Prepared by ML Netshandama
The Management Function of Marketing Management
1. Marketing as a management function
The main objective of most organisations is to maximise profit and achieve
growth.
In the process, marketing plays a huge role the realisation of goals.
Marketing role has to be well planned, implemented and controlled.
Recently marketing focuses in customer service and building long-term
relationships.
2. Management functions in an organisation
These functions are also called departments.
They operate in collaboration with the marketing department in order to
achieve organisational objectives.
Each function or department has its objectives derived from the organisational
objectives.
The management functions are as follow:
2.1 Marketing function
It is responsible for the development the marketing mix.
It conducts marketing research to identify the needs of consumers.
It also identifies opportunities and threats.
2.2 Human resources function
It recruits the right personnel for the enterprise.
It trains personnel to be effective, competent and skilled to do the work.
It also pays salaries, administer and motivate the workforce.
2.3 Production function
It develops, plan and design the product.
It is responsible for all processes related to the manufacturing of the
product.
2.4 Financial Function
It provides capital and deals with cash flow and controls costs.
Also responsible for maintaining healthy relationship with financial
institutions and investors.
2.5 Purchasing function
Determines the quality and standard of products to be bought.
It also does stock control and management.
Purchases raw material to be used in the production process.
2.6 Information function
It manages and captures data.
Makes information available for decision making.
It also plans, control and calculates costs.
2.7 Public relations function
It creates a positive organisational reputation among the stakeholders.
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3. The process of organising the marketing department 2021.08.18
This process must ensure that opportunities are optimised, and threats
minimised.
It must ensure that marketing objectives are realised.
Through this process, marketing activities are organised.
Divisions are established with managers responsible to carryout activities.
Determination is made indicating who is responsible over who and the
lines of communication are put in place.
The interests of all stakeholders, through this process are integrated.
4. Organisational structure
Organisational structure defines how activities in an enterprise are allocated,
coordinated, and how supervision is directed toward achieving organisational goals.
Organisational structure affects the enterprise’s actions and provides the foundation
on which standard operating procedures and routines rest.
Benefits or advantages of organisational structure
It pulls people together to collaborate towards attaining organisational goals.
It eliminates the duplication of tasks.
It clarifies to employees about who they report to.
It ensures that tasks are completed as scheduled.
It transforms plans into actions.
There are Four organisational structures we are going to focus on namely:
Functional organisational structure.
Organisational structure according to product or service.
Organisational structure according to geographical area.
Organisational structure according to customer/client
4.1 Functional organisational structure
It is the simplest of them all.
It is the commonly used structure across the globe.
Mainly used in big organisation that have variety of product lines.
It main focus is to put the number of managers at minimum.
Marketing manager in this structure is the line manager who manages
subdivisions
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General
Manager
purchasing Financial Marketing Operations Personnel
Manager Manager Manager Manager Manager
Marketing General Sales Customer
Advertising
Research Sales Promotion Relations
Manager
Manager Manager Manager Manager
Salespeople
Figure 1: Diagrammatic representation of Functional organisational
structure
Advantages of functional organisational structure
It brings about uniformity across the organisation.
Knowledge from the expert is available quickly.
Person with expertise has the power to act and advise.
Divisional managers can spend minimal time on specialised work and
decisions.
There is minimal need for hard to find divisional heads.
Disadvantages of functional organisational structure
A complex structure of authority exists.
It can cause confusion about who reports to who.
The unity of command can suffer
Interference from other divisions can make personnel to be dissatisfied.
Too much regulations make the job of divisional heads difficult.
4.2 Organisational structure according to product or service
It organises tasks according to the type of product sold.
It looks into the type of product and product line specialisation.
It is commonly used by enterprises with complex technical products.
Also used by organisations offering unrelated and dissimilar products.
It is used by businesses offering different product lines.
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Marketing
Manager
Manager General Sales Manager
New Product
Manager Advertising
Development
Sales Sales Sales
Manager Manager Manager
Product X Product Y Product Z
Sales People Sales People Sales People
Product X Product Y Product Z
OR
General
Manager
Purchasing Financial Marketing Operations Personnel
Manager Manager Manager Manager Manager
Marketing General Sales Customer
Advertising
Research Sales Promotion Relations
Manager
Manager Manager Manager Manager
Sales Sales Sales
Manager Manager Manager
Product X Product Y Product Z
Sales Sales Sales
People People People
Product X Product Y Product Z
Figure 2: Diagrammatic representation of organisational structure according to
product or service.
Advantages of organisational structure according to product or service
2021.08.20
Each product line receives specialised attention.
Individual products can develop and function independently.
Results about individual product performance can be quantified.
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Coordination regarding the needs of products can be put in place.
Disadvantages
The depth of specialisation is not as good as that in functional structure.
Coordination between products and services is not always good.
Conflicts mainly erupt when the customer is visited the same time by different
sales representatives.
4.3 Organisational structure according to geographical area
It is widely used structure to divide responsibilities and line of authority over
the sales force.
Sales representatives are assigned territories and they report to General
Sales Manager.
Sales manager for a territory is called district or regional sales manager
depending on the area.
Marketing
Manager
Marketing General Sales Customer
Advertising
Research Sales Promotion Relations
Manager
Manager Manager Manager Manager
Sales Sales
Manager Manager
Region M Region N
District District
Sales Sales
Manager Manager
Sales Sales
People of People of
Territories Territories
Figure 3: Diagrammatic representation of organisational structure according to
the geographical area.
Advantages of organisational structure according to geographical area.
It ensures better coverage of the whole market.
Salespeople and sales operations can be controlled in a better way.
Local competition can be met easily and adjusted to the conditions around.
Customers’ needs and challenges can be addressed quickly.
Geographical subdivisions can act independently.
Disadvantages
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There is no geographical specialisation that exists.
4.4 Organisational structure according to customer/client
In this structure, line of authority is divided based on the type of customer
classified by either industry or channel of distribution.
The sales manager takes charge of a specific industry or distribution channel.
The very sales manager will be the line manager having authority over
salespersons.
Remember that when you have line authority, you are having subdivisions that
you oversee.
General
Manager
Purchasing Financial Marketing Operations Personnel
Manager Manager Manager Manager Manager
Marketing General Sales Customer
Advertising
Research Sales Promotion Relations
Manager
Manager Manager Manager Manager
Sales Sales Sales
Manager Manager Manager
Schools Colleges Universities
Salespeople Salespeople Salespeople
Schools Colleges Universities
Figure 4: Diagrammatic representation of organisational structure according to
the customer/client. 2021.02.04
Advantages of organisational structure according to customer/client
It emphasises the customer rather than the product or service.
Customer’s needs are given the high level of importance.
It makes it possible to fulfil the needs of each customer group.
Knowledge of customer needs increases.
Market specialisation in sales organisational structure increases.
Disadvantages
The structure is costly.
It causes an overlap in territorial coverage.
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Product specialisation decreases in some industries.
The management tasks of the marketing manager
What is marketing?
Marketing is a process of planning and executing the concept, price, promotion and
distribution of ideas, goods and services with the purpose of developing trading
transactions which will satisfy individuals and organisational objectives.
Management is the process of planning, implementing and evaluating the efforts of a
group of people working toward a common goal.
The process of management is consisted of the following:
Planning – which includes setting objectives, decision on strategies and
tactics
Implementing – which includes organising for marketing, selection and
motivation of staff.
Evaluating – compare actual goals with the set objectives.
Analysing – Analysis of the needs of the market, competition.
Management tasks of the marketing manager
Planning
Identify opportunities, threats, strengths and weaknesses
Identify the needs of consumers.
Set marketing objectives in line with those of the company.
Make decision about the marketing mix
Organising
Marketing activities are grouped together.
Departments are formed that will interact with each other.
Determination is made about communication flow.
Organise either functionally, according product, geographical area or
customer.
Leading
Leadership to be provided when planning and implementing marketing
strategies.
Lead the process of hiring staff, communicating and motivating them.
Coordinating
Activities to be coordinated within the marketing department.
Coordinate with other departments in the organisation.
Coordinate with organisations outside yours.
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Control
Is done through the setting of performance standards.
Actual performance is to be measured.
Check if there are any deviations.
Take corrective measures.
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