NAGPAL 1

Marketing Management

MKTG – 508-010

Spring 2010

Dr. Walter Kendall

Submitted by

Shagun Nagpal

On

Mar 27th 2010

Tarleton State University

 NAGPAL 2

Abstract

Marketing is a combination of activity and set of institutions that create, communicate

deliver and exchange services that have values to society including customers and clients.

(AMA, 2007) Marketing emerged as a technical field of study in early 19th century but it came

into existence all over when Neil Borden uses the term marketing mix for the first time in 1953.

According to Neil Borden marketing is all about the 4P’s (product, place, price, promotion) and

we have to take care only of these 4P’s to become a marketing guru but after reading almost 5

books on marketing I can say that including these 4P’s some other areas are also very important

to deal in this corporate world. I have named them as four directions of marketing or 4 M’s of

marketing. In this assimilation paper I m going to discuss these 4M’s in detail that why they are

important and how I came to this decision. (Stanley C., Kathleen M., 2005)

Introduction

As we all know that market is a flexible thing that changes almost everyday and to deals

with these changes we have different concepts of marketing such as 4P’s but these concepts were

made in 19th century to deals with the problems at that time. These concepts may or may not be

acceptable today in 21st century where customer is said to be a king of the market. This new

concept of 4M’s of marketing deals with all new ideas and strategies needed to attract and retain

customers. These marketing directions are a set of 4 most powerful marketing tools that can be

used to direct the marketing objectives in the target market (Sehew D. C., Hiam W. A., 1998)
 NAGPAL 3

4 M’s of Marketing

As I have discussed these 4M’s are also called as marketing directions. It includes

Making good relations (relationship marketing), Marketing plan, Making new strategies, and

Market behavior (buyers buying behavior) (Schewe, D. C., & Hiam, A., 1998),

The Marketing Directions 4M’s

Making good relation

Market Behavior Marketing direction Marketing plan

Making new stratagies

If we look at any particular organization the purpose of these 4M’s of marketing is to

administer the edge of the organization with its customer environment. These marketing

directions are all based on the fact that customer is king and provide information about all needs

and wants of customers. It basically deals with the different alternatives available to satisfy the

needs of customers. Understanding the customers that what motivates him/her to buy any

particular product and then making strategies by using one’s personal creativity to buy him/her

that particular product is the core of these 4M’s.( Schewe, D. C., & Hiam, A., (1998),

Making Good Relations

 NAGPAL 4

This is one of the most important marketing tools to enhance new customer and retain old

customers according to this first ‘M’ of marketing direction the best way to enhance the sale of

any particular product is to make good relationship with your customer by providing after sale

services and making them feel like home after purchasing your product. This is also known as

relationship marketing. This relationship marketing was introduced by berry in 1983. According

to the Regis McKenna in the book marketing guru it is more important to retain old customers

instead of making new customers because a marketer always has to find a new technique to

capture customers who are already loyal to some other product (McKenna R., 1991). For

example if you have heard about ‘AMWAY GLOBAL’ that sells their daily use product like

toothpaste, shampoo, face wash etc through internet but after selling their product they give some

after sale services like if you don’t like their product you can return the used product in 6 months

of time, just because of this 6 months money back guarantee they are earning a trust through

their consumers and they always call some of their loyal customers for the feedback and

complaints about their product. By doing this they are making good relation with their customers

and this is what we call relationship marketing

According to Don Pepper and Martha Rogers in the book marketing guru the new era of

marketing is to have 1:1 marketing with the customers. According to me 1:1 marketing is a

success because in this 1:1 marketing we have to go door to door to sell the product which help

customers to solve their quarries on the sport and results in good relations with the same

customers. Marketing is changing from a push to pull model and consumers are taking more

control over what they view and how they view it. To address this challenge, all companies are

using relationship marketing in order to develop cost-effective strategies for retaining and

building loyalty with their customers (Pepper D., & Rogers M., 1993).
 NAGPAL 5

Now a day if a person is satisfied with a product and he has good relations with the

company then he must going to tell all his friends in his social network to buy the same product

and this is called word-to-mouth which is being discussed by Emanuel Rosen in the book

marketing guru. This is also known as BUZZ which is most powerful and cheapest tool of

marketing (Rosen, Emanuel, 2000). Consider an example from everyday life. Suppose you have

your own department store and someone in your department store tells you that one of your

colleagues have shifted her soft drink brand from Coke, Pepsi or Dr. Pepper to a new brand

XiXi(Chinese brand) because of its better quality, cheap price and more energetic than other

energy drinks and they are also offering money back guarantee within a weak of purchase She

also tells you that she is also making plans to shift to that new brand. She gives you this

suggestion because she has a trust in that company. As a result you start selling this brand in

your store and so the story spreads (McKenna R., 1991).

I strongly believe that making good relationship with the customers is the best way for a

long survival of business for example if you are buying a car from any car dealer but after taking

you feel some problems in the car registration and that dealer is not helping you out he is just

simply says that we are not responsible for anything once you go out of our showroom or garage

then what happen, you will never go to that car dealer again and will never recommend him to

anybody. On the other way if he sends a person from his business and solve your problem, make

you feel like a family member and insure you that he is always there to help you then you will

recommend him to everybody in your contact list. All this happen just because of relationship

marketing tool (McKenna R., 1991).

Market Behavior
 NAGPAL 6

Understanding what is going in the market and why this is going is the most important

thing in marketing or in other words we can also say that understanding the buyer’s behavior is

one of the most important and complicated thing in the marketing process. We can also say that

the meaning market or buyer behavior is to know what things influence consumers to buy

product and services. Law of mind from the book 22 immutable laws says that its better be first

in the mind of customers then to be first in the market. This is not at all possible if you are not

able to understand buyer’s behavior (Ries A., & Trout J., 1993). For example Apple I-pad is not

yet launched in the United States market but still almost 90 percent of peoples in United States

know about apple I-pad and they are ready to buy this new product. This is all because Steve

Jobs the owner of Apple easily understand what’s going in the minds of U.S peoples and what

their expectations from a digital slate. This study of buyers mind is the most important tool of

marketing that’s why I have used this tool as one of the 4 M’s of marketing and a part of

marketing direction concept (Ries A., & Trout J., 1993).

Law of Perception says that” Marketing is not a battle of product it’s a battle of

perception” and before making any product its important to know consumer preference or what

is the perception of different consumers in the market about the similar kind of products and then

launch your product according to the needs and preference of customer. It’s not easy to

understand the customer perception directly because some consumers may favor the cheap

product even if they don’t like it (poor people) and some may favor the most expensive product

even if they are not happy with that product ( rich people). So the best way is to read customers

mind by 1:1 marketing or by the buying behavior pattern (Ries A., & Trout J., 1993).

As we all know that everybody have their own liking and disliking according to there

preferences and perceptions somebody like sellers to be friendly with them and somebody just
 NAGPAL 7

want sellers to sell their product and go. To know how the customer wants you to behave, you

have to read customers mind and then treat them as they want you to treat. This will help you to

fully satisfy them. According to Robert B. Cialdini in his book Influence, people prefer to yes to

the people they like. The Liking chapter of this book is all about how the likings of the people

influence them to buy any particular product. People will not like you if you are not doing what

they want and to make them feel happy you have to understand there likings and this all concept

comes under Market behavior (Cialdini, B. R., 1994)

Marketing Plan

Making a marketing plan is one of the most important things to do before starting the

marketing procedure. These marketing plans ensure you that you will make profit or not.

Marketing plan include all 4P’s of marketing with market research, customer services and sale

patterns. Making a marketing plan is really very important because it identifies and tells us about

the target market because Law of leadership says that it is very important to be number one in the

category because nobody cares about number 2 or 3, everybody asks for number one. Marketing

plan is important because it tells us all about marketing conditions that what market needs what?

And on the basis of this information you can choose the preferred market and then become first

in the category to launch your product (Ries A., & Trout J., 1993)

If you make a marketing plan you will definitely look for both short term and long term

marketing strategies and the effects of these marketing strategies both in the long run and short

run. According to Law of Perspective” marketing effects take place over an extended period of

time" (Sink E., 2004) and the basic point of this law to explain that some marketing strategies

may be beneficial in short run but it may not be beneficial in long run. Law of line extension is
 NAGPAL 8

also beneficial in short run but it crates competition between our own products after some time.

Line of extension is impressive for a short time period but it never works for long term ( Ries A.,

& Trout J., 1993) For example IBM stands for mainframe computers and they were the

specialized company in mainframe computers, but it has extended its brand with so many

products like storage devices, printers, personal computers, software etc. I the beginning people

enjoyed there products a lot but now it stands for everything which means it stands for nothing.

Now IBM is not specialized in any particular thing they are just like all common I.T companies.

Making a marketing plan helps a company to know advantages and disadvantages of using any

particular strategy in the long run as well as short run. ( Schewe, D. C., & Hiam, A., 1998),

The most important reason of why we should make marketing plans is that it clearly

explains what we have to do, when we have to do and what marketing tools we have to use. On

the other hand we can say that marketing plans tells us about what is good for your product and

what is bad for your product and under what categories these are going to benefit you. Law of

Differentiate says that two companies can not survive with a same word in the same market.

These business plans help us to know which product of which company already have a focus

word in the market and then you will never try to put your hands on that market with the same

product. For example the book 22 immutable laws of marketing have focused on the war

between Duracell and Energizer for the word ‘Long Lasting’ even the book was published many

years back this war is still going on and no body fully captured the word ‘Long Lasting’.

Marketing plans looks at your business as a complete set and bind all marketing objectives

together for the benefits in the long run of any business (Ries A., & Trout J., 1993)

Making new Strategies

 NAGPAL 9

“Marketing strategy is a process that helps organization to deliberate the use of limited

resources for greatest opportunity available to increase the sales and to reach sustainable

bloodthirsty benefit” (Baker M., 2008).I have used marketing strategy as one of my tool in 4M’S

because according to me every company has its own marketing strategies which are used to

capture customers from the new market and retain old customers. The most important work in

whole marketing process is to make such strategies which are never being used by any one. This

is the key concept of marketing. One of the most common strategies which are being used

everywhere now a day is to become number one in the category and if you can not a number one

in that particular category then make a new category in which you can become number one. This

is also discussed in Law of Category. For example after the launch of apple I. Pad the other I.T

companies were feeling afraid of loosing their customers because they know its very difficult to

become number one in this category so all decided to go for something more innovative then

Apple I. pad and they decided to built a new advance machine that is tablet computers, dell

introduced new mini 5 tablet computer on Feb 27, 2010 and now dell is like number one in tablet

computer category( Schewe, D. C., & Hiam, A., (1998).

It is very important to update your strategies according to the needs of the needs of the

customers and if are not ready to update your strategies then you can not run the business

smoothly and even you have to face lots of problems which may let you to to shut down your

business. For example few years back when I was in high school I use to take my lunch break in

a small restaurant called ‘KISMAT’ which was just a walk distance from my school. In the lunch

time I have to stand in a long cue just to buy a cup of coffee and a burger because they were

using good strategies like free coupons for ice cream with a purchase of one cold drink and

burger and they were doing so well in their business, but few years later when I finished my
 NAGPAL 10

college. I once again go there and I saw that the owner of ‘KISMAT’ shut down its business and

when I asked some students that what happened to ‘KISMAT’ they said some other person have

started a new game parlor with a bowling alley and a fast-food restaurant and ‘KISMAT’ was not

providing things according to the students need they were just keep sticking to their old menu

and old strategies to attract students and that what I thing was the reason for their shut down.

After reading this example you can conclude that if your strategies are working well this time it

may not work in the future and to avoid loses from everyday leaving customers you always have

to make new strategies according to the needs and wants of the customers (Cialdini, B. R., 1994).

Conclusion

To conclude this paper I can say that the old marketing concepts like 4P’s are the

evergreen concepts which are always a mandatory thing for marketing but still to run smoothly

in this corporate world you have to change your marketing concepts the new ones to encourage

new customers and to retain old customers. At the end I would only say that 4M’s are the based

on current market requirements and they may also not be acceptable after few years.
 NAGPAL 11

References

Baker M., (2008), The Strategic Marketing Plan Audit, pp 03

Buttle, F., 1996. Relationship Marketing, London Prentice Hall

Cialdini, B. R., (1994), influence, Canada, HarperCollins publisher’s ltd

Humby C. & Hunt T., (2003) the marketing guru, Philadelphia, Kogan page, pg. 132-147

Hiam, S., (1998), The Portable MBA in Marketing, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Canada

Kawasaki, G., (1995) the marketing guru, NA, Hyperion, pg. 148-166

Kotler P.,& Bes D. T., (2003), the marketing guru, NA, John Wiley & sons, pg. 17-32

McKenna R., (1991), The Marketing Gurus, AddisonWesley Publishing Co., MA, Pg. 49-65

Popcorn F., (1991), the marketing guru, NA, Doubleday Dell publishing group, pg. 33-48

Pepper D., & Rogers M., (1993), The Marketing Gurus, New York, NY: Dell Publishing Group

Inc., Pg. 100-113

Raphel M., & Raphel N., (1995), The Marketing Gurus, New York, NY: Harper Business,

Pg. 114-131

Ries A., & Trout J., (1993), The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, Harper Collins Ltd.

Rosen, E., (2000), The Marketing Gurus, New York, NY: Doubleday/Currency, 1540 Broadway,

Pg. 200-215
 NAGPAL 12

Schewe, D. C., & Hiam, A., (1998), the portable MBA in marketing, Canada, John Wiley &

sons, Inc.