Gilson Njunga

18th April 2017

The Roles of Marketing in Any Organization

According to WordWeb Dictionary, marketing is the commercial processes involved

in promoting and selling and distributing a product or service. In an organization, marketing
is a vital business function that is necessary in nearly all industries. This means that it is
needed whether the organization operates as a profit or as a non-profit. For the profit
organization, marketing is responsible for most tasks. These tasks include those that bring
revenue and profits to an organization. For the non-profit organization, marketing is
responsible for attracting customers needed to support the non-profits goals and objectives.
This included tasks such as raising donations or supporting a cause. This means that for both
types of organizations, marketing is crucial and it cannot survive without a strong marketing
effort. The role of marketing in any organization will be discussed below.

Developing products that satisfy needs, including products that enhance societys
quality of life is one of the roles of marketing in an organization. Take for example an
organization like Microsoft. It develops technology based products like mobile phones and
personal computers. These products aim at satisfying the needs of the customers which are
the users of the gadgets. The production of these products which aim at satisfying the
customers needs and also bringing in profits in the organization is facilitated by the
marketing department, (Kotler P., 2002. 2).

The marketing department uses various strategic models to achieve this. This includes
marketing mix and the Ansoff matrix. Marketing mix model is comprised of 4Ps. The 4Ps
also known as Price, Product, Place and Promotion is a strategy that originated from the
single P meaning Price. The marketing mix strategy is used to find and meet the customer
needs. It can be used for long term or short term purposes. The scopes of the marketing mix
can be altered or changed to meet different requirements for each product produced, (Goi C.
L., 2009. 1-5). On the other hand, The Ansoff matrix model was invented by H. Igor Ansoff
and is a model that focuses on four main areas. These four areas are market penetration,
product development, market development and product/market diversification, (Ansoff I.,
1957. 113-124).

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Another role of marketing is advertising. In an organization like Microsoft, marketing

It comes up with ideas for commercials, billboards, print ads and other advertisements to
inform potential and current customers about the product and its benefits. For example,
Microsoft uses digital and print advertising for its products. The marketing department can
make breath taking video ad and post it on a website or video streaming service like YouTube
which has millions of viewers and in that group there is a great number of potential
customers. Once a customer learns about the company and its products, it is the job of the
marketing department to ensure that the company continues to do business with the customer.
This helps in solidifying the brands image, (Kotler P., 2002. 3-4).

Marketing also carries out the role of packaging and shipping the products. The main
of packaging of a product is to tell customers about the product inside. A product that is well
packaged can have a better chance of winning consumers hearts than one that is not. On the
other hand, shipping packaging does a good job at reinforcing the brand image to customers.
This is done so that they (the customers) remember to return to the same company and not
another one if they need the product of the same type. In other words, the role of shipping or
transportation can be explained by saying that marketing helps in developing product
distribution systems that offer access to products to a large number of customers and many
geographic regions, (KnowThis.com 2017).

Another role of marketing in an organization is facilitating the sales process. This is

done by teaming up with the sales teams to come up with sales tactics and strategies that lure
customers and clients to purchase goods and services produced by that organization. It also
comes up with a positive motivational influence for the sales department to use to turn first-
time customers into loyal customers for the organization, (Stone M. A., and Desmond J.,
2007. 338-341).

Marketing also has a very important role in building an organizations reputation. Big
organizations like Microsoft did not just start up with an already built reputation, marketers
had to help in building it. A reputation whether good or bad can have a very big impact on
sales. If an organization has a good and efficient marketing department, it will know not just
how to build a good reputation but also how to deal with a bad one as well. A good example
is that of Microsoft. Whenever the company faces a bad reputation, the marketers with the

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help of television advertisements and other forms of advertisements try to shake off this
negative image they have obtained, (Kotler P., 2002. 14).

Building good customer relationships is one of the most important roles of marketing
in an organization. The key to this is by creating customer value and satisfaction. The better
the levels of customer satisfaction the higher the levels of customer loyalty, which results in
better company performance. Customer retention is very important for an organization. One
of the reasons why Microsoft is successful is because it also focuses on satisfying its
customers. To add on Microsoft, (2017) stated on that, Microsoft is focused on ensuring a
high level of satisfaction among our customers and partners. It is a core component of our
business.

In summary, the roles of marketing in an organization like Microsoft have been

discussed. These include, developing products that satisfy needs, building good customer
relationships and also building an organizations reputation. In carrying out these roles,
marketing becomes one of the most important or crucial departments involved in the success
of an organization.

References List
Goi C. L., 2009. "A Review of Marketing Mix: 4P's or More". International Journal of
Marketing Studies. Vol. 1 (1).
Ansoff I., 1957. Strategies for Diversification, Harvard Business Review. Vol. 35 (5).
KnowThis.com 2017. The Role of Marketing. Available at: http://www.knowthis.com/what-
is-marketing/role-of-marketing. Accessed on: 27th February 2017.
Microsoft, 2017. Customer and Partner Experience. Available at:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/cpe/. Accessed on: 27th February 2017.
Stone M. A., and Desmond J., 2007. Fundamentals of Marketing. New York: Routledge.
Kotler P., 2002. Marketing Management Millennium Edition. 10th Edition. Boston, MA:
Pearson Custom Publishing.