Importance of Understanding of Marketing to Organizations - Essay Example

Importance of understanding of marketing to organizations Introduction The heart of the business is in marketing and majority areas of a business are dependent on effective marketing as it covers advertisements, campaigns and public relations as well as sales (Copping, 2009, p. 132). Marketing is the means through which a business introduces and promotes its products to the potential customers. Without marketing, a business may have superior products in the industry but the potential customers are not aware of them making the sales decline and eventually the whole company to collapse. Successful firms adjust their marketing approaches to the changes in the set-up of the environment (Meek, 2008, p. 49). Nevertheless, an awareness of the market-place is critical as there is very little effect if the firm is marketing knowledge remains within its own boundaries (Doyle, 2011, p. 240). So that information can become useful, it has to be shared in the entire organization. Some of the knowledge may be codified to create a situation where they can be sent through information technology systems. However, tacit knowledge can only be shared through a give and take method which may be developed by participants over time after they understand the intricacies associated with a particular situation. Tacit knowledge allows an organization to apply critical knowledge in operational activities whose outcome is improved efficacy, creation of value and improved financial performances (Pitsis, Kornberger and Clegg, 2011, p. 369). For instance, when a sales-person gets more knowledge concerning what an executive requires in a main customer’s firm, they can utilize this information to better customize the message, create a better solution and increase the chances of amassing revenue. Therefore, this form of knowledge may be used as a source of competitive advantage creating the need to understand the ways in which this form of knowledge may be shared. Importance of Marketing for the Success of an organization In order for a business to succeed, the customers must be aware of the product associated with the business. Except if the public is aware of the firm and the firm’s communiqué with the clients is easily obtainable, the firm has to utilize marketing approaches to develop product awareness. The use of marketing in the promotion of the company’s product provides the business with the opportunity of being discovered by prospective clients (Groucutt, Leadley and Forsyth, 2004, p. 484). When the prospective clients become aware of the product and the company, the chances that the customers will make purchases increases. When the knowledge develops to become a certainty, the clients begin to disseminate information concerning the business and its products to their families and associates. The sales of the business will steadily increase with the continued spread of the awareness but without using marketing strategies, the increased sales would not be experienced and the organization will not be successful. In most of the cases, the success of the company is dependent on a solid reputation and marketing creates a brand name recognition as far as the company is concerned. If the firm achieves the high prospects of the clients, its repute can be considered higher and firmer and with the growth in the repute, there is increase in the sales and the business continues to develop (Darby, 2006, p. 69). The reputation of the organization is enhanced through taking part actively in community programs, efficient communication, both internal and external as well as superior products which are developed and supported through marketing efforts. Marketing also creates a setting that allows for healthy competition. Marketing endeavours provides information of the pricing of products that reaches both the customers and other competing businesses (Jones and Jenkins, 2010, p. 153). In contrast to the companies that operate under a monopoly on products and therefore can charge whatever amount they wish, marketing assists in keeping the prices competitive and allow a business to attract customers before its competitors can do the same. If a competitive setting does not exist, the more established companies would continue selling while the emerging ones will have very little chance of ever becoming successful. Marketing creates vigorous competition which gives a chance to the emerging companies to achieve success and develop in the market. Even though marketing is critical to the success of businesses, it may also be very expensive (Zikmund and Babin, 2013, p. 236). In its initial years, the company may spend almost half of its revenue on marketing programs. After this initial stages, the marketing budget may reduce to about thirty percent of the annual sales. A marketing campaign that provides the company with the best opportunity of various forms of marketing including website development, public relations as well as trade shows and other events is important to the success of the company. In today’s corporate world, the process of making a company or organization successful experiences many challenges. Even the industries that have international repute, and are considered as the trailblazers continually struggle to remain ahead of the competition. This makes marketing a critical attribute to the success of these organizations where the companies have to obtain new customers and develop brands that will appeal to these customers. Marketing strategies assist the organization to focus its energy as well as resources on a specific activity that will result in an increase in sales as well as dominance of the target market. It also allows the organization to blend the development of products with promotion, distribution and pricing among other elements which identify the objectives and achievements of the organization. It gives the organization the opportunity to choose a market segment, position itself and create a marketing mix that will assist in the allocating resources. The marketing strategy is efficient when it is at the centre of the organizations strategy, determining the way the customers will productively deal with the clients and the competitors in the same field. Organizational marketing strategy Every firm seeks to operate in a sector where it can be able to maximize on profits, however, in the event that the main factor of a company’s profitability is the desirability of the industry it operates in, a critical secondary actor is the market position of the firm within the industry. Even in an industry set-up that is characterised by low profitability, a firm may be able to strategically position itself in relation to the competition to allow it achieve superior profits. The organization positions itself through capitalising on it strengths in regard to cost advantage and differentiation. Through the application of these strengths in their strategies, three strategies that include differentiation, cost leadership and focus are born. Regardless of the strategy that an organization decides to follow, the strategy will usually be implemented at the business unit level. Some firms have had to react to a previous over-dependence on high-cost strategy consultants through reducing the amount of time and resources that had been dedicated to marketing and other aspects of the organization. Regrettably, failing to create a solid strategic foundation before this happens becomes counter-productive therefore risking pricey mistakes that will be felt by the entire organization. An emphasis on the manner of implementation instead of the strategy itself has been on the increase in numerous organizations. Majority of executives do not understand the value of spending on marketing strategy particularly if the overall business plan has been defined already. These executives simply want the marketing team to implement the marketing plan without a particular strategy. More often than not, the triumph of a marketing design is measured by the noticeable deliverables that are produced by the marketing group in the organization. As these deliverables draw internal and external attention to the firm, significant effort is directed at making sure the organization looks good through the marketing process. Packaging is an important part of executing a marketing strategy but attractive packaging combined with poorly constituted content does not end up being successful. Since good packaging cannot be successful on its own, it is important to create marketing programs that have a strong foundation from the get-go. The key elements of the marketing strategy must be adhered to and the marketing team must be able to easily articulate these elements even before they can achieve the marketing deliverables. Before the organization can execute the main marketing strategy, it should be able to understand what is needed to make the marketing initiative fruitful. The firm should make sure it has identified and understood its target clients including their motivation and their interests (Mullin, 2002, p. 3). The organization should also have a strong appreciation of the market situations and set-up, identify the competition and acknowledge the strengths it has. Finally, the firm is supposed to consider the situations that may make the strategy fail and find ways of avoiding failure or dealing with it. In the event that a firm does not consider this elements before executing its marketing strategy, there are chances that they marketing process will fail terribly. Even though the plan may be implemented in the correct manner, the goals that the firm is working towards in the marketing process might be misplaced. This situation quickly makes the marketing process become extremely costly in terms of the funds spent as well as the organizations time which would have been directed at other profitable activities. It may also be injurious to the reputation of the organization among its clients as well as competitors and other stakeholders. Importance of marketing to financial success Often, the effect of marketing on financial success of an organization is neglected. Companies find themselves in situations where the products they offer have superior features and a high quality but the prospective consumers of these products are not aware of their existence. This means that the market will lack demand for this product therefore necessitating that the company employs market a marketing strategy. The most critical function associated with marketing is the creation of awareness about the product in the market and gaining loyal customers. Through marketing activities, the customers will get a chance to what the company is offering while the organization gets an opportunity to persuade the customers to buy and use the products or the services offered. Since the competition in the market is usually high, there is a very low chance that a company will monopolize an industry (Saarinen, Tinnilä and Tseng, 2006, p. 133). The manner in which the products associated with a particular organization differ from those of the competitor and the offers made available by the organization are important aspects to the marketing process. The organization should be able to make the customer understand why he should spend his money on its products instead of the products associated with the competitors. To do this it has to instigate an intelligent marketing campaign that will allow the organization to achieve the maximum market share, develop a strong brand name, attain, and retain loyal clients. Majority of the companies recognise the significance of marketing and therefore develop a marketing office in order to give marketing equal importance along with other executive functional offices such as the finance office. Steady and sustained growth as well as customer retention is among the largest hurdles faced by company chief executives, and their success is critically dependent on marketing. Conclusion As the science of marketing continues to go through evolution, marketing as a function will need a higher degree of measurement orientation. Progressively, firms as well as individual marketers will have to come up with more skill sets, especially areas like quantitative methods as well as process analysis. Creating measurement capabilities is only half what needs to be done. Attaining commitment and fortitude in the organization as well as enhancement of the marketing strategies is the most critical attribute as far as transforming insights into business is concerned. The firms which are not completely optimize their marketing performance are not taking full advantages of the opportunities available to them. Conversely, the firms that adopt a robust management of marketing performance, position themselves for more influence within their specific industries. Marketing performances allow the firms to increase their credibility, display results and allow a stronger voice that allows it to become transformation agents within the industry. Firms that adopt marketing strategies have a higher likelihood of becoming successful as this influences the important business decisions within the organization (Lindgreen, Hingley and Vanhamme, 2009, p. 11). The organizations that benefit from elaborate marketing strategies are those that are committed in entirety to the marketing discipline allowing them to increase their revenue and market share as compared to other companies in the same industry. Bibliography Copping, R. 2009, The heart of business success, Ecademy Press. Darby, M. 2006, Alliance brand, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, England. Doyle, C. 2011, A dictionary of marketing, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Groucutt, J., Leadley, P. and Forsyth, P. 2004, Marketing, Kogan Page, London. Jones, R. and Jenkins, F. 2010, Managing money, measurement and marketing in the allied health professions, Radcliffe Publishing, Oxford. Lindgreen, A., Hingley, M. and Vanhamme, J. 2009, The crisis of food brands, Gower, Farnham, UK: Meek, H. 2008, Managing marketing performance, 2008-2009, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford. Mullin, R. 2002, Direct marketing, Kogan Page, London. Pitsis, T., Kornberger, M. and Clegg, S. 2011, Managing and organizations, SAGE, London. Saarinen, T., Tinnilä, M. and Tseng, A. 2006, Managing business in a multi-channel world, Idea Group Pub, Hershey PA. Read More