Group Company: Aldi Supermarket Individual Department: Marketing
Enterprise social network
The marketing department has various units that it must coordinate with to realize that Aldi sells its products successfully in the market. It is generally assumed that marketing and sales are one and it (Hakim 2000, p. 67). This is very far from the truth. Marketing is a broad activity that involves bringing together various units and departments to ensure that the firm comes up with a clear program that will attract and retain customers to the business.
It involves creating a long and beneficial relationship between customers and the firm (Kline 2010, p. 124). Aldi sells various farm products, besides other conventional goods. The main aim of the marketing unit is to develop a good relationship in the market that would help it be sustainable in both the short and long run. The below-identified units are intertwined in this quest. Bird (1977, p. 97) notes that they all have to work as a unit, each having its special activity with the marketing department as the focal point. This way, Aldi Supermarket would be in a position to gain and retain a huge market share in this region and even beyond.
Business activity model
The Business Activity Model below gives a clear guideline of the activities that are to be carried out by various units of the Marketing Department. Weiss (2011, p. 78) states that the marketing unit has the main role in ensuring that the firm is sustainable in the market. The marketing department has various units as shown in the diagram below. It is the responsibility of the marketing manager to ensure that all these units are well coordinated and that none of the units overlaps with the activities of the other firm, and that all the units perform the assigned duties as expected of them (Majer 2011, p. 45).
As shown in the model below, all the unit heads would report to the marketing manager. This must be done at a regular interval so that the manager can brief other departments of what is expected of them. The activities must be well coordinated for this department to come up with conscious decisions on how to increase the awareness of the brand, and subsequently, increase sales of the company.
Technology choice
Technologies have become very important in marketing. Emerging technologies have completely redefined the marketing process (Panagariya 2008, p. 23). For this firm, such aspects of technology as the use of websites would help the marketing department. Social media are also very important to this department. Given that online markets are gaining popularity, these technologies stand to be of benefit to this firm.
Innovation is very important to this firm. This firm needs innovative ideas that would enable it to reach its target market most appropriately.
List of References
Bird, A 1977, Team structure and success as related to cohesiveness and leadership, Journal of Social Psychology, 103(2), 217-223.
Hakim, C 2000, Research Design: Successful Designs for Social and Economic Research, Routledge, New York.
Kline, J 2010, Ethics for International Business: Decision-Making in a Global Political Economy, Routledge, New York.
Majer, C 2011, The silent killers of productivity and profit, T+D, 65(2), 62.
Panagariya, A 2008, India: The Emerging Giant. Oxford, University Press Oxford.
Weiss, W 2011, Building morale, motivating, and empowering employees, Supervision, 72(9), 23.