Tutorial 1: Introduction to Marketing

1. Define marketing. What is marketing myopia and how can it be avoided? (You
may find out from video Marketing myopia in VLE)

Marketing is a social process by which individuals and groups obtain what

they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with
others. Marketing myopia is when a business concerns itself more with its
needs than the needs of its target market – its customers. In essence,
marketing myopia occurs when an organization focuses too much on seeking
sales and profits, while ignoring the needs and wants of its customers. It is not
wrong for a business to concentrate on increasing sales and profits. Marketing
myopia can be avoided through filtering every strategic initiative and company
program through the screen of the customers it seeks to serve,
Fundamentally, any company initiative or program must have the customer at
its heart.

2. Briefly compare and contrast the concepts of needs, wants, and demands and
provide examples to illustrate your answer. How do these three concepts
relate to marketing practices?

Human needs are the basic requirements and include food, clothing and
shelter. Without these humans cannot survive. Wants are a step ahead of
needs and are largely dependent on the needs of humans themselves. For
example, you need to take a bath. But i am sure you take baths with the best
soaps. Thus Wants are not mandatory part of life. When an individual wants
something which is premium, but he also has the ability to buy it, then these
wants are converted to demands. The basic difference between wants and
demands is desire. A customer may desire something but he may not be able
to fulfill his desire. The needs wants and demands are a very important
component of marketing because they help the marketer decide the products
which he needs to offer in the market. Thus the flow is like this.

3. Describe the five different competing marketing orientations that a business

organization can adopt to drive its marketing strategy.
-Production Concept
Companies adopting this orientation run a major risk of focusing too
narrowly on their own operations and losing sight of the real objective.
Most times; the production concept can lead to marketing myopia.
Management focuses on improving production and distribution
efficiency.
-Product Concept,
The product concept holds that the consumers will favor products that
offer the most in quality, performance and innovative features.
-Selling Concept,
 The selling concept holds the idea- “consumers will not buy enough of
the firm’s products unless it undertakes a large-scale selling and
promotion effort”. Here the management focuses on creating sales
transactions rather than on building long-term, profitable customer
relationships.
-Marketing Concept,
The marketing concept holds- “achieving organizational goals depends
on knowing the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the
desired satisfactions better than competitors do”. Here marketing
management takes a “customer first” approach. Under the marketing
concept, customer focus and value are the routes to achieve sales and
profits.
-Societal Marketing Concept.
The societal marketing concept holds “marketing strategy should
deliver value to customers in a way that maintains or improves both the
consumer’s and society’s well-being”.

4. Briefly explain the societal marketing concept. Give an example of an

organization that has effectively used the societal marketing concept.

Organizations adopting societal marketing consider in their operations the

community and society’s welfare along with being profitable and satisfying
their customers’ needs. Examples include:

1- The Body Shop follows the societal concept in being against animal testing
and in offering products that have not been animal tested.

5. Define customer relationship management and explain its associated tools

and levels of relationships.

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a technology for managing all

your company’s relationships and interactions with customers and potential
customers. The goal is simple: Improve business relationships. A CRM
system helps companies stay connected to customers, streamline processes,
and improve profitability.

a) Who are your customers

b) What do customers value
c) What do they want to buy
d) How do they prefer to interact