The modern marketing department has evolved to the years from a simple sales department to an organizational structure were marketing personnel work mainly on cross disciplinary teams.
Modern marketing departments can be organized in a number of ways. Some companies are organized by functional specialization, while others focus on geography and regionalization. Still others emphasize product and brand management or market segment management. Some companies established a matrix organization consisting of both product and market managers. Finally, some companies have strong corporate marketing, others have limited corporate marketing, and still others place marketing only in the divisions.
A fact of modern marketing organizations are marked by a strong cooperation and customer focus among the company's departments:
- marketing
- research and development
- engineering
- purchasing the line manufacturing
- operations
- finance
- accounting
- credit etc.
Companies must practice social responsibility through their legal, ethical, and social words and actions. Cause marketing can be a means for companies to productively linked social responsibility to consumer marketing programs. Social marketing is done by a nonprofit or government organization to directly address essential problem or cause.
A brilliant strategic marketing plan counts for little if it is not implemented properly. Implementing marketing plans calls for skills in recognizing and diagnosing a problem, assessing the company level where the problem exists, implementation skills, and skills in evaluating the results.
The marketing department has to monitor and control marketing activities continuously. Efficiency control focuses on finding ways to increase the efficiency of the sales force, average rising, sales promotion, and distribution. Strategic control entails a periodic reassessment of the company and its strategic approach to the marketplace using the tools of the marketing effectiveness and marketing excellence reviews, as well as the marketing audit.
