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What is the Marketing Concept?
The marketing concept is a new way of thinking about the organization’s entire activities. This is based on the notion that the main task of the organization is to know the needs, wants, and values of the target market (customers) and then, deliver products that satisfy those needs and wants.
The marketing concept believes that that the key to achieving organizational objectives lies in being more effective than competitors in integrating marketing activities toward determining and satisfying the needs and wants of the target market.
The focus point of this concept is to make customers satisfied. It says all marketing activities are called failed when they do not make customers feel satisfied.
Basic characteristics,
- Target market focus – Identification of the target market through market segmentation, targeting, and product positioning.
- Knowledge of customer needs, wants, and values – Marketing research. Produce and deliver that meet customers’ need, want, and value.
- Customer satisfaction and repeat buying – relationship marketing.
- Integration and coordination of various tools and techniques of marketing – Marketing mix planning and integrated marketing.
- Key role in the organization – marketing manager.
The marketing concept gives emphasis on customers’ needs and wants. The company first determines customers’ needs and wants and figures out how to make and deliver a product to satisfy these needs. The management of the organization should be customer satisfaction oriented. The company makes plans for loge run in terms of new products, tomorrow’s markets, and future growth.
The starting point of the marketing concept is selecting the target market (customer), focusing on customer needs & wants medium–integrated marketing, and the endpoint is making a profit through customer satisfaction.
The failure of three marketing concepts, production, product, and selling gave birth to the marketing concept. The first three concepts are based on the slogan “We sell what we make” which appeared unsuccessful in a competitive market. And the slogan “We make what we can sell” evolved considering the consumer variable in the marketing concept.
The slogan “we make what we can sell” is based on that the job is not to find the right customers for your product, but the right product for your customers.
Principles of the Marketing Concept
This concept is based on the four fundamental principles known as the four pillars of the marketing concept: target market focus, customer orientation, integrated marketing, and profitability.
Target Market Focus
An organization that begins applying the marketing concept should begin defining its target market. This principle emphasizes that no organization, business, non-business, big or small, can operate in every market and satisfy every category of needs.
An organization can do better if it can define the boundaries of its operation and follow a market-tailored business strategy. For this, an organization should segment the market on the basis of age group, gender, area, religion, economic status, and so on.
Customer Orientation
The principle of customer orientation calls for an organization to carefully and accurately define customers’ needs and wants from the customer’s point of view. Customers’ needs and wants might could range from actual, functional, and psychological to hidden.
For an organization that adopts this marketing approach, customer satisfaction becomes its main focus.
Customer satisfaction is possible only when the organization correctly assesses the need and wants of the customers. Customers should be allowed to say what they need to prefer.
The organization should realize that its success depends on satisfied customers. They make repeat buying of the organization’s products all also relate their good experiences to their friends and acquaintances so that the organization gets new customers. The organization has to use the tool of market research to correctly understand customers’ need and want.
Integrated Marketing
The marketing mix is the most important tool for integration. The principle of integrated marketing calls for full coordination and integration of all marketing activities performed within the organization.
This principle has to be achieved at three levels:
First, all the marketing activities such as product development, marketing research, price, distribution, sales force management, advertising, and customers relation should be coordinated and integrated to achieve marketing goals.
Second, the marketing activities need to be coordinated with the activities of all departments within the organization, such as purchasing, production, personnel, accounting, and finance.
And third, there should be effective coordination of the organization’s activities with external institutions such as marketing intermediaries, transporters, advertising agencies, market research companies, etc.
Profitability
Profit is a major goal of every organization and the organization does not sacrifice it in any situation. The marketing-oriented organization, however, starts from short-term profits and targets long-term profits by creating and retaining satisfied customers. For non-profit organizations, the quality of service offered to the public becomes the success factor.
The principles of profitability call for analysis of every business opportunity from the view point of profitability and the survival of the organization.
As per this principle, organizational goals should be achieved by satisfying customers as it is the ultimate goal of the marketing concept. In this reference, the primary goal of the organization must be customer satisfaction through which profit should be aimed.
Also, read the first three marketing concepts.