Unit 2 Marketing Essentials STP Assignment

Unit 2 Marketing Essentials STP Assignment

Introduction

In Unit 2 Marketing Essentials STP Assignment we are going to acquire the knowledge on the role of the marketing in the organisation and how marketing interrelates with the other functions departments, the importance of marketing mix to achieve the organisational goals and the ways to implementation of 4Ps in achieving the overall business objective.

Task: 1 Presentation :

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Task: 2

2.1 Appling various marketing mix to the marketing planning process to achieve business objectives.

There are various strategies in marketing management one of the important strategies is of the marketing mix strategy. The marketing mix is use to develop an operational level strategy in the organisation. It is also important so as to use in the tactical level to form future plans for the organisation.Marketing mix is a process to identify the group of customers to be targeted and then to formulate a strategy on the product, pricing, promotion and also the place where such goods can be sold. A combination of all this things is call as the marketing mix.According to Philip Kotler “Marketing Mix is the set of controllable variables that the firm can use to influence the buyer’s response”. Marketing mix comprises of 4Ps and 7Ps, they are price, place, product, promotion. Let as now understand this words briefly

Price: In this strategy the company has to make goal to reduce the cost of the product by improving the manufacturing and efficiency of work in the organisation and the most importantly the marketer needs to increase the value of the benefits of its products to be consumed by the consumer. There are many factors that affect the price of goods and services and they are cost, demand, completion, marketing objective and government regulations. There are various pricing methods used in marketing mix like cost based method, competition based pricing method, demand based pricing method, demand based pricing method (Gautam & Singh, 2011).

Place: Place is also known as channel from where the company operates. The place should be selected such that it should be near the consumers approach. The customer can easily approach to the products and services of the organisation. Place is from where goods are distributed by the manufacturer to the consumers. There are different channels of distribution of the product and services like zero stage channel (in this channel there is direct sale of the product to the customers by the producers), one stage channel of distribution (in this case there is only one retailer between the producer and the ultimate consumer), two stage channel of distribution (in this stage the good are first sold to the wholesaler and then the goods are  sold by the wholesaler to the retailer and then by the retailer to the consumer), three stage channel of distribution (in this stage the good are first sold to the agent and then the good are sold by the agent to the wholesaler, then the goods are  sold by the wholesaler to the retailer and then by the retailer to the consumer) (Gautam & Singh, 2011).

Product: product is known as the face of company. So the product or services provided by the company should be of good quality and that of the satisfaction level of the customer. The product provided by the company should satisfy the need and the requirements of the customers. Product should be designed in a manner which fulfils the desire and needs of the customers. Product can be further divided on the basis of use, on the basis of durability, on the basis of tangibility. On the basis of use the products can be further divide into two parts i.e. consumable good and industrial goods. On the basis of durability the product can be divided in two parts i.e. durable and non durable, and on the basis of tangibility the product can be divided in two parts i.e. tangible and intangible products.

Promotion: when the product is manufactured with good quality, better pricing, and are sold in a place near to the customer the requirements, the company may not earn profits until the customer is made aware of the products, its feature, it’s pricing. Promotion helps the organisation to aware the consumer about the product. It helps the organisation to increase its sale and overall leading to increase the profitability of the organisation. There are different types of promotional activities by the organisation like advertisement, publicity, personal selling, and sales promotion (Gautam & Singh, 2011).By applying the 4Ps of marketing the organisation can achieve the overall objectives of the organisation. It is important to understand the 4Ps of marketing to achieve the organisational goals. Let us understand marketing management by applying the marketing principles into the strategies formulated by our organisation i.e. EE limited and to our competitor i.e. Vodafone UK.

Product:  EE limited provides verity of products to its customers to satisfy there need as per there requirements. EE limited is mainly operating as the provider of mobile and fixed line services to its customers. It also provides HD voice calling services to its customers. It is one of the most largest 4G service provider organisation of UK whereas if we compare this with the Vodafone UK it also provides different service like voice calling, internet data services, mobile broadband services. EE limited provides its customer a complain service portal through its website, call centres, back office and also with the help of social media. It provides the customer’s respective treatment when they connect themselves to the companies complain service portal. It also keeps on continuously providing the latest technologies to the customers by launching new smart phone and also tables in the market. Whereas Vodafone is also providing the customer a friendly compliant service network to the customers (Helm & Gritsch, 2014).

Place: EE limited provides verity of services to its customers from more than 700 retail stores in the UK covering around 95% of the total population of UK by providing the 4G internet services to its customers. Whereas if we talk about Vodafone, has many branches all around the globe. But as the Vodafone has its home country in UK it has not grown a lot. Vodafone covers around 404 million customers in the globe. It covers around 19 million customers in UK. It has more than 500 stores in UK. EE limited has also expanded its in Europe. EE limited has opened many channels to cover its customers’ needs. EE limited has provided its customers with navigation facilities to lead the customers to the place near the organisation. EE limited is also welling to open some more retail store so as to connect to the large of the population across the country. Vodafone UK has also provided its customers with a navigation facilities and aiming a large number of customer across the globe (Kaye, 2013). 

Promotion: EE limited advertises it product on the television at the prime time so that the viewers can get the awareness of the product and the services provided by the company whereas the Vodafone UK has also advertise their products on televisions. The Vodafone has its slogan “power to you” to promote its product, whereas the EE limited uses its slogan as “The future's bright, the future's Orange”. EE limited is developing its plan in public relations. As it is a service sector organisation it requires a greater direct relationship between the customer and the service provider. In promotion the company is required to understand the need of the customers and also it’s desired and then make plan according to it. To understand the desire of the customer the organisation is required to survey the population targeted. The results should be compared with the current approach of the company. To get better results the company should plan the deviations and approach further (Lin, Lee & Lin, 2013).     

Prices: EE limited is not required to reduce its product pricing to capture the market of UK. Despite that the organisation should provide more value added services to its customer, so as to increase the value of monies of the customers. EE limited is not required to reduce the cost of its 4G services as it is already the pioneer of that sector of UK. Vodafone has its major sales outside of UK, to compete in the market it is required to introduce more attractive plans to cover the customers of UK. The customers of EE limited is also provided with an extra benefit, that if the handset is lost or damaged by any reason they can get it exchanged by the company by paying the amortized value of that handset.

After analysing all the above factors it is of the opinion that the company EE limited is required to improve its value added services and provide the customer with more facilities as per the customer sale service is concern. All this 4Ps can be used by the organisation to improve its quality control and to provide better services to the customers. If the this marketing mix is appropriately used by the organisation then the it can easily achieve its goals to make more profits and to satisfy the need of the customers (Kim, Kim, Lee & Youn, 2014).The case study is use to understand the subject matter in a more attractive way. The concept of material mix involves a lot of activities    

2.2 Marketing plan to achieve goal and objective.

Executive: This report is made to evaluate the over performance of the EE limited’s marketing performance, by identifying its internal and external environment, its potential strengths and weakness, it opportunities and its straights through analysing the organisation and its customers environment. In order to analyse the external environment of EE limited we have carried out the use of PESTIL, Porter’s 5 forces model and to also analyse the current telecom segment. For analysing the internal environment value chain and product portfolio was assessed. Being the market pioneer of the 4G technology in the UK the company still has some issues connect to its brand image and customer satisfaction. There are certain recommendations made in the report to improve the company’s brand image and customer satisfaction and also some recommendations related to acquiring more customers in the market for the 4G services provided by the organisation. It is to ensure that the analysis done is with the facts of the company.   

Company overview: EE Limited British mobile network operating company which provides internet services to its customers. It is a joint venture of two big telecommunication giants i.e. orange and T-mobile in 2010. It is the first company to introduce 4G technology in UK. It has around provides verity of services to its customers from more than 700 retail stores in the UK covering around 95% of the total population of UK by providing the 4G internet services to its customers. It provides services to around 27 million people in the UK. In the tenure of 4 year the company has made an investment of $1.5 bn. The mobile industry is required to increase at the rate of 7% in 2018 as the number of mobile devices owned by the customer has increased. Company has been continuously involved in providing latest technologies to the population of UK by launching latest technology smart phone and tablets. The company has also covered the customers of the Europe. The company is known expanding itself in the global market (Elliott, Waller & Rundle-Thiele, 2014).   

Current marketing situation analysis: The mobile network provider market value is estimated to be $15.88bn in the year 2013 whereas it has considerable increased in 2016. The figure give below shows the market share of each company in the telecom sector of each company in UK.

The telecom companies in the UK are providing valuable customer services to the population. Unlike other technological market in UK the mobile market has shown an adverse reaction to the economical downfall. The mobile operators have consistently acquired latest development in the last decade.

Internal analysis: EE limited has covered the most of the sector of customer for its 4G technology. It is the market leader of UK telecom industry. The internal environmental analysis of the EE limited requires the value chain analysis (Elliott, Waller & Rundle-Thiele, 2014).

Value chain analysis: EE limited provides verity of services to its customers from more than 700 retail stores in the UK covering around 95% of the total population of UK by providing the 4G internet services to its customers.

Product Portfolio analysis: The EE limited’s 4G product has shown a considerable increase. The EE limited’s 3G product has saturated in the market because of the outdated technology. 

External analysis: The external environment of the EE limited can be analysed by PESTLE (political, economical, social, technological, legal and environmental) factors and the Porter’s five competition factors. With the help of the above techniques the external environment can be analysed in a more simplified manner. Let us now understand these rules briefly:

PESTLE Analysis:

• Political environment: The UK government is continuously involved in the ensuring that the customer satisfaction level of this industry is achieved. It was estimated by the government that the customer satisfaction level in the UK in urban areas is 72% whereas it is around 67% in the rural areas. The government along with ofcom has invested at sum in the telecom industries and also required to make laws in this. The companies in the telecom sector are required to comply the laws of UK. The government is continuously supporting the industrial development of the telecom market.
• Economical factor: The economy of the UK showed declined in the market in the year 2008 – 2009 due to which the consumers in the UK have shown decline in the expenses. It has shown a considerable increase in the market in the year in 2013. The telecom companies are still has to face struggle due to the influence in the economy. The economic factor has shown an adverse effect on the external environment of the telecom industry.
• Social factors: The social environment of the country which uses the Smartphone is mostly the teens. Every person in the economy has different purchase plans. The company shall make such option that can help the customers to satisfy their needs.
• Technical environment: The company is continuously acquiring latest technology to achieve more and more targeted number of consumers. The industry has recently acquired the 4G technology that has fastened the speed of the internet services.
• Legal environment: Ofcom regulates the telecom market in UK. The regulator determined that the consumer can at any time terminate the contract between the company and the consumer (Davari & Strutton, 2014).
• Environmental factor:  According to the ofcom the companies has to follow the ecological conditions in the market. Then can be classified on the basis of production and usage of the handsets.

Porter’s five forces

• Competition: The biggest competitors of the EE Limited in the industry are O2/ three. To face the competition the company needs to increase its value added services ad also required to increase the customer sale support services
• Treats: The treat of new company entering the market is comprisable low in case of the telecom market. As the telecom market is an attractive market as seems its profits are high, but the entry in the market required huge funds.
• Bargaining power of consumer: This factor has medium risk as compared to that of the other market factor. The competition in the telecom market is high so there is less chances of the consumers bargaining.
• Bargaining power of the supplier: This risk is high. Although EE limited is the market pioneer in the 4G technology, it has to face many problems when it comes about competition
• Treats of substitute product: Mobile operating company is no longer the sole provider of calling and messaging services (Brooks & Simkin, 2012)        

Swot analysis

Swot will summarise the important point to be covered by the company while studying its external and internal environment:

• Strengths: EE limited is the market leader in the mobile network industry. It has introduced the 4G technology for the first time in the UK market. It has the major stake in the 4G service provided to the customers in the market (Brooks & Simkin, 2012).
• Weakness: EE limited is to improve its customer rating and also required to improve its brand image in the industry. No 4G roaming available on the customer travelling to abroad. It has high level of customer complains.
• Opportunities: EE limited has to develop more opportunities as per the advance technology is concern. It can earn more by the post paid consumers as the market of the post paid consumers has increased considerable.
• Treats: The increase in the companies providing free service of calling and messaging to the consumer by the internet. The aggressive competition in the market of telecom industries with the O2/ three is a threat for the company (Brooks & Simkin, 2012).  

Objective: The objective of the company is to company is to enhance its profitability and the market index of the company. To increase the customer’s satisfaction level is one of the important strategies of the customers. Create a clear image of the company in front of the customer.

Strength: The strength of the company is its 4G technology and the market share the its covers. The company has introduced much technological advancement in the industries. The funds with the company are huge and the opportunities to acquire the post paid customer are also strength of the organisation (Chumaidiyah, 2013).

Segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP)

This is an important analysis in the marketing management. The company has to first analyse the segment it is going to cover and then the company need to set a target and then analyse the market position of the company.

• Segmentation: the company has divided its customers in the age wise segments like teen age, the middle age, the aged once. The company is required to make different plans for the different age of consumers.
• Targeting: the company is required to make the plans as per the target customers. Like the company is required to make deter internet plans for the teen age consumers, the company is required to make better plan related to calling for the middle age customers (Chumaidiyah, 2013).
• Positioning: the company is required to after making the plans and implementation of such plan the position of the company in the industry. The company is required to analyse the current environment while analysing the industry. It is important for the company to make a post evaluation of the work performed.
• Tactics and actions: The company should form such tactics that can lead to create better customer satisfaction quality; the plans related to post paid should be improved so that the company can capture more consumers in the market. The company should analyse the current market condition of the telecom industry and take the corrective measures to make more and more profits (Chumaidiyah, 2013). The company should take corrective action against the customer complaint. EE limited should try to make the customer support system more users friendly. It should effectively implement the strategies formulated and to make an evaluation of such strategies implemented.
• Budget: The company has shall make future budget on the basis of the goals set by the company. Budget basically starts at the point of planning. The company shall make future plans to improve or to acquire advance technologies that would make the company the market leader. In the technological market the organisations are required to get acquire latest advance technologies to gain advantages in the market. The company should make budget to invest more in the customer sales support system, to improve the customer satisfaction level as is required by the company to as per the previous analysis done in the report.    
• Control: When the company form plans and implements such plan there should be proper evaluation of the plan so implemented by the company. Controlling is the most important step for implementation of the plan. The company is required to take corrective stapes in case any deviation is found in the plan and the things implemented. Before controlling, step should be taken to implement the strategy effectively. For better controlling there should be round the clock implementation of the controlling process. Basically controlling is the process of ensuring that actual activities conform to planned activities (BOBEICA, 2011).

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Conclusion

From the above report we have developed a understanding on the on the market of telecom in the UK and studied an comparison on the two different giants of the telecom market. We have developed an understanding on EE limited. We have analysed the strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats of the company, the internal and external environment of the company, the overall budget of the company. The study has lead to a conclusion that the company is required to improve the image of it; it has to develop a level of customer satisfaction. The overall performance of the company is good as compared to that of the other company in the organisation.

Conclusion of the entire Assignment

From the entire assignment we have acquired the role of marketing and how it interacts with other departments of the organisation. The ways in which the elements of marketing mix can be used the overall business strategy and develop the marketing plan. We have discussed the practical issues related to the telecom industries and applied the marketing mix strategy on the companies. 

References:

BOBEICA, A.M. 2011, "MARKETING MIX POLICIES IN FMCG CASE-STUDY: THE ADVERTISING STRATEGY", Challenges of the Knowledge Society, vol. 1, pp. 1305-1322.
Brooks, N. & Simkin, L. 2012, "Judging marketing mix effectiveness", Marketing Intelligence & Planning, vol. 30, no. 5, pp. 494-514.
Chumaidiyah, E. 2013, "Marketing mix strategy in increasing marketing performance in Indonesia telecommunication services companies", IEEE, , pp. 433.
Davari, A. & Strutton, D. 2014, "Marketing mix strategies for closing the gap between green consumers' pro-environmental beliefs and behaviors", Journal of Strategic Marketing, vol. 22, no. 7, pp. 563-586
Elliott, G., Waller, D. & Rundle-Thiele, S. 2014, Marketing, Third edn, John Wiley and Sons Australia, Milton, Qld.
Gautam, R.K. & Singh, R. 2011, "MARKETING MIX STRATEGIES OF SMALL MANUFACTURERS OF INDIA: PUNJAB EXPERIENCE", Management Marketing - Craiova,, no. 2, pp. 195-216.
Helm, R. & Gritsch, S. 2014, "Examining the influence of uncertainty on marketing mix strategy elements in emerging business to business export-markets", International Business Review, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 418-428.
Kaye, K. 2013, "THE CASE OF THE MISSING BOBBLEHEADS; The Cleveland Indians' marketing-mix modeling revealed that the team needed more giveaway nights but fewer giveaways--so it's off with some bobbleheads", Advertising Age, vol. 84, no. 11, pp. 24.
Kim, K., Kim, Y., Lee, M. & Youn, M. 2014, "The effects of co-brand marketing mix strategies on customer satisfaction, trust and loyalty for medium and small traders and manufacturers", E+M Ekonomie a Management, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 140.
Lin, T.T., Lee, C. & Lin, H. 2013;2012;, "Analysis of customer profit contribution for banks with the concept of marketing mix strategy between 4Cs and 5Ps", Service Business, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 37-59.Philip Kotler, 1985, "Marketing Mix".