Marketing for the Government: Concepts and Practices
Jun-Ying Huang*
Abstract
The article aims mainly at introducing the proper way to go about doing marketing in the public sector. It also discusses the appropriate marketing approaches and tools that can be applied to government agencies to improve their performances in solving the problems of their target customers.
The strategic government marketing management process consists of six steps, including deciding the purpose, conducting situation analysis, selecting target customer groups, choosing specific objectives, developing marketing mix decisions, and implementing and evaluating performances. Each of the six steps is examined in the article.
The marketer's task is to design integrated marketing activities to create, communicate, and deliver value for carefully selected target customers. The marketing activities are usually classified as marketing mix of four broad categories, or 4Ps of marketing, i.e., product, price, place, and promotion. Government marketers need to make appropriate marketing-mix decisions for satisfying and influencing their target customers. Each of the four Ps of marketing is also discussed in the article.
With a view to making the best use of outside resources, government marketers need to form strategic alliances with private businesses, nonprofit organizations, and other government agencies. They need to give creative ideas of finding strategic partners.
Keywords: government marketing, customer orientation, marketing mix, strategic alliance
* Member of Examination Yuan.