Introduction to Marketing

The Idea of Marketing

Marketing is the art of communicating with the customer about the product or service. It is present everywhere in various forms to reach the customer. Its scope has many attributes such as
the design the features the price the communication the channel the packaging etc.

The Scope of Marketing

Marketing is all about identifying and meeting human and social needs profitably. Once the need is identified in the market, the next step is to fulfill the gap with the right product. The effort in marketing should be such that the product sells itself on its own. Breakthrough products or services are conceived and designed to go through this process. Organisations become legends by creating products which touch the lives of people. And these very people become the best ambassadors or marketers of these products.

The Marketed Range

Goods Services Events Experiences Persons Places Properties Organisations

Demand Patterns
Negative Demand Nonexistent Demand Latent Demand Declining Demand Irregular Demand Full Demand Overfull Demand Unwholesome Demand

Markets

It is a physical place where buyers and sellers gathered to buy and sell goods. Manufacturers need resource markets such as raw material markets, labor markets and money markets. They sell their finished products to intermediate markets who sell them to end consumers. Consumers sell their labor and receive money to buy for the goods and services. The government collects tax revenues to buy goods from resource, manufacturer and intermediary markets. This tax is used by the government to create public facilities for the people. Economies are a mix of these inter-dependent markets in a complex manner.

Key Customer Markets

Consumer Markets:
Sports Goods, FMCGs, F&B ride a lot on the brand image. Product, Branding, Packaging, Distribution are the key activities.

Business Markets:
Products for businesses which in turn is sold to end consumers. Marketing has a small role vis--vis selling, pricing, quality etc.

Global Markets:
This is about the footprint in various geographies. It can be as an exporter, JVs, contract manufacturers.

Non-profit or Governmental Markets:

This refers to marketing to charitable organisations, universities, religious institutions etc.

Metamarkets
This is a cluster of a complimentary set of products and services that are closely related in the consumers mind. For example, the automobile metamarket consists of:

auto manufacturers new cars used cars financing companies insurance companies spare parts service shops auto mags auto classifieds auto sites

Metamediaries

Metamediaries which are a part of metamarkets assist a buyer in choosing from a series of options. For an auto company, it can be the used car exchange, financing options, extended guarantee etc. For the property market, it can be an aggregator like magicbricks.com, 99acres.com etc. For the tourism market, it can be expedia.in, yatra.com or a makemytrip.com etc. Metamediaries have a tremendous opportunity to leverage the benefit of a wide set of customers. They bring in the promise of delivering services at a very cost-effective and convenient way.

Needs, Wants & Demands

Needs are the basic human requirements such as food, air, water, clothing, shelter etc. Wants are the needs for a particular brand of such basic items. Demands are the wants for specific products or services backed by an ability to pay. Marketers dont create needs, they influence wants backed by societal factors. Understanding the needs and wants of the customer may be a complex process. There may a subjective view of the needs and wants which have to be understood properly.

Types of Needs

Stated Needs:
an inexpensive cloth

Real Needs:
a car with a less operating cost

Unstated Needs:
a beverage with no harmful effect on health

Delight Needs:
a retail outlet with a flurry of gift offers

Secret Needs:
a brand which increases social status

Contemporary Marketing Realities

Information Technology:
Industrial age was characterized by mass production and mass consumption. Information age is characterized by accurate levels of production, more targeted communication and relevant pricing.

Globalization:
Fast transportation, shipping and communication have helped form a global village for products and services.

Deregulation:
Countries have deregulated industries to create greater competition and growth opportunities. Aviation is a case in point in India where deregulation increased the level of competition thus bringing better service.

Contemporary Marketing Realities

Privatization:
Countries privatise public companies in order to bring in more efficiency, e.g. British Airways and Maruti Suzuki.

Disintermediation:
Amazon.com, eBay & e-commerce players like these have challenged the traditional mode of reaching the end consumer.

Heightened Competition:
Brand are facing intense competition from their domestic and foreign peers. Promotion costs are rising and profit margins are shrinking fast. Powerful retailers offering only limited shelf space and promoting their in-store brands.

Contemporary Marketing Realities

Convergence of Industry:
Industry boundaries are blurring at incredible speed as companies are finding new identities. Dell, Apple, Microsoft, Sony are all taking the advantage of this change to evolve.

Resistance from consumers:

Consumers are avoiding products which are over marketed but making beeline for the ones which are excellent.

Transformation of Retail:
Small retailers are giving way to large organised formats with a renewed thrust on supply chain. They are facing intense competition from e-commerce, home shopping TVs, newspapers, magazines etc.

New Consumer Capabilities

Increase in Buying Power:

Internet has helped consumers in making a choice through fast comparison. Business buyers aggregate their purchase through reverse auction mechanisms.

Variety of Goods & Services:

Internet has also enabled aggregators such as e-commerce players offer great variety.

Informed Customer:
Enormous amount of information is available for the customer to make an informed choice. It can be for medical information, movie ratings, consumer feedback or just about anything.

New Company Capabilities

Convenience of Channels:
Internet has enabled a whole host of capability to companies to promote and sell their products.

Faster Customer Interaction:

Target marketing and two-way communication has become easier.

Customization:
Customers love personalisation advantage of this to attract them. and companies take the

mCommerce:
Thanks to the proliferation of smartphones and palmtop computing, this is a game changer.

Holistic Marketing

Internal Marketing
Integrated Marketing Performance Marketing

Relationship Marketing

Holistic Marketing

Internal Marketing:
The companys staff should be ready to provide an excellent service before the company promises to do so. For that to be ensured, it has to ensure the right quality of people to be deployed and rightly motivated to do so. The senior leadership must walk the talk by doing unprecedented things as far as wooing and retaining customers. They must set the agenda by giving out a clear message that it is customer or nothing. They must empower and energise the people to do the impossible, to push the envelope. Marketing, after all, is not just a function within the organisation, rather it is in the very DNA of the organisation.

Holistic Marketing

Integrated Marketing:
Today, marketers are choosing marketing medium in the smartest and the most opportunistic way possible. These channels compliment each other to attract maximum eyeballs and recalls. They are using the traditional four Ps of marketing product, price, place and promotion in the most effective way. The queries of the consumer, the product tries to answer here are solution, information, value and access. This mode of marketing ensures that the online and offline promotions work together for better brand visibility. The challenge here is to ensure that the consistency of brand equity is maintained across the media.

Holistic Marketing

Performance Marketing:
This captures the essence of the organisation in the form of legal, ethical, social and environmental effects. Intangible assets such as brands, customer satisfaction, customer delight are some of the key factors for values. Social responsibility and sustainability are some of the contemporary tools to enable this activity. Stakeholder approach is fast replacing only for shareholders approach to have a rather inclusive growth. Long term sustainability is sought after rather than making quick bucks but getting rejected fast. Today customers empathise with a responsible product or service easily.

Holistic Marketing

Relationship Marketing:
Marketing has evolved into a win-win relationship between marketers and customers. It is the length of the relationship which is very important along with the profitability. The idea of this is to build a network of stakeholders who stand by the company for a long time. This is also giving rise to personalisation in order to retain the customer to ensure a lifetime value. Relationship with the customer ensure repeat buys and it makes sense as acquisition is always costly than retention. Intermediaries such as stockists and dealers should be treated as partners and not as customers alone.