Question :
Following questions need to be considered while writing the report:
- Analyse the role of marketing and its interrelation with other functional units of company.
- Distinguish the ways in which organisations use marketing mix to achieve their objectives.
- Create a marketing plan and evaluate its effectiveness.
Answer :
INTRODUCTION
Marketing is considered as the management of all functions and operations in a way that it can be able to provide satisfaction to customers and thus, gaining high rates of productivity and popularity (Saad, Hassan and Shya, 2015). There are different aspects of the marketing that can help an organization in achieving an efficient rate of business management. The report is about analysing various roles of the marketing function in M&S. Comparison of the marketing mix of M&S and Next Plc. has been also included in the report. A proper marketing plan involving all essential aspects for M&S is provided as well.
TASK 1 - REPORT
P1. Understanding the basic roles of marketing function
To : Line Manager
From : Assistant Manager
Subject : Understanding the basic roles of marketing function
Marketing is considered as the management of all functions and operations in a way that it can be able to provide satisfaction to customers and thus, gaining high rates of productivity and popularity (Miles and et.al., 2015).
Roles of Marketing
A market function has enormous number of roles which are discussed as below:
Branding
It can be considered as one of the important aspects of the marketing function. Maintaining the value and popularity of the brand by involving various means is an important task to do that also helps the organization in satisfying enormous number of customers and thus, achieving a higher rate of popularity along with the productivity. For maintaining an efficient rate of branding, an organization can make sure to involve various ways of promoting their brand such as by advertising, by means of social media websites, online marketing, etc. Also, providing the customers a quality and standard range of products and services can help in attracting the interest of customers. Therefore, branding as an essential function of marketing can help the organization in achieving all the targets and goals at a much faster rate.
Distribution
The process of distribution of an organization should be in a way that the customers can get as per their needs and requirements along with maintaining the factor of quality. So, a firm can also make sure to involve various ways by which they can make their distribution better. A very well-known and common example of this can be considered as the fact that if an organization has stores or outlets from where the customers shop or purchase. There is an option to the organization about involving factor of starting online deliveries (Yang, 2015). This can be termed as an interesting option because it seems to be easy enough for customers who do not want to go to the story or if they are lazy, etc. Therefore, by means of placing online orders, company can deliver the placed orders to their customers. This can actually seem to be an efficient way to attract the customers in a way that they can also stay focused in the functions of the organization. It is because; the customers only want affordable rates with quality. So, feasibility along with these can be termed as an attractive option by which they can gain interest of customers and thus making increments in the popularity and productivity rate of company. The customers can actually love to enjoy receiving products at their home itself and so, this option can prove to be effective and appropriate enough.
Selling
Selling is also considered as one of the essential concepts in the functioning of marketing. It is because; every single firm follows a specific procedure for selling. As an organization can have stores and outlets at different parts of the country, so, they follow a basic structure to attract audience at higher rates. There can be various factors that an organization can involve in order to make their selling procedure better (Miles and et.al., 2015). As the organization can take feedbacks from the customers after every purchase etc. This will help them in analysing the factors that are bothering the customers which means the ones that are not liked by the customers. Then the company can make sure to make the modifications and improvements in a way that then it can be able enough to satisfy the customers. This technique can be involved by the organizations to attract the customers because by these means, the customers can also consider that they are an important part of the company and thus, it will further prove to be helpful in maintaining their interest in the company. This process can also be termed in an effective information management of the organization so that they can maintain a sort of balance in their processing of different operations.
Finance
Financial status of an organization is also an important aspect which is to be ensured. It is because; an appropriate budget can help in maintaining every single process in a way that it can be capable enough. Therefore, if in case, the company does not an appropriate rate of budget, then it can take some sort of financial help from different sources such as banks, business partners etc. Also, the organization can keep a check on the revenues they are achieving so that they can compare the final results with their expected outcomes.