Marketing is one of the most important aspects of any digital marketing business. Today, no company or organization can thrive without its marketing business departments. But when we say marketing is a big term containing strategies, functions, and concepts that help to achieve goals. One of the major approaches businesses use today is functional marketing which is a perfect strategy. It helps to complete specific business functions and focus on increasing productivity with a plan.
Functional strategy in marketing is important for any area of business that requires coordination. It helps in the proper allocation of resources to make the perfect plan that will run every operation smoothly. Moreover, it maximizes productivity and takes care of other departments like research and development and HR.
In the functional approach, you can guess from the name that it is about breaking the entire process into small functions. It classifies the activities of every department and prioritizes the tasks based on the needs of the company. You should also know that this concept is highly popular and you can find it used in every small and big company. The design of this amazing approach credits goes to A.W. Shaw.
Why is functional marketing important?
There are different departments in a company that is working at their own pace to achieve company goals. In different cases and concepts of marketing information management, we can see the urge of working together. Well, that is to improve the effectiveness of a company and its operations. The more effective and efficient is your system, the more is your revenue. And, it is not always about the revenue, as sometimes the company is trying to complete the demand of their products.
The best part of the functional strategy is that it works within departments and creates a plan that everyone can follow. It is also known by many other names like innovation, creative, marketing, HR strategy, etc. Because all the departments are working together for one single goal. It is the ultimate plan for the business or corporate sector even for government companies.
If the current goal of the company is to offer clients new products, then each department will help. Like marketing department is responsible for finding the right advertising medium. The design department is working on the packaging, logo, and branding kits. The finance department can allocate resources and so on every department will help. This innovative strategy brings everyone together to create an efficient system that operates on a corporate level.
Another thing famous about functional marketing is that there are very sudden decisions. You cannot process a lot as it is an efficient system so you have to make fast decisions sometimes. But, these decisions are called tactics that help to enable the strategy.
Advantages of functional marketing:
- Every department is giving their equal energy to complete the desired goal of the company
- Within a given time frame and resources, companies can generate more revenue and increase productivity
- There is coordination in the entire system which means there is a higher chance of completing the goals on time
- A great increase in managerial efficiency
- Every function has an equal weight of effort based on the priority of the company
- The grouping of employees through specialization can increase competence
While completing the importance of a perfect marketing strategy, functional marketing goes through segmentation. It is based on different activities that are a part of any business. These are the core points of business that require serious focus and a functional strategy plays a major role in their success.
- Firstly, selling and buying functions which are the major key points of business revenue and production
- Next are the physical functions of the company. It includes processing, transportation, and storage.
- They are the facilitating functions which include financing, risk-bearing, and market intelligence function.
- You can see that each of these functions is highly imperative for any business to survive. If any of the business functions do not have enough focus and quality management then the company has to face risks.
Case for functional marketing:
A lot of people ask that a large percentage of the revenue of most firms is spent on which function. Operations here are the answer. With time, there has been an increase in macro trends like globalization. It also includes digitalization, automation, technology, innovation, and marketing strategies. Things have been changing at such a high pace that it sadly affects businesses around the world. While some may be inventing new strategies and enjoying the revenue, for others it takes time to evolve with the process.
Because of so many changes, companies have been increasingly spending on operations. But, here functional marketing helps you to focus on achieving your goals in a good time and increase productivity. It also helps in the proper allocation of resources for running a smooth business even if there are risks. Moreover, every business has its priorities when it comes to competition in the market. Functional strategies here help businesses to understand what’s important and achieve their goals. You can even say that it is a value-adding technique that makes sure that everyone is achieving the purpose.
Even if it is about a product or service selling. Functional strategies not only determine the goals and help you follow the path. But, it also ensures that the company is working with quality and value for the customers. As all those things are important for the company. With a proper functional marketing strategy, a company can shape its future positively and successfully.
Functional level strategies are different than other marketing strategies:
Functional marketing is a wide concept but still it differs a lot from corporate or other business important strategies. While we say most of them are about time, revenue, quality, finance, etc. Still, the functional ones are highly specific. Each department has unique goals that follow down the path towards one single big goal. Every employee of the company and the managers are working together for the better growth of the organization. It also helps other departments to understand each other. Every piece here fits together creating a successful marketing strategy that creates competition in the market.
What are the 7 core functions of marketing?
While we are discussing functional marketing services in detail, we need to understand why we adopt it. How everything, in the end, boils down to the concept of marketing. There are 7 core functions of marketing that show how each function is helping the company in its specific way.
- Selling – This means actually getting customers to spend money and buy your stuff. In functional marketing services, sales teams are on the frontlines, doing demos, creating slick presentations, following up with leads, and closing deals.
- Promotion – Also known as marketing communications. This is all about building awareness of your products, getting people excited to buy them. We’re talking advertising, PR, social media, emails, coupons – anything to spread the word.
- Pricing – In functional marketing strategies, figuring out the sweet spot between how much you need to charge to make nice profits, but not so much that customers run away. You’ve gotta find that magical price that feels like a good deal to folks.
- Planning – Coming up with solid marketing strategies and tactical plans across all the functions, making sure everyone is aligned to smash those revenue goals. Lots of analyzing and coordinating involved here.
- Channel management – Managing the middlemen who help sell your wares to customers. Distributors, retailers, ecommerce partners…you’ve gotta keep all your go-to-market channels happy.
- Information management – A fancy name for market research. Knowing what makes your customers tick through surveys, analytics, feedback. Helps you launch products they’ll actually want.
- Product management – Creating, maintaining and improving your set of products and services over time, so they continue raking in sales. Gotta keep up with the latest trends and your competitors.
These core functions of functional marketing strategies, help companies to make effective decisions and strategies. As they create the boundary of the key points in the concept of marketing functional strategy.
Conclusion:
Functional marketing is one of the most used and competitive strategies that are a part of business globalization. If you want to make sure that your company whether small or big thrives in a competitive world, then make sure to follow it.
