Petrichenko A., Ryeznik M., Sokol P.

Dnipropetrovsk National University named after OlesGonchar

FACTORS HINDERING EFFECTIVE FUNCTIONING OF MARKETING DEPARTMENTS

In the current conditions of the increasing competition among manufacturers there is the need to create services, departments or units of marketing, which should help to increase sales, market share and profit gained by enterprises.

However, inefficient work of the marketing department of any company leads to the decrease in its competitiveness and, ultimately, to its liquidation. The main factors that hinder the effective functioning of marketing departments in companies can be divided into external and internal.

External factors are those which arise outside the enterprise and can not be regulated. Among external factors are the following:

·        Imperfect legislative regulation of activity of an enterprise: at the current stage of  the development of the legislative basis of Ukraine business entities often succeed due to violation of laws, tax evasion, etc., rather than by good management, including the use of marketing;

·        Lack of objective information about the market situation: companies can not work effectively without information about their market segment, its characteristics and dynamics. The enterprise can receive this information by conducting marketing research;

·        Unpredictability of competitor’s economic activity: Ukraine's economy faces recession, which may lead not only to deterioration of industrial and economic activity of a competitor, but also to its bankruptcy. Therefore, the enterprise should not only monitor the presence of competitors, but also occasionally assess their financial situation, if it’s possible.

Internal factors are those that take place within the enterprise and are usually connected with errors, omissions and neglect of management and staff, i.e. the ones that can be eliminated within the enterprise. Internal factors include:

·        Lack of funds to create a marketing department at the enterprise: a lot of enterprises lack the funds to support their day-to-day operation, not to mention the creation and development of a marketing department, investment and charity activity. Marketing department is a very expensive treat, therefore companies are not able to pay money for its activity. Application of marketing measures at domestic enterprises is usually of one-time nature.

·        Managers do not understand the importance of marketing for the company: directors do not fully understand all the possibilities of a marketing department and try to delegate just a small number of marketing functions to other divisions. Recognizing benefits of systematic marketing, its complexity is an important step towards the development of marketing at the enterprise. It is important that all managers and employees of organizations have the same understanding of marketing.

·        Absence of structured functions of a marketing department and absence of clear job descriptions: this factor causes repetition of the same functions by different sections of the company.

·        Shortage of professional staff and modern knowledge: the marketing departments are often composed of the existing employees who do not have the appropriate degree or who have finished short-term courses on the fundamentals of marketing. Practice and experience are virtually the only source of marketing skills of a marketing service.

·        Absence of a motivation mechanism: in a lot of companies marketers receive a fixed rate of wages, but there must be an interconnection between the size of earnings of marketing department's workers and financial performance of the enterprise. Material incentives play the main role in motivating employees.

Thus, we can conclude that there are many negative factors affecting the efficiency of a marketing department as a constituent of the organizational structure of an enterprise. However, we can enumerate some factors that help improve marketing activities in Ukraine. These factors include learning extensive international experience, which allows domestic companies to expand their knowledge of marketing; development of specific software in order to facilitate and accelerate the processing of marketing information, increase in the number of graduates-marketers who have professional expertise.