Tesco PLC UK: A Marketing Case Study on Achieving Business Objectives

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Marketing Essentials

Contents
Introduction..............................................................................................................................................3
LO1: Explain the role of marketing and how it interrelates with other functional units of an
organisation:.............................................................................................................................................4
a. Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function of an organisation (P1, M1).4
b. Explain how roles and responsibilities of the marketing relate to the wider organizational
contexts (P2, M2).................................................................................................................................6
LO2: Compare ways in which the organisation use elements of marketing mix (7P’s) to achieve
overall business objectives.......................................................................................................................9
a. Compare the ways in which different organisations apply the marketing mix to the marketing
planning process to achieve the business objective (P3, M3)..............................................................9
LO3: Develop and evaluate the basic marketing plan...........................................................................13
a. Produce and evaluate a basic marketing plan for an organisation (P4, M4)..................................13
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................17
References..............................................................................................................................................18

Introduction
All the products, after manufacturing, are required to be introduced in front of the consumers
so they can gain every pinch of benefit from them. This process of introduction as well as
promotion of the products (as well as services) is known as marketing. This procedure is
essential for the organisations so as to ensure their growth and expansion as well. Various
terms and definitions used in marketing are known as the marketing essentials which include
the concepts like marketing mix along with the marketing plan. The roles and responsibilities
of the managers also play a vital role in explaining the marketing criteria and strategy. If an
organisation successfully executes and follows all these terms, they gain profits in different
manners like winning from competitors, earning massive profits from products etc. This helps
the organisation earn a respectful loyal image among the consumers as well as become a
brand name. Though, the consistent production and supply of the products depend upon the
quality of provided products, urgency of the product in the market, customer response etc.,
and the marketing terms and concepts aid these elements in getting the momentum
maintained on the way to growth of the organisation.
Below, in the assignment, we’ll discuss all these terms with the help of “Tesco PLC UK” (a
multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer company). Here, a complete
clarification regarding all the concepts like roles and responsibilities of the managers, the
different terms that make marketing easier etc. will be discussed.

LO1: Explain the role of marketing and how it interrelates with other
functional units of an organisation:
a. Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function of an
organisation (P1, M1)
“Marketing” is not just a single action, but it is a collection of various processes and actions
leading to maintaining the relations between the organisation and customers and hence, the
overall growth of the organisation. Organisations formulate various strategies and policies to
attract the customers and help them stay connected to them in the long run. The quality of the
products, its demand in the market, consumers’ response to the product etc. along with
certain other factors defines the success or failure of the organisation (Baines, Fill and Page,
2015). Now, when it comes to the marketing department, it is structured differently in every
organisation. However, the basic criteria considers the goals and objectives of the
organisation, operating market, place and people, products and services organisation is
planning to offer etc.
The various functional departments work together to make the marketing department.
Basically, the evolution of marketing is included with certain concepts:
The Concept of Production – Enhancing the production unit of the organisation is the major
priority.
The Concept of Products – Improving the quality and characteristics of the products is kept
in mind so the consumers can gain maximum benefits.
The Concept of Sales – Improving the factors related to sales so every consumer can have a
reach to the product and the organisation can earn massive profits.
The Concept of Marketing – It works on the policy of demand and supply. The products are
produced and provided as per the demands of the customers.
The Concept of Societal Marketing – There is a focus on the products of the eco-friendly
products.
The very first thing Tesco PLC does is to communicate the new launch to all the target
audiences and consumers so they can know and understand the product and its benefits. So,
we can say that the major role of the marketing department of the organisation is promotion

of the product, i.e. to let people become aware of all the products and how they can be
beneficial for them. This is the very basic criteria of attracting the customers towards the
company so it can earn massive and long term profits.
But, it is not just one thing responsible for making Tesco PLC people’s favourite. There are
certain other factors and strategies as well which include targeting, positioning, segmentation,
distribution strategies, product mix, pricing mix, marketing mix etc (Churchill and Iacobucci,
2016). They altogether play an important role in helping Tesco PLC select the consumers
who can gain the maximum benefits from the products of the organisation so that these
consumers can be targeted on priority basis. Deciding the price and place for the product is
also the responsibility of the marketing department, as of course, the product must give
profits in return.
The various components of “Tesco PLC” and the different roles and responsibilities of the
marketing function are mentioned in the image provided below.
Figure1: Role of marketing (Churchill and Iacobucci, 2016)
So, here we can see that the major components of the marketing are strategic marketing and
marketing management. Let’s understand these in detail.
Strategic Marketing Component - It is a way by which an organisation enhances its potential
and strengths so as to effectively differentiate itself from its competitors. The major role of
strategic marketing is to decide about how, when and where to compete with the competitors.

It is basically a way to ensure that every single marketing effort the organisation is making
benefits the targeted audience, hence leading to the success of the organisation.
Marketing Management Component - It is a process by which the strategies and planning
for the products and services of Tesco PLC are developed. Marketing management is today
the most important element for all commercial and business enterprise. This helps in meeting
the increasing competition in the market as well as the need of the improved ways of
distribution to reduce the cost and increase profits of the organisation (Clow and James,
2014).
Although, the organisation has already earned its name, it is still giving strong efforts to beat
the rivals and stand by its name. For this, it is trying hard to make and maintain good
relations with the consumers so as to gain profits in long term. Hence, by working on the
mentioned concepts and making the strategies and policies accordingly, Tesco PLC can
easily attract number of targeted audiences and gain massive profits.
b. Explain how roles and responsibilities of the marketing relate to the wider
organizational contexts (P2, M2)
The marketing of an organisation depends upon numerous processes and criteria and
advertisement as well as promotion of the products and services is one of them. These
concepts basically help the organisation reach its targeted audience and let them know and
understand its products and their benefits for them. This increases the chances for an
organisation to earn high levels of profits as well as the loyal consumers for a longer period
of time. In Tesco PLC as well, the marketing department works eagerly, keeping all the
concepts and criteria into concern so that the organisation achieves both its vision as well as
mission (Dibb and Simkin, 2017).
There is a crowd of number of organisations in the market globally. To keep its name look
different, Tesco PLC has a dedicated group of marketing professionals that work day and
night to beat the competition and keep the brand name always fresh in front of the consumers.
The competitor Sainsbury UK is also a strong competitor and attracts a lot of targeted
customers towards it, but Tesco PLC applies all marketing strategies to keep the targeted
people always connected to it. For this, the marketing functions perform variety of
performances like defining all the activities and process of the organisation separately,
managing them all, presenting every detail related to its products in front of targeted audience
in the best effective manner. This creates a transparency in front of the customers that makes

them trust Tesco PLC more. Being an organisation dealing in variety of groceries as well as
general merchandise items, it becomes important for it to make customers know every detail
of every product and service it is offering.
Since, 1960s Tesco PLC has already been among the favourite names among the customers,
but now it is working hard to beat the increasing competition. Today, it is running in 13
different countries. In UK it has many stores, but needs to work a lot on the marketing aspect
so as to reach largest number of targeted audiences. Due to enhancement in the technology
and demands of the consumers, the traditional marketing strategies cannot work anymore.
Keeping this in mind, the marketing department of Tesco PLC has also shifted to the social
marketing methods, including SEO, SMO, SMM, etc. Hence, the task doesn’t get completed
just by introducing the product to the consumers, but to reach the highest global heights, it
has now become the responsibility of the marketing department of the organisation to always
keep the new technology introduced to the organisation (Fill, 2014). This way, the
organisation can always stay updated with the updated technology and the market globally
and reach the maximum number of people worldwide. The broadest way to reach maximum
people today is internet only.
Again SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is the best focused way today to reach more and
more targeted audience. So, the organisation, keeping this in mind, has introduced many SEO
experts as well so as to run the advanced marketing processes smoothly. It is basically the
technique to create unique content on the internet so that the users can get details about the
organisation and offered products whenever they search on internet. Certain unique keywords
are used so as to keep the organisational name among the top links on Google. By this
process, when the users will search about the grocery stores and other usable items, they will
find Tesco PLC and hence, Tesco will get consumers easily (Hair et al, 2018).
Introducing itself on internet and creating a brand identity becomes important for Tesco PLC
because more than 70% of the world population today prefers to search everything via
internet instead of wandering around. So, let’s conclude the roles and responsibilities of the
marketing function of Tesco PLC:
Attracting maximum number of consumers by promoting the products and services the best
possible way

Keeping transparency in front of customers by giving them right information about every
product so that they can remain loyal customers ever
Beating the increasing competition is one of the most important responsibilities of the
marketing department.
Supply as per demand! Understanding exactly what customers need and providing the same
is the responsibility of the marketing department.

LO2: Compare ways in which the organisation use elements of marketing
mix (7P’s) to achieve overall business objectives.
a. Compare the ways in which different organisations apply the marketing mix to
the marketing planning process to achieve the business objective (P3, M3)
Whenever we talk about the marketing strategies, one concept is known to be the backbone of
marketing department, i.e. marketing mix. Marketing mix is defined as a set of certain actions
that an organisation uses in order to promote its brand name and products in the market. It is
actually a simple process if understood. An organisation uses it as a tool to make effective
decisions about the quality, price, place, and distribution etc. of the products.
Here is the comparison between two best supermarkets, i.e. Tesco PLC UK and Sainsbury
UK on the basis of 7Ps:
Product – Products are the very first offering an organisation does to its customers. An
organisation is always bound to produce only those products that are demanded by its
targeted customers. The major motto of the organisation is to satisfy the needs and demands
of the customers (which is mandatory). Keeping everything in mind, the marketing
department of the organisation is responsible for making the product different from its
homogeneous products, along with taking care of its quality, safety, packaging, warranty
services etc. (Kotler and McDougall, 2015).
Tesco PLC, introduced in 1924, is actually a British multinational grocery and general
merchandise retailer. Somewhere down the line, both Sainsbury and Tesco PLC are tough
competitors in the market. Initially, Tesco, during the initial days, was a focused grocery
retailer in UK, but later on, it started diversifying itself geographically and entered the zones
like clothing, books retailing, electronics, furniture, petrol and software, financial services,
telecom, music downloads etc. and many more. On the other hand, Sainsbury supermarket
Limited, found in 1869, was initially focused on the dairy products. It was only the quality of
the products that made it famous among people so early.
Price – Whenever it comes to correct pricing, the price of the product that is reasonable and
attractive to the customers without compromise in the quality of the product is said to the
perfect one. It must be high enough to cover the production cost as well. The price of some
product must be of the range that the consumer is willing to pay for any service or product.

There are certain factors that are considered while pricing the product, i.e. discounts, seasonal
pricing, cash discounts, price flexibility etc.
When the prices for Tesco PLC and Sainsbury are compared, the product price of Sainsbury
is found bit higher than Tesco PLC. This is a factor that is in the favour of Tesco PLC as its
lower prices with a good product quality attract the consumers toward it.
Place – Every organisation requires a place where its store can be set up. There are certain
factors that influence the decision of finalising a venue for store set up.
The venue or place, where the store is to be set up, must be affordable for the organisation.
The customer must not find it difficult to reach the location of the store.
Not only for the customers, but the suppliers must also feel comfortable while delivering the
products to the store.
There are certain strategies that are used in positioning, i.e. selective distribution, intensive
distribution, exclusive distribution and franchising.
Tesco PLC is already available in number of locations where the transport facilities are also
available so they don’t get any delay in getting the products supplied and the customers also
find it comfortable to reach the Tesco stores.
Promotion – Promotion is the marketing process by which an organisation introduces its
products and their benefits to the customers. Attractive ways of promotions are prepared so as
to attract more and more customers and bind them with the company for a longer time period.
Of course, a commodity well promoted has a better market value than the one launched
without much promotion (Lancaster and Massingham, 2017). The organisation focuses to
clarify certain figures like product name, price and quality to help the customers understand
the product and make a decision regarding the same. The different media utilised for
promotional activities include radio, TV, cinema commercials, billboards, internet etc.
Though Tesco PLC and Sainsbury are both well-established organisations and have already
become the brands among all the supermarkets in UK, still the competition is really high and
even little bit of ignorance can affect the face value.
People – People here come under 2 categories – customers and employees. The skilled
employees work hard to create and maintain the face value of a brand. Keeping this in mind,

the organisations hire more and more skilled people in their marketing department so as to
get better promotional activities every hour (McDaniel, Gates and Sivaramakrishnan,, 2015).
From manufacturing to promotion to distribution to sales, everywhere people are required by
the organisation. Not only here, the organisation depends upon people again to get profits
from its manufactured product. Hence, the need and demands of targeted customers are
always kept in mind while producing the new products.
People have different reviews for Tesco PLC and Sainsbury. It is not just the products, but
the sales ethics, customer value and many other things that help a customer make a decision
about any organisation or brand. As per the reviews, Tesco PLC needs to work harder on
these aspects.
Figure 2: Marketing Mix (McDaniel, Gates and Sivaramakrishnan,, 2015)
Process – The whole process performed by an organisation on the whole way to achieve
success and attract more and more people towards the products. These processes include
offering the required customer services, sales services, delivery services etc. The product
should be delivered properly because it is again a part of something the customer is paying
for.
Tesco PLC and Sainsbury are both renowned supermarket names in UK, but they require
working more on the delivery services they offer to the customers.
Physical Evidence – Physical evidence also influences the trust factor of customers while
looking towards an organisation to get their requirements fulfilled. These include the well-