Marketi

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Essential
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Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Task 1.....................................................................................................................................................3
LO1: Explain the role of marketing and how it interrelates with other functional units of an
organisation.......................................................................................................................................3
P1: Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function......................................4
P2: Explain how roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organisational
context...........................................................................................................................................6
Task 2...................................................................................................................................................10
LO2: Compare ways in which organisations use elements of the marketing mix (7Ps) to achieve
overall business objectives..............................................................................................................10
P3: Compare the ways in which different organisations apply the marketing mix to the
marketing planning process to achieve business objectives........................................................10
Task 3:.................................................................................................................................................13
LO3: Develop and evaluate a basic marketing plan.........................................................................13
P4: Produce and evaluate a basic marketing plan for an organisation........................................13
Conclusion:..........................................................................................................................................17
References...........................................................................................................................................18

Introduction
In the modern era, marketing has become a very important tool for the business
organisations. Marketing involves having the knowledge of the market, the exact
requirements of the customers, how to build strong relations with stakeholders,
marketing strategies and finally providing quality products to the customers. The
following assignment is based on the marketing essentials for the business
organisation. The marketing function is described in detail in the following
assignment and the roles and responsibilities are also talked about. We have also
studied the importance of the inter connection between marketing and other
operative units of the business organisation.

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Task 1
LO1: Explain the role of marketing and how it interrelates with other functional
units of an organisation.
Introduction:

The following report describes the importance of the marketing function for the
business organisation and also describes the key roles and responsibilities of the
marketing function. The report will also describe the interrelation between the
marketing function and other functional departments of an organisation.

P1: Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function.
In today’s business times, marketing is regarded as that process through which the
business organisations identify the products that are needed and required in the
market and finally provides those required products in the market. In order to achieve
their organisational objectives, business organisations communicate with the
customers and delivers value to them through marketing process. Thus, it can be

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said, that marketing is said to be the process that identifies, understands and then
provides the value accordingly to the customers (Kotler, 2012).

The marketing functions are mostly common in most of the business organisations
and mainly consist of full research of the market, product planning, product
development process, the promotion of services, their sales, financing etc. The
growth and success of the organisation depends on the marketing functions.
Therefore, the marketing manager of the organisation is responsible for ensuring that
the product reaches the market on time in order to meet the needs as well as wants
of the customers and thereby achieving its business objectives (Pike, 2015).

Common Roles in a Marketing Department: Following are the key roles within the
marketing department of any business organization:

Marketing President: The marketing president or the marketing director is the main
person who is responsible for all the major marketing activities of the organization.
The marketing plan is decided by the marketing director and he only decides the
long term as well as the short term plans for the organisation.

Product Manager: The activities related to the research of the products, their
development as well as the promotion related activities are the responsibility of the
product manager. The various needs and requirements of the customers are
identified by the product manager and accordingly the product plan gets developed
by the product manager.

Advertising Manager: All the promotion and advertisement related activities are
carried out by the advertising managers. He is the one who is responsible for writing
brand messages, texts, ads and various other promotional activities.

Public Relations Manager: The public relations manager is the one who is
responsible for sharing the information about the products and services of the
organisation to its customers. In order to attract customers for the products, these
persons interact with public and media and represents the company as its
spokesperson.

Marketing Manager: The main role of the marketing manager is to carry out the
marketing activities and various strategies of the company. He reviews the marketing

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department and develops the marketing plan and also coordinates with other
functional units of the organization.

M1: The roles as well as the responsibilities of the marketing function in relation with
the marketing environment are as given below:

Market Research: Market research is the most crucial as well as the utmost
important function of marketing in context with marketing environment. For E.g. If a
company needs to succeed, it needs to know the specific details regarding product,
its price as well as demand and customers in market so as to provide the best of the
services.

Market Strategies: Development of effective marketing strategies as well as its

planning is also an important part of the marketing function. The market strategies
needs to be effective so as to identify what exactly the customer requires and
providing the products and services accordingly (Elliott, et.al, 2014)

Market Information System: The market information system is responsible for

providing information relating to the planning process, product development, its
implementation as well as the promotion of the products to the business
organisation. For E.g. the distribution channel of a business organisation becomes
more effective through MIS as logistics information can be obtained on real time
basis.

Environment monitoring: Marketing function also includes the monitoring of the

environment in which the business operates as changes takes place continuously in
the market trends and customer needs and therefore organisation needs to be aware
of those changes.

Market Segmentation: In order to be successful in today’s competitive market, the

business organisation needs market segmentation which is done by marketing. With
the help of market segmentation, the market gets divided on the basis of customer’s
characteristics and hence services can be provided in more effective manner
(Howell, 2015).

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P2: Explain how roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organisational
context.
The roles and responsibilities of marketing involve:

 To do market research in order to find out the exact customer needs.

 To identify the target market as well as target customers for the product.
 Develop the new and innovative products that serve the needs of the customers.
 Making effective and competitive market strategies.

However, apart from above, the roles and responsibilities in relation with
organisational context are as follows:

Research and development: In order to become successful and remain

competitive, a business organisation needs to do significant market research.
Information related to the business and its process is collected through proper
market research which helps the business organisation in achieving its business
objectives and goals.

Strategy: In order to choose the best suitable strategy, it is very important for
business organisation to judge all the possible ideas and their outcomes which is
basically done through marketing.

Planning: Planning of decisions is the next major step after having done with the
marketing strategies. Various important decisions related to production and its
communication is taken through this.

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Tactics: The short term plans which are mostly used by the businesses during the
final phase so as to attract customers are known as tactics (Brassington and Pettitt,
2012)

D1: The various key elements of marketing are:

Finance: Every business organisations needs the proper budget allocation so as to

meet the needs of various departments and activities such as research, production,
promotion etc. and in order to achieve this, the marketing department of every
business organisations needs to work closely with the finance department. It is the
responsibility of the finance department to ensure that all the business activities are
carried out within the financial capabilities of the organization. The main focus of the
finance department of any business organization is on the cash flow within the
organization.

Production: The marketing function needs to work closely with the production
department o in order to ensure the following:

 The current as well as the future needs of the customers are met with the
services and products through adequate research and development planning.
 The manufactured product meets the design and specifications as required by
the customers.
 The volume of orders which are created by the marketing department can be met
by the production department within the set deadlines.

However, the production department might sometimes be required to stretch their

capabilities in order to meet the deadlines of the marketing department as marketing
department needs to get products as soon as possible in order to gain competitive
advantage.

Human Resource Department: The marketing department needs to work closely

with the human resource department in order to ensure that there are adequate skills
and staff to do the market research for the products and services, to meet the targets
of production and to create an efficient sales team. The various human personnel
required for the effective implementation of the marketing plan will be hired by the
human resource department.

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Research and development: There is also the inter relation between the
marketing function and the research and development department as the
prime focus of the research and development is on the requirements of the
customers and production of services required by the customers. Also the
other aspects of marketing like distribution, channels etc. needs to be researched in
order to deliver the services to customers in a more effective manner (Griffith, et.al,
2014)

IT Department: IT department and marketing are also closely associated. The prime
focus of the marketers is on how the information obtained through the market
research is getting used by the information technology. This is being achieved as the
various products and services of the business organization are advertised as well as
communicated to the customers by making use of information technology through
internet and the websites.

M2: It is a well-known fact that the marketing function is interrelated with other
functional departments of the business organisation. All the departments of the
marketing functions needs to work in close association with each other in order to
achieve the organizational objectives of increasing sales as the function of one
depends on the proper working of another. In order to explain this, let us take an
example of finance department and the marketing function. In order to function, the
marketing function of business organisation needs various economic resources
which are provided to them by the finance department of the organisation. In addition
to this, marketing function also requires the complete specification and description of
products from the production department. Also, the man power required to carry out
operations are provided by the human resource department and the various logistics
required comes from the distribution network. In order to introduce any kind of
discount or offer for achieving higher productivity and increased sales, the marketing
department needs to discuss the same with the production as well as the finance
department as the finance for the same will be provided by the finance department.
The man power required in order to carry out various marketing functions is provided
by the human resource department and the information required in order to produce
products and services according to needs and requirements of customers is

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provided to marketing department by the R&D department. Similarly, support and
cooperation of all other departments is very important for the marketing function, in
the absence of which, the marketing function cannot function successfully and will
only result in losses. Thus, it is said that the marketing functions needs to work in
close association with all the other functional units of an organisation (Lewis, 2013).

Conclusion:

Thus from the above report it has become clear that for the success of the business
organisation in today’s times, marketing has become very important as it gives the
understanding of the market, its customers, their demands and accordingly, the
products are manufactured by the companies.

Task 2
LO2: Compare ways in which organisations use elements of the marketing mix
(7Ps) to achieve overall business objectives.
Introduction:

The main objective of every business organization is to generate revenue and earn
profit. This can be achieved by developing the effective strategies of marketing.

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Marketing Mix serves as the technique or tool for achieving the business objectives
in an efficient manner.

P3: Compare the ways in which different organisations apply the marketing mix to the
marketing planning process to achieve business objectives.
Marketing mix has become an essential tool for achieving success for every
business organization. The organisation chosen here is the British
telecommunications company, EE limited, which has its headquarter located at
Hatfield, UK. The comparison of the 7Ps of the marketing mix between the two
mobile organizations EE Limited and O2 which is another big telecommunication
service provider in UK is made as following:

M3:

Product: Product is one of the most essential element of the marketing mix. The
products and services offered by the EE limited includes mobile services, broadband
services, services related to IPTV within the frequency range from 2G to 4G and 4G+
including HD video calling. On the other hand, O2 provides telecommunications
services which includes fixed line calls, mobile services and the broadband services.

Price: The purchasing capability of the customer influences his choice of the product
and this depends on the price factor. Therefore, the company needs to adopt the
pricing strategy keeping in mind the competition in market. The low pricing strategy
is followed by EE limited and the services are provided at much cheaper rates.
However, the pricing strategy followed by O2 is high and the rates of their products
are slightly higher (Jobber and Chadwick, 2012)

Place: That element of the marketing mix which is responsible for making available
the right product to the right customers is the place. Therefore, the importance of
distribution channels increases for the organisations. In order to reach its customers,
the EE limited makes effective use of its sales channel. The products and services of
EE limited reaches its customers through more than 600 stores alone in UK. On the
other hand, O2 does not have physical stores in order to sell their products and
services. All their products are sold either online or through making alliance with
other organisations.

Promotion: In order to create awareness about the product in the minds of the
customers, proper and effective promotional strategy is very important for the

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organisations. This is because of this reason that EE limited makes effective
promotional strategy by endorsing its products through the celebrities. It also
advertises its products in different movie and sports events by sponsoring those
programs. Similarly, efforts are made by O2 in order to promote its products. As
most of the selling is done online, therefore most of the offers are introduced on the
websites or the social media (Jain, 2013)

People: The people are the most important asset of any business organization as
the operational efficiency of the organization depends on the working capabilities of
the people of the organization. Therefore, in order to gain competitive advantage, EE
limited makes the selection of its employees on the basis of their expertise and
selects the best among all. Similarly, O2 also makes the selection of its employees
precisely and based on accuracy.

Physical Evidence: Physical evidence refers to the location where the services or
products of the organizations are being offered. EE limited does not make much use
of the physical evidence so as to achieve the objectives of organisation and the logo
of the company serves as its physical evidence. Similarly, the brand image of O2 is
the only physical evidence of the organisation (Baines, et.al, 2013)

Process: Process refers to the way through which services or products are delivered
to the customers. In order to carry out its marketing functions effectively, EE limited
makes sure that its products and services are delivered on time. Similarly, O2 also
ensures timely delivery of its online services to its customers.

Conclusion:

Thus, the various elements of the marketing mix and their importance in the
marketing function of an organisation has been explained in the above report. The
comparison has been made between the two telecommunication service providers of
UK i.e. EE limited and O2.

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Task 3:
LO3: Develop and evaluate a basic marketing plan.
Introduction:

In the following task, we will develop the basic marketing plan for the largest
telecommunication service provider of UK i.e. EE limited. The plan will include the
objectives of the company, its internal as well as external analysis, Strategies,
various tactics and action and the budget.

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P4: Produce and evaluate a basic marketing plan for an organisation.
EE limited is one of the largest provider of mobile and telecommunication services in
UK. Their services include IPTV, mobile, broadband, 4G services etc. The basic
marketing plan for EE limited so as to achieve the business objectives is developed
as below:

 Internal Analysis of EE limited: We will use the Mckinsey 7S model in order to

do the internal analysis of EE limited:

Strategy The prime objective of EE limited is to provide quality products and

services to its customers at affordable rates. Thus, low pricing
strategy is adopted.
Structure The organizational structure followed in EE limited is matrix
organisational and functional organisational structure.
Systems Installation of the BTS as well as its maintenance are the main
systems of the EE limited and for the same purpose, the company
assigns the network engineers.
Shared The technological advancements adopted by the company and their
Values technical superiority are their main shared values.
Styles EE limited follows the democratic leadership style so as to motivate
its employees.
Skills In order to carry out different operations, they hire expertise having
all the required skills.
Staff The number of staff currently employed by the organisation is
around 15, 200 (Lilly, 2014)

 External Analysis: The external analysis of the EE limited is as below:

SWOT analysis:

 Strengths:
 The major strength of the EE limited is the huge customer base as the
company is currently one of the largest mobile service provider in UK.
 They quality of the services is excellent combined with the low price factor.

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  The company has currently around 600 stores all over UK.
 Weaknesses:
 Instead of focusing on individual customers, the prime focus of the company
is on different business organisations.
 The brand image is decreasing day by day and negative feedbacks are
appearing on social websites.
 Opportunities:
 EE limited has the large opportunity in future as the number of mobile users is
continuously increasing in UK as well as in Europe.
 Various emerging markets can be targeted with the low pricing strategy.
 More effective 4G services can be provided and this will increase the demand
of 4G handsets.
 Threats:
 4G services is getting introduced by many players in the telecommunications
industry which is a threat for EE limited.
 Increasing use of calling and messaging apps have led to the decrease in the
business of EE limited (Armstrong, 2012)
 Objective: Following are the main objectives of the EE limited:
 To maintain its value by providing quality services to its customers.
 To shed focus on the individual customers in order to regain its lost brand image.
 To increase the profitability as well as the efficiency of the company.
 To develop more effective strategies in order to have better control on the
operations of the company.
(M4):
 Strategies: 7 Ps of Marketing Mix
 Product: The various products and services offered by the EE limited include
mobile services, broadband, 4G, IPTV etc. The company needs to focus in order
to provide more effective 4G+ services and 4G enabled handsets.
 Price: The Company needs to keep following its low pricing strategy in order to
gain competitive advantage over its rivalries and new entrants in the market.
 Place: The Company is currently serving through its 600 stores all over UK.
However, the company is planning to open more stores.

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 Promotion: EE limited makes use of effective promotional strategies by
endorsing its products through celebrities and in important events such as movie
awards etc.
 People: EE considers its people as their main asset as its people are the one
who interacts directly with the customers of the company.
 Physical Evidence: The logo of the company serves as its physical evidence.
 Process: The Company makes sure to make its process simple and hassle free
and ensures that the customers get the products and the services on time
(Lorange, 2013)
 Segmentation, targeting and Positioning: EE limited needs to divide market on
the basis of its service categories such as fixed line services, mobile services and
broadband services. Segmentation can be done by EE limited based on the
behavioural as well as demographics. The target market of the EE limited are
based on the various different types of market segments. The main target market
of EE limited is the individual customers as well as business organizations who
can utilize the services offered by the company. Therefore, the positioning
strategy adopted is the price sensitive positioning.
 Tactics and Action: In order to increase its profitability, EE limited needs to have
effective tactics. Therefore, the company needs to maintain its effective
marketing mix strategies in order to retain its position in the competitive market.
In order to develop effective marketing mix strategies. EE limited needs to closely
observe the behaviour of its customers and this can be achieved by conducting
surveys and customer interviews. In addition to this, the company needs to invest
more in the marketing strategies so as to make it more effective in order to attract
large amount of customers (Armstrong, 2012)
 Budget: Budget is also an essential part of the marketing plan. The financial
manager of the company has estimated the following:

Maintenance Cost 7500 Pound

Promotional Strategies 5000 Pound
Human Resource 55,000 Pound

Conclusion:

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From the above report, it is clear that in order to survive in the competitive
environment and to maintain its brand value, EE limited needs to make various
effective marketing strategies including the marketing mix strategies which includes
product, price, place, promotion, physical evidence, process and people.

Conclusion:
The above assignment is based on the importance of the marketing for achieving the
business objectives. The main organisation considered for the purpose of the above
assignment is EE limited, which is a British telecommunication service provider. In
the above assignment, we have discussed the various elements as well as roles and
responsibilities of the marketing function. The comparison has been made between
the marketing mix strategies of the EE limited and other mobile service provider
company of UK, O2. We have also developed a basic marketing plan for the
company.

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References
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adaptation", International Marketing Review, vol. 31, issue. 3, pp. 308-334

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