Marketing Management Process: A 5-Step Guide

The marketing management process goes through various stages to ensure the success of a product in an organization. In a challenging business environment, with a customer who knows everything beforehand because of the presence of online portals and websites, it takes time to plan and launch a new product or a marketing strategy.

Like movie stars waiting for their movies to be released, companies wait for a new product to be launched. This new product can rock or fail in the market. The marketing management process ensures that whatever happens, the product is given its best chance to survive and thrive in the market.

What is a Marketing Management Process?

The marketing management process is a method of planning, organizing, and controlling an organization’s marketing activities. The marketing management process is a set of systematic steps that help businesses reach their goals by satisfying customers’ needs. Each step in the marketing management process helps companies meet these goals.

The marketing process starts with defining the company’s organizational goals and objectives, then moving on to identifying customer needs and wants, creating a product or service that meets those needs and wants, developing an effective distribution system for delivering products to customers, assessing sales data to determine whether the product or service is meeting its stated goals, and making changes as needed to improve performance.

The marketing management process is a continuous cycle of reviewing performance and making changes, which can lead to more efficient use of resources and improved customer satisfaction.

Key takeaways

• Marketing management is the process of planning, managing, and controlling an organization’s marketing efforts to meet customers’ needs and achieve goals.
• It begins with defining corporate goals, determining consumer needs, and creating products or services to suit them.
• Effective distribution and sales data analysis are critical for establishing if the product meets its objectives, resulting in appropriate adjustments.
• The process is an ongoing cycle aiming at increasing resource efficiency and customer satisfaction.
• It maximizes a product’s market success by systematically addressing all aspects of marketing.

Why is Marketing Management Important?

Marketing management is essential because it allows marketing managers to make better decisions about how they spend their money on marketing plans. It also helps them determine what their objectives are in the first place.

Marketing management is also essential because it helps organizations develop marketing strategies to understand how their products or services fit into the marketplace. This allows them to make better decisions about pricing and positioning, which can help them increase revenue.

5-Steps in the Marketing Management Process

The marketing management process is a 5-step process that includes marketing efforts that can help you grow your business. It’s a process that allows your marketing team to create a marketing strategy and then implement it in an effective way for your company. The five steps are:

Step 1: Conduct Market Research

The first step in the marketing strategies starts with conducting a market analysis. As previously mentioned, if a product is a new launch, then the company is likely to be blind people to the future projects of the product.

The marketing manager does not know what product the market needs. They should go for a new product or do a product extension, and the expected turnover should increase from the latest product, etc. Such questions are answered by market research. Thus, market research is necessary to start thinking of launching a new product.

Step 2: Develop a Marketing Strategy

Before making a marketing strategy, you need to know the market. As market research has already been done, marketing strategy is the second step in marketing management. The marketing strategy considers several points.

Simple things such as segmentation, targeting, and positioning are a part of Marketing strategy. However, tough things like deciding the marketing mix and getting the positioning strategy right are also involved. Core competencies like financials and production will also be analyzed during the marketing strategy stage. Taking all these things into consideration, a marketing strategy is formed.

Step 3: Make a Marketing Plan

After the marketing strategy, a written marketing plan is made. This is the third and crucial step in the marketing management process. A written marketing plan analyzes where the company is and where it wants to reach in a given period. The marketing plan puts the plan on paper, and the marketer can refer to the marketing plan anytime to analyze whether he is on track. The marketing plan itself has some important pointers.

• Situation analysis – Business environment analysis, Internal analysis (SWOT analysis), USP’s, core competencies.
• Strategic plan – A time-related strategic plan outlining the pros and cons of the strategy.
• Financials – Sales forecasts. Expenses forecast. Working capital, etc.
• Implementation – Operations. Customer loyalty. Brand building. Consumer behavior. Product and pricing decisions.
• Follow-up – After implementation, follow-up is done to ensure the marketing strategy is on track.

Step 4: Implement Automation

Once you’ve made a plan, it’s time to automate the marketing campaigns so they can run smoothly without constant monitoring by humans (who will likely get bored with all the repetitive tasks). Automation is critical because it allows us to scale up our operations quickly without hiring more employees—which means we can serve more customers at lower prices!

For example, if you have a lot of repetitive tasks (like managing your email inbox), there are many great tools out there that will help you automate those tasks for you so that they can run in the background without taking up too much of your time or energy.

Step 5: Feedback and Control

Once a product is in the market, customers might give further ideas for improving the product and marketing campaign. The marketing department usually considers these ideas, and market research is conducted to find the validity of the ideas. If the concept is valid, another product can be developed or another marketing strategy implemented.

On the other hand, if the product is not received positively, then the control mechanism needs to fall in place and implement an alteration process for the product or, in the worst-case scenario – take the product out of the market before it affects the brand.

The five steps above complete the marketing management and the integrated marketing communication strategy. With the world becoming a small place due to the advent of the internet, the marketing management process has become simpler. Feedback can be obtained online through simple questions.

Marketing strategy can be changed by keeping an online brand watch, and market research can be done through social networks. However, this does not alter the grueling process that traditional marketing companies like FMCG, Electronics, and Automobiles have to adopt.

How to Optimize Your Marketing Management Process?

Marketing management is the process of planning, implementing, and evaluating a marketing strategy. It’s one of the most crucial parts of your business, but it can be hard to get right.

Optimizing your marketing management process involves identifying your goals and strategies and then developing strategies that align with those goals. Once you have a plan in mind, it’s time to think about how you’ll implement it—which is where this guide comes in! We’ll discuss optimizing your marketing management process from start to finish.

Importance of Marketing Management

• Demand Generation: At its foundation, marketing aims to generate interest and demand for a brand’s products. Marketing strategies are developed based on a thorough study of customer behavior and preferences, not only to emphasize product features and benefits but also to express how these items suit the demands of consumers, resulting in strong demand.
• Enhancing Customer Happiness: Marketing management is critical to increasing customer happiness. Brands may better address the demands of their customers if they recognize and understand their requirements. When customers discover that items exceed their expectations regarding value and function, their satisfaction levels skyrocket, fostering brand loyalty and repeat purchases.
• Building Brand Reputation: A brand’s reputation is crucial to its success. Marketing actions such as clever sales promotions and targeted commercials help to improve a brand’s image in the consumer’s mind. A brand’s reputation is strengthened when it continuously produces high-quality items at reasonable costs, winning its customers’ trust and respect.
• Facilitating Profit Generation: The ability of any business to produce profits is critical, and good marketing management excels at this role. With an intelligent marketing approach, a brand may be able to attract enough customers and sales to be profitable. Marketing management ensures that items are successfully promoted to the right audience, increasing sales and ensuring the company’s financial health.
• Growing Market Share: In today’s competitive environment, growing market share is a top priority for many firms. Marketing management develops tactics that enable a brand to stand out among competitors, allowing it to capture a larger market share.

What are the nine types of marketing management?

• Strategic Marketing Planning: It involves creating a strategy for finding and reaching potential clients while persuading them to become loyal customers. For example, an omnichannel approach can be implemented to ensure touchpoints across several channels.
• Business Expansion Strategies: Concentrates on growth prospects, such as new collaborations, acquisitions, or entering untapped areas. Consider a tech startup expanding into the educational industry by providing e-learning platforms.
• Brand Enhancement Practices: This entails creating and nurturing your brand’s value, making your product or service more desired than competitors. Consider a coffee brand that employs fair trade beans, strengthening its reputation as an ethical choice.
• New Product Launch: Developing a product and bringing it to market. A practical example may be a corporation developing an eco-friendly packaging solution that disrupts the existing market through innovation.
• Global Marketing Dynamics: Adapting and managing marketing tactics to meet the needs of worldwide markets, which may include fine-tuning messaging to resonate across cultures. For example, a cosmetics brand may change its product line to satisfy the unique skincare needs of different locations.
• Media and Public Relations: Creating and sustaining a positive image through various media outlets and influencer collaborations. A boutique hotel may cooperate with travel bloggers to reach a larger audience.
• Customer Experience Management focuses on developing and responding to customer interactions to meet or exceed their expectations. High-quality customer care assistance in SaaS (Software as care) organizations is an excellent example, often resulting in high client retention rates.
• Efficient Marketing Operations: Ensures marketing initiatives function smoothly by integrating technology and data analytics for operational efficiency. Consider implementing customer relationship management (CRM) tools to automate email marketing campaigns.
• Sales enablement: Includes methods and technologies that help move leads through the funnel and close sales, such as focused content production and lead scoring systems.

What are the processes of marketing management?

• Understanding Market Dynamics and Consumer Needs: The first stage is to conduct an in-depth analysis of the market’s current dynamics and consumer preferences, which is critical for successfully positioning your firm within its competitive context.
• Crafting Plan and Setting Targets: Using insights gathered from market study, firms develop a clear plan and exact goals and objectives to chart their intended route.
• Innovative Product Creation: Marketers play an essential role in developing new products, ensuring that the product’s communication is practical with its target audience and aligns with the brand essence.
• Executing Marketing Initiatives: Once viable marketing endeavors have been identified, it is necessary to strategically allocate resources to bring these efforts to life.
• Evaluative Review and Future Planning: Following implementation, evaluating the performance of marketing efforts is critical, which will serve as a foundation for enhancing future marketing initiatives.

What Are The Elements Of The Marketing Process?

1. Situational Analysis

Assuming an organization is a ship setting sail, situational analysis is the captain’s evaluation of the sea and weather conditions. It thoroughly reviews internal strengths, resources, external opportunities, and problems. Here’s how to condense this information:

• PESTLE: Imagine canvassing a large landscape, scrutinizing political stability, economic currents, cultural norms, technical advancements, legal frameworks, and environmental implications—all of which influence the terrain in which your company operates.
• 5C Analysis: Consider the soil (the firm), the climate (the collaborators), the weeds (the competitors), the seedlings (the customers), and the general climate of the garden.
• SWOT: SWOT Analysis, closely related to your organization’s internal examination, is similar to a health check-up in that it clarifies your organization’s vitals—its strengths and weaknesses—while also probing into opportunities for growth and potential threats.
• Porter’s Five Forces: This study, like a chess player anticipating moves to earn a win, helps predict market trends that may restrict your competitive stance.

2. Marketing Objectives

Establishing precise, quantifiable objectives is like setting navigational checkpoints in a race. Your marketing objectives must be SMART—tangible, appraisable, achievable within your means, pertinent to your overarching goal, and bound by a clear timeline.

3. Marketing Strategy

With a clear destination outlined by your objectives, devising a marketing strategy is drawing the map for how to get there. This strategy should aim to understand the people you are serving and detail the pathway to transition prospects into loyal customers.

4. Marketing Mix

Imagine a chef’s spice rack. The marketing mix involves skillfully combining various ‘ingredients’—the 7 Ps: product, price, place, promotion, packaging, positioning, and people—to create an irresistible offering that customers cannot help but notice and desire.

5. Implementation & Control

Transitioning from planning to action, the implementation phase materializes your strategy. This entails assigning squad members specific roles, setting definitive timelines for task completion, and ensuring that all systems and processes are documented.

Concurrently, exert control by actively monitoring Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that align with your goals and objectives, adjusting sails to continue steering the ship toward its intended destination.

What happens when the marketing management process isn’t handled well?

• Reduced Efficiency in Task and Project Planning: With precisely planned and documented plans, marketing teams may successfully lay out their tasks and marketing campaigns. The lack of clear, planned processes can result in inefficiency and confusion, impeding the smooth implementation of projects.
• Inconsistent execution and workflow issues: A well-structured marketing plan incorporates consistent processes and workflows that help the team achieve its goals. When this framework is missing, it becomes difficult to maintain a consistent pace toward goal completion, affecting overall performance.
• Lack of Focus and Direction: The effectiveness of marketing campaigns is frequently determined by the clarity of focus and execution plan. Without a solid plan, teams struggle to stay aligned with their goals, which directly impacts their ability to achieve desired results.
• Ineffective Audience Engagement and Conversion Methods: A disorganized approach can be disastrous for social media marketing funnels and audience conversion methods. Without organization, it is difficult to efficiently grow social reach, generate leads, and drive sales.
• Poor Communication and Collaboration: Clear documentation serves as a road map, informing everyone about previous activities, ongoing projects, and plans. A lack of such records can result in confusion and disorganized efforts, particularly in teams that involve remote members or work across departments.
• Creative and Strategic Bottlenecks: Marketing teams must be prepared with ideas for upcoming campaigns and busy seasons. An unstructured management approach can lead to a backlog of unexecuted ideas, leaving important chances on the table.
• Resource and time management issues: Successful marketing necessitates a well-balanced work allocation, appropriate execution time, and the ability to respond to shifting priorities. An unmanaged process might result in overworked team members, unreasonable deadlines, and degraded campaign quality.

How to create A more robust marketing management process

Crafting an efficient marketing management process is not as difficult as it may appear as long as you approach it methodically and with the correct tools. Building a more robust marketing management strategy involves thoroughly documenting your existing knowledge and plans. The documentation should cover ongoing programs and activities.

• Scheduled events and activities.
• Current and upcoming marketing campaigns.
• Request for new projects or campaigns.
• Required tasks, resources, and procedures for your team’s goals.

A critical part of improving your marketing strategy is using top-tier project management solutions properly. A recent analysis found a dramatic difference in success rates between those who use project management software and those who do not. Specifically, marketers who use these tools have a fourfold (426%) better chance of success than their peers who ignore such software.

Alarmingly, 62% of marketers continue to traverse their assignments without the use of project management tools, undermining their goals effectively. Given that this undermines their ability to use technologies, their adoption is helpful and required for companies’ tools to offer their marketing benefits!

Your marketing management processes should be the core of your marketing strategy and marketing management team and act as a guide for all your current and future marketing activities. The steps within this process will help you focus on essential tasks that will make a difference in your marketing efforts. The better this process, the more effective your overall marketing strategy will be.

FAQs

What Does the Strategic Marketing Process Mean?

The strategic marketing process is about setting goals, planning how to reach them, and ensuring your marketing strategies work well.

What Does the Marketing Research Process Mean?

The marketing research process involves understanding who your customers are and the problems they may have. Here are the typical steps in the process:

1. Decide why you’re doing the research
2. Make a plan for your research
3. Look at other related studies
4. Figure out who you’re researching about
5. Use social media to listen to what people are saying
6. Conduct surveys on social media
7. Review and understand your findings

What is The Brand Management Process?

The brand management process is about making sure people see your brand in the right way. This involves deciding what your brand represents and tracking how well people know your brand.

What is The Operations Management Process?

The operations management process refers to managing various aspects of a business to make it work better and make more money.

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