Текст 3. Roles of marketing

Marketing includes the activities that bring the buyer and seller together. As marketing developed, it took a variety of forms. Marketing can be viewed as a set of functions in the sense that certain activities are traditionally associated with the exchange process. A common but incorrect view is that selling and advertising are the only marketing activities. Yet, in addition to promotion, marketing includes a much broader set of functions, including product development, packaging, pricing, distribution, and customer service. Many organizations and business assign responsibility for these marketing functions to a specific group of individuals within the organization. In this respect, marketing is a unique and separate entity. Those who make up the marketing department may include product managers, marketing researchers, sales representatives, advertising and promotion managers, pricing specialists, and customer service personnel.

As a managerial process, marketing is the way in which an organization determines its best opportunities in the marketplace. The total marketing concept involves four steps, or, as they are often called, the four P's of marketing - product, price, promotion and place.

The managerial philosophy of marketing puts central emphasis on customers satisfaction as the means for gaining and keeping loyal customers. Marketers urge their organizations to carefully and continually gauge target customer's expectations and to consistently meet or exceed these expectations. In order to accomplish this, everyone in all areas of the organization must focus on understanding and serving customers.

Finally, marketing is a social process that occurs in all economies, regardless of their political structure and orientation. It is the process by which a society organizes and distributes its resources to meet the material needs of its citizens. However, marketing activity is more pronounced under conditions of goods surpluses than goods shortages. When goods are in short supply, consumers are usually so desirous of goods that the exchange process does not require significant promotion or facilitation. In contrast, when there are more goods and services than consumers need or want, companies must work harder to convince customers to exchange with them.

Entity - экономическая единица

unique - особый, специфический

product manager - руководитель, ответственный за

конструирование, производство и реализацию изделия

to gange (зд.) - оценивать

Активная лексика: to buy, buyer, to sell, seller, exchange, to advertise, advertising, activity, to promote, promotion, to distribute, distribution, customer, price, department, researcher, representative, sales representative, customer service, to determine, to exceed, goods surplus, goods shortage, to be in short supply.

Найдите в тексте эквиваленты следующих словосочетаний:

процесс обмена, маркетинговые операции, обслуживание потребителя, руководитель, ответственный за изделие, специалист по маркетинговому исследованию, специалист по продаже товаров, менеджер по рекламе, специалист в области цен, персонал по вопросам обслуживания потребителя, определять наилучшие возможности, удовлетворение запросов потребителя, удовлетворить материальные нужды, избыток товаров, недостаток товаров.

Ответьте на вопросы по тексту:

1. What is marketing?

2. What process is marketing associated with?

3. Are selling and advertising the only market activities?

4. What other activities does marketing include?

5. What specialists are included in the marketing department?

6. What is marketing as a managerial process?

7. What four steps of marketing do you know?

8. What is the managerial philosophy of marketing?

9. What is the best condition for marketing?

10. What takes place when goods are in short supply?

11. Why must companies work harder under conditions of goods surpluses?

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