What is marketing?
It should be clear that marketing professionals are concerned with ensuring the best fit between what the organisation do and what their customer want or need. The boundaries of this concept may be quite broad. In that marketing may also be concerned with customers the organisation does not yet have, as there are still opportunities to attract new customers. They may also concern themselves with product development to attract new customers, or even to generate new demand between their existing customers for new products and services.
It should not be too difficult to see that marketing professionals and their activities should be oriented towards internal and external stakeholders. This means that marketing should play a very significant role in informing the development of the business strategy and also in its implementation.
What has marketing become?
The marketing concept has been misused and misunderstood over the years. It is not obsolete nor it is an optimal managerial approach to marketing. The marketing concept has suffered, because it has been established as an optimal managerial philosophy and we can see examples of poor marketing practice that has been adopted in the name of marketing.
Lets define first, what marketing concept is.
"A corporate state of mind that insist on the integration and coordination of all the marketing functions for the basic objective on producing corporate profits". It is also described as the "external consumer orientation as contrasted to internal orientation around the production function, profit goals, sales goals and complete integration of organisational internal efforts".
While consumer focus, profits and integration of the business efforts are frequently discussed when marketing concept is brought up the term has eventually become synonymous with having pure customer orientation. Through the years the movement of marketing from product concept, to sales and customer has been evolutionary.
In commercial world, the ultimate goal is some sort of profit achievement, whether that be described as the profit optimisation or attainment of profitability. The goal is to define the organisations reason for existence.
Unfortunately the commercial and sales initiators only satisfy their own needs.
How easy it is to come to this conclusion? By watching the initiators of public programs, where the efforts are made for the benefit of citizens. Therefore it should be the goal to define organisations purpose from other than sales perspective.
Some organisations are self-sufficient and the satisfaction of organisational needs does not depend on sales figures, many however depend on the commercial goals to to attain the organisational satisfaction. To the extend that the organisation relies on the exchange of the means of obtaining compliance with operational needs. This organisation is engaging in marketing.
One source of marketing expenditure for an organisation is the time, effort and financial expense of gathering information about present and prospective exchange partners. If, as the marketing concept suggests, we are striving to understand the interested parties and tailor offerings for them, information is a necessary step to developing the proper blend called "marketing mix".
Expenditures resulting from research into who may engage with exchanges with the organisation or what those interested parties need or want represents an increase in a value received in the exchange or ways in which the organisation can reduce the value it gives up in the exchange. The value received in exchange is increased by creating more individual exchanges and by getting more value from the exchange.
To summarise this, the organisation benefits from:
* more exchanges with different interested parties,
* increase in value received from exchange with all parties,
* less effort needed for each exchange,
* less value given up in exchange.
Understanding which interested parties are important and the exchanges occur allow to recognise when the organisational objective are progressing by adding research into the exchange partners.
To be assured that the organisation will obtain the greatest value possible in a single exchange of different interested parties including internal production and operational initiators, is necessary to understand exactly what the potential new exchange partner needs or wants. Without this conditions, the organisation can only assume that they could of negotiated an exchange under different terms that would have done a better job of satisfying organisational goals.
A question comes to mind, how many operational and production initiators are excluded and prevented from negotiating and or adjusting the terms of organisational marketing strategy? This lack of cooperation and missing link of information cannot be used to further organisational goals.
Illustrations of these conditions are commonplace and the general marketing strategy looses its value by missing this internal, operational, and other than consumer information.
Much of marketing in todays economy consist of marketers interacting with single or limited group of interested parties. Generally with consumers of the market segment of which they are member with a pure goal of satisfying sells figures. In an organisation where marketers are free to gain operational knowledge, the information must be assessed as a value, even if is free.
The mirror image of obtaining a greater value is giving up of value in that exchange. Therefore the added information from operational initiators looses its value if no participation or negotiation take place.
Finally, the added information from more interested parties can be used to reduce the organisations efforts in making focused exchanges.
To summerise, the following restates the identified conditions under which gaining additional information about different exchange partners is of value:
* interested parties are not satisfied,
* the offered product or service provision is not limited,
* the value of the information from the other interested parties will exceed the value of gathering the information,
* the organisation is not restricted from negotiating with different interested parties.
Product related goals
Marketing concept should tie directly to the ability of the organisation to meet its own needs. It is the organisation needs that are served by learning about different interested parties and tailoring the product offerings to different needs, whether these needs are financial profits or other non financial but value added goals.
It was recognised that marketing initiators in the world of art and ideology often have personal goals which are not satisfied by sells figures and commercial success. These goals steam from desire to be recognised from the sense of accomplishment. Therefore marketers should adopt a modified version of the sells figures focused version that also accommodate these efforts.
Being a marketer is a role, and marketers, like other people should carry more than one role at the time. When the roles of marketer and the advocate for operational efforts are vested it is not unusual to see conflicting goals. This is the reason, why many of the marketers adopt one focus area. Generally it is the commercial and sales profits related goals.
However this conflict creates product related constraints, because the product marketed satisfy only the sells needs. Therefore the marketer must incorporate the operational standards into his or her goals.
Certain organisations will not only have production related standards that are integral of the operational sets of needs, but will have a specific, fixed and unique product form as part of its offerings.
Some marketers who are struggling with their commercial goals try to redesign the product in their offerings. This is important, as this is a very common situation, but without the exchange of negotiations with the operational departments, they cannot redesign the product. Consequently, all the efforts including financial expenditure to present a dream product that doesn't exist are being wasted. Therefore inviting the operational and production initiators is worth and the only way to get the opportunity to develop better products.
Therefore there is a wide variety of marketing initiators who do not rely on maximum of learning on actual customer needs and possibility for development of a product and constrained from modifying the product.
Alternative
The operational, production and sells concept should be the antecedent to the marketing concept.
When the marketing directs the organisation to design its marketing mix, only after the needs of all interested parties have been assessed the organisation makes the offerings available without conflicts. In this situation the sales concept aggressively seeks potential customers for already established customers, and the production and operational concept with its unique standards is able to attain new potential partners.
If the sales concept is the only focus the customer may elect not to negotiate in what the seller is offering without other ingredients from the marketing mix.
This is especially important for organisation who rely on continuous supply to the customers. A buyer may purchase single product and become passive in their future buying behaviour due to the aggressive selling focus.
It is important to understand that under some circumstances, the operational and production concept would be even more appropriate philosophy for the organisation that the marketing and sales concept. We need to remember, that the buyers in this modern commercial world and extensive supply chains are markets too and they can use the production and operational concepts to further expand the offerings of the products.
Summary
In summary, the marketing efforts will only achieve the organisationals goals through understanding of all interested parties needs and goals, as well the costs associated with satisfying these needs and goals and than designing, producing and selling in light of these understandings.
Notice, that the marketing concept requires to understanding the market, but does not suggest that products should be designed to satisfy only the markets demands.
Unfortunately, many marketing specialists have taken the marketing concept to means that they have their lead from the expressed needs of the customers and sells profits. This virtually ignores the vital input of marketing strategy of the creative abilities of the company.
We must know in this new modern world, that the customer does not always knows what he needs. Rather than building the marketing concept as inadequate and indifferent prescription the marketing concept should focus on the customer but not disregard the organisations unique capabilities and resources when deciding how to serve the customer. Marketing individuals are failing to take advantage of the creating capabilities of the operational advancements.
the marketing research should not depend solely on customer research and customers surveys. Customers are not necessarily a good source of the information, as they do not necessarily know how will they react under different environmental conditions. They also do not have insight of the possible value of the operational efforts.
Anticipating future needs is therefore consistent with marketing concept. Marketing should not only be preoccupied with advertising, selling and promotion because the real product value suffers.
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