FUNCTIONS OF MARKETING

Dr.N.ANITHA, M.Com.,M.Phil.,Ph.D.,

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF COMMERCE,

ANNAI WOMEN’S COLLEGE,

KARUR.
 MEANING OF MARKETING

The term market is derived from the Latin word Mercatus,

which means ‘a place where business is conducted ‘. The term in
the common usage refers to a place where actual buying and selling
take place or where buyers and sellers personally meet together to
effect purchases and sales.
 DEFINITION OF MARKETING

• In the words of Pyle “Market includes both

place and region in which buyers and sellers
are in free competition with one another “.
 FUNCTIONS OF MARKETING
MARKETING FUNCTIONS

I. Functions of II. Functions of III. Facilitating

Exchange physical supply Functions
• Financing
• Buying • Transportation
• Risk taking
• Assembling • Storage • Standardization
• Selling • Warehousing and grading
• Market
information
 I. Functions of Exchange
BUYING - MEANING

• Every one in this world buys goods as a matter of daily

routine. A manufacturer, for example, buys raw materials to be
used as inputs in production. A trader buys finished goods from
the manufacturer to be sold to consumers. The consumers buy
goods from the traders for the sake of consumption. In the
absence of the buying function, business as well household
activities will come to a stand still.
 DEFINITION OF BUYING

• “Buying comprises all those activities involved in finding a

suitable source of supply, selecting the desires quantity. Quality,

grads, style and size and coming to man agreement with reference
to the price, delivery data and other conditions”. Pyle.
 MEANING OF ASSEMBLING
• Assembling means bringing together, collecting and
concentrating goods of the same type from the various sources
of supply at centrally located places. In other words, assembling
refers to the gathering of the same type of goods scattered in
small lots. For example, Retailers buy different commodities of
different sizes in different quantity, in di9fferent quality for their
further movements.
 DEFINITION OF ASSEMBLING
• The Main aim of assembling is to bring the products at a central place
in order to disperse them either for production or consumption
purposes.
• “Assembling means the seeking out of the sources of supply,
buying wisely, as to quality and society and making commodities
available when and where they are wanted”-Holtzlaw.
 MEANING OF SELLING

• The process of transferring ownership of goods from the seller to

the buyers is what is known as selling. Selling starts after
production. The philosophy of selling is ‘Profit maximization’.
Selling function is also called a creative function. It creates
demand, without selling, there is no buying. The main object of
selling is to sell or to dispose of goods at a satisfactory price.
 DEFINITION OF SELLING

• “ Selling comprises of all those personal and impersonal

activities involved in finding, securing and developing a
demand for a given product or services and in consummating
the sale of it-Pyle
 II. Functions of physical supply
TRANSPORTATION - MEANING

Transport is means of distribution by which the goods produced in

one place moved to another for consumption. It is described as
physical marketing, which helps in physical supply of goods. The
goods produced in a particular place are not consumed there itself.
From the place of production the goods need to be taken to the
various consumption centers which are scattered throughout the
country or even throughout the world. Transportation is concerned
only with this task. It creates what is called ‘place utility’.
 DEFINITION OF TRANSPORTATION

• “Transport industries which undertake nothing more than the

movement of persons and things from the space to another, have
constituted one of the most important activities of men in every
stage of advanced utilization”-Lionel Robbins.
 STORAGE - MEANING
• Storage helps to preserve goods (perishable and non-perishable)
at a particular place until these are required elsewhere. It can be
defined as a marketing function that involves holding of goods
between the time of its production and its final consumption.
• Maintenance of stock of raw materials and finished products
calls for storage.
 DEFINITION OF STORAGE

• “Storage is an exercise of human skill by which commodities

are protected from deterioration and surplus is carried is
carried over the future consumption during the period of
scarcity”.
 WAREHOUSING- MEANING
• The meaning of the ‘ware’ is article. A warehouse is place where
goods are stored. It is otherwise known as ‘godown’. It is usually
found away from the place of business of a merchant.
• A warehouse or a godown is a room or a building for the
accumulation of goods, Possessing facilitates to perform other
marketing functions. A warehouse must provide a better view and
a clear differentiation chart regarding the article stored.
 III. Facilitating Functions
FINANCING

• It means the arrangement of adequate finance for distributing the

goods and services to their real consumers.
• The financing functions of marketing involve providing credit for
channel members or consumers.
 RISK TAKING
• Risk taking is one of the important marketing functions. Risk taking
in marketing refers to uncertainty about consumer purchases resulting
from creation and marketing of goods and services that consumers
may purchase in future.
• In the marketing process, numerous risks arises like, damages to goods,
physical loss, changes in economic values of goods, mismanagement,
credit losses, etc. These are more or less inherent in the marketing process.
There are losses, on accounts of fire, flood, deterioration, bad debts, etc.
On all these occasions, an intelligent businessman minimises risks. As a
result, the risks are to be shouldered, shifted or reduced. Some of the risks
are insurable, while others are not.
 STANDARDISATION AND GRADING
• Standard is a specification of goods. It is a ‘norm’, ‘grade’ or
‘category’. Standards are fixed on physical characteristics of
products.
• Standard is used in providing certain basic qualities to the goods
for their use. The standardised products possess uniform
characteristics e.g., shape, weight, size, etc.
Continues…
• On the other hand Grading is a process of classification of
products after the process of standardization ends. It involves
categorical bifurcation of standardized products for better
efficiency.
• Therefore, grading is an important process in the whole series of
the functions of marketing. Grading is specially necessary in case
of products coming from the fields, forests, mines or water.
 MARKET INFORMATION
• Market information includes all facts, estimates, opinions and
other information used in making decisions, which affect the
marketing of products or services. The desired success of
marketing depends on correct and timely decision.
• To identify the needs, wants and demands of the consumers and
then analyzing the identified information to arrive at various
decisions for the successful marketing of a firm’s products and
services is one of the most important functions of marketing.