Marketing

  American Marketing Association (AMA) defines marketing as the process necessary for the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution to create exchange that satisfy individual and organizational objectives.

SUCCESSFUL MARKETERS!

• Warner Bros exchanges viewing the movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for ticket prices.
• Harley Davidson changes it's motorcycles for sales dollar, ABC exchanges it's entertaining TV Production Monday Night Football for higher viewer ratings which it then exchanges for advertising dollars.
• Marketers have correctly heard consumer wants and need therefore conceived a product (or service) price, promotion and distribution method that satisfy the wants and needs.

Successful companies are those that know the customer so well that the product conceived, priced, promoted and distributed by the company is ready  to be bought as soon as available.

CORE CONCEPTS OF MARKETING 

A Human Need
  A state of felt deprivation.

Maslow Hierachy OF Needs

WANTS:

• Needs shaped by personality, culture and circumstances.

PRODUCT:

• A good, service or an idea offered for general consumption.
• A need/ want satisfyer.
• A problem solver.
• A benefit giver.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION:

  

  The extent to which the perceived value of a product matches customers' expectations after purchase.

CUSTOMER PERCEIVED VALUE:

  

  Difference between the benefits minus the costs of a product in relation to competing products in the eyes of the customer.

PROCESS OF MARKETING:

• Finding out what customers need/ want.
• Satisfying those needs/ wants.
• Achieving organizational goals for example profits.

TASK Of MARKETING:

• Creating Value.
• Capturing Value.
• Sustaining Value.

MARKETING MANAGEMENT ORIENTATIONS:

 The six alternative concepts under which organizations design and carry out their marketing strategies: Marketing, Production, Product, Selling, Societal and Sustainable.

 Marketing Concept:

  

  A business philosophy that holds the key to achieving organizational goals consists of the company being more effective than it's competitors in creating delivering and communicating customer value to it's chosen target markets. Pepsi and Coke – Both of these companies have similar products. However the value proposition presented by both is different. These companies thrive on the marketing concept. Where Pepsi focuses on youngsters, Coke delivers on a holistic approach. Also the value proposition by Coke has been better over ages as compared to Pepsi which shows that coke especially thrives on the marketing concept, i.e it delivers a better value proposition as compared to its competitor.

It's often used interchangeably as other terms like customer oriented and market driven. The philosophy puts the customer first. If you satisfy consumers they will seek to do business with your company. Firms must put together the `right strategy`.

Coca cola and Pepsi

Production Concept:

• The idea that consumers will favor products that are available and highly affordable; therefore, the organisation should focus on improving production and distribution efficiency.
• India and China are great examples of the Production Concept of marketing. China made sure that it increases its overall production through manual labor available by mass producing and distributing products across the world. Today China is one of the biggest exporter of its manufactured product across the globe. What China did in manufacturing, India did with information technology services by mass producing talent for IT. Today India is one of the biggest exporter of IT services.

A Projector

Product Concept:

• The idea that the consumers will favor products that offer the most quality, performance, and features; therefore, the organization should devote its energy to masking continuous product improvements.
• Using Product concept, a company can give identity to the product and can add functional value and usability so that the intended customers can derive this benefit and eventually buy the product in the market.
• Apple is one company which works highly on product concept to get the best products to their consumers. Apple's products are perceived to be very high quality with innovative features and great performance. Customers go after the products of Apple and that creates a marketing pull.

Apple Products

Selling Concept:

• The idea that consumers will not buy enough of the firm's products unless the firm undertakes a large-scale selling and promotion effort.
• In selling concept the marketer assumes that customers will be coaxed into buying the product will like it, if they don’t like it, they will possibly forget their disappointment and buy it again later. This is usually very poor and costly assumption.
• Typically the selling concept is practiced with unsought goods. Unsought goods are that buyers do not normally think of buying, such as insurance or blood donations.
• These industries must be good at tracking down prospects and selling them on a product’s benefits.

Societal Concept:

• The idea that a company's marketing decisions should consider consumers' wants, the company's requirements, consumers' long term interests, and society's long term interests.
• The Societal Marketing Concept puts the Human welfare on top before profits and satisfying the wants.
• The global warming panic button is pushed and a revelation is required in the way we use our resources. So companies are slowly either fully or partially trying to implement the societal marketing concept.

Red Cross

Sustainable Marketing Concept:

  

  Sustainability marketing, also referred to as green marketing, is when a company focuses social and environmental investments as a marketing strategy. Sustainability marketing is a way to build relationships with consumers while letting them know that they are important and so are future generations. It is a concept that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Green Marketing

MARKET SEGMENTATION

MARKETING MIX

MARKETING ENVIRONMENT:

  Alludes to elements and forces that influence an organization's capacity to manufacture and keep up effective customer relationships. The environment has been characterized as "the totality of physical and social factors that are contemplated straightforwardly in the basic decision-making conduct of people in the organization.

It consists of 3 levels;

1. Internal environment – the inside components of the association used to create, communicate and convey showcase market contributions.
2. External Micro environment – small forces external the company that affect its ability to serve its customers.
3. External Macro environment – larger societal forces that affect the survival of the organization.

Micro Environment:

  The forces near the organization that influences its capacity to serve its clients incorporate the internal environment, suppliers, customers, intermediaries, competitors and publics. 

Macro Environment:

  Larger societal forces that affect the entire macro environment incorporate the demographic environment, the political, social condition, natural and the economic environments.

Internal Environment:

  The internal environment "comprises of those important physical and social factors inside the limits of the organization or explicit decision unit that are mulled over legitimately in the decision making conduct of individuals in that framework". This incorporates all departments, for example, the management, finance, research and development purchasing.

External Environment:

  The external environment "consists of those relevant physical and social factors outside the boundaries of the organization or specific decision unit that are taken directly into consideration." The external environment can be further broken into micro and macro environments.

Micro Environment;

  The micro-environment consists of customers, partners, and competitors. The most important aspect of micro-environment is the customer market. There are different types of customer markets including: Consumer markets, Business markets, Government markets, Globalization International markets, and Reseller markets. Partners include marketing intermediaries, financiers, and advertising agencies.

  Competitors are likewise a factor in the micro environment and incorporate organizations with comparable contributions for products and ventures. To remain competitive an organization must contemplate on who their greatest rivals are while thinking about its own size and position in the industry. The organization ought to build up a strategic advantage over their rivals. For instance Apple's main rival is Samsung.

  The last part of the micro environment is publics, which is any group that has an interest for or impact on the organization's capacity to meet its objectives. There are different kinds of publics which are Financial, Media, Government, Citizen Action, Local and General Publics.  

Macro Environment:

  Factors affecting organization in Macro environment are known as PESTLE, that is: Political, Economical, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal.

APPLE Inc PESTLE ANALYSIS;

Political:

  Apple is heavily dependent on lower cost manufacturing in China. Strained relations between US and other countries may have terrible outcomes for the company.

Economical:

  Customers spend less on Apple products as they are expensive as compared to their competitors. Europe's economic difficulties and the fall in pound led to the decrease in sales of Apple products in the UK. Increased labor cost in China affected prices of Apple products as most of the parts are manufactured in China.

Social:

  Apple products have marked their presence in the international market. Possessing Apple products is a status symbol in many societies which has increased sales in Apple products. Purchasing power of the common has increased due to which people are shifting towards more luxurious products.

Technological:

  Apple needs to upgrade their products to out speed their competitors. Provision of more safety solutions to tackle growing menace of cyber crimes. Competitors are offering similar products and services at lower cost, as a result Apple products are no longer unique.

Legal:

  Participation in lawsuits since it's inception. In 2009 Nokia sued Apple for infringement of Nokia's patent relating to wireless technology. Apple has been in a series of patent cases with competitors like HTC and Samsung.

Environmental:

  Expense of disposing non-working electronic devices. Pollution and other environmental concerns from manufacturing facilities for example China. Climate change due to global warming could distract Apple's supply chain. China's efforts to reduce fossil fuel use  could increase electricity rates and manufacturing costs for Apple in that country.

  I believe in one way or the other, you learnt more about the word "Marketing" and what it entails. Feel free to drop your Opinions in the comments section below.