2014 MBL93J-4 Advanced Marketing (Elective)

Module overview 2014

Name of module: Advanced Marketing

Module code: MBL93J4

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
This module overview contains important information
about your module.

CONTENTS
Page
CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................................. 2
1

INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 3

PURPOSE AND BROAD AND SPECIFIC OUTCOMES FOR THE MODULE ................................ 3

2.1

Purpose ........................................................................................................................................ 3

2.2

Broad and specific outcomes ........................................................................................................ 3

LECTURER(S) AND CONTACT DETAILS ..................................................................................... 3

3.2

Area .............................................................................................................................................. 3

3.3

University ...................................................................................................................................... 4

3.2

AREA ............................................................................................................................................ 4

3.3

University ...................................................................................................................................... 4

MODULE-RELATED RESOURCES ............................................................................................... 4

4.1

Prescribed books .......................................................................................................................... 4

4.2

Recommended books ................................................................................................................... 4

4.3

Electronic reserves (e-reserves) ................................................................................................... 5

TOPICS ........................................................................................................................................... 7

5.1 The marketing management process.................................................................................................. 7

5.2 Key accounts management (KAM) ................................................................................................... 10
5.3

Branding and brand management ............................................................................................... 11

5.4 Marketing strategy: planning versus execution ................................................................................. 12

5.5 Marketing innovation ........................................................................................................................ 14
5.6 Marketing metrics ............................................................................................................................. 15
6

STUDY SCHOOL PLAN ............................................................................................................... 18

MODULE-SPECIFIC STUDY PLAN ............................................................................................... 18

ASSESSMENT .............................................................................................................................. 19

8.2

General assignment numbers ..................................................................................................... 19

8.2.1

Due dates for assignments ......................................................................................................... 19

8.3

Submission of assignments ........................................................................................................ 19

8.4

Assignments ............................................................................................................................... 19

OTHER ASSESSMENT METHODS .............................................................................................. 24

10

EXAMINATION .............................................................................................................................. 24

11

CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................. 24

12

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING ............................................................................................. 24

MBL93J-4

INTRODUCTION

Dear Advanced Marketing student

Welcome to this exciting module, which forms part of your development as a business leader.
The content of this module is structured to develop your understanding of the management of
the key aspects of strategic marketing.

PURPOSE AND BROAD AND SPECIFIC OUTCOMES FOR THE

MODULE

2.1

Purpose

This module consists of two components, namely, marketing strategy and marketing metrics.
While a great deal of emphasis is placed on creating and implementing a marketing strategy,
less attention is focused on measuring marketing performance. This module addresses issues
such as marketing strategy creation, marketing strategy implementation and measuring
marketings contribution to the financial success of organisations.
2.2

Broad and specific outcomes

In the broad sense, students will acquire knowledge of specific topics that are regarded as
relevant to and important for a marketing management position.
The specific outcomes are provided in the discussion for each topic discussed below.

LECTURERS AND CONTACT DETAILS

The lecturers for this module are as follows:

Office:
Telephone number:
E-mail address:
Fax number:

Office:
Telephone number:
E-mail address:
Fax number:

Mr Hennie Visser (module leader)

Room 3-09, Unisa SBL Campus, Corner of Janadel and
Alexandra Avenues, Midrand
+27 11 652 0220
vissejh@unisa.ac.za
+27 11 652 0371

Prof Mari Jansen van Rensburg

Room 3-18, Unisa SBL Campus, Corner of Janadel and
Alexandra Avenues, Midrand
+27 11 652 0371
jvrenm@unisa.ac.za
+27 11 652 0371

Bear in mind that lecturers can assist with enquiries of an academic nature only, such as
enquiries about the contents of assignments.
You must provide your student number and the course code for this module (MBL93J4)
whenever you direct an enquiry to us.
3.2

Area

You may direct any administrative enquiries concerning the strategy and marketing area to our
administrative support staff.
3

Name
Telephone number
E-mail address

3.3

Strategy and marketing area

Ms Tintswalo Mathebula
+ 27 11 652 0319
tmathet@unisa.ac.za

University

The contact points for any enquiries about administrative support are listed below. Remember
to use your student number as a reference whenever you contact the University.
Description of enquiry
SBL reception/information desk

Telephone
+27 11 652 0214/48

Registrations
Prescribed books
MBL programme administration

+27 11 652 0218

+27 11 652 0239
+27 11 652 0341/2

Library

EDS support
myUnisa
Finance

3.2

+27 11 652 0249

+27 11 652 0358
43582 (SMS)
+27 11 652 0324

E-mail address
Zinhle
dlaminz@unisa.ac.za
sblregistrations@unisa.ac.za
Terrance
lebepmt@unisa.ac.za
Princess
pkhambule@unisa.ac.za
Lindiwe
ncongle@unisa.ac.za
Megan
scheema@unisa.ac.za
edssupport@sbleds.ac.za
myUnisaHelp@unisa.ac.za
Miliswa
SBLfinance@unisa.ac.za

AREA

Strategy and marketing

3.3

University

Unisa Graduate School for Business Leadership (Unisa SBL)

MODULE-RELATED RESOURCES

4.1

Prescribed books

Walker, OC & Mullins, JW. 2011. Marketing strategy: a decision focused approach. New York:
McGraw-Hill. ISBN 978-0-07-017146-64.2 or latest edition available.
4.2

Recommended books

Venter, P & Jansen van Rensburg, M. 2009. Strategic marketing: theory and applications for
competitive advantage. Cape Town: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978 0 19 598706 5.

MBL93J-4

4.3

Electronic reserves (e-reserves)

The following articles are hyper-linked below. Articles should be downloaded and used as part
of your course material. These articles should be included as part of your references in your
assignments. It is also part of the material that will be used for examination preparation.
Key accounts management (KAM) articles
Al-Husan, FB & Brennan, R. 2009. Strategic account management in an
emerging economy, Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 24(8): 611620
Brehmer P & Rehme J. 2009. Proactive and reactive: drivers for key account
management programmes, European Journal of Marketing, 43(7/8): 961-984.
Ivens, BS & Pardo C. 2008. Key-account-management in business markets:an
empirical test of common assumptions, Journal of Business & Industrial
Marketing, 23(5): 301310
Ivens, BS; Pardo, C; Salle R and Cova B. 2009. Relationship keyness: The
underlying concept for different forms of key relationship management, Industrial
Marketing Management, 38:513519.

Branding and brand management articles

Punjaisri,K; Wilson A & Evanschitzky, H. Internal branding to influence
employees brand promise delivery: a case study in Thailand, Journal of Service
Management, 20(5): 561-579.
Roberts, C & Alpert F. 2010. Total customer engagement: designing and aligning
key strategic elements to achieve growth, Journal of Product & Brand
Management, 19(3): 198209
Simmons, JA. 2009. Both sides now: aligning external and internal branding for a
socially responsible era, Marketing Intelligence & Planning , 27(5): 681-697
Thomas, S & Kohli, C. 2009. A brand is forever! A framework for revitalizing
declining and dead brands, Business Horizons ,52(4): 377386

Marketing strategy: planning versus execution articles

Slater, SF; Hult, GTM & Olson, EM. 2010. Factors influencing the relative
importance of marketing strategy creativity and marketing strategy implementation
effectiveness, Industrial Marketing Management, 39:551559
Slater, SF; Olson, EM & Hult, GTM.2010. Worried about strategy
implementation? Dont overlook marketings role, Business Horizons, 53(5):469479.
Smith NC, Drumwright, ME, & Gentile, MC. 2010. The New Marketing Myopia,
Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 29(1) : 411
5

Valos, MJ. 2009. Structure, people and process challenges of multichannel

marketing: Insights from marketers, Database Marketing & Customer Strategy
Management ,16(3):197206

Marketing innovation articles

Judson, KM; Gordon, GL; Ridnour RE & Weilbaker DC. 2009. Key account vs.
Other sales management systems: Is there a difference in providing customer
input during the new product development process? The Marketing
Management Journal, 19(2):1-17
Liqin Ren, L; Xie, G & Krabbendam, K. 2010. Sustainable competitive advantage
and marketing innovation within firms: A pragmatic approach for Chinese firms,
Management Research Review, 33(1): 79-89
Sarkees, M & Hulland, J. 2009. Innovation and efficiency: It is possible to have it
all, Business Horizons, 52(1): 45-55

Marketing metrics articles

Ambler, T; Roberts, JH. 2010. Assessing marketing performance: don't settle for
a silver metric, Journal of Marketing Management, 24(7): 733-750
Gao, Y. 2010. Measuring marketing performance: A review and a framework,
The Marketing Review,10(1): 25-40
Lamberti, L & Noci, G. 2010. Marketing strategy and marketing performance
measurement system: Exploring the relationship, European Management
Journal, 28(2):139-152.
OSullivan, D; Abela, AV & Hutshison, M. 2009. Marketing performance
measurement and firm performance:Evidence from the European high-technology
sector, European Journal of Marketing, 43(5/6): 843-862
Petersen, JA; McAlister, L, Reibstein, DJ; Russell S; Winer, RS; Kumar, V &
Atkinson, G. 2009. Choosing the Right Metrics to Maximize Profitability and
Shareholder Value, Journal of Retailing, 85 (1):95111

Additional articles are intended to broaden your insight into the different topics. They will also be
linked through the EDS. These articles can be used for assignments, but will not form part of the
body of knowledge for assessment purposes.

MBL93J-4

TOPICS

5.1 The marketing management process

Specific outcomes
Achieve top management consensus about marketing strategies and tactics.
Plan and implement marketing strategies that are suited to deliver value to the needs of
the different market segments.
Critical questions
You have been appointed senior marketing executive to a large company. You are given a
specific task to improve the financial performance of the company. A marketing audit done by
you reveals that most of the marketing activities were stand-alone, uncoordinated activities with
marketing having hardly any impact on the bottom line.
What would you do to rectify the current situation?
Learning through activities
During the rest of our journey, we explore the following aspects of the marketing management
process:
the nature of strategic marketing
marketing opportunity analysis
aspects of the strategic marketing process
marketing strategy implementation
measurement of marketing success
Before you read the chapters in the prescribed book, reflect on the following questions:
Do you believe that proper marketing is the only way to create and maintain a sustainable
organisation?
How would you describe marketing? What are the core components (i.e. sales or
advertising)?
Is marketing regarded as an investment in your organisation? Or is it seen as an expense
something that you have to do because others do it.
Do you agree that many organisations do not have a clear picture of their marketing
performance?
For many organisations, brand equity (the asset) is the main and most valuable asset in
business. It does not receive the attention it deserves because it is not reflected on the
balance sheet and is difficult to measure. Do you agree with this statement?
What is your definition of brand equity? How would you attempt to measure it?
Read the following additional article:
Jansen van Rensburg, M, Venter, P & Strydom, JW. 2012. The perceived contribution of the
practise of strategic marketing on the performance of South African companies. Journal of
Contemporary Management 9:24-47.
How does your opinion differ from that expressed by South African companies?
7

Marketing must form an integral part of the way any organisation plans for its future. In this
sense, marketing and organisational strategy are closely linked. For instance, the marketing
strategy is close to corporate and business unit strategies. It can never be untangled from the
overall corporate strategy or the business units strategies.
This is also true of organisations that traditionally did not engage in marketing. If the array of
marketing elements (product/service, pricing, marketing communications, process, people and
distribution/footprint) are considered, it makes sense not to think about marketing in the old
fashioned way of advertising and/or selling.
Of course commercial or private companies need to use all the marketing elements in an array
of combinations/variations to develop marketing strategies that will achieve two major goals.
The first is to satisfy the needs of customers in the market and the second is to do it better than
ones competitors. Making money is the inevitable outcome of achieving these two seemingly
simple goals. In economies where competition is not extensive (such as the South African
economy) there is an additional responsibility to achieve this within the boundaries of honesty
and ethicality.
Different types of organisations need to understand their marketing role in the light of why they
exist and the environment in which they operate. For instance, government departments or
government-funded organisations need to realise that its first priority is to render an excellent
service where it is needed. They do not have to compete with anyone. They simply have to do
an honest days work for the tax money allocated to them in other words, do what the market
expects of them in the most productive way. In this scenario, marketing communication would
typically be educational and employed to provide information. Because these organisations are
essentially service organisations, the principles of services marketing must be known and
applied.
Organisations in the business-to-business (B2B) environment need to realise that key accounts
management is probably more important for success than mass distribution which is better
suited to consumer marketing. The emphasis that leads to success in the B2B marketing
environment is different from that for consumer marketing. Although application may differ, the
basic elements of different marketing situations remain similar.
The key principle is that of being market oriented. Market orientation, as posited by Levitt
(1960), suggests that a continuous awareness of changes in the market environment will alert
organisations to ways that they should adopt and adjust in order to remain relevant. If market
needs are essentially for the transportation/distribution of goods and services, but you narrowly
define your business as a railway business, you will eventually succumb to competitive forces
that cater for the broader need for transportation/distribution.
The strategic marketing process has distinct phases. These phases are interwoven in
organisations and should not be seen as loose silos of actions. Venter and Jansen van
Rensburg (2009) summarise these phases as follows in figure 1.

MBL93J-4

Figure 1
The marketing management process

Source: Venter & Janse van Rensburg (2009)

In the market opportunity analysis phase, attention is focused on research and the use of
suitable information. Customer analysis, market demand analysis, competitor analysis, an
analysis of the influence of factors from the macroenvironment and an analysis of own
capabilities are combined in a marketing information system. This information should be used to
decide which segments to choose and target.
Only then should organisations start to formulate specific strategies that would be suitable for
the different market segments. Marketing, sales and other objectives are set, decisions are
made about the unique position that your organisation should adopt among competitors and a
suitable marketing mix is developed that will deliver the value the segments are looking for. This
information (about needs) is gleaned from the information analysis.
Of course no strategy is successful if it is not properly implemented, and the performance
measurement determines whether the objectives were in fact realised.
Reflection
Consider figure 1 and reflect on the following questions:
(1) Did the authors omit any key strategic marketing components. If so, which ones and where
would they fit into the illustration.
(2) Are any of the strategic marketing components redundant? If so, why?
Conclusion
Gone are the days when we described marketing on the basis for the four or seven Ps. Today,
we need to think strategically and realise that the tactical elements follow the strategic
foundation. As marketers, we need to take responsibility for our actions and justify our
marketing spend.
9

5.2 Key accounts management (KAM)

Specific outcome
In essence, marketing and management entail the management of relationships. Relationship
marketing involves the relationships with customers, while internal marketing involves the
relationships between employees and managers.
In this topic we focus on the relationships between the organisation and customers (the
relationship marketing domain) and the relationships between management and employees (the
internal marketing domain). The management of the external relationship refers to all the
communications between organisations and the external stakeholders.
Critical questions
The key questions that arise in customer relationships in general are the following:
Are some customer relationships more important than others?
How do we know what customers really want?
Are there specific actions that can be taken that strengthen these relationships?
What are the benefits of a relationship management programme?
Do the costs of key accounts management (KAM) outweigh the benefits?
Why are some KAM programmes a huge failure?
How do we measure customer satisfaction?
Are service recovery and customer retention important, and if so, why?
Learning through activities
Research about customer retention by Reichheld and Sasser (1990) fundamentally changed the
way in which organisations handle their customers. This article sparked a move towards
relationship marketing. Later articles confirm that retaining customers is critical for a firms longterm survival, innovativeness and bottom-line results. This view is evident in the shift of the
marketing discipline away from the study of marketplace exchanges as transactions that need
to be consummated to that of exchanges as relationships that need to be nurtured, preserved
and cultivated. Customers should be seen as vital intangible assets and should be valued and
managed accordingly.
Read the following additional article to appreciate the importance of this philosophy in the South
African service industry.
Jansen van Rensburg, M., Venter, P and Strydom, J. 2009. Advertising Agency Retention Views from
South African Advertisers, South African Journal of Business Management, 40 (4): 25-36.

Study the prescribed study material.

When considering the perspectives expressed in the readings, it becomes clear that the
calculation of customer equity has become a reality and return on marketing should be
measured in order for competing marketing strategy options to be traded off on the basis of
projected financial return. This could enable the organisation to focus marketing efforts on
strategic initiatives that generate the greatest return. Customer selection could be based
successfully on customer lifetime value and this value could facilitate resource allocation
decisions.
Is KAM simply another way of focusing on the most valuable customers, or is it more than that?
One of the key account selection criteria is that the customer is considered by the supplier to be
10

MBL93J-4

of strategic importance. Strategic importance may go beyond the direct economic importance of
the customer, including such factors as reference value, access to process or technological
knowledge or to new markets. There is general consensus that KAM has the following distinct
phases:(1)pre-KAM (identify key account candidates)
(2)

early KAM (explore opportunities for closer collaboration)

(3)

mid-KAM (develop a wider range of cross-boundary contacts)

(4)

partnership KAM (the supplier is viewed as an external resource of the buyer)

(5)

synergistic KAM (partners create joint value in the marketplace)

(6)

uncoupling KAM (dissolution of the KAM relationship)

The articles cover an extensive body of knowledge about KAM relationships in marketing.
Think about your own organisation.
How do you manage your customer relationships?
If you do have a KAM programme, is it successful?
How do you measure service quality?
How often do you measure service quality?
Reflection
Now that we have considered the nature and importance of various relationships, we can reflect
on the lessons learnt.
Do you think relationships are necessary for goods manufacturers and industrial marketers?
How would the relationships in these markets compared to service markets differ? How
would they be similar?
Do you think KAM is important in a marketing strategy?
Conclusion
The retention of customers is a primary concern for most businesses. KAM involves far more
than buying expensive software to implement a KAM programme. It is necessary to consider
internal markets. In the following two topics, the role of branding is dealt with in more detail.
5.3

Branding and brand management

Your organisation is a brand. When customers make contact with your organisation, they
experience it as either satisfactory or unsatisfactory. Managing this experience is the essence of
brand management.
Specific outcomes
Use internal and external branding in delivering customer value.

Critical questions
Is branding still important in the turbulent markets that organisations face today?
Does the cost of branding outweigh the benefits?
11

What are the characteristics of enduring brands?

Can strong brands ensure that companies survive and remain competitive?
Are there better approaches to building successful brands?
What are modern-day best practices for internal and external branding?
Learning through activities
Everything and everyone is a brand. Think of Heinz Ketchup and All Gold Tomato Sauce and
two different pictures come to mind. The same applies to Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Virgin Active
gyms, Oprah Winfrey, a government department and every other entity or person that you can
think of. This picture is a combination of what has been communicated to you about that brand
and your experience with that brand. To capture a space in todays over-communicated
consumer world, organisations need to focus on all aspects of brand management to have any
impact. It is no longer enough to be just known in the market. Making sure that the brand
experience is creating excitement and loyalty needs detailed planning and execution of the
communication between your organisation and the market and from your market to your
organisation. Read the annual report below, and consider the criteria employed to determine the
top South African brands.
Source: Brand Finance. 2013. BrandFinance: South Africa Top 50 the annual report on
South
Africas
most
valuable
brands.
August.
http://brandfinance.com/images/upload/brandfinance_south_africa_top_50_2013.pdf

The articles that deal with internal marketing and branding cover a broad spectrum of best
practices and recent thinking about brand practices. Marketing activities should never be seen
as complete without an internal marketing/branding programme as well.
Read the articles on internal marketing and branding.
What would the relevance of these articles be to your organisation?
What would you recommend that your organisation change in its internal marketing/branding
programme from the frameworks suggested in the articles?
Reflection
What do you see as important issues to consider when a brand is being built?
What are the differences between building brands for goods versus services?
What role does internal marketing play in the building of a successful brand?
Conclusion
We learnt from the articles that brands should create shareholder value, and that they provide
important quality and consistency cues for consumers. A challenge for your organisation may
be to consider how brand loyal the employees in your organisation are, and to consider critically
whether and how the brand(s) in your organisation create value for customers.
5.4 Marketing strategy: planning versus execution
Many marketing strategies fail, not because they were weak strategies, but because they were
poorly executed. Several cultural, operational, managerial and communication factors contribute
to these failures. In the early 1990s, the main reason for failures was the general lack of a
12

MBL93J-4

marketing function or marketing ethos in organisations. However, recent research has shown
that this is no longer the case, since most organisations now have a marketing function with at
least the basics of marketing activities. The challenge facing most businesses now is to take the
marketing analyses that are conducted one step further by formulating a well-considered
marketing strategy with specific plans of action to implement it. Furthermore, steps need to be
taken to ensure that the plans are executed. Marketing scholars and practitioners generally
agree that the effective implementation of marketing strategy is still a major weakness in many
organisations.
Specific outcomes
Use the correct approach to develop marketing strategy.
Use the correct approach to implement the strategy.
Critical questions
When you think about your own organisation, how do you see the marketing function?
Is it very basic, or does is it become involved in the strategic pathway or direction that the
organisation is taking?
How are marketing plans formulated and implemented?
Would you say the formulation-implementation process is primarily prescriptive, or is it more
iterative, with consultation?
Are all strategies that are formulated successfully implemented?
Learning through activities
Read the prescribed articles dealing with marketing strategy implementation. These articles
describe the dilemma that most strategists face, and the dual role that managers need to play to
focus on the future while they are managing and focusing on the daily operational issues that
are also important.
The articles spell out the barriers that organisations experience that impede marketing strategy
execution. Read them all and reflect on how you experience similar impediments to
implementation. Also think how you could counteract inertia in implementation. The American
Productivity and Quality Centre advocates that managing change needs all the elements of
vision + skills + incentives + resources + action plans
These components need to be in place if an organisation hopes for any success. Which of
these factors are absent in your strategic process? Remember that the implementation of
strategy suggests change management, with all the challenges of managing group dynamics.
This suggests that marketing managers are not well equipped to manage implementation by
themselves. The insights of HR specialising in group interaction and group behaviour should be
brought in.
Now that we have covered some of the elements necessary for successful implementation, you
should be in a position to take a different view on the role of marketing in the implementation of
strategies. If you were responsible for implementation, how would you approach each of the
following four possibilities?
(1)

selling more of your current products or services to existing clients (market penetration)

(2)

selling current products or services to new clients (market development)

13

(3)

selling new products or services to existing clients (product development)

(4)

selling new products or services to new clients (diversification strategies)

Would your approach be similar in all these cases?
How would it be different, and why?

Reflection
Think about marketing strategies that have been initiated in your organisation over the past
three years.
How many marketing strategies were successfully implemented? How many were
moderately successful? How many failed?
What do you think are the major impediments to strategy implementation?
What do you think were the key issues that caused some strategies to be successful?
Conclusion
By now you should be able to identify potential barriers to the implementation of marketing
strategies, and draw up plans and tactics to prevent and minimise these barriers. You should
also be able to identify the key strategies that require substantial change and that may take
longer to implement.
You should know that the implementation process for the radical strategies may take much
longer initially. You should be able to identify strategies in which a swifter and more coercive
implementation effort would be more appropriate.
5.5 Marketing innovation
During this era of turbulent market changes with more demanding and sophisticated customers,
and with increased competition from new sources with more powerful and effective business
models, especially from the internet, traditional approaches to marketing are no longer effective.
Coupled with the level of market saturation in a number of industries, marketers and their
management teams really need to come up with high-impact marketing innovations.
The challenge for organisations to deliver superior customer value is to develop and implement
new marketing, which moves away from the traditional textbook approaches to marketing. In
order to start this process to achieve sustainable competitive advantage, it is useful to look at
the process that organisations use to go to the market and consider the key issues to identify,
create and deliver value.
Specific outcomes
Use marketing innovation to deliver customer value.

Critical questions
A sustainable competitive advantage is what most organisations strive for. One of the sources
of competitive advantage is based on radical innovation. Think about your organisation and the
role of marketing innovation in it.
14

MBL93J-4

How do you think you will be able to grow and make waves in the next year?
How will you do it in the next five years, or even ten years?
What are the major external sources that will impact on innovation in the next three years?
What key innovation will make your organisation unique?
How would you be able to identify this key?
Learning through activities
Study the prescribed material.
The prescribed and additional articles offer valuable insights into marketing innovations. A major
challenge for most businesses is to find new ways to create superior value for customers. Those
firms that compete in the commodity market are mainly focused on the production of goods and
the focus for survival is on managing costs. Firms in the goods market provide added value for
customers by market segmentation and by various approaches to the traditional marketing mix
variables, namely, the four Ps: place (or distribution), promotion, price and product. Firms in the
service industry have added value by bringing in the elements of service, which can be
summarised simplistically as adding three more Ps, namely, physical evidence, people and
processes.
Reflection
Consider the role of experiences and emotions in marketing.
Can all products and services add value for customers by utilising experiences?
How would the value of experiences be different across different market segments and
different cultures?
What role does emotion play in advertising and brand building?
Conclusion
We have learnt that organisations that are market oriented and have marketing capability are
more likely to achieve a competitive sustainable advantage through innovation. One example of
the way in which organisations can achieve this advantage is by focusing on the experiences
and emotions of customers. There may be many more examples of how organisations
constantly recreate themselves. Think about your role in driving this renewal process in your
organisation.
5.6 Marketing metrics
Measuring the performance of marketing is consistently one of the primary issues senior
marketing executives face. Without effective measurement, they cannot prove to what extent
marketing expenses are investments for the organisation. In order to understand the impact of
marketing on an organisation, organisations and their investors need a set of metrics to
measure their progress and to forecast their future. In this topic we investigate the following:
how marketing generates cash flow
performance engages the question. compared to what?
the challenge of more complex brand architectures. What details would be used to measure
how well all the brands in every market segment are doing?
Specific outcomes
15

Measure marketing performance using a set of metrics.

Critical questions
Before reading the prescribed material, reflect on the following questions:
What is marketing in your organisation?
How would you attempt to evaluate your organisations marketing metric system?
Learning through activities
Study the prescribed material.
Think of the following scenario: You have been appointed as senior marketing executive to
promote the measurement of marketing effectiveness convincingly to both the profession and
the executive board of a large organisation. You are given a virtually open budget and the only
preconditions are that you should present it in such a way that you convince the audience that
marketing performance can be measured, and that you can demonstrate the impact of
marketing on the bottom line. This is a daunting task. In order to fulfil the above commission,
you need well-founded knowledge, a number of skills and sensitivity to values and ethics.
To evaluate marketing performance, we first have to clarify what marketing is in your
organisation. What does the word marketing mean for a not-for-profit organisation, a
government department, a monopolist company and organisations in different industries?
Marketing metrics should tell management whether an organisation has achieved its marketing
objectives. Marketing objectives are a function of market needs, own capacity and competitive
intensity. Market share could be excellent for a for-profit organisation in a competitive
environment, but would be meaningless to a government department. For them, level of
customer satisfaction, or service level agreements, would be more appropriate. Do you agree
that marketing managers can generally be more accountable than they usually are?
According to Ambler (2003), the rating of a marketing assessment system is simple enough. He
suggests the following ten questions as indicated in table 1.
Table 1
Rating your firms marketing assessment system
Factor

Assessment

How often is marketing performance 1.

2.
formally assessed?
3.
4.
5.
6.
What does the company understand by 1.
2.
customer value?

Annually
Six monthly
Quarterly
More often
Rarely
Never
Dont know or not clear
Rate value of customer to the
business
3. Rate what the company provides
from a market point of view
4. Sometimes the one, sometimes the
other
How much time does the executive ------------------------------------%
16

MBL93J-4

team give to marketing issues?

Does the marketing plan show the 1. No
nonfinancial marketing objectives and 2. Yes, but no link
3. Yes, to both
link them to financial objectives?
Does your plan show a comparison of 1. No
your marketing performance with 2. Yes, very clearly
3. To some extent
competitors or the market as a whole?
What is your main marketing asset 1.
2.
called?
3.
4.
Does the executive teams performance 1.
review involve a quantified review of the 2.
main marketing asset or how it has
3.
changed?

Brand equity
Reputation
Other term
We have no term
Yes, to both
Yes, but only financially (brand
valuation)
Not really

Has the executive team quantified what 1. No

success would look like five or ten 2. Yes
3. Dont know
years from now?
Does your strategy have quantified 1. No
milestones to indicate progress towards 2. Yes
3. What strategy?
success?
Are
the
marketing
performance 1. No
indicators seen by the executive team 2. Yes, external
competitors)
aligned with these milestones?
3. Yes, internal
innovation)
4. Yes to both

(customers

and

(employees

and

Do these questions make sense to you? Does your organisation address some of these
questions?
It is also suggested that marketing metrics be reflective of a so-called dashboard of measures.
For instance, measures such as customer value, customer retention, customer acquisition,
brand equity, product innovation, internal fitness of the sales organisation, environmental fitness
and competitive activity. Each one of these broad measures should be refined to include
specific measures that can be combined to add up to each one measure.
You have been asked by your company to assess your marketing assessment system against
the ten questions in table 1. How would you rate your company?
In your assessment, you should have drawn some conclusion about your own performance
when it comes to the sophistication of your marketing measurement system. If your organisation
is really serious about a marketing assessment system, note the following suggestions:
Look at the possibility of employing a task force to undertake a more formal review and
come up with recommendations to strengthen your current marketing metrics system.
Reassess specialist marketing skills in terms of the value added to the organisations total
marketing effort.
17

Ask each member of the executive team to report on a measure that clearly impacts on your
marketing performance.
Ask the CEO to keep on refining and using the marketing measures to drive performance in
the organisation.
Reflection
It is necessary to reflect on your journey so far. We have looked at the following elements in
order to help us to evaluate marketing performance:
What should be measured?, which is a more relevant question than Should we measure?
Performance engaging the question: "Compared to what?"
The challenge of more complex brand architectures
Sector issues
How does this topic affect your understanding of what marketing is and how its performance
should be measured?
Conclusion
You have learnt that marketing, in short, is the creation and harvesting of inward cash flow, and
that there is a checklist to evaluate an organisations existing system and metrics. With this as
background you are now ready to move to the most difficult area: brand equity.
Self-assessment
Which key strategies are necessary for a new approach to marketing?
What are the major differences between transactional, brand, relationship and value-based
marketing?
What is the strategic process of going to market?
How does internet marketing impact on traditional marketing?
What impacts do Facebook, Twitter and other social media have on marketing?
What is the role of market research in creating strategic value?
What is market capability?

STUDY SCHOOL PLAN

Only one study school will be held for this module. During the study school, the topics will be
discussed in interactive sessions between the lecturer(s) and students.
7

MODULE-SPECIFIC STUDY PLAN

This is a one-year module. Students are required to read through the articles before the study
school because a knowledge of the topics will be required for discussions. The prescribed
articles should be considered as part of the theory that must be studied an applied for the
assessments.
You need to use the prescribed book as a basis for preparing for the assessments.

18

MBL93J-4

ASSESSMENT

There are a total of three formal assessments during the year. All the assessments will be on an
individual basis. Two formative assessments in the form of an assignment will be required, and
a final summative assessment in the form of a written examination.
8.2

General assignment numbers

To be provided if required.
8.2.1

Due dates for assignments

To be provided.
8.3

Submission of assignments

Assignments should be submitted before/ on the due dates. Late assignments will be marked
and commented on as part of the learning of students, but they will not be graded.
Assignments should be submitted on the accepted electronic platform used by the SBL, which
is currently the EDS system.
8.4

Assignments

ASSIGNMENT 01: Discussion of topics

DUE DATE: 09/05/2014

In this assignment, you are required to compile a high-level report for an executive team. The
report should be about any two of the topics mentioned below.
Use the marking guideline to help you plan your report. Your report must contain the following
elements at least:
A short introduction to the topics that you choose for the report
A discussion about the most up-to-date and recent thinking about the management of these
topics. For this part of the assignment, you must consult at least five articles from academic
journals no older than three years. Please consult with the Unisa SBL library staff on
assessing the databases for these articles. NOTE: It is not the task of the librarians to do
the search for you or provide you with articles.
A discussion of the financial and other risks involved for organisations when the aspect of
the particular topic is not well managed.
A discussion oft best practice in the management of the topic. Best practice should be
illustrated by means of an example of a company that is compared to common practice in
other organisations. It should be clear from your discussion that you have a sound
understanding of current best practice in your example of a company.
Common mistakes made in (your) organisations in managing the topic
Recommendations on how to improve on common mistakes and on how to become a best
practice organisation
Suggestions on the performance measures that you would use in your organisation to
measure how well this aspect/topic should be managed.
You should use practical case studies where applicable to illustrate the arguments you discuss
in your report.
Your assignment should be a maximum of 12 pages.
You may select your topics from the following:
19

marketing ethics
marketing channel management
market segmentation
implementing marketing strategy
social media marketing
not-for-profit marketing

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MBL93J-4

Marking guideline for Assignment 01

Executive report

Excellent

Good

Average

Poor

75% and above

50% to 74%

25% to 49%

1% to 24%

Recent
thinking
was evident in the
articles used in the
assignment

Too few recent

articles were used
for the discussion

Articles were used,

but
they
were
mostly outdated

Few
of
the
requirements
for
average were met

Only financial risks

or only other risks
were discussed

Risks
were
discussed, but it
was
not
clear
whether these risks
were realistic

The financial risks

were well explained
and it is evident
that the student
knows what the
financial risks are if
the topic under
discussion is not
well managed

Best practice was

shared, but it was
not evident that the
benchmark was an
internationally
recognised
organisation

Other risks such as

reputation and loss
of market share
were
also
discussed

Common mistakes
were discussed

Best practice was

shared through the
discussion of a
well-known
and
reputable
organisational case
study

Recommendations
did
not
flow
logically from the
discussion of the
common mistakes
and
from
best
practice

Common mistakes
were discussed

Recommendations
were based on
from a discussion
of the common
mistakes and they
were also linked to
best practice

Performance
measures did not
relate
to
the
recommendations

Best practice was

discussed, but only
from the countrys
perspective

Common mistakes
were discussed

Recommendations
seemed
to
be
based on a thumb
suck
or
gut
feeling

Performance
measures were not
discussed, or the
discussion related
to
poor
recommendations
or it was not clear
whether
the
desired
outcome
would be achieved

Performance
measures
were
based
on
the
suggested
recommendations
and it was obvious
that the desired
outcomes would be
measured

21

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT 02

DUE DATE: 08/08/2014

For this assignment you need to use an existing business situation.

Use the prescribed book and the prescribed articles as information sources for your
assignment. Other sources may also be consulted.
You are required to develop and launch a new product/service. This product/service must
address and attempt to solve a desperate social need in your society. Examples include a
product/service that would fulfill the need for better education in the absence of good public
schooling, housing shortages, feeding for poor communities, care for abused people or any
other issue that is regarded as a social dilemma in your country/society.
In your assignment, you need to follow the process of developing and launching a new
product/service. The assignment should have a detailed marketing strategy and a financial
budget for the development and launch of your idea. Follow the format suggested in prescribed
books for the marketing strategy as illustrated in figure 1 of this module overview. It should also
include an implementation plan and programme.
Bear in mind that the product/service must be made available by a not-for-profit
organisation. It should not be a commercial entity.
Your report should be written in such a way that stakeholders would be persuaded to support
the new product/service. Stakeholders could be your senior management team, the board,
financing institutions, donors or any other stakeholder whom you consider important for
supporting your idea in order to make it successful.
NOTE: This discussion should not cover a corporate social responsibility (CSR)
programme.
Your presentation and professionalism should be of a high standard, which is expected as the
norm for an MBL 3 student; negative marks will thus be awarded for poorly presented and/or
edited documents (up to -20%).
Approximate length of assignment: 10 to 12 A4 pages (1,5 line spacing)

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MBL93J-4

Marking matrix: Assignment 02

New
product/service
development

Excellent

Good

Average

Poor

75% and above

50% to 74%

25% to 49%

1% to 24%

The
product/service
represents
the
solving of a social
dilemma in the
society

It is not clear
whether
the
chosen
product/service is
used to solve a
social dilemma. It
may be for pure
financial gain

It is clear that the

new
product/service
would
not
address/solve a
social dilemma

Few
of
the
requirements for
average were
met

All the steps for

the development
of
a
new
product/service
were followed and
they
were
practically applied

The
financial
discussion covers
all aspects of the
project

A
proper
marketing
plan
was part of the
discussion

The
implementation
programme
formed part of the
assignment

It was highly likely

that
the
product/service
would receive the
support of the
stakeholders

8.6

The
discussion
appeared to be a
corporate social
responsibility
programme

Financials could
have been more
detailed

The
marketing
plan should have
been
more
detailed

The
implementation
programme
should have been
more detailed

Financials
clearly
accurate

were
not

The
marketing
plan was vague
and
would
probably
not
achieve much if it
were
to
be
implemented

Implementation of
the
plan
was
vague

Stakeholders
would
probably
not have reacted
favourably to the
proposed
new
product/service

Stakeholders may
have reacted to it
by saying Well
look at it later

Self-assessment questions

There are no self-assessment questions.

23

OTHER ASSESSMENT METHODS

The summative assessment will be in the form of a written examination.

10

EXAMINATION

The examination paper may comprise short questions, case studies, calculations and scenarios.
More details about the examination will be provided during the study school or closer to the
examination.

11

CONCLUSION

Marketing certainly is becoming a far more complex management science than what it used to
be years ago when effective distribution coupled with a product of a reasonable standard and at
a price that the market could afford was all that was needed.
Today marketers must have insights into issues such as consumer psychology, competitive
activities, influences from the macroenvironment and so on. This module should provide insight
into all the factors that need to be considered if you wish to be a successful marketer. The
module does not provide all the answers, but encourages thinking about the more prominent
marketing issues of todays marketing environment.

12

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING

It is suggested that you consider purchasing some of these textbooks to keep in your personal
library at the office. However, this is not compulsory.
Ambler, T. 2003. Marketing and the bottom line: the marketing metrics to pump up cash flow.
Harlow: Prentice Hall.
Dahlen, M, Lange, F & Smith, T. 2010. Marketing communications: a brand narrative approach.
Chichester: Wiley.
Kunde, J. 2002. Unique now or never. Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd.
Maddock, GM, Uriarte, LC. 2011. Brand new. Solving the innovation paradox. Hoboken: John
Wiley & Sons.
Grnroos, C. 2007. Service marketing management: customer management in service
competition. Chichester: Wiley.

24