UNIT 2 - Marketing Essentials Regent College R/508/0486

Task 1

P1 Important roles and responsibilities of marketing function

Marketing is a vital function of every business organisation that administers an opportunity to company to communicate with target audience and build strong relationship with them. Various roles and responsibilities are involved in this function that assist in growth and sustainability of firm. Several functions are performed in a firm includes human resource management, product development, distribution system, strategy management, sales support system and marketing research. All these functions are interrelated with Marketing function. All these promote growth and sustainability of company. Various roles and responsibilities of marketing function includes pricing, selling, product, promotion, distribution, financing & Marketing Information System. Roles and responsibilities of ALDI  Marketing System are defined below:

• Marketing Information System: It is the process in which data and information is collected and analysed. This assist firm in understanding needs and demands of customers in more better manner. This method helps in knowing likes and dislikes of customers and assists in offering them the products they want ( Functions of marketing, 2018). For instance: ALDI collect data about consumer preferences. By this, they analysed that consumers most preferred to buy goods and services.  Apart from this, it also provide information about what kind of marketing should be like by customers,  which kind of product they want and at what place.  All the information regarding customer has gathered and analysed properly. Based on this analysis, firm made effort to find out that which particular product has best opportunities in marketplace.
• Marketing planning: Marketing plan is generally formulated by marketing managers in order to attain business objectives along with marketing objectives. It clearly depicts about what firm exactly want and in what percentage. For instance, ALDI wants to enhance their market share by 40%. For attaining this objective, it is required by manager to formulate appropriate market Plan accordingly. It also defines about the roles of work force in attending these objectives.
• Financing: It is an essential function of every organization as it's growth and success rely on this function.  It is the factor which is very necessary for running operations of firm in successful manner. Marketing manager has the responsibility to determine all the sources by which firm can acquire appropriate funding (Dibb and Simkin, 2013). The function of marketing deals with finding out the source of money for business by Investments, loans or utilising personal capital to market their products and services among customers. Loans, shares and investments are the ways through which ALDI managing its funding.
• Pricing: It is a big challenge in front of organisation to set right price of a product. If prices are high, there are a lot of chances for firm to lose its customers. But, if prices are low, there are chances for form to robbing themselves with high profitability. So, it is essential for every organisation to set right price of a product that creates some value for customers. ALDI have its unique pricing strategy that provides them competitive edge in market overtake competitors. They sell their product lower prices as compared to other retail stores.
• Promotional channel: It is the way through which a firm communicate about its products and services to customers. By using various promotional tools, firm convey value and benefits of their goods to customers and encourage them to purchase their product. Personal selling, advertisement, publicity and sales promotion are included in it. Each decision of marketing manager regarding promotion of product influence over all sells of the company. For instance, Coupons are used by ALDI for doing promotion.
• Selling: Both, marketing and selling are the complementary functions as marketing create awareness among customers and developed a preference for product. It assist sales representative in selling more products (Campbell and Martin, 2015). Sales team are getting support by marketing function in generating higher sales. ALDI  purchase goods in large quantity or in bulk from manufacturers and sold directly to end customers.
• Distribution: Under this function, firm plans to distribute or supply their products to customers. It is required by owners to have an idea about distribution channels so that their product can be distributed all across the world. The refereed firm distributes their products via their outlets or stores. Apart from this, their products are also sold by online application.
• Product/ service management: The function of marketing provides valuable outputto product development. Information regarding needs and preferences of customers assist firm to determine the additional features required to be introduced in existing product or a new one. It also helps in determining opportunities related with extending product range an introduction of existing product into a new marketplace.

Task 2

P2 Interrelationship of marketing roles and responsibilities to organisational context

Marketing is an essential tool that helps organisations in satisfying needs and demands of customers in an effective and efficient manner. It generally deals in marketing, advertisement, selling and distribution of goods. For accomplishment of business objectives or targets in cost effective manner and on time, marketing function helps various department of firms such as human resource, production, research and development, finance etc. Below define points depicts about the interrelationship of marketing roles and responsibilities with other functions of organisation:

• Human Resource Department: For attaining higher sales, it is required by Business to attract profitable buyers. For this, firm need to have a skilled and knowledgeable manpower who have the ability to generate maximum sales. So, the major responsibility of human resource manager is to higher competent and skilled personnel within firm. In this, marketing function assist in finding out pool of talented candidates. As the market change,  Expectations of employees also change (Draelos, 2010).  To stay competitive in market, it is necessary for firm to satisfy need of their workforce so that there motivation level can be increased and they are encouraged to work in more effective manner. It is also required by an organization to provide healthy and safe work environment to workers so that they feel happy and work willingly towards attainment of goals and objectives of company. ALDI managers mainly focus on hiring skilled and knowledgeable workforce so that goals and objectives of firm is accomplished in an effective manner.
• Research and Development Department: This function play crucial role in development of new products and services. Managers of this department conduct market research in order to analyse current market trends as well as needs and preferences of customers. It assist in developing such products that completely satisfy the demands of customer. As choices of customers are frequently change, this department collect information and provide it to production department. It is important for organisations to keep update about the changes that takes place in market. By market research, ALDI observe that, consumers are shift towards substitute products as they get it in low prices. So, company came up with unique pricing strategy that helps in attracting more customer towards the brand.

Production and operation department: This department highly contributes in increasing profitability as well as productivity of firm in cost effective manner (Eslinger, 2014). Marketing function provides all the information regarding needs and preferences of customers that assist operations department in developing product according to that (Hsu, 2011). Operations manager has the responsibility to maintain minimum level of stock. This department ensures optimum utilisation of resources without compromising in quality. It assist firm in offering high quality products to customers and satisfy their needs.  Marketing function helps in identifying future demands for a specific product so that appropriate amount of goods are purchased by suppliers and store in warehouses. This assist in meeting demands of customers effectively. By the assistance of marketing function, ALDI can easily anticipate demand of product so that these can be buy in bulk quantity.

• Finance department: It is a lifeblood of organisation which is necessary for the survival of company. It is necessary for every firm to have adequate amount of funds so that day to day operations can be run smoothly. Finance manager prepare market budget that assist in conducting marketing activities in proper manner. If an organisation have sound financial position, they get funds easily from market by various sources whenever required. This helps in developing strong Goodwill of an enterprise in market.

Customer Service Department: Customers are the essential components that early contributes in that highly contributes in growth and sustainability of firm. So, it becomes Prime need of a company to satisfy demands of their consumers (Lancaster and Massingham, 2010). Sheer layout of ALDI makes it easy for target audience to find needed product as soon as possible. Feedbacks and suggestions of customers are taken by firm on regular basis which assist in enhancing their products and services unsatisfying needs of customers in more effective way.

Task 3

P3 Marketing mix of two firms

Marketing mix is defined as a set of tactics that firm used for promoting its products in market place. It is made up of 7 P's which includes product, price, promotion, place, process, people and physical evidence. The description of 7 P's of ALDI and LIDL are defined below:

Task 4

P4 Marketing plan for ALDI

Marketing plan refers to a blueprint that outlines all significant Advertising and Marketing activities of an enterprise for upcoming year. It starts with determining target customers which is done by market research (Wieser, 2012). This plan includes overview of business, budget formulation, segmentation, targeting and positioning approach,  sales forecast, monitoring and control.

Company overview

ALDI is a well-known firm and the common brand of discounted Supermarket chain. The company performance operations in more than 20 countries with around 10000 stores. Its headquarters are located in Germany and was established in 1913. They start with food store and now deals in wide range of products which they offer to customers in discounted rates. The quality of product is also maintained as well. In year 1956, company started to gain Hai popularity in market by selling good quality product in discounted rates then competitors.

Company's Vision and Mission Statement:

Vision:  “To deliver our buyers with the goods that they buying regularly and ensure high standards quality of those goods”.

"Top quality at incredibly low prices- guaranteed".

ALDI has got 5 main ideologies, to be precise:

1) Huge savings

 2) excellent Quality

 3) Outstanding value

 4) Superb special buys

5) Buy with confidence. 

Mission: “To meet customer necessity by offering them high quality product in discounted price”.

STP Approach:

SWOT Analysis:

Monitoring and control: In this, it is essential for manager to ensure that all the activities are carried out in appropriate manner. If any deviations found, corrective actions are taken by them so that objectives can be attained on time (Lan, 2014).

Conclusion

As per the above mentioned report, it has been concluded that marketing is an essential function that is very necessary in growth and sustainability of firm. It assist in communicating brand value to customers. Effective marketing plans assist in attaining targets of firm. It provides guidance to managers in their future course of actions. There are various functions of marketing such as selling, distribution, promotion, pricing, etc. and all these functions are interrelated with other functions of firm like human resource, production and operation, research & development, finance etc. marketing plan assists in conducting activities in systematic manner and implement strategy properly. 

Also read: Role of Marketing and Its Interrelation With Other Functions

References

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• Dibb, S. and Simkin, L., 2013. Marketing essentials. Cengage Learning.
• Draelos, Z. D., 2010. Essentials of hair care often neglected: Hair cleansing. International journal of trichology. 2(1). p.24.
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• Lancaster, G. and Massingham, L., 2010. Essentials of marketing management. Routledge.
• Lane, V., 2014. Measuring the Financial Value of Marketing Strategy with Excess Stock Market Return. International Journal of Risk and Contingency Management (IJRCM), 3(4), pp.1-16.
• Malhotra, N.K., Birks, D.F and Wills, P., 2013. Essentials of marketing research. Pearson.
• Martin, C., Campbell, R. and Harmsen, S., 2014. Media essentials: A brief introduction. Bedford/St. Martin's.
• Moons and et. al. , 2010. The extended decomposed Theory of Planned Behaviour. A framework for investigating the adoption process of electric cars. In The 6 Senses-The Essentials of Marketing (EMAC 2010) (pp. 191-191).
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• Wieser, P., 2012. Essentials of Logistics and Management, The Global Supply Chain (No. EPFL-BOOK-197496). EPFL Press.

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