Strengths and weaknesses of own marketing activities. Organization of a marketing service on a market (regional) basis

Strengths and weaknesses of a market organization - section Marketing, Educational and methodological complex of the discipline Marketing in industries and fields of activity Strengths Weaknesses ...

Therefore, in real marketing practice, they often use market-functional organization of the marketing service(sometimes called a regional functional organization) (Fig. 8).

Commodity-market organization of the marketing service- a combination of product and market approaches using the matrix principle: product managers are responsible for planning sales and profit from the sale of their products, and market managers are responsible for developing profitable markets for existing and potential products (Fig. 9, Table 4).

Rice. 8. Market-functional organization of the marketing service

Rice. 9. Commodity-market organization of the marketing service

Table 4

End of work -

This topic belongs to:

Educational and methodological complex of the discipline Marketing in industries and fields of activity

State educational institution of higher professional.. Rostov state the University of Economics RINCH..

The implementation of the concept of marketing in the enterprise of the printing industry requires the creation of an appropriate marketing service. At present, without such a service, which provides marketing research to study the prospects for demand, consumer requirements for the publication and its properties, the trends of these requirements under the influence of various factors, it is difficult for manufacturers to survive in the competition. The ultimate goal of the functioning of marketing services is the subordination of all economic and commercial activities of the enterprise to the laws of the existence and development of the market. Both manufacturers and consumers of printed products are interested in this.

Marketing services at enterprises have gone through several stages in their development, ranging from ordinary sales departments to special marketing departments.

But not all of them fully meet the requirements for modern organization marketing service. First of all, it depends on the role assigned to marketing in the enterprise. For the real implementation of marketing in an enterprise, it is not enough to create an appropriate service on it. The main thing is what is the status of this service, what role is assigned to it. The well-known American management specialist P. Drucker noted: “It is necessary to put a marketing specialist at the beginning, and not at the end of the production cycle and integrate marketing into every phase of the business ... Marketing should have an impact on design, release planning, economic analysis, as well as and distribution, marketing and service delivery of the product.” Therefore, it is possible to say that an enterprise has reached the modern level of marketing only when marketing has become the basis of its activities. On fig. a diagram of the changing role of marketing in an enterprise is presented, which clearly shows how marketing, being one of the functions carried out by an enterprise, has gradually become its core.

All the problems associated with consumers of the offered goods fall into the field of view of the marketing service. Therefore, it is quite natural to recognize the function of coordinating (integrating) all the activities of the enterprise for the marketing department. In order for it to set the tone for production, it is necessary to make its status the highest among other divisions. This is the key to the real marketing orientation of the enterprise.

If the marketing department will have the same status as other departments of the enterprise, contradictions are inevitable. Such contradictions may arise: when developing a product (the developer is interested in the simplest and most economical edition, which may be unpopular on the market); in the production of the publication (the production manager is interested in reducing the production costs of the publication, which may worsen its quality, consumer properties); in the financial evaluation of results (the employees of the financial department strive to make a profit from each operation, while the enterprise is sometimes forced to invest heavily to conquer the market); consumer credit (manager consumer credit tries to avoid large debts on loans, imposes more stringent credit conditions, while the marketing manager devotes a lot of effort to expanding the number of buyers), etc.

For these reasons, other departments often reject the concept of marketing on the grounds that they believe it increases costs, complicates financial problems, etc., although it is already recognized that standard reason the financial weakness of the enterprise is the lack of effective marketing.

There are various ways to ensure the highest status of the marketing department in the enterprise. It is possible, for example, to subordinate the marketing department directly to the director of the enterprise or his first deputy - the director of marketing. The latter should be a good marketing-oriented economist (that is, having a marketing mindset), an innovator, have a broad outlook and a non-standard approach to solving the problems facing the enterprise.

Depending on the scale of the enterprise, its features, products, sales markets, any other scheme can be adopted that can provide the marketing service with the highest status.

The effectiveness of the implementation of the marketing concept largely depends on the organizational structure of the marketing service. It can have many construction options. There is no universal scheme here. Marketing departments can be created on different bases. They are usually part of the commercial scope of the enterprise. However, at enterprises producing specific products, these elements sometimes become an element of the technical sphere. The printing industry should create a marketing department in such a way that it the best way contributed to the achievement of marketing goals (identifying unsatisfied customer demand, geographical expansion of the market, finding new market segments, increasing profits, etc.).

At the same time, marketing structures largely depend on the size of the enterprise's resources, the specifics of the products manufactured and the markets in which they are sold, and the existing structure of enterprise management. Main Options organizational structures the marketing department at the enterprise can be:

§ functional;

§ commodity;

§ market;

§ mixed (commodity market).

The functional organization of the marketing service assumes that the responsibility for the execution of each functional task lies with an individual or group of individuals.

A functional organization is appropriate for enterprises with a small number of publications and markets. In this case, the markets and produced publications are considered as homogeneous, for the work with which specialized units. In addition to these, other departments can be created: marketing planning, product distribution management, new publications, etc. The functional organization of marketing is based on the division of labor according to established and newly emerging functions, on the specialization of workers. With a small range of products, a functional marketing organization is highly maneuverable due to ease of management. However, with the expansion of the range of manufactured products, production flexibility decreases, since the period of reaction to changes in external conditions increases. The functional structure of marketing is characterized by a weak flexibility of the strategy, since it focuses on achieving the current effect, and not on the introduction of innovations. Such a structure of marketing activities does not contribute to dynamism and innovation. In general, such a structure is an effective form of organization only with the sustainable production of a limited range of publications. Its users may be small enterprises offering a limited number of titles of publications sold in a limited number of markets. Such a structure can also be used by large enterprises producing publications that are unique in their technical specifications. The functional marketing structure is the basis for all other forms of organization of the marketing service.

For enterprises that produce a large number of various publications that require specific conditions for production and marketing, a commodity organization of the marketing service is appropriate. At the same time, each type of publication has its own manager with a subdivision of employees who perform all the functional tasks of marketing.

Product-specific marketing has recently gained great importance because in countries with a developed market, product differentiation becomes one of the main factors of competition. In this regard, the activity of the product marketing manager is important. The scope of his duties in different enterprises is not the same. Let's consider the main functions of a marketing-managing publication at an enterprise in the print industry:

§ drawing up a plan and budget for marketing your publication;

§ forecasting possible changes in the publication market;

§ collecting information and studying the activities of competitors;

§ coordination of activities of all departments of the enterprise that affect the marketing of a particular publication;

§ control of prices and use of funds provided by the marketing budget;

§ the introduction of a new edition and the removal of the old one.

A commodity organization of a marketing service is much more expensive than a functional one. This is due to an increase in labor costs due to an increase in the number of employees. Therefore, it is common only in large enterprises, where the volume of sales of each product is sufficient to justify the inevitable duplication of work. A similar marketing structure in developed countries exists in large decentralized companies, where each branch specializes in the production of a particular product.

For an enterprise in the printing industry that sells its publications in different markets, where there are unequal consumer preferences, a market organization of the marketing service is appropriate.

The introduction of the position of market manager puts the needs of buyers in the spotlight. The main markets are assigned to the market managers, the latter cooperate with specialists from functional units in the development of plans for various areas of functional activity. Each market must have its own marketing strategy.

To determine the limitations of the commodity and market organization, large enterprises can apply the commodity-market organization of the marketing service. It involves a combination of product and market approaches using the matrix principle: product managers are responsible for sales and profit planning for their publications, and market managers are responsible for developing profitable markets for existing and potential publications. Such an organizational structure is appropriate for a wide range of publications and a large number of markets in which the company operates.

It should be borne in mind that there is no ideal organizational structure of the marketing service that would be suitable for any conditions. Each of the above forms of organization of the marketing service has both advantages and disadvantages (Table 9.1).

Table 9.1

Strengths and weaknesses of the organizational structures of the marketing service

Reforming the commercial and production activities of enterprises in our country is an objective reality, a challenge of the time, which should be accepted with a full understanding of the whole range of problems and issues that can be solved with the help of marketing tools. Marketing work requires the organization of a specialized service at the enterprise. In the practice of commercial activity, various approaches to the organization of the marketing service have been used: functional, commodity, market, commodity-market. Consider the features, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the organization.

The functional organization of the marketing department is built on the principle of responsibility individuals or a group of persons of the department for the performance of a separate local or consolidated functional task of the department. This approach is very effective with uniformity and constancy.

Production and marketing functions of the enterprise, but when changing activities or when solving fundamentally new problems, a quick response to a changing market situation, it is less effective. This form of construction by the department is practiced by small firms that produce one or a limited name of products and sell products in a small market (market segment). However, large manufacturers of unique equipment also use this form of building a department. In table. 30 shows the strengths and weaknesses of building a marketing department according to a functional principle.

table 2

The commodity organization of the marketing department is built on the principle of dividing marketing into separate enlarged product groups. With a commodity organization! (TO) for each product (product group) there is a head (head) of the sector with a certain staff of employees who perform all the functional tasks of marketing for this product. Such a structure of the department is effective for firms with a wide range of goods with the possibility of their sale on in large numbers homogeneous (identical) markets.

A product mix is ​​especially effective when:

b) the sales volume for each product is large enough to justify the cost of organizing a marketing service for this product (Table 3).

Table 3.- Strengths and weaknesses of building a marketing department on a product basis

A rather large disadvantage of a commodity organization, associated with the need for each employee of the department to perform a large "set" of duties, can be leveled using a combination of commodity and functional organization of building a department.

Commodity-functional organization of the marketing department is a combination of functional and product approaches, in which all functionaries of the department, performing their duties in the context of a particular product group, coordinate their actions.

The market organization of the marketing service is the division of responsibilities of individuals of the department or their groups into separate markets. The principles of market division are practically the same as for market segmentation, i.e. the allocation of markets comes from taking into account their realities. The use of a market organization by geographic markets is effective if the company produces a limited range of goods, but sells them in a sufficiently large number of markets that differ from each other in terms of sales (Table 32). Therefore, in real marketing practice, a market-functional organization is often used, sometimes it is called a regional-functional organization (RFO).

Table 4.- Strengths and weaknesses of the market organization of the marketing department

Its version is the segment organization. The segment organization of marketing departments provides for the assignment to each sector of a certain market segment with a dedicated circle of potential consumers.

To overcome the limitations of commodity and market organization, large enterprises that produce a wide range of goods and operate in many markets use a commodity-market organization. Commodity-market organization - a combination of product and market approaches using the principle of the matrix: product managers are responsible for planning sales and profits from the sale of their products, and market sector leaders are responsible for the prospects for the development of markets in the context of identified potential segments.

Thus, there are many options for organizing a marketing service in an enterprise, each of which has its own strengths and weaknesses.

When implementing marketing plans, there are many different deviations from the developed plans and programs, so the marketing department needs to constantly monitor the progress of the activities included in the plan.

Table 5.- Strengths and weaknesses of building a marketing department according to the commodity-market scheme of functioning

In marketing practice, there are the following types of marketing control:

The stages of monitoring the implementation of annual marketing plans include the following activities:

1. It contains benchmarks broken down by months or quarters.

2. Carrying out measurements of indicators of the market activity of the company.

3. Identification of the causes of serious failures in the activities of the company.

4. Taking corrective action and closing gaps between goals and results.

Strategic control

From time to time, a company needs to conduct critical assessments of marketing effectiveness as a whole, reevaluate its overall approach to the market, using a marketing audit !!! - a comprehensive, systematic, impartial and regular study of the company's marketing environment, its objectives, strategies and operational activities in order to identify emerging problems and opportunities and make recommendations on an action plan to improve the firm's marketing activities.

Reforming the commercial and production activities of enterprises in our country is an objective reality, a challenge of the time, which should be accepted with a full understanding of the whole range of problems and issues that can be solved with the help of marketing tools. Marketing work requires the organization of a specialized service at the enterprise. In the practice of commercial activity, various approaches to the organization of the marketing service have been used: functional, commodity, market, commodity-market. Consider the features, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the organization.

The functional organization of the marketing department is built on the principle of responsibility of individuals or a group of persons of the department for the implementation of a separate local or consolidated functional task of the department. This approach is very effective with uniformity and constancy.

Production and marketing functions of the enterprise, but when changing activities or when solving fundamentally new problems, a quick response to a changing market situation, it is less effective. This form of construction by the department is practiced by small firms that produce one or a limited name of products and sell products in a small market (market segment). However, large manufacturers of unique equipment also use this form of building a department. In table. 30 shows the strengths and weaknesses of building a marketing department according to a functional principle.

table 2

The commodity organization of the marketing department is built on the principle of dividing marketing into separate enlarged product groups. With a commodity organization! (TO) for each product (product group) there is a head (head) of the sector with a certain staff of employees who perform all the functional tasks of marketing for this product. Such a construction of the department is effective for firms with a wide range of goods with the possibility of their implementation in a large number of homogeneous (identical) markets.

A product mix is ​​especially effective when:

b) the sales volume for each product is large enough to justify the cost of organizing a marketing service for this product (Table 3).

Table 3.- Strengths and weaknesses of building a marketing department on a product basis

A rather large disadvantage of a commodity organization, associated with the need for each employee of the department to perform a large "set" of duties, can be leveled using a combination of commodity and functional organization of building a department.

Commodity-functional organization of the marketing department is a combination of functional and product approaches, in which all functionaries of the department, performing their duties in the context of a particular product group, coordinate their actions.

The market organization of the marketing service is the division of responsibilities of individuals of the department or their groups into separate markets. The principles of market division are practically the same as for market segmentation, i.e. the allocation of markets comes from taking into account their realities. The use of a market organization by geographic markets is effective if the company produces a limited range of goods, but sells them in a sufficiently large number of markets that differ from each other in terms of sales (Table 32). Therefore, in real marketing practice, a market-functional organization is often used, sometimes it is called a regional-functional organization (RFO).

Table 4.- Strengths and weaknesses of the market organization of the marketing department

Its version is the segment organization. The segment organization of marketing departments provides for the assignment to each sector of a certain market segment with a dedicated circle of potential consumers.

To overcome the limitations of commodity and market organization, large enterprises that produce a wide range of goods and operate in many markets use a commodity-market organization. Commodity-market organization - a combination of product and market approaches using the principle of the matrix: product managers are responsible for planning sales and profits from the sale of their products, and market sector leaders are responsible for the prospects for the development of markets in the context of identified potential segments.

Thus, there are many options for organizing a marketing service in an enterprise, each of which has its own strengths and weaknesses.

When implementing marketing plans, there are many different deviations from the developed plans and programs, so the marketing department needs to constantly monitor the progress of the activities included in the plan.

Table 5.- Strengths and weaknesses of building a marketing department according to the commodity-market scheme of functioning

In marketing practice, there are the following types of marketing control:

The stages of monitoring the implementation of annual marketing plans include the following activities:

1. It contains benchmarks broken down by months or quarters.

2. Carrying out measurements of indicators of the market activity of the company.

3. Identification of the causes of serious failures in the activities of the company.

4. Taking corrective action and closing gaps between goals and results.

Strategic control

From time to time, a company needs to conduct critical assessments of marketing effectiveness as a whole, reevaluate its overall approach to the market, using a marketing audit !!! - a comprehensive, systematic, impartial and regular study of the company's marketing environment, its objectives, strategies and operational activities in order to identify emerging problems and opportunities and make recommendations on an action plan to improve the firm's marketing activities.

Marketing and controlling

Controlling is a comprehensive systematic assessment of all aspects of the enterprise's activities - the company, its divisions, managers and employees in terms of the timely and high-quality implementation of the planned strategic indicators, the identification of deviations and the adoption of urgent and energetic actions so that the milestones outlined by the plan are achieved with possible deviations of the economic situation.

Controlling acts as a means of improving the activities of the company, and so in a timely manner that it is possible to take preventive measures in relation to phenomena that threaten its very existence. Controlling does not mean control, but rather "keep under control at all times".

The marketing aspect of controlling serves to achieve all the company's business goals. Initially, controlling was used to solve the tasks set within the framework of a profit-oriented enterprise. Practice has shown that a company survives in the market only by acting actively in the field of "personnel - company" and "economic environment of the company" on the basis of a clear plan. Therefore, within the framework of controlling, special attention is paid to the development of programs for the improvement and development of the company's personnel, the constant growth of their qualifications, as well as the systematic improvement of the internal environment of the company and its organization.

How important element management of the firm, the controller will assist management in the process of defining and implementing strategic and operational development goals.

Controlling is an effective management tool in a company aimed at solving marketing problems. The task of the controller is to set in motion a mechanism that, despite deviations from the planned one, can achieve the goal in case of actual discrepancies with the plan. Comparison of actual and planned results is carried out in order to timely determine the place of occurrence of difficulties with the implementation of the plan and to ensure the receipt of planned profits and the achievement of other targets with the help of regulatory measures.

The regulatory activity of controlling is to signal deviations made in one area of ​​activity to other departments, prompt them with the necessary actions, help to carry them out to achieve the planned milestones as a whole.

The control mechanism is based on following principles:

Movement and braking. Creating and maintaining the conditions for success is associated with the concept of "innovation". It (as a change or renewal) takes place when something new, progressive is introduced into the work of the company. Controlling is obliged to actively influence those who slow down progress, to achieve constant renewal of all the activities of the company, especially in the field of marketing;

Timeliness. Controlling as a marketing philosophy is future-oriented and serves to identify new opportunities and risks for the firm early. The ability to respond in a timely manner to market changes depends on the time interval between the emergence of a new chance and risk and specific actions, as well as on the time required to develop a change in the plan and implement it;

strategic consciousness. It is implemented when any decisions and actions of the company are taken from the standpoint of compliance strategic programs. Following this approach - the most important task controller. Strategic consciousness is a filter that prevents the implementation of operational decisions or modifies them if they do not correspond to the strategic plan;

Documentation. Its purpose is to create the possibility of checking whether the goals and objectives of strategic controlling were actually observed. Information should be provided in the form of a written communication, systematically, most fully and clearly.

Practice shows that marketing is the most "sore" place for most Russian enterprises. The problem of producing a product has long faded into the background, and the ability of an enterprise to sell its products is the most important indicator for potential investors.

Many enterprises are taking steps to reorganize or re-create the enterprise marketing system. What measures can be taken by the leaders of the enterprise to improve its efficiency?

Considering that most enterprises are in a difficult financial situation, a number of marketers (A. Idrisov) recommend starting with activities that do not require significant costs in the activity control system. Usually these are measures of an organizational and managerial nature, which, if implemented purposefully, will allow the enterprise to significantly increase the efficiency of the marketing and sales service. Of course, it would be desirable to conduct a detailed market research, determine the potential of various consumer groups, assess the company's capabilities and competitive advantages, and develop a new marketing strategy that takes into account these advantages and market potential. This work can be carried out more effectively with the participation of management consultants. But the steps listed below can be done by the enterprise without outside help.

Assess the position of the Marketing Director (Marketing and Sales) in your company. If there are several such managers at your enterprise, determine one who will have not only full powers, but also bear full responsibility for the results of the company's activities in the market. Typically, the manager responsible for marketing and sales is the second person after the general director in the management team of the enterprise. Required Analyze who and how performs the following functions in your enterprise:

It is necessary to appoint those responsible for the performance of these functions, give them authority and resources, determine the criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of their work and responsibility. The system of remuneration for employees of the marketing and sales department should be related to the results of the company's activities in the market.

Marketers should describe their products or services:

Product name;

Advantages and disadvantages;

The most important competitive advantages.

Define your consumers (target consumer groups). And assess the potential of each target consumer group.

For each target group of consumers it is necessary to formulate:

Reasons why customers buy your products and services;

Reasons why customers refuse to buy.

Describe the ways to promote products to target consumer groups, determine the most effective of them.

Analyze your pricing policy. How do the prices of your products differ from those of competitors?

Analyze the discount system taking into account the product distribution system.

Determine the typical sizes of transactions (large, medium, small), their volumes in monetary and physical terms.

Set priorities, focus your efforts And resources only on those products that make the most significant contribution to covering the total costs and only on those target groups of product consumers that have highest potential.

Determine the company's break-even point (the minimum allowable total sales) in monetary terms.

Calculate an individual sales plan for each employee.

Determine the minimum number of transactions that the company must make in the reporting period.

Analyze the productivity of the sales department: how many contacts are made monthly, how many customers buy products
and for what amount.

Determine the number of contacts that the company must provide in order to achieve the required sales volume.

Determine the number of contacts and customers that one sales person should provide.

Create a personnel motivation system that will orient marketing and sales staff to achieve results.

Analyze what the employees of the marketing and sales department do during the working day.

Based on the data from the analysis of the performance of tasks and functions, determine the composition And the number of employees in the marketing and sales departments.

Analyze the sales process and identify critical stages (finding contacts or communicating information to customers, generating interest, identifying customer needs, preparing an offer, receiving payment) that need improvement.

Develop a marketing plan:

What products to sell and to whom

Price policy

Distribution system

Product promotion methods, how you will inform customers about your products or services

Define a sales plan And other metrics against which you will evaluate the performance of the marketing and sales division.

The marketing service should regularly submit to the sales department the developed programs of marketing "attacks" focused on target consumer groups.

Despite the fact that this list of tasks looks impressive, this is only the beginning on the path to creating an effective marketing and sales service, but without their implementation it is hardly possible to succeed in the market.

Marketing budget

The marketing budget is one of the most difficult tasks that business leaders have to deal with. The marketing budget includes: expenses for market research (market, medium and long-term), for ensuring the competitiveness of the product, for information communication with customers (advertising, sales promotion, participation in exhibitions and fairs, etc.), for organizing product distribution and marketing network. Financial resources for the above activities are drawn from profits, which without such expenses would be much larger in terms of mass, however, on the other hand, without marketing expenses, it is unlikely that it will be possible to modern conditions sell enough units of the product to recoup the cost of research work and everything else related to its production, not to mention making a profit. Therefore, the allocation of funds for marketing is a solution to an optimization problem with a large number of variables, the influence of which usually cannot be accurately accounted for, that is, a typical prognostic problem. The influence of variables is also, as a rule, non-linear and must itself be determined empirically. That is why in determining the marketing budget such big role traditions, the experience of top managers of the company and the analysis of marketing costs of competing firms play.

To estimate the order of magnitude of marketing spend, you can use the profit equation:

P=SW- ,

where P-profit, S-sales volume in pieces, W- list price, O - transport, commission and other costs for the sale of 1 unit of goods, A- the cost of producing 1 unit of goods, not related to marketing, but depending on the volume of production, F- fixed production costs that are not related to marketing and do not depend on the volume of production and sales, R

If we assume that when exporting finished products, the usual return on capital invested in production, trade and marketing is 10%, this equation takes the following form

R+D = 0.91SW - .

However, the difficulty lies in the fact that the volume of sales S nonlinearly (and with some uncertainty) depends on R And D, although this dependence can be determined by methods regression analysis(a priori it can be argued that for each firm the regression equation is strictly individual).

Since the rate of profit depends on the market share occupied by the firm (with a share of less than 10%, this rate is approximately 11% for companies producing personal items, and 5% for industrial goods), with 20 - 30% of the market, the rate increases, respectively, to 12 and 16% depending on the type of goods, with 40% of the market - up to 22 and 27%; and with a market share of more than 40% - up to 25 and 30%, respectively) from the profit equation it follows that the cost of advertising or promoting a product should increase by as the firm establishes itself in the market.

A.P. Durovich notes that marketing practices use various methods determining the marketing budget. However, it is obvious that none of them is universal and perfect. Therefore, we confine ourselves to considering the most common.

The most common methods for determining a marketing budget are:

Financing "from opportunities";

Method of "fixed interest";

The method of "compliance with a competitor";

Maximum cost method;

Method based on goals and objectives;

Marketing program accounting method

Opportunity funding carried out on a “how much you can allocate” basis. This method is used by firms focused on production, not marketing. The share of the latter usually accounts for only what remains after the satisfaction of the demands of production as such (if anything remains). The only, but very dubious, advantage of the method is the absence of any serious conflicts with production units due to their unconditional priority. The imperfection of the method is obvious at first sight. First of all, this is the absolute arbitrariness of the allocation of specific amounts, their unpredictability from year to year and, as a result, the impossibility of developing long-term marketing programs, planning the marketing mix and all the activities of the company.

"fixed interest" method is based on deducting a certain percentage of the previous or expected sales volume. For example, a value of 3% of the previous year's sales is assumed. This method is quite simple and is often used in practice. However, it is also the least logical, since it makes the cause (marketing) dependent on the effect (sales volume). When focusing on the results of the completed period, the development of marketing becomes possible only on the condition of its previous success. If there is a market failure and the volume of sales decreases, then after this, the amount of deductions for marketing also falls proportionally. The firm is in a dead end.

Competitor matching method involves taking into account the practice and level of marketing costs of competing firms, adjusted for the balance of power and market share. For its implementation, a number of conditions must be present. First, you should choose a competitor that is close in resources, interests and market position. Secondly, it is required to at least approximately determine the size of its marketing budget, which is very difficult. If a competitor's advertising and promotion efforts are visible in the market and can be at least roughly identified, then the cost of marketing research and product development is difficult to estimate.

This method of developing a marketing budget makes it possible to use collective experience, but it does not differ in sustainable optimality. There is no guarantee that the competitor chosen by the company to follow is acting wisely enough, rationally forming its budget, and generally proceeds from the targets that we unwittingly attributed to it.

Maximum cost method suggests that marketing should be spent as much as possible. With all the apparent "progressiveness" of this approach, its weakness lies in the neglect of ways to optimize costs. Moreover, given the rather significant time interval between the implementation of marketing expenditures and the achievement of results, the use of this method can lead the company too quickly into insurmountable financial difficulties and, as a result, to abandon the marketing concept.

Method based on goals and objectives requires a coherent system of clearly formulated goals and objectives. The essence of the method is to calculate the costs to be made within the framework of individual marketing activities that ensure the achievement of the relevant goals. Therefore, in such cases, it is often necessary to reconsider the goals set. In general, the implementation of specific calculations using this method is quite complex and time consuming. Maybe that's why only a few companies turn to him.

Marketing program accounting method involves careful consideration of the costs of achieving specific goals, but not in themselves, but in comparison with the costs of other possible combinations of marketing tools, i.e. when implementing other "chains" of marketing strategy alternatives.

Taking into account the shortcomings inherent in each of the above methods separately, it should be noted that the budget drawn up on the basis of an integrated approach using individual elements of all the methods considered will be the most justified. This method of budgeting can be based, for example, on the orientation to the implementation of the task, taking into account the actions of competitors and the funds that the company can allocate for marketing.

When determining the budget, it is necessary not only to determine the total costs, but also to distribute them both among the main areas of marketing activity (market research, product development, advertising, sales promotion, etc.), and within them.

Marketing planning

8.1 Goals and objectives of planning in marketing

The practice of domestic business shows that many firms are still working without officially adopted plans. In most start-up firms, managers are so busy that they simply do not have time to do planning. In small firms that have accumulated some work experience, managers, intuitively feeling the need for a plan, at the same time believe that formal planning can be dispensed with, and therefore it cannot be of significant importance. They don't want to take the time to prepare a plan in writing. The market is changing too fast for the plan to be of any use, they say, and it will end up gathering dust on the shelf. It is for these and a number of other reasons that many firms do not use formal planning. Large firms evaluate the value of a marketing plan in a completely different way.

However, formal marketing planning offers a number of benefits. In particular, M. Branch lists these benefits in the following order:

1. Planning encourages leaders to think ahead.

2. It leads to a better coordination of the efforts undertaken by the firm.

3. It leads to the establishment of performance indicators for follow-up.

4. It forces the firm to define its goals and policies more clearly.

5. Planning makes the firm more prepared for sudden changes.

Any planning begins with strategic planning. The strategic planning process consists of developing an enterprise program, formulating its tasks and goals, analyzing the business portfolio and advanced planning organization development. The mission statement of the enterprise should be market-oriented, realistic, motivating, specific in the sense that it directs the firm to the most promising opportunities available.

In view of the foregoing, strategic planning requires an assessment of each of the enterprises that make up the enterprise in order to conclude on the feasibility of their expansion, preservation, termination or use of the achievements of their activities.

To ensure the growth of the firm, strategic planning requires identifying market opportunities in areas where the firm needs to have a clear competitive advantage. Such opportunities can be identified on the paths of intensive growth in the scale of modern market activity, such as deeper penetration into the market, expanding the boundaries of one's market or improving the product, as well as on the paths of integrative growth within the industry and on the paths of diversification growth.

"After the development of general strategic plans, - says F. Kotler, - each production of the enterprise will have to develop its own marketing plans for goods, market brands." The main sections of the marketing plan are: a summary of benchmarks, a statement of the current marketing situation, a list of dangers and opportunities, a list of tasks and problems, a statement of marketing strategies, action programs, budgets and control procedures.

A flexible planning system eliminates the binding to planning periods and can change activities quite arbitrarily as changes occur in the market and in the enterprise itself. It allows you to flexibly respond to market fluctuations. The lack of a marketing plan deprives the company of clear, stable targets.

strategic plan the enterprise determines which industries it will be engaged in, and set out the tasks of these industries. Now for each of them it is necessary to develop their own detailed plans. If the production includes several assortment groups, several products, brands and markets, a separate plan should be developed for each of these positions. That is why we are confronted with production plans, product release plans, branded product release plans, and marketing activity plans. All these plans are collected in one - "marketing plan".

Strategic planning must meet the specific needs of both marketing and other functional areas. This is not always easy, as the goals and needs of different functional units are different.

The orientation of the various functional areas is as follows:

1. Marketing - attracting and retaining a loyal consumer group through a unique combination of product, distribution, promotion and price.

2. Production- full utilization of production capacity, reduction of relative production costs and maximization of quality control.

3. Finance - operating within the established budget, focusing on profitable products, controlling credit and minimizing the cost of borrowing for the company.

4. Accounting - standardization of reporting, careful detailing of costs, standardization of transactions.

5. Technical services - development and adherence to specific specifications, limiting the number of models and options, focusing on quality improvement.

6. Supply- acquisition of materials in large homogeneous lots at low prices and maintenance of small stocks.

7. Legal Services- ensuring the security of the strategy from the government, competitors, participants in distribution channels and consumers.

Top management must ensure that each functional unit is willing to balance points of view in the process of making decisions. joint decisions and participate in this process. Friction between departments is inevitable, but it can be reduced by openly discussing differences and stimulating contacts between departments; look for people who bring technical and marketing knowledge together; create cross-functional working groups committees and management development programs; develop the goals of each department, taking into account the tasks of other services (for example, evaluate the heads of marketing departments not by exceeding sales targets, but by the accuracy of forecasts). This is reasonable enough. Suffice it to say that in the practice of foreign firms, deviations in the accuracy of the forecast in one direction or another by more than 5 - 10% indicate the unprofessionalism of the marketer.

Strategic planning is the management process of achieving and maintaining a stable balance between the goals, capabilities and resources of an organization and new market opportunities.

There are the following types of organizational structures of the marketing service:

functional;

Commodity;

Market;

Commodity market.

1. Functional organization(FD) of the marketing department is built on the principle of responsibility of each employee or their group for the implementation of a separate local functional task. This approach is very effective with the monotony and constancy of production and marketing functions, mainly of small firms.

The functional organization is effective if the production and marketing activities of the firm are constant and monotonous. Unsuitable for solving fundamentally new problems, quick response to a changing market situation. It is used by small firms that produce a limited name of products and sell products on a small market, and large enterprises that produce goods that are unique in their technical characteristics.

Strengths of a functional organization:

Ease of management - each performer has a circle of responsibilities that does not intersect with others;

The possibility of functional specialization of marketers contributes to the growth of their qualifications. Competition between individual performers stimulates efficiency.

Weaknesses of a functional organization:

Decrease in the quality of work with the expansion of the product range;

Lack of mechanisms to search for non-traditional types and activities of the company;

The possibility of turning healthy competition into a private interest, and not for the interest of the firm.

2. commodity organization The marketing department is built on the principle of dividing marketing into separate integrated product groups. Such a construction is effective for firms that have a wide range of goods with the possibility of their sale in many homogeneous markets, as well as with a sufficiently large volume of sales of individual product groups.

With a commodity organization, each product has its own manager with a subdivision of employees who perform all the functional tasks of marketing for this product. Effective for enterprises with a wide range of products and when they are sold in a large number of homogeneous markets, when the requirements for packaging, marketing, advertising for each manufactured product differ significantly from each other, and the sales volume for each product is large enough to justify the cost of organizing a service marketing for this product.

Strengths of the commodity organization:

Complete Marketing the entire range of goods;

Possibility of a comprehensive study of demand and identification of prospective consumers for the entire range of goods.

Weaknesses of the commodity organization:

A wide range of responsibilities of each employee of the department for the assigned functions of the entire promotion complex.

3. market organization- this is the division of responsibilities of individuals of the unit or their groups in different markets. The division into geographic markets is effective if the company produces a limited range of goods, but sells them in a sufficiently large number of markets that differ from each other.

Strengths of a market organization:

Good coordination of services when entering the market;

Ability to develop a comprehensive go-to-market program;

A more reliable forecast of the market, taking into account its specifics.

Weaknesses of the market organization:

Complex structure;

Low degree of specialization of the service;

Possibility of duplication of functions;

Poor knowledge of the product (of the entire range).

4. When commodity market organization for example, regional representatives apply with orders or for advice to the central office to managers responsible for individual goods or their groups.

Commodity-market organization of the marketing service– a combination of product and market approaches using the matrix principle: product managers are responsible for planning sales and profits from the sale of their products, and market managers are responsible for developing profitable markets for existing and potential products. When choosing one or another form of organization, you should pay attention to the size of the organization, the list of areas of activity and the product range.

64. Features of marketing on industrial market .

Understanding industrial markets as markets for PPTN, it is necessary to highlight the following main differences from consumer markets:

in industrial markets less number buyers, they purchase products in bulk for industrial consumption. In this regard, the industrial buyer is more competent both in the commercial and technological spheres, knows the market situation, offers of alternative suppliers, and their competitive advantages. A competent buyer requires professional service. Individualization of the service process, the impact of personal contacts on relationships with customers is important feature marketing activities in industrial markets;

industrial markets are scarce by nature. On the one hand, the scarcity of the market is determined by the limited natural resources– primary type of PPTN (raw materials), which determine the possibility of production of all other types of PPTN. In addition, industrial markets are characterized by larger amounts and turnovers on transactions, in connection with which there is also a shortage of resources of all types for each individual company (in particular, financial, informational, human, etc.). A particular lack of financial resources is manifested in the field of creating innovative goods and technologies. All this forces companies to unite and interact, which leads to an increase in the concentration and monopolization of industrial markets;

industrial markets are more concentrated - often no more than 4 large companies control at least 60% of the market. High concentration creates a rigid market structure in which the place and role of each actor is almost unambiguously distributed. Such markets are often referred to as highly structured market networks. Network entry barriers to the market are sometimes too high for potential competitors, which allows "old" market participants to maintain high profitability of operations;

the most structured industrial markets have a hierarchical structure, that is, they can be considered as organizational markets. The structure of the market resembles the structure of an organization: there is a leader company or a group of companies that rather rigidly (in fact, administratively through a system of contracts) manage the development of smaller companies, and practically the market as a whole;

industrial markets are more strongly influenced than consumer markets by scientific and technological progress (STP), which creates high technological risks for activities and requires qualitative research and forecasting the development of scientific and technical progress and new technologies. Since the markets are controlled by those who control the process of creating new technological principles and new technologies, industrial marketing is characterized by huge expenditures on research and development of innovative products;

all market participants act as competitors in the industrial market: direct competitors, competitors producing substitute goods, large buyers, intermediaries, contractors and subcontractors, banks, as well as the state.

industrial markets are almost always international because industrial customers are globalized (focused on purchasing products not only from a local supplier, but from any available foreign supplier). This forces companies to compete on international level and go out to international markets;

in the industrial market, standardization has a serious impact on marketing activities. All industrial products are standardized. Sales volumes are often determined by the conformity of products to certain standards. Therefore, an essential component of the marketing activity of an industrial company is the introduction of its own technological standards for production and service at the level of a company, industry, state, and the international community. The adoption of company standards at the industry and state level (especially global) guarantees sales volumes for many years.

65. Features of service marketing.

Services marketing- marketing, the task of which is to promote the company's services to the market.

Service Marketing- a scientific discipline and branch of modern marketing that studies the features of the marketing activities of organizations whose business is to benefit from the provision of services.

There is a classic (F. Kotler) list of service properties that make it possible to single out service marketing as a separate direction. common features marketing services are:

Intangibility,

inseparable from the source

quality inconsistency,

Perishability.

But both in F. Kotler's textbook and in the literature on services marketing there is no detailed consideration of the applicability of this list to the marketing of consulting services. Working on a guide to marketing consulting services, the authors adapted the list of features of services in relation to consulting services, and additionally developed an in-depth list of features of marketing consulting services.

Intangibility. The client cannot “hold in his hands” what is offered to him, your services do not have a form, color, smell, or packaging. The consumer is truly able to evaluate the quality only after receiving the service. (Sometimes he cannot even do this, for example, in the case of audit services: it is finally possible to judge the quality of an audit only after a tax audit has been carried out). In this regard, the client is faced with high uncertainty, which determines a greater number of factors influencing the choice of services. In an effort to reduce risk, customers analyze external signs the quality of services, namely: the behavior of staff, the location of the office, etc.

How to overcome intangibility:

brand development;

development of image policy;

information about previous experience;

calculation of the expected results from the consultation;