Changing Role Of Marketing

The Changing Role of Marketing in the Corporation

The Changing Role of Marketing in the Corporation

Summarised by

ONI AKINOLA

STREAM 1

MBA 802

ASSIGNMENT

INTRODUCTION

Over the past two decades changes in the concept and practice of marketing have been fundamentally reshaping the field .Many of these changes have been initiated by industry in the form of new organisation types without explicit concern for their underlying theoretical explanation or justification.

The purpose of this article is to outline roots of changes that are occurring in marketing especially marketing management as a body of knowledge theory and practice and to suggest the need for a new paradigm of the marketing function within the firm. We start by examining the origins of the marketing management framework, the generally accepted paradigm of the marketing discipline for the past three decades then the shifting managerial practice is examined with close emphasis on dissolution of hierarchical bureaucratic structures in favour of networks of buyer Ð'- seller relationships and strategic alliances. Within those new forms of organisation the changing role of marketing is discussed and a reconceptualisation of marketing as a field of study and practice is outlined.

MARKETING AS A SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROCESS

The early roots of marketing as an area of academic study can be found beginning around 1910 in Midwestern American land-grant universities. The analysis was centred on commodities and the institutions involved in moving them from site, mine or farm (Breyer 1934: Duddy and Revzan 1953) to industrial processors, users and consumers and the functions performed by these institutions (McGarry 1950: Weld 1917. Marketing was seen as a set of social and economic processes rather than as a set of managerial responsibilities.

MARKETING MANAGEMENT

The managerial approach to the study of marketing evolved in the 1950s and 1960s growing out of a more traditional sales management approach with emphasis on product planning and development, pricing, promotion and distribution. Marketing research was introduced in management practice as a vehicle for aligning the firm's productive capabilities with the needs of the marketplace. The articulation of the marketing concept in the mid to the late 1950s posited that marketing was the principal function of the firm (along with innovation) because the main purpose of any business was to create a satisfied customer.

ORGANISATIONAL REFORMS

Large hierarchical integrated corporate structures were the dominant organisation forms as the managerial approach to marketing developed in the 1950s and 1960s and firm creating marketing department early pioneers included such names as Procter & Gamble, General foods, Gillette etc. However during the 1980s new forms of business organisation became prominent features of the economic landscape. This new organisation emphasized partnerships between firms ,multiple types of ownership and partnering within the organisation (divisions, wholly owned subsidiaries ,licensees, franchisees, joint ventures etc) teamwork among members of the organisation often with team members from two or more cooperating firms sharing of responsibility for developing converging and overlapping technologies .These confederations are called by many names including "networks", "value adding partnerships", "alliances'' and "shamrocks". Their main purpose is for quick response and flexibility to accelerating change in technology, competition and customer preferences. The best visual image for these organisations may be a wheel instead of a pyramid.

Transaction Repeated Transactions Long-Term Relationships