Marketing Management: The Big Picture

PREFACE

From a marketing perspective, the materials in this book were designed to achieve the first goal of any well-conceived product: to meet a need. Initially, this need was our own. Our students were nearly unanimous in their dissatisfaction with various marketing textbooks made available to them. Common concerns were:

• “I don't understand how this all fits together.” As complex marketing problems loom larger, our response has been to try to break things down into smaller and smaller parts. This has led us further into the realm of specialization and away from the wisdom that a holistic, integrated approach imparts.¹ Most attempts to solve this problem in the past have been organizational in nature and reflected in a variety of “team” approaches. Unfortunately, by changing an organizational structure without changing the strategic approach, we usually create just another illustration of the reorganizational adage: “different tree, same monkeys.” Organizational changes alone cannot create integration if our approach to marketing problems continues to be analytic as opposed to synthetic in nature. Yet the traditional “textbook” approach to marketing, whether implemented by individuals or teams, is inherently analytic—problems are broken down and considered as separate issues instead of as interrelated components in a dynamic system. Without an integrated approach, the marketing manager is simply solving a series of unrelated problems instead of considering how a change in one ...