Marketing Essentials: A Comparative Analysis of Tesco and Zara

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Marketing Essentials
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Table of Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................... 4
LO1.................................................................................................................................. 5
LO2.................................................................................................................................. 9
LO3................................................................................................................................ 12
Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 17
Reference list................................................................................................................. 18
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Introduction
Important roles of marketing function to be discussed at first in this study. Then it will
relate roles of this department inside organisation in wider context. TESCO is chosen as
the main organisation and Zara will be compared to it by assessing variance in
strategies for marketing mix. Marketing plan for TESCO will be produced by using
marketing mix and situational analysis. Tesco is considered to be a leading organisation
to be operating within the fashion retail industry in UK through its services deliveries
from F&F fashion. “Jack Cohen” established the organisation in the year 1919 with its
operating headquarter in Hertfordshire, UK (tesco.com, 2019).
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LO1
Using examples from your chosen organisation, explain the key roles and
responsibilities of the marketing function.
Marketing can be looked upon as a management process, which is accountable for
identification, anticipation of customer needs and satisfying them by keeping factors for
profitability within products or services. There are innumerable responsibilities of
marketing unit at TESCO PLC and these are key factors for financial success of the
organisation. The unit responsible for marketing has responsibilities regarding
management process. They take part in planning and analyses various factors for
marketing. The main role marketing is focused on one target and every other work
moves around it. They mainly focus on satisfying customers by giving the product they
require. This marketing function identifies customer requirements by researching and
gathering information about it. A marketer uses resources available at TESCO PLC and
achieves their target, which is related to gaining more profit for the company (Feng et
al., 2015).
Branding
Marketing unit has the responsibility for defining brand of TESCO PLC. They have to
find out suitable ways to create a definition for this company to make sure that it makes
them stand out amongst other brands of similar nature. This is vital for making
customers understand the kind of experience this company is trying to give them.
Conducting campaign
Marketing department takes part in initiating other marketing activities like conducting
campaigns. They proactively try to identify products, which can be focused on
customers to generate more profit. They also decide the activities of sales cycle of a
particular product and produces proper communicational channels to spread the word
about it.
Promotional activity
There is a huge amount of participation of marketing unit in promotional activities. They
make promotional materials, which promotes their various products and services of
TESCO PLC (Baker, 2016).
Making content for SEO
The website of TESCO PLC is the first place, where customers get information about
products offered by them. The marketing group is responsible for giving valuable inputs
for SEO team to makes sure they can program it by keeping current products for their
web content.
Managing social platforms
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TESCO PLC has to maintain their social presence by creating content for social media
platforms. The unit for marketing produces content for social sites. They monitor these
sites to see if any content without official approval has been posted or not.
Contributing to internal communication
Employees have to understand their roles and marketing group often guides employees
of TESCO PLC to make them understand about priorities of the company. They can
often guide employees to find profitable ways for conducting business activities.
Media liaison
Marketing unit acts as media spokesperson for TESCO PLC. They attend several media
gathering and press conferences to talk about their new products or make an official
statement about the company. They often provide guidelines for executives to attend
these press conferences to avoid any hassle with media.
Customer and market research
The marketing unit in TESCO PLC goes through research to understand necessities of
customers and understand the market trend. They also make research about business
rivals to understand the amount of competition they may face. They come up with
proper strategies to make sure that their products are priced properly for getting
maximum profit (Babin and Zikmund, 2015).
Managing vendors
Another role of for this department is that they converse with vendors and suppliers to
assess sources, which can be profitable for TESCO PLC. They check authenticity of
suppliers and try to get good quality of supply materials at low prices.
Explain how roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider
organisational context.
The contribution of marketing unit of TESCO PLC in B2B marketing is evident. They
select proper business organisations, which can become potential raw material
suppliers to them. During this process, marketing unit has to discuss about their
requirements with various clients regarding their demands. Usually many vendors give
their quotation regarding any tender offered by TESCO PLC. They have experts, who
are knowledgeable to understand and select clients, who can supply them raw materials
in low prices while maintaining good quality. They define buyers persona and checks if
suppliers has potential to serve to it. Marketing unit is also focused on B2C marketing
and it is based on satisfying customers. They try to make customers understand the
benefits for using their products through various marketing activities. They often use
numerous tactics to promote products by targeting different sections of customer base.
B2C purchases are mostly emotional ones and therefore marketing unit requires
focusing on behavioural patterns of customers to understand what they need. Most
customers are not experts about products the company is selling and they refer to other
alternative options before making a purchase. Therefore, TESCO PLC requires making
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Identifying trends
Setting objectives
Marketing mix
STP
Time and budget
Situational analysis
Control and
evaluation
apparel products, which are better than competitors are and implement extraordinary
promotional methods.
Structure of marketing process
Figure 1: Structure of marketing process
(Source: Created by the learner)
Identifying trends
The first function of marketing department is to understand demands of customers and
current trends in apparel business. TESCO PLC can refer to various research methods
like survey and interview to know this.
Setting objectives
After understanding the trend and customer demand, marketing team will have to set
objectives by aligning those needs with organisational objective. It is necessary to have
a proper plan first.
Situational analysis
The business environment should be considered properly before delving into any
marketing strategy. They may have to consider various factors, as ignoring it may lead
to serious problem in later period.
STP
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TESCO PLC will have to understand and identify segments, which can give them more
profit to them. The marketing team will have to target potential customers to maximise
the effect of marketing plan.
Marketing mix
Application of marketing mix elements will be necessary and focusing on each one of
them is vital to find out ways to exploit it.
Time and budget
Marketing team will need to set proper budget for this whole procedure, as they will
require approval from higher designation employees to get the amount from finance
group. A timeframe should be set to make this plan time bound.
Control and evaluation
Proper control and evaluation techniques should be used by TESCO PLC to make sure
every activity is in control. Evaluation is mandatory for marketing group to make them
understand the effectiveness of their marketing process.
Interrelationships
Finance unit sets budget for marketing group and tries to control expenses. They try to
justify expenditure of this unit by taking account of various expenses. Their main target
is to make marketing unit have appropriate budget to make them function properly to
generate more financial benefits. Lack of fund will harm marketing operations of TESCO
PLC (Forbes.com, 2019).
The purchasing unit may try to focus on economical purchases to save money. They
prefer to standardise purchases but marketing group will tend to focus on making
quality better through high quality war materials. Proper amalgamation of their
ideologies is necessary and interconnection is vital.
Interconnection is invaluable between production and marketing group of TESCO
PLC. The production team focuses on linear product line and on the other hand,
marketing department wants to introduce new products. Therefore, through proper
intercommunication, they can address miscommunication and make new products.
R&D department takes inputs from marketing unit for developing newer products for
TESCO PLC. Therefore, interconnection is unavoidable, as it lets smooth flow of
information between two units. This can solve many internal problems, as R&D often
takes more time for coming up with research results and marketing unit wants faster
outcomes.
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LO2
Compare how organisations use the various elements of the 7Ps marketing mix in
the marketing planning process to achieve business objectives.
TESCO Plc. Zara
Product TESCO PLC is designs
mainstream fashion clothes
for the middle class
customers through their
subsidiary of F&F Fashion.
It mainly manufactures and
designs western dresses.
TESCO mainly focuses on
the comfort of the
customers for men, women
and children (tesco.com,
2019). Quality of the
products is very high in this
company and it has
different ranges of
products. It always
concentrates on the market
research and trend of the
market is followed strictly in
the organisation.
Zara has a huge craze
among the young fashion
enthusiast and the
company focuses on the
western casual and formal
dresses. The key strengths
of the company are
following the market trend
and to changing rapidly
according to the customer
demand. Along with
trending products, the
company focuses on
meeting the cultural needs
(García-Álvarez, 2015).
Presently, the company is
working to meet the needs
of the local people along
with the global customers.
Price Target customer of this
company is the middle
class people of the country.
The company mainly
focuses on reducing the
labour cost; thereby
increasing the profitability
by keeping, the prices of
product low. It adheres to
the cost effective pricing
method. TESCO Plc
chooses the suppliers
cautiously, it helps them to
get the suppliers with lower
price, and this will help the
company to increase profit
and attract the target
customers (tesco.com,
2019).
Target customer of this
company is the higher
income holder people. The
company mainly follows
premium pricing strategy
and the pricing and quality
of this company is generally
compared with Hugo Boss.
Zara always concentrates
on making attractive stores
in the premium places that
attract the target
customers. Zara spends
maximum income on
improving training and
development of the
employees.
Place TESCO Plc operates Zara spends a lot in
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through retail stores. It
mainly uses third party
channels for selling its
products. It uses different
channels of the sales,
individual stores of the
company are situated at
different shopping malls,
and other premium
crowded places (tesco.com,
2019).
establishing stores in
different places. It has
different types of stores
such as premium stores
and regular stores as well.
The products are divided
according to the structure of
the stores of the company.
In the premium stores,
premium products of Zara
are sold and in the regular
stores, more affordable
products are sold. The
company spends a lot in
establishing the stores and
its designs are premium; in
that way, helping to attract
higher range of people.
Promotion TESCO Plc is more inclined
towards offline marketing. It
uses combined marketing
channels for selling the
products. Key strategies of
marketing that are followed
by this company are
advertising, public relations,
direct marketing and others.
This company is late to
enter into online marketing
and it emails the home
catalogues to the
customers. Social media
marketing has become the
new channel of marketing
for this company (Ahmad et
al., 2015). It organises
different fashion events for
launching new products
and celebrity endorsement
is another popular strategy
of marketing that is used by
TESCO Plc.
Zara does not spend
money in marketing and
promotion. This company
believes in quality of the
product. It spends most of
the money in market
research and development
of stores. Zara uses zero
investment marketing
strategy to differentiate
itself from the other
companies. Word of mouth
marketing is the major way
of promoting the products
within the customers. The
target market of this
company is 18 to 40 years
of people and 65% of the
products in the company
are made for the women
(Zara.com., 2019). Zara
shows its commitment in
the place of marketing and
promotion and it helps to
differentiate the company
from other companies.
Process This company distributes
the items through the 6569
Zara uses the individual
stores mainly for the sales
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retail stores of the company
and the home catalogue
does the sales of the
company. The international
expansion of the company
is focussing mainly on the
franchising strategy. It has
closed several foreign
stores of including several
retails stores. It has
increased the numbers of
franchised stores, as it has
been less expensive and
more beneficial channels of
this company.
of the products. The
company owned stores of
the company are situated
mainly in UK and US. This
company also focuses
mainly on the franchising
strategy. Franchising
strategy is highly beneficial
for the international
companies as it helps to get
more profit than other
market entry methods (Mo,
2015). The retail giant
stores of Zara use just-in-
time strategy of inventory
management. The success
of this company relies on
85% in season
adjustments. It designs
more than 50% of clothes in
the middle of the season
(Zara.com., 2019).
Physical evidence TESCO Plc uses its logo
and the black colour of the
interior of the stores as their
physical evidences in from
of the customers. The logo
of the company is
embroidered in the dresses
of this company as a sign of
prestige (tesco.com, 2019).
Zara does not use logo in
the dresses to make it
evident to the customers
rather it concentrates on
the improvement of the
quality. High quality of the
products is used as the
evidence of the brand to the
customers.
People The company concentrates
more on the employee
engagement and the
company provide the
people with health benefits
and the wellbeing priority of
the customers. The
environment of TESCO Plc
enables treating all the
employees of the company
with admiration and dignity
(tesco.com, 2019).
Zara facilitates
commitment, diversity and
humanity within the
workplace. It helps the
company to get a loyal
base of people within the
organisation (Goworek et
al., 2016). Ethical
consideration is maintained
in this company for high
integrity within the people. It
provides a healthy and
esteemed atmosphere for
the employees in Zara.
Table 1: Comparison of 7Ps in marketing mix
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(Source: Created by the learners)
LO3
Executive summary
In this report, a business plan has been executed. The objectives of the business plan
are to increase the customer base and improve the service of the company. The details
of the execution of the planning has been described in this portion that includes the
vision, objectives, situational analysis, marketing mix analysis has been done. It will
provide the learning of executing business plans with proper parameters and planning.
Vision
The vision of TESCO Plc is to improve the quality of the products in such a way that
increases the satisfaction level of the customers. It is their vision to improve the
performance of the employees within the coming three years.
Goals and objectives
The goals and objectives of TESCO Plc are to improve the marketing operations that
will help in increasing the revenue. For doing this, it is necessary to increase the sales
of the business and to increase the customer base. The organisation also wants to
ensure that they need to improve the quality of service for the business. These can be
performed if they can present the work with efficiency. For achieving the goals SMART
technology will be used.
Specific The marketing operations need to be
improved in order to increase the revenue
Measurable This will help the organisation to provide
targets to the employees that will help in
the improvement of the organisation.
Attainable This will help the organisation to increase
the sales that will boost the morale of the
employees
Realistic The objective that is selected is realistic
and can be performed by the management
as per the resources present.
Time Bound The time that is selected is three months.
Table 2: SMART objectives
(Source: Created by the learner)
Situational Analysis
SWOT
The SWOT analysis will be performed to check the internal aspects of the business.
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Strengths
 Customer base for F&F fashion of
TESCO PLC is seemed to have
wide and diverse customer base
that targets the preferences of men,
women, and children (tesco.com,
2019).
 The organisation is said to be have
strong licensing agreements for
their business subsidiaries including
that of F&F fashion.
Weaknesses
 There has been various
controversies that depicts their
weakness, as some of their
violating relationships with Varco
and Weatherford (Nauduri, 2009).
 The business implications of the
organisation are concentrated to
few of the nations.
Opportunities
 Appropriate research and
development shall generate the
scope of increasing the fabrics
quality of the fashion products and
services (tesco.com, 2019).
Threats
 Seasonal variations within the
consumer trends project threats of
continuous market research that
shall affect the revenue for
allocating enough financial
resources.
Table 3: SWOT analysis for TESCO PLC
(Source: Created by the learner)
PESTLE
The PESTLE analysis helps the entities to check for the external aspects of the
business. These will be elucidated below:
Elements Influences
Political Due to uncertainty of the Brexit, there are
some problems that are faced by TESCO
Plc, which they are overcoming gradually
(Jensen and Snaith, 2016). There is
stability in the political condition of the
United Kingdom that is helping TESCO Plc
to improve their business.
Economical Growth in the economy is helping TESCO
Plc to sell more products as people are
getting more money in their hands
(Guerrero et al., 2015). The confidence of
the consumers is also increasing that is
helping TESCO Plc to improve the sales for
them.
Social There is almost even distribution of income
in the people of the United Kingdom that
helps the people to spend the money
properly (Bhardwaj et al., 2018). There is
also a change in the fashion of the people
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