Marketing is considered the heart of achieving success by an organisation in the present world. Consequently, the importance of marketing is proliferating in every sector(Bevan, 2010). In this paper, I will discuss different aspects of marketing techniques and tools. I have selected Tesco PLC and Apple Inc. to illustrate practical implementations of marketing techniques and tools.
To describe the use of marketing techniques to market products, I have selected Tesco PLCand Apple Inc. Tesco PLC is one of the leading supermarket chains in the UK. On the other hand, Apple Inc. is a technology-based company that sells personal computers and smartphones. But there are many similarities in using marketing in both of the companies. The marketing techniques used in these companies are illustrated below:
The different aspects of marketing techniques used by Tesco PLC and Apple Inc. are scrutinised below in the table:
Tesco PLC
Market Penetration | To penetrate the market, Tesco Plc tries to attract the competitor’s customers, i.e. ASDA, Sainsbury’s, etc., by providing high-quality products and services. In addition, the company also includes advertisement and promotion offers to penetrate the market. | Apple Inc. penetrates the market by providing distinctive and easy to use products and through its brand image. As a result, the company is successfully competing with Google Inc. and Microsoft Inc. using market penetration. |
Market Development | Tesco Plc uses geographic segmentation to develop a new market for their existing product. So the company always tries to expand its supermarkets and stores. | Apple Inc. creates an ecosystem in its products that is enticing to the customers. The company also uses advertisements to develop new markets. |
Product development | As a retailer company, Tesco PLC has to develop many products and services of a wide range of depth and width. As a result, the life of their products is more fluctuating than Apple Inc.’s products. | Apple Inc. has a distinctive product development strategy over its competitors. The products of Apple Inc. have robust quality materials and are outstanding. In addition, the company releases a new version of the iPhone once a year. |
Diversification | Tesco PLC maintains two different ranges of its products and services. These are “Tesco Everyday Value” and “Tesco Finest”. Each of the range has a wide variety of products with a different life cycle(Tesco plc, 2016). | Apple prefers a more negligible diversification of their products. Instead of diversification, the company sticks to the simplicity and quality of its product. So, for example, the iPhone has less variety. |
Table 1.1: The different aspects of marketing techniques used by Tesco PLC and Apple Inc
The effectiveness of the use of marketing techniques by Tesco PLC is outstanding. The company successfully positioned its brands in the UK market. The market share of the company is 29% which is well above its competitors. The number of its supermarkets is also more than the other competitors(Cave, 2002). The Clubcard, which is a part of their marketing techniques, is very popular among UK customers. Tesco is successfully taking part in new retail service with the help of their marketing techniques. The “one-stop shopping” is attracting more customers and increasing lifetime customer’s value.
There exist some limits and restrictions of marketing in the UK. These limitation and conditions are illustrated below:
Sale of Goods Act 1979: According to this law, the products and services must be matched with their description, good quality, and fit with the purpose of the consumers (Hall, Jones, and Raffo, 2004).
Trade descriptions Act1968: Tesco Plc cannot include inappropriate descriptions in its products and services according to this law.
Data Protection Act 1988: A customer’s personal information cannot be misused by a company’s marketing activities. The personal information of customers should be protected from a third party.
Voluntary Codes of advertising practice: The advertisement of products and services of a company should avoid misleading, offending contents and maintain specific rules when advertising to children.
Marketing research is a technique that can enable a company to understand the profitability or viability of new products and services through several testing(Bevan, 2010). Tesco PLC emphasises marketing research to develop a better marketing plan for their products and services. The company also uses this technique to identify the target market. Tesco PLC conducts both primary and secondary research as a part of its marketing research. The company considers sampling, quantitative and qualitative approaches to its marketing research.
Primary Marketing Research: Primary research includes face to face interviews, Questionnaires, and Surveys, etc. Using the primary marketing research results, the company can consist of better promotional offers that can attract many customers.
Secondary Marketing Research: Tesco PLC also uses secondary marketing research to analyse their competitors. As a result, the company can expand their range of food and other products and catch new customers using secondary research.
In the UK, there exist several limitations to conducting marketing research. Some of these limitations are illustrated below:
Time Constraints: Conducting effective marketing research can be very time-consuming. Some of the tools used by Tesco PLC for marketing research, i.e. surveys, need lots of time and efforts to fetch more reliable data.
Reliability of data: The reliability of collected data determines the effectiveness and accuracy of the research. So the company must ensure that the data collected for conducting marketing research is uncompromised and accurate.
Data Protection Act 1988: According to this law, the company cannot use the customer’s personal information in its marketing research. This law also prevents the holding of customer’s data for more than a specified time.
Budgetary Constraints: Collecting and processing data for marketing is very costly. So the company has to select the most effective research technique or use the secondary data source to minimise cost.
I can suggest some recommendations for Tesco PLC that may ensure the validity of its marketing research. These recommendations are presented below:
Asking specific & objective questions: The Company should use specific and objective questions to get the desired data from the customers.
Using representative sample: As most of the marketing research of this company includes cross-section target groups, the company should use a representative sample (Dibb, 2006).
Include screening questions: The Company can include screening questions to avoid respondents from the non-targeted groups.
Tesco PLC uses three techniques to set its marketing plan. The marketing research results can be used in these techniques(BEVAN, COUPLAND-SMITH, and DRANSFIELD, 2010).
Tesco PLC targets groups of customers using market segmentation. The company can use several types of market segmentation. These market segmentation include geographic segmentation, demographic segmentation, Behavioural segmentation, Psychographic segmentation, Occasional segmentation, etc. The people of different segments have a different set of interests, preferences, and demands. For example, kids have different sets of choices from aged people (Richards, 2010).
Tesco is going to launch a new flavoured Diet Cola in the market. The product will be part of Tesco Finest(Tesco plc, 2016). The coherent marketing mix for this product is illustrated below:
Product: This product is a carbonated drink with cola and mint flavour with sweeteners. The products’ ingredients are carbonated water, vegetable and fruit concentration, mint and cola flavour, acid and preservation, etc.
Price: Considering the price of competitors and manufacturing cost, a 2-litre container will be sold at £0.55.
Place: The product will be available at all of the Grocery stores of Tesco PLC. The company also will make this product available for E-commerce.
Promotion: The price of 2 Tesco Diet Cola will be £0.90 as a part of the promotion.
The marketing mix of the new flavour Diet Cola is based on teenage customers. Teenage customers like mint flavour. So the company has added mint flavour with Coal and created a new flavour. The price of this product is also reasonably low. The company will offer a promotional offer to attract teenage customers(Tesco plc, 2016).
In the end, it can be said that the effective use of marketing techniques and tools is the key to success for every organisation. For example, the growth and development of Tesco PLC in the UK retail market have been achieved with the help of effective implementation of marketing planning.
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