Tesco's Marketing Strategies: A Comprehensive Analysis

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Marketing Essentials
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................. 3
LO. 1 Explain the role of marketing and how it interrelates with other functional units
of an organization........................................................................................................3
P1. Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function.................3
P2. Explain how roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider
organizational context..............................................................................................5
LO. 2 Compare ways in which organizations use elements of the marketing mix
(7Ps) to achieve overall business objectives...............................................................7
P3. Compare the ways in which different organisations apply the marketing mix to
the marketing planning process to achieve business objectives.............................7
LO3 Develop and evaluate a basic marketing plan...................................................10
P4 Produce and evaluate a basic marketing plan for an organisation...................10
Conclusion................................................................................................................ 14
References................................................................................................................16
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Introduction
Market research can be considered as the procedure, which links the process,
consumers along with end users (Chetthamrongchai, 2018). Market research can be
defined as the analysis of collection in well-organized process. The following
assessment is based on the role of the marketing research. In this regard, the
assessment will be explained the role of marketing along with the procedures
following which it interconnect with other functional units of an organization. The
chosen organization for this particular assessment is Tesco. Tesco is one of the
popular retail companies in all over the world. Tesco is a private type company and
headquarter of Tesco is situated in United Kingdom. Marketing plays a major role
and there are some very significant ways based on which it interrelates with other
functional units of Tesco. The market research for Tesco can be possible to consider
as the procedure that links with the process of consumers along with end users. In
addition, this assessment will provide the comparison between the ways in which
organization like Tesco use elements of the marketing mix (7Ps) to accomplish entire
business objectives. This can be found that there is the various dissimilarity between
the ways in which organizations use elements of the marketing mix (7Ps) to
accomplish the all of the desire organizational goals. In last part, the assessment will
Develop and evaluate a basic marketing plan. This can be found that basic
marketing plan is very useful and essential to evaluate the marketing plan.
LO. 1 Explain the role of marketing and how it interrelates with other
functional units of an organization.
P1. Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function.
The key role of marketing function in the multinational company Tesco is to
distinguish the potential products and its steady manufacture in the vast market
(Lancaster and Massingham, 2017). This procedure also includes the promotion of
such products as well for the potential consumers to recognize it. According to Blythe
and Martin (2019), the functions of marketing in an organization like Tesco include
several procedures of marketing function like marketing research for the potential
thriving of the product in the market, and product planning for effective
understanding of what the consumers require. Product development and designing
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at Tesco plays a key role in establishing proper market functionality. This enables
the company to sell their product with greater attraction and this immediately lures
the consumers to try the product. The designing of a product often determines its
market potential to reach the audience sufficiently. The other functional areas of
marketing include the development of the product, creating awareness among the
consumers by promoting the products, making sure of proper sales of the product
and its essentiality among the consumers with a worthy financial investment in the
product. Tesco undergoes these basic steps and procedures that are a necessity in
the marketing function of any organization product. The essential functionality of
marketing in Tesco is responsible for the absolute growth and globalization of the
company. The marketing functions of Tesco are not limited to just these areas of
functions. Tesco as a global company ensures the proper implementation of
marketing strategies and proper management of the products. The strategies are the
core of marketing functionality as without these strategies there is hardly any scope
for Tesco to promote the products and establish a proper relationship with the
consumers. As opined by McDonald and Wilson (2016), another aspect of market
functioning for Tesco includes the later part of the market functionality that occurs
after the product is sent to the market. This involves the product distribution and
creates a steady communication among the customers. This functional aspect of
marketing the products of Tesco has a crucial role to play in establishing a strong
marketing technique and functionality. Risk taking is a huge aspect of marketing
essentiality and functions in a negative as well as positive way. It has a huge
functionality in the selling of products, which is the ultimate aim of the marketing
functionalities. Tesco readily involves in risking the marketing functionalities and
adapts new ways of marketing their products. This stance is sometimes essential for
presenting the Tesco products in a different way in the market. There are several
roles and responsibilities of marketing while in this regard this can be found there are
few of very significant responsibilities, which help Tesco to develop their business in
a wide range. Standardization along with gardening is one of them and this can be
seen that standardization refers to the determination of standard in terms of quality,
size, color, raw materials, weight and design. This way, sale is made possible on the
base of samples. Generally, this can be revealed as the process in which traders
look at the sample and place the order of purchase (Chetthamrongchai, 2018).
Products of the similar characteristic are placed in the provided grade or the
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category. Pacing and labelling is another role for marketing and this aims at
overcoming the damage, destruction and packaging. With the help of packaging,
Tesco can get the advantages of lifting, handling along with conveying the products.
According to Lamey et al. (2018), the material of packaging covers plastic bags,
canister, bottles, jute bags and wooden or tin boxes. In this regard, it can be
revealed that label is a slip and it can be found on the product. In marketing, pricing
is very significant and this needs to be prioritized by Tesco. According to Lamey et
al. (2018), marketing can aid Tesco to know about the consumers’ feedback on the
price of their products. In this regard, it can be found that pricing can be the reason
of consumer attraction along with reduction. Tesco must follow a pricing strategy,
which will be affordable for all of their consumers.
According to Barnes (2016), it is essential that the key areas of marketing
functionality of Tesco include the various prospects of buying, gathering market
information, taking probable risk in handling of the products. After that comes the
financing of the products effectively, standardization and grading of the products,
storing of the products in the company stores and its further transportation to reach
the target market audience. The marketing functionality of Tesco finally ends with the
successful selling of the Tesco products to the customers.
P2. Explain how roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider
organizational context.
The interpretation of roles and responsibilities based on the subject of marketing
plays important role to the gigantic organization such as Tesco. Involvement of roles
and regulations will help the organization to profitable results based on the
collaboration of that in terms of attracting more number of consumers. On the other
hand it has been observed that responsibilities played by the marketing department
of Tesco (Verhoef et al., 2016). Thus it, can be stated the involvement of marketing
department of Tesco plays a crucial role towards the encapsulating the positive
impact on Tesco. Involvement of Marketing Department in Tesco plays a vital in the
form of establishing the profitable relationship that retains between the managers
and employees and loyal consumers (Rezai et al., 2016).
On the other hand, it ash been perceived as per the opinion by Smigielska and
Stefanska (2017), the collaboration of marketing department delves with the roles
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and regulation that helps to attract more numbers of consumers and this inversely
affects the rise in the price ratio of Tesco. The roles and responsibilities on the part
of the marketing department deals with the propagation that tends to make the
changes in the marketing department analysis. An active participation on the part of
marketing department of Tesco helps the organization to obtain with beneficial
results and expanses the market share across the nation. The roles and
responsibilities are provided to different part of the marketing department such as,
chief marketing officer, marketing director, vice president marketing, marketing
manager, public relations and many more (Assimakopoulos et al., 2017).
They are the core comity that plays the role and responsibilities based on the part of
marketing that helps Tesco to participate in the race of competition (Bappy and
Islam, 2015). On the other hand, it has been observed that the marketing department
helps to organization to gain benefits from the market in terms of customer’s
satisfaction via listening to their basic needs. The department based on the
marketing essentials of Tesco, it helps the organization of to gain the establish the
internal channels that tends to provide with better programming so that it becomes
easier to gain profit from the global market. Moreover, the marketing department of
Tesco helps the organization to come up with the relevant marketing strategies in
terms of gaining beneficial outcome (Wilkinson, 2016).
It has been observed that the Tesco, have the ability to obtain good results via an
implication of marketing department that are provided with number of roles and
responsibilities. Henceforth, it can be stated that Tesco has been build with the help
of collaboration of social networks that aims to attract more numbers of consumers
through advertisement of various methods (Lacey, 2015). The propagation of
marketing department of Tesco ash been developed with the help of tracking the
trend to have a control on the path of competition. The marketing department of
Tesco will be beneficial in terms of scrutinizing the weak areas of the organization
that helps the organization to gain the knowledge and enables comes up with further
development (Wilkinson, 2016).
The marketing department of Tesco will have an advantage, based on the
interpretation of advertisement and promotional strategies in terms of attracting more
number of consumers (Bappy and Islam, 2015). The other way round, it can be
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suggested that the Tesco have been subjected to the verification of responsibilities
plays by the marketing department in terms of promoting the brand perception. Thus,
it can be stated that the marketing department of Tesco will be gaining sustainable
results from the global market that will help the organization to obtain with the results
based on social media marketing. Moreover, the formation of marketing department
will help Tesco to gain outcomes obtained after the implication of enhancement.
Henceforth, it can be stated that the responsibilities assigned to the marketing
department of Tesco, which helps the organization of to put emphasis on consumer
centric approach that tends to delve with the part of updates track in terms of
competition (Assimakopoulos et al., 2017). Additionally the marketing department of
Tesco helps to facilitate the brand perception that attracts number of consumers
towards the loyalty program schemes of Tesco.
LO. 2 Compare ways in which organizations use elements of the marketing mix
(7Ps) to achieve overall business objectives
P3. Compare the ways in which different organisations apply the marketing
mix to the marketing planning process to achieve business objectives.
The marketing mix strategy, mainly the 7Ps strategy is discussed in this section by
considering three different organizations. The first organization is Tesco, which is the
largest retailer in the UK market. This is compared with an airline organization, Easy
Jet that uses 7Ps strategy to gain competitive advantages. Moreover, to witness the
importance of marketing mix in business expansion and organizational success,
further comparison is drawn with a fashion company called Burberry that is located in
the UK market. The comparison of the marketing mix strategy among these three
companies helps to identify the significance of 7Ps in business expansion.
Marketing Mix strategy of Tesco
Product- Tesco provides a wide range of products, which include food, stationary,
clothing, electronics, stationary, financial services and many others. Tesco always
value their customers and has recently reviewed more than 32 food categories.
Additionally, the product lines have been reduced by Tesco accounts to be around
17% (Martínez-Ruiz et al., 2016). The organization has its own products such as
Tesco Lotus, F&F Clothing, Tesco Value, etc.
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Price- Cost leadership strategy is followed by Tesco and thus, a significant low
pricing strategy is maintained by Tesco without hampering the quality of the
products. Te organization maintains a healthy relationship with its suppliers and
relish economies of scale. However, Samantara and Sharma (2015) revealed that
strong competition from Lidl and Aldi in the UK market influence the pricing strategy
of the organization.
Place- Tesco utilizes both online and offline channels to advertise ad distribute its
products. The online distribution channel is called Tesco Direct, whereas more than
6570 offline stores are located at multiple sites. Offline stores are mainly of six types
such as Tesco Extra, Tesco Express, Tesco Superstore, Tesco Homeplus, Tesco
Compact and Tesco Metro.
Promotion- Tesco’s brand image helps the organization to promote its products in
an efficient manner. Digital and traditional methods of promotion are used by the
organization. Other types of sales promotion like Tesco loyalty card, Tesco Clubcard,
etc. are provided to the customers (Felgate and Fearne, 2015). The customers enjoy
the experience of personalized discounts on every purchase they made.
Physical Evidence- The attractive logo of Tesco and multi-colour usage charm their
customers. Tesco website is creative and customers find it easy to operate.
Moreover, offline stores contain proper arrangement so that easy navigation of the
products is possible.
People- More than 350,000 employees are present in Tesco. The organization offers
wide range of training and development to provide job satisfaction to the employees.
Appraisal and reward are provided to the staffs to motivate them.
Process- The processing of a customer’s order takes place at Tesco where
customers go to pay the bill to customer assistants after picking the order.
Additionally, self service machines are also present in the stores that can be utilized
by the customers to make payments.
Marketing Mix Strategy of Easy Jet
Product- Easy Jet has acquired a huge market share by providing affordable and
cheap prices to the travellers. The organization has developed modern aircraft that
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provides advanced features like comfortable and increased leg space, cabin
pressure normalization and enhanced fuel efficiency, etc (Malighetti et al., 2015).
These features of an advanced aircraft provide comfortable travelling experience.
Price- A low cost pricing strategy is adopted by Easy Jet to provide better customer
experience. With modern aircraft, the company is able to reduce the aircraft
maintenance and fuel cost. Thus, they are providing premium services to their
customers in order to remain competitive yet favourite to the customers (Cattaneo et
al., 2016). Additionally, they provide rental cab services for a comfort journey to and
from airport.
Place- Easy Jet has developed a creative website that are enabling customers to
check the discounts and offers the organization is providing to the travellers.
Moreover, they have included several foreign languages so that non-English
speaking customers do not find any difficulty. Additionally, they provide customized
tours in partnership with renowned travel organizations.
Promotion- Other than partnership with different travelling agents, they send regular
e-mails to the customers regarding the launch of new flights or seasonal discounts.
This increases customer loyalty.
Physical Evidence- Easy Jet now mainly operates its business through online
platforms. However, they are also registered with some travel agents for helping
those customers who prefer offline services.
People- The organization have employed skilled and efficient employees who are
exposed to regular training and development programs. Customer service
executives are specially trained to provide satisfactory services to the customers.
Process- The Company offers online as well as offline services to the customers.
Moreover, Easy Jet performs a regular survey to monitor the services delivered to
the customers.
Marketing mix Strategy of Burberry
Product– Burberry has developed intricate designed clothes and has unique
collections like Burberry Prorsum, Burberry London, etc (Straker and Wrigley, 2016).
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Special attention is given to the women wear and they provide best quality fabrics for
the clothes.
Price- The main target of the company is affluent classes and thus, price of the
products is significantly high.
Place- The organization has its presence in more than 50 countries. The offline
stores are located in the highly populated regions of the selected countries that
guarantee high revenue sources.
Promotion- High class magazines have been selected as the main object of
promotional events (Li et al., 2017). Moreover, celebrities are invited to advertise
their products.
Physical Evidence- Both online and offline platforms are utilized by Burberry to
target high-class people.
People- Fashion students and fashion experts are mainly appointed by the
organization so that they can charm customers by providing them accurate fashion
apparels.
Process- Customer assistance executive helps the customers to pay their bills
without any obstacles.
LO3 Develop and evaluate a basic marketing plan.
P4 Produce and evaluate a basic marketing plan for an organisation.
STPs in Marketing for Tesco Company
Tesco’s marketing decision of marketing management is affected by several macro
as well as micro environmental factors. Tesco produces several products as well as
services, which may not be able to attract every people because there are
differences in requirements among people. Hence, businesses are seen to be
engaged in market targeting as well as segmenting practices.
Segmentation is divided into demographic, geographic, behavioral as well as
psychographic practices. Tesco is seen to be implementing segmentation, targeting
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as well as positioning regarding its brand and individual products (Dibb and Simkin,
2016).
Segmentation of Tesco
Segmentation bases Target Customer
Geographic Region UK along with 13 other
countries
Density Urban and Rural
Demographic Age People of all age
Gender Females as well as Males
Income Middle as well as low income
category
Occupation Employees, students as well
as professionals
Education Technical, Bachelors as well
as High School
Family Size Nuclear as well as extended
families as well as single
individuals
Social Status Skilled working class, working
class, middle class as well as
lower middle class
Behavioral Benefits Variety as well as cost
advantage (Shi et al., 2018)
Occasions Regular
Attitude Positive, Skeptical
Status of user Active user
The above table has illustrated Tesco’s target customer segment. However, it can be
said that in general, Tesco’s target customer segment consists of those, who are
highly cost conscious, whereas in terms of specific products, for instance- in terms of
Tesco’s Technika TV, the target customer segment consists of people who are not
that cost conscious (Shi et al., 2018).
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There are direct implications of buyer behavior on the marketing activities in various
forms of buying situations, which have been addressed by Tesco through
emphasizing on cost effectiveness within the communication practices regarding
marketing, which are targeted.
A wider range of positioning strategies has been utilized by Tesco for attracting
target customer segment.
Functional Positioning- It has associations with functionalities of services as well
as products of increased range as well as quality. For instance- Tesco Finest range
of products is sold by Tesco through utilizing functional positioning. Accordingly, for
chosen customer the focal point of advertisement serves as the quality of the range
of product. Products, which have sold with the usage of functional positioning, are
found out to be more expensive due to enhanced functionality as well as higher
quality (Dibb and Simkin, 2016).
Symbolic Positioning- Symbolic Positioning is based on aims, values as well as
aspirations of the customers. Tesco utilizes this type of positioning regarding its Fair
Trade range of products in grocery as well as food sector. This type of positioning is
also utilized by Tesco regarding its clothing products. Besides, it does not utilize
cotton, which is grown in those countries, which use child labour for growing cotton.
Tesco intends to make an appeal to narrow customer segment’s concerns. Fair
Trade product is sold by Tesco to a narrow customer segment at higher prices for
satisfying the self-perception of those customers as responsible buyers.
Experimental Positioning- - Tesco applies price positioning for attracting particular
customers segment for its range of products related to beauty as well as health.
Price Positioning This particular type of positioning is utilized by Tesco for targeting
particular customer segment who are seen to be more concerned about the price
regarding the products as well as services (Dibb and Simkin, 2016).
Multi-segment Positioning- This is utilized by Tesco for targeting various segments
with various products simultaneously (Shi et al., 2018).
Situational Analysis
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