MarketingManagement.pdf

shows five specialists. Additional specialists might include a customer-service man-
ager, a marketing-planning manager, and a market-logistics manager.
It is quite a challenge to develop smooth working relations within the marketing
department. Cespedes has urged companies to improve the critical interfaces among
field sales,customer service, and product management groups, because they collectively
have a major impact on customer satisfaction. He has proposed several ways to form
tighter links among these three key marketing groups.^2
The main advantage of a functional marketing organization is its administrative
simplicity. However, this form loses effectiveness as products and markets increase.
First, a functional organization often leads to inadequate planning for specific prod-
ucts and markets. Products that are not favored by anyone are neglected. Second, each
functional group competes with the other functions for budget and status. The mar-
keting vice president constantly has to weigh the claims of competing functional spe-
cialists and faces a difficult coordination problem.

Geographic Organization
A company selling in a national market often organizes its sales force (and sometimes
other functions, including marketing) along geographic lines. The national sales man-
ager may supervise four regional sales managers, who each supervise six zone man-
agers, who in turn supervise eight district sales managers, who supervise ten
salespeople.
Several companies are now adding area market specialists(regional or local mar-
keting managers) to support the sales efforts in high-volume, distinctive markets.
One such market might be Miami, where 46 percent of the households are Latino,
compared to neighboring Fort Lauderdale, where 6.7 percent of the households are
Latino. The Miami specialist would know Miami’s customer and trade makeup, help
marketing managers at headquarters adjust their marketing mix for Miami, and pre-
pare local annual and long-range plans for selling all the company’s products in
Miami.
Several factors have fueled the move toward regionalization and localization. The
U.S. mass market has slowly subdivided into a profusion of minimarkets along de-
mographic lines: baby boomers, senior citizens, African Americans, single mothers—
the list goes on.^3 Improved information and marketing research technologies have
also spurred regionalization. Data from retail-store scanners allow instant tracking of
product sales, helping companies pinpoint local problems and opportunities. Retail-
ers themselves strongly prefer local programs aimed at consumers in their cities and
neighborhoods. To keep retailers happy, manufacturers now create more local mar-
keting plans.

■ Campbell Soup Campbell has created many successful regional brands. It
sells its spicy Ranchero beans in the Southwest, Creole soup in the South,
and red bean soup in Latino areas. Brands appealing to regional tastes add
substantially to Campbell’s annual sales. In addition, Campbell has divided
its domestic market into 22 regions, each responsible for planning local pro-
grams. The company has allocated 15 to 20 percent of its total marketing
budget to support local marketing. Within each region, Campbell’s sales man-
agers and salespeople create advertising and promotions geared to local needs
and conditions.
Adaptation to regional differences is carried out in Campbell’s interna-
tional marketing as well. A kitchen opened in Hong Kong in 1991 develops
recipes for the Asian market, and soups marketed in Latin America feature
spicy flavors. Packaging and advertising are also geared to regional and na-
tional differences. For example, cans are avoided in Japan, where many shop-
pers carry their groceries on foot. In Mexico, large cans are popular because
families tend to be large. In Poland, where consumption of soup is high and
most of it is homemade, Campbell Soup appeals to working mothers by of-
fering eight varieties of condensed tripe soup that can be prepared quickly
and easily.^4

chapter 22

Managing the

Total Marketing

Effort^683

President

(c) Stage 3: Separate Marketing

Department

Marketing VP

Other marketing

functions

Sales force

Sales VP

FIGURE 6-5 (cont.)

President

(d) Stages 4 and 5: Modern/Effective

Marketing Company

Executive VP

of Marketing and Sales

Marketing VP

Other marketing

functions

Sales VP

Sales force

Cross-disciplinary team

with process leader

(e) Stage 6: Process- and

Outcome-Based Company

Marketing

personnel

Marketing

department