In the Tesco marketing department, advertising is the main and most important activity. This is because advertising it the first step for customers to buy the products. By advertising they can promote the products and communicate with the customers. The different ways they advertise there products are, advertising the products on billboards, the television, the internet, the radio and other media sources. They company also sponsor celebrities to advertise their products so customers will have an interest in the company and products. They also create product trials and testers, so customers can test the products before buying them. By using all these advertising techniques they can decide whether to put offers on certain products and they attract customers to come purchase the company products.
These jobs or activities carried out by the functional areas help the business to achieve its aims and objectives because, the company sells the products based on the research found. By finding out the customers needs and selling the right products, the business will meet its company objective, which is to increase sales and profits.
Marketing links to the objective, which is to promote advertising of their services and goods.
Finance
Finance is the management of money, credit, banking and investment. Finance is also the use of funds to pay for goods and services which enable a business to operate.
The business needs the finance department for to main reasons which are,
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Daily running costs- Working capital finance or revenue expenditure.
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Purchase of assets- Fixed asset finance or capital expenditure.
The finance department in the Tesco Company manage and calculate all the money being made and sent out. They calculate the profits and investment. They also handle credit cards, handle the wages given out, and transfer payment, record profits being made and then pay suppliers.
In the Tesco Company, they will manage and calculate how much money is going to be sent of to the suppliers for the products. They will also calculate how much money is being made, by counting the stock and the product prices. They will also handle the wages, by making sure credit and allowances are accurate. They also record all the money they handle on a database.
The jobs in the finance department are administrator, account managers, finance director.
Tesco employ specialist accounts to manage the finance of the company. In the company they have a two section. The first is the ‘Management accounting department. This is where they plan the company’s finance for the future. They sort out the money being made each day and sent out to suppliers. They use this to plan the budgets for the future and what they can use the money on in the future. They also plan the budgets for each department and make sure they have to stay within the budget.
Also in the finance department they make predictions and plan what should happen in the coming months and years. They create and look at the cash flow charts and break even graphs.
Cash flow charts are use to measure the cash inflow and outflow from the business.
Annual reports and financial statements are provided.
Tesco also have a finance section on their website which lets suppliers and customers know that the company are working up to there standards, and show they are being fair. On the website the company shows the financial highlights of the past year and of the months. It also shows the major shareholders and what percentage there holdings are. The revenue is also stated. The aim of all the information is to share the information with suppliers and customers.
Finance links to the objective, manage the finance section of Tesco to sure the business runs successfully.
Customer services
Customer services are a service which every company has. If a customer has a problem, they visit the Customer service department and sort it out with the staff.
Customer service is vital to Tesco, because the business use this department to make sure the company are working and selling products at their standard.
In the customer service department, staff of the company handles all the aspects of the customer services, like in bound sales, technical support, accounting and quality issues, offering and providing the consumers with information. They also give information on locations of products and services and even company information, to the consumers.
The customer service has different options that customers can use to sort out their problems because of the products, which are to ring in, use the internet to contact the company and to just use the customer service centre within the company.
Some of the jobs in this department are, Customer Service Representative, Advanced Customer Service Representative, Customer Relationship Specialist, Customer Service Clerk, Receptionist, Customer Service Team Leader, Customer Service Manager, Credit Specialist, and Technical Support Specialist. All these jobs are part of the customer service department and are very important to the company, because these people sort out customer’s problems and product problems.
The customer service links to the objective, to provide the customers with the best customer service, and to provide repeat business. Efficient, responsive and fast customer service is essential to any business, if they wish to make beneficial profits and high sales.
Research and development
Research and development is a department in a company that finds out information about products.
Research is an activity that is used to discover new products, or useful in creating a new product that customer would prefer to buy and use, also researching into the competitors products, prices and services.
Development is a process that finds out how to improve products, process them or adjust them.
The jobs in the research and development department are company representatives, Management of research,
The tasks they do are to develop and commercialize new technologies and product, like they need to go into busy places, like shopping centres and give out questionnaires or samples and found out what people think of the products. They use questionnaires to find out what people think of the products and to find out what colour, size, company make they would prefer. This is a primary research method. They have the responsibilities for planning projects, managing activities and costs. The also have to attend and deliver presentations at conferences and trade shows to launch or trail new products.
The research and development department links to the company, which is to advertise goods and services, also to find out what the customer needs, are.
The Research and Development links to the objective of increasing sales and finding out their customers needs. If the company do enough research and development on each certain product, then they can find out the customers needs from the results they figured.