Proceedings of 33rd International Business Research Conference
4 - 5 January 2016, Flora Grand Hotel, Dubai, UAE, ISBN: 978-1-922069-94-8
Influencing “Social” Customers: Why Powerful Marketing
Department (MD) is the Unique Selling Point (USP) for Firm’s
Sustainable Performance?
Mohammed Nadeem
The purpose of this study is to explore the role of the marketing department (MD) in
influencing both the internal and the external stakeholders of the firm in creating
success with speed and effectiveness. To provide superior customer experience,
businesses are becoming increasingly competitive and marketing in particular is proving
to be more ‘socially’ important than ever before. The generally accepted means of
implementing the marketing concept as explained by Gronroos (1990) is the model of
the marketing mix (or the 4Ps). But despite its almost universal application, this model is
highly limited and specific: it was developed in the US, from research on consumer
packed‐goods and durables. European research in the areas of industrial and services
marketing has revealed both the inadequacy of the old model and the basis for a new
definition of marketing which came twenty five years later and was introduced by
Challagalla, Murtha, Jaworski (2014) who examined a new marketing concept that---a
small set of leading firms has begun to adopt: marketing doctrine. This study is built on
the work of Feng et al. (2015) which assessed how investments in building a powerful
marketing department affect firm performance. The research method of this study was
based on the quality content analysis and primarily relied on the recent research
articles, and surveys. The main question addressed by this study is: Should the
marketing department be the only department responsible for firm’s overall marketing
functions? The findings of the study revealed that besides Top Management Teams
(TMT) that provides power and authority, marketing could be every employee’s
responsibility in some capacity as employees are the ambassadors of the firms growing
‘social’ customer community for its continued sustainable performance.
Key
implications for researchers, practitioners and policy makers are provided.
Track: Marketing
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Dr. Mohammed Nadeem, Department of Marketing, School of Business and Management, National
University, CA, USA, Email: mnadeem@nu.edu