Assignment Sample on The Service Concept Design and Delivery
1.0 Introduction
The study is focused on discussing the significance of marketing strategies and operational concepts in today’s organisation in increasing engagement of customers and increasing productivity and profitability of organisation. The study is based on evaluating the operational concepts and marketing concepts of two leading retail companies in the UK that includes Amazon and Asda. In evaluating the marketing and operational concepts followed by these companies the study represented the findings based on various theories and models supported with different pieces of literature.
2.0 Service Concepts including marketing and operations
In this part of the study, it is focused on addressing the operational and marketing concepts of Amazon UK and Asda.
2.1 Operational Concepts
- 4 V’s of Operations Strategy
Volume- Operational keys can be established from volume in organising and corporate performances. According to Bracciotti (2017), reduced cost-based volume manufacturing can help businesses to enhance their operational foundations and gain a strong hold over the market.
Variety- Production of a variety of products and services is also crucial for the success of an organisation. With the increasing populations businesses need to develop a variety of products to impress consumers and improve customer confidence towards the brand.
Variations- According to Bracciotti (2017), in order to succeed in a dynamic, competitive environment, variation within corporate operations must be implemented. It has been beneficial to develop a high level of lower-cost strategic product volume within one dimension to capture the attention of consumers (Rajnoha et al. 2016).
Visibility- It is considered as customers’ ability to track down and view the products of an organisation is referred to as visibility. By doing this, the businesses ensure that its products and services have improved.
- Transformational Model
The transformational model is developed by organisations in understanding how transformation within an organisation can be orchid within the organisational tactics. According to Sudari et al. (2019), its transformation of model helps in increasing the productivity of an organisation as well as enhancing customer engagement. However, within a transformation of model it requires more furnished inputs in such a manner that ensures good quality of raw material that helps organisations to further meet customer requirements (Ullal and Hawaldar, 2018). Along with that, implementation of technology like cyber physics, automation and various other factors helps to create a data organisation environment and infrastructure that allow an organisation to be competitive within the market (Shen et al. 2017). The transformation can also occur based on different technical development factors as well as servicing enhancement elements by engaging talented and skilled employees within an organisation. By following these approaches an organisation can develop a better transformation of its business.
2.2 Marketing Concepts
- 4p’s of Marketing Mix
Product- The most significant element of marketing is product that refers to the services or goods offered by an organisation. Marketer presents a product to a customer for a price. Hence, Thabit and Raewf (2018), defined product as the most important element in marketing.
Price- Price is the second most important marketing factor that represents some values charged for product or services. Selecting price of product or service is complex as it depends on various factors like, demand, operational cost, competitors etc.
Place- For selling goods organisations require a place or market. However, to make footfall in the market organisation follows direct sales to consumers, or involve distributors, wholesale and retail channels for shaping distribution of product. However, the involvement of a number of middlemen may increase product price resulting in customer turnover.
Promotion- Promotion is important to increase the popularity of a product. Organisation use different platforms like social media, print media, TV for promotion of product or brand. Thabit and Raewf (2018), highlighted that promotional activities require investment that is added to the cost of the product.
Figure 1: 4P’s of Marketing Mix, Source: (Surtawijaya and Soegoto, 2020)
- AIDA model
It is one of the consumer response models that discusses that purchasing decisions are based on the psychological process of buyers and the process starts with attention towards the product, growing interest, meeting the desire of the consumer and finally purchasing the product or taking action. Fortenberry and McGoldrick (2020), highlighted that advertisers, other marketers, and educators continue to rely on and value models like AIDA. However, these models typically ignore the responsibilities of advertising in the post-purchase and reinforcing phases, reflecting its genesis at a time that was focused on selling. In terms of desire, a business organisation needs to offer more desirable products to consumers based on their requirements and products that can be effective for them. Action represents the buyers’ affection for purchasing particular desirable products.
Figure 2: AIDA model, Source: (Wilde, 2020)
- Service marketing
Service marketing deals with offering service to the consumers for increasing brand awareness and sales and related to the marketing orientations process. The service marketing concepts involve four different concepts including intangibility, Inseparability, variability and perishability.
Intangibility- It represents a service concept that secures companies’ goods and services. It makes the assertion that it intends to improve customer service standards and aims to offer above-and-beyond services that no competitors are currently offering.
Inseparability- Personalized services are not separate from other services, and all are performed using efficient processes. Belanche et al. (2020), highlighted that, Individual or customised services, are also being acknowledged as responsible services for the businesses.
Variability- It specifies that more than one or two types of variation in services might affect customers’ perspective towards the services (Hossain et al. 2017). Viability must be considered in order to satisfy customer demand while developing a customer-centric business.
Perishability- In order to make effective customer orientation and provide timely services, the organisation needs to manage time efficiently.
3.0 Methodology and Data presentation
The study has been focused on addressing the operation and marketing strategies of two renowned UK based retail organisations named Amazon UK and Asda. As the study is based on evaluating different facts and scenarios with respect to the two selected organisations in terms of their operational and marketing strategies the study follows a secondary qualitative data collection process where the data has been collected from different pieces of literature. Along with that, the study being highly related to the marketing strategies and operation strategies within the context of organisational performance, different theoretical frameworks has been applied in this research study to justify the strategies more effectively.
Facts about Amazon UK
In order to impress consumers and engage them with the brand, Amazon has followed a timely transformation as an operational target (Amazon, 2021). However, there are certain operational issues that have been observed in Amazon that include employees’ motivations, technological advancement of competitors and some other factors. Amazon unfairly benefits merchants who use operational services that incur extra cost, like storage, delivery and packaging (Business-standard, 2022).
Facts about Asda
When it comes to dynamic competitiveness, ASDA in the UK has performed better, indicating advancements in its pricing strategies and technological orientations. According to Bedford (2022), compared to previous year the sales volume of Asda in 2022 has increased by 4.5%. However, some issues have been observed on the marketing strategy and performance of Asda in the UK in recent years reflecting lack of marketing and promotional activities in the UK, where as two discounter brands Aldi and Lidl, achieved higher sales growth than Asda and even the other competitors Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons (Bedford, 2022).
4.0 Findings and Evaluation
4.1 Operational Strategy of Amazon
4.1.1 Transformational Model
For enhancing its organisational operations activities, Amazon has developed a higher and more cutting-edge technical implementation based on transformational models. Within its organisational setting, it has developed automated systems, robotics, artificial intelligence, and other cutting-edge technical applications (Amazon, 2021). The corporation further decided to enhance and modify the condition of its workers along with technological advancement. It’s been observed that training has helped workers be more productive and perform better in the fast-paced business environment (Amazon, 2021). However, it has been observed that Amazon, with millions of consumers in Britain, is exploiting third-party data to unlawfully increase its own retail company and if it favours merchants who use its delivery services and logistics, both of which potentially diminish competition (Amazon, 2022). Hence, it is important that authorities carefully examine the existing scenario (Business-standard, 2022).
4.1.2 4V’s of Operations Strategy at Amazon UK
In accordance with the 4V model, the business has made intelligent decisions by expanding both the number of its offerings and the variety of services it offers (Coppola, 2022). It has been highlighted that the company has developed operational segmentations and the Amazon Prime video streaming service to strengthen the foundations of its success (Amazon, 2022). Variations can also be seen in the potential service, and the database of the company includes all of the products and services that each customer needs (Amazon, 2021). Additionally, Amazon has been upfront about the professional areas that separate Amazon from its competitors in the international market, like price visibility, servicing, product dimension and other areas of business (Coppola, 2022).
Figure 3: Business Model of Amazon. Source: (Segarra et al. 2016)
4.2 Marketing Process Of ASDA
4.2.1 4p’s Of Marketing Mix
Product- A wide range of products Asda has significantly increased customer engagement. Groceries, clothing and other products are examples of such products that have helped Asda to stimulate consumers’ interest towards the brand(ASDA, 2021).
Price- The company has had positive benefits with its pricing approach in a marketing context (Benson, 2019). In order to reduce its operational costs and price of its products, Asda has adopted a cost leadership approach (ASDA, 2021). It has observed that with this approach, it becomes one of the UK’s most customer-focused stores (ASDA, 2021).
Promotion- For encouraging more sales from its customers, the company has been increasing its marketing activities and promotions through TV channel advertisements, magazine, newspaper as well as through content marketing on social media platforms (ASDA, 2021).
Place- The company is focussing on expanding overseas markets in order to reach large consumer bases. It is significantly observed that the organisation has substantially increased its customer base and financial success performance by expanding into other countries like the USA, Malaysia, and others (ASDA, 2021).
4.2.2 Service Marketing
The company has been focused on effectively meeting customer expectations based on the service marketing approach. In order to improve customer services, the company has also worked with intangibility (ASDA, 2021). For providing consumers loyalty, the company has developed insurance segments and health segments for their customers (Benson, 2019). The company has also brought changes in technologies, infrastructure and work culture to meet perishability and variability (ASDA, 2021). The ability to customs servicing also has been incorporated, to attract consumers worldwide.
5.0 Recommendations
In terms of marketing strategy, it has been suggested to ASDA that it should concentrate more on CSR because it will lead to high productivity. CSR is a more effective marketing tactic that can assist in achieving site value and moral standards. Even if the company engages in CSR activities, it further advises it to improve its policies and implement some policies in accordance with Covid-19 recommendations to make sure that workers are content to work for this company. It is advised that Amazon adopt more environmentally friendly technologies in order to uphold organisational norms, which is related to operational strategy. To protect the environment, it may be wise to stop using plastic packaging and switch to paper packaging. It will aid the business in maintaining its place in a dynamic, competitive world.
6.0 Conclusion
The in-depth description above makes it very evident that both ASDA and Amazon are technologically and strategically advanced companies. ASDA has performed well in terms of marketing strategy to maintain its position in the corporate world. Better product pricing, the use of technology, and other elements have assisted ASDA in attracting more customers and enhancing its marketing plan. Amazon has also changed the way it employs its operational strategy, which takes into account value, pricing, and other aspects. Focusing on long-term client-centred service development as well as improving technology is Amazon’s primary operating strategy.
References
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ASDA, 2021. Income Tracker. [Online] Available at: https://corporate.asda.com/media-library/document/asda-income-tracker-october-2021/_proxyDocument?id=0000017c-f0ef-d449-adfe-faff72670000 [Accessed on 23-12-2022]
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