Introduction
Marketing plan is considered as a complete manuscript or structure of the outline for a organization about advertisement and marketing effort of their product. The marketing plan is described by marketing managers to fulfil specific marketing objectives with in a specific timeframe. As opined by McDonald(2013), marketing planning is a part of an overall business plan. It has been observed that proper marketing strategy is backbone of company business. Superdrug Stores Plc is popular health and beauty care product retailer in UK. This popular organization founded by Ronald & peter Goldstein in 1964. Presently this organization has more than 786 stores for selling more than thousand types of health care and beauty care products. Apart from that Superdrug had started online sales from the year 2012. This organization has collected the revenue of £1.75 billion in 2015 (Superdrug.com, 2016). It has been found that besides the health and a beauty care product, this company has started to sell medicines from 2011. Therefore, this report is based on the existing marketing condition of Superdrug. After that the learner has planned to provide suitable marketing plan for Superdrug Advance Joint care 30S. Apart from that, the learner has planned to discuss about the ethical issue usually faced by several companies regarding marketing planning and consumer ethics.
Task1
1.1 Review changing perspectives in marketing planning
According to Shani and Chalasani(2013), on early days the marketing strategy of organizations were depending on the products. Marketing managers were trying to convince customers by their products. However, in twentieth century, the concept of marketing is totally changed. Now the aim of the organization is to design a new product based on customers’ requirement. Now the marketing process starts from the survey process and never ends. Now the focus of organizations is more customer centric rather than product centric. Now organizations try to earn profit along with customer satisfaction.
As stated by Boone and Kurtz(2013), Superdrug is a popular health, beauty care product and medicine retailer in UK. Now their marketing concept is depending on four pillars such as target market, customer requirements, integrated marketing strategy and profitability. It has been found that Superdrug has connected two different concepts such as selling and marketing for implementing advance marketing strategy for high competitive market. Czinkota and Ronkainen(2013) argued that selling and marketing concept are totally different such as selling concept focuses on the requirement of sellers but marketing focuses on the requirements of customers. Therefore Superdrug has implemented the marketing strategy and understands the demand of products and then supplies the products to the sellers. Therefore, the demand and supply equation is one of the new key factor their marketing strategy.
On the other hand, their market competitor AVON has implemented different marketing strategy. The production operation of AVON is started after getting the market survey reports. The product planning department gets a clear view about the requirement of the customers and designs the product as per customer requirement (Turnbull and Valla, 2013). Before 1 to 2 months of product launching date, the organization has started the digital advertisements and social media advertisements to increase customer attraction towards the beauty care products. Therefore, the organization has already generated demand in market before product launch. After the product launch the marketing team collects feedback from the customers and customize the product as well. Integrated sales and promotion always creates market demand and the organization earns profit alongwith customer satisfaction.
It has been noticed that Superdrug follows the one to one marketing strategy whereas their market competitor follows relationship marketing strategy. Superdrug is depending on the technology based marketing strategy. The marketing team has considered every customer’s requirement not group’s requirement (Nijssen and Frambach, 2013). On the other hand AVON is trying to maintain a good relationship with their customers rather than just serving their products. The organization believes that mutual relation will increase success in business than transactional.
1.2 Evaluate an organisation's capability for planning its future marketing activity
There are different functional areas in Superdrug Stores Plc depending on the nature of their health safety and beauty care products. Apart from that, the nature of the business or products of all organizations are depending on different properties such as:
- Operation or production of organization
- Accounting and finance
- Marketing activities
- Distribution of products and logistic service
- Corporate planning
- Human resource management
- Market Research and product development
Internal environment of any organization is depending on strength, weakness, opportunity and threat.
Strength of Superdrug
Superdrug still holds their market position. They are holding second position in health and beauty care product retailer segment in UK market. Their strong position in UK market makes them as a value-oriented beauty retailer in domestic market (Peck et al. 2013).They have chosen exclusive brands and “A” category brands to attract customers. The shoppers also get online facility to order their beauty care products and health care products. High loyalty card membership attracts more customers towards the stores.
Weakness of Superdrug
It has been noticed that there are low number of pharmacies in their retail stores. As opined by Niffenegger (2013), there are lacks of focus on the product and space development. The organization has maintained female centric products rather than male centric products. As a result the male customers are not interested to visit stores. The stores are old fashioned and products are not displayed proper way.
Opportunities of Superdrug
The organization has increased the number of pharmacists in their stores. This has increased the penetration in their stores. On the other hand the organization has determined their boost margin and implemented strategy to improve their performance. The involvement of more pharmacists will increase the profit margin of their stores.
Threats of Superdrug
It has been noticed that negative consumer sentiment about new NHS laws regarding the records of the patients have created threat for their medicine business.The organization has faced strong competition from AVON, Boots and Tesco. Almost same types marketing strategy like discounts and offers creates almost no different from their competitors.
1.3 Examine techniques for organisational auditing and for analysing external factors that affect marketing planning
Superdrug has maintained their basic marketing audit and marketing audit checklist. As stated by Morrison(2013), the checklist is designed to understand the current marketing situation. Superdrug has developed the marketing audit checklist to understand internal marketing environment and external marketing environment. After understanding situation the organization has planned to develop current marketing plan.
As opined by Berman and Evans(2013), the marketing audit is a fundamental part of marketing planning process. The organization has not conducted the marketing audit on the beginning of the process. The organization has implemented market audit before designing new marketing plan. It has been observed that the internal marketing environment is influenced by five different factors such as employee, finance, equipment, time and factor of production.
As stated by De Mooij(2013), the external factors are depending on four differ factors such as political, economic, social and technology.
Political factors
It has been observed that some skin care products of Superdrug are not tested on animals. Therefore, the organization creates a doubt about the health and safety regulation. On the other hand, Superdrug has planned to expand their business in Asian country such as China. Some bad and unchecked beauty products have sold by the organization are harmful for skins which is against their brand image.
Economic
Some years ago the organization has faced an economic recession due to crisis of global economy. However, the organization has enough financial resources to manage one or two financial recession but regular financial recession would not manageable for organization (Lee et al. 2013, p.256).
Social
The organization has to consider global sustainability trend and implement some new marketing plan to sustain in tough competition. According to the envision protection act, every organization has to reduce usage of paper. Therefore the organization has to develop technical implementation to reduce use of papers.
Technology
Almost every organization has implemented online retail stores and digital marketing strategy. Therefore, the organization has to give importance their ecommerce websites and social media marketing strategy to increase the efficiency of technology.
Task 2
2.1 Assess the main barriers to marketing planning
Popular organizations like Superdrug have developed their logical sequences of marketing planning for achieving marketing objectives. However, the organization has faced some complex during implementation of marketing plan.
Barriers regarding legislation
It has been noticed that marketing planning is restricted by the limitations and government legislations. There are some regulating corporate conducts for the organization to interact with the environment. As opined by Camelo-Ordaz et al. (2011, p.1443), the corporate regulation may prevent comparison marketing. It has been found that market surveyors try to compare their products along with competitor’s substandard product. On the other hand the organization does not involve unskilled workforce because it increase wages but according to the labour law, the organization has to involve large workforce to conduct field survey to understand customer requirement. It has been noticed that the marketing campaigning of the competitors forces the marketing team to change or modify their marketing plan.
Barriers regarding culture
The culture is considered as a combination of knowledge, morals, values, belief, attitude and any other capabilities and habits which re shared by the people. As opined by Chang et al. (2011, p.814), the performance of the organization is influenced by culture in a big way. It has been found that the market planning of any organization is resist by culture. It has been found that the organizations often implemented faulty marketing plan for international market before understanding cultural sensitivities. The assumption ability varies country to country. It has been noticed that US customer want to know benefit of products but Japanese want to know benefit from the product as too pushy and arrogant.
Behaviour related barriers
It has been noticed that behavioural issues have created barrios in marketing plan. On the other hand lack of top management involvement and lack of cross function involvement may affect marketing plan. Now almost every organization involves celebrities for launching the products in market but sometimes conservative top management feels uncomfortable with the idea. Apart from this, interpersonal issue and ego clash among the employees may affect sustaining marketing plan.
Cognitive barriers
As opined by Jianget al. (2012, p.1265), lack of knowledge and skills is consider as main reason for creating faulty or unsuccessful marketing plan. Sometimes, lack of skills may prevent the marketing team for conducting a market survey to identify the new trends or customer preference to launch effective marketing campaigning.
System related barriers
Sometimes, implementation of marketing plan is resist by the inappropriate system. It has been found that marketing team is not empowered enough for some activities. Therefore it simply drags down the efficiency and create barrier for timely implementation.
Resource related barriers
Lack of important resources such as time, people and money have created biggest barriers to the market planning. The success of any marketing plan is depending fund. Therefore, cash crunches force the marketing team to focus on low cost alternatives. It also provides less value for money. Sometimes the organization cannot arrange proper market survey and campaigning due to lack of employees. The organization does not conduct door-to-door campaigning due to shortage of ales executives (Muethel et al. 2012, p.526). On the other hand lack of time also creates a barrier to prepare an eye-catching visuals or quality promotion materials to generate higher responds.
2.2 Examine how organisations may overcome barriers to marketing planning:
Superdrug can understand the marketing barriers by analysing external environment. The marketing barriers are exhibited by PEST and SWOT analysis. After considering SWOT and PEST analysis, the marketing managers has developed new strategy to overcome marketing threats. Therefore, the marketing managers follow some specific steps to overcome barriers:
Monitor the environment
As opined by Honget al.(2012, p.62), continuous monitoring process of threats is considered by the pace of change in economy. Therefore, the marketing manager has developed or adjusts existing strategy to reduce threat. The marketing managers have taken the help of internet to monitor the activities of existing and emerging competitors.
Price competition
The marketing managers always try to protect their market share from against the competitors by offering lower price, developing new strategy or highlighting product strength. The marketing team tried to reduce their price without damaging profit levels.
New products
It has been found that better products face threats from new products that offer superior performance to the existing range. Then marketing team has implemented long term strategy to develop new product development plan. Therefore, the organization can overcome the threat by implementing the strategy of sourcing new products from business partners.
New competitors
Sometimes the organization has faced threat for new entry of competitor. Therfre te marketing managers are implemented the loyalty strategy to protect their customer base from competitors (Renwick et al. 2013, p.5). The customer loyalty program helps organization for maintaining their existing customer base and increase business.
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Task 3
3.1 Write marketing plan for a product or a service
Executive summary
This marketing plan has been developed by the learner for a particular product of Superdrug. Then learner has developed this marketing planning after considering SWOT and PEST analysis. The learner has developed marketing objectives so that the organisation can implement new marketing strategy easily.
Current marketing situation
Swot analysis:
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Strength
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Weakness
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Opportunity
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Threat
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Segmentation, targeting, positioning
The marketing manager has planned to implement a new marketing strategy for Superdrug Advance Joint care 30S. After observing the SWOT analysis, the marketing adviser has observed that Superdrug already has a strong market value in UK. Therefore, an attractive marketing plan will increase the product sell. The marketing adviser has observed PEST analysis to understand the external condition of the organization. After that the marketing expert has implemented segmentation for Superdrug Advance Joint care 30S. The marketing expert has observed that organization has to follow demographic segmentation for this calcium tablet. This product is specially designed for adults. Therefore the target market of this product will be the middle age and old age customer.
Objectives
Marketing objective should be such as:
- To develop the detail product positioning for UK market
- To design a perfect marketing mix for Superdrug Advance Joint care 30S
- To develop attractive marketing strategy for the product
Marketing strategy
After launching the product, the organization has to develop attractive marketing strategy to attract customers. The organization has to develop digital marketing strategy along with social media marketing. The marketing team has to develop financial plan for the marketing operations. After that the marketing team has to start the entire marketing and promotional operation after getting cash from finance department.
Financial plans
3.2 Explain why marketing planning is essential in the strategic planning process for an organisation
As stated by Bennett and Ho(2014, p.232), marketing strategy plays an important role in a strategic planning process for Superdrug. It has been noticed that some marketing positions are represented by the corporate level. The organization has considered the marketing planning as a main function. It has been noticed that marketing is involved in strategic planning in an organization. According to Jackson et al.(2014, p.45), marketing managers have described the different activities regarding corporate, business and market strategic plans. The strategic marketing activities are classified into three different factors such as organizational orientation, information gathering and development of strategic plans.
3.3 Examine techniques for new product development
The marketing expert has planned to follow Ansoff matrix to examine the new product development process. Before developing the new product idea, the marketing team has to develop market research. The marketing team has to consider the condition of replacement product of Superdrug Advance Joint care 30S. The marketing team has to examine the survey reports to understand the opportunity (Boone and Kurtz, 2013). After that marketing team has to implement a new concept of testing and develop sample of Superdrug Advance Joint care 30S. The marketing team has distributed locusassignments.and collect feedback from customers. After making some changes, marketing team has finally launched the product.
Therefore entire product development process has been maintained in following way:
3.4 Justify recommendations for pricing policy, distribution and communication mix
After implementing new product development plan, the marketing manager has to focus on three different properties such as pricing policy, distribution and communication.
Pricing policy
It has been observed that the marketing executive has planned to develop the new marketing strategy for Superdrug Advance Joint care 30S. Therefore, the marketing expert has to consider the substitute products of that joint care medicine such as Valupak Supplements Joint Care Glucosamine & Chondroitin Tablet, Seven Seas Joint Care Supplexn and Boots Joint Care Complete (Turnbull and Valla, 2013). After observing the price of those joint care tablets, the marketing executive has to decide the price of their products. The marketing team has to select low pricing strategy but careful about the profit margin.
Distribution
The marketing team has select good suppliers to distribute new products all over UK. The organization already has more than 700 stores in UK. Therefore, the marketing team has to distribute sample file and product to all stores. Apart from that, the marketing team has to talk with other small and medium medicine retailers and distribute their products to them. This process will increase the sales of Superdrug Advance Joint care 30S.
Communication
Communication is important for the marketing executive in terms of approaching customers and collecting feedback from them. The marketing team has to develop good customer relation to understand their requirement. On the other hand the marketing team has to transfer those data to the research and development department. Hence, the product specificationwill match the customer requirement. In that case, the marketing team has found the maximum customer prefer oral used medicine rather than applicable ointment because it is critical to apply ointment in regular busy life. Therefore, good communication between customers and marketing managers helps to develop Superdrug Advance Joint care 30S. therefore the marketing team has to increase communication or interaction with customer to feel them that Superdrug Advance Joint care 30S is the best product. This process will increase the sales of drugs.
3.5 Explain how factors affecting the effective implementation of the marketing plan have been taken into account
It has been observed that Superdrug’s marketing plan is affected by five different factors such as:
Existing competitors
The organization has faced tough market challenges regarding their new product due to presence of substitute products. It has been noticed that substitute products such as Valupak Supplements Joint Care Glucosamine & Chondroitin Tablet, Seven Seas Joint Care Supplexn and Boots Joint Care Complete are manufactured by competitive organizations such as Boots (Morrison, 2013). Therefore, marketing strategy is affected by the strong competitors.
Threats of new entrants
The marketing manager has to observe the strategy of new entrants. If it is a small brand then there will be small risk for the organization because small organization can decrease their profit margin as much as possible and reduce price of their medicine. If the new entrant will be the well establish organization then marketing manager has to change their business strategy.
Bargaining power of the suppliers
The organization hasto consider the bargaining power of the suppliers. Therefore, the marketing executives have to deal with the suppliers very carefully because entire product supply is depending on suppliers (Berman and Evans, 2013).
Threat of substitutes
The marketing team has to consider the existing similar products. In that case the marketing team has to reduce price comparatively to increase the popularity of the medicine.
Bargaining power of buyers
As stated by Berman and Evans(2013), customer always prefer to buy good product in comparatively low price. Therefore the marketing team has to collect the feedback of the customers and select pricing strategy as per theirpreference.
Task 4
4.1 Explain how ethical issues influence marketing planning
It has been found that the marketing managers have faced some ethical issue while managing the marketing plan. Those ethical issues are as follows:
Market research
The market research team has make privacy about the collecting data. If the data will published without taking the permission of the respondents, then it will be unethical for the organization.
Market audience
If the market research is not done among the publics who know about the medicine then it will be unethical for the marketing research.
Advertisements and promotion
The organization has to follow the government rules and policies about the advertisement publication rules and regulation. Therefore, unethical publication of advertisement may create legal discrimination for the organization.
4.2 Analyse examples of how organisations respond to ethical issues
It has been published in a popular news journal that Harrods has stopped some tea products of some popular brands due to unethical certification of organization in 2015. Harrods had cleared that those unethical tea production plan did not maintain the chemical ratio (Bbc.co.uk, 2016).
4.3 Analyse examples of consumer ethics and the effect on marketing planning
It has been observed that more than 2 million customers have refused to buy plastic bottles of soft drinks in UK after the regulation of National Environment Commission in 2014(Bbc.co.uk, 2016). Therefore, popular organizational like Pepsi and Coca Cola has changed their marketing strategy and apologized to customers and bring canned soft drinks in UK market.
Conclusion
This report is based on the existing market condition of Superdrug in UK. The learner has developed the changing marketing prospective. After that the learner has analysed the main barriers for marketing planning. The learner has developed a marketing plan along with techniques for new product development. Finally the learner has provided a suitable example about ethical issues and consumer ethics for better understanding purpose.
Task 1: 1.4 Poster:
Reference list
Books:
Boone, L.E. and Kurtz, D.L., 2013. Contemporary marketing. Cengage learning.
Czinkota, M.R. and Ronkainen, I.A., 2013. International marketing. Cengage Learning.
De Mooij, M., 2013. Global marketing and advertising: Understanding cultural paradoxes. Sage Publications.
McDonald, M.H., 2013. Ten barriers to marketing planning. Journal of Product & Brand Management.
Morrison, A.M., 2013. Marketing and managing tourism destinations. Routledge.
Niffenegger, P.B., 2013. Strategies for success from the political marketers. Journal of Consumer Marketing.
Nijssen, E.J. and Frambach, R.T., 2013. Creating customer value through strategic marketing planning: A management approach. Springer Science & Business Media.
Peck, H., Christopher, M., Clark, M. and Payne, A., 2013. Relationship marketing. Taylor & Francis.
Shani, D. and Chalasani, S., 2013. Exploiting niches using relationship marketing. Journal of Services Marketing.
Turnbull, P.W. and Valla, J.P. eds., 2013. Strategies for international industrial marketing. Routledge.
Journals:
Alfes, K., Shantz, A.D., Truss, C. and Soane, E.C., 2013. The link between perceived human resource management practices, engagement and employee behaviour: a moderated mediation model. The international journal of human resource management, 24(2), pp.330-351.
Bennett, J.M. and Ho, D.S., 2014. Human resource management.In PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR ENGINEERS (pp. 231-249).
Camelo-Ordaz, C., Garcia-Cruz, J., Sousa-Ginel, E. and Valle-Cabrera, R., 2011. The influence of human resource management on knowledge sharing and innovation in Spain: the mediating role of affective commitment. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 22(07), pp.1442-1463.
Chang, S., Gong, Y. and Shum, C., 2011.Promoting innovation in hospitality companies through human resource management practices. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 30(4), pp.812-818.
Hong, E.N.C., Hao, L.Z., Kumar, R., Ramendran, C. and Kadiresan, V., 2012. An effectiveness of human resource management practices on employee retention in institute of higher learning: A regression analysis. International journal of business research and management, 3(2), pp.60-79.
Jackson, S.E., Schuler, R.S. and Jiang, K., 2014. An aspirational framework for strategic human resource management. The Academy of Management Annals, 8(1), pp.1-56.
Jiang, K., Lepak, D.P., Hu, J. and Baer, J.C., 2012. How does human resource management influence organizational outcomes? A meta-analytic investigation of mediating mechanisms. Academy of management Journal, 55(6), pp.1264-1294.
Kehoe, R.R. and Wright, P.M., 2015. The impact of high-performance human resource practices on employees’ attitudes and behaviors. Journal of management, 39(2), pp.366-391.
Lee, K.C., Lee, H., Lee, N. and Lim, J., 2013. An agent-based fuzzy cognitive map approach to the strategic marketing planning for industrial firms. Industrial Marketing Management, 42(4), pp.552-563.
Muethel, M., Gehrlein, S. and Hoegl, M., 2012. Socio?demographic factors and shared leadership behaviors in dispersed teams: Implications for human resource management. Human Resource Management, 51(4), pp.525-548.
Renwick, D.W., Redman, T. and Maguire, S., 2013. Green human resource management: A review and research agenda. International Journal of Management Reviews, 15(1), pp.1-14.
Website:
Bbc.co.uk. (2016). BBC - Religion & Ethics - In pictures: The ethical consumer. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/galleries/consumerwaste/ [Accessed 21 Nov. 2016].
Bbc.co.uk. (2016). The bitter story behind the UK's national drink - BBC News. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-34173532 [Accessed 20 Nov. 2016].
Superdrug.com. (2016). Superdrug Advanced Jointcare 30s. [online] Available at: http://www.superdrug.com/Superdrug/Superdrug-Advanced-Jointcare-30s/p/260402 [Accessed 21 Nov. 2016].
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