Unit 4 Marketing Principles Assignment – Primark

Introduction

The most important factor that helps organisation to grow in the market depends on how the organisation is marketing the product that is produced by it to the customers present into the market. Earlier, the most of the organisation focus on profit they achieved by selling their products into the market but now days, to make a known and successful organisation into the market, many organisation follows the  concept of marketing of the product that satisfy the need of the customers. The objective of this Unit 4 Marketing Principles Assignment Primark is to look into a number of different and significant factors related to the marketing strategy for the business origination. The whole concept of marketing is depends on how the organisation finds the exact need of the customer and make the product accordingly. In the following paper, I am taking the example of Primark to better understand the concept of the marketing principles. Primark is an Irish company and a well known brand in the fashion retail industry. Primark has approx 250 stores in UK only.

Task 1

Background- As mentioned in the requirement paper, I am appointed as a marketing planning manager of the Primark. My task is to give a throw to the sales of the company that has been slipping down for the last five year by reviewing all the conditions of the market and develop an appropriate strategy accordingly.

1.1 Examine a few definitions and the concepts of marketing and explain the marketing process with example drawn from Primark.

The concept of marketing is depends on identifying the exact need of the customer  that is not fulfilled by the competitors present into the market or anticipating the future need of the customers and produce product and satisfy the need accordingly. Follows are the concept of marketing with the example of Primark:

• Product concept- Under this concept, Primark has to focus on the product only that is being produced for example- clothes, footwear etc. Innovation and the technology are the main apparatus of this concept that attracts the customer most (Kim & Hyun, 2011). For example- Primark use the side chains for ladies jump suits to make it attractive and ease to use.
• Sales concept- Primark has to focus on sell of what it make rather that making what it can sell for example- Primark produce the light bulb for its home decor section and force the customer buy it.
• Production concept- this is the old concept in which Primark has to increase the production of the clothes, footwear etc. without worrying about sell of the products.
• Market concept- this is the concept in which Primark actually works. This concept focuses on the research about the product that could satisfy the need of the customers and produce them. In this the customer satisfaction is the most important factor.
• Societal concept- under this concept, Primark has to focus not only on the needs and want of the customer but also to surrounding nature and environments. Now days, many organisations has been an increasing interest in this concept and Primark is one of them (Luan, & Sudhir, 2010).

To follow the concept, there is a process is described that is known as the process of the marketing that includes the various set of decisions that helps the Primark to grow into the market. The marketing process is described below:

• Selection of the goal: in 1969, Arthur Ryan opened the first store named Penney which later known as Primark. The main goal of Arthur Ryan was to establish a fashion retail company that provides the comfortable clothes with low price than competitors.
• Analysis: three type of research has been conducted to establish Penney a brand Primark. These includes: Market research (to anticipate the market compatibility), customer analysis (to get the exact need of the customer), product analysis (to produce the product to the need for ex- design and shape). Generally the SWOT analysis is conducted by organisation to examine the market factor. The SWOT analysis of Primark is given below:

Strengths	Weaknesses
Brand in fashion retail Wide range of clothes for men, women and kids too. Customer loyalty. High turnover Skilled staff and employee	Poor online presence Lack of patent
Opportunities	Threats
Expansion in new market Expansion in the range of the clothes New segment for the home decor.	Economy inflation Increment in the cost or raw material. Competitors such as Adidas etc.

• Segmentation: Marketing segmentation is a process in which the customer of Primark is divided into small segments and each member of a segment has same needs and wants.
• Targeting: it is related to selecting one or two segment according to the resource that the company have and make product accordingly (Zhang, 2012).
• Positioning: select a suitable medium or the campaign according to the targeted market of Primark to promote the product into the market.
• Management and control: Primark has a full control on the process, decisions that is taken by the management on the different phase of the process and has control on the factors that create obstacle into the path of launching of the product.

Task 3

3.1 Using Primark as an example, explain how you would develop new products to achieve sustainable competitive advantage.

An organisation could get the competitive advantage only by producing the great quality of the product and Primark is very well aware of it. It provides the great quality of the product to their customer whether it belongs to different age or occupation. It has done very well in the demographic segment (Schoultz, 2013). As discussed earlier that Primark need to focus on the behavioural segment and should focus on the customer that need the great quality and comfortable product in return of their money especially for the old people who want comfortable over than fashion. Primark can introduce a new section for old or the people who want comfortable clothes rather than fashion with the name “feel comfortable”. Only the satisfaction of the customer through the development or introduction of the new product is not enough, the customer is more demanding and is fully aware of the company that works on the welfare of the society. Hence, now days, the customer is attracted by the company that is being involved in the environment and societal factor. So, to gain the competitive advantage, only the production of verities of clothes and footwear is not enough. Primark need to involve in the affair that is only for the welfare of the society. Following is the example where Primark was involved into the welfare activity and gain huge success and competitive advantage:

• In April 2013, Primark has decided to give the compensations to the victims of Rana Plaza building that has been collapsed and hosted many factories, one of which produced the garments for Primark.
• Since 2011, Primark is in agreement with the local partners and its suppliers for business social responsibility. Under this, Primark provides the health education and healthcare services to the women who are working with them.

3.2 Explain how the different distribution method for a newly developed product in Primark can be arranged to provide convenience to the target group of customer.

The main aim of the distribution is to make the product available to the customer so that customer can use the product. Primark is the organisation that is done very well business in UK due to the best distribution policy (Powers & Loyka, 2010). Generally, Primark uses the selective distribution business strategy in which Primark choose the best location from where the customer can get the clothes, footwear and home decor item etc. the number of the outlet or stores in a particular area is limited so that it covers the equal areas of the customers where they live, so Primark can use the same criteria for the new segment. Selective distribution also helps in maintaining the good relationship with the customer and its channel members and gives maximum market coverage and more control over the factors such as transportation, production etc. Besides this, Primark is very well aware of the technology that is being used. So it has made an online presence over the internet. The customer can purchase the dress, footwear and the items for home decoration only by clicking over them on its website.

3.3 Explain how prices are set by Primark to reflect on its marketing objective and marketing conditions for its newly developed product.

The new product or segment is developed by keeping the old aged people in mind and they are very price sensitive. So the best strategy for the newly developed product would economy pricing and psychological pricing (Murray, Gao & Kotabe, 2011). At the earlier stage, Primark may use the economy pricing in which the price is set as low as the company could have. The price of the product could be calculated by the calculating the cost of raw material and the cost of production function plus calculated profit. And in psychological pricing, Primark could set the price $9 or $ 99 which is less than $10 and $100. This is a small distraction can give huge profit to Primark.

3.4 Illustrate how Primark would integrate its promotional activities to achieve its marketing objectives.

The promotion is the activity that is widely used by organisations to make the aware of the customers about the products of the company. There are many technologies that help the organisation to promote the product such as advertisements, public relation, publicity etc. As Primark belongs to the fashion retail industry so it needs to use the integrated promotional activities to promote the product because the fashion keeps change in a short interval time and Primark has to gain the profit to meet the marketing objective in this period only to get success (Luan, & Sudhir, 2010). The integrated promotional activities are as follows:

• Advertisement and PR: advertisement and PR is the good combination of the promotional activities as advertisement would help in creating an image of the product into the mind of the customer and public relation will help in maintaining the good relationship with the customers.
• Social media: social media is a platform where most of the customer of fashion retail comes together and share their views on the different topics. Primark can use the social media such as face book, twitter to promote their product.
• Thinking out of box and sales promotion: As known that Primark belongs to the lifestyle category of fashion retail. In this, most of the customers get attracted by the ideas that are different from others. In this way, Primark can use the different type of coupon and gifts for the customer who regularly visits the place etc.

3.5 Analyse the additional elements of extended marketing mix for Primark.

The additional elements of the extended marketing mix for Primark are mentioned below:

• People: The people in the extended marketing mix are the employee who gets the direct contact to the customers. Primark provides full training program to their employee in manner to how to behave with the customer and also ensure that all employees has the full knowledge of the product offered by the company.
• Process: The process includes procedure that is followed by the production and marketing department of Primark. Primark always ensure that all the processes of the organisation are being run smoothly so that the customer can get the clothes etc at any time. Any delay in the process may lead a great loss in business (Liou, et al 2011).
• Physical evidence: physical evidence includes the design of stores its decoration and where it is places. Primark always take care of the store such as its cleaning, construction and always ensure the availability of store in posh areas.

Task 4

4.1 Plan marketing mixes for two different segments in consumer markets with reference to Primark.

The marketing mix for two segments (demographic and behavioural) is as follows:

Demographical segment: marketing mix for this segment is as follows:

• Product: Primark is offering or focusing on each and every customer whether it is related to the young age to old age, professional to home maker, ladies to gents etc. its offers the product such as women-wear, men-wear, kids-wear and their accessories and many items of home decor (Kim & Hyun, 2011).
• Place: the best places for the stores of Primark are the shopping malls and the local market where the customer goes for the shopping.
• Pricing: the price of the clothes should be low as Primark aim is to provide the comfort at low price but for accessories the price could be set a little bit high. the main customer of the Primark is professional so that price of formal wear could be in high in range.
• Promotions: sales promotions, advertising and public relation are the tools that could be use in the promotion of the product offered by Primark.

Geographical segment: The marketing mix for this segment is as follows:

• Product: Primark has to focus on the culture of the customer in which it is going to open the stores and also has to follow rules and rituals.
• Place: to enter into new market, Primark need to focus on the posh areas of the city or state where it can set a good image of the brand in the mind of customers.
• Pricing: the pricing for this segment could be low as it needs to penetrate into the new market.
• Promotions: the promotion strategy for the Primark could be advertisement, public relation, positioning etc.

4.2 Using Primark as an example Illustrate the differences in marketing products and services to businesses (B2B) consumers (B2C).

The difference between the marketing the products and services of Primark in B2C and B2B are as follows:

• Identification of need: in B2C, the customer is in the direct contact of Primark so it is very easy for the organisation to anticipate the need of the customer while in B2B, there are various customers but Primark does not have direct contact to them so it is very difficult to anticipate the need (Huang & Sarigollo, 2012).
• Promotions: Primark can easily attract the customer by doing efforts in the advertisement and public relation but in the B2B, the promotion of the product depends on the relationship with the business coordinate etc.
• Bulk buying: B2C does not believe in bulk buying. There are many customers of Primark that buy product such as dress etc but in less quantity while in B2B, there are few customers but buys the huge quantity of same product for example- the pair of 10 same dress to perform in the annual party in office.

4.3 Show how and why international marketing activities differ from domestic marketing activities.

There is a huge difference into the domestic and international marketing for Primark which is given below:

• In domestic marketing, there is no need of anticipating the needs, taste and preference and culture of the society or country even the currency is same. But in international marketing, it would be very difficult for Primark to anticipate taste and preference of the population and especially the culture of the country. Currency exchange, political barrier, economical barriers, culture difference etc are the obstacle that Primark has to face on entering into market of new country (Becerra, Santalo & Silva, 2013).
• In domestic marketing, the competition is very less in comparison to the international marketing as Primark has to face the challenges of the big giant organisation of the other countries.
• To enter into market of new country, Primark has to conduct the different research in results a big loss of money while in domestic market there is no need of such high level research as the company is already aware of lots of things.
• Primark has to recruit new employees for the new store in new country who are very well aware of the business environment and the festivals of the country so that Primark can attract the customer to ward them while in domestic marketing it is not so important.

Conclusion

Primark is a much known brand into the fashion retail industry which basically works on the market orientation concept of the marketing. Primark only focus on the exact need and wants of customers. In this paper, the concept of marketing, marketing process and the benefits and cost associated with the marketing orientation is described. The segmentation, targeting and positioning strategy are described along with the difference in domestic and international marketing.

References

Becerra, M., Santaló, J., & Silva, R. (2013). Being better vs. being different: Differentiation, competition, and pricing strategies in the fashion  industry. Marketing Management, 34, 71-79.
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Liou, et al (2011). A modified VIKOR multiple-criteria decision method for improving domestic marketing for fashion retail industry. Journal of Marketing Management, 17(2), 57-61.
Luan, Y. J., & Sudhir, K. (2010). Forecasting marketing-mix responsiveness for new products. Journal of Marketing Research, 47(3), 444-457.
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