Case Study for marketing

Main body

1. Role of marketing as a function of business

Marketing is an essential process of a business that helps in building success and growth. It involves various functions like conduct research on targeted audience in order to find out the prototypes, which helps in receiving the most positive feedback for marketplace (Baker and Magnini, 2016). Similarly, market research also persuades minds of people towards company's products, check out competitors' strategies, delivery of goods etc. In context with Kingfisher Plc., it has near about 1300 stores in ten countries where more than 74,000 workers are currently working. This company offers home improvements products of branded companies B&Q, Screwfix, Brico Depot etc. It includes home appliances, furnishing, hardware and so on. The main function of marketing department of this company are given as below:-

2. Structure of marketing department in Kingfisher Plc

Within a marketing department of an organisation, there are many roles and functions played by marketers in order to promote business appropriately (Ahmed, Kristal and Pagell,  2014). The structure of this division generally varies  as per type of business where leaders, managers, high-level of executives etc. establishes marketing techniques and oversees the operations as well. In context with Kingfisher Plc., its marketing structure can be defined in following manner:-

(Source: Structure of Marketing Department, 2018)

Some common roles in marketing department of Kingfisher Plc. are:-

• Marketing Officer: This person plays an important role in identifying the marketing objectives, creating marketing plan, formulating strategies and more. Marketing plan is made on the basis of long-term and short-term goals so that activities can be done accordingly.
• Social Media Manager: Social media marketing and advertising are considered as main integral part of promotional activities (Kozlenkova and et. al., 2015). Therefore, managers of Kingfisher in this field plays major role in developing connection with potential customers. With this assistance, they deliberate marketing plan and goal setting, develop brand awareness and online reputation of business, manage content about product and related assets etc.  
• Chief Marketing Officer: CMO is mainly responsible to oversee the marketing plan and execution of advertising strategies. This would help in generating revenues by enhancing sales through successful execution of marketing plan. For this purpose, they use market research, communications, pricing and product marketing, public relations and more.

3. Overview of marketing process with its importance

Under marketing concept, the main function of managers is to discover the best way to meet requirement of customers. This process can be done by competing a sequence of operations. It includes Situations (analyse to identify opportunities); Strategy (formulate for a value proposition); Tactical Decisions (made in favour of business objectives; Implementation & Control the marketing plan. In context with Kingfisher Plc. Marketing process can be described in following manner:-

 

(Source:Marketing Process, 2018)

• Situational Analysis: In order to satisfy and exceed expectations of customers, marketing managers of Kingfisher Plc. are used to identify own capabilities first. Along with this, they also discover the environment where business is operating. Thus, in this regard, situational analysis can be defined as an analysis of both internal and external environment, which adversely affect marketing functions. It also reflects the gap between expectations of customers and what company offers to them. This would help in identifying opportunities by which Kingfisher can match its capabilities to meet demand of customers. For this purpose, company needs to conduct some analysis like SWOT, PESTLE and Porter's Five Force Model.  
• Marketing Strategy: For meeting the requirements of targeted customers, a strategic plan is considered as best opportunity (Kumar, Zhang and Luo, 2014). It involves segmentation, targeting and positioning process to formulate marketing plan. Under this process, segmentation in Kingfisher Plc is done on the basis of customer demographic and product benefits. After identification of market segments, marketers of Kingfisher Plc used to decide which segment they have to target. For this process, they design marketing mix strategies to meet demand of customers. This company mainly targets to upper and middle class people for selling home furnishing products.
• Marketing Mix Decisions: Tactical decisions in Kingfisher Plc. are generally made on controllable parameters of marketing mix. It includes product development, pricing strategy, promotional campaign and process. All these procedures aid to specify, design and produces the required units of product.  
• Implementation & Control:  This is the final stage where marketing plan has been developed and executed in appropriate manner.

Importance of Marketing Environment to marketing function:

Position and existence of business of a company is totally depended on marketing environment in which it operates. It includes both internal (supplier, partners, competitors, customers, market intermediaries etc.) and external environment (demographic, economic, technology, political-legal, social-cultural environment and more) which impact on functions in both negative and positive manner. Therefore, to operate and stay in marketplace for longer period, management of Kingfisher Plc is required to analyse the marketing environment as well as its components effectively (Strandvik, Holmlund and Grönroos, 2014). It is essential for planning, understanding customer's needs, tapping trends, understanding the competitors, threats and opportunities etc.

4. Interrelationship of marketing function with other departments

In Kingfisher Plc., there are various functions that are conducted for running business successfully. It includes human resource management, R&D, production, operations, marketing and sales etc. For this purpose, these functions are usually interrelated with each other. In Kingfisher Plc. interrelationship of marketing with other departments can be explained in following manner:-

• Marketing function with Human Resource Management: Both are considered as main functions where HR managers provide eligible employees in marketing department to conduct its operations (Hunt, 2018). While marketing managers help HRM in introducing the potential candidates into workplace.
• Marketing Function with Finance Department: Marketers of Kingfisher Plc. helps finance department in identifying sources from where adequate amount of funds can be raised. Similarly, finance managers give support to marketers in conducting their operations by providing sufficient amount of funds.

Conclusion

It has been summarised from this report that marketing is a main function of a company which helps in promoting its business. Through this process, organisations can bring awareness among customers about their products or services. It leads to generate high profitability by enhancing sales performance.  

References

• Brady, D. L., 2014. Essentials of international marketing. Routledge.
• Baker, M. A. and Magnini, V. P., 2016. The evolution of services marketing, hospitality marketing and building the constituency model for hospitality marketing. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 28(8). pp.1510-1534.
• Pappas, N., 2017. Effect of marketing activities, benefits, risks, confusion due to over-choice, price, quality and consumer trust on online tourism purchasing. Journal of Marketing Communications. 23(2). pp.195-218.
• Ahmed, M. U., Kristal, M. M. and Pagell, M., 2014. Impact of operational and marketing capabilities on firm performance: Evidence from economic growth and downturns. International Journal of Production Economics. 154. pp.59-71.

You may also like to read: Marketing Principles and Techniques of The Button Queen