Unit 2 Marketing Essentials Assignment Solution

Introduction

Marketing is the crucial tool in the modern business organizations; it involves understanding of marketplace, demands of consumers, building profitable relations, customer driven market strategy and provide quality among the customers. The business organizations have realised the importance of customer relationships and they are trying to get an innovative approach towards marketing strategy in business. The awareness regarding marketing essentials is too high in the current market scenario around the world. This assignment is based over a mini case study which depicts a business organization named Coconut Bliss, which is situated at Eugene, Ore. It is a food based company which has B2C market structure, the company holds only 11 employees with annual revenue of about 5,000,000 £ per annum. The reason behind the high revenues of a small company is due to the customer focused approach of the company towards the market.

This homework help report focuses over the marketing essentials in business organizations which belong to modern era of globalisation. It depicts the roles of marketing initially with the roles of marketing functions and their interrelations with the other functions of business organization. Secondly, it compares the ways of application of marketing mix in the company to achieve organizational goals and objectives. Also, this assignment develops and evaluates the basic marketing plan for Coconut Bliss (Howell, 2015).

Task 1 Role of marketing and interrelations with other functional units of organization

a) Key roles and responsibilities of marketing function and their relation with organizational context Significance of interrelationships between marketing and other functional units

Marketing function can be defined or explained as the roles of the business organization which helps it to identify and source potentially successful products for market and then helps in its promotion as well. These functions are common in business organizations and involve marketing research, product plan, development process, promotion, sales, finance,customer service etc. The marketing functions involves various responsibilities of the business organization, these functions are responsible for the growth of company. The marketing functions consist of strategy management, marketing research, sales support system, product developments, finance team, distribution systems, human resource department etc. These marketing functions have different roles to promote growth in the business organization. The key roles and responsibilities of marketing functions are market research, finance, product development, communication, distribution, planning, promotion, selling etc. The marketing functions have a crucial role in the business organization. There is a close link between marketing functions with other organizational functions in an organization.

The interrelationship between marketing functions and other organizational functions can be explained as, the marketing functions are part of a business organization and thus other departments and functional units are connected with each other. This can be explained as marketing functions are needed to back up by the other operational departments of the company as well to perform effectively. If a business organization needs to plan and implement a marketing plan, then they require support of financial department of the company, human resource department, sales department and production department. Further, if the marketing team of Coconut bliss wants to offer a discount offer on the bulk purchase of the product such as buy 2 get 1 free scheme, then the marketing team needs to communicate with finance and production department of the organization initially. The marketing functions are separate entities in business organization but every department and function in an organization I linked together for increasing the profitability of the company. The main function of marketing is to increase the profitability by increasing the sales of the company, thus it can be achieved with the participation of all the departments of the organization simultaneously. The finance department provides appropriate budget to the marketing department for the planning and implementation of marketing plan. Production department communicates with logistics department to fulfil the demand and supply of product and services. Human resource policies are generated according to the market trends, sales and target consumers. Thus, all the functional units of the company correlate with each other to bring a successful marketing plan among the organization (Lewis, 2013).

b) Concept of marketing, including current and future trends, overview of five elements of marketing process

The marketing concepts are divided into five major concepts which depict the core of marketing at Coconut bliss. These concepts of marketing involve the current as well as future trends for a successful marketing planning. The concepts involve in marketing are: production, product, selling, marketing and societal respectively.

Production concept: This concept is based over the perception of consumer, which depicts that the consumers are inclined towards the products which are easily available in good quantities in market at inexpensive price. Thus the operational capacity of the organization must focus on increasing the production rate.

Product concept: The consumers relate and choose the products which have value for money, quality and innovative approach. This concept derives that the consumers can be retained through the products and services which are beneficial for the consumers.

Selling concept: The mind set of modern consumers attracts through promotions, the consumers tends to focus over the products and services which are aggressively promoted in the market.

Marketing concept: The marketing concept explains the requirement of focus over the target consumers for the delivery of their products and service. Moreover in order to face the competitive market, business organization needs to deliver better value of products and services. The marketing concept depicts that the brand value of the organization needs to be enhanced in order to connect with the target consumers. If the brand value is enhanced, consumers will automatically choose the brand over other competition in the market.

Societal Marketing concept: This concept shows the major focus over needs and requirements of target consumers, so the consumers will prefer our brand over the other contemporaries in the market (McDonald, 2013).

c) Roles and responsibilities of marketing with respect to marketing environment

The major roles of marketing in the context of marketing environment can be explained below:

The marketing management is defined as the process of planning and execution of the various different concepts of marketing. These marketing concepts involve pricing, promotion, distribution, sales etc. which compliments the target audience of the company. The roles of marketing can be explained as:

Market strategies: The initial role of marketing depicts the development of marketing strategies and planning for the business organization. The managers of the organization needs to recognise the needs and requirements of target consumers and provide their products and services accordingly. The development of marketing strategies brings out a balance between organizational objectives and opportunities of market.

Marketing information system: The marketing information systems or (MIS) provides the information regarding various factors such as product, planning, and implementation, controlling of marketing strategies. For example MIS depicts the information regarding the logistics on a real time basis which helps the distribution network work effectively.

Monitoring of marketing environment: The marketing process have crucial role in the identification of new developments in the marketing environment, these developments provide constructive response for the development of product and services of the company. These new developments involve changing market traits, socio-economic forces, internal and external changes of market, political and legal changes etc.

Marketing research: Marketing research is considered to be the major role of marketing. The research involves specific knowledge of product, price and consumers in order to communicate the best products and services of company in the market.

Market segmentation: In the modern era of globalisation market is volatile, thus business organizations requires accurate segmentation which are provided by the marketing. The marketing manager of organization helps in the identification of customers in the large diverse markets and promotes the goods and services of the company among them.

Brand Equity: The consumers are tends to be inclined over brands or the organizations which provide added value to their products and services. Thus, marketing provides a reputation and builds strong brand value of the company among the consumers. This process directly helps business organization to increase their sales volume .

d) Key elements of marketing functions and interrelations with other functional units of organization

Marketing functions encloses various different functions such as advertising, finance, distribution system etc. but these are the activities which come under the process of marketing process. The key elements of marketing functions are explained below:

Research:In the business organization market research plays a crucial role. It is considered to be the most important marketing function, as without a successful market research, business is near to impossible. Research helps in getting the valuable information regarding all the factors concerning business process. Not only market information but logistics, finance, raw materials, resources and other business prospects can be achieved through research only. Thus, it is considered to be a crucial key marketing function among business organization.

Strategy: After the collection of all the information and data from the research, it is processed to judge all the possible strengths and weakness among the business operations. This processed data allows us to make an idea for strategies which can be utilised in the organization. The strategies provide valuable guidance for competing with the strong market and succeed in the market environment. The strategies are built over all the realistic possibilities and outcomes which are measured through research.

Planning: After successful completion of research and strategy procedures, the next key function of marketing is planning process. The marketing department involves financial planning, forecasting of sales figures, distribution, communication and other factors of business. The planning department utilises a specific timeline to plan the major strategies for converting organization goals into success.

Tactics: The fourth key role of marketing function is tactics; these are the small or short term plans which are implemented in order to attract the target consumers. They involve limited period offers which provides promotional boost in the marketing plan such as Buy one get one free offers. It helps in cornering the initial pressure from the competitors and boost in the sales.

The above mentioned is the analysis and evaluation of key elements of marketing functions. The interrelations of the key marketing functions with other functional units of organization are explained by the following:

The marketing functions are closely linked with the other functional units of business organizations. It can be explained with an example of finance department connection with marketing department. The marketing functions require economic resources for the implementation, planning, research and evaluation of marketing strategies and planning among business organization, it is provided by the finance department of the company. Marketing functional cannot work without proper communication and sorting with financial team in the company. Similarly, in the business organization, the marketing functions are closely linked together with other departments of the company. The marketing functions require accurate description from the production department regarding the products and services of the organization to provide a marketing plan. Secondly, they require human resources from HR department, economic help from finance department, logistics from distribution network etc. The operation of marketing needs to be communicated and backed by the other departments of the company. For example the HR policies must be aligned with the marketing department to increase the sales, side by side the production team must convey the information regarding the product and services to build an accurate marketing plan for the company. If marketing functions are unknown regarding the inventory of raw materials or production capacity of the company, then marketing plan will result into blunder and losses. Thus, the marketing functions are interrelated with all the other functional units of the business organization (Pike, 2015).

Task 2 Ways of using marketing mix for achievment of business objectives

a) Comparison of application of marketing mix in marketing planning process in different organizations

The marketing mix is applied in the marketing planning procedure to achieve organisational goals and objective. The business organization utilise various different methods for the application of marketing mix among their organization. Mostly, it is based over the market demographics, products and services of the company, market size and company’s size. The marketing mix is the tool which helps marketers to understand the product. The common applications of marketing mix involve 4 P’s of marketing which involve product, price, placeand promotion. This approach was later extended to 7 P’s of marketing with product, price, place, promotion, people, process and physical evidence.

Coconut Bliss is a small company with 11 employees but the customer focused efforts helped the company to evolve and make its impression in national market in initial years. This was due to the application of extended marketing mix by the company and genuine passion of customer centric approach. Various business organizations big and small spends large sums of money overt the marketing process, advertisement and promotion, research and development but they are unable to get a response such as Coconut Bliss. The sole reason behind the success of Coconut Bliss is the understanding of customer and market through marketing essential tools and building the organizational goals and strategies with customer satisfaction approach. The application of marketing mix in a marketing planning process is focused over the product dimensions, place of selling the product, pricing structure and promotional activities of the company. The extended marketing mix utilise importance of delivery processes, providing physical evidence to the consumers and most importantly focus over people (Kotler, 2012).

b) Different tactics applied by the organizations to achieve business objectives

The business organizations with their different organizational culture apply the tactics to achieve their respective business objectives. The small and successful company such as Coconut Bliss utilise 7P’s of marketing mix in their marketing planning process to achieve the organizational objectives. Other organization such as Marshfield Ice creams of UK which is a contemporary to Coconut Bliss utilise a marketing segmentation process to achieve their organizational goals. The market segmentation process of Marshfield Ice creams involve following process:

• Initially they define the market for organization, for example target market.
• Secondly, creation of market segments takes place.
• Evaluations of the different segments are done for specific criteria.
• Segment process is constructed.
• The attractiveness of the segments is evaluated.
• The target markets are selected.
• Positional strategy of the organization is developed and implemented.
• Evaluation and feedback process of segmentation.

The Coconut Bliss utilise extended marketing mix in its organization for the achievement of goals and objectives, the process is as follows:

Product: the product must be appropriate to the consumers’ needs and demands. The main objective of product is to satisfy the customers.

Place: The availability of the product and services of the company must be easier for the consumer. For example the store must be located at near or approachable location for the target consumer. The delivery must be prompt in the case of e-commerce shop.

Price: The price of the product and services must provide a value for money experience to the consumer. This is a crucial strategy which must be representing the value to consumer and also compete with the contemporaries with better offer.

Promotion: The promotion process includes advertising, sales promotion, social media promotions etc. Coconut Bliss is a B2C company which is focused over personal selling apart from advertising and sales promotions.

Process: The process includes the services of the company, it represents how the services are consumed? For example Coconut Bliss delivers its products to the consumers with a smile to create a better buying experience for the consumer.

People: The people involve management, employees, organizational culture and customer service of Coconut Bliss are essential part of organization.
Physical environment: It includes the facilities, run-down, comfort and user interface in the organization (Lilly, 2014).

TASK 3 Developments and evalution a basic marketing plan

a) Basic marketing plan for Coconut Bliss

• The basic marketing plan for Coconut Bliss can be developed with the following specific tasks:
• The company needs to develop a clear understanding of the potential customers. Being a small company, Coconut Bliss must take a clear research in the market and then understand the main objective of the company’s product and services. The most important question is why would a consumer use its service? This must be figure out initially, and then what is the main important feature in company’s product? The product must deliver customer’s requirement in order to sustain in the market.
• Identification of target consumers is the second most important thing in marketing planning process after research. The organization must be clear on their final consumer, to create and plan accordingly.
• The organization must identify their competitors which are going after their target consumers. The competitor analysis also helps the business organization to learn about market trends and pros and cons of market effectively.
• Evaluate the research and make strategies according to the needs and requirements of market. Propose a budget for the marketing activities and create well defined goals and objectives using a specific timeline.
• Using effective channels for marketing activity, such as Coconut Bliss serves organic ice creams and its target audience is urban people. Thus company must use digital media channels to promote its marketing plan.
• Evaluate the marketing plan and monitor the results to check the effectivity of marketing plan (Dibb and Simkin, 2013).

b) Coherent marketing plan which tactically applies 7P’s to achieve marketing objectives

The marketing mix is a group of interrelated variables which involves 7P’s to satisfy the target consumers over the contemporaries of business organization. The coherent marketing plan of Coconut Bliss using 7P’s of marketing mix is as follows:

Product: The product of the company must have quality, customer service, availability and branding properties. Coconut Bliss needs to fulfil the needs and requirements of their consumers with product and services of the company.

Promotion: The effective communication with the consumers using marketing communications, personal selling, direct marketing and advertising is called promotion.

Price: The pricing is the most crucial part of marketing mix, Coconut Bliss needs to use a pricing method which can counter its competitors and provide value added element to the consumer.

Place: The availability of the product is important for the growth of the company. The store location must be approachable for the target consumers and delivery part must be good in the case of e-commerce platforms.

People: The individuals of the company such as management, employees, customer representatives etc.

Process: The processes of the organization must have customer focused business operations. The main objective of the company is to provide a customer focused effort to excel in the business.

Physical Environment: The user experience must be good such as on delivering the goods to consumers, company’s representatives must behave professionally (Baines, et al. 2013).

Conclusion

This assignment successfully depicts the role of marketing function and interrelationship of other organizational functions. The overall marketing mix 7P’s are compared in the business organizations to achieve business objectives. Also, the development and evaluation of marketing plan is explained briefly.

References

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