Marketing Concepts

Marketing is a generic term that describes the act of creating and distributing information to make the public aware of products or services offered by another firm. Marketing reflects the attitude of a firm in relation to its customers and what it is willing to do or have to provide for them to obtain a specific response. Market research is a part of marketing. Marketing generally refers to the act by which an organization undertakes so as to engage its targeted consumer base, develop strong relations to make valuable offerings to gain value from exchange of that exchange, and finally to capture market share through competitive advantage.

A firm’s marketing concept is based on its customers and how they interact with the firm. The interaction is expressed through various channels such as advertising, promotion, sales and other forms of communication. The essence of marketing lies in the need to satisfy customer needs and the ability to identify and meet customers’ requirements. Marketing is a process of understanding the customer needs and seeking to meet them. The marketing management concept seeks to influence customers through advertising and promoting services or products in order to create a demand for the goods or services offered.

The major components of marketing management include product creation, sales and marketing. Sales is the primary driving force behind marketing management and salespersons develop a deep understanding of their prospective customers. The promotion of services or products by means of advertisements is an important factor in selling. Different approaches such as community marketing, institutional marketing and social marketing are also important components in the marketing management process.

Marketing research assists product development. As part of marketing research companies carry out market research on selected target markets to identify opportunities and obstacles to introducing new products or services. Marketing research assists in identifying potential product features or processes that could be developed to overcome these obstacles and enabling the development of an improved product. Market research is crucial for determining the most suited marketing activities to suit particular needs.

Social marketing concept is the concept that encourages interaction between consumers and organizations to obtain positive responses from consumers. This concept places importance on the involvement of consumers in designating what they want. Marketing activities should be directed towards developing a relationship with the target consumers and creating awareness of the organization among these consumers. The objective of this concept is to identify the needs and seek to meet them.

Consumer Marketing is an important component of customer relationship marketing and involves developing and maintaining good relationships with customers. Customers are the key to profitability and marketing strategies should be directed towards attracting and retaining customers rather than selling to them. Marketing through retailers, in particular, can have an enormous impact on consumer behaviour. It involves efforts to influence customers in a manner which benefits the retailer and his/her customers. Examples of marketing concepts include direct marketing, which targets a specific group of consumers directly, mass marketing, which refers to large scale marketing activities through various marketing activities, and internet marketing, which refers to marketing strategies undertaken through the use of the internet.