Marketing management is the practical application of marketing techniques. It is the analysis, planning, implementation, and control of programs designed to create, build, and maintain mutually beneficial exchanges with target markets. The marketing manager has the task of influencing the level, timing, and composition of demand in way that will achieve organizational objectives.

Marketing management involves:

• Understanding the economic structure of your industry
• Identify segments within your market
• Identify the Marketing strategy which best fits your company
• Identifying your target market
• Do marketing research to develop profiles (demographic, psychographic, and behavoural) of your core customers
• Understand your competitors and their products
• Develop new products
• Establish environmental scanning mechanisms to detect opportunities and threats
• Understand your company's strengths and weaknesses
• Audit your customers' experience of your brand in full
• Develop marketing strategies for each of your products using the marketing mix variables of price, product, distribution, and promotion
• Create a sustainable competitive advantage
• Understand where you want your brands to be in the future, and write marketing plans on a regular basis to help you get there
• Setup feedback systems (management information system) to help you monitor and adjust the process

Recent changes and future trends in Marketing Management

• was using tactics
  • now focussing on Marketing strategies
• was build sales through advertising..................
  • now build brands through a coordinated integrated marketing strategy that involves all points of contact between the company and the public
• was short term focus on profitable transactions.................
  • now look at Customer's lifetime value
• was company was the unit of analysis..............
  • now the whole value chain is the unit of analysis, meeting the end customers' needs
• was organized by product units..............
  • now organized by customer segment
• was segmented on geographic or demographic variables.................
  • now segmented in depth using all relevant variables, especially behavioural variables like usage rate, loyalty, or benefit
• was focus on capturing new customers..................
  • now emphasis on keeping existing customers
• was performance measured by financial metrics...........
  • now performance measured by financial, strategic, and marketing metrics
• was satisfy shareholders........................
  • now satisfy all stakeholders
• was marketing department does the marketing..............
  • now everyone in the company does some marketing
• was individual and hierarchical work structures............
  • now cross functional teams
• was developing and implementing a marketing plan took years..........
  • now it takes months (or weeks)

see also

• marketing
• marketing plan
• product management
• pricing
• distribution
• promotion