Chapter 18: Managing Marketing Responsibility in the Global Economy

Chapter 18: Managing Marketing Responsibility in the Global Economy


Internal Marketing

• Marketing succeeds only when  all departments work  together to achieve customer goals: when engineering designs  the  right  products, finance furnishes the  right  amount of funding, purchasing buys  the  right  material s, production makes the right products on the night schedule, and accounting measures profitability in the right ways.

• Organizing the Marketing Department

• Functional Organization- In the most common form of marketing organization, functional specialists (such as the marketing research manager) report to a marketing vice president who coordinates their activities.
• Geographic Organization- A Company selling in a national markets often organizes its sales force (and sometimes its marketing) along geographic lines.
• Product or Brand Management Organization- Companies producing a variety of products and brands often establish a product-(or brand) management organization.
• Market Management Organization- When customers fall into different user groups with distinct buying preferences and practices.
• Matrix-Management Organization- Companies that produce many products for many markets may adopt a Matrix organization employing both product and market managers.
• Relationships with Other Departments
  • All department need to “think customer” and work together to satisfy customer needs and expectations.
• Building a Creative Marketing Organization
  • Many companies realize they’re not yet really market and customer driven – they are product and sales driven.
  • Transforming into a true market-driven company requires, among other actions:
    1. Developing a company-wide passion for customers
    2. Organizing around customer segments instead of products
    3. Understanding customers through qualitative and quantitative research

Socially Responsible Marketing

• Effective internal marketing must be matched by a strong sense of ethics, values, and social responsibility.

Corporate Social Responsibility

• Socially Responsible Marketing calls for making a three-pronged attack that relies on proper:
  • Legal Behavior- Organizations must ensure every employee knows and observes relevant laws.
  • Ethical Behavior- It’s not easy to draw a clear line between normal marketing practice and unethical behavior.
    • Certain business practices are clearly unethical or illegal:
      • Bribery
      • Theft or trade secrets
      • False and deceptive advertising
      • Exclusive dealing and tying agreements
      • Quality or safety defects
      • False warranties
      • Inaccurate labeling
      • Price fixing or undue discrimination
      • Barriers to entry and predatory competition
  • Social Responsible Behavior- People want information about a company’s record on social and environment responsibility to help them decide which companies to buy from, invest in, and work for.
• Sustainability- the ability to meet humanity’s need without harming future generations – now tops many corporate agendas.
  • Green washing- gives products the appearance of being environmentally friendly without living up to that promise.
• Cause-Related Marketing- links the firm’s contributions toward a designated cause to customers’ engaging directly or indirectly in revenue-producing transactions with the firm.
  • Corporate Societal Marketing- (Minette Drumwright and Patrick Murphy defined) Marketing efforts “that have at least one non economic objective related to social welfare and use the resources of the company and/or of its partners.
    • A successful cause-marketing program can improve:

• Social welfare
• Create differentiated brand positioning
• Build strong consumer bonds
• Enhance the company’s public image
• Create a reservoir of goodwill
• Boost internal morale and galvanize employees
• Drive sales
• Increase the firm’s market value

• Specifically, from a branding point of view, cause marketing can:

1. Build brand awareness
2. Enhance brand image
3. Establish brand credibility
4. Evoke brand feelings
5. Create a sense of brand community
6. Elicit brand engagement

• Social Marketing- by nonprofit or government organizations furthers a cause, such as “say no to drugs” or exercise more and eat better.”