Marketing Principles

Task 1

1.1 Explain the various elements of the marketing process.

Marketing process is essential for each and every business to analyse the current and future needs of consumers and making their products and services accordingly. There are four important elements of marketing process which can help McDonald to make and implement their marketing strategies accordingly:

Situation analysis: Situation analysis in the first stage of marketing process can help to identify the needs and desires of consumers. It is important for company to design their food products according to the needs of their consumers. There are various tools which can be used to analyse the situation in market (Armstrong and et. al., 2014). It involves SWOT analysis which can help to understand the strengths and weaknesses along with threats and available opportunities in the market.

Marketing strategies: It is another important stage which can help to identify suitable marketing strategies for McDonald. Marketing manager conducts the market research which helps to know the actual need of their consumers (Kotler and et. al., 2006).

Marketing mix decisions: It is another significant tactical decision made by the marketing manager. There are following marketing mix of McDonald which includes:

• Product: In includes products of company like burger, cold drinks and ice-creams. Marketing manager is required to make their products unique in terms of taste, quality and hygiene.
• Price: It is another marketing mix decision which is needed to set company’s products pricing lower than its rival firms.
• Distribution: Distribution network of McDonald is too strong and thus, it can provide competitive advantage to them.
• Promotional campaign: Marketing manager of organisation is required to focus on attractive promotional strategies which can help to increase the sales of company.

Implementation and control: It is another important stage which needs effective implementation and control over marketing plan and strategies that can help to attain the organisational goals and objectives effectively (Pride and et.al., 2012).

1.2 Evaluate the benefits and costs of a marketing orientation for a selected organisation.

Marketing is one of the significant functions of success of every business unit. It can help to make the organisation successful in the long run. There are three important things which include market, competition and consumers. These factors can directly affect the business operations. Marketing tools can help to make strategies and marketing plan so that they can attain specific goals in the desired manner and within stipulated time period. All these approaches can be used by company according to the market situation. But presently, the firm is using customer orientation approach which is helping it to provide long term growth. This orientation can focus on the customer’s needs and preferences. It can lead to increase the customer satisfaction level and sales of company (Wang, 2007).

Task 2

2.1 Show macro and micro environmental factors which influence marketing decisions.

Business environment is having a significant influence on the marketing decisions. It involves internal and external environment that can affect the overall business operations of company. Marketing decision involves judgement regarding company’s products, price promotion and distribution. There are following factors which affect the decisions of marketing:

Micro factors: Micro factors are related with the internal environment of company. These factors are under control of the firm. It involves customers, competitors, staff, suppliers and investors. Employees affect the product related issues of business unit (Rudd and Mills, 2011). Customer needs can get changed over a period of time due to which, it is required to make appropriate changes in their products and services. Apart from that, competitors can also affect the pricing policies of company.

Macro factors: These factors are related with the external environment of firm that are out of control of a business unit. It includes political, environment, economical, legal and technological factors. These factors can indirectly affect the marketing decisions. If these factors are favourable for the firm, it can lead to increase the profitability and sales of company.

2.2 Propose segmentation criteria to be used for products in different markets.

Segmentation refers to divide the large market into small segments and then offering products and services accordingly. It can be based on demographic, socio graphic, income level, behavioural and other aspects (Hills and et. al., 2008). There are various segmentations that can help McDonald to design their products and services accordingly:

Demographic segmentation: Marketing manager can divide the UK market as per the age of their customers. It requires dividing market into age like 18-25 years which can help to make strategies and design their products accordingly. Thus, they can increase their market base and profitability which is a core objective of each and every business.

Income level segmentation: It can be another basis which can be used by the marketing manager of McDonald. They can make their products according to the income level of consumers. They can make premium price products for their high income consumers and low price products to its target segment of people with middle income.

2.3 Choose a targeting strategy for a selected product/service.

Targeting strategy can help the firm to increase number of customers for their food products. Market segmentation can help company to make their products according to the needs of their target market. For example: marketing manager of company can target the youth and make their products accordingly (Dann, 2010). It is also important for the firm to make all their promotional strategies in concentrate to their target audiences. They can provide their product range at the lower price that can enhance the revenue of company and ultimately, increase their profitability.

2.4 Demonstrate how buyer behaviour affects marketing activities in different buying situations.

Buying behaviour of consumers is having a great influence on the marketing activities of business unit. It involves consumer tastes, preferences and other decisions regarding the behaviour of consumer at marketplace.

Dissonance buying behaviour: This approach is related with the specific brand choices of consumers towards their products. For example: a consumer can select McDonald’s burger over other business units (Ferguson and Hlavinka, 2006).

Habitual buying behaviour: This is another behaviour of a consumer in which consumer always use a product of specific brand over other brands. It can give the competitive advantage to company.

2.5 Propose new positioning for a selected product/service.

It is one of the essential parts of marketing which can help to ware of their products in the mind of their customers. The main purpose of positioning strategies is to provide a unique use and brand value in consumer’s mind (Gordon and et. al., 2006). Positioning strategies can help to McDonald to aware customers about their products and services. They can create uniqueness in their products and services like for example: in UK, marketing manager of McDonald focused on family and for this, he promoted products such as “Happy Meal” which increased the demand of the same to a great extent. Apart from that, firm can also focus on youngsters and provide them a wide range of products by promoting them for occasions like birthday celebration. It can lead to increase the output and revenue of company.

Task 3

3.1 Explain how products are developed to sustain competitive advantage.

There are various strategies to be used by the marketing manager of McDonald to gain competitive advantage over its rival companies. There are following strategies to be used by the firm:

Cost leadership: It is one of the significant strategies which can be used by various companies to gain competitive advantage. The marketing manager is required to provide their products at lower cost to its customers. It can lead to increase the market share and sales of company. To attain the cost leadership, they can use various tools to reduce their cost of production. They can use their resources at the optimum level. It can help to decrease the cost of production and increase profitability of firm (Stead and et. al., 2007). The organisation can also use advanced technology and automation in the overall system can give the competitive superiority over its rival business units.

Differentiation: Differentiation is another significant strategy which can help to the firm to make their products which can differ form their rival firms in terms of quality and price.

Focus: The business unit can also design their products according to customer’s need. It means that they can focus on the niche market to provide them premium products. It can ultimately help to increase their revenue (von der Heidt, and Quazi, 2013).

3.2 Explain how distribution is arranged to provide customer convenience.

Product distribution plays a significant role in the success of any business entity in world. McDonald is having a large distribution chain which helps it to reach at large number of customers at a time. The organisation is having one of the leading food chains in UK. Their distribution network provides advantage to the firm. There are following approaches that can be used by company to distribute their products like:

Offline: It is a traditional and common method which can help the business unit to sell their products to its customers. Firm is having a large food chain which can provide their products at the right time to target customer(Corrigan, 2011). Apart from that, firm is also having their vending machines which can help to sell their products easily to its customers.

Online: This is another method which can help the firm to make customers order through online. Here, on time delivery can help to improve the customer satisfaction level. In today’s era, various customers are not having time to visit food centre and thus, online ordering can help the firm to sell their products and services to that segment. It can lead to increase the sales and market share of company with increased customer base.

3.3 Explain how prices are set to reflect an organisation’s objectives and market conditions.

Pricing of product plays a prominent role in enhancing the sales and profitability of company. Marketing manager is required to carefully design McDonald’s pricing strategies which can help to increase the growth of company. There are various pricing strategies that can help to provide the competitive position in market. It leads to increase the output and revenue of business unit. These strategies are given as below:

Penetration pricing strategy: It is one of the important strategies which can be used by various business firms. Company is needed to use this strategy at the time of launching new product in the market. Main objectives of this strategy is to make customers aware about the products at lower level (Papasolomou and Vrontis, 2006). It can help to increase the sales and market share of business unit.

Bundle pricing strategy: It is one of the unique strategy which can be used by McDonald that can provide competitive advantage in the market. In these strategies, firms can provide a bundle of products over individual offerings at lower prices. For example: the firm can provide meal to its customers over different products. The advantage of this strategy is that it can lead to raise the sales and making products with optimum utilization of resources.

3.4 Illustrate how promotional activity is integrated to achieve marketing objectives.

The role of promotional activities can help in attaining the marketing objectives in an effective manner. There are various promotional activities which involve personal selling, advertisement, public relation, direct marketing and sales promotion, etc. All these promotional tools can help to promote the firm’s products and services along with making customers aware with their brand and products (Munoz and Huser, 2008). For example: McDonald can use advertisement to promote their products. Advertisement involve electronic media, print media and social media. These tools can be used to increase the sales, build brand value, to promote new products and services and for maintaining their profitability which is the core objective of any business unit. Public relation is another important tool which can help to build and maintain long term relationship with their existing customers. For example: if company can launch the new products, they can send message to their customers. Public relation can help to improve communication between various stakeholders. Therefore, all promotional techniques can be used by the organisation to attain marketing objective ef

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