MGT520 Marketing Management: Reflections on Marketing Principles

This assignment comprises a series of journal entries reflecting on key marketing concepts covered in the MGT520 Marketing Management course. The entries discuss the impact of technology on marketing, comparing traditional methods to modern approaches like social media and personalized advertising. Segmentation strategies, including demographic, geographic, psychographic, and behavioral segmentation, are analyzed with practical examples. Marketing planning is explored, emphasizing its importance for organizational success and flexibility. Finally, the "No Logo" documentary is reflected upon, highlighting the increasing influence of brands and the backlash against corporate dominance. This collection provides a comprehensive overview of core marketing principles and their practical applications.

Running head: JOURNAL ARTICLES
JOURNAL ARTICLES
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Week 2: How technology has had an impact on marketing............................................................2
References....................................................................................................................................4
Week 3: Segmentation Strategies....................................................................................................5
References....................................................................................................................................7
Week 4: Marketing Planning...........................................................................................................8
References..................................................................................................................................10
Week 5: No Logo Documentary....................................................................................................11
References..................................................................................................................................13

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Week 2: How technology has had an impact on marketing
In these weeks’ module and coursework, we read about the basic concepts of marketing
and how the marketing function has changed considerably in an organization since the time of its
inception. This week topics like the management of marketing in a competitive market with
various dynamics like that of company, context, competitors and industry were elaborated upon,
and our main reading was based on the article by McKenna written in 1991 which states various
dynamics of marketing on a whole (McKenna 1991). Hence, this journal will be discussing a
reflection on the impact of technology on marketing and the manner the different marketing
concepts have been greatly affected and what is the present scenario as compared to that of the
scenario which is mentioned in the given article. According to Bresler and Lubbe (2014), the
concept of marketing has changed considerably and made the transition from traditional means
of advertising to the modern means. The use of smartphones which came into the view much
after 1991, have changed the manner in which the different customers are reached out. I believe
that as the use of smartphones by the different customers made on a 24 *7 basis has bought about
a considerable change in the marketing forms and the medium used by the companies to take out
information from the customers has also changed.
According to Chernev (2018), marketing was not a function but a manner in which
business is conducted, it can be essentially described the manner in which the design of product
is done and how a systematic procedure has been developed. The marketing in 1991 was based
on customer relationship buildup but at present it is all about gaining the maximum market share
in order to ensure that the firm is successful in its operations (McKenna 1991). I had read a book
on marketing management and it reflected that at present a business without marketing will not
be able to survive appropriately. Moreover, I believe that the very definition of technology was

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also very different back in 1991. The technology earlier was based on just the use of telephones
and the different options to attract the customers and provide them with return facilities however,
at present the technology in marketing has advanced considerably.
Technology has bought about a new form of marketing with respect to mediums like e-
mails, text messaging, social media techniques and other facilities like push notifications which
shall ensure a larger market share and appeal. In addition to this, it is my belief whereas the focus
was on mass marketing in the past which gradually shifted to customized marketing, at present,
the same is done by sending the different customers an advertisement which caters to their own
individual needs at large. In addition to this, the use of video advertisements along with website
advertisements has also improved (Marshall 2014). Before undertaking the coursework, I had a
perception that earlier just the traditional form of marketing was used, however, at present it is
my belief that the change from the year 1991 to the present 2018, is much different than I
expected and now the aim of marketing in a firm is to reach out to all the customers but making
them feel special at the same time.

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References
Bresler, M. and Lubbe, I., 2014. Marketing management. Pearson
Chernev, A., 2018. Strategic marketing management. Cerebellum Press.
Marshall, G., 2014. Marketing management. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
McKenna, R., 1991. Marketing is everything. Harvard business review, 69(1), pp.65-79.

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Week 3: Segmentation Strategies
Segmentation strategies can be essentially described as an effective component in
marketing, whereby a company aims to divide a market into different segments which would
then make it easier for the organization to target the customers in the particular segment at large.
In this week`s module we learnt the essential function of marketing which involves
Segmentation, Marketing and Positioning. The week’s material talked about the essence of
marketing information and how the sources of information have changed considerably. I
remember that the different companies often used physical surveys and phone call methods to
understand the requirements and the needs of the customers. However, as per my reading of
Kinnear and Taylor (1987), the method of the collection of marketing information has changed
considerably and at present marketing information essentially deals with the use of sophisticated
data collection and analysis techniques to understand the different needs of the customers. This
thereby leads to the customer insights which then provides the companies a better information
for the segmentation strategies. According to the Cross, Belich and Rudelius (2015) text which
was used in the module, I learnt that Segmentation forms the first move of a marketer and that a
right segmentation strategy will go a long way in ensuring that the firm is successful in its
operations in the long run.
Segmentation refers to dividing the market into smaller segments and then targeting some
customers in those segments. In the week`s module, I learnt that there are four basic
Segmentation strategies which a marketer can make effective use of. These are demographic
segmentation, behavioral segmentation, psychographic and the geographic segmentation
(McDonagh and Prothero 2014). The demographic segmentation deals with the factors like age,
gender, income, occupation and education. I believe that this is the most common type of

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segmentation strategy used by the various companies. For example, a wedding planner would
essentially target young population, who is single and capable enough of having a grand
wedding. The second strategy of segmentation is the Geographic segmentation whereby the
different customers are targeted on the basis of their Geographic segmentation. According to my
reading of the Shaw (2016), the Geographical segmentation was taken into importance earlier but
now because of Globalization, the boundaries between the different regions and the countries
have come down which shall then lead to a larger geographical target audience.
The week reflected that psychographic segmentation is another strategy which is
essentially adopted by the different companies in order to measure lifestyle and personality traits
of the different customers and design products for the customers as per their unique needs. The
last segmentation strategy which we learnt in this module was the behavioral segmentation
which considers factors like the urgency of demand, purpose of the use and other factors for
segmentation. Hence, after analyzing the different segmentation strategies available it can be
stated that any company which aims to achieve success in the long run needs to have a
considerable segmentation strategy in place. Earlier, I was under the belief that the company
divides the target market based on their needs and capabilities but after analyzing the given
strategy, it can be stated that any organization segments the market based on the customer
characteristics and according to me, the best strategy which can be adopted by a company is
demographic and behavioral segmentation strategy. After the market has been segmented, then
the company forms a targeting tactic.

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References
Kinnear, T.C. and Taylor, J.R., 1987. Marketing research: an applied approach. McGraw-Hill
Companies.
Shaw, S., 2016. Airline marketing and management. Routledge.
McDonagh, P. and Prothero, A., 2014. Sustainability marketing research: Past, present and
future. Journal of Marketing Management, 30(11-12), pp.1186-1219.
Cross, J.C., Belich, T.J. and Rudelius, W., 2015. How marketing managers use market
segmentation: An exploratory study. In Proceedings of the 1990 Academy of Marketing Science
(AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 531-536). Springer, Cham.

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Week 4: Marketing Planning
In the fourth week of our coursework, we discussed various topics like the four pillars of
a marketing strategy and the manner in which the different marketing strategies were essentially
formed in order to ensure long term success. It also discussed the concept of marketing planning
and the business models. The aim of the given journal is to reflect upon my learnings and other
practical experiences based on one of the readings as present in the given weeks module. I have
chosen the topic of Marketing Planning for my reflection. Marketing planning can be essentially
described as the process which an organization undertakes in order to understand the current
positioning of a company in the market and to form a series of strategies as well as tactics in
order to assist the organization in achieving their time frames (Ingenbleek, Meulenberg and Van
Trijp 2015). Foxall (2014), describes the marketing plan as an essential document which takes
into consideration the internal environment of the business, the external market conditions, the
target markets to be served and a strategy for each of these segments. I believe that a marketing
plan needs to be flexible in nature and needs to be necessarily based on the needs of the
organization at large. This is because in case there exists any changes in the latter stage of the
operations, the marketing plan can be adjusted accordingly.
According to my readings based on the Bresler and Lubbe (2014), there are a large
number of benefits of the formation of a marketing plan such as fulfilling the needs of the target
market, evaluation of the results which are achieved based on the objectives as well as the
strategies, planning procedure of a firm, competitive information and others. I had read a case
study based on Mc Donald’s which seeks to ensure that it is successfully able to expand its
marketing and thereby ensure that they engage in the formation of a marketing plan which will
go a long way in ensuring that the company is able to achieve success in the long run. The

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process of a Marketing Plan is very simple in nature and during this week I learnt that, the first
step involves situational analysis, which is then followed by the target market and segmentation
analysis, the third part involves the marketing objectives and formation of the relate strategies
and the last part of the formation of a marketing strategy involves implementation and control
(Sargeant and Macquillin 2016).
Moreover, I believe that along with the formation of a successful marketing plan, it also
becomes very important for any business to ensure that they evaluate the marketing plan
successful. Before undertaking the analysis, I was under the belief that a marketing plan and the
entire procedure of marketing planning is not very crucial for the success of the firm and that it is
the offering which matters, however, after analyzing the materials, I understood that marketing
planning and the documents serve as a guiding path towards organizational success, the
formation of which is unique for any marketing success.

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References
Bresler, M. and Lubbe, I., 2014. Marketing management. Pearson
Foxall, G., 2014. Strategic Marketing Management (RLE Marketing). Routledge.
Ingenbleek, P.T., Meulenberg, M.T. and Van Trijp, H.C., 2015. Buyer social responsibility: A
general concept and its implications for marketing management. Journal of Marketing
Management, 31(13-14), pp.1428-1448.
Sargeant, A. and Macquillin, I., 2016. Marketing for nonprofit organizations. In The Marketing
Book (pp. 555-576). Routledge.

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Week 5: No Logo Documentary
In this week, we viewed a documentary named No Logo by Naomi Klein which emphasis
on the increasing use of brands and how logos are all around the globe (Goworek, McGoldrick
and McGoldrick 2015). However, very often the different brands find themselves the target of
the anti-corporate campaigns and thus Naomi has presented this documentary to reveal why there
is a backlash against the popularity of these brands and also analyses how these different brands
like that of Gap, Tommy Hilfiger and Nike became mere brand symbols not because of the
products they were manufacturing but because they created brand identities which lured the
different customers to adopt their lifestyle (Youtube.com. 2018). According to me, the video
shows the reason, these brands have been following the wrong approach of attracting the
different customers and that instead of competing on the basis of the products they are selling but
on the basis of the identities they are creating through their branding activities.
I believe that the main message behind the documentary was to reflect upon the
commercial takeover of the space of the public and destroying the different choices of the
consumers. Along with this, the larger brands have also replaced the real jobs with temporary
work and impacted the general audience at large (Olson et al. 2018). Before, viewing this video,
I did not possess a deep understanding of the ill effects of branding as undertaken by these large
brands and I was unaware of the raging backslash which these brands were receiving and how
there is a movement by certain activists which wants the companies to stop this movement.
However, one of the key messages which attracted my attention in the video was the message of
`No Choice`. From the video I could understand that brands often use their size and influence to
make the choices available to different customers limited in number and display market
dominance or invasion of a region. As per my understanding after reading of the text, I came to