Page 18 - Marketing Management

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 ad-
vertising is not nearly as effective as it was, so marketers are exploring new forms of communica-
tion, 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
customer portfolios,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 profitabil-
ity 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 of-
fer, 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 market-
ing environment. Four key dimensions of holistic marketing are:
1. Internal marketing—ensuring everyone in the organization embraces appropriate market-
ing principles, especially senior management.
2. Integrated marketing—ensuring that multiple means of creating, delivering, and commu-
nicating 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 en-
vironmental 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 manage-
ment in the 21st century:

1. Developing marketing strategies and plans
2. Capturing marketing insights and performance
3. Connecting with customers
4. Building strong brands
5. Shaping the market offerings
6. Delivering and communicating value
7. Creating successful long-term growth

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