Question

Long Answer Type Question.
What is the marketing concept? How does it help in the effective marketing of goods and services?

Answer 1

Marketing orientation implies that focus on satisfaction of customer’s needs is the key to the success of any organisation in the market. It assumes that in the long run an organisation can achieve its objective of maximisation of profit by identifying the needs of its present and prospective buyers and satisfying them in an effective way. All the decisions in a firm are taken from the point of view of the customers. In other words, customer’s satisfaction become the focal point of all decision making in the organisation. For example, what product will be produced, with what features and at what price shall it be sold, or where shall it be made available for sale will depend on what do the customers want. If the customers want features like double door in a refrigerator or a separate provision for water cooler in it, the organisation would produce a refrigerator with these features, would price it at a level which the customers are willing to pay and so on. If all marketing decisions are taken with this prospective, selling will not be any problem. It will automatically follow. The basic role of a firm then is to ‘identify a need and fill it’. The concept implies that products ad-services are bought not merely because of their quality, packing or brand name, but because they satisfy a specific need of a customer. A pre-requisite for the success of any organisation, therefore, is to understand and respond to customer needs. To sum up, the marketing concept is based on the following pillars: (i) Identification of market or customer who are chosen as the target of marketing effort. (ii) Understanding needs and wants of customers in the target market. (iii) Development of products or services for satisfying needs of the target market. (iv) Satisfying needs of target market better than the competitors. (v) Doing all this at a profit. Thus, the focus of the marketing concept is on customer needs and the customer satisfaction becomes the means to achieving the firms’ objective of maximising profit. The purpose of marketing is to generate customer value at a profit.