Question :
This unit states that TK-MAXX has introduced three new board members and they have selected marketing manager to provide information about the strategies used by company for maximising market share.
- Describe role of marketing and analyse how it relates with other functional areas of TK-MAXX.
- Explain marketing mix of TK-MAXX and M&S by comparing their strategies to achieve business goals.
- Produce a detailed marketing plan for TK-MAXX.
Answer :
INTRODUCTION
Marketing is action which is performed for assuring the products and services of company are promoted in effective manner in the market (Definition of 'Marketing Mix, 2017). Marketing department of every firm is very important for them because this division earn profit for company by expanding its sale and help whole organisation in reducing cost of business (Yang, Su and Fam, 2012). TK-MAXX is subsidiary of TJX Companies. TK-MAXX is running their business in retail sector and they are presence at almost 600 locations in Europe and Australia. This report will put light on the role of marketing function which is significant for every multinational company and for small enterprises also. It will also discuss the relation which different department of company have in between them. Marketing mix will also become part of this assignment because it provide crucial details about different factors and comparison of TK-MAXX with one of their rival will be done on its basis. At the end, marketing plan will be made for this company so they can attain success in achieving their goals.
LO1
P1 Roles and responsibilities of marketing function
Marketing is not a department in business organisation. With time, responsibility of this division has increase number of time and this is prime reason that every enterprise give special attention to this section of the organisation. Their was time when companies were simply satisfied by making products because they know that they do not have much rivals and people are going to buy products for them until they are making it (Wilson and Gilligan, 2012). After this, organisations started focusing on quality because customer started giving preference to those products which are of high quality. This era come to end when number of player in every business get increased and companies have to start making effort effort for selling their products. This selling concept is initiated the trend of heavy discount and offers.
Customer service is now considered as one of the key factor in success or failure of a company and its products. Most of the companies are working on providing high customer satisfaction to the people who are buying goods from them because they understand that if customer will be happy then they will not switch their vendor. This concept also get modified when people force companies to follow ethics and care about environment. Nowadays, many customer understand that they cannot reach their aim until they fulfil all the demands of customers and follow ethics. Below are few function of marketing which will define their responsibility towards the organisation:
Pricing – Price of a product play crucial role in deciding that whether particular product will become successful in the market or it will get fail to attract customer towards itself (Strandvik, Holmlund and Grönroos, 2014). Deciding what should be the price of a product is very important function which is to performed by marketing department. This marketing function make a huge impact on short and long term performance of company. Marketing team understand need and mindset of customer which is why get responsibility to decide price tag of a commodity. They understand the exact amount which company is spending on the manufacturing of the product and they also get instruction from the management about what profit management seek by selling this particular commodity. They also know what amount would people like to pay for particular product and rates similar goods which is sold by other company. These key factors put them responsible top setting an impressive rate which help company is registering heavy profit and satisfying need of customers so they do not feel that they are getting product at more price or not getting value for money. TK-MAXX is known for selling goods at a low price and they have successfully sustained this image because of they are performing this marketing function is best way possible.
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Promotion – Advertising, heavy discounts, gift cards are few promotional techniques which are considered as a part of marketing function (Peter and Donnelly, 2011). Significance of advertising has gone up in last few decades and in present era, mobile advertising is growing with a high pace. Marketing function has responsibility of making eye catching and influencing advertisement so potential customer put their foot in the stores of TK-MAXX and buy products their stores. This are also accountable for deciding the right platform of presenting advertisements because it right people are not targeted for a product then company cannot earn desired result. Another role of marketing function is to construct some interesting offers and plans so customer feel special and remain satisfied.
Selling – TK-MAXX has salesperson in their stores whose job is to help and convince people at the time of shopping. These people come under marketing division and they basically try to smooth the whole procedure of getting and selling goods in the store of the company. They answer the questions which is asked by customer and they also try to make deal with different suppliers so they can get good quality of goods for the store at lucrative price (Okwuokenye and Onemoease, 2011).
Product (Service) management – Most of the people do not understand that product management is an important function of marketing and it is directly as well as indirectly connected to the revenue of company. Every product which TK-MAXX is selling in stores has a life cycle and marketing function has responsibility to earn maximum amount of profit at different life stages of the product. The have accountability to forecast the demand and also plan complete position and targetting process of a targets. TK-MAXX is selling many products in their store which means that role of marketing function is difficult and important also.
Marketing information system (MIS) – Marketing function is considered as one of the most important activities which an organisation perform. Managing all the information about company, their products and strategies can be done by using Marketing information system and it is the responsibility of marketing team to to use this system for getting extra edge over key rivals of TK-MAXX.
Financing – All the division in various companies get fund from finance department. In the case of marketing wing, they need less fixed capital and more working capital. It is their accountability to manage their money in proper way and perform all of their duties is correct manner so they can grab more successful deals. This division is responsible for finding more suppliers and make deal with them. It is their duty to capture successful deals for company and get orders in bulk. If they will not manage their money in proper manner then they will run out of money and fail to make impressive presentation in-front of their potential partners (O'Dwyer, Gilmore and Carson, 2011).
Distribution – TK-MAXX is present in various part of this world and they are operating in many countries of Europe including UK. Marketing team has responsibility of providing strength to the distribution network of the company by providing the all the necessary details which can improve distribution system of the company and remove various flaws which are present in it. Distribution network is responsible for supply of goods at stores and this marketing function is not performed in correct manner then company can face huge loss. It has responsibility of delivering right amount of goods and every location where store of company is present.
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P2 Roles and responsibilities of marketing in wider context
Marketing division of TK-MAXX is responsible for their past success because they did not only do their work in desired manner but also assisted other department in doing their work in best way possible. Below are their roles which they have to play at the time of providing support to other wings of the organisation:
Relation between finance and marketing – Finance department manage money which come and go out of organisation. This division has all the knowledge about finance i.e. internal and external but they lack ground information which marketing division have. Marketing team is accountable for assisting finance wing in many situation like when they decide that in which areas company should invest their limited financial resources or where should they get funding for their upcoming project and expansion plan etc. Marketing wing understand the strategy of competitors of TK-MAXX and they know the best source of raising money because they analyse source of all the competitors of the firm (Nakata, Zhu and Izberk-Bilgin, 2011).
Relation between production and marketing – As mentioned earlier, the database of information which marketing team have is rare and other division do not have it. Production team required some key knowledge about what can be demand of a particular product and what quality of goods people expected from company, so they can manufacture things accordingly. Marketing team help them by passing feedbacks of customers to this department so they can produce goods accordingly. They can also tell them latest trend so manufacturing unit start early production of those item whose demand if going to get up in upcoming time.
Relation between administration and marketing – Administration do all the office work and play significant role at the time of making key decisions. Marketing unit of TK-MAXX is responsible for giving valuable advice to this division so they can get better understand about the marketing and make their internal plan of working accordingly.
Relation between distribution and marketing – When a company operates at such big level then role of marketing department get more important because they have to assist distribution network so company ensure smooth transaction of business. Their are various routes and system which a company can follow and develop respectively, so they can assure timely delivery of goods at lowest cost. But attaining this target is not possible with getting ground knowledge about a territory. Marketing division have save and process complete ground information and they play crucial role in developing a strong distribution network which is key aim of distribution unit (Morrison, 2013).
Relation between Human resource and marketing – Their is doubt the HR department of MNCs like TK-MAXX gained special importance because companies understand that if they will not hire right people for a position then they all not going to get desired result. Marketing unit of TK-MAXX provide details about what skills they need in the people who should join them in upcoming time. HR team do not have technical details about various kind of jobs which are present in the company but if someone provide them crucial information about what skills should they search in a candidate then their work become easier. Marketing wing of this enterprise is responsible for providing this significant information to the HR division.
Relation between R&D and marketing – Research team of TK-MAXX understand that if they will not develop something new and executive some good ideas then company will fail to sustain for a long period of time. Their work is difficult and it require huge amount of vital data and information. Marketing team has accountability to assist R&D division by supplying them all the important information which they need for making products and developing different strategies.
Relation between customer service and marketing – Customer satisfaction is considered as the key factor which assure long term success of the organisation. Customer service department of TK-MAXX try to understand mindset of customers so they can solve their query accordingly. Marketing team is responsible for advising them so this department can understand all the aspects of business, buying experience and technical knowledge of the work (Malshe, 2011). They are accountable for giving a special training session to customer service wing so the people who are working in this unit get to know about what customer think about product and how customer service executive can resolve problem of customer in effective way.
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