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Discussion Board Forum 1

Shannon Merchent

School of Business, Liberty University

BUSI 330: Principles of Marketing

Professor Ron Ballard

May 18, 2020

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Discussion Board Forum 1

When it comes to discussing marketing concept and the “4 P’s”, the marketing concept is

simply an organization’s goal to satisfy consumer needs while simultaneously trying to achieve

the goals they have set out for themselves. The “4 P’s” are a combination of four elements that a

marketing manager must use to develop a marketing program and put in place to reach the

consumer’s needs. The four elements are product, price, promotion, and place. Product means

the good or service that the consumer wants or needs, price means what and how much is

exchanged for the product, promotion means the communication between the supplier and the

buyer, and finally the place means how the product is delivered to the consumer. According to

the textbook, a marketing plan is “a road map for the marketing actions of an organization for a

specified future time period, such as one year or five years” (Kerin & Hartley, 2020, pg. 34).

Both the marketing concept and the “4 P’s” are very important to a marketing plan. The

marketing concept is the overall goal of the organization and without a goal to start with, the

marketing plan cannot be developed. This essentially means, the marketing concept is the goal

and the marketing plan is the way that the goal will be reached. The “4 P’s” are then integrated

into the marketing plan giving the marketing manager and the organization the guidelines of how

the marketing concept will be achieved.

Marketing is defined as “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” (Kerin & Hartley, 2020, pg. 5). While sales are defined as

“operations and activities involved in promoting and selling goods or services” (“Definition of

SALES, 2020). The difference between these two are not significant but noticeable. Marketing is

simply how the organization lets consumers know about the products they have and how these
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products could be beneficial to them while, sales are the actual act of selling the good or service.

Together without the marketing of the good or service, then the actual selling of those products

would not happen. Sales depends very highly on marketing because it generates traffic to the

product.

In my opinion, marketing does have a function in church operations. Marketing simply is

the act of reaching out to others and communicating the message to them. Churches can use

marketing to reach people who have not heard about God or have been misinformed. Mark 16:15

shows how marketing in this sense is expected of us, “He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and

preach the gospel to all creation” (New International Version). The marketing of the church can

bring tons of information to encourage these people to attend church, to learn about Jesus, and

maybe eventually get saved. Overall, marketing can truly help get the Word of God out into the

world and help others learn about the wonderful love of God.

The generational cohorts that are current right now are the Baby Boomers, Generation X,

Generation Y, and Generation Z. In these 4 different generations, there are a wide variety of

values and motivational factors. In the Baby Boomers generation, there is not much given

information wise about the values and motivational factors in the textbook. Generation X is very

independent, they support diversity, and are better educated thank baby boomers while also

being cautious and tend to lean towards traditionalism. Generation Y is more interested in

personal and memorable experiences and are very capable of having a balanced work-home life.

They are strong-willed, passionate about the earth, and optimistic. Finally, Generation Z

embraces the widest definitions of diversity while leading active lifestyles, learn and use online

services. (Kerin & Hartley, 2020, pg. 76). Each generation has their own personal likes and the

differences show dramatically. Gen X is more traditional, Gen Y is more into nature and
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optimistic about things, and Gen Z is, at least in my opinion, more impatient when it comes to

getting things done while being very open-minded. Each of these groups have grown up and

learned in completely different time periods in the world which is why the differences between

the 4 are so staggering.

When opening a new ice cream store in my hometown, I believe that advertising to the 4

different generational cohorts would require some preparation. For the Baby Boomers, an

advertisement in the local newspaper or a flyer in the mailbox would be something that would

work well for them. For Generation X, even though they are more traditional, having the

newspaper article plus a Facebook ad, group, or even a post in the local yard sale page would be

beneficial. For Generation Y, flyers on light poles, a news story on the local news or news

Facebook page, and word of mouth would be good advertising. Finally, for Generation Z, the

more advertising on the internet, the better. Having ads or posts on Facebook, Instagram,

Twitter, Snapchat, etc. will generate the most generation z traffic.

Lastly, the Scripture “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Bed.

13:8) relates to all demographic groups because just as the verse says, Jesus is the same forever.

Despite the differences between the 4 demographics it is know that no matter when you were

born, what you have gone through, what views you have, Jesus’ love for his children is constant,

always has and always will. Nothing will ever change that.
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References

Bible Gateway passage: Mark 16:15 - New International Version. Bible Gateway. (2020).

Retrieved 14 May 2020, from https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?

search=Mark+16%3A15&version=NIV.

Definition of SALES. Merriam-webster.com. (2020). Retrieved 14 May 2020, from

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sale.

Kerin, R. and Hartley, S., 2020. Marketing: The Core. 8th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill

Education, p.34.