You’re browsing online trying to figure out what exactly marketing management is. You’ve heard the term tossed around in business meetings and marketing strategy sessions, but what does it really mean? Marketing management is a crucial business function that helps drive success, so it’s an important concept to understand if you want to excel in business.
In this article, we’ll explore the key principles of marketing management so you can know what it is and why it matters. We’ll look at how marketing management allows you to understand customers, create value, and effectively communicate that value. Read on to boost your marketing management know-how.
What Is Marketing Management?
Marketing management is the organizational discipline that focuses on the practical application of marketing orientation, techniques, and methods inside enterprises and organizations and on the management of a firm’s marketing resources and activities.
Marketing planning involves analyzing the current marketing situation, market opportunities, and threats and determining the marketing objectives and strategies. A marketing plan also includes determining the marketing mix for achieving the marketing objectives. Developing a marketing plan is a key activity in the overall marketing management process.
Implementing the marketing plan is the next important step in the marketing management process. It involves putting into action the marketing strategies and programs outlined in the marketing plan. Implementation involves the coordination of marketing mix elements like product development, pricing, promotion, and distribution. For effective implementation of the marketing plan, all the marketing mix elements must be coordinated.
Marketing control involves evaluating the performance of marketing strategies and taking corrective actions. It helps determine whether the marketing objectives and strategies are achieved as planned. Marketing audits and marketing research are used to evaluate performance. Corrective actions may involve changing or modifying the marketing plan. Controlling also involves monitoring changes in the marketing environment and making modifications to the marketing plan.
To summarize, marketing management aims to create customer satisfaction and loyalty by delivering superior value. It involves planning, implementing, and controlling marketing activities to achieve the organization’s marketing objectives.
What are the Types of Marketing Management?
There are several types of marketing management, here are some of them:
Product Marketing Management
Product marketing management focuses on the marketing of a specific product or product. It involves researching how the product is currently perceived in the market, identifying potential customers and competitors, and determining how to position the product to appeal to the target audience. Product marketers are responsible for developing the marketing strategy and promotional campaigns for a particular product.
Brand Marketing Management
Brand marketing management aims to create a strong, consistent brand identity and position a company’s brand in the minds of customers. The managers oversee brand marketing strategies, brand guidelines, and brand equity. They work to build brand awareness and loyalty among customers to gain a competitive advantage in the market. Brand marketing management requires understanding the values and attributes that define the brand and effectively communicating them to the target audience.
Account Marketing Management
Account marketing managers focus on the relationships with key clients or customers. Their role is to manage marketing activities targeted at specific accounts to drive retention and growth. Account marketing management involves developing marketing plans and strategies tailored to important accounts, ensuring their needs are met, and building long-term mutually beneficial partnerships. Account marketers act as the primary contact for key accounts and work across departments to deliver the best possible experience.
Relationship Marketing Management
Relationship marketing aims to build strong, lasting relationships with customers to foster brand loyalty and repeat business. It focuses on customer retention and satisfaction through direct, personalized communication and customized offers or rewards programs. Relationship marketers gather customer data to better understand their needs and preferences so they can tailor marketing activities accordingly. Their goal is to turn new customers into lifelong, loyal customers.
Services Marketing Management
Services marketing management deals with the marketing of intangible services as opposed to physical products. Because services are intangible, the marketing strategy needs to focus on dimensions like customer experience, quality of service, and company image. Services marketers aim to demonstrate the benefits and value of a service to customers. They also work to align employee behaviors and the overall customer experience with the company’s brand and services marketing objectives. Services marketing requires balancing customer expectations with actual service delivery.
International Marketing Management
International marketing managers are responsible for marketing activities directed at foreign markets and customers. They analyze the potential of international markets and adapt strategies to different cultural contexts and business environments. International marketing management involves researching foreign markets, identifying opportunities and risks, and developing marketing plans that are appropriate for the target countries. It requires understanding how cultural factors, economic conditions, and political and legal issues may impact the marketing of products and services in foreign markets.
Marketing Communications Management
Marketing communications management oversees the development and delivery of marketing messages to raise awareness of a product, service, or brand. The managers determine communication strategies and tactics like advertising, direct marketing, sales promotions, public relations, and social media marketing. They work to convey a consistent brand message across all communication channels to influence customer perceptions and build brand equity.
Why Is Marketing Management Important?
Marketing Management is important for several reasons, which include the following:
Increases revenue and profits
Effective marketing management helps determine the right products, prices, places, and promotions to reach your target customers. When done well, it leads to higher sales, revenue, and profits. Identifying what your customers want and need, then delivering that value, is key to business success.
Attracts new customers
Through ongoing market research, marketing managers gain insight into potential new customers and how to attract them. They can then craft promotional campaigns, special offers, and messaging to bring in new business. Growing your customer base is essential for long-term growth.
Builds brand awareness
Everything from your product packaging, website, social media, and advertising helps shape your brand. Strong marketing builds brand recognition and positive associations in the minds of customers and prospects. People are more likely to buy from brands they know and trust.
Informs business decisions
Marketing provides key insights to help guide important business decisions. By analyzing sales data, customer feedback, and market trends, marketing managers can determine the viability of new products or services, the effectiveness of sales channels, opportunities for improvement, and more.
Improves customer loyalty
It costs significantly more to acquire new customers than to retain existing ones. Marketing aims to build lasting relationships with customers through great experiences, rewards programs, personalized service, and more. Satisfied, loyal customers will continue to buy from you and spread the word about your brand.
Adapts to changes
Markets are constantly changing, so marketing management must as well. Keeping a close eye on trends, technology, competitors, and customer preferences allows marketers to make strategic shifts to stay ahead of the curve. Failing to adapt to changes in the marketplace can seriously impact your business.
Optimizes the marketing mix
The 4Ps of marketing, product, price, place, and promotion, must be carefully managed and balanced for the best results. Marketing managers determine how to blend these elements to maximize sales and profits while delivering the best value to customers. Getting the right mix for your target market is key.
Measures and improves results
Strong marketing management relies on data-driven decision-making. By measuring key metrics like sales, web traffic, social media engagement, and customer satisfaction, marketers can see what’s working and not working. They can then optimize their strategies and campaigns to improve outcomes and return on investment. Continuous improvement is essential.
Who is a Marketing Manager?
A marketing manager is responsible for overseeing all marketing activities and strategies in an organization to increase brand awareness and drive sales.
Their main responsibilities include:
- Conducting market research to identify customer needs, trends, and competition. Marketing managers analyze data from various sources like surveys, focus groups, and sales reports to gain insights into the target market and shape marketing strategies.
- Developing marketing plans and strategies in line with company objectives. They determine the best ways to promote products and services to reach customers, which includes decisions around pricing, distribution, advertising, and more.
- Managing marketing teams and coordinating marketing campaigns. Marketing managers lead teams of marketing specialists and work with advertising agencies and PR firms to execute marketing campaigns across various channels.
- Overseeing social media marketing and content creation. They work to increase brand awareness and engagement by managing social media profiles and working with content creators to develop blogs, videos, and other media.
- Analyzing the results of marketing campaigns and adjusting strategies as needed. Marketing managers evaluate key performance indicators like sales, web traffic, and social media engagement to determine the success of campaigns and make improvements to future strategies.
- Staying up-to-date with digital marketing trends and best practices. The field of marketing is constantly evolving with new technologies and strategies emerging regularly. Successful marketing managers keep learning and expanding their skills to utilize new tools and techniques.
To succeed as a marketing manager, you need a mix of soft skills and technical abilities. Strong communication, leadership, and problem-solving skills are essential to lead teams and make strategic decisions. Proficiency with analytics, project management, and marketing technologies like CRMs is also important in today’s data-driven marketing environment. With the right experience and knowledge, a career as a marketing manager can be very rewarding.
Key Elements of Marketing Management
Marketing management is the organizational discipline that focuses on the practical application of marketing orientation, techniques, and methods inside enterprises and organizations and on the management of a firm’s marketing resources and activities.
Here are some of the key elements of marketing management:
Market Research
This involves researching the target market to understand customer needs, wants, motivations, and behaviors. Conduct surveys, focus groups, and interviews and analyze sales data to identify opportunities and guide marketing strategies.
Marketing Planning
Developing marketing plans to map out how to achieve marketing objectives. Plans define target markets, positioning, product pricing, distribution, and promotional strategies. Plans should be flexible to adapt to changes.
Product Development
Designing and improving products and services based on customer needs and wants. Determine a product’s look, features, quality, packaging, branding, and customer support services.
Pricing
Setting prices for products and services. Price depends on costs, competition, perceived value, and customer willingness to pay. Price influences how customers view the product and company.
Distribution (Place)
Making products and services available when and where customers want to purchase them. Select distribution channels like online stores, retail outlets, and wholesalers that match customer buying behaviors.
Integrated Marketing Communications (Promotion)
Promoting products and services through advertising, public relations, social media, email marketing, loyalty programs, sponsorships, and other tools. The goal is to spread key brand messages, engage customers, and generate sales.
Brand Management
Creating and sustaining a positive brand identity and image. Requires defining a brand vision and brand values, positioning the brand, and ensuring all customer touchpoints like marketing, advertising, product design, and customer service support and reinforce the brand.
Customer Relationship Management
Attracting, retaining, and growing customer relationships through added value and customer satisfaction. Track customer data and interactions to better understand needs and tailor more personalized experiences.
Implementation and Control
Executing marketing plans and strategies. Monitor key performance indicators like sales, market share, brand awareness, and customer satisfaction to evaluate progress and make adjustments to optimize results.
How is a Marketing Management Strategy Created?
Creating an effective marketing management strategy takes time and effort. Here are the key steps to develop a comprehensive plan:
First, define your marketing objectives. What do you want to accomplish? Do you want to increase brand awareness, drive more traffic to your website, or boost sales? Set concrete, measurable goals to work toward.
Next, identify your target market. Who are your potential customers? Analyze their demographics, interests, and behaviors to determine how to best reach them. Consider conducting surveys or focus groups to gain valuable customer insights.
Then, develop your brand positioning. How do you want to position your brand in the minds of customers? What makes you different from competitors? A strong brand positioning statement will guide your messaging and marketing efforts.
Create your marketing mix. Figure out the right combination of product, price, place, and promotion for your target audience. Your marketing mix should align with your brand positioning to optimize success. Consider things like product improvements or updates, pricing strategies, distribution channels, and promotional campaigns.
Choose your marketing channels. How will you distribute your content and communicate with customers? Some options include social media, email marketing, search engine optimization, advertising, events, and more. Select channels that allow you to reach your target market.
Finally, establish a marketing budget and schedule. Determine how much you can spend on your marketing strategy and allocate funds to different initiatives and channels. Create a content calendar to plan when and where you will post, publish, and promote. Monitor and revise as needed to achieve your marketing objectives.
What is the Extended Marketing Mix?
The traditional marketing mix comprises of four Ps: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. However, this mix is extended by three additional Ps. The extended marketing mix now consists of the 7P’s:
- Product: This refers to the items actually being sold by a company. The product should fulfill the needs and wants of customers. For example, a food company may focus on healthy snacks.
- Price: This refers to the pricing strategy for products and services. The price should match the perceived value of the product. For example, premium products may have higher prices.
- Place: This refers to the distribution channels used to sell the products and services. For example, retail stores, online platforms, direct selling, etc. The place should make the products easily available to customers.
- Promotion: This refers to promotional tools like advertising, sales promotions, personal selling, PR, and direct marketing. The promotion aims to raise awareness about products and influence the buying decisions of customers.
- People: This refers to the staff that interacts with customers. Properly trained staff can enhance the customer experience. For example, knowledgeable salespeople can provide good recommendations to customers.
- Process: This refers to the systems and processes in place to facilitate transactions and interactions with customers. Efficient processes ensure good customer service and experience. For example, a simple returns or refund process.
- Physical evidence: This refers to the tangible elements that facilitate customer experience. For example, the layout and furnishings of a retail store or the website interface of an e-commerce company. Physical evidence aims to create the right customer perception of a brand.
Using the extended marketing mix, companies can craft comprehensive marketing strategies to gain a competitive advantage. The additional 3Ps provide more opportunities for customization based on the needs of the target customers and the dynamics of the market.
Conclusion
Marketing management is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational goals.
A well-crafted marketing management strategy will guide your efforts and help you connect with customers in a meaningful way. Review and update your strategy periodically to keep it relevant and continue moving toward your goals.