MARKETING AND MARKETERS

Read the text and match these headings to the paragraphs.

Identifying the target market Setting the marketing mix

What is marketing and what do marketers do? Identifying and creating needs
Monitoring the market Positioning

What is marketing and what do marketers do?

_____________________________

When talking about marketing people often confuse it with advertising or selling. The job of
marketing is to develop products that will satisfy the needs of consumers, to price them right,
to use distribution channels to make them accessible to customers and to inform the
consumer about the existence of the products. If marketing is done well, it helps the
organization reach its goals. The products can be physical objects, but also a service, a
person or simply an idea. The goals of an organization can be various: to earn profit, to get a
political candidate elected, etc.

________

Identifying the target market ___________________________

Market research is an essential part of the marketing process. One of its main aims is to
identify a group of customers that you want to target with your product. No firm will try to sell
a product to everyone, since there is no product that could satisfy everyone. Organizations
instead concentrate on filling the needs of a specific group of customers. To identify the
target customers, marketers will have to divide the market into smaller sections according to
categories such as gender, age, lifestyle, level of education, etc. This process is called
market segmentation. Out of all the segments, marketers will choose the segment or
segments that they are interested in. This will be their target market. This process is called
targeting. Normally, marketing managers will choose the most profitable segment as their
target market. Sometimes segmentation identifies smaller groups of customers whose
needs are not being met at the moment. This small segment of the market where customers
have specific needs is called a market niche.

____ Identifying and creating needs_______________________________

One part of market research is customer research that is carried out in order to identify
customers' needs. The information gained is used to help create new products or adapt old
ones. Marketers also try to predict or anticipate new trends and crazes in advance. In
today’s world where fashions, trends and technology change at a very fast pace, this can be
very important for the success of a business. Another approach that marketers can try is
creating needs that do not exist yet. Once there is a new need, it can be filled with the
company’s product.
__ Positioning _________________________________

Marketers need to decide on a positioning strategy as well. Positioning refers to how

customers see the product compared with other brands. Some of these positions can be: top
of the range, value for money, more or less reliable than the competing brand, etc.

___ Setting the marketing mix ________________________________

Once the basic product is developed, marketers have to adjust it to the needs of the target
market. Marketers set the marketing mix which is a collection of variables that help them
achieve the desired level of sales.

___Monitoring the market________________________________

The job of marketers does not end once a product is launched and it starts to sell. The
market has to be constantly monitored for changes in taste and competitors’ offerings.
Businesses must be flexible enough to respond to changes on the market.

I Answer these questions.

1 How is marketing defined in the text? The job of marketing is to develop products
that will satisfy the needs of consumers, to price them right, to use distribution
channels to make them accessible to customers and to inform the consumer about
the existence of the products.

2 What is the aim of market research? Target market.

3 What is market segmentation? To identify the target customers, marketers will have
to divide the market into smaller sections according to categories such as gender,
age, lifestyle, level of education, etc.

4 What is a target market and a niche market?

Target market - a particular group of consumers at which a product or service is aimed.

Niche market - small segment of the market where customers have specific needs.

5 What is positioning? Name some of the types of positions that a brand can have.
Positioning refers to how customers see the product compared with other brands.
Examples: top of the range, value for money, more or less reliable than the
competing brand…

6 What do marketers have to do after the product is launched? The market has to be
constantly monitored for changes in taste and competitors’ offerings.
II Complete the word partnerships by supplying the missing vowels.

1 market R_E_S_E_ A__ RCH 2 marketing M _I_ X

3 market S_E_GM _E_ NT _A_T _I_ 4 D_I_STR_I_BU__T_I_ _O_N

_O_ N channel

5 T _A_ RG _E_ T market 6 P_O_S_I_T_I_ _O_N_I_NG

strategy

7 N _I_ CH _E_ marketing

III Use the word partnerships from above to provide a term for these definitions.

1 The market that a producer wants to sell to. Market research

2 Dividing the market into distinct groups of buyers. Target market

3 The route the product travels from the manufacturer to the Distribution channel
consumer.

4 A set of variables that marketers change to fit a product to the Marketing mix
needs of the target market.

5 The plan that a producer follows to create an image for its Positioning strategy
brand in the eyes of the target market, taking into account how
competing products are viewed.

6 Aiming a product for a small market that has very specific Niche market
 needs.

7 Identifying the target market and determining what kinds of Market segmentation
products consumers there are likely to buy.

IV Find verbs in the text that form word partnerships with “a need”

Satisfy_______

Creating_________

Identifying__ A NEED

Meet__________

Filling__________

Which three of these word partnerships are synonymous with each other?

1 filling a need_____________________

2 meet a need_____________________

3_satisfy a need____________________

V Fill in the missing verbs. Use the grammatically correct form.

1 When a company lauched_________________ a new product on the market, it

needs to let potential customers know about it.

2 Companies that develope_________________new products spend a lot on research

and development.

3 We target_________________young, urban, single men with our new mobile phone,

because we think that this market segment would be very interested in buying such a
cutting-edge product.

4 This product is expensive and of high quality; it is positioned_________________at

the top of the range.
 5 We have to identify_________________customers’ needs before we can fill them.

6 Before the iPhone was launched on the market, nobody thought that touchscreens
would be popular. Apple, however, create_________________a need and now most
phones have them.

VI Which concept from the text is illustrated here? Monitoring the market.

LISTERINE: A MOUTHWASH
Listerine, at the time of its invention in 1879, was used as a surgical antiseptic. Only later was it
discovered to be excellent at killing germs found in the mouth. It was promoted as a mouthwash, but
sales were not very high. In the 1920s, however, Gerard Lambert, one of the sons of the founder of
the company, coined a new word for bad breath with a medical sound to it: “halitosis” and started to
promote the product as a solution to this problem. The company’s revenues rose from $115,000 to
more than $8 million. In the words of James B. Twitchell: “Listerine did not make mouthwash as
much as it made halitosis.”

Toward the Marketing Concept

Read the text and say how the relationship between producers and consumers has
changed through time.

While the marketing concept is a modern idea, businesses have always had to consider
what they produce and who will buy their product. In the age of industrialization (the end of
the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century), when mass production was invented,
businesses concentrated mainly on the production process so that they could make products
as cheaply as possible to satisfy the high demand for goods. If the price was low enough,
people were ready to buy standardized products of lower quality. This was the age of
production orientation.

As markets grew and as people got richer, manufacturers could make more specialized
products relatively cheaply. They realized that products could be improved with added
features. In the era of product orientation, manufacturers aimed to create a perfect product
that would suit everyone’s needs. This led to increasing prices. While products became more
complex, producers did not take into account that different groups of consumers had
different needs.

In the 1920s and 1930s, technological advances made production more efficient, and supply
outgrew demand in America and in Western Europe. Manufacturers were struggling with a
surplus of products. The idea behind sales orientation was that a good salesman could sell
anything. The aim was to create a product, which would then have to be aggressively
promoted to make sure that it sold. This was the age when new methods and techniques of
selling were developed.

From around the 1950s, businesses started to put the market in the centre: this was the era
of customer or marketing orientation. Marketers realized that customers cannot be fooled
on a regular basis into buying something they do not really need. These businesses are led
by the market, and production decisions are based on what the market needs. The
marketing concept, which is at the core of customer orientation, constantly changes and
evolves. While not forgetting about the needs of the individual consumer, businesses today
also try to build a positive image of themselves by taking part in projects that improve the
society that the firm is part of.

From the 1990s onwards, really successful businesses have been trying to develop a good
relationship between themselves and their customers. Instead of selling a product to a
consumer once, the real aim is to develop a relationship with the consumer who will continue
to return to the same brand. For example, teenagers may buy a cream for younger skin and
if the firm is successful in building a relationship with them they will keep buying different
creams from the same brand as they age and their needs change. This means that all
dealings with customers and clients are part of the marketing process. Clean and attractively
furnished retail outlets, efficient customer service and polite salespeople, play areas for
children, parking places reserved for customers, and a positive attitude towards the
business’s stakeholders can all be seen as part of a long-term marketing strategy.

I Put the following terms into the right place in the table.

a surplus of products mass production company image building

a perfect product aggressive promotion cheap products added features

 the market’s needs in the centre

production product orientation sales orientation customer

orientation orientation

Mass production Added features Aggressive The market’s needs

promotion in the centre

Cheap products A perfect product A surplus of Company image

products ( višak building
proizvoda)

II Discuss in groups: What do really successful businesses do to increase sales in the

21st century?

III Which concept from the text is illustrated here? How it was created marketing
concept.

CONCORDE: AN AEROPLANE

Concorde: When the famous supersonic aircraft was designed as a joint project between
Britain and France, the designers and engineers concentrated mainly on the technological
aspects of the plane. The needs of the market (number of passengers, noise levels) and
an affordable price were not considered. Developers thought that the product itself would
be so attractive that they would not have to make an effort to sell it. In the end, only British
Airways and Air France bought it, mainly because of pressure from their governments who
had invested heavily in the plane.
 REVISION

After studying this unit you should be able to…

1 define marketing;

2 explain what kinds of tasks marketers need to carry out;

3 understand the core concepts of marketing;

4 describe how the marketing concept developed.

I What is the difference between…

1 Marketing and advertising? The job of 5 a target market and a niche

marketing is to develop products that
will satisfy the needs of consumers, to
price them right, to use distribution
channels to make them accessible to
customers and to inform the consumer
about the existence of the products.
market?
Target market- a particular group of
consumers at which a product or
service is aimed.
 Advertising is type of promotional tools.
2 market research and consumer
research? Market research is an
essential part of the marketing process.
One of its main aims is to identify a
group of customers that you want to
target with your product.
One part of market research is customer
research that is carried out in order to
identify customers' needs.
3 product orientation and production
orientation? Production orientation -
mass production and cheap products.
Product orientation – added features ,
perfect product , relatively cheap
products
4 top of the range and value for money?
Top of the range means it is is very
expensive , value for money – it is fair
price
Niche market - small segment of the
market where customers have
specific needs
6 targeting and positioning?
Targeting is used when marketers
want to divide market into market
segments and possibly to find target
markets.
Positioning refers to how customers
see the product compared with other
brands.
7 goods and services?
Goods are items for sale, or
possessions that can be moved.
4ps marketing mix.
Services are the non-physical,
intangible parts of our economy, as
opposed to goods, which we can
touch or handle. 7Ps marketing
mix.
8 sales orientation and customer
orientation?
Sales orientation - a good salesman
could sell anything. The aim was to
create a product, which would then
have to be aggressively promoted
to make sure that it sold.
Customer orientation - Marketers
realized that customers cannot be
fooled on a regular basis into
buying something they do not
really need. These businesses are
 led by the market, and production
decisions are based on what the
market needs

II Finish these sentences with your own words.

1 The aim of market research is find target

market.___________________________________________.

2 The result of market segmentation is __to__ divide the market into smaller sections
according to categories.____________________________________.

3 Targeting is used when marketers want to _divide market into market segments and
possibly to find target markets.___________________________________.

4 Customer research is useful because _they carried out in order to identify customers'
needs.______________________________________.

5 Positioning is important because _it refers to (shows) marketing mix

how customers see the product compared with other brands.

__________________________________.

6 Marketers set the marketing mix because that help them achieve the desired level of
sales.

7 The market has to be monitored so that marketers can __do_____ changes

( updates) in taste and competitors’ offerings __________________.

III Fill in the missing words.

1 Ulla Popken, a clothing retailer, specializes in selling clothes for larger women. This
is an example of niche____________ marketing.

2 Grey power, DINKS (Double Income No Kids) and YUPPIES (Young Upwardly-
mobile Professionals) are all types of market segmentation____________.
 3 Our company chose DINKS as the target____________ market for our newest
product.

4 We decided to change our positioning____________ strategy; we moved our product

down-market from top of the range to value for money.

5 Some companies don’t do market research____________ before launching a

product. As a result, many of these products fail.

6 The marketing mix____________ has to be set when the product is first

launched____________ and then changed during the life of the product.

7 Mobile phones with large screens and buttons satisfy_______________ the needs of
the elderly: these are phones that they can handle easily.

8 Croatia still offers good value___________ for money in comparison to other

Mediterranean beach destinations.

THE MARKETING MIX

Lead-in.

1 What is the marketing mix? The marketing mix is a collection of variables that help
marketers meet the needs of consumers.

2 What do marketers use it for? For present their idea to consumers.

3 What is the difference between the marketing mix for goods and the marketing mix
for services? The 4Ps is used for goods and 7Ps for services.

The Marketing Mix: the 4Ps – the 7Ps

Read the text and explain the difference between the 4Ps and the 7Ps.

The marketing mix is a collection of variables that help marketers meet the needs of
consumers. The variables are interconnected, and changing one element often leads to
changes in the others as well. The 4 Ps (product, price, place and promotion) are used for
goods. The marketing mix for services is the 7Ps which consist of the 4Ps plus an additional
three elements: people, process and physical evidence.
Product:

First, you have to produce a good-quality product. But that is not enough. Businesses need
to make sure that individual elements of these products – the product features – are
attractive to the target market. Some further components of this P are: packaging, labels,
guarantee, and brand.

Price:

Next, marketers have to decide what the price of the product will be. The price of the product
is determined by the production costs, the length of the distribution channel, the product's
positioning, etc. A successful pricing policy is when customers feel that the product
represents good value for money; this is not the same as being the cheapest available.
Prices have to be adjusted to the market and so they have to be constantly monitored and
sometimes changed.

Place:

After that, you'll have to decide where to sell your product. However, place not only refers to
the retail outlet where products are sold, but to the entire distribution channel starting from
the factory where it is produced through all the intermediaries along the way (wholesalers,
agents, distributors, retailers, etc.) ending with the consumer. The final retail outlet has to be
chosen well: it should be easy for the end customer to access the product.

Promotion:

If nobody knows about your product, you will not sell it. So, finally, you have to promote your
product, that is, inform your potential customers about it. You can do it in many ways which
can be classified into four main promotional tools: advertising, sales promotions, personal
selling, public relations and sponsorship.

People:

When a company provides a service, it needs people to perform it, e.g. the behaviour, the
knowledge and the skills of the employees are part of the service that is being offered.
Customers are more loyal to businesses where the experience of buying something or using
a service is better.

Process:

It is also important how you provide services. Process is about the method or system of
offering a service or the way the organization prescribes how tasks are carried out. When
customers choose where to buy a product or service, they take into account how efficient the
processes are, i.e., how sales are handled, if there is an after-sales service, etc.

Physical evidence:

This P shows where the service is delivered from. The location, the set-up and the
attractiveness of this place influence what kind of customer enters the business to pay for
the service. Usually when you go to a restaurant, immediately on entering you know what to
expect, just from looking at the furniture and set-up: a self-service fast-food place or an
expensive restaurant.

I First, fill in the gaps with the words from the box. Then decide which P each
sentence refers to and write it on the broken line after each sentence.

experience packaging space method retail outlet price

promotional tools

1 Some businesses charge a high _______price_________ because they want their

customers to think that the product is exclusive. Others give discounts for a limited
period or permanently reduce the price to sell goods to make room for newer
products.

_ _ _ PRICE _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

2 Good _packaging will make the product stand out on the shelves of retail outlets. _ _
_ _ _ PRODUCT_ _ _ _ _ _ _

3 In choosing the _____retail outlet___________ where a product is sold, marketers

need to make sure that target customers are able to access the product easily. _ _ _
_ PLACE_ _ _ _

4 Restaurants that position themselves at the high end of the market will have to
design a _______space_________ that fits this image; similarly, fast food places
have a simpler and cheaper design to help customers identify them. _ _ __ _ _
_PHYSICAL EVIDENCE _ _ _ _ _

5 Our ___experience_____________ of a meal eaten in a restaurant is directly

influenced by the waiter who serves us. And if he is good, the restaurant will develop
a long lasting-relationship with its customers. _ _ PEOPLE_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
 6 Businesses have to make a choice about which promotional tools_ to use and how to
best communicate with the target customers. _ _ _ _ PROMOTION_ _ _ _ _ _

7 Banks that send new credit cards to customers when the old one expires need to
have an efficient ___method_____________ to carry out this task correctly. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ PROCESS_ _ _ _ _

II Read exercise I again and find verbs to complete the word partnerships in these
sentences.

1 Our marketers have to make sure that the product we are selling is easy to notice on
supermarket shelves; they have to make_______________ the product stand out
from all the other offerings.

2 Our diving equipment didn’t sell very well in Karlovac. We think that our consumers
couldn’t afford_______________ the product where they needed it.

3 Since we are the only ones on the market selling this innovative product, we can
safely put / post______________ a high price.

4 After our competitor entered the market we were forced to give______________

discounts on our prices to keep our customers.

5 We positioned_______________ our new perfume at the high end of the market; our
target customers are rich, urban, young and single.

6 By consistently upgrading our product and offering good customer service, we hope
to develope_______________ a relationship with our consumers, so that they keep
coming back and purchasing our products.

7 While it is important to carry______________ out the task of attracting as many

customers as possible, we have to make an effort to keep within the marketing
budget.

III Read these word partnerships with PRICE and match the ones that mean the same.

1 a fair price 6 A) reduce the price

2 a half price 4 B) a price movement

 3 a bargain price 5 C) charge a price

4 a price change 1 D) a discount price

5 set a price 2 E) 50% off

6 cut the price 3 F) a reasonable price

Brands

Read the short text about brands and fill in the gaps with the words from the box.

slogan logo product brand name

Branded products are easily identifiable because they have a unique _____brand
name___________ coupled with a very recognizable image or picture called a
_____logo___________. Marketers also create a catchy ______slogan__________ that
consumers can easily remember.

Brands, however, mean much more than just a specific name on a __product____________:
they represent a whole range of beliefs and attitudes connected to a product. For example,
everyone knows that Mercedes is a high-quality, luxurious car. We make the assumption
that people who own such a car belong to the top layer of society. Similarly, the presumption
is that people who own Smarts are young, hip and urban.

I Answer these questions.

1 Which P in the marketing mix do brands belong in? Product

2 What are your favourite brands? Why do you like them? My favorite brands are Opel,
Zara, FC Barcelona, Under Armour, pizza. I like football, my favorite meal is pizza,
Opel has great cars, Zara very interesting jeans for young people …
3 Are you loyal to any brand? I am loyal to FC Barcelona.