Marketing Essentials Report: Walmart's Marketing Plan and Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Walmart's marketing strategies. It begins by outlining the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function within an organization and examines their interrelation with other departments. The report then analyzes the marketing environment and the significance of interdepartmental relationships. Task 2 delves into a comparative analysis of the marketing mix of Walmart and Amazon, evaluating the different tactics employed to achieve business objectives. Finally, the report culminates in the development of a basic marketing plan for Walmart, evaluating the plan and designing a strategic marketing plan using the 7Ps of marketing to achieve marketing goals. The report offers insights into Walmart's marketing practices, including its pricing strategies, promotional activities, and customer-centric approach.

Marketing Essentials

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 The key roles and responsibilities of marketing function. ....................................................1
P2 Interrelation of roles and responsibilities of marketing with organisation............................2
M1 Analysis of roles and responsibilities of marketing with context to marketing
environment.................................................................................................................................3
M2 Analysis of significance of interrelation between marketing and other functional units.....4
D1 Evaluation of key elements of marketing functions and interrelation with other units of
organisation.................................................................................................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P3 Comparison of marketing mix of different organisations......................................................4
M3 Evaluation of different tactics applied by organisations to demonstrate business
objectives.....................................................................................................................................6
TASK3.............................................................................................................................................7
P4: Produce a basic marketing plan for an organisation.............................................................7
M4: Evaluate a marketing plan for Walmart.............................................................................10
D2: Design a strategic marketing plan that uses 7p's of marketing for achievement of
marketing objectives.................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is known as the strategies which are designed and implemented by company to
satisfy the customer needs, maximize profits of organisation and compete with competitors in
market (Kimura, 2017). It is important for businesses because marketing helps them sell their
products and services by communicating with customers and explain what is being offered and
how will it fulfil the desire of consumers. The efforts of marketing focus on identifying the
needs, wants and desires of people according to which company can fulfil those demands with its
products. The company selected for this report is Walmart which is a multinational retail
corporation founded by Sam Walton in 1962. The company has approx 11,496 stores and clubs
in 27 countries which are operating under 56 different names. The topics on which the report
focuses are the roles of marketing and its interrelation with different functional units in company,
comparison of marketing mix between organisations which help in achieving business
objectives. Apart form this basic marketing plan of an enterprise is also formulated.
TASK 1
P1 The key roles and responsibilities of marketing function.
Marketing is a tool which helps in attaining the objective of company which is to attract
customers towards products and services which are provided by company (Warnaby, 2019).
There are some marketing functions which are involved by every company as they help in
finding out the ways through which organisations can reach consumers. The following are roles
and responsibilities of Walmart:
 First mover advantage- Marketing functions plays vital role for providing first mover
advantage to Walmart. First mover advantage means identifying the hidden demands and
desires of costumers very first in the market and taking it as an advantage to serve them
with company's products and services. To identify such things, marketing managers of
Walmart perform there responsibilities and makes sure that company is getting first
mover advantage in market. For instance, Walmart has been first company which
developed and used a new technology for more time which accumulated and mastered the
technical knowledge.
 Enhance profits- With the right use of marketing techniques the marketing term can
target the costumers which will help in making good profits. This is one of the main
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objective of company for which not only marketing department, the other divisions also
have to play there roles and responsibilities (Jaisinghani and Kanjilal, 2019). The
elements namely the profits and customer satisfaction goes in link with each other, higher
the customer satisfaction, higher the profit are earned by Walmart. The marketing term of
Walmart has more focus over satisfying its customers.
 Branding- It is important that company has its own identity of products and services in
market place. Through branding enterprise can generate trust of costumers and makes
them realize the values of brand as they are spending their income. When the company is
branding its products the customers can recognize the brand easily which helps it in
expanding and introducing new products. Marketing function of Walmart has branded the
products and services in effective manner. Branding has also helped the entity to gain
competitive advantage in market over like Amazon, Home Depot and many more.
 Track of current trends and monitoring competition- It is necessary to know the
current trends and polices so company knows its position and the level of competition it
is operating. The marketing division of Walmart play its responsibilities and keeps the
note of trends which are going in market. This helps the company in making new
strategies by which it can compete with its competitors. Monitoring other organisations
allows Walmart to predict the future mover and strategies.
P2 Interrelation of roles and responsibilities of marketing with organisation.
For achieving the objectives of company, marketing division has to perform various
activities. It is main activity of marketing division to accomplish organisations long-term goals
of Walmart for proper functioning of its business (Cacciolatti and Lee, 2016). To do this
marketing department has to effectively coordinate with the other departments of the enterprise.
The interrelation with other divisions is stated below:
 Marketing-Finance Department -Finance and marketing divisions of Walmart work
with coordination as company aims at increasing the revenue and these departments
performance those activities which help in accomplishing those things. As to promote the
products of company, it requires to carry out some promotional activities which holds
funds of company. That is why marketing division coordinates with finance department
which allocates funds according to the marketing plans.
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 Marketing-Production Department -Marketing function of Walmart has to closely
work with production division of company, as marketing term analysis and evaluates
behaviour of customers (Martensen and Mouritsen, 2017). The major reason to analysis
the behaviour is to find out about the most purchased products and the least purchased
products of company. With such analysis it directs the production division to increase or
decrease the production of which products. It also directs about the most liked product of
company and tells to improve the production of products which are not so popular in
market.
 Marketing-Human Resource Department -To get the work done effectively and
efficiently marketing division requires skilled workers and managers who can do perform
their task easily with there knowledge and skills. For this purpose the marketing
department of Walmart approaches human resources department and lets them know
about the skills which are required in staff members. According to those requirements
the human resource division recruits people who fit in the categories mentioned by
marketing term. After the recruitment the HRM department maintains their performance
records, evaluates them according to their productivity level.
 Marketing-Technological Department -Marketing division of Walmart analysis the
trends and up gradations in the market. As per the current trends, consumers are more
attracted towards the digital presence of organisations. So marketing term has to analysis
these trends which can help the company to function with upgraded version. While, the
technological department needs to evaluate the solutions which can help organisation in
taking the comparative advantage (Pardiyono, 2020). In other words, with the help of
marketing statistics and analysis, the technological division can get help in developing
new functionalities.
M1 Analysis of roles and responsibilities of marketing with context to marketing environment.
The different marketing functions performed by Walmart are taking first mover
advantage, enhancing profits of company, branding of products and services, keeping track of
current trends and observation of competition in market. Marketing environment for a company
refers to the factors in which business is surround and get influenced to operate in market. The
factors are mainly divided into two parts, internal and external factors. It has been observed that
marketing function of Walmart gets impacted with marketing environment. The brand works
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with the focus that internal factors of company don't get affected much by the factors which are
external to company.
M2 Analysis of significance of interrelation between marketing and other functional units.
In an organisation, all functions work in coordination with the other functions to achieve
the aim of company in effective manner (Prynko, and Chudzian, 2017). It important that all the
functions work with inter-relation as the resources and funds of company are scare. Marketing
departments of Walmart carry out its activities with coordination to other division, as with
finance department the funds are acquired while with production department the production and
quality of products is enhanced. Apart from this it coordinates with human resource division for
skill mangers and work force who will carry out marketing activities, while for changes and up
gradation of technology it concerns with technological department.
D1 Evaluation of key elements of marketing functions and interrelation with other units of
organisation.
In Walmart, marketing decisions involves the involvement of the other functions as well
so that company can make correct decisions. Like marketing division of company the other
departments also involves the various marketing functions which are first mover advantage,
enhance profits, branding, track of current trends and monitoring competition. The interrelation
within the departments helps company work effectively. While with the involvement of
marketing functions in each department it helps particular division to work according to its
standards.
TASK 2
P3 Comparison of marketing mix of different organisations.
Marketing mix of a company can be defined as set of marketing tools which is used to
promote its services and products in market. It consists of 7P's which are different elements of
this model. The comparison of two company's marketing mix is discussed below:
Basis Walmart Amazon
Product It is a physical retail brand
which has started range of its
offering online also (Ahmed,
Amazon stated its company to
sell books but now it deals
with millions of products
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Saud and Saud, 2020). It is
well divided in three segments
Walmart US, Walmart
International and Sam Club.
under various categories. This
provides competitive
advantage to company as it
adds inventory very regularly.
Price Walmart has competitive
advantage due to its pricing
strategy. In the early days it
focused on lower pricing
through which it gained
market share and has
strengthened competitive
advantage.
Their are various pricing
strategics which are formulated
by Amazon like cost plus
pricing, value pricing and price
discrimination.
Place Walmart operates in around 26
countries. It has approx 11361
physical stores. There are 226
distributions to serve its stores
in corners of UK.
Customers of Amazon can
access its official e-commerce
websites and amazon app to
purchase any product they
want. It has global presences,
so the enterprise ships its
products on international bases
in over 100 countries and
regions.
Promotion Walmart started expanding its
business through e-commerce
apart from operating with
physical stores. It mainly got
popular with its EDLP
philosophy as it offers lower
prices every day which leads
to strong customer loyalty
(Ofosu, 2016) .
Amazon carry outs advertising
campaigns on regular basis
through television, social
media, billboards and
newspapers.
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People As Walmart as done cost
putting practises to heavily
focus on savings of customers,
the employees of company
were affected. But in recent
times enterprise changed its
human resource practices and
increased hourly wages to
keep employees happy.
Employees in Amazon manage
the back end work as the
purchasing is carried through
online media, so company pays
according to there posts and
knowledge of work.
Process Walmart has optimized its
internal processes for
improved inventory
management to save time and
money of company.
Amazon flows technological
process which involves going
through some steps and
customer can purchase any
where is wants and product
gets delivered at his door steps.
Physical Evidence As Walmart operates its
business on online bases as
well as with its physical retail
stores.
Being an e-commerce website,
Amazon operates through its
official website apart from this
it also has its own application
which also works the same.
M3 Evaluation of different tactics applied by organisations to demonstrate business objectives.
The different tactics applied by Walmart are its products, place, price, promotion, people,
process and physical evidence (Boriphonmongkol and Chienwattanasook, 2020). All the
strategics which are formulated within these all elements directly impacts the aims and
objectives of company. For example, the pricing of Walmart is not so high that is why it is easy
for company to take competitive advantage and compete in market. Apart from this looking at
place strategies, by entering into e-commerce sector the company expanded easily and adopted
the nature of working through online mode, this made the organisation to stand out with the
trends in market.
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TASK3
P4: Produce a basic marketing plan for an organisation.
Marketing plan is described as the document which provides a framework for marketers
of the respective firm about policies, budget, tools and techniques, required for implementation
of actual objectives of business in a wide place (Zahay and et. al., 2019).
Objective of marketing plan: Marketing objective is refers as the short term goals that helps in
achievement of long term purpose of organisation. In terms of Walmart the objective of
marketing plan is to obtain 30% sale on new product within specified time of 8 months.
STP of Walmart: The market segment, target audience and positioning of respective firm with
respect of new product are discussed below :
Segmentation: It is the term used to divide broad market into small groups of customers. In
terms of Walmart wants to introduce baby products in its product range then the company should
focus on babies between the age of 6 months-15 years.
Targeting: It is used to divide consumers into sub-groups so that company can focus on
particular groups. In terms of respective firm should focus on products quality that doesn't harm
sensitive skin of babies.
Positioning: This refers as the stage where product is fit in heads of consumers and discovering
reasons how it is differ from competitors. Walmart should focus on quality and nominal prices as
a part of marketing and promotion of product for building and sustaining effective position
within the industry.
Swot analysis of Walmart: It is the method used to analyse and evaluate different external and
internal factors that affects existing position and growth opportunities of firm (Eletxigerra,
Barrutia and Echebarria, 2018). Before launching or introducing new product it is important for
Walmart to done swot analysis described as follows :
Swot analysis
Strengths Weaknesses
 Walmart is well-known brand due to its
global presence with its 47 new stores
in 3 developed countries (An Overview
of Walmart, 2020). For instance UK,
 Gender discrimination is one of the
major weakness of firm.
 Lack of motivation and social
responsibility towards workers that
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China, Chile .
 Large distribution channels, currently
serving in 28 countries including US,
Japan, China etc.(SWOT analysis of
Walmart, 2020).
 Strong market power over suppliers and
competitors which reflect strength of
business.
increases criticism and lawsuits
regarding workforce.
Opportunities Threats
 Walmart has an opportunity to improve
quality standards of its products to
increase health concerns of its
customers.
 Company has opportunity to extend its
business in middle east countries and
Latin America.
 Opportunity to built strategic
partnerships with major firms and
merger with international retailers.
 Customer founds technical issues with
company's website that leads to
external barriers.
 Increasing competition due to entering
of small-scale e-commerce companies
creating threat for future of respective
business.
Pestle analysis: It is used to analyse and identify macro external factors of business that impacts
organisations in intense way. Factors that affecting position of Walmart in terms of introducing
into new market are explained below :
Political factors: Factors such as political stability, freedom of press, extend of corruption,
market lobbying protection policies in international market etc. affects the business of Walmart
in significant ways. Company has good relationships with political parties which leads to growth
of firm.
Economical: The economy of UK is fail down due to pandemic of Covid-19 which reflects in
increasing unemployment and changing the habits of people from buying exclusive to focus on
necessities. This will affects the position of Walmart in significant ways due to availability of its
products at lower prices and essentials of their products (Pappas, 2017).
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Social: Due to rising use of IT buying habits of consumers are also changed which affects the
business of respective firm in significant ways because of its online services. Other factors such
as healthy lifestyle trends, cultural diversity creates opportunities for firm to explore more.
Technological: Walmart uses automation & robotics for store maintenance, fulfilling orders of
customers impacts the business in significant ways. It helps staffs in concentrating on selling of
products and serving customers.
Environmental: Walmart is working on reducing its landfill wastes and sets a goal of using 50%
of energy needed for operation from renewable sources by 2025. this creates opportunities for
long term sustainability of firm with environmental friendly products.
Legal factors: There are various legal factors that impacts Walmart in negative ways such as-
discrimination laws, consumer protection laws, employment regulation laws etc. thus, company
should focus on proper implementation of these laws and motivate its employees for eliminating
negative impacts on business.
Marketing budget: It is the pre-assumption or estimation of total cost of the project including-
promotional & marketing investments, cost of equipments & human resource required for
execution and implementation of project (Hisrich and Ramadani, 2017). In terms of Walmart
total market budget of firm is estimated as $148850. Cost for the production of new product of is
discussed below:
Particulars Year1 Year2 Year3 Year4 Year5
Initial Money 3000 10000 12500 10000 15000
Investment 11000 11000 6000 5000 20000
TOTAL 14000 21000 18500 15000 35000
Promotion 5500 2000 4500 3500 2550
Sales publicity 3000 1150 3000 2000 2000
Direct Selling 3150 2500 2000 3000 5500
TOTAL 11650 5650 9500 8500 10050
Monitoring and controlling: It consist of make sure that right people , at right, in right place are
targeted by respective firm. Controlling is related to evaluation of plan in implementation
process so as to compare actual outcomes with estimated plan.
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M4: Evaluate a marketing plan for Walmart.
Market plan is a basic form that guide marketers in execution of actual project. In terms
of Walmart wants to introduce a new baby care product for kids and babies of the age of
6moinths- 15 years (Fill and Turnbull, 2019). The objective of firm with respect to its new
product is to earn 30% sales within 8 months of time period. The total budget in terms of
producing, manufacturing and promoting of new product is $148850. this will help the firm in
launching and entering into new market with effective product for increasing sales and profits of
firm.
D2: Design a strategic marketing plan that uses 7p's of marketing for achievement of marketing
objectives.
Marketing mix of Walmart: It consist of 7 elements that plays important role in
promoting of goods and services to satisfy needs and requirements of consumers. In terms of
Walmart marketing mix is defined as follows: Product: With respect to introducing baby care products company should adopt the
strategies that focus on uses of organic ingredients that doesn't harm sensitive skin of
babies. Price: Walmart should adopt lower pricing strategy for this new product in order to
gain large no. of customers. Place: Respective firm should display its new product in offline as well as online
stores to attract more customers. Promotion: In terms of marketing and promoting of new product Walmart should focus
on social media platforms, direct selling and advertisements for communicating its
message. People: With respect to introduce several varieties respective company should focus on
training and development of staffs for increasing sales. Process: In this element of marketing Walmart should focus on making buying process
easy, quick and simple for satisfying consumer needs.
 Physical evidence: Walmart should focus on maintaining healthy and friendly
environment in its stores for increasing customer base.
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