Marketing Management - Essay Example

Marketing Management In this paper, we are focused on analyzing the following ment: Throughout the evaluation of the marketing concept, the basic notion that competitive advantage can be created by giving what they want has remained unchanged. All that has changed is the way in which customers are satisfied. (Carpenter, G, 1999) A business is seen from quite a number of angles. First there is the business stance which suggests that it has to remain in a particular industry to thrive itself in order to earn revenues. Then there is the customer stance which suggests that the customer wants value for money and the best possible product at the cheapest price always. The third stance is that of the distribution channels and vendors who do their bit at manufacturing, wholesaling, distributing and retailing the very products. When all these viewpoints meet in harmony, then only one can witness a complete symphony between the different business processes, activities and feelings that are so very significantly attached with the business that we are talking about here. First of all, we need to delve into what marketing concept actually is. The sales concept is basically making sure a product is produced and hence sold through proper distribution channels while on the other hand a marketing concept entails the pre-production activities related with a product, selling and marketing it extensively when its on the shelves of the retail outlet and looking after the post purchase dissonance, if any there is found. Similarly, customer satisfaction would mean their retention and eventual further selling of the product. Hard sell of the product can come under the marketing concept but then again soft sell is a strategy that tries to smoothly get into the purchase cycles of its intended customers and hence make a sale. The evaluation of the marketing concept is made possible due to the hard line policies drafted by the people who were in charge of carrying out the sales concept which was simply to produce a product and thus sell it, without gaining proper insight as to whether or not this product met the intended requirements of the customer or it had some defect which needed to be repaired at the earliest. Now we shift to the methodology and rationale behind building competitive advantage. This is something that is build over time and requires synchronization between the tactics, activities and the overall strategy of the company which is producing the product(s). Competitive advantage is developed when there is a differential undertaking on the part of the customer. This could be in the form of lower prices than the competitors, better quality, efficient sales services and support and a number of other features. Thus customer satisfaction is something which cannot be measured by a standard set of parameters. It has to be experienced always with different set of offerings that are made available. These offerings could be in the form of better quality products, higher and more efficient services or a bundle of both high class product and state of the art service, in which case it would not be categorized under either of them rather as a mixture of both. It is pretty true that the market dynamics suggest that the competitive advantage can only be achieved when the customer is given what he or she wants but then again is there any limit to his or her wants? The answer would be NO and quite rightly so. The customer expect value for money and thus the best possible product at the most effective rate, thus it would be correct to understand his point of view and then go about changing the product offerings, prices and the value thus provided. Marketing concept has taken its basis from the selling concept which is simply producing a product and then selling it for a nominal return. However marketing looks at defying the odds and aims at conquering the mind, heart and soul of the customers. The terms like share of heart and share of mind come into the equation and not to forget the share of trial which looks at the customer trying a product for the first time in order to seek purchase back and forth. Share of heart means that when a customer is asked about naming a certain brand out of the selected list of brands in the related category, the first one or two brand names that he comes up with are pretty close to his heart. Similar meaning lies with respect to the mind when we speak of the share of mind. Share of trial is the moment when he actually uses that product and thus it comes under his play and eventual judgment whether or not the product lived up to his or her expectations. Marketing aims to show the customers what they need and then telling them what is best for them. It is not only there to solve their problem. Rather its usage is much more varied. It pinpoints the exact places where the product might be justifiably used, executed or tried for. Marketing is thus a battle which is going on in the minds of the consumer and the seller rather than something else. It needs to be understood in the proper scheme of things. The statement mentioned above thus states that it is not really important what the marketers of present times are giving to the customers. What is more important is the fact that how their offerings would solve the problems and shortcomings of the customers. This means that the gap between the two is something that needs to be exploited upon by the marketers and this is also an area where the customer can expect to benefit in the coming times, as far as this particular marketer and his company are concerned. A marketer cannot think of high sales as being directly proportional with his customers getting satisfied out of it rather he needs to find out what are the actual areas of weakness and the potential ones that need to be worked upon in the coming times, be it in the short term or in the long run. The rationale for customer satisfaction stems from the fact that the customer makes a return purchase for the same product. This comes under the heading of his satisfaction but when he comes back and asks for the same product and when he is told that it is out of stock for some reason and he waits for it to come back, then this is a state of customer being in awe of the product or in other words he is delighted with its role that it has in his life. He just cannot seem to live without its company. If this happens on the part of the company which is producing the product, it is remarked as the ideal situation for their business. This also means that the company makes to strive even harder as they have already progressed in the right direction, one that will eventually make them the leaders in their trade. However, as the discussion is about competitive advantage and customer satisfaction, hence we would restrain from going into the environs of market leadership. Organizations in the present times are doing their utmost in order to know more and more about their valued customers. For this, they have devised certain strategies which are in line with the values that their business has set for itself. These values are thus deeply intrinsic within the mission and vision statements of the company. In order to gain further knowledge about the customers, research is being given proper emphasis which would eventually discern the exact basis for the customers to come and make that vital purchase. Even when the same has been done, the need is to find out how the same customers can be retained and in what manner they will come back for the repeat purchase of the product. Organizations do their best to conduct research which will harness their business outcomes as well as help them achieve positive results in the light of unbroken grounds, at least in the marketing and business circles. They want to reach out to the customers in whatever capacity they can and for that they aim to find out the best and most efficient means possible. In order to gain this deeper understanding, they are seeking in depth research from third party research affiliates like A C Nielsen, Dunn & Bradstreet and others. These research companies find the exact basis for the company to reach out to the potential customers as well as hit upon the ones who are actually buying the competitor products and are simply unaware of their product or do not want to use theirs due to certain malice, prejudice, immoral or disliked advertising campaigns and a host of other reasons as well. It is true that these researches were virtually impossible to acquire in the yesteryears more so due to the fact that they were hard to conduct. It was pretty difficult to get hold of the exact people who would come under the banner of being labeled as the respondents and on whom research would eventually be completed. A number of people would not bother to form part of the research as they deemed it was an exercise in futility and no one at the company’s end would actually pay heed to their response. In the past, this has surely been the case but with the changing times, the trends have taken a hike in the positive direction as well. Now the customers are more than happy to give feedback on something of which they have had a negative experience. Research has shown that nearly 7 out of 11 individuals are more than willing to tell of a bad product’s experience to others which could include just about anybody within their close circles. Only 1 out of those 11 people would make the effort to praise the product in front of those very people if he or she had a positive or good product experience. Therefore, this illustrates that the customer expectations are sky high in the changing dynamics of the business world and it is very difficult to satisfy each and every soul with regards to a single product having all the perfect offerings that the consumer is after. As competition is becoming more and more with the passage of time, the companies are bringing in more deals that create value for money and thus cater to the mass strata of the society. Similarly, supermarkets are doing their bit at rethinking their business strategies whereby they are placing only those goods at their shelves that fulfill the needs of their direct customers. They think twice before putting up with something that would not strike a fair deal with the intended audience. With that, they increase different kinds of offerings in the form of bundle packs, contests, prize moneys, giveaways, sweep stakes, etc which at the end of the day only help and facilitate in bolstering the business of the store in particular and of the products which are on its shelves in general. Thus, as competition has grown manifolds, the supermarkets have re-thought about their business and thus moved one step further from where they were say five years back. In the times of today, only that business will eventually survive which fulfills the needs of the customer in the most efficient and effective manner possible and with that it has the ability to reach out to the exact audience that will buy its products and acquire the related services. There is nothing like friendly competition since if one gives into the demands or wants of the competitor, he or she will eventually win it over the desired audience and thus the vital sale will be made. It might just be possible that this was the only moment where the sale was to be made hence the one and only opportunity is given away to the competitor – nothing like it! Serious firms are always on the lookout of finding another company which is behind its back and bent upon destroying its customer base in the wake of the processes and activities that it is drafting. This means that the activities need to be hidden from the competitors unless it comes out in the open market, in front of the audience for one and all to see and judge and eventually buy the product for their own selves. An example to quote here could be of a particular brand of cereals which the kids like to have at the time of breakfast. The company which manufactures it decided to seek the consumer insight with respect to the product. For this, it requested the research company to carry out its bit. With the passage of time and some sheer investment of money, this company found out that the purchase decisions for the cereal were made by the children in 9 out of 10 cases, as we speak from the point of view of a select sample. Moreover, the kids like to have only those cereals which have cartoon characters printed on them at the back of the box in colorful palettes. This was something which can be remarked as an eye opener for the company and indeed the advertising agency handling the respective account. They found that the children did not care how much of sugar a particular cereal contained or what taste it came in as long as it contained their favorite cartoon characters. This obviously does not mean that the company should quit providing value in the form of distinct quality and taste and rather rely on the packaging aspect. The latter was however carried out without touching the ingredients with the result that the children started to influence their parents more in terms of its purchase and hence the company gained immense profits due to the research thus conducted. In the end, it would not be wrong here to suggest that consumer satisfaction holds the key for the company to remain in business and thus compete with its competitors. Without the customers, there would be no product offering and hence no company as a result. Thus in order to make sure that the company deliver quality and value over time, it needs to draft its policies in the light of all that has been stated in the above paragraphs with particular emphasis on breaking the clutter amongst the different competitors and coming out with the best possible message, one that clearly identifies itself with what the company can actually deliver without delving too much into the company’s goals, values and mission or vision statements, as these are the least concerned when seen from a consumer’s standpoint. Therefore, customer satisfaction is pretty inherent within a business. If a business cannot satisfy a customer, it need not remain in business as then starts a downfall for its different activities and processes, until and unless it realizes its shortcomings and comes up with something pretty drastic which will eventually make others to become the company’s loyal customers. BIBLIOGRAPHY HOUSE, R. J. (2004) Culture, Leadership and Organizations: The GLOBE Study of 62 Societies SAGE Publications GUEST, Jim. (2002) Consumers and Consumerism in America Today Consumers Union Word Count: 2,524 Read More