TITLE : IMPROVING MARKETING PERFORMANCE.

The word 'marketing' is often misunderstood or misapplied. Its purpose is to convey the concept of basing the management of a business on its market instead of on its products or on its production processes.

The objectives of every management function in business are:

* to secure the optimum return on capital employed

* to ensure profitable growth

* to produce a cashflow adequate to meet the requirements of the business and of its shareholders.

The purpose of the marketing function is to aid in the achievement of these objectives by helping to secure optimum utilisation of the company's resources.

This book is intended as a practical guide for managing directors and other senior executives. It explains the advantages of applying a marketing viewpoint to a broad spectrum of company activities and shows how company performance can be improved by following a number of simple procedures. It would be particularly useful to the newly appointed senior executive joining a company from outside, and the text is addressed explicitly to him or her.

Most of what appears in this book is drawn from training material developed by PA Management Consultants and used for the guidance of its own staff. This material was originally developed for use by consultants who could be involved with any or all of a wide range of marketing activities. Its purpose was to help them take into account all necessary factors to ensure maximum performance in the relevant aspects of a client company's marketing operations. I have taken this material and modified and updated it where appropriate to make it into a guide for senior managers examining the operations of their own companies.

Increasing numbers of women are achieving senior managerial positions, particularly in sales and marketing. This book is for them also. I may appear to address my remarks to men, but throughout the text the word 'he' means 'he or she'. In the same way the word 'salesman' means 'salesman or saleswoman'.

This book takes as its thesis that a 'marketing-minded' management is a prerequisite to a successful marketing-oriented company. In a manufacturing organisation, every executive must always remember that his company is not in business to MAKE a product; it is in business to SELL it.

W. J. Parsons