Question

Long Answer Question.
What do you mean by marketing management? Explain its important functions.

Answer 1

Marketing management means management of the marketing function. In other words, marketing management refers to planning, organising, directing and control of the activities which facilitate exchange of goods and services between producers and consumers or users of products and services. Thus the focus of marketing management is on achieving desired exchange outcomes with the target markets. Philip Kotler has defined Marketing management as the art and science of choosing target markets and getting, keeping and growing customers through creating, delivering and communicating superior customer values of management.

Its important functions are:

1. Gathering and Analysing Market Information: One of the important functions of a marketer is to gather and analyse market information. This is necessary to identify the needs of the customers and take various decisions for the successful marketing of the products and services. This is important for making an analysis of the available opportunities and threats as well as strengths and weaknesses of the organisation and help in deciding what opportunities can best be pursued by it.

2. Marketing Planning: Another important activity or area of work of a marketer is to develop appropriate marketing plans so that the marketing objectives of the organisation can be achieved.

3. Product Designing and Development: Another important marketing activity or decision area relates to product designing and development. The design of the product contributes to making the product attractive to the target customers. A good design can improve performance of a product and also give it a competitive advantage in the market.

4. Standardisation and Grading: Standardisation refers to producing goods of predetermined specifications, which helps in achieving uniformity and consistency in the output. Standardisation ensures the buyers that goods conform to the predetermined standards of quality, price and packaging and reduces the need for inspection, testing and evaluation of the products. Grading is the process of classification of products into different groups, on the basis of some of its important characteristics such as quality, size, etc. Grading is particularly necessary for products which are not produced according to predetermined specifications, such as in the case of agricultural products, say wheat, oranges, etc. Grading ensures that goods belong to a particular quality and helps in realising higher prices for high quality output.

5. Packaging and Labeling: Packaging refers to designing the package for the products. Labeling refers to designing the label to be put on the package. Label may vary from a simple tag to complex graphics. Packaging and labeling have become so important in modern day marketing that these are considered as the pillars of marketing. Packaging is important not only for protection of the products but also serves as a promotional tool. Sometimes, the quality of the product is assessed by the buyers form packaging.

6. Branding: A very important decision area for marketing of most consumer products is whether to sell the product in its generic name (name of the category of the product, say Fan, Pen, etc.) or to sell them in a brand name (such as Pollar Fan or Rottomac Pen). Brand name helps in creating product differentiations, i.e., providing basis for distinguishing the product of a firm with that of the competitor, which in turn, helps in building customer’s loyalty and in promoting its sale.

7. Customer Support Services: A very important function of the marketing management relates to developing customer support services such as after sales services, handling customer complaints and adjustments, procuring credit services, maintenance services, technical services and consumer information. All these services aim at providing maximum satisfaction to the customers, which is the key to marketing success in modern days. Customer support services prove very effective in bringing repeat sales from the customers and developing brand loyalty for a product.

8. Pricing of Products: Price of product refers to the amount of money customers have to pay to obtain a product. Price is an important factor affecting the success or failure of a product in the market. The demand for a product or service is related to its price. Generally lower the price, higher would be the demand for the product and vice-versa.

9. Promotion: Promotion of products and services involves informing the customers about the firm’s product, its features, etc. and persuading them to purchase these products. The four important methods of promotion include advertising, Personal Selling, Publicity and Sales Promotion.

10. Physical Distribution: Managing physical distribution is another very important function in the marketing of goods and services. The two major decision areas under this function include (a) decision regarding channels of distribution or the marketing intermediaries (like whole alers, retailers) to be used and (b) physical movement of the product from where it is produced to a place where it is required by the customers for their consumption or use. The important decision areas under physical distribution include managing inventory (levels of stock of goods), storage and warehousing and transportation of goods from one place to the other.

11. Transportation: Transportation involves physical movement of goods from one place to the other. As generally the users of products, particularly consumer products are wide spread and geographically separated from the place these are produced, it is necessary to move them to the place where it is needed for consumption or use.

12. Storage or Warehousing: Usually there is a time gap between the production or procurement of goods and their sale or use. It may be because of irregular demand for the products such as in the case of woolen garments or Raincoats or there may be irregular supply because of seasonal production such as in the case of agricultural products (sugarcane, rice, wheat, cotton, etc.). In order to maintain smooth flow of products in the market, there is a need for proper storage of the products. Further, there is a need for storage of adequate stock of goods to protect against unavoidable delays in delivery or to meet out contingencies in the demand.