INTRODUCTION
Marketing planning refers to the process of determining one or more interesting marketplace so as to identify opportunities present in the market that firm can grab easily. Marketing Principles is the most important tool used by organization in order to attract customers to buy its products and benefits business enterprise in every possible manner. It takes into consideration all the plans prepared by firm in relations with pricing strategy, promotional tool, segmentation and targeting criteria etc (Christopher and Peck, 2012). In marketing proper planning is necessarily required so as to satisfy need of target market in efficient manner. In the present report organization chosen is Asda that operates in retail sector and well known in the market for range of products it offers to target market. Firm is second largest chain in the market by market share and sells all the products at low price. Various tasks have been covered in the report which includes elements of marketing process, how international marketing differs from domestic one etc.
Task 1
1.1 Marketing and elements of marketing
The process of promoting a service or products or brand to customers for the purpose of selling it is known as marketing. This activity is performed through segmenting appropriate customers, which is followed by customer's targeting and finally products are positioned in between them so that sales can increase rapidly (Bertsch, Busbin and Wright, 2002). Marketing satisfies the needs and requirements of people through exchange of products and services and good relationships between sellers and buyers. Normally there are two types of marketing, one is Business to customers where customers are focused and another one is business to business where one business firm targets other.
Marketing process comprises of four elements which are:
Scanning marketing strategy: - Asda is the private retail firm which scans the market first through inspecting changes in marketing environmental factor which are either internal or external. However, environment refers to industries, market, customers, suppliers and new entrants.
Marketing strategy: - This step includes targeting particular group customers to whom products are to be sold directly, after that they are segmented according to their needs, habits, desires and preferences and finally brand positioning is performed through exposing the benefits and essential features of products in segmented customers (Huntington, 2007).
Marketing tactics: - This marketing tools is often used by Asda in order to determine a product's brand with seven Ps that are product, price, place promotion,. Physical evidence, process and people.
Monitoring and control: - Accessing of work planned and controlling any issue involved in it necessary to be followed by the cited firm in order to achieve targets set by the firm.
1.2 Benefits and costs of marketing orientation
Marketing orientation is a group of perspectives which includes decision-making, market intelligence, strategies, cultural market and customers orientation (Ferrell and Hartline, 2012). However, benefits and costs of marketing orientation are:
Customer satisfaction: - Through effective market orientation, customer's satisfaction can be gained at high level. Examining their culture and buying behaviour, Asda can alter their marketing process that suits the requirements of customers.
Desired Quality: - Scanning market conditions helps in improving quality of products. Comparing products of other firm helps to understand difference between two organisations. Any deficiency or lack of knowledge in production process can be overcome and quality can be improved through proper market orientation.
Customer retention: - Marketing orientation of Asda retail firm can lead to retaining their customers for long-term (Batista, Smart and Maull, 2008). Reading their minds and overviewing their frequency of purchase aids in understanding their buying behaviour so managers can forecast properly about future needs.
Relationship marketing: - Continuous interaction with customers and their feedbacks aids the firm to create healthy relationship with them so they can give their views regarding products and services freely.
Customer profitability: - Marketing orientation is performed only for the purpose of achieving customer's satisfaction, so it is definite to provide them profitability from cited firm's products and services.
1.3 How and why international marketing differs from domestic marketing
Domestic marketing refers to marketing of products and services to local customers or financial market while international marketing refers to selling goods and services to customers residing in different nations (Hall, 2014). In domestic marketing, there are no barriers of language and marketers find is easy to understand culture and perception of customers, on the other hand customers of different nations are difficult to access and maintaining their social values and preferences is bit typical for Asda's marketing mangers. Local market managers are not aimed at global business while international market managers seeks to do business globally. Requirement of financial resources in domestic marketing is very less while huge amount of financial resources are required to perform international marketing.
Laws and regulation of one country differs from other so while doing international marketing, managers of cited firm must have full knowledge of rules and regulations of other country where they want to market their products (Fillis, 2003). Changes in marketing conditions of local market are less frequent as compared to international markets, therefore marketers must be aware of and flexible enough according to sudden changes in international marketing conditions. Risk involved in domestic marketing is less than that of international marketing. Domestic marketing requires same set of policies and strategies in local markets but international marketing requires different strategies and policies according to differences in markets.
TASK 2
2.1 factors affecting marketing decision
Various factors are present in the external environment of Asda that directly affects the marketing decision of entity and they are discussed below:
Political: It is considered as one of the most effective macro factor affecting marketing decision of company as various laws and regulations are developed by government such as tax laws and payment of other duties that affects overall operations of entity (Johnson, 2006). Furthermore it is necessary for entity to comply with guidelines issued by government and rise in tax rates and other duties such as VAT affects firm and overall marketing decisions.
Economic: Presently entire economy is facing issue of inflation and financial crisis. This has also affected purchasing power of consumers and they prefer to spend less on costly items due to which firm has to keep prices lower so that more customers can be attracted easily. So the marketing decisions taken such as pricing policy etc are affected by economic factors.
Social: This factor is linked with taste and preferences of target market as every consumer buys products on the basis of religion, age, culture etc. So the marketing decisions are taken by firm keeping in view the taste and preferences of its target market so that its food and non food items can be sold easily.
Customers: They are the target market of entity and before taking any decision firm has to identify their requirement, taste, preferences (Purvis and Long, 2011). Furthermore in the market where Asda operates is full of competition so prices are set keeping in view purchasing power of target market. So marketing decision is affected by overall requirement of target market and it is necessary to consider factors such as demographi
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