The characteristics of the marketing concept orientation are:
(i) Customer orientation
(ii) Coordination of functional business activities and
(iii) Benefit index (e.g. Profitability).
The societal marketing era
Consumer discontent, for environmental problems and political/legal environment led to companies adopting societal orientation of marketers.
It aimed at promoting survival and good life for people through creating and delivering a better quality of life in addition to increasing standard of living.
This era holds the view that marketing strategy should deliver value to consumers in a way that maintains or improves the consumers’ and society’s well-being.
It ushered in societal marketing concept. Kotler (1980) defined the societal marketing concept as a management-orientation, which maintains that the key task of the organisation is to determine the needs and wants of target markets and to adapt the organisation to delivering the desired satisfaction more effectively and efficiently than its competitors in a way that preserves or enhances the consumers and society’s well-being.
The societal marketing concept is the broad level of aggregation for viewing marketing activity.
From this orientation, marketing is viewed as an integral and inherent part of the society.
The focus is on marketing discipline as a fundamental societal process required for smooth and effective functioning of a social system.
The implication of viewing m marketing as a social process is a refined view of social responsibility.
The underlying premises of the societal marketing concept are as follows:
(i) Consumers’ wants do not always coincide with their long-run interest.
(ii) Consumers will increasingly favour organisations which show a concern to meeting their wants, long-run interests and societal long-run interests.
(iii) The organisation’s task is to serve target markets in a way that produces not only want-satisfaction but long-run individual and social benefit as the key to attracting and holding customers.
Relationship Marketing
This deals with developing intimate, friendly and enduring relationships with consumers that directly and indirectly affect the successful result of marketing activities of an organisation.
It is based on the assumption that by building and maintaining effective network of relationships with key stakeholders (customers, suppliers, employees, distributors and members of financial community), profit will be realized.
Micro functions of Marketing
In order to understand how marketing works, it is necessary to understand why it exists and how it functions in different societies.
Marketing within any business organisation fulfils some important functions which involve activities that must be performed to plan, produce, price, promote and move goods from producers to consumers. Such functions may be identified as follows:
1. Market Research and Sales forecasting
This function underlines the fact that marketing begins even before the product is produced.
Marketing must gather, analyse and study information about labour demand, consumer wants, competition, government policies, product performance and general changes in technology and our social structure.
Thus, the market analysis and estimate of the monetary or unit sales of a product or service provides information for the marketing strategy of the organisation.
2. Product Planning and Development
The product or service offering of a company determines the nature of the business and the market place perception of the business.
It is the core of the marketing management function which concerns the development of new or modified products or services and management of existing range of products or services.
Marketing advises on what to produce, the quality, style, design, brand name and packaging, which are all based on consumer and market research information.
3. Pricing
Marketing performs important role in pricing decision. Pricing decisions are among the potentially most difficult.
Such strategic decision requires marketers to ensure that costs are contained in such a way that profit can still be made. Competition is a fact of life.
Therefore, marketers play relevant role in selling at competitive prices and in determining a system of discounts for middlemen who handle the products.
4. Buying
Marketing must ensure that product offerings are available in sufficient quantities to meet customer demands.
This involves selecting from an assortment of goods, determining quantity and quality, selecting sources of supply and negotiating the terms of purchase.
5) Promotion Function
This function involves determining promotional objectives, goals, policies and strategies.
It also includes promotional plans, implementing promotional policies strategics, programmes and evaluating promotional efforts.
6) Distribution function
It entails selecting and designing distribution channels for offerings, determining marketing channel networks, designing warehousing system, setting up inventory management system, making decision on physical distribution system, modes of transportation and proper integration of all parts of distribution system.
7. Credit Management and Financing
It is a function concerned with providing credit for channel members and even customers. Credit is mostly used in serious business transactions where firms buy and sell on credit.
In addition, various types of financing facilities provide temporary as well as permanent capital for the marketing process.
Granting of credit assists deserving channel members and encourages them for increased commitment in the marketing process.
Macro functions of Marketing
Marketing performs many macro functions, for examples.
It helps to direct the allocation of resources and leads to better decision. It identifies needs and wants, thereafter, uses resources of society to provide products that satisfy the identified needs and wants.
It is a vital source of employment and career opportunities associated with selling, advertising, marketing research, product management, distribution, trading, transportation, warehousing, etc. This reduces problems associated with unemployment.
The demand for variety of products is stimulated by marketing through promotional activities.
Increasing demand generates income (sales revenue and profit) to many people.
Government also realizes tax revenue and royalties from many organisations performing marketing functions.
It improves the standard of living of people by moving products from areas of surplus to areas of shortage.
Consumers have access to competing products to choose from even when they cannot produce such.
Marketing promotes interaction among people from different cultural, religious and racial background.
This creates peaceful coexistence and friendly relationship among the people.
It optimizes the use of societal resources in producing goods that satisfy the needs of people. Thus, the limited natural resources are not wasted.
Marketing is vital to industrialisation. Many industries started with buying and selling of imported goods but later transformed to producers after building a large number of customers.
Marketing is applied in politics and non-profit organizations such as churches humanitarian firms, non-governmental organizations, etc to attract and retain followers.
At the international level, marketing creates geographical specialization and exchange among countries.
Through export and import, global operation, bilateral and multilateral agreements, there exists a network of peaceful relationship among nations and reduction in international crises.
Summary
1. You have learnt in this module that marketing is a discipline that deals with identification of needs and wants of the market, providing, performing other specialised functions and exchanging the product to satisfy needs of both the producer and the consumers.
2. Selling is a vital aspect of marketing by converting all output of marketing effort into sales revenue and profit to the producer.
3. Types of market include ultimate personal consumers, resellers, producers or industrialists, government, institutions and foreign or global consumers,
4. In its origin and evolution, marketing started from trade by barter, through production, product, selling, marketing orientation, societal orientation to relationship marketing stage. Marketing also performs both micro and macro functions.