CompanyIntroduction
Marketing refers to the social process by which organizations and individual obtain what they want and need through creating and exchanging value with others. It is everything that a looks for in order to acquire buyers and maintain long lasting relationship with them (Dibb and Simkin, 2014). It is considered as one of the premier component of business management as it used to create, keep and satisfy customer requirement profitably. According to American Marketing Association “Marketing can be defined as set of activities, processes and institution for communicating, creating, exchanging and delivering offering that have value for target audience for partners, customers, clients and society at large.
The chosen organization for this report is ALDI which is a leading discount supermarket chain operating in more than 20 countries globally. This report talks about ALDI’s marketing roles and responsibilities, components of marketing mix and evaluation main elements of marketing plan.
Task 1
P1 Key roles and responsibilities of marketing function
Marketing refers to the process through which companies create customer interest in product or services. It means meeting the needs and wants of target audience in an effective and efficient manner. It provide high competitive edge to businesses so as to gain and retain loyal customer. The concept of marketing associated with satisfying customer needs profitably. It include selling, distributing, research and public relation. There are various roles and responsibilities of marketing that are discussed below:
1. Marketing Information System:Market information system the first to the process gathering and analyzing market information. Under this, and if it is made by company in order to identify and understand the needs and wants of customer thoroughly. Companies usually search about what exactly consumer want, in what quantity and at what price. The chosen organization has effectively used to this method in knowing likes and dislikes of target user. For example: ALDI collect information that most of the consumer prefer to purchase goods or services at lower cost. In addition to that this tool also provide information related with what kind of advertisement must be liked by consumer, how do they want the product and where they want it.
All the relevant information concerned with potential buyers is collected and analyzed properly. On the basis of this analysis an effort is made by the company find out as to which particular product has the best opportunities in the market.
2. Marketing planning:In order to achieve business objective with regard to its marketing objective, marketer usually chalks out marketing plan. It specifically signify what exactly company wants and at what percentage. For example: ALDI wants to increase the market share grocery product by 40%. So in order to achieve this particular objective the marketer needs to prepare market plan accordingly. This will also state the role of employees towards achieving that objective.
3. Financing: It is considered as one of the most crucial marketing function as the entire group and success of organization depend upon this market function (Draelos, 2011). It takes money to make money. The main responsibility of marketer is to identify various sources through which company can get adequate funding. This marketing function deals with finding the money for business through loans, investments or utilizing personal capital in order to advertise good/services among customers. ALDI is managing their funding through shares, investment and loans.
4. Promotion channel:Promotion means updating or informing the buyers about company's product and encouraging them to buy their product. It includes advertising, sales promotion, publicity and personal selling. Every decision taken by the marketer in this context affects the overall sales. For example: ALDI is usually doing promotion through coupons only.
5. Pricing:Setting correct price for product or service comes out as a great challenge for them. If product price is too high then company might lose customers. But if in case prices are low company might be robbing themselves with profits. Therefore it is very important set right price for the product or services that creates value for customer. ALDI is having its own unique pricing strategy that gives them high competitive edge over their rivals. They usually sells goods comparatively at lower rate than other retail stores ( Hauer, 2013).
6. Distribution: This function is related with how company plans to distribute their product among consumers. Business owners must have an idea about channel management so that they can distribute their product carefully all across the world. ALDI is mainly distributing their product through their stores or outlets. In addition to that, they also sell product through their online application.
7. Selling: Selling and marketing are complementary function. Marketing creates awareness and builds preference for a product that helps sales representative of the company to sell more of a particular product. Marketing function provide support to sales team by generating sales leads and ask the sales team to take follow up (Jones and Rowley, 2017). ALDI purchases products in bulk quantity from manufacturers and then directly sold to customer.
8. Product/service management: Marketing function gives valuable input to product and service development. Information related with customer needs and wants helps the company to determine the additional features needs to be incorporated in existing or new product. It also help in identifying opportunities concerned with extending product range or launching existing product into new market.
Task 2
P2 How marketing roles and responsibilities is related with various organizational department
Marketing is a social process that satisfy customer needs and wants in an effective manner. It mainly deals with advertisement, promotion and selling and distribution of product. In addition to that marketing function also assist other organizational department such as research department, human resource in order to accomplish business objectives in cost effective and timely manner.
Following are the role of marketing various organizational department:
Research and Development Department: R&D department plays crucial role in any organization as it transform future capabilities into new product or services. The main role of this department is to collect information related with customer choice and wants that keeps on changing frequently. Therefore it is important for every business enterprise keep them self-updated with current likes and dislikes of target audience. ALDI figures out that people immediately shift to other competitor who are offering similar product but at low price. Therefore, ALDI came up with its own unique pricing strategy that automatically attracts the customer.
Human resource department: A business needs to attract profitable buyers in order to attain decent sales number and for obtaining this decent sales number it is important to have talent and skilled personnel who with their capabilities generate maximum sales lead generation. Therefore it is prime responsibility of every company to hire talented candidates. Marketing helps the HR department in finding those talented employees. Market change and so do the expectation of employees. Just like brands have to change to stay competitive employer brand also needs to change employee expectation. The company need to remain on top in almost every extent such as salary data, providing healthy working environment etc. As ALDI is having sheer store layout reduces the level of numbers of employees. Show the company laid stress on hiring only talented skilled competent and knowledgeable worker.
Production and Operation Department: The main responsibility of operational manager is to maintain minimum stock level. As ALDI buys product in bulk quantities directly from supplier and then store it in their warehouses. Here marketing function assist operational manager in determining future demand of that particular product so that they can purchase accordingly (Mihart and Frank, 2017). Basically with the help of marketing, ALDI can easily figure out demand of any product which help them when buying bulk quantity product from supplier.
Finance Department: Financial position of the company in market helps them in deciding their budget. If a firm is having sound financial position in market they can easily get funds from various sources when needed. Sound financial position also help in building goodwill of the firm in market (Nguyen and Simkin, 2013).
Customer Service Department: Customers are considered as the king of market. Therefore it is primarily important for any company to satisfy their needs and want in an effective and efficient manner. ALDI's sheer layout makes easier for customer to find required product as soon as possible. Moreover they take frequent feedback and suggestions from customer which help them in improving their services and satisfying customer requirement in more appropriate manner.
Task 3
P3 Marketing Mix of two organization
Marketing Mix refers to the set of tactics that company uses in order to promote its product or brand in the market. It is generally made up of 7P’s including price, promotion, place, physical evidence, people, process and product. Following are the brief description of 7P’s of ALDI’s and LIDL’s marketing mix.
|
7P’s of Marketing Mix |
ALDI |
LIDL |
|
Product |
ALDI claims to give affordable food product of high quality at lesser rate as compared to other retail brands. The products sold by them are directly sourced from manufacturer and then they brand product as their own so as to have control over production and cost. Other than food products, ALDI also offers fresh vegetables-fruits, stationary, clothes, beauty product, household goods etc. They does not change their good product but they do experimenting with non-food items. |
The goods sold in LIDL is almost similar to products sold in other supermarket. The main difference would be the brand name of particular product. They sell their products at cheaper rate. The main competitor of LIDL is ALDI. |
|
Price |
The company is having strong customer base because of offering cheap price and quality products to its target customers. Currently the company is using unit pricing strategy for groceries so that they can easily compare the price of their products with competitors. Moreover in order to gain high competitive edge. |
Company is gaining high competitive edge in the market because of its clever pricing strategies. They entered in market on the basis of most value driven supermarket. The firm is offering incredibly cheap pricing product which immediately seize the attention of customers. |
|
Promotion |
Their promotional activities are comprehensive as they spend negligible amount for doing promotion of their products. In-fact ALD is not having marketing department in its Germany store. All they offers is “super-buys” offers and that too is also available till inventory lasts. However, in UK, US and Australia market they make extensive use of digital, print and electronic media to advertise its products. |
Currently, LIDL is not having any promotional or loyalty program in the market of UK as they believes that their low pricing strategy is enough for attracting customers. So they hardly spent any amount on doing promotion of their product. But they do have some store promotion such as buy one get one but they are offering any further discount on product’s prices as it already exist at low prices. |
|
Physical evidence |
ALDI gained popularity for its simplest business processes, global pricing and standardization. They provide products at 30% cheaper rates and its keep everyday low prices strategy is same all across the world. Also it is also store that maintain same prices for grocery product throughout the year. |
Most of the LIDL stores are laid out in traditional and linear manner. This help buyers in finding their product quickly and easily. Also they often exhibit their brand color yellow and blue throughout their surrounding or store which make easier for customer to identify the store even from far as well. |
|
Process |
Its sheer layout process makes easier for customer to find products on their own which indirectly leads to minimize the number of workers that ALDI needs to assist the buyers. They keep limited number of high quality product so as to prevent consumers from getting confused and this also help in reducing selection time. Along with that ALDI’s products have usually large barcodes for quick-identification that saves the time and energy of both customer and employee. |
The primary process of LIDL is to purchase product in bulk quantity directly from supplier and that too at low-cost. They do not involve consumer in any of their work process or procedure. |
|
Place |
ALDI is currently operating in 18 countries and having more than 8000 stores all across the world. According to one of UK report, a new store of ALDI opens every week in Britain. Their store is very simple which makes easier for buyers to select product within short span of time. ALDI procure product in bulk quantities directly from suppliers and then store them in local warehouses ensuring its quality remain same all the time. Moreover they also ensure minimum waste disposal and used environment friendly equipment in its stores. In addition to that, the company is also having its online presence which allow buyers to check product detail and to locate nearest available store. |
The organization is having plethora of outlets all across Europe and UK. They operate in different supermarket segment depending upon the country ranging from high to low valued products. They have large number of distribution center across UK and Europe that maintain constant level of inventory. According to their business model, their aim is to sell large number of goods in short span of time and for this it is primarily important to maintain adequate stock level. This means their stores are reasonably close to its distribution centres. |
|
People |
The company is having low customer services because their employees do not buyer in selecting their product. They very thoughtfully put its store layout where everything is divided into proper section which ultimately reduces the number of worker required in handling each section. They are paying higher to employees as compared to its other competitors and also provide on the job training to them so that they work more effectively and efficiently. |
They are paying attractive salary to its workers but they do select or hire only hard working and talented employees. The amount of products or items scan is often used as their performance measurement indicator. They keep high training standards for employees which inspire them to work more effectively. |
Task 4
P4 Marketing Plan for the chosen organization
Marketing Plan can be define as a blueprint that outlines all essential marketing and advertising activities of a company for an upcoming year. Its formulation starts with identifying the target customers and this can be done by market research. It mainly includes company’s overview, STP approach, formulation of budget, sales forecast and monitoring and controlling.
Company Overview: ALDI is a common brand of two discounted supermarket chain, operating in more than 20 countries with over 10,000 stores. It’s headquarter is in Germany. The company was started in the 1913 with a food store in the town called Essen in Germany. They mainly deals in providing large number of products to customers at discounted rate and also maintaining quality as well. The company started gaining popularity in the year 1956 by selling high quality product at discounted price over competitors.
|
Parent Company |
ALDI Einkauf GmbH & Co. oHG |
|
Category |
Retail Industry |
|
Sector |
Retail and Lifestyle |
|
Tagline |
Spend less, live a lot |
|
USP |
Sells products at affordable prices maintaining top quality products. |
Company’s Vision and Mission Statement:
Vision: “To provide our buyers with the products that they purchase regularly and ensure high standards quality of those products”.
Mission: “To meet customer requirement by offering them high quality product at discounted price”.
STP Approach:
|
Segmentation |
People looking out to purchase grocery products at competitive prices. |
|
Targeting |
Household |
|
Positioning |
ALDI offers most of the products with its own private labels. The company is strongly placed in Germany and now targeting to wide its scope by firmly placing themselves in international market. |
SWOT Analysis:
|
Strength · Claims to offer high quality product · Offers at discounted rate · Strong market presence in Germany with over 2900 store outlets. · Operating cost is low · Gained popularity for its unique store layout. |
Weakness · Still relatively small as compared to other international brand. · Their global impact is still less because of already existing competitors in market. · Sometimes customer think that they are selling poor quality product at discounted rate. |
|
Opportunities · Needs to invest more money in advertising and promotional activities. · Expanding business operation in growing countries like Asia and Africa etc. |
Threats · Strong competition · Its private label brand tossed away by already established big brands. · Not suitable for those who are looking for “complete shopping experience”. |
Marketing Budget:
This sort of spending plan is being made with the thought process of distinguishing a wide range of systems which are being used by ALDI. It is the obligation of the back supervisor for all sort of exercises alongside undertakings regrading promoting. There is high need of making the market dynamic in nature with the thought process of receiving of most recent innovation for having development and achievement and that too in better and viable way. This sort of idea is profoundly used in making mindfulness for the items which are being sold out to clients.
|
Marketing budget |
|
||||
|
Particulars |
1st year |
2nd year |
3rd year |
4th year |
5th year |
|
Initial money |
75000 |
25000 |
20000 |
15000 |
20000 |
|
Investment |
|
25000 |
14000 |
15000 |
18000 |
|
Total |
75000 |
50000 |
34000 |
30000 |
38000 |
|
Marketing expenditures |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Advertisement |
10000 |
9000 |
7000 |
6000 |
6000 |
|
sales promotion |
7000 |
4000 |
3000 |
7500 |
9000 |
|
Direct marketing |
8000 |
2000 |
5000 |
7200 |
2000 |
|
Total |
25000 |
15000 |
15000 |
20700 |
17000 |
|
Available balance |
50000 |
45000 |
19000 |
12300 |
21000 |
Marketing Plan:
|
Product |
ALDI is offering large number of products at affordable price simultaneously maintaining product quality as well. They buy product in bulk quantities from selected manufacturers and store it in warehouse. They usually sell product with their own brand name. |
|
Price |
They have strong consumer base because of its price and quality that it offers for its own private labeled product which aren’t available with rivals. They gain high competitive advantage for its unit pricing strategy. |
|
Promotion |
They are spending very less amount on promoting and advertising their product as they believe that their store layout and unit pricing strategy is enough to seize the attention of customer. But in UK, Australia and US market they do using display, print and electronic media for advertising their product. |
|
Place |
ALDI is currently operating in 20 countries with more than 8000 stores. Its store layout makes much easier for customer to find product as soon as possible. Moreover they also tries to maintain a regional appearance and thus names its stores accordingly. For instance: In Switzerland the name of their outlet is ALDI SUISSSE. |
Monitoring and Controlling: At this stage, company needs to analyses whether all the planned activities are carrying out in its systematic manner or not (Papasolomou and Melanthiou, 2012). If they found any deviation, they need to take proper action for rectifying it so that it cannot affect other activities.
Conclusion
According to the given report it can be concluded that the heart of every organization lies in its marketing process. They market their product so as to aware customer about them and stimulate them to buy the product. Roles and responsibilities of marketing covers pricing, financing, marketing information system, distribution and many more that direct affect firm’s profitability and growth. In addition to that marketing also provide assistance to other organizational department as well. Lastly marketing mix and marketing plan has also discussed in this report that outlines marketing activities for upcoming year.
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