group 1 andy huynh joshua jackson john o’dell shlagya rajasekhar lindsay svarckopf rachel wentink...
DESCRIPTION
Marketing Production / Operations Finance/ Accounting Informatio n Technology Research & Developme nt Sales & Other Marketing Groups Customer Service Quality & Regulatory Administratio n Human Resources Integration to MarketingTRANSCRIPT
AdministrationDesigning products and services that satisfy those
wants and needs
Functional Areas
Production Operations
Finance and Accounting
The support of various functional areas is required to perform marketing activities. Some of the functional areas in an organization that work closely with marketing are Production operations, human resources, Finance and accounting, information technology and research and development. Companies realize the importance of Marketing in gaining competitive advantage and to gain this completive advantage the integration of marketing with all the functional area’s is a necessity. To create this synergy, companies need to tie their organization goals and objectives with each of the functional areas goals and tasks. The responsibility of marketing a product or service and increasing or expanding market share lies equally with all the functional areas.
2
Integration to Marketing
I am using this image on the wiki page – just included it here in case you would like to add it to the title slide or somewhere else in the presentation.
3
Marketing
Five Elements
Planning - deciding in advance what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and who should do it. Planning lays the path for the organization. The planning function involves establishing both short-term and long-term goals.
Organizing - identifying responsibilities to be performed, grouping responsibilities into departments, and specifying organizational relationships. The purpose is to coordinate all elements of an organization.
Staffing - filling job positions with the right people at the right time. It is determining staffing needs, writing job descriptions, recruiting, and screening people to fill positions.
Directing - leading people to achieve the goals of the organization. This involves allocating resources and providing an effective support system.
Controlling - evaluates quality in all areas and detects potential and actual defects in regards to the organization's plan. This can ensure high-quality performance and products.
Marketing within Administration: Integrated Marketing Communications and
Vertical Integration
Business administration is the process of managing every aspect of the business to maintain growth, stability, and successful business operations. This functional area includes important decision-making and efficient organization of people and resources to direct business processes towards common business goals. Administration is often seen as paperwork and paper-filling, but it encompasses the coordination of all the procedures that enable a product or service to be delivered to the customer. Business administration is also known as general management. In some organizations, management is a subset of business administration.
The "Five Elements of Administration" were described by Henri Fayol who was one of the fathers of business administration. These elements of administration include:
Planning - deciding in advance what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and who should do it. Planning lays the path for the organization. The planning function involves establishing both short-term and long-term goals.
Organizing - identifying responsibilities to be performed, grouping responsibilities into departments, and specifying organizational relationships. The purpose is to coordinate all elements of an organization.
Staffing - filling job positions with the right people at the right time. It is determining staffing needs, writing job descriptions, recruiting, and screening people to fill positions.
Directing - leading people to achieve the goals of the organization. This involves allocating resources and providing an effective support system. Directing requires exceptional interpersonal skills and the ability to motivate people.
Controlling - evaluates quality in all areas and detects potential and actual defects in regards to the organization's plan. This ensures high-quality performance and satisfactory results while maintaining an orderly and problem-free environment.
Two examples of effective marketing within administration include Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) and Vertical Integration. IMC is customer-centric and data-driven method of communicating with customers. IMC is the coordination and integration of all marketing communication tools, resources, and functions within an organization. The main goal is to maximize impact on consumers while utilizing minimal costs. Administration and Marketing have to work hand-in-hand to make IMC successful. Marketing activities are planned and monitored by Administration, but implemented/executed by marketing.
Vertical integration is a type of management control, where several parts of the supply chain are united through a common owner. This common owner more times than not is one corporation. Each part of the supply chain generally produces a different product or service for a common need of the corporation. Administration establishes and initiates vertical integration plans by performing a market analysis, selecting prospective vendors to buy, and negotiating purchases of these vendors. Marketing can be incorporated in the negotiation/sales pitch process by communicating the benefit of merger between organizations. They can also market any excess quantity produced to external consumers.
4
R&D working with Marketing
Marketing and R&D work together in development of new products and modifications to existing products
New product introduction
Marketing researches and determines customer needs and shares with R&D
R&D determines project feasibility
Groups work together throughout product development cycle to evaluate tradeoffs and plan product commercialization
Marketing commercializes new product
Issues are examined and resolutions identified by R&D
Resolution options are explored by marketing and other team members
Path forward is chosen
The marketing and R&D departments work together both in the development of new products, as well as the modifications of existing products.
During new product developments marketing will research customer user needs and determine the market opportunity for a potential new product. If the market potential meets internal criteria the marketing representative will write a business case and make a proposal to the management team to fund their new development. If their business case is approved the marketing team will begin working with the R&D group to explain the new product and the necessary requirements. The R&D group will then work through the project and begin evaluating the feasibility of the proposal and what will be required for the development of the new product. Throughout the product development cycle the R&D group will work with the marketing group to ensure user needs are being met and to determine any tradeoffs that need to be made.
The R&D group is also responsible for correcting reported issues with current products that are already in the field. The R&D group examines the issue and determines potential resolutions, then evaluates these resolutions with marketing and other core team members to determine the path forward.
5
Quality and Regulatory working with Marketing
Quality: Monitors the quality of incoming and outgoing parts and products, internal processes, manages internal and external audits
Writes quality management steps processes that marketing must follow
Audits sales collateral developed by marketing
Audits literature pieces tied to the product – i.e. manual, labels, etc.
Interacts with marketing on product development core teams
Regulatory: Ensure current and future products meet regulatory requirements, manage corrective actions, customer notification letters, owns government agency relationship
Helps marketing understand regulatory guidelines and ensure compliance
Audits sales collateral developed by marketing
Works with marketing to send out customer notifications and corrective action letters
The quality assurance organization is responsible for quality system development, management, and process analysis and improvement. The quality assurance organization works with marketing through core teams in product development, as well as daily in the review and approval of marketing materials and other product related literature, for example, user manuals.
The regulatory group ensures current and future products meet applicable regulatory requirements. When necessary they work with marketing to send out corrective action letters and product notification letters.
Both the quality and regulatory groups help marketing monitor customer feedback received from product issues to product suggestions.
Diagram Source:
6
Develops 3 to 5 year strategic plan for business
Creates business case to develop new products to meet market needs
Manages the product life cycle
Tactical or Commercial Operations Marketing
Post sales support marketing organization
Manages existing product line from launch through obsolescence
Supports sales organization
Commercialize new products
Supports tactical marketing group
Assists tactical with annual marketing plan development and implementation
Within the marketing organization there can be several different types of marketing groups. Three of the most common types are strategic marketing, tactical marketing, and marketing communications. These three groups work closely together with one another, although each has their own separate goals and objectives.
Strategic marketing is responsible for the product life cycle and product management. They are also responsible for understanding customer needs and market potential for new products, and then working with the R&D group through the product development cycle to deliver new products to the market place.
Tactical marketing or commercial operations marketing is the post sales support organization and they work directly with the sales organization on a daily basis. This group manages the existing product line, and helps to commercialize new products.
Finally, marketing communications supports the tactical marketing organization through assistance with development of the annual marketing plan and implementation of the marketing plan. The marketing communications organization is also responsible for driving leads to the sales organization through lead generation activity.
Bridges the gap between marketing and the consumer
Becomes a data source for future marketing efforts
If they do not talk the company will fail to reach customers effectively
Contrary to popular opinion, marketing and sales are not the same things! However, sales and marketing must work closely together in order to effectively reach customers. Marketing will fashion campaigns towards target audiences and will get much of the before and after data from their sales department. For instance, if the marketing team targets low income families yet the sales department only made 20% of their total sales with this demographic then the marketing team can tailor their next campaign to target more profitable customer groups. Likewise, if marketing collaborates with R&D and creates a new product for the public, sales can use previous purchase data to communicate to the marketing department which groups could be potential buyers of the new product, based on historical sales data. In this way sales and marketing can work together to bridge the gap between the rest of the company and its customers.
8
Production/Operations
Production Objectives
Right Quality - The quality of the product is established based upon the customer's needs. The right quality is not necessarily the best quality.
Right Quantity - The manufacturing organization should produce the right quantity of product. If not enough production there will be shortages. If excess production, there will be increase in cost and liquidity for the company.
Right Time - Getting products where they need to be in the timeframe they need to be there. If a company does not adhere to this they risk losing vendors, suppliers, and customers.
Efficient Production Cost - These costs are established before the product is actually produced. The organization should do their best to adhere to the production budget to control costs and be as efficient as possible.
Production/Operations can be defined as all the activities directly related to the creation of goods and/or services through the transformation of inputs into outputs. The term "production" is used when the result is a "physical product," and "operation" is used when the output is a ''service". This functional area answers the demand that marketing develops through promotion of physical products and services.
The objectives of operations mainly focus on increasing efficiency and decreasing costs in association with business processes and product quality. The objectives of production include:
Right Quality - The quality of the product is established based upon the customer's needs. The right quality is not necessarily the best quality.
Right Quantity - The manufacturing organization should produce the right quantity of product. If not enough production there will be shortages. If excess production, there will be increases in cost and liquidity for the organization.
Right Time - Getting products where they need to be in the timeframe they need to be there. If a company does not adhere to this they risk losing vendors, suppliers, and customers.
Efficient Production Cost - These costs are established before the product is actually produced. The organization should do their best to adhere to the production budget to control costs and be as efficient as possible.
Two examples of effective marketing within production/operations include Resource-Based View Theory and JIT Inventory System. RBV Theory focuses on the link of marketing and production/operations. That link is resources. Resource outputs of production/operations become the inputs of marketing in the diagram shown in the following slide.
Just-in-Time Inventory System is a strategy that is utilized to improve ROI by reducing in-process inventory and costs associated with maintaining inventory. This was established by Toyota Motor Company to increase efficiency and reduce costs. JIT inventory systems look at excess inventory as a waste of time, effort, and resources. This is a push/pull relationship between marketing and production/operations. If marketing entices more demand then JIT inventory system is truly brought into play as production/operations has to meet demand numbers. Consequently, if demand is low, production/operations has to cut back production.
9
Human Resources
Human Resources is the department responsible for recruiting, hiring, and developing the human capital needed by organizations in order to execute upon the company’s overarching marketing strategy and its strategic goals.
10
Recruiting
Hiring
Developing
Collaboration
Marketing should collaborate with Human Resources to position the company as a desirable employer for the right type of job candidates, including the development of the company’s careers web site.
11
Customer Service
Customer Service is the department responsible for interacting with the customer post-sales, although some groups may also perform the initial sales function. Marketing should ensure the Customer Service representatives can convey the firm’s value proposition to the customer. Marketing should collaborate with Customer Service so that policies and procedures for handling customer complaints are an outgrowth of the overarching marketing strategy. Customer Service should update Marketing on insight into customer trends and issues.
12
Help understand marketing budget and expenditures like advertising, sales promotions, discounts etc. that produce long term customer preference and brand loyalty
Tailor financial package to suit customer’s financial requirements
Decide on customer’s creditworthiness quickly
Help answer customer queries courteously and quickly
Finance supports marketing activities by providing financial reports and analysis of various products and services offered by the company. The profitability reports also help marketing understand the returns from the marketing channels and individual customers. The other important supportive task performed by finance for Marketing is to help understand the budgets and expenses like advertising, sales promotions and discounts that are helpful in increasing customer loyalty. Often the value proposition of marketing is either misunderstood or ignored in an organization. Finance could provide a tremendous advantage in this context by providing clarity of the value of marketing through a rigorous financial model.
13
Integration marketing communications
Electronic devices
Information Technology (IT)
Information Technology, or IT is the fastest changing component in many business organizations today. Advancement of today's advertising channels have increased and provided more opportunities to market their products and services. IT is the newest component in integrating marketing communications with a mission to transmit consistent messages to consumers. Digital advertising has been both economical and effective for companies while heavily dependent on IT. Mass media such as television and social networks like Facebook and Twitter create a personal connection to consumers. Information is communicated real-time similar to e-mail and text message communication. Whether a consumer is on their on a mobile smartphone at a restaurant, browsing on a tablet device in the living room, on a laptop in the kitchen, or a desktop computer in the office, many today are connected to digital world via Internet.
14
Data into Information
Using IT power to reach the right customers at the right time
Promote brand loyalty to gain competitive advantage
IT – Customer relationship Management
IT bridges the gap digitally between the organization and customers to provide customer relationship management. The digital world has given consumers freedom, capability and features. Consumers have the choice to what marketing or news they want to subscribe to whether it's e-mail, texting, Facebook posts, or following Twitter tags. Information systems managed by IT turns data into information for management to make informed decisions and implement marketing strategies. Database extracts to perform trend analysis can give management strategic direction in a product life cycle. Using IT as an avenue to reach the right customers at the right time will help promote brand loyalty to gain a competitive advantage.
15
Effective Marketing with IT
IT must be leverage to have an effective marketing plan. The costs to reach a single customer digitally is significantly lower than physically. Effective marketing plans create awareness with relevant advertising. Internet browsers are equipped with cookies data to track a consumers preferences to target marketing ads on different websites. Leveraging IT and marketing can increase customer retention. As many companies know, selling to an existing customer is much cheaper than selling to a new customer.
16
Improves CRM
Integration of marketing communications
In conclusion, integration of marketing communications promotes synergy and harmony within an organization. It ensures consistency in transmission of messages to its targeted customers. Also, it strives for balancing importance weighed on both customer retention and customer acquisition. It is difficult to quantify a return on investment in marketing. But, as management strive to cut budgets and expenses, marketing must make its "Bang for Buck" impact for the organization. A cost benefit analysis proves successful implementation of integration of marketing communications improves both internal staff and external customer satisfaction. Thus gaining a competitive advantage for long-term success.
17
Functional Areas
Production Operations
Finance and Accounting
The support of various functional areas is required to perform marketing activities. Some of the functional areas in an organization that work closely with marketing are Production operations, human resources, Finance and accounting, information technology and research and development. Companies realize the importance of Marketing in gaining competitive advantage and to gain this completive advantage the integration of marketing with all the functional area’s is a necessity. To create this synergy, companies need to tie their organization goals and objectives with each of the functional areas goals and tasks. The responsibility of marketing a product or service and increasing or expanding market share lies equally with all the functional areas.
2
Integration to Marketing
I am using this image on the wiki page – just included it here in case you would like to add it to the title slide or somewhere else in the presentation.
3
Marketing
Five Elements
Planning - deciding in advance what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and who should do it. Planning lays the path for the organization. The planning function involves establishing both short-term and long-term goals.
Organizing - identifying responsibilities to be performed, grouping responsibilities into departments, and specifying organizational relationships. The purpose is to coordinate all elements of an organization.
Staffing - filling job positions with the right people at the right time. It is determining staffing needs, writing job descriptions, recruiting, and screening people to fill positions.
Directing - leading people to achieve the goals of the organization. This involves allocating resources and providing an effective support system.
Controlling - evaluates quality in all areas and detects potential and actual defects in regards to the organization's plan. This can ensure high-quality performance and products.
Marketing within Administration: Integrated Marketing Communications and
Vertical Integration
Business administration is the process of managing every aspect of the business to maintain growth, stability, and successful business operations. This functional area includes important decision-making and efficient organization of people and resources to direct business processes towards common business goals. Administration is often seen as paperwork and paper-filling, but it encompasses the coordination of all the procedures that enable a product or service to be delivered to the customer. Business administration is also known as general management. In some organizations, management is a subset of business administration.
The "Five Elements of Administration" were described by Henri Fayol who was one of the fathers of business administration. These elements of administration include:
Planning - deciding in advance what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and who should do it. Planning lays the path for the organization. The planning function involves establishing both short-term and long-term goals.
Organizing - identifying responsibilities to be performed, grouping responsibilities into departments, and specifying organizational relationships. The purpose is to coordinate all elements of an organization.
Staffing - filling job positions with the right people at the right time. It is determining staffing needs, writing job descriptions, recruiting, and screening people to fill positions.
Directing - leading people to achieve the goals of the organization. This involves allocating resources and providing an effective support system. Directing requires exceptional interpersonal skills and the ability to motivate people.
Controlling - evaluates quality in all areas and detects potential and actual defects in regards to the organization's plan. This ensures high-quality performance and satisfactory results while maintaining an orderly and problem-free environment.
Two examples of effective marketing within administration include Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) and Vertical Integration. IMC is customer-centric and data-driven method of communicating with customers. IMC is the coordination and integration of all marketing communication tools, resources, and functions within an organization. The main goal is to maximize impact on consumers while utilizing minimal costs. Administration and Marketing have to work hand-in-hand to make IMC successful. Marketing activities are planned and monitored by Administration, but implemented/executed by marketing.
Vertical integration is a type of management control, where several parts of the supply chain are united through a common owner. This common owner more times than not is one corporation. Each part of the supply chain generally produces a different product or service for a common need of the corporation. Administration establishes and initiates vertical integration plans by performing a market analysis, selecting prospective vendors to buy, and negotiating purchases of these vendors. Marketing can be incorporated in the negotiation/sales pitch process by communicating the benefit of merger between organizations. They can also market any excess quantity produced to external consumers.
4
R&D working with Marketing
Marketing and R&D work together in development of new products and modifications to existing products
New product introduction
Marketing researches and determines customer needs and shares with R&D
R&D determines project feasibility
Groups work together throughout product development cycle to evaluate tradeoffs and plan product commercialization
Marketing commercializes new product
Issues are examined and resolutions identified by R&D
Resolution options are explored by marketing and other team members
Path forward is chosen
The marketing and R&D departments work together both in the development of new products, as well as the modifications of existing products.
During new product developments marketing will research customer user needs and determine the market opportunity for a potential new product. If the market potential meets internal criteria the marketing representative will write a business case and make a proposal to the management team to fund their new development. If their business case is approved the marketing team will begin working with the R&D group to explain the new product and the necessary requirements. The R&D group will then work through the project and begin evaluating the feasibility of the proposal and what will be required for the development of the new product. Throughout the product development cycle the R&D group will work with the marketing group to ensure user needs are being met and to determine any tradeoffs that need to be made.
The R&D group is also responsible for correcting reported issues with current products that are already in the field. The R&D group examines the issue and determines potential resolutions, then evaluates these resolutions with marketing and other core team members to determine the path forward.
5
Quality and Regulatory working with Marketing
Quality: Monitors the quality of incoming and outgoing parts and products, internal processes, manages internal and external audits
Writes quality management steps processes that marketing must follow
Audits sales collateral developed by marketing
Audits literature pieces tied to the product – i.e. manual, labels, etc.
Interacts with marketing on product development core teams
Regulatory: Ensure current and future products meet regulatory requirements, manage corrective actions, customer notification letters, owns government agency relationship
Helps marketing understand regulatory guidelines and ensure compliance
Audits sales collateral developed by marketing
Works with marketing to send out customer notifications and corrective action letters
The quality assurance organization is responsible for quality system development, management, and process analysis and improvement. The quality assurance organization works with marketing through core teams in product development, as well as daily in the review and approval of marketing materials and other product related literature, for example, user manuals.
The regulatory group ensures current and future products meet applicable regulatory requirements. When necessary they work with marketing to send out corrective action letters and product notification letters.
Both the quality and regulatory groups help marketing monitor customer feedback received from product issues to product suggestions.
Diagram Source:
6
Develops 3 to 5 year strategic plan for business
Creates business case to develop new products to meet market needs
Manages the product life cycle
Tactical or Commercial Operations Marketing
Post sales support marketing organization
Manages existing product line from launch through obsolescence
Supports sales organization
Commercialize new products
Supports tactical marketing group
Assists tactical with annual marketing plan development and implementation
Within the marketing organization there can be several different types of marketing groups. Three of the most common types are strategic marketing, tactical marketing, and marketing communications. These three groups work closely together with one another, although each has their own separate goals and objectives.
Strategic marketing is responsible for the product life cycle and product management. They are also responsible for understanding customer needs and market potential for new products, and then working with the R&D group through the product development cycle to deliver new products to the market place.
Tactical marketing or commercial operations marketing is the post sales support organization and they work directly with the sales organization on a daily basis. This group manages the existing product line, and helps to commercialize new products.
Finally, marketing communications supports the tactical marketing organization through assistance with development of the annual marketing plan and implementation of the marketing plan. The marketing communications organization is also responsible for driving leads to the sales organization through lead generation activity.
Bridges the gap between marketing and the consumer
Becomes a data source for future marketing efforts
If they do not talk the company will fail to reach customers effectively
Contrary to popular opinion, marketing and sales are not the same things! However, sales and marketing must work closely together in order to effectively reach customers. Marketing will fashion campaigns towards target audiences and will get much of the before and after data from their sales department. For instance, if the marketing team targets low income families yet the sales department only made 20% of their total sales with this demographic then the marketing team can tailor their next campaign to target more profitable customer groups. Likewise, if marketing collaborates with R&D and creates a new product for the public, sales can use previous purchase data to communicate to the marketing department which groups could be potential buyers of the new product, based on historical sales data. In this way sales and marketing can work together to bridge the gap between the rest of the company and its customers.
8
Production/Operations
Production Objectives
Right Quality - The quality of the product is established based upon the customer's needs. The right quality is not necessarily the best quality.
Right Quantity - The manufacturing organization should produce the right quantity of product. If not enough production there will be shortages. If excess production, there will be increase in cost and liquidity for the company.
Right Time - Getting products where they need to be in the timeframe they need to be there. If a company does not adhere to this they risk losing vendors, suppliers, and customers.
Efficient Production Cost - These costs are established before the product is actually produced. The organization should do their best to adhere to the production budget to control costs and be as efficient as possible.
Production/Operations can be defined as all the activities directly related to the creation of goods and/or services through the transformation of inputs into outputs. The term "production" is used when the result is a "physical product," and "operation" is used when the output is a ''service". This functional area answers the demand that marketing develops through promotion of physical products and services.
The objectives of operations mainly focus on increasing efficiency and decreasing costs in association with business processes and product quality. The objectives of production include:
Right Quality - The quality of the product is established based upon the customer's needs. The right quality is not necessarily the best quality.
Right Quantity - The manufacturing organization should produce the right quantity of product. If not enough production there will be shortages. If excess production, there will be increases in cost and liquidity for the organization.
Right Time - Getting products where they need to be in the timeframe they need to be there. If a company does not adhere to this they risk losing vendors, suppliers, and customers.
Efficient Production Cost - These costs are established before the product is actually produced. The organization should do their best to adhere to the production budget to control costs and be as efficient as possible.
Two examples of effective marketing within production/operations include Resource-Based View Theory and JIT Inventory System. RBV Theory focuses on the link of marketing and production/operations. That link is resources. Resource outputs of production/operations become the inputs of marketing in the diagram shown in the following slide.
Just-in-Time Inventory System is a strategy that is utilized to improve ROI by reducing in-process inventory and costs associated with maintaining inventory. This was established by Toyota Motor Company to increase efficiency and reduce costs. JIT inventory systems look at excess inventory as a waste of time, effort, and resources. This is a push/pull relationship between marketing and production/operations. If marketing entices more demand then JIT inventory system is truly brought into play as production/operations has to meet demand numbers. Consequently, if demand is low, production/operations has to cut back production.
9
Human Resources
Human Resources is the department responsible for recruiting, hiring, and developing the human capital needed by organizations in order to execute upon the company’s overarching marketing strategy and its strategic goals.
10
Recruiting
Hiring
Developing
Collaboration
Marketing should collaborate with Human Resources to position the company as a desirable employer for the right type of job candidates, including the development of the company’s careers web site.
11
Customer Service
Customer Service is the department responsible for interacting with the customer post-sales, although some groups may also perform the initial sales function. Marketing should ensure the Customer Service representatives can convey the firm’s value proposition to the customer. Marketing should collaborate with Customer Service so that policies and procedures for handling customer complaints are an outgrowth of the overarching marketing strategy. Customer Service should update Marketing on insight into customer trends and issues.
12
Help understand marketing budget and expenditures like advertising, sales promotions, discounts etc. that produce long term customer preference and brand loyalty
Tailor financial package to suit customer’s financial requirements
Decide on customer’s creditworthiness quickly
Help answer customer queries courteously and quickly
Finance supports marketing activities by providing financial reports and analysis of various products and services offered by the company. The profitability reports also help marketing understand the returns from the marketing channels and individual customers. The other important supportive task performed by finance for Marketing is to help understand the budgets and expenses like advertising, sales promotions and discounts that are helpful in increasing customer loyalty. Often the value proposition of marketing is either misunderstood or ignored in an organization. Finance could provide a tremendous advantage in this context by providing clarity of the value of marketing through a rigorous financial model.
13
Integration marketing communications
Electronic devices
Information Technology (IT)
Information Technology, or IT is the fastest changing component in many business organizations today. Advancement of today's advertising channels have increased and provided more opportunities to market their products and services. IT is the newest component in integrating marketing communications with a mission to transmit consistent messages to consumers. Digital advertising has been both economical and effective for companies while heavily dependent on IT. Mass media such as television and social networks like Facebook and Twitter create a personal connection to consumers. Information is communicated real-time similar to e-mail and text message communication. Whether a consumer is on their on a mobile smartphone at a restaurant, browsing on a tablet device in the living room, on a laptop in the kitchen, or a desktop computer in the office, many today are connected to digital world via Internet.
14
Data into Information
Using IT power to reach the right customers at the right time
Promote brand loyalty to gain competitive advantage
IT – Customer relationship Management
IT bridges the gap digitally between the organization and customers to provide customer relationship management. The digital world has given consumers freedom, capability and features. Consumers have the choice to what marketing or news they want to subscribe to whether it's e-mail, texting, Facebook posts, or following Twitter tags. Information systems managed by IT turns data into information for management to make informed decisions and implement marketing strategies. Database extracts to perform trend analysis can give management strategic direction in a product life cycle. Using IT as an avenue to reach the right customers at the right time will help promote brand loyalty to gain a competitive advantage.
15
Effective Marketing with IT
IT must be leverage to have an effective marketing plan. The costs to reach a single customer digitally is significantly lower than physically. Effective marketing plans create awareness with relevant advertising. Internet browsers are equipped with cookies data to track a consumers preferences to target marketing ads on different websites. Leveraging IT and marketing can increase customer retention. As many companies know, selling to an existing customer is much cheaper than selling to a new customer.
16
Improves CRM
Integration of marketing communications
In conclusion, integration of marketing communications promotes synergy and harmony within an organization. It ensures consistency in transmission of messages to its targeted customers. Also, it strives for balancing importance weighed on both customer retention and customer acquisition. It is difficult to quantify a return on investment in marketing. But, as management strive to cut budgets and expenses, marketing must make its "Bang for Buck" impact for the organization. A cost benefit analysis proves successful implementation of integration of marketing communications improves both internal staff and external customer satisfaction. Thus gaining a competitive advantage for long-term success.
17