Marketing Management

Chapter 1
Marketing and the Job of a Marketing Manager

1. Define Marketing
Marketing is basically about identifying & satisfying the customers needs. It is a value added
activity adding value to the product that is desired by some segment.
Now a day people have started marketing their products after identifying the need of the
customer & they use that need as their USP.
Marketing may include all type of value additions to the product. Example: Attractive
packaging, Personal selling, Customer service & anything which induces the customer to
purchase the product.

2. Describe the following Eras of evolution of Marketing giving details of why there was the
need to abandon the old ways of doing business and progressing with a new thought
process to the next era:
As the business environment is dynamic in nature it is important for the organization to cope
up with the changing trends & to sustain themselves in the market. For this purpose it
became essential for the business enterprises to adapt to the new changes that were taking
place in the market & society. Various such trends are described below:

a. Production Era
This Era began in 1940s wherein the Demand was much more than the Supply, so
whatever goods produced in the economy were easily consumed & there was t
much need for marketing ones goods & services.

b. Product Era
After the production Era came the Product Era in which the emphasis was given on
the quality of the products, there was no sales or marketing strategy practiced & the
organizations believed in technological development & also believed that their
technological development will attract the customers.

c. Sales Era
This Era started when the Demand was somewhere equal to the Supply & the
organizations undertook aggressive selling & promotion efforts. Under this Era the
competitors began to rise & the customers were having a variety of products to
choose from, it was from this era where the concept of marketing began to take
shape.



d. Marketing Era
As stated above with the beginning of the sales era the concept of marketing took
birth, under this era the needs & the wants of the customers were given priority in
designing of the product. In this era the Supply was more than the Demand & it
required an extra push for the marketers to sell their products. For this purpose they
designed their products only after researching about the taste & preferences of the
customers.

e. Holistic Marketing Era
This marketing era paid heed to all the stake holders & tried to identify their needs.
The concept of Holistic marketing era believes that not only the customers need to
be satisfied but the satisfaction of all the stake holders also plays a major role in the
profitability of the organization.

3. What is customer orientation philosophy? Discuss how a company can become customer
oriented by giving some examples.
Customer Orientation may be described as the job of marketing which is to understand what
benefits customers are seeking, translate them into the products and then retranslate the
physical products or services back into benefit terms the customer can understand. It also
describes the customer orientation of an organisation in terms whether it views customers
as long term or short term.

For example, in the case of Sensodyne toothpaste, the company recognised the problems
which the customers were facing i.e. Senstivity, and worked upon the benefits the
customers were seeking.

4. Why is marketing said to be a Value Adding Activity. Illustrate by giving some relevant
examples.
Marketing is also called as the value adding activity because it also helps in adding the value
to the product. It takes the basic physical characteristics of the product and adds to its
value.
This value adding activity may be branding, packaging and adding anything which leads to an
increase in the value of the product. For example, there are many manufacturers for the
pens, the quality of a Reynolds pen may be the same as of the Parker pen, but parker adds
value to its product and market it as the status symbol. It has targeted the upper section of
the society and has done the marketing accordingly.


5. What is a marketing plan?
A marketing plan is a written document containing the guidelines for the products
marketing programmes and allocations over the planning period. Written marketing plans
are easy to communicate, help to educate new customers, fix the responsibility and forces
analysis of both customer and competitive behaviour.

Marketing plans are of two types.
Strategic Marketing Plan Laying down the value propositions and the target
markets for the firm.
Tactical Marketing Plans- it includes promoting the new product features,
promotion, pricing, sales channels and service.


6. What do you understand by the term SBU?
SBU also stated as a Strategic Business Unit, is a separate department which is set up, usually
in large organizations , to separate a particular product line or department and assigning funds
to it so that it may carry out its operations separately.
It has three characteristics:-
It can be planned separately from rest of the business.
It has its own sets of competitors.
It has a manager responsible for strategic planning and profit performance.


7.Why is it important for companies to focus on lifetime value of the customer base?
It is important for the companies to focus on the life time value base of the customer because
customer can give profits to the company for over a longer period of time. Retaining and
maintaining a loyal customer is better than creating a new customer.

8.Differentiate between Need, Want, Desire and Demand.
Need Need is a state of felt deprivation. It includes physical needs (food, clothing, shelter
etc.), Social needs ( belonging, affection), Individual needs (learning, knowledge, self
actualisation)

Want Form that a human need takes as shaped by culture and individual personality and
shaped by environment.

Demands - When the want meets the purchasing power of the customer. It becomes a
demand.

Desire It is a specific want which is not backed by the purchasing power of the customer.

9 .How has the present times value chain been reversed from the traditional value chain. Explain
with relevant example.
The traditional version of the value chains states that the company starts with its core
competencies and assets to decide what products to make or services to sell. This then
decides the selection of inputs and raw materials, which are then made into a product and
sold through channels.
Same value chain got reversed and then customer preferences and tastes are taken into
account first and than the assets and the core competencies.
For example - Again if we take the example of Sensodyne and Colgate. Colgate made the
product first and then marketed it by the methods of the marketing, whereas sensodyne
recognised the problems faced by the customers and then made the product accordingly.


6. What do you mean by marketing mix/ OR Describe the 7Ps of Marketing Mix.
4Ps of marketing key is-
Product -The Product should fit the task consumers want it for, it should work and it should
be what the consumers are expecting to get.Product can be goods and service,and service
can be tangible and intangible.
Price- The Product should always be seen as representing good value for money.
Place. The product should be available from where your target consumer finds it easiest to
shop.
Promotions- Advertising, PR, Sales Promotion, Personal Selling and, in more recent times,
Social Media are all key communication tools for an organisation.
3 more Ps added in marketing-
People- All companies are reliant on the people who run them from front line Sales staff to
the Managing Director. Having the right people is essential because they are as much a part
of your business offering as the products/services you are offering.
Physical evidence- it is physical environment to attract the customer.Almost all services
include some physical elements even if the bulk of what the consumer is paying for is
intangible.
Packaging- The delivery of your service is usually done with the customer present so how the
service is delivered is once again part of what the consumer is paying for.

7. Why do marketers talk of 7Ps instead of just 4Ps?
8. Should firms view marketing as expenditure or an investment? Comment
9. Discuss how a hotel might operate if management embraced:
a. Production orientation?
b. Product orientation?
c. Sales Orientation?
d. Marketing Orientation?
e. Societal or Holistic Marketing orientation?
10. People can apply marketing principles to getting a job. If the person looking for a job is the
product, describe the other 3Ps
11. One of your friends was recently watching TV and saw an advertisement that she liked. She
said, Wow, that was great marketing! Was the ad in fact marketing?