What should you know about Marketing Management?

What Should You Know About Marketing Management?

If you are creative and have a knack for business, you should think about taking up a career in marketing management. It is an exciting and dynamic career option that has recently been gaining prominence. Read on to better understand what marketing management is all about.

What is marketing management?

Before you start learning about this field, you should first exactly know what marketing is. Philip Kotler defines marketing as a process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers and the strategy to use in sales, communications, and business development. On the other hand, marketing management refers to the supervision, tracking, and review of a firm’s marketing strategies, activities, resources, and campaigns. Professionals in this area guide a firm’s marketing plan using tools such as market research and surveys. In a nutshell, a marketing management team prepares a firm’s marketing strategy and campaign. Take a look at the scope of a marketing management course and some of the key functions handled by a marketing manager:

• Setting goals and objectives: The primary responsibility of a marketing manager is to set goals and objectives for the firm. Clearly defined objectives increase the efficiency of the employees and the organisation. These objectives should be set in quantifiable terms.
• Segmentation: It is difficult a company to meet the demands of an entire market, so another function that marketing managers take up is to divide the market into segments to choose a target audience. This practice is set to be the foundation of modern marketing. Strategic marketing management with regards to marketing techniques and campaigns should be done keeping the target audience in mind.
• Coordinating with other departments: In order to meet consumers’ demands, marketing managers require cooperation with other departments. This coordination is necessary for a smoother functioning of the organisation.
• Developing and maintaining relationships with third parties: It is essential for marketing managers to build and maintain relationships with third parties, such as suppliers, government agencies, and consultants. This can ensure that marketing strategies and planning run without trouble.
• Market research: This is one of the most important marketing manager responsibilities. This form of research involves collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, and it provides marketing managers with important information that help them in making key decisions. Market research helps in identifying the needs and preferences of consumers.
• Controlling marketing activities: Marketing managers must effectively control marketing activities to ensure the success of marketing campaigns. This involves setting standards, assessing campaign performance and taking corrective measures if necessary.

Why should you opt for a marketing management course?

Marketing management plays a key role in an organisation on multiple levels, since there are various departments that require its support in order to reach their full potential. Take a look at some of the reasons why doing a marketing degree will be beneficial to you:

• Joint majors: Doing a business marketing degree offers you the option of majoring in another subject. This enables students to develop their marketing management abilities in the specific context of other fields, such as psychology and foreign languages.
• Diverse group of students: Marketing and management courses on their own attract a great number of international students, so you can imagine the numbers for a joint course. Doing this course with an internationally diverse group of peers can help you make a global network of contacts, which could be beneficial to you in your professional career.
• Variety of options: Completing this course opens up a plethora of job opportunities for you. This includes positions as a marketing specialist, data handler, brand manager, product marketing manager, marketing coordinator, marketing assistant, and, of course, marketing manager.
• In demand career: Since marketing roles play such an important role in most companies, there will always be a demand for marketing jobs. This means that doing a course in this area will help you acquire skills and know-how for a career that takes up a significant share of the job market.
• Salary benefits: Salary and benefits depend on one’s expertise and individual candidature. A marketing manager’s salary may include perks such as commissions, bonuses, health insurance, etc.

Why is marketing management important to business?

Marketing management has significantly grown in importance in the business world, since professionals in that area are a great asset in developing business and market strategies and reducing redundant costs. However, there is a variety of additional factors that have contributed to the rise of marketing management as well. Take a look at some of these other factors:

• Introduction of new products: For any business to be successful, its products or services should be well-known to customers. If you are planning to introduce a new product or service that customers do not know about, a marketing manager would be the person to see. This professional will be capable of implementing multiple techniques, campaigns, and strategies that will help in creating brand awareness for your service or product, and it will also help in attracting new customers.

• Increase in sales: The concept of marketing involves matching customer requirements with the competence of an organisation, and marketing professionals can help the company understand how to best connect with the customer and their purchasing preferences. Releasing a product according the customers’ demands makes it more likely to succeed in sales.

• Growth in the firm’s reputation: Some key marketing manager responsibilities involve branding, financing marketing strategies, risk-bearing in markets, creating strategies and campaigns to sell services and products, and improving organisational reputation. The longevity and success of a firm usually depends on its reputation, and the right marketing strategies can help improve a company’s reputation and customers’ perception of it. 

• Building Public Relations: Marketing is also essential for developing creative CSR campaigns to improve the overall goodwill of the company. For example, H&M came up with a campaign encouraging customers to recycle textiles by dropping them off at their stores.

• Development of new ideas: Marketing is considered to be a dynamic field as it helps companies come up with novel ideas leading to the launch of new services and products. Marketing directors help in distinguishing their firms from competition by recognising the uniqueness and benefits of the firms’ products and services.

If you are interested in studying marketing, London School of Business and Finance (LSBF) offers multiple marketing courses—Online masters in Strategic Marketing, an Online Dual MSc and MA in Strategic Marketing, and an Online Global MBA in Marketing Management.

This blog was written by Varun Mehta and edited by Amelia Hayward-Cole