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Marketing Organization Design
Your marketing organization’s structure directly impacts the ability to respond quickly to the unique dynamics of your industry, marketplace, and corporate objectives.
Far too often, marketing organizations find themselves less effective because they are disconnected from the business they are supporting, are structured to meet yesterday’s demands, or have experienced a talent-drain. Over time, the function can lose touch with the marketing knowledge and skill levels needed by the company, becoming distanced from those driving the business in sales, the market and executive management.
Many companies struggle with the balance of centralized vs. decentralized marketing resources and the reporting relationship between the two. Unresolved, these issues can lead to inefficiencies that influence the overall corporate structure. Noticeable gaps and redundancies may propagate throughout the company. Our areas of expertise include:
Marketing organization assessment and design
Skill and knowledge assessments Productivity evaluations Job design/skills requirements Marketing skills training Capability building Marketing executive coaching Marketing process assessment and design
Marketing ROI analysis
Budgeting right-sizing
Organization-wide marketing spending audits Allocation/prioritization Key marketing executive recruiting assistance
Broadly speaking, marketing is concerned with all aspects of the product, pricing, promotion and distribution. All sub-functions or activities relating to these four basic dimensions are included in the marketing function. You have to account for these various activities when designing the marketing organization.
The structure of a marketing organization can be studied at different levels, such as overall firm level or divisional level or market level.
There are many ways of organizing the marketing department. We shall discuss in detail three basic methods having their own considerations:
Functional Organization:
In the functional organization, various functions performed as part of the overall marketing function are the basis for organizing the marketing set-up. Each function is assigned to a specialist who reports to the marketing manager. The most common functions need to consider as are follow:
- Sales
- Distribution
- Advertising and Sales Promotion
- Marketing Research Marketing Information System
- Dealer Development Customer Service
- New Product Development
- Marketing Planning
Product Management Organization:
The functional organization works well when there is a single product. But when there are multiple products and/or the products are very different from one another, the functional marketing organization is no longer effective. Here you need to consider the following:
- design strategies
- make plans
- monitor progress
- provide information relating to the product and
- interface with other departments within the organization and outside with customers, distributors, and advertising agencies.
Market Centered Organization:
When different markets, rather than functions or products form, the basis for differentiating marketing roles, the organization is known as market-centered.
Here the consideration as follow:
· When competitors have developed the same level of product sophistication and quality as the market leader and the leader's supremacy based on price advantage is seriously threatened. In such a situation, market centring can help the leader revive its competitive advantages, detailed knowledge of customer and retailers helps frame creative marketing strategies.
· When a firm wants to diversify either to expand the profit base, or gain a total hold on existing customers
ur item
market percentage
compatation
Considerations in Organization Design Internal and External Organizations Vertical Structure Horizontal Relationships Speed of Response Managing the Operating Environment