Basics concepts of marketing

What is marketing?

Marketing is the management process through which goods and services move from concept to the customer. it is based on supply and demand, increase in demand leads to increase in production, followed by price.

It includes the coordination of four elements called the 4 P’s. Which are: Product, Price, Place, and Promotional Strategy.

This process starts with identifying, selecting or determining a product by researching the market, and finding what the audience needs or wants.

Then determining the price it should be sold for, this happens in different ways, depending on the type of market and system. It may be forced by the government, or placed by the company, or by the market and competitors.

The place where it should be marketed is also very important, depending on consumer demand and where the product fits best.

And last but not least, is developing the right promotional strategy to put this push and attract customers. It is simply the way this product reaches its target audience.

Difference between Marketing orientation and operation orientation

Describe the difference between marketing orientation and operation orientation with the following: attitudes towards the customers, customer services, focus on advertising, and relationship with customer.

A marketing oriented approach means a business reacts to what customers want. The decisions taken are based on information about customers’ needs and wants, rather than what the business thinks is right for the customer. Most successful businesses take a market-oriented approach.

A product oriented approach means the business develops products based on what it is good at making or doing, rather than what a customer wants, this approach is usually criticized because it often leads to unsuccessful products, particularly in well-established markets.

	Marketing oriented	Production oriented
Attitudes towards customers	Customer need determine company plans	They should be glad we exist, trying to cut costs and bringing out better products
Customer service	Satisfy customers after sale and they’ll come back again	An activity required to reduce customer complains.
Focus on advertising	Need-satisfying benefits of goods and services.	Product features and how products are made.
Relationship with customers	Customer satisfaction before and after sale leads to long-run relationship.	Relationship ends when sale is made.

Difference between command economy and market directed economy

What is the difference between command economy and market-directed economy?

A market economy is an economic system in which the production and distribution of goods and services takes place through the mechanism of free markets guided by a free price system.

A command system on the other hand, is an economic system in which the state or the government controls the factors of production and makes all decisions about their use and about the distribution of income.

An economy can be either of them, or a mixed one, which combines both.

Four marketing concepts

There are various concepts companies use, some of them are:

Production concept

Those companies believe that if the goods/services are cheap and they can be made available at many places, there cannot be any problem regarding sale. These companies indulge in large scale production that makes them able to reduce costs. The utility of this philosophy is apparent only when demand exceeds supply.

Product Concept

Those companies have an opinion that if the quality of goods or services is of good standard, the customers can be easily attracted. The basis of this thinking is that the customers get attracted towards the products of good quality. On the basis of this philosophy or idea these companies direct their marketing efforts to increasing the quality of their product. Although a good quality product and high price can upset the budget of a customer. Therefore, it can be said that only the quality of the product is not the only way to the success of marketing.

Selling concept

This concept is saying that leaving alone the customers will not help. Instead there is a need to attract the customers towards them. They think that goods are not bought but they have to be sold. These companies concentrate their marketing efforts towards educating and attracting the customers. In such a case their main thinking is ‘selling what you have’. This may be right for some time, but you cannot do it for a long-time.

Marketing concept

This concept states that success can be achieved only through consumer satisfaction. The basis of this thinking is that only those goods/service should be made available which the consumers want or desire and not the things which you can do. It is a modern concept and by adopting it profit can be earned on a long-term basis.

Market Segmentation

What is market segmentation and how are decisions made in this economy?

The marketing concept tries to understand customer need and satisfy them better than competition. A company cannot treat all audience alike. That’s where segmentation takes place.

There are different types of segmentation: geographic, demographic, psychographic, behavioralistic.

Most common demographic segmentation: age, gender, income, social class, lifestyle, occupation etc.

Geographic segmentation: region, size of the area, population density, climate.

Psychographic: activities, opinions, attitudes values and interests.

Behavioralistic: usage rate, readiness to buy, brand loyalty, occasions.

After segmenting the target audience according to these criteria, a strategy can be well studied on how, where, why and when a product should be introduced. These decisions are made only after those studies. Otherwise there might be a high failure rate.

Define these statements: mission statement, competitive barriers, technology, internet, gross domestic product.

Mission statement: it is a written declaration of an organization’s core meaning and purpose, and it usually doesn’t change over time. It is used as a filter to separate tasks from most to least important. It also states which markets will be served. It also gives direction to the company as a whole.

Competitive barriers: also called barriers to entry, and may contain several aspects. Mostly it is a high start-up cost or other obstacles that prevent new competitors from easily entering an industry or area of business.

Technology: the use of science for industrial needs, engineering, etc., to invent useful things or to solve problems. It can be tangible, intangible, high, intermediate, or low.

Internet: an electronic communications network that connects computer networks and organizational computer facilities around the world.

GDP: commonly indicates the economic health of a country, as well as to check the country’s standard of living. It is sometimes criticized because statistic doesn’t take into account the underground economy, of which transactions aren’t reported to the government. It is the total value of goods and services produced by the people of a nation during a year not including the value of income earned in foreign countries.

Urbanization and International Marketing

How is world-wide trends towards urbanization is affecting opportunities for international marketing?

Differences in the relative urbanization of target markets in lesser-developed countries influence the product strategies used by multinational corporations. Products targeted to urban markets in lesser-developed countries need only minimal changes from those marketed in developed countries. Products targeted for both semi-urban and urban markets require more changes, and those targeted for national markets undergo further adoptions to accommodate the requirements of culturally-diverse rural populations.