Page 46 - Marketing Management

DEFINING MARKETING FOR THE 21ST CENTURY | CHAPTER 1 23

TABLE 1.1 Assessing Which Company Departments Are
Customer-Minded

R&D
• They spend time meeting customers and listening to their problems.
• They welcome the involvement of marketing, manufacturing, and other departments to each new
project.
• They benchmark competitors’ products and seek “best of class” solutions.
• They solicit customer reactions and suggestions as the project progresses.
• They continuously improve and refine the product on the basis of market feedback.
Purchasing
• They proactively search for the best suppliers.
• They build long-term relationships with fewer but more reliable, high-quality suppliers.
• They don’t compromise quality for price savings.
Manufacturing
• They invite customers to visit and tour their plants.
• They visit customer plants.
• They willingly work overtime to meet promised delivery schedules.
• They continuously search for ways to produce goods faster and/or at lower cost.
• They continuously improve product quality, aiming for zero defects.
• They meet customer requirements for “customization” where possible.
Marketing
• They study customer needs and wants in well-defined market segments.
• They allocate marketing effort in relation to the long-run profit potential of the targeted segments.
• They develop winning offers for each target segment.
• They measure company image and customer satisfaction on a continuous basis.
• They continuously gather and evaluate ideas for new products, product improvements, and services.
• They urge all company departments and employees to be customer centered.
Sales
• They have specialized knowledge of the customer’s industry.
• They strive to give the customer “the best solution.”
• They make only promises that they can keep.
• They feed back customers’ needs and ideas to those in charge of product development.
• They serve the same customers for a long period of time.
Logistics
• They set a high standard for service delivery time and meet this standard consistently.
• They operate a knowledgeable and friendly customer service department that can answer ques-
tions, handle complaints, and resolve problems in a satisfactory and timely manner.
Accounting
• They prepare periodic “profitability” reports by product, market segment, geographic areas
(regions, sales territories), order sizes, channels, and individual customers.
• They prepare invoices tailored to customer needs and answer customer queries courteously
and quickly.
Finance
• They understand and support marketing expenditures (e.g., image advertising) that produce
long-term customer preference and loyalty.
• They tailor the financial package to the customer’s financial requirements.
• They make quick decisions on customer creditworthiness.
Public Relations
• They send out favorable news about the company and “damage control” unfavorable news.
• They act as an internal customer and public advocate for better company policies and practices.
Source: ©Philip Kotler, Kotler on Marketing (New York: Free Press, 1999), pp. 21–22. Reprinted with permission of The Free Press, a Division of
Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group. Copyright © 1999 by Philip Kotler. All rights reserved.