Integrating Marketing and Operational Choices for Profit Growth

Differentiation and revenue growth have heretofore been the focus of marketing practice in large Western companies. That focus is unlikely to work well as growth slows in aging Western markets and volume growth comes from more price sensitive emerging markets. Successful companies will need to deliver not just better products, but better value for money. That will require integrating marketing and operational choices to achieve greater cost-effectiveness. Pricing professionals are uniquely positioned to facilitate that integration and thus to become more involved in defining a profitable strategic focus for their companies. To fulfill that role, they will need to define and target market segments that reflect not just differences in growth potential and “unmet needs,” but also each segment’s “strategic fit” with the firm’s capabilities.