CIM Coursebook: The Marketing Planning Process

Ray Donnelly, Graham Harrison, Phil Megicks

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9781138440975
• eBook ISBN: 9781136442032
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

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Marketing Planning to Deliver Marketing Strategies

DOI: 10.4324/9780080961231-1

The Different Roles of Marketing and its Cross-Functional Interaction Within Organisations

DOI: 10.4324/9780080961231-2

Learning Objectives

• 1.1Critically evaluate the different roles of marketing and its cross-functional interaction within organisations

Syllabus References

• 1.1
  • marketing as an organisational function and orientation
  • marketing as a co-ordinating force in the organisation
  • marketing’s interface with other organisational functions
  • exchange, transactions and relationships
  • markets, customers, competition and value creation
  • marketers as planners, strategists and tacticians
  • marketing in theory and in practice

Introduction

This chapter covers the part of the syllabus which relates to the role of marketing, the relationship with other functional departments and the role of marketers.

The reader will be introduced to marketing as a function, an activity and as an orientation.

The Marketing Function

Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably. (Chartered Institute of Marketing)

According to Dibb et al. (2006) ‘Marketing consists of individual and organisational activities that facilitate and expedite satisfying exchange relationships in a dynamic environment through the creation, distribution, promotion and pricing of goods, services and ideas’.

McDonald (2007) agrees there is considerable confusion about what marketing is.

He suggests that marketing is the process for:

• defining markets
• quantifying the needs of the customer groups (segments) within these markets
• determining the value proposition to meet these needs
• communicating these value propositions to all those people in the organisation responsible for delivering them, and getting their buy-in to their role
• playing an appropriate part in delivering these value propositions (usually only communications)
• monitoring the value actually delivered

There needs to be a clear distinction between marketing as an activity or business function and marketing as a concept, often referred to as a marketing orientation.

The marketing function is concerned with the management of the marketing mix, involving the various tools and techniques available to marketing managers. The marketing mix being, product, price, promotion and place (the four P’s). Increasingly, the mix includes additional elements: people, physical evidence and processes (the extended services mix or seven P’s). Depending on the organisation it can also involve the integrated planning of marketing together with any research that is undertaken into markets, customers, competitors, or on initiatives such as new products.

Marketing as a stand-alone function appears to have been transformed, replaced in an increasing numbers of organisations with marketing as a philosophy, i.e. a way of doing business that focuses on the customer. This could include sales, customer service, customer relationship management and customer intelligence, for example. Increasingly, a marketing orientation is seen as critical to the success of organisations, as it drives the organization towards its goals through delivering value to customers.

Marketing as an Orientation

Kotler and Keller (2006) define the marketing concept as follows:

The marketing concept holds that the key to achieving organisational goals lies in determining the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfactions more efficiently and effectively than the competition.

Organisations need to be marketing orientated, which means that there must be a clear focus throughout the organisation on customer needs and wants, and how these needs are met constantly.

Marketing orientation consists of five key aspects according to Narver and Slater (1990):

• Customer focus
• Competitor focus
• Integrated functional co-ordination
• Organisational culture
• Long-term profits

All of these aspects enable the business to, in theory, achieve sustainable competitive advantage through fulfilling customer requirements, and the cultural market orientation perspective is seen to be predominant in fulfilling this, particularly with regard to co-ordinating the organisation’s resources.

A marketing orientation involves multiple departments or functions sharing information about customers and pursuing activities to meet customer needs and wants. An organisation that has a marketing orientation see the requirements of customers and potential customers as crucial and this drives all strategic decisions.

Kohli and Jaworski (1990) define market orientation in terms of three dimensions.

1. The generation of market information about the needs of customers and external environmental factors.
2. The dissemination of such information across organisational functions.
3. The development and implementation of strategies in response to the information.

Similarly this intelligence-management approach enables the firm to fulfil the desires of customers in a way which leads it towards its aims and objectives.

There are three main alternatives to adopting a marketing orientation as shown in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1 Different Business Orientations

Sales orientation	The emphasis is on selling more of the products and services they have to customers. Little attention is paid to identifying and satisfying customer needs and wants.
Production orientation	Maximising output to obtain economies of scale to maximise profits.
Product orientation	The emphasis is on the product, but ignoring customer tastes may result in product failures or lost market to competitors.

If a marketing orientation is to develop within organisations, attention should be given to each of the following:

• Create a customer focus throughout the business
• Listen to the customer
• Target customers precisely
• Measure and manage customer expectations
• Build customer relationships and loyalty
• Commit to continuous improvement
• Manage profitability
• Manage the marketing culture

Marketing’s Interface with Other Organisational Functions

The complex nature of marketing means that there are many interfaces with other functional areas. Marketers in their own right cannot meet all the requirements of customers; they need to work with other parts of the organisation, especially where physical production processes are involved, and equally when people deliver intangible services.

Functional areas will each have their own concerns and constraints. Managers frequently find that those obstructing the implementation of marketing plans are not marketers themselves but staff from other functional areas. The marketing planner must take these concerns and constraints into account if plans are to be successfully executed.

Decisions made by the marketing function will have repercussions on many other functional areas.

• A decision on a promotion, changing the credit terms, will have profound effects on credit collection and...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• About the Authors
• Section 1: Marketing Planning to Deliver Marketing Strategies
• Section 2: The Marketing Audit and Strategic Outcomes
• Section 3: Creating Marketing Strategies Through Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning
• Section 4: Adapting Marketing Planning in Different Contexts
• Index