Qualification - Higher National Diploma in Business
Unit Name - Marketing Essential
Unit Number - Unit 2
Unit Level - Level 5
Assignment Title - Marketing Planning Report
Learning Outcome 1: Explain the role of marketing and how it interrelates with other functional units of an organisation.
Learning Outcome 2: Compare ways in which organisations use elements of the marketing mix (7Ps) to achieve overall business objectives.
Learning Outcome 3: Develop and evaluate a basic marketing plan.
Assignment Brief
You are appointed as the Marketing Manager for an organisation of your choice.
Introduction
Marketing is referred toward the activities of an organization to promote its products and services by adopting the best strategies of selling and buying. So, it includes selling, advertising, delivering the best services through optimal channels to the end-users, etc. For any company marketing manager has a great importance because he/she plays a vital role in accomplishing the marketing objectives and to aligns them with marketing strategies. Their role also includes the management of the marketing budget and assurance that the advertisements are aligned with the brand strategy or market position. So, these types of managers can adapt current and future trends in order to promote their business and to get growth. The trends involve; use of social media, mobile platforms, advertising must be flexible, the needs of the customers must be aligned with marketing objectives, etc. So, this report includes the marketing plan for KFC in Hong Kong so that they can increase their growth rate; the role of marketing, promotion mix strategies, marketing analysis are discussed in detail in this report.
This will be presented as a report to the Marketing Director and should include the following:
1. Introduction to the concept of marketing, including current and future trends.
2. An overview of the different marketing processes.
3. Explanation of the role and responsibilities of a marketing manager in the context of the organisation.
4. An explanation of how marketing influences and interrelates with other functional departments of the organisation.
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Relation of Marketing with other Functional Units
Responsibility and Role of Marketing
In order to get the desired success in the market competition, it is necessary for the businesses to have a strong brand awareness, which could be possible only by having the strong marketing strategies. With the passage of time, as the demands and preferences of the people has changed, due to which it becomes necessary for the management of the business to change their strategies according to the predilections of the people. Usually, customers attract to the charm, so it is essential for the marketing manager to promote the services of business(Mahabubur, et al., 2017). There might be many responsibilities of marketing; they are as follows:
Promotions: The major purpose of the marketing is to attract the huge circle of customers by using many ways, such as social or digital media. It is one of the ways through which the management can increase its brand awareness and attract the customers by showing them quality products and services.
Widen Market: Through marketing, businesses can widen their target customers. By promoting the brand on a huge scale, there are many chances that the company can serve on a huge scale by using many tools such as event marketing, advertising, promotions, sales, etc.
Increase Product Offering: Marketing plays a vital to increase the offering of the products by pursuing the customers about the quality and transparency of the products. Through this, the companies can introduce their new products and increase their sales and promotions.
Creates Utility: Utility of the product can be defined as the strategy through which the needs of the customers can be satisfied. Through marketing, the management of the businesses can create the utility of their products and pursue the customers to have it.
Ensure the Survival of Organization and Reputation: The most important factor for the survival of the organization is the retention of its customers. As marketing is customer-centric, so it can help the companies to achieve their objective by continuously engaging the customers.
Management of Demands: The demands of the customers changed with the passage of time; marketing plays an important role in the dealings with the various levels of the demands of customers.
Meet Customer Wants and Needs: Marketing allows the businesses to know about the wants and needs of the customers and meet with these. By having this insight, the management can make changes in its practices according to the preferences of the customers.
Face Competition: Marketing allows the management of the business to closely monitor the offerings of the competitors and expectations of the customers. Through this, the management can become able to gain a competitive advantage over rivals(Laith, et al., 2017).
Economic Growth: Marketing can increase the demand for the products and services and increase the circle of potential customers. As a result, the opportunity to increase sales and revenues become increased, and the economic growth of the business can boost.
Marketing Functions
The functions of marketing can be defined as the practices through which the management can source and identify the potentially successful products and make effective strategies to place it in the market. It is a vital part of the business that allows them to get the desired success. The important functions of marketing are buying, selling, market information, transporting, storing, risk-taking standardization & grading, and financing.
These functions have different roles to increase the growth of the business and help them to fulfill their objectives and goals, which is necessary to ensure the future growth of the business and to get the desired competitive advantage over rivals(Itzhak & Shoham, 2018).
The interrelation between Functional Units and Marketing
There is a great relationshipof the marketing with the other functional units of the organizations as they are connected to each other. To perform marketing functions effectively, they must be backup and approved by the other departments. For example, when the companies decide to implement the functional marketing plan, they need the consultancy and support of the finance department, HR, promotions, and sales department. So, it can be said that all functional units are linked with marketing and plays a vital role in its success.
Current and Future Trendsof Marketing
The current and future trends of marketing involve different concepts such as, societal concept,production concept,product concept,selling concept, and marketing concept. These concepts impact the successful practices of the companies; the details of these concepts are as below:
Production: This concept indicates that the management must be focused on increasing its production rate. The customers usually attracted to the products which are easily available in the market at minimum prices without neglecting its quality.
Product: The customers usually choose the unique products that have the value of quality. According to this concept, the management must need to promote the products which are beneficial for the customers(Wojciech, 2017).
Selling: Modern customers attract towards the products through promotions, so this concept pursues the management of the businesses to adopt the promotional strategy
Marketing: This concept pursues the management to be focused on the demands and needs of the target market. So, the management must need to increase its brand awareness, as this is the only way through which the target customers can attract the business and choose it over the other competitors in market.
Social Marketing: It allows the management to make innovations in its practices and make it unique rather than their competitors so that the customers can attract towards this.
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5. The value and importance of the marketing role in the context of the organisation
Role of Marketing in the Marketing Environment
Marketing is important in the context of the marketing environment of the business. It is the process of planning different practices and executing the different marketing concepts, such as pricing, distribution, sales, and promotion, etc. Following are the roles of marketing in the marketing environment:
Market Strategies: In order to maintain the balance between the organizational objectives and opportunities of the business in the market, the management must need to make effective strategies and planning, such as recognizing the needs and demands of the customers and change their services accordingly(Syahirman & Idris, 2018).
Marketing Information System: Marketing Information System (MIS) helps the management to gain information about various factors such as controlling,planning, and implementing the marketing strategies.
Monitoring Marketing Environment: This process helps the management to identify the different developments of competitors in the market, through which the management can modify its services.
Marketing Research: This is the major role of marketing through which the management can know about the preferences of the customers by communicating on social media and can provide the best and desired products in order to increase its sales(Magdalena & Gajewski, 2018).
Market Segmentation: Marketing helps the management to identify the accurate market segmentation of its business and identify the customers in the diverse market and provide desired products to them. It is highly required to maintain a unique position in the globalized market.
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6. Compare two organisations use the various elements of the 7Ps marketing mix. You are required to explain the marketing mix and marketing process used to achieve business objectives, relating to the two chosen organisations. This research will inform your situational analysis and enable you to formulate marketing goals and objectives for your organisation based on the comparative findings.
Comparison of Marketing Mix
The purpose behind applying the marketing mix in the planning procedure is to achieve desired objectives. The different organizations apply different methods of marketing mix according to their revenues, business position, market size, company size, demographics, and services. By applying the marketing mix, which is known as 7Ps, helps the management of the organization to understand the preferences of the target customers and provide the desired services and facilities to them. There are many factors included in the 7Ps, such as product, place, process, price, promotion, people, and physical evidence(Santi, 2019).
Comparison
There are many companies working in Hong Kong, which is serving the people by using many tactics and strategies. KFC and McDonalds are both working in the HK and facilitate customers with different types of fast food products and refreshments. The reason for the success of both of the companies is their strategy of analyzing the demands of the customers and change their strategies and products accordingly. The application of the marketing mix that is used by the KFC is focused on promotional activities, place of selling products, quality products, and effective pricing strategies(mcdonalds, 2020).
On the other hand, the marketing strategy of McDonald's is basically focused on the demands of the customers and provides services that are liked by the customers. The management of KFC basically utilizes the 7Ps in their planning of the marketing process through which they can ensure the future success of the company(Ling & Li, 2018). While the management of McDonald's utilizes 7Ps in its marketing segmentation process with the aim of achieving desired objectives and goals. Both of the companies use extended 7Ps in the marketing mix; the process of both is as follows:
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Marketing Mix - 7Ps
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Product
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KFC
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McDonald's
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The products of the KFC sold by them under the 5 broad categories. Each of the products is sold under different product lines with the brand name of KFC. They provide a variety of products that are highly differentiated from their competitors and usually do not offer by them. This is the reason that the customers are willing to pay higher prices than other competitors like McDonald's. The specialty that makes them unique is the traditional designs of their products with the best quality that is highly liked by the customers.
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McDonald's provides a huge variety of products such as cheeseburgers, Big Mac, French fries, chicken nuggets, McFlurry desserts, coffee, and many other products. As the company provides a range of fast food products due to which they are being perceived as unhealthy(Allwin & Anthony, 2018). The people of the HK are very health conscious and usually prefer to consume products with less oil and fat. By considering this demand of the people, the management announced to increase the nutritional value of its products.
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Price
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KFC
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McDonald's
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The pricing strategy of the KFC is Competitive Based Pricing Strategy. As there are many competitors in HK, due to which it becomes easy for them to gather the data of them. The pricing strategy of the company is higher than its competitors, and the people can afford it due to its different taste and quality. They use different pricing practices in their different dealings such as optional product pricing strategy, in accordance with the price of the base product will be fixed while the other accessories along with it sold at minimum prices(Lenka & Havlícek, 2017). The products they sold online have higher prices than other in-store products because of delivery charges, but the actual prices of all the products are fixed.
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Opposite to the KFC, the management of McDonald's is using the Cost Leadership Business Strategy. In accordance with this strategy, they sold their products to the customers atfewer prices than their competitors for the purpose of attracting them. On the other hand, they also set prices according to the demand-based methodology of the customer; this is the reason that it is highly liked by the customers.
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Place
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KFC
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McDonald's
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The basic place strategy of the KFC is based on two marketing channels the first one is selling direct products to customers in the café or through online means, and the second channel is wholesalers who sold different items from then, and then sold it to the people all over the country. They are committed to different retailers due to which their products are easily available all over the country. At their online channels and websites, there is huge traffic of the customers,and to fulfill the demands of all customers timely, they made partnerships with various delivery service providers.
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The products of the McDonalds are easily available in many areas of the country. They are not much efficient in-home delivery services in HK, due to which they made a partnership with uber eats, which provide the desired products to the people at their desired location. On the other hand, the store remains open for 24 hours due to which it becomes for the people to get the services and products at any time(Santi, 2019). The products are easily available at all possible distribution channels, which helps the management to get the satisfaction of the customers and increase its total revenues.
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Promotion
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KFC
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McDonald's
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In order to promote services and brand awareness, the management of KFC is using many channels such as traditional media. It includes various types of advertisements on radios or televisions. On the other hand, they also use modern means of marketing promotion such as social or digital media to access a huge circle of people. They are also participating in many events, trade exhibitions around the year, also use personal selling. These methods ensure the future success of the business.
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The management usually uses the Sales and Promotions technique. They use different types of advertisements on television, magazines, newspapers, and the internet in order to attract customers.Through these means, they get the opportunity to make effective relations with customers and make them pursue to come and facilitate them with quality services. Except for advertising, they also use discount strategy, coupons, and freebies to promote their products.
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People
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KFC
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McDonald's
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The management of KFC is working with different types of people,such as employees to whom they have made contracts. Their staff is trained and has the ability to serve the customers in the best ways. They are also linked with the suppliers from which they get quality raw materials(Allwin & Anthony, 2018). On the other hand, they also have hired the people who respond to the people at social media sites; they are also highly trained and active.
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The management also working with different people and gave priority to its employees as their customers. They believe that employees are one of the most important stakeholders of the company whose participation plays an important role, so they train their employees and help them to deal with the customers effectively. They are also linked with many stakeholders, with whom they have good relational terms.
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Process
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KFC
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McDonald's
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The management is trying to ensure the availability of its products in retail stores all the time in order to get the highest satisfaction of the people. They are also using an online delivery process in order to enhance effective relations with the customers. Moreover, management is also involving in researching new market opportunities by understanding the needs of the customers.
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The management of MC is involved in many practices in order to achieve the desired objectives and goals. For example, their first priority is the presentation of their foods,which is quite transparent. All the processes are visible to the customers. They are also doing an R&D strategy in order to provide better and transparent services than its competitors.
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Physical Evidence
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KFC
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McDonald's
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The specialty of the products of KFC is its packaging that is available in the retail stores consists of beautiful coloring. The products are being placed on special shelves, arranged by the company. It makes it easier for the customers to find it. Moreover, they are also using the online website in order to maintain their physical presence.
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The management also pays much attention to the physical appearance of the café, so the interior and exterior designing of the café is very attractive and highly liked by the customers. The presentation of their food is also very tempting(Itzhak & Shoham, 2018).
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LO 3: Basic Marketing Plan
Background of KFC:
In 1997, KFC was established in Hong Kong (HK). Today it has approximately 52 outlets in all over HK. This fast-food company is serving nearly 8 million people across the world, so in HK so there is a great chance for it to grow as compared to competitors like Popeye's, SUBWAY, etc. So, it is operated in HK for 20 years now. Being a marketing manager, below is the marketing plan that is formulated to report to managing director of KFC in HK so that the company can get the future growth within upcoming years (kfchk, 2020).
Marketing Objectives:
• To increase the competitive advantage in the target market by five within the next two years by 2022.
• To increase the sales volume by 15% within two years by 2020.
• To increase the number of outlets by 4% within the next 4 years by 2024.
Business Strategies:
In order to achieve the marketing as mentioned above, objective KFC in HK needs to develop some exceptional business strategies which help them to increase their growth rate along with the performance and productivity as well. This is the record for KFC that it always follows the diversification and penetration so they can keep up with these two strategies in the long runto achieve the set marketing goals. The details are as follows:
Market Penetration: KFC can enter into the new markets in order to open up the new outlets within the next four years. For this purpose, they can improve their presence or can avail of different opportunities to enhance their market value. In this regard, market penetration is an excellent opportunity because, in this way, they can use their existing products in order to target the new market. This way, they can quickly increase the number of outlets, sales volume and the profit margin as well.
Product Development or Diversification: the company also needs to consider the buying behavior of the customers because this way, they can have a chance to target the customers with the preference of their needs. The demographics and lifestyle of the customers are continuously changing and healthy eating in trend in HK. So, through this, KFC can have a great chance to introduce healthy eating products in order to satisfy the customers' demands. For example, they can enter the veg or calories free item in their menu to target the millennials who are more focused and conscious about their healthy lifestyle (Chan, 2019).
STP Analysis:
In order to fulfill the marketing objective, STP analysis is also necessary to conduct while deriving the effective marketing plan. So below are the details of segmentation, targeting and positioning of KFC that they have to use in order to increase business performance:
Segmentation: KFC has 50+ outlets all over HK, so now they need to target the other areas like in HK Island, Kowloon and in other territories of HK, so now they need to target the different areas where KFC outlet is not present like the rural areas, etc. While for the demographics, the company can target the people between the age of 15 to 65 because their new healthier options are satisfying the needs of both youngsters and adults' needs effectively. Male and females can be categorized in this age scenario. On the other hand, the middle and upper classes can be a significant segment for KFC in HK in order to meet the marketing objectives.
Target Market: The Localizing Strategy will be the best strategy to target the allocated market effectively because this will help the company to portray their brand better in the market by satisfying the needs of their potential customers, whether they are existing or new customer base (kfchk, 2020). This market will include those people under the age of 15-65 that are health conscious.
Positioning Strategy: the best positioning strategy for KFC in HK will be the healthy and low-calorie items, which will increase their brand position and value in the period of the next four years because healthy eating is in trend (Rodionova, 2016). So, their positioning strategy will be:
Try Healthy, Be Healthy
7. Produce a marketing plan to meet marketing goals and objectives. The marketing plan should include all elements of the 7Ps marketing mix, with an action plan and measures for monitoring and evaluating progress and meeting of goals and objectives.
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Marketing Mix strategy: 7 Ps of KFC:
The 7 P's of the KFC in HK are as follows:
Product: The café is best known for the Fresh Fried Chicken, but to achieve its target market, it can introduce low-calorie fried items or some veggie products, which will increase their market value.
Place: KFC is already providing dine-in services, home delivery, etc. On the other hand, the company can also use Meal on Wheel strategy in HK, which they are already using in China, the USA, etc. This will mean something new, according to which KFC will provide the catering services as well to distribute its products to the target market.
Price: the pricing of the KFC products in the country is already competitive and reasonable, but they are overly high for the middle-class people so they must offer some discounts or another pricing strategy in order to target them like they can lower their prices for them in specified period for instance on lunchtime so they can target both middle class and elite class as well.
Promotion: KFC needs to make attractive advertisements in order to promote their healthy menu items. For this purpose, they can use social media, Television and other internet sources to convey their messages to the target market.
People: this referred to the employees or the sales staff of KFC who have a high responsibility to deliver the best services to the end-users. The company must train its sales staff so that in return, they provide the best customer services in the target market.
Process: As KFC is falling in the service industry so this preferred to them to make those processes for their business operation which can efficiently satisfy the preferences of the customers, for example, KFC can eliminate the self-service from their restaurants so that staff can help the customers in serving of food (S, 2019). On the other hand, they can also introduce Soft Drink Refill service, which is nowadays most trendy in the market.
Physical Evidence: this includes the evidence through which customers can lower the risks of their choice. So, in order to reduce the customer's uncertainties, KFC in HK can use contemporary and warm designs so that their customers will feel relax and coziness while staying at the KFC restaurants in this way, they will like the food as well.
Operational Plan:
This includes the day-today operation regarding the strategies discussed above. For this purpose, KFC requires some effective policies and standards so that their team members can follow these strategies inefficient manner to attain the marketing objectives. The following plan is essential for KFC in HK:
• The operational manager needs to define the goals to the team members so that they can aware of the change and innovation.
• He/she will also control the day-to-day activities in this regard
• Technology usage in order to target the market will also be planned before the commencement of the marketing plan.
• Training sessions will be conducted in order to increase the performance and the productivity
• Corrective actions will be taken in the time of need by the management under the systematic system.
Control Measurement:
The control measurements are also necessary to implement for KFC because this way, they will be able to oversee the risk and any unusual event beforehand, to make this marketing plan successful. Effective control measurement is as follows:
• Marketing objective which must be achievable
• Performance standards must be according to the market trends like sales figures, market share, profit margin, and feedback of customers.
• Comparison of standards against the result-driven after evaluation
• Corrective action or improvements.
In this scenario, the result in any kind of marketing planning can be interpreted by the feedbacks and surveys from both employees and customers. If the results will be positive, then this means that this marketing plan is successful, but if it will be negative, then the marketing plan needs to be altered (Philip, et al., 2019).
Conclusion
This report aimed to define the role of marketing strategies for the success of the business industries. These strategies not only help the management to attract the customers but also ensure the future success and increasing revenues of the company. In this paper, the marketing mix of the two business companies, i.e., KFC and McDonalds,have conducted, and different 7Ps are being defined; also, the marketing plan is being made of the KFC as it is selected as the main company. By analyzing the marketing mix and marketing plan, there are many chances that the management can improve its services and provide the desired facilities, services, and products to the customers.