Basic Marketing: A Global Managerial Approach

Perreault−McCarthy: Basic

Marketing: A

Global−Managerial

Approach, 14/e

20. Managing Marketing’s
    Link with Other Functional
    Areas

Text © The McGraw−Hill

Companies, 2002

598 Chapter 20

Good communication is crucial. The marketing manager must find ways to

explain the new strategy, what needs to happen, and why. You can’t expect people

to pull together in an organizationwide effort if they don’t know what’s going on.

Such communication might be handled in meetings, memos, casual discussions,

internal newsletters, or any number of other ways, depending on the situation. How-

ever, the communication should occur. At a minimum, the marketing manager

needs to have clear communication with other managers who will participate in

preparing the firm’s personnel for a change.

When developing a marketing plan, a pragmatic marketing manager must take a

realistic look at how quickly the firm’s personnel can get geared up for the plan or

whether it will be possible to get people who can.

Firms that are growing rapidly face special challenges in getting enough qualified

people to do what needs to be done. A fast-growing retail chain like Home Depot

that opens many new stores doesn’t just need money for new land, buildings, and

inventory. It also needs new store managers, assistant managers, sales clerks, cus-

tomer service people, advertising managers, computer operators, and even

maintenance people. Not all of these jobs are likely to be filled by internal promo-

tions, so at least some of the “new blood” have to learn about the culture of the

company, its customers, and its products at the same time they are learning the nuts

and bolts of performing their jobs well. Hiring people and getting them up to speed

takes time and energy.

Training is important in situations like this; but training, like other organizational

changes, takes time. A marketing manager who wants to reorganize the firm’s sale force

so that salespeople are assigned to specific customers rather than by specific product

line may have a great idea, but it can’t be implemented overnight. A salesperson who

is supposed to be a specialist in meeting the needs of a certain customer won’t be able

to do a very good job if all he or she knows about is the specific product that was pre-

viously the focus. So the plan would need to include time for training to take place.

A change in sales assignments is also likely to require changes in compensation.

Someone needs to figure out the specifics of the new compensation system, and

accountants need time to adjust their computer programs to make certain that the

salespeople actually get paid. Similarly, the changes in the sales force are likely

to require changes in who they report to and the structure of sales management

assignments.

Our objective in this example is not just to detail the changes that might be

required for this specific strategy decision, but rather to highlight the more general

Communication helps
promote change

To keep employees up-to-date
on the latest information
available, Colgate runs training
programs all over the world. This
session, in Thailand, focuses on
research insights about
consumers of personal care
products.

Rapid growth strains
human resources

Allow time for training
and other changes

Each change may
result in several others