Question 1 How companies achieve marketing orientation?

Market orientation is usually defined as the organization wide generation, dissemination, and responsiveness to market intelligence. The concept of market orientation is built on three pillars of customer focus, coordinated marketing and profitability. An organizations capabilities to develop an orientation towards each of these three pillars depend on the internal structure and culture. Guidelines to adopt a market orientation Leverage customer database systems: One of the greatest advantages that companies have today is the power of customer databases. The explosion of internet and the possibility of recording very specific details about customers, their online movement and their purchase behavior have only added power to these databases. The first step for companies in moving towards market orientation is to optimally leverage these databases. The potential marketing intelligence that these databases offer would allow companies to understand the customers current and potential needs clearly. Such an understanding would lead to marketing functions to be in line with customers needs rather than compulsions centered around products. As such, pricing will be in line with customers willingness to pay rather than to cover costs, advertising and communications will inform, appeal and endear to customers, customers convenience will dictate distribution rather than logistical ease and product features would essentially reflect customers unmet needs rather than show off the latest technological supremacy. Such a shift from product centricity to customer centricity will be an important first step. Create a marketing dashboard: To achieve complete market orientation, companies should create a systematic structure that would enable different functions to collectively discuss about customers and markets. Traditionally, marketing department handles customers and their needs, finance looks after the money, operations is singly focused on production and strategy generally looks at the market outside to decide on the companys future. A market orientation mandates that all these functions operate jointly. Marketing dashboards create a platform whereby representatives from each of these departments can come together and discuss the various functional issues so that the collective action will result in activities that enhances the companys relationships with customers. Further, for marketing to become an organization wide discipline, it must not only understand the different functions within a company but also should be able to relate marketing activities to other functional activities. Marketing dashboards provides marketers a structured platform to ensure marketing become coordinated and company wide. Constantly update metrics: Metrics used to measure the outcomes of marketing activities cannot be generalized across companies. Rather, they have to be modified

and adopted depending on the company, the product class, the industry, the important criteria being measured and the ability of the company to track marketing investments. A first step in recognizing and developing useful metrics would be a collaborative discussion with other functional departments within the company. Further, the corporate mission and underlying philosophy would offer some insights into what metric are regularly tracked such as quarterly market share, relative share within the category, brand awareness, conversion ration through the purchase funnel, shifts in attitudes in response to advertising campaigns, shift in purchase patterns in response to discounts/promotions and so on. But caution should be taken to ensure that these metrics capture both financial and non-financial measures. Marketing should also strive for developing metrics that go beyond the discipline and are able to capture the outcomes of all activities that bear on the relationship with customers. Such a move would take marketing a step closer to becoming an organization wide discipline.

Question 2 Explain the role of marketing at corporate,business and functional level.

Marketing plays an important role in the strategic planning process for many organizations. Although some marketing positions are represented at the corporate level, most are at the functional level within the business units of an organization. Strategic marketing describes marketing activities that affect corporate, business, and marketing strategic plans. Strategic marketing activities can be classified into three basic functions. First, marketers help orient everyone in the organization to- ward markets and customers. Thus, they are responsible for helping organizations execute a marketing philosophy throughout the strategic planning process. Second, marketers help gather and analyze information required to examine the current situation, identify trends in the marketing environment, and assess the potential impact of these trends. This information and analysis provides input for corporate, business, and marketing strategic plans. Third, marketers are involved in the development of corporate, business, and marketing strategic plans. Marketings influence varies across organizations. For organizations driven by a marketing philosophy, marketing necessarily plays a key role in strategic decision making. The trend toward pushing strategic planning responsibility further down the organization is increasing marketings clout in an organizations strategic planning process.

Question 4 Why increasing number of companies are entering strategic alliances?

i.

Gaining capabilities

An enterprise may want to produce something or to enquire certain resources that it lacks in the knowledge, technology and expertise. It may need to share those capabilities that the other firms have. Thus, strategic alliance is the opportunity for the enterprise to achieve its objectives in this aspect. Further to that, in later time the enterprise also could then use the newly acquired capabilities by itself and for its own purposes. ii. Easier access to target markets

Introducing the product into a new market can be complicated and costly. It may expose the enterprise to several obstacles such as entrench competition, hostile government regulations and additional operating complexity. There are also the risks of opportunity costs and direct financial losses due to improper assessment of the market situations. Choosing a strategic alliance as the entry mode will overcome some of those problems and help reduce the entry cost. For example, an enterprise can license a product to its alliance to widen the market of that particular product. iii. Sharing the financial risk

Enterprises can make use of the strategic arrangement to reduce their individual enterprises financial risk. For example, when two firms jointly invested with equal share on a project, the greatest potential that each of them stand to loose is only half of the total project cost in case the venture failed. iv. Winning the political obstacle

Bringing a product into another country might confront the enterprise with political factors and strict regulations imposed by the national government. Some countries are politically restrictive while some are highly concerned about the influence of foreign firms on their economics that they require foreign enterprises to engage in the joint venture with local firms. In this circumstance, strategic alliance will enable enterprises to penetrate the local markets of the targeted country. v. Achieving synergy and competitive advantage

Synergy and competitive advantage are elements that lead businesses to greater success. An enterprise may not be strong enough to attain these elements by itself, but it might possible by joint efforts with another enterprise. The combination of individual strengths will enable it to compete more effectively and achieve better than if it attempts on its own.

For example, to create a favorable brand image in the consumers mind is costly and time-consuming. For this reason, an enterprise deciding to introduce its new product may need a strategic arrangement with another enterprise that has a ready image in the market.

Question 5 Explain briefly the components of a business marketing plan?

1. Market Research Collect, organize, and write down data about the market that is currently buying the product(s) or service(s) you will sell. Some areas to consider: Market dynamics, patterns including seasonality Customers - demographics, market segment, target markets, needs, buying decisions Product - what's out there now, what's the competition offering Current sales in the industry Benchmarks in the industry Suppliers - vendors that you will need to rely on 2. Target Market Find niche or target markets for your product and describe them. 3. Product Describe your product. How does your product relate to the market? What does your market need, what do they currently use, what do they need above and beyond current use? 4. Competition Describe your competition. Develop your "unique selling proposition." What makes you stand apart from your competition? What is your competition doing about branding? 5. Mission Statement Write a few sentences that state: "Key market" - who you're selling to "Contribution" - what you're selling "Distinction" - your unique selling proposition 6. Market Strategies Write down the marketing and promotion strategies that you want to use or at least consider using. Strategies to consider: Networking - go where your market is Direct marketing - sales letters, brochures, flyers Advertising - print media, directories Training programs - to increase awareness Write articles, give advice, become known as an expert Direct/personal selling Publicity/press releases Trade shows Web site 7. Pricing, Positioning and Branding From the information you've collected, establish strategies for determining the price of your product, where your product will be positioned in the market and how you will achieve brand awareness. 8. Budget Budget your dollars. What strategies can you afford? What can you do in house, what do you need to outsource.

9. Marketing Goals Establish quantifiable marketing goals. This means goals that you can turn into numbers. For instance, your goals might be to gain at least 30 new clients or to sell 10 products per week, or to increase your income by 30% this year. Your goals might include sales, profits, or customer's satisfaction. 10. Monitor Your Results Test and analyze. Identify the strategies that are working. Survey customers Track sales, leads, visitors to your web site, percent of sales to impressions By researching your markets, your competition, and determining your unique positioning, you are in a much better position to promote and sell your product or service. By establishing goals for your marketing campaign, you can better understand whether or not your efforts are generating results through ongoing review and evaluation of results. As mentioned earlier in this article, be sure to use your plan as a living document. Successful marketers continually review the status of their campaigns against their set objectives. This ensures ongoing improvements to your marketing initiatives and helps with future planning.