Market

The term ‘Market’ refers to a place where goods are bought and sold by the buyers and sellers. In
wider sense, market includes the whole of any region in which buyers and sellers are brought
into contact with one another and by means of which the price of goods tend to be equalized
easily and quickly.

Marketing
The traditional view of marketing states that marketing is mainly concerned with the physical
and ownership transfer of goods and services from the producer to the ultimate consumers. But
the modern concept of marketing states that marketing involves the production of the product
acceptable to the customers and the activity which helps physical transfer and ownership from
the producer to the ultimate consumers. The modern view assumes that marketing means
identifying, anticipating and satisfying consumer’s needs and desires. Thus, marketing creates
place utility, time utility and possession utility.

The process of marketing starts with the identification of needs and wants through market survey
and converting them into products or services and distributing the same to ultimate consumers
through buyer oriented channel with suitable sales promotion technique at logical price to make a
reasonable profit.

“Marketing is that part of economics which deals with the creation of time, place and possession
utilities” –American Marketing Association
Place utility is created by marketing the goods and services available to the consumer at the place
where such goods are needed. Time utility is created by making the goods available at the time
when they are needed. Possession utility is created by transferring the goods to those who need
them.
Product & Service
To satisfy the wants and needs of people the company must offer their products in the market.
That means people purchase the products to satisfy their needs and wants. Specifically, a product
can be defined as an object, service, activity, person, place, organisation or idea. You can note
here that the tangible items are known as product while the intangible items are known as
service. The hidden use of physical objects may be to provide the service. Phillip Kotler defined
services as “Service is any act or performance that one party can offer to another that is
essentially intangible and does not result in any ownership”.

A service is an act or performance offered by one party to another. This performance is transitory
and intangible in nature. This does not necessarily result in ownership of any of the factors of
production. The process of offering performance may be tied to a physical product. A service is
an economic activity that creates value and provides benefits for customers of specific times and
places by bringing about a desired change in, or on behalf of, the recipient of service.

Basic Marketing Concepts

(i) Production concept,
(ii) Product concept,
(iii) Selling concept,
(iv) Marketing concept, and
(v) Societal Marketing concept.

Marketing Mix
(i) Product:

Product means anything which can satisfy consumers needs and wants through exchange
process. It provides economic utility and socio-psychological advantages. The marketer may
offer a single product or several products. The marketer should also revise the product design,
make improvements in the products frequently so as to suit the changing tastes, habits and
preferences of the consumers. Packaging and branding decisions are also included in
productdecision.
(ii) Price:

Price is the value which is paid by the buyer to the manufacturer in exchange of the products and
services. The marketer has to take into consideration the cost factors, profit margin, the
possibility of sales at different price level and the competitors pricing policy as well as number
of competitors.

(iii) Promotion:

The marketers should provide information to the customers about its products and services and
motivate customers to buy. Advertising, personal selling, publicity and other sales promotional
programs are the various promotional activities. All these activities increase the volume of sales
by expending as well as retaining the market share for the products. Basically, promotion deals
with no price competition in the market. Promotion is done for three purposes – (a) informing,
(b) persuading and (c) influencing consumers.

(iv) Physical Distribution:

Distribution is the delivery of the product and transfer of ownership to the buyers and consumers.
It includes channels and outlets through which products move to the buyer and arranging their
physical movement to different market segments. It depends upon the middlemen, products and
services, channels of distribution etc. It maintains the flow of products and services from the
producers to the buyers.

Service Mix
Here product, price, promotion, place, physical evidence, people, process are service mix.

Physical Evidence: It is the environment in which service is delivered and where the firm and the
customer interact. The appearance of buildings, equipments, vehicle, interior furnishing, staff
member, brochures, other printed material etc. provides tangible evidence of a firm’s service
quality.
Process: The actual procedure through which service is delivered is known as process. Creating
and delivering product elements require the design and implementation of effective process. A
 badly designed process generally leads to slow and ineffective process and customer
dissatisfaction.

People: Here people mean all the human being who takes part in the service delivery process.
Many services depend on direct interaction between customers and a firm’s employees. These
interactions strongly influence the customer’s perception of service quality. For example getting
a hair cut strongly influences customer’s expectation from the barber.

Differece Between Marketing & Selling

Marketing Selling
1) Emphasis on consumer needs wants 1) Emphasis is on the product
2) Company first determines customers needs and wants 2) Company Manufactures the product
and then decides out how to deliver a product to satisfy first
these wants 3) Management is sales volume
3) Management is profit oriented oriented
4) Planning is long-run-oriented in today’s products and 4) Planning is short-run-oriented in
terms of new products, tomorrow’s markets and future terms of today’s products and markets
growth 5) Stresses needs of seller
5) Stresses needs and wants of buyers 6) Views business as a good producing
6) Views business as consumer producing process process
sat¬isfying process 7) Emphasis on staying with existing
7) Emphasis on innovation on every existing technol¬ogy technology and reducing costs
and reducing every sphere, on providing better costs 8) Different departments work as in a
value to the customer by adopting a superior technology highly separate water tight
8) All departments of the business integrated manner, the compartments
sole purpose being generation of consumer satisfaction 9) Cost determines Price
9) Consumer determine price, price determines cost 10) Selling views customer as a last
10) Marketing views the customer last link in business as link in business
the very purpose of the business
 Difference Between Traditional & Modern Marketing
Traditional Marketing: In traditional marketing, more importance is given on selling the
product. They start with production and marketing is done while selling and promoting the
product to attain sales at profit. In this technique, the existing products are imposed on the
market through aggressive selling and promotional pressures.

Modern Marketing: Its main motive is customer satisfaction that is building a relationship
with MIS customer and is achieved through an integrated, corporate wide set of marketing
activities. This technique understands the needs and desires of the customer and product is
designed accordingly.

Traditional marketing is start from production and end with sell. But in modern marketing it
includes planning, product, price, promotion, place and after sell services.

 Basic Marketing Strategies

Marketing strategy is the goal of increasing sales and achieving a sustainable competitive
advantage.

1. Identify a target market.

2. Promote what your customer wants to buy.
3. Make yourself a trusted resource to prospects and customers.
4. Make yourself a resource for the media.
5. Set up professional profiles for yourself and/or your business on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook
and Google Profiles (which also serves as your profile on Google+).
6. Claim your place on Google Places.
7. Look for social media discussions groups that attract your target customers.
8. Write informative articles
9. Print up flyers or brochures
10. Volunteer to speak at local business groups.
11. Submit proposals to speak at industry group conferences.
12. Refer business to other businesses in your networks.
13. Tweet, mention and link to blog posts and social networking posts
14. Build an email list and send informative mailings to it on a regular basis.
15. Join and participate in local business groups
16. Stick with groups that attract the types of people you want as customers.
17. Keep in touch with potential customers and existing customers with a postcard mailing. .
18. Ask for referrals.
19. Pick up the phone and call likely prospects.
21. Don't be too quick to discourage tire kickers.
22. Have a website and publicize it.
23. Have a fully functioning website.
24. Don't stop marketing.

 Target Market
a particular group of consumers at which a product or service is aimed. The consumers a
company wants to sell its products and services to, and to whom it directs its marketing efforts.

Targeted marketing is the process of identifying customers and promoting products and services
via mediums that are likely to reach those potential customers.

 Segmentation
Segmentation means to divide the marketplace into parts, or segments, which are definable,
accessible, actionable, and profitable and have a growth potential. The process of defining
and subdividing a large homogenous market into clearly identifiable segments having
similar needs, wants, or demand characteristics. Its objective is to design a marketing mix that
precisely matches the expectations of customers in the targeted segment.

Segmentation means to divide the marketplace into parts, or segments, which are definable,
accessible, actionable, and profitable and have a growth potential. In other words, a company
would find it impossible to target the entire market, because of time, cost and effort restrictions.
It needs to have a 'definable' segment - a mass of people who can be identified and targeted with
reasonable effort, cost and time.
 Positioning
Positioning is a perceptual location. It's where your product or service fits into the
marketplace. Effective positioning puts you first in line in the minds of potential customers.

An effort to influence consumer perception of a brand or product relative to the perception

of competing brands or products is called positioning. Its objective is to occupy a clear, unique,
and advantageous position in the consumer's mind.

 Product Bundling

A marketing strategy that joins products or services together in order to sell them as a single
combined unit. Bundling allows the convenient purchase of several products and/or services
from one company. The products and services are usually related, but they can also consist of
dissimilar products which appeal to one group of customers.

Firms in telecommunications, financial services, health care, and information industries

frequently offer products in bundles.

A marketing ploy in which several products are offered for sale in one combined unit that is
often marked at a reduced price compared to the sum of their separate purchase prices. Product
bundle pricing is often actively used by the
marketing departments of companies that produce computer software products, fast food meals
and cable television connections that involve putting multiple products together to make a more
attractive or economical whole. Also called as package deal pricing.

 Consumer & Customer

Consumer

This is a broad term for individuals who use products and services that are generated in the
economy. They are the ones who consume the products or services they have bought or were
bought for them. They use these products based on what they have heard or seen and apply all
the information when deciding whether they need the product or not.
Customer

Came from the term, “custom,” meaning habit. These are people or organizations who frequently
visit your store, they purchase from you and no one else. The owner or storekeeper also makes
sure that his/her customers are satisfied. In this way, owner and customer maintain their
relationship, which means expected buys in the future. With this term, another slogan for
customers was revealed “the customer is always right.”