Marketing Interface with other Functional Areas

Marketings Relationship with other Functions Functions within an organizationThe market function within any organization does non exist in isolation. Therefore its important to see how selling connects with and permeates other functions within the organization. merchandising interacts with investigate and development, production/operations/logistics, human resources, IT and node service.Research and developmentResearch and development is the engine within an organization which generates modern ideas, innovations and creative youngfound products and services. For example mobile phone phone/mobile phone manufacturers atomic number 18 in an manufacturing that is ever changing and developing, and in lodge to survive manufacturers need to continu bothy research and develop new softw atomic number 18 and hardware to compete in a very busy marketplace. Think about cell phones that were around three or four years ago which are now completely obsolete. The research and development process delivers new products and is continually innovating.Innovative products and services usually result from a conscious and resolute search for innovation opportunities which are found only within a few situations.Peter Drucker (1999)Research and development should be driven by the marketing concept. The needfully of consumers or potential consumers should be central to any new research and development in order to deliver products that satisfy client needs (or service of course). The service sufficient research and development is undertaken in central research facilities belonging to companies, universities and approximatelytimes to countries.Marketers would liaise with researchers and engineers in order to make sure that customer needs are represented.Manufacturing processes themselves could excessively be researched and developed based upon some aspects of the marketing mix. For example logistics (place/distri exclusivelyion/channel) could be researched in order to deli ver products more efficiently and efficaciously to customers.Production/operations/logisticsAs with research and development, the operations, production and logistics functions within business need to work in cooperation with the marketing de weakenment.Operations accept many other activities such as warehousing, packaging and distribution. To an extent, operations also includes production and manufacturing, as closely as logistics. Production is where goods and services are generated and made. For example an aircraft is manufactured in a factory which is in effect how it is produced i.e. production. Logistics is concerned with getting the product from production or warehousing, to retail or the consumer in the near effective and efficient way. Today logistics would include warehousing, trains, planes and lorries as well as technology used for real time tracking.Obviously vendors need to sell products and services that are currently in stock or laughingstock be made within a r easonable time limit. An unworkable scenario for a business is where marketers are attempting to add-on sales of a product whereby the product cannot be supplied. Perhaps there is a warehouse climb of other products that our marketing campaign is ignoring.Human resourcesHuman Resource Management (HRM) is the function within your organization which overlooks recruitment and selection, training, and the professional person development of employees. Other associate functional responsibilities include well-being, employee motivation, health and safety, performance management, and of course the function holds intimacy regarding the legal aspects of human resources.So when you become a marketing manager you would use the HR department to assistance you recruit a marketing assistant for example. They would help you with scoping out the logical argument, a person profile, a job description, and advertising the job. HR would help you to score and assess application forms, and leave org anise the interviews. They may head to assist at interview and will support you as you make your job offer. You may also use HR to organise an induction for your new employee. Of course there is the other side of the coin, where HR sometimes has to get tough with underperforming employees. These are the operational roles of HR.Your human resources Department also go for a strategic role., human resources sees people as a valuable asset to the organization. they assist with a spherical approach to managing people and help to develop a workplace culture and environment which focuses on charge and values.They also have an important communications role, and this is one aspect of their function which is most closely related to marketing. For example the HR department may run a staff development programme which needs a newsletter or a presence on your intranet. This is part of your internal marketing effort.IT (websites, intranets and extranets)As marketers we are concerned with how technology is used to treat information i.e. how we get information, how we process it, how we store the information, and then how we dispel it again by voice, image or graphics. Obviously this is a huge field but for our part we need to recognise the importance of websites, intranets and extranets to the marketer.A website is an electronic object which is placed onto the Internet. Often websites are used by businesses for a number of reasons such as to provide information to customers. So customers can interact with the product, customers can buy a product, more importantly customers begin to build along-term relationship with the marketing company. Information Technology underpins and supports the basis of Customer Relationship Management (CRM),An intranet is an internal website. An intranet is an IT supported process which supplies street smart information to employees of the business and other key stakeholders. For example European train operators use an intranet to give stre et smart information about trains to people on the ground supporting customers. An extranet is an internal website which is extended outside the organization, but it is not a public website. An extranet takes one stage further and provides information directly to customers/distributors/clients. Customers are able to check availability of stock and could check purchase prices for a particular product. For example a car supermarket could check availability of cars from a wholesaler.Customer service provisionCustomer service provision is very much integrated into marketing., customer service takes the needs of the customer as the central driver. customer service function revolves around a series of activities which are designed to facilitate the exchange process by making sure that customers are satisfied.Today customer service provision can be located in a central major power or actually in the field where the product is consumed. For example you may call a software manufacturer fo r some advice and assistance. You may have a billing enquiry. You might even wish to take off a contract or make changes to it. The customer service provision might be automated, it could be done solely online, or you might speak to a real person especially if you have a complex or technical need.Customer service is supported by IT to make the process of customer support more efficient and effective, and to capture and process data on particular activities. So the marketer needs to make sure that he or she is working with the customer service provision since it is a vital customer interface. The customer service provision may also provide speedy and by the way information about new or developing customer needs. For example if you have a advancement which has just been launched you can use thebcustomer service functions to help you check for early signs of success.Finance departmentThe marketing department will need to work closely with the finance department to ensure that There is an adequate budget to foregather the needs for research, promotion and distribution. The finance department has a whole organisation brief to ensure that all the business operates within its financial capabilities. They will want all departments to work within their allocated budgets.Like all departments, marketing may wish to overspend if profitable marketing opportunities emerge over the year. The marketing department is presumable to concentrate on sales volume and building market share, while the finance department may be more focused on cash flow, covering costs and paying back enthronement as quickly as possible. The Marketing-Finance approach has been helpful to understand better the impact of the crisis on riotouss and at the same time provide tools for firms to respond to the crisis so that firms can turn it (at macro level) into an opportunity for the firm to create value.