Marketing Management: Core Concepts

• Marketing management involves planning, organizing, and controlling marketing activities to achieve organizational goals.
• It encompasses strategies and tactics to identify, create, and maintain a competitive advantage.
• The ultimate goal is to satisfy customer needs and wants while achieving business objectives.

Core Concepts

• Understanding the marketing environment is crucial for developing effective strategies.
• This includes analyzing both the internal and external factors that impact marketing decisions.
• Key internal factors are the company's resources, capabilities, and overall objectives.
• External factors involve the macroenvironment (PESTEL) and microenvironment (customers, competitors, suppliers).
• Segmentation, targeting, and positioning (STP) are fundamental to marketing strategy.
• Segmentation divides the market into distinct groups with similar needs and characteristics.
• Targeting selects which segments to pursue based on their attractiveness and the company's capabilities.
• Positioning creates a distinct image and value proposition for the product or service in the target market's mind.
• The marketing mix, known as the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion), comprises the tools used to implement marketing strategy.
• Product decisions involve features, branding, packaging, and service.
• Price decisions include pricing strategies, discounts, and payment terms.
• Place decisions cover distribution channels, logistics, and inventory management.
• Promotion decisions encompass advertising, public relations, sales promotion, and personal selling.

Analyzing the Marketing Environment

• Environmental scanning involves gathering information about the marketing environment.
• This helps identify opportunities and threats.
• PESTEL analysis examines political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors.
• Political factors include government regulations, trade policies, and political stability.
• Economic factors involve economic growth, inflation rates, interest rates, and unemployment.
• Social factors encompass cultural trends, demographics, lifestyle changes, and consumer attitudes.
• Technological factors include technological advancements, automation, and research and development.
• Environmental factors relate to ecological concerns, sustainability, and environmental regulations.
• Legal factors include laws regarding consumer protection, competition, and product safety.
• Analyzing the microenvironment focuses on customers, competitors, suppliers, and other stakeholders.
• Understanding customer needs, preferences, and buying behavior is essential.
• Competitive analysis involves identifying key competitors, assessing their strengths and weaknesses, and understanding their strategies.
• Supplier relationships can impact product quality, costs, and availability.

Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning

• Market segmentation divides the market into distinct groups based on various criteria.
• Common segmentation variables include demographics, psychographics, geographic location, and behavior.
• Demographic segmentation uses factors like age, gender, income, education, and occupation.
• Psychographic segmentation considers lifestyle, values, attitudes, and personality traits.
• Geographic segmentation divides the market based on location, such as region, city, or climate.
• Behavioral segmentation categorizes consumers based on their purchasing behavior, usage rate, loyalty, and benefits sought.
• Effective segmentation requires that segments be measurable, accessible, substantial, differentiable, and actionable.
• Targeting involves evaluating the attractiveness of each segment and selecting which ones to serve.
• Factors influencing target market selection include segment size, growth rate, competitive intensity, and alignment with company objectives.
• Different targeting strategies include undifferentiated marketing, differentiated marketing, concentrated marketing, and micromarketing.
• Undifferentiated marketing involves targeting the entire market with a single marketing mix.
• Differentiated marketing targets multiple segments with different marketing mixes.
• Concentrated marketing focuses on a single segment.
• Micromarketing tailors marketing efforts to individual customers or small geographic areas.
• Positioning creates a unique and valuable place in the minds of target customers.
• It involves defining the product or service's key benefits, differentiating it from competitors, and communicating this to the target market.
• A positioning statement summarizes the essence of the positioning strategy.
• This statement typically includes the target market, the brand, the point of difference, and the reason to believe.

Product Strategy

• Product decisions involve defining the product's features, benefits, quality, design, and branding.
• A product can be a tangible good, an intangible service, or a combination of both.
• The product life cycle (PLC) describes the stages a product goes through from introduction to decline.
• The PLC includes introduction, growth, maturity, and decline phases.
• Different marketing strategies are appropriate for each stage of the PLC.
• New product development (NPD) is the process of creating and launching new products.
• NPD typically involves idea generation, screening, concept testing, business analysis, product development, test marketing, and commercialization.
• Branding involves creating a unique identity for a product or service.
• A brand includes a name, logo, symbol, and other elements that differentiate it from competitors.
• Brand equity refers to the value of a brand to an organization and its customers.
• Packaging protects the product, attracts attention, and communicates information.

Pricing Strategy

• Pricing decisions involve setting prices that are attractive to customers and profitable for the company.
• Factors influencing pricing decisions include costs, competition, customer value, and market conditions.
• Cost-based pricing involves setting prices based on the cost of production or service delivery.
• Value-based pricing sets prices based on the perceived value of the product or service to customers.
• Competition-based pricing considers the prices charged by competitors.
• Different pricing strategies include price skimming, penetration pricing, premium pricing, and economy pricing.
• Price skimming involves setting a high initial price for a new product.
• Penetration pricing sets a low initial price to gain market share quickly.
• Premium pricing involves setting a high price to reflect the product's superior quality or exclusivity.
• Economy pricing sets a low price to attract price-sensitive customers.

Place (Distribution) Strategy

• Place decisions involve choosing the right distribution channels to make products available to customers.
• Distribution channels include direct channels, indirect channels, and multichannel distribution.
• Direct channels involve selling directly to customers without intermediaries.
• Indirect channels use intermediaries such as wholesalers and retailers.
• Multichannel distribution involves using a combination of direct and indirect channels.
• Supply chain management involves managing the flow of goods and information from suppliers to customers.
• Logistics involves the physical movement of goods, including transportation, warehousing, and inventory management.
• Retailers are businesses that sell products directly to consumers.
• Different types of retailers include supermarkets, department stores, specialty stores, and online retailers.

Promotion Strategy

• Promotion decisions involve communicating with target customers to inform, persuade, and remind them about the product or service.
• The promotion mix includes advertising, public relations, sales promotion, personal selling, and direct marketing.
• Advertising involves paid communication through various media channels.
• Public relations (PR) involves building relationships with the public and managing the company's reputation.
• Sales promotion encompasses short-term incentives to encourage purchase.
• Personal selling involves direct interaction between a salesperson and a customer.
• Direct marketing involves communicating directly with customers through channels like email, mail, and telemarketing.
• Integrated marketing communications (IMC) involves coordinating all promotional activities to create a consistent brand message.
• Digital marketing uses online channels to reach and engage customers.
• Digital marketing tactics include search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, email marketing, and content marketing.