Marketing essential

Introduction
According to Dr. Philip Kotler marketing is the science and art of exploring, creating, delivering value
to satisfy the needs of a target market at profit. Marketing identifies unfulfilled needs and desires. It
defines measures and quantifies the size of identified market and the profit potential. It pinpoints
which segments the company is capable of serving best and it designs and promotes the appropriate
products and services. (heidicohen.com, March 29, 2011)

Marketing Concepts
The marketing concept is the strategy that firms implement to satisfy customers needs, increase sales,
maximize profit and beat the competition. There are five different concepts of marketing:
1. Production concept
2. Product concept
3. Selling concept
4. Marketing concept
5. Societal marketing concept
Production Concept – Consumers prefer products that offer the most quality, performance, or
innovative features. The product concept believes in the consumers and it says the consumers are more
likely to be loyal if they have more options of products or they get more benefits from product of the
company. It means consumers will favor products that are available and highly affordable.
An example of the production concept is Apple and Google. Both of these companies have strived
hard on their products and deliver us feature rich, innovative and diverse application products and
people just love these brands.
One problem which has been associated with the product concept is that it might also lead to marketing
myopia. Marketing Myopia, first expressed in an article by Theodore Levitt in Harvard Business
Review, is a situation when company has a narrow-minded marketing approach and it focuses mainly
on only one aspect out of many possible marketing attributes. E.g. focusing just on quality and not on
the actual demand of the customers. (feedough.com June 8,2017).
On the other hand, innovating too soon becomes a problem. Several innovative products are marked
as experimental in the market instead of being adopted because of which these products have less
shelf life and might have to be taken off the market. Those companies following the product concept
need to concentrate on their technology such that they provide with excellent feature rich and
innovative products for optimum customer satisfaction.
Selling Concept – Consumers will buy products only if the company aggressively promotes or sells
these products. Off course, in this era of marketing, we know that selling is not the only tactic to sell
your product. You have to focus on marketing as well.
The Selling Concept proposes that customers, be individual or organizations will not buy enough of
the organization’s products unless they are persuaded to do so through selling effort. So organizations
should undertake selling and promotion of their products for marketing success. The consumers
typically are inert and they need to be stimulated for buying by converting their inert need in to a
buying motive through persuasion and selling action. In simple words consumers wont buy anything
if companies wont brainwash them well. Companies must be aggressive in promoting their goods.
Marketing Concept – Focuses on needs/wants of target markets & delivering value better than
competitors. The marketing concept believes in the pull strategy and says that you need to make
your brand so strong that customers themselves prefer your brand over every other competitor. This
can be achieved through marketing.
Lets take an example of 2 rivals – Apple and Samsung. Both of those companies have similar products.
But the value proposition given by both is quite different. Apple concentrate on upper class ( rich,
well born ) when Samsung focus on all classes. In addition, the value proposition by Apple has been
quite improved over the ages compared to Samsung.
The marketing concept also demands that the strategic decisions made by the company are taken
keeping the customer in mind. Especially the needs wants and demands of the customers. A holistic
approach is taken with the whole organization striving to make the customer experience better.
Applying the marketing concept also means knowing what the market needs and expects from the
company as a result of which companies which apply the marketing concept need to carry out more
of market research.
The marketing concept is the most followed ideology by top companies. This is because, with the rise
of economy, consumers have become more knowledgeable and choosy as a result of which the
organization cannot concentrate on what it sells but rather it has to concentrate on what the customer
wants to buy.
To realize the marketing concept you need to know answers to 3 basic questions.
1. What is the target market - first of all you need to understand what exactly is the target market.
This can be made by market research and deciding which target market will give the best
profit.
2. What are the needs/wants and demands of the target market – Next step is to research
preference of consumers. This study will help the company to define the needs/wants and
demands of the target market. This is the key in deciding their strategies.