During the last decade the marketing function has not been alien to different currents of thought in vogue for business administration. In addition, it has been influenced by its own opinion leaders, both academically and practically.
The issue of quality, with all its variations and applications, is an area of work that marketers in the 1970s tried to implement as the concept of marketing. That is, the orientation towards the client of all the activities of the company.
The issue did not have the success, relevance or impact that the quality phenomenon achieved in the 90's with the concepts of customer service and customer satisfaction.
Customer satisfaction involves extensive measurement work to know their behavior, establish parameters that indicate satisfaction and follow up on those parameters in order, after the investigation, to design programs that raise the level of satisfaction.
Today, the newest thing in this type of program is the Return on Quality (ROQ), or performance on quality, as a way to measure the effort required to raise quality and establish the relationship that the cost of said effort saves with the increase in customer satisfaction.
The value of the brand (Brand Equity) is a concept promoted by companies that start from the basis that the product as such does not exist permanently, what does exist is a brand that guarantees the client the solution of their requirements.
There are different definitions and different methodologies to establish this brand value, as well as specific programs aimed at maintaining and increasing it.
Within this topic it is convenient to locate what is related to brand loyalty, by custom literally translated as brand loyalty. However, little is done to define and establish that brand loyalty, which would be the most outstanding market indicator of the success of a company and the proof of the value of its adherence to the concept of marketing.
The issue of loyalty programs stands out due to the fact that what started as an airline program for their frequent flyers, became a transferable tool to many other different types of money and because, although it is a promotional tool, its use it is permanent and not temporary.
Currently, these other lines are related to each other with the aspect of travel and similar expenses, although the individual does not leave their city of residence, but the concept of preferential customer can be extended to practically any industry.
In the particular field of what we used to call Industrial Marketing, it seems that the only obvious transformation that has taken place in the last thirty years is the appearance of the term Business to Business Marketing.
A recent literature review shows that the relevant topics in the industrial environment are still Purchase buying behavior and Successful sales programs and that changes in consumer product marketing lead the Industrial marketer to face a more intense challenge to respond to the needs the client's; as opposed to making decisions focused on the sales process, the production process or the generation of income via volume.
However, a more in-depth review makes it possible to find some terms that show a response to this challenge: Network Approach (relationships), Service Quality (satisfaction), Strategic Response (strategic planning) and Positioning (communication).
The topic of information systems, now known as IT, Information Technology, has been the most prolific in significant changes for marketing. And today the subject is exciting because advances in computing redefine the size of databases, as well as the versatility of access to them through an interactive, flexible technology platform oriented to exploration and discovery.
The study of buying behavior is today enriched with the decision models approach, since to understand customer behavior we must work in three sequential stages: understanding, prediction and behavior modification. The modeling approach can be used in all three, from a highly conceptual level for understanding to a mathematically sophisticated level for prediction.
Truly useful models are those that have a conceptually solid base, a computerized mathematical development that allows simulations and, finally, the possibility of playing with decision variables that are really controllable by the company.
Some examples of models with practical application are those that have to do with Market Participation, Positioning and Media Planning.
Beyond the eminently operational concepts of Downsizing and Outsourcing, reengineering, as a process of organizational redesign based on processes, has been little treated or not reported for the Marketing area.
Possibly in this area, each company should follow its own reengineering scheme that leads to the identification of its Marketing processes and a consequent organizational redefinition.
Two examples that can help during this redefinition are McKenna's Relationship Marketing and Schultz's Integrated Marketing Communications approaches.
Relationship Marketing combines all the elements of the Marketing mix to develop an ongoing relationship with consumers for a whole family of related products and services.
Integrated Marketing Communications focuses Marketing activities on the implicit communication of the product, price, distribution and, of course, personal selling, promotion and advertising.
IT and the process approach give rise to terms such as ERP (enterprise resource planning), CRM (customer relationship marketing), SCM (supply chain management), one to one marketing, Mobile Marketing, Cyber Marketing, e-marketing, Reverse Marketing, etc. At the same time, other minor ideas have appeared, such as the suggestion to change the four P's to the four C's, such bestsellers as the Marketing War, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, and others that provide a lot of novelty and little substance.
The interest, concern and, at times, the perplexity of the businessman in general, and the marketer in particular, in the face of these developments are perfectly understandable. However, a word of caution never hurts. Is this specific topic a fad?
During the last decade, the Marketing function has not been alien to different currents of thought in vogue for Business Administration. In addition, it has been influenced by its own opinion leaders, both academically and practically.
The interest and concern of the businessman in general, and of the marketer in particular, to keep up to date in this field are perfectly understandable. However, a word of caution never hurts. Is this specific topic a fad?
The answer is given by what does not change over time and is necessarily related to the long-term strategy.
In Marketing, today we can change the terminology of the four P's or emphasize comprehensive communication, as was done before with the Marketing War, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing and so many other successful bookstore titles.
What we cannot change is the fact that market-oriented companies are those that, in economies of open competition, successfully remain over time.
And what operatively defines this market orientation are three strategic decisions: Customer Segmentation, Development and Administration of a Product Portfolio and their Positioning in the minds of the customers of each segment served.
Consequently, what must be validated in each of the currents of thought described above is, in the first place, whether they can lead to improving the company's ability to better understand the market it serves. In other words, they help to understand, predict and modify buying behavior.
Second, if they offer the possibility of improving strategic segmentation, product and positioning decisions. This may be true of Relationships Marketing, Brand Equity, and Integrated Communications.
Third, validate that they allow the company to improve its performance measures based on this market orientation. That is, measures such as Brand Satisfaction and Loyalty.
Finally, the possibility should be sought that better knowledge of the market, the decisions made and their effects, measured through performance indicators, are incorporated into a comprehensive scheme that integrates them within a model, thus facilitating its practical application within the company.
To reconceptualize Marketing, it is necessary to make four considerations regarding the processes aimed at facilitating exchanges.
The first one is a time consideration, since the exchanges should not be done once, but repeatedly. Furthermore, in the long term they must reflect a significant degree of customer loyalty to the company. Short-term market share should lead to long-term brand loyalty.
The second is an informational consideration, since, in addition to knowing what the company is capable of offering its customers, it is necessary to focus on understanding what they expect to obtain from the company. Furthermore, this understanding of buying behavior must lead to its prediction and even to its modification in favor of the company.
The third consideration has to do with management, from the point of view that there are processes for attracting customers to the company and processes for pushing the company towards them.
The fourth is of scope, since while some decisions are of operational importance (product, price, distribution and promotion), others are of strategic relevance (segments, products and positioning).
Once Marketing has been reconceptualized in this way, we must redesign an organization in such a way that its main objective in the long term is to achieve a certain degree of customer loyalty, making it the most important performance measure.
Achieving this degree of loyalty requires strategically defining which groups of customers to serve (segments), what sets of benefits or solutions to offer them (products) and what personality to assign them, along with the way to communicate them (positioning), to differentiate them competitively from those of the others Business.
In operational terms, the Marketing department of a company would be functionally structured in three areas:
Information. Related to market and customer analysis; Responsible for the task of understanding, predicting and modifying their purchasing behavior and evaluated through the use of the Information System for Decision Support.
Operation. Related to the facilitation of exchanges in the short term; Responsible for the task of developing and managing existing products, including their pricing, distribution and promotion, and evaluated through market share.
Strategy. Related to the definition, establishment and measurement of customer loyalty indicators; Responsible for segmentation strategies, product set and positioning and evaluated through customer response indicators: knowledge, preference, satisfaction, loyalty, etc.
Beyond solving a functional or process problem within an organization structure, what is really important today is to recognize how important it is that the strategy of the company is oriented towards the market. The structure and process that support that strategy are a consequence.
