Business & Marketing



4000310515center[Date]3300095000[Date]42000326390088000885126545000032645351874520Business & Marketing450000Business & MarketingBusiness & MarketingTask 1 A:MarketingThe marketing is consider the backbone of the business because through marketing the organization provides the information to its customers about its products and services. If the business does not perform marketing activities than it will unable to grab the attention of the customers which leads to decrease in sales and overall profitability. The marketing is broad term which includes various activities such as advertisement, promotion, setting prices and distribution strategy. The successful marketing strategy determines the success and failure of the business. Role of Marketing in BusinessMarketing plays significant role in sales generation and making the business profitable. The aim of the marketing activities is to attract the customers toward its products through attractive advertisement. The organizations today use various marketing gimmicks to grab the attention of the customers. The marketing activities allow the organization to know the needs and preferences of the customers. The marketing department in the corporation closely work with the sales and customer services department. The overall aim of the marketing department is to increase the customer awareness and creating customer loyalty. With the passage of time the marketing activities help the business to create brand image in the customer mind.Functions of MarketingThe marketing perform various functions which include customer support, product development & designing, Market information, Branding, packaging and standardization etc. Usually many people think that marketing is only the name of advertisement and increasing the sales of the organization. However in reality the advertisement is just a small part of the marketing strategies. The marketing functions starts when the corporation thinks about launching a new product. After that the business design the product and gather the information from the market to know what the customers are looking for and how the business can meet the needs of its customers efficiently.Departments in OrganizationIn huge organizations there are many departments which work together to achieve the common goal of the corporations. The small corporations have few departments however in large corporations the number of departments can increase according to the tasks or activities it’s provide to its customers. The main departments which are usually include in almost every organization are mentioned as follows:PurchaseManufacturingFinanceMarketingHuman resourceSalesAdministrationPurchaseThe purchase department perform and manages the activities regarding the purchases. The organization purchase material, supplies and equipment for the production activity. The individuals of the purchase department keep record of the purchases.SalesThe sales department is the most important department in the organization because it is responsible for the revenue generation. The sales department evaluates the volume of sales and keep record of the sales trends. The other department of the corporation are also linked with the sales department especially production department.Human Resource DepartmentThe human resource department work closely with the employees and address their issues. The HR department is responsible for recruitment of the employees and providing those incentives, bonuses and other remunerations. HR department aims is to evaluate the performance of the employees.Manufacturing:Organization depend on that type, may be manufacturing one of the functional departments, all processing of product services deal with this.Finance:Within an organization the main function of the finance department is that they make sure about the stability of financial as well as to support day-to-day transaction a steady cash flow. Administration:To all most all organization the administration function is integral.Task 1: b:Marketing Importance in business Marketing is a key to ensure business success. Successful marketing is required for different aspects of business. Marketing includes sales promotions, electronic and print media advertising and public relations campaigns. In short, Marketing refers to a comprehensive of introducing and promoting products and services to the potential and targeted customers of the company. Business sometimes offers products and services with best quality and features in that industry, but because of lack of marketing company fails to make the customers able to recognize their product/ service. Sales can be crashed and companies can be closed if there is no marketing efforts done by the company.Getting Word OutPotential buyers must have knowledge about the product or service in order to make the business succeed. Company should have strong communication network with targeted customers and Business should be known in the society to make the customers aware about the products/services. Business cannot get success in the market unless the customers are aware with their products and services. Increase in sales Chances of purchase increases for the products and services offered by the company when consumer get it on the radar screen of prospects. Awareness also benefit the company in other ways, as customers discuss the product and service related information with their family members and friends. Thus it becomes word of mouth. With increase in word spreads sales also increases. Reputation of the CompanySolid reputation is also desired to ensure success of a company. Marketing can develop strategy for product recall and recognition of brand name with a company. Reputation of a company stands on the firmer ground when public expectations towards a company goes towards increase. Sales increase and business expands as reputation of a company grows. Healthy CompetitionIn the market place environment can be fostered for healthy completion with the help of Marketing. Efforts done for marketing get the word out regarding prices of services and products for intended consumers. Marketing keep the optimal and competitive prices and reduces the chances of price monopoly in the market. Without market competition, companies having strong positioning in the market would continue to sell out their services and products while companies that are not well known in the society would face failure in the market. ConsiderationsEven marketing has great importance for business success but still can be proved really expensive for the business. In the initial stage companies sometimes spend almost 50% (annually) of their revenue on marketing efforts. However, after that companies can maintain their marketing budget by reducing it to 30% of total revenue/sales. Task 2: a:ZaraZara is working as a clothing retailers with 2200 stores in 96 different countries of the world. Zara is considered as flagship brand in the Inditex Groups. Zara has capability and quality to develop and bring a product in the stores within the short duration of 2 week. While on the other hand competitors companies usually do the same process in 6 month duration. In 2017, Zara introduced 38 new home locations and 51 retailing stores. In Spain market Zara has more than 563 stores for kids and home location therefore Spain is considered as biggest market. While in Russia total number of stores are 144, in China 223 stores, United States 87, and in France 150. According to the records of 2017, total online sales of the brand are 41% of total revenue generated by the Zara brand. Online sales are open in 5 countries including Vietnam, Malaysia, India, Thailand, and Singapore. Zara was co-founded by Rosalia Mera and her husband. In 2013, Rosalia Mera died as the wealthiest self-made women over the globe. According to records she had assets of more than 6.1 Billion dollar. ASOSASOS Company is known in the United Kingdom market as market leader of online retailing fashion industry. ASOS Company offers Designer goods, own-label, and branded fashion. In Camden Town in North London ASOS company headquarters is established. Brand name is abbreviation of “As Seen On Screen” (). In 2000, two people started up the online fashion platform with the idea to bring latest fashion more quickly to the customer than the physical retailers. Each week company introduces 1000 new product. With more than 22000 product styles retailer brand is the largest fashion e-retailer in United Kingdom. According to the estimations total customer attracted in one month duration are over five million visitors for the??website. While customers who bought products in last 6 month are more than 1.2 million active customers. In 2008, Retail Week Awards entitled ASOS “Online Retailer of the Year”. Marketing mix of ZaraProduct Zara Fashion brand is famous as the?“Coca Cola”?(very famous soft-drink selling company over the Globe) of fashion that shows the craziness of customers towards Zara. Brand responds to the customer needs and requirements very quickly. Products are fully manufactured in the company as rather than manufactured through outsource. Selling preposition for Zara brand is to develop latest trends. Zara introduces new product styles in the stores within 2-4 weeks. Company immediate pull off the products from store shelves that do not meet the expected sales. PricingZara brand provide products at reasonable prices. In some stores brand has Premium pricing strategy. While in other stores pricing level is really reasonable for targeted customers. Cream customers sometimes compare the products introduced by Zara brand with Hugo Boss brand. Somehow, customer usually consider that prices of Zara brand products are quite reasonable in fashion industry. The?pricing of Zara products are made possible by training costs and optimizing?development.Promotions Marketing policy of Zara is really unique as they follows “0% investment in marketing policy”. Zara use marketing strategies particularly advertisement while opening and introducing new stores. Zara create differentiation in the fashion industry by understanding the differences and requirements of their targeted customers. In short, product affordability, customer experience, and differentiation create marketing strategy for the Zara products. Place Vertical integration strategy in retailing is the major factor that makes the Zara brand unique in the fashion industry. Vertical integration strategy means that Zara brand manufacture, designs clothing, and distributed their products by themselves. Strategy is successfully working for the company as company becoming market leader all over the world as Spanish fashion retailer. In more than 30 countries including Asian countries such china and India brand is currently working and still it is growing rapidly in other geographical areas. Therefore, there is possibility that in future we will see more new outlets and stores of Zara brand in the other countries also. Positioning Targeted customers of the brand are young customers. Basically, Zara is targeting audience?of millennial generation. Targeted young people are price sensitive. They want trendy but affordable fashion. Through low prices and latest styles brand is sharply targeting young people of selected geographical region. Brand is lowering prices without compromising on the quality standards. Even fabric quality for clothing is good but it is meant that product will be only used for a season. Main targeted audience of Zara are young woman (Harbott, 2011). While men and kids comprise small segments of the brand. In order words, 40 of the total targeted market is for men and kids and the remaining 60% targeted market is covered by the woman segment. People:Regarding service brand is concerned with responsiveness speed, while on the other hand brand is also spending big amount of money and time to train their staff for effective operations. Physical Evidence:Stores provide big variety of choice with friendly and welcoming environment. Marketing mix of ASOS:Product in the marketing mix of ASOS ASOS e-retailer provide products relatively similar to the products seen by the customers on celebrities. Major products offered to male and female targeted market are coats, dresses, and footwear of several kinds and material. Little ASOS is recently introduced by the ASOS that covers the kid segment to provide clothing and beauty products (such as products of famous beauty brand Bourjois) of the Children. Even ASOS is operating online but the products offered by them are relatively similar to the products offered by the High street stores. However, ASOS products are offered with best quality and affordable prices to their customers. ASOS online platform sell out products of brands including Nike, people tree, Calvin Klein, People tree, and Karen Millen. Price in the marketing mix of ASOSPricing strategy is kept reasonable at ASOS; nevertheless certain products are really expensive. The pricing strategy highly depends upon the kind of product offered to the customer. Mostly products sold by the brand?are products that are relatively similar to the products worn by the celebrities but offered at cheaper rates. Delivery charge is the key difference between the ASOS services and services of high street stores.?According to estimate, 7 percent of the total users or purchasers purchases with the basket size of 39.32 euro to 48.80 euro.? When offered products reduces by 50 present or more than through ASOS outlet section of the e-commerce website it is considered as regular sales at ASOS. Place in the marketing mix of ASOS As a click business operations of ASOS are limited to internet or e-commerce only. Internet based business activities means there are no physical stores and outlets established by the company for physical customers visit. Customers just have to log-in their account, chose the products and just make orders to purchase it. Company keep inventory in the Warehouse or stores and sent the products from these locations to the customers on orders. provide delivery services for their products all over the UK with reasonable delivery charges for their delivery services, nonetheless company sometimes do not apply delivery charges. Five years ago ASOS entered in the business market with small warehouse approximately covering 550 square metres area where they were used to keep inventory. However, current size of warehouse is 32,500 square that is almost equal to the 5 football pitches, and the first warehouse was only equal to the single football pitch. Promotion in the marketing mix of ASOS Discount codes are the major source of promotion used by the to get attraction of their customers. To promote the business they also advertise and send emails to their registered customers. In emails they share information regarding new sales and products of the . Moreover, customer also receive booklets and leaflets after purchasing from the e-commerce website. Another activity related to business promotion is to advertise in magazines. Basically website is the key method of promotion. Advertisement includes images and information of the products. While fashion blogs covers information regarding cat walk model videos, news about celebrities, and latest fashion trends. also use social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook for advertisement. ASOS has accounts on websites such as Twitter and Facebook that customers can join to get regular updates about the fashion trends and new products. People in the marketing mix of ASOS Customer service of employees working in ASOS is different in comparison to the customer service offered by the High street stores. The major reason behind this is that they deal with the customers through emails and phone calls rather than meeting customers face to face. Different skills for employees are required to make them able to deal with the raised problems and conflicts faced by the customers. Different skills are also required for employees who are working in the warehouse of the company for inventory management and to make it sure that right goods are going to be delivered to the customers. Employees of company having marketing and website designing skills are responsible for the management of their website. In the beginning there were only 47 employees but now the total number of employees are more than 250. Increase in the human resources is a clear indicator of increase in business. Process in the marketing mix of ASOS Shopping process of the ASOS Company is almost quite different from other competitors particularly from the process of high street stores. While purchasing from the ASOS customers can only view the product image and its information but they are not able to touch and feel the products personally. Customer can only select their products that will be placed in the baskets and delivered to the customers after payment through credit cards. However, in the whole process secure technology such as gateways are used for security. Customers are required to wait for the delivery of their products via post. However, there is no face to face service offered by the ASOS for their customers, as they can only get help through feedback and FAQ, therefore process of ASOS is quite different from the process of other stores. While zoom option is available for the customers to view the product images clearly.Physical evidence in the marketing mix of ASOS There is no physical evidence in the marketing mix of the ASOS as the business of the company is based on e-commerce and online retailing through internet. The only physical evidence is receipt received by the customers for the products ordered. Website of the company is updated on regular basis with promotion related information and new products introduced. Website of the company is quite user friendly, there are different section for men and women. Website has droop down list projecting different sections and areas of the website to help out the customers reach their desired products. Multimedia resources, moving banners, and videos are available in the website to get customers attraction and to help out them in feeling the same relief and experience of physical shopping at high street stores. 2: b:Zara’s Marketing Strategy to achieve objectivesZara Company has unique marketing strategy for the promotion of their products. Estimated budget for promotion related activities is limited to 0.3 of total revenue. Because of this, we never find brand advertisement on posters and televisions. In marketing mix brand concentrate more on place, product and price as compared to the promotion. Very often Zara use advertisement and sales promotions as other competitors of the company. One more interesting thing about Zara is that they never place logo and brand name on their products. Even Zara is far away from personal selling efforts. However, their competitor companies such as J2 clothing is highly indulge in the promotion and personal selling related activities. In stores, customer service of Zara is not enough strong. The major reason behind the success of their stores is their innovative products and affordable pricing strategy. Moreover, remarkable logistics and quick operations makes the brand unique. In accordance with the information published in a magazine, in every week Zara produces new products that makes the company get title for fast fashion. However, because of this customers are need to check and visit stores continuously otherwise popular products of Zara may disappear from the shelves of the company within few days. Marketing Strategy of ASOS to achieve objectivesThe targeted or selected audience in accordance to the demographic segmentation is the individual people under the age range of 16 to 34 years old. Individual customers require latest fashion oriented products and ASOS Company offers them platform through which they can access these products. Highlights of ASOS Marketing Strategy:Positioning: ASOS is known as market leader in UK that provides products related to the fashion of celebrities at relatively lower rates than market and company pays emphasis on the designs and fashion trends of their products. Product Life Cycle: In accordance with the information provided by the Nigel, Stuart and Robert in 2004, business model of ASOS is dealing with the” the behavior of both customers and competitors during the life of a product or service.”In 2009, an article published by The Times elaborated the product life cycle of the ASOS that is presented below briefly: Introduction- Company provide information and spread awareness in the customers through the use of website links at their home page of ASOS website and also use ads for this purpose by different media. Rapid growth- the company is getting famous between public and earning huge profit which is expending day by day so the company ASOS (as seen on screen) is going to have another huge warehouse to keep the stock available and easy to reach from every outlet of the company. The new and big warehouse is becoming an essential need due to increase in sale. This news of warehouse is comes out with source of The Yorkshire Post in year of 2010. Maturity and SaturationThe Company is expanding its business so the new ways for marketing are also required. On this basis the management of company decided to start doing marketing on their own website just like the marketing is done by media. At saturation, to increase the sale and to introduce the new products in regular supply ASOS have to spilt over its all previous collection DeclineNowadays the fashion industry has grown well. hundreds of latest designs comes and go within days so at this point the public does not ?take interest in product that looks even a bit old fashion ?or cheaper. In this case ASOS also have to introduce new and latest fashion designs. That’s why ASOS launch more than 1500 products only in one week during the year of 2011??As compare to the other brands ASOS enjoys more long life because the company have collaboration with international market. The trends in other country does not change as quickly as in UK and have different fashion this made a huge verity in products and the company earns more profit?Extension Strategies: to get attraction of their customer company is collaborating with famous designers. Designers featured are popular in the stores of High streets that ASOS can provide at their website for e-retailing. Task 3:Strategic marketing plan for ZARA Inc. & its international expansion into PakistanThe proposed strategies of Zara are related to the two major area 1) various brand extensions, and 2) bringing the current strategies of company in the market of Pakistan. Company used the Design thinking mind-set while approaching and selecting these extension strategies (Turnali, 2015). The strategies are based on the approach of Human centric that is proposed to identify major extension strategies that can help out the company to increase relationship with Pakistan and the way to produce product according to the customer’s requirements. Bringing existing strategies to Pakistan MarketAppropriate proposed extension strategies to bring the business in the Pakistan market covers the following:Interactive fitting rooms having additional proposed features, active wear, initiatives related to sustainability known as ‘Closing the loops’, E-commerce, and Join Life. Zara brand basically relies on the uniform brand identity, however, in all market this aspect has not given enough importance, as a result of this brand create the situation of incoherence. Thus through the implementation of these kind of strategies in Pakistan and other geographical regions by the brand, customer will expect that Zara brand is offering same services over the world, that promote coherence of the brand. E-commerceAt the first, e-retailing website is essential of strategies to bring the business of the brand in the markets of Pakistan (Inditex, 2017). From 93 markets, Zara is only providing their e-commerce services in 27 markets. Current CEO of the company is Pablo Isla. According to him customer spending recorded for e-commerce website is more than the customer spending on their stores (Jessup, 2010; Kowsmann, 2017). Basically the major reason behind this is Omni- Channel, in accordance to this channel customer can return back their purchased product if they do not find it according to their requirements. However, customers are also provided customer service from their employees that help out the customer in accessing sizes and variety of the products that is not available to the physical stores. E-commerce trend is rapidly growing In Pakistan, customers are requiring more convenient services for shopping. According to the records of 2016, more than 43% from all the adult population of Pakistan purchased online products, that clearly shows that in South Africa sales will be increase in 2018 by R53 billion. Retail market is moving towards online platform. Moreover, primary research studies indicated the potential of customers towards online sales. As people of Pakistan will prefer to purchase product of Zara through online platform if serviced are offered to them. Active wearAs ??it is mentioned previously, a standard of living trend that has an impact on the fashion industry is that customers are turn to be more focused on the wellness and health that had led to a boost in athletic wear demand in the market (The Business of Fashion & McKinsey and Company, 2016). Zara present a line of active wear, but in?Pakistan?it is not accessible (Feller, 2016). Athleisure has become a main trend for consumers in Pakistan, where sports clothing has grown-up by 6 present previous year alone (Euromonitor, 2017). It is predictable that market of sportswear in?Pakistan will by 2021 arrive at R70 billion (Euromonitor, 2017). Furthermore, in carrying out mainly it was found that participant’s majority would acquire active wear line of Zara’s if it was accessible in?Pakistan.Sustainability initiatives ‘Closing the loop’ and ‘Join Life’It is discussed before; the consumers are turning to be more conscious about the environmental (Keller et al., 2014). On the other hand, a major issue with sustainability initiatives of Zara that are targeted to customers. Their collecting initiative of garment ‘Closing the loop’ is simply available in 5 out of 93 markets in which they function, excluding Pakistan?(Inditex, 2017). Through main research, it was establish that their line of sustainable fashion ‘Join Life’ is not accessible in?Pakistan. In difference, H&M’s corresponding initiatives are available in market of Pakistan, that is also their competitive benefit over Zara, and as a result if Zara wish for taking this benefit away from this company, they want to recommend their initiatives in?Pakistan (Pratap, 2017). In Pakistan, it was establish that 43 percent of customers said that commitment of this company to environment influenced their decision of purchase (Kgosiemang, 2015). And as a result if Zara present these initiatives in?Pakistan, they may able to get together needs of consumers about purchases that environment friendly, ?and also encourage a sustainable practice brand in ?Pakistan market.Interactive fitting roomsThe Zara present interactive fitting rooms in some of their markets, that allow the customers to ask for the recommendation from staff and also information on a garment, for example different sizes and that it is available in stores, through tablet devices placed in all fitting room (Inditex, 2015). Even though this is a helpful feature, ‘smart’ dressing rooms are bringing a novel initiative of virtual dressing rooms, where customers are capable of trying clothes without taking them off, it is the benefit that it saves time of the consumers in trying clothes, and permit them to try different styles or sizes without having to looking for it in store (Ruddick, 2014; Riccio, 2015). By including this dressing room in the stores, they might be able to offer their customers with a memorable and unique experience in store that can bring about brand devotion for company (Riccio, 2015). Particularly in?Pakistan, there is a fashion moving towards providing consumers a motivation to visit a physical store of clothing, rather than shopping online, that creates a unforgettable consumer experience and it is also likely to increases the overall customers loyalty of brand (Begg, 2014). There is a primary method that has been referred to the porter through the use of differentiation strategy the company can achieve a competitive advantage over the other company. And it can be seen that he word differentiation means that the company is delivering a unique thing than the other company and is able to attract better advantage from the other company (Amadeo, 2017). ?If the company wanted to implement this common strategy in Pakistan so that the company must have to analyze its most closest competitor in the market that are involve in giving these products in the stores. On the other side the company also ensures that there are some virtual dressing rooms in the shops so that they are able to complete the requirements of their customers (Inditex, 2015).Brand extensions?This condition occurs when the company is focusing on enhancing their products and wanted to offer more new products in the market and the horizontal marketing deal with those products that are similar with the old product but has been offered new in the market Klopper and North, 2011).There are a lot of benefits if the company is offering brand extensions and these include it will allow the organization to increase their investment and also enhance their name of the brand and the last benefit is that they have gained popularity from the customers (Klopper and North, 2011). It has been seen that many customers use their past experience from choosing the brand so that they can easily assess towards their brand extension. The main advantage of their past experience is that they will be very low risk of low quality in the future after the brand extension and also there will be no trust issues. Like an example it can be seen that most people trust Zara brand and many customers are loyal with this brand and wanted to purchase many things from this brand in the future means that there will be no trust issue with Zara brand (Klopper and North, 2011; Petro, 2013). As it can be seen that the Zara brand is involved in selling very small selection of under garments but they have proposed many unique and new brand extension for their customers for increasing their revenue in the future (Infoentrepreneurs, 2009).It has been seen that from the Euro monitor the worth of the underwear marketing is only $110 Billion (Abnett, 2015) and this worth has been used in fast fashion companies in that company. It can be explained from an easy example that there are two shops named as Forever 21 and top shop are involved in making their own underwear Abnett, 2015). And these companies have a very high competitive advantage over the new entrants in the market of underwear but there are some small brands that are involved in traditional lingerie brands so that many customers in that country prefer this brand (Abnett, 2015).The night wear market is growing with the passage of time and many brands have change their strategies by keeping the popularity of the night wear industry. The global night wear market has reached up to $29.2 billion which indicates good opportunity for many major clothing brands. The major reason for increase in the nightwear clothing is the consumer trends around the world. (Mellery-Pratt, 2016). ?Over the years the nightwear have become quite stylish and people today can wear the night wear on weekends and other days when they are at their home relaxing.The Fast moving fashion brands have realized the profitability of this industry that is why brands like Top shop have started manufacturing luxury nightwear products for the customers. It means that Zara have the opportunity to create nightwear product for their customers so that the need and demand of the customers can be fulfilled. (Mellery-Pratt, 2016). ?In Pakistani market Zara brand can provide nightwear clothing to the customers because there are consumers who prefer wearing nightwear at home or during weekends. Moreover this strategy will provide Zara a competitive edge over the other international fast moving fashion brands. In clothing industry the level of competition is very high.Referencing:Bhasin, H. (2018).?Marketing mix of Zara - Zara marketing mix and 4 Ps of Zara brand. [online] Marketing91. Available at: [Accessed 1 Dec. 2018].Zara brand analysis. (2018).?7. STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATIONS. [online] Available at: [Accessed 2 Dec. 2018].Monica Majumdar's blog. (2018).?What are the 7 p's and how does ASOS use the 7 p's? (P1/M2). [online] Available at: [Accessed 4 Dec. 2018].. (2018).?What comes after those ellipses?. [online] Available at: [Accessed 5 Dec. 2018].tutor2u. (2018).?Marketing: Role of Marketing in Business (GCSE) | tutor2u Business. [online] Available at: [Accessed 5 Dec. 2018].Gktoday.in. (2018).?Functions of Marketing - General Knowledge Today. [online] Available at: [Accessed 7 Dec. 2018].. (2018).?Functional Areas of Organization. [online] Available at: [Accessed 5 Dec. 2018].Anon, (2018). [online] Available at: [Accessed 7 Dec. 2018].. (2018).?Current and future marketing plan of asos. [online] Available at: [Accessed 9 Dec. 2018]. ................
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