Marketing

Introduction It is very important to know the Meaning of Market closely. A market is a place which allows the purchaser and the seller to invent and gather informations and lets them carry out exchange of various products and services. In other words the Meaning of Market refers to a place where the trading of goods take place. The place can be a market place or a street market. Market Functions In order to understand the Meaning of Market the market function is an important issue to delve into. The market function is there so that the satisfaction of the buyers and sellers during a transaction can be ensured.. The market generally depends on the adjustments of the price so that it can inform the participants involved in a transaction. This is done so that both the buyer and the seller are well informed and can bargain the right price out and satisfy themselves somewhat. Another main function of the market is to keep the prices under check and control fluctuations in supply and demand to reach allocative efficiency. Various Types of Markets Although there are many kinds of traditional markets that exist like flea market, there can also be found various types of them and with different institutional body to its functions. A market can be organized in many ways. Some of them are:

Rules and means of transactions To understand the Meaning of Market one should know the rules and regulations of the market. A market is normally governed by the laws of the state the market belongs to. Most markets make transactions through currency or something equivalent to money. It should not be forgotten though that barter markets also exist.

One can find various types illegal markets which actually harm the economy of a country, like markets which provide pirated goods

MEANING OF MARKETING
The management process through which goods and services move from concept to the customer. As a practice, it consists in coordination of four elements called 4P's: (1) identification, selection, and development of a product, (2) determination of its price, (3) selection of a distribution channel to reach the customer's place, and (4) development and implementation of a promotional strategy.

As a philosophy, marketing is based on thinking about the business in terms of customer needs and their satisfaction. Marketing differs from selling because (in the words of Harvard Business School's emeritus professor of marketing Theodore C. Levitt) "Selling concerns itself with the tricks and techniques of getting people to exchange their cash for your product. It is not concerned with the values that the exchange is all about. And it does not, as marketing invariably does, view the entire business process as consisting of a tightly integrated effort to discover, create, arouse, and satisfy customer needs."

What is Marketing? (Marketing Definition) There are a lot of marketing definitions available but the right ones are focused upon the key to marketing success i.e. customers. Following are some of the marketing definitions available. American Marketing Association defines marketing as: 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. (Approved October 2007) The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) says: The management process responsible for identifying , anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitability. Philip Kotler defines marketing as: Marketing is the social process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others.

Palmers marketing definition is as: Marketing is essentially about marshalling the resources of an organization so that they meet the changing needs of the customer on whom the organization depends. Dennis Adcock defines marketing as The right product, in the right place, at the right time, at the right price. Dennis adcock, using McCarthys Four Ps, defines marketing in a short but realistic way. The Marketing Concepts The marketing concept is the philosophy that urges organization to focus on their customers needs. Analyzing their needs and making such decisions that satisfy those needs in a better way than competitors. To have a better understanding of marketing concept, its worthwhile to review the other philosophies that once were dominated and are still being practiced by some of the firms. The Production Concept (Industrial revolution 1920s) The basic idea behind production concept was: The firms will produce what they can produce efficiently. This will ensure enough supply of the products at low-cost and demand will be created by itself. Production concept prevailed into late 1920s because most of the products being produced were the basic necessities and there was a huge unfulfilled demand for them. The Sales Concept (1930s) By early 1930s, competition had increased in production and on the other hand there was less unfulfilled demand. So, all the firms turned towards sales concept. Now the companies were not only producing the product but also sell it to customers through personal selling and advertisement. There was no concept of need identification, firms were just interested in beating competition by selling more but neglecting customers satisfaction. We can call it hard selling.

The Marketing Concept After World War II, there was a variety of products available in the market and customers having discretionary income could make choices and purchase what really fulfill their needs. In that situation, firms were forced to think about what their customers need , when they need it and how to keep them satisfied which is the Marketing Concept. The main focus of all the firms turned from hard selling towards Identification of customer needs, making decision to fulfill those need and maintaining long-term relation with customers by satisfying their changing needs. The Marketing concept resulted in a separate marketing department in organization and today we can see many organization have structured themselves as marketing organization where every employee is contributing towards customer satisfaction whether or not hes a marketing person. So, The marketing concept totally relies upon marketing research that helps in identification of segments, their sizes, needs, target market and then by using the right Marketing Mix, marketing teams makes such decisions that results in customers satisfaction. After going through the marketing definitions and concepts, the core ideas contained are as follows:

The main focal point in marketing is customer needs. In order to maintain long-term relations with customers, future needs have to be identified and predicted. Marketing is not the duty of marketing department only but the everyone in the organization.

Evolution of marketing
Earlier approaches The marketing orientation evolved from earlier orientations, namely, the production orientation, the product orientation and the selling orientation. Profit Orientation driver Western European Description timeframe

A firm focusing on a production orientation specializes in producing as much as possible of a given product or service. Thus, this signifies a firm exploiting economies of scale until the minimum Production until the efficient scale is reached. A production orientation Production methods 1950s may be deployed when a high demand for a product or service exists, coupled with a good certainty that consumer tastes will not rapidly alter (similar to the sales orientation). A firm employing a product orientation is chiefly Quality of concerned with the quality of its own product. A until the the firm would also assume that as long as its product 1960s was of a high standard, people would buy and product consume the product. A firm using a sales orientation focuses primarily on the selling/promotion of a particular product, and not determining new consumer desires as such. Consequently, this entails simply selling an already 1950s and existing product, and using promotion techniques to attain the highest sales possible. 1960s Such an orientation may suit scenarios in which a firm holds dead stock, or otherwise sells a product that is in high demand, with little likelihood of changes in consumer tastes that would diminish demand.

Product

Selling

Selling methods

The 'marketing orientation' is perhaps the most common orientation used in contemporary marketing. It involves a firm essentially basing its marketing plans around the marketing concept, and Needs and 1970 to thus supplying products to suit new consumer Marketing wants of present tastes. As an example, a firm would employ market customers day research to gauge consumer desires, use R&D to develop a product attuned to the revealed information, and then utilize promotion techniques to ensure persons know the product exists. Contemporary approaches Recent approaches in marketing include relationship marketing with focus on the customer, business marketing or industrial marketing with focus on an organization or institution and social marketing with focus on benefits to society.[10] New forms of marketing also use the internet and are therefore called internet marketing or more generally e-marketing, online marketing, search engine marketing, desktop advertising or affiliate marketing. It attempts to perfect the segmentation strategy used in traditional marketing. It targets its audience more precisely, and is sometimes called personalized marketing or one-to-one marketing. Internet marketing is sometimes considered to be broad in scope, because it not only refers to marketing on the Internet, but also includes marketing done via e-mail and wireless media. Western Profit driver European Description timeframe

Orientation

Building and Emphasis is placed on the whole relationship Relationship keeping 1960s to marketing / between suppliers and customers. The aim is good present Relationship to provide the best possible customer service customer day [10] management and build customer loyalty. relations Business marketing Industrial marketing In this context, marketing takes place between Building and 1980s to businesses or organizations. The product / keeping present focus lies on industrial goods or capital goods relationships day rather than consumer products or end between products. Different forms of marketing

organizations

activities, such as promotion, advertising and communication to the customer are used.

Social marketing[10]

Benefit society

Similar characteristics as marketing 1990s to orientation but with the added proviso that to present there will be a curtailment of any harmful activities to society, in either product, day production, or selling methods.

Branding

In this context, "branding" is the main 1980s to company philosophy and marketing is Brand value present considered an instrument of branding day philosophy.