Define marketing programme with the help of a diagram.
Philip Kotler defines marketing programs as “a set of policy decisions on the level, allocation, and mix of marketing efforts”. It is, thus, a part of marketing planning and policy making. In other words, we can state that a marketing programme presupposes the existence of a marketing plan of a company. Marketing programme is a means for attaining the marketing objectives.
After the marketing objectives are determined by a company, a marketing programme is prepared by means of:
(1) Identifying and defining the activities to be performed;
(2) Outlining the course of action in carrying out these predefined and pre-determined activities consistent with the time-frame and
(3) Directing the marketing personnel to follow the charted course of action towards the achievement of goals.
The marketing programme scenario can be described in the following chart:
The marketing programs of a business concern may be drawn on an annual or half-year basis.
The implementation of a marketing programme takes into consideration three important factors or parameters:
(i) Marketing efforts,
(ii) Marketing allocation and
(iii) Market responsiveness.
These are discussed below:-
Marketing Efforts:
These represent those activities which are undertaken by the marketing management to increase the volume and value of sales as well as to penetrate and enter sate other territories and places which were not hitherto covered by the company’s marketing mission.
The marketing efforts can be analysed from two aspects:
(1) Level of marketing effort and
(2) Degree of effectiveness in the marketing effort.
While the marketing effort level refers to the marketing department’s drive, initiative and creative endeavour and requires monetary resources of command, the marketing effectiveness denotes the degree of efficiency attained by marketing management through the proper utilisation of monetary, human, and physical resources.
The sales and other corporate objectives, therefore, necessarily depend on these two vital aspects.
Marketing Allocation:
This refers to allocation of human, physical, and monetary resources to the various marketing efforts that have been designed by the marketing department. It involves the determination of the quantitative inputs such as men, facilities and money for necessary distribution among the products, market segments, customer segments and sales areas.
Marketing Responsiveness:
This constitutes an assessment of the reactions and responses in marketing as a result of marketing efforts and activities undertaken. This gives a feed-back information to the marketing management for feed-forward actions in the marketing functions.
According to Philip Kotler, marketing responsiveness analysis is a tool to understand and gauge the behaviour of sales and customers with respect to alternative levels, mixes; and allocation of the marketing efforts.
