Financing and Marketing Management

9.1. Introduction to marketing management

Unit 9 - Introduction to marketing management

Unit 9.1. Introduction to marketing management
Coping with exchange processes calls for a considerable amount of work and skill. Persons become fairly adept at buying to meet their household needs. Occasionally they also undertake selling-selling their car, selling personal services. Organizations are more professional in handling exchange processes. They must attract resources from one set of markets, convert them into useful products and sell them in another set of markets. Nations also plan and manage exchange relations with others. They search for beneficial trade relations with other nations.
Marketing management takes place when at least one party to a potential exchange gives thought to objectives and means of achieving desired responses from other parties. Definition of marketing management approved in 1985 by the American Marketing Association:
Marketing management is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives.
This definition recognizes that marketing management is a process involving analysis, planning, implementation and control; that it covers ideas, goods and services; that it rests on the notion of exchange; and that the goal is to produce satisfaction for the parties involved.
Marketing management can occur in an organization in connection with any of its markets. Consider an automobile manufacturer. The vice-president of personnel deals in the labor market; the vice-president of purchasing, the raw-materials market; and the vice-president of finance, the money market. They may set objectives and develop strategies for achieving satisfactory results in these markets. Traditionally, however, these executives have not been called marketers, nor have they trained in marketing. Instead, marketing management is historically identified with tasks and personnel dealing with the customer market.
Marketing work in the customer market is formally carried out by sales mangers, salespeople, advertising and promotion managers, marketing researchers, customer service managers, product managers, market managers and the marketing vice-president. Each job carries well-defined tasks and responsibilities. Many of these jobs involve managing particular marketing resources such as advertising, sales people or marketing research. On the other hand, product managers, market managers and the marketing vice-president manage programs. Their job is to analyze, plan and implement programs that will produce a desired level and mix of transactions with target markets.
The popular image of the marketing manager is someone whose task is primarily to stimulate demand for the company’s products. However, this is too limited a view of the diversity of marketing tasks performed by marketing managers. Marketing management has the task of influencing the level, timing and composition of demand in a way that will help the organization achieve its objectives. Marketing management is essentially the demand management.
The organization presumably forms an idea of a desired level of transactions with a target market. At times, the actual demand level may be below, equal to, or above the desired demand level. That is, there may be no demand, weak demand, adequate demand, excessive demand, and so on, and marketing management has to cope with these different states. Marketing Concept and Tools distinguishes eight different states of demand and the corresponding tasks facing marketing managers.
Marketing managers cope with these tasks by carrying out marketing research, planning, implementation and control. Within marketing planning, marketers must make decisions on target markets, market positioning, product development, pricing, channels of distribution, physical distribution, communication and promotion.