Dinh Hai Anh

GBH0601

Assignment

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 side innovating too soon becomes a big 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 spend money only if the firm aggressively promotes or sells
these products. Obviously, in this era of marketing, we know that selling is not the only straregy to
sell your product. You have to focus on marketing as well.

The Selling Concept states that customers wont 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.
3. How best can we deliver a value proposition – in this procedure the firm decide what strategy
it needs to use. What kind of value should the firm create and deliver. After all the firm chooses
hot to apply the marketing concept and how to deliver a better customer experience.

In conclusion I want to say this concept of marketing relies on market research. Analyzing needs of
customers the firm can choose better marketing strategy to satisfy them.

Societial Marketing concept - according to the marketing concept, the firms focused on
customers needs/wants for long term profitability. The firm must also help maintain and improve the
society’s welfare. There are a lot of issues like environmental problems, resource shortage, worldwide
economic problems, rapid population growth and so on.

The strong reasons are high quality of life is reflected in the need to improve the quality of life and
consumers are willing to pay for society.

Basically, taking care of society's well-being is good for business. Many companies have achieved
notable sales and profit gains by adopting and practicing the societal marketing concept. Customers
usually show interest in company with an image and reputation. They believe that customers will
increasingly look for demonstrations of good corporate citizenship.
Most people see the Coca-Cola company as a highly responsible corporation producing drinks that
satisfy consumers tastes. But certain consumers and environmental groups have voiced concerns that
Coca-Cola has little nutritional value, can harm people’s teeth, also it contains caffeine.

Here is organizations that achieved society’s welfare along with being profitable and satisfying their
customers’ needs:

1. The Body Shop follows the societal concept in being against animal testing and in offering
products that have not been animal tested.
2. HP are very committed to enviornmental sustainability. They try to reduce waste from their
internal operations and have launched initiatives to help reduce and recycle electronic waste.
3. Johnson and Johnson: In 1982 when someone tampered with their Tylenol capsules causing
casualties, instead of ignoring or denying the incident, or only recalling the batch with the
problem, they recalled all of the Tylenol sold at the time and later urged customers to exchange
their stock of Tylenol capsules with tablets for free. It caused them losses but they were
committed to fulfilling their business credo.

To sum up societial marketing concept is slightly similar to marketing concept but aims to society.

Society
(Human welfare)

Societal
Marketing
Concept

Consumers Company
(Satisfaction) (Profits)
External Environment
An external environment is composed of all influences and factors that affect the operation of
business. There are two kinds of external marketing environments: micro and macro. These
environment’s factors are beyond the control of marketers and they influence the decisions made when
creating a marketing strategy.

Micro Environment Factors

 The supplies: Suppliers can control the success of the business. What happens if your
suppliers do not show up with gas, food and other products? You will have nothing to sell,
which will have a direct influence on your operation. The supplier has power when they are
the only one or the largest supplier of their goods.
 The customers: The people who buy and use a a will have to close its doors.
 The competition: Those who sell same or similar products and services as your firm are your
market competition, and the way they sell needs to think about. How does their price and
product differentiation affect you? How can you leverage this to reap better results and get
ahead of them?
 Marketing Intermediaries are individuals and organizations that support the promotion, sales
and distribution of the company's products. They are important to the ability of a company to
provide value to customers.
 Publics: publics are an important force in external Micro Environment. Public, according to
Philip Kotler “is any group that has an actual or potential interest in or impact on a company’s
ability to achieve its objective”. Environmentalists, women associations, media groups, local
groups, consumer protection groups, citizens associations are some important examples of
publics which have an important bearing on environment of the firms.
 The company has direct influence on marketing management. CEOs and senior managers are
influential people since all marketing plans must be adopted by them.

Macro Environment Factors

 Demographic Environment includes the size/growth of population, life expectancy of the

people, gender, race, occupation, education, income, and family size. All these factors have an
important influence on the functioning of business firm. For example, the skills and ability of
a firm’s workers determine to a large extent how well the organization can achieve its mission.
 Natural Environment is the ultimate source of many inputs such as raw materials/energy that
business firms use in their productive activity. Sources of material for the production of the
business. as production activities increase or when natural disasters such as floods, droughts
occur and so on, the production materials of business will gradually decrease and lead to the
decline. Not only weather and climatic conditions affect on business but also location
influence. For example, the availability of minerals such as iron, coal etc. in a region influence
the location of certain industries in that region. The industries with high material contents tend
to be located near the raw material sources.
 Economic Environment includes the type of economic system that exists in the economy, the
phase of the business cycle, the nature and structure of economy, the fiscal, monetary and
financial policies of the Government and so on. The type of the economic system, that is,
socialist, capitalist or mixed provides institu-tional framework within which business firm
have to work. For example, before 1991, the Indian economic system was of the type of a
mixed economy with pronounced orientation towards the pub-lic sector. Prior to 1991 private
sector’s role in India’s mixed economy was greatly restricted. Many industries were reserved
exclusively for investment and production by the public sector.
 Social and Cultural Environment - Nowadays people do not accept the activities of business
organization without question. Activities of business firms may harm the physical environment
and impose heavy social costs. Besides, business practices may violate cultural ethos of a
society. For example, advertisement by business firms may be nasty and hurt the ethical
sentiments of the people.
 Political Environment – Business are generally related to the Government. Laws and
institutions enacted by the national government and ethical rules developed by the society. The
political environment affects many aspects of business operations of enterprises. Regulations,
law will specify how to establish an enterprise, rights, and restrictions on production and
business.

 Technological Environment - The nature of technology used for production of goods and
services is an important factor responsible for the success of a business firm. Technology
consists of the type of machines and processes available for use by a firm and the way of doing
things. The improvement in technol-ogy raises total factor productivity of a firm and reduces
unit cost of output.
Comparison Chart
Micro Environment Macro Environment
Refer The microenvironment refers Macro means large; the macro
to the business environment environment refers to the
that is quite specific as it is business environment on a
direct contact with the larger scale, which has no
particular business. direct contact or direct
influence on the specific
business.
Effect It does effect the specific group Effects each and every of the
or the company directly. business entity, not any
specific.
Also Known As Internal Environment External Environment
Element’s Suppliers, Customers, Demographic, Natural,
Competition, Marketing Economic, Social, Political,
Intermediaries, Publics, Technological.
Company.

Micro and macro environments have an important influence on the success of marketing campaigns,
and therefore the factors of these environments should be considered in-depth during the decision
making process of a strategic marketer.

The role of marketing

Nowadays the role of marketing is too important to be ignored. Big and small companies are today
competing for the same market and the most innovative and proactive have emerged victors. As a
result, a company’s survival is dependent upon their wise marketing efforts coupled by financial
operational among other functions within their structure.
Description of a Marketing Department

A marketing department promotes your business and drives sales of its products or services.

The marketing department helps a business to do the following: research, products, promotions,
business development.

Research

Research plays important role in marketing activities. Without demographic research, product
developers will not understand customer’s needs and wants. Research is used to measure buying
habits, product usage and opinions of you business. It also helps to understand competitor’s strengths
and weeknesses. The better your research, the less money you will waste. For example, buying ads
that will not reach your customers or making a fail product that no one will buy.

Products

The aim of the product function is to track and predict what customers want in their products. The
relationship between customers and products can help product designer analyze and differentiate your
products from those of a competitors.

Promotions

The main job of promotion activities is to carry out promotional strategies and services to push
customers to buy company’s products. The sale force is assisted by promotion staff with sale
promotions, trade shows and other events, offer public relations support, purchase ads that can
illustrate product benefits and innovations.

Business Development

Business development is about making connections. It’s building upon the brand that you have
established through marketing efforts to connect your audience to your products and services. Staff
entices potential customers into your company in many ways, for example, even when visiting a
website and then encouraging customers to keep thinking about the product so sales staff can come
up with the idea to get them to buy the company's products.
Overview of marketing processes

The Marketing Process

Analysis

Strategic Planning

Marketing Mix

I. Analysis
First step of marketing process is analyzing market opportunities. Through analysis of the situation
the firm finds itself serves as the basis for identifying opportunities to satisfy unfulfilled customers
needs.

The company conducts effective market research that would tell the valuable information about the
customers, general trends, and any changes occurred in the market that can be useful for company.
The analysis should include not only present aspects but also past and future. It should include a
history outlining how the situation evolved to its present state. Good analysis can reduce the change
of spending a year delivering a product to market only to find that the need no longer exists.

There are several frameworks that can be used to add structure to the situation analysis:
  5C analysis – company, competitors, customers, collaborators, climate. Company represent
the internal situation; the other four show aspects of the external situation.
 PEST analysis – for macro-environmental political, economic, societal, and technological
factors.
 SWOT analysis – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats – for the internal and
external situation. A SWOT analysis can be used to condense the situation analysis into listing
of the most relevant problems and opportunities and to assess how well the firm is equipped
to deal with them.

II. Strategic Planning

The marketing strategy involves:

 Segmentation
 Target market
 Positioning the product within the target market

Market Segmentation

The process in which the whole market is split into different units of consumers, each unit having
similar characteristics, wants and behavior of consumers which need different marketing mixes and
strategies.

Consumer markets can be segmented on the following customer’s characteristics:

 Geographic: region(continent, country, state), size of metropolitan area(segmented according

to size of population), population destiny(often classified as urban, suburban, or rural),
climate.
 Demographic: age, gender, family size, family lifecycle, generation( baby-boomers,
Generation X and so on), income, occupation, education, ethnicity, nationality, religion, social
class.
 Psychographic: activities, interests, opinions, attitudes, values.
 Behavioralistic: benefits sought, usage rate, brand loyalty, user status(potential, first-time,
regular and so on), readiness to buy, occasions(holiday and events that stimulate purchases).
Many of the consumer’s market segmentation variables can be applied to industrial markets. Industrial
markets might be segmented on characteristic such as:

 Location.
 Company type(company size, industry, decision making unit, purchase criteria).
 Behavioral characteristic: usage rate, buying status(potential, first-time, regular and so on),
purchase procedure( sealed bids, negotiations and so on).

Target Market

Nowadays to succeed in competitive marketplace, companies must be customer centered. They must
win customers from competitors and keep them by delivering greater value.

The simple rule of selecting the target unit or segment is that it must provide the opportunity to the
company to create potential customer value in the long run. Another important rule is that a certain
company has the option to satisfy the needs/wants of one or two segments. In this situation the firm
focuses on that relevant segments and develops its products and strategies for them only. Such small
segments are called “niches”. The company has also another option to divide the whole market into
different segments and offers different products and marketing mixes to each segment of the market.
But the most powerful method is to focus on one or two segments and after succeeding in those
segments, further new segments should be targeted.

Two main factors to consider when selecting a target market segment are the attractiveness of the
segment and the fit between the segment and the firm’s objectives, resources, and capabilities.

The following are some examples of aspects that should be considered when evaluating the
attractiveness of a market segment:

 Size of the segment

 Growth rate of the segment
 Competition in the segment
 Brand loyality of existing customers in the segment
 Attainable market share given promotional budget and competitor’s expenditures
 Sales potential for the firm in the segment
 Required market for the firm in the segment
  Expected profit margins in the segment

Market segment also should be evaluated according to how they fit the firm’s objectives, resources,
and capabilities. Some aspects of fit include:

 Whether the firm can offer superior value to the customers in the segment.
 The impact of serving the segment on the firms image.
 Access to distribution channels required to serve the segment.
 The firms resources vs capital investment required to serve the segment.

There are several different target-market plans below:

 Single-segment: usually it’s a choice for small companies with limited resources.
 Selective specialization: the product itself may(or not) be different – in many cases only the
promotional message or distribution channels vary.
 Product specialization: the firm specialize in particular product.
 Market specialization: the firm specialize in serving a particular market segment and offers
that segment an array of different products.
 Full market coverage: the firm attempts to serve entire market.

Market Positioning

This concept relates to the positioning of the product of a firm in the minds of the customers as
compared to the products of competitors. In other words the company tries to maintain a clear and
specific impression in customers about its products. When a firm wants to position its product, it first
specifies the competitive edge for which it offers competitive advantages to its target customers. The
entire marketing program of the company should concentrate its identified positioning strategy. The
positioning works when the company truly provides the efficient, competitive offering to its customers
in order to give them maximum value as compared to the offering of competitors.

III. Marketing Mix

Mixed Marketing is a business tool used in marketing and used by marketing professionals. Marketing
decisions generally fall into the following four controllable categories (in marketing services 4P has
been extended to 7P):
  Product
 Price
 Place (distribution)
 Promotion

(courses.lumenlearning 2017)

Product

A product is an item that is made to satisfy the needs/wants of a certain group of people. The product
can be intangible, invisible or tangible as it can be in form of services or goods.
You must provide the right type of product that is in demand for your market. Therefore, during the
product development phase, the marketer must do an extensive research on the life cycle of the product
that they are creating.

Marketers must also create the right product mix. It may be wise to expand your current product mix
by diversifying and increasing the depth of your product line.

To develop the right product you need to know answers to following questions:

 What does the client want from the service or product?

 How will the customer use it?
 Where will the client use it?
 What features must the product have to meet the client’s needs?
 Are there any necessary features that you missed out?
 Are you creating features that are not needed by the client?
 What is the name of the product?
 Does it have a catchy name?
 What are the sizes or colors available?
 How is the product different from the products of your competitors?
 What does the product look like?

Price

The price of the product is the amount that a customer pays for to enjoy it. Price is also a very important
component of the marketing mix definition. Adjusting the price has a big influence on the entire
marketing strategy as well as hugely affecting the sales and demand of the product.

If company is new to the market and has not made a name for themselves yet its unlikely that your
target market will be willing to pay a high price. Pricing always help the image of your product in
consumers eyes. A low price sometimes means an inferior good as they compare your product to a
competitor. However, prices too high will make the costs outweigh the benefits in customer’s eyes
and they will therefore value their money over your product. Be sure to study competitors pricing and
price accordingly.

When setting the product price, marketers should consider the perceived value that the product offers.
There are three major pricing strategies, and these are:
  Market penetration pricing
 Market skimming pricing
 Neutral pricing

Here are some of the important questions that you should ask yourself when you are setting the product
price:

 How much did it cost you to produce the product?

 What is the customers’ perceived product value?
 Do you think that the slight price decrease could significantly increase your market share?
 Can the current price of the product keep up with the price of the product’s competitors?

Place

Placement is an important part of the product mix definition as well. You have to position and
distribute your good in a place that is accessible to your potential customers. This comes with a deep
understanding of your target market. Understand them inside out and you will discover the most
efficient positioning.

There are many distribution strategies, including:

 Intensive distribution
 Exclusive distribution
 Selective distribution
 Franchising
Here are some of the questions that you should answer in developing your distribution strategy:

 Where do your clients look for your service or product?

 What kind of stores do potential clients go to? Do they shop in a mall, in a regular brick and
mortar store, in the supermarket, or online?
 How do you access the different distribution channels?
 How is your distribution strategy different from your competitors?
 Do you need a strong sales force?
 Do you need to attend trade fairs?
  Do you need to sell in an online store?

Promotion

Promotion helps your firm to boost brand recognition and sales. Promotion is comprised of various
elements like:

 Sales Organization
 Public Relations
 Advertising
 Sales Promotion

Advertising typically covers communication methods that are paid for like television advertisements,
radio commercials, print media, and internet advertisements. Public relations are communication that
generally not paid for. This includes exhibitions, press releases, seminars, sponsorship deals,
conferences, events and so on.

World of mouth is also type of product promotion. The sales staff plays a very important role in public
relations. World of mouth also circulate on online social media.

In creating an effective product promotion strategy, you need to know answers to the following
questions:

 How can you send marketing messages to your potential buyers?

 When is the best time to promote your product?
 Will you reach your potential audience and buyers through television ads?
 Is it best to use the social media in promoting the product?
 What is the promotion strategy of your competitors?

Marketing Mix 7P’s

The 7Ps model is a marketing model that modifies the 4Ps model. The 7Ps is generally used in the
service industries.

Here is the expansions from the 4Ps to the 7Ps marketing model:
(analyticsuperheroes 2017)
The different roles of marketing within both a B2C and B2B
context.
Most small businesses sell to other businesses or to consumers and the acronyms B2B and B2C
represent these relationships in abbreviated form.

Business to Business
B2B is shorthand for business to business. When you are marketing to a B2B you want to focus on
logic of the product. You do this by focusing on features of your good. There is no personal
emotions involved in the purchasing decisions. B2B relationships are developed and ongoing, and
the sales processes involved take longer than B2C relationships.
Business to Consumers
The final customer is the consumer with a B2C business. Housecleaning services, restaurants and
retail stores are examples of B2C companies. Online-shopping websites that offer consumers
products are also business to consumers relationships. The B2C sales term is shorter. The consumer
in encouraged to buy the product immediately. Purchases are made on an emotional basis as well as
on the basis of price and product.

B2B vs. B2C Marketing Differences

B2B B2C

Size B2B markets are generally
small vertical markets, often
niche in size, comprised of a
few thousand sales prospects
to maybe as large as 100,000
prospects
Purchasing Process B2B sales typically have a
purchasing process that is
usually defined in months and
B2C markets that are typically
large broad markets of tens to
thousands to millions of sales
prospects
B2C sales have short
purchasing periods of
anywhere from a few minutes
 the sale is complex, often
taking additional months to
complete.
Sale Process B2B sales require consultative
selling (selling based on
understanding a client's needs
and developing a relationship
of trust) sometimes from a
two-step level sales
organization including the
seller's sales force
and distribution sales force.
Cost of a Sale B2B sales are "higher ticket"
purchases usually costing from
just a few thousand dollars to
tens of millions of dollars.
Purchase Decision The decision to purchase in
B2B sales is generally driven
by need and budgets, therefore;
it tends to be a very rational
decision.
The Value of Brand Brand identity in B2B markets
is created through personal
relationships and consultative
selling.
Lifetime Customer Value The lifetime value of B2B
customers is much higher due
to the higher cost of sales and
the likelihood of repeat or add-
on sales to the same customer.
(the impulse buy), to a few
days and is a simple sale
consummated immediately.
B2C sales are usually direct to
the consumer or involve a
retailer. The sales approach is
a traditional product sell of
"convincing the consumer"
they need the product or
service being sold.
B2C sales can range in cost
from a dollar to a few thousand
dollars. Except, for cars and
homes.
B2C purchase decisions tend
to be made based on want
more than need or a budget
and, therefore, are triggered by
more emotional decisions
Brand identity in B2C markets
is created through advertising
and now social media.
The lifetime value of a B2C
customer is lower than B2B
because of the lower cost of
individual sales and repeat
sales are generally fewer.
B2B vs. B2C Marketing Example

For example, consider this: My product is lotion.

My lotion will moisturize the skin and relieve itching skin.

If I have a B2B client they will be most interested in the feature of the client which is moisturizing
the skin. If I have a B2C client they will be most interested in the benefit which is relief of itching
skin.

We will be most effective in marketing if we understand what both markets need in order to make a
decision.

(thebalance 2017)

Explain how roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the

wider organizational context.
Human Resource Management (HRM) is the function within an organization that focuses on the
recruitment of, management of, and providing direction for the people who work in an organization.
The HRM department members provide the knowledge, necessary tools, training, administrative
services, coaching, legal and management advice, and talent management oversight that the rest of
the organization needs for successful operation. Many human resource departments are responsible
for organization development that generates the culture of the organization. They are charged with
oversight responsibilities to ensure that their organization appropriately builds teams and inspires
employee empowerment.

Finance is an important element in an organization. They work closely with the CEO and the
strategic leaders across an organization to decide exactly which initiatives make financial sense and
which don’t. They determine how much money a department receives, and whether the investment
will grow or shrink and at what rate. It means this part plays the role of controlling and using budget
as effective as possible

Manufacturing is process of creating the product by hand or by machine that upon completion the
business sells to a customer. Items used in manufacture may be raw materials or component parts of
a larger product.
HRM and marketing

In the past, marketing and HRM were thought to be completely separate. Nowadays, as businesses
seek new ways to remain relevant and growth, innovative uses for marketing in HR are becoming
more prevalent. The result is that marketing and HRM concepts are more closely related than ever
before. Both functions are designed to operate under the precepts of promotion, and both have
tangible elements to market.

Finance and marketing

The relationship between finance and marketing plays a very important role. Marketing is the
creative side, which is driven by passion and your idea and which you strongly believe in. It
involves hard work, time and effort as well as a positive attitude. When finance’s focus is more on
seeing the benefits and rewards for your hard work as well as evaluating if it is worth it at the end of
the day. Communication is very important between marketing and finance and is key to being able
to achieve your goals for the business. It will also assist in keeping to the budget and allowing
flexibility for marketing to ensure that what you put into the business is at least breaking-even or
more.

Therefore the role of marketing is to help grow the business, build customer relationships and
maintain them. The role of finance is to ensure that the business is not running at a loss.

Marketing and manufacturing

We produce production according to market demand (Quality, quantity, packing price and other all
marketing demands & customer satisfaction).They are both very important for each other.
Marketing without taking consideration the production unit will lead to customer dissatisfaction and
low sales turnover.

Conclusion
This assignment has a clear understanding of marketing. Before I had no idea what is marketing and
how it made of. During this assignment, I have learnt a lot of new thing about marketing and how it
is important in business.