P2 Explain how the marketing functions relate to the wider organisational context.

8.0 The relationship between the marketing department and other departments in an organization.

Marketing interacts with and influences other functions within the organization. Consider how
marketing interacts with research and development, production/ operations/logistics, human
resources, information technology, and customer service.

HUMAN RESOURCES

• Marketing and human resources are not as distinct as you might believe. A company must
attract profitable customers to achieve adequate sales figures, but attracting top talent is also
critical to longterm success. When you're trying to persuade people to help you, whether you're
after their money or their time, you need to position and market your offer so that it appears
appealing. IT (WEBSITES, INTRANETS, AND EXTRANETS)

• Marketers' need to better understand their customers necessitates the investment and
application of significant amounts of technology. Because chief marketing officers are being
pressed to intimately understand their customers and their respective behaviour prove the
relationship between the brand and the consumer, technology has become a cornerstone for the
marketing department.

CUSTOMER SERVICE AND PROVISON

• Customer service is tightly integrated with marketing. Customer service, like previous lessons
on what is marketing? The exchange process, customer satisfaction, and the marketing concept
prioritize the needs of the customer. Consider a time when you received excellent customer
service. What made you so pleased or impressed with the customer service? You may have
received poor customer service. Customer service may also provide quick and timely
information about new or developing customer needs. For example, if you have a new
promotion, you can use the customer service functions to check for early signs of success.

RESEARCH AND DEVOLOPMENT • Research and development should indeed be guided by

the marketing strategy to achieve products that suit the demands of clients or future customers,
new research and development should focus on them (or services, of course). Some elements of
the marketing mix could be used for manufacturing process research and development. For
example, logistics (location, distribution, and channel) could be studied to improve the efficiency
and effectiveness of delivering products to clients