Unit 2 Marketing Essentials Solution

Program	Diploma in Business
Unit Number and Title	Unit 2 Marketing Essentials
QFC Level	Level 4

Introduction

The marketing essentials solution is the art used by the organization to communicate and engage its target audience to convey the value of the product or service which the company is selling. The marketing is the communication with the customer to inform, educate and build relationship with them for the conger period.  Through marketing the organization makes effort to maximize its profit by satisfying the need of the customer. The marketing manager of the organization help the company to effectively implicate the marketing strategy. The marketing management frames the marketing strategy to capture the market by effective use of marketing tools. These tools helps the management in effective implication of the marketing plan to attain success in the market. The most famous marketing tools used by the manager is marketing mix which emphasize on 7 key factor which helps in effective implication of marketing policy. Earlier the focus was on four factor but with the increase in the competition in the market the three new factor were also introduced. The role of the marketing manager is to examine the current and future trend in the market and effectively manage the customer needs. To effectively implicate the marketing strategy the marketing manager creates the marketing plan which helps in effective handling of all the process of the marketing. The manager through the marketing plan frames the strategy to effective capture the opportunity in the market to increase the profitability and attain success in the market. The plan helps the management to focus on the each element of the marketing mix which affect the business.The marketing manager follows a series of steps to identify the customer needs and makes effort to satisfy those needs through company’s product and service.

Task 1

Presentation

Marketing essential speaker notes

Slide 3-  The current and future trend in marketing is as follows

The current marketing is focusing on customer satisfaction through exchange of idea and practice.
The current marketing synthesize on knowledge and ideas to attract the customer towards the company product.
The organization through marketing goes beyond business and commercial exchange and create good  relation with the customer.
Currently the marketing is considered as a profession where more emphasize is on satisfying the customer need.

Slide 4- The process which the marketing manager is required to follow-

Research: The marketing manager needs to conduct the research and find the factor which will help in attaining customer satisfaction and identify customer behavior and market.

Plan- The marketing manager in his marketing plan need to specify business strategy and goal  to capture the market opportunity.

Implement- The manager needs to use creativity and be analytical at the time of implicating marketing plan.

Measure – The manager needs to measure the implicated strategy with the planned one.

Optimize – The manager needs to report on the goals.

Slide 5 the role of the marketing manager are as follows-

Create plan- The marketing manager needs to frame the marketing plan to effectively manage all the activity in relation to the marketing. The plan should include the strategy and the process which is to be followed to build relationship with the customer.

Manage process- It is the duty of the marketing manager to check that all the steps of the marketing process are properly executed.

Framing strategy – The marketing manager frames the marketing strategy which helps in proving the opportunity to the company to capture the opportunity in the market. The effective strategy provides the competitive advantage to the company from the competitor.

Creative skills- The management needs to use creative skills to effectively implement the marketing plan and capture market opportunity.

Customer service- The marketing manager effectively handle the queries which the customer faces by using the customer product and service which helps in building good relation with the customer.

Slide 6 the efficiency of the marketing unit highly depends upon how the other function of the business perform.

To effectively manage the business the operations of the business are divided into certain functions such as production, purchasing, Marketing, accounting etc.  The efficiency of these function and the coordination between them helps the management in attaining the organization goals and objective.

Slide 7- The importance of the marketing are as follows-

Due to current growth in the marketing the organization are making effort to improve the quality of the product and service to attain the customer satisfaction.
The marketing provides effective communication with the customer which help in building effective ink between producer and consumer.
The marketing department helps in correct forecasting of the demand and the supply which helps in removing the imbalance of supply and demand.
The marketing helps in creating utility of the company product and service for the customer.
There are huge number of human resource required to conduct the marketing operations thus it increase employment opportunity.

Task 2

2.a Compare how EE Limited and another competitor of your choice apply the various elements of the extended marketing mix to the marketing planning process to achieve business objectives.

The marketing mix helps the EE limited to focus on the key factor which helps the company in building good relation with the customer. Traditionally the company uses the 4 factor while framing the marketing policy but with the increase in the competition in the market there was the introduction of the three new factor. In the present scenario there are huge competition between the companies due to globalization. So to capture the market opportunity and attain success in the market the company needs to effectively manage all the factor of the marketing mix. This will help the company in effective implication of the marketing strategy and attain success in the market. The company needs to make effective control over all these factor to attain success in the market. The marketing process required identifying the need of the customer and satisfy those need with the help of the company product and service. The success of the business of the EE and Vodafone group plc.Depends upon there control over the marketing mix factor. The following are the 7 important Ps of the marketing mix which the manager generally uses.

Product

To attain the success in the market the Vodafone group plc.And EE mobile is making the effort to create the services which helps in effective handling of the customer need. The EE limited and Vodafone group plc.Are engaged in the service industry where there is simultaneous production and consumption of the products and the products are intangible, diverse and perishable. Both the company needs to provide the standardized service to attain success in the market. The product of the company plays a key role in capturing new market opportunity and attain the good position over the competitor. The EE limited through the introduction of the 4G services has capture the huge market share and has also attain success over the Vodafone group plc. And the other competitor of the company. The EE limited needs to make regular effort to improve its current service to maintain good position in the market. The company needs to regularly identify the need of its customer and make necessary changes in its product and services as per the expectation of the customer. Both the company needs to focus on the key feature of the industry and makes effort on implement the feature in company’s service. The success of the service industry highly depends upon the quality of the service which the company provides to its customer (Lee, Yim, Jones & Kim, 2016).

Price

The price at which the company renders the service to the customer also plays a key role in attracting the customer. The marketing manager of the EE limited and the Vodafone group can us this technique to capture the huge market share. For example due to the introduction of the 4G services by the EE limited the Vodafone group plc. Suffers a huge loss. So to maintain its position in the market the Vodafone Group plc. Can reduce the price of its service to retain the company’sposition in the market. The Vodafone group plc. Can also use the strategy to capture the advantage over the competitor. To reduce the price of the product the company needs to examine the area which needs to be improved to deliver the service at the low cost. Many of the customer are highly attracted towards the low price so the company needs to group the customer and develop the product as per the requirement of each group.The companies needs to consider the pricing policy of the competitor and accordingly mange the price of its services (Gordon, 2012).

Promotion

The promotional technique used by the company also helps in attracting the new customer through communicating the product benefit to the customer. The EE limited and the Vodafone group plc. Both uses the various mode of promotion to increase the demand of the company’s services.Both the companies has huge number of the customer so needs to choose the method of promotion which communicate to the huge population and is economical to the company.The promotion techniques helps the company to communicate the benefit of the product to the customer. The companies through the promotion technique can communicate the unique features of the product to the customer. The company use the promotion technique to prevent the service becoming interchangeable with the competitor and also helps in creating the desirable brand image and name in the market.  The effective promotion technique helps in attracting new customer and retain the existing customer for the company (Mintz & Currim, 2015).

Place

The place where the companies conduct its operation helps in timely delivering the service to the customer at the appropriate cost. The EE limited and the Vodafone group plc. are engage in the service industry where goods the product are produce and consumed at the same place. That is why the place where the customer are served need to be vital importance for the company. The location need to be as such which provide ease to the customer to approach the company’s service. The Vodafone group plc. and EE limited have established retail stores all around the countries to serve the customer in the effective way. The company need to make effort to choose the channel through which the company is able to deliver the company service at proper place and time. Both the company needs to make effort to provide the easy access of the company’s services to the targeted customer. The companies needs to make decision to choose the intermediaries which will be used by the company to deliver the product to the customer (Brooks & Simkin, 2012).

People

This was the first factor of the extended market mix and is one of the most important element of marketing for the service industry. The EE limited and the Vodafone group plc. put the great emphasize on its employees because they helps in delivering the quality service to the customer. The certain group of the employees directly interact with the customer and helps in satisfying the need of the customer. Both the companies need to make effort to train the employees to increase their efficiency and improve company quality of service. The management needs to hire the qualified staff to improve the performance of its service. This is why the companies are wasting huge resources on their employees.

Process

The EE limited and the Vodafone Group plc. Both needs to implement the process which helps the company id delivering the standardized service at various location. The company needs to clearly define the company’s process to all its service provider and ensure the standardized service is delivered to all the customer. Both the company need to make effort to handle the queries which the customer faces while using the customer service. The effective process of the company helps in retaining the customer over the longer period and improves the brand value of the company.

Physical evidence

The location where the service are delivered to the customer also attract the customer towards the company product. The EE limited and the Vodafone group plc. Needs to design the layout of its service store in the way which attract the customer. The level of comfort and attractiveness of the outlet location makes the huge difference to the user of the service (Chikweche & Fletcher, 2012).

2b. Produce a marketing plan to meet EE’s marketing goals and objectives.

The marketing plan provides with the set of the steps which need to be followed to achieve the planned marketing goals. To grow the customer base the EE limited needs to effectively implement its marketing strategy. The plan also describe the activity involved in accomplishing marketing objective within a set time frame. The marketing plan provides the direction to all the unit of the company to attain marketing goals and objective. It is the written statement which contains objective, strategy and activity which the company needs to follow to increase the demand of the company’s product in the market. The plan contains the series of the steps which the company needs to follow to effectively attain the marketing objective. It provides the information about the company’s current position and helps in improving its position in the market. It also helps the company in attaining its vision and mission.

Executive

The manager in his plan has set the marketing objective and the goals which will help the company in improving its position in the market. Through the marketing plan the company will analyze its current position in the market and the strategy which the company will follow to increase its market share.The manager through the plan has specified the series of the step which needs to be followed to attain the marketing goals and objective. The plan needs will help the EE limited to improve its position in the market.  The plan includes the customer which the company is targeting and the product if the company which will be marketed. The marketing plan will help the company to stand out in the market and helps in avoiding the current problem which the business is facing (Schüller & Rasticová, 2011).

Company overview

EE limited is the British company which provides the mobile and fixed line service to around 30 millionCustomer across the country. The company is proving the 4G service to around 14 million customer which reaches the 95% of the UK population. It is the largest 4G operator and operates around 550 retail Stores around the UK. The company is the joint venture of Orange and deutsche telecom. The marketing manager of the EE limited and its competitor Vodafone group plc. is using various element of the marketing mix to effectively implicate the marketing strategy of the company. The company is making the effort to improve its position in the market by proving quality service to the customer.  The major competitor of the companies are Vodafone group plc,O2 (Whalen &Boush, 2014).

Current market situation analyze

The company to create the effective marketing plan needs to examine the major competitor of the company and the strategy they are following to capture in the market. The company needs to find the factor in the environment which affect the functioning of the business. The examining of the current position helps the manager to frame the strategy to capture the market opportunity. To understand the current market position the manger use the SWOT analyze to create the understanding of the company position in the market. The following factors are the market situation which the manager needs to consider before framing the marketing plan (Luke, 2013).

Internal analyze

The management needs to find the internal factor which affect the functioning of the business. These factor are generally present within the organization and may be controlled by the management. The internal factor which affect the business are competitor, supplier, customer, public, workers and the union. These factor are generally under the control of the management. These factor doesn’t affect all the companies in the industry in the same way as the size, capability and strategy of each of the organization is different. The company needs to regularly check how these internal factor affect the business. The marketing manager of the EE limited will identify the company’s strength and how it can use it to capture new opportunity in the market (Meredith, 2016).

External  analyze

These factor has the huge effect on the functioning of the business and the organization doesn’t have much control over these factor. Many of the time he change in the external factor affect the internal function of the business. The manager of the EE limited can use the PESTLE analyze to examine the effect of the external factor and exercise some control over external factor. The external environment of the company are distributed in two parts that is economical and non- economical factor. The business are highly affected by the economic environment and are not easy to comprehend. These factor may create the opportunity for the company or may affect its functioning. The management of the EE limited needs to regularly analyze what are the threat and opportunity available in the market.

SWOT analyze

The SWOT helps the management to find the current strength, weakness, opportunity and threats which may affect the business. The management can use the strength of the company to capture new opportunity in the market and avoid threats which may affect the business.The management through these analyze can make efforts to manage weakness to avoid future business threats.

Strength

The marketing manager of the EE limited need to find the current strength of the company Ana how it can use it to capture new opportunity and avoid threats. The various strength of the EE limited are high customer base, larger coverage and the biggest 3G network across UK and the larger number of stores. The company can use these strength by selling the company’s product in the new market. These unique features of the company will helps the easy introduction of the new product and service.

Weakness

The EE limited is having certain weakness such as the company brand recall is very week due to the recent launch of the compared with established brand name. The EE is also targeting the business segment and thus may lose the individual consumer which may affect the business in the long run. The manager of the EE limited needs to consider these weakness to avoid the future losses. This will also improve the performance of the business over the long run.

Opportunity

The EE limited to grow its business needs to timely examine the opportunity which are available in the market. The various opportunity which are available to EE limited are growing telecommunication market, great platform of B2B business with its broad 4G services. The company can also increase its smart phone ownership and increase the mobile phone usage and also can boost its sale by selling more 4G phones. These opportunity will help the company to grow its business and increase its market share in the long run (Lewis & Ling, 2016).

Threats

There are also various threats in the market which may affect the functioning of the EE limited. The marketing manager of the EE limited needs to regularly check the factor which may affect the business. The various threats which may harm EE limited are the future growth of the 4G may create the intensive competition which may affect the functioning of the business. The company is also having the threat that the increase number of the IT attack on the mobile phone may discourage the customer to use data connection in the mobile phone. The EE limited needs to regularly analyze these factor to prevent the business from future loss.

Marketing objective

The management while creating the marketing plan need to decide the objective and goals which the company is planning to attain through the marketing plan. The marketing objective and goals provide the set of direction to those which helps the company in implementing the marketing plan. The objective of the plan is to use the current 4G service as a strength to grow the number of the company’s customer. The frame the effective objective they need to be specific, measurable, achievable realistic and time – bound. The objective needs to be selected in the way which helps in attaining the company visions and mission. The objective of the marketing plan of the EE limited to increase its 3G users to which will help the company to lead the market (Entezari, Karimi & Kianfar, 2014).

Marketing strategy

The marketing manager of the EE limited needs to frame the strategy which will help the company to attain the marketing goals and objective. The management through the use of the skills and knowledge needs to frame strategy which provides the competitive advantage in the market. The failure of the strategy cause the huge loss to the company, so the manger needs to make detail analyze before framing the marketing strategy. The manager while framing the strategy needs to consider the strategy can be easily implemented to the existing process of the business. The marketing strategy should set in the direction which helps the company to attain its vision and mission.It is the duty of the marketing management to communicate the marketing objective and strength to all the people of the organization which are related to the marketing.

Segmentation, targeting and positioning

While framing the marketing plan for EE limited the manager needs to distribute the target market among different group .The manager of the EE limited can distribute the target market on the basis of the geographical basis. This will help the manager to examine the each area and helps in determining the area which the company is targeting. After the distribution among the various group the customer needs to identify the group which the customer is planning to serve. The company choose the marketing strategy on the basis of the customer which the company is targeting to serve. The company may target more than one sector after understanding the factor which affect the demand of the customer in the particular market. The final step is to position the company product to the targeted customer and optimize the company product as per the need of the targeted customer (DeFanti, 2015).

Tactics and action

The manager of the EE limited needs to define its plan the tactics and action which the company needs to follow to implement the marketing strategy. The manager needs to build the team and the role which the different members of the team will perform to effective execute the plan. The marketing tactics should facilitate selling of the existing product in the existing market to gain higher share in the market. The management in his plan should prescribe the series of the step which is to be followed to effectively attain the marketing goal. Based on the tactics the marketing manager will make effort to allocate the resources to various tactics.

Marketing budget

The marketing manager of the EE limited based on the marketing plan needs to frame the budget.  The budget includes the resources which are allocated to various activity of the marketing plan.It’s hard for the company to ascertain the benefit which may arise from the marketing, so the management needs to make the estimate cost of the marketing and the benefit it will provide to the company. The manager needs to regularly check that all the activity are conducted in the planned way and within the allocated budget (Gulid & Lertwannawit, 2013).

Control

To effectively conduct all the activity in the planned way the management needs to implement the effective control system. The control system helps the management to check that the marketing is implemented in the planned way. To effectively control all the activity the manager needs to distribute the plan and exercise control on each part. The control measures helps in effective implication of the plan.

Conclusion

So it may be conclude that the marketing plays a key role for the management to attain its goals and objective.  To effectively implement the marketing plan the manger can use the marketing mix as a tools which helps in focusing on seven key factor which affect the business environment. The management frame the plan on analyzing both external and internal factor which may affect the business to occupy the various opportunity in the market.The manager through the plan can improve its position in the market.

References

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