MARKETING MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

SUBMITTED BY SAAJID MOHAMED

1. Why is marketing considered an important function of business?

Marketing is a very important aspect in business since it contributes greatly to the success of the organization. Production and distribution depend largely on marketing. Many people think that sales and marketing are basically the same. These two concepts are different in many aspects. Marketing covers advertising, promotions, public relations, and sales. It is the process of introducing and promoting the product or service into the market and encourages sales from the buying public. Sales refer to the act of buying or the actual transaction of customers purchasing the product or service. Since the goal of marketing is to make the product or service widely known and recognized to the market, marketers must be creative in their marketing activities. In this competitive nature of many businesses, getting the product noticed is not that easy. Strategically, the business must be centered on the customers more than the products. Although good and quality products are also essential, the buying public still has their personal preferences. If you target more of their needs, they will come back again and again and even bring along recruits. If you push more on the product and disregard their wants and the benefits they can get, you will lose your customers in no time. The sad thing is that getting them back is the hardest part. Some factors to justify this statement Is as follows:Marketing Helps Boost Product Sales Marketing Builds Company Reputation Marketing leads to Recognition Marketing leads to Self-Evaluation

2. Elucidate the Macro & Micro components of marketing?

MACRO ENVIRONMENT Demographic Environment Factors relating to population, such as size, growth rate, age distribution, religious composition and literacy levels and aspects like composition of workforce, household patterns, regional characteristics, population shifts etc., need to be studied as they are all part of the demographic environment. Economic Environment Economic environment determines the strength and size of the market. The purchasing power in an economy depends on current income, prices, savings, circulation of money, debt and credit availability. Income distribution pattern determines the marketing possibilities. Government Environment Business is highly guided and controlled by government policies. Hence the type of government running a country is a powerful influence on business and marketing gets affected. Legal Environment Firms prefer to operate in a country where there is a sound legal system such as in US. Marketers must have a good working knowledge of the major laws protecting consumers, competitions and organizations. Laws like MRTP, Consumer Protection Act, Intellectual Property Right, FEMA, Labour Laws etc., can considerably affect business operations.

Political Environment Political pressure groups influence and limit organizations e.g., the case of Enron in Maharashtra and KFC in Karnataka. Special interest groups and political action committees put pressure on business organizations to pay more attention to consumer's rights, minority rights, and womens rights. Cultural Environment The beliefs, values and norms of a society determine how individuals and organizations relate to each other. The core beliefs of a particular society tend to be persistent, as the American value system of work, charity and honesty. It is difficult for marketers to change these core values, which have a major bearing on marketing operations in as much as they set the stage for marketing activity and consumer response. Technological Environment The most important factor, which is controlling and changing the human society and even impacting the future, is technology. Technology has literally transformed the way people think, work and relax. Man could realise his dream of putting an astronaut on the lunar surface, the moon, going to the other side of the globe within a few hours, and even exploring the mysteries of the solar system. Global Environment The global environment is also rapidly changing. The new concept of global village has changed how individuals and organizations relate to each other. The advent of worldwide terrorism has the power to turn a booming economy into a stagnant one within no time.

MICRO ENVIRONMENT Consumer According to Peter Drucker, the aim of business is to create and retain the customer. Hence consumer occupies the central position in the marketing environment. The marketer has to closely monitor and analyse changes in consumer tastes and preferences and cater to (if not try and anticipate) their buying habits. Competitors Competition shapes business. A study of the competitive scenario is essential for the marketer, particularly threats from competition. Company Nothing can be as important as self-analysis by the organization itself. "We have met the enemy, and he is us" - Pogo. Understanding its own strengths and capabilities in a particular business, that is, understanding a business in depth should be the goal of a firm's internal analysis. The objectives, goals and resource availabilities of a firm occupy a critical position in the microenvironment of marketing. The company with its resources and capabilities surrounds the consumer in the microenvironment. Market The market is to be studied in terms of its actual and potential size, its growth prospect and also its attractiveness. The marketer should study the trends and development and the key success factors of the market he is operating.

Important issues are : Suppliers Suppliers form an important component of the microenvironment. With their own bargaining power they affect the cost structure of the industry. They constitute a major force, which shapes competition in the industry. Also organizations have to take a major decision on "outsourcing" or "in-house" production depending on this supplier environment. Intermediaries Intermediaries exert a considerable influence in the marketing environment. They can also be considered as the major determining force in the business. In many cases the consumers are not aware of the manufacturer and buy the product from the renowned intermediaries as for example Wal-Mart in US, Pantaloons in India. Public Public constitute a major force in the micro environment and marketers have to very carefully study their opinion, values, beliefs and attitudes in order to design a proper marketing strategy for goods carefully tailored to meet the needs of the target consumer segment. In a sort of reverse engineering, marketers also use the media to shape consumer tastes and preferences.

3. List the stages of buying process ?

Generally, the purchaser passes through five distinct stages in taking a decision for purchasing a particular commodity. These stages are: (i) need arousal, (ii) information search, (iii) evaluation behavior, (iv) purchase decision, and (v) post purchase feelings. (i) Need arousal: The buying process starts with need arousal. A need can be activated through internal or external stimuli. A need

can also be aroused by an external stimulus such as sight of a new thing in a shop while purchasing other things. There is two-fold significance of need arousal stage to a marketing man. 1. First the marketer must identify the drive that might actually or potentially connect to the product class or brand and make the buyer feel that the product can satisfy the drive, he feels, and 2. It also helps recognize that the need levels for the product fluctuate over time and are triggered by different cues. The marketer can arrange cues to conform better to the natural rhythms and timing of need arousal. (ii) Information search: After need arousal, the consumer tries to solve it and gathers the sources and information about the product. Depending upon the intensity of need, it produces two states of individual. The first state is called heightened attention when the consumer becomes more receptive to the information regarding the item he needs. If a consumer needs to purchase a television, he will pay mere attention to TV ads and the remarks made by friends and associates about TVs. If need is more intense, the individual enters a state of active information search and he tries to collect more information about the product, its key attributes, qualities of various brands and about the outlets where they are available. There are four consumer information sources. (i) Personal sources (family, friends, neighbors etc.)

(ii) Commercial sources (advertisements, salesmen, dealers). (iii)Public sources (mass media, consumer-rating organizations). (iv) Experiential sources (handling, examining, using the product).Identifying the information sources and their respective roles and importance calls for interviewing consumers about the sources of information and can use the findings to plan its advertisements. (iii) Evaluation behaviour: Having collected the information, the consumer clarify and evaluate the alternatives. There is, unfortunately no simple and single evaluation process used by all consumers or even by one consumer in all buying situations. The most current process of evaluation is to judge the product largely on a conscious and rational basis. Various considerations form the part of judgment such as product attributes, importance, weights, brand image, utility function for each attribute, and attitude etc. After evaluation of various alternatives, he takes the decision to buy. (iv) Purchase decision: Evaluation behavior leads the consumer to form a ranked set of preferences. Normally a consumer buys the article, he or she likes most but there are three more important consideration for taking the buying decision: (a) attitude of other such as of wife, relatives, and friends, (b) anticipated situational factors as expected family income, expected total cost of the product and the expected benefits of the product; (c) unanticipated situational factors as looks or manner of the salesman or the way business is carried on. The marketer must consider these factors and should try to provoke the feeling of risk in the consumer And attempt to provide

information and support that will help him. (v) Post purchase feelings: After buying and trying the product, the consumer will feel some level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction and level of satisfaction depends very much on the expectation and the product's perceived performance. If the product matches up to his expectations, the consumer is satisfied; if it exceeds, he is highly satisfied; and if it falls short of expectations, he is dissatisfied.

4. What are the factors that influence buying decision ?

There are mainly four factors CULTURAL factors include a consumers culture, subculture and social class. These factors are often inherent in our values and decision processes. SOCIAL factors include groups (reference groups, aspirational groups and member groups), family, roles and status. This explains the outside influences of others on our purchase decisions either directlyorindirectly. PERSONAL factors include such variables as age and lifecycle stage, occupation, economic circumstances, lifestyle (activities, interests, opinions and demographics), personality and self concept. These may explain why our preferences often change as oursituation'changes. PSCHOLOGICAL factors affecting our purchase decision include motivation (Maslow's hierarchy of needs), perception, learning, beliefs and attitudes.

5. Explain the concept , nature and importance of marketing ?

IMPORTANCE Satisfaction of human needs & wants Profits & market reputation Facilitates specialisation division of labour Widens the market Improves standard of living Bring economic growth Creates new norms of social economic behaviour Provides channels of communication to business firms Facilitates price control Develops social significance at.

CONCEPTS The exchange concept The production concept The Product concept The Selling concept The marketing concept The Societal concept The relationship marketing concept

6. Write notes on the changing patterns of consumer behaviour?

Customer behavior can affect the sustainable growth of business in following manners: a) If the behavior of the consumers changes time to time, the new production or services would be needed to meet the demands of the consumers. If a businessman or manufacturer changes its business product, it would lead to high cost of production.

b) If the cost of production is the major focus of the business, none of the other activities would more attention. Ultimately, quality of the work, design, packaging and distribution,would get suffered. c) Business organization will not compete with competitors. Because if the organization considers only cost, other parameters are suffered and predetermined goals of the business cannot be achieved. d) Business organization gets success only when all the business activities (internal environment) go smoothly. If there is unrest in the internal environment of the organization regarding the change, business cannot get success. e) Need to acquire heavy capital funds to cope with change in consumer behavior. f) Requirement of new machinery and recent technology. g) Trained Human Resource capital is needed to face cut throat competitors. All these requirements demand an outstanding performance which is a great challenge in reality. COMMON FEATURES OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOR a) Other people's behavior matters b) Habits are important c) People are motivated to 'do the right thing' d) People's self-expectations influence how they behave e) People are loss-averse f) People are bad at computation

7. Write short notes on : a) Marketing Environment:

marketing environment is a marketing term and refers to factors and forces that affect a firms ability to build and

maintain successful relationships with customers. Three levels of the environment are: Micro (internal) environment - small forces within the company that affect its ability to serve its customers. Meso environment the industry in which a company operates and the industrys market(s). Macro (national) environment - larger societal forces that affect the microenvironment. b) Domestic marketing: domestic marketing is a financial market. Its trades are aimed toward a single market. A domestic market is also referred to as domestic trading. In domestic trading, a firm faces only one set of competitive, economic, and market issues and essentially must deal with only one set of customers, although the company may have several segments in a market. There are certain limitations when competing in a domestic market, many of which encourage firms to expand abroad. The main reasons why a business would decide to expand abroad are down to a limited market size and limited growth within the domestic market. c) Global marketing The process of conceptualizing and then conveying a final product or service worldwide with the hopes of reaching the international marketing community. Proper global marketing has the ability to catapult a company to the next level, if they do it correctly. Different strategies are implemented based on the region the company is marketing to. For example, the menu at McDonald's varies based on the location of the restaurant. The company focuses on marketing popular items within the country. Global marketing is especially important to companies that provide products or services that have a universal demand.