Marketing department is entrusted with a function to identify new customers and retain the present. Customer is king and they look after the king’s needs. Therefore, the department holds an important position in any organisation.
Deliverables (i.e. expectations from the Department)
- Identification of Customer
- Communication of Product Value to the customer (prospects and new)
- Retaining existing customers
- Resolving customers’ concerns vis-à-vis other departments
- Suggesting product improvement
- Building brands
- Advising pricing, packaging, labels, etc. of product for sale improvement
- Demand forecast
- Creating defining moments (i.e. special moments) for customers which thrill & surprise them for repeat sale and generating referrals
- Maintaining an important interface between Customer and Organisation
Important developments in the Marketing function
- Evolution of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software analysing 360 degree perspective of customer
- Cloud software connecting entire organisation and customers
- Internet stores managed by Organisation
- Internet stores managed by Others and organisation keeping its’ products
- Web advertising (Like Websites, Blogs, Google Ads, emails, etc.)
- Social Website promotions (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
- Mobile promotions (like mobile applications, ads, sms, etc.)
- Mega shopping malls
- Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) – growing awareness and commitment giving product presence
- New overseas markets (Flat world removing boundaries)
- More attention on reputation management (information moves at electric speed)
Traditional / Normal ways of working in Marketing function
- Physical stores
- Ads on Print media (Newspaper, magazines, pamphlets, etc.)
- Ads on Audio-Visual Media (Television, FM, Theatre, etc.)
- Sponsorship of events
- Ads on Clothes (T-shirts, caps, wrist-bands, etc.)
- Free Samples, increasing discounts
Conflicts (Inter-departmental) / Challenges with Marketing function
- How much to pursue for an order to a prospects? (More pursue →Push Sales → repulsion → spoils the goodwill of organisation → lost sale)
- High promise; poor quality / delivery of product / services (broken promise → lost reputation)
- Conflicts with Accounts department
- Accepting customers’ claims / incentives / promotion schemes faster than Accounts Dept., which relies on documents → Mismatch in customers’ receivables
- Month-end turnover targets → Mismatch in monthly turnover
- Customer receivables maintained separately by Marketing department since not getting updated information from Accounts department → challenges in reconciliation
- Cheque dishonours not reflecting in receivables maintained by Marketing → sale to customer beyond credits allowed
- Sale without customer’s credit verification → increased cost of recovery of receivables → cost of litigation
- Sale without proper documentation / security or bypassing commercial clauses of contract à difficult receivables or increased cost due to non-collection of statutory taxes (like VAT / Service Tax, etc.) or statutory forms for claiming concessional tax rate
- Collusion with bigger customer to give favoured pricing of the product or communicating future decisions
Some of the Process Implementation for better Marketing function
- Reiteration by Top Management regularly for following:
- No push sales → only guided sales
- Promise to customer what you can deliver
- Sales and receivables as per Accounts final
- Recovery of receivables with Marketing
- Sale after customer verification, proper documentation and as per commercial clauses of the contract
- Fair practices with customers
- CRM software to use for customer management
- Following reports to receive to ensure deliverables
- Existing Customers, Receivables New Prospects analysis region-wise
- Product Sales Analysis region-wise
- Receivables analysis
- Pending orders’ analysis
- Following records can be maintained to generate above reports
- Customer Master
- Existing customer’s follow-up records
- New prospect’s follow-up records
