Professional Documents
Culture Documents
MANAGING THE
Engineer managers are engaged in the production
MARKETING FUNCTION of tangible or intangible goods. Some of these engineer
managers are directly responsible for marketing the
company’s products or services. If he is promoted as
• What is the Marketing Concept?
gene- ral manager, both the production and marketing
• The Engineer and the Four P’s of Marketing functions become his overall concern.
At whatever management level the engineer mana-
The Product
ger works, he must be concerned with convincing others
The Price to patronize his outputs. If he is the general manager of
a construction firm, he must convince people with con-
The Place struction needs to avail of the services of the company.
If he is the staff officer of a top executive, he must
The Promotion
convince his boss to continuously rely on him regarding
• Strategic Marketing for Engineers the staff services he provides.
If the foregoing statements are true, the engineer
Selecting a Target Market
manager has a marketing problem. He needs to
Developing a Marketing Mix under- stand certain concepts related to the marketing
discip- line.
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Telephone Directory, October 1996, p. 160.
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233
parts dealers and big trucking companies to carry their Figure 11.4 An Example of a Company Using Sweepstakes
as a Sales Promotion Tool
product lines.
Shales Promotion. Any paid attempt to communicate
with the customers other than advertising, publicity, and DISTANCE, PAY
GET A BAYANTEL PHONE, CALL LONG
personal selling, may be considered sales promotion. TO DRIVE
YOUR MONTHLY BILLS ANB GET A CHANCE
This includes displays, contests, sweepstakes, coupons, AWAY A WINNER!
trading stamps, prizes, samples, demonstrations, refer-
ral gifts, etc.' BAYANTEL
July
*From an advertisemen t, Philippine Daily Inquires,
’Barry Berr,an and Joel R. Evans, fiefoi/ Manaz•em.ent, Fifth Edition I New
York: MacMillan Pa blishing Co., 1992) p. 504.
"Berkowitz and others, p. 723. 20, 1997, p. E-2.
236
Figure 11.5 The Construction Market and Its Segments
An analysis of the various segments ofi the chosen
market will help the company make a decision on whe-
ther to serve all or some of the segments. The segment
or segments chosen become the target market. THE
CONSTRUCTIO
In selecting a target market, the following steps are N MARKET
necessary:
Industrial Government
1. Divide the total market into groups of people Residential Segment Segment
who have relatively similar product or service Segment
needs.
2. Determine the profit potentials of each segment.
3. Make a decision on which segment or segments actual construction sub-segment
actual
will be served by the company.
constructi
As shown in Figure 11.5, a company may choose any on sub-
or all of the residential, industrial, and government seg-
ments. This decision will depend, however, on the profit
potentials of each segment and the capability of the firm.
construction materials sub-segment
A smaller company may find it most profitable to constructio
supply only the constructi on materi al needs of the n
residential segment. A bigger company, however, may materials
find it more profitable to perform actual construction in
addition to selling construction materials.
Factors Used in Selecting a Target Marhet. A target
market must have the ability to satisfy the profit actual construction sub-segment
construction materials sub-segm
objectives of the company. In selecting a target market,
the following factors must be taken into consideration:
1. the size of the market, and
2. the number of competitors serving the market.
The total demand for the product or service in a
given area must be determined first if the company
wants to serve that particular market. If there are
existing businesses serving the market, the net demand 237
must be considered. Figure 11.6 illustrates an example of
the relationship between demand and supply of a
particular product. The figures presented indicate that
there is still
236
Figure 11.7 The Company, The Marketing Mix and the Target
room for another company in the market for telephone
Market
lines in Cabanatuan City.
Total Demand
150,000 lines To survive, companies must continuously generate
Supply income. To be able to do so, they must be able to sell
Company A enough quantity of their products or services.
50,000 lines
Engineering firms are no exception.
Company B
30,000
Company C The proper management of the marketing function
10,000 helps the engineer manager convince customers to
Total Supply
90,000 lines patronize the firm. Specifically, the engineer manager
NET UNSATISFIED DEMAND must know how to use effectively the four P’s of market-
60,000 lines
ing which are the product, the price, the place, and the
promotion.
238 239
An activity called strategic marketing is designed QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND DISCUSSION
to make sure that the marketing objectives of the firm
1. How. may the marketing concept be explained? Is it
are
applicable to engineering firms?
achieved. Strategic marketing calls for selecting a target
market and developing an appropriate marketing m,x. 2. What is meant by the term “product”?
The marketing mix consists of the appropriate levels 3. How may the engineer manager meet the threat of
of product quality, price, promotion, and place. a competitor’s product?
4. Why is price said to be a strong competitive tool?
5. What are some of the possible measures to make
products easily available to customers?
6. How may the engineer manager convince the buyer
or client to patronize the firm?
7. What is advertising? What are the types of
advertising media?
8. May the engineer manager use publicity in promo-
ting his firm? Cite an example.
9. In selecting a target market, what must the engineer
manager do?
10. What factors must be used in selecting a target
market?
240
Case 11. BUGTAG CHEMICAL CORPORATION : Help
ockholders were as
Samuel Bugarin and Antonio Tagorda were class- and the capital contribution of the st
follows:
mates at the Chemical Engineering Departirient of De la itai c ontribution
Name of the Stockholder aAAymoou
Salle University. After passing the boai‘d examinations unnt oof Ca
in 198 l , Engineer Bugarin applied for a job in a chemical 1. s amuel Bugarin r•so,ooo,ooo
manufacturing company. He first wor‘ked as an assis- 15,000,000
2. Antonio Tagorda
tant in the quality control unit. Later, he became chief
of the unit. He handled various jobs in the production 3. Edgardo Abuan 3,000,000
department. Because of his good performance, he was 4. Jesus Ual£tt
1,000,000
promoted to production manager in 1993. 1,000,000
s. Rosario Mariano
Engineer Taporda got a job in 1982 as production 1,000,000
6. Ausberto
planner of Reliance Chemical Company. In 1990, he was
Taguinod 1,000,000
assigned as assistant production manager. When the
company’s marketing manager resigned in 1991, he was 7. FrancisCo Bundoc 1,000,000
transferred to the marketing department and was named 8. Amparo Par tgas ,oo
as the new marketing manager. His main function was
9. Andres NicolaS o,ooo f” 54
to market the company’s products consisting of synthetic
resins, aluminum paste, adhesives, plasticizers, calcium Total ,000 ,000
sulfate, etc. When he assumed his post as marketing
The three agreed to ash, produce caustic soda liquid,
manager, the company is already serving a group of loyal h ydrochlor ic acid, SOda sodium sulph ate, sodium
customers. The increasing requirements of these cus- construction of the
sulfuric acid. The
tripolyphosp ate, andalready D asmariiias , C avite.
tomers also meant additional orders for the company’s ’s
company plant has begun in
the Bugtag Chemical Cor-
products. The comp any’s sales increased even if the The compay has been named
number of its customers did not poration.
In a class reunion held in Aprii 199 , S aniuel and has already started organizing the product-
Samuel
artmen t by hiring a produ ction planner. Antonio
Antonio met and they conversed foi more than three hours. ion dep
to t tke in organizing hi s
Samuel mentioned that he had started organizing his is still considering what steps
is the lack of informa-
own chemical manufacturing firm and he wanted Antonio department. One of his problems
market the company
to join him. Antonio agreed and in a subsequent meet- tion regarding the nature of the
must e of the u tmOSt
ing decided to divide the work between the two of them. tap. AlsO, A ntonio is awar
Samuel was to take care of production and Antonio would 1 mportanc e of providing the production department with
a demand fore-
handle marketing. They decided to invite an experienced cast for the company’s products.
finance officer and a high school classmate, Edgardo
Abuan. He became the company’s finance manager.
The company was registered as a stock corporation
243
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