This concept is the oldest of the concepts in business. It holds that consumers will prefer products that are widely available and inexpensive. Managers focusing on this concept concentrate on achieving high production efficiency, low costs, and mass distribution. They assume that consumers are primarily interested in product availability and low prices. This orientation makes sense in developing countries, where consumers are more interested in obtaining the product than in its features.
Marketing Concept
The marketing concept is the strategy that firms implement to satisfy customer’s needs, increase sales, maximize profit and beat the competition. Marketing is a department of management that tries to design strategies that will build profitable relationships with target consumers. But what philosophy is the best for a company in setting marketing strategies?
There are five alternative concepts under which organizations design and carry out their marketing strategies
5 Marketing Concepts
Product Concept
This orientation holds that consumers will favor those products that offer the most quality, performance, or innovative features. Managers focusing on this concept concentrate on making superior products and improving them over time. They assume that buyers admire well-made products and can appraise quality and performance. However, these managers are sometimes caught up in a love affair with their product and do not realize what the market needs. Management might commit the “better-mousetrap” fallacy, believing that a better mousetrap will lead people to beat a path to its door.
Selling Concept
This is another common business orientation. It holds that consumers and businesses, if left alone, will ordinarily not buy enough of the selling company’s products. The organization must, therefore, undertake an aggressive selling and promotion effort. This concept assumes that consumers typically show buying inertia or resistance and must be coaxed into buying. It also assumes that the company has a whole battery of effective selling and promotional tools to stimulate more buying. Most firms practice the selling concept when they have overcapacity. Their aim is to sell what they make rather than make what the market wants.
Marketing Concept
The marketing concept holds- “achieving organizational goals depends on knowing the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfactions better than competitors do”. Here marketing management takes a “customer first” approach. Under the marketing concept, customer focus and value are the routes to achieve sales and profits. The marketing concept is a customer-centered “sense and responds” philosophy. The job is not to find the right customers for your product but to find the right products for your customers. The marketing concept and the selling concepts are two extreme concepts and totally different from each other.
Societal Marketing Concept
This concept holds that the organization’s task is to determine the needs, wants, and interests of target markets and to deliver the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than competitors (this is the original Marketing Concept). Additionally, it holds that this all must be done in a way that preserves or enhances the consumer’s and the society’s well-being. This Orientation arose as some questioned whether the Marketing Concept is an appropriate philosophy in an age of environmental deterioration, resource shortages, explosive population growth, world hunger and poverty, and neglected social services.
MARKETING RESEARCH
WHY COMPANIES REQUIRE MARKET RESEARCH?
Here is why your company should conduct business market research:
- Identify the problem areas in your business
- Understand the needs of existing customers and why they chose your service over competitors
- Identify new business opportunities and changing market trends
- Recognize new areas for expansion, and increase your customer base
- Discover potential customers and their needs, which can be incorporated into your services
- Set achievable targets for business growth, sales, and latest product developments
Make well-informed market decisions about your services and develop effective strategies
The Objectives of Marketing Research
The important objectives that are undertaken by the Marketing research are given below
Marketing research enables the planning of sales and other marketing programs. The sales forecasts will be made on the basis of data collected from the market and other activities will be planned by keeping these figures in mind.
A systematized approach based on facts collected in marketing research will help in controlling costs on advertising, selling and distribution.
Marketing research collects information about new areas where the product can be marketed. The tastes of consumers, the type of products already in the market, purchasing power of buyers will enable the marketing men to try the new markets.
Marketing programs will be successful only if we know the strength of our competitors. The marketing strategies adopted by the competitors should be counted to sell the products. Marketing research will be helpful in collecting every information about the competitors.
A number of external factors such as Government Policies, spending habits, purchasing power of consumers, substitutes available will influence marketing plans and programs. The impact of external factors should be regularly analyzed with the help of information collection in marketing research.
Marketing research aims to ascertain the actual needs of the consumers for a product which is already put on the market to manufacture a similar but more suitable product. The failure of a product should also be enquired to help future planning.
- Proper Planning
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Marketing research enables the planning of sales and other marketing programs. The sales forecasts will be made on the basis of data collected from the market and other activities will be planned by keeping these figures in mind.
- Controlling Marketing Costs
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A systematized approach based on facts collected in marketing research will help in controlling costs on advertising, selling and distribution.
- Exploiting New Markets
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Marketing research collects information about new areas where the product can be marketed. The tastes of consumers, the type of products already in the market, purchasing power of buyers will enable the marketing men to try the new markets.
- Exploiting New Markets
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Marketing programs will be successful only if we know the strength of our competitors. The marketing strategies adopted by the competitors should be counted to sell the products. Marketing research will be helpful in collecting every information about the competitors.
- Studying Impact of External Factors
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A number of external factors such as Government Policies, spending habits, purchasing power of consumers, substitutes available will influence marketing plans and programs. The impact of external factors should be regularly analyzed with the help of information collection in marketing research.
- Studying Consumer Needs
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Marketing research aims to ascertain the actual needs of the consumers for a product which is already put on the market to manufacture a similar but more suitable product. The failure of a product should also be enquired to help future planning.