Strategic Marketing Plan: Applying the 7Ps for Objectives

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of marketing essentials, focusing on the roles and responsibilities of the marketing function within an organization. It explores how marketing strategies relate to the broader organizational context, including production, research and development, accounting, and finance. The report also examines the significance of interrelationships between marketing and other functional units, such as HR and IT. It evaluates key elements of the marketing function and how they interrelate, emphasizing the importance of market research, brand image promotion, and social media monitoring. Furthermore, the report compares different approaches to applying the marketing mix, particularly the 7Ps, in the marketing planning process to achieve business objectives, using Taxify as a case study. It concludes with an evaluation of a basic marketing plan, highlighting the tactics and strategies required for success in a competitive market.

Marketing Essentials
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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
LO1..............................................................................................................................................4
P1 Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function.....................................4
P2. Explain how roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organisational
context..........................................................................................................................................6
M1 Analyse the roles and responsibilities of marketing in the context of the marketing
environment.................................................................................................................................7
M2. Analyse the significance of interrelationships between marketing and other functional
units of the marketing..................................................................................................................8
D1. Critically analyse and evaluate the key elements of the marketing function and how they
interrelate with other functional units of an organisation............................................................9
LO2............................................................................................................................................10
P3. Compare the ways in which different organisations apply the marketing mix to the
marketing planning process to achieve business objectives......................................................10
M3. Evaluate different tactics applied by organisations to demonstrate how business objectives
can be achieved..........................................................................................................................12
LO3............................................................................................................................................13
P4. Produce and evaluate a basic marketing plan for an organisation.......................................13
M4. Produce a detailed, coherent evidence-based marketing plan for an organisation.............14
D2. Design a strategic marketing plan that tactically applies the use of the 7Ps to achieve
overall marketing objectives......................................................................................................15
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................16
References......................................................................................................................................17
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Introduction
Marketing essentials are very important to be understood for planning a successful business.
Marketing includes the strategies that are mostly customer driven and also helps in providing
quality to the customers. Marketing essentials include understanding customer demands and
building good relations with the customers. It is very important to have complete awareness of
marketing essentials before planning or launching new products and/or establishing new
businesses. This report is basically focused on the current and future trends that take place in the
marketing essentials. In the latter part of this report, the 7Ps of the marketing mix are studied in
detail which helps in the achieving the business goals and objectives. This report is based on a
taxi-app company, Taxify, which is waiting to enter the UK market and is on its way to mark as
the latest entry in the London Transport market.
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LO1.
P1 Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function.
Marketing is very important for the businesses and it plays a vital role in instituting the
relationship between the business and the customer. The roles and responsibilities of marketing
functions help the organization to build the relationship with the customer with the help of
capturing the interactions and with the help of the feedback collection. The marketing roles
involve participating in the activities like advertisements that are related to the publicity of the
organizations or products publicity. The major role of the marketing function is increasing the
market share of the business. Taxify is a taxi-app company that is planning its entry in the
Transport for London. Taxify will have to do complete market research before establishing in
London market as it is very important to know the competitors that are in the market and Taxify
has to do its best to develop a brand image with the help of television advertisement and another
mode of social media advertisements which are considered effective tools in the competitive
market.
Figure 1: Marketing Functions
Source: (Udemy, 2014)
The roles and responsibilities of marketing functions for Taxify will be as follows:-
Roles and
Responsibilities
Explanation
Marketing research and The research will help in finding the right place where there are
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analysis ample opportunities and new customers for the business. The
growth and development of Taxify will directly depend on the
market research done for establishing a business.
Promoting Brand Image It is an important responsibility for marketing the brand image. The
marketing department will help Taxify promoting their brand image
which will be helpful in future.
Maintaining tools and
techniques for business
promotion.
For business promotion, the tools and techniques have to be
maintained which will be with the help of effective strategies like
use of social media advertising.
Maintaining and
monitoring social media
actions.
To maintain and monitoring social media actions is the basic role of
the marketing division. The safety and security of the actions are
very important and should be considered effectively.
Customer Feedback Following the feedback properly will help in to generate new
concepts to serve the customers.
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P2. Explain how roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organizational
context.
In the organization, there are various categories and departments that are directly affected by the
marketing strategies and concepts. If the marketing concepts and strategies are good enough
then the organization may run with higher profit margins and if the marketing concepts are not
good then the firm may run into losses. The marketing plays a vitally important role in
promoting organization’s mission and it is also responsible for managing the resources
effectively for an organization. The roles and responsibilities of the marketing concepts in the
context of the organisation include the following:-
Production:-For the manufacturing or the production department of the organization, the
marketing strategies are kept in mind while the products are developed for the future use in an
organization. Therefore it is very important that the marketing strategies should be realistic and
reliable so that the products can be developed accordingly.
Research and Development:-The need and the wants of the customers are focused and kept in
mind by the marketing strategies for the research and development department. It is based on
what strategies are made for the products when launched in the market and it also helps in
providing ideas for developing and satisfying customer demands and needs.
Accounting:-The accounting department is directly affected by the marketing strategies as
accounting department helps in knowing whether the business is running in losses or in gain
(Piercy, 2016). The marketing concepts can keep the accounting department on track as this is
also considered by the stakeholders to make good decisions.
Financial:-The marketing concepts are dependent on the financial conditions of the business.
Therefore, the finance is required for starting the business and for effective running of the
business the finance is required. Therefore, financial conditions effectively control the working
of the business. The strategic marketing concepts and policies can help in achieving the business
goals easily.
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M1 Analyse the roles and responsibilities of marketing in the context of the marketing
environment.
The major role played by marketing in the business is that it helps in sales as well as the
distribution of the product which is considered a major business function. The marketing for the
Taxify will play an important role as proper marketing strategies will allow Taxify to monitor
and establish itself and gain popularity and grow in the competitive market. The marketing
management is considered as a process that involves the promotion of the product, pricing and
sales (Koch and Lockwood, 2016). The roles and responsibilities in the context of the marketing
are as follows:-
Monitoring the Marketing Environment-Various activities that follow the change that occurs
due to or in the external factors that include legal, cultural, economic, social, and technological
factors. If the marketing environment is not monitored then the companies have to go through
the problems that can be created or occurs due to unseen market changes. For the transport
companies, it becomes very important to be updated about the new and upcoming trends in their
facilities.
Marketing Information System-MIS is considered an important tool for planning marketing
strategies for the company. With the help of MIS, marketing data is assembled, stored, analyzed
and then distributed to the management team of the company which will help them do the things
on the informational basis (Colzani, 2015). It is also considered as a permanent arrangement or a
system that involves the owners in making the decisions about how to develop the product in a
better way.
Marketing strategies-It is an approach that includes the planning that involves forward-looking
approach. The competitive marketing strategies should be bulletproof, which means that the
strategies should be so hard that they attract the customers and helps in achieving the
fundamental goals for gaining a sustainable competitive advantage.
Market segmentation-It is a first step which helps in determining as to who should be targeted
through the marketing strategies. With the help of market segmentation, the consumers are
divided into different groups which can be potential or existing. There are different types of the
market segments which are demographic, psychographic, behavioral, and geographic
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segmentation. The management team can use any one of the following types of the market
segmentation.
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M2. Analyse the significance of interrelationships between marketing and other functional
units of the marketing.
The marketing personnel play the role of the coordinator and helps in linking various demands
from outside to the various functional personnel inside the company. The personnel involved in
the marketing help in bringing all the information from the market to the various functional
departments of the company. With the help of this knowledge, the strategies and planning are
done which involves the finance department and other product development departments
(Darbera, 2017). The major functions of marketing department are to reach out to the customers,
investors and also help in making a positive and creative image of the company in the market
with the help of research and development, strategy and planning, IT and customer services.
These three elements are significant elements that describe the importance of the
interrelationship between marketing and other functional units.
The importance of interrelationships between the functional units and marketing impacts the
quality and the services and it helps in human resource management. All the functions of the
marketing involve the financial resources which are provided by the financial department of the
company and the human resources included in the marketing teams are provided by the HR
department (Keong, 2016). Similarly, the functions of the HR department are directly connected
with the marketing as all the policies and strategies made by the HR department are related to the
market information.
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D1. Critically analyze and evaluate the key elements of the marketing function and how
they interrelate with other functional units of an organization.
The isolation of the marketing functions within the organization is not possible and it is
interconnected with all the other functional departments of the organization. The key elements
that are research and development, strategy and planning, IT and customer services. The
research and development is basically the organization engine which helps in generating
innovative ideas and services. It cannot work without marketing information which is provided
through the marketing departments at all the new software and the hardware that are present in
the market (Tierney, 2017). The strategy and planning which is done by the HR department
work with the cooperation of the marketing and all the strategies and planning are completely
related to the marketing functions. HR department also provides the human resource that is
required for the marketing department of the organization (Stead and Stead, 2017). The IT and
customer services are the elements of the marketing functions which are also directly related to
the functional unit of the organization. IT field is a huge field but the software and hardware
development and the websites, intranet, and extranet are beneficial for the marketing
departments. All the customers can check the information through the websites of the
organizations and there the customers can also provide the organization with the feedback.
Therefore the marketing functional elements are interrelated with other functional units of the
organization.
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LO2
P3. Compare the ways in which different organizations apply the marketing mix to the
marketing planning process to achieve business objectives.
The marketing mix is a set of tools that are used by the firm and is a foundation model for
marketing. Marketing mix strategies are applied to different strategies in the procedure plans for
achieving the goals of the organizations. The marketing mix helps the marketers to develop and
understand the products. It involves 4Ps and 7Ps and is based on the strategies for products,
services, and demographics. The Taxify will have to apply the marketing mix to the marketing
planning process for achieving their objectives (Canales, et. al., 2017). The Taxify is a taxi-app
company which will require the management team which will manage all the functions of the
company and it will also include the drivers and other employees to work for them, therefore, the
7Ps marketing mix will be helpful for the Taxify to enter and stay in the market for long-term.
For long-term running, Taxify will have to focus on the 7Ps that are a product, price, process,
promotion, people, place, and physical.
Figure 2: 7 Ps of Marketing Mix.
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Source: (Smart Insights, 2018.)
Product:-The products in context of a taxi-app company are the services that they will provide to
the customers via providing them with the taxies. It will be very important to provide good
quality services that should safety approved.
Price:-The pricing decision has to be done with the help of seasonal discounts and volume
discounts and the prices should be attractive for people as they go for least prices as they
compare the price on the internet before finalizing the services and will suggest to their relatives
and friends of the same.
Process:-The process that will be involved in the Taxify will be the delivery of the services. It is
very important to keep a track of how the services are delivered and again it involves the process
which starts with the customer booking and ends when the customer has paid for the services and
provided with the feedback which can be positive or negative.
Promotion:-Taxify will have to include the strategies that may include the promotion of their
services and appealing to the customers to use their services again and again and refer them to
their friends and relatives.
People:-The people are the customers that are
Place:-It involves providing services to the customers and the decision will be based on the place
or distribution factor for the Taxify as it will involve the market coverage, mode of
transportation, etc.
Physical Evidence:-With the help of physical evidence it provides intangibility to the results.
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