UNDERSTANDING MARKETING

Many people mistakenly think of marketing as advertising and selling. Given the
number of commercials on television, radio, magazines and newspapers, this is
not surprising. The most basic concept of marketing revolves round human
needs. We have many needs including such needs as hunger, affection,
knowledge and a sense of belong. In essence, marketing anticipates and
measures the importance of needs and wants of a given group of customers and
responds with a lot of need satisfying goods and services.

To accomplish this, an organization has to:

Target those markets most compatible with its resources.

Develop products that meet the needs of the target market better than
competitive products.

Make the product readily available.

Develop customer awareness of the problem solving capabilities of the

companys line of products.

Obtain feedback from the market about the success of company products
and programmes.

THE MARKETING MIX

The 4Ps of Marketing
The tools of Marketing
PRODUCT
PRICE
PROMOTION
PLACE

PRODUCT
A bundle of attributes representing benefits to customers

PRICE
Represents quality and value

PROMOTION
Communicate product characteristics and value to customers

PLACE
Bring about the exchange of process

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 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MARKETING AND SALE

FOCUS MEANS END

Sales Concept Product Promotion Profit from sales

Marketing Concept Customer needs Integrated Profit through

marketing customer satisfaction

Sales is really part of marketing. Falls with the ambit of the Promotion Mix
especially sales promotion and personal selling.

PROMOTION MIX
Tools of promotion consist of:

1. Advertising
2. Sales promotion
3. Personal selling
4. Public relations

Promotion involves communication. The organization has to communicate its

offering to the customers. Through the promotion mix, it can reach them
depending on the nature of its product and the type of customers it is targeting.
This may differ from organization to organization.

WHAT IS MARKETING?
Marketing provide the match between the organizations human, financial and
physical resources and the wants of its customers.

The matching is achieved by an organizations careful integration of the four Ps

product, price, promotion and place into the marketing mix in a dynamic
environment.

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 WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN MARKETING AND SELLING
Selling is one aspect of promotion. It is the persuasion of customers to acquire
the product of services offered at the prevailing price.

Different levels of selling

Selling

Direct Indirect

Intermediate Agents

WHO ARE OUR CUSTOMERS?

Distinguish between customers and consumers. The customer may be an
intermediary or an agent for the final user of the product.

For consumer markets, geographical location, age, occupation, education,

marital status are typical measures of markets. Such measures are termed
demographic characteristics.

80/20 rule or the Pareto effect it is usual for a small number of customers to
account for the largest part of the business.

ARE ALL OUR CUSTOMERS THE SAME?

There are differences in demographic characteristics between customers. These
differences amongst customers mean that an undifferentiated campaign to a
mass market will seldom meet with widespread success.

Recognising that customers are different, the marketer needs to adopt a market
segmentation approach to achieve a closer matching of customer needs with the
firms product or service offering.

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 ARE INDUSTRIAL & CONSUMER
MARKETING DIFFERENT?
Principles are the same but application of the principles differs between industrial
and consumer marketing.

Common marketing principles: need thorough understanding of:

Customer needs and wants

Customer buying process

Factors influencing customers choice

Characteristics of industrial markets:

Industrial buyers are rational in purchasing decision

Buying process is more complex. Non price factors predominate

Usually well defined

Require different emphasis on marketing mix:

e.g. direct mail advertising and use of sales literature instead of media
advertising

DOES THE MARKETING OF SERVICES

DIFFER FROM THE MARKETING OF PRODUCTS?
Marketing principle: matching customer wants with organizational resources.
Customers do not buy products or services but the benefits that those products
or services provided e.g. matching needs of shuttle flight service between KL and
Singapore.

Only a matter of different emphasis on marketing mix e.g. lower priced off-peak
hotel rate by Resort World.

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 PRODUCT DECISIONS
Customer dont buy products, they seek to acquire benefits.

Product marketing strategy

Product

Present New

Present Market Penetration Product Development

Market

New Market Development Diversification

Concept of product life cycle.

Marketer need to adjust his activities to meet the different requirements of his
organizations product at different stages of their lives.

Stages of life: introduction, growth, maturity, saturation, decline.

The Boston Matrix: cash flow consideration.