Marketing Systems and Structures

Conclusion
The University has a grasp of the marketing concept and does hold consumer satisfaction high on its agenda. However, this is tempered by the need to satisfy customers who are not consumers of the product but are promoting other strategic objectives by providing courses of study or business support. It is also clear that internal marketing plays a vital role in the working of the university and resources must be used in this direction.
Problems linked with the failure of the marketing concept and custimer centrality have been identified within the work of the University. These include:
1. The definition and analysis of markets
2. The co-ordination and integration of marketing with other functions and the resolution of sibling conflicts
3. Short-term revenue requirements versus longer-term market share concerns.
4. Resistance to organisational changes implicit in the adoption and implementation of the marketing concept.
(Brownlie & Saren, 1992)
So how customer oriented is the University of ? If we use the marketing concept and marking mix as an indicator it has some way to go but we also recognise that the marketing concept may not have all the answers and the dominating marketing paradigm and the Four P model needs to be replaced, this does not mean that the Ps themselves, including the addition of People, Physical Evidence and Process and other concepts of the managerial approach such as market segmentation and indeed the marketing concept, would be less valuable than before (Gronroos, 1994) but we can explore the implementation with the Marketing role of issues such as internal marketing, Total Quality Management and other management options.
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