Introduction to the aspects of marketing

A lot people think that marketing as “selling” or “advertising”. Yes, but selling and advertising just a part of marketing. Marketing involves even more. The aim of business is acquisition and hold customers. (Lance Fried, 2005 year)

We need some skills to acquires and hold our business customers. Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of goods and service to facilitate exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives. What marketers do at any particular time depends on what needs to be done to fill customers’ needs. Consumers’ wants and needs unceasing change. (Lance Fried, 2005 year)

As mention above, selling and advertising is a small part of marketing, but this does not means that the above activities are not important. They were a part of large “marketing mix”, the four Ps of marketing. The four Ps are product, price, place and promotion. (Chapter 1, page 1)

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Philip Kotler defines marketing as ‘satisfying needs and wants through an exchange process’. Within this exchange transaction, customers will only exchange they value if they feel that their needs and wants are being fully contented, obviously the greater benefit provided the higher transactional value an organization can charge. (Philip Kotler, 1996 year)

The correct systematic planning, implementing and control of a mix of business activities intended to bring together consumers and sellers for the mutually advantages exchange or transfer of products. (Chapter 1, page 1)

5 philosophies of Marketing

Different business and company use different ways to set up their own business to achieve their organization goals. There are five alternative concept used by which firms and business organization to guided in their marketing effort.

The five different concepts namely is the production concept, second is the product concept second and after that is the selling concept. These first three concepts is focus on the products, and the last two concepts that focus on customer is the marketing concept and the societal marketing concept.

The product concept holds that customers will favor products that are available and highly affordable and that management should therefore focus on or improving production and distribution efficiency. This concept works well when the demand of product is more than supply or product cost is required to be reduced by following the practice of mass production.

This concept is useful to solve the problems like when the product’s cost is too high and improved productivity is needed to bring it down. Next situation is when the demand for the product of a company excesses the supply. It can not last long because the concept already ignores other important factors, such as competition, new products and etc.

One of the best examples of the production concept is Henry Ford’s Model T. Henry Ford is the father of the production line and developing an efficient assembly line, Ford was able to bring the cost of the Model T down from around $800 to just under $300, putting affordable transportation into the hands of average consumers in the United States. The biggest secret to Ford’s assembly line is that he built one car name as the Model T. There were very few variations on the basic structure and functionality of this automobile. So Henry Ford was very successful with the production concept for a period of time.

Next, the product concept states is consumer will buy the product that offer the best in quality, design features and durability. The firm should devote its energy to making continuous product improvements, so its need to know well and have the great knowledge and skill in making the product.

Some manufacturers mistakenly believe that if they use the best materials to manufacturing a product to attract the consumers and the customers will only buy their company product. This concept also can lead to “marketing myopia” to see the challenges being presented by other competitions.

Next, example of the product concept is Jackson who purchased the air ticket; it means he needs a transportation to send him to the holiday destination. Airline companies who are “myopic” would regard other airlines as it competitors and must concentrate on upgrading their service or flight facilities. Besides airlines, they also need regard land transport company and water transport company as their competitors. Is because that passenger not just purchasing an airline ticket to get someplace by air, he is purchasing transport.

The selling concept,

Define of 5 philosophies of Marketing

The selling concept: consumers will buy products only if the company promotes or sells the product.

The marketing concept: Focuses on needs and wants of the target markets and delivering satisfaction better than competitor.

The societal marketing concept: focuses on needs and wants of target markets and delivering superior value. Society’s well-being.

The example of 5 philosophies of Marketing

Third, the selling concept, the Ford Motor Company is also a good example of the selling philosophy and why this philosophy does not work in many instances. Ford produced and sold the Model T for many years. During its production, the automobile market attracted more competition. They not only did the competition begin to offer cars in other colors, the styling of the competition was viewed as modern and the Model T became considered as old-fashioned. Henry Ford had to recognize consumer desires and introduce a new model.

The marketing concept, the examples of this concept is Head and Shoulders shampoo, it is an anti-dandruff shampoo. This shampoo is the first came in a standard packing and formula. With the passage of time, the shampoo company realized about the needs of the product customers and started to modify their product and manufactured different variety in their shampoo line to attract more consumers.

Lastly, the example of the societal marketing concept is a cosmetic company name as Body Shop, it found by Anita Roddick. It is one of the companies that uses only vegetables based materials for its own products. It is also against Animal testing and supports community trade, activate Self Esteem, Defend Human Rights, and overall protection of the planet.

The major marketing management decisions can be classified in one of the following four categories, they are:

Product

Price

Place

Promotion

I have mentioned it when I doing “Introduction”, and these variables people normally know as the marketing mix or the four Ps of marketing. There are the variables that can control or change in order to best satisfy customers in the target market.

Product, it is mean the physical features of the product, or the intangible aspects of the service offered to the consumer. Product decisions include aspects such as functions, brand name, quality, safety and etc.

Price, sellers need to define the price of the product that they want to sell, are they going to sell at a high price and make a lot of profit in the short term or sell the product with a low price to beat the competition and stay in the long term. Price is the important part on this marketing management. Even if the product quality is the best of the competition but the company set with the high price, consumers can not afford it also is a problem.