Marketing Management

1. Marketing is About Meeting Needs Profitably

One of the shortest definitions of marketing is “meeting needs profitably.”

Needs and Profit. Marketing is fundamentally about identifying and fulfilling human and social needs, but it's not just about charity; it's about turning those needs into profitable business opportunities. Companies like Procter & Gamble, CarMax, and IKEA all exemplify this by recognizing unmet needs and creating innovative solutions that are also profitable.

Beyond Products. Marketing is not just about selling products; it's about understanding the underlying needs that drive consumer behavior. Whether it's the need for convenience, certainty, or affordability, successful marketing addresses these needs in a way that benefits both the customer and the company.

Profitability is Key. While meeting needs is essential, marketing must also be profitable to be sustainable. Companies must find ways to create value for customers while also generating revenue and profit for the organization. This balance is the core challenge of effective marketing.

2. Marketing Takes Many Forms

It seems that not all marketing must follow the P&G model.

Beyond the Traditional. Marketing is not a monolithic practice; it can take many forms, from the grassroots efforts of entrepreneurial startups to the sophisticated strategies of large corporations. Companies like Harley-Davidson have succeeded by breaking traditional marketing rules, demonstrating that there is no single "right" way to market.

Three Stages of Marketing. Marketing practice can be seen as evolving through three stages: entrepreneurial marketing (where individuals visualize opportunities and hustle to gain attention), formulated marketing (where successful companies adopt more structured approaches), and intrepreneurial marketing (where large companies recapture the creativity and passion of the entrepreneurial stage).

Creativity and Passion. Effective marketing requires both a structured approach and a creative spirit. While it's important to understand the tools and techniques of marketing, it's equally important to be able to think outside the box and connect with customers on a personal level.

3. The Scope of Marketing is Vast

Marketing people are involved in marketing 10 types of entities: goods, services, experiences, events, persons, places, properties, organizations, information, and ideas.

More Than Just Goods. Marketing encompasses a wide range of entities, extending far beyond physical goods. It includes services, experiences, events, people, places, properties, organizations, information, and ideas. This broad scope highlights the versatility and pervasiveness of marketing in modern society.

Diverse Applications. From promoting a city to marketing a celebrity, the principles of marketing can be applied to a wide variety of situations. This versatility makes marketing a valuable skill for individuals and organizations in many different fields.

Underlying Ideas. At its core, every market offering has a basic idea or benefit that it seeks to deliver. Products and services are simply platforms for delivering these ideas and satisfying core needs. This focus on the underlying idea is what makes marketing so powerful.

4. Marketing Requires Demand Management

Just as production and logistics professionals are responsible for supply management, marketers are responsible for demand management.

Beyond Stimulation. Marketing is not just about stimulating demand; it's about managing it. Marketers must be able to address a variety of demand states, including negative demand, no demand, latent demand, declining demand, irregular demand, full demand, overfull demand, and unwholesome demand.

Influencing Demand. Marketing managers seek to influence the level, timing, and composition of demand to meet the organization's objectives. This requires a deep understanding of the market and the ability to adapt marketing strategies to different situations.

Strategic Decisions. Marketing managers face a host of decisions, from major strategic choices to minor tactical adjustments. These decisions range from product design and sales force size to advertising spending and channel management. Effective marketing requires a holistic approach that considers all of these factors.

5. Core Marketing Concepts are Essential

We see marketing management as the art and science of applying core marketing concepts to choose target markets and get, keep, and grow customers through creating, delivering, and communicating superior customer value.

Target Markets and Segmentation. Marketers must identify and profile distinct groups of buyers who might prefer or require varying products and marketing mixes. This process of market segmentation allows companies to focus their efforts on the most promising opportunities.

Value and Satisfaction. The success of a product or service depends on its ability to deliver value and satisfaction to the target buyer. Value is defined as the ratio between what the customer gets and what he gives, and marketers must strive to maximize this ratio.

Exchange and Transactions. Exchange is the core of marketing, involving obtaining a desired product from someone by offering something in return. For exchange to occur, there must be at least two parties, each with something of value, and each free to accept or reject the offer.

6. Relationship Marketing Builds Long-Term Value

Relationship marketing aims to build long-term mutually satisfying relations with key parties—customers, suppliers, distributors—in order to earn and retain their long-term preference and business.

Beyond Transactions. Relationship marketing goes beyond individual transactions to build long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with key stakeholders. This approach emphasizes building strong economic, technical, and social ties among the parties.

Reduced Costs and Time. Relationship marketing cuts down on transaction costs and time by moving from negotiated transactions to routine interactions. This efficiency allows companies to focus on building value rather than constantly renegotiating terms.

Marketing Networks. The ultimate outcome of relationship marketing is the building of a marketing network, consisting of the company and its supporting stakeholders. Increasingly, competition is not between companies but between marketing networks, with the profits going to the company that has the better network.

7. Companies Orient Themselves Differently to the Marketplace

In fact, there are five competing concepts under which organizations conduct marketing activities: production concept, product concept, selling concept, marketing concept, and societal marketing concept.

Five Orientations. Companies approach the marketplace with different philosophies, including the production concept (focus on efficiency and low costs), the product concept (focus on quality and innovation), the selling concept (focus on aggressive selling and promotion), the marketing concept (focus on customer needs and value), and the societal marketing concept (focus on customer and societal well-being).

Marketing Myopia. The product concept can lead to marketing myopia, where companies focus too much on their products and not enough on customer needs. This can lead to missed opportunities and declining sales.

Customer-Centric Approach. The marketing concept emphasizes an outside-in perspective, starting with a well-defined market, focusing on customer needs, coordinating activities that affect customers, and producing profits by satisfying customers. This customer-centric approach is key to long-term success.

8. The Marketplace is Constantly Changing

We can say with some confidence that “the marketplace isn’t what it used to be.”

Dynamic Environment. The marketplace is constantly changing due to major forces such as technological advances, globalization, and deregulation. These forces have created new behaviors and challenges for companies and marketers.

Customer Expectations. Customers increasingly expect higher quality, better service, and some customization. They are also more price-sensitive and less brand-loyal, making it more difficult for companies to compete.

Company Responses. Companies are responding to these changes by reengineering their processes, outsourcing non-core activities, embracing e-commerce, benchmarking best practices, forming alliances, and becoming more market-centered.

9. Strategic Planning is Key to Winning Markets

Market-oriented strategic planning is the managerial process of developing and maintaining a viable fit among the organization’s objectives, skills, and resources and its changing market opportunities.

Strategic Fit. Strategic planning is about aligning a company's objectives, skills, and resources with its changing market opportunities. The goal is to shape the company's businesses and products to yield target profits and growth.

Corporate and Business Planning. Strategic planning takes place at multiple levels, from the corporate level to the business unit level. Each level requires a clear mission, a thorough analysis of the environment, and a well-defined strategy.

Portfolio Models. Tools like the Boston Consulting Group matrix and the General Electric model help companies assess their strategic business units and allocate resources effectively. These models help managers think more strategically and make better decisions.

10. Marketing is a Value Delivery System

Instead of emphasizing making and selling, companies see themselves involved in a three-phase value creation and delivery sequence.

Value Creation. The new view of business processes places marketing at the beginning of the planning process. Instead of emphasizing making and selling, companies see themselves involved in a three-phase value creation and delivery sequence: choosing the value, providing the value, and communicating the value.

Strategic and Tactical Marketing. Choosing the value involves strategic marketing, while providing and communicating the value involve tactical marketing. This distinction highlights the importance of both planning and execution in the marketing process.

Marketing Process Steps. The marketing process consists of analyzing market opportunities, researching and selecting target markets, developing marketing strategies, planning marketing programs, and organizing, implementing, and controlling the marketing effort. This process is iterative and requires continuous monitoring and adjustment.

11. Marketing Requires Information and Measurement

Marketing is becoming more of a battle based on information than one based on sales power.

Information Advantage. In today's information-based society, companies with superior information enjoy a competitive advantage. This information allows them to choose their markets better, develop better offerings, and execute better marketing plans.

Marketing Information System (MIS). Every firm needs a marketing information system (MIS) to gather, sort, analyze, evaluate, and distribute needed, timely, and accurate information to marketing decision makers. This system includes internal records, marketing intelligence, marketing research, and marketing decision support analysis.

Marketing Research Process. Effective marketing research involves defining the problem and research objectives, developing the research plan, collecting the information, analyzing the information, and presenting the findings. This process helps companies make informed decisions based on data rather than intuition.

12. Product Development is a Process

The task of any business is to deliver value to the market at a profit.

Value Delivery. The task of any business is to deliver value to the market at a profit. This requires a deep understanding of customer needs and the ability to create products and services that meet those needs effectively.

New Product Development. New-product development is a critical process for companies to maintain or build sales. This process involves several stages, from idea generation to commercialization, and requires careful planning and execution.

Marketing's Role. Marketers play a key role in the new-product process, by identifying and evaluating new-product ideas and working with R&D and others in every stage of development. Their input is essential for ensuring that new products meet customer needs and are commercially viable.

Last updated: January 23, 2025