Subject Overview: Marketing Management Made Easy [Nov 2023]

Marketing is Magic!

And a marketing campaign run by a marketer is like a magic show run by a magician: fascinating, compelling, attention-grabbing … I could go on and on with my list of adjectives, but you get the drill.

It attracts a whole bunch of audience towards the business instead of going and inviting every single audience member individually. It has limitless opportunities for creativity. And at the end of it, a really really good magic show A.K.A marketing campaign deserves a bow!

But, can a magic show be run without any preparation? Can the magician simply show up on stage and expect magic to magically happen? The answer is no. A magic show, just like a successful marketing campaign requires tonnes of planning, experimenting, and fine-tuning.

While I’m not aware of a magician’s preparation – I’m aware of a marketer’s. All of the pre- (and post) campaign activities come under an umbrella concept known as marketing management.

So what are we discussing today?

In the following blog, I’ll talk about the meaning of marketing management, its functions, roles, and importance. I’ll also talk about the entire process of marketing management and touch upon its features. We’ll conclude with some FAQs and say goodbye.

So are you ready? Let’s look at an overview of marketing management as a subject!

What is Marketing Management?

Before we get into the interpretation, let’s look at the definition of marketing management.

The American Marketing Association defines marketing management as the “process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of goods, ideas, services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives.”

On the other hand, Philip Kotler defines 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.”

Now let’s pick apart and dissect these definitions together:

One thing is clear from both definitions, marketing management is a process. Unlike marketing, which is a function of a business – or a concept, marketing management is a series of activities like planning, executing, communicating, etc. that need to be checked off the list in order to achieve business goals.

While marketing is the front end, marketing management is everything that goes on in the back end.

Next, you can notice the following similarities between the two definitions:
Conception ~ Creating
Promotion ~ Communicating
Distribution ~ Delivering
Goods, ideas, and services ~ Superior customer value

The last point indicates that at the centre of any business – there needs to be value offered in the form of goods, services, or ideas. The rest of the activities come into the picture when this offering needs to be conceptualised or created, then communicated to the customers in the form of promotions, and lastly distributed or delivered to the end consumer.

Lastly, both definitions point out some important aspects:
~ Choosing target markets, getting, keeping, and growing customers.
~ Exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives.

Keeping, all these in mind, we can arrive at the following meaning of marketing management:

Marketing management is the process of driving organizational goals through marketing activities starting right from acquiring (target) audiences, creating a product-market fit, promoting the business offering, and ensuring effective distribution.

Think of it as a crossover between the marketing mix (product, place, price, promotion) and the functions of management (planning, organising and implementing).

What are the Functions of Marketing Management?

It is important to understand to role that every process in a business plays – in order to optimise it. A lack of clarity in terms of the purpose or functionality of the process will inevitably lead to waste of time and resources.

So in the following section, let’s understand the functions of marketing management:

~ Determining the Marketing Goals:

We’ve already established that marketing is a business function. So the very first question to ask as a part of the marketing management process is what are the marketing goals? While this answer usually depends on the overall organizational goals, it’s important to clearly establish how marketing as a function is going to assist the organization in achieving its goals. This transparency leads to accountability.

Once the marketing goals are decided, it’s the duty of the CMO/marketing manager to further bifurcate and divide these goals between the various sub-channels of marketing like email marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, search engine marketing, etc.

~ Determining the Marketing Budget:

Once the various goals have been set in place – it’s important to set aside a marketing budget that will be used to fuel the operations and strategies to achieve the goals. This requires analysis of previous budgets, accounting for changes in goals and possible strategies, and forecasting of the yearly budget.

Organizations are generally sceptical of marketing as a business function, so it’s important for the marketing manager to be able to justify the budget and this can be done most effectively by showcasing a high return on investment and/or driving business growth.

~ Formulating the Marketing Strategy:

Generally, while allocating budgets, marketing managers already have a game plan in mind as to what the strategy for that time period would be. This could be a focus on a certain channel of communication, or a certain ad strategy, etc.

It is important for the marketing manager to clearly describe the strategy and convey the same to other stakeholders in the organization. This will help every team stay on track and work as a unit towards achieving the marketing (and organizational) goals.

As a starter, some marketers find it easy to define the marketing mix (i.e. the 4 Ps of Marketing or the extended 7 Ps of Marketing) in order to develop a strategy.

The 4 Ps of marketing are product, price, place, and promotion – and the 7 Ps include people, processes, and physical evidence as a part of the mix.

~ Assembling Necessary Resources:

Depending on the marketing strategy and goals, it’s crucial for the marketing manager to ensure that the team is fully staffed – i.e. all the human resource requirements are being met. Everyone should be clear in terms of how they can add value to the organization. What specific part does every team member play – and what are the specific results they have to achieve?

Apart from human resources, marketing managers also need to ensure other equipment and facilities are in place for smooth sailing of the marketing operations. It is common for marketing managers to appoint marketing-ops (marketing operations)personnel to specifically look after the logistical needs.

~ Coordination of all Marketing Activities:

The word ‘management’ in marketing management implies that all the principles and functions of organizational management will come into the picture as well. One of the most important functions of a manager in general is to coordinate marketing (or business) activities.

Oftentimes, different teams may lose sight of the marketing goals because of the size of the organization and their niche role.

However, as mentioned earlier, marketing as a function is most likely to achieve optimised results if the different teams work in tandem together – as a unit. Hence, it is the responsibility of the marketing manager to ensure that everyone’s efforts are directed in the same direction – trying to reach the same destination – achieving business growth.

What is the Importance of Marketing Management?

Now that we’ve understood the functions of marketing management, let’s move on to why marketing management is important.

Unlike Operations and Sales – Marketing as a business function isn’t fully internal or fully client-facing (external). While it holds significant weightage in internal decision making such as product development and positioning, it is also an extremely important client-facing function.  For this reason, marketing management is considered as a bridge between an organization and its customers. Marketing ensures that organizational objectives align with consumer needs and preferences.

~ Understanding Customer Needs:

Marketing management spends a good chunk of time analysing the consumer market. As you’ll see in the process below, marketing management starts with a deep understanding of customer needs and preferences.

As you can guess, this is imperative in achieving success as a business organization. Without this, it would be impossible to strike a product-market fit. No other business function spends as much time on really getting to know the customer and working towards keeping them satisfied.

~  Creating value propositions:

Marketing management, while analysing the market, also keeps an eye out for competitors in the same field. It’s important to understand what the existing competition is already offering to the consumers – and identify what’s missing – or causing general customer dissatisfaction.
This helps the organization to innovate in that specific field instead of shooting in the dark – and creating a compelling value proposition.

In short, marketing management communicates to customers why a product or service is unique and beneficial, highlighting features that differentiate it from competitors.

~ Building brand awareness:

Marketing management plays another important role that allows customers to differentiate the business offering from competitor’s products/services – and that is building a unique brand identity.

Through strategic promotional activities – marketing management consistently creates a presence that leaves behind an impression in the minds of the customers. This helps because the next time the customer intends to buy, they’ll think of your offering first and are likely to approach your business.

A brand’s identity is like a person’s personality – it makes a lot of difference in the grander scheme of things.

~ Adopting customer feedback:

Since marketing managers stay closely in touch with the customers (or the sales teams, in some cases), they receive tonnes of valuable product feedback. Additionally, marketers also tend to reach out to customers through surveys and feedback forms, in an attempt to understand their satisfaction levels and pain points.

By passing this information on to the product teams, marketers help in applying feedback and improving the market offering.

In this sense, marketing management plays an important role by providing a continuous feedback loop that enhances an organization’s market standing and positioning.

~ Fostering customer loyalty:

Marketing managers use many strategies to not only attract new customers – but also retain existing customers. Through elaborate loyalty programs, marketers incentivize customers to stay on board instead of jumping ship.

Additionally, as mentioned above, marketing managers reach out to customers – take their opinions – and then implement changes. This makes the customer feel heard and fosters a feeling of loyalty.

Lastly, marketing management is continuously evolving to invite more contributions from the customer community, thus giving them the status of valuable stakeholders who are invested in the organization beyond transactional terms.

What are the features of marketing management?

Marketing management is defined by certain features and characteristics – that help us to better understand the role and functions of marketing management in an organization. In the following section, let’s take a look at some of these features:

~ Customer-centric:

One common element you’ll notice in the (above) importance section is that marketing management is centred around customers. From the beginning to the end of the process, marketers are constantly thinking about the customer experience. Marketing management emphasizes on building strong and enduring relationships with customers.

Whether it is making the product more intuitive, or making the distribution of products/services more convenient – marketers play an important role in keeping the customers satisfied.

Marketing managers constantly try to balance the organisational goals and customer needs.

~ Dynamic:

Business organizations exist in an environment that’s ever-changing and dynamic in nature. This trickles down into all of the business functions, including marketing.

From identifying constantly changing trends, keeping up with customer’s needs and adapting to competitor strategies, marketing management recognises and responds to the dynamic nature of these markets.

Among all the other business functions, marketing keeps a closer eye on the market to understand and anticipate what’s next for the organization.

~ Strategic Orientation:

Although there’s a general misconception that marketing is a fully creative role that’s all fun and games – that’s not true at all. Marketing management, as you’ll see in the next section, relies on data. Marketing managers are constantly gathering data from as many sources as they can, in order to derive insights and form strategies based on these insights.

On the other hand, marketing management involves intense strategic planning to align marketing activities with overall organizational goals. As I mentioned before, it’s easy to lose sight of sizeable organizations. 

~ Cross-functional Collaboration:

Marketing management works with the product team to continuously enhance the offering based on market feedback. Marketing management works with the sales team to build a strong proposition and bring an A-game to the markets. Marketing management works with the finance team to minimise spend while generating potential growth leads for the organization. Marketing management works with the operations team to streamline the distribution of the offering in the markets.

Overall, marketing management Involves collaboration with other organizational functions in order to achieve overall organizational success. Marketing managers recognize the interdependence of functions and propose an integrated approach towards achieving goals.

~ Profitability Focused:

Lastly, marketing is an overlooked game-changer in an organization’s success because of the common misconception that marketing is just the face of an organization. In reality, marketing is the backbone of the company that can truly help in turning around a profit.

Marketing aims at capturing market share and generating revenue and is very much focused on profitability. Marketing management Involves pricing strategies, cost management, and revenue optimization.

Unfortunately, however, marketing budgets are the first to receive cuts when an organization is under financial pressure. It is the responsibility of the marketing managers to build a strong case for marketing as a function and ensure that the C-suite of executives recognize its importance.

The Marketing Management Process

Bringing back to our definition of marketing management – it is a process – which implies that it has steps/activities that are followed in a specific order.

So, what is the process of marketing management? Let’s take a look:

~ Market Analysis:

Before diving into any project, it is important to get a lay of the land.

Viewing this from a marketing lens means conducting thorough market research to indemnity a gap in terms of the offering, gauging competition, and building out an ideal buyer persona. This is where most organisations focus their marketing budget on.

Sometimes, if the project is a recurring one, it’s also helpful to look back at the past performance. In the end, the idea is to understand what opportunities the market holds and what are challenges (or weaknesses) to overcome in order to capitalize on said opportunities.

~ Planning and Development

Once you have all the information you need – the next step is to come up with an actionable plan in order to achieve the goals and benefit from the market opportunities.

You can start off with a broad plan of action and then further break each step down into actionable tasks. It requires foresight interns to predict what are the obstacles in the way of achieving goals.

This step also involves setting an approximate timeline for the overarching plan and then assigning broad deadlines to each task. This helps the marketing management team stay on track and prioritise important work.     

~ Setting up Processes (Automation)

Each task in the above-mentioned marketing plan will require some action, whether it is a recurring or a one-off task. At this step, as the marketing manager, you will have to describe the process in which the plan of action is carried out and who is responsible for the completion of what tasks.

Once the basic process is ready, the marketing manager should automate some business-as-usual processes that take up time in order to increase the efficiency of the team members. This could include updating reports, sending out updates, responding to emails or enquiries, etc. 

~ Performance Review

After a sufficient period of time has passed, anywhere between two weeks to three months, it’s critical to look back at the performance of the marketing strategy. This requires tracking the key performance indicators such as click-through rate, engagement rate, email open rate, etc. and analysing them against the industry benchmarks.

This gives the marketing manager an idea of how the strategy is performing as compared to other competitors in the industry.

Every marketing channel and platform has its own set of unique KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and it’s important to consider the variation while tracking these metrics. The process of tracking performance should also be done on a regular basis to see how the marketing campaign is performing over time.

~ Strategy Correction

Lastly, based on insights and understanding from the performance review, the marketing manager must include learnings and corrections in the marketing strategy. Refining and adjusting the marketing strategy enables the organization to achieve growth in a more effective way by optimizing resources.

This process continues for as long as the marketing goals are achieved and the next set of goals are defined by the change in the organization.

That brings us to the end of the blog. Overall, marketing management is a systematic way of ensuring that the marketing function is driving organizational growth without fail. It gives the support which the organization requires in order to thrive in a highly competitive market.

Invest in marketing management and believe in its process-driven magic!

Until next time, Tiddles out.

Frequently Asked Questions