Unit 2 Marketing Principles Assignment Help

Introduction

Marketing is the process of identifying customer needs, creating value and distributing the products to meet the needs of the customer in a profitable way. The marketing professional should have knowledge of marketing concept to bring good outcome by applying this knowledge to the company. Segmentation, targeting and positioning are the most important strategy of marketing process. These are called STP model. The STP model explains how to focus on the specific markets to effectively and efficiently attract the customers. The marketers should design effective marketing mix for meeting the needs of the customers (Pride, 2011). The effective marketing mix helps the company capture specific customers and bring good outcome for the company. This unit 2 marketing principles assignment help explains Starbucks apply marketing to the business operation and meet the needs of the customers.

LO1: Understand the concept and process of marketing

Marketing means the social process that helps the company to increase revenue of the company by producing and distributing and meeting the needs of the customer (Pride, 2011). The marketing professional should understand the marketing concept to bring good outcome by applying marketing tools.

P1.1 Explain the various elements of the marketing process of star bucks

Marketing process has different elements. The marketer should follow all the elements to achieve the marketing goals and objectives. There are four elements of marketing process.

1.1.1 Situation Analysis:

To meet the needs and wants of the customers, the company should identify its internal and external environment of the company. Starbucks is a global coffee company. Today Starbucks has 16,706 stores (as in the case study) in 50 countries. It has many customers in different countries. Therefore, the marketers should analyse the current situation of the company. The company can produce a SWOT analysis to identify the current situation of the company as follows (Ferrell & Hartline, 2011).

• Strengths- Strength means internal forces that help the company achieve the goals and objectives. The strength of the Starbucks Company is as follows.
  • It has sound financial availability to operate the business.
  • It is No. 1 specialty coffee retailer in the world with a large number of market shares.
  • It is a global company in 50 countries with 16, 706 stores.
  •  It has strong brand image and loyalty.
• Weakness- Weakens means internal factors that hinder the achievement of goals and objectives. The Starbucks has also some weakness as follows.
  • Starbucks is dependent only coffee and coffee related products.
  • Coffee price highly influences the profit of the company.
  • Negative publicity about the company.
• Opportunity- Opportunity is the external factors that help the company to achieve the goals and objectives.
  • Emerging economy in the world.
  • Extended operation of retail outlets in the world. Therefore, the customers are highly interested to the retail stores.
  • The increasing demand of coffee and coffee related production the world.
  • Possibility of launching new products in it cafes.
• Threat- Threats are the external factors that hinder the achievement of goals and objectives of the company.
  • The increasing price of coffee beans and dairy products.
  • The competitor’s power in the markets. For example, McDonalds is a strong competitor in this market.
  • Illegal use of trademark of Starbucks by others.
  • Political instability etc.

1.1.2 Marketing strategy:
Marketers must focus on the marketing strategy to bring good outcome. The marketing strategy includes segmentation, targeting, positioning etc. These elements will be explained later in this report.

1.1.3 Marketing Mix Decision:
Marketing mix is one of the most important elements of marketing process. Marketing mix explains how to design products, set price, distribute and promote the products. The marketing mix of Starbucks will be explained in this report later (Cadogan, 2009).

1.1.4 Implementation and Control:
At last, the marketing professional should implement it properly. The marketing process should also be monitored properly (Cadogan, 2009).

Therefore, from the above discussion it is to say that the marketing professional of the Starbucks or other company should consider all the elements properly. Otherwise, the marketing will fail to achieve the goals and objectives of the company.

P1.2 Evaluate the benefits and costs of a marketing orientation for Star Bucks

Marketing orientation is a means to meet the needs of the customers in the best profitable way. There are different marketing orientations in the field of marketingwhich are as follows:

• Production Concept- Production oriented approach explains that the people will buy product when the product is widely available and inexpensive. Therefore, the marketers prefer to produce large amount of products.
• Product Concept- Product oriented approach focuses on product quality, performance and innovative features. The marketers of this approach believe that the customers will buy products when the products quality is good and performance is good (Lindgreen, 2010).
• Selling Concept- Selling oriented approach focus on sales of the products. It is the common marketing orientation used in the business. The company takes different initiatives to increase sales of products or services.
• Marketing Concept- Marketing oriented selling approach focuses on target market, customer needs, integrated marketing and profitability. It applies the above-mentioned three marketing approaches.
• Social Marketing Concept- This approach focuses on wellbeing of the customers as well as society. This marketing approach explains that business will meet the needs and wants of the target markets by satisfying them in such way that preserves or enhances the consumer’s and the society’s well-being (Lindgreen, 2010).

Starbucks is following the marketing concept where the products of the company are designed and produced keeping in mind the current expectations and needs of the customers. Starbucks focuses on fulfilling the demand of the customers. There are certain benefits and costs attached to the marketing orientation, which are explained as below:

• Benefits: Starbucks is targeting high and middle class coffee lovers. Starbucks has adopted marketing orientation as it has designed its productsaccording to the taste of customers and this thought of company made it among the most famous and largest coffee chains in the world. The employees of the company are guided to provide services according to the demands of the customers. This has benefitted the company a lot. The demand for the products of Starbucks rose because of high quality services. They are served so kindly and according to their demands. Company started its global operations soon and able to beat its competitors. Company started researching the market to improve the taste of its products and quality of its services to please the customers.
• Costs: There are certain benefits received by Starbucks though marketing orientation but there are certain costs too involved with the same. The biggest cost is on conducting the research to know the current trends in the market. The company involves its funds in the marketing research which may or may not provide positive results. Starbucks also have to spend lot of efforts and time to create benefits to the organisation. Also, to fulfil the current demands of the customers, manpower recruitment is necessary which also involves a cost.

These are the benefits and costs of a marketing orientation for Star Bucks.

LO2: Be able to use the concepts of segmentation, targeting and positioning

The marketers should adopt proper strategy to meet the needs of the customers. For this the company should properly apply the proper segmentation, targeting and positioning strategy to bring good outcome for the company. Authors explained these as the STP model. This explains how the Starbucks can apply this marketing strategy.

P 2.1 Show macro and micro environmental factors which influence marketing decisions for Starbucks

Marketing environment is composed of micro and macro environment factors, which affect the marketing strategy of any business. These factors also influence the marketing decisions in Starbucks as follows. Micro environmental factors are those which can be controlled by the management of an organisation whereas Macro environmental factors are those which are not in the control of the management. (Drummond & Ensor, 2005).

Microenvironment Factors:
Micro environment factors and its affect is different on all the companies if the same industry because all the companies are different in terms of size, strategies adopted, capacity, etc. Some of the most important micro environmental factors of Starbucks are customers, shareholders, intermediaries in market, competitors, etc.

• Customers are very important microenvironment factors. The company run business to meet the needs and wants of the customers. Customers are the main source of profits of any company. Starbucks has many customers. When deciding about the marketing strategy, the marketers should consider about the customer’s needs, attitudes, economic ability, buying behaviour etc.
• The shareholders are another microenvironment factors. They are owner of the company. They invest money to get profit. Therefore, the marketing professional should consider the interest of the shareholders so that the shareholder can fulfil their interest. Thus, the shareholders influence the marketing decision.
• Marketing intermediaries also affect the marketing decision. The marketing intermediary’s includeadvertising agents, financial agents and media. They can influence the marketing decision of Starbucks (Drummond & Ensor, 2005).
• Competitors of Starbucks affect its marketing decision. Competition has increased in the market due to the emergence of several coffee chains which provides beverages at nominal prices. So Starbucks has to modify its decisions to fight competition.

Macro-environment Factors:
Macro environment factors affect the decisions of the company and Starbucks has to reframe its functions and policies according to the macro environment factors. Some of the macro environment factors which affect the decisions of Starbucks are as given below:

• Demographic factors of the customer influence the decision of the marketing of Starbucks. The demographic factors include age, sex, education, occupation, race etc. of the customers. The needs, wants and buying behaviour of the customers vary based on these factors. Therefore, the Starbucks should make marketing decision so that it can best meet the needs and wants of the customers.
• Technological factors influence the business operation and manufacturing of coffee products. Starbucks needs to use different technology to ensure the efficient operation of the company. Without proper technology the marketers cannot run the business properly. Therefore, the marketing professional should make decision considering the technology.
• Socio-cultural factors also influence the business operation. The buying behaviour and attitude of the customers vary in case of these factors. Therefore, these factors influence the marketing decision (Drummond & Ensor, 2005).
• Political factors and legal factors: Starbucks is operating in many countries and so it has to follow the rules and regulations of different countries. It has to pay taxes and duties at various rates in various countries.
• Economic factors: Starbucks may have to face inflation in different countries or it can face an adverse effect of the economic slowdown in the countries.

From this, above discussion it is evident that the company should consider about the micro and macro environment factors of Starbucks. These factors influence the marketing decision and operation of the company.

P2.2 Propose segmentation criteria to be used for products in different markets

The marketing strategy would be more effective for the company, if it is designed for the small group of the customers rather than large groups. For this reason, the marketing professionals suggested to divide the market into different categories based some features. Market segmentation means the process of dividing the potential market into unique categories so that the marketers can select one or more segments to attract them.

Starbucks is a large company. It has a large number of customers. This company always wants to expand its business. The company should follow the following criteria to segment markets.

• Geographical Segmentation- Starbucks should segment the markets according to the geographical location. The needs and wants as well as consumer behaviour varies the based on these factors. The marketing mix is affected by the geographical location of the customers (Blythe, 2009).
• Demographic Segmentation- The demographic factors like age, occupation, education, race, sex etc. should be considered when segmenting markets. Because the needs and wants coffee products is influenced by the age, education, sex, occupation etc. For example, the young person has high need of coffee rather than old and chid.
• Behavioural Segmentation- Starbuck also should consider the behavioural factors like attitudes, occasions, user status, user rates and loyalty status etc. of the customers (Blythe, 2009).

If Starbucks considers all these segmentation criteria for the segmentation of the markets of coffee of Starbucks, it will be able   to meet the needs and wants of the customers. The proper segmentation can help the company to achieve the goals and objectives of the company.

P2.3 choose a targeting strategy for a selected product/service

After segmenting the market based on the different criteria, the company should select specific market to serve them. Selection of a market from the segmented categories is called targeting. Starbucks should select proper market to serve the markets best (Jain, 2000).

Starbucks should choose proper targeting strategy to attract the customers. There are different targeting strategies as follows.

• Concentrated Targeting Strategy- In case of this strategy, the marketers choose only one segment. This strategy concentrates on targeting a single market segments. For example, Starbucks can choose specific markets for its Coffee Ice Cream. If the company choose only woman of a specific region, it will be concentrated targeting strategy (Slack & Lewis, 2002).
• Differentiated Targeting Strategy- The differentiated targeting strategy targets several markets. The marketing mix is designed to attract those customers. Starbucks should design products in such way so that it can meet the needs of the customers. The market is targeted based on the same characteristic of the customers such as needs, attitude, consumer behaviour etc.
• Undifferentiated Targeting Strategy- In of this targeting the company targets the whole markets. The products are designed for the whole customers. If this strategy is used, the company can achieve cost benefits. Because, it can attract the whole customers with single promotional campaign. Concentrated and differentiated strategy requires separate marketing mix (Slack & Lewis, 2002).

Starbucks is a large global company. It can choose differentiated targeting strategy to attract the customers. This strategy will enable the company to expand its business. It will help to attract new markets for the coffee ice cream. The company needs to design a single marketing mix for the some similar market segments.

Positioning Strategy:
Ferrell and Hartline, (2005) stated that positioning strategy helps the company to build the image of the products into mind of the customers. There are several ways of positioning the products into the mind of the customers such as:

• Competitive pricing strategy
• Brand positioning strategy
• Product positioning strategy
• Competitive positioning strategy etc.

Starbucks is a large coffee products company. It has a high reputation of its products. Starbucks can easily build a high image into the mind of the customers. The product positioning strategy explains that the company should design unique products for meeting the needs of the customers. Therefore, Starbucks should design coffee ice cream with unique characteristics. The company also should consider about the competition. There are some competitors like MacDonald’s has also such type of products. This is why; the company should design products, so that it can get competitive advantages.

2.4 Demonstrate how buyer behaviour affects marketing activities in different buying situations

Buying behaviour is the management approach, which analyse the purchasing habits of individual or groups. The buying behaviour affects the marketing activities.

Hooley, et al.; (2004) described the buying behaviour model. This model explained how the customers make purchase decision of products.
Buyer behaviours affect the marketing activities in different buying situations for Starbucks and its products. Various factors which have been identified for this are explained below:

1. Business to Customer (B2C)

• Stimulus:The factors which stimulate the customers to buy and consume products at Starbucks can be the influence from the social groups, cultural influence or the marketing mix of the outlet of Starbucks.
• Process: The demand among the customers stimulates and then it is further processed through the following factors like Physiological factors, psychological factors or Perception of an individual. Motivation and attitudes are other factors which process the demands of the individuals further.
• Response: For purchasing any product or services, customer do a proper analysis of it and then its response is received. The flow or process in which response is given is explained below:
  • First of all the customer recognise their needs and wants. They feel the necessity of fulfilling the needs. Then, they start to get information about the products about the different products that can meet their needs. The customers are now very conscious. They collect information from online sources like website, online newspaper, articles etc.

They collect information about various products compare the products and decide to purchase the best one.
After purchasing the products, they also evaluate whether the produces has met their needs or not.

Starbucks marketing strategy should consider the buying behaviour of the consumers. The marketing activities are affected by this buying behaviour.
For example, the customers make decisions by getting information from online sources. Therefore, the marketing professional should take promotional strategy considering this. The marketers should maintain a good website which contains the characteristics of the products so that the consumer can make purchase decision based in the information.

Again, according to this model, the consumer evaluates the products after consuming. Therefore, the company must design quality products so that it can meet the requirements of the consumers. It will help the company to satisfy the customers and retain them as loyal customers.

2. Business to Business (B2B)
?While taking decisions in business to business transactions, there are certain factors which influence the buying behaviour. The buying behaviours while purchasing the Starbucks’s [products and services are given below:

Organisations while making purchase consider the factors given above in the diagram. They consider:

• Environment forces: Environment forces include the political, economic or legal forces which affect the company’s buying decisions. These factors can be at national or international level.
• Organisation forces: Organisational factors can be the goals and objectives of the company which the company has to meet through its strategies. These impact the buying decisions of the company. The company will only make the buying decision if it helps in the fulfilment of the goals and objectives of the company.
• Group forces: The group companies also influence the buying decisions of the company. The manufacturers, sellers and other related to the same field of business affect the buying behaviour.
• Individual forces: The individual forces can be the colleges, universities, hospitals, etc. which affectsthe buying decisions of the company.

The buying process in B2B is multistep and is longer. The process of B2B business buyer is given below:

*RFP: Request for Proposal
Therefore, from this above discussion it is evident that the buying behaviour affects the marketing activities. The marketing professional should make marketing decision based on the buying behaviour of the customers and businesses.

2.5 Propose new positioning for as elected product/service

Starbucks positions its products in the market which are known for quality, taste, class and so on. It positions its products in a way which makes it different from the products of the competitors. It believes in relationship marketing and believes in establishing good and healthy relationship with the customers for a longer period of time. It guides the customer about the different tastes of coffee available with them and asks for their own choices.

Proposition of New Strategy
Starbucks is a large global coffee products company in UK. It has 16,706 stores in 50 countries. It should choose a proper positioning strategy for its products. It can adopt competitive positioning strategy to bring good outcome for the overall performance of the company.it will help the company to build good image of the products to the mind of the customers.Starbucks can promote its products as nutritional products which do not increase any calories and can be consumed by the health conscious people. When it will offer better quality product at the same prices, customers will definitely position the product in their minds as the value for money product and they will surely prefer it more than other brands.

The new position of Starbucks is as the brand which offers nutritious and high quality coffee products to the customers at the same price as before and it can also be consumed by those who are conscious of more calories because of the consumption of coffee products.(Mooradian, et. al., 2012)

LO4: Be able to use the marketing mix in different contexts

Marketing mix is an important strategy of effective marketing plan. The company should design proper marketing mix to attract the customers and bring good outcome for the company.

4.1 Plan marketing mixes for two different segments in consumer markets

Marketing mix differs in different segments. Here, two different segments like married and unmarried person (Marital Status) have been explained.

• Products: Married person prefers to take coffee in with wife and children. But the unmarried person prefers to take coffee outside the home. Therefore, the marketers should design products differently for these two segments.
• Price: The price should be set differently for this both segments. Because the married persons are more cost sensitive (Posner, 2011)
• Place: The distribution channel is different for home products and coffee shop sales.
• Promotion: the company can provide family incentive to attract the married persons and for unmarried person can provide discount and coupon etc.

4.2 Illustrate differences in marketing products and services to businesses rather than consumers

The company sells products to the business as well as directly to the consumers. The marketing activities vary based on the marketing of products and service to the business rather than I the consumers.

The consumers buy products or services to consume it. But the business company buys products or service to resell to the consumers. The company can sell products to the business directly from the manufacturing unit. It does not require retail outlet. But the company needs retail outlets to sell to the consumers directly (Marketing Knowledge., 2006).

The company sells a large amount to the business but a small amount to the consumers. Therefore, the marketing activities differ based on this.
The promotional activities of marketing of products to the business and consumers also vary.

For example, John Beswick is a pottery manufacturer in UK. It sells its product directly to other business and consumers. It adopts different marketing strategy for attracting the business and consumers.

4.3 Show how and why international marketing differs from domestic marketing.

For many reasons the international marketing differs from domestic marketing as follows (Pasco & Le Ster-Beaumevieille, 2007):

• International marketing is done to meet the needs of international customers and domestic marketing for domestic customers.
• Both marketing need to maintain different distribution channels.
• Price of the products varies in case of both marketing.
• Promotional activities are different in case of international marketing and domestic marketing
• Micro and Macro environment factors are also different.
• STP model must be designed differently for international marketing and domestic marketing.

For all these reasons the international marketing differs from the domestic marketing.

Conclusion

Marketing is the tool for any kinds of company to achieve e goals and objective of the company. The marketing professional should proper use the marketing strategy to bring good outcome. The marketing process has different elements. The company should design the products in such way that can help the company to achieve the goals and objectives. Marketing is a process of meeting the needs of the customers in a profitable way. The marketers should set proper marketing objectives before developing marketing strategy. The marketing strategy would be more effective for the company, if it is designed for the small group of the customers rather than large groups. For this reason, the marketing professionals suggested to divide the market into different categories based some features. To effectively meet the needs of the customers, the company should adopt STP model. Starbucks has used the marketing strategy to achieve the goals and objectives.

References

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