The Traditional Function of Marketing - Assignment Example

Marketing’s Role is to Encourage Consumption; (Lazer, 1969). This ment is as True now as it was in 1969. Marketing process has undergone tremendous changes and evolved over a period of time. But the main function of marketing remains unchanged even with the passage of many years. In olden days the main function of marketing was to increase the consumption by creating public awareness about products or services of any sort. The main role of marketing today also is to encourage consumption not by creating awareness alone but by providing continual benefits and services to the customers. Thus, only the marketing process has changed and evolved and not it’s main role and function. The main role of marketing is to encourage the consumption. In order to increase the consumption of a product or service the company has to first of all develop interest in the minds of the consumers to go for the product. This is the context where the modern definition of marketing is applicable. “Marketing is the process of interesting potential customers and clients in products and/or services”. The interest created in the minds of the prospective consumers compels them to go for the product and later increases the consumption to a grater extent. A company has to concentrate on the following four components of marketing mix to encourage the consumption. They are products and services, promotion, distribution and pricing. These are the four sensitive areas that a company has to sensibly deal with while marketing is carried out to increase the consumption. When any one of these areas is not properly regarded it is going to affect a company’s growth as it adversely influences the interest of the customer to consume the product and will result in the decline of overall consumption. The paper under discussion tries to prove that the statement ‘Marketing’s Role is to Encourage Consumption’ is as true now as it was in 1969. The main role of marketing is to encourage the consumption even though it has many other functions. All these functions mutually focus on encouraging consumption and thereby increasing the sales and profit. A company’s marketing efforts are directed at the objective of encouraging consumption through customer satisfaction and customer relationship. Maintaining a satisfactory relationship with the consumers is necessary to keep the consumers as customers for ever. A good customer relationship is essential for encouraging the volume of consumption. When a company tries to develop customer relationship, the company actually wants to retain the customers as long as possible. A marketing company would go on encouraging the customers and consumers to increase consumption. In order to retain the customers the company has to channel its marketing efforts effectively. Only with a good degree of customer relation a company can increase the consumption of the products or services it offers to the society. “Customer Relationship Management is an integrated effort to maintain and build up a network with individual consumers and to continuously strengthen the network for mutual benefits of both the sides, through interactive, individualized and value added contacts over a long period of time” (Customer relationship management 2008). Thus the proper customer relationship management is inevitable to increase the consumption through marketing efforts. Marketing mix is another important factor which helps marketing to encourage consumption. “Marketing mix is the combination of the elements of marketing and what roles each element plays in promoting products and services and delivering those products and services to customers” (Randy). Marketing mix is the key strategic elements in the marketing plan and these elements play a vital role in encouraging consumption extensively. The main elements of marketing mix are, 1. Product- Products can be anything offered by an organisation including services. The physical features of a product attract the consumers and help to retain them as customers. 2. Price- Price is the value of a product to be paid by the consumers for getting the same. How the price is charged from the customers for availing the benefit is a decisive factor in deciding the degree of consumption. 3. Place- Place is where from consumers can get the products and services. Place can also be referred to as distribution. 4. Promotion- The ways and method adopted by companies to communicate the features of the products or services to the prospective customers. Apart from the above mentioned four elements of marketing mix there is another important element namely people. At first, the fifth element was not included in the marketing mix. Later, understating the importance of people in encouraging consumption it was included in the marketing mix. “The 5th P refers to how the level of service and the expertise and skills of the people who work for the company can be used to set the company apart from the competitors” (Duermyer). The people who work for the company are one of the essential factors that encourage consumption. The inclusion of the 5th element namely people to the marketing mix announces the importance of people in encouraging consumption. With out the presence of people in a business enterprise no marketing activity can take place effectively. The main role of marketing is to increase the consumption of products and services. To know whether the statement is true, a detailed understanding of the major functions of marketing is necessary .The major functions of marketing are as follows. 1. Marketing Research- Marketing research is the process of studying the entire marketing process of a company. According to Palmer, “marketing research is about researching the whole of a companys marketing process" (Palmer 2000). The elements of marketing mix, competitors, markets, customer requirements and their preferences etc. are the main areas of study under marketing research. 2. Marketing Planning- Any marketer has to make some marketing plans for effective marketing. Marketing plan involves the process of making strategies and decisions regarding marketing. 3. Product Development- Product development includes improvement in the existing product and, or designing of new products after marketing research has been conducted. 4. Advertisement and Sales Promotion- Advertisement and promotion are the processes involved in brining a product either existing or newly designed into the notice of the target customers. 5. Selling and Distribution- It is the process of making the products reaching the hands of the consumers and customers. 6. After Sales Service- After sales service is the process of assisting the customers after a product is being purchased, or the benefit of a service is being availed. 7. Public relations- Public relation involves the shaping of a constructive relationship between a business organisation and the public through a number of communication tools and channels. The above mentioned are the main functions of marketing (What are the Functions of Marketing). All these functions mainly aim at increasing consumption and thereby enhancing the volume of production and sales. Therefore, these seven major functions of marketing can be condensed into one and that of encouraging consumption. Increase in sales means increase in consumption. “An increase in consumption by households will lead to an increase in sales by the firms sector” (Indicator Business Cycle). Only by increasing the consumption, a company can increase its sales. If the volume of sales is increased, the company will have to increase the production to cope with the emerging changes in demand. Therefore, a business enterprise wants to increase the sales by encouraging the customers to increase consumption. Even though, all the functions of marketing are different in the first appearance it can be clearly stated that these functions are almost similar and parallel. They convey the same idea that the main role of marketing is to encourage consumption. All these functions are undoubtedly directed at encouraging consumption and thereby increase in the sales and production of a product. The different roles of marketing convey that the main function of marketing is to encourage consumption (The Role of Marketing). The main roles of marketing are as follows, Developing products that satisfy the needs of the customer and also improving the quality of life formation of a competitive environment that helps to fix the price of products comparatively lower Developing a sophisticated system for product distribution that gives access to products for a large number of people over vast geographic regions. Creating demand for the products and increasing production and sales. All these roles of marketing focus on encouraging consumption through increased sales. A business organisation aims at encouraging consumption when it engages in any of the marketing activities. Companies do not directly mention that they want to increase the consumption of their products. Instead they state that the volume of sales is to be increased. By increasing the sales volume the companies mean that consumption is to be increased. Companies want the customers to demand for more volume of product by increasing the rate of consumption. Whatever marketing efforts are initiated by a company all of them aim at encouraging consumption. The above mentioned roles of marketing are different and unique but they primarily stand for encouraging consumption by means of increasing sales. Thus the above mentioned roles of marketing even though, unique and different solely stand for the purpose of increasing consumption. The marketing concept has undergone a sea change over the period of time. The companies in olden days followed old marketing concept and modern marketing concept is followed by most of the companies today. Marketing concept determines the prime objective and main goal of a business enterprise. Marketing concept can be defined as “the Management philosophy according to which a firms goals can be best achieved through identification and satisfaction of the customers stated and implied needs and wants” (Business Dictionary). There is a vast difference between the old marketing concept and the modern marketing concept. Both these concepts focus on encouraging consumption to increase sales. But there is clear cut difference in their ways and approach to encouraging consumption. Old Marketing Concept- The old marketing concept tries to achieve maximum profit in the short run. It merely focuses on encouraging consumption to ensure maximum volume of sales to increase profit. Even the customer is not regarded as the key factor in a business and their needs and satisfaction are not completely taken in to consideration. A pictorial representation is tried here. Modern Marketing Concept- The modern marketing concept holds that business organisations should cater to the needs of the customers. Companies should try to satisfying the needs and wants of the customers by providing high quality products and services. In modern marketing concept, companies can go for profit only after providing service and support to the customers to ensure their satisfaction. Modern marketing concept also provides for encouraging consumption to increase sales; but only after assuring high quality and ensuring customer satisfaction. Old marketing concept and the modern marketing concept are entirely different but both these concepts unquestionably agree on the point that the main role of marketing is to encourage consumption for increasing the sales to yield maximum profit. Though, many changes have occurred during the period in the field of marketing, the main function of marketing even today remains unchanged. In the marketing realm, new concepts like integrated marketing have come to emerge. Integrated marketing can be referred to as “the Strategy aimed at unifying different marketing methods such as mass marketing, one-to-one marketing, and direct marketing” (Business Dictionary). The main objective of integrated marketing is to harmonize and strengthen the market impact of different methods as well as to use the data in areas like product development, pricing, distribution, customer service, etc. for getting the desired results. The changes in overall marketing process have not yet affected its main role. All marketing activities today also primarily focus on encouraging the consumption of products and services. The following figures show that the main role of marketing has not undergone any major change even with the passage of many years. The component namely selling has given way to physical distribution in the long run. The change is minute and it has not affected the main role of marketing adversely. The traditional function of marketing has given way to the integrating function of marketing with the passage of time. But it is evident from the comparison of figures that marketing’s main role has not yet undergone any severe changes. The process called selling has become physical distribution. There is no doubt that selling has given way to physical distribution only with the clear intention of improving sales through encouraging consumption to maximize the profit. It can be clearly concluded that the passage of time from 1969 to 2009 (the present day) there occurred no major change in the marketing’s main role. A period of 40 years has not changed the main role o marketing. In 1961 the main role of marketing was to increase consumption and today also it is the same. There is no point of controversy that it will be so in the coming years too. There is no voice of disagreement that Marketing’s Role is to Encourage Consumption; (Lazer, 1969) and therefore is substantiated that this statement is as true now as it was in 1969. 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