Internalization of Marketing in Czech Management

Abstract

Purpose of the article: When we explore the role of marketing concept in decisions of Czech management by direct interviewing, the problem of self projection can immerge as the influence of professional environment. Then the estimation of the real – internalized relation towards marketing and its activities leads to the research task. One of the ways how to investigate it is to look at managers in their private life of normal consumers when they are not surrounded by professional atmosphere and pressures. The sense of this article is to explore such direction and to evaluate its possibilities. Methodology/methods: The continual research project Market&Media&Lifestyle (also known as TGI – Target Group Index) oriented towards consumers is used for this purpose. The target group of management among consumers was set up and their consumer marketing portrait in their private life was indirectly investigated by more than eighty variables. The cross tabs were used to analyze the differences in marketing empathy between management target group and the relevant population at all. The factor and cluster analysis were employed to find management groups with various level of marketing internalization. The profiles of segments were developed by contingency analysis, multidimensional scaling and MCART tree analysis. Scientific aim: The aim of the research was both to discover possibilities of such way to get the knowledge about the real marketing empathy among Czech management and to estimate its intensity. The subsequent goal was to verify if there are groups with different marketing internalisation in Czech management, if yes, then to identify such segments. Findings: The results discovered that private perception of marketing among Czech management is not optimal. Not surprisingly, at one side branded goods, quality products, innovations, information are more often preferred. On the other side management is less opened to advertising and its attitudes to e.g. sponsoring, package in their private consumer life do not differ from population. In the same time, obvious heterogeneity in marketing internalization occurred. Four segments were indentified: Tepid, Reluctant, Perceptive and Ambivalent. Conclusions: It is possible to conclude that contrary the preliminary assumptions approximately one third of management internalizes marketing concept relatively well. Even though the level of marketing concept among Czech management is not optimal some substantial marketing characteristics resonate across management. In this process personal values are much more important than factors like the size of the firm or level of management. The segment with prevailing positive private perception of marketing creates almost one third of Czech management and this finding seems to be a promising base for enrichment of marketing potential in market orientation of companies.