Introduction of marketing:

Marketing is an ancient art and has, since the day of Adam and Eve, been practiced in one form
or the other. In the modern world, Marketing is everywhere; most of the task we do and most of the
things we handle are linked to marketing. Marketing is an activity. Marketing activities and strategies
result in making products available that satisfy customers while making profits for the companies that
offer those products. Your morning tea, your newspaper, your breakfast, the dress you put on for the
day, the vehicle you drive, the mobile in your pocket, the quick lunch you have at the fast food joint,
the PC at your desk, your internet connection, your e-mail ID almost everything that you use and
everything that is around you, has been touched by marketing. Marketing has its imprint on them all
depending on the product and the context/experience the imprint may be visible or subtle. But it is
very much there. Marketing permeates most of your daily activities. Marketing is an omnipresent
entity.

Learning of objectives:

• To understand the concept of Marketing in the present era

• Define marketing and the utility it creates for the customers
• Trace the origin of marketing and explain how it has evolved during the years
• To understand the Role of Marketing and the strategic marketing planning
• To understand different approaches of market
• To able to differentiate between selling and marketing

Meaning of market and marketing:

A market is any such person, group or organization which has existing or potential exchange
relationship. It starts with customers and ends with customers. Creation of superior customer value and delivering
high levels of customer satisfaction are at the heart of present day marketing. Companies today, needs to
understand customer needs, study completion, develop and offer superior value at reasonable price, and make the
product available to customer at convenient place. Only then their products will be in demand and sell consistently.

Marketing deals with customers. It is delivery of customer satisfaction at a profit. The twofold goal of
marketing is to attract new customers by promising superior value and to keep current customers by
delivering satisfaction.
Definition of marketing:

The concept of market has undergone significant changes over the years, commensurate with the changes in
the structure and scope of markets.

1
Kotler:
“A set of all actual and potential buyers of a product.”

This definition implies that wherever there is a buyer of a product or service, there is a market. It
succeeded in changing the view that market is a place. Further this definition also indicates that market
refers to the existence of buyers of a product or service, that when these things get exchanged, the
marketing process commences.

Kohl’s and uhl:

“an arena, wherein all buyers and sellers were highly sensitive to each other‟s transactions, and where
what one did affected the other.”

This concept of market focuses on a situation where all buyers and sellers would be able to
communicate with one another; they would also be capable, of exchanging products with each other. It
could also be inferred from the definition that buyer-seller interaction is crucial to market.

Cochrane:

“a market is some sphere or space, where certain physical and institutional arrangements could be
seen, and the forces of demand and supply are at work to determine prices with a view of transferring
the ownership of some quantity of good or service.”

This definition brings to light that the exchange takes place in a market for a consideration, i.e., price.
Apart from that, the exchange takes place with certain physical and institutional structure, there by the
role of various facilities required to facilitate transfer of ownership are indicated.

Marketing:
Marketing refers to the various groups of activities that take place in a market. These activities are either
planned or spontaneous. For example, production, assembling, distribution and storage could be planned,
consumption is often spontaneous.

2
According to American marketing association:

“Market is an organizational function and a set of process for creating, communicating value to
customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its
stakeholders."

According to Dahl and Hammond (5)

the purpose of production, assembling, storage, and transportation was consumption. All these steps
from production to ultimate consumption were included in the term marketing. Hence, marketing is a
set of activities without which what is produced cannot reach the ultimate consumer. Hence it might be
said that the importance of these activities is the study of marketing.

Kotler (6) says

“Marketing is a societal process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want
through creating, offering, and freely exchanging products and services of value with others.”

To him, to define a marketing situation there should be two or are parties with potential interest,
capable of communicating with each other and each possessing things of value to the other. From this
definition is could be noted that marketing consists of a number of facilitating activities.

Often marketing is confused with selling. To clarify this, Kaddar‟s (7) distinction between the selling
and marketing.

Selling is the process by which the salesman tries to dispose of the product at the best possible price.
Marketing is much ore comprehensive and aims at maximizing the returns to the producer, at an
affordable price to the consumer. Marketing starts with production and ends with the customer finally
purchasing the product. Kaddar‟s definition is very clear in pointing out that selling is just one activity in
the marketing chain of activities.

Pyle‟s (8) view of marketing was

That phase of business activity through which human wants were satisfied by the exchange of goods or
services for valuable consideration usually money or its equivalent.

3
 According to Philips (9)

Marketing was all the activities necessary to place tangible goods in the hands of the customer and
includes only such activities as would involve a charge in the form of the goods. This definition is
narrow in the sense that it excludes creation of place and time utility and such efforts as to inform the
prospective buyers to motivate them.

When marketing is viewed as a process of moving goods and transferring rights of ownership with or
without changes in the physical form of product, it involves several functions relating production to
consumption.

Irwin (10)

Classified the marketing functions into tangible and intangible functions. Tangible functions included
mainly the transporting, processing, storing and grading of products while intangible functions were
those connected with transfer of ownership, financing, risk taking and guiding products to consumers in
place, form and time.

Memoria and Joshi (11) defined marking as

business functions, which we most directly concerned with demand stimulation and demand fulfilling
activities of the business enterprise.

According to abbot and Makeham (12)

Marketing meant different things to different people; to the housewife it meant shopping for food; to
the farmer it means the sale of his product; and to the fertilizer distributor it meant the selling to the
farmer.

In short, marketing would include all the activities performed from the stage of production to ultimate
consumption. In other words it refers to functions of marketing viz., assembling, warehousing, grading,
barding, packing, labeling, distribution, selling and servicing

1.2 Evolution of Marketing

4
 Marketing is as old as human civilization. Even in the earliest stage of human civilization exchange was
taking place, though, without any consideration. The evidence of this could be noted from the
anthropological studies. The number of excavations that have taken place around the world has also
confirmed this. However in those days, the exchange was not so well organized or structured. This was
because, there was very little surplus and efforts to create surplus was not even realized. When groups
of human beings started living in batches, there arose the need for exchange within the group or
among the groups. Historical evidence indicated that this took place in a very crude barter term. This
was the earliest seed for modern marketing.

Another convincing evidence is the number of ancient literatures of Indian origin. All of them referred
to the classification of the society in to four groups viz., Brahmins, shathriyas, vysyas and sudras. Of
these four groups, was mainly indulging in exchange activities. They were governed by ethical practices
and considered it as sin to violate such practices.

As years rolled, the approach to marketing also changed. From a stage of household exchange of
goods and services, exchange started taking place between families and households. Such an exchange
always took place through barter system. But when exchange took place between different groups in
the society, the need for a medium of exchange was felt. Originally stones were used which was
replaced by anything which commanded social respect was accepted. But in due course, precious
metals like gold and silver were used as a medium. It is interesting to note that till very recently, the
value of many was linked to the value of gold. When man invented money, exchange became very
smooth devoid of all the problems associated with the barter exchange system. While exchange was
getting perfected, the world stated looking at marketing in different ways.

Till the mid 1940‟s it was thought that the producers should produce what is possible and then make
efforts to sell what is produced. In this approach, marketing was viewed from producers/sellers side.
But this was proved to be a fatal mistake by Levitt through his historic article. Levitt brought sense to
the world of marketing. He proved that market should be facing customer rather than the customer
facing the market. In other words, manufacturers should contently look at the market to capture signals
and translate that into acceptable products or services. Hence, marketing became customer focused
and customer centered. So the approach now turned out to be „Produce what the consumers want‟.
This automatically made every producer to identify his consumer and study his requirements so that
what is produced is what is wanted.

1.3 Marketing Concepts

5
 Marketing concept has undergone a great change over the period. The different stages of change are
explained below.

1. PRODUCTION CONCEPT OF MARKETING

This is the oldest concept of marketing. It emphasizes that consumers will favour those products that
are available and highly affordable and therefore management should focus on improving production
and distribution activities.

This holds good when

i. the demand for a products exceeds the supply and

ii. the product cost is high.

To overcome the problem of cost, production should take place in large scale to meet the demand. At
the same time, price should also be addressed so that by making available large quantity, buyer who
wants to buy the product would be able to buy. But there are occasions when the product is not
attractive, even at low price, the buyers may not buy the product.

2. PRODUCT CONCEPT OF MARKETING

This concept believed that the consumers will favour those products that offer the best quality,
performance and features and therefore the organization should devote its energy to making
continuous product improvements. This concept implies that there is no effort required for marketing a
product, as long as the product is good and its price is reasonable. This concept remained as an
important guideline for the manufacturers for quite a long time. But when considering the reality, it
could easily be proved that this concept is not true. A producer may feel that he should come up with a
good quality product, while the consumers may look for better solution to a problem. FOR EXAMPLE,
colleges may feel that the high school students want a liberal arts education, failing to note that the
preference is for vocational education. Hospitals may feel that patients want fast cure but patients may
be looking for permanent remedy. The consumers may not be aware of the product features and
qualities unless a vigorous selling effort is made by the producers. Further, now a days every
manufacture has a separate research and development section to facilitate continuous product
improvement. For example, from a stage of ordinary washing soap, continuous research has brought us
the detergent powder easy to use. But this concept of marketing would expect a well organized
promotional drive to make the product a success.

3. SELLING CONCEPT OF MARKETING

6
 In this concept the importance of sales efforts to be undertaken to make the consumers buy the
products which otherwise will remain unsold. So every organization has to make substantial selling and
promotional effort to push the sales of its product. Even the best product cannot have desired sales
without the help of sales promotion and aggressive salesmanship. This concept points out that goods
are not bought but they have to be sold through organized advertisement and sales promotion efforts.
FOR EXAMPLE, goods like automobiles are not readily bought by the consumers and they have to be
sold only through promotional effort. Hence, the producers have to develop effective promotional
effort. Hence, the producers have to develop effective promotional programmes to sell the products.
Even in the case of election, several political parties attempt to project their candidates by using
various promotional efforts. While, there is nothing illogical about this approach, yes, producer might
have to conceal the flaws in the product and hard sell the product. Hence, more often than not, the
consumers regret their decision after purchasing the product. Even if they try to force the producers to
compensate the loss, it might not be forthcoming.

4. PROFIT CONCEPT OF MARKTING

According to profit concept of marketing, there is a necessity for the marketing function to generate
profit for the organization. But it is the production activities which would determine the cost of
manufacturing and so profit generation becomes the ultimate responsibility of the marketing function.
For this purpose, the marketing personnel have to identify the right product and take it to the right
people at the right time at right price through the right channel and with right promotion. This would
indicate the extent to which the marketing function has to ensure profit realization for a firm. This in
turn will force the production function to minimize its cost of production so that marketing function can
try to optimize its activities by maximizing profit at minimum cost. On its part, the production
department has to protect its own interest. So now a days, the production department would sell the
product to marketing at a price befitting its cost of production and a market quantum of profit. In turn,
the marketing would determine a price with which it would be able to generate profit and also meet its
promotional expenses. Hence this concept of marketing underscores the need to minimize cost at
every level, so that at every level every function can earn profit.

5. MODERN MARKETING CONCEPT

The modern marketing concept revolves around customer. It focuses on the ultimate customer and
undertakes to meet his requirements in full. For this the organization has to correctly understand the
customer requirement and deliver the desired products more effectively and efficiently than the
competitors.

Hence a major shift took place in emphasis from product to customer. This has led to the
manufacturers accept the philosophy, manufacturer is following the old approach, [manufacturing
what he can], then be would be out of business in no time. The modern concept is build in recognition
of consumers‟ sovereignty and so it helps every organization to maximise customer satisfaction and
profit. It is this realization of the need to study customer want that very detailed research efforts are
made to study and analyze consumer behavior. Similarly marketing information system has become a

7
significant method of receiving valuable inputs about consumers‟ wants and needs. Based on this
approach, every manufacturer has to redefine his production decision from design to delivery. A
constant study of the change in consumer‟s behavior has become a necessity to remain in business.
The unique selling proposition is developed on the basis of customer‟s reaction to various product
features. Further, every manufacturer and marketing personnel tries to exceed customer expectations
so as to win the customer from the competition. Customer complaints are given utmost respect and
importance and the business consider the customer complaints as the best input for product
improvement. „A compiling customer is seen as the contributing customer.‟ Hence the modern
marketing concept has changed the market for almost every product from seller‟s market‟ to „buyer‟s
market. At the same time, it should be noted that the tall claim that every organization tries to meet
the customer expectations in full, is proved to be true on paper than in practice.

6. SOCIAL MARKETING CONCEPT

This philosophy of marketing underlines the importance of marketing activities to support and ensure
social well-being. Marketing should determine the needs, wants and interests of target markets and
deliver the desired satisfaction effectively. Only through this marketing can keep the competitors at
bay. This broadened role of marketing is prescribed for marketing as in modern days, a number of
products and services hasten environmental pollution, scarcity and inflation.

FOR EXAMPLE, excessive use of ground water resources to produce mineral water and earn money will
result in faster depletion of water source. Similarly, use of harmful ingredients in product
manufacturing/process, would cause irreparable damage to human beings. Further questionable
business practices and unethical actions would bring about a severely damaged social fabric. Another
important example is the Bhopal gas tragedy. Years have rolled without little efforts to uplift the
victims. Profit maximizing efforts have only helped a small segment of the community and caused
impoverishment of the community. Hence, in these days, marketing concept emphasizes that every
organization should consciously explore the scope for it to contribute to the social-well being. When
firms have started adopting this approach, not only they could substantially increase their sales, the
society also benefited from this. Social marking concept therefore aims at enabling consumers to get
maximum satisfaction and contribute to their quality of life, designing product with consumer‟s
interest as an input and ensuring all marketing efforts to have consumer as the focal point.

1.4 Role of Marketing

8
 According of Mc Carthy, an effective macro market system is a necessary ingredient for economic
development. To peter Drucker, marketing may be the key to growth is less developed nations.
Marketing can enable fuller utilization of resources and facilitates integration of countries and
continents. For Nurkse marketing carries with it the solution to break through the vicious circle of
poverty in very country. Hence, in every developing and less developed country efforts should be made
to reorganize the marketing system.

It is well known that producers and consumers are separated from each other on several counts.
Marketing should enable removing these separations. This could be understood by
analyzing Mc Carthy‟s view point.

1. Spatial separation: This refers to the geographical separation between the producers and
consumers. Producers have several compelling reasons to locate their operations in a particular
place. But the consumers are wide spread. This separation could be avoided with a well knit
logistic function. That is, by ensuring that the products reach the consumers at the right time, at
right price in right shape and at right place. Simply this means if marketing can ensure time utility,
place utility and form utility through its performance, then the spatial separation would
disappear.

2. Separation in time: One of the basic functions of producers is to determine the time when the
product/service is required by the consumers. If it does not reach the consumer at the time of
need, it loses its appeal to consumers. Generally producers over come this problem by using
various rigorous forecasting and estimation techniques. Similarly by a well-planned inventory
management, produces can easily manage demand and supply.

3. Separation of information: Most of the ills in marketing are caused by lack of information.
Marketing information could be relating to various aspects like, product functioning or use,
availability, price, etc. it is always said that the basis reason for market imperfection is deliberate
information lack out. Selective information sharing is viewed as a marketing tactic. The more the
consumers are ignorant the more the producer benefits. Hence if marketing ensures flow of
relevant and useful information to the consumers at the right time, it would help to narrow the
separation of intended of benefits and realized benefits.

4. Separation in values: One of the major role performed by marketing is to enable both the
producers and the consumers to determine the value of the product/service. Normally producers
to would determine the price of the product/service based on their cost of production.
Consumers would consider price payable with the economic utility conferred by the
product/service and their own capability to pay. If the interests of these two groups should be
served, then marketing alone can achieve this. It has the demand forces and supply forces to
interact and determine the true value of a product/service. This way both the seller and the
buyer stand to gain.

9
5. Separation of ownership: The basic requirement for exchange to take place is the transfer of
ownership from the seller to the buyer. Sellers would transfer their ownership for a consideration
and the buyers would get their ownership for a consideration. When the consideration in
question is acceptable to both the parties, exchange is facilitated. Hence, it is marketing which
can facilitate legal transfer of ownership for a consideration from the sellers to buyers. This is
because producers do not want to retain the ownership of goods they produce and consumers
want to get the ownership of goods before consuming the product or service.

6. Discrepancies of quantity: It is well known that producer‟s objective is to minimize cost and
maximize production. That is unless there is scale economy; producers would not be able to
optimize their operations. On the other hand, consumers always require the product/service in
convenient small quantity. This makes it imperative that marketing should provide efficient
warehousing and storage system so that both producers and consumers would achieve their
objectives.

7. Discrepancies of assortment: A fundamental function of marketing is grading and

standardization. Through this, marketing can enable the consumers to get the product of his
choice and the producers would confine to manufacturing the grade or standard that they are
capable of. FOR EXAMPLE, local manufacturers would build the features in their products to fulfill
the expectations of the consumers in the locality, while a country level producer has to meet the
requirements and aspirations of multitude of consumers with varying preferences. Some time,
the manufacturers would have two brands one for the locality and the other for the country as
a whole. Therefore, it is marketing which can give indications of consumer‟s preference and
choice with which the producers would be able to plan and produce the product/service meeting
such preferences/choice of the consumers.

Economy as explained by Mamoria and Joshi could be discussed to appreciate the contribution
of marketing in modern economy. These are explained below.

1. Improvement in marketing efficiency brings about reduction in distribution cost, which could
help to reduce the price. This in turn, would add to the national income.
2. When the marketing cost declines, the society stands to gain as product/service will be
available at a cheaper price adding to the social well-being.
3. It is marketing which brings together the producers and consumers thereby facilitating both
to share the common benefits in terms of new varieties and quality goods.
4. With widening of market, the employment potential of the country would also widen.
5. Scientific marketing contributes by eliminating unfair trade practices and stabilizing the price
level.
6. Productive efficiency would increase, as marketing would ensure optimum allocation of
resources.
7. Artificial scarcity would be avoided when marketing forces are allowed to operate.
8. Time and place utility of a product are achieved only through marketing.

10
 9. Value addition to services takes place with marketing. For example, when a wholesaler or
retailer performs his function, the product moves from the production end to consumption
end. This is certainly a value addition to the service.
10. Pattern of consumption is determined other by the structure of the marketing system and
by the value added to the goods or services through performance of marketing activities.

1.5 Strategic Marketing Planning

Stanton defines strategic marketing planning as the process of setting marketing goals, selecting
target markets and designing a marketing mix to satisfy these markets and achieve these goals. The
marketing strategy is therefore functional strategy. It is different from corporate strategy. However, the
marketing strategy stems from the corporate strategy. In other words, the functional strategies should
be in conformity with the overall strategy of the company. The functional strategy like marketing
strategy sets the boundaries for all the action programmes related to marketing. According to staton,
the six stages involved in strategic marketing planning process are:

1. Situational analysis-with a purpose to determine where we are and where are we going.

2. Determine the objectives – these goals should be specific and realistic

3. Select and measure target markets-identify present and potential customers

4. Design marketing mix strategies and tactics – How do we get to where we want to go.

5. Prepare annual marketing plan-the how to do it guide to yearly marketing operations.

6. Implementation and evaluation – How are we doing? Did we do what we said we would do?

Situation analysis consists of an analysis of external environmental forces and the non-marketing
resources that influence an organization‟s marketing programmed. These factors are: political,
economic, competitive, socio cultural, historical, etc. this analysis also reviews and evaluates an
organization‟s existing marketing mix so as to identify the flaws and problems associated with them.
This analysis will help an organization to know where it is and where it should reach in future, which
may be called the first stage.

The second stage is to formulate the objectives. This includes both the corporate objectives as well as
marketing objectives. At the time of setting the marketing objectives, care should be taken to make it

11
specific, measurable and in conformity with the corporate objectives. It will be better to spell them out
in writing so that there is no scope for confusion.

In the third stage, the organization should identify the present and potential customers. This is what is
called selection of target markets. Apart from analyzing the existing market for its products, the
organization should try to identify the new market for its products. For this purpose, the company has
to adopt the marketing segmentation technique. Once the market is segmented, it is necessary to
forecast the market for the product in each segment.

The fourth stage is to design a strategic marketing mix that enables the organization to satisfy the
wants of its target markets and to achieve the marking objectives. The design and later the operation of
the marketing mix components constitute the bulk of a Company‟s marketing effort.

In the fifth stage, the strategic marketing planning is prepared. A series of short term marketing plans
are prepared. Usually a period of one year is covered. They are called annual marketing plans. It
includes a statement of objectives, identification of target markets, strategies relating to the marketing
mix, information regarding the budgetary support for the marketing activity.

After formulating the strategic marketing planning in the above manner, the last stage is, it should be
implemented and evaluated periodically. This is done to understand how for the organization is
following plan. If there are deviations, the causes and consequences of such deviations are analysed.
Further, to design the future course of action, there is a need to analyze the changing marketing
environment. The actual performance of the strategic plan has to be critically evaluated so as to
accomplish the objectives of the company as desired and as planned. In the process of evaluation, it
any defect is found, corrective measures should be incorporated immediately. It would also be wise to
do this evaluation segment – wise so that the strategy developed for each segment can be perfected. It
is also good to study the strategic planning of the competitor to come out with new ideas and plans.

1.6 Scope of marketing

Under marketing management a marketing programme is prepared on the basis of needs, wants,
tastes and fashions of the customers. It involves decision making in regard to pricing of the products,
publicity, distribution and after-sales service. Thus marketing management is an action science
consisting of principles for improving the effectiveness of exchange. It represents professionalization in
the carrying out of exchange relationships. In recent times marketing management has become a self
conscious craft. It is the analysis, planning, implementation and control of programmes designed to
bring about designed exchanges for the purpose of personal or mutual gain. It relies heavily on the
adaptation and coordination of product, price, promotion, and place for achieving effective response

1.7 Approaches of marketing

12
 In layman terms marketing is the process of selling something at a shop or market place. To some it is
the study of individual commodities and their movement in the market place; to others it is the study of
institutions and persons who move these product or study of the economic contribution; to still others
it is the study of the behavior of product movements and the way the persons involved to move them.
The study of marketing has, thus, been approached in more than one ways. However, these different
approaches have immensely contributed to the evolution of the modern approach and the concept of
marketing. To facilitate the study, these defend approaches may be broadly classified as the commodity
approach, the institutional approach and the managerial approach. Besides these well recognized and
established approaches, the recently developed societal and systems approaches have been attracting
considerable attention. A brief description of these different approaches is given below, reflecting their
respective focus and characteristics.

1. Commodity Approach
In the commodity approach to the study of marketing, the focus of study is a specific commodity,
say, wheat, rice, sugar, tea, fabrics, automobiles, etc. In this approach, the subject matter of discussion
centers around the specific commodity selected for the study and includes the sources and conditions
of supply, nature and extent of demand, the distribution of channels used and the functions, such as
buying, selling, financing, advertising, storage, etc. performed by the various agencies. By repeating
such studies in case of different commodities one gets a complete picture of the entire field of
marketing.

2. Functional Approach

In the functional approach, the focus of marketing study is one of the different kinds of functions
which are recognized for their repetitive occurrences and the necessarily performed to consummate
market transactions. Though there is no unanimity about the number and nature of functions that
constitute marketing, nevertheless, some functions often recognized are selling, storage, transpiration,
and financing. In this approach, marketing is regarded as the “business of buying and selling and as
including those business activities involved in the flow of goods and services between producers and
consumers”. These functions are also studied in relation to given commodities and marketing
institutions in term of their nature, importance, operational methods, costs and problems.

3. Managerial Approach

In the managerial approach, the focus of marketing study is on the decision making process involved in
the performance of marketing function at the level of a firm. The study encompass discussion of the
different underlying concepts, decision influencing factors, alternative strategies – their relative
importance, strengths and weaknesses, and techniques and methods of problem-solving. Here there is
apt to be some confusion between the functional and managerial approaches to the study of marketing
owing to the terms “functions” used in both these approaches. In the functional approach, the
emphasis on the study of marketing functions is at the macro level and its scope extends to those
functions only which are involved during the flow of goods and service from producers to consumers. In
the managerial approach, on the other hand, the emphasis shift to the micro parts of the economy and

13
settles at the level of a business firm which performs all those functions which impinge upon and are
involved in the creation and distribution of goods and services desired by the market. The managerial
approach thus entails the study of marketing at the micro-level-level of a business firm – of the
managerial functions of analysis, planning, execution, coordination and control in relation to the
marketing functions of creating, stimulating, facilitating and valuing transactions.

(iv) Institutional Approach

In the institutional approach to the study of marketing, the focus is on the study of the various
middlemen and facilitating agencies. The study includes their position in the distribution channels, the
purpose of their existence, the functions performed and service rendered by them, their operating
methods, the cost involved, and the problems faced by them. In order to obtain a comprehensive view
of marketing, the study is related to each type of institution.

Societal Approach

In the societal approach to the study of marketing, the entire marketing process is regarded not as
means by which business meets the ends of consumers but as a means by which society meets its own
consumption needs. In it, the focus of study, therefore, is the interactions between the various
environmental factors (sociological, cultural, political, legal) and marketing decisions and their impact
on the well-being of society. As such, in this kind of approach there is a significant element of normative
and substantial reliance on the value judgment based on an accepted value system in the society at a
point of time. The societal approach to the study of marketing is relatively recent and was born out of
the criticism of the marketing behavior of business obsessed with profit attainment and growth by
critics.

System approach:

Among the recent approaches to the study of marketing, the one that has been engaging
considerable attention lately is the systems approach. It is based on Von Bartalanffy‟s “general system
theory”. He defined system as a “set of objects together with the relationships among them and their
attributes. Systems thinking recognize the inter-relations and interconnections among the
components of a marketing system in which products, services, money, equipment and information
flow from marketers to consumers. These flows largely determine the survival and growth capacities
of a firm. The focus of systems approach is, there sore, the analysis of these marketing flows and
communication. It stresses built-in organizational capacity to adapt business to a changing ecosystem.

14