7 Effective Marketing Concepts You Must Know | Key

Marketing is a process to communicate the value of products and services to customers. It is also the activity associated with
buying and selling of a product or service and includes advertising, selling, and delivery to target customers. People workin g in
the marketing department of a company, try to get customer attention through packaging designs, slogans, celebrity endorsement
and media exposure.

Marketing concept involves analyzing the needs of customers so that a company can make informed decisions to meet their needs
and bat competition. Most firms, today, have adopted marketing concepts though this hasn’t always been the case. Eminent
economist Adam Smith, in his epochal book Wealth of Nations (1776), said that needs of the seller can be considered only in the
light of the demands of the customer.

How the Marketing concepts evolved?

After the end of World War II, there was an almost deluge of produc ts and services in the market. Customers who had a greater
disposable income were able to make choices and buy all that could fulfill their needs. Companies, in such a scenario, were f orced
to think what their customers wanted, when they wanted, and how to keep them satisfied. This formed the very basis of marketing
concepts.

With the arrival of marketing main concepts, the focus of firms shifted from hard selling to identifying customer needs, taki ng
decisions to fulfill the needs and developing long-term customer relationships by catering to their changing demands. Marketing
concepts led to the setting up of a separate marketing department in companies. Today, many companies have restructured them
as marketing firms where each employee contributes towards customer satisfaction, regardless of whether they are marketing
personnel or not.

Marketing latest concepts are fully dependent on market research which helps to identify the segments, size, target market, a nd
needs of the customer. Then, by using the correct marketing mix, marketing teams take decisions that lead to customer satisfaction

We will go through seven of the most important marketing concepts that are a mainstay of most businesses today.

1. Needs wants and demands

These three are the basic concepts of marketing.

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 Needs:

A Marketing Concepts and marketing key concepts need is a wish or desire that’s psychological, physiolog ical, esteem, security,
and actualization. Food, clothing, and shelter are the three basic physiological needs. The security needs ar ise when you face life’s
insecurities that are both man-made and natural. You will want protection from such losses because everybody prefers a risk -
free life. And finally, esteem needs a result from competition and jealousy, neither of which can be ignore d. If a person eats
ordinary cereals, he/she may soon want to switch over to a branded product. The status point also comes into question, if you
drive an ordinary car, and your friend drives an Audi. Like one has silver ornaments, another is thinking of g old; if one is traveling
on a bike, the other may want to travel in a car, and so on.

We then have the self-actualization needs that can bring you a unique and unusual status which very few people can enjoy. Not all
can become a Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, who are rare achievers. Most people battle for physiological needs, fewer safety needs,
lesser esteem, and still lesser self-actualization. so that why we have to know about the Marketing Concepts and marketing key
concepts

 Wants:

A want stems from deficiency. In marketing jargon, wants to mean need plus the ability to pay. Needs are more than wants. For
instance, you are likely to have an extra pizza for your family, if the second one comes at half the price when you order the first.
Wants are chosen from needs. Everybody may say: “I want this, I want that.” Both wants and needs are countless. But their extent
needs to be controlled.

But there are differences between needs and wants. Needs are food, clothing, and shelter. But when the needs are conve rted to
wants, the options multiply. Food may include bread, burgers, mutton, bacon, ham and so on. The shelter could mean a bungalow ,
cottage, farmhouse or a trailer. Clothing would include shirts, trousers, denim, skirts, wrap -around, hot pants and many others.

 Demand:

When a need arises, wants crop up, and then follows the demand. It’ a situation where an individual has the need for a produc t and
the means to pay for it.

While the need is a mere wish, want is a selected need in which a person has genuine interests. Demand, on the other hand, is a
clear-cut commitment. An item for need is often a demand for another. So, while a rich man may demand a luxury car, the same

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 will be a mere want for a salaried individual and just a need for a poor person. It exe mplifies: “If wishes were horses, beggars
would ride.”

2. Marketing offers

These are extended by the company according to the requirements of the customer. The offer stands for a product or service th at
caters to the need of the customer regarding, quality, quantity, prices, time, regularity and similar factors. The product could be
tangible or intangible. While a tangible product is visible and can be detected by our senses, an intangible product is usual ly a
service that’s transferred from the renderer to the receiver at the particular point in time.

The products could be broadly classified as produced or manufactured. For manufactured goods, both human role and technology
play major roles. Manufactured products can be consumer durables or non -durables meant for final consumption. Mobile phones,
refrigerators, ovens, cupboards are all durables, while body creams, toothpaste, ready to eat foods are all non -durables.

Each company has a marketing offer that comprises a service line or a product line. The offer us ually includes some of the items
from the company’s product line. But sometimes, the entire basket is highlighted in the marketing campaign. A perfect offer m eets
customer expectations and extends the maximum benefit at a reasonably low price.

3. A Marketing Concepts all about Customer value and satisfaction

Value, from the buyer’s perspective, is the product or services’ capacity from which he/she derives a level of satisfaction. If the
satisfaction is low, it means that the product or service has low value t o the customer. The opposite is also true. Satisfaction is a
state of the mind and can’t be measured because it’s unquantifiable. The cost concept is very relevant here. And both consume rs
and sellers are interested in it.

For instance, people usually grab an item given free or one that’s easily purchasable. The same item won’t find a similar number
of takers if its price is hiked.

Here, you can define the cost to the buyer in monetary terms. Marketing is a major issue to be considered because it involves
letting go an alternative on part of the buyer.

4. Exchange, transaction, and relationships

 Exchange:

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 It lies at the core of marketing. The exchange is the other name for marketing. Manufacturers make available all goods needed in
the society, attaching due importance to price, quality, time and place. Products and services must be exchanged for money. Or
else, there will be a pile-up of inventory affecting the production and distribution mechanism.

For instance, Toyota produces 2,000 cars a day, of which 700 a re sold in the US markets and the rest are exported all over the
world. If the sales had not matched the production, the daily output would have to be reduced.

If the seller gives free gifts, charity, or donation, it won’t qualify as an exchange. Again, if you take something from your own
factory, farm, or garden, it won’t be an exchange. If you stock goods for sale and then give them to your family and friends free of
cost, it’s no exchange.

 Transaction:

It is the deal which takes place between the buyer and seller. The seller has the goods to part with, and the buyer is ready with
the money to pay for it. Today, online and card transactions have largely replaced cash exchanges. For many companies, cash
transactions hardly 10% of the total.

Businesses are multiplying today and more people are buying goods on credit. “Enjoy now, pay late” has replaced “cash and carry”.
Thus, buying an apartment, car, or house, has become more affordable. Equated monthly installments (EMIs) have arrived as a
boon for consumers.

 Relationships:

It is the mutual trust that develops between the buyer and seller over a long term. It’s a customer attraction and detention exercise
on part of the buyer. Once the customers understand that the seller is honest in serving their needs, th ey will keep coming back.
They may also spread word of mouth publicity about, leading to greater sales.

But an unsatisfied customer, to a seller, is like a rotten mango that rots all others in the basket. That’s the reason why re lationship
marketing is a specialized field these days where managers try to win over and maintain customer loyalty.

5. Markets

A market may not necessarily be a place. It’s simply the coming together of buyers and sellers where the former gets detailed
information of what about what the seller has to offer and what buyers want to buy. It’s a mechanism which enables price fixation
for the mutual benefit of both sides. The physical presence of people and goods may not be required.

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 A Marketing Concepts and marketing key concepts are the starting point because marketing follows it i.e. goods flow from the
seller to the buyer, and money flows in the opposite direction to reach the seller for completing the exchange.

6. Marketer and prospects

 Marketer:

A Marketing Concepts and marketing key concepts is an institution or a person engaged in making the products and services
available to the customers. He/she may have his/her own portfolio of goods that are offered to interested buyers. Marketers
create only the place, awareness utility, and time ownership. They do not produce but buys from manufacturers and sells them to
customers either for further processing or final consumption.

 Prospects:

The counterpart of Marketing Concepts and markets is prospects. Only sellers cannot constitute a market. Presence of prospects
leads to the presence of marketers. For a seller, it’s of no use if there’s none to buy the products and services.

7. Societal marketing and social responsibility

This concept calls Marketing Concepts to weave in ethical and social cons iderations into their marketing practice. They have to
balance conflicting criteria of consumer wants, company profits, public relations, and customer satisfaction. Companies have also
incorporated corporate social responsibilities in their management prac tices.