Understanding Marketing Objectives

Marketing objectives: the goals of the marketing function which come from, and are designed to help achieve, the corporate objectives.

They are likely to include some of the following:

·         To maintain or increase market share or increase the percentage of the total market it controls

·         To target a new market segment of an existing market or a new market

·         To develop new goods and services as a result of market research findings or technological development

They should always be quantifiable targets so that success can be judged. SMART 

This refers to the amount of money available to the marketing function to spenf on its activities for a given time period.

Will be impacted by the organisations financial position and the expected return on a marketing project.

·         Organisations financial position is key. It might be assumed that the size of the budget will reflect the success of the business but it could be argued that when the firm is in difficulty and sales are decreasing, the marketing budget should be increased. This logic is little help if there is not the finance available.

·         Expected return is also key. If marketing objectives have been achieved successfully in the past, this can increase the likelihood of finance being made available in the future. If the expected return is low, less chance of funding being made available. 

Skills and abilities of the workforce can potentially limit what the business is able to do.

On the other hand, the workforce might be an underutilised resource that has the potential to give the business a competitive advantage over its rivals in the market. 

Must take quality and capacity into consideration when setting objectives.

It is essential that the business has the manufacturing capacity or the space to cope with extra customer numbers.

An operation objective of quality improvement should be incorporated into marketing planning.

Current ado/ or future actions of major competitors must be taken into consideration.

Should involve an assessment of all the elements of their marketing mix, pricing, promotion, distribution and product policies, as well as overall spending on marketing.

You may notice that a major promotion by one firm in a competitive market is often followed by equally large scale campaigns by rivals.

CAM can significantly reduce promotion times and labour costs.

May open up new markets or increase a company’s ability to compete in a low cost market.

On the other hand, technological developments can lead to shortened product life cycles which have implications for product development.

It can lead to products becoming obsolete which can have a major impact on the marketing objectives of the business.

·         Economic climate should be considered, as economic recession or growth could have a direct impact on demand, for example a recession in a company’s main market may encourage development of  a new market overseas

·         Social change can have an impact on marketing objectives, for example increased awareness of fair trade issues has increased the demand for products sourced from fair trade producers.

·         Legislation has an increasing effect on marketing, for example, regulations about recycled packaging based on EU directives has encouraged firms to change the materials they use to package their products

·         Consumers’ needs may change and effective marketing objectives should anticipate these changes. 

Analysis Explaining why a business smight choose to adopt a particular marketing objective, Examining the possible advantages and disadvantages to a business of adopting a particular marketing objective, Considering the major influences on a business’s choice of marketing objective

Evaluation Judging the extent to which a business might ebenefit from perusing a specific marketing objective in given circumstances, deciding between two or more marketing objectives and recommending which might be most suitable in a certain situation, Making a judgement on whether internal or external factors were more influential in determining a business’s marketing objectives.  

Links marketing strategies and plans, innovation ( an innovative business is likely to have marketing objectives such as increasing market share and developing new products and products ranges). Will also link with workforce plans.