MARKETING

Marking can be viewed from two perspectives:

1. Social and 
2. Managerial. 

The managerial definition of marketing describes marketing as ‘the art of selling products’. However, the most important part of marketing is not selling. Selling is just the tip of the marketing iceberg. In view of American Marketing Association,’ Marketing is an organizational function and as a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering values to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stake holders’. Philip Kotler defined marketing ,’as the art and science of choosing target markets and obtaining, retaining, and growing customers through creating, conveying, and communicating superior customer value’

According to social definition of marketing, the marketing’s role is to ‘deliver a higher standard of living’. Kotler remarks, ‘Marketing is a societal process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through generating, offering, and exchanging products and services valuable to others.’ Marketing is thus the art of selling products. Drucker observes,’ there will always be need for a sort of selling. However, the purpose of marketing is to make selling needless. The purpose of marketing is to know and comprehend the customer so well that the product or service suits him. In an ideal manner, marketing should result in a customer who is prepared to buy. All that should be desired is to make the product or service available’.  Pride and Farrell defined marketing,’ as the process of creating, advancing in position, and pricing goods, services and ideas to facilitate satisfying exchange relationships in a dynamic environment.

On the basis of analysis of these definitions, the following features may be stated:

Marketing deals with Products, Services and Ideas and their Distribution, Promoting, and Pricing. Marketing consists of developing and managing a product capable of satisfying customer needs. It is more than simply advertising or selling a product. Marketing concentrates on making the product available in the right place and at a price agreeable to customers. It also requires communicating information that helps customers determine whether the product will satisfy their needs.

 A product can be a good, a service, or an idea. A good is a tangible entity. A refrigerator, a television, a care are examples of good. A service is an application of human and mechanical efforts to people or objects to provide intangible benefits to customers. Banking, insurance, medical care, air travel, legal aid, day care are examples of service. Concepts, philosophies, issues, images include ideas. A marriage counselor, for a fee, gives spouses ideas to help improve their relationships and a job consultant etc.

Marketing facilitates Satisfying Exchange Relationships. Individuals and firms engage in marketing to facilitate exchanges. Business and non-profit organizations perform marketing activities. Four conditions must be fulfilled for an exchange to take place. First, two or more individuals, groups, or firms must take part in. Second, each party must be in the ownership of something of value that the other party wishes. Third, each party must be willing to give up its’ something of value’ to get some of value, the other holds.  If you want to acquire a book on marketing, you must be willing to give up $20. The objective of a marketing exchange is obtain something desired more valuable than what is given up to obtain it. Fourth, the parties to the exchange must be in a position to communicate with each other and to make available they value.

Marketing activities should try to create and maintain satisfying exchange relationships. To keep continuing an exchange relationship, buyers must be satisfied with the good, services or idea, and seller must be satisfied with the financial reward they receive. An unsatisfied customer often searches for the other sellers and new exchange relationships. To maintain positive relationships with buyers is an important objective for a seller. Through buyer-seller interaction, a buyer creates expectation about a seller’s future behaviour. To fulfil these expectations, the seller must fulfil promises made. Over a period of time, a healthy buyer-seller relation creates interdependencies between the two parties. Several of the firms indicate that the success of their businesses depend on repeat purchases. Their customers expectation consist good product, reasonable prices, polite people.

Marketing environment is dynamic in nature. The components of marketing environment are constantly changing. These forces, events and factors include competition, laws, regulations, socio-cultural factors, political pressures, economic conditions etc. These forces exert dramatic and difficult to predict effects on customers and marketers. They also create threats to marketers and also generate opportunities for new products and new ways to approaching customers. For example, traditional forms of books have changed into e-books to take advantage of technological advances.