"Marketing management is "the art and science of choosing target markets and getting, keeping, and growing customers through creating, delivering, and communicating superior customer value"
………………………………………………………………………….(Kotler and Keller, 2008: 5)."
According to American Marketing Association, "Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders."
Nature of Marketing Management
It Combines the Fields of Marketing and Management
• Marketing consists of discovering consumer needs and wants, creating the goods and services that meet those needs and wants; and pricing, promoting, and delivering those goods and services.
• Doing so requires attention to six major areas - markets, products, prices, places, promotion, and people.
• Management is getting things done through other people.
• Managers engage in five key activities - planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling. Marketing management implies the integration of these concepts.
Marketing Management is a Business Process
• To manage marketing activities in profit seeking and non profit organizations at different levels of management, i.e. supervisory, middle-management, and executive levels.
• Marketing management decisions are based on strong knowledge of marketing functions and clear understanding and application of supervisory and managerial techniques.
• Marketing managers and product managers are there to execute the processes of marketing management.
• We, as customers, see the results of such process in the form of products, prices, advertisements, promotions, etc.
Marketing Management is Both Science and Art
“Marketing management is art and science of choosing target markets and getting, keeping and growing customers through creating, delivering and communicating superior customer value.” (Kotler, 2006).
Marketing management is a science because it follows general principles that guides the marketing managers in decision making.
The Art of Marketing management consists in tackling every situation in an creative and effective manner.
Marketing Management is thus a science as well as an art.
Some of the most important scope of Marketing are as follows:
Goods
Services
Events
Experiences
Persons
Places
Properties
Organizations
Information
Idea.
1. Goods: Physical goods constitute the major part of a country’s production and marketing effort. Companies market billions of food products, and millions of cars, refrigerators, television and machines.
2. Services:
As economies advance, a large proportion of their activities is focused on the production of services. Services include the work of airlines, hotels, car rental firms, beauticians, software programmers, management consultants, and so on.
Many market offerings consist of a mix of goods and services. For example, a restaurant offers both goods and services.
3.Events: Marketers promote events. Events can be trade shows, company anniversaries, entertainment award shows, local festivals, health camps, and so on. For example, global sporting events such as the Olympics or Common Wealth Games are promoted aggressively to both companies and fans.
4. Experiences:
Marketers create experiences by offering a mix of both goods and services. A product is promoted not only by communicating features but also by giving unique and interesting experiences to customers. For example, Maruti Sx4 comes with Bluetooth technology to ensure connectivity while driving, similarly residential townships offer landscaped gardens and gaming zones.
5. Persons: Due to a rise in testimonial advertising, celebrity marketing has become a business. All popular personalities such as film stars, TV artists, and sportspersons have agents and personal managers. They also tie up with PR agencies for better marketing of oneself.
6. Places:
Cities, states, regions, and countries compete to attract tourists. Today, states and countries are also marketing places to factories, companies, new residents, real estate agents, banks and business associations. Place marketers are largely real estate agents and builders. They are using mega events and exhibitions to market places. The tourism ministry is also aggressively promoting tourist spots locally and globally.
7. Properties: Properties can be categorized as real properties or financial properties. Real property is the ownership of real estates, whereas financial property relates to stocks and bonds. Properties are bought and sold through marketing. Marketing enhances the need of ownership and creates possession utility. With improving income levels in the economy, people are seeking better ways of saving money.
8. Organizations:
Organizations actively work to build image in the minds of their target public.
The PR department plays an active role in marketing an organization’s image.
Marketers of the services need to build the corporate image, as exchange of services does not result in the ownership of anything. The organization’s goodwill promotes trust and reliability. The organization’s image also helps the companies in the smooth introduction of new products.
9. Information: Information can be produced and marketed as a product. Educational institutions, encyclopedias, non-fiction books, specialized magazines and newspapers market information. The production, packaging, and distribution of information is a major industry. Media revolution and increased literacy levels have widened the scope of information marketing.
10. Idea:
Every market offering includes a basic idea. Products and services are
used as platforms for delivering some idea or benefit. Social marketers widely promote ideas. Maruti Udyog Limited promoted safe driving habits, need to wear seat belts, need to prohibit children from sitting near the driver’s seat, and so on.
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