Marketing Management

Marketing management combines the fields of marketing and management. Marketing consists of discovering consumer needs and wants, creating the goods and services that meet those needs and wants; and pricing, promoting, and delivering those goods and services. Doing so requires attention to six major areas – markets, products, prices, places, promotion, and people. Management is getting things done through other people. Managers engage in five key activities – planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling. Marketing management implies the integration of these concepts.

Relationship Between Marketing Research and Marketing Strategy

If the company has obtained an adequate understanding of the customer base and its own competitive position in the industry, marketing managers are able to make their own key strategic decisions and develop a  marketing strategy  designed to maximize the  revenues  and  profits  of the firm. The selected strategy may aim for any of a variety of specific objectives, including optimizing short-term unit margins, revenue growth,  market share, long-term profitability, or other goals.

To achieve the desired objectives, marketers typically identify one or more target customer segments which they intend to pursue. Customer segments are often selected as targets because they score highly on two dimensions:

  1. The segment is attractive to serve because it is large, growing, makes frequent purchases, is not price sensitive (i.e.
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Are Market Research and Marketing Research the Same?

Market research is about understanding the broader marketplace in which we intend to compete. Marketing research, on the other hand, is about understanding what ‘package’ of marketing elements (i.e. the product, price, promotion and distribution factors) the country will need to put together in order to meet customer needs and to succeed in the marketplace. Market research is the more encompassing/broader concept of understanding the market environment in which you will be competing, while marketing research is the more specific/focused view of consumer needs and behavior.

In its role as the foundation of marketing, marketing research is arguably marketing’s most important task.  … Read the rest

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Positioning and Differentiation of Services

Services firms are not identifying their key market segments and then determining how they wish consumers to perceive both their company and its products and services. Positioning is of particular significant in the services sector as it places an intangible service within a more tangible frame of reference. Thus the concept of positioning stems from a consideration of how an organization wishes its target customer to view its products and services in relationship to those of its competitors and their actual, or perceived, needs.

“Positioning is concerned with the identification, development and communication of a differentiated advantage which makes the organization’s products and services perceived as superior and distinctive to those of its competitors in the mind of its target customers.”… Read the rest

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The Gap Model of Service Quality

The Gap Model of Service Quality  has been developed by Parasuraman and his colleagues which helps to identify the gaps between the perceived service qualities that customers receive and what they expect.

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The Gap Model of Service Quality  identifies five gaps:

  1. Consumer expectation — management perception gap.
  2. Management perception — service quality expectation gap.
  3. Service quality specifications — service delivery gap.
  4. Service delivery — external communications to consumer’s gap.
  5. Expected service — perceived service gap.

Gap — 5 is the service quality shortfall as seen by the customers, and gaps 1-4 are shortfalls within the service organization.… Read the rest

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Objections Against Advertising

Economic objections against Advertising

The criticisms leveled against modern advertising on economic grounds can be summarized as follows:

  1. Advertising creates monopolistic tendencies: It is argued that skillful and forceful advertising tends to create semi-monopolies particularly for branded goods. Their plea is that the advertisements create new demands so that one product is preferred to the exclusion of others. But this allegation is baseless. Monopoly is not possible in a competitive market. Advertising stimulates competition. Very often many small advertisers complete successfully against the bigger traders.
  2. Advertising is unproductive: It is often argued that advertising is unproductive since it does not produce any tangible products.
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The Global Advertising Plan

The strategic advertising plan usually is prepared in conjunction with the advertising budget. Basically, the plan outlines the marketing strategy, whereas the budget allocates the funds. Two major approaches to advertising in foreign cultures differ in their orientation: one is market oriented and the other is culture oriented.

The Market Analysis Model

This model is based on data and observation from several countries. It recognizes the existence of local, regional, and international brands in almost every product category. The two major variables are the share of market of brands within a category and the size of the category. A marketing manager must look not only as share but also at market size, growth rates, and growth opportunities.… Read the rest

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