Meaning and Concepts of Marketing
by Marketing can be defined as the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising. According to the American Marketing Association (AMA), marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. This definition emphasizes the multi-faceted nature of marketing, highlighting its role in creating value and fostering relationships.
Concept of Marketing:
- Production Concept
The production concept is based on the idea that “consumers will favor products that are readily available and highly affordable.” This approach is one of the oldest orientations in marketing management and guides sellers in their strategies. However, companies that adopt this perspective risk becoming too focused on their operational efficiencies, potentially losing sight of the ultimate goal: meeting consumer needs. This narrow focus can lead to marketing myopia, where management emphasizes production and distribution efficiencies without considering customer preferences or market demands.
- Product Concept
Product concept asserts that consumers will prefer products that offer superior quality, performance, and innovative features. Under this concept, marketing strategies emphasize continuous product improvement. While product quality is crucial, an exclusive focus on enhancing the company’s offerings can also lead to marketing myopia. For instance, consider a company that manufactures high-quality floppy disks. While these disks may excel in quality, customers today may require alternatives for data storage, such as USB flash drives, SD memory cards, or portable hard drives. Therefore, the company should shift its focus from perfecting floppy disks to addressing customers’ broader data storage needs.
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Selling Concept
Selling concept posits that “consumers will not purchase enough of a firm’s products unless significant selling and promotional efforts are undertaken.” In this framework, management prioritizes creating sales transactions over fostering long-term, profitable customer relationships. Essentially, the goal is to sell what the company produces rather than developing products that align with market demands. This aggressive selling strategy carries substantial risks, as it assumes that customers can be persuaded to buy a product, even if they initially do not like it. Often, this is a flawed and costly assumption. The selling concept is typically applied to unsought goods—products that consumers do not think about purchasing, such as insurance or blood donations. Companies in these sectors must excel at identifying prospects and effectively communicating the benefits of their offerings.
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Marketing Concept
The marketing concept emphasizes that “achieving organizational goals depends on understanding the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfactions more effectively than competitors.” This approach adopts a “customer-first” mentality, placing customer focus and value at the core of sales and profit generation. The marketing concept embodies a customer-centered philosophy that encourages businesses to “sense and respond” to market demands. Rather than seeking the right customers for existing products, the objective is to identify and develop the right products for the customer base. The marketing concept and the selling concept represent two opposing philosophies in marketing.
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Societal Marketing Concept
Societal marketing concept raises important questions about whether the traditional marketing concept adequately addresses potential conflicts between short-term consumer desires and long-term societal welfare. It asserts that “marketing strategies should deliver value to customers while maintaining or improving the well-being of both consumers and society.” This concept advocates for sustainable marketing practices that are socially and environmentally responsible, meeting current consumer and business needs while preserving or enhancing the ability of future generations to meet their own. In response to urgent issues like global warming, companies are increasingly recognizing the need to implement societal marketing principles, either fully or partially, as they reassess their resource usage and impact on society.