Marketing Essentials: An Analysis of Marketing Strategies at Top Shop

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of marketing essentials, using Top Shop, a British multinational clothing retailer, as a case study. It begins by outlining the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function within a wider organizational context, detailing how marketing connects a firm to its customers through market communication, quality assurance, and promotion. The report then explores the significance of the marketing environment, both internal and external, and the interrelationships between marketing and other functional units within an organization. The analysis includes the interplay between marketing and departments such as production, finance, and human resources within Top Shop. Furthermore, the report delves into the use of the marketing mix elements (product, price, place, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence) by organizations to achieve their overall business objectives, comparing Top Shop with Marks & Spencer. Finally, it discusses various tactics and strategies, such as strategic planning, customer service, and technological advancements, that can be employed to achieve specific business objectives, emphasizing the importance of adapting to a dynamic and competitive market.

MARKETING
ESSENTIALS
1

INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1.......................................................................................................................................................3
1.1 How the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function relate to the wider organizational
context.....................................................................................................................................................3
1.2 Roles and responsibilities of the marketing in context of the marketing environment.......................4
1.3. Analysis of interrelationships between marketing and other functional units of an organization......5
1.4 Interrelationship of marketing department with other functional units of Top Shop:.........................5
TASK 2.......................................................................................................................................................6
2.1. Use of elements of marketing mix by organizations to achieve overall business objectives:............6
2.2 Different tactics applied by organizations to demonstrate how business objectives can be achieved.8
CONCLUSION:..........................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES:.........................................................................................................................................10
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INTRODUCTION
Marketing is the most important function of an organization which aims at increasing its
profitability. It is an essential tool for driving modern business organizations towards success..
For building stronger customer relationships, organizations have adopted marketing in ways
which serve their purpose innovatively and effectively. The following assignment is based on
Top Shop, which is a British multinational clothing, accessories and makeup retailer. The
assignment includes the role of marketing and its interrelationship with the other functional units
of the organization along with its significance. It also involves responsibilities of a marketing
manager. In addition to this, uses of elements of marketing mix to achieve their business
objectives have also been explained (Armstrong and et. al., 2015).
TASK 1
1.1 How the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function relate to the wider
organizational context.
The management process of conversion of products and services from concepts to an
actual offering is termed as marketing. It involves development of a product or a service,
determination of its price, its distribution and promotional strategies (Jobber and Ellis-Chadwick,
2012).
However, personality of a brand heavily depends upon the roles and responsibilities of its
employees. Top Shop workforce has been a concrete support in development and expansion of
its firm in UK as well as in other countries. How role of marketing relate to the wider
organizational context is described below:
 Market Communication: For any organization, marketing plays a crucial role in
connecting the firm to its customers. In Top Shop, effective marketing helps the firm to
communicate with the market and helps to gather information from customers which help
the firm in effectively accomplishing its overall business objectives.
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 Quality of services and products: ‘What customers actually want?’ is a question that is
answered through marketing. Effective market practices help organizations like Top Shop
to enhance the quality of their products and services by engaging with customers and
analyzing potential trends that could drive the business forward.
 Promotion: Marketing helps in promoting goods and services of a firm effectively. This
means that it builds a clear perspective of Top Shop products in the eyes of its customers.
This helps in gaining their attention and expanding the customer base of the company.
1.2 Roles and responsibilities of the marketing in context of the marketing environment.
Marketing environment refers to the amalgamation of internal and external forces and
factors which affect ability of a firm in establishing customer relationships. In Top Shop
marketing has helped the firm in establishing itself effectively in the marketing environment
(Jobber and Ellis-Chadwick, 2012). The role of marketing in context to marketing environment
of Top Shop is as follows:
INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT: This environment of a company involves its owners,
machines, employees etc.
 Employees: Marketing helps in establishing effective practices in the firm which helps
the employees in job satisfaction as well as enhance their creative thinking. This helps in
performance enhancement and career development.
 Machinery: Marketing has helped Top Shop in implementing cost effective methods and
employing technologically advanced machinery. This resulted in increase of production
and profitability,
EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT: This environment involves external factors which affects
the marketing decisions of the firm.
 Political Environment: Post Brexit, UK has been subjected to political uncertainty.
Marketing has enabled Top Shop to sustain in such complex scenario and conduct its
operations flexibly under these conditions.
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 Economic Environment: Marketing helped Top Shop to adopt flexible and moderate
pricing strategy after decline in the value of pound and rise in unemployment. This has
allowed the firm to contribute in raising standard of living of the people.
1.3. Analysis of interrelationships between marketing and other functional units of an
organization
It is crucial to coordinate the functional units of an organization in order to drive it
towards success. To enhance effectiveness of a company, marketing decision are required
inculcate the working of all the functional departments in implementation of market research and
market planning (Mobin, Dehghanimohammadabadi and Salmon, 2014). Interrelationship
between marketing and other functional units of Top Shop would help the firm in gaining a
competitive advantage and expand its customer base. It would help the managers in efficiently
carrying out their duties. Such interconnections would help firms to develop effective strategies
which could gain the firm a consistency and long term sustainability in the market. Moreover
such interrelationship would engage employees in working together as a team and would ensure
their commitment, hence increasing the firm’s productivity.
1.4 Interrelationship of marketing department with other functional units of Top Shop:
For a company to succeed and develop strong strategies, it is essential that the
departments within the firm coordinate effectively towards achieving the overall business goals.
These interrelationships could build the firm stronger internally and that strength would reflect as
a competitive edge externally.
The interrelationships of marketing department with other functional department of Top
Shop are as follows:
Marketing and Production: In Top Shop, marketing and production share a dual link.
While marketing department determines effective sales forecast for company’s product line,
production department decides the number and types products that can be marketed. This
interrelationship is necessary when firm decides to launch a new product or product line (Burns,
Bush and Sinha, 2014).
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Marketing and Finance: Marketing and finance departments of Top Shop works
adjacently in developing effective marketing strategies for the company. While development of a
market plan, financial dimensions of the company are taken into consideration to ensure
sufficient budget for the firm’s marketing strategies. While the finance department provides
budget for the firm’s marketing activities, marketing department focuses on developing strategies
that could increase the sales of the company. This in turn ensures more funds for the financial
activities of Top Shop.
Marketing and Human Resources: Human Resources refer to all the people that are
potential assets of a firm. It is the responsibility of HR Department in Top Shop to recruit, select
and train best possible employees for the organization. It helps to set up an effective marketing
team for the company. It is also responsible for enhancing the performance of employees in the
marketing department (Brassington and Pettitt, 2013). For instance, if Top Shop’s marketing
manager wishes to hire efficient employees for marketing research, HR department of the firm
would help them to scope out a person profile, required job description and advertising essential
for the job.
TASK 2
2.1. Use of elements of marketing mix by organizations to achieve overall business objectives:
BASIS TOP SHOP MARKS & SPENCER
PRODUCT
Top Shop emphasizes on
young generations and
considers women of age 14-
30. It focuses on developing
versatile clothing and
accessories that could serve
the need of women in UK.
M&S focuses on all age
groups and has a wide variety
of clothing and accessory
range that serves needs of
customers with any age.
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PRICE
Since Top Shop serves
customers from different age
groups and backgrounds, it
has adopted flexible pricing
strategies based on the
customers they serve. The
price range is high for models
and actresses while low prices
are imposed on its products to
penetrate the local market.
Competitive pricing strategy is
adopted by M&S to stand
ahead in the market. Due to
premium quality products, the
range is usually between
medium to high. It adopts
dynamic strategies during
festive seasons and allows
customers to avail discount
and other impressive offers.
PLACE
Over 300 Top Shop stores
happen to operate in UK itself.
However the approach is slow,
the company is planning to
expand its operations in other
countries as well.
In UK, the firm has almost
1000 outlets operating and
serving customers all around
the country. Moreover it has
multiple stores in other
countries as well.
PROMOTION
The promotional strategies of
Top Shop are different than
that from other companies. It
has promotes its brand through
various Hollywood actresses
and models to market their
products more in the market.
Moreover, it has certain
websites with pure emphasis
on the quality of their
products.
Promotion strategies of M&S
are chosen carefully as it aims
to align its advertising
campaigns with digital
marketing. It uses all the
forms of media which spreads
a single message about the
firm and its products.
PEOPLE More than 10,000 employees
are associated with the firm to
make it one of the most
successful fashion companies
More than 83,000 employees
work as a constant support to
drive the firm towards
success. It conducts effective
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in the UK market. Moreover it
has indulged outstanding
customers in very little time
due to its effective marketing
and customer oriented
production.
training and development
programs to enhance
performances of the
employees.
PROCESS
The firm tries to attract its
customers by effectively
welcoming and guiding them
through company’s products.
Employees focus on ease and
comfort of customers while
trying and purchasing a
commodity.
Separate sections of clothing
as per the customers are found
in M&S stores. Moreover, to
enhance customer experience,
it offers quality food in almost
all of its stores.
PHYSICAL EVIDENCE
Firm has over 300 stores in
UK and multiple stores in
other countries. Its websites
allow customers to acquire
premium qualities products
with ease.
It has more than 1000 stores in
almost 50 countries. Stores of
the company act as a physical
evidence. In addition to this,
the firm has its own website to
serve customers online.
2.2 Different tactics applied by organizations to demonstrate how business objectives can be
achieved.
The aim of Top Shop is to increase its profit share and expand its customer base. The
managers of the firm must focus on providing quality products to the customers and effective
price strategies for customers of its target market. The tactics that could be used by the company
to achieve its objectives are as follows:
 Strategic Planning: Effective strategic planning would help the firm in setting up long-
term goals and attracting students and customers present in their target markets. It would
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help them developing and implementing flexible strategies that even work during
uncertainties and dynamic business environment (Tanner and Raymond, 2015).
 Customer Service: For any company to sustain in the market, it is essential to follow up
the customer and take feedbacks about their experience with the company. They should
also be ready at any time for any query or complaint of a customer and must address the
same efficiently.
 Technological Advancements: During this era of social media, modern generation is
aware and inclining towards the technological advancements happening in the world. Top
Shop must adopt these strategies and strengthen their production and distribution system
accordingly. This would give the firm a competitive edge in the market and would
rapidly expand its customer base (Ilić, Ostojić and Damnjanović, 2014).
CONCLUSION:
Thus, we can conclude with the assignment above that sustainability and profitability of
a firm heavily depends upon effective marketing practices adopted by the firm. Marketing plays
a vital role in internal as well as external environment of the business and a firm must focus on
using this component as an effective tool to gain success. Marketing mix also plays a vital role in
attracting customers and achieving long term goals of a business organization. Lastly, tactics and
strategies of a firm drive a business towards success in a competitive and dynamic environment.
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REFERENCES:
Books and Journals:
Armstrong, G.,and et. al., 2015. Marketing: an introduction.
Brassington, F. and Pettitt, S., 2013. Essential of marketing.
Burns, A.C., Bush, R.F. and Sinha, N., 2014. Marketing research
Ilić, D., Ostojić, S. and Damnjanović, N., 2014. The importance of marketing innovation in new
economy. Singidunum Journal of Applied Sciences. 11(1). pp.34-42.
Jobber, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2012. Principles and practice of marketing (No. 7th).
McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Mobin, M., Dehghanimohammadabadi, M. and Salmon, C., 2014, May. Food product target
market prioritization using MCDM approaches. In Proc. of the 2014 Industrial and
Systems Engineering Research Conference (ISERC), Montreal, Canada.
Tanner, J. and Raymond, M., 2015. Principles of marketing. University of Minnesota Libraries
Publishing.
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