Adam Schiller

Marketing Functional Areas

Finance

The finance department controls budgets, looks after the account books and tax
reports. They are also responsible for forecasting, cash flow chats and handling other
financial data. It also deals with dividends and allocating wages and salaries to the
company’s staff. They support the marketing department by giving them a budget to
them, depending on size and requirement of the marketing department more or less
capital may be required. For example if a company needed a lot of capital for the
development of the product, it would be the finance’s department to either allocate it
or not. Finance departments can also report back on financial trends when it comes to
setting the price of the product/service. If there is a recession going on people would
be less likely to pay premium price for a product, the finance department could
feedback this information to the marketing department, which would influence
choices in the design of the product. For example it may mean not adding the extra 50
GB storage which adds another £40 to the price to the price of an mp3 player. Support
of the marketing department is crucial in order for a product to be successful when it
comes to launch, priced to high for the current financial situation and the product
launch could fail. Also the finance department makes sure that, the marketing
department does not go over budget and gives the marketing department guidelines to
work within. Finance departments also inform managers of the current financial
situation of the firm, allow managers to make informed judgements and co-ordinate
around the figures. The finance department gives strategic financial support for future
ventures and day to day financial operations of the firm.

When the Nintendo Wii was released a lot of capital was diverted to the promotion of
it, this was a direct result of cohesion between the marketing and finance department.
The finance department allocated a big budget or accepted a big budget proposal for
the marketing department to be able to promote the Wii effectively. The finance
department also dictates how much can be spent on packing; they may decide that
having recycled cardboard would cost too much and wouldn’t be cost effective.

I think that the finance department is one of the most crucial parts of a business; for
the effective running of business there needs to be some sort of financial department.
Without a finance department the company will be blissfully unaware of their
financial situation, which could lead to bad decision making and costly retributions. If
a firm turns a blind eye to their finances they almost defiantly loose there completive
edge, resources may be invested the wrong areas of the business while the crucial
places needing funding, go neglected. Although a smaller business could potentially
go without a marketing department, the same jobs would need to be completed by an
individual or a group, such as in a sole proprietorship or partnership.
Adam Schiller

Customer Service

Customer Service departments are there as a link between the business and their
customers, before and after a purchase. This department allows firms to keep in touch
with customers, gaining valuable feedback from them, responding to any
concerns/questions and addressing any issues that arise in response to purchase of the
product/service. Acting as sort of a barrier, the customer services allows managers and
business owners, to receive feedback from customers without them having to
physically having to email them all which would consume a lot of time in large
business. In smaller companies this role may have to be taken by the manager or
business owners to save money, this leads to a personal service where the people in
charge get a direct response from their clients and can then make the appropriate
change. A larger firm would have the customer service department report to the
mangers or business owners for them to implement change among the business. A
good customer service department can lead to repeat sales and brand loyalty, keeping
customers happy increases the likelihood of them returning. Poor customer service
can have the opposite effect having a negative effect on the brand image and
damaging reputations. In the current markets we have, where competition is stiff a
successful customer service department gives a company an extra edge. Markets are
very much consumer driven, no longer can people get away with shoddy customer
service as consumers can simply go to their competitors. Under cutting your
competitors is useless if you have a reputation of shoddy customer service no one will
buy from you, some may actively seek to contribute to your demise. - “If we don’t
take care of our customers, someone else will.”

The customer’s demands can be used to implement change and aid the marketing
department. If for example customers were complaining that they don’t like
something on the product, or in the service. The feedback from customers will be
passed on to the marketing department who then can make active changes, for future
products or for the next product update. It is in the company’s interest to fix any
prevailing problems, as they could face lawsuits if there product is not suitable for
use, costing them time and money. If a problem arrives early on in the product life
cycle and customer services feedback to the marketing department it can be fixed,
saving sales, pulling the defective units and keeping customer loyalty.

This famously happened with the Xbox 360, Microsoft having to pick up the tab when
the consol overheated; fortunately for Microsoft they had a strong brand image,
customer loyalty and customer service package. So sales remained strong, it’s only
recently that they have released the new jasper based Xbox 360 processor which is a
new improved Xbox360 with a new processor, fixing the overheating problem. This
new release will encourage more customers to buy an Xbox360. The situation is a
direct example of where the customer service department has influenced the
marketing department who have then created a new improved product. Effective
communication needs to be maintained between the customer service department and
marketing, in order for products and services to stay ahead of competition.

I think that the customer service department is not essential but can allow larger
businesses to gain a competitive edge. It allows businesses to see if their
product/service met the customer’s needs, keeping them happy.
Adam Schiller

Production

The production department is responsible for taking inputs and producing outputs,
these inputs are factors of production such as labour, capital and enterprise and
creating outputs such as a toy or mp3 player. Raw materials will be acquired to create
the product/service, while the production department is more important in a firm
producing a product. A firm producing a service could also benefit from having a
production department; they would be in charge of allocating resources and making
sure it is used to meet customer’s needs.

Supporting the marketing department, the production department decides factors such
as the quality and quantity of products being produced. Unless the type of material is
specified for a particular use in a product, the production department can find new
materials that are cheaper such as a cheaper plastic. This could cut prices down,
leaving the marketing department to decide the price of the new product with the
cheaper plastic, giving them more power to implement and exercise pricing strategies.
In addition the production department chooses how best the product should be
produced, such as job, batch or flow production. Efficiency is the responsibility of the
production department, they feedback to the marketing department where savings can
be made. The production department makes the marketing aware of new technologies,
new machines and other factors that could affect the marketing department and the
business as a whole.

A good example of this is the new twisted Cadburys crème egg bars, where the
production department has a machine able to create twisted crème egg bars and the
marketing department then can go out and market this new product. As a spin-off of
the crème egg, they can now produce Cadburys year round; this might upset some
traditionalist crème egg fans so it was the marketing department to make the break in
tradition acceptable. They did this with a clever ad campaign, marketing the twisted
crème egg bar as an evil offspring of the beloved crème egg, launching it under the
crème egg brand with a humorous story made it more attractive, while keeping the
allure for the original crème egg which comes round ever Easter.

I think the production department holds more relevance in a product based firm but
still has relevance in a service providing firm. To create a strong business, there needs
to be a strong production team involved, saving costs and increasing production and
technological capabilities, in order to generate more revenue and keep the company
innovative.
Adam Schiller

Research and Development

The research and development department is solely concerned with finding new ways
to make products/services, improving existing products/ services. They look into
market trends, social situation, economic situation and political environment. Moving
forward in the market, is crucial as a business needs to be innovative, this is why
some businesses have whole research and development departments where as the
marketing department usually would encompass research and development, this is
also an indicator of an rapidly increasing competitive market where everyone needs to
be ahead of the game. Research and development departments also operate before
hand and assist in the planning of the business, product or service. The background
research allows the business to be smarter in the choices it makes in relation to
everything else.

If for example the new ‘cool’ word on the street was ‘bizznizz’, and the products
target market was teenagers who affiliated with slang and street culture, the research
and development would feed this back to the marketing department. Using this
intelligence the marketing department may come up with an advert using this buzz
word, ‘Yo our soft drink is the bizznizz!’ This is just one example but it could be
related to a different market replacing the slang with jargon. For example if your
target audience was computer savvy you may want to mention the ‘processor speed’
or ‘clock speed’, where as if your target market are computer novices you may want
to say ‘With accelerated speeds, to deliver your content instantly on demand’ An
example of a company with a successful research and development department would
be the market leaders in the technological field, Apple and Sony, both are prime
examples as there products are constantly improved allowing them to stay innovative
and on top. The Ipod is constantly being improved, from smaller sizes, to bigger
capacity all the way to bigger capacity and smaller sizes. Likewise Sony’s Playstation
has shown research and development by bringing out, new consoles with improved
graphics and speed, retaining their market dominance in the seventh generation of
video games. The Wii consol is a prime example of successful research, they
identified gaming was becoming more main stream, so make a consol for the whole
family, the wii is now the leading consol in home entertainment, overtaking it’s
competitors the PS3 and Xbox360. Attracting non-gamers and casual gamers as well
as hardcore gamers with a new interactive system, the research department found wii
players enjoyed sports games, so brought out wii fit, another example of Nintendo’s
strategic research and development.

I think that the research and development department is necessary, in today’s modern
competitive global business environment. In order to stay in the forefront of the
market new technology needs to be delivered to meet customer’s needs, for faster,
better and more efficient products and services. Imagine if you will, if Apple scrapped
research and development, they would most certainly be over taken by their
competitors brining out newer and better technology to meet customers need. It is for
this reason I believe a firm needs a strong research and development department,
especially in the technology market.
Adam Schiller

Quality Assurance Department

Quality assurance departments ensure customers don’t get faulty goods by checking
the quality before the product is mass produced and released. This allows the
company to remove any element of bad press that could be gained as a result of a
dodgy product release, or poor quality service. Allowing the company to be confident
before resale, that their product will meet customer’s needs and their brand image
won’t be damaged. Stress testing is usually a part of quality control it is designed to
cover any liabilities,

In a business for example a quality assurance department do tests on a product they

can provide evidence is anyone tries to sue them. Let’s say someone drops there new
iPhone off a skyscraper, claims to apple that their new iPhone dropped out of there
pocket and got damaged that way. Then the quality assurance department can provide
evidence that, the amount of damaged sustained would of not happened if the phone
had simply fell out from there pocket, due to their own tests. Saving apple time and
money replacing phones which have been mistreated, this also allows them to put
disclaimers and warnings onto their products. To make sure apple did not ship any
faulty iPhones which had been damaged in transit or in production by moisture, they
included a water sensor and could easily identify if the batch had been damaged by
moisture or water.

The quality assurance department can help the marketing department, improve
designs to meet customer needs and fix any prevailing problems before the
product/service is released to the public. It allows the marketing department make
corrective action to the design of the product before it is too late; making sure it meets
the purpose of the product and design brief. As a personal experience of a lack of
quality assurance in a company, I eat Muller light yoghurts for lunch and whenever I
open the lids of these yoghurts they spray the yoghurt on the lid everywhere. I’m
pretty sure if there was a quality controller in the company, getting yoghurt thrown on
his clothes repeatedly from opening the lids of Muller light, he would feedback this
information to marketing department who would change the design. Perhaps make the
aluminium lids come off the yoghurts easier, without a quality assurance department
you can expect customer services to deal with a lot of complaints.

I think a quality assurance department is a good idea as it allows the company to audit
their product/service constantly, bad press is costly and it may take a lot of time for
trust to be rebuilt. To maintain good public relations a quality assurance department
can create a beneficial checkpoint in the design of a product/service. Without it
companies could be releasing tat and would only find out when the customer service
department gets swamped with complaints.
Adam Schiller

Human Resources

The human resources department is in charge of the overall well being of employees
dealing with pay, training and addressing any issues they have. Equality within a firm
has to be maintained my human resources, making sure equal opportunity is given for
everyone to develop and gain promotions within the business. They take the
responsibility for interviewing someone for a promotion, maintaining health and
safety and training, improving over all motivation. If someone was feeling bullied in
the work place, they could go speak in confidence to the human resources department.

Human resources can assist the marketing department by filling any vacancies in the
marketing department. They can either recruit externally or find someone in the
company who is already trained and qualified to fill the post. If a large proportion of
people in the marketing department were complaining of feeling stressed by pressure
placed on them, they could let the human resources department know. This may result
in there managers re-releasing goals and re-thinking plans. This would achieve over
all happier motivated employees and reducing stress; this could reduce the amount of
sick days taken off, saving capital.

Google has portrayed its company as fun, creative and relaxed through a video made
for human resource’s recruiting. It demonstrates to potential employees that the
human resource department at Google cares about their well being, giving them
information on ‘tech talks’ Where Google members are given up to date training in
current engineering problems. The free snacks that they receive and other employee
perks designed to keep Google employees happy and motivated. I would say this is a
result of a strong human resource department, in the video Google demonstrates its
equal opportunities. Where mothers have child care centres at the Google
headquarters so that their children can be well looked after, close to where they work.

I think a human resource department is an important department to fulfil, it is

essential in a larger firm defiantly; where you need everyone to be content and
motivated, increasing productivity. Certainly you would need a human resources
department to handle health and safety and recruit, train and develop new and existing
staff.