Marketing Function Analysis: St Mary's University College Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of marketing essentials, focusing on St Mary's University College. It begins by outlining the key responsibilities and roles within the marketing function, emphasizing the importance of identifying student needs and promoting the college. The report evaluates the marketing department's duties in relation to the changing marketing environment and explores the interrelationship between the marketing team and other business functions, such as finance and HR. It acknowledges the benefits of this interrelation for achieving organizational goals. Furthermore, the report contrasts and compares different measures through which the college implements the marketing mix, including product, price, promotion, and place, to achieve its targets. Finally, it prepares and analyzes an effective marketing plan tailored to the specific context of St Mary's University College, offering a strategic roadmap for future marketing endeavors.

MARKETING
ESSENTIALS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Mention about key responsibilities and roles in context with the marketing function of an
organisation............................................................................................................................1
Evaluate the roles and duties of marketing department in relation with marketing environment
................................................................................................................................................2
Discuss about the responsibilities and roles for marketing team in relation with other functions
of business firm......................................................................................................................3
Acknowledge the benefits of interrelation among marketing and other functional departments
of a company..........................................................................................................................3
Critical analysis of the basic elements of marketing departments and their interrelationship
with functional units in a business firm..................................................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
Contrast and compare different measures through which a company implements marketing
mix to attain their organisational targets................................................................................4
Evaluation of multiple tactics through which a company demonstrate about achievement of
business objectives...............................................................................................................10
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................10
Prepare and analyse an effective marketing plan in context with a business organisation. .10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................17

INTRODUCTION
Marketing in business is referred as the procedure to attract maximum number of
consumers towards a service or products with the help of relevant tools & techniques. Generally,
these techniques are promotions, advertisements, market research etc. In today's time, each firm
is facing tough competition from their rivals due to which there is a big threat on the revenues
and profits of company (Baker and Saren, 2016). Hence, it is the main responsibility of an
organisation to retain their clients for maximum time by using marketing activities. In order to
prepare this assignment report, St Mary's University college is considered. It is an public
university which is founded in 1900 and situated in Belfast, Northern Ireland. This report is
going to discuss about roles of marketing function in a college in context with changing
marketing environment. Other than this, interrelation in different business department of a
college and their importance is discussed. Also, to acknowledge the competitive edge of
concerned college in marketplace, its marketing mix is carried out with another college. At last,
an appropriate marketing plan is prepared so that objectives of college can be achieved in a
proper manner.
TASK 1
Mention about key responsibilities and roles in context with the marketing function of an
organisation
St Mary's University college is a co-education college which is founded in 1900 and have
affiliation of Roman Catholic. This college is situated in Belfast, Northern Ireland and its
affiliated university is Queen's University. This college have around 1000 students in which
around 870 students are studying undergraduate course and remaining students are enrolled for
post-graduation course. There are different kind of business departments in a college. These
departments do not have any role in teaching students but they perform all the operational roles
associated with college. In context with St Mary's University college, main business departments
are marketing function, finance team, HR team, IT department etc. Due to the working of these
business departments, concerned college is able to operate in business world (BOROVKO,
2013).
In general terms marketing is stated as the activities and operations which are performed
by an organisation to advertise and popularise their products and services in front of maximised
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people. Basic activities which are involved in marketing are delivering products, selling,
advertising etc. Performing marketing activities is the role of marketing manager. In context with
St Mary's University, role of marketing team is to promote and advertise about the college and
education provided there so that maximum number of people can do enrolment and revenues for
concerned college can be maximised (Cacciolatti, 2013). There are some roles and
responsibilities of marketing team in St Mary's University which impacts the overall
performance and working of college. Some of these responsibilities and duties are stated below:
 Identifying the requirements of students: It is considered as one of the main role of
marketing department in respect with a college. Manager in marketing department has the
objective to conduct a market research to identify the needs and requirements of students.
If concerned college will have all the facilities as per the choice and requirements of
students then more number of students will join that educational place. This will benefits
the owner of college to run their business in a profitable manner. If marketing team of
college will not identify the needs of people, then concerned college will not be able to
provide required facilities. Due to this, people can shift their preference towards other
colleges which will be a big disadvantage for St Mary's University (Chukhlomin and
Chukhlomina, 2013).
 Promotion and advertisement of college: Another role of marketing function in St
Mary's University is to advertise and promote about their educational courses and other
facilities in front of maximum number of people. By this, people will have appropriate
knowledge about the working and facilities of college. This is a good way to grab the
attention of potential students towards the college. If marketing department will not
advertise about college to people through social or traditional media then less number of
people will have knowledge about this college. This will impacts the number of students
enrolment along with revenues of St Mary's University.
Evaluate the roles and duties of marketing department in relation with marketing environment
In case of market environment, there are some duties and roles of marketing team. These
duties helps entire organisation to perform their work in efficient manner. St Mary's University
is Roman Catholic college which is facing the issues of less number of students. In this context,
there are some responsibilities of marketing team that are stated below:
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 Developing a marketing budget: It is considered as basic responsibility of marketing
team in an organisation. Marketing manager of the company have role of preparing
marketing budget so that all the concerned activities and operations can be performed in a
systematic manner. If marketing budget for concerned college will not be prepared in a
proper way, then shortage of funds will be faced due to which performing organisational
activities will not be possible (Dwivedi, Kapoor and Chen, 2015).
Discuss about the responsibilities and roles for marketing team in relation with other functions of
business firm
All the departments in an organisation function in relation with each other so that the
common organisational goals can be achieved. These functions need to interrelate with each
other in order to coordinate all the functions so that their results can be integrated so that profits
can be earned by the company.
 Marketing function in relation with finance : The functions of marketing will help in
attracting more student to take admissions in the college which will help it in generating
profits and will help the finance team to develop financial statements and also appropriate
allocation of the funds. Finance team will provide market budget so that marketing
functions can be carried out efficiently (Forshier, 2012).
Marketing function in relation to HR : The marketing function will help in attracting talented
and experienced teachers and staff members that are required to manage the educational system
of the college while the HR functions will help in assisting marketing function to recruit efficient
marketing personnels so that marketing can be done in an efficient manner.
Acknowledge the benefits of interrelation among marketing and other functional departments of
a company
The marketing function needs to interrelate with other functional departments so that it
can help all the other departments to function efficiently like marketing helps is attracting more
students to take admissions in the college which generates profits which helps the finance
department to make financial statements and allocation of budgets to other departments.
Marketing helps in attracting efficient professionals to the college by building a strong brand
image of the college. In this way all the departments interrelate with each other so that the
objectives of the college can be achieved and more number of students can take admissions in
the college which will increase its profits (Giuliano, 2013).
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Critical analysis of the basic elements of marketing departments and their interrelationship with
functional units in a business firm
The key elements of marketing department are research, strategy formulation, planning
and tactics which helps the company in marketing the products and services provided by it to its
target customers. For research the marketing department depends on the finance functions so that
appropriate funds are allocated in order to carry out market research so that customer needs can
be identified. All the departments thus interrelate with each other so that strategy, plans and
tactics can be made in order to achieve the common goals of company. HR functions will help in
recruiting efficient marketing personnels so that companies can formulate marketing strategies
which help in attracting more number of students to the college (Grebennikov and Shah, 2013).
TASK 2
Contrast and compare different measures through which a company implements marketing mix
to attain their organisational targets
Marketing mix is a most crucial framework which comprises a set of tactics or action
which can be used by an organisation in order to promote its products in the marketplace. It is
considered as an important marketing tool which consist a number of tools that helps the
organisation in strengthening and enhance brand image by offering a range of effective products
and services in marketplace. In order to attain higher customer’s attentions and satisfaction an
organisation needs to come up with effective strategies for their products and also needs to adopt
a most appropriate marketing strategy (Hill, Lamberton and Swartz, 2018). In this aspect, they
can consider the factors of marketing mix which includes product, price, promotion, people,
place, physical evidence and process. All these tools have great significance for St Mary's
University college also as it will help them in ascertaining and arranging components of
marketing mix which assist them in making most affective or profitable marketing decisions for
the business. Contribution of all these elements in operating all the activities is defining below:
Product: It is considered as an idea, information, objective, goods which has developed as a
results of process and offer to the customers in order to satisfy their needs and wants. This
comprises all the tangible and intangible attributes like functions, features and benefits which
offers to the customers in terms to give best experience.
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 Although people have considered that product and services are similar but they have huge
differences like products are physical as people can tough, feel and see them whereas
services are intangible. Other, it is easy to determine the quality of products but it is
opposite in case of services as before taking services a person can not examine its quality.
 Importance of brand: It is essential for an organisation to make an effective brand as it
does not only leave memorable impression of customers but in also create differentiate a
specific company's product from other competitors (Kakarot-Handtke, 2015).
 Product development will provide huge benefit to the company as if refers to adding
value in product and service which results overwhelming and highly satisfied customers.
Other, product life-cycle is also very important as it helps organisation in managing sales,
predict profitability, ascertain price etc.
Price: It refers to the value which has determined by an organisation on which they will offer
their products and services in marketplace.
 Pricing strategy or tactics are helpful for the organisation as it helps them in deciding
prices of their products. There are various types of pricing strategies are available like
premium, skimming, economy, neutral and many others. An organisation can adopt any
strategy as per the product quality and competition.
Promotion: Promotion is an mix of various activities which help the companies to create
awareness among the customers.
 It is important for the organisations to create awareness among the end user and for this
they have to adapt various promotional tools simultaneously. While promoting the
organisations not only focuses the products or services which they are offering they also
focusses on the brands as well. This will them to gain a long term benefit for the
company (Kheovichai, 2014).
 The objective of the marketing promotion is to raise the awareness of the product and the
services, increasing sales of the company, attracting new customers etc.
 Various models has been developed which facilitates the organisations to achieve their
objectives such as the message are delivered in one direction from start point to the end
point.
 Various promotional mix are used by the companies such as advertisement through
televisions, radio, print media, sales promotion, publicity etc.
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Place : The next P of marketing mix is Place which is associated with the location and the
channels.
 Channel management is one in which the company has to identify and understand the
channels with the help of which they can make their products and services available to
the customers. The channel depends upon the types of the products such as if the products
are perishable then they will directly be supplied to the customers by the manufactures.
 In place strategy the supply chain has to be considered as with the help of this only the
company can ensure the flow of goods and services so offered by them to the customers.
 In this the logistics are also managed as an organisation need to have material on time so
that they can ensure their production on time (Kniest, 2016).
People : People are the employees of the organisation which helps them to contribute to the
goals of the organisation.
 People plays a crucial role in marketing of the product and the services as they interact
with the customers and make them understand the benefits of the products or the services
offered by them.
 The people need to have various skills such as interpersonal skills, communication skills
etc. that helps them to understand the customers and their behaviour.
 The attitude and behaviour of the people of the organisation has impact on the customers
as if they are polite the customers will be satisfied with their services.
Physical evidence: It depicts to each thing from which a customer will interact while taking the
advantage of products and services. In includes employees, interior designs, layout, outlets and
many others.
 An organisation can use various delivery methods like visual, aural and olfactory. In
which visual refers to the non-verbal communication with customers through posture,
movement, gestures etc. whereas Aural delivering depicts to the oral communication.
Process: Process includes various direct and indirect activities which helps the organisation to
satisfy the customer.
 The process with which the organisation deliver their goods and services depends upon
the products and services of the organisation. Various type of processes could be online
delivery, store sales etc.
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 To make the delivery consistent an effective system has to be followed by the
organisation which can be with the help of developing a system in which they can
identify the requirements of the material which will help them to identify the requirement
(Kovačević, 2018).
Basis St Mary's University College Cadbury
Product St Mary university offers various
courses. In the university there are two
faculties and one institute on the basis
of which they offer various courses.
The faculties are Faculty of education,
humanities and social sciences while
the other one is the Faculty of sport,
health and applied science. Also the
they offer courses for teachers
training. All the courses that are
offered are related to these facilities.
Cadbury is a leading chocolate
industry and deals in products like
bars, bags and boxes, cookies,
biscuits, ice-creams etc. The product
line of the company is strong and is an
international leader in the chocolate
industry. The company attract its
customers with high quality chocolate
products and also a high variety in its
products so as to suit the taste of
customers.
Price The pricing strategy which is being
followed by the university is economic
pricing strategy. The fee that is to be
charged from the students for various
courses are determined by the panel of
the University. This pricing tactic is
for customers as it is a B2C tactics
with the help of which they cater their
customers which are their students
(Perepelkin, 2017).
Cadbury has a broad range of products
and every segment of the products are
priced differently depending on the
target market. Some of its products are
priced high based on the premium
pricing policy so that the products can
be positioned in the market while
other products are priced reasonably
following the economic pricing policy
so as to be available to a large number
of customers.
Place The channel which they follow is that
they have contact with various
The company has a strong a
distribution channel with the help of
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colleges which offers undergraduate
courses and with various senior
secondary schools. From these two
sources they get their students such as
for their undergraduate courses they
get students from schools while for
their post graduate courses they take
students from the undergraduate
colleges.
which the company is able to make its
products available to a large number
of customers all across the globe.
Almost all its products are available in
both rural and urban areas. The high
amount of availability, affordability
and easy access of the company
products has increased the profits of
the company.
Promotion The promotion strategy are crucial for
St Mary University College as it will
help them to increase their number of
students. They uses a mix of various
promotional tools such as advertising
through newspaper and magazines,
through public relations etc. This
promotional strategy help them to
create awareness about their courses
among the students.
The company use various sources so
as to promote its products like radio,
media, social media advertisements,
TV ads etc. The company also takes
the help of society influencers so that
the customers can be influenced to
make purchases. It uses extensive
marketing approaches so as to reach to
a large number of customers.
Process St Mary University College follows a
process which helps them to provides
their services to the students. They
offers their brochures, prospectus
which includes all their services, that
helps them to attract more of
customers. Also they have their
website on which all the details of
their services, courses are included
which facilitate the viewers to
understand about the University
The company procedures, activities
and mechanisms are designed in such
a way that the products that are
manufactured by the company are of
high quality which is made available
to customers through strong and
efficient supply chain management.
This helps the company in building a
strong brand image and attracting a
large number of customers.
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(Rowley, 2016).
People St Mary University College has a staff
of 60 people and a strength of 990
students. The staff of the University is
efficient enough to deliver the quality
education to the students. Also the
staff helps the University to attract
students as they conduct various
programs in which they interact with
the school and college students, also
with their parents. The University also
has a marketing team which promotes
the courses of the University in the
schools and undergraduate colleges.
All the people that are related to the
company like workers, employees,
customers etc. The employees of the
company help it in establishing its
brand in the market and building
strong relations with its customers.
The customers that are mainly targeted
by Cadbury are young people and
children as compared to the elders.
The workers of the company are
highly efficient and innovative which
helps the company in bringing new
products in the market so as to become
a market leader.
Physical
Evidence
The physical evidence of the
University is their campus, students
studying their and the staff members
working their. St Mary University
College has various advertisements in
newspaper and magazine with the aim
to communicate are also their physical
evidence. The uniforms of the
University, their anthem, logo and the
name are visual factors that becomes
the evidence for the University.
The company keeps records of all the
experiences of customers which it
collects through the way of feedbacks,
questionnaires, interviews etc. so that
it can enhance the experiences of the
customers. Also Cadbury provides
customers with brochures and
pamphlets so that information
regarding the products can be made
available to the customers. Also the
products are provided in attractive
packaging materials like bags, boxes,
bars etc.
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