4.1.

The Role of Marketing

 Marketing
 Addresses people’s needs and wants and influences target consumers to buy a
specific product instead of other competing products
 A management process involved in identifying, anticipating, and satisfying
consumer requirements profitably
 It is about satisfying consumer needs and wants through exchange
 It is a research based process of getting customers interested in a product
through the management of the 4 (or 7) P’s
 Marketing goods/products versus services
 Goods/Products: 4Ps
 Product
 Place
 Price
 Promotion
 Services: 7Ps
 4Ps
 People (frontline staff appearance, skill, charm, helpfulness)
 Processes (time, ease, accessibility, payment, aftersales)
 Physical evidence (facilities, cleanliness, design, atmosphere,
peripheral products)
 Has a product oriented approach
 Product oriented vs. market oriented marketing
 Product Oriented Marketing
 Business develops products based on what it is good at making
 Mainly for products that are high tech, high quality, and high
differentiation
 Market Oriented Marketing
 Business develops products based on the market
 Geared to mass consumer markets using expensive market research,
but is more flexible and less risky
 Flexible: Adapts more easily as this approach is sensitive to market
trends, such as habits, needs, lifestyle, and taste
 Less Risky: More assurance of success since the product meets
customer requirements
 Social vs. commercial marketing
 Social marketing
 Seeks to influence behavior to benefit society as a whole by selling a
desired behavior, thus satisfying societal needs
 Using social marketing (i.e. commercials, etc.) to bring about social
change
 Celebrity endorser
 Media coverage
 Giving out cards
 Workshops/modules
 Movies
 Signature campaign – Pledge board
 Slogans
  Dropboxes
 Email/hotline/customer service
 Commercial marketing
 Seeks to satisfy customers by selling a particular needed product or
service, thus satisfying individual needs
 Delivering what people already want instead of changing what people
want
 Market
 A place or process which allows suppliers and customers to exchange physical
goods, services, information, etc..
 Exists to help facilitate trade where there is demand for a particular product,
and businesses willing to satisfy such demands
 Kinds of Markets
 Consumer – General public
 Industrial/Commercial – Businesses and governments
 Markets size
 Can be measured through the number of potential customers, the total
volume of sales achieved by the numerous businesses active in the market, or the
value of said sales
 Helps businesses assess whether a particular market is worth
participating in due its number of potential customers and the barriers to entry
 Market growth
 Rate the size of a market increases/decreases over a period of time
 Measured by an increase in the total value or volume of sales in a
market
 Helps businesses assess whether a particular market is worth entering
due to its rate of growth or contraction
 Market share
 The percentage of all the sales in a particular market that are held by a
business, and can be measured by the volume or value of the sales
 Importance
 Helps measure a firm’s performance and market position against other
competitors
 Might indicate that a business is a market leader
 Can influence its competitors to follow the leader’s model
 Can influence the leader to continually enact strategies in order
to maintain its position
 Can indicate the degree of success or failure of a business’
current strategies
 Can lower prices or maintain higher profit margins as
compared to competitors due to better economies of scale
 Ways to increase market share
 Brand promotion
 Improved customer service
 Copyright and patent filing
 Product development
 Limitations
 May be difficult to identify the most important market share value for
products that cross into several markets
  Cannot be used as an absolute measure of a firm’s success or
performance
 Firms can be intentionally lowering their market share as a
result of its more stringent client selection
 A decline in a firm’s market share can be a result of a new
entrant and not necessarily as a result of lowered sales
 Should mainly be compared against the most similar and
closest of competitors, and not necessarily the market as a whole
 Marketing objectives
 Common targets that marketing activities will achieve
 Market share/leadership
 Acquiring a greater/bigger market share and volume by
improving sales/revenues (e.g. expansion, globalization, franchising,
aggressive advertising, further market penetration, etc.)
 Customer service
 Providing loyalty programs, after sales services/policies
through quality staff training
 Brand building
 Improving the image of the company through CSR,
sponsorships, publicity, packaging, etc.
 Growth strategies
 Innovation
 Launching a totally original or new product into the market
(attain the first-mover advantage)
  Positioning
 Involves expanding or modifying product line/mix to enhance
or change image.
 Successful marketing objectives are
 Aligned with business’ overall main vision-mission-goals (or VMGs)
 Appropriate to organization’s size, financial capacity and production
efficiency
 Mindful of competition, external (PEST) factors and social issues
 Ethics of marketing
 Ethics are the moral principles that guide business behavior
 Ethical marketing issues are increasingly significant in a period of rapid
globalization
 What may be acceptable marketing practice in one place may not be in another
 Is it ethical?
 Pricing
 Sell a computer printer cheaply and then tie in
customers to buy expensive refill cartridges?
 Offer low airfares on the internet and then add taxes on
after a purchase has been made?
 Promotion
 Advertise toys on TV to young children who may not be
able to distinguish between program and advertising?
 Use sexual images to sell products in countries with
deeply held religious views?
 Place
  Sell products that are sexually suggestive or offensive to
the culture of the country/place these are sold in?
 Product
 Buy cheap and potentially dangerous supplies in order
to cut prices?
 Design clothes for young children that are sexually
provocative?
 Ethical Issues:
 Bait and Switch
 Misrepresentation
 Over-promise or Fraud
 Unsubstantiated Claims
 Fear Tactics
 Pester Power
 Socio-Cultural