NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT AND ECONOMICS

HIGHER NATIONALS
BTEC HIGHER NATIONAL DIPLOMA IN BUSINESS (RQF)

Assignment Brief

Unit Code, Number and A/618/5033 - Unit 2: Marketing Processes and Planning
Title
Semester and Academic Year Semester 2 / Academic year 2021 - 2022
Unit Assessor(s) Tran Hong Nhung / Nguyen Phuong Mai / Nguyen Hoang
Dung

Assignment Title MPP A1.1: The Marketing Concept

Issue Date 17/10/2022

Submission Date 07/11/2022 (soft-copy only via Moodle)

Student name
NEU Student ID
Student declaration I certify that the assignment submission is entirely my own
work and I fully understand the consequences of
plagiarism. I understand that making a false declaration is
a form of malpractice.

Student name / Signature Date:

Submission Format

● This is an individual assignment. 

● The submission format is in the form of an E-report. Please refer to the “Turnitin
Submission Rules” that was posted on Moodle.
● The file on Turnitin must be in Word format and include the first page of this cover
sheet. The first page of the cover sheet should be in the picture format in order to
ensure the accepted similarity of Turnitin.
● The similarity allowed is up to 25% after excluding references.
● Name of the file includes Student ID_Unit name_Assessment no. (E.g.
“1010001_MPP_A1.1”) 
● Ensure that authenticity declaration has been signed electronically.
● Plagiarism is unacceptable. Students must cite all sources and input the information by
paraphrasing, summarising or using direct quotes. A Referral Grade is given when
Plagiarism is identified in your work. There are no exceptions.
● Your evidence/findings must be cited using Harvard Referencing Style. Please refer to
the Reference guide posted on Moodle. The Reference page is compulsory to upload on
Turnitin. 
● This assignment should be written in a concise, formal business style using Arial 11 or
Times New Roman 13 font size and 1.5 spacing. 
● The word limit is 3,500 words (+/- 10%). 
● You MUST complete and submit a softcopy of your work on the due dates stated on the
Assignment brief. All late work is not allowed to submit. This rule is not waived under
any circumstances. 
Read ALL Instructions on this Page and review the Pass, Merit and Distinction criteria
carefully. To pass the assignment, you must achieve ALL the Pass Criteria outlined in the
marking sheet. To achieve a Merit, you must achieve ALL the Merit criteria (and therefore
the Pass criteria). To achieve a Distinction, you must achieve ALL the Distinction criteria
(and therefore the Pass and Merit criteria).
Unit Learning Outcomes
LO1: Explain the role of marketing and how it interrelates with other business units of an
organization.

LO2: Compare ways in which organizations use elements of the marketing mix to
achieve overall business objectives.

Transferable skills and competencies developed

Vocational scenario

You are a Junior Marketing Analyst working in the Marketing Department for a cosmetic
brand/company in Vietnam or any international cosmetic brand/company which has a branch in
Vietnam. You can choose any brand/company which you are interested in.

Assignment activity and guidance

You are preparing to write a report to the Marketing Director. The report encompasses two
sections.
Task 1: Marketing concept
In this section of the report, you need to discuss and analyze the following areas:
● the concept of marketing and the important roles and responsibilities of the Marketing
Department in your company.
● how the external environment will affect the ability of your company to identify
opportunities or challenges.
● how your marketing department works and interacts with other departments in your
company and how it supports the wider organizational context in terms of vision, mission
and purpose.
Hints:
● Explain the definition of Marketing.
Tips: You can use existing definitions of Marketing available in books, journals or
internet, or even compose one based on your own understanding and experience in
the field. Moreover, you need to relate to the chosen company and prove how that
definition is currently represented in the company’s marketing activities.
● Explain how the external environment will affect the ability of the company to identify
opportunities or challenges.
Tips: You can choose to explain how EITHER Microenvironment OR
Macroenvironment will affect marketing activities of the company. You need to pick at
least TWO most important forces in the Microenvironment OR Macroenvironment,
and then explain how these forces might affect the company and how the company
should respond to these forces to make decisions on its marketing activities. Analyze
and evaluate how effectively these marketing activities will address the company’s
opportunities or handle anticipated problems.
● Explain the important roles and responsibilities of the Marketing department in the
company.
Tips: The Marketing Department plays a vital role in promoting the business and
mission of an organisation. You need to pick at least TWO most important roles and
responsibilities of the Marketing department in the company and then explain them in
the report.
● Explain and analyse how Marketing department influences and interrelates with other
departments in the company.
Tips: You need to choose at least TWO of the following departments: Finance
Department, IT Department, Sales Department, Research and Development
Department, Human Resources Department, Customer Service Department, and
explain how these departments are strongly linked with Marketing department activities.
Task 2: Benchmarking analysis
Your company now is keen to explore new and distinctive market segments, where
there is potential for rapid growth. As part of this you are planning the launch of a new line of
cosmetic products that are made from 100% natural ingredients. The marketing challenge is to
reach out to both existing and new customer segments.
You have been asked to carry out a benchmarking analysis that will help inform and
create a compelling proposition for the new organic cosmetic line in the mind of customers. In
conducting benchmarking analysis, the company can identify where changes are to be made to
improve performance. You and your Marketing Director have been discussing this and have
decided that there would be value gained by critically evaluating marketing mix strategies
across different industries (apart from cosmetic) that offer products and product lines made
from natural ingredients/materials. This will provide creative insight into how you develop and
launch your product.
In the section of benchmarking analysis of the report, you are required to:
● identify and compare the marketing mix (4Ps) for products/product lines made from natural
materials/ingredients of TWO companies (domestic or international) in Vietnam. You can
choose any two companies based on your preference or available resources.
● Compare the marketing strategies and tactical approaches adopted by each company and
how they contribute to the success of the organizations in meeting their overall business
objectives
● provide conclusions and a set of justified recommendations on what the company can learn
and deploy as it plans out its marketing strategy for the new cosmetic product line made
from natural ingredients/materials
Hints
● Explain and compare the ways different companies apply the marketing mix to their
marketing planning process to achieve business objectives
Tips: Explain and analyze the marketing mix applied by the two chosen companies.
How are they different? How are they similar? What are strengths and weakness of
each company when they apply this marketing mix?
● Critically analyze if the strategies and approaches the two chosen companies have
applied have helped them meet their business objectives or not.
Tips: What are their overall business objectives? Are they met? Why? Or why not?
● Justify strategies and approaches your company can learn to apply for the new marketing
strategy in order to meet the company’s overall business objectives.
● Tips: Explain your company’s overall business objectives. Then suggest at least TWO
strategies or approaches that can be applied by your company in developing the cosmetics
product line made from natural ingredients. Evaluate how the application of these will help
your company achieve its overall business objectives. Are there any strengths or
weaknesses your company may have in applying these strategies or approaches?

Recommended Resources
Please note that the resources listed are examples for you to use as a starting point in your
research – the list is not definitive.
1. Kotler, P. and Amstrong, G. (2017). Principles of Marketing. London: Prentice Hall
2. McDonald, M. and Wilson, H. (2016). Marketing plans: How to prepare them, how to use
them. 8th ed.
3. Jobber, D. and Chadwick, F. (2019). Principles and practice of Marketing. 9th ed.
Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill
4. Brassington, F. and Pettitt, S. (2012). Essentials of Marketing. 3rd Ed. Harlow: Pearson
5. Lovelock, C. and Wirtz, J. (2011). Services Marketing: People, Technology, Strategy.
Pearson
And other credible sources of information on the Internet.

Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria

Pass Merit Distinction

LO1: Explain the role of marketing and how it D1 Critically analyse the
interrelates with other business units of an external and internal
organisation
environment in which the
P1: Explain the concept M1: Analyse the role of marketing function operates.
of marketing and marketing in the context of
marketing operations the marketing
including the different environment.
areas and role of
marketing.

P2: Explain how the M2: Analyse the

marketing function relates significance of
to the wider organisational interrelationships between
context. marketing and other
functional units of an
organization.

LO2: Compare ways in which organisations use D2 Evaluate strategies and

elements of the marketing mix to achieve overall tactical approaches to the
business objectives marketing mix in achieving
overall business objectives.
P3: Compare the ways in M3: Review strategies and
which different tactical approaches
organisations apply the applied by organisations to
marketing mix to the demonstrate how business
marketing planning objectives can be achieved
process to achieve successfully.
business objectives.