CHAPTER I: Marketing in the Millennium Age

Objectives:

At the end of the chapter, the student shall be able to:

➢ Know the importance of marketing
➢ Identify the 10 entities involved in the scope of marketing
➢ Define the core concepts in marketing
➢ Identify the major marketing decisions
➢ Understand the new realities and trends in marketing

Importance of Marketing

Marketing is an important strategy to ensure the growth of your business. While your
current customers should always be your main priority, marketing efforts can help you expand this
base. Little efforts like social media posts and email campaigns can not on.ly engage existing
consumers but spread the word to new potential customers. In essence, marketing secures your
business’s future through new and old customer engagement.

It’s important for your business to engage its customers. Engaging involves furnishing your
customers with relevant information about your products and your business as well. Social media
is one of the best platforms where you can engage your customers. By engaging your customers,
marketing gives them a sense of belonging.

Marketing helps to build and maintain the company’s reputation. Your business’
reputation is built when it effectively meets the expectations of its customers. The customers
become proud to be associated with your products.

Marketing Scope

The scope of marketing is determined by the marketing offering of an organization. Market

offering is a combination of goods, services, ideas, persons, places, information, etc. offered to a
market to satisfy specific needs and wants of people. It deals with the question, ‘what is marketed?’
According to Philip Kotler, marketing people are involved with ten types of entities.

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1. Goods

Physical goods constitute the major part of a country’s production and marketing effort.
These include all the consumer and producer goods, i.e., vegetables, fruits, soft drinks, cloth, bike,
T.V., fridge, machinery, etc. which are bought and sold in the market.

2. Services

As economies advance, a large proportion of their activities are focused on the production
of services. Services include the work of airlines, hotels, car rental firms, beauticians, software
programmers, management consultants, and so on.

3. Events

Marketers promote events. Events can be trade shows, company anniversaries,

entertainment award shows, local festivals, health camps, and so on.

4. Experiences

Marketers create experiences by offering a mix of both goods and services. A product is
promoted not only by communicating features but also by giving unique and interesting
experiences to customers.

5. Persons

Due to a rise in testimonial advertising, celebrity marketing has become a business. All
popular personalities such as film stars, TV artists, and sportspersons have agents and personal
managers.

6. Places

Cities, states, regions, and countries compete to attract tourists. Today, states and countries
are also marketing places to factories, companies, new residents, real estate agents, banks and
business associations. Place marketers are largely real estate agents and builders. Tour and travel
agencies also induce people to visit various tourist and health resorts. It is also known as
destination marketing.

7. Properties

Properties can be categorized as real properties or financial properties. Real property is the
ownership of real estates, whereas financial property relates to stocks and bonds. Properties are
bought and sold through marketing.

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8. Organizations

Many organizations including social, political, religious, educational, etc. market

themselves to build up their reputation and to make people aware about their activities. The
organization’s goodwill promotes trust and reliability. The organization’s image also helps the
companies in the smooth introduction of new products.

9. Information

Information can be produced and marketed as a product. Educational institutions,

encyclopedias, non-fiction books, specialized magazines and newspapers market information. The
production, packaging, and distribution of information are a major industry. Media revolution and
increased literacy levels have widened the scope of information marketing.

10. Ideas

Ideas include platform or issues aimed at promoting a benefit for a customer. Certain ideas
such as ‘no smoking’, protection of railways property, pulse polio, etc. Target people are persuaded
through advertisements, street plays and other techniques to follow such ideas.

What is Marketed?

We all see around us various goods and services marketed, you will see hoardings,
advertisements on stores and everywhere. Marketers market 10 main types of entities: goods,
services, events, experiences, persons, places, properties, organizations, information, and ideas.

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Core Concepts in Marketing

As Philip Kotler defines: “Marketing is social and managerial process by which individuals
and groups obtains what they needs and wants through creating and exchanging product and value
with other.” Analysis of this definition necessarily reveals some core concepts of marketing.

1. Need/Want/Demand

• Need – It is a state of deprivation of some basic satisfaction.

• Want – Desire for specific satisfier of need.
• Demand – Want for a specific product backed up by ability and willingness to buy.

Marketers cannot create needs. Needs preexists.

Marketers can influence wants. This is done in combination with societal influencers.
Demand is influenced by making product:

• Appropriate
• Attractive
• Approachable/Affordable
• Available easily

2. Products (Goods/Services/Place)

Product is anything that can satisfy need/want.

Product component:

• Physical Good
• Service
• Idea

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 Importance of product lies in: Owning them (minor); Obtaining them (major). Hence,
products are really a via-media for services. Hence, in marketing, the focus is on
providing/satisfying service rather than providing products.

3. Value/Cost/Satisfaction

• Value – The product’s capacity to satisfy needs/wants as per consumer’s perception or

estimation.
• Cost – Price of each product.
• Satisfaction – Satisfaction means fulfillment of needs. Satisfaction is possible when
buyer perceives that product has more value compared to the cost paid for.

4. Exchange/Transaction

Exchange – The act/process of obtaining a desired product from someone by offering

something in return. For exchange potential to exist, the following conditions must be fulfilled.

• There must be at least two parties.

• Each party has something of value for other parties.
• Each party is capable of communication & delivery
• Each party is free to accept/reject the exchange offer.
• Each party believes it is appropriate to deal with the other party.

Transaction – Event that happens at the end of an exchange. Exchange is a process

towards an agreement. When an agreement is reached, we say a transaction has taken place.

• Barter transaction.
• Monetary Transaction.

o At least two things of value.

o Condition agreed upon.
o Time of agreement.
o Place of agreement.
o May have a legal system for compliance.

Proof of transaction is Bill/ Invoice.

Transfer – It is one way. Hence, differ from Transaction.

Negotiation – Process of trying to arrive at mutually agreeable terms.

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Negotiation may lead to

• Transaction
• The decision not to Transaction

5. Relationship/ Networking

Relationship marketing – It’s a pattern of building long term satisfying relationship with
customers, suppliers, and distributors in order to retain their long term performances and business.
Achieved through promise and delivery of:

• High Quality
• Good Service
• Fair Pricing, over a period of time.

The outcome of Relationship Marketing is a Marketing Network.

Marketing Network is made up of the company and its customers, employees, suppliers,
distributors, advertisement agencies, retailers, research & development with whom it has built a
mutually profitable business relationship.

6. Market

A market consists of all potential customers sharing particular need/want who may be
willing and able to engage in exchange to satisfy need/want.

Market Size – Number of people who have need/want; have resources that interest others,
willing or able to offer these resources in exchange for what they want.

In Marketing terms:

Sellers – called as “Industry”.

Buyers – referred to in a group as “Market”.

Types of Markets:

• Resource Market,
• Manufacturing Market,
• Intermediary Market,
• Consumer Market,
• Government market.

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7. Marketers/ Prospects

Working with markets to actualize potential exchanges for the purpose of satisfying needs
and wants. One party seeks the exchange more actively, called as “Marketer”, and the other party
is called “Prospect”.

Prospect is someone whom marketer identifies as potentially willing and able to engage in
exchange. Marketer may be seller or buyer. Most of time, marketer is seller. A marketer is a
company serving a market in the face of competition.

Marketing Management takes place when at least one party to a potential exchange thinks
about the means of achieving desired responses from other parties.

AMA- American Marketing Association.

It defines marketing management as the process of planning & executing the conception
of pricing, promotion, distribution of goods, services, ideas to create exchanges that satisfy
individual and organizational goals.

The task of marketing management is to influence the level, timing, composition of demand
in a way that will help the organization to achieve its objective. Hence, marketing management is
essentially demand management.

States of “Demand” could be:

• Negative demand – Major market dislikes product, hence try to avoid. eg.- injections.
• No Demand – Constant unaware and uninterested in the product. eg.- segway.
• Latent Demand – Need exists, not fulfilled by current products. eg.- ATM, mobile.
• Declining demand – Demand decreases over a period of time. eg.- pagers, scooters.
• Irregular Demand – Seasonally. eg.- fans, raincoat.
• Full Demand – Good volume of business. eg.- toothpaste, most of FMCG items.
• Overfull Demand – Demand greater than the ability to handle. eg.- VSNL sim card.
• Unwholesome Demand – Unwholesome product. eg.- cigarettes, narcotic drugs.

Major Marketing Decisions

Regardless of whether a new organization is developing a brand-new marketing plan or if

an established organization is tweaking or re-creating a plan that already exists, any effective
marketing plan is built on the core fundamentals. Most marketing decisions fall into one of four
main categories. These categories are known as the four Ps: product, price, place and promotion.

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1. Product

You should first consider what the product or products you offer or plan to offer in the near
future will be. Product marketing decisions include coming up with a brand name, creating a
quality product, determining the functionality of the item and making the item safe to use. When
developing the product, you also must determine if there should be a warranty associated with it
and what kinds of repairs or support you will offer.

2. Price

Most organizations sell products for different prices to different types of consumers. You
need to decide what these prices will be. For example, you might sell a product on your website
for a certain price. However, if a consumer is willing to buy a box or a crate of the product, you
can sell the product for a lower price per unit to sell more units. Likewise, you can decrease the
price per unit again if a big-box store or other large retailer wants to buy in bulk and stock the
product in many stores.

3. Place

Place in the marketing sense refers to the distribution of the product. Place considerations
involve decisions that affect how you will get the product where it belongs, how you will manage
inventory, how warehouse operations will be carried out and if distribution centers will be
established. When you consider place, you also must consider where you perceive the product will
sell best. For some products this means in the store, while for other products this means online.

4. Promotions

When you make promotional decisions, you must consider what you view as the most
effective means available to communicate to others about the product. For large organizations, this
often means a full-out media blitz that includes television commercials, print advertisements,
billboards and websites. A smaller organization can talk with local retailers about setting up
displays, giving away samples and establishing a social media presence to build word-of-mouth
advertising.

New Realities and Trends in Marketing in the Millennium Age

There is nothing more important for a creative business, than consistently reaching the right
audience. Companies rely on knowledge and great marketing to help their businesses survive and
thrive. For many creative companies this means staying ahead of trends within the millennial
market, which is not only the largest generation to date, but also the one with the most disposable
income.

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• Influencer Marketing

Millennials are looking to YouTubers and Bloggers to help make purchasing decisions.
Social media celebrities often have a huge following who trust their opinion on everything from
fashion and beauty to gaming. Consider contacting social media influencers relating to your
business and ask if they are interested in reviewing your product or service. Giving out a few
samples to the right influencers and subsequently reaching the right audience could bring a huge
return of investment.

• Virtual Reality Becoming Normality

Your business may not have the funds or the technology to create virtual reality ads at
present, but be prepared to adapt to this growing trend in the future. How could VR marketing
work for your brand? Think how much a customer can really be immersed in your brand.

• Live Streaming Everything

Periscope, Meerkat and Facebook Live are the most notable apps fuelling the live stream
revolution. Allowing anyone anywhere to broadcast live audio and video to the world. Live
streaming is a great way to increase your brands transparency.

• Talking To Strangers

Anonymous social talking apps are on the verge of popularity. Anonymous talking apps
are yet to be adopted as marketing tools. If you can create a persona for your business that potential
customers can engage with, you can probably create a marketing campaign for these kinds of
emerging social apps.

• Collaboration

Young people are, now more than ever, willing to contribute to creating user generated
content for the brands they like. Whether that be through uploading unboxing videos on YouTube,
sharing product photos on Instagram, or responding to calls from brands for opinions or humor on
Twitter. This one is easy, just ask your current audience to upload a photo or provide an opinion.
Encourage them to use appropriate links and hashtags, maybe add an incentive and you are well
on your way to having your customers market your brand for you. Just make sure you get the
topic/request right so your audience will be interested in getting involved.

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• The Experience Economy

78% of Millennials would rather purchase an experience than a product. That means that
travel, leisure, sports etc. are likely to become more popular than ever. Millennials also respond
better to product marketing that focuses on an idea or lifestyle rather than solely on the product.

• Social Good

This socially conscious generation is keen to make a positive difference in the world. They
cite equal rights, protection of the environment and access to healthcare as the most important
issues. If your business already supports a cause or charity, or is particularly conscious about things
such as equal pay or recycling for example, then make sure your consumers know about it, It may
make you more favorable over other brands.

What Does This Mean For Creative Businesses?

There are huge consumer and lifestyle trends emerging amongst the millennial generation.
Marketing and the way people consume products are about to be revolutionized by the world’s
largest demographic. For creative businesses, this means it’s hugely important to ensure that their
marketing remains relevant for younger generations.

Current apprentices are at an age that verges between both generation Y, and the growing
and socially aware Generation Z. There is no better way to adapt your creative business than to
employ some who lives in the epicenter of these two huge and invaluable consumer demographics.
They will ensure that your business continues to create the fresh ideas that resonate with younger
audiences.

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