Marketing : An introduction

Everybody lives by selling some products, services or ideas. Generally, marketing is considered as selling and promotion. However, making a sale, i.e., selling is the old sense of marketing. In its new sense, marketing is satisfying customer needs. Selling is only one aspect of marketing.

It is but one of several marketing functions and that too not the most important one. It means taking certain other steps, such as identifying customer needs, developing good quality product, fixing reasonable prices, distributing and promoting the product effectively. Then his goods will sell very easily.

No organization will be able to survive, if it fails to market what it wants to. In India a saying goes like this -' Bolne wale ki basi bhi bik jati hai, na bolne wale ki taja bhi nahi bikati' (those who make marketing efforts are able to find customers even for rotten ones and those who remain silent in their marketing effort are not able to find customers for the fresh ones).

This shows how important marketing is. Gone are the days of sellers market. In these days of buyers market only those marketers will survive who take care of their customers in every possible way.

Marketing has been continuously shifting its focus and goals keeping in view the changing marketing environment. First, marketing appeared as a branch of applied economics and was concerned with the study of channels of distribution. Then, it became a managerial discipline and was concerned with the increase in sales.

Then, it shifted to an applied behavioral science and is concerned with the understanding of buyers and sellers. Thus, it has travelled from commodity approach (me-too products) to institutional approach (manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, agents) to functional approach (exchanging, promoting, logistics, and pricing) to managerial approach (analysis, planning, organizing and controlling) to social focus.

Different people have given different concepts of marketing. American Marketing Association's definition in 1935 carried the traditional view emphasizing only one-way traffic, i.e., transfer of goods and services from producer to consumer, i.e., 'pushing products and services'. Profit maximization is the sole objective and consumers are taken for granted.

The managerial perspective is concerned with the 'art of selling', but selling is only the tip of marketing in its totality. The current perspective as given in their 2004 version is concerned with 'knowing and understanding the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself, i.e., engaging in customer service engineering.

It is against profit maximization at the cost of stakeholders consumers, uses marketing as a means for social welfare. In fact consumer is the purpose of marketing. In the new concept of marketing, the orientation has changed from production to marketing, product to customer, and supply to demand, sales to satisfaction and internal to external.

Marketing concept and philosophy state that the organization should strive to satisfy its customers' wants and needs while meeting the organization's goals. The best way to meet the organization's goals is also by meeting customer needs and wants.

The marketing concept's emphasis is to understand the customers before designing and producing a product for them. With the customer's wants and needs incorporated into the design and manufacture of the product, sales and profit goals are far more likely to be met.

Interpreted literally, the marketing concept only advocates discovering consumers' wants and needs and satisfying them. Critics assert that consumers may not be aware of all of their wants and needs.

In the 1950s, how many consumers were of need for microwaves to cook food? In the 1960s, how many consumers were aware of having personal computers? The new definition of AMA does not talk of hidden needs.

Supporters of the marketing concept have contended that it does not stifle innovation and that it does recognize that consumers cannot conceive of every product that they may want or need, because need is defined in a very broad sense.

The management process through which goods and services move from concept to the customer. It includes the coordination of four elements called the 4 P's of marketing:

(1) identification, selection and development of a product,

(2) determination of its price,

(3) selection of a distribution channel to reach the customer's place, and

(4) development and implementation of a promotional strategy.

For example, new Apple products are developed to include improved applications and systems, are set at different prices depending on how much capability the customer desires, and are sold in places where other Apple products are sold. In order to promote the device, the company featured its debut at tech events and is highly advertised on the web and on television.

Marketing is based on thinking about the business in terms of customer needs and their satisfaction. Marketing differs from selling because (in the words of Harvard Business School's retired professor of marketing Theodore C. Levitt) "Selling concerns itself with the tricks and techniques of getting people to exchange their cash for your product. It is not concerned with the values that the exchange is all about. And it does not, as marketing invariable does, view the entire business process as consisting of a tightly integrated effort to discover, create, arouse and satisfy customer needs." In other words, marketing has less to do with getting customers to pay for your product as it does developing a demand for that product and fulfilling the customer's needs.

Marketing is communicating the value of a product, service or brand to customers, for the purpose of promoting or selling that product, service, or brand.

Marketing techniques include choosing target markets through market analysis and market segmentation, as well as understanding consumer behavior and advertising a product's value to the customer.From a societal point of view, marketing is the link between a society's material requirements and its economic patterns of response.Marketing satisfies these needs and wants through exchange processes and building long-term relationships.Marketing blends art and applied science (such as behavioural sciences) and makes use of information technology.

Marketing is applied in enterprise and organizations through marketing management.

F, E. Clark, “Marketing consists of those efforts which effect transfer in ownership of goods and core for their physical distribution.”

Stanton and Others, “Marketing is a total system of business activities designed to plan price promotes and distribute wants-satisfying products to target markets to achieve organisational objectives.”

Kotler and Armstrong, “Marketing is a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and values with others.”

American Management Association (1985), “Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy individuals and organizational objectives”. This is a widely accepted definition of Marketing.”

Thus marketing is getting the right goods and services to the right people at the right place at the right Lime at the right price with the right communication and promotion. Marketing is the performance of those business activities which are involved in the flow of ideas, goods and services from their point of production to the point of consumption.

The objectives of marketing is to ascertain consumer needs, convert them into ideas, products or services and move such ideas etc. to the final consumer or user, to satisfy certain needs and wants of specific consumer segments with emphasis on profitability, ensuring the optimum use of the resources available to the organization.

Marketing Concept:

The ‘consumer-oriented’ marketing has led to a new philosophy of doing business known as ‘marketing concept’. Under this concept, marketing is much more than a physical process of distributing goods and services.

It is a distinct philosophy of business under which all business activities are integrated and directed to supply the goods and services which customers want, in the way they want, at the time and place where they want and at a price which they are able and willing to pay for.

 “Marketing is the process of discovering and translating consumer wants into products and services and then in turn making it possible for more and more people to enjoy more and more of these products and services.”

Introduction The marketing concept suggest that to achieve organisational goals and be more profitable, an organisation should focuses its efforts on developing marketing mixes that best meet the needs of the consumer. However, since consumer needs within a market vary, one marketing mix could not adequately satisfy the needs of the entire market. Targeting marketing is one of the most important ideas in modern day marketing. Under the idea, the marketer divides the market into subgroups with similar needs and wants or preference, it will then be possible to tailor marketing mixes to specific segments, better meeting their needs. As figure 1-1 shows, targeting marketing involve three major steps- market segmentation, market targeting and market positioning. Market segmentation is the first step that dividing a market into subgroups of consumers who are homogeneous in their response to a particular marketing mix. The second step is market targeting, in this step, the company select one or more target segments based on evaluating of each segment¡¦s attractiveness.

 The final step is market positioning, the company formulates marketing mix for each target segments and develops competitive positioning for its products. Figure 1-1 Steps in market segmentation, targeting and positioning Market Segmentation Market segmentation can be defined as the ¡§ the process of dividing a potential market into distinct subsets of consumers with common needs characteristics and selecting one or more segments to target with a distinct marketing mix.¡¨ Companies generally can not serve entire markets in a effective manner, so rather than trying to compete in an entire market, companies identify subsets of customers whose needs best match their offering. Segmentation Criteria The organisation can segment the market in many way, but a number of criteria should be met in order to developing effective segments for market strategy.

Swati Singh