In order to succeed, marketing management entails creating and implementing strategic marketing plans, procedures, and activities that are in line with broader business goals. It also involves monitoring KPIs and streamlining internal operations.
The main goals of marketing management are to develop, plan, and implement strategies that will aid in achieving more general business goals. These corporate goals may include expanding into unexplored markets, generating earnings, or raising brand recognition. It’s important to look to marketing experts Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller when we start thinking about the field of marketing management. In their book “Marketing Management,” they provide a common definition of marketing management as “the development, design, and implementation of marketing programs, processes, and activities that recognize the breadth and interdependencies of the business environment.”
Managers must thoroughly research the ways and tactics that keep and delight their clients, and they must actively participate in gauging success and streamlining internal procedures.
Concepts
Marketing professionals employ one or more of the five marketing concepts to gain the trust of customers and forge fruitful, long-lasting connections with them. The marketing process can be carried out in a variety of ways. The primary five, which have been developing for decades, are production, product, selling, marketing, and societal conceptions.
Philip Kotler defines contemporary marketing as “a social and administrative process by which individuals and organizations achieve what they need and want through the creation and exchange of goods and values with others.” A thorough and in-depth examination of this term inevitably reveals several fundamental marketing ideas, as seen in the figure below:
Needs: To engage in marketing efforts, there must be unmet needs. Marketing aims to meet consumer wants. Human needs are the result of a felt lack of a fundamental pleasure. A need is a mental attitude that expresses a situation of lack and restlessness.
The nature of needs is physiological. Humans need things like food, shelter, clothing, esteem, and a sense of belonging. Keep in mind that needs do not arise. They have always been present in people. The physiological strain brought on by needs can be relieved by ingesting or using things.
Wants: Demand is the desire for particular things that is supported by the ability, willingness, and/or readiness to purchase them. It is always stated in terms of time. Not all desires are transmitted through demand. Such desires that are backed by the means and desire to purchase may become demands.
The goal of marketing is to increase demand by making a product appealing, accessible, and inexpensive. controlling the quantity and timing of demand is a marketing management challenge. Demand management is another name for marketing management.
Demand: Demand is the desire for particular things that is supported by the ability, willingness, and/or readiness to purchase them. It is always stated in terms of time. Not all desires are transmitted through demand. Such desires that are backed by the means and desire to purchase may become demands.
The goal of marketing is to increase demand by making a product appealing, accessible, and inexpensive. controlling the quantity and timing of demand is a marketing management challenge. Demand management is another name for marketing management.
Product: A product can also be thought of as a collection of emotional and physical fulfillment. Product characteristics (color, branding, packaging, labeling, variations, etc.) and product-related services are included with the core product (basic components or functionality) (after-sales services, guarantee, and warrantee, free home delivery, free repairing, and so on). Hence, a tangible product is a collection of services or advantages. Instead of focusing on the product itself, marketers should think about product features and services.
Marketers can use their products to meet the requirements and desires of their target audience. Anything that can be provided to someone to meet their needs or wants might be generally characterized as it. Goods and services are both considered products. Typically, a product is considered to be a physical item, such as a pen, television, book, bread, etc. Yet, the quality of the product’s service is what matters. Consumers are more interested in the services that items provide than in simply owning or possessing them. As an illustration, we purchase writing services rather than pens. Similar to this, we do not purchase a car but rather a transportation service. Just owning a product is insufficient; it must also fulfill our needs and desires. Consequently, a tangible commodity is merely a means of providing services to us.
According to the definition, a product can be anything that satisfies needs and desire. So, a “product” can be any tangible thing, person, idea, activity, or organization that can offer any kind of services to fulfill certain requirements or desires.
Utility (value), Cost, and Satisfaction: Utility refers to a product’s overall ability to satisfy need and desire. It serves as a principle for making product decisions. Each product’s level of utility varies. Products can be evaluated from most need-satisfying to least need-satisfying according to level of utility. Utility is the consumer’s assessment of how well the product will generally meet his or her needs. Such a more useful product is bought by the customer. Utility is, thus, a product’s capacity to meet a specific demand.
Cost is simply a product’s price. It is the product’s economic value. Costs are the fees a client must pay in order to use a particular service. He contrasts the expense of the product with its utility. He will pick a product that can provide more utility (value) for the amount he is willing to pay. He seeks to maximize value, or the usefulness of the good per rupee.
The satisfaction of wants entails happiness. When a customer believes that a product is better than what they paid for it, they may be satisfied. Having all of the buyer’s expectations met is crucial for satisfaction. Unmet need-related anxiety is relieved by satisfaction (s). In other words, greater utility/value at lower cost leads to greater satisfaction.
Exchange, Transaction, and Transfer: Marketing is centered on exchange. Management of marketing makes an effort to achieve the targeted exchange. One of the four options available to people to meet their needs and wants is self-production, followed by coercion/snatching, begging, and exchanging.
Marketing only develops when people want to exchange goods and services to meet their needs and desires. The act of receiving something sought from someone by offering them something in return is referred to as trade.
When all five of the following criteria are met, exchange is possible:
- Two parties at the very least are required.
- Each party is free to accept or reject the exchange offer.
- Each party has something that the other party would find valuable.
- Each party is able to communicate and deliver.
- Each party feels that doing business with the other party is preferable.
Instead of an event, exchange is a process. It suggests that discussions are taking place, with a view to reaching an agreement. An agreement is a transaction once it is reached. The decision or commitment made is referred to as a transaction.
In an illustration, Mr. X pays Rs. 25,000 and receives a computer. There are many different kinds of transactions, including barter transactions, financial transactions, commercial transactions, employment transactions, civic transactions, and charitable transactions.
Conditions for the transaction include:
- At least two things of value
- Agreed upon conditions
- A time of agreement
- A place of agreement
- A contract law (legal framework) to prevent mistrust
Transfer is the act of receiving something without making a counteroffer or making a gift without expecting anything in return. For instance, Mr. Y receives a gift from Mr. X. A one-way procedure is a transfer. But, in practice, pure transfer is uncommon. Something is transferred with some implicit assumptions. Giving a beggar money will win God’s favor.
Donors who make donations are honored, thanked, given special invitations, and sometimes even have particular influence over the administration. Gifts are appreciated in exchange for thanks, excellent behavior, a “thank you,” or with the hope that the recipient would do the same in the future. Nearly all transfers and transactions are the same. Both the transfer and the transaction are significant to marketers.
Relationships and Network: Relationship building is given significant weight in modern marketing practices. Relationship marketing is a marketing strategy based on establishing relationships. Building lasting lucrative or gratifying relationships with important parties including customers, suppliers, distributors, and others is known as relationship marketing. The goal is to maintain these parties’ long-term preference for your company.
A shrewd marketer endeavors to establish enduring, dependable, and mutually beneficial relationships with suppliers, distributors, and esteemed clients. Relationship marketing necessitates a great degree of knowledge, trust, dedication, and cooperation.
Relationship marketing causes the parties to become more economically, technically, socially, and culturally connected. Establishing and maintaining long-term relationships with the parties involved in business is the responsibility of the marketing manager. The ultimate result of relationship marketing is a network. The company and its supporting stakeholders, including clients, staff, vendors, distributors, advertising agencies, colleges and universities, and others, who are seen to be crucial to the success of business, make up a marketing network. It is a structure of ongoing relationships with stakeholders. A strong network of connections with important stakeholders leads to improved marketing success over time.
Market, Marketing, Marketer, and Prospect: Markets, marketing, marketer, and prospects are widely used terms in marketing management. A market is made up of all possible customers who could be willing and able to engage in exchange in order to satisfy a specific need or goal.
By the creation and exchange of products and value with other people, marketing is a social and management activity that enables individuals and groups to fulfill their needs and desires.
A marketer is someone who looks to engage one or more prospects (buyers) in a transaction. As he wants others to participate in a trade, the seller in this case can also be a marketer. Typically, a firm or business division is referred to as a marketer.
A prospect is someone who the marketer believes might be ready and willing to participate in the trade. (In case of interaction between two companies, both can be said as prospects as well as marketers). Broadly speaking, a prospect is a consumer or customer who purchases a product from a business in order to fulfill his requirements or goals.