By Sumit Mondewal
Marketing management is a
business discipline which is focused on the practical application of marketing
techniques and the management of a firm's marketing resources and activities.
Rapidly emerging forces of globalization have led firms to market beyond
the borders of their home countries, making international marketing highly significant
and an integral part of a firm's marketing strategy.[1]
Marketing managers are often responsible for influencing the level, timing, and
composition of customer demand accepted definition of the term. In part, this
is because the role of a marketing manager can vary significantly based on a
business's size, corporate culture, and industry
context. For example, in a large consumer products company, the marketing
manager may act as the overall general
manager of his or her assigned product [2]
to create an effective, cost-efficient Marketing management strategy, firms
must possess a detailed, objective understanding of their own
business and the market
in which they operate.[3]
In analyzing these issues, the discipline of marketing management often
overlaps with the related discipline of strategic planning.
Structure Of Marketing Management:
Traditionally,
marketing analysis was structured into three areas: customer analysis, company
analysis, and competitor analysis (so-called "3 Cs" analysis). More
recently, it has become fashionable in some marketing circles to divide these
further into certain five "Cs": customer analysis, company analysis,
collaborator analysis, competitor analysis, and analysis of the industry
context.Customer analysis is to develop a schematic diagram for market segmentation, breaking down the market
into various constituent groups of customers, which are called customer
segments or market segmentation's. Marketing managers work to develop detailed
profiles of each segment, focusing on any number of variables that may differ
among the segments: demographic, psycho graphic, geographic, behavioral,
needs-benefit, and other factors may all be examined. Marketers also attempt to
track these segments' perceptions of the various products in the market using
tools such as perceptual mapping.
In company analysis, marketers focus on
understanding the company's cost structure and cost position relative to
competitors, as well as working to identify a firm's core
competencies and other competitively distinct company resources. Marketing managers may also
work with the accounting department to analyze the profits the firm is generating from various product lines
and customer accounts. The company may also conduct periodic brand audits to
assess the strength of its brands and sources of brand equity.
The firm's collaborators may also be profiled,
which may include various suppliers, distributors and other channel partners, joint venture
partners, and others. An analysis of complementary
products may also be performed if such products exist.
Marketing management employs various tools from economics
and competitive strategy to analyze the
industry context in which the firm operates. These include Porter's five forces, analysis of strategic
groups of competitors, value chain
analysis and others.[5]
Depending on the industry, the regulatory context may also be important to examine in
detail.In competitor analysis, marketers build detailed profiles of each
competitor in the market, focusing especially on their relative competitive
strengths and weaknesses using SWOT analysis.
Marketing managers will examine each competitor's cost structure, sources of
profits, resources and competencies, competitive positioning and product differentiation, degree of vertical integration, historical responses
to industry developments, and other factors.
Marketing management often finds it necessary to invest in research to
collect the data required to perform accurate marketing analysis. As such, they
often conduct market research (alternately marketing research) to obtain this information.
Marketers employ a variety of techniques to conduct market research, but some
of the more common include:
- Qualitative marketing research, such as focus groups and various types of interviews
- Quantitative marketing research, such as statistical surveys
- Experimental techniques such as test markets
- Observational techniques such as ethnographic (on-site) observation
Marketing managers may also design and oversee
various environmental scanning and competitive intelligence processes to help
identify trends and inform the company's marketing analysis.
A brand audit is a thorough examination of a
brand’s current position in an industry compared to its competitors and the
examination of its effectiveness. When it comes to brand auditing, five
questions should be carefully examined and assessed. These five questions are
how well the business’ current brand strategy is working, what are the
company’s established resource strengths and weaknesses, what are its external
opportunities and threats, how competitive are the business’ prices and costs,
how strong is the business’ competitive position in comparison to its
competitors, and what strategic issues are facing the business.
Historical Background of Management:
Management
development should be regarded as an integral and very important part of the
historical changes that are now taking place in Central and Eastern
Europe. The usual short description of what is currently happening
in these countries is that the old economic and political system collapsed, and
a transition to a Western type of multiparty democracy and market economy has
just started. So far, only the first of these two enormous tasks - the creation
of a new political regime incorporating a multiparty system and parliamentary
democracy - is in the process of completion. However, in this respect, it must
be remembered that there are fundamental differences between the individual
countries of the region.
It follows from the above
description of the current situation that the second great historical task, the
creation of a market economy in these countries, is far from being completed
and in fact has only just begun. It is also important to note that this is not
going to be an organic, evolutionary development similar to that which took
place in the countries of the developed world, and which occurred over a long
period of historical time. In contrast, in Central and Eastern
Europe, the process is being initiated and promoted by governments
in power, and the legal framework necessary for its existence and functioning
is being elaborated and legislated by the Parliaments of these countries. This
is how the institutional infrastructure of a market economy is going to be
created in these countries, but what about the human factor, the professional
actors of a market economy, the experienced and well trained managers? How will
they emerge, and where will they come from?
Naturally, once more this is a
task of historical importance and magnitude, in which the cooperation of the
management development specialists of Western, Central and Eastern European
countries could be especially fruitful for all parties - for so long as it is
done with the necessary concern for the specific conditions prevailing in the
countries concerned. In my opinion, simply importing Western expertise in
management development cannot solve the problem of educating managers in
Central and Eastern Europe.
The main reason for this is that
the economies of Central and Eastern Europe
are not (centrally) planned economies any more, but they are not market
economies yet. What we are currently experiencing is a transition period from a
(centrally) planned economy to a (free) market economy. Furthermore, it is
absolutely vital to remember that the "starting point" in this
transition process is far from being the same in each individual country. Hungary, for example, had initiated a reform of
the management and control system of the whole economy in 1968, and as a
result, has moved considerably closer to a market economy than any other
country in Central Europe. That economic
reform in Hungary
involved introducing decentralized decision making for managers, although on
the basis of state ownership of enterprises. State ownership was maintained
because communist ideology held that socialism can only be built on the basis
of state ownership of productive capital, and any change in this would have
meant a questioning of the political regime.
This positive historical mistake
could not have led to a real market economy because it brought about only one
of the two main components of a market economy, decentralized decision making,
and not the other, private ownership. So what we ended up with was a simulated
market economy because managers had the right to company-level independent
decision making, but the private owner was missing from the picture. Its
positive side was that as a result, Hungarian managers did learn to make
decentralized, microeconomic decisions in individual companies without too much
direct interference from the state. And at the same time, this arrangement
saved them from the risks associated with a truly private economy. If we want
to understand the real tasks of management development in today's Central and Eastern Europe, we must analyze managers' position in the
old, planned economy, the role they will have to play in the new privatized
economy, and, what is most important at the moment, the process of transition.
CURRENT RELEVANCE
OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT
OR
IMPORTANCE OF
MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Marketing is a very important aspect in
business since it contributes greatly to the success of the organization.
Production and distribution depend largely on marketing. Many people think that
sales and marketing are basically the same. These two concepts are different in
many aspects. Marketing covers advertising, promotions, public relations, and
sales. It is the process of introducing and promoting the product or service
into the market and encourages sales from the buying public. Sales refer to the
act of buying or the actual transaction of customers purchasing the product or
service.
Since the goal of
marketing is to make the product or service widely known and recognized to the
market, marketers must be creative in their marketing activities. In this
competitive nature of many businesses, getting the product noticed is not that
easy.Strategically, the business must be centered on the customers more than
the products. Although good and quality products are also essential, the buying
public still has their personal preferences. If you target more of their needs,
they will come back again and again and even bring along recruits. If you push
more on the product and disregard their wants and the benefits they can get,
you will lose your customers in no time. The sad thing is that getting them back is the hardest part.
Marketing Promotes Product Awareness to the Public
It has already been mentioned
in the previous paragraph that getting the product or service recognized by the
market is the primary goal of marketing. No business possibly ever thought of
just letting the people find out about the business themselves, unless you have
already established a reputation in the industry. But if you are a start-out
company, the only means to be made known is to advertise and promote. Your
business may be spending on the advertising and promotional programs but the
important thing is that product and company information is disseminated to the
buying public.Various types of marketing approaches can be utilized by an
organization. All forms of marketing promote product awareness to the market at
large. Offline and online marketing make it possible for the people to be
educated with the various products and services that they can take advantage
of.A company must invest in marketing so as not to miss the opportunity of
being discovered. If expense is to be considered, there are cost-effective
marketing techniques a company can embark on such as pay-per-click ads and
blogging.
Marketing Helps Boost Product Sales
Apart from public
awareness about a company’s products and services, marketing helps boost sales
and revenue growth. Whatever your business is selling, it will generate sales
once the public learns about your product through TV advertisements, radio
commercials, newspaper ads, online ads, and other forms of marketing. The more
people hear and see more of your advertisements, the more they will be interested
to buy.If your company aims to increase the sales percentage and double the
production, the marketing department must be able to come up with effective and strategic marketing plans.
Marketing Builds Company Reputation
In order to conquer
the general market, marketers aim to create a brand name recognition or product
recall. This is a technique for the consumers to easily associate the brand
name with the images, logo, or caption that they hear and see in the
advertisements.
For example,
McDonalds is known for its arch design which attracts people and identifies the
image as McDonalds. For some companies, building a reputation to the public may
take time but there are those who easily attract the people. With an
established name in the industry, a business continues to grow and expand
because more and more customers will purchase the products or take advantage of
the services from a reputable company.
Conclusion Marketing Management:
The marketing mix is the combination of marketing activities
that anorganisation engages in so as to best meet the needs of its targeted
market. TheInsurance business deals in selling services and therefore due
weightage in theformation of marketing mix for the Insurance business is needed. The marketingmix
includes sub-mixes of the 7 P’s of
marketing i.e. the product, its price,
place,promotion, people, process & physical attraction. The above mentioned 7 P’s canbe used for
marketing of Insurance products, in the following manner:1. PRODUCT:A product
means what is produced. If one produce goods, it means tangibleproduct and when
one produce or generate services, it means intangible serviceproduct. A product
is both what a seller has to sell and a buyer has to buy. Thus,an Insurance
company sells services and therefore services are their product.When a person
or an organisation buys an Insurance policy from the insurancecompany, he not
only buys a policy, but along with it the assistance and adviceof the
agent, the prestige of the insurance company and the facilities of claimsand
compensation. It is natural that the users expect a reasonable return fortheir
investment and the insurance companies want to maximize theirprofitability.
Hence, while deciding the product portfolio or the product-mix, theservices or
the schemes should be motivational. The SBI Life
has intensified efforts to promote urban savings, but as far as ruralsavings are concerned,
it is not that impressive. The introduction of Rural CareerAgents Scheme has
been found instrumental in inducing the rural prospects butthe process is at
infant stage and requires more professional excellence. Thepolicy makers are
required to activate the efforts.
2. PRICING:
In the insurance business the
pricing decisions are concerned with:i) The premium charged against the
policies,ii) Interest charged for defaulting the payment of premium and credit
facility,andiii) Commission charged for underwriting and consultancy activities.With
a view of influencing the target market or prospects the formulation of
pricing strategy becomes
significant. In a developing country like India where thedisposable income in
the hands of prospects is low, the pricing decision alsogoverns the
transformation of potential policyholders into actualpolicyholders.The
strategies may be high or low pricing keeping in view the levelor standard of
customers or the policyholders. The pricing in insurance is in theform of
premium rates. The three main factors used for determining thepremium rates
under a life insurance plan are mortality, expense and interest. The
premium rates are revised if there are any significant changes in any
of these factors.
3. PLACE:
This component of the
marketing mix is related to two important facets –i) Managing the insurance
personnel, andii) Locating a branch. The management of agents and
insurance personnel is found significant
with theviewpoint of maintaining the norms for offering the services. This is
also toprocess the services to the end user in such a way that a gap between theservices-
promised and services – offered is bridged over. In a majority of theservice
generating organizations, such a gap is found existent which has
beeninstrumental in making worse the image problem.Another important dimension
to the Place Mix is related to the location of theinsurance branches. While
locating branches, the branch manager needs toconsider a number of factors,
such as smooth accessibility, availability of infrastructural
facilities and the management of branch offices and premises.
Inaddition it is also significant to provide safety measures and also factors
likeoffice furnishing, civic amenities and facilities, parking facilities and interior
officedecoration should be given proper attention. Thus the place
management of insurance branch offices needs a new vision,distinct approach and
an innovative style. This is essential to make the workplace conducive,
attractive and proactive for the generation of efficiency amongemployees. The
branch managers need professional excellence to make placedecisions productive.
4. PROMOTION:
The insurance
services depend on effective promotional measures. In a countrylike India, the
rate of illiteracy is very high and the rural economy has dominanc
in the national economy. It is essential to have both personal and
impersonalpromotion strategies. In promoting insurance business, the agents and the ruralcareer agents play an important
role. Due attention should be given in selectingthe promotional tools for
agents and rural career agents and even for the branchmanagers and
front line staff. They also have to be given proper training in orderto create
impulse buying.Advertising and Publicity, organisation of conferences and seminars, incentive
topolicyholders are impersonal communication. Arranging Kirtans, exhibitions,participation in
fairs and festivals, rural wall paintings and publicity drive throughthe mobile
publicity van units would be effective in creating the impulse buyingand the
rural prospects would be easily transformed into actual policyholders.
5. PEOPLE:
Understanding the customer
better allows to design appropriate products. Beinga service industry which
involves a high level of people interaction, it is veryimportant to use this
resource efficiently in order to satisfy customers. Training,development
and strong relationships with intermediaries are the key areas tobe kept under
consideration. Training the employees, use of IT for efficiency,both at the
staff and agent level, is one of the important areas to look into
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