Introduction to Marketing Management Course Marketing has a key functional role as the only part of the organisation which has proactive contact with customers; it is the bridge to the customer & the consumer. This is the aspect of marketing which most people recognise, & which can be thought to be marketing's sole role. But unless marketers take an active part at corporate level it is unlikely that the organisation as a whole will have a customer focus. A major role for marketing management is therefore to encourage & reinforce a marketing orientation that permeates every sector of the organisation. At corporate level any organisation has a relationship with its environment - the need to manage this relationship should be obvious, but unfortunately this realisation only came to many British firms in the take-over battles of the 1970s when they found that although their brands might be well known the organisation itself was not. Corporate managers quickly came to realise the need to use marketing's core skills to market the organisation as well as its products. After participating in this course, you should be able to: determine the role & effectiveness of marketing in given circumstances identify the key stages in the corporate planning process establish management objectives use key marketing terms correctly