Marketing Programme

In the modern marketing management, all the marketing activities are pre-planned. The marketing programme is the part of pre-planning. It is the programme of marketing efforts in which decisions are taken as to how the marketing objectives can be achieved within a period of time with the use of available resources. In other words, it is a practical approach to build business through planned marketing tactics. The definition of marketing programme as defined by some prominent scholars has been given below:

• Philip Kotler: “A marketing programme is a set of policy decisions on the level, allocation and mix of marketing efforts.”
• Jerome McCarthy: “A marketing programme is a set of marketing strategies, which seek to reach the firm’s goals by making the most effective possible use of the firm’s resources.”
• L. Hansen: “The marketing programme takes the elements of marketing mix and combines them for the company as a whole for product groups, for geographical areas or other meaningful division of marketing task and projects the marketing mix forward in time towards the obtaining of an objective.”
• William J. Stantson: “Marketing programme involves determining the level, mix and allocation of marketing resources in pursuit of marketing objectives.”

Elements of Marketing Programme

In a bid to achieve overall objectives of an enterprise within a time period, the marketing programme is an attempt to co-ordinate various marketing activities like sales promotion, advertising, personal sales and services, etc. To analyze all the above factors deeply, the marketing programme can be classified into the following ways:

Planning of Marketing Programme

To compete in the modern marketing environment, an expert marketing manager must carefully study the following factors while making planning of marketing programme of an enterprise: Demand variables, Marketing decision variables (or Internal Variables),  Marketing mix Variables and Marketing strategy.

Implementation of Marketing Programme

Implementation is the realization of an application, or execution of a plan, idea, model, design, specification, standard, algorithm, or policy. In the modern marketing, it is the process of executing the marketing strategy by creating specific actions that will ensure that the marketing objectives are achieved.  A sound marketing programme cannot produce desired fruits, if it is not properly implemented. The implementation of programme includes the following factors: Marketing efforts, Marketing allocation, Market responsiveness, etc.

Factors affecting the Marketing Programme

In a bid to achieve the overall objectives of the business enterprise within a period of time, the modern marketing programme co-ordinate the available marketing resources viz. advertising, sales promotion, personal sales, etc. Here, the planning of marketing programme is very crucial for any enterprise. Thus, an expert marketing manager considers the following factors that affect the marketing programme:

Demand variables

The main purpose of marketing programme is to maximize the sale and increase the profit of the business enterprise. The sale of an enterprise is greatly affected by demand variables like sales efforts, price, need of customer, competition pressure, etc. According to Dr. Philip Kotler, “Demand variables are the factors which affect Industry and company sales.” Hence, the demand variables are broadly classified into two parts: a) Controllable and b) Uncontrollable.

Controllable Demand Variables

These variables can be controlled by the business enterprise itself. These variables are price of product, quality of product and channels of distribution.

Uncontrollable Demand Variables

These variables affect the demand of the product of the company. They cannot be controlled by the business enterprise. These factors are:-

• Consumer variables include the factors relating to the behavior of consumers (or customers) such as the nature of consumers, their behavior, needs, income and numbers, etc.
• Competitive Variables are the factors which relate to the situation of competition, number of competitors and the policies adopted by the competitors.
• Environmental variables are the variables which include economical, social and political conditions of the country.

Thus, while formulating the marketing programme of the business enterprise, the modern marketing manager must study both the controllable and uncontrollable types of demand variables.

Marketing decision/Internal variables

These are the variables which are related to the marketing decisions taken by the business enterprise. The four key marketing decision variables are price, advertising, transportation and product quality. These factors are within the control of enterprise and consumer demand is influenced by these variables. According to Dr. Philip Kotler, “A Marketing decision variables for marketing instrument is any factor under the control of firm which to be used to stimulate company sales.” Lazer & Kelley has divided these variables in following three parts:

• Goods and Services Mix includes the quality of product, the brand of product, the packing of product and the labelling of product, etc.
• Distribution Mix includes the factors of distribution channels and middlemen etc. which help in taking the goods and services to the final customer.
• Communication Mix includes all the information media, personal selling, advertisement, sales promotion, etc.

Marketing mix

It refers to the set of actions or tactics that a company uses to promote its brand or product in the market. According to Dr. Philip Kotler, “Marketing mix refers to the amounts and kinds of marketing variables the firm is using at a particular time.”

Marketing efforts

It indicates all those marketing activities which are undertaken to increase the sales. According to Dr. Philip Kotler, “Marketing effort is the total amount of company input into the marketing process to stimulate sales.” Marketing efforts of an enterprise can be divided into two parts:

• Level of marketing efforts means the total amount allocated for marketing efforts.
• Effectiveness of marketing efforts means the utilization of allocated money.

The company’s sales are affected by both these factors. Thus, it forms an essential part of business enterprise.

Marketing allocation

According to Philip Kotler, “Marketing allocation is the company’s division of its market efforts among its products, customers, segments and sales areas”. It refers to allocation of total money to be spent on marketing efforts of the enterprise among its products, consumers and sales territories.

Marketing Strategy

It refers to the policy of an enterprise to meet out the sudden changes in the demand of its products. According to Philip Kotler, “A marketing strategy is a set of objectives, policies and rules that guide over time the firms marketing efforts”. In the competitive market, the market situation remains unstable. Some new competitors enter into the market while some existing competitors go out of the market. Some competitors change their strategy in a particular market. Under these circumstances, the company has to alter its marketing strategy to suit the new situations and challenges.

Marketing Responsiveness

It refers to the response and reaction in the marketing as a result of the marketing activities of an enterprise. According to the Dr. Philip Kotler, “Marketing responsiveness is the behavior of sales in response to alternative levels, mixes and allocation of marketing efforts”. It includes the study of response and reaction of an individual buyer, a market segment or the whole market. While preparing marketing programme, marketing responsiveness must also be carefully considered so that particular attention may be paid to the customers not giving required response to the efforts of the enterprise.

If a marketing programme is prepared after considering all these factors, it is expected that the programme will be effective and can be implemented more successfully and easily.