Abstract

It's up to the marketing staff to maximize a firm's total revenue net of selling costs, and this often calls for statistical as well as sales know-how, for many factors must be equated and others, such as fixed and variable costs, juggled to produce the most advantageous net possible. The purpose of this paper is to accent both the need for a systematic approach to marketing management decision-making and the need-in each decision-making situation-for a complete consideration of the many variables involved. The emphasis is on how marketing decisions should be made rather than on how they are, in fact, made; yet, it is hoped that the former is kept parallel enough with the latter so that the marketing practitioner does not feel uncomfortable. Briefly, the framework views the job of the marketing staff as that of identifying all relevant marketing alternatives confronting the firm, of choosing from among these alternatives the particular alternative at each output level which best satisfies the goals of the firm and of carrying out the marketing side of the firm's final plan of action as efficiently and effectively as possible.