Introduction
Marketing is an essential business implication that needs to be followed by each of the organisations functioning within the global parameters. Marketing operations are supported with marketing strategies and processes and more importantly the marketing objectives. The particular study shall explain the realms of the marketing concepts that are adopted by the organisations all across the globe aligned with the current market trends and needs of the customers that they respectively serves.
In order to conduct the study and bring justifications within the discussed marketing strategies, Top Shop, UK has been chosen to deal with the requirements of the particular study. Top Shop, UK is a large global fashion retail organisation that is said to have 300 stores and online e-commerce services projected to the national premises of the UK. The particular organisation is said to operate under the brand name of Arcadia Group, UK.
LO1
Explain the roles of marketing as well as how it interrelates with other functional units of an organisation by
P1 Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function
Within the organisational premises of the Top Shop, UK, the marketing processes and operations are significant for the success of the organisation in influencing the needs and preferences of the customers whose purchasing behaviours are aligned with the fashion trends. The marketing processes and the workforce employed within premises of the Top Shop, UK are said to frame some of the objectives that are essentially predicts the sales of the fashion retail products and services of the particular organisation towards the national population of the UK (Bai and Chang, 2015). Some of the major roles and responsibilities of the marketing function within the organisational premises of the Top Shop, UK are listed as follows:
Research
Research is one if the major functions of Top Shop. The department aims at performing market research for identifying target audience. It pays attention to current trend in relation to buying attitude of consumers. It tries to predict the market needs in different seasons of the year. The department focuses on checking competitors activities by understanding their market moves. It tries to keep the organisation in top the market through conducting researches (Babin and Zikmund, 2015).
Logistics
Logistic department involves transporting products from inventory to retail stores. It ensures that the organisation has the ability to distribute desired products to customers. It focuses on various methods of storage and shipping. The way logistic department delivers the products influence the entire business (Frankel and Mollenkopf, 2015). Top Shop has total 300 stores and logistic department takes the responsibility of timely delivery of products at these stores.
Risk analysis and quality control
Risk assessment is another important department for marketing the business. It looks at the variables that have influence of the sales of products and services. Quality control allows the organisation to test the quality of products and improving them. It also oversees maintaining the standard of fashion retail products (Haimes, 2015).
P2 Explain how the roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organisational context.
Within the organisational premises of the Top Shop, UK, the marketing function of the particular department is interlinked within the departmental operations of the Human Resource and Production. The interrelationships between the marketing roles and responsibilities with the human resource and production departments are described as follows:
Human Resource Department
The role of the particular department within the organisational premises of the Top Shop, UK is to recruit, employ, train and develop the overall workforce of the organisation. Within the marketing and sales department of the particular organisation requires employees that are seem to have the adequate knowledge about the market and the significant operations that are carried to promote the sales of the organisational products and services. The marketing manager guides the HR department to recruit the employees within the sales teams that are proficient with the marketing functions and operations as well as the adequate knowledge about the application of marketing and promotions (Bratton and Gold, 2017). Thus, this justifies the interrelationships between the two departments where the marketing function also influences the operations of the Human Resource department of the particular organisation.
Production Department
The particular department is responsible within the manufacturing as well as the production processes through which the organisation are able to market the fashion retail products and services. The needs and requirements of the markets within which the Top Shop, UK operates are extensively recorded by the marketing department of the particular organisation and those are communicated to the production managers, so that they are able to have the insights about what the customers requires in terms of fashion retails products and services (Hill, 2017). Moreover, the costs associated with the manufacturing processes as well as the production of the fashion retail products and services are discussed among the marketing, finance and production department in order to generate appropriate budgets for the sale of the products and services of the particular organisation.
LO2
P3 Compare the ways in which different organisations apply the marketing mix to the marketing planning process to achieve business objectives.
Elements Top Shop, UK ASOS, UK
Product Within the national premises of the UK, the Top Shop, UK manufactures fashion retail products and services that majorly include clothing, shoes, make-up accessories and others. The fashionable products that are manufactured within the organisational premises of the particular organisation are said to be aligned with the current trends that replicates the needs and references of the customers within the UK. The organisation is said to have 300 stores all across the premises of the UK and operates globally with the help of its online e-commerce websites that are subjected to men and women of young age. ASOS, UK is also a British based fashion retail organisation that operates within the national premises of the UK. It manufactures branded clothing that includes coats, footwear, shirts and others for all of the age generations of men and women within the national premises of the UK through its stores and online websites. Moreover, they have started to target the children within the national premises with the fashion clothing outfits.
Price The fashion retail products and services that are manufactured within the organisational premises of the Top Shop, UK are said to be placed at affordable price ranges with the help of the psychological pricing strategy. With the help of the particular strategy, the organisation is able to attract the interests of the customers within the national premises of the UK (Cifonelli and Blackshaw, 2016). The particular organisation is said to sell its fashion products and services at reasonable pricing strategy. However, some of the branded items of clothing and footwear are placed higher than the nominal value of those in the market all across the national premises of the UK. Moreover, the particular organisation is said to offer products and services through seasonal sales that attracts the customers from all across the globe towards the trends that the organisation implements.
Place Within the national premises of the UK, Top Shop, UK is said to market and deliver the fashion retail products and services through its 300 retail outlets that exists within the almost all the states of the UK. Moreover, the particular organisation is also said to deliver the products and services online with the help of its own online e-commerce website and mobile applications. The particular organisation within the national premises of the UK, are said to sell the manufactured fashion retail products and services to the customers with the help of only its online website, as it has least number of retail stores outlets available. The deliveries of the branded fashion retail outfits are said to be chargeable for the customers that purchases and order the delivery from the online web application of the ASOS, UK (Krumova et al., 2017).
Promotion Top Shop, UK within the national premises of the UK are seem to market and promote its fashion retail goods and commodities manufactured within its own organisational premises majorly through social media platforms, networks, and mobile applications. Some of the other promotional strategies of the particular organisation are social campaigns, print media and TV broadcasts. The discounts upon the fashionable and trendy clothing are said informed to the customers within the UK through these sources of promotional media. ASOS, UK majorly promotes and market its branded products and services within the fashion retail category with the help of the news magazines. Moreover, the particular organisation is said to prioritise the purchasing activities of the customers and informs them about the sales, discount and others by sending email, leaflets and booklets online. The particular organisation is also said to target wide populations all across the globe with the help of social media marketing and promotion of its fashionable goods and commodities.
People Within the national premises of the UK, the Top Shop, UK is said to recruit and select employees from the UK itself. With the retail outlets stores of the Top Shop, UK, the employees are said to provide the customers through face-to-face consumer services with which the organisation is able to solve the complaints and feedbacks of the customers that purchases from the stores. Moreover, the online website offers customer services through emails and telephonic services, so the customers purchasing clothes and other fashionable products and services online are satisfied. As the particular organisation within the national premises of the UK offers fashion retail products and services through online websites and portals, the employees are recruited that have great proficiencies to deal with the customers as well as their complaints through emails and cold calls.
Process The particular organisation within the national premises of the UK are said to adopt two different processes for both its 300 retail store outlets as well as for its online website. JIT and JIC are the major operational management strategies with which the particular organisation is said to deal with the production and deliveries of the fashion retail products and services. The process strategy of the particular organisation within the national premises is completely different from the techniques that are adopted by the high street retail stores and supermarkets chains. The online website of the particular organisation deals with the complaints and deliveries of the products and services through FAQs services.
Physical Evidence The 300 stores and online websites within the national premises of the UK are said to be the major physical evidences of the fashion retail products and services that are offered to the consumers within the UK. The fashion products and services are manufactured with a replication of the trends that are followed by the celebrities all across the globe. This offers them with the option to create physical evidences among the customers within the national premises of the UK.
Table 1: Comparison of Marketing Mix of Top Shop and ASOS in UK
(Source: Created by the learner)
LO3
P4 Produce and evaluate a basic marketing plan for an organisation
Executive summary
The particular section of the study shall enumerate the marketing plan for the fashion retail business of the Top Shop, UK for the timeframe of 2 years in order to conduct its respective operations in strategic way within the national premises of the UK.
Vision Statement
The goal of the particular organisation is to maximise the existing sales volumes of the particular organisation within the national premises of the UK through making the customers satisfied towards the fashion retail products and services and effective promotion of the same among the targets customers.
Goals and objectives
The aim of the particular marketing plan is to devise the effective marketing strategies with which the particular organisation shall be able to understand the needs and preferences of the customers. This shall organisation to maximise its sales operations and expect large revenue from the same. The objective of the marketing plan is to devise cumulative sets of marketing strategies to research, analyse and apply the effective marketing operations that are to be productive for the organisation.
Situational Analysis
External Analysis
Elements Influences
Political With the adoption of Brexit within the national premises of the UK, the retail based organisations and their respective businesses operating within the national premises including the Top Shop, UK are subjected to negative implications that shall hamper their trade due to the UK proposing to leave the EU boundaries (Hunt and Wheeler, 2017).
Economical UK is among the fifth largest economical nation among the others all across the globe. The particular fashion retail business of the Top Shop, UK within the national premises shall be benefited with positive economic trade operations (Crafts. 2016).
Social Every day the preferences and needs of the customers within the national premises of the UK are subjected to large variations, depending upon their taste of fashion. Therefore, the particular organisation has the need to serve the demands of the customers in such a way that their daily changes in needs are met and the organisation shall be able to expect large revenues for its business (Kang and Kim, 2017).
Technological Within the national premises of UK, innovation in terms of technological advancements are widening that also includes advancements within the fashion retail sector. Top Shop, UK shall be influenced in positive terms such as low stress on operational costs and workforce, if the organisation is able to accumulate the technologies within their premises (Lazaris et al., 2015).
Environmental The societies as well as the national government of the UK have become extra cautious about the elimination of pollutants that negatively contributes towards preservation of the national environment. The particular organisation has the need to ensure their operational procedures within the organisational premises are evaluated, so that they are able to disintegrate the wastes from the premises through environmental friendly procedures (Ozdamar Ertekin and Atik, 2015).
Legal National legislations and regulations have become strict and towards the protection of the rights of the employees working within the organisation all across the UK. Laws such as Data Protection, Slavery, Employee rights and others need to be bifurcated within the business operations of the Top Shop, UK (Ekinci et al., 2016).
Table 2: PESTEL analysis of Top Shop, UK
(Source: Created by the learner)
Internal Analysis
Strengths
• The organisation is said to have 300 fashion retail stores and online e-commerce services to serve the needs of the targeted markets in the UK.
• It has able to expand its business operations within more than 100 nations all across the globe.
• It offers personal style assistants within its stores to guide the consumers upon what to wear during particular seasons and that matches with the respective personalities of the consumers. Weakness
• The quality of the garments sold from the premises of the retail stores of the particular organisation are said to lower quality and not matching the efficacies with the pricing of the same.
• Huge numbers of uneducated staffs within the retail stores outlets.
• It targets mostly the requirements of the young generation worldwide.
Opportunities
• They have proposed that they shall be going to expand in 60 more cities thus, leading to an advantage of globalisation.
• With the help of educated staff within the retail store premises, the organisation has the opportunity to promote and franchise its fashion retail products and services. Threats
• With the course of time, people are restricting their expenditures upon trendy items thus; a threat is posed on the business of the To Shop, UK.
• It is threatened from the new entrants within the retail sector of the UK that are showing up with their innovative business propositions in huge proportions.
Table 3: SWOT Analysis of Top Shop, UK
(Source: Created by the learner)
Market Overview-STP
In order to create marketing opportunities, the particular organisation has to segment the customer market in terms of age, gender, as well as on customer's preferences and completely not upon manufacturing trending garments and outfits. The organisation shall be able to build more options of revenues by targeting the elder generation along with the younger ones. The products and services shall be positioned in such a way that the pricing of the product is justified with the quality of the goods and commodities served.
Marketing mix strategies
Focusing on selling products for both the genders as well as the all the participants of generation, shall be the best product strategy (Wei et al., 2014). As the competitions of new entrants threatens the business of the particular organisation, it shall be appropriate for the same to adopt competitive pricing strategy (Nagle and Müller, 2017). Selling trough the retail stores outlets as well as through the online websites, the organisation shall be able to adept a productive place strategy (Piotrowicz and Cuthbertson, 2014). Proposing Marketing and promotion strategy through the social media applications shall be the best way to target the attentions of the consumers within the national premises of the UK (Tiago and Veríssimo, 2014).
Recruiting and selecting educated employees within the national premises of the UK, shall allow a better people strategy. Total Quality management is the best approach for the operations and the processes that are carried out within the organisational premises. Mobile and web applications are shall be the best approach for its physical evidences among the targeted customers within the national premises of the UK.
Budget and Time
The particular business or rather the marketing plan has to be implemented by the particular organisation within an estimated timeframe of two years within an estimated budget of 200,000.
Implementation and Control
The activities and strategies discussed in the particular marketing plan needs to be implemented through supervision of the entrepreneurs that are running the business operations of the particular organisation within the national premises of the UK. This shall allow them to control and manage the negative business implications that may arise with the course of time.
Conclusion
From the above discussions, it can be concluded that following proper marketing concepts and strategies is necessary for the organisations all across the globe to achieve success in marketing its respective products and service towards large customer bases. Marketing concepts such as marketing roles, operations, mix strategies for product and service promotions and implementation of marketing plan within estimated time and budget is highly significant for the respective business of the organisations all across the globe. Marketing not only serves to generate higher volumes of revenues rather it also helps to under and the necessities of the consumers to which the same is projected.