Name: Istiak Jamil Course Instructor: Nazma Akter

ID No: 20210102042 Assistant Professor (SoB), AUST

Section: B

Course Title: Introduction to Business

Topic: WHAT IS MARKETING AND THE VALUE MARKETING ADDS

What is marketing?

When people hear the term marketing, many think of advertising or selling. Although these are
part of marketing, the part we see most, marketing is much more.
As the American marketing association defines it “Marketing is the process of planning and
executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to
create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives.”
This definition emphasizes the diverse activities marketers perform: deciding what products to
offer, setting prices, developing sales promotions and advertising campaigns, and making
products readily available to customers.

Marketing activities are required for many different kinds of products. The term product often
brings to mind tangible goods- those that can be held or touched, such as compact disks,
players or soft drinks. But products also can be services or ideas. Hospitals offer products:
health care services. The American Cancer Society offers an idea, quitting smoking, as a
product. Like firms that produce goods, nonprofit and service organizations and even
individuals rely heavily on marketing. The Los Angeles Mission, for example, used mailers and
advertisements to raise money to save the financially troubled mission.
Ultimately the purpose of marketing activities is to bring about exchanges between buyers and
sellers. Exchange consists of one party providing something of value to another party, who
gives something in return. Just as the “something of value” is not always a physical good, the
“something in return” is not always money. The American Cancer Society’s notion of quitting
smoking to live a longer, healthier life is an intangible product, one that cannot be physically
touched. For smokers who “buy” that idea the price is the effort required to break a habit that
they have found pleasurable.
Marketing adds value:

Through activities that enable exchanges to take place, marketing adds value to products. This
value is known as utility, the ability of a product to satisfy a consumer need. There are 4 types
of utility: Form, Time, Place, Possession.

Form Utility is created when a firm’s production function yields a product. For example,
through the use of raw materials, labor, and other inputs, publishers produce newspapers and
magazines. Marketing indirectly affects form utility, since an organization may depend on its
marketing people to find out which product consumers would welcome in the marketplace.

Marketing directly creates the other 3 types of utility.

By making products available when consumers want and need them, marketing creates time
utility. Publishing companies print and distribute morning newspapers early so readers can read
them at breakfast or while commuting to work.
Making products available where consumers need or want to obtain them creates place utility.
Newspapers are delivered to homes and businesses; sold in vending machines, supermarkets,
convenience marts, drugstores and bookstores; and placed in libraries.
Marketing creates possession utility when the ownership of a product is transferred from seller
to buyer to obtain newspapers, customers pay the publishing company for home delivery, drop
money into vending machines, or pay clerks in stores.

To conclude, marketing seeks to take a product or service, identify its ideal customers, and
draw the customers' attention to the product or service available.
Name: Auditi Rahut Course Instructor: Nazma Akter
ID No: 20210102062 Assistant Professor (SoB), AUST
Section: B

Course Title: Introduction to Business

Topic: The Marketing Concept & Beyond the Marketing Concept

The Marketing Concept

The marketing concept is a management philosophy stating that an organization should
strive to satisfy the needs of consumers through a coordinated set of activities that also
allows the organization to achieve its objectives. Thus, customer satisfaction is the major
force underlying the marketing concept and driving the entire company. The marketing
concept calls for all departments and all members to be committed to satisfying
customers.
Firms benefit from practicing the marketing concept. They do not waste money on
developments in which customers are not interested. Also, customers pay more for
products they believe will provide greater value and satisfaction, they come back and they
refer business. Repeat business lowers sales costs and boosts profits; holding on to
current customers is about one fifth the cost of acquiring new once. Some marketers say
the marketing concept helps set up a cycle of success: Customer satisfaction leads to
loyal customers, which produces higher profits that make employees want to stay with
the firm, which in turn makes for better customer service and satisfaction.
Focusing on the customer sounds like an obvious, commonsense way to run a successful
business, but not all firms gear their marketing activities closely to the customer. The
marketing concept is not always easy to put into practice. Top-level managers must be
committed to it and must gain the commitment of other members of the Organization. An
organization may need to restructure departments or functions to better coordinate
activities. The business Action illustrates how several firms, large and small, practice the
marketing concept.

Beyond the Marketing Concept

Many firms and nonprofit organizations alike take active roles in dealing with issues such
as scarce resources, environmental destruction, hunger, housing shortage and illiteracy.
Forward thinking firms and their employees are involved in programs to work on such
problems, as well as to help their communities for, improve education, support the arts
and provide job training and opportunities for disadvantaged children and adults.
Name: Sazid Bin Seraj Course Instructor: Nazma Akter
ID No: 20210102065 Assistant Professor (SoB), AUST
Section: B

Course Title: Introduction to Business

Topic: Developing a Marketing Strategy

Marketing Strategy
A plan for selecting and analyzing a target market and maintaining and developing marketing
mix that will satisfy This target market

Basics of Marketing Strategy

To put marketing concept in action, a firm must decide on the appropriate marketing activities
to satisfy customer needs and achieve its goals. A marketing strategy is an overall plan for
conducting marketing activities that enables an organization to use its resources and strengths
to meet the needs of the marketplace. For instance, the marketing strategy at Aluminum Co. of
America (Alcoa) is to use its knowledge of aluminum production and its financial resources to
meet the needs of such markets as autos, trucks and railcars. Firms developing a marketing
strategy follows two basic steps.

• Select a target market

• Design a marketing mix

Selection of a Target Market

Organizations gear their marketing activities to reach certain customers- a market. A market is a
group of people who need and want a product and have the ability, willingness and authority to
purchase it. Markets are divided into two broad, overall categories: consumer and industrial.
Consumer markets are made up of individuals who purchase products for personal use.
Industrial markets consist of individuals or that purchase goods and services so that they can
produce to supply to others. Examples include manufacturers, governments, hospitals,
nonprofit organizations and stores.
A segment to which a firm directs its marketing activities is called a target market. Selecting a
target market Is crucial in developing an effective marketing strategy. Trying to sell a product
to a group of customers who do not want or need it is bound to fail. To select a target market,
firms use either the undifferentiated or the segmentation approach.

Designing a Marketing Mix

Once a firm has selected the target market, it must decide how to satisfy the of the target
through the marketing mix, the combination of four elements-

• Product
• Price
• Distribution
• Promotion

Product: A product can be a good, a service or an idea. Manufacturing a product is a production

function. But the marketing managers have the responsibility to inform the production about
products consumers would find and about the products That need to be changed or no longer
needed.
Price: Once a firm develops a product, it must set a price. Pricing requires crucial decisions
making because price is very much visible to the and is closely tied to a company’s profit.
Consumers may not accept products priced too high; a firm may not recover its costs if the
price is too low.
Distribution: Even our terrific product, priced right, can fail if it’s not where and when the
customer wants it. Distributions of product, a complex process, involves decisions about
transportations, storage and store selection.
Promotion: Before they can purchase a product, consumers must know about its availability, its
characteristics and where it can be purchased. Promotion, consisting of advertising, personal
selling and sales and publicity, reminds a target market about a product and trying to appeal
the consumers to buy it.
Name: Arifa Nishat Course Instructor: Nazma Akter
ID No: 20210102066 Assistant Professor (SoB), AUST
Section: B

Course Title: Introduction to Business

Topic: Designing A Market Mix

Marketing identifies consumers’ needs and supplies various goods and services to satisfy those
needs most effectively. So the businessman needs to: (a) produce or manufacture the product
according to consumers’ need; (b) make available it at a price that the consumers’ find
reasonable; (c) supply the product to the consumers at different outlets they can conveniently
approach; and (d) inform the consumers about the product and its characteristics through the
media they have access to. So the marketing manager concentrates on four major decision
areas while planning the marketing activities, namely, (i) products, (ii) price, (iii) place
(distribution) and (iv) promotion. These 4 ‘P’s are called as elements of marketing and together
they constitute the marketing mix.
According to Philip Kotler “Marketing Mix is the set of controllable variables that the firm can use to
influence the buyer’s response”. The controllable variables in this context refer to the 4 ‘P’s [product,
price, place (distribution) and promotion].

Product : Product refers to the goods and services offered by the organisation. A pair of shoes, a lipstick
,a phone all are products. All these are purchased because they satisfy one or more of our needs. In
simple words, product can be described as a bundle of benefits which a marketeer offers to the
consumer for a price.

Price: Price is the amount charged for a product or service. It is the second most important element in
the marketing mix. Fixing the price of the product is a tricky job. Many factors like demand for a product,
cost involved, consumer’s ability to pay, prices charged by competitors for similar products, government
restrictions etc. have to be kept in mind while fixing the price. In fact, pricing is a very crucial decision
area as it has its effect on demand for the product and also on the profitability of the firm.

Place: Goods are produced to be sold to the consumers. They must be made available to the consumers
at a place where they can conveniently make purchase. It is necessary that the product is available at
shops in your town. This involves a chain of individuals and institutions like distributors, wholesalers and
retailers who constitute firm’s distribution network (also called a channel of distribution).

Promotion: If the product is manufactured keeping the consumer needs in mind, is rightly priced and
made available at outlets convenient to them but the consumer is not made aware about its price,
features, availability etc, its marketing effort may not be successful. Therefore promotion is an
important ingredient of marketing mix as it refers to a process of informing, persuading and influencing
a consumer to make choice of the product to be bought. Promotion is done through means of personal
selling, advertising, publicity and sales promotion. e. The proliferation of print and electronic media has
immensely helped the process of promotion.
Name: Sara Shifty Course Instructor: Nazma Akter
ID No: 20210102069 Assistant Professor (SoB), AUST
Section: B

Course Title: Introduction to Business

Topic: Marketing Environment
Marketing does not take place in a vacuum. Several forces outside the firm influence its
marketing decisions. Economic conditions, regulation my government and industries,
politics, the attitudes of society, technology and competition from others firms combine to
form the marketing environment.

Economic Conditions: Economic forces in the United States throughout the world
can fluctuate rapidly and greatly influence marketing activities. Periods of slow economic
growth, inflation, high interest rates for borrowers or high unemployment may decrease
consumers ability or willingness to spend. Depending on their products and target
markets. Some organizations are more vulnerable than others to changes in economic
conditions.

Regulation: Laws and regulatory agencies bear directly marketing decisions.

Numerous federal, state and local laws have been enacted to preserve competition and
to protect consumers. For example, many states have pressured the Food and Drug
Administration to enforce a federal law that restricts diseases -related health claims on
food labels. In addition to government agencies that enforce laws, industry association
impose self-regulation. Consumer Union (CU) tests hundreds of products each year and
publishes ratings in its monthly Consumer Reports. Low ratings have prompted firms to
redesign products to CU's stringent standards. Other independent groups analyze the
way medical charities and other fund rising organizations obtain.

Politics: Laws and government policies are determined by elected officials, who can
create legislation having a favorable or unfavorable impact on for profit and nonprofit
organizations alike. Organizations and entire industries often use lobbying to inform
politicians and elected officials about issues of concern and to obtain support for favorable
legislation. Legislators or federal officials who believe automobile manufacturers are
trying to comply with pollution standards. For example, are less likely to impose additional
restrictions.

Society: Individuals and groups in our society raise questions about business practices
that they believe go against the wishes of society. When marketing activities have the
potential to harm society, special-interest groups may raise objections through publicity,
consumer protests or boycott-refusals to buy certain products. In recent years, consumer
groups who object to certain television programs have boycotted products of firm that
advertise on those shows; in response some companies have pulled their advertising
from the programs in question.

Competition: The actions of competitors have a big impact on a firm's marketing

activities. When one organization identifies a target market and introduces a successful
product, others often follow with similar offerings. When competing firms raise or lower
prices, improve packaging, launch innovative promotional programs, or rewrite service
policies, a firm evaluates and usually adjusts its marketing strategy.

Technology: The explosion of technological innovations has deeply affected marketing

mix decisions for many organizations. Dramatic developments such as the microchips
robotics, laser technology satellite communications offer great potential for the design,
production distribution and promotion of products.

While they cannot control environmental forces, marketers can influence them. They can
shape the political environment to some extent through lobbying, as mentioned earlier. A
firm that can anticipate and quickly respond to the actions of society, competitors or other
environmental forces can more effectively control its destiny.
Name: Abdullah Al Abu Sabik Course Instructor: Nazma Akter
ID No: 20210102070 Assistant Professor (SoB), AUST
Section: B

Course Title: Introduction to Business

Topic: Understanding Buyer Behavior

What makes buyers choose one brand of soft drink over another? Why do some shoppers
looking for video recorders consult Consumer Reports and poll all their friends, while
others simply go to an electronics store and pick one out? Marketing managers study
consumer behavior and consult with experts to answer such questions. Understanding
buyer behavior helps firms bring about satisfying exchanges. Since purchase decisions
in consumer markets differ from those in industrial markets, we will discuss those two
types of buying decisions separately.

Consumer Buying Behavior

The actions and decisions of individuals who purchase products for their personal use
constitute consumer buying behavior. The process involved in purchasing products can
differ from buyer to buyer and from product to product. Product cost and frequency of
purchase influence consumer decisions. Choosing low-cost, often-used products requires
little thought and quickly becomes routine decision making. Buyers often use limited
decision making for products they purchase occasionally and that require some
consideration. To choose expensive, infrequently purchased products that involve
complex thought, consumers use extensive decision making.

Regardless of how simple or complex the decision, consumers making purchase

decisions follow a series of steps. The buying process begins when a consumer
recognizes a product need or want. An advertisement, a free sample, or a product display
can trigger need recognition. The buyer then searches for information about and
compares alternative products. After evaluating the different options, the consumer
decides on a product, uses it, and determines how well it performs or meets expectations.
The consumer’s level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction determines future purchases.

After buying a product, especially something expensive, consumers sometimes

worry that they bought the wrong brand or that they should not have bought the product
at all. The conflict buyers experience when they have doubts about a purchase is called
cognitive dissonance. Often firms try to reduce buyers’ doubts through advertising or by
providing follow-up information or service.

Several factors, some within individuals and some external, affect the buying
decisions of consumers. People are influenced by social factors (e.g. family members,
peers), psychological factors (attitudes, personality), personal characteristics (age,
education), and specific conditions that exist at the time of a purchase decision.
Consumer attitudes toward a firm and its products certainly affect the success or
failure of its marketing strategy. If enough consumers have strong negative attitudes
toward some part of a firm’s marketing mix, the firm may try to change consumer attitudes
to make them more favorable. Changing negative consumer attitudes to positive ones is
usually a long, difficult, expensive task. The Business Action explores how two meat
industries have tried to change consumer attitudes toward their products.

Industrial Buying Behavior

The purchase decision making of organizations such as manufacturers, service

providers, government agencies, institutions, and nonprofit groups is referred to as
industrial buying behavior. Buying decisions by organization typically differ from
consumer purchases in several ways. First, organizational transactions are usually
much larger and less frequent than typical consumer purchases. Organizational buyers,
who must meet exact product specifications, tend to be more concerned than
consumers about quality and the services offered by sellers. Buyers usually seek more
information and base decisions less on emotional factors than consumers do. In small
companies, one person (usually the owner) is responsible for purchase decisions; in
large companies, the responsibility for buying decisions rests with several individuals
who make up a buying center.
Name: MD. Balayet Hossain Nahid Course Instructor: Nazma Akter
ID No: 20210102076 Assistant Professor (SoB), AUST
Section: B

Course Title: Introduction to Business

Topic: Marketing research and it’s process
Marketing Research: Throughout this chapter, we have emphasized that marketing
activities should focus on customer satisfaction. No matter what its size or objective, a
firm cannot implement the marketing concept without about customer needs. Are
customer lifestyles or preferences changing? Do some market segments still need to be
reached? What product price, distribution system and promotional activities would enable
satisfying exchange to take place with people in the target market? To answer such critical
questions markets must continually look at buying trends, talk to customers and establish
ways to receive feedback. Marketing research is the systemic gathering, recording and
analyzing of information relating to the marketing of good and services.

The Need for Marketing Research: Years ago, the attitudes of many
businesspeople toward marketing research could be summarized as “If it’s not broken,
don’t fix it.” Firms conducted research in response to problem such as decreasing profit,
failure to reach sell quotas, or customers lost to a competitor. But today many firms realize
that research should be ongoing. Successful firms, regardless of size continually talk to
customers and study the market.

The Research Process: The marketing research process consists of six steps
• Problem definition
• Research Design
• Data collection
• Data Analysis
• Interpretation and conclusions.

Forming the research questions: Marketing researchers must fast define what
they went to find out-the research question. A research study should address a specific
topic or problem rather than several different issue at once. Researchers need to clearly
state their purpose and their plan for using the information they gather.

Research Design: After defining the research question, marketers formulate a plan
for collecting information essential to the study. Depending on the type and amount of the
information already available. The researcher will choose one of several alternative
design.
Sometimes organizations conduct experimental research to determine whether one
event, circumstance, or situation cause another. For example, publisher may distribute
an issue of magazine with different covers in different parts of country. After a trial period,
researchers investigate who cover resulted in highest sales.
Marketers often want to know the age, sex, education, income, lifestyle, buying habit or
buying intentions of customers. To obtain search information they conduct descriptive
research.

Data Collection: After settling on a research design, marketers accumulate the

information that will answer the research questions. Researchers sometimes rely on
secondary data-published information inside the firm or form government, industry or
other source. Secondly data offer tremendous of advantages. They usually can be
obtained quickly at relatively little cost.
Often second data are unavailable or inadequate. In such cases, marketers obtain
primary data information collected for the first time and specific the study. Researchers
use experiment observation or surveys to collect primary data.
Researchers conduct experiments either in a controlled isolated setting or in actual
market place settings such as a store. Observation involves watching a situation and
recording relevant fact. A marketer many observe supermarket shoppers and record the
purchases made. Through surveys researchers question respondents to obtain needed
information.

Data analysis: To determine what all the information means researchers analyze the
data they collect. Usually, they enter the data into a computer and special programs to
find the frequency of responses and how different items of information are related. While
extremely valuable, computer analysis is costly because of the equipment, programs and
skills required. Businesses sometimes hire research consulting firms to conduct the data
analysis.

Interpretation and conclusions: A stack of data isn’t worth much unless it

provides a workable answer to the research question. In the final research step,
marketers determine what the information means and draw conclusions.
Firms of all types and sizes use research to tackle marketing challenges or problems.
Either way, marketing research often requires considerable time and money, as well as
a commitment to act on the findings.