Lesson 19

WHAT IS MARKETING?
What does the term marketing mean? Most people mistakenly think of
marketing only as selling and promotion. And no wonder! Americans are
bombarded with television commercials, newspaper ads, direct mail, and sale calls.
Someone is always trying to sell something. It seems that we cannot escape death,
taxes, or selling.

Therefore many students are surprised to learn that selling is only the tip of
the marketing iceberg. It is but one of several marketing functions, and often not
the most important one. If the marketeer does a good job of identifying consumer
needs, developing good products, and pricing, distributing, and promoting them
effectively, these goods will sell very easily.

Everyone knows about ‘hot’ products to which consumers flock in droves.

When Polaroid designed its Spectra camera, when Coleco first sold Cabbage Patch
dolls, when Ford introduced its Taurus car, these manufacturers were swamped
with orders. They had designed the ‘right’ products – not me-too products, but
ones offering new benefits. Peter Drucker, a leading management thinker, put it
this way: “The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The aim is to
know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and
sells itself.”

This does not mean that selling and promotion are unimportant, but rather
that they are part of a larger “marketing mix,” a set of marketing tools that work
together to affect the marketplace. Here is our definition of marketing:

Marketing is a social and managerial process by which individuals and

groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging
products and value with others.
 To explain this definition, we will look at the following core concepts:
needs, wants, demands, products, exchange, transactions and markets. These
concepts are discussed below.

Needs

The most basic concept underlying marketing is that of human needs. A

human need is a state of felt deprivation in a person. Humans have many complex
needs. They include basic physical needs for food, clothing, warmth, and safety;
social needs for belonging and affection; and individual needs for knowledge and
self-expression. These needs are not created by Madison Avenue, but are a basic
part of human makeup.

Wants

A second basic concept in marketing is that of human wants, which are the
form human needs take as shaped by culture and individual personality. A hungry
person in Bali wants mangoes, suckling pig and beans. A hungry person in the
United States stops at Mc Donald’s for a hamburger, French fries, and a coke.
Wants are described in terms of objects that will satisfy a need. As a society
evolves the wants of its members expand. People are exposed to an increasing
number of objects that arouse their interest and desire. Producers try to provide the
thing that people need.

Demands

People have almost unlimited wants but limited resources. They therefore
choose products that produce the most satisfaction for their money. When backed
by buying power, wants become demands.

It’s easy to list a society demands at a given time. In a single year, for
example, 240 million Americans might purchase 67 billion eggs, 2 billion
chickens, 5 million hair dryers, 133 billion domestic air passenger miles, and over
20 million lectures by college English professors. These and other consumer goods
and services lead, in turn, to a demand for more than 150 million tons of steel, 4
billion tons of cotton, and many other industrial goods. These are a few of the
demands in a $ 3.5 trillion economy.

Consumers view products as bundles of benefits and choose products that

give them the best bundle for their money. An inexpensive Toyota means basic
transportation, a low price, and fuel economy. A Cadillac means comfort, luxury,
and status. People choose the product whose benefits add up to the most
satisfaction, given their wants and resources.

Products

Human needs, wants, and demands suggest that there are products to satisfy
them. A product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention,
acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a need or want.

Suppose a person feels the need to be more attractive. We will call all the
products that can satisfy this need the product choice set. They may include new
clothes, hair styling services, a Caribbean suntan, exercise classes, and many
others. These products are not all equally desirable. The more available and less
expensive products, such as clothing and a new hair cut, are likely to be purchased
first. The closer products come to matching customers’ wants, the more successful
they will be. Producers need to know what consumers want and then provide
products that come as close as possible to satisfying their wants.

The concept of product is not limited to physical objects. Anything capable

of satisfying a need or want can be called a product. In addition to goods and
services, products include persons, places, organizations, activities, and ideas.
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. For example, hungry people can find their own food by
hunting, fishing, or fruit gathering. They can beg for food or take food away from
someone else. Finally, they can exchange money, another goods, or a service for
the food.

Exchange is the core concept of marketing. For an exchange to take place,

several conditions must be satisfied. There must be at least two parties, and each
must have something of value to the other. Each party must want to deal with the
other party; each must be free to accept or reject the other’s offer. Finally, each
party must be able to communicate and deliver.

Transactions

As exchange is the core of marketing, a transaction is its unit of

measurement. A transaction consists of a trade of values between two parties. In a
transaction, A gives X to B and gets Y in return. For example, you pay Sears $ 400
for a television set. This is a classic monetary transaction, but not all transactions
involve money. In a barter transaction you might give your own refrigerator to a
neighbour in return for a second-hand television set. A barter transaction can also
include services instead of goods, as when a lawyer writes a will for a doctor in
return for a medical exam. A transaction involves at least two things of value,
conditions that are agreed to, a time of agreement, and a place of agreement.

Markets
 The concept of transaction leads to the concept of a market. A market is the
set of actual and potential buyers of a product. As the number of persons and
transactions increases in a society, the number of merchants and marketplaces also
increases. In advanced societies, markets need not be physical places where buyers
and sellers interact. With modern communications and transportation, a merchant
can advertise a product on late evening television, take orders from hundreds of
customers over the phone, and mail the goods to the buyers on the following day
without having had any physical contact with the buyers.

Marketing

The concept of markets finally brings us full circle to the concept of

marketing. Marketing means working with markets to bring about exchanges for
the purpose of satisfying human needs and wants. Thus we return to our definition
of marketing as a process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need
and want through creating and changing products and value with others.

Exchange processes involve work. Sellers have to search for buyers, identify
their needs, design good products, promote them, store and deliver them, set prices
and provide service after the sale. Such activities as research, product
development, communication, distribution, pricing, and service are core marketing
activities.

From Essentials of Marketing

I. Words and Expressions
1. mistakenly (adv) một cách nhầm lẫn

2. to bombard tới tấp làm gì

3. iceberg (n) tảng băng

4. marketer (n) người mua hay bán hàng

5. to identify xác định

6. superfluous (adj) thừa, không cần thiết

7. core (n) cốt lõi, chủ yếu

8. needs (n) nhu cầu

9. wants (n) ham muốn

10.demands (n) đòi hỏi, yêu cầu

11.products (n) sản phẩm

12.exchange (n) trao đổi, giao dịch

13.transactions (n) kinh doanh, giao dịch

14.markets (n) thị trường

15.deprivation (n) tước đoạt, lấy đi, nghèo khổ

16.suckling pig (n) lợn sữa

17.Madison Avenue (một phố có các công ty quảng cáo

ở New York): công nghiệp q. cáo

18.satisfaction (n) thoả mãn, toại nguyện

19.bundles of (n) nhiều

20.makeup (n) bản chất

21.to back (v) làm hậu thuẫn

22.to lead to (v) làm nảy sinh

23.economy (n) tiết kiệm

24.acquisition (n) mua lại, nắm quyền kiểm soát

25.to obtain (v) đạt được

26.will (n) bản di chúc

27.to promote (v) thúc đẩy, khuyến khích

28.to deliver (v) giao hàng

29.to set price (v) định giá cả

30.full circle (np) chu kỳ đầy đủ

II. Notes for Translation

- Americans are bombarded with television commercials, newspaper ads, direct
mail, and sale calls.

….Những quảng cáo hàng hóa trên vô tuyến, trên báo chí, trực tiếp qua thư từ và
qua điện thoại cứ liên tục đập vào tai vào mắt người Mĩ.

- If the marketeer does a good job of identifying consumer needs, developing good
products, and pricing, distributing, and promoting them effectively, these goods
will sell very easily.
…. Nếu các thương nhân xác định đúng nhu cầu của người tiêu dùng, sản xuất ra
nhũng mặt hàng có chất lượng tốt, định giá và phân phối hang hóa hợp lý và
quảng cáo chúng một cách có hiệu quả, thì những mặt hang này bán rất chạy.

-…consumers flock in droves.

…khách hàng cứ xúm đen xúm đỏ lại mua.

-… these manufacturers were swamped with orders.

…..các nhà sản xuất này tràn ngập những đơn đặt hàng.

-… The aim is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or

service fits him and sells itself.

…Mục đích là hiểu biết thật rõ khách hàng sao cho hàng hóa và dịch vụ phù

hợp với nhu cầu của khách hàng và tự nó sẽ đến với khách hàng.

-… These needs are not created by Madison Avenue, but are a basic part of

human makeup.( Madison Avenue: một phố lớn ở New York có nhiều công ty
quảng cáo lớn)

…Những nhu cầu này không phải do ngành công nghiệp quảng cáo tạo ra, mà

chúng là một phần của bản chất con người.

They therefore choose products that produce the most satisfaction for their money.

…Vì vậy họ lựa chọn những sản phẩm hợp với túi tiền của họ nhất.

- … Suppose a person feels the need to be more attractive.

…Giả sử một người có nhu cầu được làm đẹp để mình được hấp dẫn hơn.

III. Translate into Vietnamese

1-….CD 8 cells they have might do a good job of hunting down infected CD 4
cells..................………………………………………………………………………

2- I’ve been swamped with work this year. We asked for application and were

swamped with them.............…………………………………………………………

3- She was so angry that she could not speak.………………………………............

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