REDEFINING MARKETING FROM A SUPPLY CHAIN PERSPECTIVE

Traditionally marketing is known as the set of activities through which a profitable exchange of value is done between a client/consumer and the provider. Before we can confidently state a new definition of marketing, we will first analyze the existing definition, identify their perspectives as well as look at various outstanding definitions of the supply chain. And finally, the point of intersection between marketing and supply chain would be exploited to redefine marketing from a supply chain perspective.

There are multiple definitions as well academic writings and literature around marketing.? According to (Twin, 2021) “Marketing refers to activities a company undertakes to promote the buying or selling of a product or service.”. Likewise, following (Saikia, 2019) “Marketing, more than any other business function deals with customers. Creating customer value and satisfaction in the heart of modern marketing thinking and practice. Marketing is the delivery of customer satisfaction at a profit.”. One interesting definition of marketing is that proposed by Philip Kotler, according to (Saikia, 2019) stating that, “Marketing is a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others”. As aforementioned, and as can be seen through all these definitions, Marketing is based on the exchange of value to obtain satisfaction, however, this satisfaction till its realization is just a promise. However, an exchange can not occur without interaction so finally, a deeper dive reveals that interaction is central to marketing. However, all these definitions or viewpoints of marketing seem to be from the perspective of marketing as an organizational function. However, when a company runs marketing, they one to satisfy the customer, and rip the benefits of this satisfaction, but marketing alone can not do that, that is marketing can not handle all customers interactions alone and so needs support. According to Michael Porter in his book “competitive advantage”, whereby he developed his concept of the value chain which divides a company into primary and supportive activities, in which marketing & sales appear as a primary activity necessary for a company in its creation of a supply chain. It is equally made clear by (Prater, Esmund and Whitehead, 2012)? that organizations looking forth to their supply chain must ensure a ubiquitous understanding of terms and functions throughout the organization. As defined by (Prater, Esmund and Whitehead, 2012), As the path creation and delivery of a value to consumers through a defined chain of organizations and activities. They equally emphasize that a necessary condition before arrival at end consumption is the acquisition of primary materials and elements necessary for the realization of the final products or services.?

If marketing is based on the interaction between providers and consumers, and the goal of a supply chain as stated in its definition is to create value that satisfies the end consumer which is equally based on the interaction between the supplier and the consumer. Added to that, the SCM house concepts consider marketing as a pillar to the SCM foundation, and Michael Porter in his writing as a primary activity to a supply chain, when then question what could be the adequate definition of marketing from a supply chain perspective. Haven defined what a supply chain is, in order to more clearly define marketing from this perspective, we need to define the type or category of supply chains and seek to understand where marketing positions its self within this category as an organizational function.?

According to (Prater, Esmund and Whitehead, 2012) in their book entitled, An Introduction to Supply Chain Management: A Global Supply Chain Support Perspective, they describe a supply chain as having three main types, which are the internal supply chain, integrated supply chain and reverse supply chain. As they describe, the internal supply chain is constituted of the various departments of an organization that collaborated in unison to create the final products/ services for the end consumer all this is internal to an organization, however, once an organization begins to look at external parties, it then has to coherently merge its production cycle with its externals, where the name an integrated supply chain. Finally, a reverse supply chain is when the end consumers have to return part of the final product to the supplier. If we look deeply into these various categories or types of the supply chain, we will find a close intersection with marketing. With that in mind, it then sounds crucial to critically analyze these types of supply chains in order to find their ultimate intersection point with marketing. If a close analysis is carried on the internal supply chain, we can find the marketing & sales department as a major component. If we analyze the integrated supply chain, we can note that it integrates the end consumers which is a vital aspect of marketing, since we can’t talk of marketing without an end-user or consumer. Centric to both the internal and integrated supply chain, marketing intersect and at its core is the basic set of interactions that lead to the creation of goods and services.?

As earlier defined, a supply chain consists of a sequence of activities or organizations that produce goods and services, taking into account the different sets of interactions that animate a supply chain, and further taking into account the definition and understanding of marketing and its core which is the interaction between the supplier and the consumer, we could extend the marketing definition to cover, not just supplier to customer interaction but to equally include, all forms of interaction within the supply chain since the ultimate goal of marketing is the creation of value for the end-user. As we earlier mentioned the marketing department or function of an organization can not handle all that, but that still does not exclude the fact that the marketing goal is to create value exchange and satisfaction with the end-user, so in one way or the other, the creation of good and services, and not just its mere distribution to the target, is the concern of marketing, since all marketing decisions and feedback influence the entire organization and strategy.? Conclusively, marketing could be redefined from a supply chain perspective as a set of ordered coordinated interactions and processes amongst the partners of an organization and its various departments for the creation of value and coordination of its exchange amongst supplier and consumer.

Reference list

Saikia, R. (2019). Marketing Definition: Marketing Definition by Philip Kotler and Peter F Drucker. [online] Essays, Research Papers and Articles on Business Management. Available at: https://www.businessmanagementideas.com/marketing/marketing-definition/20516 [Accessed 10 Jan. 2022].

Twin, A. (2021). Marketing. [online] Investopedia. Available at: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marketing.asp.

Prater, Edmund, and Kim Whitehead. An Introduction to Supply Chain Management: A? ? Global Supply Chain Support Perspective, Business Expert Press, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/UNICAF/detail.action?docID=1048409.