Marketing is the holistic process through which individuals and groups create and exchange products and values to fulfill their needs and desires. It involves companies generating value for customers, establishing strong customer relationships, and receiving value in return. Marketing is utilized to achieve customer satisfaction by acquiring, retaining, and fulfilling their needs.
Marketing management is a key aspect of business management, with a strong emphasis on the customer. The evolution of marketing can be attributed to mature markets and overcapacities in recent years. To remain profitable, companies have shifted their focus from production to the customer. The concept of marketing highlights that meeting the needs and desires of target markets is essential for achieving organizational goals and providing desired satisfactions.
The proposal recommends that organizations should predict and meet customer desires and requirements more efficiently than competitors in order to achieve their goals. A marketing paradigm refers to the approach of conducting marketing through specific methods and attitudes. The traditional marketing paradigm has its roots in ancient times, but as a practical discipline, modern marketing can be traced back to the 1960s and 70s. During this period, consumer markets emerged, utilizing mass media to sell affordable products to a broad audience.
The fundamental concept of marketing theory is centered around understanding customers’ needs and developing a product or service to meet those needs. This idea emphasizes that a company’s strategic decisions should be influenced by customer expectations. Throughout time, this concept has been referred to with different names including marketing orientation, customer driven, the marketing philosophy, customer intimacy, customer focus, and market driven.
Over time, the discipline of marketing has experienced major transformations. These include shifts from mass marketing to segmented marketing and eventually to mass customization. Furthermore, there have been adjustments to incorporate industrial markets that prioritize long-term marketing relationships, micro segmentation, and buying centers. Additionally, electronic markets have been integrated to emphasize personalized marketing. Lastly, channel management has merged with concepts like supply chain marketing programs and distributor marketing programs. Consequently, these changes have led to the emergence of new marketing paradigms.
From the 1980s onwards, there arose a demand for a fresh outlook on marketing. A group of theorists recognized that marketing had undergone significant changes and required a paradigm shift. This viewpoint is closely associated with relationship marketing, customer experience management, or network marketing. Advocates of relationship marketing argue that an extensive transformation of the field is necessary due to the transition from one-time transaction-based marketing to sustained long-term relationship-focused marketing.
The customer experience marketers do not support the idea of relationship marketers relying on customer relationship management software. This software has caused relationship marketers to lose sight of the unique experiences that each customer has during the service encounter. On the other hand, network marketers emphasize the interconnectedness of market actors and transactions. They view marketing as the application of systems thinking.
Marketing is influenced by both gradual evolution and radical paradigm shifts, but individual mindset has a greater impact than any objective or empirical categorization system. “Communal marketing” is a distinctive approach where public participation contributes to the development of advertising and marketing campaigns, leading to the creation of “communal advertising”.
A campaign using this advertising style involves consumers sharing their own stories that exemplify the brand’s significance to them. This can be accomplished through different media formats, including print, film, or audio, known as “consumer generated content”. This content is later merged into the campaign. Subsequently, a cross-media campaign is executed to encourage wider community participation and contribution towards the outcomes. This fosters a sense of community among both “brand champions as advertisers” and others connected to the brand.
Communal marketing helps strengthen the bond between the brand and its customers and fosters a deeper connection with the brand’s core market. It differs from viral marketing and word of mouth advertising but still generates significant publicity within relevant communities. This is crucial because the brand’s success heavily relies on these communities, which typically adhere to the 80/20 rule, wherein 20% of customers contribute to 80% of sales. Regard consumers as co-collaborators and co-creators is a vital aspect of communal marketing.
Ultimately, this structure facilitates additional “communal” marketing endeavors, including “communal branding” and “communal research”. This trend is integrated into consumer-focused, online advertising agencies that exclusively utilize consumer-generated content. A “communal branding” endeavor occurs when consumers actively participate in an advertising campaign as co-collaborators, while “communal research” involves engaging the brand’s audience in making marketing decisions during campaign development.
One example of someone who reached out to readers of a book for help with important decisions while creating “The Lord of the Rings” is Peter Jackson. This demonstrates a shift toward digital marketing, as evidenced by the following ten observations from the field. It is hoped that these observations will resonate with you, and you may have noticed some of these trends yourself. The Customer Century has arrived.
The Internet has resulted in a major shift of power from sellers to buyers. With the ability to conduct research previously exclusive to corporate research departments, customers can now easily compare your product or service with offerings from competitors. Consequently, we are witnessing an unprecedented level of corporate transparency, as secrets are quickly unveiled on the web.
In the past, there was a backstage area where actors in corporate roles could change outfits, touch up their makeup, express frustration towards an inattentive audience, enjoy some toast and jam, and occasionally have a sip of gin – basically, they could be their authentic selves. This backstage area was a wonderful place where everyone could unwind, have a cigarette, and truly be themselves. However, on the downside, some inappropriate behavior took place there, such as harassing secretaries or engaging in questionable activities with associates. But when it was time for their cue, they would emerge from backstage and deliver their pre-planned lines.
It used to be enjoyable to say smooth lines and conceal the unpleasantness occurring among the “backstage elite”. However, as marketers, we find ourselves in a difficult situation because we are still attempting to control how things appear. Unfortunately, transparency has eliminated the secrecy of the backstage, and angry ex-employees, current employees, and customers are now exposing most, if not all, of our supposed secrets on online platforms such as discussion forums and Usenet news groups.
At times, it seems that what happens behind the scenes has unexpectedly become the main attraction, with a focus on things that were meant to be hidden, causing audiences to laugh or ridicule. We cannot simply discard the scripts because the actors are human, not divine beings. And we believe that we must maintain a positive and consistent image in order to appeal to our target markets. However, perhaps it is time to reconsider the significance of manipulating appearances. At the very least, we should readjust these appearances to reflect what used to be confined to the backstage.
According to him, in the new economy, marketing is becoming personalized, leading to a change in all the rules. He also mentioned that only “blinding simplicity, consistency and credibility” would secure a brand’s position in the select bracket, considering that only seven per cent of TV advertising is retained by audiences. In today’s rapidly evolving world, technology is causing changes across various areas.
Advancements in technology, such as faster internet, digital photography, and interactive programs, have greatly simplified advertising and marketing in the expanding world of consumerism. These developments have brought about numerous changes, including a shift in the environment of the mass product-driven company with two strong brands. Currently, the Cadbury stable offers a wider range of products to cater to the diverse preferences of consumers. Mass marketing heavily relies on broadcast technology as it serves as the platform for firms to communicate with their target markets. Additionally, a central hierarchy plays a significant role by allowing a small number of marketing managers to plan and execute market programs that generate millions in revenue.
Ultimately, mass marketing relied on a mass production economy in which
- consumers were willing to buy the items that were identical, or at least very similar to, those of their neighbors,
- manufacturing facilities were geared to producing millions of these identical items.
Are FMCG brands losing their relevance in the market place as consumer-need fulfillment models escalate? Is brand variety taking over brand loyalty while short-term brands re-emerge alongside long-term brands?
The Marketing Summit 2000, hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industry, focused on the relationship between customization and privacy invasion in e-marketing. The event emphasized the ever-changing paradigms of the new economy, the importance of consumer insight in personalizing marketing strategies, and concerns regarding internet privacy. Additionally, the summit highlighted the contrast between traditional and modern marketing approaches. In traditional marketing, customers are primarily presented with potential preferences; however, due to an abundance of conflicting information, customers must invest a significant amount of time determining their desires. In the past, limited sources of information were influenced by factors such as printing costs and physical limitations.
The publishing process for newspapers and magazines can be hindered by excessive information flow, resulting in high costs. This can lead to a limited selection of available publications, although this is subjective. Several factors, such as technological advancements (e.g., vacuum tubes), larger competitors with dominant brands (e.g., McKinsey and their strategy work), consolidation or disappearance of clients in certain industries, excessive competition forcing smaller markets into low-margin and price-sensitive approaches (as seen in IT consulting), government regulation or societal pressure, can render a specific niche obsolete and make it difficult for other businesses to thrive. The collapse of an industry similar to what happened with tobacco is another example where government regulation or societal pressure played a role.
The marketing industry falls behind despite rapid technological advancements. In the realm of marketing, professionals must be involved in all aspects of a business; however, keeping pace with technology is a major challenge.
The field of marketing has experienced significant transformations in the last century. Initially, its focus was mainly on product distribution and delivering goods to customers. However, as business patterns evolved, marketing broadened its range to encompass tasks such as promotion, sales, positioning, targeting, and branding.
The absence of skilled staff and advanced technology in rural markets prevents consumers from being informed. This poses a hurdle for marketing and overall business prosperity because there is a discrepancy between words and actions. Interestingly, business executives acknowledge this issue. It is not unusual to hear senior leaders asserting that their company transcends mere sales; it also encompasses marketing efforts. Nevertheless, this recognition typically arises once per year when strategic objectives are established to target particular customer segments and attain profitable customer contentment.
Despite inconveniencing the company, people persistently seek out sales and make purchases throughout the year. This lack of organization results in conflicting perspectives and a credibility gap in marketing. Curiously, within the boardroom, marketers encounter challenges in effectively asserting their position and competing for market share.
The practice of marketing and the profession’s credibility are often overlooked by marketers who give strategic advice on positioning businesses and creating competitive advantage. While there is general agreement on the function of marketing, there are varying beliefs in its actual practice. Two main camps exist, known as the Big View and Small View of marketing, representing opposite ends of the spectrum.
The Big View of marketing encompasses the perspective found in marketing textbooks and from marketing consultants. It represents marketing’s standpoint on its role in corporate strategy, including product development and customer relationship management. Notably, within this framework, sales is considered a subset of marketing, representing a specific stage in the overall strategic customer life cycle.
The current shortcomings in marketing are highlighted by the combination of two trends. Marketing and technology should be inherently compatible, but while technology is advancing quickly, marketing is lagging behind. Although some marketers have successfully adopted new technology, many still struggle to navigate the Internet. To bridge the gap between businesses and consumers, collaboration between marketing and technology is crucial. This involves continually developing and implementing efficient customer-relations-management (CRM) tools, which currently only exist in the IT realm like software.
As the economy gradually recovers, businesses should reevaluate their understanding of marketing. We should recognize profit as a fundamental aspect of marketing and consequentially require more responsibility. We should comprehend the historical reliance of marketing on technology and thus advocate for closer collaboration between marketing and technology teams. We should acknowledge that the strengthening connection between companies and consumers is essential for success and therefore emphasize customer experience as a key marketing role.
It is crucial to recognize that marketing is vital for the success of any business. If marketing is ineffective, merely restricting its scope does not address the issue unless there is a clear and strong definition of the concept.
