Marketing Mix

 

Marketing is a continually evolving discipline and as such can be one that companies find themselves left very much behind the competition if they stand still for too long. One example of this evolution has been the fundamental changes to the basic Marketing mix. Where once there were 4 P’s to explain the mix, nowadays it is more commonly accepted that a more developed 7 P’s adds a much needed additional layer of depth to the Marketing Mix with some theorists going even going further.

THE MARKETING MIX

Simply put the Marketing Mix is a tool used by businesses and Marketers to help determine a product or brands offering. The 4 P’s have been associated with the Marketing Mix since their creation by E. Jerome McCarthy in 1960 (You can see why there may have been some need to update the theory).

Neil Borden in the year 1953 introduced the term Marketing mix, an extension of the work done by one of his associates James Culliton in 1948.

Marketing Mix – A mixture of several ideas and plans followed by a marketing representative to promote a particular product or brand is called marketing mix. Several concepts and ideas combined together to formulate final strategies helpful in making a brand popular amongst the masses form marketing mix.

The marketing 4Ps are also the foundation of the idea of marketing mix.

Product: A product is an item that is built or produced to satisfy the needs of a certain group of people. The product can be intangible or tangible as it can be in the form of services or goods.You must ensure to have the right type of product that is in demand for your market. So during the product development phase, the marketer must do an extensive research on the life cycle of the product that they are creating.

A product has a certain life cycle that includes the growth phase, the maturity phase, and the sales decline phase. It is important for marketers to reinvent their products to stimulate more demand once it reaches the sales decline phase. Marketers must also create the right product mix. It may be wise to expand your current product mix by diversifying and increasing the depth of your product line. All in all, marketers must ask themselves the question “what can I do to offer a better product to this group of people than my competitors”.

In developing the right product, you have to answer the following questions:

• What does the client want from the service or product?
• How will the customer use it?
• Where will the client use it?
• What features must the product have to meet the client’s needs?
• Are there any necessary features that you missed out?
• Are you creating features that are not needed by the client?
• What’s the name of the product?
• Does it have a catchy name?
• What are the sizes or colors available?
• How is the product different from the products of your competitors?
• What does the product look like?

Price:  The price of the product is basically the amount that a customer pays for to enjoy it. Price is a very important component of the marketing mix definition. It is also a very important component of a marketing plan as it determines your firm’s profit and survival. Adjusting the price of the product has a big impact on the entire marketing strategy as well as greatly affecting the sales and demand of the product. This is inherently a touchy area though. If a company is new to the market and has not made a name for themselves yet, it is unlikely that your target market will be willing to pay a high price.

Although they may be willing in the future to hand over large sums of money, it is inevitably harder to get them to do so during the birth of a business. Pricing always help shape the perception of your product in consumers eyes. Always remember that a low price usually means an inferior good in the consumers eyes as they compare your good to a competitor. Consequently, prices too high will make the costs outweigh the benefits in customers eyes, and they will therefore value their money over your product. Be sure to examine competitors pricing and price accordingly.

When setting the product price, marketers should consider the perceived value that the product offers. There are three major pricing strategies, and these are:

• Market penetration pricing
• Market skimming pricing
• Neutral pricing

Here are some of the important questions that you should ask yourself when you are setting the product price:

• How much did it cost you to produce the product?
• What is the customers’ perceived product value?
• Do you think that the slight price decrease could significantly increase your market share?
• Can the current price of the product keep up with the price of the product’s competitors?

Place: Placement or distribution is a very important part of the product mix definition. You have to position and distribute the product in a place that is accessible to potential buyers. This comes with a deep understanding of your target market. Understand them inside out and you will discover the most efficient positioning and distribution channels that directly speak with your market.

There are many distribution strategies, including:

• Intensive distribution
• Exclusive distribution
• Selective distribution
• Franchising

Here are some of the questions that you should answer in developing your distribution strategy:

• Where do your clients look for your service or product?
• What kind of stores do potential clients go to? Do they shop in a mall, in a regular brick and mortar store, in the supermarket, or online?
• How do you access the different distribution channels?
• How is your distribution strategy different from your competitors?
• Do you need a strong sales force?
• Do you need to attend trade fairs?
• Do you need to sell in an online store?

Promotion: Promotion is a very important component of marketing as it can boost brand recognition and sales. Promotion is comprised of various elements like:

• Sales Organization
• Public Relations
• Advertising
• Sales Promotion

Advertising typically covers communication methods that are paid for like television advertisements, radio commercials, print media, and internet advertisements. In contemporary times, there seems to be a shift in focus offline to the online world. Public relations, on the other hand, are communications that are typically not paid for. This includes press releases, exhibitions, sponsorship deals, seminars, conferences, and events. Word of mouth is also a type of product promotion. Word of mouth is an informal communication about the benefits of the product by satisfied customers and ordinary individuals. The sales staff plays a very important role in public relations and word of mouth. It is important to not take this literally. Word of mouth can also circulate on the internet. Harnessed effectively and it has the potential to be one of the most valuable assets you have in boosting your profits online. An extremely good example of this is online social media and managing a firm’s online social media presence.

In creating an effective product promotion strategy, you need to answer the following questions:

• How can you send marketing messages to your potential buyers?
• When is the best time to promote your product?
• Will you reach your potential audience and buyers through television ads?
• Is it best to use the social media in promoting the product?
• What is the promotion strategy of your competitors?

Your combination of promotional strategies and how you go about promotion will depend on your budget, the message you want to communicate, and the target market you have defined already in previous steps.

Marketing Mix 7P’s

The 7Ps model is a marketing model that modifies the 4Ps model. The 7Ps is generally used in the service industries.

Here is the expansions from the 4Ps to the 7Ps marketing model:

People: People refer to the staff and salespeople who work for your business, including yourself.When you provide excellent customer service, you create a positive experience for your customers, and in doing so market your brand to them. In turn, existing customers may spread the word about your excellent service and you can win referrals.

Give your business a competitive advantage by recruiting the right people, training your staff to develop their skills, and retaining good staff.

Process: Process refers to the processes involved in delivering your products and services to the customer. It is also about being ‘easy to do business with’. Having good process in place ensures that you:

• repeatedly deliver the same standard of service to your customers
• save time and money by increasing efficiency.

Learn more about business processes, procedures and standards.

Physical evidence: Physical evidence refers to everything your customers see when interacting with your business. This includes:

• the physical environment where you provide the product or service
• the layout or interior design
• your packaging
• your branding.

Physical evidence can also refer to your staff and how they dress and act.Consider how your store’s layout, fixtures and signage can build your brand and increase your sales.

An example of a company using the 7Ps strategy

Take a look at HubSpot as an example, which was founded in 2006; Hubspot has 8,000+ customers in 56 countries and sells software. What does their marketing mix look like?

This is a top level overview; you would take this into greater detail and ask the following questions:

1. Products/Services: Integrated toolset for SEO, blogging, social media, website, email and lead intelligence tools.

2.  Prices/Fees: Subscription-based monthly, Software-As-Service model based on number of contacts in database and number of users of the service.

3. Place/Access: Online! Network of Partners, Country User Groups.

4. Promotion: Directors speak at events, webinars, useful guides that are amplified by SEO and effective with SEO. PPC Social media advertising, e.g. LinkedIn.

5. Physical Evidence: Consistent branding across communications.

6. Processes: More sales staff are now involved in conversion.

7: People: Investment in online services.

4’Cs of Marketing

The 4Cs marketing model was developed by Robert F. Lauterborn in 1990. It is a modification of the 4Ps model. It is not a basic part of the marketing mix definition, but rather an extension. Here are the components of this marketing model:

• Cost – According to Lauterborn, price is not the only cost incurred when purchasing a product. Cost of conscience or opportunity cost is also part of the cost of product ownership.
• Consumer Wants and Needs – A company should only sell a product that addresses consumer demand. So, marketers and business researchers should carefully study the consumer wants and needs.
• Communication – According to Lauterborn, “promotion” is manipulative while communication is “cooperative”. Marketers should aim to create an open dialogue with potential clients based on their needs and wants.
• Convenience – The product should be readily available to the consumers. Marketers should strategically place the products in several visible distribution points.

Whether you are using the 4Ps, the 7Ps, or the 4Cs, your marketing mix plan plays a vital role. It is important to devise a plan that balances profit, client satisfaction, brand recognition, and product availability. It is also extremely important to consider the overall “how” aspect that will ultimately determine your success or failure.By understanding the basic concept of the marketing mix and it’s extensions, you will be sure to achieve financial success whether it is your own business or whether you are assisting in your workplace’s business success. The ultimate goal of business is to make profits and this is a surefire, proven way to achieve this goal.

All the elements of the marketing mix influence each other. They make up the business plan for a company and handled right, can give it great success. But handled wrong and the business could take years to recover. The marketing mix needs a lot of understanding, market research and consultation with several people, from users to trade to manufacturing and several others.

Source

https://www.professionalacademy.com/blogs-and-advice/marketing-theories—the-marketing-mix—from-4-p-s-to-7-p-s

http://www.managementstudyguide.com/marketing-mix.htm

https://www.business.qld.gov.au/running-business/marketing-sales/marketing-promotion/marketing-basics/seven-ps-marketing

Bitner, M. J. and Booms, H. (1981). Marketing Strategies and Organization: Structure for Service Firms. In Donnelly, J. H. and George, W. R. (Eds). Marketing of Services, Conference Proceedings. Chicago, IL. American Marketing Association. p. 47- 52.

McCarthy, E. J. (1964). Basic Marketing. Richard D. Irwin. Homewood, IL.

http://www.managementstudyguide.com/marketing-mix.htm

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/definition/marketing-mix

http://marketingmix.co.uk/

Marketing : Science or Art

Marketing practitioners have argued, that if marketing is an art or Science for really long time. They have established many exhibits to prove there respective ideology but till date, no one answer has been obtained. Below i have combined views and opinions of different practitioners to give more insight on this topic, as this would be the first of many contradiction management students go through while reading marketing theory.

However, in my opinion, on one hand, marketing is about creating, appreciating, and inviting a change in mindset to garner better results. On the other hand, marketing requires measurement and analysis, two words closely associated with science. As you see even my views are contradicted. Hence lets start from understand what lead to the confusion of marketing being a science or an art.

Marketing as a Science

Marketing consists of understanding your organisation, the environment and the different segments in the market and combining these understandings to design a product, positioning it in the most profitable segment and doing all those things necessary to establish that positioning to  result in an exchange which is mutually beneficial to both the organisation and the customer.  Philip Kotler says, “Marketing is the science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit” (Kotler, 2001-2012).  For marketing to be successful it needs to subtly blend both science and art. But what are the science and art parts of marketing? Much has been written on this subject. Yet in view of fast developing technology, different views are emerging to keep the topic live.

In the last few years, there have been profound changes in the way how the marketers do their jobs. With the advent of newer technology, marketing, earlier characterized by predomination of advertising, is today driven by digital channels, social media and measured more precisely by modern technologies. The “modern marketer” is overwhelmed with data.  At least apparently, the science side of marketing is evolving.

Further, writing in cheifmartec.com, Scott Brinker (Brinker, 2013) has listed 4 principles of good marketing science and they are:

1.      Marketing as a science is about objectively using data to support decision making.

2.      Marketing as a science is about looking for patterns in the market and in customer behaviors — within data

3.      Marketing as a science is about embracing ideas from other scientific and engineering disciplines: psychology, economics, computer science, neuroscience, biology, industrial engineering, anthropology, sociology, etc.

4.      Marketing as a science is really about running good controlled experiments to test hypotheses.

Marketing as an Art

Dealing with big data and using sophisticated mathematical equations does not justify marketing as a science. Just dealing with numbers is book keeping. How the information is managed is the art. Take the case of an analytical team in Starcom MediaVest’s office – a leading media agency with plenty of creative work. The name of the team gives away the type of people who would be its members. It is quite natural to expect a few mathematicians or a statistician but certainly not a quantum physicist in the team.  Ms. Shezane Hasware, the scientist in the team, brings a dash of nuclear science to media. She says, “The half life theory explains how a nucleus keeps eroding itself to half but never becomes zero. You can apply that to TV GRPs. The impact of an ad on a consumers’ mind keeps diminishing but it never completely goes away. You need to take that into account while devising a plan.” (Bhatt, 2014)It is indeed an art to employ a scientist in an artistic team.

Marketing is understanding and managing human beings. We are all aware of the complexity of human behavior and it is impossible even with the super computers to predict the customers. If we were to derive a set of algorithms to predict the human behaviour, then there is no need of marketing! It isn’t that simple. The argument here is however not to say that algorithms in marketing is not useful; it is in a limited way. Its scope may be limited to specific situations such as targeting or retargeting of advertisements etc.

Certainly finding out what the customers need is a science and creating an offer to satisfy the need is an art. Pricing the product is more of a science and positioning it is an art. Communication is science and advertising the offering is an art. Distributing the offering is a science and selling is an art. Marketing is certainly more of an art than science with a caveat that the artist needs to comfortable with handling data and computer savvy. But there is a paradox – a purely right brained person however would be less successful than a purely left brained person.  The logic behind this is that creativity is for pure unadulterated joy.

What happens when Science is not applied to Marketing?

The NHS “Get Unhooked” campaign caused fear and dramatic distress to younger audiences. The Advertising Standards Authority banned the posters and the television advertisements from being shown till after the watershed. Meticulous marketing research would have been able to measure behaviour and response levels to the campaign, this scientific approach could have predicted and prevented the public backlash.

What happens when Science and Marketing get the balance right?

Marketing is chock-a-block with scientific equations on their products’ packaging as proof of real scientific results, to raise sales and popularity.  Boots No.7 anti-wrinkle cream was a successful in that they used science to increase the marketing results and the BBC included the anti-wrinkle cream in their programme showing the scientific evidence of the cream displaying results. Media hype ensued and the cream became very sought after, selling out over Boots stores in the UK.

Conclusion

There seems to be an overwhelming evidence of marketing being a more of science than being an art. The first two principles by Scott are all about handling data. All the marketing and the meta marketing people such as vendors, analysts, consultants, pundits, bloggers, etc., are talking about data, big data, analytics, web analytics and big data analytics. They are all falling all over themselves to squeeze these terms into their content marketing. There exists data everywhere or data is mined where there is none presently. The information era is slowly turning into data era. The expectation that big data would translate into profit, leave alone big profit is an enormous error. Data by itself would achieve nothing. Some discerning brain has to ponder over it to uncover some precious information useful to the organization. Creativity is needed to breathe life into the data. I would conclude by saying that creativity is like life and science is like a body to marketing.

As you can see, the age-old debate is easily solved: Marketing is art and science. Many aspects of marketing can’t be measured and require a certain talent to perform. Predicting when and why demand will rise might fall under science, while creating that demand is definitely an art. Developing your brand definitely takes creativity and artistic sensibility, but then determining the reach and effectiveness of that brand requires science. The two go hand in hand; they work together to strengthen each side.

Where many marketers fail is trying to stick with one or the other. A team of creators without any accountability for measurable results will call marketing “art” all day long. A team of analysts who understand how the marketing investments result in profit would balk at calling marketing “art”. Without the numbers to lead the creation or inspiration providing data to measure, marketing simply can’t work.

“Good story has always had a structure and employed techniques to engage and keep us engaged – hence the science aspect. Good story literally changes our brain chemistry, releasing oxytocin, that mysterious hormone that makes us feel good – so our tendency is to try and find a formula that will make that happen all the time.”

Source

Adajian, T. (2012). The Definition of Art. In E. N. Zalta, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2012 Edition).http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2012/entries/art-definition/.

Bhatt, S. (2014, June 18). Why advertising needs rocket scientists. The Economic Times , p. Brand Equity.

Brinker, S. (2013, March 5). Cheif Marketing Technologist Blog. Retrieved June 27, 2014, from Chiefmartec.com: http://chiefmartec.com/2013/03/what-do-you-mean-by-marketing-as-a-science/

Farlex. (2014). The Free Dictionary . http://www.thefreedictionary.com/art – accesed on July 2, 2014.

Kennic, W., & Kennick, W. E. (1979). Art and Philosophy: Readings in Aesthetics. New York: Martin’s Press.

Kotler, P. (2001-2012). Kotler Marketing Group. Retrieved June 26, 2014, from KOTL Web site: http://www.kotlermarketing.com/phil_questions.shtml

Oracle, Eloqua. (2013). BtoB. chicago: BtoB.

Science Council. (n.d.). Science Council. Retrieved July 01, 2014, from Science Council Web site: http://www.sciencecouncil.org/definition

http://www.inboundmarketingagents.com/inbound-marketing-agents-blog/bid/339892/Is-Marketing-Art-or-Science

http://www.whitehatmedia.com/blog/marketing-art-science-or-both

https://ozcontent.com/blog/marketing-art-or-science/

Introduction

Marketing

In past ample of definition of ‘Marketing’ has been highlighted, few of them are as below:

“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

“The management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.- Chartered Institute of Marketing

However, 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 quantifies the size of the identified market and the profit potential. It pinpoints which segments the company is capable of serving best and it designs and promotes the appropriate products and services.

Marketing is often performed by a department within the organization. This is both good and bad. It’s good because it unites a group of trained people who focus on the marketing task. It’s bad because marketing activities should not be carried out in a single department but they should be manifest in all the activities of the organization.

Marketing is everything a company does to acquire customers and maintain a relationship with them. Even the small tasks like writing thank-you letters, playing golf with a prospective client, returning calls promptly and meeting with a past client for coffee can be thought of as marketing. The ultimate goal of marketing is to match a company’s products and services to the people who need and want them, thereby ensuring profitability.

The four P’s of marketing are product, place, price and promotion.

Product refers to an item or items a business intends to sell. When examining a product, questions should be asked such as, what product is being sold? What differentiates the product from its competitors? Can the product be marketed with a secondary product? And are there substitute products in the market?

Price refers to how much the product is likely to cost. When establishing price, considerations needs to be given to cost the unit cost price, marketing costs and distribution expenses.

Place refers to distribution of the product. Key considerations include whether the product is going to be sold through a physical store front, online or made available through both distribution channels?

Finally, promotion refers to the integrated marketing communications campaign. Promotional activities may include advertising, personal selling, sales promotions, public relations, direct marketing, sponsorship and guerrilla marketing. Promotions are likely to vary being dependent on what stage of product life cycle the product is currently in. Marketers must be aware that consumers associate a product’s price and distribution with its quality, and would be prudent to take this into account when devising the overall marketing strategy.

These four elements are often referred to as the marketing mix,which a marketer can use to craft a marketing plan.

The four Ps model is most useful when marketing low value consumer products. Industrial products, services, high value consumer products require adjustments to this model. Services marketing must account for the unique nature of services.

Industrial or B2B marketing must account for the long term contractual agreements that are typical in supply chain transactions. Relationship marketing attempts to do this by looking at marketing from a long term relationship perspective rather than individual transactions.

As a counter to this, Morgan, in Riding the Waves of Change (Jossey-Bass, 1988), suggests that one of the greatest limitations of the 4 Ps approach “is that it unconsciously emphasizes the inside–out view (looking from the company outwards), whereas the essence of marketing should be the outside–in approach”.

In order to recognize the different aspects of selling services, as opposed to Products, a further three Ps were added to make a range of Seven Ps^[10] for service industries:
Process – the way in which orders are handled, customers are satisfied and the service is delivered.
Physical Evidence – is tangible evidence of the service customers will receive (for example a holiday brochure).
People – the people meeting and dealing with the customers.

As markets have become more satisfied, the 7 Ps have become relevant to those companies selling products, as well as those solely involved with services: customers now differentiate between sellers of goods by the service they receive in the process from the people involved.

Some authors cite a further P – Packaging – this is thought by many to be part of Product, but in certain markets (Japan, China for example) and with certain products (perfume, cosmetics) the packaging of a product has a greater importance – maybe even than the product itself.

Marketing is not Sales

Marketing is a terribly misunderstood subject in business circles and in the public’s mind. Companies think that marketing exists to support manufacturing, to get rid of the company’s products. The truth is the reverse, that manufacturing exists to support marketing.  The company can always outsource its manufacturing. What makes a company is its marketing offerings and ideas.  Manufacturing, purchasing, R&D, finance and the other company functions exist to support the company’s work in the customer marketplace.

Marketing is too often confused with selling. Selling is only the tip of the marketing iceberg.  What is unseen is the extensive market investigation, the research and development of appropriate products, the challenge of pricing them right, of opening up distribution, and of letting the market know about the product.  Thus, Marketing is a far more comprehensive process than selling.

Marketing and selling are almost opposites. Hard sell marketing is a contradiction. Long ago I said: “Marketing is not the art of finding clever ways to dispose of what you make.  Marketing is the art of creating genuine customer value.  It is the art of helping your customers become better off.  The marketer’s watchwords are quality, service, and value.”

Selling starts only when you have a product.  Marketing starts before there is a product.  Marketing is the homework the company does to figure out what people need and what the company should make.  Marketing determines how to launch, price, distribute and promote the product/service offering in the marketplace. Marketing then monitors the results and improves the offering over time. Marketing also decides when to end the offering.

All said, marketing is not a short-term selling effort but a long-term investment effort.  When marketing is done well, it occurs before the company makes any product or enters any market; and it continues long after the sale.

Modern Concept of Marketing

The modern concept of marketing considers the consumers’ wants and needs as the guiding spirit and focuses on the delivery of such goods and services that can satisfy those needs most effectively. Thus, marketing starts with identifying consumer needs, then plan the production of goods and services accordingly to provide him the maximum satisfaction. In other words, the products and services are planned according to the needs of the customers rather than according to the availability of materials and machinery. Not only that, all activities (manufacturing, research and development, quality control, distribution, selling etc.) are directed to satisfy the consumers. Thus, the main implications of the modern concepts are:

(a) The focus of this concept is on customer orientation. The marketing activity starts with an assessment of the customers needs and plan the production of items that satisfy these needs most effectively. This also applies to all other marketing activities like pricing, packaging, distribution and sales promotion.

(b) All marketing activities like product planning, pricing, packaging, distribution and sales promotion are combined into one as coordinated marketing efforts. This is called integrating marketing. It implies:

(i) developing a product that can satisfy the needs of the consumers;

(ii) taking promotional measures so that consumers come to know about the products, its features, quality, availability etc.;

(iii) pricing the product keeping in mind the target consumers’ purchasing power and willingness to pay;

(iv) packaging and grading the product to make it more attractive and undertaking sales promotion measures to motivate consumers to buy the product; and

(v) taking various other measures (e.g., after sales service) to satisfy the consumers’ needs.

(c) The main aim of all effort is to earn profit through maximization of customer satisfaction. This implies that, if the customers are satisfied, they will continue to buy, and many new customers will be added. This will lead to increased sales and so also the profits. Modern Concept of Marketing

Focus on –> Customers’ need.

Means –> Coordinated marketing efforts

Ends –> Profits through customers’ satisfaction

It may be noted that with growing awareness of the social relevance of business, marketing has to take into account the social needs and ensure that while enhancing consumer satisfaction, it also aims at society’s long-term interest.

Importance of Marketing

Marketing is important to the business, consumer as well as the society. This is evident from the following points.

(a) Marketing helps business to keep pace with the changing tastes, fashions, preferences of the customers. It works out primarily because ascertaining consumer needs and wants is a regular phenomenon and improvement in existing products and introduction of new product keeps on taking place. Marketing thus, contributes to providing better products and services to the consumers and improve their standard of living.

(b) Marketing helps in making products available at all places and throughout the year. We are able to get Kashmir shawls and Assam Tea all over India and get seasonal fruits like apple and oranges round the year due to proper warehousing or proper packaging. Thus, marketing creates time and place utilities.

(c) Marketing plays an important role in the development of the economy. Various functions and sub-functions of marketing like advertising, personal selling, packaging, transportation, etc. generate employment for a large number of people, and accelerate growth of business.

(d) Marketing helps the business in increasing its sales volume, generating revenue and ensuring its success in the long run.

(e) Marketing also helps the business in meeting competition most effectively

Objective of Marketing

After knowing the points of importance of marketing let us discuss on the basic objectives of marketing.

(a) Provide satisfaction to customers: All marketing activities are directed towards customer satisfaction. Marketing starts with ascertaining consumer needs and produce goods that satisfy those needs most effectively. Not only that the pricing and distribution functions of marketing are also planned accordingly.

(b) Increase in demand: Through advertising and other sales promotional efforts, marketing aims at creating additional demand for their products. Satisfied customers also help in creating new customers. For example, if you buy a ‘gel pen’ and feel satisfied, next time also you will buy the same pen and obviously when you tell others about it they will also feel like giving it a try.

(c) Provide better quality product to the customers: This is a basic objective of marketing. The business houses try to update and upgrade their knowledge and technology to continuously provide better products. If they do not do so, they will be phased out through competition.

(d) Create goodwill for the organisation: Another objective of marketing is to build a good public image and create goodwill for the organisation. This helps in maintaining loyalty to the product and accepting new products of the same company.

(e) Generate profitable sales volume: The ultimate objective of all marketing efforts is to generate profitable sales volumes for the business. Taking care of customer needs and wants by providing the required goods and services at prices they can afford, and at places and timing that are convenient to them ultimately lead to increased sales and profits.

Evolution of Marketing Concepts

Here is a brief overview of the evolution of marketing concepts.

Production concept – an operations-based concept where the consumer expects products that are easily available and affordable.Here the business focuses on production efficiency, lowering costs and mass distribution. This concept works in developing economies where the need is more for the product than the features it offers.

Product concept – a consumer oriented concept where consumers expect products that are superior, high-performance and with unique features. This concept assumes that customers are likelier to be loyal when the product meets all their expectations and so, the business strives to offer innovative products consistently.

Selling concept– where the business believes that its products will sell only through active promotion and selling and the customer will not respond until pushed.In short, it is a matter of the business trying to sell what it makes rather than make products to meet the market’s needs.

Marketing concept – This concept is radical, compared to the above and focuses on the target market, its needs and wants and a desire to be better than the competition while delivering value to its market. Unlike the earlier concepts that rely on push marketing, it believes in pull marketing by creating brand loyalty.

While the sales concept is seller-oriented, the marketing concept is buyer-oriented.

A fifth concept has evolved today, the societal marketing concept – is the ideal situation where, along with the focus on the target market’s wants and needs and delivering better value than its competition, the business also strives to preserve the well-being of its target market and the society as a whole.This takes into consideration environmental and natural resource preservation and minimizing the carbon footprint.

Important Functions of Marketing

Marketing is related to the exchange of goods and services. Through its medium the goods and services are brought to the place of consumption. This satisfies the needs of the customers. The following activities are undertaken in respect of the exchange of goods and services:

1. Gathering and Analysing Market Information: Gathering and analyzing market information is an important function of marketing. Under it, an effort is made to understand the consumer thoroughly in the following ways:

(a) What do the consumers want?

(b) In what quantity?

(c) At what price?

(d) When do they want (it)?

(e) What kind of advertisement do they like?

(f) Where do they want (it)?

What kind of distribution system do they like? All the relevant information about the consumer is collected and analysed. On the basis of this analysis an effort is made to find out as to which product has the best opportunities in the market.

2. Marketing Planning: In order to achieve the objectives of an organisation with regard to its marketing, the marketeer chalks out his marketing plan. For example, a company has a 25% market share of a particular product.The company wants to raise it to 40%. In order to achieve this objective the marketer has to prepare a plan in respect of the level of production and promotion efforts. It will also be decided as to who will do what, when and how. To do this is known as marketing planning.

3. Product Designing and Development: Product designing plays an important role in product selling. The company whose product is better and attractively designed sells more than the product of a company whose design happens to be weak and unattractive. In this way, it can be said that the possession of a special design affords a company to a competitive advantage. It is important to remember that it is not sufficient to prepare a design in respect of a product, but it is more important to develop it continuously.

4. Standardization and Grading: Standardization refers to determining of standard regarding size, quality, design, weight, colour, raw material to be used, etc., in respect of a particular product. By doing so, it is ascertained that the given product will have some peculiarities.This way, sale is made possible on the basis of samples. Mostly, it is the practice that the traders look at the samples and place purchase order for a large quantity of the product concerned. The basis of it is that goods supplied conform to the same standard as shown in the sample.

Products having the same characteristics (or standard) are placed in a given category or grade. This placing is called grading. For example, a company produces commodity – X, having three grades, namely A’. ‘B’ and ‘C’, representing three levels of quality; best, medium and ordinary respectively.Customers who want best quality will be shown ‘A’ grade product. This way, the customer will have no doubt in his mind that a low grade product has been palmed off to him. Grading, therefore, makes sale-purchase easy. Grading process is mostly used in case of agricultural products like food grains, cotton, tobacco, apples, mangoes, etc.

5. Packaging and Labelling: Packaging aims at avoiding breakage, damage, destruction, etc., of the goods during transit and storage. Packaging facilitates handling, lifting, conveying of the goods. Many a time, customers demand goods in different quantities. It necessitates special packaging. Packing material includes bottles, canister, plastic bags, tin or wooden boxes, jute bags etc.

Label is a slip which is found on the product itself or on the package providing all the information regarding the product and its producer. This can either be in the form of a cover or a seal. For example, the name of the medicine on its bottle along with the manufacturer’s name, the formula used for making the medicine, date of manufacturing, expiry date, batch no., price etc., are printed on the slip thereby giving all the information regarding the medicine to the consumer. The slip carrying all these is details called Label and the process of preparing it as Labelling.

6. Branding: Every producer/seller wants that his product should have special identity in the market. In order to realise his wish he has to give a name to his product which has to be distinct from other competitors.Giving of distinct name to one’s product is called branding. Thus, the objective of branding is to show that the products of a given company are different from that of the competitors, so that it has its own identity.

For instance, if a company wants to popularise its commodity – X under the name of “777” (triple seven) then its brand will be called “777”. It is possible that another company is selling a similar commodity under AAA (Triple ‘A’) brand name.Under these circumstances, both the companies will succeed in establishing a distinct identity of their products in the market. When a brand is not registered under the trade Mark Act, 1999, it becomes a Trade Mark.

7. Customer Support Service: Customer is the king of market. Therefore, it is one of the chief functions of marketer to offer every possible help to the customers. A marketer offers primarily the following services to the customers:

(i) After-sales-services

(ii) Handling customers’ complaints

(iii) Technical services

(iv) Credit facilities

(v) Maintenance services

Helping the customer in this way offers him satisfaction and in today’s competitive age customer’s satisfaction happens to be the top-most priority. This encourages a customer’s attachment to a particular product and he starts buying that product time and again.

8. Pricing of Products: It is the most important function of a marketing manager to fix price of a product. The price of a product is affected by its cost, rate of profit, price of competing product, policy of the government, etc. The price of a product should be fixed in a manner that it should not appear to be too high and at the same time it should earn enough profit for the organisation.

9. Promotion: Promotion means informing the consumers about the products of the company and encouraging them to buy these products. There are four methods of promotion: (i) Advertising, (ii) Personal selling, (iii) Sales promotion and (iv) Publicity. Every decision taken by the marketer in this respect affects the sales. These decisions are taken keeping in view the budget of the company.

10. Physical Distribution: Under this function of marketing the decision about carrying things from the place of production to the place of consumption is taken into account. To accomplish this task, decision about four factors are taken. They are: (i) Transportation, (ii) Inventory, (iii) Warehousing and (iv) Order Processing. Physical distribution, by taking things, at the right place and at the right time creates time and place utility.

11. Transportation: Production, sale and consumption-all the three activities need not be at one place. Had it been so, transportation of goods for physical distribution would have become irrelevant. But generally it is not possible. Production is carried out at one place, sale at another place and consumption at yet another place.

Transport facility is needed for the produced goods to reach the hands of consumers. So the enterprise must have an easy access to means of transportation.Mostly we see on the road side’s private vehicles belonging to Pepsi, Coca Cola, LML, Britannia, etc. These private carriers are the living examples of transportation function of marketing. Place utility is thus created by transportation activity.

12. Storage or Warehousing: There is a time-lag between the purchase or production of goods and their sale. It is very essential to store the goods at a safe place during this time-interval. Godowns are used for this purpose. Keeping of goods in godowns till the same are sold is called storage.For the marketing manager storage is an important function. Any negligence on his part may damage the entire stock. Time utility is thus created by storage activity.

 

Source

“Marketing library resources – content, knowledge databases – CIM”. Retrieved 16 March 2017.

Marketing definition approved in October 2007 by the American Marketing Association:

Marketing http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marketing.asp#ixzz4igUFsD1B 

The Concept of the Marketing Mix” from the Journal of Advertising Research, June 1964 pp 2-7

http://www.mbacrystalball.com/blog/marketing/ 

http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/marketing/12-important-functions-of-marketing/1074/