Marketing Management Strategy Of An Sme Essay - 2,639 words

Investigating and Measuring the Effect Of The Firms Recent Implementation of a Marketing Management Strategy And Relating The Concepts and Thinking Behind This Orientation to Theory. Applying Marketing Management Theory To Produce Recommendations For Future Business Success and Development. "Marketing ideas have made singularly little penetration into the centres of influence of the construction industry. To some extent this follows from the character of the industry as an agglomeration of service organisations, not without structural relationship to one another, but serving a clientele from which individuals seek service very infrequently. " (Jepson & Nicholson, 1972: p. 1) Although times have and are changing the above statement despite being written over twenty five years ago is still to some extent very true. The subject of this assignment is a construction firm that has recently designed and implemented a marketing management strategy. The objective of this assignment is fourfold, firstly the companys approach to marketing management will be documented this will then be related to marketing management theory Then by analysing data collected through research the effectiveness of the strategy will be discussed. Finally using marketing management theory as a foundation recommendations will be made to identify where the initial strategy could be improved in order to promote future business development and success, in line with the strategic mission of the company.


The organisation in question has strong foundations, since its incorporation in the mid fifties turnover has grown in line with inflation. In 1984 the Company was purchased by the son of the original managing director, he took up the role of new managing director. By the beginning of the 1990 s it became apparent that the company had reached a stage where it was no longer a small "hands-on" enterprise. The level of turnover and number of employees had increased at such a rate that the organisation now employed a sizeable management team. All with an experienced technical background in the fields of surveying, estimating or site management and who had either progressed through the ranks of this firm or other organisations of a similar size and nature. The company was at the time of the initial implementation of this initiative inexperienced in marketing management and strategy.


However, the senior personnel realised the company had reached a stage where future business growth wasnt just going to come from hard work, doing the job well and relying on a good reputation. The view was taken that it was necessary to pursue new ventures to bring about growth and development. The Company has a large contracting portfolio with contracts completed for public and private clients in the commercial and industrial sectors. Appendix A shows the diversification with the selection of recently completed projects and list the clients for whom work has been carried out.


The reason for a firm of this size carrying out such a wide range of activities is largely based on the belief that in such a competitive industry as construction it has been necessary to take on whatever type of work was available in order to maintain a consistent order book. In developing the companys marketing management strategy numerous workshops were held, attending these were the company directors and two senior managers. Information on the company was gained from interviews with the persons attending these workshops. There are many reasons for running a business, this company wanted to be clear on why it wanted to improve or introduce the marketing effort so that appropriate goals can be set. The aim of wanting to grow the business by increasing sales while at the same time sustaining the level of profit margin is the underlying factor in this case. Turnover could be increased very easily as most of the work is procured on an invitation to tender basis where the deciding factor is almost always price, however, "buying in" work will not necessary have a long term positive effect.


The secondary objective was to secure profitable business relationships. These objectives are reflected in the mission statement in the appendix B. The development of the mission statement was the start of the companys marketing management initiative. The companys overall objective in the eyes of the leaders was defined.


It was thought the development of a mission statement would provide the foundation needed. Perhaps the implementation of a mission statement doesnt have a direct link to the theory of marketing management however its place in the overall field of strategy is illustrated below. "A firms mission is top managements view of what the organisation seeks to do and become over the long term. Expressed in the form of a mission statement it provides a publicly available summary of the long term goals of a firms top managers. " (Barney, 1997: p. 10) After the preliminary stage it was decided that careful and critical examination of the company would be needed. The questions of what do we do well and what do we do badly?


were asked, however, analysis of "what we do?" was first necessary. Previously there had been no formal categorisation so the next step was to analyse the business in relation to its markets. It became apparent that this was impossible without analysing the different business activities and categorizing the market areas. The categories for such a division were decided upon as being type of client, sector of work, type of work, type of contract and location of work.


These divisions produced provided the workshop team initially with the sufficient tools for analysing the business. The areas highlighted under these headings are shown in appendix C. This way of thinking doesnt have a direct link to marketing management theory but can be proved to be a form of market segmentation. For the construction industry the application of marketing theory in order to segment the market is not directly appropriate, but it can be applied in the way stated to produce effective results as the common goal is the "identification of target markets." Even though demographic, ethnic, religious and national classification are not appropriate as regards construction, industry own classifications appear to make data collection and analysis possible. "Market segmentation is the analysis of the total demand in a market into its constituent parts, so that different sets of consumers, with distinctive needs and behavioural patterns, can be identified, " (Page, 1995: p. 40) It would become apparent later that the market segmentation would be extremely useful when analysing markets. At this moment the initial divisions would help the effort of gathering information from various sources enabling critical analysis of the company. "From the customers point of view, the information process is the least visible of all the marketing functions. It is, nevertheless, the basis of all marketing activity.


If the product / service is said to be the cornerstone of marketing, then it must be remembered that good products / services accurately reflect the needs and wants of customers, which can only be ascertained by gathering information. Information provides the means for a company to fulfil the marketing concept, " (Lancaster & Reynolds, 1995: p. 57) Examination of the company began by using the personal experience of the persons attending the workshop. In this forum, lists were made of things that were likely to happen in the business environment which could have beneficial or negative effects on the companys fortunes. Subjects that were concentrated on were, new technology such as Information Technology and the latest building methods, the development of communication methods and any known developments within local and general government. This type of analysis of the macro environment could be perceived as a form of STEP or PEST analysis.


From it the company compiled a list, developed from the personal experience of the workshop members, of all the external factors affecting the organisation. Further factors relating to the proximate macro environment about markets and competitors were also noted. These environmental factors are in a broader ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Essay Tags: factors affecting, opportunities and threats, mission statement, profit margin, range of services

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