Introduction to Marketing

• Marketing's value extends to consumers, firms, and society.

What is Marketing?

• Marketing is more than just selling and advertising, it involves a range of activities.
• Key steps for managers before selling include analyzing needs, determining wants, identifying competition, predicting designs, deciding on promotion, estimating price, and providing service.
• Marketing matters to every consumer.
• Marketing provides a framework for various jobs.
• Marketing affects innovation and the general standard of living by directing the flow of need-satisfying goods and services from producer to consumer.
• Marketing is the performance of activities that seek to accomplish organizational objectives.
• Marketing builds relationships, is key to understanding characteristics, and satisfies the needs of both profit and non-profit organizations.
• Marketing involves exchanges, focuses on customer satisfaction, and encompasses the entire company effort.
• Marketing begins with the customers needs.
• Goods, services and ideas are all marketed.

Marketing Exchanges and Needs

• Marketing involves parties with unsatisfied needs.
• It requires a desire and ability to be satisfied.
• It also entails a way for involved parties to communicate and exchange with each other.
• Marketing was not necessary throughout the pure subsistence economy.
• Consumers may not know what they need or want.
• Cheetos lip balm in 2005 and Dyson vacuum cleaners are examples of consumer needs.
• Marketing builds relationships between firms and customers.
• Firms provide products and services for customers.
• Satisfied customers are key to marketing growth.
• Micro-marketing focuses on a single organization's activities whereas Macro-marketing emphasizes the whole system.
• Macro-marketing matches up producers and consumers and every society needs it

Macro-Marketing System

• Societies require macro-marketing systems to match supply and demand.
• Different producers vary in objectives, resources, and skills.
• Each consumer has different requirements.
• Systems must effectively align diverse consumer and producer needs.
• Effective macro-marketing systems deliver desired goods and services, at the right time and place, at acceptable prices.
• It also continues to keep consumers satisfied after the sale for future purchases.
• Macro marketing is a social process that directs the flow of goods and services from producers to consumers matching supply and demand to meet society's objectives.
• Marketing bridges the gap between production discrepancies and consumer separation.

Universal functions of Marketing.

• Universal functions of marketing include buying, selling, transporting, storing, standardization & grading, financing, market information, and risk-taking.
• Producers, wholesalers, retailers, transport firms, ISPs, product testing firms, research firms, advertisers and consumers perform Marketing Functions.
• Marketing overcomes spatial separation via marketing.
• Economic systems can be command based or market directed.
• In a Command Economy, government officials decide production and distribution.
• This may work well in simple economies, with little variety, or under adverse conditions.
• In a Market-Directed Economy, the economy adjusts itself.
• Price works as a measure in a market-directed economy.
• There is freedom of choice, limited government intervention and public interest groups/consumers.
• A Market-Directed Macro-Marketing System includes interactions between many individual producers, intermediaries, collaborators and, individual consumers.

Evolution of Marketing Eras

• Marketing roles have changed over the years.
• The Simple Trade Era involved families selling surplus.
• The Production Era until the1920s focused on increasing supply.
• The Sales Era, from the 1930s to 1950, focused on beating the competition.
• The Marketing Department Era that began after 1950s focused on coordination and control.
• The Marketing Company Era since the 1960s involves long-run customer satisfaction.
• The Marketing Concept revolves are customer satistfaction.
• It incorporates total company effort to strive for profit and long term measured success as objectives.
• The Marketing Concept states customer satisfaction guides the entire company working together for survival.
• Marketing adoption is not universal.
• Some organizations promote a "triple bottom line" consisting of economic, social, and environmental outcomes.
• Companies like TOMS use “purpose orientation”.

Perspectives on Orientation

• Some differences in outlook include adopters of a production, marketing, or purpose orientation
• Some differences include attitudes towards customers, attitudes towards employees and/ or product offerings.
• The Role of marketing research, for the sake of innovation and bettering customer service is taken in to account.
• Factors to address are consumer customer satisfaction, maintaining relationships and costs.
• Marketing concept aims all efforts at satisfying customers at a profit..
• Production orientation makes whatever products are easy to produce and then sells them.
• Marketing orientation carries out the marketing concept.
• Marketing metrics use numeric data to evaluate performance against goals like profit, revenue, and cost.

Customer values

• Metrics include Revenue = Price x Quantity and Profit = Revenue - Cost,
• Customer value is the customer value being offered.
• Customer Value equals Benefits minus Costs.
• Benefits are functional, emotional and life changing .
• Costs are Monetary and involve inconviences.
• The Marketing Concept and Customer Value revolves around taking a Customer's Point of View to satisfy their needs..
• Customers may or may not dwell on value.
• Customer Value builds Relationships
• The marketing concept also includes customer retention.
• Applying customer value requires considering satisfaction offerers.
• The Marketing Concept Applies in Nonprofit Organizations like newcomer groups may or may not be ready for marketing.

Micro v Macro dilemma

• The Micro v Macro dilemma balances group needs, dilema.
• Society's needs must be in balance with consumer satisfaction to build relationships.
• Horlicks was developed in 1873 and marketed as a malted drink powder taken warm with milk or water
• The product is targeted as a drink to sleep better and feel better, the largest markets being the UK and India.
• Products in the U.K, are taken warm and contains additional vitamins and minerals
• Products sold are sweet tasting and malty in different variants of Original, Light and Light malted chocolate.
• SKU is sold in 2kg, 800g and 400g sizes as a drink before bedtime.
• Marketing requires the understanding of psychology, anthropology and economics.
• Key terms in marketing include production, cust satisfaction, and different functions of marketing, collaborators and economic systems.