line of the product. To better explain this, let’s take for example a company making camera, themarketing manager can use the company core competency in optics to design a line of binocularsand telescopes. Moreover, a marketing manager can develop a concrete marketing plan thatspecifies the marketing strategy and tactics.
3.Capturing marketing insights
A marketing manager is also responsible for capturing marketing insights. To understand what ishappening inside and outside the company, the marketing manager needs a reliable marketingInformation System. The Marketing Information System is a framework for day-to-daymanagement and structuring of information gathered regularly from sources both inside andoutside an organization. MIS provide a continuous flow of information considered relevant tomarketing managers. An MIS has got three components namely an internal records system,which includes information on the order-to-payment cycle and sales reporting systems; amarketing intelligence system, a set of procedures and sources used by managers to obtaineveryday information about pertinent developments in the marketing environment; a marketingresearch system that allows for the systematic design, collection, analysis and reporting of dataand findings relevant to a specific marketing situation.The marketing manager needs to be able to monitor the six major environmental forces:demographic, economic, social-cultural, natural, technological and political-legal. In thedemographic environment, the marketing manager must be aware of worldwide populationgrowth; changing mixes of age, ethnic composition and educational levels; the rise of non-traditional families; large geographic shifts in population and the move to micromarketing andway from mass marketing.In the economic environment, marketing managers need to focus on the distribution of incomewithin the society and the levels of savings, debt and credit availability and finally inflationwithin the economy.In the socio-cultural environment, the marketing manager must understand what people think of themselves, of others, of the organizations, of the society and of the world. The marketingmanager should market a product that correspond to the society’s core and secondary values andsatisfy the needs of the different subcultures that may exists within the society.In the natural environment, the marketing manager need to be aware of raw materials shortages,the rise in energy costs and the pollution levels and the changing role of the governments inenvironmental protection.In the technological environment, the marketing manager should take into consideration the fastemerging rate of technological change, opportunities for innovation and the rise in governmentalregulation brought about by the technological changes.Finally, in the political-legal environment, the marketing manager must work according to themany laws regulating business practices and with various special interests groups.
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