marketing - Industrial Engineering

628 PART 8 CREATING SUCCESSFUL LONG-TERM GROvVTH
MARKETING MEMO
CHARACTERISTICS OF COMPANY DEPARTMENTS
THAT ARE TRULY CUSTOMER DRIVEN
R&D
Purchasing
Manufacturing
Marketing
Sales
Logistics
Accounting
Finance
Public Relations
Other Customer­
Contact Personnel
They spend time meeting customers and listening to their problems.
They welcome the involvement of marketing, manufacturing, and other departments on each new project.
They benchmark competitors' products and seek "best of class" solutions.
They solicit customer reactions and suggestions as the project progresses.
They continuously improve and refine the product on the basis of market feedback.
They proactively search for tile best suppliers rather than choose only from those who solicit thtJir business.
They build long-term relations with fewer but more reliable high-quality suppliers.
They do not compromise quality for price savings.
They invite customers to visit and tour their plants.
Tiley visit customer factories to see how customers use the company's products.
They willingly work overtime when it is important to meet promised delivery sclledules.
They continuously search for ways to produce goods faster and/or at lower costs.
They continuously improve product quality, aiming for zero defects.
They meet customer requirements for "customization" where this can be done profitably.
They study customer needs and wants in well-defined market segments.
They allocate marketing effort in relation to the long-run profit potential of the targeted segments.
They develop winning offerings for each target segment.
They measure company image and customer satisfaction on a continuous basis.
They continuously gather and evaluate ideas for new products, product improvements, and services to meet
customers' needs.
They influence all company departments and employees to be customer centered in their thinking and practice.
They have specialized knowledge of tile customer's industry.
They strive to give the customer "the best solution."
They make only promises they can keep.
They feed back customers' needs and ideas to those in charge of product development.
They serve the same customers for a long period of time.
They set a higtl standard for service delivery time and they meet this standard consistently.
They operate a knowledgeable and friendly customer-service department that can answer questions, Ilandle
complaints, and resolve problems in a satisfactory and timely manner.
They prepare periodic "profitability" reports by product, market segment, geographic areas (regions, sales
territories), order sizes, and individual customers.
They prepare invoices tailored to customer needs and answer customer queries courteously and quickly.
They understand and support marketing expenditures (e.g., image advertising) that represent marketing
investments that produce long-term customer preference and loyalty.
They tailor the financial package to the customers' financial requirements.
They make quick decisions on customer creditworthiness.
They disseminate favorable news about the company and they "damage control" unfavorable news.
They act as an internal customer and public advocate for better company policies and practices.
They are competent, courteous, cheerful, credible, reliable, and responsive.
activities. Figure 22.1 shows five specialists. Additional specialists might include a customer
service manager, a marketing planning manager, a market logistics manager, a direct market­
ing manager, and a digital marketing manager.
The main advantage of a functional marketing organization is its administrative simplicity.
It can be quite a challenge to develop smooth working relationships, however, within the
marketing department. JO This form also can lose its effectiveness as the number of products
and markets increases. A functional organization often leads to inadequate planning for
specific products and markets. Then, each functional group competes with others for budget
and status. The marketing vice president constantly weighs the claims of competing functional
specialists and faces a difficult coordination problem.
GEOGRAPHIC ORGAIIlZATION A company selling in a national market often organizes its
sales force (and sometimes other functions, including marketing) along geographic lines. The