The Marketing Concept
The term marketing concept holds that achieving organizational goals depends on knowing the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfactions. It proposes that in order to satisfy its organizational objectives, an organization should anticipate the needs and wants of consumers and satisfy these more effectively than competitors.
Production Oriented: The focus of the business is not the needs of the customer, but of reducing costs by mass production. By reaching economies of scale the business will maximize profits by reducing costs.
Sales Orientation: The focus here is to make the product, and then try to sell it to the target market. It is basically a push concept of marketing concerned with selling the produced products and making profits, without caring what the customer needs are?
Market Orientation: Puts the customer first and at the heart of the business. The organization tries to understand the needs of the customers by using appropriate research methods, processes and developing products to satisfy their needs. In essence all activities in the organisation are based around the customer. The customer is the truly king.
In today’s competitive world putting the customer at the heart of the operation is strategically important. Whilst some organizations in certain industries may follow anything other then the market orientation concept, those that follow the market orientation concept have a greater chance of being successful.
Apart from these there can be many concepts of marketing like societal concept, product concept, branding concept, etc.
The term marketing concept holds that achieving organizational goals depends on knowing the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfactions. It proposes that in order to satisfy its organizational objectives, an organization should anticipate the needs and wants of consumers and satisfy these more effectively than competitors.
Production Oriented: The focus of the business is not the needs of the customer, but of reducing costs by mass production. By reaching economies of scale the business will maximize profits by reducing costs.
Sales Orientation: The focus here is to make the product, and then try to sell it to the target market. It is basically a push concept of marketing concerned with selling the produced products and making profits, without caring what the customer needs are?
Market Orientation: Puts the customer first and at the heart of the business. The organization tries to understand the needs of the customers by using appropriate research methods, processes and developing products to satisfy their needs. In essence all activities in the organisation are based around the customer. The customer is the truly king.
In today’s competitive world putting the customer at the heart of the operation is strategically important. Whilst some organizations in certain industries may follow anything other then the market orientation concept, those that follow the market orientation concept have a greater chance of being successful.
Apart from these there can be many concepts of marketing like societal concept, product concept, branding concept, etc.
Meaning and definition of Marketing:
According to Philip Kotler, "Marketing Management is the analysis, planning, implementation and control of programmes designed to bring about desired exchanges with target audiences for the purpose of personal and of mutual gain. It relies heavily on the adoption and coordination of product, price, promotion and place for achieving responses."
Nature of Marketing:
Nature of Marketing evolves from its multidisciplinary coverage of activities which is as follow:
1. Dynamic Process: Marketing is an ongoing activity which does not stop at any step. After finding customer’s needs and wants it needs to develop such products or services which can satisfy these needs and after this there is need to advertising, promotion, distribution, etc the process goes on.
2. Customer Oriented: Marketing is customer oriented. Marketing is the process of finding needs and wants of customers and satisfying those needs profitably.
3. All Encompassing: Marketing is all encompassing, it is not a single process it includes production planning, research, advertising, financial management, budgeting, selling, etc.
4. Integrating: It integrates all the departments of an enterprise be it production, finance, IT, HR, etc.
5. Creative: Marketing is creative in nature, it looks out for new ideas, views and activities and solves problems or encash opportunities in a creative way.
Scope of Marketing:
Marketing has a very wide scope it covers all the activities from conception of ideas to realization of profits. Some of them as discussed as below:
1. Product Planning: It includes the activities of product research, marketing research, market segmentation, product development, determination of the attributes, quantity and quality of the products.
2. Branding: Branding of products is adopted by many reputed enterprises to make their products popular among their customer and for many other benefits. Marketing manager has to take decision regarding the branding policy, procedures and implementation programs.
3. Packaging: Packaging is to provide a container or wrapper to the product for safety, attraction and ease of use and transportation of the product.
4. Channels of Distribution: Decision regarding selection of most appropriate channel of distribution like wholesaling, distribution and retailing is taken by the marketing manager and sales manager.
5. Sales Management: Selling is a part of marketing. Marketing is concerned about all the selling activities like customer identification, finding customer needs, persuading customer to buy products, customer service, etc.
6. Advertising: Advertisement decisions like scope and time of advertisement, advertisement message, selection of media, etc comes into marketing.
7. Finance: Marketing is also concerned about the finance, as for every marketing activity be it packaging, advertising, sales force budget is fixed and all the activities have to be completed with in the limit of that budget.
8. After Sales services: Marketing covers after sales services given to customers, maintaining good relationships with customers, attending their queries and solving their problems.
Marketing Myopia
Marketing Myopia is the short sighted and inward looking approach to marketing that focuses on the needs of the firm instead of defining the firm and its products in terms of the customers’ needs and wants. Such self centered firms fail to see and adjust to the rapid changes in their markets and despite their previous eminence falter, fail and disappear. This concept was given by Theodore C Lewitt.
Its theme is that the vision of most organizations is too constricted by a narrow understanding of what business they are in? By the influence of this concept many oil companies redefined their business as “energy” instead of just “petroleum”.
