Internal marketing Essay

Internal marketing is of much importance to an organization. For any organization to thrive, it must focus on the efficiency of the marketing plan. The internal marketing plan within a firm fosters the company’s employees and all its staff members to being customers of the products that they produce. When employees of an organization purchase the products that they produce, they attract external markets since the public out there will realize how important the products are to them, as much as to the employees. Members of staff are seen as both suppliers of the goods and also the customers of the products. This plan helps in strengthening the firm to employee relationship. When the firm management relates well with the employees, they are in a way motivated hence quality services will in turn be provided to the customers. Customers will be retained within the organization, thus enabling the company achieve a competitive advantage. It will be in a position to increase its sales according to the rampant growing demand. Also, the company will increase the process of profit making. In essence, efficiency in internal marketing allows for efficient external marketing efforts (Kotler & Armstrong, 2009). A good internal marketing plan usually has distinctive features. For instance, it should create a culture that enables it to outstand over the vast competitive markets. It is achievable when workers are encouraged to be creative and innovative, responsible and accountable. Employees should be given a chance to exploit their abilities and also to act in capacity as accountable leaders. The plan should also articulate equity, fairness, recognition and motivation of outstanding performers. Employees should not be treated according to their rank position, race or gender. This has been a major setback to development hence it should be avoided by all means. It should also accommodate room for furthering the employees’ skills and knowledge. By fairness, an organization and its staff at large are encouraged to practice and embrace it. For example when someone close dies, support should be provided to his family. The organization can effectively deal with this issue through setting aside emergency funds (Ahmed & Rafiq, 2002). Coca cola as a company has embraced the use of internal marketing plan within its organization, and this has seen it stand still and strong despite the competition offered by Pepsi company which is as well a manufacturer of soft drinks. The company has been strategically managed and thus its products have been wide spread, not only in the United States but also to the rest of the world. It has adopted the use of the 7ps of marketing. The 7ps involves Product, Place, Price and Promotion, Physical Environment, People, Process. Product shows what the company produces and supplies to its vast markets. Examples of such products are sprite, coke and fanta, which mainly dominate the company’s markets. Place indicates the actual placement of the manufacturing firm. Currently, manufacture of coca cola products have been spread all over the world. Price is the most important aspect of marketing. The company is supposed to regulate the prices through the advice of senior sales representatives. It is the marked price that determines the number of customers an organization will have. Customers should be made aware of the recommended retail prices of the beverages produced. This is usually done so as to discourage the intermediaries from exploiting the customers. When goods are overpriced, the organizations competitors might take advantage of this to take away the customers. Coca Cola Company has taken an initiative of inscribing the products recommended prices in the bottle tops, thus preventing occurrence of inconveniences. In marketing, promotion enables the people to know the kind of products the company produces and also gives them a reason why they should purchase them. Promotion activities are crucial because it is the determining factor whether the business will stand or fall. Physical environment also plays an important role in marketing. The surrounding and the way people domiciling around where a company intends to establish its market agrees to allow the sales agent carry out its activities determines the business marketing future. People may be very hostile; hence the business may fail to establish its markets. The processes actually portray the channels a product passes through before being delivered to the end consumer. This may again involve how the consumer will handle the product. The employees of this company are given responsibility to manage brands through efficient marketing and also given priority to lay down achievable business strategies (Drake, Gulman & Roberts, 2005). Managing directors of the company are spread all over the world and the company entrusts them to establish reliable distribution channels, the targeted consumers and the marketing tools that boosts the firms’ sales. To ensure that it earns huge profits, the company has increased its sales employees and surely this act has enabled it to be at the top rank in the annual ranking of the best brands in the world. Such sales agents of the company do put into consideration a good customer relationship. They have a sense of efficiency in responding to customers needs thus majority of the consumers are retained. To obtain its employees, the coca cola company carries out recruitments. For one to qualify as an employee, he/she must pass the exams administered to them by the company’s directors. Also, they are taken through series of interviews and questionnaires, and their competences checked against the requirements of the company. While interviewing, the managers poses questions related to risk management, time management, how to attend to problems and also issues that focuses on leadership skills. After the employees are hired by the company, they are fed with adequate information about the company. This includes how it carries out its day to day activities, its mission and vision. In addition, the organizations goals and objectives are clearly stated to them. This allows the firm management to work together as one with its employees with target of realizing the successful outcome of the company’s operations. Employees work output is usually measured in this company on yearly basis. They are rated according to how they have embraced the technology, how they have fostered a sense of leadership and also by how far they established a solid relationship with the consumers. In addition, their innovativeness is recognized and this is checked through analyzing how successful they have been in bringing the outsiders into the company. Their results in terms of making the company realize goals are normally detailed, and the outstanding performers motivated. This motivation can either take form of increasing their monthly pay, promoting them to higher ranks or even recognizing them by word of mouth. Employees who are deemed as less productive are taken through a probation training. After probation, they are again sent back to the field, and if by this time the company does not see any impact in their productivity, they are left with no option other than dismissing them (Palmer, et al. , 2006). Internal marketing has been of great benefits to the coca cola company. Despite encouraging its workers perform better, it has also allowed them to acquire knowledge on being responsible and accountable. The internal marketing has also enhanced better understanding of the organization in line with the business carried out. Employees have been motivated to offer goods of quality to their customers through appreciation of their outstanding performance. This plan has again increased the consumer retention capacity and also personal developments to its employees. Non marketers within the organization has also benefited since they have learned how to carry out their duties in manner-like marketing. To sum up, the internal marketing plan has linked the coca cola business culture, vision, mission and its stipulated strategies with the employees’ social needs (Varey, 2002). Behind every successful organization, their must be a chain of problems encountered by it. Depending on how the firm embraces and handles their problems, their success is determined. Not all the employees accept change. Some becomes rigid when it comes to embracing the changes in technology. Some employees have deemed the use of computerized systems as a way of narrowing employment opportunities. Such employees can be termed as being illiterate from the fact that computers helps much in keeping efficient and effective inventory of the company’s undertakings. The company has also been faced problems based on incompetence of managers, much emphasis being in the use of interpersonal, conceptual and technical skills. The rampant spread of social evils such as corruption all over the world has seen the company employ incompetent personnel who lack skills in management. To add, the employed persons within the organization have been portrayed as not only having a poor understanding of the concepts of internal marketing but also as ignoring the orders from the senior staff (Kurtz, 2008). This has been a major problem towards successful establishment of internal marketing plan. Conflicts among the employees and also within different departments have also been a problem. People usually fight over the promotion position have made the work of implementing an internal structure difficult. To the side of the organization, some subordinates ignore the employees and does not put into consideration their welfare. Because of this, employees have reacted to fight for their rights and thus this has been a hindering factor. The spirit of synergy has also been greatly compromised since some top members of the organization over protect important information against its workers. Since there is no trust, the organization is as well less likely to embrace the concept of internal marketing. To summarize, the organizations’ structure is in most instances rigid. It does not give room for frequent reviewing and thus this has affected the internal concept of marketing. As from the benefits discussed earlier on, it is unavoidably necessary to have an internal marketing plan. This is not only for the success of the business in its environs but also all over the world. Some of the tools that should be put into consideration in successfully implementing a good internal marketing plan involve encouraging employees to have frequent contacts with the human resource managers. The contact can be enhanced through use of e-mails, faxes, telephone services, newsletters and more reliably through physical contacts. This will encourage them to air their views about the welfare of the organization. Also, they will have a chance to openly air their grievances, more especially on the way they are handled as the company’s employees. This allows fast reaction and implementation of their needs in a proper channel. More field work should be encouraged between the employees and their manager. This will allow them to share views freely with their manager and also gain experience. Since managers are normally viewed as people with experience, fieldworks will allow the employees too mingle with their managers and in the process taking note of work should be carried out (Dunmore,2002). Meetings of all the members of staff should be scheduled within reasonable time duration, for instance a fortnight or a month. This enables the organization as a whole to see how far they have gone in accomplishing its goals and objectives. It also allows them, together with its employees to check on the possible areas that they might have gone wrong in its day to day operations. From here, possible solutions are discussed and carefully thought out strategies of implementation laid out. Changes in career paths are also deemed as a tool of successfully implementing the internal marketing. The employees get to rate themselves on how good they are in sales department. They can check their performance in conjunction with the efforts they put while at work. If they find that marketing is a little pit strenuous, they can pave way for other junior employees and opt for other jobs. Changes in positions should be provided for to those employees initially put on probation. This allows them to be motivated to take up new roles within the organization. In addition, this decreases instances of boredom since the employees are subject to transfers to various departments and place of work. This act boosts the employees’ morale because they will be in a position to see as being attached to the company than before (Beamish & Ashford, 2007). Internal marketing workshops and also leadership concept seminars should be embraced by the organization. The firm should encourage its employees to attend such seminars as it enables them gain skills that prepares them for future managerial positions. Such seminars also encourage mutual relationship within the organization. Positioning of the employees should be in conformance with the required qualifications. Social evils such as corruption should be avoided within the organization as this may impact negatively to the company. Such people hired through crooked ways are the ones to collapse the same company since they have gotten used to their bad habits.