Unit 2 Marketing Essentials Solution Assignment - EE limited

Unit 2 Marketing Essentials Solution Assignment - EE limited

Introduction

Marketing is been basically defined as the action or initiative made to promote and sell the products by carrying out the market research and the advertising activities within the common people. Marketing activities are been considered to be the most common initiative to make the people aware about the brands and help the organisation to establish their existence in the market. The activities contribute in the achievement of the desired goals and objectives so that to attain the planned growth effectively. However, the marketing essentials mainly includes the products and services prevailing in the trends, selection of the suitable market, effective consideration of buyer and competitors, communication with the employees, etc. The current report would be evaluating the aspects related to the marketing essentials and would elaborate the functionalities of EE limited which is a mobile phone company of UK.  It would include a comparison of the marketing mix elements in context to the organisation and its competitive environment. The report would even evaluate the contribution of the elements of marketing mix on the organisation in achieving its objectives effectively. Furthermore, the report would highlight the development of the marketing plan for the organisation in order to meet the set goals and objectives of EE limited effectively.

Task 2

(A) Comparison of extended marketing mix of EE limited and Telefonica UK limited.

Marketing mix is basically an operational or tactical activity in marketing planning of an organisation.The marketing mix elements are the set of controllable tactical marketing tools such as price, place, products and promotion which is been used by the organisations to attain the desirable responses out of the targeted market. The marketing mix elements are been extended with people, physical evidence and process which helps in contributing in the achievement of the objectives effectively.There are mainly 7Ps being included in the extended marketing mix elements and helps the organisation to meet their objectives effectively.The 7P’s are been applied in EE limited and Telefonica UK limited, which is commonly functional as O2 in the market with the intention to achieve the objectives in an effective manner. The elements of extended marketing mix are:

• People: This element basically represents the managers, employees, leaders, etc. of the organisation who plays an important role in achieving the desired goals.  People are the major aspects that contribute in delivering the effective services and influence the customers to the great extent. It has been found that the services being provided to the customer must satisfy their needs so that to provide them better experiences and make them incline towards the business. It is very much important that the organisations must have planned and organised customer services so that to ensure the effectiveness of the same. In context to the EE limited, it has been found that the people are required to solve the issues and queries of the customers properly and make them satisfied with the products and services as well (Khan, 2014). EE limited ensures that the people like employees and managers are kept motivated so that they make their best efforts for the achievement of the objectives. In order to keep the people motivated, EE limited provide them with the rewards, training and development, bonuses, incentives, etc. and thus provides the employees with the inspiration to reach to the goals. On the other hand, Telefonica UK limited mainly provides the employees with non monetary rewards and recognition to keep them motivated.

• Physical evidence: It is basically the environment in which the organisations delivers their products and services and get interacted with the customers specifically. It is very much important for the organisations to gain trust and loyalty with the customers so that to pull them towards their products and services and make them influence to avail the same. Physical evidence provides an existence and reliability over the business. However, there is no physical evidence of the services and thus requires to lay extra efforts to influence the customers. This element indicates an establishment and presence of the organisation which make the customer to trust over them. With respect to EE limited,  the services are been delivered carrying out effective marketing activities, better coverage, better 3G services and experiences to the customers. In addition to this, the organisation even ensures to resolve the issues faced by the customers so that to make them satisfied out of them.On thecontrary to this,Telefonica UK limited ensures the quality standards in its products such as phones,tablets,SIMs and accessories through its retail stores (Barrett and Weinstein, 2015). This retail store justifies the existence of the organisation and the physical evidence of the same.

• Process: This element of marketing mix mainly signifies the actual mechanism or procedures along with the flow of business activities through which the services are been delivered effectively.The organisation must conduct a systematic flow of activities so that to ensure the delivery of the services and the operating system in the desired manner. It has been observed that the customers now a days are also interesting in knowing the procedures through which the services are been delivered or they are receiving the products specifically. Concerning EE limited, it has been seen that the organisation follows a systematic process for delivering the quality mobile and the network services to the customers and could also be accessed by them.The process mainly includes pay system, distribution system, etc.of EE limited. Whereas, Telefonica UK limited ensures a proper distribution channel and the marketing activities to provide the products and services in the market and fulfil the needs of the customers.The organisation even acquires a proper planning of carrying out the procedures of delivering the products and services at the retail stores effectively.

However, the extended marketing mix contributes in the enhancement of the performances of the organisation by facilitating them with different activities and makes the business grow.It has been usually observed that the elements of marketing mix are used for developing the marketing plan basically but the extended marketing mix helps the organisations to make better planning for the marketing as well as the operational activities of the business (Baker and Saren, 2016). Both the organisations i.e. EE limited and Telefonica UK limited acquire different business practices and marketing plan which make them different from each other. Additionally, the extended marketing mix contributes in the enhancement of the growth potentiality by bringing improvements in the business activities and makes better use of the same. The 4 P’s of marketing mix elements such as place, product, price and promotion helps an organisation to ensure the proper execution of the strategies and planning in the business. It even contributes in the place the product in the market and grabs the maximum number of the customers over it.

(B) Marketing plan for EE limited

Executive

Company overview

Everything Everywhere, mainly abbreviated as EE is been listed among the leading mobile network operator and the internet service provider in the industry. The organisation is been considered as the largest mobile network operator of UK and acquires nearly about 28 million customers in Europe. The organisation is been headquartered in Hatfield, UK and had established it head offices in London, North Tyneside, Bristol and Darlington. It is also the largest operator of the 4G services and offers mobile telephony, fixed line, broadband, etc. based on the new standard provisions being proposed by the local and the national government specifically.  It has been identified that the organisation acquires 50:50 joint venture with the Deutsche Telekom and Orange S.A. with the help of the mergers in UK. Along with this, EE Limited also offers additional services such as online TV and IPTV options.

In the present time, the 4G network of EE limited had grabbed approximately 97% of the whole population of UK which is remarkable achievement when compared to the other competitors. In terms of the marketing activities, EE limited makes use of various tools and techniques which helps in making the products and services more effective and influencing in the market (Kotler.et.al.2015). In order to launch the 4G network in the market, EE had made various initiatives and adopted TV advertisements as the source of marketing among the people of UK and establish its services effectively. The organisation had even sponsored several festivals and events which had contributed in the enhancement of the brand value and image along with the awareness among the potential target segments of the market. It has been identified that the organisation offers high quality services to the people and maintains a healthy customer relations through online services to the people. With the help of sponsorship and online marketing activities, EE limited had gained remarkable trust and loyalty of the customers all over the nations and had even contributed in the enhancement of the production and the profitability at large.

Current marketing situation analysis

Internal analysis: The organization has capabilities in resources and core competency to meet the requirements of marketing. The internal structure and operations of the organization are under the pin of top management for quality and performance analysis. The organization also has efficient number of human resources and business assets to meet the changes in market demands. The core competency in workplace is also high to enhance the performance per resource. The financial and intangible resources are available to EE Ltd so that marketing activities can be accomplished effectively (Sharma and Lambert, 2013). The structural and cultural capabilities of the organization are good to empower the business growth. However, the lack of training to employees is being barrier in internal strength of the organization. EE Ltd has limitation on time to train and develop the human resources and expect that employees are good enough to meet the objectives in workplace.

External analysis: With EE Ltd, it has been identified that organization has high competition and technical impact in marketing process. The changes in global economy impact the organizational operations and strategies to meet the marketing objectives. The governmental rules and regulation on business are being handled with proper updates and implications. The lower pricing and high quality along with better arrangement of raw material helps the organization to reduce the competition for business (Westwood, 2013). Global economy has impact on competition, pricing and distribution services. The organization has strengths in implication of regulations and technology to simplify the business operations. However, the global economical changes and emergence of new competitors are point of consideration in marketing process of organization.

SWOT analysis: EE Ltd can use SWOT analysis tool to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to market the product or service. The tool is effective to analyze the marketing situations and their requirements to accomplish the objectives. The below table presents the complete analysis through SWOT tool:

Table 1: SWOT analysis

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  Objectives

EE Ltd needs to define the objectives in term of market scopes and product outcomes to attain the sustainability and growth. The organization can define the objectives on the basis of strengths and opportunities along with proper consideration of weaknesses and risk to market the product. The organization has following objectives for marketing purpose:

• Enhance the brand image through customer satisfaction
• Reduce the cost for temporary time to overcome the competitive advantages
• Promote the business values and awareness with promotion activities of product

Strategy

Market entry: It is essential for organization to maintain the effectiveness in business process to develop and implement the strategy to meet the business outcome. By considering the external and internal factors that could have significant impact on the market performance and brand value of organization, management of EE limited can use the following market entry strategy to expand the market and customers base.

Merger:According to market entry strategy, the EE limited management could use the merger strategy for expanding the market and customer base in the identified areas. This kind of strategy will support organization to lower down the cost of developing the infrastructure and appoint the human resources for performing the operations according to desired standard of quality in products and services. Merger is process in which the two organizations come together to meet their objectives by pooling the resources and planning of the operations. For example, EE limited can perform the merger with the Vodafone to expand the market size and areas. This kind of market entry strategy would help to capture the areas where Vodafone is having strong appearance. This kind of strategy of marketing and developing the business will be helpful for EE limited as it will not put any financial burden and additional machinery and purchase of raw material as organization can use the existing infrastructure of Vodafone. The major benefits of merger are optimum utilization of resources and maximize the margin of profit to increase the strength for investing more on the operational activities to meet the satisfaction level of customers (Chernev, 2015).

Joint venture: This is also effective market entry strategy that can be used by EE limited for expanding the business. According to this strategy, organization will start the joint venture with international organization in telecommunication industry which will help to encourage the brand value and sales areas globally. In addition to this, implementation of this strategy will help to encourage the areas of services as well customer base.  For promotion and advertising the brand the organization would use the name of international brand which is having more positive brand identity. In addition to this, for future development and marketing of services, this strategy would be more beneficial as organization will having the alliance with high potential organizations that are delivering quality services to local customers. In addition to this, through strategic alliance EE Limited will to analyze the needs and maintain the high speed internet and voice calling services. Improvement in the services and products of telecommunication will help to influence the market image of organization which is essential for creating awareness of activities as well as influencing the decision of potential customer (McDonald, 2013). The major reason behind the recommending this strategy is to low cost and higher profit merging by pooling the resources and using the existing marketing activities through online sources which is more professional and integrated. This kind of approach will help to encourage the brand awareness and customer’s experience.               

Segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP)

Segmentation: Market segmentation is basically the classification of the consumer market having existing and potential customers into small segments so that to target the actual markets. These segmentation is been carried out on different bases having diverse characteristics such as gender, preferences, geographical, demographical, income status, age, etc. The segmentation strategy thus facilitates the organisation to split the business activities and acquire a flexible and easy procedure to be achieved by the management or employees. In context to EE limited, demographic market segmentation would be beneficial as would be able to classify the market on the basis of income levels and offers the products and services accordingly. The marketing authorities of EE limited had segmented the market in two basic classes such as higher income levels and lower levels classes. With the help of this segmentation strategy, EE limited would be benefited in developing the products and services according to the classes and provide them the same specifically. it would even ensure the fulfilment of the customer needs and desires based on their income levels and provide them with the best satisfactions (FREITAS and SPEZIA, 2013). It even helps in meeting the expectation of the customers by fulfilling the quality standards in its products and services.  

Targeting: Targeting strategy could be defined as the identification of the actual group of customer to be approached for the sales of products and services effectively. In other words, a target market is of any organisation is identified as a group of people in which business aims to perform its marketing activities. In context of EE limited, it has been observed that the undifferentiated targeting strategy would prove to be beneficial as it would help in focusing the large market area of the region.  EE limited would be sending promotional messages to each and every customer of all the segments and would make them aware about the products and services. The basic reason behind this type of strategy is attain the objectives at large levels and bring enhancement in the customer base by developing adequate amount of awareness about the new plans among the existing and the new customers specifically (Brooksbank, 2013). In addition to this, this particular strategy would enhance the cost of operation and the marketing activities of the organisation and thus would lead to the mismanagement of the financial resources as well.

Positioning: Positioning is the most important strategy for any of the organisation as it provides with an existence to the organisation in the market. It is very much important for the organisations to ensure the development of an effective positioning strategy so that to establish the desired levels of brand image and value in the industry. Concerning EE limited, it could be recommended that the management must make use of the brand positioning strategy for its products and services. This particular strategy would helps EE limited in promoting the sales activities and gain positive feedbacks from the customers in UK. By enhancing the quality standards in the products and services and making the products cost efficient would help in gaining trust and loyalty among the customers and the people would promote the brand through word of mouth and thus would develop an effective link between the customers and the organisation (Armstrong.et.al.2012).

Tactics and actions:For the implementation of the best business strategy in the organization has to take the corrective action and that implement it. The action must be attached with the fixed mission and vision that help the EE Limited to gain the competitive advantage. The planning of the tactics depends on the behaviour of the employees and working culture of the work place. It helps the business to gain the competitive advantage from the market and try to implement the correct strategy for the business. The main aim of the organization is to gain the market share that needs proper action plan and implement the certain tactics for the development of the organization. The actions of the organization are based on various purposes like to reduce the additional cost, earn more revenue, business expansion etc. The Top management of EE enterprise always try increase the capability of the employees try to take the actions like training of the employees, effective communication process etc.  The planning would get the successful an individual if all the departments will maintain the services as per the demand of the clients (Sheth and Sisodia, 2015). To establish the services organization always tries to maintain the quality of the services that are proposed to the organization. To establish the services and products according to the plan EE Limited provides training assistance to the employees that help the business to achieve the organizational goals.

The working culture of the organization helps the business to maintain good working business environment in the organization and always try to encourage the employees to do better. By appointing the skilled staffs in the organization tries to increase the brand effectiveness. On the other hand organization is offering the home delivery to the clients and also provides the after sales services to the customers (Gordon.et.al.2015). In relation to this various additional benefits to the clients management will be able to gain the competitive advantage in the market.

Budget:The budget would help in identifying the approximated amount of expenses to be incurred in the development of marketing plan and executing the same.

Table 2: Cost of marketing plan

Control:  EE limited would be making use of effective monitoring and control measures so that to ensure the proper utilisation of the resources for the plan. The organization would be appointing the professionals to monitor the marketing practices based on the proposed strategy for diversified location which would help in maintaining the efficiency and effectiveness in each operation. EE limited would even organise effective training and development sessions for the staff members and collect customer feedbacks to recognise the loopholes and make initiative to improve the same (Mason and Dobbelstein, 2016).

Conclusion

The report concludes that the EE limited management could use the merger strategy for expanding the market and customer base in the identified areas. The report even revealed that for future development and marketing of services, this strategy would be more beneficial as organization will having the alliance with high potential organizations that are delivering quality services to local customers.

 References

Books and Journals

Baker, M.J. and Saren, M. eds., 2016. Marketing theory: a student text. Sage.
Barrett, H. and Weinstein, A., 2015. Corporate entrepreneurship, the marketing mix, and business performance. In Proceedings of the 1997 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 144-150). Springer International Publishing.
Brooksbank, R.W., 2013. Successful marketing practice: a literature review and checklist for marketing practitioners. International Journal of Wine Marketing.
Chernev, A., 2015. The marketing plan handbook. Cerebellum Press.
FREITAS, H.C. and SPEZIA, D.S., 2013, November. MARKETING PLAN AS A FACTOR IN STRATEGIC POSITIONING AND INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISE. In Anais do Congresso de Iniciação Científica do Centro Universitário do Distrito Federal (Vol. 1, No. 1, p. 128).
Gordon, R., Butler, K.A., Magee, C.A., Waitt, G.R. and Cooper, P., 2015. Using value theory for segmentation in social marketing.
Hawkes, K., 2013. First principles in developing a Marketing plan. Food New Zealand, 13(6), p.19.
Khan, M.T., 2014. The concept of'marketing mix'and its elements (a conceptual review paper). International Journal of Information, Business and Management, 6(2), p.95.
Mason, R.B. and Dobbelstein, T., 2016. The Influence of the Level of Environmental Complexity and Turbulence on the Choice of Marketing Tactics. Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, 8(2), pp.40-55.