Marketing management is the process of planning, executing, and tracking the marketing strategy of an organization. It involves developing and implementing strategic marketing programs, processes, and activities that align with wider business objectives. The following are some key aspects of marketing management:
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Marketing Orientation: Marketing management focuses on the practical application of marketing orientation, techniques, and methods inside enterprises and organizations.
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Marketing Resources: Marketing management involves the management of a firms marketing resources and activities.
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Industry Analysis: Marketing management employs tools from economics and competitive strategy to analyze the industry context in which the firm operates. These include Porters five forces, analysis of strategic groups of competitors, value chain analysis, and others.
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Competitor Analysis: In competitor analysis, marketers build detailed profiles of each competitor in the market, focusing on their relative competitive strengths and weaknesses using SWOT analysis. Marketing managers will examine each competitors cost structure, sources of profits, resources and competencies, competitive positioning and product differentiation, degree of vertical integration, historical responses to industry.
Marketing management is important because it enables companies to focus their marketing efforts on achieving priority goals, track results of marketing efforts, and optimize marketing campaigns to gain new customers and retain loyal ones. To ensure that marketing management is done effectively, market research is necessary to understand the marketplace and determine what needs are not being met, or how to exploit opportunities that are currently not being served.