Marketing Decision-Making Process - Coursework Example

MARKETING SMART Business Objectives SMART is an acronym that refers to the key characteristics of the meaningful goals that direct performance expectations in a business establishment. They are used to evaluate the effectiveness of business decisions. The acronym, SMART, is broken down into Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound. Specific is the characteristic of what is expected in terms of performance that is tabulated as well defined, detailed and concrete. It avoids generalisations and uses action verbs in its descriptions. The level of performance detail to be provided under the ‘Specific’ goals title depend on previous performance and level of knowledge and experience. For instance, a business that has 30 years’ experience in service provision will be more detailed in listing the specific goals expectations as opposed to a business that has only one year experience in service deliver. The same applies to personnel such that the personnel with more experience will have more details in the specific goals expectations as opposed to the personnel who are less experienced (Michaels, 2013; Virginia Education, 2009). Measurable is the characteristic that determines the performance goals as calculable. The performance must be measurable to determine whether they have been met or not. Measurable goals are stated in terms of cost, time, quality and quantity. Such as, a business would set their goal as increasing production by 20% in 1 year thus deemed as having a measurable goal. Achievable is the goals characteristic that determines the performance as possible to accomplish within the assigned capabilities and authority. Though a single goal may be achievable, their totally should be considerable as achievable them all may not be possible. For instance, a worker may be capable of completing 2 order in a 12 hour working shift but would not be expected to work in a 24 hour working shift to complete 4 orders. They must also rest, as fatigue would affect their performance (Michaels, 2013; Virginia Education, 2009). Realistic is the goals characteristic that ensures the available resources are adequate. The goals must be within the realm of capabilities, results oriented, relevant and practical. Where possible, the goals must be placed in the general context of the organisation. For example, an employee must understand how their goals contribute to the overall organization’s goals. Time-bound is the goals characteristic that assigns them a specific time frame in which to be completed. A goal set to be completed in 1 year is considered time-bound. For instance, an organization would set a goal that they would produce 300 units in 4 months (Michaels, 2013; Virginia Education, 2009). Setting SMART goals ensures that the organization is motivated to link performance to objectives. While work description will list expectations in a functional area, each SMART goal is concisely stated based on competence in the functional areas, and describes how the goal will be measured and met. In essence, a SMART goal focuses performance. Stating SMART goals ensures that the organization has an understanding of what is expected in terms of performance and how the performance would be evaluated (Virginia Education, 2009). As such, it is imperative that an organization set SMART goals. 2. Marketing decision making process Marketing decision making process is targeted at mirroring the customers’ decision making process and anticipating their needs. The marketer will intend to influence the customers’ decision making process and influence them to choose their products and services. Towards this end, five steps in marketing decision making process have been identified: problem identification; search for solutions; comparison of solutions; selecting a solution; and evaluating the choice. For instance a marketer intent on marketing a toaster brand will identify the customers’ need for toasters, analyse the toaster brands in the market, compare the toaster brands in the market with their toaster, identify the elements that are unique to their toaster, and market their toaster based on the unique elements (Lamb, Hair & McDaniel, 2008). 3. False and misleading advertisement False and misleading advertisement refers to the marketers’ use of false and misleading statement in the advertising of a product or service. A false and misleading advertisement can take different forms that include deception in the form of price, standards and units of measurement, terms manipulation and illustrations. Deception in the form of price involves surcharges and hidden fees and misleading use of the word ‘free’ in describing sales. Deception in the form of standards and units of measurement involves manipulations of weighing machines reflect erroneous measurements. Deception in manipulation of terms involves purposively using loosely defined words to deceive customer, for instance the terms light and organic have been deceptively used in a lot of food products. Deception in illustrations involves showing illustrations that differ from the offered products and services. In essence, false advertisement involves purposively misleading customers (Maclaran et al., 2012). 4. Corporate social responsibility Corporate social responsibility is a term that denotes a business establishment acting in an environmentally, socially and economically responsible way, and transparently. A responsible business establishment would asses and take responsibility for whatever effects its operations have on the local economy, environment and social welfare. Activities pertaining to social responsibility may involve incurring short term costs that do not result in immediate financial benefit for the company. In essence, corporate social responsibility may not make immediate financial sense to the company, since it involves engaging in activities that go beyond those mandated by regulations, but they would allow the company to increase its share prices and overall income. Most corporate social responsibility activities would involve the company engaging in projects and initiatives that are managed by the community that hosts them. Some of the corporate social responsibility activities would include assigning specific percentages of profits to fund community based initiatives (Ottman, 2011). 5. Globalisation challenge for business enterprises Globalisation refers to the process by which business enterprises have eliminated geographical, physical, social and economic boundaries through cultural, social and economic processes that are facilitated by advances in transport and communication technologies. Globalisation has a number of positive and negative effects. Some of the positive effects of globalisation include: facilitated mobility, and elimination of transport and physical barriers; increased business opportunities; reduced cost of production; and increased access to markets. On facilitating mobility and elimination of transport and physical barriers, business enterprises can now operate across greater geographical distances as they are facilitated by faster transport and communication channels that make this easier. It has increased business opportunities by opening up previously inaccessible markets. It has reduced production costs by reducing the costs of acquiring raw materials, production and carrying out other business activities. It has increased access to markets by facilitating faster transportation of goods and services to customers (Lamb, Hair & McDaniel, 2008). Globalisation has one major negative effects that is: increasing competition for scarce business opportunities. It has opened up markets and now they are easily accessible to business enterprises thereby ensuring that they engage in competition for the markets. This is considered by customers as a positive effect of globalisation since they are able to access a wider array of products and services at competitive prices (Lamb, Hair & McDaniel, 2008). 6. Role of demographics in marketing decision making process Demographics involves segmenting a population based on shared and common characteristics that include age, gender, income, social class and lifestyle. Marketing makes use of demographics to determine how customers will react to different products and services. This is because demographic groups describe customers whose needs are similar (Maclaran et al., 2012). Age is one of the most important demographic groups in marketing. Age changes are linked to products and services changes such that as the consumer moves from one age group to the next one they will effect a change in products and service needs. For instance, an infant will have a need for infant formula while a teenager will not need infant formula. Gender is a demographic segmentation that describes the sexual orientation of a consumer. Males and females will require distinctively different products and services. For example, a female would require tampons, skirts and dresses while a male would require boots, trousers and suits (Ottman, 2011). Income involves demographic segmentation of a population based on earning groups. High income earners will be able to afford more expensive, higher quality and quantity of products and services while their low income counterparts are restricted by their earning and would only afford to purchase low priced products and services. Social stratification involves segmenting a population based on their perception of their social standing. Higher social class customers will purchase high end products and services while their low social class counterparts will purchase low end products and services. Religion places specific demands on populations that would necessitate that they either accept or reject certain products and services. For instance, Muslims are not allowed to consume pork as such opening a pork butchery in a Muslim dominated area would be an unsound business choice(Ottman, 2011). References Michaels, D. (2013). Outsource Smart. New York: McGraw-Hill Education Publishers. Maclaran, P., Saren, M., Goulding, C., Elliot, R. & Caterall, M. (2012). Critical marketing. London: Routledge Publishers. Ottman, J. (2011). New rules of green marketing: strategies, tools and inspiration for sustainable branding. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Lamb, C., Hair, J. & McDaniel, C. (2008). Marketing. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning. Virginia Education (2009). Writing SMART goals. Retrieved June 23, 2014, from http://www.hrs.virginia.edu/media/development/performancemanagement/writingsmartgoals.pdf Read More