Part One: Elements of the marketing mix

In the context of the digital world, it is a type of marketing that is broadly utilised for promoting services and products by digital technology. According to Peter and Dalla Vecchia (2021), digital marketing tends to proceed beyond internet marketing, including the channels of the internet. On the other hand, the marketing mix focuses on the comprehensive part of the marketing plan. As such, the concerned term frequently refers to the fundamental classification that starts as the four Ps such as promotion, placement, price, and product.

It is noteworthy that effective marketing touches a wide range of areas that are to be opposed for fixating on one message. As expressed by Bala and Verma (2018), the elements of the marketing mix help to enhance a broad audience by keeping the four Ps in mind. Herein the marketing professionals are able in to maintain emphasise on the things that provide a positive manner. Based on this fact, it can be stated that emphasising the marketing mix assistant in making the strategic decisions while launching the new goods or revising the existed products (Jain and Yadav 2017).

The current report aims to analyse and identify the elements of the marketing mix of Tesco PLC., taking into account the product of Tesco Tea; the strategy will be analysed as well. At the end of the report, a research plan will be created as well.

a) Features of the Tesco Tea

Tesco Tea was the first own branded product that was sold to its customers. Founder Jack promised that it could be brought to the unequal values. However, the name came from the taken from the initials of TE Stockwell, who was the partner of the firm named ‘Tea Suppliers’. Also, ‘CO’ took from the surname of Jack (Tescoplc.com 2022).

In terms of features, it can be stated that Tesco tea has been identified as the healthiest drink across the globe. Incorporating the appropriate methods and the ingredients, the tea helps to gain several health benefits by drinking the Tesco Tea. During the first launch, following the little lifestyle changes as well as consuming the said tea on a regular basis, the consumers can cure the particular health benefits such as detoxification, digestion and losing weight. It is noteworthy that the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants help to enhance recovering, refreshing and relaxing the mind of the target individuals (Wood, Wrigley and Coe 2017). Herein, the said products contain the essential flavours and the oils. Herein, it is important to drink herbal tea, which is 100% original.

a) Features of the Tesco Tea

Marketing Mix

The concerned product of Tesco PLC can be considered as a leading brand in the Britain supermarket. It has been managed for the popularity of the consumer as it has crossed several stores across the globe. Based on the above discussion, the following marketing mix can be done.

Product: Tesco PLC provides a broad range of products, including electronics, clothing, food and financial services. However, in order to expand their product Tesco Tea, then the line has been catered towards the possible needs of its consumers as well as expanding into the virtual marketing sector (Adjudicator 2016). As it delivers the delivery service of the grocery, therefore, currently it contains near about 40,000 product lines by exhibiting its retailed stores.

Price: Tesco Tea is under the Differentiation Strategy, following which it maintains the low precision for its high quality of products. In order to pass the advantages of its cost towards its target audience, including making them satisfied, a number of measurements are utilised that includes the economics of scale. The low price strategy is used for the concerned product as it makes them satisfied over the years and makes it possible for Tesco in surpassing its all expectations (Awadari and Kanwal 2019). In order to turn out to be the leading supermarket chain, herein, Tesco has left the similar existing brand in the context of the UK.

Place: Apart from its headquarter, Tesco stores have been spread wide and far across the globe. Currently, in regard to Tesco Tea, it employs the two key channels of distribution for its services and the products in both offline and online mode. It is noteworthy that in regard to the offline forum, the stores of Tesco contains six different kinds such as ‘Tesco Extra’, ‘Tesco Express’, ‘Tesco Compact’, ‘Tesco Metro’, ‘Tesco Superstore’, ‘Tesco Home plus’. The previous research regarding Tesco PLC depicts that a large base of customers is seen to be not comfortable with the big outlets of Tesco as it is not possible to establish several of them (Student 2021). Therefore, Tesco has made similar outlets for its easiest accessibility. The online forum of Tesco is seen to be comprised in a direct manner in its official website ‘Tesco.com’.

Promotions: It is noteworthy that the biggest advantage of Tesco Tea is its low pricing. Therefore the brand is being promoted by enhancing the brand image. However, the key objectives have always been tending to improve the brand image through decreasing the costs as well as being authentic to its target audience. However, by maximising the profit, it makes the utilisation of its TV advertisement through which it promotes its discount of the promotions, sponsorship towards the charitable events and utilising the saving strategies. It is noteworthy that with the help of the ‘Advertisement Strategy, Tesco Tea is basically emphasised its low price along with offering several attractive offers to its customers throughout the year. As for example, through the advertisement, the offers such as ‘Half Price’, ‘Buy one get one free’ are being strived its target customers to purchase more along with providing the opportunity of saving.

Marketing Mix

Based on the discussion made about the marketing mix stated above, it can be stated that Tesco Tea or the firm Tesco PLC can be taken into account as an appropriate example in achieving success following the marketing orientation plan. As such, it has been understood that by adapting the model of transformation, Tesco PLC has enhanced its corporate value into the unification of both the management strategy and the marketing strategy. In respect to the fundamental purpose of the process management, the concerned product is seen to affect the customers in an adverse way for both long and the short term period (Vu 2016). Herein it can be justified that the company Tesco PLC focus the ‘Customers first’ strategy as a fundamental ingredient for the success of Tesco, which is a positive aspect. It can be considered as a clear opposition to the traditional concept of retail marketing considering the process of distribution. Being focused on the target customers, the hierarchical department of Tesco believes in the loyalty scheme like ‘Tesco Club-card’ as a fact of its long-termed investment in benefits of both markets and the customers. However, some previous researchers believe in the significance of loyalty schemes.

On the other hand, considering both promotional and pricing strategies, it can be stated that the argument can be considered as a thinking loyalty scheme through which Tesco can effectively measure the concept of customer loyalty, value, frequency and regency in an effective manner. With the help of the concerned element, Tesco has been able to create the customers’ value for earning lifetime loyalty as a part of the positive aspect.

Another area to be analysed here is the diversification and product portfolio. Here, after a certain continuous expansion, the concerned firm has been able to offer a broad range of services of products (Vu 2016). However, it is worth to mention that with the help of market development, market penetration, diversification and product development, the concerned strategies have been seen as not exclusive and can be utilised for combining the big companies in the near future.

While conducting the marketing research, the following primary methods will be considered:

Interviews: Interviews will be used by taking one to questions or the small group of the question-answer session with two managers of Tesco PLC. Taking into account the outbreak situation of the coronavirus pandemic, a telephonic interview will be done in this regard. Herein, a broad amount of information will be gathered from the tiny sample of the subject. Also, the interview will be used for obtaining information from an expert regarding the specialist topic. Such type of research will remain highly personal as the follow-up questions can ask for ensuring clarity.

b) Analysing positive and the negative aspects of the marketing mix:

Surveys: An online survey will be conducted with the 50 loyal customers of Tesco Tea. The online survey will remain as the cost-effective and convenient solution by utilising the response from a large number of participants (Creswell and Hirose 2019). Here a set of the questionnaire will be sent to the participants via Google Docs, and the rate of response can vary.

Observations: The approach of observation will be carried out in an impartial way. As such, through observing the event as well as taking some organised notes, direct interaction will be done between the subject and the researcher. The concerned method will remove the significant bias that can be encountered during both the survey and the interview as the encounters help to observe the genuine reactions. It is noteworthy that the process of observations can continue by the observed trainer or the camera (Waller and Kaplan 2018).

On the other hand, the following secondary sources will be used:

1. Gordon, W. and Langmaid, R., 2022. Qualitative market research: a practitioner’s and buyer’s guide. Routledge.
2. Erickson, G.S., 2017. New methods of market research and analysis. Edward Elgar Publishing.
3. Mooi, E., Sarstedt, M. and Mooi-Reci, I., 2017. Market research: The process, data, and methods using Stata. Springer.

Justification for interviews: The interviews method is useful as being a primary data collection technique; it helps to gather the phases of system analysis in regard to the market research. Also, rather than the other primary data collection method, only the interview method is being mastered by the individual analyst. For example, with the help of the interview, it is expected that the researchers will be able to determine the expected information to be gathered along with having the depth and quality information.

Justification for surveys: With the help of the survey method, the characteristics of the broad population are described. Except for the survey, no other primary data collection method can able to provide this wide capability. As a result, it is expected that the concerned method will ensure much accurate sample in order to collect the target results. For example, based on this result, the conclusions will be drawn along with making the significant decisions related to the market research.

Justification for observations: While gathering data depending on the individual interactions or the behaviour between the people, the process of observation is expected to allow watching the behaviour of the individuals along with making the interactions in a direct manner. For example, Depending on the interactions, behaviours or results, the observation process embraces the physical setting as well.

Justification for secondary sources: As the secondary sources are already published; therefore the relevant data can be used and gathered, unlike the primary research. For example, the previous research area is already authentic and will be appeared as less time consuming and expensive due to the availability of the required data (Krusenvik 2016). The concerned data is affordable and will be extracted from authentic books and journals.

Part Two: Identify research requirements

Research brief: In order to conduct the market research, a survey, interview and observation process will be followed. Following this process, the information will be gathered regarding the preferences and the needs of the customers. Interviews will be conducted by asking one or two Tesco PLC management a series of questions or conducting a small group question-and-answer session. A telephone interview would be conducted in this respect, taking into account the current epidemic status of the coronavirus pandemic. Tesco Tea will undertake an online poll of its 50 most loyal consumers. By utilising responses from a wide number of people, an online survey will remain a cost-effective and convenient option. Participants will be issued a set of questionnaires using Google Docs, and response rates may vary. The observation will be conducted in a neutral manner. As a result, the subject and the researcher will have direct engagement by viewing the event and taking some organised notes.

• To conduct market research
• To gather information about the customers’ preferences
• To identify the areas to be improved in the near future

With the help of this research, both external and internal data will be collected. For the survey, the data will be represented in a statistical format, whereas for the secondary sources, the data will be represented in a descriptive way. It is noteworthy that considering the research objectives, the interview session will help to analyse the external issue of the product and the organisation. Apart from that, the survey session will help to collect the actual data that is required for understanding the customers’ preferences. In addition to the above, in order to improve the data in the near future, the observation method will help to focus on the area to be improved in an appropriate manner.

Based on the above Gantt chart, it can be stated that in terms of strengths, the Gantt chart is used as a timeline based on which the completion of the tasks can be represented for the research. Also, the Gantt chart has been provided with the progress and the activities of the project as well. However, there is some weakness as well. As such Gantt chart fails to undermine subtasks of the main tasks for which the task can make changes and can affect the schedule in a broad manner. It is noteworthy that as the research is not complete yet, therefore graph, table, and chart cannot be applicable for this section. However, based on the discussion made above, it can be recommended that localisation is required offline in order to build the trust of the customers. Herein the hierarchical department of Tesco PLC needs to embrace their online marketing in order to reinforce the offline outlets to sell more.

A)

Conclusion

It can be concluded that it is indeed a genre of marketing that is widely used in the digital age to promote services and products via the use of digital technology. Digital marketing tends to go beyond online marketing to include internet channels. The marketing mix, on the other hand, is concerned with the entire marketing strategy. As a result, the word typically refers to the basic categorisation, which begins with the four P’s: promotion, placement, pricing, and product.

The study concludes that good marketing touches on a wide range of topics, which is in contrast to focusing on a single theme. By keeping the four Ps in mind, the parts of the marketing mix serve to enhance a broad audience. Consequently, the marketing specialists are capable of focusing on the good aspects of the situation. Based on this, it can be concluded that emphasising the marketing mix aids in strategic decision-making when introducing new products or changing existing ones.

References

Adjudicator, G.C., 2016. Investigation into Tesco PLC.

Awadari, A.C. and Kanwal, S., 2019. Employee participation in organisational change: A case of Tesco PLC. International Journal of Financial, Accounting, and Management, 1(2), pp.91-99.

Bala, M. and Verma, D., 2018. A critical review of digital marketing. M. Bala, D. Verma (2018). A Critical Review of Digital Marketing. International Journal of Management, IT & Engineering, 8(10), pp.321-339.

Creswell, J.W. and Hirose, M., 2019. Mixed methods and survey research in family medicine and community health. Family Medicine and Community Health, 7(2).

Jain, E. and Yadav, A., 2017. Marketing and technology: role of technology in modern marketing. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 19(5), pp.49-53.

Krusenvik, L., 2016. Using case studies as a scientific method: Advantages and disadvantages.

Peter, M.K. and Dalla Vecchia, M., 2021. The digital marketing toolkit: a literature review for the identification of digital marketing channels and platforms. New Trends in Business Information Systems and Technology, pp.251-265.

Student, A., 2021. To examine the added value of implementing Corporate Social Responsibility practices on the UK supermarket industry, a case study of Tesco PLC 2015-2020 (Doctoral dissertation, University of Chichester).

TescoPLC.com, 2022. Our history. www.tescoplc.com. Available at: <https://www.tescoPLC.com/about/our-history/> [Accessed 19 March 2022].

Vu, M., 2016. IS THE BALANCED SCORECARD USEFUL IN A COMPETITIVE INDUSTRY?: Using Tesco PLC as a case study in the UK grocery retail industry.

Waller, M.J. and Kaplan, S.A., 2018. Systematic behavioural observation for emergent team phenomena: Key considerations for quantitative video-based approaches. Organizational Research Methods, 21(2), pp.500-515.

Wood, S., Wrigley, N. and Coe, N.M., 2017. Capital discipline and financial market relations in retail globalisation: insights from the case of Tesco PLC. Journal of Economic Geography, 17(1), pp.31-57.