Qualification - Higher National Diploma in Business
Unit Name - Marketing Processes and Planning
Unit Number - Unit 2
Assignment Title - Marketing Planning Report
Learning Outcome 1: Explain the role of marketing and how it interrelates with other business units of an organisation.
Learning Outcome 2: Compare ways in which organisations use elements of the marketing mix to achieve overall business objectives.
Learning Outcome 3: Produce a marketing plan for an organisation that meets marketing objectives.
Learning Outcome 4: Develop a media plan to support a marketing campaign for an organisation.
Assignment Brief: You have been employed as a Marketing Manager by a large multinational organisation or a listed company in Hong Kong to investigate the concept of marketing as well as its role within the organisation. Further to this you will have to explore how marketing interrelates with other functions, research the competition and produce a marketing plan based on your findings.
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Introduction
The prime motive of the report is to explore the interrelation between marketing and other functions of the organization. It will scrutinize the concepts of marketing and its significant role within the firm. It will compare the two organizations by using different elements of the marketing mix such as product, place, price, promotion, people, packaging and position. A media plan will be produced which involves recommendations and rationale for selecting media actions. The marketing plan will be generated for meeting the marketing goals and objectives. Marketing is considered a wide discipline that comprises the procedure of giving proper products and services to the right individuals. Marketing is useful to the success of every business and thus, its importance needs to be realized for the organization. However, CK Hutchinson Holdings (CKHH) is the organization selected for investigating the relation of the marketing division with the other functional areas of the business and building a marketing plan to meet the marketing intentions and goals. CKHH is recognized as a Hong Kong-based international conglomerate corporation. It is committed to innovation and technology and has employed over 300,000 workforces in more than 50 nations throughout the world.
Concept of marketing and its role in the context of the organization
Solution:
The process of marketing is an activity or set of institutions and processes for communicating, creating exchanging and delivering offerings that have value for the clients, customers, partners and society at large (Dissanayake, Siriwardana and Ismail, 2019). Marketing research is the function that helps in linking the customer to the customer and different other public to the marketer with the help of desired information. This information is used to identify and define marketing opportunities and various marketing problems. This marketing research helps in refining, generating and evaluating market actions. This marketing research sometimes is referred to as the information required to address these issues and implement the data collection process and thus analyse the results. In general terms, the process of marketing refers to the activities that a company takes in order to promote buying and selling of a good or service (Kalaignanam et al., 2021). These include advertising selling and delivering products to the customers. Some types of marketing are done on the behalf of the company. The professionals work in the corporation marketing and various other departments and therefore help in getting the attention of the potential audiences with the help of proper advertisements. The promotions are generally targeted to certain audiences and they play a crucial role in selling a product thus the customers can buy the product based on their needs and demands.
Marketing concepts are of main types namely production concepts, product concepts, selling concepts, marketing concepts and societal marketing concepts.
The production concept is a significant marketing concept that is favoured by consumers that are very much affordable in the market. The companies tend to adopt this orientation and run a risk of focusing too narrowly on their operations and thereby sometimes lose their real objective (Pimonenko, Liuliov and Us, 2019). The management focuses on improving production and distribution efficiency. In some cases, the production concept is still a useful philosophy.
The product concept is another concept that will favour products made by the customer and the customer mainly favours products based on their quality, performance and innovative features of the product. The selling concept holds the idea that the consumers will not buy the products unless it takes a large selling promotion method. The management focuses on creating sales transactions rather than building long term relationships.
The societal marketing concept is premised on the requirement for companies to balance profit-making schemes with societal necessities (Balmer and Burghausen, 2019). It is identified that corporations need this concept of marketing for balancing client satisfaction with the marketing, product and selling needs. CKHH use this concept to engage in corporate social responsibility activities. The development of perfect social corporate responsibility of the concerned organization helps in generating a positive impact on the minds of the customers and helps in driving growth for the firm.
The marketing concept holds the process of achieving the organizational goals depending on the needs and wants of the target markets and thereby delivering the desired satisfactions better than the competitors (Pu, Lu and Ding, 2020). The CK hutching holding company operates its business in different areas and it provides mobile telephone networks to its customers. It provides data services and mobile broadband technology to its customers. This company operates in the United Kingdom Sweden and Denmark. This also provides operations on mobile broadband and Wi-Fi services in eleven countries around the world (CK Hutchison Holdings Limited 2022). Thus the customers tend to utilize its products for their own benefit. And it also owns broadband connection and thus it provides the best services to its customers. It has its main operations in Hong Kong but it also operates in more than eleven countries and thus tries to provide better service to the customers. The company uses different marketing concepts in order to operate its business and then only it can attract more and more customers. The customers are only satisfied with the quality of the product. It might use the product concept of marketing and thus it tries to satisfy the customers with its services. The marketing concept is extremely crucial as it helps the company to sell its products to the customers and thus the customers are satisfied with the product and they tend to buy more.
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How marketing influences and interrelates with other functional departments
Solution:
Marketing interrelates with all the other groups to understand the major focus and intention of coming up with the product and its pricing logic. Marketing is not considered an isolated concept of organizational operations. Marketing has strong relations with other factors of business involving production, purchasing and research and development, finance, human resource management and many more.
Interrelation between marketing and research and development - There is a strong connection between the marketing and research and development departments of the organization ‘CK Hutchinson Holdings Limited.' The concept of marketing could assist the workforce of the R&D department to be aware of what to look for or what they need to strive to accomplish in the procedure of carrying out the major obligations (Liudmyla et al., 2020). Besides this, the significance of marketing is also displayed in the implementation stage of the R&D procedures since evidence prevails of marketing workforces being major players in the implementation of R&D goals. It is identified that marketers must provide vital and significant data to R&D workforces which can be related to the unique features of the product.
Interrelation between production and marketing department - There is a close relationship between operations management and the marketing department since the marketing notion is synonymously related to appropriate research. It is because the firms strive to fulfil the existing and future market requirements. However, this is the case of CK Hutchinson Holdings Limited since it has invested various resources in building innovative products and services that would appeal to contemporary buyers. Based on this fact, the organization strive to generate goods and services that follow to expectations of consumers (Gürbüz, 2018). At a similar time, the volume of product produced in the business is sufficient to fulfil the schedule of production specified by the management of the firm. It is recognized that the marketing division works closely with the production department for ensuring that sufficient R&D is planned for meeting the current along with future needs of buyers. The marketing division set deadlines that bounce the abilities of the production section.
Interrelation between purchasing and marketing departments - There is a close connection between the marketing and purchasing departments within the organization. The marketing decisions are intertwined with purchasing decisions since both concepts reveal the two ends of one field. It is identified that the marketing concept is used to define market characteristics while the purchasing procedure is expected to fulfil the requirements of the market by supplying critical inputs required for reflecting the data obtained from the market (Thabit and Raewf, 2018). It is evident in the case of CKHH where marketing and purchasing decisions are linked with each other. It is identified that marketing assists in directing the purchasing procedure of the corporation. The managers of the corporation have accepted that without integrating the concept of marketing in the process of purchasing, it becomes hard for them to understand how the purchasing procedure must work in the first place since decisions associated with purchasing process could be erroneous.
Interrelation between human resource management and marketing - There is a close interrelation between HRM and the marketing department in an organization. In the case of CK Hutchinson Holdings, the marketing department is required to work closely with the human resource management in order to confirm that proper skills and staffing levels are in place for meeting production targets and developing a motivated as well as competent sales group. It also assists in researching and building new product ideas for the benefit of the organization. Besides this, the HRM department would have numerous recruiting and training demands from across the business and thus, it needs to balance its responsibilities to marketing with those to other divisions (Stoian et al., 2018).
The connection between marketing and finance department - The functions of marketing is closely associated with the other functional units of an organization. However, the marketing function needs economic resources for implementation, planning, determination of marketing tactics and planning among different divisions which are offered by the finance department of the organization (Okadiani, Mitariani and Imbayani, 2019). It is recognized that the marketing function could not work without appropriate communication and sorting with the financial group in the organization. Apart from this, the marketing department in the CKHH Company requires to work closely with the finance department in order to confirm that there is a sufficient budget for meeting the needs for research, promotion and distribution. The finance division must focus on cash flow and payback investment whereas the marketing area focuses on sales volume and developing market share.
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Compare two organizations using elements of the marketing mix
Solution:
The market process comprises the following related to the two organizations:
Segmentation - The procedure of market segmentation is referred to the classification of markets into diverse clusters. The procedure is informed by various considerations which involve the economic potential of individuals, consumer tastes, preferences, demographic differences and buying powers (Boyjigitov, 2022). However, CKHH Company used to operate its business through four different segments such as ports and related services segment, retail segment, infrastructure segment and telecommunication segment. The retail segment of CKHH operates different health and beauty chains in Asia and Europe and consumer electronics and beverage goods in Hong Kong and China. The telecommunication segment is used to deliver a broad range of telecommunication services in Australia, Asia and Europe (CK Hutchison Holdings Limited 2022). In the case of Apple Company, it develops products based on age, occupation and lifestyle of people and supplies to diverse areas based on demographic segment. Based on geographic segment, Apple has established business all over the globe and allows customers to access products through online retail stores. In terms of behavioural segment, Apple uses advertising on mass media, search engines and social media for providing knowledge to customers regarding products. The good brand image of Apple adds value to the products and services. In other words, when the bigger market is divided into smaller markets then it becomes easy for the firms to concentrate on the actual needs and the demands of the customers.
Targeting - It is the next process in marketing for every firm which includes the utilization of unique features of each market segment for designing the right form of products that would align with the features of the market portfolio (Wan et al., 2020). In the case of CKHH, the company used to target regulated industries that produce steady cash flow and mainly targets the three groups of consumers which involve business and corporate users, carrier market and domestic and mass-market users (CK Hutchison Holdings Limited 2022). CKHH cater for the requirements of firms by offering integrated business solutions and high-speed data transmission. It also combines telecommunication technology for offering a more convenient lifestyle to clients. On the other hand, in the case of Apple, the target audience involves the persons willing to spend more on technology goods and services with advanced abilities and functions. Demographics are effectively utilized by the firms in order to target the potential customers in the competitive market areas.
Positioning - It is identified as another process of marketing which includes attempts by firms for influencing the perspective of customers regarding their goods and services as compared to the competitors (Simons, 2020). This process plays a pivotal role in the promotion of brand image in the minds of consumers. However, Apple has positioned itself as a premium brand that produces innovative products for customers. It positions its brand to develop an emotional association with consumers through unique experiences to attain a competitive position in the industry. On contrary, CKHH positioned itself as a renowned conglomerate and attain a strong competitive position. It is also positioned as the leading worldwide telecom provider with the launch of a novel decision. The positioning of the firm can be enhanced by following the desired strategy which focuses on the needs and demands of the customers which further promotes the growth and profitability of the entire concerned firm.
Marketing mix - The marketing mix is usually referred to as the mixture of major concepts of marketing used for creating efficient strategic planning that would help in availing the right goods to the right consumers (Kumar, Paul and Unnithan, 2020). Nonetheless, the marketing mix is applied in the marketing planning process for accomplishing organizational goals and objectives. It is identified that the organization use various tactics for the application of marketing mix among the activities. Besides this, the marketing mix is recognized as a tool which assists marketers to understand the product (Chams and García-Blandón, 2019). The marketing mix strategy of both organizations such as CK Hutchison Holdings and Apple is described below which assist in accomplishing the marketing goals and objectives:
Product - The product should be proper to the needs and demands of customers. The prime objective of the product is to satisfy the clients. CK Hutchinson Holdings is one of the global conglomerate corporations based in Hong Kong. It offers a range of products and services in different segments. CKHH offers port services in around 52 ports in 26 nations. In addition to this, it offers retail services via offline and online stores in 29 markets across the globe. It also delivers telecommunication and broadband services. It also invests in infrastructure-related businesses. In comparison, products of Apple has been designed for redefining the way individuals interact with technology. This feature has been partly informed by the mission of the firm which displays the significance of influencing the way individuals interact with technology. The key objective of Apple is to create revolutionary products and thus, the product line comprises revolutionary gadgets like the iPad, iTunes and iPod (Aburumman et al., 2020).
Price - The price of any product needs to convey a value for money experience to a buyer (Xie et al., 2019). It is a critical technique which should be displaying value to the consumer. CKHH has various pricing plans based on the services and state of operations. Nonetheless, CKHH has diverse pricing strategies such as market-oriented, value-based and penetration pricing strategies. In comparison, Apple Incorporation has used only one pricing strategy i.e. premium pricing strategy since the business model of Apple is not meant for appealing to the low-end market.
Place - It demonstrates the availability of the products and services for the consumers. For instance, the store needs to be situated near the location of the target audience. Moreover, the products and services of CKHH are distributed across many countries such as Asia, Europe, Australia and America after originating from Hong Kong. It has ports and terminals and retail chains in locations where there are active users. In comparison, Apple Company uses a virtual place strategy where buyers can make purchases and products conveyed to them (Kohtamäki et al., 2020). It also has brick and mortar business, which enables clients to enter physical locations and acquire goods.
Promotion - This process of marketing mix involves sales promotion, social media, advertising and many more. CKHH focuses on advertising and sales promotions for promoting the brand's products and services. It also hosts many popular events that have high television coverage for promotion. In addition to this, word of mouth is also used for loyal clients. In comparison, Apple used to spend minimum resources on promotion tactics to leave sufficient resources for the process of R&D. Apple uses social media channels like YouTube, Twitter and Instagram for promotion.
Physical evidence - It involves the facilities, user interface and comfort in the business. Meanwhile, the physical evidence of the goods and services of CKHH can be directly seen since it is an offline business operating in diverse business segments. With the launch of telecommunication by CKHH, the stores, offices and websites are all considered part of the physical environment (Rajapathirana and Hui, 2018). In comparison, consumers of Apple have the choice of visiting physical stores where they could experience the goods and services of the firm.
People - It involves workforce, consumer service, organizational culture and management which are crucial for an organization. CKHH has workforces from all over the globe and has developed sturdy people relations. It has formed an encouraging work atmosphere for its employees which aids in attracting the best talent for business and thereby, significantly contributes to success. In comparison, Apple also focuses on motivating its workers to come up with innovative goods that plea to the target market.
Processes - Being a conglomerate company, CKHH focused on the needs of customers across the world. Effective development and consistent innovation help in achieving progressive expansion and enhance the process (Rezaei and Ortt, 2018). In comparison, Apple utilizes a multi-pronged process tactic for virtual marketing and advertising.
Marketing plan to meet goals and objectives
A marketing plan for CKHH can be produced by taking into account various activities. However, the firm is required to build a clear understanding of the potential consumers. It is required for the marketing and other functional departments to conduct proper research in the market and thereby, understand the key intentions of the business (Papadas et al., 2019). The marketing department of the corporation must consider the question - why would a buyer utilize the services of this company and what is the prime feature of the corporation's products or services? It is essential to keep in mind that the products and services of CKHH must meet the needs of clients which would help in sustaining the market.
After conducting research on the marketing plan, the identification of target clients is the second vital activity. The corporation must be clear on its final audience for creating and planning accordingly. After the recognition of target audiences, it is essential for the corporation to identify the major competitors and their techniques (Ungerman, Dedkova and Gurinova, 2018). By conducting competitor analysis, the corporation can learn about market trends and strengths along with weaknesses of the market in an efficient manner. Competitor analysis and evaluation of market trends are significant parts of the marketing plan.
Moreover, the next thing that comes under the marketing plan is the evaluation of the research and development techniques as per the needs of the target market. Besides this, a budget will be proposed for the marketing actions and develop well-defined goals by utilizing a certain timeline. It is crucial for the corporation to utilize efficient channels for marketing activities such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and many more. The corporation will require to utilize digital media channels for promoting its marketing plan. The marketing section must evaluate the plan and monitor the outcomes to ensure the efficiency of the plan for the corporation.
Furthermore, the marketing plan of the corporation also applies the 7Ps of the marketing mix to attain key goals and objectives. The marketing plan of CKHH by utilizing the 7P's of the marketing mix is as below:
Product - The product of the corporation should have accessibility, branding properties, consumer service and quality (Wong, 2021). CKHH requires to meet the requirements and preferences of its customers by offering quality and effective products and services.
Price - It is the most pivotal part of the marketing mix. Nonetheless, CK Hutchinson Holdings will utilize a competitive pricing strategy for competing with the competitors and delivering value-added components to the consumer.
Place-Based on this component, the accessibility of the product or service is pivotal for the expansion and development of the corporation. The store location and port location should be approachable to the target audience and the delivery of services must be good.
Promotion - CKHH will use efficient communication forms and promotion methods for promoting goods or services. Personal selling, direct marketing and advertisement on different channels can be used as key strategies for promotion.
People - CKHH must have talented and skilled workers, management and customer representatives for operating the business operations (CK Hutchison Holdings Limited 2022).
Process - CKHH should have a consumer-oriented business process to deliver consumer concentrated effort to develop the business.
Physical evidence - In terms of this element of marketing, the corporation must offer a unique experience to customers and the representatives of the firm need to behave properly and professionally to customers to satisfy them.
A media plan involves recommendations and rationales
An effective media plan needs to be developed for the corporation for communicating the products and services to customers. The corporation will use online digital marketing channels to market the activities. The corporation will make use of internet wireless networks and services of ISP in reaching out to the audience. One of the most effective forms of online media is social media marketing in which the corporation will utilize different social media platforms for promoting and interacting with the target audience (Rozaq, Hastjarjo and Slamet, 2022). Social media marketing includes the usage of Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Instagram to reach out to potential customers. Besides this, the corporation is recommended to use social media channels for communicating with wide audiences across the world since it is less expensive and contains no budget restrictions. With the limited budget, the corporation could use social media channels for communication and develop social media campaigns to attract more customers to the products and services of the business. The use of social media has been a trend throughout different parts of the world and it has become more important for firms to utilize social media platforms for reaching their targeted customers.
Moreover, social media marketing channel works under a tight budget and thus, contain no constraints. It is beneficial for achieving the objective of marketing campaigns with a limited budget and raising the awareness of corporation products and services among target audiences across the world (Kushwaha et al., 2020). Since there are a number of active users on social media platforms, it would be easy for the corporation to reach a wider audience across the world and raise the profitability of the business. Meanwhile, the offline channel of communication will be used by the corporation for communicating with the target audience. Offline media such as television advertising can be utilized by corporations for displaying data to people all over the world. The marketer could utilize this media for communicating with the consumers in audio as well as visual format (Hamdan, Ratnasari and Julia, 2019). These media utilize a satellite that permits them to cover a broader audience. It has extensive relative benefits to the corporation.
It is strongly recommended that the corporation must maintain a strong social media presence by developing attractive content on different digital channels and forming campaigns on digital media to reach wider audiences. Digital media would help in enhancing business by increasing sales of products or services by making them more visible as well as accessible to a large number of consumers. In addition to this, the corporation must use digital media for enhancing communication with the customers. The enhancement in the communication procedures helps in solving the queries as well as the doubts of the customers which can further help in boosting the desired growth of the firm throughout the concerned competitive market areas.
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Conclusion
The report explores an understanding of the importance of marketing concepts for the organization. It is considered that marketing seems to be a critical tool in contemporary business firms as it contains customer demands, develops profitable relationships, offers quality service to clients and many more. The prime function of marketing is to raise profitability by maximizing the sales of the corporation. Different marketing concepts such as selling, product, production and social marketing are highlighted in the report. Besides this, the marketing process and marketing mix for CKHH and Apple are described which states that the corporations use efficient marketing techniques for achieving marketing objectives. A marketing plan for the corporation is produced by considering the seven elements of the marketing mix. A media plan is also produced for the corporation which shows the usage of offline and online channels for communication. It is concluded that the marketing section has a close relationship with the other functional areas of the corporation such as HRM, R&D, finance, purchasing and production. Marketing played a significant role in the achievement of the particular objective and in guiding the efforts to attain success. Corporations choosing marketing approaches strive for building products that align with the needs of customers.