• Definitions and history of Marketing

Deff:

Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchange and satisfy individual and organisational objectives (1985, American Marketing Association).

Marketing is a management process.

Marketing is about giving customers what they want.

History:

• First Era Classical School (1900–50): These theories focused on aggregate market behaviour and focused on the use of economics and sociology.

• Second Era Managerial Marketing (1950-75): This era began in marketing departments within managerial or business schools, and they focused their attention on individual behaviour, but continued their reliance on borrowing techniques from social sciences.

• Third Era Behavioural Marketing School (1965-present): These schools have borrowed from different branches, mostly psychology, in an effort to gain even greater insight into individual consumer behaviour.

• Fourth Era Adaptive/Strategic Marketing School (1980 —present): once again, a return to a more macro-or aggregate focus. Influence of M. Porter and the competitive advantage paradigm.

Marketing is not a theoretical discipline. It is a framework composed of different disciplines.

Though its roots are in industrial economics,actually it is a composite of three academic

disciplines: Economics; Psychology and Management

2.Marketing concepts

Production: focus on producing more, selling high volumes; controlling costs and production efficiency. (Ford 1920s — Model T)  

Product: focus on improving quality; assumes that customers want a better quality version of the same product. ( GM 1930s — Diversified product line)

 Selling: focus on aggressive sales and promotion to sell whatever the organisation wants to make; sellers needs come first

 Marketing: focus on defining customer needs and then developing offerings that deliver what the customer wants; customer needs come first .

• Production Concept

Concentrate on achieving high production efficiency, low cost & mass distribution

Consumers prefers inexpensive items in developing countries.

This concept is the oldest of the concepts in business.

It holds that consumers will prefer products that are widely available and inexpensive. Managers focusing on this concept concentrate on achieving high production efficiency, low costs, and mass distribution.

They assume that consumers are primarily interested in product availability and low

prices. This orientation makes sense in developing countries, where consumers are more

interested in obtaining the product than in its features

• Product Concept

Consumers favors quality, performance or innovative features

This orientation holds that consumers will favor those products that offer the most

quality, performance, or innovative features.

Managers focusing on this concept concentrate on making superior products and

improving them over time.

They assume that buyers admire well-made products and can Appraise quality and

performance.

However, these managers are sometimes caught up in a love affair with their product

and do not realize what the market needs.

3. Selling Concept

• Consumers & businesses if left alone will not buy enough

• Undertake aggressive Selling & Promotion

• Consumers shows buying inertia until coaxed

• Many use it at the time of over capacity or competition

This is another common business orientation. It holds that consumers and

businesses, if left alone, will ordinarily not buy enough of the selling company’s

products.

The organization must, therefore, undertake an aggressive selling аnd promotion

effort.

This concept assumes that consumers typically show buying resistance and must be

coaxed into buying.

It also assumes that the company has a whole battery of effective selling and

romotional tools to stimulate more buying.

Most firms practice the selling concept when they have overcapacity. Their aim is to

sell what they make rather than make what the market wants.

• Marketing Concept

More effective than competitors in creating, delivering, and communicating superior customer value

Putting people first

Fulfilling buyers needs

This is a business philosophy that challenges the above three business orientations.

Its central tenets crystallized in the 1950s.

It holds that the key to achieving its organizational goals (goals of the selling

company) consists of the company being more effective than competitors in creating,

delivering, and communicating customer value to its selected target customers.

The marketing concept rests on four pillars: target market, customer needs,

Integrated marketing and profitability.