Basics of Marketing - Kotler Philip

Marketing Management

Over time, all those who are engaged in the exchange process, learn to improve it. In particular, sellers gain more professionalism in managing their marketing. We define marketing management as follows:

Marketing management ? This is the analysis, planning, implementation and monitoring of activities aimed at establishing, strengthening and maintaining profitable exchanges with target buyers in order to achieve certain tasks of the organization, such as making profits, increasing sales, increasing market share, and so on.

In his most popular image, the marketing manager appears as a specialist, seeking as many customers as necessary to realize the entire volume of products produced by the company at the moment. But is it? Too narrow a view of the range of his tasks. The marketing manager deals not only with the creation and expansion of demand, but also with the problems of changing it, and sometimes reducing it. The task of marketing management is to influence the level, time and nature of demand in a way that helps the organization achieve its goals. Simply put, marketing management? This is demand management.

The organization develops ideas about the desirable level of demand for its goods. At any given moment in time, the level of real demand may be lower than desired, correspond to or exceed it. With all these states, you have to deal with marketing management (see box 2).

Marketing managers ? These are the officials of the firm, engaged in the analysis of the marketing situation, the implementation of the planned plans and / or exercising control functions. These include sales managers and sales staff, senior advertising staff, sales promotion specialists, marketing researchers, product managers and pricing specialists. (For more information about all these positions in the marketing department, see Chapter 2 and Appendix B.)

Box 2. Demand states and marketing tasks corresponding to these states

1. Negative demand. The market is in a state of negative demand, if a large part of it does not like the goods and agrees even on certain costs, just to avoid it. People have a negative demand for vaccinations, dental procedures, operations to remove the vas deferens and operations on the gallbladder. Employers feel a negative demand for hiring former prisoners and alcoholics. The task of marketing? To analyze why the market has a dislike for the product and whether the marketing program can change the negative market relations by reworking the goods, reducing prices and more active stimulation.

2. Lack of demand. Target consumers may not be interested in the product or indifferent to it. So, farmers may not be interested in a new agrotechnical device, but college students? Learning a foreign language. The task of marketing? Find ways to link the inherent benefits of the product with the natural needs and interests of man.

3. Hidden demand. Many consumers may have a strong desire that can not be met with the goods or services available on the market. There is a large hidden demand for harmless cigarettes, safe housing estates and more economical cars. The task of marketing? Estimate the size of the potential market and create effective goods and services that can meet demand.

4. Falling demand. Sooner or later, any organization will face a drop in demand for one or more of its products. Church attendance decreases, the number of people wishing to enter private colleges falls. The market operator should analyze the reasons for the downturn in the market and determine whether it is possible to stimulate sales again by finding new target markets, changing the characteristics of the product or establishing more effective communication. The task of marketing? To reverse the trend of falling demand due to a creative rethinking of the approach to the supply of goods.

5. Irregular demand. For many organizations, sales fluctuate on a seasonal, daily and even hourly basis, which causes underloading and overload problems. Most of the public transport is not loaded during the day's calm and can not cope with traffic during peak hours. On weekdays there are few visitors in museums, but over the weekend the halls are crowded. At the beginning of the week for surgery in hospitals? Turn, and by the end of the week there are fewer applications than necessary. The task of marketing? Find ways to smooth fluctuations in the distribution of demand over time with the help of flexible prices, incentive measures and other incentive methods.

6. Full-value demand. Full demand is said when the organization is satisfied with its trade turnover. The task of marketing? Maintain the existing level of demand, despite the changing consumer preferences and increasing competition. The organization must strictly take care of the quality of goods and services, constantly measure the level of consumer satisfaction, in order to judge the correctness of their actions.

7. Excessive demand. A number of organizations have a higher level of demand than they can or want to satisfy. Thus, the traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge is above the safe level, and the Yellowstone National Park is overcrowded in the summer. The task of marketing, called in this case "demarketing",? Find ways to temporarily or permanently reduce demand. With general demarketing are trying to bring down excessive demand, resorting to such measures as price increases, easing of efforts to stimulate and reduce the service. At selective demarketing tend to reduce the level of demand in those parts of the market that are less profitable or require less service. The purpose of demarketing? Not to liquidate demand, but only to reduce its level.

8. Irrational demand. Counteracting the demand for goods harmful to health requires purposeful efforts. There are campaigns against the spread of cigarettes, spirits, addictive drugs, firearms, pornographic films, against the creation of large families. The task of marketing? Convince the amateurs of something to abandon their habits, spreading frightening information, sharply raising prices and limiting the availability of goods.