Melaleuca Review – When Do You Need a Marketing Manager?
The overlying concept of markets finally brings us to the theory of marketing. Marketing means all human activities that take place in regards to open markets. Marketing means working with markets to actualize potential exchanges for the purpose of satisfying human needs and wants. Our definition of marketing as human activity is directed at satisfying needs and wants through exchange processes.
Exchange processes require work. Sellers search for buyers, identify buyer needs, design desirable products, promote them, store and ship them; negotiate prices, and so on. Activities such as product development, search, communicating, distribution, pricing, and service constitute primary marketing activities.
Although we normally think of marketing as a seller activity, buyers also perform marketing activities. Consumers participate on marketing when they research goods they need to buy at prices they can afford. A purchasing agent who needs a commodity in short supply tracks down sellers and offers attractive terms. A seller’s market is one in which sellers have more power and buyers have to be the more active “marketers.” In a buyer’s market, buyers have more power and sellers have to be more active “marketers.”
In the early 1950s the supply of goods began to outpace the demand, and marketing became identified with sellers trying to find buyers. We will take this point of view and examine the marketing problems of sellers in a buyer’s market.
Professionals who engage in the exchange process are educated in how to better market over a period of time. In particular, sellers understand how to systematize their marketing management. We define marketing management as the analysis, planning, implementation, and control of programs designed to create, build, and maintain profitable exchanges with targeted buyers for the purpose of achieving company goals.
The prevailing image of a marketing manager is that of someone whose task consists primarily of attracting customers to meet the company’s current output. However, this is a limited a view of the range of tasks carried out by marketing managers. Marketing managers are concerned not only with creating and increasing demand, but also with adjusting and periodically reducing it. Marketing management looks to influence the level, timing, and character of demand in a way that will facilitate the organization achieve its objectives. Simply put, marketing management is demand management.
An organization forms an idea of a desired amount of transactions with a target market. At any point in time, the actual demand level may be under, equal to, or above the desired goal. That is, there may be little demand, moderate demand, adequate demand, or excessive demand, and marketing management has to handle these different challenges.
Who is a marketing manager? We refer to company personnel who are involved in marketing analysis, planning, implimentation, or control functions. This group includes sales managers and sales peoples, advertising executives, sales promotion specialists, marketing researchers, product managers, and pricing specialists.
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