Professional Documents
Culture Documents
CHAPTER ONE
Many people think that marketing and selling mean the same thing. Others think that marketing
is the same as selling and advertising, still others have a notion that marketing has got something
to do with making products available in the stores, arranging displays and maintaining
inventories of products for future sales. Actually marketing includes all these activities and many
more. Marketing is a key function of management. It brings success to business organization. A
business organization performs two key functions producing goods and services and making
them available to potential customers for use. An organization business success largely depends
on how efficiently the products and services are delivered to customers and how differently do
the customers perceive the difference in delivery in comparison to the competitors. This is true of
all firms.
The Chartered Institute of Marketing defines Marketing as: “Marketing is the management
process for identifying, anticipating & satisfying customer requirements profitably.”
“The all-embracing function that likes the business with customer needs and wants in order to
get the right product to the right place at the right time”.
“The achievement of corporate goals through meeting and exceeding customer needs better than
the competition.
“The management process that identifies anticipates and supplies customer requirement
efficiently and profitably.
“Marketing may be defined as a set of human activities directed at facilitating and consummating
exchanges”.
To help put things into context, you may find it helpful to often refer to the following diagram
which summarizes the key elements of marketing and their relationships:
b) Wants- Wants are needs shaped by culture & individual personality. Ethiopians need Injera
for hunger reliving and Kenyans’ want poraje.
c) Demands – People have narrow, basic needs (e.g. for food or shelter), but almost unlimited
wants. However, they also have limited resources. Thus they want to choose products that
provide the most satisfaction for their money. When wants backed by an ability to pay - that is,
buying power - wants become demands. This is the most important for marketers. Marketers
should study the needs and wants of customers and customers need to have money to buy.
e) Value – “A set of benefits promised to consumers to satisfy their needs.” Value can be seen as
primarily a combination of quality, service & price, called between the benefit the customer
gains from owning and using a product and the costs of obtaining the product.
f) Customer Value Reflects Benefits and Costs - Customer value concerns the difference
between the benefits a customer seek from a firm’s market offering and the costs of obtaining
those benefits. The customer’s view of costs and benefits is not just limited to economic (or even
rational) considerations – and a low price may NOT result in superior value.
g) Marketers and Utility - Marketers are persons who try to initiate response from other person
whether to sell or buy products and services from other party. Organizations add various utility
on products or services. Utility is the satisfaction customers are getting from using the product
and there are four types of utility.
Form Utility – is the utility organizations add by changing the format of the input into new
output. E.g. when bakers change the wheat flower to Bread, it is adding form utility.
Time Utility- is the utility the organizations are providing by making the product available at
the required time. E.g. Merchants make available rain coats during summer season.
Place utility -the utility the organizations are providing by making the product available at
the required place. E.g., when products are available near to the villages of customers, it is
providing place utility.
Possession utility- is the satisfaction customer is getting by undertaking various activities on
the product.
In the narrowest sense, quality can be defined as 'freedom from defects'. But most customer-
centered companies go beyond this narrow definition of quality. Instead, they define quality in
terms of customer satisfaction
i) Exchange, Transactions and Relationships
Exchange- Marketing occurs when people decide to satisfy needs and wants through
exchange. Exchange is the act of obtaining a desired object from someone by offering
something in return. Exchange is only one of many ways people can obtain a desired object.
Transactions- Whereas exchange is the core concept of marketing, a transaction is
marketing's unit of measurement. A transaction consists of a trading of values between two
parties.
Relationships- Transaction marketing is part of the larger idea of relationship marketing.
Smart marketers work at building long-term relationships with valued customers,
distributors, dealers and suppliers. They build strong economic and social tics by promising
and consistently delivering high-quality products, good service and fair prices. Increasingly,
marketing is shifting from trying to maximize the profit on each individual transaction to
maximizing mutually beneficial relationships with consumers and other parties.
1.3 Marketing Philosophies
i. Production Concept: The production concept holds that consumers will favor products that are
available and highly affordable. Therefore, management should focus on improving production
and distribution efficiency. This concept is one of the oldest orientations that guide sellers. The
production concept is still a useful philosophy in two types of situations. The first occurs when
the demand for a product exceeds the supply. Here, management should look for ways to
increase production. The second situation occurs when the product’s cost is too high and
improved productivity is needed to bring it down.
ii. The Product Concept: Another important concept guiding sellers, the product concept, holds
that consumers will favor products that offer the most quality, performance and innovative
features, and that an organization should thus devote energy to making continuous product
improvements. Some manufacturers believe that if they can build a better mousetrap, the world
will beat a path to their door." But they are often rudely shocked. Buyers may well be looking for
a better solution to a mouse problem, but not necessarily for a better mousetrap. The product
concept also can lead to 'marketing myopia'.
iii. The Selling Concept: Many companies follow the selling concept, which holds that
consumers will not buy enough of the firm’s products unless it undertakes a large-scale selling
and promotion effort. The concept is typically practiced with unsought goods – those that
buyers do not normally think of buying, such as insurance or blood donations. These industries
must be good at tracking down prospects and selling them on product benefits.
iv. The Marketing Concept: The marketing concept holds that achieving organizational goals
depends on knowing the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired
satisfactions better than competitors do. Under the marketing concept, customer focus and
value are the paths to sales and profits.
Principles of marketing Page 4
RAYA UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT
The selling concept takes an inside-out perspective. It starts with the factory, focuses on the
company’s existing products, and calls for heavy selling and promotion to obtain profitable sales.
It focuses primarily on customer conquest getting short-term sales with little concern about who
buys or why.
In contrast, the marketing concept takes an outside-in perspective. The marketing concept starts
with a well-defined market, focuses on customer needs, and integrates all the marketing activities
that affect customers. In turn, it yields profits by creating lasting relationships with the right
customers based on customer value and satisfaction.
Customers deeply to learn about their desires, gather new product and service ideas, and test
proposed product improvements. Such customer-driven marketing usually works well when a
clear need exists and when customers know what they want.
V. The Societal Marketing Concept: The Societal marketing concept questions whether the
pure marketing concept overlooks possible conflicts between consumer short-run wants and
consumer long-run welfare. Is a firm that satisfies the immediate needs and wants of target
markets always doing what’s best for consumers in the long run? The societal marketing concept
holds that marketing strategy should deliver value to customers in a way that maintains or
improves both the consumer’s and the society’s well-being.
1.4 Marketing and Demand Management
Since marketing management involves influencing the level, timing and composition of demand
for the company’s product, sometimes it is also known as demand management. Demand
management serves what customers look for no matter when.
7. Over-full Demand: demand is greater than the supply capacity of the company.
Marketing Task: Reduce demand
Marketing Situation/solution: De-marketing
Marketing Strategies: Increase price, decrease incentives and decrease advertising
8. Unwholesome Demand: it is a state where some part of the society like the product and
others are against it. Products that have undesirable social consequences such as cigarette, hard
drugs, x-rated movies and hand guns are normally considered as harmful.
Marketing Task: Destroy Demand
Marketing Situation/solution: Counter Marketing (Social Marketing)
Marketing Strategies: Set high price, earning, and cautionary labels such as “tobacco
damages health” and communicate the negative impact of the product.
1.5 Importance of Marketing
Marketing have the following importance:
a) Marketing Helps in Transfer, Exchange and Movement of Goods:
Marketing is very helpful in transfer, exchange and movement of goods. Goods and services are
made available to customers through various intermediaries’ viz., wholesalers and retailers etc.
Marketing is helpful to both producers and consumers.
b) Marketing Is Helpful In Raising And Maintaining the Standard of Living of The
Community:
By making available the uninterrupted supply of goods and services to consumers at a reasonable
price, marketing has played an important role in raising and maintaining living standards of the
community. Community comprises of three classes of people i.e., rich, middle and poor.
Everything which is used by these different classes of people is supplied by marketing.
c) Marketing Creates Employment:
Marketing is complex mechanism involving many people in one form or the other. The major
marketing functions are buying, selling, financing, transport, warehousing, risk bearing and
standardization, etc. In each such function different activities are performed by a large number of
individuals and bodies.
Thus, marketing gives employment to many people. It is estimated that about 40% of total
population is directly or indirectly dependent upon marketing. In the modern era of large scale
production and industrialization, role of marketing has widened.
d) Marketing as a Source of Income and Revenue:
The performance of marketing function is all important, because it is the only way through which
the concern could generate revenue or income and bring in profits. Busk irk has pointed out that,
“Any activity connected with obtaining income is a marketing action. It is all too easy for the
accountant, engineer, etc., to operate under the broad assumption that the Company will realize
many dollars in total sales volume.
e) Marketing Acts as a Basis for Making Decisions:
In modern times marketing has become a very complex and tedious task. Marketing has emerged
as new specialized activity along with production.
As a result, producers are depending largely on the mechanism of marketing, to decide what to
produce and sell. With the help of marketing techniques a producer can regulate his production
accordingly.
f) Marketing Acts as a Source of New Ideas:
The concept of marketing is a dynamic concept. It has changed altogether with the passage of
time. Such changes have far reaching effects on production and distribution. With the rapid
change in tastes and preference of people, marketing has to come up with the same.
Marketing as an instrument of measurement, gives scope for understanding this new demand
pattern and thereby produce and make available the goods accordingly.
g) Marketing Is Helpful In Development Of An Economy:
Adam Smith has remarked that “nothing happens in our country until somebody sells
something”. Marketing is the kingpin/principal that sets the economy revolving. The marketing
organization, more scientifically organized, makes the economy strong and stable, the lesser the
stress on the marketing function, the weaker will be the economy.
Goods: Constitute the bulk of most countries’ production and marketing effort.
Services: are acts or performances offered by one party to another.
Events: include trade shows, artistic performances, global sporting events such as the
Olympics and world cup.
Experiences: visits, vacations, camping
Persons: artists, musicians, athletes and other celebrities
Places: cities, states, regions and whole nations compete actively to attract tourists, factories,
company headquarters etc…
Properties: are intangible rights of ownership of real property (real estate) or financial
property (stocks and bonds).
Organizations: actively work to build a strong, favorable and unique image in the minds of
target publics.
Ideas: include business proposals. Products and services are platforms for delivering some
ideas.
2. The futures is less about marketing and more about facilitating self-marketing
3. Advertising will be less about messages and more about content creation and distribution,
and increasingly about utilities and services.
4. The future of TV will be even more powerful, but, will be very different and come from the
slime (IP TV) and be multi-glass.