INTRODUCING MARKETING

Definition Of Marketing (CONTINUED)

While one might argue that the marketing function must be the most important function at L.L. Bean, this is not the case. L.L. Bean is just as likely to lose a customer because of incorrect billing (an accounting function) or a flawed hunting boot (a product function) as it is from a misleading ad (a marketing function).

Admittedly, marketing is often a critical part of a firm's success. Nevertheless, the importance of marketing must be kept in perspective. For many large manufacturers such as Proctor & Gamble, Microsoft, Toyota, and Sanyo, marketing represents a major expenditure, and these businesses depend on the effectiveness of their marketing effort. Conversely, for regulated industries (such as utilities, social services, or medical care or small businesses providing a one-of-a-kind product) marketing may be little more than a few informative brochures. There are literally thousands of examples of businesses-many quite small; that have neither the resources nor the inclination to support an elaborate marketing organization and strategy. These businesses rely less on research than on common sense. In all these the marketing program is worth the costs only if it fits the organization and facilitates its ability to reach its goals.

 NEWS-LINE: PICTURE YOUR MISSION

Artist Linda Armantrout, owner of Armantrout Graphic Design and Illustration, works with businesses to help them picture their goals-literally-through a "pictorial mission statement." As option to the typical written mission statement that is handed down to employees from management. Armantrout creates a bright watercolor picture of the statement, after receiving input from both employees and managers, The final result is usually a collage of sorts that depicts what is important to the staff and the business-such as clients, products, services, and ethics.

The mission statement picture that Armantrout designs is framed and hung at the company to remind employees of their goals. The pictorial statements also can be put on coffee mugs, jackets, and desktop posters, or turned into screen savers.

One of Armantrout's clients, BancOne Leasing Corporation, came up with a colorful image of a globe surrounded by images representing its clients and services. Drawings of airplanes and buses represent what the company leases and the globe represents its national presence.

Sources: Katie Ford. "Picture Your Goals In Color, " The Denver Business Journal, March 17-18, 1999, pp. 33A, 35A.

Shirleen Holt, "Mission Possible, " Business Week, August 16. 1999, p. F-12.

Teri Lammers , ''The Effective and Indispensable Mission Statement," Inc., August. 1999, p. 75.

Justification for Study:

This task of determining the appropriateness of marketing for a particular business or institution serves as a major justification for learning about marketing. Although marketing has clearly come of age during the decades of the 1970, 1980s, and 1990s, there is still a deal of misunderstanding about the meaning and usefulness of marketing. For most of the global public, marketing is still equated with advertising and personal selling. While marketing is both of those, it is also much more.

The business community can attribute a partial explanation, this general lack of understanding about marketing to the uneven acceptance and adoption of marketing. Some businesses still exist in the dark ages when marketing was defined as "the sales department will sell whatever the piant produces." Others have advanced a bit further, in that they have a marketing officer and engage in market research, product development, promotion and have a long list of marketing activities. More and more businesses firmly believe that the aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous, meaning that the marketer knows and understands the customer so well that the product or service is already what's wanted a n d sells itself.

This does not mean that marketing ignores the engineering and production of the product or the importance of it. It does suggest, however, that attention to customers-who they are and who they are going to be-is seen to be in the best long-term interest of the company. As a student interested in business, it is beneficial for you to have an accurate and complete comprehension of the role marketing can and should play in today's business world.

There are also several secondary reasons to studying marketing. One we have already alluded to in our discussion on definitions: The application of marketing to more nonprofit and non-business institutions is growing. Churches, museums, the United Way, the U.S. Armed Forces, politicians, and others are hiring individuals with marketing expertise. This has opened up thousands of new job opportunities for those with a working knowledge of marketing.

Even if you are not getting a degree in marketing, knowing about: marketing will pay off in a variety of careers. Consider the following individuals:

• Paul Moore, an engineer specializing in earth moving equipment, constantly works with product development and sales personnel in order to create superior products.

• Christy Wood, a CPA, is a top tax specialist who spends much of her time maintaining customer relationships, and at least three month seeking new customers.

• Steve Jacobson, a systems analyst and expert programmer, understands that his skills must be used to find the right combination of hardware and software for every one of his customers.

• Doris Kelly, a personnel manager, must be skilled at finding, hiring, and training individuals to facilitate her organization's marketing efforts.

• Craig Roberts, an ex-Microsoft engineer, has recently started a dot-com company and is in the process of raising capital.

There are two final factors that justify the study of marketing for nearly every citizen. First of all, we are all consumers and active participants in the marketing network. Understanding the rudiments of marketing will make us better consumers, which in tum will force businesses to do their jobs better. Second, marketing has an impact on society as a whole.

Concepts such as trade deficit, embargo, devaluation of a foreign currency, price fixing, deceptive advertising, and product safety take on a whole new meaning when we view them in a marketing context. This knowledge should make you a more enlightened citizen who understands what such social and political issues mean to you and to our society.

Marketing capsules summarize the information throughout this text. Characteristics of a Marketing Organization. As noted earlier, the application of marketing in a particular organization varies tremendously, ranging from common-sense marketing to marketing departments with thousands

of staff members and multi-million dollar budgets. Yet both may have a great deal in common in respect to how they view the activity called marketing. We refer to these common characteristics as the Cs of Marketing . They are your clues that a business understands marketing.

Extract from the book titled: Core Concept Of Marketing by John Burnett