MODULE 4.WHAT IS MARKETING MANAGEMENT?

OVERVIEW

Marketing management is an organizational discipline,

which focuses on the practical usage of marketing orientation,
techniques, and methodologies in companies and organizations
and on the management of a firm's marketing resources and
activities. To satisfy the clients' requirements and their
objectives.

At the end of this module, students are expected to explain:

1.Interpret complex marketing issues and problems using

relevant theories, concepts, and methods concerning ethical
conduct.

2.Apply contemporary marketing theories to the demands of

business and management practice.

3.Find and generate information/data needed to inform problem-

solving in marketing using appropriate methodology.

4.Analyse information/data critically and synthesize new

knowledge and communicate that knowledge via engaging written
and oral formats.

5.Organise information and data to reveal patterns and themes,

and manage teams and evidence gathering and problem-solving
processes.

ASSIGNED READINGS

INTRODUCTION

Marketing lies at the core of all business. Whatever the

character or size of your entity, its profit can come from
only one place; the marketplace. All businesses are dependent

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on the income they earn from their customers, clients, or
buyers. In most larger businesses it is marketing managers who
are primarily responsible for keeping their company close to
its customers. In any case, all those who have direct
responsibility for identifying, reaching, and satisfying
customers are engaged in marketing and everybody in a business
needs to understand its marketplace activities. This course
offers a complete introduction to professional marketing
thought and action. The course explains the nature and purpose
of marketing, followed by the fundamentals of each of the most
important marketing tasks. It analyses the business need for
customer orientation, the evaluation of markets, and the
targeting of market opportunities. There is then an assessment
of buyer behavior and the role of market information. Also,
the course explains how to integrate product and service
decisions with those on pricing, distribution, and promotion -
and why this is necessary.

Marketing Management Functions

Market Research

The first stage in any product development is market research

which is done to assess the potential demand and growth
expectations in the market. If it is already an existing
product category such as shoes, cooking oil, soap, TV, there
would be a lot of secondary data available from research
agencies and in the public domain.

However, if it is a new product or service, it makes sense to

do a sample market survey with the help of a competent firm.
In such cases, a broader term is used – marketing research.
This can gauge the attitude of buyers, potential market size,
consumer preferences, acceptable pricing, product features,
and attributes. Likewise, in the service industry too, a new
marketing management concept or service is normally launched
after elaborate surveys.

Market surveys or competitions are organized to decide on

product or brand names. William Shakespeare asked, “What’s in
a name? A rose smells sweet by any other name. However, in
business, a good brand name can spell success while an
inappropriate name can spell failure.

Product, Price, Promotion, and Place are the four P’s of

marketing, and market research usually focuses on one aspect
such as price or promotion. Marketing management professionals
depend on two types of data for analysis of the market-
qualitative and quantitative.

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Qualitative focus on consumer perception, attitudes, and
opinion of a particular product or service while quantitative
data refers to units sold, produced, distributed in a
particular region and time.

It may be noticed that when a company launches a new product

or brand if there inadequate research or market surveys most
probably the initiative is bound to fail.

On the other hand, a scientifically designed research and

survey methodologies are likely to result in better product
development and acceptability by consumers. For eg., satellite
phones launched in many countries did not succeed because of
their cost and perhaps ahead of time.

Sometimes, a brand name may not be acceptable in a cultural

context and hence likely to fail. Colgate launched its
toothpaste brand ‘Cue’ in France not knowing it was the name
of a popular pornographic magazine.

Mercedes-Benz launched the ‘Bensi’ model in China but it meant

‘rush to die’. All this goes to show market research,
marketing management research is the first and vital step or
foundation to building a successful product. Every product or
service should serve a consumer need and if it doesn’t, the
launch is likely to fail.

Product development and management

Once the market research has enabled the evolvement of

specifications of a product or service, the next step in the
marketing management process in the making of the product.
Getting the right raw materials dies, fabrication, prototype
making, and other processes are some of the details to be
worked out with the production planning and manufacturing
units.

The success of a product would depend on raw materials,

technological know-how, and good inventory management. Experts
say that with rapid advances in technology and the
availability of raw materials, product life-cycle is getting
shorter and shorter.

Each product goes through a cycle popularly known as Product

Life Cycle (PLC) which is made up of the following stages-
development of product, introduction to the market, growth
through increased promotion and sales, maturity when sales
reach a peak, followed by saturation in the market and
subsequent decline.

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Product Life Cycle (PLC) will differ across products and
categories, sometimes it may last only a few weeks or months
while in some other cases, some years. PLC can be extended
through advertising to gain new market share, price discounts
to lure customers, using product enhancements to add value,
and target new areas. Even new packaging and color changes can
improve perception levels.

Before promotional activities are planned on a large scale, it

makes perfect business sense to test market the product in
select cities or regions to gauge the market response and if
any changes in product are required, modification and design
changes can be carried out before it reaches the retail
shelves and in the hands of customers

Promotion

A good product would not sell unless the consumers come to

know about the product. With the advent of marketing
management technology, newer options are available at the
disposal of the marketers. The first step in the process is to
identify a media planner and device the appropriate mix of
platforms to announce the launch of the product.

With a little effort and support from public relations

agencies, some launch publicity can be obtained in business
newspapers and business pages of newspapers. Newspapers,
radio, television, websites, social media such as Facebook,
LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter are all useful platforms to
launch and popularize products.

Sales & Distribution

The company has done the market research, identified the

product required, and gone ahead with production planning,
prototype testing, advertising and promotion, and marketing
management trials.

Now comes the most crucial part of the business process- sales
and distribution. The products must reach the targeted markets
through a well-planned distribution channel of national-level
distributors, clearing & forwarding agents, regional
distributors, wholesalers, and retailers.

This is a crucial marketing management function as the

availability of the product is vital for consumers to buy and
consume the product. Many a time due to lack management
function of planning, the products may not have reached the

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shop shelves but sufficient advertising has created a demand
among consumers who in turn get disappointed when the product
is not immediately available.

The marketing management team needs to build a network of

distributors and work on the logistics part either depending
on an in-house fleet of trucks or outsource the function to
third party logistic service providers.

In the case of perishable products, sufficient care should be

taken to ship them in refrigerated containers or those
protected from direct sunlight and heat.

There must be proper enterprise resource planning (ERP) system

in place to track the activities of finance, production
planning, shop floor, marketing, sales, distribution, and
administration so that marketing management requirements are
adequately met, inventory control, and financial cost control
is achieved.

The use of mobile computing applications can enable field

staff to get to update and feed market data and information to
headquarters on a real-time basis.

Storage

Proper storage of goods is vital for not only perishable and

semi-perishable goods but also for processed food, consumer
durables, but only to a lesser extent for industrial goods.
Distribution centers must have adequate warehousing facilities
that can be leased and emergency requirements for supply to
retail outlets.

Standardization and Testing

The products produced should conform to regulatory standards

regarding safety, environmental impact, quality of raw
materials used, design, and other parameters.

In the USA, UK, Gulf Co-operation, countries in Asia,

governments have set different standards for food, consumer,
electrical equipment, mobile gadgets, and products that are
allowed to be sold only if they meet those stringent
requirements.

Although this is a function of the production and technical

teams, the success of the product would depend on conforming
to such standards. The marketing management team also needs to
ensure that the products are periodically tested and evaluated

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based on consumer feedback so that adequate improvisations can
be made.

After-Sales and customer service

Most often companies pay less attention to an important

function of the market- after-sales service. The success of a
product depends on customer satisfaction and hence it must be
tracked regularly.

No product is perfect but the success of a company depends on

how fast it is with complaints redressal. In recent times,
major carmakers Ford, Toyota, and Suzuki had to recall several
new batches of their cars due to technical defects.

It happened with Apple iPhones too. It goes on to prove that

even large corporates are fallible and it is in their long-
term interest to admit and provide product replacement and
support.

Financing

Most often goods are sold to distributors and wholesalers on

credit and not immediate cash. The act of providing credit and
money when needed for distributors, the costs of getting
merchandise into the hands of the final user is known as
finance function in marketing management.

The need finance in marketing activity is towards working

capital and fixed capital that can be raised through own funds
of the company if it is cash-rich or through bank loans and
advance and trade credit.

Trade credit is provided by the manufacturer to distributors

and wholesalers. Various options of short, medium, and long
term finance have to be availed in the marketing of goods and
services.

It may be recalled that in times of mild recession and change

in trade cycles, wholesalers, distributors, and retailers face
cash flow problems and fail to meet their day-to-day
obligations.

To the extent they are not able to prove their

creditworthiness, adequate institutional financial management
function support may not be forthcoming. It is here that the
marketing management team has to lend a helping hand to tide

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over the crisis by rescheduling payments and giving time to
meet the obligations of sellers and resellers.
Market Risk-taking

The business carries a lot of market risk due to new

competition, fall in prices, loss of goods due to spoilage,
depreciation, obsolescence, theft, fire, and floods. Sometimes
for unknown reasons a slight defect or quality concerns in
certain batches of goods shipped may have to be recalled.

New regulatory rules can also make the sale of manufactured

goods or products impossible. It is the function of marketing
management to provide for adequate market risks which are
unforeseen and often unpredictable with the data available.

Market information

Timely market information is vital for product enhancement and

sales growth. The importance of timely market information is
being recognized more than before due to the expansion of
markets, the proliferation of products, and intense
competition.

Timely marketing management information is vital for the

companies to decide on when to sell, at what price to sell,
the number of competitors, and their offerings. Now business
firms employ service providers to gather data, analyze and
interpret facts.

They also actively seek facts, information from external

sources such as government publications, government reports,
and market research firms. Such data can also come from
internal departments and a robust ERP system can enable the
creation of useful marketing management reports that help in
business decision making

TASK 1. DESIGN AND DEVELOP NEW PRODUCT

Instructions:
1.Develop and design new food product
2.What is the name of your food product/Tagline
3.Process in making the product
4.What the needed materials
5.Documentation of the process Good Job for excellent product
5.Photo essay of your product design and development.
6.Packaging of the product

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 REFERENCES
http://www.adelaide.edu.au/technology/yourservices/learning-
teaching/adapt/

RECOMMENDED ARTICLES

Here are some articles that will help you to get more detail
about the Marketing Management so just go through the link

Marketing Research
Market Risk Premium
Marketing Management Information
Branding vs Marketing

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