Corporate Marketing Management

Corporate Marketing refers to activities a company undertakes to promote the buying or selling of a product, service, or good. It is one of the primary components of business management and commerce. Marketers can direct their product to other businesses (B2B marketing) or directly to consumers (B2C marketing). Regardless of who is being marketed

9 Comments

The Value of Marketing

Finance, operations, accounting, and other business functions won’t really matter without sufficient demand for products and services so the firm can make a profit. In other words, there must be a top line for there to be a bottom line. Thus, financial success often depends on marketing ability. Marketing’s value extends to society as

2 Comments

The Scope of Marketing

To be a marketer, you need to understand what marketing is, how it works, who does it, and what is marketed. 1. WHAT IS MARKETING? Marketing is about identifying and meeting human and social needs. One of the shortest good definitions of marketing is “meeting needs profitably.” When Google recognized that people needed to

1 Comment

Core Marketing Concepts

To understand the marketing function, we need to understand the following core set of concepts (see Table 1.1). 1. NEEDS, WANTS, AND DEMANDS Needs are the basic human requirements such as for air, food, water, clothing, and shelter. Humans also have strong needs for recreation, education, and entertainment. These needs become wants when directed

1 Comment

The New Marketing Realities

The marketplace is dramatically different from even 10 years ago, with new marketing behaviors, opportunities, and challenges emerging. In this book we focus on three transformative forces: technology, globalization, and social responsibility. 1. TECHNOLOGY The pace of change and the scale of technological achievement can be staggering. The number of mobile phones in India

1 Comment

A Dramatically Changed Marketplace

These three forces—technology, globalization, and social responsibility—have dramatically changed the mar­ketplace, bringing consumers and companies new capabilities. The marketplace is also being transformed by changes in channel structure and heightened competition. 1. NEW CONSUMER CAPABILITIES Social media is an explosive worldwide phenomenon. In Germany, the percentage of consumers over 65 accessing the Internet increased

Marketing in Practice

Given the new marketing realities, organizations are challenging their marketers to find the best balance of old and new and to provide demonstrable evidence of success. “Marketing Memo: Reinventing Marketing at Coca-Cola” describes some of the many different ways that that top marketing organization has changed. 1. MARKETING BALANCE Companies must always move forward,

1 Comment

Company Orientation toward the Marketplace

Given these new marketing realities, what philosophy should guide a company’s marketing efforts? Let’s first re­view the evolution of marketing philosophies. 1. THE PRODUCTION CONCEPT The production concept is one of the oldest concepts in business. It holds that consumers prefer products that are widely available and inexpensive. Managers of production-oriented businesses concentrate on

2 Comments

Updating the Four Ps Marketing mix

Many years ago, McCarthy classified various marketing activities into marketing-mix tools of four broad kinds, which he called the four Ps of marketing: product, price, place, and promotion.61 The marketing variables under each P are shown in Figure 1.5. A complementary view of the four Ps can be found in Marketing Insight: Understanding the

1 Comment

Marketing Management Tasks

Figure 1.7 summarizes the three major market forces, two key market outcomes, and four fundamental pillars of holistic marketing that help to capture the new marketing realities. With these concepts in place, we can identify a specific set of tasks that make up successful marketing management and marketing leadership. We’ll use the fol­lowing situation

1 Comment

Marketing and Customer Value

The task of any business is to deliver customer value at a profit. A company can win only by fine-tuning the value delivery process and choosing, providing, and communicating superior value to increasingly well-informed buyers. 1. THE VALUE DELIVERY PROCESS The traditional—but dated—view of marketing is that the firm makes something and then sells

1 Comment

Corporate and Division Strategic Planning

Whether they let their business units set their own goals and strategies or collaborate in doing so, all corporate headquarters undertake four planning activities: Defining the corporate mission Establishing strategic business units Assigning resources to each strategic business unit Assessing growth opportunities We’ll briefly look at each process. 1. MARKETING MEMO What Does It

1 Comment

Business Unit Strategic Planning

The business unit strategic-planning process consists of the steps shown in Figure 2.4. We examine each step in the sections that follow. 1. THE BUSINESS MISSION Each business unit needs to define its specific mission within the broader company mission. Thus, a television- studio-lighting-equipment company might define its mission as “To target major television

2 Comments

The Nature and Contents of a Marketing Plan

Working within the plans set by the levels above them, marketing managers come up with a marketing plan for individual products, lines, brands, channels, or customer groups. A marketing plan is a written docu­ment that summarizes what the marketer has learned about the marketplace and indicates how the firm plans to reach its marketing

Sample Marketing Plan Pegasus Sports International

1. Executive Summary Pegasus Sports International is a start-up aftermarket inline skat­ing accessory manufacturer. Inline skates have four or five wheels arranged in a single line and are often called Rollerblades by the general public after one of the early pioneers in the category. In addition to the aftermarket products, Pegasus is developing SkateTours,

5 Comments

Components of a Modern Marketing Information System

The major responsibility for identifying significant marketplace changes falls to the company’s marketers. Marketers have two advantages for the task: (1) disciplined methods for collecting information and (2) time spent interacting with customers and observing competitors and other outside groups. Some firms have marketing information systems that provide rich detail about buyer wants, preferences,

Internal Records

To spot important opportunities and potential problems, marketing managers rely on internal reports of orders, sales, prices, costs, inventory levels, receivables, and payables. 1. THE ORDER-TO-PAYMENT CYCLE The heart of the internal records system is the order-to-payment cycle. Sales representatives, dealers, and customers send orders to the firm. The sales department prepares invoices, transmits

Marketing Intelligence

1. THE MARKETING INTELLIGENCE SYSTEM A marketing intelligence system is a set of procedures and sources that managers use to obtain everyday infor­mation about developments in the marketing environment. The internal records system supplies results data, but the marketing intelligence system supplies happenings data. Marketing managers collect marketing intelligence by reading books, newspapers, and

2 Comments

Analyzing the Macroenvironment

Successful companies recognize and respond profitably to unmet needs and trends. 1. NEEDS AND TRENDS Dockers was created to meet the needs of baby boomers who could no longer fit into their jeans and wanted a physically and psychologically comfortable pair of pants. Enterprising individuals and companies create new solutions to similarly unmet needs.

1 Comment

Forecasting and Demand Measurement

Understanding the marketing environment and conducting marketing research (described in Chapter 4) can help to identify marketing opportunities. The company must then measure and forecast the size, growth, and profit potential of each new opportunity. Sales forecasts prepared by marketing are used by finance to raise cash for investment and operations; by manufacturing to

1 Comment