Marketing is a fundamental idea that promotes and prospers organization through meeting the needs and wants of their customers. This simple strategy is called marketing concept. These strategies known as marketing concept is a process that is designed to match a company’s capabilities with customer wants. And this matching process can take place in a marketing environment. Marketing activities are not undertaken only by a business.
The threat from other competitors, political changes, introduction of new marketing policies by government , economic, social and technological values are contributing factors and has to e put into account when a business matches its capability with the needs and wants of the target customers. The adoption of marketing concept by any organization welcomes the needs of potential customers as the basis of its operations and success is dependent on satisfying customer needs. According to Adam Smith in 1776 (Smith et al. 1776), said that consumption is the sole end and purpose of production and that he was describing what in recent years has become known as today as the marketing concept. It is very important to understand the difference between marketing concept (also known as market orientation) and marketing function which has to do with the management of marketing mix. To attain success in the management of marketing mix various tools and techniques has to be available for the managers to implement the marketing concept.
In simple understanding, it is written and referred to as the four AS, which means Product, Price, promotion and place, but in recent days due to so many finding about marketing concept so scholars decide to add more As , like People and Process. However, to have a clear understanding how the marketing function should be managed it is very important to have full understanding about marketing concept.
Marketing Concept can be defined as opposed to the marketing function, which simply means that all the activities of an organization are driven with the desire to satisfy customer needs. The marketing concept has also be described by different authors as a corporate state of mind that insists on the integration and coordination of all of the marketing functions which , in turn, are melded with other corporate functions, for the basic objectives of producing maximum long-range corporate profits (Belton 1959, p. 5). Another author goes to define marketing concept as he external consumer orientation as contrasted to internal preoccupation and orientation around the production function, profit goals as an alternative to sales volume goals, and complete integration of organizational and operational effort (Canopy and Caliber 1971, p. 9). There are many definitions of marketing, and much confusion about what it is. The following definition should clarify this for readers.
Marketing is a process for: defining markets quantifying the needs of the customer groups (segments) within these markets determining the value propositions to meet these needs immunization these value propositions to all those people in the organization responsible for delivering them, and getting their buy-in to their role playing an appropriate part in delivering these value propositions (usually only communications) monitoring the value actually delivered. For this process to be effective, organizations need to be consumer- customer- driven.
This definition is represented as a ‘map’ in Figure 1. 1. Starting at the top and moving clockwise, it should be pointed out that the first two boxes are concerned with strategies for markets, whereas the bottom box and the box on the oft are concerned with implementing the strategies, once is formulated. Marketing is the activity, set of institution, and process for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, client, partners and society at large. (AMA 2013).
Philip Kettle defines marketing as ‘Marketing is the social process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others’ kettle (1980) Considering the amount of definition out there from different authors, it has come to simplify that most organization and scholars embrace the definition by The Chartered Institute of Marketing; Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably. (CAM definition). The market function is based on the market forces and factors and development of company’s position to optimism its benefit. This is all about getting the right product at the right price to customers, at the right place and time. In the history of business and modern practice it is a known fact that without proper marketing, organizations cannot get close to customers let alone satisfy their deeds. Whereby good marketing strategy is not done a competitor will surely get in.
Sometimes marketing is wrongly defined or just narrowed to advertising and selling, but it goes beyond this factors. Marketing is a fundamental management discipline that allows the producers of goods and services to interpret customer wants, needs and desires to equate or exceed them in the delivery to their target consumers. The marketing process is focused and centered on the business performance of the organizations, both large and small because it addresses the most important aspect of the competitive marketplace.
At the moment we have covered that the consumer society has been shaped by the forces of marketing through products that we buy and media messages that we receive. In recent time, as the competitive pressures increase, marketing skills have never been more highly valued by organizations in both public and private sector. The marketing concept used to be a department in a company but today is now seen as the frontline and backbone altitude for every employee.
Marketing has played vital role in so many successful businesses ranging from sports brands to airlines, pharmaceutical to food and drinks, media and small niche players. The economic wealth of every nation is shaped by the contribution of business professional that implements marketing strategies through their skills that help to retain and attract customers, build sales and generate profits that can be reinvested as party of a cycle of prosperity. The bases of attaining successful marketing rightly depend on some key factors which must be addressed.
This include what the company is producing, how much is going to be sold, how is going to deliver the product and services to the customer and how is going to deliver the message about the product and services to its customers. Historically, hose factors are based on marketing mix which is known as the ups – Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. An additional ‘P’ was introduced as the discipline became sophisticated, a fifth ‘P’ was added and sixth ‘p’ was added and a seventh ‘P’ was added mainly for service industries – process and physical evidence.
This is known as the ups of marketing, sometimes referred to as the marketing mix. Product So many companies develop product and services that nobody wants to buy but later hope to find a market for it, considering the circumstances a successful company will find out what the customers need or want are then develop the reduce with the right quality for now and in the future. A perfect product must provide value for the customer. This value is determined by the customer, as a company it is our responsibility to give customers what they want and not what we think they want.
Products should not be tangible; an insurance policy can be a product. Never try to go too far with product quality for example selling a Bentley luxurious car when the customer wants a Vaughan. Price The price of products is determined by the customers, it is what the customers are willing to pay that determines what the product is worth. It has to be imitative but must not be the cheapest in the market. With extra services or details that will provide customers better value for their money we can agree that small businesses can compete with larger rivals.
Company pricing must also provide profit. Pricing is the only element of marketing mix that generates revenue, the rest represent cost. It is price that positions you in the marketplace, the more money you charge for your product and services, the more value or quality your customers will be expecting for their money. It is always nice to look after your existing customers; they are less sensitive about price than ewe customers. In a higher priced added value approach bear in mind that price positions’ you in the marketplace.
This simply indicates that potential and existing customers know where to categories or place you in relation to fellow competitors. High expectation will be expected, customers will expect high quality product or services. All dealings with customers will be live up to expectations. Consistence must be met; the same standard and quality that customers experience must be the same, example- promotional materials, packaging, environment, letterheads, invoices, etc. Place The point of purchase and distribution of product should be assessable and convenient for the customer.
The product should always be available in the right place, at the right time and the right quality, considering the storage, inventory and distribution cost to an acceptable level. It is clear that delivery performance is one of the most vital criteria when choosing a supplier. Place also represent the ways that your products are being displayed to a customer groups; example can be a shop window, or online display. Promotion Promotion is all about communication this is a way a business makes its products now to the customers, both current and potential.
The purpose of promotion is to ensure that customers are aware of the existence and positioning of products. It is used to persuade customers that product is better than competing products and to remind customers about why they may want to buy. Promotion has got a very big role to play in business, its vast potentials include, increase in sales, attract new customers, encourage customer loyalty, encourage trial, create awareness, change altitudes, support distribution channel. The benefit of the customers should be the ultimate goal of the promotion and should be made Lear and easy for customers to identify.
A very good promotion should not be one way communication; it should be able to allow dialogue between customers and companies. Promotion is not only about communicating to your customer, it also very important that your stakeholders knows what value and attributes of your product. People An impression is made with anyone that come in contact with a customer, it might be positive or negative but will be based on customer satisfaction. The reputation of your product lies on the hand of the people. Therefore they must be trained and equip with the appropriate marketing tools, well-motivated ND have the right altitude.
It is important to ensure that employees that have contact with customers are not only trained very well but also be the right people for the job. Some customers can not differentiate the product or services from a staff that provides it, this express the importance of the people. After sales support and advice is another vital tool, the level of after sales and support advice provided by a business is another means of adding value to your brand and it can give you an important edge over other competitors.
The advice and support will become more appreciated even useful than the price of the reduce. However, the sixth and seventh AS would be considered for the service industries, they can also be considered for products especially in BIB. Process The medium at which services are processed and the behavior of the staff that delivers are very important to customer’s satisfaction. Examples of these issues are waiting time, helpfulness of staff and information passed on to customers is all vital to make the customer happy.
To most customers what matters to them is that the system is operational and can be accessed at any point, customers are not interested how your business runs. Staffs should be trained in a manner hat is most appropriate for the services. In marketing mix, process is one of the As that is mostly overlooked. When a customer is trying to get information about your product by phone, it is a vital source of income to the company and value but sometimes customers have to wait for several minutes listening to a recorded message before they are attended to.
Most times, many of these customers give up, go elsewhere and tell their friends their experience and also discourage them from using your company just because of the poor process that was in place. The fact they are eventually attended to, they will still have that impression of having to wait too long before being attended to and establish a negative impression about the company. It will make no sense if the other department of the company is operating perfectly and as a consequence the process is faulty, this ‘P could be a great source of competitive advantage if rightfully utilized.
Physical Evidence Choosing to use a service can be seen as a risky business because you are buying something intangible. It is very impossible to experience a service before it is delivered. To reduce this potential uncertainty, it will be helpful to assist customers in seeing what they are buying. Word of mouth, testimonies and case studies can provide evidence that company actually fulfill its promises. When a company premises is not tidy a customer might judge you on that single factor that your services might not meet the standard you are portraying.
Simple facilities like tidy and well decorated reception area can help to reassure a customer that is in doubt. Any physical evidence portrayed by an organization must confirm the assumption of the customer, for instance a financial institution will present its service in a formal setting while a kids birthday entertainment firm will adopt a more relax approach. Even when customers have not experience the service before buying, most customers tend to enquire from friends that have used the services or that have experience for advice about the service.
Their views and testimonies about the product are credible because is not coming from the company. Most times some companies engage their customers and request a feedback, with this a reference is designed for new customers to build their purchasing confidence. Each ‘P’ in the marketing mix is very important and cannot be isolated; every element is a key to SUccess. For instance you cannot design a product without considering a price, or owe it will reach the customer. This process is called marketing planning.
The fundamental requirements of companies to identify what customer needs and preferences analyses their attitudes to promotion and other factors lies on marketing. Their purchasing decision and persuade are some other factors that encourage them to buy a product or service from you rather than a competitor. This process require marketing strategy that is co-ordinate and considered not a piecemeal approach to each part of the task and a realistic approach has to be implemented so as to make the best out of it with the available resource and budgets available.
An on-going and detailed investigation of the market or segments is the origin of planning a market strategy. Political, social economic, cultural and technological trends are contributing factors that companies must focus on to shape the market. The marketing audit is another avenue to a useful marketing strategy, using their position and resources to change or influence the market. In marketing strategy, it is a plan that defines the objective and targets, performance measures is then developed with a financial budget.
Planning an effective marketing strategy within the organization is intimately bound up with total business planning process because it is linked to overall corporate strategy and requires endorsement from the top. It will also require continual review. However, collaboration between marketing and other corporate activities like research, development and production, is vital to ensure that marketing strategy is effectively implemented. Presently we work and live in a world that is influenced by social and technological upheaval, as a result of this, new levels of competition has been introduced for all kinds of organization.
Due to increase in demand , so many matured companies has little room for growth, brand ululation is recognized on financial balance sheets, environmental pressures are on the increase and the peace of change is fast at all time. The acceptance and speed of market introduction are important factors. New social trends and corporate structures have opened up fresh avenues of opportunity for marketers to become even more central to business. Moored technologies, such as database marketing, direct-to-plate printing, video conferencing and internet communication have made it all very possible than it was years ago.
The ability of marketing to constantly adopt and respond to change is its strength. Recently impasses introduce streamline management hierarchies and more flexible working process, so that the marketing approach is proving itself a valuable interdisciplinary asset to the company that wants to down functional boundaries and focus intensely on its core capabilities. Research shows emerging trends, firstly, collection, analysis and use of better marketing information technology are playing a vital role in marketing; example is a more sophisticated customer database for direct marketing campaigns.
Secondly, importance is associated with measuring and monitoring performance, and more sophisticated tools are plopped to do this, this is accounted for as part of the general drive. Lastly, the growing increase in investing in staff training and development, also strong emphases on continuing professional development to enable companies more effectively defend competitive advantage that successful marketing provides them. Newly. Com Newly. Com is an online store that focuses on both fashion and beauty for young women. The company started in 2004, originally as an underwear store. Today, Newly. Mom is the largest online fashion house in the Nordic countries, with over 100 employees and more than 850 brands in the range. The company became art of the CODE Group in 2007. CODE. Com was established in 1999 as an online CD store. Gradually the range expanded to include films, games, books and electronics. Today, CODE. Com is the largest Nordic online department store with 70 million visits per year and is one of the most well-known trademarks in e-commerce. The Newly. Com product offering includes a high percentage of own brands. In-house designs account for a large part of sales.
Success is based on a highly refined sensitivity for trends and a great commitment to its customers through receptiveness, a high level of service, events, dialogue in social media ND its own fashion magazine, Newly Magazine. Newly. Com has a business model that is well suited to expansion and the company has been commended many times for its high growth rate. Newly. Com is established in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Germany, The Netherlands, Great Britain, France, Belgium and also through an EH website and a Global website. The company’s ambition is to continue its international expansion.
Since the start Newly. Com has been based in Boors, partly for logistical reasons, but also because it is the centre for textiles in Sweden. The country leading fashion and textile courses are held in Boors, roving the company with a stable recruitment base. The aim of a marketing oriented business are to stay closer to the customers and stay ahead of their competitors, simple reason for this aim is to attract the customers. The four main characteristics that define marketing oriented organization are Shared value, organizational Structure, Strategy and Stakeholders.
Companies that follow this marketing orientation consider customers first before taking any decision and also shear in common values of greater quality of produced goods. Another characteristic is that their organizational structure has few layers and policies re not very difficult. The strategy of a market oriented organization is long term, elastic and participative. And lastly they put into consideration the stakeholders expectation into consideration before making or implementing any important decision. Does newly. Com exhibit these characteristics? Considering the marketing strategy of Newly. Mom, it can be justified perfectly that newly. Com has adopted the four major characteristics of marketing oriented business i-e sheared values, organizational structure, strategy and stakeholders. Describing the selling concept and the marketing concept as to comparing which best describes the newly. Com. They are two different models of marketing; they are part of the evolution and advancement of marketing in recent world. The Selling Concept makes the product centre of attention regardless of the orientation of the product itself , while the Marketing Concept is a recent concept that focus more on the need and wants of the consumer.
It also focuses on the price, promotion and distribution of the product according to the demands of the consumers. Based on the information and findings as regards to the strategy and concept that best describe newly. Com, it simply indicates that he ‘Marketing Concept’ best describes newly. Com and also they identify the needs of the customer and promote, distribute their product to the benefit of their customers. Newly. Com S. W. O. T Analysis Strengths: Boundary less (global location): Online trade which is also known as E-commerce can be dealt globally.
It helped Newly. Com grow to global level. Time saving: It saves time and transportation cost, no physical traveling to store. Direct communication with consumer, social networking sites, and online advertising networks can be medium to buzz about online store. Easy transactions, financial ramifications are done electronically, very fast and can be done from any part of the world. Weaknesses: Fake website can bring about bad reputation to e-commerce business. Fraud is another factor; the misuse of financial and personal data is a great weakness in e-commerce. Newly. Mom has so many issues about this. Delivery time might be long, sometimes it can be in days or weeks’ considering the region is coming from. Opportunities: Changing Trends: E-commerce is fast and effective even financial transactions can be made from any part of the world. New generation will feel comfortable buying products through the internet only. Wide business growth, wide scope and broader vision to grow. Advertising is cost effective as compare to conventional offline system. Cut down on local competition: online customer service is a competitive advantage for newly. Mom Threats: Competition is increasing day by day; other online big companies have entered in the business making people habitual at the cost oftener companies. No direct interaction of customer and seller Changes in law in some countries also affect the sales of Newly. Com. E. G. Environmental, law and regulation. Identifying and assessing the benefits and cost of implementing a marketing concept to newly. Mom. Firstly we need to identify the two main elements i-e benefit and cost. The benefit of marketing is to grow the business, while cost of marketing is the outflow of funds without guarantee of returns.
Benefit and cost are further divided into other important elements that are: Marketing Cost factors include: Regular Marketing Research, Setting Marketing focus structure, building excellent service requires money and time and organizing events for promotion of products. All this are cost effective to initiate. If a company desires to build a long term relationship with their customers, they have to invest in Marketing Cost. To retain a customer, you need to have a customer relationship and a customer experience management introduced, and these two factors needs proper capital before it can be implemented.
