The Foundation of Every Marketer's Work and Success in the Company

Marketing Management Process – Simplified Steps

The marketing management framework describes a step-by-step approach to achieving a market-driven focus within your company.

In my last article I described the immense value of a vision (Link to this article). A vision leads to the mission statements and to goals, which can be achieved through the development of strategies and tactical measures.

Those goals play a significant part, but before setting them, you need to figure out the current situation of your company (cf. Homburg 2017, pp. 134 - 144) – That’s the starting point.

Hint: You should have a clear case in mind for doing a situation analysis such as looking for new market opportunities or positioning of a product.

1. Analysis of the Macro and Micro-EnvironmentDuring a situation analysis, you analyze both the macro and micro-environments of your relevant market.The relevant market can be defined different. You can take into consideration the concept of: - Cross-price elasticity (all products that react to the price elasticity of another product)- Concept of subjective or user-oriented interchangeability (all products that are considered subjectively interchangeable)- Concept of functional similarity (all products that provide the same value proposition) The macro and micro-environment analysis contains:Customers- Who are our customers? (create a segmentation)- Who will our customers be in 5 years?- What are our customers' needs? How might they change in 5 years?- What added value does/will our offer bring to our customers?- What are the relevant trends?- etc.Competition- Who is our competition?- What market share and growth do they have?- What’s their offer?- What is their marketing & sales strategy?- etc.Suppliers (interchangeable with partners)- Who are our suppliers? Are there alternatives?- What’s the relationship? Why should we further cooperate?- What’s their financial situation?- etc.Company insights- What’s our financial status?- How are we organized?- What is our value chain?- What are our goals & strategy?- etc.Macro environment (Political, Technological, Social, Environmental factors, etc.)
2. SWOT AnalysisIf you have gathered the necessary information, you can build a SWOT analysis, which can be a starting point for building strategies (cf. Meffert et al. 2019, pp. 272-274).Strengths & Weaknesses: For figuring out the strengths and weaknesses, you can use the insight from the company and customer analyses.Opportunities & Threats: Use the insight from the macro environment and competition analysis to have a look for opportunities and threats.
3. Setting goals and strategiesIf you know your current situation, you can set goals and build strategies based on the work you have previously done. Depending on the focus of your analysis, you can build strategies at the company level, business unit level, or functional area level. You can also combine the SWOT analysis with further analyses such as life cycle analysis (product, market, technology) and portfolio analysis.All the goals and strategies should be aligned with the higher goals. A marketing goal should therefore be aligned with the overall company goal (or business unit goal).

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What’s in for (Product) Marketing?

You can use this framework for a lot of different purposes. The management, for example, can create competitive strategies or choose different growth fields.

Product Marketing can also use these insights to position a product within a GTM (Go-To-Market) Strategy or to define a better value proposition based on customer insights. A customer journey can be created or adapted, just as the branding promise can. The possibilities are endless.

This all seems logical, and you might ask yourself: Where is the magic?

The process gives you a framework, but of course you need to decide how to use it. For example: do you rely on the customer insight from colleagues or do you want to conduct interviews, analyze customer behavior on different channels, cooperate with market research institutes, etc.

The framework is indeed nothing magical, the magic happens when you properly organize the necessary steps. It is important not to make assumptions.

What’s in for Innovation Management?

How can you innovate if you don’t understand the market? You can always have a lucky shot, but in today’s times, where we have a highly competitive market, shorter innovation cycles, and a buyer's market, the creation of an innovation shouldn’t be left to chance.

Following the steps of the marketing management process will provide insights such as the most attractive target segment and your target user needs, which are essential for building a great value proposition.

You can basically create the whole business model of your new solution.

If you know the target group well, including their needs, pain points, demographics, and so on, and understand your value proposition and commercial model, then you make it much easier for your product marketing teams. From the beginning, they can create a compelling product positioning. All the research material from the marketing management process can be reused for the subsequent work of bringing this solution to market.

WHY to use the marketing management framework! Empirical insights.

The framework helps you to understand why and how things should be done to create the most value – for your customers & your company. It helps you avoid unnecessary work and focus on activities that generate more value. Marketing professionals with a documented strategy are 313% more likely to succeed when compared to their peers who do not have a documented strategy (cf. Wrike Inc.)

Back then in the early 1980s, a study in the USA showed that the most common reason for the failure of companies is the insensitivity of management to recognize environmental trends and their potential influence on the company at an early stage in order to take advantage of the opportunities that arise or to counter the dangers (cf. Meyer-Sch?nherr 1992, p. 5).

Another study shows that market knowledge competence has a positive influence on new product advantage. The results also show a positive relationship between product advantage and product market performance (Li/Calantone 1998).

Roland Schmitt dealt with the identification of success factors for companies at management level. His study reveals that within corporate management, market orientation represents the most important success factor, followed by value enhancement and growth orientation (cf. Peter Lang Group AG).

These are just a few examples of how important the marketing management process can be. There are a number of other studies that deal with the importance of a market-oriented approach.

List of references

Homburg, Christian (2017): Grundlagen des Marketingmanagements. Einführung in Strategie, Instrumente, Umsetzung und Unternehmensführung. 5th, revised and updated edition. Wiesbaden: Springer Gabler (textbook).

Li, Tiger; Calantone, Roger J. (1998): The Impact of Market Knowledge Competence on New Product Advantage: Conceptualization and Empirical Examination. In: Journal of Marketing 62 (4), S. 13–29. DOI: 10.1177/002224299806200402.

Meffert, Heribert et al. (2019): Marketing. Grundlagen marktorientierter Unternehmensführung Konzepte - Instrumente - Praxisbeispiele. 13th, revised and expanded edition. Wiesbaden: Springer Gabler (Springer eBook Collection).

Meyer-Sch?nherr, Mirko (1992): Szenario-Technik als Instrument der strategischen Planung. Zugl.: Frankfurt (Main), Univ., Diss., 1991. Ludwigsburg, Berlin: Verl. Wiss. und Praxis (Schriftenreihe Unternehmensführung, 7).

Peter Lang Group AG (Hg.): Marketing-Management und Unternehmenserfolg von Wachstumsunternehmen der TIMES-Branchen. Online available at https://www.peterlang.com/document/1097374, zuletzt geprüft am 02.12.2023.

Wrike Inc. (Hg.): An Introduction to Marketing Management. Marketing Project Management Guide. Online available at https://www.wrike.com/marketing-guide/marketing-management/, last checked 07.12.2023.