Marketing reflections on learning outcomes
MRK 106 FQ VALERI
OPARYCHEV
CASE STUDY
SUBJECT: MY INTERPRETATION OF THE COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES
The purpose
of this case study is to present a brief overview of the marketing study outcomes
and personal interpretation of the key points of marketing theory covered in
this course. The interpretation will be aimed at emphasizing the practical
importance of marketing today.
MARKETING:
EVOLUTION AND PURPOSE
The idea of
marketing must have existed for many centuries. Yet, at the beginning it
probably was not so sophisticated theory as it is today. Because of the
globalization and rapid development of information technologies people, or
market participants, have been urged to systematize their market experience
into a well-organized theory. In our course of study the marketing has been
defined by the term that sounds more specific: «an approach to business
focusing on satisfying customer needs and wants». To serve its key purpose, the
marketing strives to find an answer to such questions as why customers do not
or, conversely, do readily buy products offered by the sellers, who the ideal
buyers are, and what should be done to have the buyers buy what the sellers
offer. In fact, the terms «buyers» and «sellers» are not absolutely accurate as
applied to marketing. To be more accurate, the marketing approach implies that
the business activities are centered on customer, because the concept of
business here means both profit and non-profit organizations. So, the words
«buy» and «products», or «services», can be identified as the key terms
reflecting the idea of marketing. It should also be noted that the words «buy»
and «services» represent a wide range of services, non-profit activities, and
behavior.
STRATEGIC
IMPORTANCE OF MARKETING CONCEPT
The key
points of marketing concept are customer satisfaction, profit, and properly
organized efforts to make profit through customer satisfaction. At the same
time, strategically, it is important to understand that a business can be
profitable, or successful, only if it finds a way to satisfy customers better
than its competitors. This means, that today's business can attract customers
only through successful competition. Because of the highly competitive
environment, today it is not enough just to satisfy. The important thing is to
be better. In other words, if a business is unable to compete, it fails to
implement the key marketing ideas simply because such business will fail to
satisfy customers. Moreover, under the competitive environment it becomes
important not only to meet, but also to exceed the customers' needs. In an
organization, the role of marketing concept is more profound: here the
marketing concept implies that everyone's job is to serve the customers
directly, or to serve those who serve the customers. For example, to contribute
to profit through saving costs or, in other words, to serve the internal
customers. This idea is especially important to emphasize in terms of the roles
we may play in an organization in our day-to-day life: we do not necessarily
have to deal with customers directly to contribute to the common goal of
customer satisfaction. But our roles in it can be significant without doing so.
COMPONENTS
OF MARKETING STRATEGY AND THEIR IMPORTANCE
The key components
here are target market (a group of customers to satisfy) and product mix
(product, price, place, and promotion). In real life, these components boil
down to the following objective all businesses need to fulfill: to increase the
number of customers so as to increase sales. To achieve this goal, the
marketing strategy should give us tips on how to do that. In every particular
situation we face in day-to-day life we have to find answers to specific
questions. For example, to sell an accounting service like filing a personal
income tax return we would need to determine what has to be done to attract
customers (Product), what kind of office would be needed to deliver the service
(Place), how much it would cost and what price would be right (Price), and what
should be done to attract more customers (Promotion). It is easy to see that
this pattern would have to be followed in every real-life situation. Even
looking for a job we would have to be concerned with where we can work (Place),
what we can do (Product), at what remuneration (Price), and how to attract
employer's attention to be employed (Promotion). And in every case we would
look for specific customers who need to have their income tax return filed and
a specific employer who employees specifically like we are (Target market). So,
one way or the other, the marketing strategy will work for our purpose. The
question is just how to identify its components in specific terms as applied to
every specific objective.
UNCONTROLLABLE
ENVIRONMENTS AFFECTING MARKETING DECISIONS BOTH DOMESTICALLY AND INTERNATIONALLY
Unlike the 4P’s
of marketing that can be controlled by us, some environments are uncontrollable
by nature, because we just have no chance to influence them. They may include,
for example, cultural, economic, legal, political, technological, and social
environments. This should not mean, however, that we should let them control us
without any response. To succeed, businesses have to re-adjust themselves and
find the best ways to work in them. The important point is that we need not
only identify them, but also try to see if there are new opportunities. For
example, the changing demographics inside our country should make us look
around to see how to readjust our products and services to different tastes and
preferences. Internationally, we should always be aware of tariffs and quotas
and estimate our competitive potential. Watching the changes we develop
possible scenarios, make relevant decisions, and get ready to implement them. What
can be the consequences of the war in Iraq for marketing decisions? Tremendous,
to say the least of it. So there are a lot of things for marketing specialists
to think of both internationally and domestically.
IMPACT OF
SUPPLY, DEMAND, AND ELASTICITY
The supply,
demand, and elasticity have a direct impact on marketing decisions. The low
demand may point to the necessity for better promotion of products and services
simply because the consumers may turn out to know too little about the product,
or be unaware of it at all. There would be little wonder if our specific
product is not in demand, even though our competitors sell the same one very
successfully. What if we fail to sell fresh water in hot summer time? Such
paradox is quite possible if we do not follow simple marketing principle of 4
Ps. In terms of marketing, demand should not be viewed as something static.
Even as applied to fundamentally new products, it can be created through
marketing decisions. To say nothing of basic needs like fresh water in hot
summer. We just have to remember of 4 Ps. The idea of supply in marketing is
especially important in terms of competition: if we fail to provide supply that
meets demand, our competitors will do it for us fast enough to their own
advantage. The idea of demand elasticity is also important in terms of
marketing decisions. For example, inelastic demand for a product usually results
from a lack of substitutes. For this reason, marketing decisions might be aimed
at identifying or creating a new product or service to substitute for the one
with inelastic demand.
MARKET
SEGMENTATION AND CONCEPT OF POSITIONING
In simple
terms, the idea of market segmentation (naming and segmenting) is how not to
lose the focus. For this purpose, identifying most promising consumers is
really a critical part of marketing activities. Would it be a reasonable
decision for us to try selling air conditioners in Northern Territories and snow-removing
equipment in South California? Hopefully not. The idea of positioning is also
important in terms of consumers' psychology. With the diversity of products
today, it becomes important to be able to have a proper understanding of consumer’s
needs and attitude, to see what and why they need and how their needs are
satisfied by the existing market.
CONSUMER
PRODUCT CLASSIFICATIONS, PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE, PACKAGING, AND BRANDING
The idea of
consumer product classifications is important in terms of understanding how
they think of them and what can be the motivation to buy them. This
understanding is really critical, because to project our own perceptions on
what we want to sell should be the last thing to do. Since the human nature is
really a complicated thing, therefore the accumulated knowledge and
observations made by the marketing scientists can be really helpful in making
decisions. This may apply to certain particular classes of consumers' products
like convenience, shopping, specialty, and unsought products. The useful thing
to realize is that in selling a specific product or service we need to take
into account specific qualities they offer, in terms of both material and
psychological implications. Branding is also an important factor in marketing
decisions. The idea of branding is to win wider and steadier recognition,
though in real life a brand would not necessarily ensure a desired quality. Yet
it works and, therefore, should be taken into account for competitive
considerations. One of the important real life implications here is that to sell
a branded product we would have to think well of what kind of advantages might
contrast our product or service against the competitor’s one. The product life
cycle is especially important to in terms of planning of our marketing
activities. For example, when dealing with a new product on the market it is
important to be aware of the main stages of product’s life. The low sales at
the introduction and market growth stages would affect our marketing decisions
in many ways, specifically in terms of promotion approaches, pricing policies,
scale of production, financing, risk taking, etc.
CHANNEL
INTERMEDIARIES
Intermediaries,
as an indirect channel of distribution, play a very important role in selling,
which is one of most critical marketing functions. In real life it could hardly
be possible to properly identify and effectively use all channels of
distribution as they may represent quite complex ramifications of different
channels. For example, for a small or medium-size production company it just
might not be affordable to keep a large enough marketing department to deal
with all problems of products distribution. Therefore, the services of
intermediaries could be indispensable, even though they may take extra costs.
Intermediaries help us cover larger market sectors. On the other hand, the
value of intermediaries consists in their practical experience in trading. If
our business is focused on production, we may need to concentrate more on
production problems rather than trading, otherwise we lose the focus and there
is always price to be paid for it. So the use of intermediaries might pay back.
INTEGRATED
MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
Integrated
marketing communications may be defined as what we manage to achieve through
all our efforts to promote a product or service. In simple terms, it might look
like our ability to work out the right way to influence consumers using our
communications skills. The practical approach (defined in theory as AIDA =
Attention + Interest + Desire + Action) could be basically described as a
complex process of informing and persuading. In other words, we need to design
our messages to influence the consumers’ perception about our products. The
importance of this ability in real life can hardly be overestimated. In today’s
world of tough competition the communication process should be viewed as one of
key elements of success. Life is full of practical examples of how the
effective communication just works wonders. In a literal sense, the power of
word can just be materialized. A dentist would not attract many clients without
sending a specific message saying that he or she can do a good job, and
accountant would not attract many customers and would not be employed by a
company without convincing them he is a good specialist.
PRICING
OBJECTIVES AND POLICIES
The important
thing the marketing theory makes us understand about pricing is that it should not
be viewed just as adding up the values of costs and markups guided by supply
and demand. Such an approach would be incomplete to reflect the reality. The
process, in real life, is much more complex. The real economic life makes us
set various objectives and choose different policies. Reasons and objectives
may be numerous. To win more customers we may need first to give them a chance
to use our products at affordable prices to see, for example, that our product
is in no way inferior to a similar branded one, or simply to increase sales. A
lawyer or an accountant beginning a new business might choose to work harder at
comparatively low prices for their services with an objective to gain more
popularity and recognition. Or, besides competitive reasons there can be
different motivations, such as survival. A monopoly may set prices without
caring much about how it affects consumers’ interests because of inelastic
demand for its products: in such a case a monopoly is just not interested in
working harder, because the inelastic demand would reduce its efforts to zero. In
other words, the economic reality requires us to be especially aware of the
problem of pricing. Too many factors have to be taken into consideration, and,
therefore, a very good understanding is needed to choose the right policies.
CONCLUSION
The most
important conclusion regarding my learning outcomes in this course of study
might be summarized as follows: the complex reality of today's economic life
requires a comprehensive knowledge and profound understanding of the marketing
theory. The great variety of specific marketing decisions the businesses have
to make in day-to-day life always relies not only on our specific accumulated
experience and skills, but also on our learning process and ability to filter and
make use of specific marketing information in every particular case, be it a
small family business or a large corporation.
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