Elements of Marketing

Explain the various elements of the marketing process.

Marketing

Kotler (2010) defines that “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.”

“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, 2010)

Customer’s Needs, Wants and Demands

A successful business starts with knowing the customers. Customers are people who buy products and services from other people such as companies of one sort or another. The company may already know them as friends, neighbors and family but to develop the company’s business, it is very important to know what the customers need or want. The needs, wants and demands help the marketers decide the products which they have to offer in the market.

Needs

Needs are easier to define but very according to social needs, physical needs, individual needs and other factors. The job of marketers is to understand the needs of the customers. Human needs are the basic requirements and include food clothing and shelter. Without these human cannot survive. The products which are under the needs category do not require push. By supplying more closely for the needs of customers, it is mostly successful for the companies which understand the reasons why the customers make the decisions such as what they buy and how they buy. (N.a, 2014)

Examples of needs category products – transportation sector

Wants

A difference is frequently made between needs and wants. “The marketing concept is the attitude that business decisions should be based on what the consumer wants.” (n.a, 2010). Wants are a step ahead of customers’ needs and also largely depend on the needs of the customers themselves. They are the form of human needs shaped by culture and individual personality (Class notes). For some customers, the wants are simple. On the other hand, other customers may be more specific in their wants.

Examples of wants category products – Car

Demands

A step ahead of wants is demands. When a customer wants something which is the best, and also the customer has the ability to buy it, then these wants are changed into demands. The main difference between wants and demands is customers’ desire.

Example of demands category products – BMW

Customer’s Satisfaction

Customer’s satisfaction is a marketing term that relations how products or services supplied by a company meet a customer’s expectation. Customers’ satisfaction helps the companies to evaluate their ability in meeting customers’ needs and expectations effectively. (Zeithaml et al, 2009)

Marketing Process

The marketing process is the process of analyzing market opportunities, selecting target markets, developing the marketing mix, and managing the marketing effort. Target customers stand at the center of the marketing process.

Various Elements of Marketing Process

There are various kinds of elements under marketing process. They are –

1. Situational Analysis

2. Marketing Objectives

3. Marketing Strategy

4. Marketing Mix

5. Implementation and Control.

1. Situational Analysis
The foundation of the marketing plan, which is known as a situational analysis includes many factors affecting on a business such as Swot analysis, Pestle analysis, Porter’s five forces and stakeholder analysis. Swot which stands for strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats is to create lists of all of the internal and external strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats to advise strategic planning decisions. Pestle which stands for political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental is to identify all of the various external factors that might affect a business. A situational analysis can lead the organization of better understanding the factors which will influence its future. (Lorette, 2014)

2. Marketing Objectives
The objective is the starting point of the marketing plan. Marketing objectives are goals for the organization which wants to be successful when encouraging its products or services to customers. They should always support the company’s mission and goals. They are important because they can show how the company will benefit from marketing, training the employees and managing (Pendergrass, 2013). Every effective goals and objectives are defined by the SMART criteria.

SMART stands for

• Specific
• Measurable
• Agreed and Attainable
• Relevant and Realistic
• Timetable (class notes)

For example –

• to increase 50 students per month in 2014
• to crop at least 70% well-trained students in 2016

3. Marketing Strategy
A strategy is a long-term plan to achieve certain objectives. Therefore a marketing strategy is a marketing plan considered to achieve marketing objectives. STP marketing is a three- step approach to build a target marketing plan. S is for segmentation, T is for targeting and P for positioning (Kokemuller, n.d).

Segmentation is essentially a brainstorming activity due to demographics, psychographics, lifestyle, belief and values, life stages, geography, behavior and benefit (Hanlon, 2013). Targeting allows companies to classify the market segments that fit the best with their products. Hanks,(2014) states that “Positioning includes the development of a product that the selected target market segment views as unique when compared to similar products in the industry.”

4. Marketing Mix
Marketing mix is the combination of seven variables under a company’s control that can be worked to achieve marketing objectives. Marketing managers use this to produce the best response in the target market. It is important to understand that the marketing mix principles are manageable. (N.a ,2014)

Marketing decisions generally fall into the following seven controllable categories named as 7Ps.

• Product
• Price
• Place
• Promotion
• People
• Process
• Physical Evidence

5. Implementation and Control
An effective strategic implementation can determine the outcome of marketing planning. The effectiveness of implementation may be improved by the management of the planning process by building promise and ownership of the plan and its implementation. (N.a, 2013)

N.a (2008) states that “Strategic Control is the last step of management process, consists of monitoring and evaluating the strategy management process as a whole to ensure that it is operating properly.” The basic of control is ability to measure. It compares what should happen actually with what actually happened or is likely to happen.

Evaluate the benefits and costs of marketing orientation for a selected organization

Production Concept

“The production concept is a concept where goods are produced without taking into consideration the choices or tastes of the customers.” (Manzoor, n.d)

Product Concept

The customers will prefer products that have better quality, performance, and features as opposite to a normal product in the product concept. This is truly related in some places such as electronics and mobile handsets.

Selling Concept

The selling concept in marketing is the concept that customers will not automatically buy something they automatically sold.

Marketing Concept

Riley (2012) defines that “A marketing orientated approach means a business reacts to what customers want. The decisions taken are based around information about customers’ needs and wants, rather than what the business thinks is right for the customer. Most successful businesses take a market-oriented approach.”

Societal Marketing Concept

According to Kotler (2013), “Social Marketing is the design, implementation, and control of programs seeking to increase the acceptability of a social idea or practice in a target group.”

Benefits of Marketing Orientation for MIC

Appreciation
The promotion of the business can get the appreciation and attention of the targeted students and parents across a wide ranging or specific market.

Profits
From the market process, the organization can get many profits by improving the attractions of parents and students during marketing yield effects.

Adaptability
Due to students’ service or students’ affair center and students’ feedback system, the organization can know what happening, feelings, wanting are and what they want to change some services of the school such as rules and teaching methods.

Costs of Marketing Orientation for MIC

Cost
If there are no effect returning, the cost of market research for daily, and weekly or yearly can be one of the disadvantages of marketing orientation.

Feedback
It is not actually sure or very hard to get effective advices and feedbacks from the targeted students.

Time
If there are any needs to fix for the organization, too much time will have to be spent for discussions, meetings and so on.

This post was part of TyroCity discussion forum
Answered by Lazarus