Marketing is the management process which identifies, anticipates and supplies customer requirements efficiently and profitably. (British Chartered Institute of Marketing)
After studying this chapter students should be able to describe the components of marketing mix, forms of marketing communication, tools of marketing and explain what marketing research is and why it is important.
Focus on - to concentrate on Customer - a person or company that actually buys something Marketing concept - assumes that the producer´s task is to find wants and fill them Essence - the main feature or most important quality A leap of imagination - you have to try hard Promotion - action to help the sales of a product or service Actual - real, existing in fact Accompany - occur or do at the same time as Maintenance - keeping in good repair or working order Give up - abandon, stop Available - able to be used Warehouse - a large building for keeping goods in Impact - to have strong impression or effect Competition – the act of trying to do or get something better than one´s rivals Consider – to think about, take into account Comprehensive – complete and including everything that is necessary Support – to strengthen, help, provide Share – to have in common Maturity – the state of being fully developed Decline – gradual and continued loss of strength
What do you understand under the term of marketing?
What´s your opinion on efficiency of TV advertising?
Can you give any example of unreasonable promises made in advertisements?
How important are well-known brand names for you personally?
Marketing is all the activities that keep a company focused on its customers and ensure that the company´s offerings are valued by its customers. The test of any market-oriented organisation is whether the managers look to change their behaviour or that of their customers when something goes wrong. The most important principle behind the marketing concept is that the customer is king!
A market is a group of people with unsatisfied wants and needs who are willing to exchange and have the ability to buy. Identifying markets and therefore customers is time-consuming and expensive, but a necessary function for all types of organisations, big and small.
Another important part of the essence of marketing is marketing imagination - it means
a leap of imagination to see what the customer might want. Innovation, to bring in new ideas, to make changes, is an important part of the marketing concept. Also important is the strategic vision a company sets for itself - its self-image.
One way that companies can control the marketing process is by using the marketing mix. the marketing mix is the combination of activities involving product, price, place and promotion that a firm undertakes in order to provide satisfaction to consumers in a given market.
Product: It is more than the item that is designed, produced and offered for sale. It includes all the planning that comes before actual production, research and development and all services that accompany the product, such as installation and maintenance.
Price: the cost, or what the buyer must give up to receive the product. Price is not static - it may start out initially high and then fall.
Place: or distribution is making sure that the product is available where and when it is wanted. It also involves decisions on how much inventory to hold, how to transport goods and where to locate warehouses.
Promotion: It is a broad term that is used to describe the entire field of marketing communication - advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and public relations.
An essential part of the marketing concept is planning. A company must invest significant resources and time in the planning process. It defines the short and long-term future of the firm. It´s part of the effort involved in identifying markets.
International marketing
We truly live today in a global marketplace. World trade has been increasing and shifting dramatically in the last decade. Marketing plays an important role in a firms strategy to globalize. When considering entry into a foreign market the first strategic decision, after product identification, is to choose an entry strategy.
Several important factors can impact the firms strategic decision-making process:
The marketing environment
Governments as regulators and supporters
The impact of government policies:
Protectionism - the erection of trade barriers in an attempt to protect domestic industries from foreign competition.
Quotas - a specific limit on the number of items of a particular kind that may be imported.
Firms considering entry into a foreign market must always perform political and market risk analyses. Political risk is created by an investors uncertainty about a foreign country´s future political stability and future acts by the government that would cause the firm to loose money. Market risks are created by uncertainty about future changes in cost, demand and competition in the market place.
Marketing knowledge
Marketing requires extensive market research in order to develop a comprehensive strategy. Marketing research focuses on understanding the customer. The purpose of the research is to identify the characteristics of the market and to measure market potential. Research is also commonly used to support short-range and long-range forecasts, and to study competitive products and develop or evaluate new products.
The tools of marketing
Marketers use a variety of tools to describe, understand and forecast their markets. Mass marketing: the total market is not divided into parts based on customers wants, needs and characteristics. Used when consumers see little or no difference between the products of different firms. Market segmentation: the total market is subdivided into smaller parts whose members share certain characteristics (age, sex, income, jobs). Used to identify specific markets where products can be sold. Target markets: results from market segmentation that identifies markets that the marketer thinks he can sell his product in. Product life cycle: the belief that all products move through a series of four life stages, from introduction, to growth, to maturity and finally to decline. Used when developing products. Brand: A name, term, symbol, design or combination of these elements that is intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and differentiate them from those of competitors.
I. Read the following text and explain the meaning of the underlined words and phrases in English:
The art of advertising is to persuade people to buy your product or service. This requires a basic understanding of psychology, the needs of human beings and how those needs can be satisfied. An American psychologist, Abraham Maslow, has suggested those needs can be compartmentalised and arranged in the form of a hierarchy. At the lowest level people need food, shelter, warmth and sex. When these needs are largely satisfied, people begin to think about the safety of themselves and their personal possessions. Squirrels, when they have had their fill of nuts, begin to bury nuts in their winter larders. Human beings have the same tendency, much to the relief of the insurance companies. Insurance appeals to those who would feel the loss of personal possessions, through burglary, flood and fire, and those who seek pensions and financial security generally.
Even when a human being does not feel under threat, a new need emerges according to Maslow. There is now the need to be approved by other people, the need for love and respect. The advertising industry finds this a very useful area for its machinations.
The advertiser might be trying to persuade you to buy a new car.”This is the latest and the best sports car in the market. It is faster, sleeker, more enviable than anything else in the world. If you haven´t got one, or don´t get one pretty soon, the rest of the world is going to see you as a dead duck!” According to Maslow the ultimate need is for fulfilment. This would no doubt come when we have all that the advertisers say we so desperately need.
VI. Match up the phrases and put the verbs into 1st, 2nd and 3rd conditional:
a) If there (be) any problems with delivery, ...
b) We (fulfil) orders within three months, ...
c) If you (require) any further information, ...
d) If this transaction (be) successful, ...
e) We (consider) payment by 30-day bill of exchange ...
f) We (send) the consignment by air ...
1. ... we (place) larger orders in the future.
2. ... we (be pleased) to supply it.
3. ... provided you (offer) two referees.
4. ...we (inform) you immediately.
5. ... unless there (be) special problems.
6. ... if the railways (be) on strike.
The chapter deals with the marketing, the aim of which is to know and understand the customers so well that the products or services fit them and they are ready to buy them. Students will learn about marketing mix, marketing communication, international marketing and the tools of marketing. They will practise terminology in a specialist text, in comprehension questions and in activities connected with this topic.
The essence of marketing is that a company´s choice of what goods and services to offer should be based on the goal of satisfying consumers´needs.
Product, price, place, promotion
Advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations
In order to develop a comprehensive strategy
Mass marketing, market segmentation, target markets, product life cycle, brand
Check I:
persuade - convince, cause somebody to do something or stop doing something
be satisfied - be met, somebody is given what he wants and needs
compartmentalise - divide
possessions - property
insurance company - a company that offers to make payments if a certain event should happen in exchange for certain payments called premiums
seek - search for, look for
emerge - appear
enviable - causing envy
fulfilment - satisfaction, happiness
a4:If there are any problems with delivery, we will inform you immediately.
If there were ..., we would inform ... .
If there had been ..., we would have informed ... . b5: We will fulfil orders within three months unless there are special problems.
We would fulfil ... unless there were ... .
We would have fulfilled ... unless there had been ... . c2:If you require any further information, we will be pleased to supply it.
If you required ..., we would be pleased ... .
If you had required ..., we would have been pleased ... . d1: If this transaction is successful, we will place larger orders in the future.
If this transaction was ..., we would place ... .
If this transaction had been ..., we would have placed ... . e3: We will consider payment by 30-day bill of exchange provided you offer two referees.
We would consider ... provided you offered ... .
We would have considered ... provided you had offered ... . f6: We will send the consigment by air if the railways are on strike.
We would send ... if the railways were ... .
We would have sent ... if the railways had been ... .
Check VII:
1. b, 2. c, 3. a, 4. b, 5. a, 6. b, 7. c, 8. c, 9. b, 10. a