Principles of Marketing - Assignment Example

1. Marketing is one of the most important business functions. The need for marketing as an integral function of business that facilitates business has only grown over the years. Thus marketing as a business function has evolved over time. Traditionally, the business fraternity has seen many a change and mostly owing to the changes in orientation of marketing. Right from the days of product orientation to selling orientation to marketing orientation to relationship marketing, marketing has come along a long way (Abu & Kamarulzaman, 2009). However, among the various definitions of marketing that are there, the most prominent as well as well accepted ones are given by Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) and American Marketing Association (AMA). The definition by Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) states that ‘the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating, and satisfying customer requirement profitably’ (CIM, 2007). On the other hand, the American Marketing Association (AMA) has defined marketing as ‘activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating communication, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large’ (AMA, 2007). Again, eminent marketing gurus such as Kotler and Armstrong has been of the opinion that marketing is ‘the process by which companies create value for customers and build strong customer relationships in order to capture value from customers in return’ (2008). Thus in the light of what the most eminent associations as well as personalities in marketing have opined, it becomes clear that marketing is basically a holistic process that includes a lot of processes as well as functions. However, whatever the number or for that matter purview of the functions be, the ultimate end that marketing serves is basically value for customers, clients, partners, and society alike. Thus, apart from the varied functions marketing serves, generation of value through the process of marketing is the ultimate end it serves. Among the basic concepts that marketing takes into consideration, needs, wants and demand are of paramount importance (Abu & Kamarulzaman, 2009). The basic premise of marketing is verily dependent on these three terms since it is the proper understanding of needs, wants and demand of the marketer’s target customers that leads to successful marketing efforts on the part of the marketer. Also, the product or service on offer by the marketer is of immense importance. Given that the concept of modern marketing revolves not around the product but around the customer, marketing efforts should focus on the needs, wants as well as demand of customers and use these pieces of information to devise the product or service (Kotler, 2001). Even later, as part of the focus of marketing, it has gradually shifted towards relationship marketing since marketers are increasingly faced with stiff competition and once all marketers have become customer oriented, new as well as innovative ways of marketing and bonding with customers have become the need of the hour. Thus, marketing, as understood from the available literature, is basically a process that starts with understanding the needs as well as requirements of the customers, coming up with a product or service that satisfies those needs and requirements and also ensuring that even after the sale is over, the company continues to share a relationship with customers in the long term. In the light of what marketing is and the purview of the same, it would not be out of place to mention here that marketing forms the linkage between the firm and the external world at large including customers as well as all other stakeholders. 2. The roles and functions that marketing serves within a firm are many as well as varied. As noted above, the ambit of marketing is large and covers a host of functions right from understanding customers’ requirements to satisfying them and even more. Thus the roles that marketing has to fulfill can take the form of research into the needs, wants, demands as well as customer perceptions to giving inputs to the firm regarding the development of the products to communicating the product or service offerings to the target markets to ensuring that the products and services are made available at the right place, right time and right quantity to actually selling the product to ultimately ensuring that the relation with customers do not end with the sale but continue as a cycle that keeps repeating itself. Going deeper into the roles and functions of marketing, the first phase is concerned with understanding the market. Market scanning therefore becomes very important. Various frameworks are available in this regard. PESTLE analysis is one such framework which is defined as amalgamation of various macro-environmental forces that drive the organization’s performance and comprises the political, economic, sociological, technological, ecological and legal forces (Viardot, 2004). Furthermore, “it assists companies in the selection of attractive markets and the appropriate entry mode” (Aubert & Frigstad, 2007). Again, once the external environment analysis is done, internal analysis is also performed with the help of SWOT. SWOT analysis refers to a framework that helps to summarize the key environmental issues and the strategic capabilities of an organization that are most likely to impact on strategy development (Johnson, Scholes & Whittington, 2005). Of course, detailed research is also done in order to come up with the specifics of the needs, requirements and perceptions of customers. This forms market research for marketing. Again, the STP (segmentation, targeting and positioning) process is what categorises the market for the product or service as well as helps in targeting the product in the minds of the customers (Kotler, 2001). Subsequently marketing provides inputs for product development, target markets as well as customers, sales and after sales support. Also, it ensures that customers keep having business transactions with the company and this forms part of the relationship marketing, one of the latest trends in marketing. However, the most prominent part of marketing to the outside world are that of communicating the product or service offerings to the customers as well as selling the same. Though integral parts these are to marketing, nevertheless, the other roles of marketing can hardly be ignored. In terms of the value that marketing provides to customers as well as to the firm, as already mentioned, the most important part of marketing is the value generation part it involves. The transactions that marketing culminates in ultimately generates value for the customers and also for the firm. The value is generated through the product offering which is perceived of by customers in terms of the value it offers. Similarly, the firm sees value from the sales of the products or services through the monetary as well as other benefits it derives. Also, business transactions take place only when the perceived value of the product or service on offer by the marketer is more than the price the customers have to pay for the same. On the other hand, firms visualize that the price they charge is actually more valuable than what product or service they are offering and this difference is seen as the profits they get out of the entire process. As an example to the value generation process involved in marketing, one may take the example of Samsung. Samsung Group is one of the biggest names in the business fraternity all over the world. With diversified business interests, the company is into Samsung Electronics, the flagship company of the entire group. Their other business interests include skyscraper and plant construction, semiconductors, petrochemicals, finance, medicine, fashion, advanced technology, hotels etc (Samsung website, 2012). As part of their marketing drive for their electronics products, for example, Galaxy series of mobiles, what the customer perceives of is in terms of the features such as great picture quality, touch screen etc that the model is offering and finds that the trade off is actually profitable for the customer since the value of these features is more than what the customer is paying to get it. On the other hand, Samsung, the organization is of the view that if they can sell the product at the specified price, the monetary value of what they are getting is more than what they are offering. Thus it is a win win situation for both the parties involved and therefore in resulting in sales. 3. As far as Samsung electronics is concerned, the stakeholder groups for the firm as well as its marketing drives would include the employees, the management of the firm, the target customers, and society at large. Again, each of these stakeholder groups has substantial say in the marketing decision making, though in their respective ways. The management of the firm is the highest deciding body and thus it is imperative that this particular stakeholder group must have a big role to play in marketing decisions. Employees, on the other hand, who make business possible, are also very important and are integrally conjoined with the marketing decisions of Samsung since most of the inputs are provided by them as well as execute the decisions ultimately. The customers are at the centre of the marketing universe and thus all decisions relate to them and are intended to influence them positively. Society is also a stakeholder since anything the company does should ideally if not benefit the society should at least not harm it. The ways of communicating marketing to each of these groups is different. For employees, internal marketing is essential with the help of policies, marketing communication and fair management practices. Customers are reached in various ways including advertising and sales promotion, direct marketing, personal selling, PR etc. The management is communicated the marketing inputs etc through proper channels and the company’s business ventures are projected to be profitable enough for them to pursue further. As far as the tools and techniques available to marketers to communicate what is mentioned above, as already said, advertising, sales promotion, PR, direct marketing etc are available to them. Various media are also there these days adding to the flurry of channels of communicating marketing to customers. 4. Marketing is of immense value to Samsung electronics. Given the products that Samsung is in, the segment is characterized by stiff competition by global players such as Sony and Apple. Other players both local, national as well as international are not far behind. Thus Samsung has to continually ensure that they are on the right track by continuously advertising, evolving, updating their product offerings, adding further value to their products through the introduction of add-ons, ensuring proper after sales support, and envisioning long term relationship with their customers. Thus the value generated from the entire process is not limited to the money that the company gets from the sales but also the loyal customer base it has created, the long term relationship with its customers, the brand it is on a global level and of course one of the best and most renowned players in the global electronics segment. References 1. Abu, N & Kamarulzaman, Y 2009, ‘Principles of Marketing’, Kuala Lampur: Oxford Fajar 2. Ferrell, O & Hartline, M 2008, ‘Marketing Strategy’, Mason, OH: South Western Cengage 3. CIM 2007, viewed on 3 December 2012, http://www.cimhk.org.hk/ 4. Kotler, P & Armstrong, G 2008, ‘Principles of Marketing’, NJ: Prentice Hall 5. Kotler, P 2001, ‘Marketing Management’, NJ: Prentice Hall 6. Viardot, E 2004, ‘Successful Marketing Strategy for High-Tech Firms, Volume 5’, MA: Artech House, Inc. 7. Aubert, AE & Frigstad, AK 2007, ‘Strategic Analysis of Statoil’s International Competitiveness’, Bergen: Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, 20. 8. Johnson, G, Scholes, K & Whittington, R 2005, ‘Exploring corporate strategy: text and cases’. Europe: Prentice Hall, 102. 9. www.samsung.com, 2012, viewed on 27 November, http://www.samsung.com/in/aboutsamsung/corporateprofile/ourperformance/samsungprofile.html Read More