Marketing Management 1

 

Marketing Introduction

Business = Marketing

Marketing is the truly entrepreneurial part of business

Marketing is the truly strategic part of the business.

Marketing is an art, a science, a system, a process, a relationship.

Marketing is meeting human needs or meeting customer needs.

Marketing answers the following questions. Who are our customer? What must we do to meet their needs? How to meet their needs at a profit?

Marketing adds value to the goods by providing 

1. Time utility: distribution, storage and timely distribution

2. Place utility: sorting and grading

3. Possession utility: cash & credit facility, transfer of ownership.

4. Form utility: raw material to finished goods

5. Person utility: establish contact

Definition of Marketing

Marketing is the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from the producer to the consumers.

Marketing is a the human activity directed at satisfyingneeds and wants through an exchange process. (Kotler 1980)

Marketing is a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they want and need through creating, offering and exchanging products of value with others.(Kotler 1991)

Definition of Marketing Management

marketing Management is the analysis, planning, implementation and control of programs designed to create, build, and maintain beneficial exchanges with target buyers for the purpose of achieving organisational objectives.

Nature of Marketing

The main features of modern marketing are

1. Marketing is Consumer Oriented.

2. Marketing starts and ends with the consumer-

3. Marketing precedes and succeeds production 

4. Modern Marketing is the guiding element of business.

5. Marketing is a science as well as an art.

6. Marketing is a system. (Input - process - output)

7. Exchange Process is the essence of marketing

8. Marketing is goal-oriented. - profits, sales, market shares, satisfaction, distibution of scarce resources, future course of action.

9. Marketing is a dynamic process.

Scope of Marketing

1. Product Policy on Planning

(a) Marketing Research

Udentifying the customer requirements

collection of data

Analysis of data 

Findings and conclusion.

(b) Motivation Research

Motivating Consumers through advertising & promotion.

(C) Test Marketing 

Testing products in Standard markets, simulated markets and geographical area.

2. Distribution.

Organising distribution through various channels manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer to consumer.

Transportation

Warehousing

3 Sales Planning 

Setting various sales target. 

Setting the various budgets.

4. Sales Management

Recruitment of sales staff,

Training and development of sales staff

Incentives and renumeration of sales staff

Motivation of sales staff.

5. Segmenting and targetting the customers and 

developing marketing mix.

Importance / Role of Marketing

Globally

Firms growing frem national to global

Trade agreements between countries to do business

Relation between countries based on business.

Domestically:

High standard of living

Choice to customers

Employment Generation in retail, wholesaling, transportation, ware housing, communication departments, marketing of agricultural goods, industries etc.

Marketing creates utilities

Form Utility:

Place Utility:

Tine Utility:

Information Utility

 Possession Utility

Organisationally

Only department producing revenue directly.

In Service Marketing companies every staff has to be customer oriented.

Not for profit organisations also use marketing.

Personally

We are part of the marketing plan for many organisations.

Vast assortment of goods made available close to homes, ease of purchase, media is vastly supported by advertising.

Better informed customer.

Marketing Management Philosophies / Concepts

There are five alternative concepts under which organizations conduct than marketing activities.

1. Production

2. Product

3. Selling

4. Marketing

5. Societal Marketing

* Production Concept

The production concept holds that consumers favor products that are available, and highly affordable and management should focus on improving production and distribution.

The production concept is useful in two situations.

1. Demand for a product exceeds the supply. Management looks for ways to improve production.

2. Product's cost is too high and improved. productivity is needed to bring it down.

* Product Concept

Product concept holds that consumers favor products that offer the most and features, quality and performance and that organisation should make continuous product improvements.

* Selling Concept

The selling concept holds that consumers will not buy enough of the organisations products unless the organization undertakes a large-scale selling and promotion effort. 

* Marketing Concept 

The marketing concept holds that achieving organizational goal depends on determining the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfaction more effectively and efficiently than competitors.

* Societal Marketing Concept 

The societal marketing concept holds that the organization should determine the needs, wants and interests of target markets and deliver the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than competitors in a way that maintains or improves the consumers and society's well being.

 The societal marketing concept calls upon marketers to balance three consideration in setting their marketing policies.

1. Society (Human Welfare)

2. Consumer (Satisfaction)

3. Company (profits)

* Holistic Marketing Concept

Holistic Marketing recognises that "every thing matters. The four components of holistic marketing are relationship marketing integrated marketing, internal marketing, and socially responsible marketing.

1 Relationship Marketing: Relationship marketing has the aim of building mutually satisfying long-term relationships with key parties - customers, suppliers, distributors and other marketing partners. Companies build strong economic technical and social ties among the parties. The companies need to do Customer relationship management (CRM) and partner relationship management (PRM). The outcome of relationship is building of a unique company asset called marketing network consisting of customers, retailers marketing intermediaries, employees, ad agencies, university scientist, and others. It requires an understanding of the capabilities and resources of different groups, as well as their needs, goals, and desires.

2. Integrated Marketing: 

Marketing program consists of numerous decisions on value-enhancing marketing activities generally called marketing mix. Marketing mix is also defined as the set of marketing tools the firm uses to pursue its marketing objectives. These are classified into four - product, price, place and promotion.

3. Internal Marketing 

It is taking the employees along to reach company objectives. Designing appropriate programs to motivate them is important.

4. Socially Responsible Marketing 

It was explained earlier.

Marketing Myopia

Marketing myopia is a business strategy that focuses on short-term sales instead of long-term growth. It can lead to missed opportunities, reduced performance, and business failure.

Production concept, product concept, and selling concept are myopic as they do not concentrate on customer needs. By following marketing concept and societal marketing concept a firm can escape from being myopic.

Other reasons for marketing myopia may be as follows-

·         A company focused on short-term gains may need clearer short-term, mid-range, and long-term goals.

·         A company’s belief in the superiority of its product or services can prevent it from identifying competitive substitutes and planning to improve on competitor offerings.

·         Immediacy bias can pull a business owner’s attention away from long-term goals.

·         Stake-holder pressure. Business stakeholders can place a high value on immediate ROI, putting pressure on leaders to prioritize short-term gains over a long-term growth strategy. 

·         Fear of change. Changing your business model can introduce risk, but excessive caution enables myopic tendencies.

Trends in Marketing

Artificial Intelligence is boosting effectiveness and efficiency. 80% reduction in errors, prediction of queries.

Short term video content for YouTube and TikTok is driving social strategy.

Content ideas can be generated using AI tools like Google Gemini.

Using AI for marketing analytics:

one can learn about target audience, identify trends, predict behavior and optimize the marketing campaigns faster.

Short term video content drives social strategy. Marketers have to meet people where they are - YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, concise snackable content.

User Generated Content (UGC) is any content that users post about the company on their social media profiles. Then businesses can leverage that content through different tactics.

Community efforts and genuine branding encourage consumer trust. Community building is key for customer retention, social responsibility initiatives, and live video streaming.

‌Quality Editorial Content: Marketers will invest in editorial content like blog posts and podcasts to generate engagement, conversions, and promote thought leadership.

Search Engine changes shift SEO Strategies. SEO teams will expand into video, image, and audio search content.

Chatbots & virtual assistants expand conversational capabilities. They provide consumers with high-quality answers to common & easily answered questions.

Personalization enhances user experience. Machine learning product recommendations or augmented reality (AR) increase customer satisfaction. VR/AR offers consumers the opportunity to interact with products virtually before purchase.

Mobile-First Marketing enhances ad placement, loading times, and ultimately user satisfaction, positioning brands better, capturing attention where consumers are most active.

Influencer Partnerships reach target audiences through relatable, trusted voices.

Challenges of Marketing

1. Harnessing the power of social media.

Being abreast with newest social media platforms their reach, audience, followers, segment.

2. Developing Relationship with customers

 - get and create loyal customers

-B2B and B2C relationship marketing strategies 

- develop CRM

3. Improving the customer experience

4. Optimizing market performance.

 Forecast, ROI

5. Embracing AR & VR for creating immersive and interactive consumer experiences.

6. Optimizing for voice search thus shift in keyword strategy.

7. Sustainability and Ethical marketing to fulfill customer's expectations.

8. Dealing with ad blockers

Innovative strategy to be made.

Value Chain Creation

A value chain is a series of consecutive steps that go into the creation of a finished product, from its initial design to its arrival at a customer’s door. The chain identifies each step in the process at which value is added, including the sourcing, manufacturing, and marketing stages of its production.

Value chains help increase a business’s efficiency so the business can deliver the most value for the least possible cost

Michael E. Porter, of Harvard Business School, introduced the concept of a value chain in his book, “Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance.” He wrote: “Competitive advantage cannot be understood by looking at a firm as a whole. It stems from the many discrete activities a firm performs in designing, producing, marketing, delivering, and supporting its product

Components of a Value Chain

In his concept of a value chain, Porter splits a business’s activities into two categories, primary activities and support activities, of which sample activities for each are listed below. Specific activities in each category will vary according to the industry.

Primary Activities

Primary activities consist of five components, all essential for adding value and creating competitive advantage:

1. Inbound logistics include functions like receiving, warehousing, and managing inventory.

2. Operations include procedures for converting raw materials into a finished product.

3. Outbound logistics include activities to distribute a final product to a consumer.

4. Marketing and sales include strategies to enhance visibility and target appropriate customers—such as advertising, promotion, and pricing.

5. Service includes programs to maintain products and enhance the consumer experience—like customer service, maintenance, repair, refund, and exchange.

Support Activities

The role of support activities is to help make the primary activities more efficient. When you increase the efficiency of any of the four support activities, it benefits at least one of the five primary activities. These support activities are generally denoted as overhead costs on a company’s income statement:

1.Procurement concerns how a company obtains raw materials.

2. Technological development is used at a firm’s research and development (R&D) stage—like designing and developing manufacturing techniques and automating processes.

3. Human resources (HR) management involves hiring and retaining employees who will fulfill the firm’s business strategy and help design, market, and sell the product.

4. Infrastructure includes company systems and the composition of its management team—such as planning, accounting, finance, and quality control.