Peter Drucker is thought to be one of the earliest proponents of modern marketing. He suggested that the purpose of the company is to create a customer.
Drucker advocated that organisations should have a guiding philosophy that puts the customer as the focal point of the entire company.
Most companies today would accept that without customers to sell products, services, or ideas to, they would not exist. Yet over fifty years down the track, too few actually act on that concept
Theodore Levitt was one of the first to coin the phrase ‘the marketing concept’. He described it as a customer focus, co-ordinated marketing effort, and profitability. In the same article he argued that ‘market orientation’ could be the key to company success.
Levitt, argued that the marketing concept prescribes that “business success requires being customer oriented rather than-product oriented...”.
Philip Kotler added to these ideas when he discussed what he believed it took for an organisation to be market oriented. He suggested that market orientation includes: a consumer centric philosophy, an integrated marketing focused organisation, adequate market information, strategic orientation and operational efficiency.
To be market oriented means more than just focusing on customer satisfaction, although obviously customers are the main focal point of the company. It also means more than just having marketing personnel or a marketing department. Being market oriented is the responsibility of the entire organisation and will lead to good business practices such as operational efficiency.
Wednesday, 2 November 2011
Maslow and Self Actualisation
Maslow's self-actualising characteristics
- keen sense of reality - aware of real situations - objective judgement, rather than subjective
- see problems in terms of challenges and situations requiring solutions, rather than see problems as personal complaints or excuses
- need for privacy and comfortable being alone
- reliant on own experiences and judgement - independent - not reliant on culture and environment to form opinions and views
- not susceptible to social pressures - non-conformist
- democratic, fair and non-discriminating - embracing and enjoying all cultures, races and individual styles
- socially compassionate - possessing humanity
- accepting others as they are and not trying to change people
- comfortable with oneself - despite any unconventional tendencies
- a few close intimate friends rather than many surface relationships
- sense of humour directed at oneself or the human condition, rather than at the expense of others
- spontaneous and natural - true to oneself, rather than being how others want
- excited and interested in everything, even ordinary things
- creative, inventive and original
- seek peak experiences that leave a lasting impression
1. Biological and Physiological needs - air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep, etc.
2. Safety needs - protection from elements, security, order, law, limits, stability, etc.
3. Belongingness and Love needs - work group, family, affection, relationships, etc.
4. Esteem needs - self-esteem, achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige, managerial responsibility, etc.
5. Cognitive needs - knowledge, meaning, etc.
6. Aesthetic needs - appreciation and search for beauty, balance, form, etc.
7. Self-Actualization needs - realising personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.
8. Transcendence needs - helping others to achieve self actualization.
Tuesday, 1 November 2011
The Only Dumb Question Is the Question You Don't Ask
Creativity begins with having questions - asking them and exploring them
Creativity always begins with a question. Why? What if? How? etc The quality of your creativity is determined by the quality of your questions - by the way you frame your approach to circumstances, problems, needs, and opportunities. A creative approach makes life a questioning process
Milan Kundera, the Czech novelis says:
I ask questions. The stupidity of people comes from having an answer for everything. The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything.
What is a question?"
A list I have (don't know from where - sorry) says:
A question is an opening to creation.
A question is an unsettled and unsettling issue.
A question is an invitation to creativity.
A question is a beginning of adventure.
A question is seductive foreplay.
A question is a disguised answer.
A question pokes and prods that which has not yet been poked and prodded.
A question is a point of departure.
A question has no end and no beginning.
A question wants a playmate.
Can you add to the this list?
Monday, 24 October 2011
The Nature of Strategic Decisions
Although the process of creating strategy is often discussed as if it were an unconstrained design process, keep in mind that while strategists evaluate strategy, the firm is operating.
Presumably this involves evaluating the extent to which present strategy is meeting expectations. It may be the case that only a small part of, say, marketing strategy would have to be changed to correct a problem. In effect, then, such a change would constitute an acceptance of societal-, corporate-, and business-level strategy, and also of most of the firm's functional strategy set. Marketing strategy would be all that was rejected. When a firm's performance is less than satisfactory, the reason often is a functional strategy shortcoming.
One might say, then, that a "good" business-level strategy would have been poorly implemented by part of its functional strategy set. For this simple example, a change in marketing strategy could improve performance while other levels of strategy would remain unchanged.
Alternatively, a problem with the nature of a firm's or SBU's business brought about by a major environmental opportunity or threat, a change in that level's goal set, or the development of some internal capability or weakness could necessitate a business-level strategy change. The new strategy would probably include vestiges of the old along with some unfamiliar elements. In most cases a whole new functional strategy set would likely have to be designed and put into effect to implement the new business-level strategy.
More generally, one could conceivably change parts of a firm's functional strategy set without changing business-level strategy. However, rarely would one expect to encounter the case in which a change in business-level strategy did not trigger the necessity to change functional-level strategy in some way, at least not in a successfully managed business.
There is a risk of incorrectly identifying the strategy level at which a problem exists. The tendency is to change functional level strategies or organisational structure in an attempt to remedy any problem. Of course, if the problem existed within the firms corporate- or business-level strategy, for example, changing functional-level strategy would not correct it. In fact, this move would be likely to aggravate the situation. The reason for this tendency is probably that functional strategy changes are potentially less disruptive than changes in the other levels.
Good fortune
Dr. Brian
CEO MAANZ International http://www.marketing.org.au
Twitter @smartamarketing https://twitter.com/#!/smartamarketing
http://www.linkedin.com/in/drduck
Friday, 21 October 2011
Thinking Strategically
Strategy is the great work of the organisation. In situations of life or death, it is the Tao of survival or extinction. Its study cannot be neglected. —Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Strategic thinking and development is a deliberate search for a plan of action that will develop a business’s competitive advantage and compound it.
When implementing specific programs, this involves acquiring the requisite resources, developing the process, training, process testing, documentation, and integration with (and/or conversion from) legacy processes
Strategic thinking
With time, people in the firm routinely make their decisions within the framework of the firm's strategic vision and mission. Strategic planning becomes an organisational norm, deeply embedded within the firm's decision-making process, and participants learn to think strategically as part of their regular daily activities. Strategic thinking involves arraying options through a process of opening up institutional thinking to a range of alternatives and decisions that identify the best fit between the firm, its resources, and the environment.
Strategic Management
The process of crafting and implementing an organisational “game plan” for:
- Creating customer value
- Sustaining competitive advantage
- Achieving performance targets
Strategy
A strategy serves as the foundation of a plan for achieving the vision, goals and objectives of an organisation. A plan outlines a list of specific actions required to successfully implement a specific strategy.
A good strategy needs to integrate an organisation's goals, policies, and action sequences (tactics) into a cohesive whole. The objective of a strategy is to provide a foundation from which an effective tactical plan is developed. This allows the organisation to carry out its mission effectively and efficiently.
Marketing strategies are partially derived from the broader corporate strategies, corporate missions, and corporate goals. They should flow from the firm's vision and mission statement.
Strategy is one element in a three-part structure.
First are the ends to be obtained.
Second. Strategy is about means. It is about the attainment of ends. It is concerned with how to achieve goals and objectives. It is the ways in which resources will be deployed.
Third are tactics, the ways in which resources that have been deployed are actually used or employed.
From The MXpress short course "Thinking Strategically" 200 other courses www.marketing.org.au
Tuesday, 18 October 2011
On Marketing Strategy - Understanding the Environment - Terrain
The top strategists understood the need to know the terrain one operates in.
For firms fighting over the same market, the terrain that must be grasped and then exploited includes the market (profile), the environment (aks the landscape) eg politics, the economy and technology. That is the playing field on which enterprises succeed or fail but over which they have very little say.
Machiavelli said on terrain. “He [the prince] should, therefore, never take his mind from this exercise of war, and in peacetime he must train himself more than in time of war.…He must also learn the nature of the terrain, and know how mountains slope, how valleys open, how plains lie, and understand the nature of rivers and swamps; and he should devote much attention to such activities. Such knowledge is useful in two ways: first, one learns to know one’s own country and can better understand how to defend it; second, with the knowledge and experience of the terrain, one can easily comprehend the characteristics of any other terrain that it is necessary to explore for the first time.…A prince who lacks this ability lacks the most important quality in a leader; because this skill teaches you to find the enemy, choose a campsite, lead troops, organize them for battle, and besiege towns to your advantage.”
Sun Tzu devotes a chapter to terrain and the appropriate, associated tactics and strategies. “We may distinguish six kinds of terrain: accessible ground, entangling ground, temporizing ground, narrow passes, precipitous heights, positions at a great distance from the enemy.” Von Clausewitz offers: “There are certain constant factors in any engagement that will affect it to some extent…[one of] these factors [is] the locality or terrain…which can be resolved into a combination of the geographical surroundings and nature of the ground.” Notice the use of the expression “constant factors.” That is the notion of those things that cannot be controlled in a competitive environment; hence, they must be taken as a given by all competitors. Von Clausewitz also devotes a chapter to terrain, which he argues “bears a close and ever-present relation to warfare.”
For firms fighting over the same market, the terrain that must be grasped and then exploited includes the market (profile), the environment (aks the landscape) eg politics, the economy and technology. That is the playing field on which enterprises succeed or fail but over which they have very little say.
Machiavelli said on terrain. “He [the prince] should, therefore, never take his mind from this exercise of war, and in peacetime he must train himself more than in time of war.…He must also learn the nature of the terrain, and know how mountains slope, how valleys open, how plains lie, and understand the nature of rivers and swamps; and he should devote much attention to such activities. Such knowledge is useful in two ways: first, one learns to know one’s own country and can better understand how to defend it; second, with the knowledge and experience of the terrain, one can easily comprehend the characteristics of any other terrain that it is necessary to explore for the first time.…A prince who lacks this ability lacks the most important quality in a leader; because this skill teaches you to find the enemy, choose a campsite, lead troops, organize them for battle, and besiege towns to your advantage.”
Sun Tzu devotes a chapter to terrain and the appropriate, associated tactics and strategies. “We may distinguish six kinds of terrain: accessible ground, entangling ground, temporizing ground, narrow passes, precipitous heights, positions at a great distance from the enemy.” Von Clausewitz offers: “There are certain constant factors in any engagement that will affect it to some extent…[one of] these factors [is] the locality or terrain…which can be resolved into a combination of the geographical surroundings and nature of the ground.” Notice the use of the expression “constant factors.” That is the notion of those things that cannot be controlled in a competitive environment; hence, they must be taken as a given by all competitors. Von Clausewitz also devotes a chapter to terrain, which he argues “bears a close and ever-present relation to warfare.”
Dr Brian
CEO The Centre for Market Development - info@marketing.org.au
Twitter @smartamarketing https://twitter.com/#!/smartamarketing
Blog 1 http://www.smartamarketing.blogspot.com
Blog 2: http://www.smartamarketing.wordpress.com
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