Marketing Management Tasks

A Marketing manager is required to regulate the level, timing, and nature of demand for one or more products of an organization. Based on the state of the demand, a marketer has to perform different marketing tasks. All these tasks require good organizational, planning, implementing and monitoring skills. Negative Demand Negative demand is defined as a state in which all or most of the important segments of the potential market dislike the product and in fact might conceivably pay a price to avoid it. The market shows its disapproval of the product by going for competitors products, even if they come at a premium. They do not mind shelling out extra money as they would want to avoid the product. There may be several reasons for this negative demand. This feeling of dislike or disapproval may stem from not matching up to customers product quality expectations, harsh critics of the products, poor service terms after sales etc. An example to illustrate this would be Maruti A-Star. When the car was launched, it did fairly well. But after some time, the sales slumped and customers started giving the product a cold shoulder. An investigation by Maruti market research team showed that this u-turn in customers perception was due to lot of negative publicity on the web and review forums. When a search was performed on A-Star, instead of the official site coming at the top, users were directed to negative review sites and discussion forums. Hence, a lot of people were influenced and decided to skip the product altogether and opt for the Hyundai family of cars. In case of negative demand, a marketers first task is to analyze the possible causes of the negative demand. Is it because of product quality? It is because of changing taste of the consumers? Is it because of poor service after sales? A marketer must come up with answers to such questions and then formulate a plan that would convert the negative demand to positive and eventually to match the supply of the product. This type of marketing is called Conversional Marketing. Online reputation management, advertising the value addition in order to break customers pre-conceived notions, improving the after-sales service, reducing costs and having a constant endeavour to delight the customer would strongly help a marketer manage this task.

Jalad Mukerjee

10P142 PGPM Section C

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No Demand No demand state is defined as a state in which all or important segments of a potential market are uninterested or indifferent to a particular object. There are some products for which there is neither a positive nor a negative demand. In fact, there is no demand at all. Such products neither leave a feeling of disapproval nor create any wants in the market. An example of such a product would be old CDs, audio cassettes and VHS tapes. There is absolutely no demand in the market for such products and a marketer would find it tough to find a market for them. In such a case, a marketer has to find ways to connect the value added by the product with peoples needs and interests. The marketer will need to focus on public relations as well as on media advertising to differentiate the product or services from the others. In case of old CDs and cassettes, they could be recycled into stationary products, coasters or used in other goods as a raw material. The value attached to such products must be advertised and once customers are exposed to the product they might buy it. This type of marketing is called stimulational marketing, aimed at stimulating the market demand from no demand to positive demand.

Latent Demand By definition, Latent demand exists when a substantial number of people share a strong need for something which does not exist in the form of an actual product. This type of demand acts as a huge base of potential customers and offers immense opportunity to the marketers to score big. An example of such a product would be cost effective eco-friendly cars that run on alternate fuel. These days more and more people are getting environment-friendly and are extremely conscious of their carbon footprint. Global warming is the buzz word. Customers realise that the current vehicles they drive have a significant negative impact on the environment and there is a considerable latent demand in the market for such hybrid cars that run on alternate fuels. As of now, there are some products in the market but their affordability is low and hence the market

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10P142 PGPM Section C

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penetration is even lower. There is immense growth opportunity is this sector and thus, it represents a market of latent demand. A marketer should carefully identify the needs and wants of the people and then coordinate all the management functions to develop the market. This type of marketing is called developmental marketing. After analyzing the potential demand in the market, a marketer must come up with the product that matches with the needs and then heavily advertise it to leverage the existing demand in the market.

Faltering Demand Faltering demand may be defined as a state in which the demand for a product is less than its former level and where further decline is expected in the absence of remedial efforts to revise the target market, product, and/or marketing effort. Here we see that the demand for a product declines and there may be many reasons for it: maybe the customers are not able to relate to the advertising campaigns, maybe they are not reaching out to the customers enough, and maybe the changing taste of the consumer is affecting the demand. Sales of Scooters can be cited as an example of faltering demand. The new generation is instead opting for motorcycles or entry level four-wheelers. A marketer, thus, has to restore the demand by means of remarketing strategy. This would include revamping the advertising campaigns, reconsidering the target market, and/or product features. Revamping the advertising to project a new image without changing the product features is called cosmetic marketing. Marketer has to make sure his media campaigns are optimized for catching eyeballs and delivering high performance results. On the other hand, remarketing involves changes and reconsideration to the product and target market segment. Therefore, a marketer should assess if any product revisions are required and then go ahead with revamping the media campaigns or the product altogether accordingly.

Irregular Demand

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10P142 PGPM Section C

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For some product groups, it has been noticed that the demand is satisfactory for a specific duration in a year whereas the demand is quite irregular at other times. This is due to the seasonal nature of the products. Irregular demand is defined as a state in which the current timing pattern of demand is marked by seasonal or volatile fluctuations that depart from the timing pattern of supply. An example of such a product can be seen in the Fireworks market. In India, these products are very much in demand particularly during the festival time. During the off season, many of the manufacturers find it difficult to match the demand with the supply. The marketing task involved here is synchromarketing. The major task of the marketer is to bring into synchronization, the supply and the seasonal demand for the product. This can be done by trying to alter the pattern of demand. A marketer can opt to offer value added deals, advertise heavily during the offseason and also offer discounts and freebies to the customers for sales made during the off-season. In the case of fireworks market, the marketer can identify other phases in the year where the product utility can be highlighted, for example, targeting the wedding season, or a major sporting extravaganza.

Full Demand Full demand can be defined as a state in which the current level and timing of demand is equal to the desired level and timing of demand. This state of demand is the most desirable as the levels of supply and demand match and sales are regular. However, a marketer should be cautious during this time and should not take it easy. Changing tastes and needs of the customer and active competition can swing the pendulum the other way in no time. The marketer has to stay ahead of the game at every step and actively dissolve any competition that tries to capture his market share. Therefore, his marketing task is that of maintenance marketing. The marketer is required to monitor the market carefully, looking for changing trends and tastes, optimize the investment in media so as to derive the most out of them and maintain the market lead. An example of such a product might be Intel computer chips. Despite having the majority of the market share, it is important for the marketer to monitor upcoming trends in the market, keeping the dealers motivated, optimizing the prices and also keep an eye on the competition. Jalad Mukerjee 10P142 PGPM Section C Page 4

Overfull Demand Overfull Demand is defined as a state in which demand exceeds the level at which the marketer feels able or motivated to supply it. In this case, the demand for the product is overwhelming and the marketer actively tries to discourage customers in general from buying the product either temporarily or permanently. This type of marketing activity is called demarketing. A marketer has couple of approaches here General demarketing involves discouraging overall demand for the product and secondly, Selective demarketing, which involves targeting a certain section of the customers and actively trying to dissuade them from buying the product. Examples of such products are Evian water, where the marketer wants it to be placed as a luxury product. That is why it is strategically priced high to dissuade the general set of public. A marketer in this position may choose to increase the prices, decrease the promotion and convenience of acquiring the product.

Unwholesome Demand Unwholesome demand is a state in which any positive level of demand is felt to be excessive because of undesirable qualities associated with the product. The demand for such products may be judged unwholesome keeping the consumers and/or the suppliers welfare in mind. This marketing activity is called countermarketing or unselling. Here the aim is to reduce the demand for a product that belongs to ones own organization, to the competitor or to a thirdparty entity by terming it as socially undesirable. An example of such a case is PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). They actively run campaigns against organizations that are involved in fishing, hunting or whose product catalogue includes fur, leather etc. They want to strongly portray the message that the killing will stop when the buying does, thus dissuading the customers from buying such products. A marketer tries to instil a feeling of disgust, disapproval or fear with the use of these unwholesome products. On doing so, the customers are influenced not to buy the product.

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10P142 PGPM Section C

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References 1. Journal of Marketing The Major Tasks of Marketing Management By Philip Kotler

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10P142 PGPM Section C

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