Marketing Management

BBA 4319

Identify and discuss the reasons that make marketing so important in the present business
context

1. Marketing Is an Effective Way of Engaging Customers

It’s important for your business to engage its customers. Marketing is a tool to keep the
conversation going.

Engaging customers is different from pushing your offers. Engaging involves furnishing your
customers with relevant information about your products and your business as well. It’s all about
creating fresh content.

Tell your customers what they don’t know. Let it be interesting and worth their time.

Social media is one of the best platforms where you can engage your customers. Some
organizations use short videos and other humor-laden tricks to engage their customer base.

By engaging your customers, marketing gives them a sense of belonging.

2. Marketing Helps to Build and Maintain the Company’s Reputation

The growth and life span of your business is positively correlated to your business’s reputation.
Hence, it’s fair to say your reputation determines your brand equity.

A majority of marketing activities are geared towards building the brand equity of the company.

Your business’s reputation is built when it effectively meets the expectations of its customers.
Such a business is considered a responsible member of the community. The customers become
proud to be associated with your products.

Marketers use effective communication, branding, PR and CSR strategies to ensure that a
business’s reputation is maintained.
3. Marketing Helps to Build a Relationship Between a Business and Its Customers

Businesses need to build a relationship of trust and understanding with their customers. How does
marketing establish this relationship?

Marketing research segments should be based on demographics, psychographics, and consumer

behavior.

Segmentation helps the business meet the needs of its customers hence gaining their trust. The
product team ensures the business delivers what’s promised at the right time. This makes the
customers brand loyal.

Loyal customers will have the confidence to buy more products from you. The trust and
understanding between the business and its customers make your commercial activities more
fruitful.

4. Marketing Is a Communication Channel Used to Inform Customers

Marketing informs your customers about the products or services you’re offering them.

Through marketing, the customers get to know about the value of the products, their usage and
additional info that might be helpful to the customers. It creates brand awareness and makes the
business stand out.

There’s stiff competition in the market and you need to be a constant voice to convince the
customers. Inform your customers of discounts and other competitive tricks you intend to use.

Through communication, marketing helps your business become a market leader. This
post explains more about how to gain a competitive advantage.

5. Marketing Helps to Boosts Sales

Marketing utilizes different ways to promote your products or services. Once a product has been
advertised, it’s already on the radar and this increases your chances of selling it.

Customers may want to try your products or services and this will trigger a purchase decision.
When customers are happy about your products or services, they become your brand ambassadors
without your knowledge. They will spread the word and your sales will start to increase.

Ensure you offer high-quality products and services to complement your marketing efforts.

Write about the scope of marketing

the most important scope of marketing are as follows: 1. Goods 2. Services 3. Events 4.
Experiences 5. Persons 6. Places 7. Properties 8. Organizations 9. Information 10. Idea.
The scope of marketing deals with the question, ‘what is marketed?’ According to Kotler,
marketing people are involved with ten types of entities.
1. Goods:
Physical goods constitute the major part of a country’s production and marketing effort.
Companies market billions of food products, and millions of cars, refrigerators, television and
machines.
2. Services:
ADVERTISEMENTS:
As economies advance, a large proportion of their activities is focused on the production of
services. Services include the work of airlines, hotels, car rental firms, beauticians, software
programmers, management consultants, and so on. Many market offerings consist of a mix of
goods and services. For example, a restaurant offers both goods and services.
3. Events:
Marketers promote events. Events can be trade shows, company anniversaries, entertainment
award shows, local festivals, health camps, and so on. For example, global sporting events such as
the Olympics or Common Wealth Games are promoted aggressively to both companies and fans.
4. Experiences:
Marketers create experiences by offering a mix of both goods and services. A product is promoted
not only by communicating features but also by giving unique and interesting experiences to
customers. For example, Maruti Sx4 comes with Bluetooth technology to ensure connectivity
while driving, similarly residential townships offer landscaped gardens and gaming zones.
5. Persons:
Due to a rise in testimonial advertising, celebrity marketing has become a business. All popular
personalities such as film stars, TV artists, and sportspersons have agents and personal managers.
They also tie up with PR agencies for better marketing of oneself
6. Places:
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Cities, states, regions, and countries compete to attract tourists. Today, states and countries are
also marketing places to factories, companies, new residents, real estate agents, banks and business
associations. Place marketers are largely real estate agents and builders. They are using mega
events and exhibitions to market places. The tourism ministry is also aggressively promoting
tourist spots locally and globally.
7. Properties:
Properties can be categorized as real properties or financial properties. Real property is the
ownership of real estates, whereas financial property relates to stocks and bonds. Properties are
bought and sold through marketing.
Marketing enhances the need of ownership and creates possession utility. With improving income
levels in the economy, people are seeking better ways of saving money. Financial and real property
marketing need to build trust and confidence at higher levels.
8. Organizations:
Organizations actively work to build image in the minds of their target public. The PR department
plays an active role in marketing an organization’s image. Marketers of the services need to build
the corporate image, as exchange of services does not result in the ownership of anything. The
organization’s goodwill promotes trust and reliability. The organization’s image also helps the
companies in the smooth introduction of new products.
9. Information:
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Information can be produced and marketed as a product. Educational institutions, encyclopedias,
non-fiction books, specialized magazines and newspapers market information. The production,
packaging, and distribution of information is a major industry. Media revolution and increased
literacy levels have widened the scope of information marketing.
10. Idea:
Every market offering includes a basic idea. Products and services are used as platforms for
delivering some idea or benefit. Social marketers widely promote ideas. Maruti Udyog Limited
promoted safe driving habits, need to wear seat belts, need to prohibit children from sitting near
the driver’s seat, and so on.

Explain the statement marketing management is basically demand management

Marketing management is the process of planning, organizing, implementing and controlling
marketing strategies. The task of marketing management is to increase the demand of his
products. For this, he has to create demand for his products in time, maintain the expected level
of demand and try to fulfill the demand. So it is said that, marketing management is the demand
management.
According to Evans & Berman, “Marketing includes anticipating demand, managing
demand and satisfying demand.”
We know, demands are wants for specific products backed by an ability to pay. Many
people may have wants for a product, but only a few are willing and able to buy. We will
consider those, who have willingness and ability to pay to fulfill the wants. This demand can be
changed time to time. To meet up these changing demands, marketing management has to take
different strategies.
What are the three key management questions that the holistic marketing is designed to
address?

A HOLISTIC MARKETING ORIENTATION AND CUSTOMER VALUE

A holistic marketing orientation can also provide insight into the process of capturing customer
value. One conception of holistic marketing views it as “integrating the value exploration,
value creation, and value delivery activities with the purposes of building long-term, mutually
satisfying relationships and co-property among key stakeholders.� According, to this view,
holistic marketers succeed by managing a superior value chain that delivers a high level of
product quality, service, and speed. Holistic marketers achieve profitable growth by expanding
customer share, building customer loyalty, and capturing customer lifetime value.
The holistic marketing framework is designed to address three key management questions:
1. Value exploration
How can a company identify new value opportunities?
2. Value creation
How can a company efficiently create more promising new value offerings?
3. Value delivery
How can a company use its capabilities and infrastructure to deliver the new value offerings
more efficiently?

VALUE EXPLORATION

Value flows within and across markets that are dynamic and competitive. Companies need a
well-defined strategy for value exploration. Developing such a strategy requires an
understanding of the relationships and interactions among three spaces:

1. The customer’s cognitive space;

2. The company’s competence space;
3. The collaborator’s resource space.

The customer’s cognitive space reflects existing and latent needs and includes dimensions
such as the need for participation, stability, freedom, and change. The company’s
competency space can be described in terms of breadth—broad versus focused scope of
business; and depth—physical versus knowledge based capabilities. The collaborator’s
resource space involves horizontal partnerships, where companies choose partners based on their
ability to exploit related market opportunities, and vertical partnerships, where companies choose
partners based on their ability to serve their value creation.

VALUE CREATION

To exploit a value opportunity, the company needs value-creation skills. Marketers need to
identify new customer benefits from the customer’s view, utilize core competencies from its
business domain and select and manage business partners from its collaborative networks.
marketers must understand what the customer thinks about and wants to craft new customer
benefits,. Marketers must also observe who the customer admires, who they interact with and
who influences them.

Business realignment may be necessary to maximize core competencies. It involves three steps:

1. Defining the business concept

2. Shaping the business scope
3. Positioning the company’s brand identity

This is what Kodak is doing as sales from its traditional core businesses of film, camera, paper,
and photo development have sagged, and consumers have abandoned film cameras for
increasingly cheaper digital equipment, products, and services. Chairman and Chief Executive of
Kodak stood in front of shareholders about 2 years ago and unveiled the company’s new
strategy. He announced that Kodak was “determined to win in these new digital markets.�
In order to do that the company plans to expand its line of digital cameras, printers, and other
equipment for consumers, who are now using the Internet to transmit and display their digital
images. Kodak also is stepping up efforts to deliver on-demand, color printing products for
business and wants to increase its market share of the lucrative medical images and information
services businesses.

VALUE DELIVERY

Delivery value often means substantial investment in infrastructure and capabilities. The
company must become proficient at customer relationship management, internal resources
management, and business partnership management. Customer relationship management allows
the company to discover who its customers are, how they behave, and what they need or want. It
also enables the company to respond appropriately, coherently, and quickly to different customer
opportunities. To respond effectively, the company requires internal resources management to
integrate major business processes like order processing, general ledger, payroll, and production
within a single family of software modules. Finally, business partnership management allows the
company to handle complex relationships with all its business associates.
Enumerate the strategies a company can follow for intensive growth

Intensive growth
Intensive growth is when a firm grows by expanding its product line or its market reach. Thus, if
a firm introduces a new product, enters a new market, or further develops its own competency,
than the firm is undergoing intensive growth. Intensive growth strategies are likely to help the firm
grow in the market faster and make the company stronger.
Intensive growth can be best explained with a reference to the product market expansion grid. We
highly recommend that you read that article before reading this one. The product market
expansion grid takes the product and the market into consideration and then suggests 4 strategies
for intensive growth which a firm can implement.

Strategies for intensive growth.

Market penetration – Market penetration is the most commonly used strategy for intensive growth.
This strategy is used when the current products are expanding in current markets. Thus a firm
might reduce the price of the product to penetrate the market better. This ensures that the firm
expands its market share and shows intensive growth.
Market development – Market development happens when an existing product is introduced in a
new market environment. In such a case, the company will have to use various promotional tactics
as well as implement a marketing strategy to cover the new market.
Product development – Another form of intensive growth strategy is the product development
strategy. When the current market is showing interest in a new product, than by product
development, the company can increase its customer base and thereby show intensive growth.
Diversification strategy – The last strategy of intensive growth is diversification strategy. Most
commonly observed in geographical expansion, this form of intensive growth strategy takes place
when a new product is introduced in a new market. Thus the challenges involved in diversification
strategy is huge, but if the strategy is a success, than the profit and return on investment is huge as
well.
nsive growth

Define marketing research

Definition: The process of gathering, analyzing and interpreting information about a market,
about a product or service to be offered for sale in that market, and about the past, present and
potential customers for the product or service; research into the characteristics, spending habits,
location and needs of your business's target market, the industry as a whole, and the particular
competitors you face

Three categories of marketing research firms fall in

1) Syndicated market research firm
Syndicated market research companies are the ones who look the market requirements and prepare
their reports accordingly. For exampe – A.C Nielson is a market research company, which knows
that other top companies are looking for consumer behavior studies, buying patterns etc. Thus,
A.C nielson regularly presents reports on buying patterns, industry analysis and sectory analysis
which is then sold at a cost to all companies. Simplifying the example even further, say you are
the product head in P&G for Tide detergent. You need a report on the detergent market. Such
reports will be ready with A.C nielson as it carries out research reports for the open market, and
not for specific companies. Thus, you get ready made reports at a given cost.
2) Custom market research firm
Now, taking the above example, instead of wanting the complete market analysis, you want to
know just how well Tide and your particular brands are doing in the market. What is the thing
missing in these products and what can be features added? For such a purpose, you will hire a
custom market research firms. As the name suggests, these custom market research firms will be
ready to do the custom jobs that you give them. Thus, initially many market research firms start as
custom market research firms, and then move on to specialty or syndicated market research firm.
3) Specialty market research firm
Once a market research firm has a grip on one specialty, then the firm may be known as a specialty
market research firm. Many a times, such market research firms also depend on the team of
directors leading them. If, for example, the team of directors or the proprietor is an advertising
guy, the firm might specialize in advertising research because the team and the experience is ready
with the specialty market research firm. On the other hand, if the top brass is from
product development, then the market research firm can take jobs of pillot testing, etc. In general,
specialty firms are the one who are involved with in depth analysis of your specific requirements.
So, tomorrow if you want to analyse whether the pilot product which you are going to launch will
be accepted or not, you will approach a specialty market research firm, whose specialty is
conducting market feasibility studies.

Thus, above 3 are the main market research firms in the market. However, with the advent of social
media and due to ever increasing presence of the internet, there is a 4th type of market research
firm which is slowly but surely cropping up fast.

Mention and describe the decisions necessary to be taken from developing the research plan

How can market leaders expand the total market and defend market share
How would you decide on the attack strategies to be pursued by the market follower?
What are the characteristics of products?
How do marketers classify products?
How can companies use packaging labelling warranties and guarantees as marketing tools?
What is meant by differentiation?
Discuss the alternative tools of differentiating a company`s offering
When should a company initiate a price change?
Discuss the main factors of managing the sales force
What are the main principles of personal selling?
How can a company improve its marketing skills?
Define marketing management
Identify different stages of demand and discuss the corresponding marketing tasks
Identify a Bangladeshi organisation involved in societal marketing concept and write in detail
What is strategic planning gap?
Discuss the ways to fill the strategic planning gap
How to develop a marketing plan for a new product
Who is a market leader?
What are the characteristics of a market leader?
How would you decide on the attack strategies to be pursued by the market challenger?
Discuss the market niche strategies
Identify the different level of a product and enumerate the customer value hierarchy
Justify if packaging is a component of product mix or not
Why packaging and labelling are essential factors while setting product strategy
What is product mix pricing?
A suitable method of pricing the product of a new company
Discuss the strategies in the consumer adoption process
Why has market demassification occurred?
Are there any ethical issues faced by a marketer while practicing direct marketing
Advantages and disadvantages of interactive marketing
Who are opinion leaders?
Why opinion leaders are important to both customers and marketers
Main considerations of corporate social responsibilities
Benefits and drawbacks of word of mouth as a communication tool
Explain the core marketing concept
Why is holistic marketing more important in today`s business world
What is corporate mission?
What are the elements of marketing mix?
How marketing mix presented from customer`s view point
How can companies more accurately measure and forecast demand
Explain the reasons of high rate of failure of new product
What factors influence the adoption process of a new product?
Differentiate among market penetration strategy, market development strategy and product
development strategy
What are the main consideration in setting pricing objectives?
Explain the different price setting methods
How should a company respond to a competition price change?
What decisions do companies take in designing and managing a sales force?

Short notes
Brand extension

Customer relationship marketing

Product life cycle

New product
Core marketing concepts
Marketing plan
Ingredient branding
Auction pricing
Marketing audit
Competitive advantage
Holistic marketing
Niche marketing
Co-branding
Cause-related marketing
Corporate social responsibility