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Assignment Steps

Resources: Marketing: Ch. 7: pg. 177-191; Ch. 16: pg. 438-440; Week 5 video
Scenario: Imagine you are an entrepreneur launching a business planning to operate both domestically and abroad. You are currently

developing your marketing plan and strategies.
Develop a 1,050-word analysis addressing the following:
Describe your organization’s mission, vision, and values.
Explain how these values will be aligned to your own personal brand identity, ethics, and values when doing business, planning strategies,

and solving problems.
Discuss at least two concepts from class that are elements of a marketing plan and are important tools to your entrepreneurial business’

success. Discuss how the concepts help align the organization’s values with your values. Explain the reasoning leading to these

conclusions.
Select two of the following departments and explain marketing’s role in coordinating their distinct functions:
Distribution
Customer Service
Advertising and Public Relations
Research and Design
Sales
Operations or Manufacturing
Compare and contrast how culture is likely to impact domestic marketing strategies versus what the company may encounter when doing

business abroad such as cultural norms, economics, politics, and legal systems.
Explain the actions the company can take to ensure that it evolves with the target at home and the countries it does business in.
Discuss any emerging marketing trends that may affect your business.
Cite a minimum of two peer-reviewed sources with one being from either the text, video material, or the University Library.
Format your assignment consistent with APA guidelines.

Chapter 2: 40- 46

Making the World a Better Place, One Scoop at a Time!

Ben & Jerry’s started in 1978 when longtime friends Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield headed north to Vermont to open an ice cream parlor in a

renovated gas station. Buoyed with enthusiasm, $12,000 in borrowed and saved money, and ideas from a $5 correspondence course in ice cream

making, Ben and Jerry were off and scooping. Their first flavor? Vanilla—because it’s a universal best seller. Other flavors such as Chunky

Monkey, Cherry Garcia, Peanut Butter Cup, and many others soon followed.
The ice cream flavors weren’t the only extraordinary thing about the company though. Ben and Jerry embraced a concept they called “linked

prosperity,” which encouraged the success of all constituents including employees, suppliers, customers, and neighbors. They set out to

achieve linked prosperity with a three-part mission statement:
•Product Mission: To make, distribute and sell the finest quality all-natural ice cream.
•Economic Mission: To operate the company for sustainable financial growth.
•Social Mission: To operate the company in ways that make the world a better place.
The mission statement guided the entrepreneurs’ decisions related to many aspects of the business including purchasing practices,

ingredient sourcing, manufacturing, and involvement in the community.1
Ben and Jerry’s mission-driven approach led them to successfully implement many highly creative organizational and marketing strategies.

Some examples include:

•Fairtrade. Ben & Jerry’s believes that farmers who grow ingredients for their ice cream products (such as cocoa, coffee, and vanilla)

should receive a fair price for their harvest. In return Fairtrade farmers agree to use sustainable farming practices, implement fair

working standards, and invest in local communities.
•B-Corp Certification. Ben & Jerry’s was one of the first companies involved in the Benefit Corporation movement, which has developed a

rigorous set of principles and standards on which to evaluate companies in terms of social and environmental performance, accountability,

and transparency. The certification, provided by the nonprofit organization B-Lab, indicates that Ben & Jerry’s is using the power of

business to solve social and environmental problems.
•Page 27PartnerShop Program. PartnerShops are Ben & Jerry scoop shops that are independently owned and operated by community-based

nonprofit organizations. The shops employ youth and young adults who may face barriers to employment to help them build better lives.
As you can see, Ben & Jerry’s has a strong link between its mission and its strategies. CEO Jostein Solheim explains that their purpose at

Ben & Jerry’s is “to be part of a global movement that makes changing the world seem fun and achievable.”2
Today, Ben & Jerry’s is owned by Unilever, which is the market leader in the global ice cream industry—one that is expected to reach $74

billion by 2018.3 While customers love Ben & Jerry’s rich premium ice cream, many buy its products to support its social mission. As a

testament to its success, Ben & Jerry’s has over 7.5 million fans on Facebook—the most of any premium ice cream marketer!

Chapter 2 describes how organizations set goals to provide an overall direction to their organizational and marketing strategies. The

marketing department of an organization converts these strategies into plans that must be implemented and then evaluated so deviations can

be exploited or corrected based on the marketing environment.Page 28
Today’s Organizations

LO 2-1

Describe three kinds of organizations and the three levels of strategy in them.
In studying today’s organizations, it is important to recognize (1) the kinds of organizations that exist, (2) what strategy is, and (3)

how this strategy relates to the three levels of structure found in many large organizations.
Kinds of Organizations

Cree is an example of a for-profit organization. Its Cree LED light bulb replaces traditional incandescent bulbs, consumes 85 percent less

energy, and lasts 25,000 hours.
© H.S. Photos/Alamy

An organization is a legal entity that consists of people who share a common mission. This motivates them to develop offerings (goods,

services, or ideas) that create value for both the organization and its customers by satisfying their needs and wants.4 Today’s

organizations are of three types: (1) for-profit organizations, (2) nonprofit organizations, and (3) government agencies.
A for-profit organization, often called a business firm, is a privately owned organization such as Target, Nike, or Cree that serves its

customers to earn a profit so that it can survive. Profit is the money left after a for-profit organization subtracts its total expenses

from its total revenues and is the reward for the risk it undertakes in marketing its offerings.

Video 2-1

Cree® LED Bulb Ad
kerin.tv/13e/v2-1
In contrast, a nonprofit organization is a nongovernmental organization that serves its customers but does not have profit as an

organizational goal. Instead, its goals may be operational efficiency or client satisfaction. Regardless, it also must receive sufficient

funds above its expenses to continue operations. Organizations like SIRUM and Teach For America, described in the Making Responsible

Decisions box, seek to solve the practical needs of society and are often structured as nonprofit organizations.5 For simplicity in the

rest of the book, the terms firm, company, and organization are used interchangeably to cover both for-profit and nonprofit organizations.
Last, a government agency is a federal, state, county, or city unit that provides a specific service to its constituents. For example, the

Census Bureau, a unit of the U.S. Department of Commerce, is a federal government agency that provides population and economic data.
Organizations that develop similar offerings create an industry, such as the computer industry or the automobile industry.6 As a result,

organizations make strategic decisions that reflect the dynamics of the industry to create a compelling and sustainable advantage for their

offerings relative to those of competitors to achieve a superior level of performance.7 Much of an organization’s marketing strategy is

having a clear understanding of the industry within which it competes.Page 29

Making Responsible Decisions

social responsibility

Social Entrepreneurs Are Creating New Types of Organizations to Pursue Social Goals

Each year a growing number of “social entrepreneurs” start new ventures that address important social needs and issues. These new

enterprises are often organized as nonprofit organizations that combine traditional approaches for generating revenue with the pursuit of

social goals. The issues they have focused on range from health care delivery, to increasing access to education, to improving agricultural

efficiency. Some experts predict that these types of social ventures represent the new way of doing business.

Source: Forbes

One indication of the influence of these new types of organizations is Forbes magazine’s annual list of 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneurs.

Each year 30 of the most innovative new social ventures are featured in the article. For example, Kiah Willams left the Clinton Foundation

to start SIRUM (Supporting Initiatives to Redistribute Unused Medicine). The organization works with health care systems to distribute

unused prescription drugs (that would otherwise be destroyed) to patients who can’t afford to pay for the drugs. “We’re like the Match.com

for unused drugs,” explains Williams.
Teach For America is another example of a creative nonprofit organization. Launched by college senior Wendy Kopp, Teach For America is the

national corps of outstanding recent college graduates who commit to teach for two years in urban and rural public schools and become

lifelong leaders in expanding educational opportunity. Each year more than 10,000 corps members teach 750,000 students.
These examples illustrate how organizations are changing to create value for a broad range of constituents by addressing the needs and

challenges of society.
What Is Strategy?

An organization has limited human, financial, technological, and other resources available to produce and market its offerings—it can’t be

all things to all people! Every organization must develop strategies to help focus and direct its efforts to accomplish its goals. However,

the definition of strategy has been the subject of debate among management and marketing theorists. For our purpose, strategy is an

organization’s long-term course of action designed to deliver a unique customer experience while achieving its goals.8 All organizations

set a strategic direction. And marketing helps to both set this direction and move the organization there.
The Structure of Today’s Organizations

Large organizations are extremely complex. They usually consist of three organizational levels whose strategies are linked to marketing, as

shown in Figure 2–1.

Figure 2–1 The board of directors oversees the three levels of strategy in organizations: corporate, strategic business unit, and

functional.

Corporate Level

The corporate level is where top management directs overall strategy for the entire organization. “Top management” usually means the board

of directors and senior management officers with a variety of skills and experiences that are invaluable in establishing the organization’s

overall strategy.
The president or chief executive officer (CEO) is the highest ranking officer in the organization and is usually a member of its board of

directors. This person must possess leadership skills ranging from overseeing the organization’s daily operations to spearheading strategy

planning efforts that may determine its very survival.Page 30

Prada manages a portfolio or group of businesses—including perfume, leather goods, and luggage—each of which may be viewed as a strategic

In recent years, many large firms have changed the title of the head of marketing from vice president of marketing to chief marketing

officer (CMO). These CMOs have an increasingly important role in top management because of their ability to think strategically. Most bring

multi-industry backgrounds, cross-functional management expertise, analytical skills, and intuitive marketing insights to their job. These

CMOs are increasingly called upon to be their organizations’ “visionaries for the future” by staying in touch with consumers’ needs and

wants.9
Strategic Business Unit Level

Some multimarket, multiproduct firms, such as Prada and Johnson & Johnson, manage a portfolio or group of businesses. Each group is a

strategic business unit (SBU), which is a subsidiary, division, or unit of an organization that markets a set of related offerings to a

clearly defined target market. At the strategic business unit level, managers set a more specific strategic direction for their businesses

to exploit value-creating opportunities. For less complex firms with a single business focus, such as Ben & Jerry’s, the corporate and

business unit levels may merge.
Functional Level

Each strategic business unit has a functional level, where groups of specialists actually create value for the organization. The term

department generally refers to these specialized functions such as marketing and finance (see Figure 2–1). At the functional level, the

organization’s strategic direction becomes its most specific and focused. Just as there is a hierarchy of levels within an organization,

there is a hierarchy of strategic directions set by managers at each level.
A key role of the marketing department is to look outward by listening to customers, developing offerings, implementing marketing program

actions, and then evaluating whether those actions are achieving the organization’s goals. When developing marketing programs for new or

improved offerings, an organization’s senior management may form cross-functional teams. These consist of a small number of people from

different departments who are mutually accountable to accomplish a task or a common set of performance goals. Sometimes these teams will

have representatives from outside the organization, such as suppliers or customers, to assist them.

learning review
2-1. What is the difference between a for-profit and a nonprofit organization? 2-2. What are examples of a functional level in an

organization?
Strategy in Visionary Organizations

Last Updated on February 18, 2018