Who

Marketing and Industry Trend

Marketing is increasingly attracting the interest of many business organizations, to varying degrees. This is mostly because marketing makes such an important contribution to organizational objectives and/or profits. As a result, marketing rapidly has been adopted in both the business sector and the non-profit sector.

Early leaders in marketing include many of the consumer packaged goods and consumer durable companies in the business sector and these industries have had a successful and rapid spread of healthy marketing management and processes.

The service industries have generally lagged behind manufacturing firms in adopting and using healthy marketing concepts and tools. The major modern-day challenge in the service industry is that the services are intangible, inseparable, variable and perishable. Each of these service characteristics pose challenges and require different strategies.

Healthy marketing practices already have attracted consumer service firms such as airlines, banks, insurance companies, stock brokerage firms, hotels, real estate firms and management consulting firms.

Retailers are anxious to find new strategies to attract and hold customers. Geographic, product and service differentiation has eroded. For all these reasons, many retailers are rethinking their marketing strategies.

Marketing is increasingly attracting the interest of private non-profit sector organizations such as hospitals, colleges, charities, churches, museums and foundations. Until recently, hospitals and colleges faced so much demand and so little competition that they saw no need for healthy marketing practices. That all has changed, and now hospitals are seeing soaring costs and are turning to marketing, while colleges faced with rising costs and falling or flat enrollments also are using marketing to compete for student funds.

Many long-standing non-profit organizations have lost members and are using marketing to modernize their missions and products. Even North America’s religious organizations are losing members and failing to attract enough financial support and have started using marketing to a greater degree. Many agencies in the government sector are incorporating marketing plans into their strategies and services.

Professional services businesses such as law firms, accounting firms and medical practices are starting to use marketing in the face of a more competitive market, when they formerly may have believed it was unprofessional to use marketing concepts and tools. Some service businesses are small and do not use formal management or marketing techniques at all, unfortunately missing the boat on becoming a healthy small business and marketing-centric organization.

There is no doubt that marketing plays a key role in all industry sectors, private or public, for-profit or non-profit, big and small.

Is your marketing healthy? Take the online marketing health test to help you determine whether your organization is moving towards healthy marketing practices. An advertisement or a direct mail campaign is indeed marketing, but does not make a healthy marketing organization. If you are using marketing concepts and tools, a periodic marketing audit health check-up is recommended.

Why

A major reason to undertake an independent and objective marketing audit is that it will help establish a baseline for healthy marketing and maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of your marketing strategies, functions and processes. Simply knowing the health of your marketing and being as marketing healthy as possible puts your organization ahead of the competition. There are many other reasons you may choose to incorporate a marketing health check-up into your organizational plans. They include:

• Low marks on the online marketing health assessment test, indicating a need for a more thorough and independent marketing audit and review of your approach to marketing.
• A sincere interest and concern as the leader of your organization for your marketing efforts to be as effective and efficient as possible.
• Wanting to get the big picture – an MRI scan of your organization’s marketing functions.
• Knowing that adjustments need to be made to realize a steady increase of your organization’s goals.
• Your organization is looking to take the business to the next level.
• Your organization wants to transition from focusing on production, products or sales to becoming a marketing oriented, customer-centric organization.
• A need for re-integrating your marketing mix, due to a change in one or more of the mix elements. Tinkering with one P in the mix will affect all the Ps in some way.
• A desire to shift management from an intuitive marketing organization to a knowledge-based marketing organization.
• Changes in your business life cycle.
• Changes in your product life cycle.
• Changes and advances in technology.
• Changes in consumer needs and wants for your product.
• Conflict in delivery and sales channels.
• Competitive pressures or changes within the competitive landscape.
• Undergoing strategic changes and brand changes.
• Organizational changes or turnover affecting the marketing, sales, product, R&D, SBUs and customer service areas.
• Downsizing or increasing marketing resources.
• Lack of coordination between corporate, divisional and business units, resulting in duplication and inefficiencies in processes, efforts and marketing expenditures.
• An underperforming marketing or sales department or business unit.
• A desire to ensure that your marketing efforts are meeting your institutional objectives.
• Your organization is stuck; there’s an inability to make winning strategic or tactical decisions easily.
• No growth, slow growth or fast growth.
• Globalization.
• De-regulation.
• Advances in telecommunications.
• Market fragmentation