5 of Kotler's 10 Deadly Sins of Marketing and the Proposed Solutions EBS5041 / Marketing for Managers May 2021 Dr. Ayansola Ayandibu 4th July, 2021

Jolif Nyirenda
A Discussion of 5 of Kotler’s 10 Deadly Sins of Marketing and the Proposed
Solutions
EBS5041 / Marketing for Managers
May 2021
Dr. Ayansola Ayandibu
4th July, 2021 11:59hrs

Abstract
Although companies endeavour to conduct marketing activities to make sales
of their chosen products and services, there are a number of errors that are made in
the process (Kotler & Keller, 2016). Kotler and Kellter, (2016) identified ten deadly
sins (errors) which marketers and organisations make that cost their competitive
positioning both in the short and long run of doing business. Taking corrective action
in ensuring that such errors are avoided, is another way of ensuring that the
company remain competitive especially in the modern business environment where
consumers can make use of new technologies to get to know alternative suppliers of
the services needed at any time and anywhere. Some of the deadly sins identified
which have been addressed in this assignment are;
1.Your company is not sufficiently market-focused and customer-driven.
2.Your company does not fully understand its target customers.
3.Your company needs to better define its competitors and monitor them.
5.Your company is not good at finding new opportunities and
10.Your company has not made maximum use of technology.
To make better sales in the target market, companies must endeavour to put
their marketing house in order. This can happen through proper planning that must
be supported by the top management who should to larger extent be part of the
marketing team indirectly. To have better impact in the market, segmentation is the
starting point and then the company know the market they want to service through
targeting (Kotler & Keller, 2016). Targeting plays an important role in ensuring that
the company know their specific target in the market and what their wants are. It is
also easy to identify opportunities within the target market because of the interaction
that the company continue to have through their frontline workers who can easily
pick any consumer complaints, profile them and quickly communicate to top
management whose action should be able to help the company to remain
competitive for mutual benefits. In short, the company must avoid committing the
identified deadly sin at all costs though this requires financing which other firms may
not have.

Introduction
The survival of any organisation depends on a number of factors which
include the management of its marketing activities and the success of their corporate
brand among others (Balmer 2001). Primarily, business is about providing products
and services that are needed by the target markets. This means that the market can
only respond positively to what is needed. It is the responsibility of the business to
understand its target markets regarding what they need, how they need the services
or products, when then need them, and at what price they can acquire the services
or products. On the other hand, raising the awareness of the availability of the
products/services through marketing is another important activity that the business
should endeavour doing.
Having a good understanding of any activity makes it easy in executing it, and
so is the need for companies to understand marketing and the role it plays in fulfilling
the business’ vision, goals and its objectives. Marketing requires undertaking a
number of managerial activities such as planning and execution of the product or
service concepts, pricing, conducting promotions and finding better distribution
channels to satisfy the needs of customers and that of the organisation (Iwu 2009). A
number of organisations engage in doing certain activities which they call as
marketing. That is good, but it is important to understanding that good marketing is
evolving and changing (Kotler & Keller, 2016) hence the need for careful planning
and execution. Moreover, the most important reason companies engage in trading
activities is to ensure that they make sales to the target market by providing services
that satisfy the needs of customers while the firms also ensure that they get the
benefits required for its internal and external stakeholders.
In the process of trying to provide a service to customers, companies find
themselves committing a number of what is call marketing deadly sins by Kotler &
Keller (2016) of which if not carefully managed, the company may not succeed as
could have been the vision. It is for this reason that companies must ensure they
avoid committing such sins. To ensure that the company avoid committing such sins,
they need to know what they are and how they can manage them where they realise
that they are committing them already. Kotler & Keller (2016) names 10 deadly

marketing sins but in this assignment, the writer discusses 5 of them and provides
possible solutions for them.
Why Marketing?
The traditional way of selling products has been by producing goods and
services where the marketing takes place at the selling point (Kotler & Keller, 2016).
This has been working only where the goods and services are in short supply and
the consumers have limited alternatives for the goods with no much concern about
the quality, features and style (Kotler & Keller, 2016). However, in an economic
environment where there are alternatives with many people that have different
wants, perceptions, preferences and buying criteria, the traditional model cannot
work because the competitors can always outsmart the business hence likely to
have no business. This calls for a smarter way of selling services or products to the
target markets. Kotler & Keller (2016) notes that with the new view of business
processes, marketing must start from the planning stage where the company must
be able to see themselves delivering value as per the target market perception,
wants and preferences.
In view of the above, companies wanting to make an impact in their chosen
markets must be able to understand the needs of the consumers and also be able to
know what the competitors are able to offer and they are offering, identifying the
gaps and targeting to offer value not only through points of differences but also
ensure there are competitive points of parity too. Doing so requires that the business
collect detailed information about the consumers and that of the competitors. They
have to also conduct some market research which can be the basis of forecasting
demand. Moreover, the markets in which the company desire to trade in, may be
affected by factors such as technology, social and cultural practices and regulatory
issues among others. These must be well understood and considered in the design
and implementation of marketing plans and delivery of service to the target market. It
is also important that the company analyse both the consumer and business
customers depending on which type of customers they are likely to build
relationships with to ensure there are mutual benefits.
However, the company can make mistakes or error in conducting their
marketing activities which eventually affects the business as a whole. It must be