Until almost two decades ago, there was a strong belief that marketing and all the other functions of organizations existed in segregation and worked separately. But then, initially the line segregating the sales and marketing started to diminish slightly and now, the whole concept has been changed. Marketing is an institution wide endeavor where each and every segment within the organization works together to market its product/service. Until and unless there is an alignment between the marketing and the other functions, the corporate performance hurts. The performance metrics start improving when the sales team in particular, the marketing department and the manufacturing department are in complete sync. In our organization, initially the external forces impacting the organization are analyzed by using the PESTLE analysis; it considers the political, economic, social, technological, and legal aspects. Next, an SWOT analysis is conducted; it evaluates the internal and external environment for the company that identifies any opportunities, threats, weaknesses and strengths. From here, the company reaches a strategic focus and identifies the aspects that could be used to achieve a sustained competitive advantage (Kotler, 2011). The next step in the marketing plan is to decide the market that is to be targeted and the audience of that market is keenly studied. The needs and requirements of this target market are analyzed and then the marketing mix is decided. Whether a product is manufactured or service is given, the marketing mix is an essential requirement of the marketing plan. It consists of the 4Ps that are to be decided by the organization: the product strategy, pricing strategy, promotion strategy and the place strategy. When all these steps are complete, the organization is ready to take the next step that is of implementing the plan. In order to promote the plan, the strategic decisions known as the marketing mix are required by the organization. The marketing mix must be aligned with the brand awareness, the brand equity and the outcomes of the market (Huang & Sarig"Oll"U, 2014).
References
Huang, R. & Sarig"Oll"U, E. (2014). How brand awareness relates to market outcome, brand equity, and the marketing mix. Springer, pp. 113--132.
Kotler, P. (2011). Reinventing marketing to manage the environmental imperative. Journal Of Marketing, 75 (4), pp. 132--135.
