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| What Is Marketing Management All About ? |
Marketing Management is the leading
marketing text because its content and organization consistently reflect changes in marketing theory and practice. The very first edition of
Marketing Management, published in 1967, introduced the concept that companies must be customer-and-market driven. But there was little mention of what have now become fundamental topics such as segmentation, targeting, and positioning. Concepts such as brand equity, customer value analysis, database marketing, e-commerce, value networks, hybrid channels, supply chain
management, and integrated marketing communications were not even part of the marketing vocabulary then.
Marketing Management continues to reflect the changes in the marketing discipline over the past 40 years.
Firms now sell goods and services through a variety of direct and indirect channels. Mass advertising is not nearly as effective as it was, so marketers are exploring new forms of communication, such as experiential, entertainment, and viral marketing. Customers are telling companies what types of product or services they want and when, where, and how they want to buy them. They are increasingly reporting to other consumers what they think of specific companies and products—using e-mail, blogs, podcasts, and other digital media to do so. Company messages are becoming a smaller fraction of the total “conversation” about products and services.
In response, companies have shifted gears from managing product portfolios to managing customerportfolios, compiling databases on individual customers so they can understand them better and construct individualized offerings and messages. They are doing less product and service standardization and more niching and customization. They are replacing monologues with customer dialogues. They are improving their methods of measuring customer profitability and customer lifetime value. They are intent on measuring the return on their marketing investment and its impact on shareholder value. They are also concerned with the ethical and social implications of their marketing decisions.
As companies change, so does their marketing organization. Marketing is no longer a company department charged with a limited number of tasks—it is a company-wide undertaking. It drives the company’s vision, mission, and strategic planning. Marketing includes decisions like who the company wants as its customers, which of their needs to satisfy, what products and services to offer, what prices to set, what communications to send and receive, what channels of distribution to use, and what partnerships to develop. Marketing succeeds only when all departments work together to achieve goals: when engineering designs the right products; finance furnishes the required funds; purchasing buys high-quality materials; production makes high-quality products on time; and accounting measures the profitability of different customers, products, and areas.
To address all these different shifts, good marketers are practicing holistic marketing. Holistic marketing is the development, design, and implementation of marketing programs, processes, and activities that recognize the breadth and interdependencies of today’s marketing environment. Four key dimensions of holistic marketing are:
1.
Internal marketing — ensuring everyone in the organization embraces appropriate marketing principles, especially senior management.
2.
Integrated marketing — ensuring that multiple means of creating, delivering, and communicating value are employed and combined in the best way.
3.
Relationship marketing — having rich, multifaceted relationships with customers, channel
members, and other marketing partners.
4.
Performance marketing — understanding returns to the business from marketing activities
and programs, as well as addressing broader concerns and their legal, ethical, social, and environmental effects.
These four dimensions are woven throughout the book and at times spelled out explicitly. The text specifically addresses the following tasks that constitute modern marketing management in the 21st century:
1.
Developing marketing strategies and plans2.
Capturing marketing insights and performance3.
Connecting with customers4.
Building strong brands5.
Shaping the market offerings6.
Delivering and communicating value7.
Creating successful long-term growth