MIT School of Distance Education: April 2019

Friday 26 April 2019

Steps in Strategic Marketing Management

Marketing is a process whereby the company promotes its products & services and spreads brand awareness. Marketing plays a key role in introducing a company’s product among the consumers and in elevating the business. However, it isn’t a child’s play to advertise one’s brand. Sometimes, one strategy works for a brand while it is a total flop for another brand. Furthermore, a strategy that was successful three years ago may not garner the same results today. So, the marketing strategies should be based on the type of business and various other factors.

Businesses need to have an action plan in place and they need to formulate strategies that can effectively promote the brand’s offerings. That is why businesses seek for professionals who can understand the market and exploit their knowledge in marketing management to create stellar marketing campaigns. In general, strategic marketing management consists of three steps:

Market Learning

The consumer trends keep on changing from time to time. So, the first step should be understanding of customer preferences. The firms should conduct surveys and research to understand consumer preferences over time. Thus, it is the task of marketing managers to formulate a survey questionnaire that can help in interacting with the customers directly and understanding their perspective. The firms should try to understand why consumers prefer a brand/product over its adversaries. The survey findings and feedback received from the customers are then combined together to formulate strategies. Market learning is an essential process as it assists the marketing managers to fine-tune their strategies according to consumer trends.

Market Sensing

Basically, marketing sensing is a process of judging the mood of the market. It is an indirect method of finding trends in the market. It refers to a process where the managers combine consumer preference data with their market knowledge and experience to comprehend the way the market is moving. Thus, the marketing managers collect market data, analyse it and then put it together with a strategic model of marketing in order to sense the consumer behavior. In this way, they come to know what will work in the market and what will not.

Market Intuiting

Market intuiting is the third step in strategic marketing that takes forward the concept of market sensing and market learning. It refers to the process where the marketing managers comprehend the ‘mind and soul of the market’ and accordingly make future predictions. Here the managers get an intuitive understanding of the way the market is moving. The managers can find out whether consumers will flock towards a brand or abandon it completely by having an intuitive understanding of the market. This approach helps in finding out how the consumers would behave in the future. In this way, the businesses can fine-tune their marketing strategies to cater to the consumers.

Closing Thoughts

The business landscape is evolving rapidly. So, it isn’t enough to simply measure the data and create marketing campaigns. But, the marketing managers should consider consumer trends, consumer behavior and future trends to create effective marketing strategies. The marketing managers need to adopt strategic marketing to learn and sense how the market moves. They should know the best ways to gain insights into the mind and soul of the customers. But no college or institute emphasise on teaching these strategic steps to the marketing managers. However, when you pursue a Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) course in the specialization of Marketing Management from MIT School of Distance Education (MIT-SDE), you are taught to master these skills. So, what are you waiting for? Enroll for a course in MIT-SDE right away!

Friday 5 April 2019

Different roles played by the managers in an organisation

Be it a large, medium-sized or small organisation, managers with sound communication and managerial skills are indispensable for its seamless functioning and sustainable growth. However, an organisation has several managers, each playing a distinct role than others. It is the combined efforts of all the managers that garner success for the organisation.

In an organisation,a manger’s role depends upon the organisation’s size, nature, goals, as well as its processes. Usually, the managerial positions are divided into various segments according to the skill, awareness,and roles of the managers. These include:

The Top Management: Also known as the ‘think-tank’ of the organisation, the top management consists of the board of directors. The top management has the role of creating an action plan to achieve organisational They also oversee the processes and operations carried out in the organisation.
Senior Management: This segment includes senior managers who ensure the financial stability of the organisation. An organisation can determine its yearly financial stability only when it has maintained an accurate financial statement, which is ensured by general managers. Moreover, it is important that every department achieves its goals, which is managed by the functional manager who is assisted by a team of managers.
Line and Staff Managers: Line managers manage individual employee and follow unity of command with their subordinates. The staff manager provides information to the line managers for proficient management.
Project Managers: A project manager is in charge of an individual He manages the entire project from its commencement to the completion. His task involves planning and organizing the resources and defining the goals of that project.

Diverse roles that a manager is expected to play in an organisation

A manager represents the organisation and it is his task to sustain interpersonal relationships in every way. A top-level manager has to represent the organisation socially as well as legally among various companies and the public. A senior manager has to represent his team to the top managers but at the same time, he has to keep a proper relationship with his teammates as well as seniors. Similarly, line and staff members report to their seniors and the chain of hierarchy continues in every organisation.

In general, every manager is bound to perform different roles in an organisation to fulfill the set goals. These roles were found by Professor Henry Mintzberg after research of several weeks. These roles fall under three categories as listed below:

1. INTERPERSONAL ROLE

Figurehead: A manager acts as a figurehead and undertakes various responsibilities like ceremonial, social as well as legal.
Liaison: It is the manager’s task to foster a strong bond between the employees and employers and to facilitate both internal as well as external communication.
Leader: A manager should exhibit leadership qualities and direct the employees.

2. DECISIONAL ROLE

Disturbance Handler: A manager should deal with any unforeseen issue or complication in the organisation.
Negotiator: He should participate in various decisions or agreements with different departments.
Entrepreneur: The business environment is ever-changing, so a manager should adapt the changes, solves the issues, bring new ideas and implement them for the organisation’s benefit.
Resource Allocator: He should allocate all the basic resources of the organisation such as natural resources, staff, funds, etc appropriately in order to optimize their use.

3. INFORMATIONAL ROLE

Disseminator: A manager serves as a disseminator as he communicates all the vital information to the team and ensures that the employees, employers and the organisation work efficiently.
Monitor: A manager regularly checks and improves the performance of the workforce as well as the organisation.
Spokesperson: He maintains public relations and communicates the messages,objectives and information to the people on behalf of the organisation.

These were diverse roles that a manager is expected to play. In order to do full justice to the position of a manager, one must be knowledgeable, aware, adaptive, responsive, communicative, result-oriented, decision-maker, risk-taker and a leader. That is why at MIT School of Distance Education, we formulate the study material in such a way that the candidates master these skills. We also organised webinars and personality development classes to prepare the candidates to become efficient managers. So, you should definitely enroll for our job-oriented distance management courses.