According to commerce media platform Criteo, nine in 10 companies have recently changed their marketing management strategies. As a marketing specialist, it’s critical to understand why.
The main reason for this shift is new and changing customer behaviors that are altering the objectives, strategies, concepts, and functions of successful marketing management. However, before analyzing these changes, it is important to answer what is marketing management?
Defining Marketing Management
It’s about building, planning, and using strategies to accomplish larger corporate goals. Management brings together the strategy, planning, execution, and analysis in one place. It’s how the company plans and executes the concept, pricing, promotion, and distribution of goods, services, and ideas. The aim is to build, exchange, and satisfy individual and organizational objectives.
As American marketing author, consultant, and professor Philip Kotler has said, marketing management is the art and science of picking target markets and creating profitable relationships with them. He further added that it takes a day to learn marketing and a lifetime to master it.
It’s also essential to note the importance of international marketing management, given cross-border sales are growing with rapid advances worldwide. According to Global Cross-Border B2C eCommerce Market research, the international market size was valued at USD 780 billion in 2019. By 2026, it’s forecasted to account for USD 4,820 billion, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27%.
Why Is Marketing Management Important?
As author and inspirational speaker Simon Sinek says, companies should focus on their “why” instead of “what.” Marketing management can help you:
- make better branding decisions
- launch new products or services more effectively
- improve business campaigns and lead distribution
- generate new business ideas based on attractive benefits and offers for the public
- enable your brand to stand out from the crowd
- maintain a good reputation in the market
With more and more consumers opting for companies with a better customer experience, it’s more critical than ever to focus on marketing management. In addition, it’s essential to focus on improving client engagement to guarantee an excellent customer experience.
If you’re still not convinced that marketing management is essential, consider that according to PwC’s recent research, a better price might make 79% of U.S. consumers choose another brand over the one they like, and 52% might do the same for a product quality.
The Marketing Management Process
Now, let’s discuss the process and how it can help you take your business to the next level.
- Analysis of the Market and Customers: The first step is a thorough analysis of the market and customer behavior.
- Strategic Planning: Next, you should decide on the strategies, goals, and objectives that will improve company performance, such as revenue, brand positioning, and marketing campaigns. Strategic planning allows you to plan for growth based on the current market.
- Product Development: Consider how you should best bring your product to market according to your latest strategic goals.
- Practical Use of Developed Strategies: Finally, it’s time to implement your plans. Many find this the most exciting part of the process.
- Monitoring and Control: You should monitor and control your initiatives to achieve more satisfying results. Don’t hesitate to reevaluate your initial strategic plans and adjust them for better effectiveness. For example, to achieve conversion rate optimization, we recommend using a full-stack marketing platform that makes it easy to track your success.
Objectives of Marketing Management
Goals and objectives aren’t as similar as many think. Goals are general guidelines about the needs that the company should achieve. Objectives are about the steps the company should take to achieve those goals. Objectives are specific, and the company can measure them and set a completion date for them.
Let’s go through the fundamental objectives.
- Expanding Customer Base Through Demand Creation: To boost sales, you should acquire new customers based on their likes and dislikes. You can do this by creating demand through suitable offerings.
- Fulfilling Customer Demand: By understanding consumer wants and needs, you can create products and services that fulfill those criteria.
- Growing Market Share: You can grow your market share through various campaigns, such as sales promotions.
- Generating Profit: To expand, move forward, diversify, and stay alive, you should make a profit.
- Growing Sales: It’s vital to work on growing market share as much as possible.
- Maintaining a Good Public Image: Image-building activities can help raise the company’s goodwill. These can include sales promotions, publicity and advertisements, competitive pricing, and convenient distribution. Remember, the right objectives can help you reach your goals. For instance, it’s interesting to look at Deloitte’s Global Marketing Trends’ 2020 survey among C-suite executives. Most participants chose efficiency and productivity over customer engagement, talent retention, and companies’ impact on society.
Marketing Management Strategies
Strategy marketing management is among the top search results concerning the field. And that’s with good reason. These strategies can help a company reach its goals by expanding its consumer base and market share.
Usually, the first step of the marketing strategy is the brand audit. A brand audit considers both internal and external factors that contribute positively and negatively to the company’s branding. These may include user experience, advertisements, and logos. Ultimately, an audit helps assess areas that require changes for continued growth and success.
It’s important to evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies by analyzing campaign performance.
Implementing Marketing Management
There are several methods through which marketing management strategies can be incorporated. Each approach offers different avenues through which a company can meet its objectives and goals.
Production
This concept is based on efficiency, suggesting that customers prefer inexpensive and widely available products. Thus, the focus is on sales. This approach stems from Say’s Law of Markets, according to which “supply creates its own demand.”
Product
The focus is on product quality. The idea is that customers value quality over the price and availability of products.
Selling
The philosophy is that the company must convince customers to purchase its product or service through aggressive marketing efforts, such as SMS marketing. These efforts should target product or service benefits. The concept emerged after the Great Depression (mainly during the 1930s) when goods weren’t in great supply.
Marketing
This is about profit generation through customer satisfaction. The focus is on understanding customer wants and needs.
Societal
In this case, the company should fulfill customer needs and contribute to social welfare without negatively influencing the environment and natural resources. This concept also implies that the company is part of society and has corporate social responsibilities.
Holistic Marketing
This concept emerged not long ago. The idea is that a company has one overarching goal that supersedes everything else. It can achieve this goal through aligned and integrated marketing.
In Summary
Proper marketing management requires serving customers effectively. You can achieve this through:
Determination and Assessment of Marketing Objectives
Determining and assessing marketing objectives help establish effective programs. As a result, the company can successfully sidestep challenges and enjoy new growth opportunities.
Planning Effective Strategies
Planning helps you achieve your objectives. Consider price, distribution channels, promotion, and target sales expectations.
Direction
Proper direction helps create new markets. You must guide, inspire, lead, motivate, and supervise the staff.
Coordination
Proper coordination of different organizational activities is critical to success. It helps with the right product decisions, product planning, competitive pricing strategies, appropriate warehousing, transportation, and customer satisfaction.
Motivation
Good direction and motivation of the team lead to more effective performance. Also, it helps keep employees’ morale high.
Analysis and Evaluation
There is no progress without the analysis and evaluation of the performance and productivity of the team.
Promotion
Promotional methods help grow product sales. The company should constantly work on new and innovative approaches and strategies.
Research and Development
It’s essential to constantly track the market’s latest trends to move forward.
Marketing management helps determine and achieve company goals by planning, analyzing, and implementing marketing-related policies.
With good management, you can identify the best opportunities and avoid threats. Also, you can provide innovative products and services to customers, fight the growing competition in the field, and reach new heights.
