Page 49 - Marketing Management

26 PART 1 UNDERSTANDING MARKETING MANAGEMENT

We define performance as in holistic marketing, to capture the range of possible outcome measures
that have financial and nonfinancial implications (profitability as well as brand and customer equity),
and implications beyond the company itself (social responsibility,legal,ethical,and community related).
Finally, these new four Ps actually apply to all disciplines within the company, and by thinking
this way, managers grow more closely aligned with the rest of the company.

Marketing Management Tasks

With the holistic marketing philosophy as a backdrop, we can identify a specific set of tasks that
make up successful marketing management and marketing leadership. We’ll use the following situ-
ation to illustrate these tasks in the context of the plan of the book. (The “Marketing Memo:
Marketers’ Frequently Asked Questions” is a good checklist for the questions marketing managers
ask, all of which we examine in this book.)
Zeus Inc. (name disguised) operates in several industries, including chemicals, cameras,
and film. The company is organized into SBUs. Corporate management is considering
what to do with its Atlas camera division, which produces a range of 35mm and digital
cameras. Although Zeus has a sizable share and is producing revenue, the 35mm market
is rapidly declining. In the much faster-growing digital camera segment, Zeus faces
strong competition and has been slow to gain sales. Zeus’s corporate management wants
Atlas’s marketing group to produce a strong turnaround plan for the division.

Developing Marketing Strategies and Plans

The first task facing Atlas is to identify its potential long-run opportunities, given its market expe-
rience and core competencies (see Chapter 2). Atlas can design its cameras with better features. It
can make a line of video cameras, or it can use its core competency in optics to design a line of
binoculars and telescopes. Whichever direction it chooses, it must develop concrete marketing
plans that specify the marketing strategy and tactics going forward.

Capturing Marketing Insights
Atlas needs a reliable marketing information system to closely monitor its marketing environment so
it can continually assess market potential and forecast demand. Its microenvironment consists of all
the players who affect its ability to produce and sell cameras—suppliers, marketing intermediaries,
customers, and competitors. Its macroenvironment includes demographic, economic, physical, tech-
nological, political-legal, and social-cultural forces that affect sales and profits (see Chapter 3).
Atlas also needs a dependable marketing research system. To transform strategy into programs,
marketing managers must make basic decisions about their expenditures, activities, and budget

marketing
Memo Marketers’ Frequently Asked Questions

1. How can we spot and choose the right market segment(s)? 9. How can we keep our customers loyal longer?
2. How can we differentiate our offerings? 10. How can we tell which customers are more important?
3. How should we respond to customers who buy on price? 11. How can we measure the payback from advertising, sales promotion,
4. How can we compete against lower-cost, lower-price competitors? and public relations?
5. How far can we go in customizing our offering for each customer? 12. How can we improve sales force productivity?
6. How can we grow our business? 13. How can we establish multiple channels and yet manage channel conflict?
7. How can we build stronger brands? 14. How can we get the other company departments to be more
customer-oriented?
8. How can we reduce the cost of customer acquisition?