Essentials of Marketing

Description

Essentials of Marketing, there have been constant changes in marketing management and the marketing environment. Some of the changes have been dramatic, and others have been subtle. The dynamics of markets, technology, and competition have brought changes to virtually every market sector and have made new product development one of the most powerful business activities. The monumental changes that constantly impact commerce have forced companies to innovate with increasing speed, efficiency, and quality. In turn, this has made new product development one of the most complex and difficult business functions. However, firms must innovate in order to survive. The power of innovation is revealed in numerous studies, which show that companies leading their industries attribute about half of their revenues to products developed in the most recent five years. By comparison, companies at the bottom of their industries achieve approximately one-tenth of their sales from new products. Marketing management may spend a fair amount of time building or maintaining a marketing orientation for the business. Achieving a market orientation, also known as “customer focus” or the “marketing concept”, requires building consensus at the senior management level and then driving customer focus down into the organization. Cultural barriers may exist in a given business unit or functional area that the marketing manager must address in order to achieve this goal. Additionally, marketing executives often act as a “brand champion” and work to enforce corporate identity standards across the enterprise. This book is about marketing and marketing strategy planning. At its essence, marketing strategy planning is about figuring out how to do a superior job of satisfying customers.