What is marketing management?

We will use the following definition of marketing management:  “Marketing Management is the process allocating the resources of the organization toward marketing activities.”  Thus, a marketing manager is someone who is responsible for directing expenditures of marketing funds.  Related to the term ‘management’ is the term ‘strategy.’  Many words in the vocabulary of business management were taken from the field of military science.  For example, the word ‘strategy’ has been used in the military for many decades to indicate a long-term commitment of resources toward accomplishing a certain goal.  Thus it is often said that management is responsible for conceptualizing strategies, and other employees are responsible for implementing those strategies.  Management-by-Objectives programs in which a supervisor will formulate strategies and other employees will choose the method of reaching those objectives is an example of this relationship in action.  As the reader can see, a discussion of ‘strategy, objectives, and goals’ can very quickly develop into a miasma of terms and confusion. Thus, we will use the following definitions.  First, we will consider goals and objectives to be identical terms. Second, we will use the term ‘objective’ to refer to a broad-based design of where the organization would like to be at some point in the future.  For example, as an objective, the organization might decide to be the ‘leader in product quality as judged by customer surveys of our organization and our five leading competitors.’  We will define the term ‘strategy’ as a method used to reach an objective.  For example, to reach our product quality objective, our organization might decide to enroll in a ‘total quality program’ offered by most large consulting firms.  Thus, strategy will have two meanings.  First, it is the overall orientation an organization chooses to allocate its resources, and second, strategy is a specific action used to implement these plans. Thus, there is a two-tiered nature to strategy.  One at the top, as a broad guide to preferred action, and one below helping to implement objectives.  Use ‘strategy’ as a keyword search on the internet and see what you find. 

In marketing, we often use the ‘four P’s’ to designate the areas of control a marketing manager has at his/her command.  The ‘four P’s’ as you probably already know are:  Product, Price, Promotion, and Place. 

The Meaning of the terms Marketing Manager and Marketing Management

 Traditionally if a person had the title of “manager,” it meant that s/he had the responsibility to help guide the activities of at least a few employees.  While this terminology has changed over the years, we still consider someone who has the title of ‘manager’ to be responsible for overseeing the allocation of resources for the organization.  For example, as an ‘individual contributor’ I might have the responsibility of performing certain work (for example, writing marketing literature for the firm’s products), but not be responsible for the activities of anyone other than myself.  In high technology industries, the word manager is often replaced with “Director” to indicate that a person has primary responsibility for a certain organizational function.  For example, the ‘marketing director’ may be responsible for all marketing activities in the firm.  At other firms, the term ‘marketing manager’ would be used to describe the same thing.  In some organizations, the Vice-President of Marketing may perform the same functions.  The term Product Manager is often used in high technology industries to assign responsibility to a specific individual or group for the successful supervision of all marketing activities related to a specific product or service.  Sometimes the product manager’s responsibility is defined in terms of the product s/he is overseeing and sometimes the responsibility is defined in terms of a specific technology.  For example, one high-tech firm might use the title of Product Manager-Digital Systems to describe the job of the person who is responsible for digital versus analog customer solutions.  This brings up still another consideration. The use of titles varies across industries of types of organizations.    

marketing tasks

SEGMENTATION- segmentation is the process of clubbing together similar customers in a group. so that they can be served by a marketing mix especially designed for the group or segment. a company can continue to segment its market into smaller and more homogeneous groups and design special marketing mixes for them. segmentation can be used as a vehicle for entering a market.


TARGET MARKETS- a company may not have the resources and the capabilities to design marketing mixes to serve all the segments. a company will decide to serve one or more segments depending upon its capabilities and resources. the segments that a company chooses to serve by designing special marketing mixes are called target markets.


POSITIONING- positioning is the process of creating a distinct offer and communicating it to the customer. positioning is created by designing a marketing mix which is suitable for the target but is different from  marketing mixes of other providers. the smaller and more homogeneous the target market is for which a marketing mix is designed, the stronger will be the positioning, i.g. the fit between the marketing mix of the company and requirement of the customers of the target market will be stronger. the process of positioning is continuous in natyre and it should always be proactive because new needs and competitors keep cropping up.      

Marketing orientation

Market driven companies display customer concern throughout the business. All departments recognize the importance of the customer for the success of the business. In internally focused businesses, the convenience of the company comes first.

Market driven businesses know how their products are being evaluated against competition by customers. Internally driven companies assume that certain criteria, perhaps price and performance, are uppermost in all customers’ minds. They fail to understand the real concerns of customers. Businesses that are driven by the market, base their segmentation analysis on customer differences that have implications for marketing strategy. Businesses that are focused internally segment by product and are vulnerable when customer requirements change, primarily because they never understood customer requirements in the first place.

Market driven businesses recognize that expenditure on marketing research is an investment that can yield rich rewards through better customer understanding. Internally driven businesses see marketing research as a non-productive activity and prefer to rely on anecdotes and received wisdom. Market driven business welcome organizational changes that are bound to occur as an organization moves to maintain strategies fit between varying customer requirements and its strategies. Internally oriented companies cherish status quo and resist change.

Marketing spend is regarded as an investment that has long term consequences in market driven businesses. Internally driven companies view marketing expenditure as superfluous that never appears to produce benefits, but the company has to incur them to be on par with competitors.

In market oriented companies those employees who take risks and are innovative in serving customers in more effective ways are rewarded. Internally oriented business reward time serving, and ability to not make mistakes.

Market driven companies are sensitive, fast and flexible to be able to respond to changes in the market. Marketing oriented companies strive for competitive advantage. They seek to serve customers better than competition. Internally oriented companies are happy to produce me-too copies of offerings already in the market.

Every employee in an organization is a marketer

Marketing is not the sole prerogative and responsibility of the marketing department in an organization. Each department, in fact every employee of an organization, primarily performs the function of a marketer. His main job is to convey a consistent image of his organization, whether it is to the internal stakeholders (employees, shareholders), or to the external stakeholders (customers, public). The company should realize that every interaction of any of these stakeholders with any employee of an organization is decisive for the ultimate fate of the organization

WHY STRATEGIC PLANS FAILS

In general, strategic plans can fail for two types of reasons: inappropriate strategy and poor implementation.

Inappropriate strategies may arise due to:

·         Failure to define end states (objectives) correctly

·         Incomplete SWOT analysis with respect to the desired end state

·         Lack of creativity in identifying possible strategies

·         Strategies incapable of obtaining the desired objective

·         Poor fit between the external environment and organizational resource infeasibility

Poor implementation of a strategy may happen due to:

·         Over- estimation of resources and abilities

·         Failure to coordinate

·         Ineffective attempts to gain the support of others or resistance

·         Under-estimation of time, personnel, or financial requirements

·         Failure to follow the plan

The planning process can be viewed as a somewhat circular flow of topics and action steps, where the results from one step initiate study and action in the next step. However, the process does not necessarily always flow in one direction. Issues that arise in a particular step may cause the planning team to go back to an earlier step to do additional work. If desired, the order of the steps can even be altered to suit the particular needs of the planning team. The implementation step also does not end the planning process.

Analysis of results could easily result in additional analysis or a change in strategic direction. The plan should be reviewed on an annual basis to verify that all the base assumptions are still valid and that the implementation plan is progressing according to expectations.

STRATEGIC PLANNING

Strategic planning consists of the process of developing strategies to reach a defined objective. Strategic planning tries to create more desirable future results by influencing the outside world, or adapting current programs and actions so as to have more favourable outcomes in the external environment.

·         Strategic planning provides overall direction to a company or give specific direction in such areas as: strategies

·         Human resource/organizational development strategies

·         Information technology deployments

·         Development projects

·         Marketing strategy

An effective strategy will:

·         Have the capability to obtain the desired objective

·         Fit well both with the external environment and with an organization’s resources and core competencies-it should appear feasible and appropriate

·         Have the capability of providing an organization with a sustainable competitive advantage

·         Prove dynamic, flexible, and able to adapt to changing situations

·         Suffice on its own- specifically providing value or favourable outcomes without the need for cross-subsidization.

         .    Financial

MARKETING CONCEPT

Customer needs are discovered and the organization’s processes are orchestrated to serve those needs truthfully. A company practicing the marketing concept achieves corporate goals by meeting its customer needs better than its competitors. In a marketing oriented company all activities are focused upon providing customer satisfaction. The company understands that the achievement of customer satisfaction is dependent on integrating company-wide efforts. The belief that customer needs are central to the operation of the company runs through production, finance, research and other departments. Decisions are taken in these departments keeping in consideration the impacts that the decisions will have on the customers. The role of marketing is to champion the cause of the customer and to orient the whole organization towards serving customer needs. The management must believe that corporate goals can be achieved only through satisfied customers.

INTRODUCTION OF MARKETING

Marketing is the process of finding out customers needs and serving those needs profitably. If an organization is obsessed with looking for profits, it will never find them. But if it is focused on satisfying its customers, profits will come automatically. Profit is an outcome of serving customers, needs well.

Profit is a legitimate goal of a business organization. Reasonable profits are required to keep stakeholders interested in running the business, and to increase the capability of the organization to serve its customers better.

The essence of marketing is providing desired value to customers. A company cannot possible satisfy all the customers in a market, because their needs vary. Most organizations do not have the capability to serve widely varying needs. An organization has to select customers whose needs can be matched with its capability to serve them. If it tries to serve all customers, it is sure to have some of them dissatisfied. But if an organization has selected its customers carefully, it is possible to satisfy all of them completely.

Successful companies rely on their satisfied customers to repurchase and recommend the company’s offerings to others. Therefore the goal of marketing is attracting and retaining customers through long-term satisfaction of their needs.

Marketing oriented companies build relationships with their existing customers by providing satisfaction. They attract new customers by building expectations and promising to provide value. New customers find the company’s promise credible, as the company’s existing and erstwhile customers vouch for it.

Therefore customers are the most powerful stakeholders of any company.