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REVISITING THE FOUR PS
Make sure to measure success
By JANE MATTHEWS Reprinted from The Bottom Line Mid-October 2006 Print Version (PDF)
For years, marketing has focused on the four pillars, or four
Ps; product, place, promotion, and price.
The American Marketing Association now defines
marketing as “an organizational function and a set of processes
for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers,
and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit
the organization and its stakeholders.”
Too often marketing is seen as the advertising and selling of
a product or service, but it’s much more, according to Murray
Klippenstein, an Osborne Group principal in the Vancouver
office.
“The challenge in a marketing organization is how to match
creative approaches to the market you’re playing to, and to do
it in such a way that it’s measurable, trackable and easy to turn
on a dime. Marketing is like this big black hole. One of the
biggest problems or challenges faced by Canadian and
American companies is how to measure the effectiveness of
what you are doing to attract customers to your product.”
Dr. Peggy Cunningham, a marketing professor at Queen’s
University’s School of Business, says a lot of companies and
organizations get marketing and sales mixed up.
“Marketing is a broad-based function that can affect for-profit
and not-for-profit organizations in many ways; it has
many tools that can be used in many different functions, so the
power of the function is often not appreciated.”
Cunningham sees marketing in a successful business or not-for-profit organization happening on the corporate, business
and functional levels.
“The corporate level determines the values the corporation
has to articulate. Deciding what makes the market attractive or
unattractive for a company; uncovering future opportunities;
determining where the company as a whole goes next; figuring
out what market to pursue and what the company should be
doing to create value in those markets – all of these are the
focus of the marketing executive.”
At the business level, competitive strategies are established
which will fulfill the direction determined by the corporate
marketing goals.
“The business level selects the tools used to compete with
other companies in the same domain,” Cunningham says. “At
this level, marketing staff are deciding where the company has
superior competence, whether it is good at creating new
products and if it is good at serving low-cost customers.”
Cunningham sees the functional level as the place where
implementation occurs.
“This is the level that does the ads, thinks about packaging
and what media and communications should be used. It is at customize products or services to better meet the needs of
customers, and it is here also that the market tracking and
market research is put in place. The functional level is sort of
the hands-on, day-to-day guts of marketing.”
Regardless of company size, marketing that deals at these
levels is essential.
Terry Craig, a principal in the Calgary Osborne Group
office, has seen companies leave marketing in the hands of
junior sales people. “When there is no high-level marketing
strategy in place, there are no plans that would normally come
out of that strategy and there is, therefore, no support, direction
or follow-up to the sales staff.
“The problem,” says Craig, “is that when you don’t have
proper strategies and programs in place, a company may be
selling products that are easiest to sell, but (that) may not be
the products that are the most profitable. That’s product mix
and it will directly affect the profitability of the company.”
Organizations of any size can successfully market their
products or services. Focus is a critical component. For
example, organizations need to leverage their knowledge and
experience to expand their business in niche segments and
industry sectors, where they’ve already developed a reputation.
A disciplined approach, as with any function in business, is
also a key factor. Up-front planning ensures input from
multiple stakeholders and prevents dollars and resources from
being spent on fruitless initiatives. A disciplined approach also
includes established measurements – committing to targets that
are tracked and reported on. This will provide valuable
information for future marketing endeavours and present
marketing as a critical, results -driven function versus a
necessary cost centre.
Marketing and sales are often considered one and the same.
They need to be understood as very different skill sets, but at a
management level, they need to be strongly interlinked to
achieve maximum success in the marketplace. Simply put,
marketing needs sales to be the eyes and ears of the
organization, collecting essential research and feedback on
customer needs and untapped opportunities. Sales needs
marketing to build and maintain a strong foundation of
awareness for an organization’s products and services.
Together, they can significantly impact revenue growth,
profitability and the strength of customer relationships.
Companies and not-for-profit organizations of all sizes need
access to these tools at all levels. Some do not need (or cannot
afford) full-time staff. Other organizations need interim help
through periods of significant growth or change.
Jane Matthews is the National Managing Principal of The Osborne Group. The company works with
clients to provide multi-functional management solutions that exceed expectations and build strong, performance- based successful organizations for the
future. For more information visit www.osbornegroup.com
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