SUMMATIVE ASSIGNMENT

PRINCIPLES OF
MARKETING

Jose Lorenzo C. Barbasa

Student ID: 2020-068
EduQual Diploma in Business & Marketing Management (Level 4)
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.0 Introduction...................................................................................................................................2
2.0 Background and Rationale.............................................................................................................2
2.1 Marketing Orientation and Concepts............................................................................................3
2.1.1 Production Concept......................................................................................................................3
2.1.2 Product Concept...........................................................................................................................3
2.1.3 Selling Concept.............................................................................................................................4
2.1.4 Marketing Concept.......................................................................................................................4
2.1.5 Societal Marketing Concept.........................................................................................................4
3.0 Needs, Wants, and Demands – Converting Needs and Wants to Demand..................................5
4.0 Relationship Marketing...................................................................................................................5
5.0 Unique Selling Proposition, Competitive Advantages...................................................................6
6.0 The Extended Marketing Mix.........................................................................................................6
7.0 Services, Interactions between Individuals, and relation to Competitive Advantages...............6
8.0 PESTELE & SWOT Analysis and Segmentations........................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................................8
1.0 Introduction
This report is submitted for the purpose of providing insight and explanations as to how the
marketing process works in major companies.

2.0 Background and Rationale

Marketing is neither a pure science nor a pure art, but rather a combination of both. The
debate of whether marketing is a pure science or pure art goes back to the mid-1940s, where Paul
D. Converse (1945) published a paper with the results of a survey he conducted with 64
marketing researchers from universities and research centers in the United States. In the same
paper, Converse incorporated a scientific view of marketing which then signaled the beginning
of the decades-long debate of whether marketing is a science or art. Within the same time,
marketing professor Dr. Lyndon Brown (1948) shared the same views as Converse by saying
that for marketing to become an actual profession, it had to change from a narrative philosophy
to an analytical, research-led, and methodological philosophy. These would then become the
backbone to create marketing as a science. Two more authors, Wroe Alderson and Reavis Cox
(1948), also had a similar conclusion with Dr. Brown. They concluded that marketing, up until
that period, was more concerned with gathering facts without a proper manner to do such
gathering. They argued that only when variables and hypotheses are tested and formulated, new
principles developed, and concepts cut back to a minimum would there be a progress for
marketing to become a scientific field. However, after a year, economics professor Roland Vaile
(1949) countered Brown, Alderson, and Cox’s conclusions by counterarguing that marketing was
an art that called for a more practical approach rather than scientific, and that the development of
scientific theories and principles would be near to impossible. A marketing scholar, Robert
Bartels (1951) shared Vaile’s view, stating that marketing will not and cannot be a science since
it was not commonplace to have marketing treated as a science by researchers of the times, and it
was too narrow to be considered a full-fledged science. The debate of whether marketing is
really a science or art remains largely unanswered to this day, mainly due to constant and
permanent changes in the market system, how consumers react to products, organizations’
approach to marketing, among others. The only rationale behind this marketing report is to share
a clear perspective of what marketing is in the general business environment and how marketing
should be treated as being vital for the success of an organization.
2.1 Marketing Orientation and Concepts
To effectively market products, the organization must always take into consideration the
needs, wants, and demands of the consumers it wishes to target. This is mainly done by
conducting surveys and research to analyze the latest customer trends and aims to create products
and services to satisfy those demands. That is what market orientation is all about: customer-
centered decision-making and product design (Kopp and Khartit, 2020).

To effectively understand marketing management, it would be necessary to take a deeper

look into marketing concepts that are in common use across businesses worldwide.

The 5 concepts of marketing are: production concept, product concept, selling concept,
marketing concept, and societal marketing concept.

2.1.1 Production Concept

The production concept of marketing is one of the oldest and long-standing concepts both
in marketing and business. This concept states that consumers will want to purchase products
that are readily available and affordable. Businesses that are using this concept are primarily
focused on producing products efficiently with low production costs and aim to distribute them
in large numbers. This concept works best in developing countries wherein the consumers are
keener on purchasing the product than paying attention to its features (Kotler and Keller, 2012).

2.1.2 Product Concept

The product concept of marketing states that consumers are more inclined to purchase
products that offer the best quality and performance. Businesses that ae using this concept are
primarily focused on continuous improvement of their products to maintain their superiority
amongst their competitors with the assumption that consumers can notice such improvements.
Compared to the definition of marketing orientation, businesses using the product concept
include little to no customer feedback/input in the design process of their product and leave the
process up to the engineers and designers of the product (Kotler and Keller, 2012). However,
using the product concept can likely lead to what is called marketing myopia, a term coined and
journal published by Harvard economics professor Theodore Levitt (1960) for marketing
executives who defined their consumer market incorrectly and thus led to their demise.
2.1.3 Selling Concept
The selling concept of marketing specifies that no consumer or business will buy your
product unless they are engaged by the organization into purchasing said products. It must
therefore proceed to “an aggressive selling and promotion effort”. This concept is mainly used in
products that are not frequently bought by consumers, and in cases where organizations have
excess stock of their products. This is also applied in not-for-profit sectors like educational
institutions and political parties (Kotler and Keller, 2012).

2.1.4 Marketing Concept

The marketing concept counters the three prior concepts discussed. This concept states
that to achieve the goals of the company, it must be “more effective than its competitors in
creating, delivering, and communicating customer value to its chosen target markets” (Kotler and
Keller, 2012).

In his publication about marketing myopia, Levitt (1960) draws a fine line between the
selling and marketing concepts. He describes the difference between marketing and selling as
being “more than semantic”. He defined selling as focused on the seller’s desire to convert
product to profit, while marketing as focused on the consumer’s needs while producing and
selling the product.

The marketing concept has 4 important pillars: target market, customer needs, integrated
marketing, and profitability. A company that is using the marketing concept can be defined as a
company who chooses a proper market for their product, carefully defining their customers’
needs which admittedly is not all too easy, and the company’s departments collaborating in the
best interest of the customer whilst maintaining the aspiration of achieving company goals
through raising profits.

2.1.5 Societal Marketing Concept

The societal marketing concept is carried forward from the original marketing concept.
However, added to this concept are the moral and ethical concerns displayed by the society at
large. The question of whether businesses properly assess consumer needs and wants whilst
accounting for the welfare of the society is answered using this concept. Societal marketing is in
place when businesses determine the needs and wants of their target market and create their
products to beat competition while also delivering their needs and wants in an ethically and
morally sound manner (Kotler and Keller, 2012).

3.0 Needs, Wants, and Demands – Converting Needs and Wants to

Demand
An effective marketer strives to determine the needs, wants, and demands of their target
market.

Needs are the intrinsic requirements of a person such as food, water, clothes, and shelter.
Needs become wants when the person thinks of a specific object to satisfy that need. Wants,
compared to needs, are specific to a person’s liking.

Demands are the wants of the person that is supported by their ability to purchase said
product. In simpler words, if a person has money, he/she is then able to purchase it.

Converting needs and wants to demand is a matter of desire. For example, if a person
needs a car, they will point to a specific make and model (e.g., Subaru Impreza WRX). From that
point, the bridge between that person’s need to demand is a desire to purchase said car; it can
also be concluded that desire and demand go together. (Saurav, 2020)

4.0 Relationship Marketing

A marketer would always strive to maintain relationships he/she has built with internal
and external stakeholders.

The concept of relationship marketing is built on the principle of maintaining mutual,

long-standing relationships with business partners. This is effectively maintained by delivering
products at required deadlines and fair prices over a period; this can be boiled down to building
trust between the two or more business partners (Kotler and Keller, 2012).

This is a good way for the marketer to test his/her communication and collaboration skills
with external and internal partners. Since a marketing manager, or any other manager, must be
extroverted enough to initiate and maintain healthy professional relationships in business, the
concept of relationship marketing in the right person’s hands will ensure growth and harmony for
the business.
5.0 Unique Selling Proposition, Competitive Advantages
A pioneer of television advertising, Rosser Reeves, said that to effectively sell a product
in a target market, the organization must come up with a unique selling proposition and use it as
their springboard. According to Reeves, each company should pick a feature about their product
and promote itself as “number one” amongst competitors on that specific feature. This is great
help for the business, as buyers tend to remember the “number one” feat quite easily, especially
in a world that is packed with lots of communication methods (Kotler and Anderson, 2012).

Positioning a product properly in the market helps it to reach a far audience, even to other
markets that are not normally reached by that specific type of product.

6.0 The Extended Marketing Mix

Marketers use lots of tools to obtain answers about needs, wants, and demands from their
target markets. One such famous tool is the marketing mix, created by marketing professor and
author Edmund Jerome McCarthy. The normal marketing mix has 4 components, namely:
product, price, promotion, and place. The marketing mix was used in a target market for product
decisions and sales & marketing strategies. Recently, Bernard Booms and Mary Bitner, both
marketing professors, added 3 components to the marketing mix: people, process, and physical
evidence. This then facilitated for the marketing mix to include not only products but services as
well. This also meant that the new marketing mix could be updated for changing marketing and
communication methods.

7.0 Services, Interactions between Individuals, and relation to

Competitive Advantages
Services are defined as intangible products and do not end up in ownership of an
individual. Services can range from air travel to hospitality and even as simple as a massage spa.

Through services, businesses can offer their services through interacting with individuals.
This is important for business confidence amongst employees. The value that is being offered by
such service leave an indelible mark to the customer. Through the link with competitive
advantage, businesses are able to tout their services as the number one in that specific field as
well, giving them a unique selling proposition of their own.
8.0 PESTELE & SWOT Analysis and Segmentations
PESTELE analyses are very important for businesses, as these help them properly
segregate their market in terms of their internal aspects. SWOT analyses on the other hand help
them in external strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities.

Segmenting markets allow businesses to build on their present markets and expand their
network of markets. This is done through environmental analysis, using either or both PESTELE
and SWOT.

All of these concepts are beneficial to operations in business to ensure growth and
success for years to come.
REFERENCES

Brown, S., 1996. Art or Science? Fifty Years of Marketing Debate. Journal of Marketing
Management, 12, pp.243-267.

Kopp, C. and Khartit, K. (2020) Market Orientation Definition. Available at:

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/market-orientation.asp (Accessed: 23 January 2021).
Kotler, P. and Armstrong, G., 2012. Principles Of Marketing. 17th ed. Pearson.

Kotler, P. and Keller, K., 2012. Marketing Management. Upper Saddle River, N.J.:
Pearson/Prentice Hall.

Samuelson, P. and Nordhaus, W., 2010. Economics. Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Saurav, S. (2020) Understanding Needs, Wants and Demands in Marketing world | LinkedIn.
Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/understanding-needs-wants-demands-marketing-
world-sumit-saurav/?articleId=6651412915658252288 (Accessed: 23 January 2021).