Finance and Business

The Function of Marketing

“Marketing” is probably one of the most confusing terms in use in business today. It does not conjure up the uniform mental picture that older terms do, such as manufacturing, accounting, selling, purchasing, or personnel administratiion.

Some say marketing is another term for selling or for selling and advertising. Some say it it filling costumers need and wants. Some think of it as those functions, other than selling, needed to market a product it with the marketing concept.

But marketing is not the same as marketing research or planning. Neither is it the same thing as selling, not is it a synonim for the marketing concept. Marketing as it is conceived by business authorities today -and is broad function of business composed of many elements.

Until recently marketing was defined even by outstanding authorities as “the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from producer to consumer or user. While this definition goes far beyond the old selling and advertising concept of marketing, it is still not broad enough.

It does not encompass the idea that marketing also includes the identification of the market and the market`s needs and that it guides the development of the products and services to fulfil those needs profitably.

Victor P. Buell define marketing as:

Those business activities devoted to 1) identifying specific markets for products and services; 2) identifying existing and future needs and wants of these markets; 3) guiding the deevelopment of products, packages, and services to fill these needs at a profit; and 4) selling, delivering, and collecting for, and effecting legal transfer (or rights to the use) of these goods and services to the ultimate consumer or user.

Tags: marketing, marketing concept

Concept of Marketing

Although the marketing concept is referred to as new, it is, of course, not new at all. Every successful business has followed it, albeit sometimes unconsciously or by accident. Obviously no business can succeed for very long without filling customer`s needs or wants in an efficient manner.

What is new -besides the name- is a conscious effort on the part of business managements to put the theory into practice throughout companies that have become large and departmentalized or in companies whose original product or service no longer fulfills its original purpose.

It is one thing to be in a small business where the owner has first hand knowledge of his costumers needs and where he personally supervises all key operations; but it is quite another to be in a large, diversified company where the president can not know his costumers or even all of his salesman, and where he can not personally supervise the people who must work together to effect change.

To put the marketing concept to work in a small company requires mainly that the president have determination and know-how. To make marketing concept work in large company, on the other hand, requires not only the determination of the president but also the determination of all key executives, plus an educational programme throughout the company and the services of a highly component marketing manager with adequate staff and adequate authority.

Tags: marketing, marketing concept

The Marketing Concept

Various authorities have defined the marketing concept in different ways, but they all come down to the fact that a business, if it is to grow profitably, must be oriented towards fulfilling the needs and wants of its potential customers more efficiency than do its competitors. Several statements illustrate the basic idea:

If we want to know what a business is we have to start with its purpose. And its purpose must lie outside of the business itself. In fact, it must lie in society, since a business enterprise is an organ of society. There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create customer.

The new image of marketing implies that management must start with costumer`s needs and desires, in so far as they can be ascertained in advance of production, and follow through to activities which aid the consumer in getting utility from products which he has purchased.

Accordingly, the consumer and his wants become the fulcrum around which a business moves. Concern and responsibility for marketing concept, although centered in one department for operational purposes, must permeate all areas of the business enterprise.

One thing we know for sure about society and consumers is that they are constantly changing in ways that are extremely important to every business. The trick is to anticipate and act on these changes before the competition does, and to do it at the right time and in the right way.

Tags: marketing, marketing concept