Characteristics of Marketing - Essay Example

MARKETING Table of Contents Introduction 3 Characteristics of Marketing Oriented Organization 4 Elements of Marketing Concept 4 Tourism in Tanzania 6Target Market 6 Benefits of Marketing to Tanzania 10 Conclusion 11 References 12 Bibliography 13 Introduction Marketing is all about meeting the needs of both the organization and the customer in an efficient way. An organization is segregated into different departments like that of finance, operations and human resource among others but the entire system would function in the desired way only when business and most importantly, revenue is generated. Businesses basically generate when there is a demand in market for the products or services offered by an organization. In the mid – 1950, implementation of marketing concept has changed views of business from product – centered to more customer - oriented. In the present day, the motive behind production is no more about searching customer but delighting customers through path of customization and research. According to the American Marketing Association, Marketing is “an organizational function and a set of process for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and managing customer relationship is a way that benefits the organization and its stakeholders” (AMA, 2004). Financial success fully depends upon right marketing. Corporate goals are achieved through meeting customer needs and delighting customer expectancy and right marketing is the way to it. Right marketing is obtained through research oriented planning and execution of those marketing strategy effectively. Characteristics of Marketing Oriented Organization Market is categorized into aspects like that of consumers, business, global, government and non government profit organizations. Ten types of entities can be marketed by marketers to these categories of market. These entities include properties, services, organization, events, place, goods, information, experiences, persons, and ideas. All organizations that work under this umbrella need marketing to sustain in ever rising competitive market of the present day. Due to the affects of globalization, changing technology, deregulations, privatization, customer empowerment, customization, increasing competition, there has been a remarkable change in behavior of market. It is facing new challenges and new opportunities with changing environment. Even market leaders like GE, Microsoft, Walt Mart, Intel, and Nike are kept on their toes. In order to ensure sustainable development, the companies need to remain flexible and adaptable to the external situations. Elements of Marketing Concept Marketing function survives on its fundamental core concepts as well as changing trends. Its fundamental concepts include needs which are basic requirements of an individual and can comprise of stated needs, unstated needs, real needs, secret needs, and delighted needs, whereas want and demand are specific needs towards a particular object (Kotler & Keller, 2006). Target market, positioning, and segmentation are done to identify customers in need who can back their desire through purchasing power. It is primarily done in order to segregate homogeneous needs of distinct group of customers so that plans can be made and executed in such a way that it can satisfy all groups of customers. Value, leading to satisfaction, deals with expectation of customers and performance of services in order to delight target market along with marketing channels, competition, and a favorable environment. Marketing concept is fully planned on macro and micro environment faced by the particular organization. So, the task of marketing predominantly comprise of developing strategies by capturing insights from market and developing relations with customers and maintaining those with long term perspective. It also includes building of brands, and delivery of services for creating long term values for an organization. The concept is fully focused on target market and their needs, integration of all activities that can satisfy customer and achieving profits in the form of achieving long term goals by delighting customers. On the other hand, marketers also play a significant role. They are the real minds and hands of marketing and therefore they are preferred to be tactful with skills related to critical thinking and creativity so that they can determine the authenticity, knowledge, claims and arguments and help in development of apt solutions. Benefit of marketing concept includes long term sustainability of brand name in customers’ mind, higher preference by customers towards that brand, financial and non financial profit through increase in purchase and repurchase as well as increase in goodwill. Tourism in Tanzania Tanzania is a beautiful country in Africa resourced with diversified species of animals, mountains and beaches. It is a perfect tourist destination for all kinds of target market like, animal lovers, fun lovers, adventure lovers, nature lovers and all also for researchers. Tourism has been the major contributor towards the GDP of the country. Target Market Target market of Tanzania can be classified into international and domestic consumers, business organizations and, governments of all countries. According to the modern marketing concepts, marketing deals with designing and development of product and services to meet customer needs, and should be focused on those who need it (the target group) and not the whole market and prepare marketing strategies that can fit into overall objectives of business. The principle products offered by Tanzanian tourism are that of the recreational experience with the unmatchable hospitality. It includes world-class transportation facilities, luxurious accommodation experience, foods, beverages, events, and entertainment as well as tourist shops for delightful travel experience. In an intangible commodity like service that primarily depends on one’s experience, it is very difficult to match all of the customers’ requirements and expectancy. It is very difficult to maintain same level of quality and control in all of the services and with all of the customers. Therefore, in order to sustain in such volatile market, the tourism department of Tanzania has to initiate major steps toward infrastructural development, cleanliness and hygiene factors, quality of service and encourage all businesses, agencies and organization that works in this field to collaborate so that the perfect package and effective promotional activities can be developed which will lead towards increase in customer base and consistency in product quality. Marketing Plan towards progress and sustainability of Tanzanian tourism market should include vision and mission statement, analysis of factors both, micro as well as macro, that can affect the plan, target market, marketing objectives in each segment, an implementation plan, budget, its execution process and evaluation and effective control of all processes (Mahoney. E. M & Warnell. G. R, 1987). Vision and mission of Tanzanian tourism is to attract more international tourist so that they can maintain foreign currency which is very essential for balancing their economy. Factors that can affect tourism in Tanzania are law and order of the country, increasing competition, economic condition of the nation, and the rate of development, brand recognition of Tanzania, its relationship with other countries, societal and political situation in Tanzania. Strategy adopted for the purpose of marketing includes selection of target market depending on their income level, country and the purpose of their visit. In the next step, packages and services are formulated according to those target segments with additional value spent on infrastructural development in terms on hygiene, shopping destinations, comfortable transportation and living so that they can get delightful experience over there. After development of the products to be offered, the next step moves toward marketing of those products that can have access to maximum crowd. This can be done through advertisement and contracting with governmental agencies and business groups. Advertisement can be done through banners, television and newspaper advertisement and also online advertisements play a pivotal role in the present day. Business can also be generated by contracting with other big organization to facilitate their employees by sending them to Tanzania for delighting purposes by rewarding them or through facilitating them through in-house advertisement. Availability of all of the required services in place and at times is very essential for delighting and maintaining relationships with customers. This can be facilitated by tourism departments through customer care centers at every touring and travelling destinations, online help website, advertisement informing all tourist destination and path that they can follow to be there through banners, hoarding and distribution of brochure at all internationally linked transport facilities like flights, buses. Brochures should also contain information about accommodation linked with the related prices. For fixing price of each package, tourism department should consult with the other involved organizations. Price structure should be flexible in nature so that it can be modulated with changing market condition. Since, Tanzania is in need of increasing tourist, its price structure should be in an affordable range and if possible marginally less in comparison to other country’s price structure and with this they should also provide certain added features. Benefits of Marketing to Tanzania Tanzania tourism will see a tremendous change in its output level due to changes it had done in its operational level. Benefits they will gain through adopting this marketing strategy would increase tourism in both short term as well as long term. This is because marketing not only deals with short term goals but also leads towards long term branding and increase in goodwill that will help organization to sustain in this competitive market for longer period. Marketing mix in the tourism of Tanzania is not only concerned with 4 P’s of marketing (i.e. place, promotion, product and price) but it also deals with physical structural development, people and publicitical approaches. Conclusion Tanzania, a beautiful tourist destination in Africa is facing problem of decreasing numbers of tourists. This was an effect of lack of branding, increasing competition and un-analysed strategies adopted by Tanzanian tourism department. Marketing is a tool through which one can achieve the objectives of short term as well as long term goals. Marketing is backed by research which gives information regarding market condition, trend and customer requirements. Adopting marketing in Tanzanian tourism can know its loopholes and through such instrument, they can develop and implement strategies that will benefit both the tourism department as well as customers. Marketing helped Tanzania in branding their offering in the minds of the target customers through various tools like that of media, advertisement and other. But in order to maintain this image and develop relationship with the customers, Tanzania should also concentrate on facilitating with unforgettable and delightful experience to each tourist and maintaining and controlling the quality of their service. Such steps by Tanzanian tourism department will definitely lead Tanzania into one of the most preferred destination and help in boosting its economy. References AMA, 2004. Marketing Definitions. SCRIBD. [Online] Available at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/468522/Marketing-Definitions [Accessed June 21, 2010]. Edward. E. M & Warnell. G. R. 1987. Tourism Marketing. Michigan State University. [Online] Available at: http://web1.msue.msu.edu/imp/modtd/33700082.html [Accessed June 21, 2010]. Kotler, P. & Keller, K. L. Marketing Management. Dorling Kindersley, 2006. Bibliography Holloway, J. C. Marketing for Tourism. Prentice Hall / Financial Times, 2004. Seaton, A. V. & Bennett, M. M. Marketing Tourism Products. Cengage Learning EMEA, 1996. Villanova University, No Date. Chapter 1 & 3: Marketing Process, Societal Implications, Customer Satisfaction and Value. General Marketing Overview. Home. [Online] Available on: www29.homepage.villanova.edu/.../General%20Overview%20Chapter%201%20&%203addendum.ppt [Accessed June 21, 2010]. Read More