This assessment will cover the following questions:
- Marketing fundamentals comprise the elements of the market that are price, product, promotion, and place understand these processes and stages of marketing including the role of the marketing environment, marketing research, and the marketing mix.
- Marketing evaluate the importance of the customers on the basis of that assessment the development of marketing in creating value for customers.
- Marketing activities establish the communication between the company and its stakeholders, so Identify relevant stakeholders and assess their impact on the marketing activities of Adidas.
INTRODUCTION
Marketing is often described as both an art and a science, aimed at showcasing a company's value proposition in the marketplace. Its core principles involve not just creating value for customers but also fostering loyalty and commitment to the company's offerings (Ashmarina and Zotova, 2016). Within a company, marketing plays a crucial role in understanding consumer needs, crafting strategies, and adapting to the dynamic market environment to ensure customer satisfaction and meet business objectives efficiently.
To delve into the fundamentals of marketing, let's take Adidas as an example. Adidas, a multinational corporation known for designing and manufacturing clothing, accessories, and shoes, is headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Germany. It stands as one of the largest manufacturers of sportswear globally. This essay delves into the processes and stages of marketing, including the pivotal role of the marketing mix. It also explores how marketing creates value for customers, engages stakeholders, and influences the company's marketing activities.
MAIN BODY
TASK 1
Processes along with stages of marketing including marketing mix role.
According to Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick (2019), marketing is mention to the activity and process to manufacture, communicate, deliver along with exchange offerings which are valuables for society and customers at large. Marketing process is perpetual series of action addition to reaction among customers and company. It assist managers of business to analyse opportunities, selecting target market, managing marketing efforts and developing marketing mix so to place the commodities appropriately in the market for obtaining huge productivity level. By following all the the stages of processes that are part of marketing, organisational marketers think in strategic manner and develop strategies for identifying demands within the market. For this, managers of Adidas properly follow processes of marketing that involves few stages. The marketing process comprises of five stages through which successful outcomes could be gained by the entity for creating values among potential customers and loyalty can be enhanced. However, Adidas implies certain stages of marketing that are explained underneath:
The first stage is to identify and set the mission of company as it is significant for marketing success (Stages and processes of marketing, 2020). In context to Adidas, the vision is to become design leader through emphasising on getting best of athletes with action guaranteed items in international sports market. By having clear mission the organisation can propel all its marketing tactics as well as performs other functions accordingly. It also assist stakeholders to identify the organisational existence purpose. In context to the next stage of marketing, it is situational analysis in which the internal and external surroundings are evaluated so to analyse factors which have potentiality to affect the institution and market. Situational analysis illuminates strengths and challenges that are faced by internal resources as well as external business competition. It provides objective addition to clear view about business health, industry trends, position in market and prospective customers. By using SWOT analysis method, the situational analysis are conducted by management team of Adidas. The respective organisation has impressive record in context to developing new commodities and effectively executing operations in the market. The strength of Adidas are that it has constituted itself as youthful brand and posses multiple product portfolio, effective distribution system, strong relationship among sustainability area and strong financial position. In context to the weaknesses of it, it follows premium pricing due to which product rates are high and are only affordable by limited customers. Other than this, the company has outsourced manufacturing and limited product line that only provides long term benefits rather than short term goals achievements. The entity can grab opportunities such as expanding product line, developing its market, integrate research and development with operations so to perform in open system. The major threat that are associated with Adidas are fierce competition, changing regulations of government in distinct nations and suppliers dominance.
The nest stage is marketing strategy in which identifies opportunities are further prioritise as well as map out through which further activities are pursued. Marketing strategy helps in specifying target customers together with the ways to reach them. It also includes prediction of anticipated results. Herein, marketers of Adidas uses STP approach so to segment, target and position the positions in the market. The segment the entire market as per geographic, demographic, psycho-graphic and behavioural segmentations (Coussement and Demoulin, 2017). Later, they targets the suitable segmentation by considering size of area, needs of population, occupation, income, education level, patterns of usage, brand loyalty, lifestyle and price sensitivity. For promotion, wide marketing tools such as direct advertising, social media promotions and many more are used by the marketers of the entity. The next stage is marketing mix within which decisions about marketing mix elements are set by the company. In this, Adidas managers identifies various factors within which actions are to be performed. For example, manufacturing product, setting price, places at which product will be available to customers and promotional mediums. The last stage of marketing is implementation and control within which all the frameworks, actions and other are executed in proper forma. In this stage, managers of Adidas communicate all plans to marketers and other functional units so that plans are positioned in action. Herein, the marketers reaches to targetted customers so to inform and persuade them for the organisational products.
Marketing mix plays huge pivotal role within a business as it assist in clean mix creation, new product development, enhancing product portfolio, provides guidances for improving business, helps in differentiation and aids in being dynamic (Heagney, 2016). The elements provides convenient framework to the entity for opting suitable marketing strategy. The marketing mix of Adidas is as explained:
Product: The element is concerned with diversification of commodities that are offered for attracting mass population. It regards to Adidas, it offers huge variety of items such as sportswear, footwear, clothings, accessories, sports equipment and toiletries. Product element plays important role as all the success depends on these only.
Price: Within the element, cost of commodities are involved that consumers have to pay so to acquire the products. Adidas uses skimming pricing along with competitive pricing strategy so to run the mills of its commodities. These pricing strategy plays crucial role of attracting people towards the brand so that profits are achieved.
Place: It is associated with the location where organisational products will be available for customers (Deepak and Jeyakumar, 2019). In context to Adidas, its commodities are available at retail outlets, its exclusive stores, multi brand showrooms and online mediums. The place element plays role of on timely availability of products and improving productivity.
Promotion: Adidas promotes by using several marketing vehicles. Promotions of the company items are done through television along with product placements, sponsorships, social media platforms and direct advertising for communicating customers. It plays role in improving sales volume in impressive manner.
People: These are the staff members that performs actions to achieve objectives. At present, Adidas has more than 57000 employees working in different units and have role of properly executing all the roles and responsibilities on time and effectively.
Physical Evidence: The working environment of Adidas stores and other premises are hygienic as well as favourable to customers and employees. Along with this, it also maintains its website in fantastic manner that performs role of catching attention of wide individuals and promoting image of brand.
Process: Adidas managers follows various processes that perform role of informing customers about diverse products and accomplishing objectives that enriches improvement in firm profitability ratio (Johnson, 2018).
Thus, In context to Adidas, with marketing mix the managers examines market trends addition to customer demand so that they can contribute in devising plans for attaining huge customer satisfaction level.
Role of marketing for creating values for customers.
For creating values for customers, marketing plays effective role as with marketing all the information prior to release of product are provided and after availability of products for sale marketing helps in delivering strong messages. Marketing plays essential role to grab attention of audiences along with creating interest of customers in the offerings. In addition, marketing involves diverse elements including evaluating market trends, evaluating customer needs and assessing sales potentiality of business (Keegan, 2017). In order to achieve the aspects, Adidas makes prompt efforts for analysing emerging and existing market trends so that best strategic decisions are implemented to obtain maximum revenues through optimal resource utilisation. In addition, market also have role of creating, communicating and presenting values to customers so to meet needs of targetted customers. Foremost purpose of Adidas' functional area of marketing is to search and keep customers retained through implementing improved promotional strategies such as sales promotion, product placement and television that helps in creating new opportunities to remain in competitive market and enlarging business productivity. The role of Adidas' marketing so to develop values towards the customer as it involves few phases that are discussed underneath:
Identify customers: Herein, managers of Adidas understand wants, preferences and perception of customers and accordingly evaluate that to whom they will target and set the ways to reach towards them.
Customer satisfaction: In this, the marketing team of Adidas plays role of setting suitable prices and product available at accurate location and on accurate time that satisfies the customers that leads in adding values for them (Perreault, 2018).
Retain individuals: Herein, marketers searches new opportunities and plays role of retaining potential customers with the brand through better ways.
Thus, marketing plays huge role in ascertaining customers needs, providing information for manufacturing products and spreading awareness about organisational products that leads in creating values for huge customers.
Stakeholder engagement addition to impacts on organisational activities related to marketing.
Stakeholders are independent party or group of people who have keen interest in practices of business and either affects or are affected by the entity. Stakeholders matrix is considered as a tool with the use of which business analyses involvement of number of stakeholders within the project and determined their practices that can impact organisational activities (Mitra, 2016). With stakeholder engagement, administrators identifies together with frames marketing strategies. Some of stakeholders that are part of respective business are employees, suppliers, government, investors and many more. Distinct kinds of stakeholders impacts in different manner on activities of Adidas concerned with marketing. By using stakeholder involvement assessment matrix, organisational administrators analyses position of stakeholder engagement together with their impacts on some of marketing activities.
The matrix involves 5 categories including resistant, leading, unaware, supportive and neutral. In context to Adidas, its stakeholders are further bifurcated into existing and desired status that helps in knowing impacts on the activities. The stakeholder involvement level addition to impacts are described underneath:
Unaware: The stakeholders of Adidas that falls in this category are community or general public who are least aware about pertaining or new marketing activities along with project of organisation. Such stakeholders have potentiality to decrease sales volume of products so it is essential for the respective entity to emphasis on these stakeholders.
Resistant: Employees are the stakeholder kind that are part of the category as they are fully aware about all the marketing function together with the impacts and they resist adopting any change that impacts on implementing new practices in marketing (Taylor, 2015).
Neutral: Customers of Adidas falls under neutral category as they are conscious about marketing projects addition to impacts. These stakeholders neither support and also not resistant to the entity. They least impact on the marketing activities of business.
Supportive: These stakeholders are those who are aware about organizational project, marketing activities and also supports changes. These are the suppliers whose decisions may impact activities concerned with marketing of Adidas either positively or negatively.
Leading: The stakeholders which are part of leading category are investors and business partners who have detailed information about all marketing activities that are implemented or are to be executed. These stakeholders generally provides their key thoughts and viewpoints while framing marketing related activities that impacts positively.
Hence, as per stakeholders involvement level the marketing strategies, activities and plans are developed and enforced that also impacts positively or negatively on such activities.
CONCLUSION
All organisations performs various marketing actions so to promote and sell the items that are manufactured at their premises. Marketing procedure generally includes wide ways which creates values through which maximum needs of customers are elated. Through this, marketing strategies are developed by managers to accomplish the tasks on time. The elements of marketing mix are termed to product, people, promotion, price, physical evidence, place and people that have significant role in promoting or marketing the brand and its manufactured items. Stakeholders engagement level assist organisation administrators to take corrective actions so to implement activities for gaining competing advantages.
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