Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e
- Implementing and
Controlling Marketing
Plans: Evolution and
Revolution
Text © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2002Implementing and Controlling Marketing Plans: Evolution and Revolution 549A marketing manager may need many different types of information to improve
implementation efforts or develop new strategies. In the past, this has often caused
delays—even if the information was in a machine-processible form. In a large com-
pany, for example, it could take days or even weeks for a marketing manager to find
out how to get needed information from another department. Imagine how long it
could take for a marketing manager to get needed sales data from sales offices in
different countries around the world.New approaches for electronic communication and e-commerce help solve these
problems. For example, many companies are using the Internet, fiber-optic tele-
phone lines, or satellite transmission systems to immediatelytransfer data from a
computer at one location to another. A sales manager with a laptop can pull data
off the firm’s network computer from anywhere in the world. And marketing man-
agers working on different aspects of a strategy can use e-mail messaging or online
video conferencing to communicate. A simple PC, the Internet, and software such
as LapLink make it possible for a manager to work at a computer on the other side
of the world as if he or she were sitting in front of it. Computer programs that run
on a website give even easier access.
This type of electronic pipeline makes data available instantly. A report—such
as one that summarizes sales by product, salesperson, or type of customer—that in
the past was done once a month now might be done weekly, daily, or whenever an
online user wants it. Software can be programmed to search for and flag results that
indicate a problem of some sort. Programs like Microsoft Excel can link to the new
flow of data and instantly create graphs that make the information vivid and easy
to interpret. Then the manager can allocate more time to resolving whatever par-
ticular problems show up.
Of course, many firms don’t consider or use these types of approaches. But they
are becoming much more common—especially as more marketing managers find
that they are losing out to more nimble competitors who get information more
quickly and adjust their implementation and strategies more often.^2New information
technologies offer
speed and detailThe marketing strategy for the
kid’s book, Harry Potter and the
Goblet of Fire,called for it to be
released everywhere on the same
day. It was an implementation
challenge for Amazon.com to get
copies to 250,000 eager kids all
at once, but FedEx helped solve
the delivery problem. On another
front, Telerx helps other firms
implement their strategies by
providing customer service
outsourcing.