Marketing Skills and Team for Enhancing Business Performance - Assignment Example

Presentation and Supplementary Report Table of Contents Introduction 3 Challenges faced by Organizations 4 Resource Needs and Capabilities of Organizations 5 Organisational Competencies and Capabilities 6 Marketing Skills and Team for Enhancing Business Performance 7 Recommendations 8 References 10 Introduction Nowadays companies face a host of issues that might cripple their functionality, and in few extreme cases might also make them obsolete. The challenges depend on the operational functions of the organization. This study aims at evaluating the organizational challenges, needs, and capabilities, which would assist in analyzing the barriers that organizations face while assessing the marketing performance. The technological advancement is increasing more than the previous century. These technologies are being employed for offering cost effective and compatible requirements of the society. Organizations have to bear the high initial cost of acquiring and running the operations, but innovative developments in technology is shortening the life span of the previous one. This is leading the organizations to re-invest in current technology, and increasing the cost to the company. Apart from this, if today’s environment is considered, then the likes and dislikes of customers are also changing frequently. The fast altering opinions, lifestyle, and preferences pose a challenge for the manufacturing business organizations, as they cannot exactly estimate the preferences of their target customer group. Further, generation gaps in the society have also made it difficult for the marketers to determine the consumer behaviour. Companies are investing heavily on analyzing consumer behaviour, so as to determine the appropriate way of satisfying the needs of the customers. Business organizations are facing a two sided challenge, in which the first side is consumer preference and behaviour, on the other side is the cut throat competition in the market. The recession is certainly squeezing the spending of the consumers and the market of the companies. Countries like UK, USA slipped into deep credit crunch, which also led its companies both in public and private sector into the economic slowdown. This also indicates that the challenges faced by the organizations in the past are different from those faced now. The world is changing rapidly and the organizations are facing challenges like intense competition, rigorous ethical inspection, globalization, digitalized workplace, requirement for fast response, and increasing level of diversity. These mentioned challenges which are affecting the business organization are further affecting the society at large. Challenges faced by Organizations Managers in organisations measure marketing performances for evaluating and analysing effectiveness and efficiency of the business. This can be accomplished by concentrating on the alignment of the strategies, activities, and business goals. Performance management is one of the major functions that are applicable in case of product development, logistics, and also in case of manufacturing (Arnold, 2008). Assessing the marketing performance is a significant task for the managers and the other stakeholders in order to survive in the competitive environment. In order to measure the marketing performance, the management has to undertake certain functions from the control perspective. However, there are many challenges which business organizations faces while such measurement. Marketing is not a transaction; rather it is an assortment of complex components (Lambin, 2008). The first challenge that marketers face is that they cannot decide the level at which the performance need to be measured. Metrics like expenses and revenue are measured by all the organizations. However, if other elements, such as sponsorship, television commercials, promotional events or shows, external factors like the interest rates, competition, weather, prices, etc that also affects the performance of the organization are considered, then it becomes difficult to ascertain the level at which performance would be measured (Hutt, and Speh, 2012). Moreover, all the marketing activities do not directly affect the performance of the business. Another factor is that multiple activities in organizations takes place simultaneously, so it becomes difficult to estimate the impact of an individual activity on the performance of the business. In organizations, performance is measured mainly by estimating the financials, but the assessments of the marketing activities are not appropriately taken into consideration, which is a demerit on the part of the companies. The effect social media on the marketing performance of the organization is difficult to measure (Neely, 2007). Many times the companies also do not transparently reveal their data due to the fear of negative performance. Elements like customer satisfaction, loyalty, or brand equity are not exactly measurable, so though organisations cannot effectively measure their marketing performance like the financial performance of a firm. Another complicated factor that lies in measurement of marketing performance is the feedback loopholes. This means that the feedbacks collected by the companies as research might not be authentic or manipulative, which do not assist in effective performance measurement (Neely, 2002). Resource Needs and Capabilities of Organizations Organisational capabilities can be defined as the act to know the probable actions that result from coordination and combination of knowledge, resources, and competencies of the organisation. It constitutes of the key aptitudes which organisations should develop in order to gain competitive advantage in the market. It also assists in determining the strength and weakness of the business. The basic three means or capabilities of an organisation for gaining competitive advantage in the market are strategic, financial and technological capabilities. However, these were the traditional means, but now there are various other resources needs which to be considered for the organisational success (Rauffet, Cunha, and Bernard, 2010). Factors like manufacturing good quality products and offering best services, pricing the products or services lower than the competitors, technological innovation, manufacturing operation, etc. In order to ascertain the organisational capabilities, company must adopt the strategic needs and the changing requirements of the customers through establishment of internal processes and structures that would influence the stakeholders of the organisation to develop specific competencies that are critical for the organisation. Employees are considered to be the critical resource for the sustainability and competitiveness of the business. Merely by hiring the best minds would serve the purpose of the organisation and will not guarantee the organisational capabilities. Though even the new firms focus on the three traditional resource needs such as financial, strategic, and technology, but along with that they also focus on the international operational functions of the organisation, so as to adapt the changing strategies and framework. For example, Marriott Corporation was considered to be the most successful corporation from1960s to 1980s. They maintained 20 percent of their top line and bottom line growth in 1960s. In the late 1980s the management introduced two major factors, such as management of financial assets, and guest satisfaction strategies, which led to development of capabilities. Further, down the line they took several other strategic moves such as training employees, planning human resource management framework, etc for attaining competitive advantage. All these strategies were taken by the company based on the changing external environment and preferences of the customers and stakeholders (Ulrich, and Lake, 1991, p. 77-92). Organisational Competencies and Capabilities According to Prahalad and Hamel (1990), core competence of the firm might range from harmonizing the technology streams to delivering value. The capabilities and the resources which assist the firm in getting a competitive advantage over its competitors are known as its core competence. The core competencies differentiate the competitive advantage and also assist in reflecting the personality. Not all the resources in the firm can be regarded as the strategic assets. Some of the competitive values even become the competitive disadvantage for the firms because in those areas the firms’ weakness can be identified in comparison to its competitors. Moreover, many tangible capabilities cannot be considered as the core competencies because even the competitors have those advantages, so they are not unique selling propositions for the firm or company (Hoskisson, Hitt, and Ireland, 2008). Marketing Skills and Team for Enhancing Business Performance This section would analyse the requirement of marketing skills, development and management of the marketing teams, for enhancing the business performance of the organisations. In order to identify that, firstly the skills required in managing marketing teams would be discussed. The basic skills required to handle marketing teams and enhance the business performance is analytical expertise, communication, leadership, teamwork, and technical proficiency. Marketing professionals face situations where they have to utilise their strong research and analytical skill. Companies nowadays, use technology to gather data related to customers and analyse them for developing strategies regarding sales, and service programs. Having Information regarding competitors and industry is also regarded a skill (Ramaswamy, and Namakumari, 2009). The ability to communicate, explicate duties, responsibilities and plans to subordinates and manage them towards the group goal in also a skill. This is commonly known as leadership skill (Gill, 2006). Technical proficiency is significant because every organisation nowadays is built upon a strong technology based framework. Failing to understand the operational system would hamper business performance. The next requirement for enhancing the performance in the organisation apart from skills is development and supervision of marketing team. The marketing department has a vital role to play for promoting the mission and business in the organisation. Though the requirements of every business are different but there are certain crucial positions that are significant for any successful team. The recruitment and selection of marketing team members are done keeping in mind the revenue generation ability of the team members. Marketing team includes not only the team members but also the leader, who directs and manages the team. Marketing activities does not only have to perform one function that is sales, but also have to In order to improve the performance companies nowadays are also utilising performance management applications or software to direct and manage teams. Hewlett-Packard (HP) has introduced such software for business organisation. Vodafone, Ireland is one of the companies who have implemented such software to deliver critical business services, execute their plans to serve customers better, and juggle a variety of processes, and tools for building better marketing infrastructure (Hewlett-Packard Development Company, 2013). A marketing department or team in a company has various different roles which are delivered by marketing director, business development manager, marketing managers, analysts, social media specialists, coordinator, etc. Collaboration and cooperation in a team are one of the core competencies of any marketing team. The marketing leaders in teams collaborate with the leaders of other departments in the organisation and develop plans which are aligned with the organisational goals. The managers or leaders communicate the message and objectives within the team to infuse a sense of team orientation for sharing and promoting ideas, and views (Day, 1994). For example, Nike the manufacturer of world class sport shoes and equipments also state that they attain sustainability through team work and raising their bar, in terms of their offers, quality of workforce, and services (Nike Inc, 2012). Recommendations After analysing the various challenges faced by business organisation in measuring marketing performances, the skills and team requirements for development and growth, and resource needs and capabilities, the focus would be shifted towards identification of suggestion which would assist organisations to get an edge over its competitors. This would be possible only if the management plan and implement certain marketing functions and strategies to increase the rate of growth and development if business. The recommendations related to such context are stated below: 1. Management should use metrics to evaluate return on investments, response rates, market share, product profitability, customer profitability, marketing events, market share, etc. 2. Leverage the insights and data for driving business cases. 3. Focus on the techniques to track, measure, and set the return on marketing investment. In this regard performance measurement applications, software, or balance scorecard is also helpful. 4. It is not possible to exactly measure the impact of social media, but a qualitative assessment of the impacts can be done through evaluation of increasing popularity. 5. Involving external partners to assist in measuring the goals of the organisation because they would do it in an unbiased way which would present a true picture (Jayne, and Dipboye, 2004). 6. Such processes should be implemented that assist in measuring failure, as well as growth faster, reveal the changes for development, and recommend techniques. 7. The technique of marketing performance management is essential in corporate development. It plans and executes various strategies for meeting the goals of the organisation. Companies like IBM, SAP, Siemens, Barclays, Google, and many more function on such strategies (Ernst & Young Global Limited, n. d.). References Arnold, T., 2008. The Marketing Directors Handbook. 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Connecticut: Cengage Learning. Jayne, M. E. A., and Dipboye, R. L., 2004. Leveraging Diversity to Improve Business Performance: Research Findings and Recommendations for Organizations. Wiley Periodicals, 43(4), p. 409-424. Lambin, J., 2008. Changing Market Relationships in the Internet Age. Louvain, Belgium: Presses univ. de Louvain. Neely, A. D., 2002. Business Performance Measurement: Theory and Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Neely, A., 2007. Business Performance Measurement: Unifying Theory and Integrating Practice. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Nike Inc., 2012. Targets & Performance. [online] Available at: < http://www.nikeresponsibility.com/report/content/chapter/targets-and-performance> [Accessed 13 February 2013]. Prahalad, C. K., and Hamel, G., 1990. The Core Competence of the Corporation. Harvard Business Review, [e-journal] Available through: Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation < http://www.jeremym.fr/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/C.K.Prahalad_G.Hamel_CoreCompetenceOfTheCorp.pdf> [Accessed on 15 January 2013]. Ramaswamy, V. S., and Namakumari, S., 2009. Marketing Management: Global Perspective Indian Context. 4th ed. New Delhi: Macmillan. Rauffet, P., Cunha, C. D., and Bernard, A., 2010. Organizational Capabilities Assessment: A Dynamic Methodology, Methods and a Tool for Supporting Organizational Diagnosis. IRCCYN laboratory – Ecole Centrale Nantes, 1. Ulrich, D., and Lake, D., 1991. Organizational Capability: Creating Competitive Advantage. Academy of Management Executive, 5(1), p. 77-92. Read More