Competition, innovation and marketing management

A consideration of competition, innovation and marketing management is both crucial and timely. It has implications for the development of effective systems of business action, for each of the functional areas of business administration, and for our position in world affairs. For those interested in marketing it has special significance and meaning. Competition and innovation are at the core of marketing activity.

Management today is forced to assess activities continuously in an economic environment characterized by keen competition, an explosive development of usable knowledge, and rapid and wide-spread change. In particular, students and practitioners concerned with the marketing aspects of business are confronted with the major responsibility of understanding and managing change. Marketing is the dynamic area of business which is perhaps most directly confronted with change. It is the area most immediately concerned with competition and competitive strategies. It is the area which reflects the vitality of business organizations as they attempt to deal with shifting external market parameters.

Our economy has been termed a capitalistic, a free enterprise, and a mixed economy. An economy in which the consumer is the focal point of economic effort, and in which marketing is the essential motive power. In such an economy, companies compete for customer and consumer favor and the resulting market stature. Consumers occupy a pivotal position. As a result, even non-marketing executives are becoming more concerned with the market-related activities of their own functions. Similarly, various social and political observers are investigating competition and competitive practices, and they are questioning the moral, social, legal, psychological, and ethical bases of marketing actions.

In a competitive society, marketing becomes more than a functional field of business. It is a philosophy of business operation -- a way of business life. Decisions made concerning marketing activities extend well beyond the functional boundaries of marketing in any organization. They establish parameters for the total operations of the business system. They have an impact on research and development, on production, on finance, on purchasing, and on personnel. In fact, it is marketing which distinguishes business organizations from other forms of organization and that in essence there are only two top management functions: innovation and marketing.