Marketing - Definition

 
Marketing is a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain
what they need and want through creating, offering, and exchanging products of value
with others.
 
A human need is a state of deprivation of some basic satisfaction. People require food,
clothing, shelter, safety, belonging, and esteem. These needs are not created by society or
by marketers. They exist in the very texture of human biology and the human condition. 
 
Wants are desires for specific satisfiers of needs. Although people’s needs are few, their
wants are many. They are continually shaped and reshaped by social forces and
institutions, including churches, schools, families and business corporations.  
 
Demands are wants for specific products that are backed by an ability and willingness to
buy them.  Companies must measure not only how many people want their product but,
more importantly, how many would actually be willing and able to buy it.
 
 
 Market 
 
A market consists of all the potential customers sharing a particular need or want who
might be willing and able to engage in exchange to satisfy that need or want.
 
 Marketers
 
When one party is more actively seeking an exchange than the other party, we call the
first party a marketer and the second party a prospect. A marketer is someone seeking one
or more prospects who might engage in an exchange of values. A prospect is someone
whom the marketer identifies as potentially willing and able to engage in an exchange of
values.
 
 
 Marketers do not create needs. Marketers influence wants. Marketers influence demand
by making the product appropriate, attractive, affordable, and easily available to target
consumers. They also communicate their offering to prospects. Society influences wants.
People living in differnent societies prefer different types of food items, different types of
apparel and even different types of jewellery.
 
 A product is anything that can be offered to satisfy a need or want. Offering and solution
are synonyms to the product in marketing context.
 
A product or offering can consist of as many as three components: physical good(s),
service(s), and idea(s). 
 
Value is the consumer’s estimate of the product’s overall capacity to satisfy his or her
needs.
 
Marketers offer value to a consumer when the satisfaction of customer's requirements 
takes place at the lowest possible cost of acquisition, ownership, and use. 
 
 
 Marketing management 
 
Marketing management takes place when at least one party to a potential exchange thinks
about the means of achieving desired responses from other parties.  
 
 
Definition of American Marketing Association 
Marketing (Management) is the process of planning and executing the conception,
pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that
satisfy individual and organizational goals. 
 
 
Marketing management has the task of influencing the level, timing, and composition of
demand in a way that help the organization achieve its objectives. Marketing
management is essentially demand management. 
 Marketing managers manage demand by carrying out marketing research, planning,
implementation and control.  
Within marketing planning, marketers must make decisions on target markets, market
positioning, product development, pricing, distribution channels, physical distribution,
communication, and promotion.  
Marketing work in the customer market is formally carried out by sales managers,
salespeople, advertising and promotion manages, marketing researchers, customer service
managers, product and brand managers, market and industry managers, and the marketing
vice-president.
 
 
 
 
 
The Marketing Concept
 
The marketing concept holds that the key to achieving organizational goals consists of
being more effective than competitors in integrating marketing activities toward
determining and satisfying the needs and wants of target markets.
 The marketing concept rests on four pillars: target market, customer needs, integrated
marketing, and profitability.
 
Target market
 
No company can operate in every market and satisfy every need. Nor can it always do a
good job within one broad market.
 
Customer needs
 
Marketing is about meeting needs of target markets profitably.
The key to professional marketing is to understand their customers’ real needs and meet
them better than any competitor can.
 
Some marketers draw a distinction between responsive marketing and creative marketing.
A responsive marketer finds a stated need and fills it. A creative marketer discovers and
produces solutions that customer did not ask for but to which they enthusiastically
respond.
 
 
Integrated Marketing
 
When all the company’s department’s work together to serve the customer’s interests, the
result is integrated marketing.
Integrated marketing takes on two levels. First, the various marketing functions-sales
force, advertising, product management, marketing research, and so on – must work
together.
 
Second must be well coordinated with other company departments.
The company is doing proper marketing only when all employees appreciate their impact
on customer satisfaction. To foster teamwork among all departments, the company
carries out internal marketing as well as external marketing. External marketing is
marketing directed at people outside the company. Internal marketing is the task of
successfully hiring, training, and motivating employees who want to serve the customers
well. In fact internal marketing must precede external marketing. It makes no sense to
promise excellent service before the company’s staff is ready to provide excellent service.
 
Profitability
 
The ultimate purpose of the marketing concept is to help organizations achieve their
goals. In the case of private firms, the major goal is profit. Marketing managers have to
provide value to the customer and profits to the organization. Marketing managers have
to evaluate the profitability of all alternative marketing strategies and decisions and
choose most profitable decisions for long-term survival and growth of the firm.

Philip Kotler defines marketing as 'satisfying needs and wants through an exchange
process'

The concept of marketing has changed and evolved over time. Whilst in today’s business
world, the customer is at the forefront, not all businesses in the past followed this
concept. Their thinking, orientation or ideology put other factors rather then the customer
first. Let us examine these below.

Production Oriented: The focus of the business is not the needs of the customer, but of
reducing costs by mass production. By reaching economies of scale the business will
maximize profits by reducing costs.
Product Orientation: The Company believes that they have a superior product, based on
quality and features, and because of this they feel their customers will like it also.

Sales Orientation: The focus here is to make the product, and then try to sell it to the
target market. However, the problem could be that consumers do not like what is being
sold to them.

Market Orientation: Puts the customer at the heart of the business. The organization
tries to understand the needs of the customers by using appropriate research methods,
appropriate processes are developed to make sure information from customers is fed back
into the heart of the organization. In essence all activities in the organization are based
around the customer. The customer is truly king!

In today’s competitive world putting the customer at the heart of the operation is
strategically important. Whilst some organizations in certain industries may follow
anything other then the market orientation concept, those that follow the market
orientation concept have a greater chance of being successful.

The marketing mix principles (also known as the 4 p’s.) are used by business as tools to
assist them in pursuing their objectives. The marketing mix principles are controllable
variables, which have to be carefully managed and must meet the needs of the defined
target group. The marketing mix is a part of the organizations planning process and
consists of analyzing the defined:

 Product strategies. How will you design, package and add value to the
product. When an organisation introduces a product into a market they must ask
themselves a number of questions.
1. Who is the product aimed at?
2. What benefit will customers expect?
3. How does the firm plan to position the product within the market?
4. What differential advantage will the product offer over their
competitors? Read More

.
 Price strategies What pricing strategy is appropiate to use . Pricing is one of the
most important elements of the marketing mix, as it is the only mix, which
generates a turnover for the organisation. The remaining 3p’s are the variable cost
for the organisation. Read More

 Place strategies.Where will the firm locate? This refers to how an organisation will
distribute the product or service they are offering to the end user. The organisation
must distribute the product to the user at the right place at the right time. Read
More

 Promotion strategies. How will the firm promote its product? A successful product
or service means nothing unless the benefit of such a service can be communicated
clearly to the target market. Read More

Other marketing mix related links:

Service Marketing Mix: The service marketing mix or 7p's as they are also known take
into account people, process and physical evidence. Read More

E-Marketing Mix: Traditionally the marketing mix is co-ordinated so efficient product,

price, promotion and place strategies are developed for products purchased over the
counter.The internet is changing the way we sell our products and services. That’s a fact.
Consumers now use the internet to research and purchase products/services online. Read
More

Environmental Marketing Mix. An increased focus on environmental issues, has

contributed to a rise in the demand for environmentally friendly products and services
(EFS). The spotlight on sustaining the environment has created new terminology such as
“carbon footprint” and “offsetting”. Many organisations have adapted their marketing
strategies to capitalise on the consumer appetite for EFS. Read More

Introducing the Marketing Mix

Branding – definition

A name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good

Or service as distinct from those of other sellers. The legal term for brand is

Trademark. A brand may identify one item, a family of items, or all items of that

Seller. If used for the firm as a whole, the preferred term is trade name.
RESEARCH METHOLOGY

Today market flooded with number of similar products. All these similar products claims
to fulfill their consumers demand. However, among them there are only very few
products which are able to create market for themselves. Her effort it very important for
every organization to create awareness about their product. Sothat the consumer
Research Methodology:
The research was conducted from 1st MAY to 31th MAY, 2011. The research includes meetings
with the retailers, consumers. It included preparation of the questionnaire to be answered by
above people for knowing the competitive brand position of VIJAYA DAIRY in the milk
market. The views of the above parties were recorded in the research as per the questionnaire set
by us.
REASERCH METHODOLOGY

Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problem, formulating a

hypothesis, collecting the facts or data, analyzing the fact and reaching certain conclusion either in the
form of solutions towards the concerned problems. Thus methodology not only talks about the research
methods but also consider the logic behind the method we use behind the context of our research study.

Defining the research problem

Review about the concept of project

Sample designing

Collection of data through structured questionnaire

Analysis of data

Interpretation and report writing

Research Approach:
The objective was to know the competitive position of Amul in the milk market thus in order
to successfully conduct the research the unbiased opinion of the above parties was desirable.
Thus
we conducted the research as the representative of Amul company and sometimes the
representatives
of the other company like Chitale or Katraj in order to have an unbiased opinion of the
concerned
persons and it worked to achieve our goal.
5.1.2 Research Instrument:
The research instrument was the structured questionnaire formulated for the respondents. The
questionnaire was different for the retailers and dealers and for the consumers there was a
different
set of questionnaire. There were also the area maps.
5.1.3 Types of Question:
The second important aspect in the designing a question is to decide which types of question
are to be used. Question can be classified in various ways.
Questionnaire contains following type information-
1. Open-ended question
2. Dichotomous question
3. Multiple-choice Question
Both the questionnaire consists of all three types of question. Mostly all questions are
multiple type questions. Dichotomous question are few in number. There is only one open-ended
type question.
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5.1.4 Phrasing of Question:
In questionnaire, I try to phrase the question in logical way. For example I arrange question
in sequence as personal information, awareness data, usage data, and finally related to reason and
satisfaction.
5.1.5 Sampling Plan:
Sample Size:
The sample size was as follows:
SR. NO. RESPONDENT TOTAL NUMBER
1. Retailers 169
2. Consumers 95
3. Distributors 4
Sampling Technique:
A stratified sampling technique was used. A different Stratum for different type of
respondent within every stratum the respondents was selected as per convenience basis.
5.1.6 Method of Survey:
Personal Interview:
It is direct form of investigation, involving face-to-face communication with free feedback
information. It offers a sense of participation. It is more flexible form of data collection. Use of
unstructured, open-end questions is possible. Rate of refusal is low. Depth interview is possible.
Complex questions can be asked. The interview can have questions to secure more information.
Observation approach can be combined to verify age, income, status, standard information.
Visual
aids in the form of catalogues samples etc. can be used to get views, opinions, and attitudes of
responder.