article

Department of Services Engineering and Management

02 de maio de 2019

Marketing as a Management Tool

“Good marketing is no accident, but a result of careful planning and execution using state-of-the-art tools and techniques” (Kotler and Keller 2012, 3). Despite the fact that the concept of Marketing is usually associated with advertisement and sales, if we look closely into it, it’s far more comprehensive than that, since Marketing can in fact be a management tool, with a high potential to help generating and achieving results.

Up to this day, many companies are still unaware of its real potential, but a good Marketing strategy allows to identify new markets for the company, or developing new products or services for current or new markets, and also to know its competitors, by analysing thoroughly the market in which the company or its products/services are inserted.

That way, Marketing seeks to anticipate and predict needs, trends and opportunities, providing valuable insights to a company, so that it can move ahead of the competition. By this, it is assumed that it helps the company to develop an offer of superior value to the consumers and to strengthen brand awareness in their minds. By closely analyzing the relationship between consumer and product or service, it also allows the company to segment and clearly define its target audience, and, finally, choose the most appropriate positioning strategy, in order to be able to differentiate itself from competition.

So, in fact, Marketing is closely related with making strategic decisions concerning a specific product or service. That said, it is composed by a set of techniques and tools (such as SWOT Analysis, PESTEL Analysis, Market researches, Marketing MIX), used by companies, to help them reach some of the following goals:

• Identify business opportunities;
• Attract and retain consumers;
• Build a differentiated "position" in the customer's mind, regarding the products, services or the company itself;
• Increase the level of competitiveness of the company.

One of the tools previously mentioned is the widely know Marketing Mix. This strategy is based on the analysis of the so-called 7P’s or 4 P’s (the 4P’s have long been used for the product industry, while the latter has emerged as a successful proposal for the service industry, adding the analysis of Process, People, and Physical Evidence). The following figure depicts the Marketing Mix 7 P’s, briefly summing up what involves and should be analyzed in each P.

Source: Viral Marketers, 2018, “The 7Ps odf Services Marketing”;

References

Kotler ,Philip and Kevin Lane Keller. 2012. Marketing Management. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.

Starlight Software

By Palmira Seixas

Department of Services Engineering and Management

Go Beyond, Explore our Universe!