We all know what planning is—we plan a vacation or a great Saturday night party. Some of us even plan how we’re going to study and get our assignments completed without stressing out at the last minute. When businesses plan, the process is more complex. As
business ethics
Rules of conduct for an organization. code of ethics
Written standards of behavior to which everyone in the organization must subscribe.
ETHICSCHECK:
Find out what other students taking this course would do and why on www .mypearsonmarketinglab .com
Table 2.1
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Statement of Ethics
Ethical Norms and Values for Marketers
PREAMBLE
The American Marketing Association commits itself to promoting the highest standard of professional ethical norms and values for its members (practitioners, academics, and students). Norms are established standards of conduct that are expected and maintained by society and/or professional organizations. Values represent the collective conception of what communities find desirable, important and morally proper. Values also serve as the criteria for evaluating our own personal actions and the actions of others. As marketers, we recognize that we not only serve our organizations but also act as stewards of society in creating, facilitating, and executing the transactions that are part of the greater economy. In this role, marketers are expected to embrace the highest professional ethical norms and the ethical values implied by our responsibility toward multiple stakeholders (e.g., customers, employees, investors, peers, channel members, regulators, and the host community). ETHICAL NORMS
As Marketers, we must:
1. Do no harm. This means consciously avoiding harmful actions or omissions by
embodying high ethical standards and adhering to all applicable laws and regulations in the choices we make.
2. Foster trust in the marketing system. This means striving for good faith and fair
dealing so as to contribute toward the efficacy of the exchange process as well as avoiding deception in product design, pricing, communication, and delivery of distribution.
3. Embrace ethical values. This means building relationships and enhancing consumer
confidence in the integrity of marketing by affirming these core values: honesty, responsibility, fairness, respect, transparency, and citizenship.
ETHICAL VALUES
Honesty—to be forthright in dealings with customers and stakeholders. To this end,
we will:
• Strive to be truthful in all situations and at all times.
• Offer products of value that do what we claim in our communications. • Stand behind our products if they fail to deliver their claimed benefits. • Honor our explicit and implicit commitments and promises.
Responsibility—to accept the consequences of our marketing decisions and strategies.
To this end, we will:
• Strive to serve the needs of customers. • Avoid using coercion with all stakeholders.
• Acknowledge the social obligations to stakeholders that come with increased marketing and economic power.
• Recognize our special commitments to vulnerable market segments such as children, seniors, the economically impoverished, market illiterates, and others who may be substantially disadvantaged.
• Consider environmental stewardship in our decision making.
Fairness—to balance justly the needs of the buyer with the interests of the seller. To this
end, we will:
• Represent products in a clear way in selling, advertising, and other forms of communication; this includes the avoidance of false, misleading, and deceptive promotion.
• Reject manipulations and sales tactics that harm customer trust.
• Refuse to engage in price fixing, predatory pricing, price gouging, or “bait-and-switch” tactics. • Avoid knowing participation in conflicts of interest.
• Seek to protect the private information of customers, employees, and partners.
Table 2.1
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Statement of Ethics
Ethical Norms and Values for Marketers
Respect—to acknowledge the basic human dignity of all stakeholders. To this end, we will:
• Value individual differences and avoid stereotyping customers or depicting demographic groups (e.g., gender, race, sexual orientation) in a negative or dehumanizing way. • Listen to the needs of customers and make all reasonable efforts to monitor and
improve their satisfaction on an ongoing basis.
• Make every effort to understand and respectfully treat buyers, suppliers, intermediaries, and distributors from all cultures.
• Acknowledge the contributions of others, such as consultants, employees, and coworkers, to marketing endeavors.
• Treat everyone, including our competitors, as we would wish to be treated.
Transparency—to create a spirit of openness in marketing operations. To this end, we will:
• Strive to communicate clearly with all constituencies.
• Accept constructive criticism from customers and other stakeholders.
• Explain and take appropriate action regarding significant product or service risks, component substitutions or other foreseeable eventualities that could affect customers or their perception of the purchase decision.
• Disclose list prices and terms of financing as well as available price deals and adjustments.
Citizenship—to fulfill the economic, legal, philanthropic, and societal responsibilities that
serve stakeholders. To this end, we will:
• Strive to protect the ecological environment in the execution of marketing campaigns. • Give back to the community through volunteerism and charitable donations.
• Contribute to the overall betterment of marketing and its reputation.
• Urge supply chain members to ensure that trade is fair for all participants, including producers in developing countries.
IMPLEMENTATION
We expect AMA members to be courageous and proactive in leading and/or aiding their organizations in the fulfillment of the explicit and implicit promises made to those stakeholders. We recognize that every industry sector and marketing sub-discipline (e.g., marketing research, e-commerce, Internet selling, direct marketing, and advertising) has its own specific ethical issues that require policies and commentary. An array of such codes can be accessed through links on the AMA Web site. Consistent with the principle of subsidiarity (solving issues at the level where the expertise resides), we encourage all such groups to develop and/or refine their industry and discipline-specific codes of ethics to supplement these guiding ethical norms and values.
The American Marketing Association helps its members adhere to ethical standards of business through its Code of Ethics.
Source: Copyright©American Marketing Association.
Figure 2.1 shows, planning occurs at three levels: strategic, functional, and opera- tional. The top level is “big picture” stuff, while the bottom level specifies the “nuts-and- bolts” actions the firm will need to take to achieve these lofty goals.
• Strategic planningis the managerial decision process that matches the firm’s resources (such as its financial assets and workforce) and capabilities (the things it is able to do well because of its expertise and experience) to its market opportunities for long-term growth. In a strategic plan, top management—usually the chief executive officer (CEO), president, and other top executives—define the firm’s purpose and specify what the firm hopes to achieve over the next five years or so. For example, a firm’s strategic plan may set an objective to increase total revenues by 20 percent in the next five years.
strategic planning
A managerial decision process that matches an organization’s resources and capabilities to its market opportunities for long-term growth and survival.
StrategicPlanning Planning done by top-level corporate management
FunctionalPlanning
(In Marketing Department, called Marketing Planning)
Planning done by top functional-level management such as the firm’s chief marketing officer (CMO)
OperationalPlanning Planning done by supervisory managers
1. Define the mission 2. Evaluate the internal and
external environment
3. Set organizational or
SBU objectives
4. Establish the business
portfolio (if applicable)
5. Develop growth
strategies
1. Perform a situation
analysis
2. Set marketing objectives 3. Develop marketing
strategies
4. Implement marketing
strategies
5. Monitor and control
marketing strategies
1. Develop action plans
to implement the marketing plan
2. Use marketing
metrics to monitor how the plan is working
Figure 2.1 Snapshot
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Levels of PlanningDuring planning, an organization determines its objectives and then develops courses of action to accomplish them. In larger firms, planning takes place at the strategic, functional, and operational levels.
Large firms, such as the Walt Disney Company, have a number of self-contained divisions we call strategic business units (SBUs)—individual units that represent differ- ent areas of business within a firm that are unique enough to each have their own mis- sion, business objectives, resources, managers, and competitors. Disney’s SBUs include its theme park, television network, and cruise line divisions, and strategic planning oc- curs both at the overall corporate level (Disney headquarters planning for the whole corporation) and at the individual business unit level (at the theme park, television net- work, and cruise line level). We’ll discuss these two levels later in the chapter.
• The next level of planning is functional planning. This level gets its name because the various functional areas of the firm, such as marketing, finance, and human resources, are involved. Vice presidents or functional directors usually do this. We refer to what the functional planning marketers do as marketing planning. The person in charge of such planning may have the title of Director of Marketing, Vice President of Marketing, or Chief Marketing Officer. Marketers like Jay Minkoff at First Flavor might set an ob- jective to gain 40 percent of a particular market by successfully introducing three new products during the coming year. This objective would be part of a marketing plan. Marketing planning typically includes both a broad 3–5-year plan to support the firm’s strategic plan and a detailed annual plan for the coming year.
• Still farther down the planning ladder are the managers who are responsible for plan- ning at a third level we call operational planning. In marketing, these include people such as sales managers, marketing communications managers, brand managers, and marketing research managers. This level of planning focuses on the day-to-day execu- tion of the functional plans and includes detailed annual, semiannual, or quarterly plans. Operational plans might show exactly how many units of a product a salesper- son needs to sell per month, or how many television commercials the firm will place on certain networks during a season. At the operational planning level, First Flavor, for ex- ample, may develop plans for a marketing campaign to promote the product by creat- ing buzz via social networking outlets.
Of course, marketing managers don’t just sit in their offices dreaming up plans without any concern for the rest of the organization. Even though we’ve described each layer separately,
strategic business units (SBUs) Individual units within the firm that operate like separate businesses, with each having its own mission, business objectives, resources, managers, and competitors.
functional planning
A decision process that concentrates on developing detailed plans for strategies and tactics for the short term, supporting an organization’s long-term strategic plan.
operational planning
A decision process that focuses on developing detailed plans for day-to-day activities that carry out an organization’s functional plans.
Step 1: Define the Mission
Step 2: Evaluate the Internal & External Environment
Step 3: Set Organizational or SBU Objectives
Step 4: Establish the Business Portfolio
Step 5: Develop Growth Strategies
Figure 2.2 Process