Unit - I
Unit - I
Unit - I
M Dhadurya Naik
MARKETING MANAGEMENT
UNIT 1- INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING
Introduction to Marketing
Concepts & evolution- Indian Marketing Environment-
Role and functions of the Marketing Department;
Market research: Concepts in demand- Market research –
Forecasting and measurement – Market data analysis.
Introduction to Marketing
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Marketing is dynamic and impactful. The details differ between industries, but at its most
basic marketing is how businesses reach prospective customers and communicate the
unique benefits of a product or service. It encompasses all the activities that companies
undertake to promote, sell, and distribute that product or service. The goal is to generate
sales and build a loyal customer base by informing prospective and existing buyers about
the offering.
Your target audience must first be aware that your product or service exists before you can
hope to inspire a purchase. An essential function in any business, marketing supports efforts
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We use a large variety of goods and services in our daily life. These include items like
toothpaste, toothbrush, soap, oil, clothes, food items, telephone, electricity and many
more. How do all these goods and services reach our home? Obviously the business houses
who produce the goods and services have to ensure that these are to be sold, and so they have
to make the consumers/users aware of their products and place them at points convenient to
the consumers. This involves a number of activities such as product planning, pricing,
promotion, use of middlemen (wholesalers, retailer etc.) for sale, warehousing, transportation
etc. All these activities taken together are termed as Marketing.
In our study of the business world, we have often come across the terms market
and marketing. Both are similar sounding terms and relate to the same concept. However,
‘market’ and ‘marketing’ are two widely separate concepts individually that relate to each
other. Let us take a more detailed look at market and marketing.
Market
The market actually refers to a set up where potential buyers and sellers can meet to exchange
goods or services. It is basically a medium that facilitates these transactions in an economy. It
allows for the exchange of goods, services, information under the protection of the law and
generally in exchange for consideration.
Traditionally a market is a physical location or place, like a bazaar or a shopping mall. The
kind of market it is will depend on a lot of factors. Some of the ways in which we can
characterize markets are,
By the types of buyers involved, example: consumer market, industrial market etc
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Marketing
Marketing is a very wide term. It includes all the activities involved right from the production
of the goods, until their consumption. Every activity in between, like designing, pricing,
promotion, distribution, transportation, warehousing etc are activities of marketing.
Marketing is 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.” — American Marketing Association
“Marketing is the social process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and
want through creating and exchanging products and value with others.” — Philip Kotler
Professor Philip Kotler explained that marketing was “meeting the needs of your customer at
a profit.”
For me that definition extends beyond just communicating product features. Marketers are
responsible for a 360-degree experience. For example, in the social media world, a
customer’s Twitter needs may differ from her needs to “play with the brand” in terms of a
social game promotion. Every customer touchpoint from customer service to sales to
accounting and more are part of the “new marketing.” Toby Bloomberg – Bloomberg
Marketing/Diva Marketing
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-Ann Handley
“Marketing is the process of anticipating, managing, and satisfying the demand for products,
services, and ideas.” — Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Satisfy Needs and Wants: The main focus of all marketing activities is consumer
satisfaction. When a group of individuals (potential customers) express their needs, the
companies strive to satisfy these needs via marketing activities.
Creating a Market Offering: Then the companies must dedicate their efforts to create
an ideal market offering based on their study of potential customers. This
product/service offered must try to fulfil all of the requirements of the potential customer
in a given market.
Customer Value: The customers buying decisions will be greatly dependant on the
price of the product. It must satisfy their needs at the cost that they think is fair. So the
sellers must add value to the product and price it accordingly, so the customer is willing
and gets value for his price,
Exchange Mechanism: Marketing is not a one-way process. The seller must satisfy
the needs of the buyer. And the buyer in an exchange must provide consideration for the
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Concepts of Marketing
There are 5 different concepts of marketing, each of which vary in the function that they deal
with. For example – production concept deals with production and selling concept deals with
selling. Each of the concept was developed as per the need of the market. As the market
changed, so did the concepts of marketing. And today, we have an opportunity to look at all 5
concepts of marketing and what they represent.
1. Production concept
2. Product concept
3. Selling concept
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4. Marketing concept
5. Societal marketing concept
The article lists out the concepts of marketing in a very brief manner. You can click on each
link to know more about each individual concept of marketing.
Production Concept– Customers will accept cheap and available product. In other words,
Consumers will favour products that are available and highly affordable”. This concept is one of
the oldest Marketing management orientations that guide sellers.
Companies adopting this orientation run a major risk of focusing too narrowly on their operations
and losing sight of the real objective.
Lets take Production concept as example- You see in Amazon or retail stores; the market is
immerse with cheap products from china. Everything like the cheap plastic product,from China is
on your cart now.
The best example of the production concept is Vivo, the Chinese smartphone brand. Their
phones are available in almost every corner of the Asian market. You can walk in any
phone shop in Asia and can walk out with the latest and greatest smartphone from
Vivo.According to google About 134 million smartphones has been sold across India in the
year 2017.
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2 Product Concept–
Product quality and improvement are important parts of marketing strategies, sometime just
targeting on company products could also lead to marketing myopia .
Suppose a company makes the best quality Floppy disk. But a customer does need a floppy disk?
She or he desires one thing which will be wont to store the information. It will be achieved by a
USB Flash drive, SD memory cards, etc.So that the company mustn’t look to form the simplest
floppy. They must focus to satisfy the customer’s information storage desires.
However, after 2007, Nokia failed to sense that trends were changing. It ignored the changing
demands and needs of the customers And there was another mistake. Nokia overestimated the
strength of its brand, and believed that even if it was late to the smartphone game it would be able
to catch up quickly.
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Product Concept example:- When you are going to Market and want to buy mobile phone, you
are thinking about which mobile phone is best and high quality ;i think apple will be on the top.
Their product are fantastic that they set industry trends and standards .These High -quality
products are expensive but people still buy and they get almost free advertisement from
independent reviews.
Apple
Apple is one of the world’s largest tech companies and it falls under the
category of top 5 tech companies of the world. iPhone, TV, Store, Music,
Videos, and iPad are some of the main products of Apple. The company
also follows the product concept by the focus on delivering a quality
product. The customer market of Apple doesn’t care about the price.
3.Selling Concept-The selling concept holds the idea- “consumers will not buy enough of the
companies products unless it undertakes a large-scale selling and marketing effort”.
The main focus is to sell what the company makes rather than making what the market wants.
Such an aggressive selling program carries very high risks.
In selling concept the marketer assumes that customers will be coaxed into buying the product
will like it, if they don’t like it or don’t satisfy with product or services, they will possibly forget
their disappointment and buy it again later. This is usually a very poor and costly assumption.
Almost all companies in the end fall into this concept. “Mountain Dew” ads are hard to miss. If
people like Mountain Dew or not, that is arguable but you can see that PepsiCo is pushing it hard
using ads.
nearly all soft drinks and soda drinks go along with selling concept. These drinks have no health
benefits ( actually harm your health more), you can easily replace them with water ( the most
available substances in the earth).
And the soft drink companies know everything about it, and inspite of this they run ads 24×7, and
spending millions of dollars
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philosophy. The aim is not to find the right customers for your product but to find the right
products for your customers.
Restaurants and startup business have started to follow the marketing concept. now ,They trying
to understand the consumer and deliver the best product or service, which is better for the
customer and competition.
Dollar shave club is one of the best example that suit here , They changed the Men’s grooming
trade . They have understood that people are not satisfied with their previous grooming products
and their prices
Where other company’s grooming products will cost hundreds to buy for just one month. Now
,Dollar shave club start to charges a couple of bucks a month with higher quality products and
convenience of home delivery.
The global warming panic button is pushed and a declaration is required in the way we use our
resources. So companies have started either fully or partially trying to apply the societal
marketing concept.
societal concept example-While large companies sometimes launch programs or products that
benefit society; nowadays it is hard to find a company that is fully committed socially.
We can see Adidas doing great thing as they continue to support Colin Kaepernick despite
pressure from various parties. Tesla is promising a big push for green energy with electric cars
and solar roof panels/tiles.
This marketing philosophy has undergone a thorough and gradual change since the great
Industrial Revolution that took place during the latter-half of the 18th and first-half of the
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19th centuries. This gradual change can be traced under four periods and captions namely,
production orientation period, sales-orientation period, customer-orientation period and social
orientation period.
Thus, marketing concept is the way of life in which all the resources of an organisation are
mobilized to create, stimulate and satisfy the consumer at a profit. It represents a distinct
philosophy of business and considers marketing more than a physical process.
Wherever this concept prevails, that marketing organisation is future oriented, customer
oriented, value oriented, profit oriented and applies modern management practices to all
sales, distribution and other marketing functions.
It is a managerial philosophy and organizational structure that centres on the desires of the
consumers.
It calls on the company, in essence, to make only “what it can sell. It, therefore, reserves the
right of reversing the logic of the past that the task of marketing is to sell what the firm
makes.
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Till 1930s, there prevailed a strong feeling that whenever a firm has a good product, it results
in automatic consumer response and that needed little or no promotional efforts. This
production-oriented marketing concept was built on “Good wine needs no push.” That is, if
the product is really good and the price is reasonable, there is no need for special marketing
efforts.
(ii) The most important task of management is to keep the cost of production down.
Under this concept, production is the starting point. The product acceptability occurs after the
product is produced.
The failures of the production orientation philosophy of 1930s paved the way for change in
the outlook that was possible during 1940s. This reshaped philosophy was sales-orientation
that holds good to a certain extent even today.
It states that mere making available the best product is not enough; it is futile unless the firm
resorts to aggressive salesmanship.
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Effective sales-promotion, advertising and public- relations are of top importance. High
pressure salesmanship and heavy doses of advertising are a must to move the products of the
firm.
The essence of sales orientation philosophy is “Goods are not bought but sold.” The maker of
product must say that his product is best and he fails if he keeps mum.
(iii) The management’s main task is to convince the buyers through high pressure tactics, if
necessary.
The philosophy has been prevailing since 1940. It is more prevalent in selling all kinds of
insurance policies, consumer non-durables and consumer durable products, particularly the
status-symbols.
This philosophy was brought into play during 1950s and points out that the fundamental task
of business undertaking is to study and understand the needs, wants, desires and values of
potential consumers and produce the goods in the light of these findings so that consumer
specifications are met totally.
Here, the starting point is the customer rather than the product. The enterprise is to
commence with the consumer and end with the requisite product. It emphasizes the role of
marketing research well before the product is made available in the market place.
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1. The firm should produce only that product as desired by the consumer.
2. The management is to integrate all its activities in order to develop programmes to satisfy
the consumer wants.
3. The management is to be guided by ‘long-range profit goals’ rather than ‘quick sales.
(ii) Gradual shift from age old “Caveat emptor” to “Caveat vendor”.
Since 1950, this philosophy is in vogue and will continue so long as consumer is the King of
the market.
There has been a further refinement in the marketing concept particularly during 1970s and
1980s. Accordingly, the new concept goes beyond understanding the consumer needs and
matching the products accordingly.
This philosophy cares for not only consumer satisfaction but for consumer welfare or social
welfare. Such social welfare speaks of pollution-free environment and quality of human life.
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Thus, a firm manufacturing a pack of cigarettes for consumer must not only produce the best
cigarettes but pollution-free cigarettes; an automobile not only fuel efficient but less pollutant
one.
In other words, the firm is to discharge its social responsibilities. Thus, social welfare
becomes the added dimension.
(i) The firm is to produce only those products as are wanted by the consumers,
(ii) The firm is to be guided by long-term profit goals rather than quick sales.
(iv) The management is to integrate the firm’s resources and activities to develop programme
to meet these individual consumer and social needs.
This social oriented philosophy is the latest and is considered as an integrated concept. This
philosophy, as it covers earlier long-standing concepts, is bound to rule the marketing world
for pretty long time.
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Evolution of Marketing
Following Robert Bartels, we may distinguish six different periods
in the history of marketing since its discovery between 1900 and
1910. Prior to 1900, market behaviour and trade practice were
explained mainly from macro-point in economic theory.
The period of discovery is a period in which the early teachers of the
subject sought facts about the distributive trades. In the process of
this search, theory was borrowed mainly from economics;
particularly in the fields of distribution, world trade and commodity
markets and the term marketing was selected to describe this
particular activity.
The years between 1910 and 1920 are characterized as a period of
conceptualization and in this era basic concepts on which the
structure of marketing thought was built for the next 40 or 50 years
emerged and were crystallized. It was during this period that many
marketing concepts were initially developed and classified and
terms defined. It was also during this time that three lines of
approach to the analysis of marketing were identified — the
institutional, the functional and the commodity approaches.
The next decade (1920-30) is characterized as a period of
integration. The years between 1920 and 1930 mark the coming of
age of the discipline of marketing. During that decade not only did
all the branches of the subject attain a general or integrated
statement but two additional areas of specialization appeared —
wholesaling and marketing research.
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It was with these latter issues that we have been concerned in the
second half of the 20th century commencing with period of
conceptualization (1950-60), the period during which traditional
approaches to the study of marketing were supplemented by
increasing emphasis upon managerial decision-making, the societal
aspects of marketing and quantitative marketing analysis. Many
new concepts borrowed from the field of management were
introduced into marketing.
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competition. The question they asked was not “What does the
customer want?” but “How can we get them to buy what we make?”
Companies emphasised product promotion during the sales era, just
as they tried to improve manufacturing techniques during the
production era. Firms formed direct sales forces and established
relationships with dealers and other firms that could push their
products into the market. Advertising also took on new importance
during this time.
Pillsbury entered its sales era in the 1930s. In that decade and the
next, Pillsbury grew to appreciate both the grocers who sold its
products and the consumers who bought them. Realising it could
use information about customer likes and dislikes to create
advertising that would stimulate demand, the company formed a
research department to collect market data.
Also recognising the importance of strong relationships with
grocers, Pillsbury built on these relationships to assure a smooth
flow of Pillsbury products from the mill to the customer.
(3) The Marketing Era:
The 1950s were the start of the marketing era, during which
companies began to practice marketing in its current form. The
development of efficient production techniques earlier in the
century had laid the groundwork for plentiful supplies of most
products.
The outcome in many cases was a buyers’ market; that is, supply
overwhelmed demand. In a buyers’ market, you’ve got to do more
than just build things in order to succeed.
The method of achieving business success shifted from pushing
products on customers to finding out what buyers wanted and then
filling that need. The focus during the marketing era was not the
manufacturer’s goals, as in the first two eras, but customers’ needs
and wants. The new marketing departments formed in many
companies started trying to provide the goods and services that
customers desired.
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(iii) The producers realize the consumer demands and choices and
there-by, are forced to adopt consumer- oriented approach to
marketing, so that they can survive in the market.
At this stage, the marketing management strives to organize the
factors of production within the organization keeping in view the
factors of consumption outside. This approach, thus, aims at
consumer satisfaction by means of production or the right kind and
quality of products, in the right qualities, at the right price and in
the right market. The matching of products and services with the
markets and consumers becomes the motto of the consumer-
oriented approach to marketing.
5. Management Orientation:
This approach or concept can be said to be a natural consequence of
increasing attention to the consumer satisfaction. Marketing, under
this concept, is conceived of as a total management system of
interacting business activities designed to plan, promote, and
distribute want satisfying products and services to the existing and
potential consumers. In the present highly competitive and
changing world, the marketing factor has become very crucial to all
business planning and decision making.
The marketing function has now come to be associated with various
aspects like pricing, products, markets, market research and
analysis, advertising and sales promotion, field sales, distribution,
organization and staffing, and co-ordination with the
manufacturing and other operations. In all these areas, the
management has to develop and adopt procedures for planning,
organizing, directing, reviewing, controlling, etc.
In other words, the management has to harmonize all these variable
factors, in the context of the nature and size of business, to gain
continued acceptance of its products and services from the different
classes of consumers and customers.
Therefore, in common parlance, marketing is understood to mean
the sale and purchase of goods and services but it is narrow thinking
to understand it so. The term ‘marketing’ is very wide. It does not
mean only the sale and purchase of goods and services. It means
entire process of satisfying the needs of consumers! It starts with
discovery of needs and wants of the consumers, and it continues, till
these needs and wants are satisfied. To understand the meaning of
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A little later, i.e., during the next stage, called the agricultural stage,
man developed agriculture as his occupation. Owing to his
occupation, viz., settled agriculture, he had to live in a fixed place.
Therefore, he built houses to live in. This led to the growth of
communities or villages. Further, simple form of division of labour
was practised at this stage. According to the principle of division of
labour, different villages produced different commodities.
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Again, at this stage, the system of personal selling also came into
existence. At this stage, there was also the development of local
markets, which gradually developed into town markets. Above all,
at this stage, pricing became the chief mechanism of trade and
marketing.
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The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Europe and the
United States, in the period from between 1760 to 1820 and 1840.
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Marketing Environment
Definition:
Some of these factors are controllable while some are uncontrollable and require business
operations to change accordingly. Firms must be well aware of its marketing environment in
which it is operating to overcome the negative impact the environment factors are imposing
on firm’s marketing activities.
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1. Internal Environment – The Internal Marketing Environment includes all the factors
that are within the organization and affects the overall business operations. These factors
include labour, inventory, company policy, logistics, budget, capital assets, etc. which are
a part of the organization and affects the marketing decision and its relationship with the
customers. These factors can be controlled by the firm.
2. Microenvironment- the Micro Marketing Environment includes all those factors that
are closely associated with the operations of the business and influences its functioning. The
microenvironment factors include customers, employees, suppliers, retailers & distributors,
shareholders, Competitors, Government and General Public. These factors are controllable to
some extent.
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Suppliers– Suppliers are the persons from whom the material is purchased to make a
finished good and hence are very important for the organization. It is crucial to identify
the suppliers existing in the market and choose the best that fulfils the firm’s requirement.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axhjLLi0wLg
Shareholders– Shareholders are the owners of the company, and every firm has an
objective of maximizing its shareholder’s wealth. Thus, marketing activities should be
undertaken keeping in mind the returns to shareholders.
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the marketing strategies. A company has to keep track on these policies and make the
marketing programs accordingly.
General public– The business has some social responsibility towards the society in
which it is operating. Thus, all the marketing activities should be designed that result in
increased welfare of the society as a whole.
3. Macro Environment-The Macro Marketing Environment includes all those factors that
exist outside the organization and cannot be controlled. It constitutes the external factors and
forces which affect the industry as a whole but don’t have a direct effect on the business.
These are also called as PESTLE framework
Political & Legal Factors – With the change in political parties, several changes are
seen in the market in terms of trade, taxes, and duties, codes and practices, market
regulations, etc. So the firm has to comply with all these changes and the violation of
which could penalize its business operations.
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Every business operates in the economy and is affected by the different phases it is
undergoing. In the case of recession, the marketing practices should be different as what
are followed during the inflation period.
Since business operates in a society and has some responsibility towards it must follow the
marketing practices that do not harm the sentiments of people. Also, the companies are
required to invest in the welfare of general people by constructing public conveniences,
parks, sponsoring education, etc.
The physical environment includes the natural environment in which the business operates.
This includes the climatic conditions, environmental change, accessibility to water and raw
materials, natural disasters, pollution etc.
Conclusion:
Therefore, marketing environment plays a crucial role in the operations of a business and
must be reviewed on a regular basis to avoid any difficulty.
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At the centre of the process stand the consumers. The objective is to build a
strong and profitable customer relationship. The first step is market
segmentation, targeting and positioning, to decide which customers the
company should serve and how. This process identifies the total market, then
divides it into smaller segments, se Introduction to Marketing 35 control like
product, price, place and promotion. For identifying the best marketing mix
combination and to put it into action, the company engages in marketing
Political and Legal Social cultural Environment
Environment analysis, planning, implementation, and control activities. With the help of
these, the company watches and adapts to the actors and Marketing Process
Customer Relationships - In order to succeed in today’s highly competitive
market, companies must be customer-centred, winning customers from
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Product stands for the goods and services offered by a company to the target market, to
satisfy needs and wants.
Price refers to the money value that the consumers have to pay to buy the product or service.
Promotion refers to activities of personal selling, advertising, and communicating product
benefits and attributes to target consumers to persuade them to purchase.
Place stands for physical distribution activities through which the product moves from the
factory to the customer. Channels of distribution, logistics, warehousing, transport, etc. come
under the place variable.
To be successful, the marketing programmes have to blend the four variables into an ideal
integrated action plan aimed at achieving the corporate objectives. While the four Ps concept
relates to the seller’s perspective of the market, there are four Cs in the consumer’s view.
They are: Four Ps Four Cs
Product Customer solution
Price Customer cost
Place Convenience
Promotion Communication
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Marketing is related to the exchange of goods and services. Through its medium the goods
and services are brought to the place of consumption. This satisfies the needs of the
customers. The following activities are undertaken in respect of the exchange of goods and
services:
What kind of distribution system do they like? All the relevant information about the
consumer is collected and analyzed. On the basis of this analysis an effort is made to find out
as to which product has the best opportunities in the market.
2. Marketing Planning:
In order to achieve the objectives of an organisation with regard to its marketing, the
marketer chalks out his marketing plan. For example, a company has a 25% market share of a
particular product.
The company wants to raise it to 40%. In order to achieve this objective the marketer has to
prepare a plan in respect of the level of production and promotion efforts. It will also be
decided as to who will do what, when and how. To do this is known as marketing planning.
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Product designing plays an important role in product selling. The company whose product is
better and attractively designed sells more than the product of a company whose design
happens to be weak and unattractive.
In this way, it can be said that the possession of a special design affords a company to a
competitive advantage. It is important to remember that it is not sufficient to prepare a design
in respect of a product, but it is more important to develop it continuously.
This way, sale is made possible on the basis of samples. Mostly, it is the practice that the
traders look at the samples and place purchase order for a large quantity of the product
concerned. The basis of it is that goods supplied conform to the same standard as shown in
the sample.
Products having the same characteristics (or standard) are placed in a given category or
grade. This placing is called grading.
For example, a company produces commodity – X, having three grades, namely A’. ‘B’ and
‘C’, representing three levels of quality; best, medium and ordinary respectively.
Customers who want best quality will be shown ‘A’ grade product. This way, the customer
will have no doubt in his mind that a low grade product has been palmed off to him. Grading,
therefore, makes sale-purchase easy. Grading process is mostly used in case of agricultural
products like food grains, cotton, tobacco, apples, mangoes, etc.
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Label is a slip which is found on the product itself or on the package providing all the
information regarding the product and its producer. This can either be in the form of a cover
or a seal.
For example, the name of the medicine on its bottle along with the manufacturer’s name, the
formula used for making the medicine, date of manufacturing, expiry date, batch no., price
etc., are printed on the slip thereby giving all the information regarding the medicine to the
consumer. The slip carrying all these is details called Label and the process of preparing it as
Labelling.
6. Branding:
Every producer/seller wants that his product should have special identity in the market. In
order to realize his wish he has to give a name to his product which has to be distinct from
other competitors.
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Giving of distinct name to one’s product is called branding. Thus, the objective of branding is
to show that the products of a given company are different from that of the competitors, so
that it has its own identity.
For instance, if a company wants to popularize its commodity – X under the name of “777”
(triple seven) then its brand will be called “777”. It is possible that another company is selling
a similar commodity under AAA (Triple ‘A’) brand name.
Under these circumstances, both the companies will succeed in establishing a distinct identity
of their products in the market. When a brand is not registered under the trade Mark Act,
1999, it becomes a Trade Mark.
(I) After-sales-services
Helping the customer in this way offers him satisfaction and in today’s competitive age
customer’s satisfaction happens to be the top-most priority. This encourages a customer’s
attachment to a particular product and he starts buying that product time and again.
8. Pricing of Products:
It is the most important function of a marketing manager to fix price of a product. The price
of a product is affected by its cost, rate of profit, price of competing product, policy of the
government, etc. The price of a product should be fixed in a manner that it should not appear
to be too high and at the same time it should earn enough profit for the organisation.
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9. Promotion:
Promotion means informing the consumers about the products of the company and
encouraging them to buy these products. There are four methods of promotion: (i)
Advertising, (ii) Personal selling, (iii) Sales promotion and (iv) Publicity. Every decision
taken by the marketer in this respect affects the sales. These decisions are taken keeping in
view the budget of the company.
10. Physical Distribution:
Under this function of marketing the decision about carrying things from the place of
production to the place of consumption is taken into account. To accomplish this task,
decision about four factors are taken. They are: (i) Transportation, (ii) Inventory, (iii)
Warehousing and (iv) Order Processing. Physical distribution, by taking things, at the right
place and at the right time creates time and place utility.
11. Transportation:
Production, sale and consumption-all the three activities need not be at one place. Had it been
so, transportation of goods for physical distribution would have become irrelevant. But
generally it is not possible. Production is carried out at one place, sale at another place and
consumption at yet another place.
Transport facility is needed for the produced goods to reach the hands of consumers. So the
enterprise must have an easy access to means of transportation.
Mostly we see on the road side’s private vehicles belonging to Pepsi, Coca Cola, LML,
Britannia, etc. These private carriers are the living examples of transportation function of
marketing. Place utility is thus created by transportation activity.
12. Storage or Warehousing:
There is a time-lag between the purchase or production of goods and their sale. It is very
essential to store the goods at a safe place during this time-interval. Godowns are used for
this purpose. Keeping of goods in godowns till the same are sold is called storage.
For the marketing manager storage is an important function. Any negligence on his part may
damage the entire stock. Time utility is thus created by storage activity.
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Market research
Concepts in demand
Market research
Market research
Introduction
Market research is the process of assessing the viability of a new good or service through
research conducted directly with the consumer. This practice allows a company to discover
the target market and record opinions and other input from consumers regarding interest in
the product. Market research may be conducted by the company itself or by a third-party
company that specializes in the market research field. It can be done through surveys, product
testing and focus groups. Test subjects are usually compensated with product samples and/or
paid a small stipend for their time.
Marketing Research
The process of gathering, analyzing and interpreting information about a market, about a
product or service to be offered for sale in that market, and about the past, present and
potential customers for the product or service; research into the characteristics, spending
habits, location and needs of your business's target market, the industry as a whole, and the
particular competitors you face
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2.
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Market Research
Marketing Research
Marketing research, on the other hand, involves research related to marketing. I like to
think of the marketing mix (product, promotion, place, price) and consider the types of
research that relate to one of the four P’s. Examples include advertisement testing, product
concept testing (e.g. usability testings), pricing research, channel research, etc.
Overlap
You’ll notice that I mentioned many of the same items in each definition. Things like
pricing, product attribute research, and competitive research are both related to the general
market and the overall marketing effort.
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Marketing Research plays a very significant role in identifying the needs of customers and
meeting them in best possible way for consumer satisfaction.. The main task of Marketing
Research is systematic gathering and analysis of information.
Before, it is essential to clarify the relationship and difference between Marketing Research
and Marketing Information System (MIS). Whatever information are generated by Marketing
Research from internal sources, external sources, marketing intelligence agencies-consist the
part of MIS.
MIS is a set of formalized procedures for generating, analyzing, storing and distributing
information to marketing decision makers on an ongoing basis.
1. While Marketing Research is done with a specific purpose in mind with information
being generated when it is conducted, MIS information is generated continuously.
2. MIS is continuous entity while Marketing Research is a ad-hoc system.
3. While in Marketing Research information is for specific purpose, so it is not rigid; in
MIS information is more rigid and structured.
Marketing Research is essential for strategic market planning and decision making. It helps a
firm in identifying what are the market opportunities and constraints, in developing and
implementing market strategies, and in evaluating the effectiveness of marketing plans.
Marketing Research is a growing and widely used business activity as the sellers need to
know more about their final consumers but are generally widely separated from those
consumers. Marketing Research is a necessary link between marketing decision makers and
the markets in which they operate.
Marketing Research includes various important principles for generating information which
is useful to managers. These principles relate to the timeliness and importance of data, the
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significance of defining objectives cautiously and clearly, and the need to avoid conducting
research to support decisions already made.
In order to take decisions any marketer would constantly monitor such information and
obtain a continuous feedback of the trends in the market. As such, marketing research is an
effective tool for measuring the consumers’ aspirations, trade channel behaviour, competitive
actions etc.
It provides a linkage between the corporate environment and the marketing organization.
Marketing research, thus, may be viewed as an important tool used as an aid for tackling
problems in marketing.
Some of the major steps involved in marketing research process are as follows:
5. Data Collection
Marketing research exercise may take many forms but systematic enquiry is a feature
common to all such forms. Being a systematic enquiry, it requires a careful planning of the
orderly investigation process.
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Though it is not necessary that all research processes would invariably follow a given
sequence, yet marketing research often follows a generalised pattern which can be broken
down and studied as sequential stages.
The various stages or steps in the marketing research process are discussed below:
1. Identification and Defining the Problem:
The market research process begins with the identification “of a problem faced by the
company. The clear-cut statement of problem may not be possible at the very outset of
research process because often only the symptoms of the problems are apparent at that stage.
Then, after some explanatory research, clear definition of the problem is of crucial
importance in marketing research because such research is a costly process involving time,
energy and money.
Clear definition of the problem helps the researcher in all subsequent research efforts
including setting of proper research objectives, the determination of the techniques to be
used, and the extent of information to be collected.
It may be noted that the methods of explanatory research popularly in use are—survey of
secondary data, experience survey, or pilot studies, i.e., studies of a small initial sample. All
this is also known as ‘preliminary investigation’.
On the other hand, a hypothesis is a statement that can be refuted or supported by empirical
finding. The same research objective could be stated as, “To test the proposition that sales are
positively affected by the sales promotion schemes undertaken this winter.”
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Example of another hypothesis may be: “The new packaging pattern has resulted in increase
in sales and profits.” Once the objectives or the hypotheses are developed, the researcher is
ready to choose the research design.
The objectives of the study are included in the research design to ensure that data collected
are relevant to the objectives. At this stage, the researcher should also determine the type of
sources of information needed, the data collection method (e.g., survey or interview), the
sampling, methodology, and the timing and possible costs of research.
5. Data Collection:
The collection of data relates to the gathering of facts to be used in solving the problem.
Hence, methods of market research are essentially methods of data collection. Data can be
secondary, i.e., collected from concerned reports, magazines and other periodicals, especially
written articles, government publications, company publications, books, etc.
Data can be primary, i.e., collected from the original base through empirical research by
means of various tools.
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The rules for categorizing, recording and transferring the data to ‘data storage media’ are
called codes. This coding process facilitates the manual or computer tabulation. If computer
analysis is being used, the data can be key punched and verified.
Analysis of data represents the application of logic to the understanding of data collected
about the subject. In its simplest form analysis may involve determination of consistent
patterns and summarising of appropriate details.
The appropriate analytical techniques chosen would depend upon informational requirements
of the problem, characteristics of the research designs and the nature of the data gathered.
The statistical analysis may range from simple immediate analysis to very complex
multivariate analysis.
Often the management is not interested in details of research design and statistical analysis,
but instead, in the concrete findings of the research. If need be, the researcher may bring out
his appropriate recommendations or suggestions in the matter. Researchers must make the
presentation technically accurate, understandable and useful.
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the probable demand for its products and plan its production accordingly. Forecasting is an
important aid in effective and efficient planning.
It reduces the uncertainty and making the organization more confident of coping with the
external environment. The increasing availability of economic data, the continuous
improvement of technique and the expanded computational ability provided by the computer
made it possible for firms to forecast their demand/sales with considerable accuracy.
Accurate demand forecasting is essential for a firm to enable it to produce the required
quantities at the right time and arrange well in advance for the various factors of production.
According to Henry Fayol, “the act of forecasting is of great benefit to all who take part
in the process and is the best means of ensuring adaptability to changing circumstances.
The collaboration of all concerned lead to a unified front, an understanding of the
reasons for decisions and a broadened outlook”.
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10. Helpful in the product mix decisions relating to width and length of product line.
1. Qualitative Techniques
2. Quantitative Techniques
Qualitative Methods
The qualitative (or judgmental) approach can be useful in formulating short-term forecasts
and can also supplement the projections based on the use of any of the quantitative methods.
Four of the better-known qualitative forecasting methods are executive opinions, the Delphi
method, sales-force polling, and consumer surveys:
1. Executive Opinions
The subjective views of executives or experts from sales, production, finance, purchasing,
and administration are averaged to generate a forecast about future sales. Usually this method
is used in conjunction with some quantitative method, such as trend extrapolation. The
management team modifies the resulting forecast, based on their expectations.
The advantage of this approach: The forecasting is done quickly and easily, without
need of elaborate statistics. Also, the jury of executive opinions may be the only
means of forecasting feasible in the absence of adequate data.
The disadvantage: This, however, is that of group-think. This is a set of problems
inherent to those who meet as a group. Foremost among these are high cohesiveness,
strong leadership, and insulation of the group. With high cohesiveness, the group
becomes increasingly conforming through group pressure that helps stifle dissension
and critical thought. Strong leadership fosters group pressure for unanimous opinion.
Insulation of the group tends to separate the group from outside opinions, if given.
2. Delphi Method
This is a group technique in which a panel of experts is questioned individually about their
perceptions of future events. The experts do not meet as a group, in order to reduce the
possibility that consensus is reached because of dominant personality factors. Instead, the
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forecasts and accompanying arguments are summarized by an outside party and returned to
the experts along with further questions. This continues until a consensus is reached.
Advantages: This type of method is useful and quite effective for long-range
forecasting. The technique is done by questionnaire format and eliminates the
disadvantages of group think. There is no committee or debate. The experts are not
influenced by peer pressure to forecast a certain way, as the answer is not intended to
be reached by consensus or unanimity.
Disadvantages: Low reliability is cited as the main disadvantage of the Delphi
method, as well as lack of consensus from the returns.
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of obtaining data. Extensive statistical analysis usually is applied to survey results in order to
test hypotheses regarding consumer behaviour.
Quantitative Techniques
Statistical Method
The statistical method is one of the important methods of demand forecasting. Statistical
methods are scientific, reliable and free from biases. The major statistical methods used for
demand forecasting are:
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