Table of Contents

Introduction...............................................................................................................2
Definition of Marketing.............................................................................................3
Key functions of Marketing.......................................................................................3
Marketing Orientations..............................................................................................4
The differences of Marketing function in Business to Business operation and in
Business to Customer operation................................................................................5
References List..........................................................................................................6
 Introduction
Founded in 1865 by Scottish Enterpreneur Archibald Gray and partner Edwin Sandys
Dawes (now owned by the Inchcape family). Gray Dawes Travel are, according to their
introduction, “one of the leading independent travel management companies in the UK”.
Started off as a shipping company to managing flight from London to Cairo, they have
developed throughout years and centuries until now become a part of Gray Dawes
Group.
From the early time of the company, they had worked with not only the individual
customers, but also other business organizations so it is understandable why they can
attract other businesses without relying on a Marketing Department.
But, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is coming right now, with the explosion of social
media, like the massive appearance of social networks and other channels alike, it is
crucial that the company have to get with the times to take every opportunties and
overcome the new challenges that the era presents. In order to achieve those goals,
they need excellent and clear Marketing strategies for customers, especially for the
company’s Business-to-Business section.
A team and a department solely for Marketing activities are needed.
In this report, one may:
I. Understand the definition and concepts of Marketing.
II. Understand the role of Marketing in the business.
III. Understand the interrelationships of Marketing with other functional units.
IV. Understand why Gray Dawes Travel need a strong Marketing team and the
importance of establishing a Marketing Department.
Definition of Marketing
Marketing, just as its name suggested, is the business function that stay the closest with
the market, their main mission goes along with the customer relationships to make the
profit, both for the company and the customer respectively, out of them
The Chartered Institute of Marketing of UK (CIM) defined marketing as:
Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating, and
satisfying customer requirement profitably. (CIM, 2001)
The American Marketing Association (AMA) also submitted their own definition:
Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, the
promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create, exchange to satisfy
individual and organizational objectives. (AMA, 1985)
Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong used to write a definition of Marketing too, but simpler
and more philosophical than those two above:
We define Marketing as the process by which the companies create the value for
customers and build the strong customer relationships in order to capture value from
customers in return
The Marketing normally perceived as telling-and-selling, but those will not be enough in
the modern societies and ages, just as all of the definitions above conveyed: Marketing
should be tailored for the customer or consumer of a product and services, it should
satisfy the need and want of the customer. If marketers can not serve any of those for
the client, they have failed not only the client, but also their own organisations.

Key functions of Marketing

As Mr Kotler presented in his work, “Principles of Marketing”, there are five steps of in
the Marketing process, and from that, we can assume that there are 3 keyfunctions of
Marketing:

Marketing information management

By identifies and anticipates the need and wants of the customer, marketers can meet
the client satisfaction. But in order to that, they must research the market throughly in
order to gains as much informations about not only customers but also competitors to
construct a good marketing strategy .

Design a customer-driven marketing strategy

Once the marketers have fully understood the market, they can design a good customer
driven strategy by choosing the right customer to serve, choosing the right marketing
management orientations.
Building customer relationships
This is the most important functions of Marketing, it revolves around managing the
information about the customer and use them to gain more customer’s loyalty. When
the client requirements was met, they will be more likely to devote to the company and
give the company a good proportion of value.

Marketing Orientations
As we briefly mentioned above, to design a good marketing strategy, one also have to
choose a marketing orientation. Now we will look into 4 fundamental orientations that
being used in marketing process:

Production orientation
Just as its name suggested, this orientation focus on the production of the company.
The main idea behind this is the sheer sensitiveness of the market about the price and
the belief that the cheaper the price, the more customers the company will have, without
regard to other factors. The obvious corrolary of this assumption is the organisational
management will focus on how to product more goods and how to distribute it
effectively. In short term, this is not a bad idea, especially when the demand is
overwhelm the stockpile, so the company can commit all of their power and resources in
manufacturing without batting an eye about how well the marketing process is. But they
will not suitable for a long run or the buyer start focus on other factors of the product.

Product orientation
If the first orientation focus on the quantity, then this kind of orientation pay full attention
to the quality. It draw from the assumption that the client mainly concern about the
product itself, and make decision to buy the good based on their own evaluation of the
good’s quality. The outcome of the assumption that the company will put more and
more effort in raising the good’s quality level. This kind of thinking may sound legimitate
at first glance, but the problem arrive when there are another kind of product that can
bring the same result with same efficient, or the product can not solve the client’s
needs, then the company can not sell the product after that.

Sales orientation
The core of sales orientation mindset base on the theory that the consumers are
naturally hesitated to buy the goods, and so they should be encouraged to do so with a
good amount of products that could meet the requirements of the company. As a result,
this ideology heavily stress on personal selling and other stimulating tools for they
believe the product were being sold rather than being bought. They also attentively look
on the needs of seller than the consumers.

Marketing orientation
If one company put effort in production and execute the marketing activities according to
the consumer need, and motivated by the fulfillness of the clients, that company is
follow the marketing orientation. The orientation grows around the basis that the
customer was no where to be attracted by the price but rather be driven by desire to
choose the goods that best fit for their need, so the company must understand those
needs and tailor the suitable offering for the buyers. But the focus on marketing can
make the key competencies in other section dwindle such as product designing,
technical services and other customer-related activities.

The differences of Marketing function in Business to Business operation

and in Business to Customer operation.
Marketing to a business organisation and to individual customers are two different thing.
We will compare two concepts in three aspects: customer, nature of demand, buying
decision making process.

Customer
In B2B market, the customers are naturally organisations with more buying power and
demand than a normal individual, according to Frances Brassington and Stephen Pettit
in Essentials of Marketing, there are three major types of customer in general:
commercial enterprises, government bodies and government institutions. All of them
usually buy in large quantities and occasionally, while individual consumers buy in a
small amount but more often.

Nature of demand
The demand of B2B, came from consumer demand too but between business
organisations. Demand of a product can affect the demand of another, if a toy company
can not be supplied enough raw materials, it may as well stop the demand for energy
such as electricity or fuel to run their production machines. But on a bright side, the
demand will not be affected by the price. A small raise or fall in the price will not change
the quantities that the clients demands. Although they will switch to another supplier
when there is a chance. The demand of B2C, usually on a specific product without the
need of others, and the demand can be sensitive on the price.

Buying decision making process

This is where we can see the distinction between the B2B and B2C customers and thus
form a suitable strategy for each of them. As the B2B involves an organisation, so the
decision to buy usually make by a group of people rather than one person like B2C, and
responsibility lie in the decision is bigger than that of B2C, so the more complicate more
formal and professional the process become. The business organisation also seek for
economical benefits not only in the product but also in the process if possible, thus they
will rarely accept the stated price and try to negotiate to maximize the benefition they
can get. For an individual customer, one don’t usually try to change the price of the
seller.

References List
Brassington, F, Pettit, S, 2005, Essentials of Marketing, Pearson Education.
Kotler, P, Armstrong, G, 2014, The Principles of Marketing, 15th edn, Pearson
Education.