Theory: Marketing policy: goal setting. Marketing tasks - goals, functions, forms

In this article, we will consider in detail the goals and functions of marketing, and describe its essence. Today these topics are very relevant, because market economy actively develops, satisfying all the new needs of people. The market does not stand still, and marketing develops along with it.

The principles of marketing are the fundamental circumstances, provisions, requirements that underlie it. They reveal the purpose and essence of this type of activity. The main goal of marketing is to ensure that the production of services and goods is oriented to demand, to the consumer, to harmonize with the requirements of the market of production opportunities.

Necessity and tasks of marketing

The need for a marketing approach for any enterprise is indisputable. There will be negative demand on the market if the main part of consumers is not satisfied with the quality of services or goods and even agrees to some costs in order not to buy it. The purpose of marketing is to analyze the current situation and try to understand whether marketing tools can change the negative consumer attitude towards this product by reducing prices and stimulating sales. Consumers with latent demand may feel the need for services and goods that are on the market in this moment no. In this case, the goals and principles of marketing are aimed at assessing the size of this potential market segment in order to create services and products that meet demand.

A situation of complete absence or decrease in demand

An example total absence or decrease in demand is such a situation in which target consumers are not interested in the product. In this case, the task of the marketer is to provide its benefits based on the interests and needs of the person. Any enterprise will sooner or later be forced to face a problem when a certain product ceases to be in sufficient demand. The purpose of marketing is to maintain the current level of market demand, despite the intensifying competition and consumer preferences that are so volatile today.

The main principles of marketing based on its essence

The following main principles of marketing are distinguished in accordance with its essence.

1. Careful consideration of the dynamics and state of demand, needs and market conditions. Often, consumers don't know what they want. They only want to solve their problems in the best possible way. Therefore, one of the main tasks of marketing is to understand what consumers really want.

2. Conditions should be created for maximum adaptation to the structure of demand and the requirements of the production market at the enterprise, based on a long-term perspective, and not on a momentary benefit. Modern concept marketing lies in the fact that the activities of the company (production, scientific and technical, marketing, etc.) should be based on knowledge of demand, as well as its changes in the future. One of its goals, moreover, is to identify unsatisfied demands and orient production towards their satisfaction.

Marketing is the development, production and then marketing of what is actually in consumer demand. The system of its production of certain goods makes it functionally dependent, first of all, on requests. It requires them to be produced in the volume and assortment that the consumer needs. The decision-making center in the implementation of this concept is shifted from production links to those that feel the pulse of the market. The think tank, the source of recommendations and information is the marketing service, and not only the market, but also the financial, scientific, technical and industrial policy of enterprises. Based on a deep analysis of the dynamics and state of demand and business conditions, the issue of profitability, prospects and the need to produce a certain product is being resolved here.

3. Impact on the buyer, on the market through advertising and all other available means. Günther von Brieskorn, a marketer from West Germany, characterizing the principles and content of marketing in one of his lectures, argues something like this. In his eyes, the market is the sea, on the waves of which there are consumers. Their behavior is characterized mainly by the vector of their needs, which is subject to frequent changes. At the same time, the market is our boss and, going to his reception, you should be well prepared. The consumer is our king, and we must comply with any of his requirements.

General concept of marketing

It is possible to characterize the general concept of marketing in the following way: a generic message is sent to the producer from the consumer cash flow necessary for the operation of the enterprise and meet future needs. The task of marketing is to ensure that both of them, meeting on the market, can realize their needs and goals to the fullest extent. In other words, marketing is the process of matching consumer needs and firm capabilities. Its result is the provision of goods to consumers that satisfy people's needs, and the profit the company needs to exist, as well as better and better satisfaction of consumer demands in the future.

What should be the goals of marketing activities?

Marketing objectives are the foundation marketing activities. However, they do not have to be commercial. Marketing objectives should be formulated in such a way that it is possible to quantify them. For example, you should increase the share of goods in the local market by the end of the year from 10 to 15% or get 30% profit. The more clearly the goals and objectives of marketing are formulated and communicated to each employee, the greater the benefit of the marketing service.

Goal Groups

In 5 groups unite his goals.

  1. Market (conquest of the market, market share, identification of promising markets) goals and objectives of marketing.
  2. Goals can be actually marketing (formation public opinion, creating the image of the company, competitive fight, profit volume, sales volume).
  3. There are also structural and managerial goals aimed at improving the structure of the company's management.
  4. It is also possible to distinguish the providing goals and functions of marketing (sales promotion, pricing policy, product distribution parameters, consumer properties of goods).
  5. Another goal is to control the activities of the firm.

The following recommendations should be guided by the formation of the marketing goal. It should be as simple as possible, measurable, achievable, mobilizing, controllable, focused, organization approved, ranked. Marketing goals should provide incentives for those who achieve them, have people accountable for achieving them, and include precise deadlines.

Types of marketing depending on the goal

Differ the following types marketing depending on the goal:

  • consumer (consumer goods);
  • industrial marketing (production goods);
  • international;
  • consumer oriented;
  • service, product or product oriented;
  • non-profit (activities of organizations and enterprises that do not aim to make a profit for themselves personally);
  • social (set various methods implementation public organizations and state social programs);
  • micromarketing (activities of individual firms);
  • marketing as an activity of the state, carried out in the field of the market.

What is the fundamental principle of marketing?

The essence of marketing philosophy lies in its principles. The fundamental one puts the focus not on the ambitions and needs of the producer of services and goods, but on the needs and demands of the consumer. This is the main purpose of marketing. but this declaration, which is very attractive, could not have been realized if all other marketing principles that determine its technology and management of its activities were not directed to its implementation. Thus, thanks to them, the main goal of the marketing concept is realized.

Basic Marketing Principles

Let's take a look at some of the most well-established ones.

  1. Concentration of enterprise resources on the production of such services and goods that are really needed by consumers in the market segments chosen by the enterprise.
  2. Understanding the quality of services and goods as a measure in which they satisfy the needs for them. Therefore, unnecessary services (goods) cannot be considered as quality ones. In addition, any difference in the quality of one or another service from another is not significant in itself, but depending on how significant the need that the characteristic of the service, the measured property seeks to satisfy, is.
  3. Consideration in a broad rather than narrow sense of needs, including beyond the known, traditional ways their satisfaction.
  4. Orientation to reduce the total costs of the consumer, as well as taking them into account in pricing, in other words, the dominance of the consumer's price over the sale price.
  5. Preference for a method that actively generates demand and anticipates it, rather than reactive.
  6. The predominance of long-term orientation.
  7. Continuous collection of information about market reactions and its conjuncture and analysis of the data obtained.

Specificity of open and closed marketing systems

Describing the essence and goals of marketing, we will indicate their specifics in open and closed systems. In open marketing systems, each new contract, agreement, act of exchange that was made in line with marketing should bring income and / or other additional benefits to society as a whole, and not just to direct participants (if not to the whole society, then at least to much broader groups and strata than the participants in a particular transaction themselves). Thus, the marketing goal-setting includes an external effect, socially significant - externalities. In closed systems, the self-development of systems and the stability of their existence depend on the presence of internal competition, as well as isolation from external competitors.

We hope that now the concept of marketing has become closer to you. Marketing goals, as you can see, are quite broad, and their implementation is important for every enterprise.

Marketing is a market concept for managing the production, marketing and scientific and technical activities of an enterprise. Philip Kotler defined marketing as a type of human activity, aimed at meeting the needs and requirements through the exchange . Peter Drucker formulated the main goal of marketing - to make sales efforts unnecessary, his goal is to know and understand the client so well that the product or service will fit the latter exactly and sell itself.

The main tasks of marketing are:

Formation and stimulation of demand;

Ensuring the validity of managerial decisions;

Expansion of sales volume, market share and profit.

The development of marketing is connected with the consistency of its concept.

The main functions of marketing include:

1) Analytic function.

It includes the following subfunctions: study of the market, goods, consumers; analysis of internal and external environment enterprises.

2) Production function. It consists of the following subfunctions: organizing the production of new goods and new technologies, organizing the logistics of production, managing the quality and competitiveness of finished products.

3) The marketing function is the organization of the sales and distribution system, the formation of demand and sales promotion and the organization of the service.

4) The function of management, communications and control - is associated with the creation of organizational structures for management, planning, communications and organization of control.

Based on social significance, the following main goals of marketing are distinguished:

Consumption maximization - maximizes production, the level of employment, and, consequently, the welfare of society;

Maximize customer satisfaction: what is more important is not simply to increase consumption, but to achieve growth in customer satisfaction;

Maximization of consumer choice: it is necessary to provide such a variety of products that consumers can be able to find products that exactly satisfy their tastes;

Maximizing the quality of life is one of the alternative public goals of marketing, according to which marketing should not only ensure the quantity, quality, variety and availability of goods at affordable prices, but also the quality of the cultural and physical environment of people.

It seems obvious that it is completely impossible to satisfy the listed goals at the same time.

There is another classification of goals. At the macro level, the purpose of marketing is to identify and model patterns and trends in the development of the market, assess the market situation, determine and forecast the market capacity. At the level of organizations (micro level) - this is an assessment, analysis and forecast own capabilities and prospects for the development of the market segment in which the firm operates.

The tasks of the organization in the field of marketing are:

Determining the conditions under which the optimal ratio between demand and supply of goods on the market is achieved;

Identification of the competitive positions of specific types of products of the company and the company itself in the market under study;

Orientation of production to the production of products that provide the maximum volume of sales and profits.

On the this stage economic development marketing is understood as a management function that determines the market and production policy of the enterprise. The purpose of the marketing-oriented system of the enterprise is to ensure the solution of the tasks set by the enterprise (scientific and technical, industrial, commercial and marketing), taking into account the available resources (material, financial, human, etc.). Marketing as an enterprise management system should provide:

Reliable, reliable information about the market, the structure and dynamics of needs and demand, the tastes and desires of consumers, that is, information about external conditions functioning of the enterprise;

The creation of such a product, a product range that meets the requirements of the market, better than the competitor's product satisfies demand, solves the problem of the consumer;

The necessary impact on the consumer, on demand, on the market, providing the greatest possible control over the scope of sales.

The marketing system, as a tool on the basis of which economic decisions are made in the field of production, scientific, technical, financial and marketing policies, should occupy the main place in the enterprise management system. Marketing plays a leading role in providing High Quality products that meet consumer requirements.

Setting up a marketing system at an enterprise can be carried out in the following steps:

1) The introduction of a marketing ideology that will allow the company to adhere to a market orientation in making management decisions.

2) Development of key components of the marketing system.

3) Organization based on the selected marketing components of the management cycle: information collection, decision making, their implementation and control. Based on this, it is possible to develop marketing functions in the enterprise.

4) Distribution of marketing functions between the divisions of the company, including the actual marketing department.

5) Detailing the functions of the marketing department and their distribution between the structural divisions of the marketing department (if any).

The organizational structure of the marketing system management creates the prerequisites for the organization effective work marketing department. Next, you need to accept qualified specialists into the marketing department, distribute responsibilities between them, and give them the necessary authority. All this should be carried out by the head of the marketing department together with the management of the enterprise. Each employee of the marketing department should be assigned separate tasks, for example: one employee is engaged in market research, the second - development new products, the third - the promotion of products on the market, etc. Collectively, all employees of the marketing department develop and implement the plan of the marketing company.

The distribution of functional responsibilities between employees of the marketing department should be aimed at the optimal implementation of the marketing strategy of the enterprise. From correct design organizational structure marketing department and the distribution of functions between employees largely depends on the effectiveness of the enterprise as a whole. The organizational structure and functional processes should be consistent with the nature of the enterprise and its marketing strategy. Constant verification of the adequacy of the organizational structure to the goals of the organization is required.

The implementation of a marketing strategy is a continuous process that consists of the stage of decision-making, their implementation and evaluation of their effectiveness. The last stage is the longest in time, which involves the analysis of various indicators of the enterprise, as well as the introduction of amendments to the marketing plan based on the analysis. Evaluating the effectiveness of marketing allows you to identify new opportunities and assess likely threats. Evaluation and control turn the implementation of a marketing strategy into a continuous closed process, since these functions are both the first and final stages.

At the core marketing plan lies the analysis of the market, industry, competitors, as well as activities aimed at sales promotion. There is no single standard for developing a marketing plan in terms of its scope or the level of detail of its elements.

The set of measures for the implementation of the marketing plan includes its development, implementation and evaluation of effectiveness. All these stages are aimed at ensuring that the activities of the enterprise are carried out within the framework of a single marketing strategy. Due to the fact that the process of implementing the marketing strategy is continuous, as a rule, an annual marketing plan is developed with subsequent detailing. Based on the developed plan, the annual marketing budget is agreed upon.

A marketing plan is a marketing mix plan aimed at implementing a marketing strategy.

The frequency of drawing up a marketing plan depends on the activities of the enterprise, its goals and marketing activity. The annual plan reflects strategies for choosing markets, positioning, various marketing activities, price policy etc.

The main elements of a marketing plan are as follows:

Market analysis results. This section contains a description of the market, an assessment of its capacity, forecasts regarding the development of the market. It provides price market analysis data, competitor analysis data, competitive advantages businesses in the selected market. The section should contain only the conclusions of the analysis, and the results themselves should be included in the appendices to the plan. In the event that an enterprise simultaneously operates in several markets, it is important to prioritize between them in order to subsequently distribute resources on the basis of this;

tactical goals. This section contains the tactical objectives of the company's marketing strategy. It should reflect planned financial indicators, market share, etc.;

positioning strategy. This section describes the wishes of the enterprise about how the products of the enterprise should be perceived by consumers. Here it is necessary to describe marketing activities aimed at promoting products, as well as pricing policy. For each item of the marketing program, the terms and persons responsible for their implementation should be indicated. Responsibility for the development and implementation of the marketing plan is shared between functional units and managers. In addition, it is necessary to allocate responsibility for each planning object and for each functional process associated with the implementation of the marketing plan. This section of the plan should also contain procedures for dealing with unforeseen circumstances;

Forecast and financing. This section of the plan reflects the forecast of financial income and expenses associated with the implementation of the marketing plan. Forecasts and estimates are calculated by employees responsible for the implementation of individual elements of the plan. This section may contain the dynamics of the results of the enterprise, obtained on the basis of data on sales, profits, expenses.

The main requirements for employees of the marketing department are as follows:

A broad outlook, including in the field of economics, commerce, production, etc.;

sociability;

Creativity;

Diplomacy, ability to resolve conflicts.

In addition, the employee must have punctuality, cheerfulness and a high cultural level.

An employee of the marketing department must have specific knowledge in the field of marketing, as well as to some extent have information about production technology, business and economics.

The main functions of the marketing department in the enterprise are as follows:

Market analysis, identification of its opportunities and threats;

Formation of demand and development of measures to stimulate sales;

Implementation planning;

Management and control over the marketing activities of the enterprise.

F. Kotler singled out marketing as a separate specialty. Definition new science he also gave.

The classical interpretation of F. Kotler, professor, founder of marketing theory: marketing is a type of human activity aimed at meeting needs, needs through exchange. What is marketing, oddly enough, today often only people who are directly related to this field of activity know. And non-specialists sometimes have rather vague ideas about this area of ​​​​work. In addition, it can be said that marketing in a broader sense is an enterprise management philosophy, according to which the solution of problems and the satisfaction of consumer needs will lead to the goal of marketing - the commercial success of the company - and will benefit society.

It is obvious that, despite the huge number of interpretations of this term, all of them are close to each other in meaning. It is not enough just to know the meaning of the word "marketing". Its definition will be incomplete if the marketing mix is ​​not singled out separately. It refers to everything a company can do to increase demand for its products and services. Kotler defines the marketing mix as a set of controllable and predictable marketing variables that a business combines to produce the desired response from the target market. The components of the marketing mix include price, product, distribution policy and sales promotion. These 4Ps tend to reflect trade marketing. The definition of the marketing mix for the service sector will already be broader. It includes people, processes, and the physical environment.

Marketing Goals


Marketing tasks

  • An integrated approach to market research, to the achievement of the company's goals. Commercial success is ensured by using all the tools of the marketing mix.
  • Identification of dissatisfied customers and potential demand.
  • Assortment planning and pricing policy.
  • Development of a set of measures to meet the current demand for goods and services as much as possible.
  • Development of measures to optimize management.
  • Formation of demand.
  • Planning and implementation of marketing policy.

Marketing Functions

  • Analytic function. Includes the study of the internal and external environment of the company. This is an analysis of the market, its structure and dynamics; studying the work of competitors and intermediaries; analysis of the behavior of consumers and suppliers of products.
  • Product-production function. It implies the creation of a new product that fully reflects the needs of the market and has a sufficiently high competitiveness due to the study of the market environment.
  • Sales function. The marketing system is responsible for creating certain conditions for the sale of a product so that it is always in the right place, in the right quantity and at the right time. Viral Marketing Examples in social networks, for example, may be one of the ways to market a product.
  • Control, communication and control function is needed to ensure that the degree of possible risk and uncertainty in economic activity enterprises. This also includes monitoring the implementation of medium- and long-term plans.

Strategy Development

Marketing strategies are those developed on the basis of studying consumer demand, the behavior of competitors and the conjuncture of the direction of the enterprise at a certain point in time, which allow solving the fundamental tasks of the company, based on available resources in a changing market situation.

Elements of a strategy

Any marketing strategy consists of the following elements:

  • Marketing plans for potential consumer markets.
  • Justification of the effective position of the product or company in the market.
  • Forecast of market dynamics.
  • Analysis of the potential sales market.
  • Analysis of the competitiveness of the enterprise.

Marketing strategies will be effective when they take into account many indicators, such as: analysis of the sales market, the external environment, and the enterprise.

The implementation of a marketing strategy includes the following steps

  • Comprehensive analysis of the enterprise.
  • Analysis of the potential market.
  • Assessment of the potential of an enterprise in a particular market.
  • Industry study.
  • Comprehensive competitor analysis.
  • Analysis of the possible impact on the project of external factors.
  • Marketing audit of the internal environment.
  • Implementation and control of marketing activities.

The marketing strategy of each enterprise depends on its goals (holding or conquering a market segment, ongoing product policy, demand formation). Depending on the need to maintain its part of the market or conquer a new segment, there are strategies for retention, offensive and retreat. The attacking strategy provides for the active position of the company in increasing market share. The retention strategy is responsible for maintaining the firm's market share. The retreat strategy, as a rule, is forced and consists in the gradual curtailment of business in this segment.

Determining the goals of marketing activities is a very responsible process, because the success of the entire enterprise and the degree of risk of its operation depend on it. They are formed on the basis of the analysis and processing of marketing information obtained during research on the current state of target markets and the prospects for their development for a specific period and the enterprise's own production and commercial capabilities. All marketing goals are grouped depending on the planning period as follows:

1) strategic goals - goals that are aimed at increasing profits, sales volumes and expanding the occupied market share in the long term, and provide for the development of an action program for the future in full compliance with the production capabilities of the enterprise in the market situation. Due to the instability of the economic and market conditions, the strategic period in marketing is approximately 3-5 years;

2) tactical goals are formed for the medium term and involve more detailed planning than strategic, taking into account the current situation in each specific sales market in which the company operates, for each specific type of product separately. The tactical term in marketing is approximately one year;

3) operational goals are short-term goals that provide for the development of a step-by-step marketing program, taking into account all the nuances and peculiarities of the circumstances in each individual market segment in a specific period of time.

As already noted, the formation of marketing goals in the enterprise is given a lot of attention. great attention, therefore, when developing them, they use the following rules:

1) all marketing goals, regardless of the planning period, must be in digital terms. So, for example, in their wording it is necessary to lay down the time frame for the company to reach what results, i.e., mastering a certain market share, ensuring what level of profit, sales volume, achieving what level of prices and competitiveness. This is done to facilitate the monitoring of the implementation and achievement of the goals that are set;

2) clarity of goal setting in marketing is necessary, which makes it possible to carry out detailed planning of all activities and the marketing budget for the period that is planned;

3) all marketing goals in the enterprise must be coordinated with each other, that is, each specific goal is aimed at achieving a cumulative result. So, for example, if the strategic goal of the enterprise involves increasing the market share to the nth percent, then the tactical and operational goals will contribute to this and cannot suggest a global increase in prices for the products of this firm;

4) the formulation of the marketing goal must be carried out concisely, which makes it possible to ensure its rapid awareness and implementation, and marketing does not tolerate a waste of time;

5) the validity of the goals, which reduces the risk of making marketing decisions and brings them closer to market reality, and does not ensure the operation of the company in a vacuum.

As for the evolution of the global marketing goal, it has gone through four main stages in its development, which correspond to the process of becoming marketing as a science:

1. Ensuring the maximum possible volume of consumption. With this formulation of the marketing goal, it is considered that there is every opportunity to increase the growth rate of production, and this automatically affects the level of wealth and employment. Thus, the more consumers buy and consume goods, the better they feel, both themselves and producers, whose incomes grow. However, such a statement has a sense in the transition from the seller's market to the buyer's market, when consumers have been in the shortage of goods for a long time, but gradually this problem recedes and each person becomes happy not from the quantity of purchased and consumption of each individual type of goods, but from their quality.

2. Achieving the maximum degree of satisfaction. Under such circumstances, under conditions competitive market each consumer has the opportunity to choose the commodity unit that will provide him with the best consumer satisfaction. This goal is fully consistent main point marketing policy and is very noble and correct, but only theoretically. If we consider it in more detail, then it does not correspond to the main rules for developing marketing goals:

o it cannot be represented in digital terms - there is not yet a single method for measuring the degree of customer satisfaction with a specific product, although there have been attempts. Thus, American scientists Arthur Thompson and John Formby proposed the use of an artificial unit of measurement - "floors", but practical use its limited;

o there are no approaches, the ratio of the benefits that the product brings to an individual consumer, and the harm that this product and its production cause environment, ecology and society.

So, this marketing goal setting is abstract and unrealistic, as evidenced by Al Ries and Jack Trout cite the experience of many firms that have spent very large sums of money chasing after this idea and found themselves in a quandary.

3. Expansion of product assortment choice. This direction in marketing is formed based on the fact that each consumer has his own tastes, needs, needs, characteristics, character and requirements, and in order to satisfy him the best way, it is necessary to offer him as wide a choice of goods as possible. In this case, there is a greater chance of creating an ideal product for an individual buyer, and the company is more likely to achieve market leadership. However, this policy is successful up to a certain point, until a new problem arises, which is called "sham choice" or "brand abundance", in which the product range expands to such an extent that it begins to repeat products under different brands. In addition, a very wide range also has a number of disadvantages:

o expanding the range of goods produced at the enterprise causes an increase in their cost, and this, in turn, affects the level of prices, that is, their increase;

o a certain proportion of consumers at very large selection goods feel uncomfortable and are lost;

o with a very wide choice of goods, the buyer needs additional time to familiarize himself with them and make the final decision.

4. Improving the quality of life. This goal is multi-level and covers all marketing principles and directions. On the one hand, it ensures the technical conformity of the product (functionality, specifications, operational properties, availability, quality, assortment, price), on the other hand - physical quality (competitiveness, prestige of the brand), on the third hand - the quality of the cultural environment (compliance with the social and ethical standards of society). This marketing goal setting enables the manufacturer to evaluate his product from the consumer's perspective.

As for the main goals of the marketing activities of a separate modern enterprise, they look like this:

1) expansion of sales volume and sales markets, increase in the occupied market share;

2) profit growth;

3) ensuring the validity of decisions that are made in the field of production and marketing activities;

4) increasing the level of competitiveness of the enterprise and individual goods;

5) reduce the cost of production and general level prices, that is, ensuring price competitiveness.