Marketing: signs and their meaning - Assignment Example

Lecturer’s Marketing is all about the production of signs and their meanings within contemporary societies.How far do you agree with this statement and why? Introduction The definition of the term marketing has evolved over time and different authors have come up with different definitions. Marketing in the earlier days simply meant the sale of goods at the market place. Today's modern marketing concept however includes quite a number of activities; research, product planning, pricing, advertising and selling (Bellis). A keen look at the activities mentioned therein will reveal a chronological process and not the mere selling of goods it was deemed to be in the past. Marketers first of all research on what it is that the customers want. This can be through conducting surveys via issuing questionnaires to potential customers. After that, they plan on how their products will be tailor-made to fit the customer’s wants. This is followed by pricing the goods. When pricing, a number of factors ought to be taken into consideration such as; cost of production, competitor’s pricing, target market among other factors. The price has to be just right so as not to dissuade potential customers from purchasing the product. The next step involves advertising. This is basically creating awareness on the product- letting people know that the product exists and reminding those who knew about it already that it is still in the market. When advertising, it is important to come up with an advertisement that properly communicates about the brand and appeals to the target market. Lastly, selling- which is where the customer is finally convinced to purchase the product. An important point to note even from the definition given above is that marketing is customer-based. There is a fallacy that marketing is about advertising and promoting ones business. Such thinking is wrong. This paper seeks to determine whether or not the author agrees with the statement above. It is therefore important to state unequivocally that the above statement can be misguiding and thus the author does not agree with it. With that being said, we need to find out what the actual meaning of marketing is and what it involves. Analysis of the Statement The statement in question states that- marketing is all about the production of signs and their meanings within contemporary societies. In order to properly analyse this statement, we shall look at it in parts, thus we shall dissect it. We need to determine what marketing is. Next we find out the meaning of “production of signs”. After that we explain what contemporary society means. Then we look at the meaning of the statement as a whole. Is marketing all about the production of signs and their meanings within contemporary societies? Marketing has previously been defined in this paper and the author will in the latter parts of this paper be delved into deeper. In my opinion, the “production of signs” refers to invention of slogans, logos, tag-lines amongst other things. The next part reads “and their meanings within contemporary societies”. This seeks to find out whether the logos, slogans etc resonate with their target market. Therefore, the statement in other words states that marketing is only about the invention of the above mentioned “signs” and whether they resonate with their target audience. What is a contemporary society? The term contemporary can be defined as, a person living around the same time. Therefore, a contemporary society is a society living in the present time. In other words a modern society. We are living in an era where access to information is not only a fundamental right but has also become a common way of life. Information nowadays can easily be accessed through various mediums for instance; the internet, social media- Facebook, and twitter etc, libraries, among others. The culture of reading has greatly improved over the years and therefore information cannot be hidden in volumes of books. People can now easily access e-books and to ease their perusal, the use of smart phones, e-book readers- tablets and laptops is now part of our culture. What is marketing to the contemporary society? Before we answer this question it is important to appreciate that a contemporary society includes those who are well informed and also those poorly informed. Therefore each of these groups depending on their knowledge on the subject will view marketing in a different manner. For instance, to the poorly informed, marketing is merely the “production of signs”. For those who take it to be only about the “production of signs”, they take it at face value. They do not look at the other activities carried out. As previously stated, this is not necessarily wrong but marketing is a very broad discipline that encompasses other activities. However, to those knowledgeable on this subject, marketing consists of various activities. These activities include those previously outlined: researching, product planning, pricing, advertising and selling. What is Marketing? S. H. Simmons gave a very good and humorous anecdote of what marketing is- "If a young man tells his date she's intelligent, looks lovely, and is a great conversationalist, he's saying the right things to the right person and that's marketing.  If the young man tells his date how handsome, smart and successful he is — that's advertising.  If someone else tells the young woman how handsome, smart and successful her date is — that's public relations."(Heasman, 2010) It would almost amount to a cardinal sin in marketing to write a whole paper and fail to mention the most outstanding authorities of the 21st Century with regards to marketing. According to Kotler and Amstrong marketing is the process through which companies create value for their customers and build strong relationships with them so as to capture value from customers in return (Kotler, 2002). In order to fully understand marketing and its different aspects it is important to look at the basic concepts of marketing. In marketing spheres, these are known as the 7 Ps of marketing: i. Product This is the company’s core offering and it is thus paramount that it be of high quality and meet the customer’s needs. If the product is faulty, then the company as a whole is failing mainly because its core business is to produce this product for its customers. In order to formulate a marketing strategy, it is important to look at the attributes of their product, vis-a-vis the attributes of competing products and its substitutes (Tracy, 2004). ii. Price This concept has a lot of impact on the level of customer satisfaction. Customers tend to associate high price with quality and therefore price is considered a proxy for quality and vice-versa (Behera, 2008). Often, paying a higher price makes a customer more satisfied. For example; consider a customer who go to five-star restaurants to enjoy a meal. The difference in pricing between such eateries and the run-of the-mill eateries is mostly pricing. However, there is a misconception that such high prices are accompanied with quality. iii. Place This refers to venue and it usually offers a different aspect of utility to the customer. How many people would want or can afford to travel 10 miles simply to shop for household items. In such cases, prices do not come into question regardless of whether they are very low. Services are usually chosen for their place utility. Places in close proximity to the customer means there is a higher probability of purchase. iv. Promotion This concept plays a very crucial role in the target audience’s perception the possible about the service. This promotion should not be haphazard, the promotion and the positioning of the company has to be just right, it should fit. Apart from establishing a proxy through which quality of service can be evaluated, promotion also leads to service/brand recognition. Upon understanding this concept, it will help one to realise that service providers such as banks and airlines invest heavily in promotional activities. Companies employ various promotional tools such as internet advertisement. These last three Ps of marketing are relatively new and they were introduced after marketing experts criticised the first four for being incomplete and not covering all marketing aspects. v. People These is the most important resource in a company. They are crucial in service delivery. People in a company need to not only have proper skills but also the right attitudes (Tracy, 2004). For example; in a bank, a teller serves the customer while in a foul mood. This will rub off wrongly on the customer. While directly dealing with customers, it is important to constantly smile. In order to enable employees to properly handle customers, they should be equipped with the right trianing for instance customer care training. vi. Process This concept is very important especially in service delivery. The service is the most important aspect as it is used to measure the quality of service delivered. The service delivery process is crucial as it ensures that there is standardisation. This means that customers are repeatedly offered the same service. Process mapping refers to the outlining of the processes that ought to be followed in the company while delivering services (Behera, 2008). Most companies refer to such as service blue print which contain even the most basic details for instance how staff ought to greet a customer. vii. Physical evidence Services are intangible in nature and as a result most service providers if not all strive to incorporate certain tangible elements in order to enhance the customer’s experience. Take for instance hair salons, some have very well designed waiting areas with plush sofas and magazines laid out, to keep the customers comfortable and busy while waiting to be attended to. The same applies to buses which try to attract customers with comfy seats and offering refreshments. For service based companies, customers tend to gauge the quality of the service using proxies such as tangible elements. Some authors have introduced another P which has grown in significance especially in Services Marketing- Personal interest (Raja 2009). However, it should be noted that the rightful authorities have fronted diferent meanings for the eighth P. Some have proponed that it ought to refer to productivity and quality. These Ps have come a long way and this shows that the concept of marketing is constantly developing. In the 1940s and 1950s these Ps were only 4 after which they graduated to the 7 Ps. Some authors had criticised the 4 P's for although they made a lot of sense, they seemed somewhat incomplete. This led to the increase from 4 Ps to 7 Ps. An Illustration of the 7 Ps of Marketing Source: (Kar 2010) Conclusion Marketing experts have varying opinions on the definition of marketing and therefore there is no standard definition. However, despite this, one aspect of marketing is common in most definitions- marketing is a process. The same was stated by the American Marketing Association in its definition of the term “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” (American Marketing Association, 2007) By recognising marketing as a process this means that more than one activity is involved thus negating the statement itself. The author cannot emphasis enough that the statament in general is not wrong, the only dispute comes because of the use of the word “all” that marketing is all about production of signs. Had the statement ommitted the aforesaid then it would have been regarded as a correct statement. References American Marketing Association 2007 Behera, M 2008, The 7Ps of Marketing Mix Bellis, M, What is Marketing? Chartered Institute of Marketing 2008, The Definition of Marketing Heasman, L 2010, Modern Marketing Principles: Building a Better Toolbox Kar, A 2010, The 7 Ps of services marketing Kotler, P 2002, Marketing Management, Prentice-Hall Tracy, B 2004, The 7Ps of Marketing: Take charge of your marketing efforts and beat the competition with this simple formula Online English Dictionary Raja, B 2009, Dedicated to Marketing Stockard, N 2008, Top 10 Marketing Concepts for Small Business Marketing Webster, E 2008, Marketing is Management: The Wisdom of Peter Drucker Read More