Words: 2345
A. Definitions Of Marketing 1. Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners and society at large. [American Marketing Association(AMA) Board Of Directors] 2. Marketing is the science and art of exploring, creating and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit. Marketing identifies unfulfilled needs and desires. It defines, measures and qualifies the size of the identified market and the profit potential. Dr. Philip Kotler] 3. Marketing is traditionally the means by which an organization communicates to, connects with and engages its target audience to convey the value of and ultimately sell its products and services. [Julie Barile] 4. Marketing is the process by which a firm profitably translates customer needs into revenue. [Mark Burgess- Managing partner, Blue focus Marketing] 5. Marketing is meeting the needs and wants of a customer, that is when someone buys something he/she must be satisfied of what he/she bought. [Andrew Cohen] 6.
Marketing is building your brand, convincing people that your brand is the best and protecting the relationship you build with your customers. [Marjorie Clayman, Director Of Development, Clayman Advertising Inc. ] 7. Marketing is creating irresistible experiences that connect with people personally and create the desire to share with others. [Saul Colt] 8. Marketing is ultimately responsible to create enterprise value via the brand, the face of the business strategy. To do so, marketing identifies the target, attractive high growth segments.
Marketing drives the organization to define the single minded, differentiated brand value proposition and deliver on it every single day across every touch point. Marketing ensures the delivery of a compelling, differentiated offer to that target and proposition. And, marketing measures and improves the consumers/ businesses/partner satisfaction, and the brand health and strength. Marketing is the single point of accountability for growth, identifying and delivering on new customers, new offerings & new market profitable growth. Cathy Halligan ??? Senior Vice President Sales & Marketing, PowerReviews Criticize:
Cathy Halligan definition of marketing is based solely on brand A brand represents a product which has a set of value that meet certain of the customer’s psychological needs leading to a perception of added values and feeling of confidence on the part of the customers It is theses added values and the psychological and perception effects they have on customer choice that constitute the essence of what brand it is. Brand values are among the most important influences on buying decision and customer choice ? Reasons: Reputable brands allow the customer to choose with confidences and reduce the risks.
Brands are strongly associated with: i. Emotional ii. Psychological iii. Status iv. Function 8. Marketing is everything a company does, from how they answer the phone, how quickly and effectively they respond to email, to how they handle accounts payable, to how they treat their employees and customers. Done right, marketing integrates a great product or service with PR, sales, advertising, new media, personal contact. In other words, marketing is not a discipline or an activity ??? it is everything a company is ??? at least if the company wants to be successful. B. L. Ochman ??? President, What’s Next
Criticize: According to B. L. Ochman, marketing encompasses all activities, staff, building, responses. For examples: Services must be qualitative and must be of the highest standard: ???How to answer the telephone ???The response to E-mail ???The handling of accounts payable ???How employees are treated ???How customers are treated But the world is not perfect, there will be flaws in the system, motivation is essential, behavior for all and each of the people involved in the business must be geared- Not possible. Professor Philip Kotler explained that marketing was “meeting the needs of your customer at a profit. According to me, marketing extends beyond just communicating product features. Marketers are responsible for a 360-degree experience. For example, in the social media world, a customer’s Twitter needs may differ from her needs to “play with the brand” in terms of a social game promotion. Every customer touch point from customer service to sales to accounting and more are part of the ‘new marketing. ‘ Marketing is the word we use to explain how we encourage people to buy our products. If it’s going to work in a big way, there needs to be a strategy or big idea to whet peoples’ appetites for what we’re selling.
When we’re marketing, we begin with a plan; objectives, strategy and tactics (how we implement strategy). It is a process that helps companies to build relationships with prospects and customers and creates unique value for them when it is done right. B. Marketing Process Marketing process is a fundamental idea of marketing that organizations survive and prosper through meeting needs and wants of customers. This important perspective is commonly known as the marketing concept. The marketing concept is about matching a company’s capabilities with customer wants.
This matching process takes place in what is called a marketing environment. Businesses do not undertake marketing activities alone. They face threats from competitors and changes in political economic, social and technological environment. All these factors have to be taken into account as a business tries to match its capabilities with the needs and wants of the target market. An organization that adopts the marketing concept accepts the needs of potential customers as the basis for its operations. Success is dependent on satisfying customer needs. Situation Analysis
A situation refers to the general position or context that a person or organization is operating within at a specific point in time. A situation refers to the general state of things; or the combination of circumstances occurring at a given time. A situation analysis defines and interprets the state of the environment of a person or organization. A situation analysis provides the context and knowledge for planning. A situation analysis describes an organization’s competitive position, operating and financial condition and general state of internal and external affairs.
A situation analysis consists of the three following analysis: ???SWOT Analysis A SWOT analysis is often conducted as a major part of a situation analysis. SWOT is an acronym that refers to strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. ???5C’s Analysis Company, Customers, Competitors, Collaborators and Climate. Company represents the internal situation and the other four cover aspects of the external situation. ???PEST Analysis For macro-environmental, political, economic, societal and technological factors. A PEST analysis can be used as the ‘climate’ portion of the 5C framework. Marketing Strategy
The marketing concept of building an organization around the profitable satisfaction of customer needs has helped firms to achieve success in high-growth, moderately competitive markets. However, to be successful in markets in which economic growth has leveled and in which there exist many competitors who follow the marketing concept. A well-developed marketing strategy is required. Such a strategy considers a portfolio of products and takes into account the anticipated moves of competitors in the market. The Marketing Mix Decisions The major marketing management decisions can be classified in one of the following four categories:- ?
Products ?Price ?Place(distribution) ?Promotion These variables are known as the marketing mix of the 4P’s of marketing. They are the variables that marketing managers can control in order to best satisfy customers in the target market. The marketing mix is portrayed in the following diagram. The firms attempt to generate a positive response in the target market by blending these four marketing mix variables in an optimal manner. ?Product The product is the physical product or service offered to the consumer. In the case of physical products, it also refers to any services or conveniences that are part of the offering.
Products decisions include aspects such as function, appearance, packaging, service, warranty, etc. ?Price Pricing decisions should take into account profit margin and probable pricing response of competitors. Pricing includes not only the list price but also discounts, financing and other options such as leasing. ?Place Place (or placement) decisions are those associated with channels of distribution that serve as the means for getting product to the target customers. The distribution system performs transactional, logistical and facilitating functions.
Distribution decision includes market coverage, channel member selection, logistics and levels of service. ?Promotion Promotion decisions are those related to communicating and selling to potential consumers. Since these costs can be large in proportion to the product price, a break-event analysis should be performed when making promotion decisions. It is useful to know the value of customer in order to determine whether additional customers are worth the cost of acquiring them. Promotion decisions involve advertising, public relations, media types, etc. A Summary Table Of The Marketing Mix
ProductPricePlacePromotion FunctionalityList PriceChannel MembersAdvertising AppearanceDiscountsChannel MotivationPersonal Selling QualityAllowancesMarket CoveragePublic Relations PackagingFinancingLocationsMessage BrandLeasing optionsLogisticsMedia WarrantyService levelsBudget Service/Support Implementation & Control At this point in the process, the marketing plan has been developed and the product has been launched. Given that few environments are static, the results of the marketing efforts should be monitored closely. As the market changes, the marketing mix can be adjusted to accommodate the changes.
Often, small changes in consumer wants can be addressed by changing the advertising message. As the changes become more significant, a product redesign or an entirely new product may be needed. The marketing process does not end with implementation- continual monitoring and adaptation is needed to fulfill customer needs consistently over long-term. Types Of Marketing Control ?Annual-plan Control ?Profitability Control ?Efficiency Control ?Strategic Control ???Annual-plan Control An annual-plan control is an annual publication that public corporations must provide to shareholders to describe their operations and financial conditions.
The front part of the report often contains an impressive combination of graphics, photos and an accompanying narrative, all of which chronicle the company’s activities over the past year. The back part of the report contains detailed financial and operational information. ???Profitability Control Profitability control is the process of evaluating the revenue producing ability of goods and services offered, as well as assessing the support services required to the market and produce the good or service.
The idea is to make sure that any product or service that is offered is generating enough income to not only cover the total cost of making the goods or services available, but also to make a net profit for the company. ???Efficiency Control Efficiency control involves micro-level analysis of the various elements of the marketing mix, including sales force, advertising, sales promotion and distribution. For example, to understand its sales force efficiency, a company may keep track of how many sales calls a representative makes each day, how long each call lasts and how much each call costs and generates in revenue. Strategic Control Strategic control processes allow managers to evaluate a company’s marketing program from a critical long-term perspective. This involves a detailed and objective analysis of a company’s organization and its ability to maximize its strength and market opportunities (. [(www. marsdd. com)www. nyfa. edu)(www. businessdictionary. com)] C. Marketing Management Philosophies There are different concepts that guide sellers to conduct their marketing activities. For example, sellers can only focus on production and try to reduce their cost of production or focus on improving the quality of the product.
Similarly, they can pay more attention to selling and promotion. In this way different concepts have evolved to help the organization in managing their marketing activities. These concepts are: ???Production concept ???Product concept ???Marketing concept ???Societal marketing concept The explanation of these concepts is given below. ?Production Concept Production concept refers to the philosophy that supplies its own demand. It means that the sale will increase automatically with the increase in production and distribution facilities. This is one of the oldest concepts and works only in few situations.
Similarly, the concept of production is helpful in situation where there is imbalance between demand and supply that is demand exceeds supply. Due to higher demand, prices start to increase therefore management earn higher profits by increasing the production. ?Product Concept Product concept states that the seller should focus on improving the quality of their product, improving the performance, adding more innovating features, etc. So basically this concept is about to attract the customers by improving the quality and performance on one hand and offer attractive prices on the other.
The important drawback of the product concept is that it can lead to marketing myopia in which in which the organization overlooked the importance of other substitutes in the industry. ?Selling Concept The selling concept focuses on the large scale selling and promotion activities in order to attract more customers. There are various industries which sell products that buyers do not normally think of buying. Therefore, in order to attract such buyers, these organizations have to practice the selling concept. There is high risk in such marketing because the organizations try to sell the product whether the buyers like or not.
Therefore, if the buyers do not like the product, then it can really spoil the reputation of the organization. ?Marketing Concept According to the marketing concept, organizations should focus to analyze the needs and wants of target market and provide the desired satisfaction more effectively than competitors do. The marketing concept starts with a well-defined market, focuses on customer needs and wants and end at creating long term customer relationship by effectively satisfying the needs and wants of customers. Thus, through marketing concept, organization could be benefited in the long run. Societal Marketing Concept Societal marketing concept focuses to improve the well-being of consumers and society as a whole. Therefore, those organizations which are practicing this concept try to analyze the needs, wants and demand of target market and deliver superior value to customers which results in overall well-being of customers and society. Societal marketing concept is relatively new as compared to the other marketing management philosophies. [(theCMOsite. com) (www. targetter. co. za)( www. mediasystems. co. uk