Marketing Literature Review
LITERATURE REVIEW
Table of Contents Page
• Marketing as a management Function 3 • Integration of marketing Function 7 • Changes in Business Environment 10 • Marketing Challenges 15 • Bibliography 21
Marketing as a Management Function
Marketing as a management function which in its simplest term refers to the basic functions of management namely planning, organizing, leading and controlling (POLC). These four functions are necessary for the achievement of organizational goals. It is important that these activities should operate in harmony with one another since they are interrelated. For instance, according to Cole (1996), a manager cannot just do planning and ignore the other aspects. Although these four functions do not tell the whole story about what constitutes management, they are a convenient way of describing most of the key aspects of the roles of management.
Planning
Plans and decisions are essential requirements to organizational tasks and management. Business success depends significantly upon the successful planning and decision making. Hence, planning is usually listed as the first function of management as we must have a plan before we can organize. Planning can be defined as the management function which involves setting the company’s goals and then determining the means to achieve these goals, in other words, deciding how best to achieve them. In simpler terms, it means deciding now, what to do in the future, given certain intended conditions.
The word now indicates present circumstances and the current state of affairs pertaining to an organisation. So, it has been observed that environmental scanning, consisting of the SWOT analysis is therefore a pre-requisite for the planning process. It includes the internal and external environment of the organisation which allows the firm to take advantage of the opportunities and minimize the impact of threats. In addition, the company will have to consider
Table of Contents Page
• Marketing as a management Function 3 • Integration of marketing Function 7 • Changes in Business Environment 10 • Marketing Challenges 15 • Bibliography 21
Marketing as a Management Function
Marketing as a management function which in its simplest term refers to the basic functions of management namely planning, organizing, leading and controlling (POLC). These four functions are necessary for the achievement of organizational goals. It is important that these activities should operate in harmony with one another since they are interrelated. For instance, according to Cole (1996), a manager cannot just do planning and ignore the other aspects. Although these four functions do not tell the whole story about what constitutes management, they are a convenient way of describing most of the key aspects of the roles of management.
Planning
Plans and decisions are essential requirements to organizational tasks and management. Business success depends significantly upon the successful planning and decision making. Hence, planning is usually listed as the first function of management as we must have a plan before we can organize. Planning can be defined as the management function which involves setting the company’s goals and then determining the means to achieve these goals, in other words, deciding how best to achieve them. In simpler terms, it means deciding now, what to do in the future, given certain intended conditions.
The word now indicates present circumstances and the current state of affairs pertaining to an organisation. So, it has been observed that environmental scanning, consisting of the SWOT analysis is therefore a pre-requisite for the planning process. It includes the internal and external environment of the organisation which allows the firm to take advantage of the opportunities and minimize the impact of threats. In addition, the company will have to consider
Bibliography: Leading Leading involves influencing others to engage in the work behaviours necessary to reach organizational goals (Bartol 1997) Controlling Controlling is the management function aimed at regulating organizational activities so that actual performance will conform to expected organizational standards and goals (Bartol 1997) (Source: Marketing Teacher Ltd 2000 – 2008) The marketing environment consists of the internal environment, comprising of the five Ms; men, money, machinery, materials and minutes, followed by the micro-environment and finally the macro-environment.