6 Essential Marketing Concepts (Marketing Philosophies) Explained

Marketing Concepts (Marketing Management Philosophies)

The marketing management philosophies that direct the marketing operations of business firms are known as marketing concepts. Marketing concepts also referred to as marketing management philosophies, through the past ages have guided the organizations’ marketing activities.

As marketing has evolved with human civilization, the marketing philosophies also go in hand and hand with human civilization. As human civilization evolved, so did the philosophies of marketing. Different marketing concepts have evolved over time and have guided marketers to plan and implement their activities. These concepts have different focus, means, and end. They put different weights on the interests of the organizations, customers, and society.

The oldest concept of marketing was based on making products and services available to the customers with the need and ability to purchase. With changing human needs and increasing competition among the producers offering the same products, the concept evolved from producing products and making them available to satisfy the needs of the customer.

The Marketing concepts are:

• Production Concept
• Product Concept
• Selling Concept
• Marketing Concept
• Societal Marketing Concept
• Holistic Marketing Concept

These first 5 marketing concepts have a specific function to make up holistic marketing, if you have a good mindset about them can help you to achieve your organization’s goals easily. So, let’s now understand how these concepts help organizational goals.

6 Essential Marketing Concepts Are:

1. The Production Concept

The production concept is the oldest of marketing concepts which believes that more production, more sales, and more profits. What it says, produce products as far as possible the market will be automatically created. It assumes that consumers will favor those products which are available and affordable.

The industrial revolution (1770-1820 AD) centered on the specialization of labor and improved production technologies and was the backbone of this concept. It appeared in greater productivity which minimized the costs of products dramatically. This work lasted till the 1930s.

The production concept is appeared to follow Says Law, which means excess supply creates demand itself. And when demand exceeds supply consumers have little product choice. The underlying implicit premises of this marketing concept are:

• Consumers buy products that are available in the market.
• Consumers buy products that are affordable, i.e. they prefer to buy low price products.
• Consumers always try to know the prices of the competing products. Hence, price is always a critical marketing variable.
• Customers do not give more emphasis on no-price factors such as service, guarantee, quality, etc.

The production concept is slowly losing its significance especially in developed countries where cheap products do not lead to sales.

2. The Product Concept

The product concept is a slight modification of the production concept and emerged almost at the same time as the production concept.

The product concept assumes that customers will buy those products that offer the highest quality at a reasonable price. I think this is the one of most popular marketing concepts we will see today. Just see, when we think about quality phones, Apple phones might come to our mind.

The product concept is what believes produce quality products as far as possible the customers automatically come to buy it. What it assumes, customers prefer to buy quality products among the competing brands, low-quality products are avoided, and they try to know the quality and feature differences of the competing brand.

As product concept mainly focuses on product quality, performance, and features. Organizations that adopt this concept believe that very little effort is required to sell good-quality products that are reasonably priced. They concentrate on designing long-lasting products and providing longer warranty times.

3. The Selling Concept

After the decreasing sales rate through production and product concepts, the selling concept is evolved. We can not say that the above two marketing concepts are almost failed but they can be improved by this.

The selling concept believes that only quality products do not make consumers buy instead company should persuade customers to do so. In order words, the idea of this concept is that people will buy more goods and services if aggressive selling methods are used. Ordinarily, people will not buy the organization’s products unless they are persuaded to buy them.

The selling concept underlying implicit premises are,

• People have a usual tendency to resist buying most of the things that are not essential to them.
• Consumers’ interests can be diverted or influenced by promotional activities.
• Consumers can be induced to buy through various sales stimulating devices.

This is the marketing concept that gave rise to various promotional tools. The starting point of the selling concept is factory, the focus point is a product of seller’s choice, means through aggressive selling & heavy promotion, and last profit is through high sales volumes.

4. The Marketing Concept

The marketing concept assumes that unless and until the products and services are designed on the basis of customers’ needs and wants, no marketing objectives can be achieved by the organization.

As per the marketing concept, the success of the organization depends on knowing the target customers’ needs and wants and delivering them. It is a new approach of thinking that integrates customer orientation and marketing activities to achieve the goal of the organization.

The starting point of the marketing concept is the target market, the focus is on customer need & want, means is an integrated marketing, and last profit is through customer satisfaction.

5. The Societal Marketing Concept

The societal marketing concept is one of the emerging marketing concepts that not only focus on customer satisfaction but additionally emphasizes the well-being of society.

The societal marketing concept believes that the organization should deliver superior value products to the market that maintains or improves the customer’s and society’s (human) well-being.

What it tells, for long-lasting success organization should think about the society at large. While making any marketing strategies organization should balance profit, customers’ need and want, and society’s interest. The primary tasks of the organization should be to serve the target market in a way that only not fulfills the satisfaction of want but also long-run individual and social benefits.

The beginning point of the societal marketing concept is the target market, the focus is on social needs, means is protecting & supporting consumers & society, and the last is the profit through customer and social well-being.

6. The Holistic Marketing Concept

The holistic marketing concept is one of the latest addition to marketing philosophies. This marketing concept emerged mainly due to the social and technological challenges that raised serious questions about the power of marketing to mold and modify consumer needs and preferences in the 21st century.

In other words, holistic marketing is the combination of all the above production, product, selling, marketing, and societal concepts. It focuses on the whole activities of the organization to achieve desired goals by focusing on all the stakeholders of the organization.

The starting point of holistic marketing is the target market, the focus is on consumers & society, through internal, integrated, relationship, & performance marketing, and the last profit is through social welfare.

A Quick Comparison To These 6 Marketing Management Philosophies

Marketing Concept	Starting Point	Main Focus	Means	End (Goal)
1. Production Concept	Factory	Production-oriented (Production of products and services)	Production of product at affordable/low cost.	Profit through production efficiency.
2. Product concept	Factory	Quality-oriented (Production of quality products)	Production of high quality products.	Profit through quality assurance.
3. Selling concept	Factory	Seller’s need-oriented (Production of products according to seller’s need)	Aggressive selling and heavy promotions.	Profit through high sales volume.
4. Marketing concept	Target market	Customer-oriented (Production of products according to customers needs and wants)	Integrated marketing.	Profit through customer satisfaction.
5. Societal marketing concept	Target market	Society-oriented (Consideration of customers need with socil responsibility)	Integrated marketing with social ethics/socially responsible norms.	Goal achievement through social responsibility.
6. Holistic marketing concept	Target market	All aspects of customers and social needs and wants.	Application of internal, integrated, relationship, and performance marketing.	Goal achievement by developing the corporate culture in marketing.

Summing Up

The first three marketing concepts production, product, and selling are based on a slogan “We sell what we make”. These concepts force people to purchase what the company produces. First is based on more products more profits, 2nd quality products more profits, 3rd aggressive selling more profit.

With the failure of these three marketing philosophies to achieve organization goals business chief executives found the “We sell what we make” slogan inappropriate in the competitive marketplace. They integrated the buyer variable in the business decision-making and changed the business slogan “We make what we can sell.”

And, then marketing, societal, and holistic marketing concepts came and helped organizations to achieve goals through customer satisfaction as well as benefiting society.