MBA

Marketing Planning - MOD004454

Topic 1 – Introduction, and the Complex Role of Marketing

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MOD002439 Dissertation
Topic 1 – Introduction, and the Complex Role of Marketing

Topic 1 – Introduction, and the Complex Role of Marketing

Contents

Topic 1 – Introduction, and the Complex Role of Marketing ............................................... 2

1.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 3

1.1.1 Assignment Brief........................................................................................................ 3

1.2 Defining Marketing ........................................................................................................... 4

1.2.1 Formative Exercise 1 .................................................................................................. 5

1.3 Cross-Functional Role of Marketing ................................................................................. 6

1.3.1 Market Vs Marketing Orientation ............................................................................. 8

1.4 Formative Exercise 2 ......................................................................................................... 9

1.5 The Art of Marketing ...................................................................................................... 10

1.6 Formative Exercise 3 ....................................................................................................... 12

1.7 Additional Reading.......................................................................................................... 13

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MOD002439 Dissertation
Topic 1 – Introduction, and the Complex Role of Marketing

1.1 Introduction

Welcome. This module, MOD004454 Marketing Planning, has been designed to

complement your other MBA subjects and enables you to develop your broad knowledge
and understanding of your organisation and its core business functions.

You will be encouraged to think more creatively about the marketing environment in
which your business operates and the potential opportunities being presented to it.
Innovation is a key theme, and your inner entrepreneur will be called upon as you are
invited to question current organisation thinking and assumptions, and critically evaluate
theoretical and practical approaches to marketing planning.

The assignment will require you to be flexible and resourceful in assessing innovative
strategic directions for your organisation, securing senior management buy-in, and
employing the marketing resources available to you.

Independent research into the topics we cover, drawing on a wide range of sources, is
encourage to succeed, as is keeping abreast of industry news and developments.

Over the course of the module, we will work our way through the building blocks of a
marketing plan, questioning the theory, and challenging the practices of your organisation
along the way.

We will pause mid-module, and at the end, to give you time to reflect upon and prepare
your assignment. In order to get the most from this module, you will be required to
complete all exercises given and contribute to our online discussions. Keep a record of
your answers and the feedback you receive as this will help you with your assignment.

1.1.1 Assignment Brief

The most recent version of the assignment briefs are linked on the LMS module page
‘1.1.1 Assignment Briefs’.

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MOD002439 Dissertation
Topic 1 – Introduction, and the Complex Role of Marketing

1.2 Defining Marketing

This week, we examine the definition of marketing, its organisational function, and
different approaches taken to it. You are asked to explore the nature of marketing within
your organisation and reflect upon its actual role. Try to understand the rationale for
current marketing structure and marketing activities and critique its effectiveness.

Investigate the value that is created through relationship exchanges internally and
externally. For whom is this value created?

Marketing has been defined as:

“The management process responsible for identifying, anticipating, and satisfying

customer requirements profitably,” (CIM).

Let us digest this proclamation and assess how it fits with marketing in real terms…

• ‘Management process’ suggests that the function of marketing should be

represented at board level. Is it? Consider this cynical view of Chief Marketing
Officers (CMOs), what are your views?
• ‘Identifying’ involves considerable marketing research to understand your
customers and their ever changing needs. Do you do this? How often?
• ‘Anticipating’ requires intelligent data management systems, such a Customer
Relationship Management System (CRM). Do all organisations have one? Consider
the role of technology by reading this article.
• ‘Satisfying’ means keeping your customers happy – all of them? All of the time??
Really? What do you think?
• ‘Profitably’ – what if you are a not-for-profit organisation?

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MOD002439 Dissertation
Topic 1 – Introduction, and the Complex Role of Marketing

1.2.1 Formative Exercise 1

Having considered the answers to the questions posed and the conflicting points of view
put forward, construct your own definition of marketing, and share with the group online.
Remember to support your views by leaning on your experiences within your
organisation.

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MOD002439 Dissertation
Topic 1 – Introduction, and the Complex Role of Marketing

1.3 Cross-Functional Role of Marketing

So, we have established that marketing is a management process; but who is involved in
this process? What teams, departments, functions, colleagues? If we step into the shoes
of our customers for a few minutes, we can begin to see quite clearly who within our
organisations play a role in marketing.

By mapping out the customer’s journey, the touchpoints the customer has with the
organisation they are buying from we reveal the relationship exchanges (good, bad, or
indifferent) that happen. See the below diagram: a generic example of a potential
customer’s journey on and offline as they become aware of a product and are eventually
persuaded (by a combination of employees and departments) to buy it.

We are getting closer now to identifying who is responsible for marketing, and as such,
the brand experiences that customers have within the organisation. This is important, as

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MOD002439 Dissertation
Topic 1 – Introduction, and the Complex Role of Marketing

when you come to implement a marketing plan and run campaigns, you will need to lean
on colleagues from across the organisation for their input and support.

You need to be able to pre-empt the steps your customer will take to do business with
you, and be ready and waiting to wow them and make their journey seamless. Internal
marketing is just as important as external marketing as, without a united front, the
customer’s perception of, and trust in your brand becomes diluted as they suffer poor
customer experience and substandard quality. Watch this short video illustrating a broken
HSBC customer journey.

Meanwhile, read what’s happening inside the organisation as the Global Head of
Marketing reveals how she is reshaping internal teams to enable the organisation to
become more customer centric.

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MOD002439 Dissertation
Topic 1 – Introduction, and the Complex Role of Marketing

1.3.1 Market Vs Marketing Orientation

• Marketing Orientation – customer focused; considers customer needs and making

profit through the creation of customer satisfaction (Kotler & Armstrong, 1994).
• Market Orientation – a philosophy where the implementation of the marketing
concept permeates the whole organisation (Kohili & Jaworski, 1990).

An expanded focus, where all departments are responsible for customers and competitors
sharing research on markets, and making co-ordinated and cross-functional decisions.
Focuses on customer orientation, competitor orientation, inter-functional coordination,
organisational culture, and long-term creation of shareholder value.

Adapted from Brassington and Pettitt, 2006.

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Topic 1 – Introduction, and the Complex Role of Marketing

1.4 Formative Exercise 2

Create a map of the journey your customers take: from the beginning when they begin to
build a relationship with you, right through to when you consider them to be loyal
customers. Identify each of the touch points they have with your organisation along this
journey, and the kinds of exchanges that place.

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MOD002439 Dissertation
Topic 1 – Introduction, and the Complex Role of Marketing

1.5 The Art of Marketing

Marketing involves intuitive strategic thinking and the ability to be able to empathise with
the customer. Godin (2012) describes marketing as an art. Listen to the reasons why in
this video: Seth Godin: The Art of Marketing.

Marketers often demonstrate entrepreneurial qualities as they are concerned with seeing
and grabbing opportunities and engaging others to make things happen. They see things
differently and make strategic decisions based on both facts and intuition. Notice the
keywords in these marketing job adverts…

Verganti (2009) suggests that true marketing entrepreneurs don’t just take ideas to satisfy
customers’ needs from the market, they come up with solutions to problems customers
didn’t even realise they had and in doing so create new markets.

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Topic 1 – Introduction, and the Complex Role of Marketing

But not all organisations are orientated by creatively solving customers’ problems which
makes the task of marketing more complicated. Understanding your organisation’s
business orientation will help you to define the boundaries of its innovative culture.

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Topic 1 – Introduction, and the Complex Role of Marketing

1.6 Formative Exercise 3

How creative is your organisation? Investigate your organisation’s culture of innovation by

considering the answers to the following questions:

1. To what extent are people empowered to try out new ideas?

2. Do we recognise and reward risk taking?
3. Do we blame people for failure when initiatives do not succeed?
4. Can people challenge company policy or the decisions of the boss?
5. Do we deliberately look outside for ideas?
6. Do departments openly collaborate on projects?
7. What is stopping us from implementing more ideas quickly?
8. How many hurdles does a proposal have to clear to get approved? How many people
are involved?
9. Do even small ideas have to go through the same approvals as major initiatives?
10. How many new products and services did we launch last year?
11. Do we have any new product/services ideas in the pipeline?
12. How long does it take an idea to go from initial approval to full implementation?
13. What proportion of our revenue comes from products or services launched in the last
two years?
14. What resources in terms of people, time, and money are we allocating to innovation?

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Some images / diagrams in this document are copied under CLA Licence – please refer to the full
Copyright Notice in the image / diagram reference for details.

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MOD002439 Dissertation
Topic 1 – Introduction, and the Complex Role of Marketing

1.7 Additional Reading

• Newbery, P. and Farnham, K. (2013) Experience Design: a Framework for

Integrating Brand, Experience and Value. Wiley, New Jersey
• Chapter 1 The big picture: marketing as a business discipline, Chernev, A. (2012)
Strategic marketing management. Chicago, Cerebellium
• Siegel, A. and Etzkorn, I. (2013) Simple: conquering the crisis of complexity. Grand
Central Publishing
• Chapter 9 How to change your organisational structure. Lord, B. and Velez, R.
(2013) Converge: Transforming Business at the Intersection of Marketing and
Technology. New Jersey, Wiley
• Chapter 1 The changing face of marketing. Eley, B. and Tilley, S. (2009) Online
marketing inside out. Victoria, Sitepoint
• Chapter 1 From hierarchy to enterprise: internal markets are the foundation for a
knowledge economy Varey, R. and Lewis, B. (2000) Internal marketing: Directions
for management. Routledge, London
• Hill, M.E. (2013) Marketing strategy: the thinking involved. Sage Publications,
London
• Verganti, R. (2009) Design Driven Innovation: Changing the Rules of Competition
by Radically Innovating What Things Mean. Havard Business School Publishing
Corporation
• Lynch, J.E. (1994) Only Connect: The Role of Marketing and Strategic Management
in the Modern Organisation. Journal of Marketing Management. Vol10(6), pp527-
542

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Copyright Notice in the image / diagram reference for details.

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