Marketing Management

By Pat Smith

Marketing management is essential for learning about customers and developing strategic plans for products, pricing, distribution, and promotion. Companies that fail to analyze and plan will only be able to fly by the seat of their pants for a short time before everything falls apart.

An essential element of marketing management is customer analysis. Taking time to conduct market research to learn the needs and wants of consumers can save considerable time and money. Without analyzing demographic markets and purchasing habits it is nearly impossible to engage in product planning.

Product planning is vital for every small business. Whether just starting out or a well-established business, it is crucial to determine how quickly products will be consumed. Otherwise, companies will end up with too much inventory or not have enough to supply demand.

Establishing marketing management procedures will help companies develop and maintain products, as well as determine their return on investment. Combined with customer analysis, these practices can reveal insights regarding packaging, positioning, and pricing.

Price planning is vital for keeping costs inline with budgets and can also help companies acquire better pricing. Manufacturers and wholesalers often provide better pricing when companies submit 'blanket' purchase orders.

Essentially, this means they place an order for an entire year and receive monthly shipments. For example, a company could order 120,000 widgets to be shipped at 10,000 widgets per month to acquire reduced pricing. Instead of paying for all the widgets upfront, companies pay for each shipment.

Management teams also use price planning to analyze returned items, price adjustments, and develop purchase terms for vendors and customers.

Marketing managers are instrumental in planning distribution of products. Distribution planning entails establishing relationships with distribution partners and establishing methods to store, transport, and allocate products.

Once these factors are determined, marketing management can commence with promotion planning to increase sales revenue. Promotion planning involves creating a strategic marketing management system that entails advertising, public relations, sales promotions, and sponsored events.

In today's market it has become necessary to make use of online marketing strategies to attract new customers. Internet marketing is complex and involves learning about search engine optimization, link building, and social media marketing.

Web marketing requires companies to participate in various venues to broaden online visibility and boost search positions. Popular methods include article marketing, video and podcast marketing, local listings, blogging, and social marketing.

Each of the above requires producing quality content on a regular basis and linking each advertisement together. Link building is one of the more critical elements of Web marketing because it helps to improve search placement which helps to drive targeted traffic to websites and storefronts.

Learning all the ins and outs of online marketing is a monumental task. Not only are there a lot of methods to learn, the procedures are always changing. One way to lessen burdens is to hire an online marketing agency to develop marketing management plans or assist with advertising campaigns.

At Online Marketing DNA we offer individually customized Internet marketing packages to help companies achieve their goals. We work closely with each client to ensure they maximize their marketing management plan. Space is limited so we encourage you to contact us and schedule a consultation to discuss your needs.