Your staff develops networking skills in the supply chain. From the perspective of the previous lesson, we are concerned very much with internal and external customers, our customer relationships, loyalty and retention. So if we reconsider each term in relation to Dell we have a highly complex set of relationships which intertwine. Marketers and others develop interpersonal and networking skills to deal with the boundaries. As a result the boundaries can sometimes appear seamless, especially if good relations are enjoyed between individuals and groups within the ‘network.’
There are many techniques that marketers can use to communicate with internal customers and functions. Firstly marketers would need to identify internal and external customers, including their different needs and wants. Secondly the marketing function will provide internal services such as intranets for human resources, internal recruitment, and companywide briefings and announcements. Finally the marketing team can provide extranet services for supporting activities in the supply chain. The supply chain connects internal and external manufacturers and producers, our internal business functions (as discussed above) and our final customer interface at wholesale, retail and ultimately at the consumption of our product and service.
Internal cooperation is needed to overcome problems between staff and colleagues, our internal customers. These problems occur in every organisation at some point in time. It is argued that a culture of internal marketing will help us overcome such problems. Let’s look at some examples:
The acronym SMART is used when describing organisational objectives. So objectives must be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timed. If some reason they are not then you have similar internal problems since people have different targets or goals.
If organisational objectives are clear and then people will commit to them. Commitment to organisational objectives will help to build and develop relationships both within the marketing function and across the organisation itself.
To draw some of the new learning together we can use some of our skills to gain internal support for marketing initiatives. We now have knowledge of our marketing supply chain and we know how to use good working relationships to get the most out of colleagues both internally and externally. We know the reasons why internal cooperation is needed to achieve corporate goals, and we know the importance of commitment to organisational objectives. Internal marketing techniques are also valuable service when trying to gain internal support for our initiatives.
Support is necessary from everybody within the organisation. We need support from our product designers, and from the manufacturing department. Once goods are produced we need the support of warehouse and logistics staff to get the product to customers. Within the marketing team itself we need coordination and teamwork from public relations, sales staff, promotion staff and everybody from within the marketing team. Let’s consider some of the other functions and departments from within the organisation that we for support. Again, in Unit 1 – What is Marketing? we have considered other functions and departments with whom we need relationships.
The marketing function within any organization does not exist in isolation. Therefore it’s important to see how marketing connects with and permeates other functions within the organization. In this next section let’s consider how marketing interacts with research and development, production/operations/logistics, human resources, IT and customer service. Obviously all functions within your organization should point towards the customer i.e. they are customer oriented from the warehouseman that packs the order to the customer service team member who answers any queries you might have. So let’s look at these other functions and their relationship with marketing.
Good working relationships within the supply chain will pay dividends. There is less conflict and more cooperation, and creative solutions to problems are more likely to be generated. Here are some more examples:
Whilst there are a lot of benefits an extended network and a marketing supply chain, let’s not forget that different companies are linked together but they are not the same organisation. Each organisation has its own mission, strategy, tactics and motivations which do not always match those of your own. This can sometimes lead to the need for negotiation between different parties in the chain. Let’s take a quick look at some ways in which we can deal with negotiation.
Some of your network contacts will have more power than others. Power is important that is the difference between getting things done, or not. If you are dependent on suppliers or buyers for any reason then you need to protect the value which you deliver by negotiating with your network.
To complete this section on building and developing relationships, you need to be able to describe approaches used to build and develop those relationships both within the marketing function and across the organisation as a whole. This was covered in previous lessons in Marketing Teacher’s Lessonstore.
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