customer relationships in achieving market growth. The report then details the roles and responsibilities of marketing functions, including product, selling, pricing, promotion, management information systems, financing, and distribution. It also examines the interrelations of the marketing function with other organizational departments such as operations, finance, human resources, and sales. The report further explores the application of the marketing mix for planning and concludes with a brief discussion of a marketing plan for Brake Bros Ltd. The analysis covers various aspects of SFC's operations, from product offerings to pricing strategies, highlighting how these elements contribute to the company's success in the fast-food industry and its ability to maintain customer loyalty. The report emphasizes the significance of market research, customer satisfaction, and effective marketing techniques in achieving organizational goals and maximizing profitability.

Marketing Essentials

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1: Roles and responsibilities of marketing functions................................................................1
P2: Roles and responsibilities of marketing related to wider organisational context.................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
P3: Comparing ways in which two organisations uses marketing mix for planning..................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
P4: Creating a marketing plan.....................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
In modern era, marketing plays a vital and significant role in supporting an organisation
to reach their products and services to the maximum number of customers living across
worldwide. It can be possible through adopting various promotional tools such as advertisement
through digital media, personal selling etc. This will positively influences the interest and buying
behaviour of people which in results maximising the market growth and sustainability of an
organisation for longer period of time. It establishes better relations with targeted customers as
well which makes easy for company to achieve their loyalty for maximum period of time. The
present assignment is based on Southern Fried Chicken. It is a British based fast food outlet,
which operates a franchise network in the United Kingdom or globally. It is a food and
distribution company that mainly deals in fast food, Chicken products, drink and other products
mainly to the catering industry in the UK. It is the leading fast food restaurants all over the
world. Southern Fried Chicken has around 700 outlets, all over 79 countries. It deals in
manufacturing and selling wide range of fast food products and drinks. The project includes the
key roles and responsibilities of marketing function and its interrelations with wider
organisational context. The project also describes the importance of marketing mix in
achievement of business objectives. Marketing plan of Brake Bros Ltd is also discussed under
this report in brief manner.
TASK 1
P1: Roles and responsibilities of marketing functions
Marketing: It refers to the course of action done by people of organisation to promoting
their services or goods with market research and advertising . It helps company to reach their
products to maximum number of customers. The marketing concept is developing on continuous
basis which are further discussed as under:
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Illustration 1: Marketing Concepts
(Source: Bhasin. H, 2018)
Production concept: According to this concept, reducing production cost is taken as
priority by minimising the wastage of resources. It makes company more capable to provide
quality products at an affordable prices.
Product concept: Under this concept, quality is given on priority as the company has
perception that quality is only factor which can easily attracts the buying behaviour of targeted
people.
Selling concept: Under this concept, the marketing division mainly focuses on increasing
sales of company by providing wide range of products in market. It makes easy to capture large
market share and huge customer strength.
Consumer concept: According to such concept, marketing team mainly emphasis on the
needs and requirements of customers in order to increase their satisfaction level by offering
quality products and services.
Marketing concept: This is another concept which directs firms to adopt various
marketing tools in order to make strong presence of their products into the market. Such
marketing tools includes TV advertisement, newspaper, hiring known celebrities etc.
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Marketing functions is considered as an essential factor which gives a valuable
opportunities to an organisation to achieve competitive opportunities so as to accomplish pre-
determined goals and objectives. Therefore, it is vital for every business organisation to consider
marketing techniques in order to influence buying behaviour of people. Marketing is an essential
tool which should be adopted by Southern Fried Chicken in order to communicate with targeted
people and influence their interest and buying behaviour in positive manner. As a famous food
services company the major focused area of the Southern Fried Chicken is to enhancing their
customers based through offering wide range of product facility and services. This create value
in maximisation of profit and growth. It assist management to implement an effective decisions
with respect to fixation of prices, quality, variety of products etc. after carefully analysing the
taste and preferences of customers which can be done through conducting market research.
Furthermore, the marketing department is responsible to update organisation about the current
market needs and requirements. To achieve desired objectives and goals, the marketing
department performs several roles and responsibilities which are briefly described as under:
Product: It refers to any substance which is offered and delivered in market with an
intention of fulfilling need and requirements of targeted people. A standard quality food item
with an affordable prices can easily influences buying behaviour and loyalty of targeted people
which indirectly support an organisation to achieve huge sales and revenue. Thus, it the
important for Southern Fried Chicken to deliver and give quality food items which helps in
maximising the satisfaction level of targeted customers. Southern Fried Chicken is majorly
focused on enhancing their profitability in order to attain higher competitive edge within the
global market. For this company offers variety of food and beverage products like drinks, shakes,
ambient food, frozen & chilled food etc. as to maintaining its operations Southern Fried
Chicken is concern on taking feedbacks from customers in order to make appropriate changes
and improvements in the services. This will assist organisation to make suitable changes in the
current offerings according to the market needs (Arguello, 2013).
Selling: It is procedure of transferring products to the customers in exchange of prices
charged by company. But before this, it is important for marketing manager to select the
advantageous method for delivering food items and services. Southern Fried Chicken has around
700 outlets, across over 79 countries and through which they can provide high quality products
and services to maximum number of customers. The organization also required to give an option
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to customers to deliver products at their preferred places in order to make easy for them to buy
their products without facing any difficulties. This will be done according to the guidance of
marketing department so that interest and buying behaviour of customers shall be maximised.
For this, marketing team should also think of providing training to their employees in order to
make them more capable to deal with customers having different cultures and backgrounds
(Scarborough, 2016).
Pricing: It alludes to amount which is charged from the customers on the food items they
pitch to their clients. Final price of products influences the revenue of organization. Therefore, it
is vital for management of Southern Fried Chicken charge a fixed amount for a particular
product, the prices will be selected after recognising the perception and behaviour of customers
regards the product. Market research can be done with the help of taking support from marketing
team which are responsible to bring market information to company. It directly makes positive
impact in company's strength in terms of achieving huge customer strength as well as increases
profitability. It can be done through analysing the pricing policies of rivals, buying behaviour of
customers etc. which makes easy for manager to formulate an effective pricing policies for
company's offerings (Berkowitz, 2016).
Promotion: It alludes to an activities which is performed with a clear objective of
attracting and impacting interest and purchasing behaviour of customers. Such activities
incorporates making commercials on TV, pamphlets, online marketing and so on through which
the marketing management of Southern Fried Chicken can ready to cooperate and speak with
targeted people in regards to the information of products along with price and quality. The
company mainly promote their brand or its products by using social media tools and templates
facilities to provide appropriate information about the offered products and services, thus this is
also effective in developing the base of customers within the market place. Therefore,
implementing an effective marketing techniques assist organization to gain maximum benefits.
Management Information System (MIS): Marketing department is completely liable to
recognize the taste and preferences of customers by which the marketing manager can able to
make an effective decision. The manager of Southern Fried Chicken need to concentrate on
using modern systems, for example, MIS so as to gather, dissect and store information which
additionally help in guiding manager to settle make an effective plans and policies.
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Financing: Finance is also known as backbone of organization which enables other
department in execution of different functions. The administration of Southern Fried Chicken is
able to make decisions regarding development of existing products only if the actual financial
position of company is strong which is identified through preparing various financial reports.
Analysing such reports by the marketing manager allows to decide whether to develop existing
marketing strategies or should continue with existing one (Campbell, Martin and Fabos, 2018).
Distribution: It alludes to the supply products and services to one place to another with
an objective of reaching to maximum number of targeted people. As many organizations
disregards rural areas to sell their food items and services based on the assumptions that rural
people does not show their willingness to spend their money on buying fast food products but
such assumptions may be sometimes wrong due to which company fails to capture large market
share. It requires to bring interest among rural people towards the consumption of fast food
products which can be possible through implementing an effective marketing techniques so as to
provide the benefits of products such as taste, quality etc.
These are the fundamental roles and duties of marketing managers of Southern Fried
Chicken and it is essential to perform every single functions in an appropriate way so that growth
and profitability can be attained at wide scale. Through this, the organization can expand their
sales figures and produce immense incomes (Purvis, 2015).
P2: Roles and responsibilities of marketing related to wider organisational context
Marketing division can perform its several functions in more effective manner only when
it gets an adequate support from other various departments such as marketing, production, HR
division etc. All these departments are interlinked with marketing department with an objective
of achieving organisational goals and objectives within pre-determined time period. It can be
further understand as under:
Marketing function with operation function: The operation department is responsible
for delivering fine quality products from raw materials to finished product by engaging their
human resources available to them. The major responsibility of this department is to develop and
improve the level of products so that they matches with the requirement of customers. For
achieving this, Operation department need to keep in touch with marketing department in
providing in depth knowledge of products to the targeted people. Marketing department plans
sales budgets, Marketing actions, forecasts of demanded resources required for developing
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existing or new product and services. By working together, these two departments can increase
revenue and sales along with improved products and services (Dudu and Agwu, 2014).
Marketing function with finance function: Marketing department and Finance department
plays an important role in growth and profit for the company. Finance is concerned for the
financial aspects like costs, profits, sales growth etc. whereas Marketing is concerned with the
sales targets, sales volumes, Advertising etc. but without inadequate funds, Marketing
department can't set their sales targets, sales price of product or compensation for sales people.
So, finance department provides sufficient funds for promotion and planning for the marketing
department. Finance and Marketing are like husband and wife, where one needs another for
better performance. Thus, it will help Southern Fried Chicken to reach their desired goals in
efficient and effective manner.
HR function with marketing function: Human resource department is considered as a
spine of an organisation who performs several functions such as recruitment, selection, conduct
training and learning programs, performance appraisal etc. To perform various marketing
functions, it is important for Southern Fried Chicken to have an effective human resource who
are much capable to develop new marketing ideas and techniques through which company can
promote its products in market. Therefore, it will be possible only through getting maximum
support from HR department (Pappas, 2017).
Sales function and marketing function: Marketing functions has performed with an
objective of increasing sales figure of company therefore there are direct relationship between
sales and marketing function. Marketing attracts and influences the interest and buying
behaviour of customers due to which the chances of shifting them towards the company's
products and services are very high. Thus, it can be clearly said that effectiveness of marketing
techniques can see on the sales figures of company.
Marketing department with R&D department: It is important to have better coordination
among the marketing and Research and Development department. The primary work of research
division is to do better examination and to understand about the requirements and needs of
buyers, about rivals, effectiveness of existing products at marketing place and numerous others.
All such information gathered by R&D department will be more useful for marketing department
in form of creating new marketing strategies so as to influence targeted people in favourable of
company (Eslinger, 2014).
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IT department and marketing function: IT promotes different software and technologies
which can be more useful in storing crucial information about their loyal customers, rival's
strategies, employees performance etc. In the context with Southern Fried Chicken, IT
department play an important role in keeping all important records at one place which can assist
marketing manager to acquire sufficient knowledge about crucial aspects and accordingly make
an effective decisions related with adoption of marketing techniques.
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Therefore, there are various departments who are working and support for marketing
department in Southern Fried Chicken in terms of executing marketing plan in more effective
and efficient manner.
TASK 2
P3: Comparing ways in which two organisations uses marketing mix for planning
Marketing mix is the combinations of several elements such as product, price, place,
promotion etc. which is effectively used to influence and attracts the purchasing behaviour of
targeted people towards the offerings of company. Therefore, it play a major role in directing
company to develop its existing products and services so as to meet customer's requirements
more effectively. Here are the brief explanation of marketing mix of two organisations engaged
in similar sector such as Southern Fried Chicken and Burger King. This will enable Southern
Fried Chicken to make competitive changes in their existing policies in order to bring ahead in
the competition with their rival Burger King.
7P's of McDonald's:
Product: This considered to be the most essential aspect of marketing mix as it is
effective in expanding the business operations at wide scale. Throughout the world, Southern
Fried Chicken is a famous fast food company. It has extensive variety of fast food items and sell
them to customers for satisfy their requirements in a compelling way. The products of this firm
are Sausages, Burgers, Chicken Products, Chips & Potato, Bacon Meats, Pzza, Sea food,
Vegetables, high quality ambient food, variety of drinks like Juice, energy drink, Milk shakes
etc. the major objective of the firm is to attaining higher profitability and growth by satisfying
the needs and wants of people at market place.
Price: It refers to the amount which is charged against the products and services from the
customers. Southern Fried Chicken is offering fast food products at an effective prices which
can be afforded by the middle income group. The firm has adopted cost leadership strategy of
business. Top authorities of Southern Fried Chicken are enough capable and knowledgeable to
prepare an effective pricing strategies according to the changes in buying behaviour of targeted
people (Illing and Anders, 2016).
Place: Southern Fried Chicken has more than 700 outlets all over the globe, the
company basically works on extension business related strategy, the aims of company is make
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their strong presence in both urban as well as rural areas in order to capture large market share.
Southern Fried Chicken continuously search new locations to open new outlets where the
demands of their products are more.
Promotion: It is the way of communicating people about the products and services
offered by company. It is more important for Southern Fried Chicken to aware about their
offering and new changes in their menu to the targeted people so as to attract them in bunch. The
main targeted customers of Southern Fried Chicken are teenagers and adults due to their high
preferences and demands. Due to this, the company adopts several promotional techniques such
as hoardings, TV, internet marketing and also bus shelters.
Process- It includes the process starting from producing products to delivering it to the
targeted customers. The process of food production of Southern Fried Chicken is transparent
and visible towards customers, which is the major attraction of the customers as people feel
satisfied with the offerings of the firm. The company is using various techniques for porduct
distribution in order to sustaining customers for long run of business operation. To conduct
market research, Southern Fried Chicken has invest lots of money on regular basis so as to
enhance their distribution process (Ogunmokun and Tang, 2012).
People: The uniform of Southern Fried Chicken staff individuals is standard and its main
focus is to serve prompt and in friendly way to its buyers from the staff members. In the decision
making process, employees needs and requirements are on the top priority in order to make them
more capable to serve targeted customers more effectively. Southern Fried Chicken offers
comfortableness, clean environment at their outlets which encourages families as well to visit.
Physical evidence: Appearance of physical evidence of Southern Fried Chicken firm
easily grab an attention of newly customers due to their well designed outlets and standard of
services. Appearance and area of its extremely appealing and clean. Its main focus around
hygienic and clean insides of its outlets.
Marketing mix of Burger King:
This company has follow different marketing mix as compared to the Southern Fried
Chicken in order to giving them tough competition in market. The main aim of burger king
behind adopting marketing mix is to increase competition in market (Marketing Mix, 2018).
7 Ps of Burger King
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Product/service: It may be defined as what the organisation offers to their customers or
what is made by the organisation to earn revenue. Burger king is a fast food hamburger chain it
basically offers their customers hamburgers as well as onion rings, shakes cookies and pies. It
separate its orders with many substitutes with different choices of their customers. It contains a
huge quality of products that fulfilling its customers needs and wants.
Price: It is the amount which is paid by customer for the product. The business depends
on the price of product. Burger king uses competitive pricing because the competitors charges
less price for their products and services (Marketing Structure, 2010). Burger king decide to
launch a new product like slushy drink at a very less price in the market. Burger king charges
very less prices for their products so the customer are not raised doubts for their product and
services. Every week there is a new offer given by the burger king to their customers with
discounts and cashback policies.
Place: It refers to the place where the customer can buy the product or where the services
will be given to the customers of organisation. Burger king is operating their business through
various franchisees. The franchisees invest their money because they want to become a part of
the burger king. They fulfil the rules and regulations which are settled by the Burger king under a
franchisee agreement, it is almost situated in every big cities in various countries, they have
opened their outlets at residential areas as well as mall (Moons and et. al., 2010).
Promotion : It consists all the paths to expansion of business of an organisation, with
small changes in advertisements offline or online will make the higher sales for the organisation.
Burger king firstly target its customers by the hoarding and bus shelters. Because working
persons, colleges students and children are the main customers which are targetted by the Burger
king. It advertises more than Southern Fried Chicken to stand in the market and it helps to
attract its customers with the help of advertisement.
People: It defined as every person which is connected with organisation like customers,
owners/franchisees and management which are the part of the organisation internally and
externally. Burger king pays more salaries to their employees and developing their skills to make
them more capable to deal with customer's problems. Motivate its employees with appraisal on
their performance (Kennedy and Parsons, 2014).
Physical evidence: It is defined as the past experienced customers or users of the product
which helps the organisation to makes more efficient for the customers or how to take place in
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