WHAT IS MARKETING?

The answer to the question ‘What is marketing exactly?’ depends on the individual. Law, finance, economics and consumers all view marketing in a different way.

Many definitions of marketing begin with the production of goods and services and end when the goods or services reach the consumer or user. But nowadays marketing actually begins with an idea for a product or service and ends only after the consumer has had sufficient time to evaluate the product thoroughly, which might be months or years later.

So, a broader definition is needed in today’s rapidly changing competitive environment. The following one is more applicable, ‘Marketing is the process by which decisions are made in a totally interrelated changing business environment on all the activities that facilitate exchange in order that the targeted group of customers is satisfied and the defined objectives of the organization are accomplished.’

This definition has four major aspects.

First, to establish and to obtain objectives. The basic objective of a profit organization is to make a profit. To obtain this purpose the firm plans to do business year after year in the long run. The objectives of a nonprofit organization do vary greatly. A university tries to attract the best students, a doctor wants to have a good practice curing his patients and a church is aimed to have more people in the coming year.

The second aspect is that the customer should be the focus of all the firm’s activities. The customer’s wants and needs must be constantly analyzed. It enables the firm’s offer to be exactly what is desired. Without this focus the customer can easily choose an alternative product or service from a competitive firm.

The third aspect is all the activities that facilitate exchange. They include all the controllable marketing elements which can be classified in four areas: product, price, distribution and promotion (i.e. the marketing mix).

And the final aspect of the definition is business environment. It indicates that marketing exists in a totally interrelated and changing external and internal environment. Decisions within one firm as well as those made in competitive firms affect the rate of this environment change together with other variables in the external environment.

Consequently, marketing is the process of developing, pricing, distributing and promoting the goods and services that satisfy customers’ needs. Marketing therefore combines market research, new product development, distribution, advertising, promotion, product improvement, etc. According to this definition, marketing begins and ends with the customer. Truly successful marketing understands the customer so well that the product or service satisfies a need so perfectly that the customer is desperate to buy it. The product almost sells itself. Of course this will only happen if the product or service is better than those of competitors.

3. Define the main idea of each paragraph.

4. Answer the questions:

1.What is the role of the individual in defining ‘marketing’?

2.What is the most applicable definition of marketing in the changing competitive environment?

3.What are the four major aspects of the definition?

4.Explain the aspect of ‘objectives’ of the definition.

5.Explain the aspect of ‘the customer’ of the definition.

6.Explain the aspect of ‘all the activities that facilitate exchange’ of the definition.

7.Explain the aspect of ‘business environment’ of the definition.

8.What does marketing combine?

5. Fill in the missing words in the sentences below choosing from the following:

customers place product (2) service needs

developing price profit time

distribute producing promote want

Marketing is concerned with getting the right (1) … to the right (2) … at the right (3) … .

1.Marketing is about meeting consumer (4) … at a (5) … .

2.Marketing makes it easier for (6) … to do business with you.

3.Marketing aims to find out what people (7) … ; then (8) … and (9) … a (10) … or (11) … that will satisfy those wants; and then determining the best way to (12) … , (13) … and (14) … the product or service.

6. There are some statements about the role of marketing below. Read them, answer the questions after the statements and formulate your own definition of marketing:

1.“Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department.” (David Packard)

2.“In a truly great marketing organization, you can’t tell who’s in the marketing department. Everyone in the organization has to make decisions based on the impact on the consumer.” (Professor Stephen Burnett)

3.“Most people mistakenly think of marketing only as selling and promotion … This does not mean that selling and promotion are unimportant, but rather that they are part of a larger marketing mix, a set of marketing tools that work together to affect the marketplace.” (Philip Kotler)

4.“The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The aim is to know and understand the customers so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself.” (Peter Drucker)

5.“Marketing is a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others.” (Philip Kotler)

6.“Marketing is the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from producer to consumer.”

7.“Marketing is getting the right goods and services to the right place at the right time at the right price with the right communication and promotion.”

8.“Marketing is the creation and delivery of a standard of living.”

1. Which statement suggests that everybody in a company is a marketer?

2. Which statement completely discounts the importance of selling?

3. Which statement emphasizes the role of the four P’s (product, price, place, promotion)?

4. Which statement sees marketing more in a sociological role?

7. Restore the word order in the following statements:

1)Marketing assess the needs of the is the ability to consumer.

2)Marketing the available resources is the ability to use.

3)Marketing goods is the ability to design the.

4)Marketing the goods is the ability to produce.

5)Marketing advertise the goods at the right time is the ability to and at the right place and price.

6)Marketing at the right place and price to the customer is the ability to deliver the goods at the right time and.

8. Successful marketing.

A) Read the first part of an interview with Mirjana Ilic, Vice President, Marketing, at Pearson Education and complete the chart:

I Mirjana, what is the key to successful marketing?

MI Well, the key to successful marketing involves many different things. Most people would say successful marketing is just a good creative campaign. Some people would go further than that and say it involves many good marketing communications, reaching the right people, clear marketing messages, and working well with sales teams to get the right sales channels. But the most common definition of marketing is just two words: customer orientation. What does that actually mean though? It really means four things: producing what customers want, when they want it, at the right price and in a way that’s profitable for the company, and I believe in that definition very strongly.

1 Good creative Reaching the right …………….

…………….. Clear marketing ……………….

Successful 2 Good marketing Working well with …………….

marketing ………………. Producing: what customers …………….,

3 Customer …………………. they want it at the right

…………. ………………….., in a way that’s ………

B) Read the second part of the interview and answer the questions:

I Could you describe a marketing campaign that impressed you?

MI Well, marketing is very much in my blood and it’s my first love, so there are lots of campaigns I come across every day that really impress me. But I think the most memorable in recent years has been the Orange mobile phone campaign, partly because the whole area of mobile technologies and mobile communications I find very interesting and incredibly exciting, but partly because it was a great campaign in itself. It has the fantastic strap line ‘the future’s bright, the future’s orange’, which is so memorable and so meaningful for all segments of the population.

1. Which campaign was most memorable for Mirjana?

2. Why did she find it memorable?

3. What was the fantastic strap line (slogan)?

4. What other strap lines do you know?

C) Read the last part of the interview and answer these questions:

I Could you give an example of an unsuccessful campaign?

MI Well, I think the most unsuccessful recent campaign for me was the one where an electrical goods manufacturer tried to roll out a very simple sales promotion. Initially, if you bought any electrical appliance over a certain value, you were promised free flights with every purchase. Now, although initially this campaign did seem to be quite successful because sales went up, in the end they had to stop the campaign because they simply couldn’t keep up with the demand and they were overspending a lot on these prizes. So I think basically, from the early stages the campaign was badly planned, badly budgeted and it resulted in a lot of negative publicity for the company.

1. What type of company was involved?

2. What was the promise?

3. Why did it appear successful at first?

4. Why did they end the campaign?

Complete this extract from the interview:

‘The campaign was badly .…, badly …. and it resulted in a lot of negative …. for the company.’

9. Revise the vocabulary of the previous texts and complete the text below using correct form of these verbs:

anticipate divide fill influence involve

modify offer share sell understand

What is marketing?

A market can be defined as all the potential customers (1) … a particular need or want. Marketing is the process of developing, pricing, distributing and promoting the goods or services that satisfy such needs. Marketing therefore combines market research, new product development, distribution, advertising, promotion, product improvement, and so on. According to this definition, marketing begins and ends with the customer. Truly successful marketing (2) … the customer so well that the product or service satisfies a need so perfectly that the customer is desperate to buy it. The product almost (3) … itself.

Companies are always looking for marketing opportunities – possibilities of (4) … unsatisfied needs in areas in which they are likely to enjoy a differential advantage, due to their particular competencies. Marketing opportunities are generally isolated by market segmentation – (5) … a market into submarkets or segments according to customers’ requirements or buying habits. Once a target market has been identified, a company has to decide what goods or services to (6) …, always remembering the existence of competitors.

Marketers do not only identify consumer needs; they can (7) … them by developing new products. They will then have to design marketing strategies and plan marketing programmes, and then organize, implement, and control the marketing effort. Once the basic offer, for example a product concept, has been established, the company has to think about the marketing mix – the set of all the various elements of a marketing programme, their integration, and the amount of effort that a company can expend on them in order to (8) … the target market. The best-known classification of these elements is the 4 P’s: Product, Price, Promotion and Place.

Aspects to be considered in marketing a product include its quality, its features, style, brand name, size, packaging, services and guarantee, while price includes consideration of things like the basic list price, discounts, the length of the payment period, and possible credit terms. Place in a marketing mix includes such factors as distribution channels, coverage of the market, locations of points of sale, inventory size, and so on. Promotion groups together advertising, publicity, sales promotion, and personal selling.

The next stage is to create long-term demand, perhaps by (9) … particular features of the product to satisfy changes in consumer needs or market conditions.

Marketing can also involve the attempt to influence or change consumers’ needs and wants. Companies try to do this in order to sell their products; governments and health authorities sometimes try to change people’s habits for their own good or for the general good. In other words, marketing also (10) … regulating the level, timing and character of demand.

UNIT 9

1. Read and understand the text about eight marketing tasks and choose the right translation for them given below:

Date: 2015-01-12; view: 3596