The importance of the marketing portfolio Essay

The importance of the marketing portfolio - Essay Example The importance of the marketing department's liaising with every other department could be gauged by its hold over the market and its need to keep its ears to the ground for every single bit of information that may make or mar the fortunes of the company's future business. The marketing portfolio therefore must represent every other activity in the company, apart from its own. It must have good hold over the total management information system so that the two-way communication system of information moving from top to bottom and from the bottom level to top level in the management hierarchy is clear, unambiguous and undiluted. The marketing operational activity is primarily customer-oriented. It is not possible to stereotype customers or the market. Although the predominance of marketing over other departments does exist, it cannot abdicate its own distinct identity and responsibility and it must stay focused on its role as the frontrunner to secure maximum business from the total market pie. No other department has such colossal and strategic responsibility. If the marketing management is unable to focus on maintaining and improving upon its market share, those responsible are quickly replaced. We, that is, two colleagues and I, have been selected by Crown Manufacturing Company Limited, (CMCL), manufacturers and marketers of white goods, viz. refrigerators, washing machines, and wardrobes. The total number of temporary recruits is hundred broken up in teams of twos and threes to concentrate of several routes. Our job is to assist the existing sales force for the company's sales scheme of their products during the summer holidays. Our weekly remuneration is US$250 plus two percent commission on the basic price of every five pieces sold. The company has come up with a discount and replacement scheme and is confident of generating a very good sale. The customer is being offered brand new models with benefits of up to fifty percent discount on the basic price of any product in exchange for an old one in working condition. The scheme is being advertised on a grand scale through the electronic and print media. Retailers have been enthused with decorative window displays to herald the scheme. The company has fixed a target which is five times the number of goods sold in an average month. The Existing Sales Force The company has a staff of fifty sales executives under five sales managers each responsible for one product except for water filter and television for which there is one sales manager. The sales scheme is aimed at refrigerators, washing machines and wardrobes only. The temporary recruits of hundred sales assistants have been assigned to different sales executives. Their job is to receive customers, effect sale, and complete the data entry which basically covers information such as the customer's name, age, address, designation, choice of product model, and date or year of purchase of the old model, if available. The company's showroom is large enough to accommodate staff of hundred personnel in the mezzanine floor. It can accommodate another hundred in the building's first floor. Both the mezzanine and the first floors have enough space to receive hundred customers each at a time. Besides, five sales executives have been given the responsibility of attending to online enquiries and also receive orders with payments online. Each