Core concepts of marketing
The following figure makes the core concepts of marketing clear:
1. Needs, wants, and demands
Needs are the basic requirements for survival. Human beings have thrived on various needs. Human needs are of complex nature. According to Abraham Maslow, needs have a hierarchy. There are different types of human needs, which the human tries to fulfill one after another. They are physical needs (food, shelter, and clothes), security needs (free from fear, the security of a job, etc), social needs (giving importance by society, involvement in social activities, etc.) ego related need (respected post, honor, praise, etc) and self-actualization needs (creativeness, expectation of challenging task, an expectation to take part in the decision-making process, etc.). they are basic aspects of human life.
The expectation of the things for meeting the need is want. There are various types of wants of human beings. Such wants are directly influenced by the level of income, family, education, friends, school, personality, lifestyle, etc. wants are also affected by religious, cultural, and social elements. For example, a hungry Nepalese wants to eat beaten rice, curry, Mo: Mo, water, etc., but a hungry American wants a hamburger, coke, and French fries, etc. here needs are the same but the wants are different.
The want with willingness and ability to pay the price of things is demand. If a poor man wants to buy a car, it is not a demand, because he cannot have the ability to pay the price of car even if he was willing. Similarly, if a rich but miser person wants to buy a car, he may not become ready to pay the bill for the car. Therefore, it is compulsory to have both willingness and ability to pay the price to be a demand.
2. Product
The thing that satisfies human wants and needs is called a product. Product may or may not have physical existence. Machines, tools, foods, clothes, etc. have physical existence but service, experience, ideas, personality, etc. have no physical existence. The broad meaning of product includes utility to satisfy the needs of the product. A product is a bundle of utilities consisting of various product features and accompanying services.
3. Market
In modern marketing, market is an aggregate of people who, as individual or as organization, have needs for products in a product class and who have the ability, willingness and authority to purchase such products. Some concepts have been developed about markets. They are: place concept, product concept, area concept, demand concept and exchange concept. Market has been defined on the basis of all these concepts. Goods, buyer, seller, price and area are necessary to be a market.
4. Marketing
Marketing is a societal process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating, offering, and freely exchanging products and services of value with others. Simply it is the process or performance of business activity in the dynamic environment, facilitating exchange of ownership to satisfy customer, organizational and social goal in a planned way. Each and every efforts made to sell a product by satisfying both buyers and sellers are known as marketing. Simply, creating or adding usefulness in something to deliver satisfaction to the parties involved in business transaction is marketing.
5. Value, satisfaction and Quality
The capacity of the goods to satisfy the want of customers as expected is called value. Cost of the goods is taken as the basis to estimate its value. However, wise customers can measure the value and cost of the goods but cannot measure it with accuracy. They select goods on the basis of their perceived value. Value may be in the form of status, image, benefit, beauty, attractiveness, confidence, etc.
The customer feels satisfied from the value of the goods what he/she expects to get. Satisfied customer becomes brand loyal. He or she tells his friends and neighbors about the value of the goods. As a result, advertisement of the product takes place automatically. Therefore, the goods should be produced according to the expectation of the customers to satisfy their wants.
Customers satisfaction depends on the quality of the goods. In the recent years, most of the companies are found to have followed the total quality management – TQM. They are trying to improve the quality of goods, services and the process of marketing. Quality should be looked through customers satisfaction not through absence of defects. The quality of goods or services starts from wants of customers and ends in their satisfaction.
Characteristics of marketing
The meaning and definitions of marketing clearly present following characteristics:
Customers’ needs satisfaction
Marketing begins from human wants, needs and demands. Marketing satisfies customers’ wants, needs, etc. by producing goods and supplying them to the customers’ according to their needs, wants and demands.
Helps to achieve organizational goal
Organizations are established and conducted with certain objectives. Several marketing activities stimulate consumers towards organizational product. Marketing helps to achieve the objectives of different organizations.
Marketing consists of various activities
Marketing consists of various activities. They are related to product, place, price and promotion. Marketing is concerned with planning, organizing, controlling, directing and implementing various activities to make a better marketing mix.
Facilities exchanges
Giving and taking between buyer and seller is exchange. Marketing facilitates such exchange. As a result, exchange becomes effective. Marketing distributes products from one place to another. The transfer of ownership is possible because of marketing.
Process
Marketing is a societal process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating, offering, and freely exchanging products and services of value with others. It is a systematic managerial process.
