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1 - R1711D3980553 - Babatope Oni - Critical self-reflection of the process of completing assignment 1

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Operations management (MBA 706)

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University of South Wales

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University of South Wales

Strategic Marketing

(MK4S34 - V2 - 60862 )

Module Assessment 2

Critical Self-Reflection of The Process of Completing Assignment

– 1

Babatope Oni

R1711D

Separate Group: O60862G

Asimina Christodoulou

25

th

August 2023

Expectations

Strategic marketing is one of the modules I personally looked forward to at the

beginning of the program. The reason is because I wanted to measure the gap (if any)

between the reality of workplace strategic marketing experience and established

methodologies in customer acquisition and engagement as well as customers’

satisfaction and retaining. This is to help determine what I may need to do differently

in my current job as well as when I start my own business in near future.

Details Page

The Expectations 3

The Module Experience 3

The Lessons 4

i. Strategic Planning Process 4

ii. The logic of being illogical 4

iii. Customer-centricity 4

iv. Internal Marketing 4

v. CSR as a strategy 5

Action points going forward 5

References 6

Strategic planning processes gave insights into why marketing strategy should be

embedded into the corporate strategy as an integral element and not just an add-on.

In fact, the overall corporate strategy should be based on the feedbacks from

customers engagement to ascertain what their expectations are. The corporate

document should identify how each unit within an organization plan to work together

to ensure the organization is able to create goods and services that will delight the

customers. This is the hallmark of Amazon as a market leader in e-commerce space.

Another highlight in this module is the logic of being illogical. It examines the usual

logic of strategic planning where marketing strategy is based on creating goods and

services for client to buy based on what the organization wants to do and using

advertisements to convince the customers to buy. This seems conventional but less

effective because the customers’ needs are not prioritized enough. This explains the

gaps between strategic planning and execution despite the experience and education

of top management.

On the flip side, organizations literally do well by reversing the sequence and starting

with customers’ needs. It seems unusual but very effective as organizations focus on

what their markets are expecting. Organizations that operate with this “illogical”

mindset will have advantage in the marketplace. Jeff Bezos, in his forward to

Amazon’s 2020 financial statement reinforced his views about delighting customers.

In his words, “We’ve come a long way since then, and we are working harder than

ever to serve and delight customers”. Amazon 2020 Annual Report Forward

Customer centricity

Deshpande et al (1993) defined customer orientation as “the set of beliefs that puts

the customer’s interests first, while not excluding those of all other stakeholders [.. .]

in order to develop a long-term profitable enterprise’’ It is important to highlight that

being customer-oriented is a continuous process rather than an action. It is about

making the customer the center of every operational activity regardless of employees’

actual department. This is not limited to creating products and services that

customers need but also extends to gathering of relevant information for immediate

and future needs since customers’ taste is dynamic.

Internal marketing

There are varying schools of thought on the meaning of internal marketing, but the

central theme is that every activity must be carried out with the customer in mind.

This was summarized by Kotler & Armstrong (1991) when they posited that internal

marketing is about building customer orientation among employees by training and

motivating both customer contact and support staff to work as a team.

Amazon’s model is very laudable in that incoming employees are already positioned

to understand this mindset. According to its official global career site, “our mission is

to be Earth's most customer-centric company. This is what unites Amazonians across

teams and geographies as we are all striving to delight our customers and make their

lives easier, one innovative product, service, and idea at a time”.

amazon/en/.

This means that the expectations are properly set and put into perspective to ensure

that employees understand what they commit to before joining the team. In summary,

everyone within the organization has a direct responsibility to delight the customers

regardless of where the operate from – factory floor or as a salesman.

CSR as a strategy

Kok et al., (2001) defined Corporate Social Responsibility as “the obligation of the firm

to use its resources in ways to benefit society, through committed participation as a

member of society, taking into account the society at large and improving welfare of

society at large independent of direct gains of the company”

While there are contrary views that CSR is an unnecessary waste of organizations

resources which does not only dilute the primary objective (which is profitability) but

may also increase the cost of its services.

It is very clear that organizations do not exist in isolation but rather a part of an

ecosystem which is the society itself. Therefore, the more impact (beyond and above

its legal obligations) an organization has, the better its acceptance.

Action Points Going forward

Having learnt emerging ideas about the importance of embedding marketing strategy

into the overall strategic planning process, I have been properly enlightened to

prioritize customers going forward regardless of my role in the organization. I look

forward to using this newly acquired learning going forward by applying the

knowledge to my current job with the (internal and external) customers in mind.

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1 - R1711D3980553 - Babatope Oni - Critical self-reflection of the process of completing assignment 1

Course: Operations management (MBA 706)

23 Documents
Students shared 23 documents in this course

University: Lagos State University

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University of South Wales
Strategic Marketing
(MK4S34 - V2 - 60862)
Module Assessment 2
Critical Self-Reflection of The Process of Completing Assignment
– 1
Babatope Oni
R1711D3980553
Separate Group: O60862G62340
Asimina Christodoulou
25th August 2023
Page 1 of 6

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