Marketing Management

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Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction.. 3
2.1 Importance of marketing. 3
2.2 Implementing Marketing strategies Key Issues .. 4
2.3 Implementing Marketing strategies Addressing the Key Issues 5
2.4 Marketing Benefits & Disadvantages.. 7
3.0 Conclusion 8
4.0 Bibliography 9















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1.0 Introduction:
Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating,
delivering and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners and
society at large (Association, 1985). The gradual attrition of traditional idea of
conceptualizing marketing as a profit maximization problem focused solely on market
transactions has underscored the importance of marketing in the context of building long
term customer relationships and creating and improvising strategic alliances. This change
was direct fallout of changes in our modern society in terms of its diversity and complexity,
which rendered impossible the satisfying of the needs of all with a single marketing strategy.
Cultural changes, globalization and advancement in technology particularly in
communication has resulted in such a broad, diverse but fragmented market and as a result
of which Marketing has become a core and central process for an organisation today.
2.1 Importance of Marketing
Marketing holds vital importance to the success of any organization owing to the following
benefits;
a> Creation of product and its awareness in the market: Marketing creates the product
and promotes it by creating awareness among the prospective customers, without
which customers may remain unaware about the product resulting in lost sales and
business opportunity. Because marketing involves extensive research and customer
profiling, the outcome is a superior product that is consistent with the needs of the
customer.
b> Production and distribution departments depend directly on marketing and work in
tandem. Marketing gives impetus to firms sales by ensuring that the product has the
right marketing mix in terms of product features, price & availability at the right time
and at the right place, and by monitoring and evaluating the plan regularly. Because
marketing is highly innovative, it chalks out new ways to make transactions easier,
faster and more pleasant.
c> Successful Marketing efforts helps create brand image of the company in the market
which leads to more sales as brand name exudes trust and more and more
customers make purchases from or avail services of a reliable company resulting in
relationship building and brand loyalty.




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2.2 Implementing Marketing strategies Key Issues
Implementation plan can make or mar the marketing strategy. Nevertheless, even a
relatively ordinary strategy implemented efficiently is worth more than an exceptional
marketing strategy that remains on paper and never takes off the ground. Some of the key
issues that organisations must consider while implementing marketing strategy are;
a> Assignment of responsibilities and tasks: It involves identifying and explaining to
the people about their role and specific job responsibilities, an overview of the
marketing plan in general and its objectives in particular. It is pertinent that the skills
required at each step of implementation/ fulfilment of a specific task are consistent
with the skills of the person entrusted with completing the task. Failure to define
objectives and to obtain employee commitment may significantly reduce the
chances of an effective implementation of marketing strategy.
b> Action Planning: It involves outlining and charting who is responsible for each
action, where the action will take place and designing a time schedule of when &
how marketing activities will occur. It is crucial that action plan is in agreement with
all the groups of stakeholders. It is possible that marketing activities are out of sync
due to varying speeds of implementation among entities involved resulting in
inefficiencies. It is equally important to ensure that resources needed for
implementation are allocated correctly and that the activities take place within the
allotted budget.
c> Setting and monitoring deadlines: Finally, controls for monitoring and making
adjustments to the plan should be identified. The controls to assess progress and
suggest recommendations may be internal or external. Typically it involves setting
out the budget and goals for a specified period, so that they can be reviewed by the
management. It may also include contingency planning to prepare for issues that
may arise later in the period, such as price wars.








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2.3 Implementing Marketing strategies Addressing the Key Issues

Implementing a marketing plan entails many different actions. To ensure that the marketing
objectives are achieved and that budget constraints are met, the above issues may be
implemented with the help of following tools;

a> Action plan & balanced scorecard: It encapsulates objectives, KPIs and target
related action plans. During implementation, the KPIs and action progress should be
monitored regularly. Throughout the implementation of marketing strategy,
communication & progress tracking can be achieved. Other financial & non-financial
parameters over long and short term can be balanced through scorecard.
b> Using a Plan Do Review approach can be used as a tool to track implementation
of marketing strategies. It is necessary to consult stakeholders throughout to
improve quality. Table below outlines how marketing strategy implementation can
be managed with the help of action plans


Focus
Area Objective
Measures
( KPI's) Initiative
Key
Activities
Responsible
person Timeline

Objective Initiative

Initiative


c> Mckinseys 7S model: This model uses 7 Ss to determine whether a plan is ready to
be implemented. It can identify existing problems and trigger efficient planning.



Source: (Peters, 2008)

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d> PERT charts: It is a model that takes into account randomness in completion time of
activities. Its effective use can minimise implementation costs & time. Program
Evaluation and Review techniques involves 6 steps:
1> Identify activities that are required to complete the plan.
2> Prioritise the activities so as to attain optimal efficiency.
3> Construct a diagram to show sequence and parallelism among different
activities.
4> Note down the minimum, likely and maximum time each activity may take
5> Critical path is then traced out to by adding together the times for each path and
then find the longest time than can be taken in the completion of the project.
6> Update the critical path by actual time taken and re-estimating the times and
repeat steps 4 & 5.


Source: Tony Proctor, (1995) "Marketing planning: a computer assisted approach",
Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Vol. 13 Iss: 7, pp.7 12







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e> Gantt Charts: It is a visual representation of schedules for the resources used in a
particular process or project (Verma, 2010). It helps in determining the current stage
of the activities as per the implementation plan.


Sample Gantt Chart

f> Ensuring that the information is shared and that it is available to all in times of need
is the key to implementing marketing strategy effectively.



2.4 Marketing Benefits & Disadvantages

Marketing is critical to any companys success. However, it is not without costs &
uncertainty. Following table explores its benefits and disadvantages;


Advantages of Marketing Disadvantages of Marketing
From research and data mining,
firms are able to offer superior
products or services that are
relevant to the needs and
interests of the customers and
promote them subsequently.
Market research and promotions
significantly cost the company in
terms of price, time, supplies and
space with advertising
constituting the biggest chunk of
the expenditure pie.
Marketing consolidate brand
positioning and through
advertising & promotions
attracts customers and boost
sales.
Uncertainty about marketing
success can never be entirely
eliminated however much the
investment may be in terms of
costs, time, research, promotions
etc.
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3.0 Conclusion

It can be seen that Marketing is at the heart of any organization. Marketing is responsible
for more than just the sale. Marketing ways have shifted focus from transactional style to
relationship style. Customers have become partners in the designing of the product and the
firm must make every effort to secure the long term commitment pertaining to quality and
service. The implementation of market-driven strategy needs skills in making, developing,
improvising, and controlling strategic relationships with all stakeholders, and drawing their
attention on the fast changing customer in the global market. Intangible assets such as
technical competence, knowledge base, customer focus rather than factories, office
buildings and other assets will define the successful firms in the near future.
































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Bibliography:

Association, A. M. (1985, march 1). Marketing News. Marketing News .
Peters, T. J. (2008, 03 1). Mckinsey & Company. Retrieved 02 9, 2014, from
www.mckinsey.com/insights/strategy/enduring_ideas_the_7-s_framework:
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/strategy/enduring_ideas_the_7-s_framework
Verma, B. &. (2010). Operations & supply Chain managementfor the 21st Century. Mason,
USA: South Western Cengage Learning.