MarketingManagement.pdf

Other companies that have shifted to regional marketing are McDonald’s, which

now spends about 50 percent of its total advertising budget regionally; American Air-

lines, which realized that the travel needs of Chicagoans and southwesterners are very

different during the winter months; and Anheuser-Busch, which has subdivided its

regional markets into ethnic and demographic segments, with different ad campaigns

for each.

Regionalization may be accompanied by a move toward branchising. Branchising

means empowering the company’s districts or local offices to operate more like fran-

chises. IBM told its branch managers to “make it your business.” The branches re-

semble profit centers and local managers have more strategy latitude and incentive.

Regionalization is also being adopted by multinationals operating across the globe.

Quaker Oats has set up a European headquarters in Brussels, and British Petroleum

has chosen Singapore for managing its operations in Asia and the Middle East.^5

Citibank has also innovated here:

■ Citibank As a global bank, Citibank has had to figure out how to service its

major global accounts in different parts of the world. Its solution: A parent

account manager (PAM) is appointed for each global account and sits in the

company’s New York headquarters. Each PAM has built a network of field ac-

count managers (FAMs) in the various countries and calls upon them when

the specific account needs service.

Product- or Brand-Management Organization

Companies producing a variety of products and brands often establish a product

(or brand-) management organization. The product-management organization does

not replace the functional management organization but rather serves as another

layer of management. A product manager supervises product category managers,

who in turn supervise specific product and brand managers. A product-manage-

ment organization makes sense if the company’s products are quite different, or if

the sheer number of products is beyond the ability of a functional marketing or-

ganization to handle. Kraft uses a product-management organization in its Post Di-

vision. Separate product category managers are in charge of cereals, pet food, and

beverages. Within the cereal product group, there are separate subcategory man-

agers for nutritional cereals, children’s presweetened cereals, family cereals, and

miscellaneous cereals.

Product and brand managers have these tasks:

■ Developing a long-range and competitive strategy for the product

■ Preparing an annual marketing plan and sales forecast

■ Working with advertising and merchandising agencies to develop copy, pro-

grams, and campaigns

■ Stimulating support of the product among the sales force and distributors

■ Gathering continuous intelligence on the product’s performance, customer and

dealer attitudes, and new problems and opportunities

■ Initiating product improvements to meet changing market needs

part five

Managing and

Delivering Marketing

(^684) Programs
Marketing
vice-president
Marketing
administration
manager
Advertising and
sales-promotion
manager
Sales
manager
Marketing
research
manager
New-products
manager
FIGURE 6-6
Functional Organization