Marketers as Political Strategies

Marketers as Political Strategies
Few marketers are trained in the art of politics and are this unaccustomed to using power to achieve favorable transactions. Most marketers think that value, not power, wins in the marketplace.

The growth of protected markets, however, requires marketers to incorporate the notion of power into their strategies. Marketing is increasingly becoming the art if managing power.

What do they need to know about power? They need to know that power in the ability of one party to get another party to do what it might not otherwise have done. It is the party’s ability to increase the probability of another party taking an action. A party can draw on at least five bases of power to influence another party.

Rewards
The part offers to reward to another party for engaging in the desired behavior, the reward might be recognition, entertainment, gifts or payments. Marketers are expert in the use of rewards.

Coercion
Party threatens to harm another party in the absent of compliant behavior. Party may threaten physical, social or financial harm. Marketers have been loath to use coercive power because of its doubtful ethical status, because it does not square with the marketing concept, and because it can create hostility that can backfire on the marketer.

Expertise or information
Party offers another party expertise, such as technical assistance or access to special information, on exchange for another party compliance.

Legitimacy
Party seen to have a legitimate right top make certain requests of another party. An example would be the Japanese premier asking Nippon Electric Company to put on its approved supplier list.

Prestige
Party has prestige in another party’s mind and draws on this to request another party’s compliance. An example would be Chrysler president requesting a meeting with officials in a foreign country present argument for opening a Chrysler plant in that country.

Power is key to mega-marketers. Companies that find themselves blocked from a market must undertake a three step process for creating an entry strategy:

• Mapping the power structure

• Forging a grand strategy

• Developing a tactical implementation plan

Marketers as Political Strategies

Implications of Megamarketing

Implications of Megamarketing

Megamarketing broadens the thinking of marketers in three ways:

• Enlarging the multiparty marketing concept
  Marketers spend much time analyzing how to create preference and satisfaction in target buyers. Because other parties – governments, labor unions, banks, reform groups – can block the path to the target buyers, marketers must also study the obstacles these parties create and develop strategies for attracting their support or at least neutralizing their opposition.
  
• Blurring the distinction between environmental and controllable variables
  Marketers have traditionally defined the environment as those outside forces that cannot be controlled by the business. But megamarketing argues that some environmental forces can be changed through lobbying, legal action, negotiation, issue advertising, public relations, and strategies partnering.
  
• Broadening the understanding of how markets work
  Most market thinkers assume that demand creates its own supply. Ideally, companies discover a market need and rush to satisfy that need. But real markets are often blocked, and the best marketer does not always win. We have seen that foreign competitors with offers comparable or superior to those local companies cannot always enter the market. The result is a lower level of consumer satisfaction and producer innovation than would otherwise result.

Implications of Megamarketing