The following report is on Tesco and is focusing on their promotional campaign. There are four parts, which make up this task, there are as follows. Task 1a - Describe the business and its aims and objectives.

> To survive.

> To grow.

> To become a market leader.

> To develop a long-standing family tradition.

> To provide an excellent service.

> To create a reputation as the best in their field.

Most commercial business want to make profit however the business in the public sector and the voluntary sector want to provide a certain standard of service also known as service level agreement.

Aim of Tesco

One of the company's aims was profit maximisation but as they have achieved this aim the next aim for them is to achieve is its customers satisfaction. The objectives that will be used to achieve this aim are explained through the SMART objective format:

Objectives of Tesco

S-specific - they should have a focus and not be vague.

The focus is to produce efficient customer service. The customer service should be improved in the next year.

M-measurable -they should include something that can be measured.

This can be measured by carrying out questionnaire from the current potential customers.

A-achievable - they should be challenging but possible.

By having good quality of goods sold then I think that they will be closer to their aim.

R-realistic - if staff thinks that they are irrelevant or if they cannot be achieved then they are ignored.

This aim is realistic because achieving customer satisfaction for tesco wouldn't be that hard. Mainly because currently they have high level of sales therefore they can have more time to focus on customers, which in long term help them to increase more sales.

T-time specific - the objective must have an end date so that success can be measured.

This new aim of tesco of improving their potential customers satisfaction should be achieved by April 2006.

Task 1 B: relate the promotional campaign to the achievement of those aims and objectives.

Promotional campaign

An advertising campaign is normally organised with the services of an advertising agency. The company employing the agency must provide clear guidelines on how the campaign should be developed. This is normally done in a campaign brief which contains the following section.

> The background of the purposed campaign.

This will include comments about the market and the organisation's current objectives. Why there is a need for some promotional activity, and how is it expected to contribute to the overall aims of the organisation.

> The objective of the promotional activity.

Along with any marketing aims it is designed to support. The objective should be clear and measurable, and given a time scale.

> The target market

These are the people the promotional activity is intended to influence. To build a customer profile all the detail about the consumer is required e.g. age, gender, income, ethnic background, where they live, interests and etc. Whilst knowing about your market it is also important to keep an eye on the competition.

> All the detail about the product

The agency should understand the process involved in the production method and identify the differences from the competitor's products, which give their product an USP (unique selling point).

> The budget

Setting a budget is very difficult, since there is not an obvious direct link between the promotion and sales departments.

> The time scale of the campaign

The advertising may need to be timed to coincide with a particular event or date e.g. New Year's Eve.

Source: BTEC national book

To achieve their aim through promotional campaign Tesco will need to first set out objectives. There have been many promotional campaign that Tesco have used the famous one which gave an image to their company was "every little helps" many big companies like Tesco use the help of tag line to give a corporate image to their company e.g. like for J Sainbury's "making life taste better" the main reason for big companies using tag lines like these are because of giving out a message that will help them sell their product however promotional campaigns are then used to provide the correct image at the right place and at the right time to the target market.

Promotional objective

> It is very important to remember that for promotional activity to be effective it must support the overall business aim.

> Organisations can have variety of aims and objectives many of which have a direct impact on marketing.

Growth

The term Growth is expressed is in 'increased sales'. This could be the amount of products sold (in units) or the overall value of the products sold in money terms.

How can promotional activity help?

> Increase overall sales of a product.

> Capture the greater market share of an established market for a company.

Profit

> Organisation can seek to improve total profit by selling more.

> They can also increase profit by improving the profit margin, which they can make on each individual product, this increases the profit without having to increase the sales.

> Promotional activity can concentrate on improving the reputation of a brand and raise brand awareness

Providing service

Providing public services is an objective associated with organisations such as health trusts, schools an employment services.

> To inform the population of the services offered

> To change the way community behaves e.g. drink and driving campaign

> To inform the community of their performances.

Survival

In some circumstances organisations find them selves merely seeking to survive. Organisations still need to sell their products and keep customers satisfied. Promotion should remain the key activity for theses organisations.

Ethics

Consumers are increasingly concerned about the organisations that put shareholder profits above everything else.

Developing promotional plan

> Outline the objectives of the campaign

> Identify the target audience

> Detail the promotional message

> Establish a promotional budget

> Select an appropriate marketing mix

> Schedule the promotion

> Evaluate the effectiveness of the promotion

Businesses that drive for higher profits and resort to cost cutting measures bring low wages and poor working conditions. Promotion has role in projecting the corporate image of an organisation.

The aim of corporate advertising and promotion is to create the image desired by a company and organisation. This may consist of a logo, a company uniform, the colour and the style of the firm's stationery.

Tesco's promotional campaign

As tesco's current aim is to provide the best customer service. They have come up with the latest offers in their store which include

> E-shopping

> Tesco extra

> Finance and insurance

> Phones and broadband

> Petrol

> 7-night holiday, 50% of on non-food items, Buy1 Get1 free and food items etc.

These are some of the way which their advertising agencies have use to firstly promote the business and increase their sales even more and to provide make their potential customers with the best offers to satisfy them.

For a big company like Tesco it is very hard for them to keep their potential customers happy at all times therefore now many of the big Tesco's are open 24hours a day. Also according to their questionnaires that they had carried out for identifying their customer needs it has shown that more and more customers will to go to Tesco rather then other companies.

Other of Tesco's promotion was to bring out the club card. This was another promotional method to keep their sales going because even though they were dedicated to keep their customers happy at the same time they didn't wanted to loose out on the sales. The way these cards worked was that every pound you spend in Tesco's store one point was added to your card and after certain amount of point you could either spend on Tesco's from online or being in store. Many other club card were issued each one was for a particular reason e.g. one for the kids was so that they could spend the points on buying games etc.

Task1 C: How does the Promotional 'P' relate to the other elements of the marketing mix?

Promotion

Promotion is an important marketing activity. Marketing is about preparing people to buy a firm's product. Even the best product, Sold in the appropriate place at the right price, may experience poor sales if promotional support is ineffective. In many markets where the competition is intense, high levels of promotional support are sometimes necessary if a product is to succeed. Promotional approach can be heavily influenced by the other elements of the marketing mix- product, price, packaging and place or distribution methods.

The decision about where to place the product for the consumer to buy it may have a significant impact on the promotional activity. If an organisation chooses to deal directly with the consumer, the direct marketing may become the main form of promotional activity otherwise it would need to use traditional method of campaign.

Promotion describes the activities undertaken to ensure the consumer knows about the product and its capabilities it is usually made up of combination of advertising, sales promotion, public relation and personal selling.

Place

Place describes the marketing decisions which are involved in ensuring products are available where the consumer would expect to buy them. Organisations can decide to sell their products through wholesaler, retailer, via vending machines, directly to consumers or using a combination of all of these. Organisations that decide to offer their products through wholesaler and retailer can rely on them to make a significant contribution to any promotional activity. However, organisation that decide to deal directly with the consumer through, for example the internet will have to undertake all the promotional activity themselves, which make an important impact on promotional activity.

Price

Unlike other marketing mix elements, pricing decisions affect profits through their impact on revenue rather then on costs. Pricing is of course the only element of the marketing mix, which generates revenue rather than costs. Pricing also has an important role in creating the overall image for the product of the company. Big organisation cannot expect to offer a high quality product with low price the price should be consistent with the overall image. In a similar way promotional activity must reflect the pricing nobody would contemplate using leaflets pushed through letterbox to promote BMW cars. The ultimate objective of pricing, as with the other elements of the marketing mix, is to produce the required level of sales so that an organisation can achieve its objectives. It is excellent customer value that attracts customers and generates sales.

There are three main types of influences on price setting in practise they are cost, competitors and demand. Mainly managers determine the prices set by the organisation.

Products

Product means the combination of goods and services that is offered to the target consumer. Many marketing managers suggest that product is the key ingredient in the successful development of a successful marketing mix. No amount of promotion, extensive distribution or attractive pricing will sell a poor product. To promote a product it is given a USP (unique selling point) advertising agencies use them to distinguish a product from its competitors.

Packaging

Packaging plays its part in the marketing mix through its role in containing, protecting and promoting the product. The role has become even more important in recent years. Successful packaging needs to be distinctive and recognisable, and fit in well with the brand images appropriate to its target market also it needs to give out the correct message about the product.

Source: BTEC national book

After understanding the marketing mix and identifying how it works it is easily noticed that marketing mix is like a life cycle, which needs each other to make the product successful. However promotional is the only stage that needs to be looked at in detail and spent time on because if the target market isn't aware of the product then the sales shouldn't be expected to be high.

Summary

For this task I had to describe the role of management and explain the promotional aspect of the marketing mix, which helps the business in achieving the businesses aims and objectives.

I think after doing this task I have learnt that for a business to promote their product and make it successful it has to focus on marketing mix because according to the research I have done I have realised that marketing mix is the key element which helps in identifying all the aspects of the product and make it successful.

I recommend that Tesco should focus on marketing mix before launching any products because if they focus on marketing mix then they could expect their product to be successful in the market, which would help in their sales.

Bibliography

Websites:

http://telegraph.digitallook.com/

Book:

BTEC national book was also: Section 3 Creative Products and Promotion

Also lecturer's notes were used:

Dates of the lectures notes on creative product and promotion

9/11/05 (Business objectives)

0/11/05 (Promotional objectives)

4/11/05 (Marketing mix)

Anzal Ali

Unit 3 creative product and Promotion