In a nutshell, there generally exists a direct connection between value and retail price, meaning that increased value generates increased price and vice versa, reduced value sells at reduced price. 3. Decisions and Actions Affecting the Marketing Manager

In order to ensure its overall success, each organization has to increase its efforts of integrating all features into the corporate culture and ways as to all lead to the achievement of the same formulated corporate goals. The marketing manager plays a vital role in aligning the strategies within his department to the overall objectives of the organization. The list of actions and decision that influence and challenge his actions is endless, including everything from market research to features of product development.

Market research is a major challenge to every marketing director and it is aimed at revealing facts about two features: customers' needs and wants and the strategies implemented by the competition. The identification of customers' needs and wants is vital for the complete satisfaction of clients - an objective of all companies. The marketing team will maintain constant communications with the customers as to identify any likes or dislikes in regard to a product and find means of improving the product as to create more utility to the buyer, increase demand and sales of that certain item and consequently increase the organization's revenues. A latest trend in analyzing customers' demands is that of identifying and satisfying the needs even before the audience has become aware of their existence. Also, the aim of the research is to identify the target market for the product in question. Then, the second practical application of marketing research is the identification of the strategies implemented by competing organizations. This approach is vital for the company to remain competitive.

Major challenges for the marketing director are also posed by the decisions he/she has to make in regard to the development and implementation of the promotional and advertising campaign. In this particular context, the marketing team has to present the audience with the benefits of the items...

They then have to identify the most suitable media channels for promoting the product, as according to the identified target market. Say for instance the product is a new business magazine and the target market is formed from individuals between the ages of 30 and 50, who register above medium incomes and have an economic education. The television advertisement for the promotion of the magazine will be aired during evening and night time, mostly because the desired audience will be busy working during day time.
Finally, a third set of decisions and actions challenging the marketing manager revolve around the development of a marketing budget and the establishment of schedules and forecasts. Considering that various media channels have been selected for the promotional campaign, the manager will have to allocate a certain budget, such as $50,000 for the development and maintenance of the website, $20,000 for street banners and fliers and $100,000 for television advertisements and radio announcements. Then, he must develop the schedules, such as the television advertisements will be aired daily during evening and night programs between 7 and 12 pm. Finally, he must estimate the sales forecast, such as 10,000 units of the new product will be sold during the first month since its launch on the market. Also, he must be able to estimate when the company will make a return on its investment.

The list of challenges for the marketing director could go on for pages, but his biggest challenge is most likely that of integrating all decisions and strategies to best support the achievement of the established corporate goals. He must also supervise and control the operations within his department and outside it to see how the strategies manage to retrieve the desired outcome. In case this does not happen, he will identify the problems in the system and come up with solutions.

References

Maurice Fitzgerals Scott, 1991, New View of Economic Growth, Oxford University Press

Sushash C. Jain, 2005, Marketing Planning and Strategy, 7th Edition, Southwestern Publishing