Marketing Management

Definition of Marketing Management

Marketing, a very complex and core business function, needs proper management to ensure the business's desired goals are reached. Marketing management is the process that helps a business plan, organise, control, and implement marketing strategies.

Businesses can achieve profitable customer relationships from satisfied customers through marketing management.

Marketing Management Processes

Marketing management is a 7-step process that starts with setting marketing objectives and ends with organising, implementing, and controlling the marketing efforts. The six steps are as follows:

1. Set Marketing Objectives

2. Analyse Marketing Opportunities

3. Research and Select Marketing Targets

4. Design Marketing Strategies

5. Plan Marketing Programmes

6. Implement Marketing Programs

7. Control

Set Marketing Objectives

Setting objectives in place is the first step of marketing management. The set goals must align with the brand or organisation's mission. Setting objectives help the business understand how to conduct their research and in which market.

Analyse Marketing Opportunities

Once the objectives are set, the brand or business starts to analyse marketing opportunities to find the right target market. A SWOT analysis is performed to analyse the company's situation, which is essential for understanding the brand's limitations.

Research and Select Marketing Targets

Businesses should understand the market's attractiveness and know how it should be measured to select an effective market. Market segmentation and its evaluation are performed for a more straightforward market evaluation, after which product positioning strategies are used in each market.

Design Marketing Strategies

The marketing strategy describes how the organisation plans to achieve its goals. This is one of the essential steps of marketing management. The marketing strategies will state how the brand approaches the target market. Additionally, decisions related to the marketing mix, marketing expenditure and distribution are made in this step, along with decisions about the product, place, price and promotion (the 4Ps).

Plan Marketing Programmes

Marketing programmes and strategies are necessary to achieve the organisation's marketing goals. This stage involves making decisions about branding, product characteristics, packaging, sales, and distribution, among many others.

Implement Marketing Programs

Implementation is a crucial step, as this involves acting on the set marketing strategies and programmes. The first step would be deciding when, where and how to implement them. The business takes the first steps to advertise your products and their characteristics to attract potential customers through various methods such as sales promotions, public relations, etc.

Control

Controlling is the process of monitoring and evaluating marketing strategies. After implementing the marketing strategies, their results are tested to analyse their success in helping the brand achieve its goals. Businesses can measure success by analysing sales, customer feedback, satisfaction, etc. Controlling will also aid in future marketing strategies, as these results will help the company keep track of what does and does not work. In addition, it is also vital to evaluate how your competitors operate to understand what your company could or should do better to stay on top of the market. Companies use various tools such as sales force management systems to analyse their progress.

Importance of Marketing Management

Now that you understand the marketing management processes let's look at what these steps ultimately strive to achieve. The marketing management process has many objectives, as listed below.

Demand Creation

The main goal of marketing is to create demand for the product that the brand is promoting. Marketing management uncovers insights about consumer behaviour and needs, informs the potential customers about the products' features, and advertises the products to convince them that they would cater to their needs.

Customer Satisfaction

Marketing management majorly helps improve customer satisfaction, as it helps identify customer needs, allowing the brand to develop better and more valuable products. Customer satisfaction is likely to increase when a product's value is higher.

Brand Reputation

Improving the brand's reputation is also a crucial function of marketing management. Sales promotions, advertisements, etc., are tools that may improve a brand's reputation. Offering products at a reasonable price and an expected quality also helps strengthen the brand image.

Profit Generation

Profit generation is crucial for the business's survival - this can only be achieved through proper marketing management. Without good marketing management, the brand would not sell enough products or acquire enough customers to make a profit.

Market Share

Due to intense competition, businesses need to try and increase their market share. Through market and organisational analysis, marketing management helps develop strategies or plans that aid companies in improving their market share.

Product Marketing Management

You might have noticed by now that understanding customers, their buying patterns, and their needs are crucial for marketing. They help the brand align its products with customers' desires - precisely what product management aims to do. Product marketing is a type of marketing management that brings together the product, the market, customer success and sales. Product positioning is crucial in product marketing to generate more sales.

A product marketer is responsible for launching products, introducing different features, understanding the market, assisting the sales team, positioning and messaging, and generating product awareness and demand.

Content Marketing Management

Businesses use content marketing to attract audiences and capture their attention. Companies practising content marketing use images, text, videos and other digital instruments to achieve their organisational goals. Businesses approach different audiences using various digital tools to engage them with a brand or product. It is an alternative to promoting products without bombarding customers with information, leading to advertising overload. Content marketing aims to convert target customers to loyal customers.

Content marketing focuses on the customer journey. This function convinces a customer about the product's value and aids the customer through their journey. Content marketing helps customers in their pre-purchase stage with product information and product instructions.

Some main content marketing tools include blogging, social media, visual content, e-books, etc.

Now, you might have understood how the marketing management function helps a product sell itself. So, to summarise, brands research and collect information about customers to provide them with products that will fill the product gap in the market and add value to customers' lives. This function makes sure to use the right marketing tools to reach the appropriate customers to inform them about the products and their features so well that they are convinced about their need for the product in their life and finally purchase it. Marketing management is, therefore, a complex process that ensures that products are marketed to the right target market using the appropriate marketing techniques.