Marketing Implementation

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Marketing Implementation

• A Crucial Step in the Strategic Marketing Process

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Nature of Strategic Planning
The Strategic Planning, Implementation,and
Control Process
Prenticehall 2003 Kotler slide
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Marketing Implementation

• the process of executing marketing strategies by
  creating specific actions that will ensure that
  the marketing objectives are achieved
• usually causes the difference between intended
  marketing strategy realized marketing strategy

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SEPARATION OF PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION
   
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Discuss

• Which is more important planning the marketing
  strategy or implementing the marketing strategy?
  Forget for a moment that they are equally
  important. What arguments can you make that one
  is more important than the other?

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Factors That Influence Marketing Strategies

• Intended marketing strategy-the planned strategic
  choice, what the organization wants to happen
• Realized marketing strategy-the strategy that
  actually takes place

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Environmental Factors Change

• Importance of contingency planning in developing
  marketing strategies implementation
• customers change their wants needs
• competitors devise new marketing strategies
• internal organizational environment changes

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Realities of Marketing Implementation

• Implementation involves trial errorthere is no
  one correct way to implement a particular
  strategy
• Plan must be flexible enough to adapt to changing
  customer needs/preferences and the competitive
  environment
• Planning implementation are interdependent
  processes but separate issues

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Planning Implementing are Separated (in larger
organizations)

• Strategic planning occurs at the top levels of
  the organization and implementation falls on
  lower-level managers and frontline employees
• Top level managers often do not understand the
  problems that occur with implementation
• Front line and lower-level managers often have
  little say in developing the marketing plan

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A Key Problem in Marketing Planning

• how to get employees excited and motivated to
  support the implementation of the plan.

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The Components of Marketing Implementation

• Shared goals objectives
• Marketing structure
• Systems processes
• Resources
• People

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Shared Goals Objectives

• Without a common direction,different areas of the
  organization pursue unrelated goals
• Institutionalizing shared goals values in the
  firms culture is a long term process
• occurs through employee training socialization
• tends to stimulate organizational commitment in
  implementing the marketing strategy meeting
  customer needs

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Marketing Structure

• The organization of a firms marketing activities
• Divides marketing responsibilities or centralizes
  decision making
• centralized marketing structure very cost
  efficient effective through standardization
• decentralized marketing structure place
  marketing decisions close to the front line where
  customer needs are a priority
• represents a tradeoff between reduced costs
  increased flexibility

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Systems Processes

• The marketing information system is a critical
  part of the planning process
• Collects internal and external information to
  assist in strategy development
• Also assists in evaluating controlling all
  marketing activities

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Resources

• Must consider tangible resources including
  financial resources, manufacturing capacity, or
  facilities equipment
• Also must consider intangible resources such as
  marketing expertise, customer loyalty, and
  external relationships/strategic alliances
• Any gaps may require additional resource
  allocation from top management

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People

• Implementation is effected by the quality,
  quantity, diversity skills of the work force
• Motivation leadership are key
• leaders are responsible for establishing the
  corporate culture motivating employees
• open communication supports successful
  implementation

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Human Side of Implementation

• Employee selection training
• matching employees skills abilities to the
  marketing tasks to be performed
• Employee evaluation compensation policies
• outcome based versus behavior based rewards
• Employee motivation, satisfaction commitment
• dependent upon training, evaluation/compensation
  leadership

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Compensation Programs

• Outcome based
• compensation is based on measurable, quantitative
  standards (sales or margins)
• easy to use, requires less supervision works
  well when the goal is sales or profits
• Behavior based
• evaluates effort, motivation, teamwork,
  customer problem solving ability
• difficult costly to administer

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Leadership

• How managers communicate with employees as well
  as how they motivate employees to implement
  marketing strategy
• Establishes the corporate culture necessary for
  implementation success

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Approaches to Marketing Implementation

• Command approach
• Change approach
• Consensus approach
• Cultural approach
• See Exhibit 10.4
• in text

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Command Approach

• Top level selection of marketing strategies with
  lower level implementation
• Advantages
• makes decision making easier
• reduces uncertainty as to what is to be done
• Disadvantages
• does not consider the feasibility of
  implementation
• divides the organization into strategiest
  implementers
• can create motivation problems

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Command Approach

• Works best when
• an organization is headed by a strong leader
• the strategy is simple to implement
• the strategy process poses few threats

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Change Approach

• Focuses explicitly on implementation
• Modifies the organization in ways that will
  ensure successful implementation
• Changes the organzation to fit the strategy
• Disadvantages
• separates planning implementation
• time consuming

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Consensus Approach

• Top managers lower-level employees work
  together to evaluate develop marketing
  strategies
• Different functional areas come together to
  brainstorm develop the strategy
• Advantages
• moves decision making authority closer to the
  front line
• Disadvantages
• difficult to coordinate

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Consensus Approach

• Tends to work best in environments that are
• complex
• uncertain
• highly unstable

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Cultural Approach

• Allows a participative style with lower levels of
  the organization
• Shapes the organizational culture
• Breaks down barriers between strategist
  implementators
• Employees design their work procedures consistent
  with organizational goals, missions, objectives
• a.k.a.-empowerment

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Cultural Approach

• Advantages
• certain types of employees thrive under this
  approach
• Disadvantages
• firm must spend more money on training
  selection to ensure qualified employees
• empowered employees must work harder because of
  their added decision making authority
• empowered employees may make costly mistakes

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Discuss

• When you become a marketing manager, which
  approach to implementation would you be most
  comfortable using, given your personality and
  personal preferences? Would your approach be
  universally applicable to any given situation?
  If not, how would you adapt your approach?
  Remember, adapting your basic approach means
  stepping out of your personal comfort zone to
  match the situation at hand.

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Role of Internal Marketing

• The managerial actions necessary to make all
  members of the organization understand accept
  their role in implementation
• internal products-marketing strategies
• internal prices-changes that must be undertaken
  to implement the marketing strategy
• internal distribution-how the strategies are
  communicated internally (training)
• internal promotion-persuasive communications
• Comment Also refer to your People notes from
  our discussion on Goods, Services, and Brands

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Implementing Marketing Activities

• Good communication is key
• upward communication from the front line
• allows management to understand problems needs
  of the employees
• Employees must understand the implementation
  timetable
• specific activities to be performed, time
  required, sequence, who is responsible

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Implementing an Internal Marketing Approach

• Conscientious recruitment, selection training
  of employees
• Top managers must be completely committed to the
  marketing strategy overall plan
• Employee compensation must be linked to
  marketing strategy implementation
• Open communication must exist at all levels
• Organizational structure, processes policies
  must match the marketing strategy

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Causes of Improper Implementation

• Marketing strategy is inappropriate or
  unrealistic
• Implementation was inappropriate for the strategy
  or was simply mismanaged
• Internal /or external environment changed
  significantly between the development of the
  marketing strategy its implementation

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Discuss

• What do you see as the major stumbling blocks to
  the successful use of the internal marketing
  approach? Given the stratification of employees
  in most organizations (e.g., CEO, middle
  management, staff employees), is internal
  marketing a viable approach for most
  organizations? Why or why not?

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Formal Marketing Controls

• Input control mechanisms
• Process control mechanisms
• Output control mechanisms

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Control Performance Measures
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Informal Marketing Controls

• Employee self control
• Employee social control
• Employee cultural control

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Employee self-control individualized control

• Job Satisfaction
• Organizational commitment
• Commitment to the marketing plan
•  

Source Adapted from Bernard J. Jaworski,
Toward a Theory of Marketing Control
Environmental Context, Control Types, and
Consequences, Journal of Marketing 52 (July
1988), 23-39.
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Employee social control small-group control

•  
• Shared organizational values
• Social and behavioral norms

Source Adapted from Bernard J. Jaworski,
Toward a Theory of Marketing Control
Environmental Context, Control Types, and
Consequences, Journal of Marketing 52 (July
1988), 23-39.
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Employee cultural control culture of the entire
organization

•  Organizational culture
• Organizational stories, rituals, and legends
• Cultural change
•  

Source Adapted from Bernard J. Jaworski,
Toward a Theory of Marketing Control
Environmental Context, Control Types, and
Consequences, Journal of Marketing 52 (July
1988), 23-39.