1.

Marketing is an organizational function and a set of

Processes for creating, communicating, and delivering
value to customers and for managing customer
relationships in ways that benefit the organization
and its stakeholders. Marketing management is the
art and science of choosing target markets and
getting, keeping, and growing customers through
creating, delivering, and communicating superior
customer value.
2. Marketers are skilled at managing demand: they seek
to influence its level, timing, and composition for goods,
services, events, experiences, persons, places, properties,
organizations, information, and ideas. They also
operate in four different marketplaces: consumer, business,
global, and nonprofit.
3. Marketing is not done only by the marketing department.
It needs to affect every aspect of the customer
experience. To create a strong marketing organization,
marketers must think like executives in other departments,
and executives in other departments must think
more like marketers.
4. Todays marketplace is fundamentally different as a result
of major societal forces that have resulted in many
new consumer and company capabilities. These
forces have created new opportunities and challenges
and changed marketing management significantly as
companies seek new ways to achieve marketing
excellence.
5. There are five competing concepts under which organizations
can choose to conduct their business:
the production concept, the product concept, the selling
concept, the marketing concept, and the holistic
marketing concept. The first three are of limited use
today.
6. The holistic marketing concept is based on the development,
design, and implementation of marketing programs,
processes, and activities that recognize their
breadth and interdependencies. Holistic marketing recognizes
that everything matters in marketing and that a
broad, integrated perspective is often necessary. Four
components of holistic marketing are relationship marketing,
integrated marketing, internal marketing, and
socially responsible marketing.
7. The set of tasks necessary for successful marketing
management includes developing marketing strategies
and plans, capturing marketing insights, connecting
with customers, building strong brands, shaping the
market offerings, delivering and communicating value,
and creating long-term growth.
1. The value delivery process includes choosing (or identifying),
providing (or delivering), and communicating superior
value. The value chain is a tool for identifying key activities
that create value and costs in a specific business.
2. Strong companies develop superior capabilities in managing
core business processes such as new-product
realization, inventory management, and customer acquisition
and retention. Managing these core processes
effectively means creating a marketing network in which
the company works closely with all parties in the production
and distribution chain, from suppliers of raw
materials to retail distributors. Companies no longer
competemarketing networks do.
3. According to one view, holistic marketing maximizes
value exploration by understanding the relationships
between the customers cognitive space, the companys
competence space, and the collaborators resource
space; maximizes value creation by identifying new customer
benefits from the customers cognitive space,
utilizing core competencies from its business domain,
and selecting and managing business partners from its
collaborative networks; and maximizes value delivery by
becoming proficient at customer relationship management,
internal resource management, and business
partnership management.
4. Market-oriented strategic planning is the managerial
process of developing and maintaining a viable fit
between the organizations objectives, skills, and
resources and its changing market opportunities. The
aim of strategic planning is to shape the companys
businesses and products so they yield target profits
and growth. Strategic planning takes place at four levels:
corporate, division, business unit, and product.
5. The corporate strategy establishes the framework
within which the divisions and business units prepare
their strategic plans. Setting a corporate strategy
means defining the corporate mission, establishing
strategic business units (SBUs), assigning resources to
each, and assessing growth opportunities.
6. Strategic planning for individual businesses includes
defining the business mission, analyzing external opportunities
and threats, analyzing internal strengths and
weaknesses, formulating goals, formulating strategy,
formulating supporting programs, implementing the programs,
and gathering feedback and exercising control.
7. Each product level within a business unit must develop
a marketing plan for achieving its goals. The marketing
plan is one of the most important outputs of the
marketing process.
1. To carry out their analysis, planning, implementation,
and control responsibilities, marketing managers need
a marketing information system (MIS). The role of the
MIS is to assess the managers information needs,
develop the needed information, and distribute that information
in a timely manner.
2. An MIS has three components: (a) an internal records
system, which includes information on the order-topayment
cycle and sales information systems; (b) a
marketing intelligence system, a set of procedures
and sources used by managers to obtain everyday information
about pertinent developments in the marketing
environment; and (c) a marketing research system
that allows for the systematic design, collection,
analysis, and reporting of data and findings relevant to
a specific marketing situation.
3. Marketers find many opportunities by identifying
trends (directions or sequences of events that have
some momentum and durability) and megatrends
(major social, economic, political, and technological
changes that have long-lasting influence).
4. Within the rapidly changing global picture, marketers
must monitor six major environmental forces: demographic,
economic, social-cultural, natural, technological,
and political-legal.
5. In the demographic environment, marketers must be
aware of worldwide population growth; changing
mixes of age, ethnic composition, and educational levels;
the rise of nontraditional families; and large geographic
shifts in population.
6. In the economic arena, marketers need to focus on income
distribution and levels of savings, debt, and
credit availability.
7. In the social-cultural arena, marketers must understand
peoples views of themselves, others, organizations,
society, nature, and the universe. They must
market products that correspond to societys core
and secondary values and address the needs of different
subcultures within a society.
8. In the natural environment, marketers need to be
aware of the publics increased concern about the
health of the environment. Many marketers are now
embracing sustainability and green marketing programs
that provide better environmental solutions as
a result.
9. In the technological arena, marketers should take
account of the accelerating pace of technological
change, opportunities for innovation, varying R&D
budgets, and the increased governmental regulation
brought about by technological change.
10. In the political-legal environment, marketers must
work within the many laws regulating business
practices and with various special-interest
groups.
11. There are two types of demand: market demand and
company demand. To estimate current demand, companies
attempt to determine total market potential,
area market potential, industry sales, and market
share. To estimate future demand, companies survey
buyers intentions, solicit their sales forces input,
gather expert opinions, analyze past sales, or engage
in market testing. Mathematical models, advanced
statistical techniques, and computerized data collection
procedures are essential to all types of demand
and sales forecasting.
1. Companies can conduct their own marketing research or
hire other companies to do it for them. Good marketing research
is characterized by the scientific method, creativity,
multiple research methods, accurate model building, cost benefit
analysis, healthy skepticism, and an ethical focus.
2. The marketing research process consists of defining the
problem, decision alternatives; and research objectives;
developing the research plan; collecting the information;
analyzing the information; presenting the findings to
management; and making the decision.
3. In conducting research, firms must decide whether to
collect their own data or use data that already
exist. They must also choose a research approach
(observational, focus group, survey, behavioral data, or
experimental) and research instruments (questionnaire,
qualitative measures, or technological devices). In
addition, they must decide on a sampling plan and
contact methods (by mail, by phone, in person, or
online).

4. Two complementary approaches to measuring marketing

productivity are: (1) marketing metrics to assess
marketing effects and (2) marketing-mix modeling to estimate
causal relationships and measure how marketing
activity affects outcomes. Marketing dashboards are a
structured way to disseminate the insights gleaned from
these two approaches within the organization.
1. Customers are value maximizers. They form an expectation
of value and act on it. Buyers will buy from the
firm that they perceive to offer the highest customerdelivered
value, defined as the difference between total
customer benefits and total customer cost.
2. A buyers satisfaction is a function of the products perceived
performance and the buyers expectations.
Recognizing that high satisfaction leads to high customer
loyalty, companies must ensure that they meet
and exceed customer expectations.
3. Losing profitable customers can dramatically affect a
firms profits. The cost of attracting a new customer isestimated to be five times the cost of keeping a
current
customer happy. The key to retaining customers is relationship
marketing.
4. Quality is the totality of features and characteristics of a
product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy
stated or implied needs. Marketers play a key role in
achieving high levels of total quality so that firms remain
solvent and profitable.
5. Marketing managers must calculate customer lifetime
values of their customer base to understand their profit
implications. They must also determine ways to increase
the value of the customer base.
6. Companies are also becoming skilled in customer
relationship management (CRM), which focuses on
developing programs to attract and retain the right
customers and meeting the individual needs of those
valued customers.
7. Customer relationship management often requires
building a customer database and data mining to detect
trends, segments, and individual needs. A number
of significant risks also exist, so marketers must proceed
thoughtfully.
1. Consumer behavior is influenced by three factors:
cultural (culture, subculture, and social class), social
(reference groups, family, and social roles and
statuses), and personal (age, stage in the life cycle,
occupation, economic circumstances, lifestyle,
personality, and self-concept). Research into these
factors can provide clues to reach and serve consumers
more effectively.
2. Four main psychological processes that affect consumer
behavior are motivation, perception, learning,
and memory.
3. To understand how consumers actually make buying
decisions, marketers must identify who makes and
has input into the buying decision; people can be initiators,
influencers, deciders, buyers, or users. Different
marketing campaigns might be targeted to each type
of person.
4. The typical buying process consists of the following sequence
of events: problem recognition, information
search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision,
and postpurchase behavior. The marketers job is to
understand the behavior at each stage. The attitudes of
others, unanticipated situational factors, and perceived
risk may all affect the decision to buy, as will consumers
levels of postpurchase product satisfaction,
use and disposal, and the companys actions.
5. Consumers are constructive decision makers and subject
to many contextual influences. They often exhibit
low involvement in their decisions, using many heuristics
as a result.
1. Organizational buying is the decision-making process
by which formal organizations establish the need
for purchased products and services, then identify,
evaluate, and choose among alternative brands and
suppliers. The business market consists of all the
organizations that acquire goods and services used in
the production of other products or services that are
sold, rented, or supplied to others.
2. Compared to consumer markets, business markets
generally have fewer and larger buyers, a closer customer
supplier relationship, and more geographically
concentrated buyers. Demand in the business market
is derived from demand in the consumer market and
fluctuates with the business cycle. Nonetheless, the total
demand for many business goods and services is
quite price inelastic. Business marketers need to be
aware of the role of professional purchasers and their
influencers, the need for multiple sales calls, and the importance
of direct purchasing, reciprocity, and leasing.
3. The buying center is the decision-making unit of a buying
organization. It consists of initiators, users, influencers,
deciders, approvers, buyers, and gatekeepers. To influence
these parties, marketers must be aware of environmental,
organizational, interpersonal, and individual factors.
4. The buying process consists of eight stages called
buyphases: (1) problem recognition, (2) general need
description, (3) product specification, (4) supplier search,
(5) proposal solicitation, (6) supplier selection, (7) orderroutine
specification, and (8) performance review.
5. Business marketers must form strong bonds and relationships
with their customers and provide them added
value. Some customers, however, may prefer a transactional
relationship. Technology is aiding the development
of strong business relationships.
6. The institutional market consists of schools, hospitals,
nursing homes, prisons, and other institutions that provide
goods and services to people in their care. Buyers for
government organizations tend to require a great deal of
paperwork from their vendors and to favor open bidding
and domestic companies. Suppliers must be prepared to
adapt their offers to the special needs and procedures
found in institutional and government markets.
1. Target marketing includes three activities: market segmentation,
market targeting, and market positioning.
Market segments are large, identifiable groups within
a market.
2. Two bases for segmenting consumer markets are
consumer characteristics and consumer responses.
The major segmentation variables for consumer
markets are geographic, demographic, psychographic,
and behavioral. Marketers use them singly
or in combination.
3. Business marketers use all these variables along with
operating variables, purchasing approaches, and situational
factors.
4. To be useful, market segments must be measurable,
substantial, accessible, differentiable, and actionable.
5. We can target markets at four main levels: mass, multiple
segments, single (or niche) segment, and individuals.
6. A mass market targeting approach is adopted only by
the biggest companies. Many companies target multiple
segments defined in various ways such as various demographic
groups who seek the same product benefit.
7. A niche is a more narrowly defined group. Globalization
and the Internet have made niche marketing more
feasible to many.
8. More companies now practice individual and mass
customization. The future is likely to see more individual
consumers take the initiative in designing products
and brands.
9. Marketers must choose target markets in a socially
responsible manner at all times.
1. A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, design, or
some combination of these elements, intended to
identify the goods and services of one seller or group
of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors.
The different components of a brandbrand
names, logos, symbols, package designs, and so
onare brand elements.
2. Brands are valuable intangible assets that offer a
number of benefits to customers and firms and need
to be managed carefully. The key to branding is that
consumers perceive differences among brands in a
product category.
3. Brand equity should be defined in terms of marketing effects
uniquely attributable to a brand. That is, different
outcomes result in the marketing of a product or service
because of its brand, compared to the results if that
same product or service was not identified by that brand.
4. Building brand equity depends on three main factors:
(1) The initial choices for the brand elements or identities
making up the brand; (2) the way the brand is integrated
into the supporting marketing program; and
(3) the associations indirectly transferred to the brand
by links to some other entity (the company, country of
origin, channel of distribution, or another brand).
5. Brand audits measure where the brand has been,
and tracking studies measure where the brand is
now and whether marketing programs are having the
intended effects.
1. To develop an effective positioning, a company must
study competitors as well as actual and potential customers.
Marketers need to identify competitors strategies,
objectives, strengths, and weaknesses.
2. Developing a positioning requires the determination of
a frame of referenceby identifying the target market
and the resulting nature of the competitionand the
optimal points-of-parity and points-of-difference brand
associations.
3. A companys closest competitors are those seeking to
satisfy the same customers and needs and making similar
offers. A company should also pay attention to latent
competitors, who may offer new or other ways to satisfy
the same needs. A company should identify competitors
by using both industry- and market-based analyses.
4. Points-of-difference are those associations unique to the
brand that are also strongly held and favorably evaluated
by consumers. Points-of-parity are those associations
not necessarily unique to the brand but perhaps shared
with other brands. Category point-of-parity associations
are associations consumers view as being necessary to
a legitimate and credible product offering within a certain
category. Competitive point-of-parity associations are
those associations designed to negate competitors
points-of-difference or overcome perceived weaknesses
or vulnerabilities of the brand.
5. The key to competitive advantage is relevant brand differentiation
consumers must find something unique
and meaningful about a market offering. These differences
may be based directly on the product or service
itself or on other considerations related to factors such
as employees, channels, image, or services.
6. Emotional branding is becoming an important way to
connect with customers and create differentiation from
competitors.
7. Although small businesses should adhere to many of
the branding and positioning principles larger companies
use, they must place extra emphasis on their brand
elements and secondary associations and must be
more focused and create a buzz for their brand.