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Marketing Management

1. The definition of marketing management, according to Kotler, is "managing profitable customer relationships (by) attracting new customers (and) retaining and growing customers' (Power Point slide No.4, Chapter 1). Marketing management according to Ken Schaefle is, "The building block of the marketing process and it should form the foundation of the organization...everyone should be dedicated to the customer" (Class 10/7/04). See attached Exhibit #1, Marketing Management Orientations.
2. Strategic Planning is defined as "the process of developing and maintaining a strategic fit between the organization's goals and capabilities and its changing marketing opportunities". (PowerPoint slide No. 32, Chapter 2). Strategic planning, and its 4 steps of defining the company mission, setting company objectives and goals, designing the business portfolio, and planning marketing and other strategies are essential for marketing managers as they must understand the core values, mission and vision statements of the company in order to comprehend the culture they are working in. Each of the 4 steps, and their importance in the process, are defined in Exhibit #2, Steps in the Strategic Planning Process. As indicated in a Business Week magazine article titled "Strategic Planning", a recent study by the Association of Management Consulting firms found the executives, consultants and B-school professors all agree that business strategy is now the single most important management issue and will remain so for the next five years. In the 1990's, Procter & Gamble Co.'s strategic decision to compete on the basis of low prices allowed the company to reinvent itself and its industry, resulting in profit margins of 11.6% over their prior 6.4% margin. Only through the strategic planning process can marketing managers discover their company's current culture and beliefs, which will assist in determining the correct marketing mix to be utilized for each SBU. This will ultimately...