How Is the Marketing Concept and Its Implementation Responding To Developments in the Macroenvironment - Essay Example

‘How Is The Marketing Concept And Its Implementation Responding To Developments In The Macroenvironment?’ Table of Contents Introduction 2 A Brief Analysis of the Key Developments and Marketing Responses 3 Discussion 5 Conclusion 14 References 16 Introduction The conception of marketing is fundamentally explained as an activity for the purpose of generating, communicating, delivering and interchanging certain offerings that possesses greater value for the customers, partners and community among others. The aspect of marketing is generally utilised in order to recognise a particular customer, fulfil the various desires of the customer through offering better quality products along with attaining the expected business objectives. In this connection, the marketing concept depicts that if a business organisation desires to fulfil its organisational goals, it is very much essential for the business organisation initially to foresee the various sorts of logical requirements and wishes of the customers (American Management Association, n.d.). The marketing conception can be more elaborately discussed by greatly emphasising upon two particular imperative facets. The two facets include business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) segments. In terms of the marketing idea regarding business-to-consumer (B2C), the marketing conception is defined as a method through which the business organisations generate greater value towards the customers and tend to establish a smooth relationship with the customers by a large extent. From the perspective of the marketing conception regarding the business-to-consumer (B2C), the marketing idea is described as a procedure through which the business organisations generate superior value along with solutions and also tend to form effective relationship with other business organisations or brands that are acting as competitors (Silk, 2006). The business organisations pay utmost importance towards the marketing concept for the purpose of increasing their productivity as well as profitability along with raising higher value towards the shareholders. In the paper, a brief idea regarding the marketing conception along with its effective implementation by responding towards the developments especially in the macro environment will be depicted. Various aspects such as the factor of innovation, service, internationalisation and social marketing that have developed greatly while incorporating the conception of marketing will also be portrayed in the discussion. A Brief Analysis of the Key Developments and Marketing Responses The aspect of marketing environment is fundamentally viewed as a crucial constituent of business environment that generally influences the capabilities of a particular company for the purpose of promoting as well as performing proficient business operations in the financial market. It is very much essential especially for the business organisations to greatly emphasise upon the marketing environment due to the fact that the aspect of marketing environment significantly supports the business organisations to attain their competitive position along with expected business objectives (Pride & Ferrell, 2010). It has been recognised that the business organisations mainly interact with two kinds of marketing environment i.e. macro environment as well micro environment. The elements of the micro environment of a business organisation include the suppliers, competitors, stakeholders and ultimately the customers. In this connection, the components of macro environment of a business organisation include demographics, technology, nature, culture, politics and economic factors. The different constituents of macro environment are also regarded as crucial unmanageable as well as external factors that deeply influence a particular business organisation while making its major business related decisions. Furthermore, the factors of the macro environment also affect the business performance and the strategies of the business organisations (University of London, n.d.). The several areas in which the conception of marketing gets influenced by macro environment factors include innovation, service, aspect of internationalisation and social marketing (University of London, n.d.). In terms of the substantial development particularly in the macro environment factors in terms of innovation, social marketing and internationalisation among others, the business organisations responded enthusiastically towards the developments that are made keeping in view the aspect of macro environment factors. This is due to the fact that the business organisations firmly believe that developments in the macro environmental factors would eventually make them to attain greater competitive advantage as well as expected business intentions by a significant level (University of London, n.d.). Discussion The elements of the macro environment include political, financial, communal or social, technological, legal and environmental factors. From the perspective of the political factors, certain government policies can crucially affect the different business operations. The policies include education and training related policies of the employees, health polices and other superior infrastructures related polices like making of rail and road among others (Young & Pagoso, 2008). In terms of the economic factors, certain aspects including the interest charges, taxation rates, financial development and exchange along with inflation rates have vital effects upon the marketing decisions. The higher interest charges may significantly affect the business organisations due to the fact that it would directly affect the business decisions regarding investment. Moreover, increased inflation as well as exchange rate structures may affect a financial organisation through considerable rising in different business related expenditures (Young & Pagoso, 2008). From the viewpoint of the communal or social factors, usual transformations especially in the social trend can largely affect upon the demand factor of the commodities or products for a business organisation. In this connection, the transformations in the social trends also affect the accessibility and eagerness of the working people of a business organisation to perform their specific work (Kotler & Armstrong, 2008). The technological factors relating to the macro environment can also largely affect and possess positive impact upon the business organisations. The aspect of technological factors ultimately helps to diminish various business related expenditures, enhances the quality of the different products belonging to the business organisations and eventually leads towards innovation. The implementation of latest as well as superior technologies in a business organisation generally generates new and innovative products that are greatly supported by the huge number of customers and it ultimately raises the productivity as well as the profitability of the business organisations by a certain extent. It is obvious to the fact that the different technological advancements can assist the business organisations to attain their competitive position over their competitors along with fulfil their expected business intentions (Kotler & Armstrong, 2008). From the outlook of the environmental factors relating to macro environment of marketing, the various environmental elements include the weather along with climate alterations. The transformations especially in the temperature can largely affect certain industries such as tourism and farming among others. In terms of environmental factors, the increasing occurrence of the major climate alterations that mainly arise due to the fact of global warming is greatly believed as one of the crucial issues on behalf of the business organisations or industries. In this context, the business organisations or the industries would have to consider the important environmental factors while operating their business activities. However, with the consideration of the environmental factors, it has been noticed that the business opportunities along with the demand patterns of certain industries are raised considerably. This is due to the fact that the general move made by the business organisations or industries towards adapting more environmentally affable commodities or products eventually contributes towards generating remarkable business opportunities along with raising demand patterns of the various products (Dibb & Simkin, 1996). The legal or lawful factors relating to macro environment conception of marketing fundamentally can be described as legal environment in which the business corporations operate their business activities. The various legal transformations can affect a particular business organisation or industry in terms of their costs while advancing the new procedures or systems due to the legal alterations. The aspects such as the establishment of the legislation of age or disability discrimination, various recycling elements that are greatly required by the business corporations and the substantial rise in the minimum wages of the employees are few of the legal factors that might affect upon the business organisations by a certain extent (Dibb & Simkin, 1996). Thus, it can be stated that the investors or the managers of the business organisations largely focus upon the different factors relating with the macro environment due to the fact that it is greatly essential to examine the facets of macro environment for the purpose of successfully performing their business operations. The above mentioned fact i.e. proper implementation of marketing conception can generally lead towards remarkable development in the field of innovation. In this context, the aspect of innovation is fundamentally defined as the formation of superior as well as effective products or commodities, services, technologies and ideas that are enthusiastically granted by the society, governments and the business markets. The idea of innovation can be related to the technological macro environment factor according to the marketing conception viewpoint. It is due to the fact that the technological factors possess certain important impacts upon the business organisations that include possibility to decrease various business related expenditures, enhance the quality of the different commodities and services belonging to the business organisations, which eventually can lead towards innovation. The business organisations attain significant competitive benefit through the technological factor of macro environment in terms of innovation by a considerable level (Pang & Qu, 2010). In relation to the development of macro environment factors in terms of innovation through the functioning of marketing conception, it has been observed that essentially there lies four different forms of innovation or in other words, it can described as 4Ps subjecting to innovation. The various forms or 4Ps include the innovation regarding procedure, product, position and paradigm. In this context, the product innovation implies the alterations that are made in the products or commodities which are offered by the business organisations. The procedure innovation is generally depicted as the transformations especially in the ways through which the products or commodities are produced and ultimately delivered. The aspect of position innovation implies the changes in the context in which the products are established. The paradigm innovation generally portrays the alterations in the fundamental mental models that design the business performance of the organisations (Pang & Qu, 2010). After acquiring a brief idea regarding the aspect of innovation, it is very much necessary to possess deeper understanding towards the idea of marketing innovation. The conception of marketing innovation is described as an activity that generates market opportunities with the launch of innovative products for the purpose of entering into the new business markets along with fulfilling the market demands. The initial aim of marketing innovation is to recognise the potential business markets along with serving better towards its target market (Pang & Qu, 2010). There are various renowned and prominent business organisations that had significantly attained competitive position by focusing upon the aspect of marketing innovation. For instance, a renowned pharmaceutical company that is prevailing in China named Guizhou YiBai Pharmaceutical Co Ltd followed the process of marketing innovation aspect in order to develop their business procedural functions. The pharmaceutical company of China initially executed the marketing innovation policy by focusing upon market segmentation. The company segmented the business market according to the geographical location. After focusing upon the aspect of market segmentation, the pharmaceutical company then redesigned especially its marketing department by employing or hiring more new working people and formed an effective marketing team. It has been recognised that the company by executing the aspect of market innovation conception ultimately attained competitive benefit over the competitors (Pang & Qu, 2010). In this connection, another well known as well as prominent business organisation i.e. Ford Motor Company enthusiastically adopted the aspect of market innovation for the purpose of attaining more developed competitive position along with expected business objectives. Ford Motors mainly emphasised upon the 4Ps of innovation. From the viewpoint of the product innovation, the organisation realised to make certain major innovations regarding the design of the car through introducing innovative manufacturing procedures. In terms of position innovation, Ford Motors generally involved the rethinking aspect regarding the target markets for their products. Moreover, Ford also focused upon the process innovation in which the company felt the need of introducing certain manufacturing procedures that would reduce the various production related expenditures and make the accessibility of their broad variety of products comparatively at a low cost from their competitors (Tidd & Bessant, 2009). Thus, it can be stated that the adequate implementation of the marketing conception generally lead towards the development in the macro environment factors in terms of innovation or marketing innovation. The service related industry is also increasingly developing with significant changes particularly in the macro environmental facets such as increased execution of innovative technologies, communal related factors, economic and legal conditions. The service industry sectors like the healthcare and hotel based sectors have greatly advanced their business functions through the adequate implementation of marketing conception. The healthcare as well as hotel based sectors have made their marketing innovations through the establishment of their own online websites. The idea of online websites is one of the most effective along with successful marketing innovation strategies that leads towards superior development of the business processes of the sectors and also supports them to attain extensive competitive benefit over their competitors. The healthcare as well as hotel based sectors usually implement their own business online websites in which they provide useful information regarding their various valuable services that they deliver towards their large customer base levels. The introduction of the online websites eventually raised the development of the service based industry by a considerable extent (Jones, 2008). Hence, it can be stated that the adequate implementation of the conception of marketing ultimately leads towards the advancement in the macro environmental factors in terms of technological innovations especially for service industry. The aspect of internationalisation is fundamentally explained as the procedure of designing a particular product in such a way that would comply with the requirements of the users located in different countries or the users can adapt the particular product very easily situated in their individual nations. The aspect of internationalisation can be deeply understood by acquiring a brief idea regarding the aspect of international retailing. The conception of international retailing is essentially regarded as the retail operations that are executed by a single company in different nations. The notion of international retailing is very much similar to that of macro environment marketing conception point of view because it has been apparent that the administration of the retail operations generally differs from each other in terms of their market regulation, financial advancement, communal circumstances, cultural environment along with retail arrangements (Peterson & Welch, n.d.). The implementation of marketing conception greatly develops the internationalisation of retail business functions in various ways. One of the most significant aspects, which has helped to make advancement in the internationalisation process of retailing, is the distribution system. The distribution systems of well known international retailers such as Walmart, Asda and Sainsbury’s among others are very much advanced as well as efficient, which ultimately made the retail companies to emerge successfully in the financial business markets. For instance, the distribution system of Walmart is designed in such a way that the retailing company can ultimately serve greater than 200 Walmart retail stores in a single day (Peterson & Welch, n.d.). According to the marketing conception, the distribution system plays a crucial part in delivery of the products or commodities to the large customer base. Thus, it can be stated that the internationalisation of retail operations are largely developed through the adequate implementation of marketing conception and the retail companies such as Walmart has responded well in making such advancements. The retail companies strongly believe that the developments particularly in the distribution system eventually increased their business operational efficiencies and also diminished certain business related expenditures by a certain extent (Peterson & Welch, n.d.). The retail companies or any other industries chiefly focus upon the aspect of internationalisation due to numerous reasons. The reasons include seeking further penetration into the business market in which it already performs their business operations, enlarging new product areas in the same business market, sustaining present market product lines and ultimately attaining expected business goals. For these particular reasons, the business organisations enthusiastically support the aspect of internationalisation for the objective of enhancing their business procedures (Peterson & Welch, n.d.). The conception of social marketing or communal marketing is generally described as an organized marketing application possessing certain techniques and ideas for the purpose of attaining definite behavioural objectives for personal along with social welfare. Moreover, the application of social or communal based marketing is also explained as a procedure for generating, communicating and offering benefits towards the society without any sort of monetary profits on behalf of the marketer (Kotler & et. al., 2002). The marketing mix of the social marketing application commonly includes the basic 4Ps that include promotion, place, price and product. In relation to social marketing, the product in this case does not refer to a definite physical product that ultimately solves the requirements of target audience. With regard to price, the customers acting as a target audience should pay in order to alter their behaviour patterns. The price relating to the social marketing may be a financial cost or it may relate towards time value or effort. The place in terms of social marketing generally refers to the procedure regarding how the products or commodities are delivered towards the target audiences along with how the target audiences access the particular service or product. From the perspective of the factor of promotion, it refers to the execution of market research for the motive of determining the most valuable and effective channels for promoting any sort of campaigns relating to social marketing (Donovan & Henley, 2010). The different business organisations or industries frequently perform their business functions through social networking pages or websites, for instance Twitter along with Facebook among others in which every major information regarding the product and other valuable resources belonging to the company are present. It has been recognised that most of the business organisations usually consider the social networking pages or websites as one of the successful business operational strategies through which they gain benefits to attain competitive position over the competitors. Thus, with the improvements as well as the successful accomplishment of competitive position that are acquired by the business organisations or industries through the execution of social marketing websites, it can be stated that the execution of the marketing conception has eventually advanced the factors of macro environment in terms of social marketing (Donovan & Henley, 2010). Conclusion Marketing conception acts as a significant factor for any business organisation while operating their business functions worldwide. The business organisations generally deal with certain business environmental factors, out of which the macro environmental factors play a vital part for the organisations. It is due the reason that the transformations especially in the macro environmental factors such as political, financial, legal or communal lays positive as well as negative impacts upon the working circumstances of the business organisations. Noticeably, with the adequate implementation of the marketing conception certain areas are developed that are strongly related with the factors of macro environment. In this connection, the developed areas include the aspects of internationalisation, innovation, service and social marketing. The business organisations considerably attain competitive advantage over the competitors in terms of all forms of innovation like place, price, product and paradigm by greatly focusing upon the aspect of marketing conception. The business organisations generally respond quite well regarding the key developments that take place while implementing the marketing conception along with operating their business functions, particularly taking into concern the factors of macro environment. In this context, the exchange view of marketing can be considered as the inheritance of disciplined development of macroeconomics. Bagozzi used the concept of exchange in order to recognise the idea of marketing. According to Bagozzi, exchange arises under the incentive of two comprehensive classes of powers or procedures. He described that exchange is a type of relationship between social actors (sellers and customers). Traditionally, it was assumed that exchange happens between sellers and customers only with trade of product and money, i.e. if strength of seller’s assortment is augmented by handing over the product for money and if effectiveness of customer’s ownership is enriched through such exchange. However, in present days this traditional exchange concept has changed. In modern marketplace, business organisations do not concentrate only on exchange, rather they are concerned with other factors such as customer satisfaction and customer relationships (Bagozzi, 1974). The business organisations need to emphasise largely upon the factors of macro environment due to the reason that the factors of macro environment deeply affect their business strategies along with performances. Thus, it can be stated that the marketing conception along with its effective implementation greatly help to respond towards the development of the macro environment factors. The business organisations have to focus upon the marketing conception along with its effective implementation for the purpose of attaining superior competitive position over the competitors by a considerable level. References American Management Association, No Date. What Is Marketing? The Concept of Modern Marketing. [Online] Available at: http://www.flexstudy.com/demo/demopdf/99037_1.pdf [Accessed April 11, 2012]. Bagozzi, R. P. 1974. Marketing as an Organized Behavioral System of Exchange. Journal of Marketing, Vol. 39, pp. 77-81. Dibb, S. & Simkin, L., 1996. The Market Segmentation Workbook: Target Marketing for Marketing Managers. Cengage Learning EMEA. Donovan, R. & Henley, N., 2010. Principles and Practice of Social Marketing: An International Perspective. Cambridge University Press. Jones, S. K., 2008. Business-To-Business Internet Marketing: Seven Proven Strategies for Increasing Profits through Internet Direct Marketing. Maximum Press. Kotler, P. & Armstrong, G., 2008. Principles of Marketing. Pearson Education India. Kotler, P. & et. al., 2002. Social Marketing: Improving the Quality of Life. SAGE. Pang, X. & Qu, Y., 2010. Theoretical Framework. Marketing Innovation Implementation. [Online] Available at: http://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDYQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.diva-portal.org%2Fsmash%2Fget%2Fdiva2%3A348249%2FFULLTEXT01&ei=Hn-GT_eNEIbSrQflxfHbBg&usg=AFQjCNEX_fw4_7Gn-R4zZueW3MkIjXFHLA&sig2=7861X82UWEwvkeQ_iIY8iQ [Accessed April 12, 2012]. Peterson, B. & Welch, L. S., No Date. Shift to International Retail Franchising. International Retailing Operations: Downstream Entry and Expansion Via Franchising. [Online] Available at: http://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCkQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fciteseerx.ist.psu.edu%2Fviewdoc%2Fdownload%3Fdoi%3D10.1.1.198.2209%26rep%3Drep1%26type%3Dpdf&ei=36-GT_fPHcTMrQfJkvXMBg&usg=AFQjCNGOKVlcHaX5fG-EKUOYMyMCmmCyAA [Accessed April 12, 2012]. Pride, W. M. & Ferrell, O. C., 2010. Foundations of Marketing. Cengage Learning. Silk, A. J., 2006. What Is Marketing? Harvard Business Press. Tidd, J. & Bessant, J., 2009. The Model T Ford. Managing Innovation. [Online] Available at: http://www.managing-innovation.com/case_studies/Model%20T%20Ford.pdf [Accessed April 12, 2012]. University of London, No Date. Types of Environment. Analysing the Market Environment. [Online] Available at: http://www.londoninternational.ac.uk/current_students/programme_resources/lse/lse_pdf/further_units/marketing/marketing_chapter3.pdf [Accessed April 12, 2012]. Young, F. C. & Pagoso, C.M., 2008. Principles of Marketing’ 2008 Ed. Rex Bookstore, Inc. Read More