A brief introduction to marketing

Marketing, as a planning and execution activity, is a process that involves the development, production, pricing, promotion, and distribution of a product, a service, or an idea, with the goal of satisfying the needs of an organization or an individual through the process of exchange and transaction.

Marketing refers to a series of market-related business activities such as production, distribution and after-sales service under the guidance of the idea of focusing on customer needs.

Some scholars define marketing from a macro perspective. For example, E.J. Mccarthy defines marketing as a process of socio-economic activities, which aims to satisfy social or human needs and achieve social goals. Another example, Philop Kotler states that "Marketing is a human activity related to the market. Marketing means dealing with the market to realize potential exchanges in order to satisfy human needs and desires" (Marketing Management, 5th edition, pp. 13-14).?

There are also some definitions that are expressed from a micro perspective. For example, the American Marketing Association defined marketing in 1960 as "the marketing activities of a firm that direct the flow of products or services from producers to consumers".

Definition of marketing MBA: refers to the enterprise customer-centric, market-oriented, from product planning, comprehensive use of a variety of marketing tools, and ultimately to achieve the business objectives of the whole process.

J.E. Mccarthy in 1960 also on the micro-marketing definition: marketing "is the responsibility of business activities, it will be products and services from the producer directly to the consumer or user in order to satisfy customer demand and realize the company's profits" (Basic Marketing, page 19). This definition points out to meet customer demand and realize the profitability of the company to become the company's business objectives, but both definitions show that marketing activities are in the end of product production activities began, after a series of sales activities, when the goods to the hands of the user on the end of the end of the marketing activities of the enterprise is confined to a narrow range of circulation areas, rather than as the whole process of the enterprise's entire business sales The company's marketing activities are limited to the narrow scope of circulation, rather than the whole process of business sales, including marketing research, product development, pricing, distribution, advertising, publicity and reporting, sales promotion, sales promotion, after-sales service, and so on.

Philop K otler defined marketing in 1984: marketing is the function of the enterprise, "to recognize the present unmet needs and desires, to estimate and determine the size of demand, to select and decide on the target market that the enterprise can best serve, and to decide on the appropriate products, services, and plans (or programs) in order to serve the target market". to serve the target market" (Preface to Marketing Management).

The American Marketing Association (AMA) provided a more complete and comprehensive definition of marketing in 1985: marketing "is the process of planning and implementing the design, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, products, and services to produce exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational goals." This definition is more comprehensive and complete than many of the previous definitions. The main performance is: (1 ) the concept of product has been expanded, which includes not only products or services, but also ideas; (2) the concept of marketing has been expanded, and marketing activities include not only for-profit business activities, but also the activities of non-profit organizations; (3) the process of exchange has been emphasized; and (4) the development and implementation of marketing plans have been highlighted.

In addition, we can also understand:

1. Marketing is a business activity, which is a purposeful and conscious behavior of the enterprise.?

2. Satisfying and guiding consumers' needs is the starting point and center of marketing activities. Enterprises must take consumers as the center, face the changing environment, make the right response to adapt to the changing needs of consumers. Satisfying consumer demand includes not only the present demand, but also the potential future demand. Present demand is expressed as a tendency to buy existing products, while potential demand is expressed as a desire for a certain function of a product that has not yet been introduced. Enterprises should develop products and use a variety of marketing tools to stimulate and guide consumers to generate new demand.

3. Analyzing the environment, selecting the target market, identifying and developing products, product pricing, distribution, promotion and provision of services, as well as their coordination and cooperation, the best combination, is the main content of marketing activities. There are four basic variables in the marketing mix that can be artificially controlled, namely, product, price, place (of sale) and method of promotion. Because of these four variables in English are to the letter "P" at the beginning, so also known as "4Ps". Enterprise marketing activities to do is to pay close attention to the uncontrollable changes in the external environment, the appropriate combination of "4Ps", do everything possible to make the enterprise controllable variables (4Ps) and the external environment in the uncontrollable variables quickly adapt, which is the key to the success of business management, corporate survival and development. ?

4. Realization of corporate goals is the purpose of marketing activities. Different enterprises have different business environments, different enterprises will be in different periods of development, different products in the life cycle of different stages, therefore, the enterprise's goals are diverse, profits, output, production, sales, market share, production growth rate, social responsibility and so on may become the goal of the enterprise, but no matter what kind of goal, must be through effective marketing activities Completion of the exchange, and customers to reach a deal can be realized.

Marketing Concepts

1) Why is the formation of the marketing concept a fundamental change in marketing thinking?

2)What were the major developments in marketing concepts in the 1970s?

Enterprise business concept (philosophy) is the guiding ideology of enterprise business activities, is the enterprise how to look at the interests of customers and society, that is, how to deal with the weight of the interests of the enterprise, customers and society between the three key. Whether it is the Western countries or China's business concept of the evolution of ideas have experienced by the "production-centered" to "customer-centered", from "production to sales" to "Sales-oriented production" process. The evolution of business ideas, reflecting the development of social productivity and market trends, but also reflects the deepening of the understanding of the objective laws of marketing development by business leaders. This can be seen from the evolution of the United States business concept of thought.

Modern enterprise marketing management concept can be summarized as five, namely, production concept, product concept, sales concept, marketing concept and social marketing concept.

(I) Production Concept

Production concept is one of the oldest concepts to guide the behavior of the seller. This concept arose before the 1920s. The philosophy of business operation is not from the consumer demand, but from the enterprise production. Its main manifestation is "what I produce, what I sell". According to the concept of production, consumers prefer products that can be bought anywhere and at low prices, and companies should work to improve production and distribution efficiency, expand production, and reduce costs in order to expand the market. For example, the Fort Pierce Flour Company in the United States used the concept of production to guide its business operations from 1869 to the 1920s, when the company's motto was "This company is designed to make flour". Henry Ford, the American automobile king, once arrogantly declared: "No matter what color car the customer wants, I have only one black one." It is also typical. Obviously, the concept of production is a business philosophy that emphasizes production over marketing.

The concept of production was created under seller's market conditions. In the early stage of capitalist industrialization, as well as the end of the Second World War and the post-war period, due to the shortage of materials, market demand exceeds supply, the concept of production is quite popular in business management. China in the old system of planned economy, due to the shortage of market products, enterprises are not worried about their products are not sold, industrial and commercial enterprises in their business management is also practicing the concept of production, specific performance: industrial enterprises to focus on the development of production, pay little attention to marketing, the implementation of the production of sales; commercial enterprises to focus on grasping the source of goods, industrial production of what will be purchased, industrial production of how much to buy how much, and do not pay attention to the marketing.

In addition to the shortage of materials, product demand exceeds supply, some enterprises in the high cost of products under the conditions of its marketing management is also governed by the product concept. For example, Henry Ford in the early part of this century had devoted all his efforts to the mass production of automobiles, trying to reduce the cost, so that consumers can afford to buy, in order to increase the market share of Ford's automobiles.

(2) Product Concept

It is also an early concept of business operation. The product concept that consumers like the most high-quality, multi-functional and have certain characteristics of the product, the enterprise should be committed to the production of high-value products, and constantly improve. It arises in the "seller's market" situation where the supply of products exceeds the demand. The easiest occasion to breed product concepts is when an enterprise invents a new product. At this time, the enterprise is most likely to lead to "marketing myopia", that is, inappropriately focusing on the product, rather than on the market needs, the lack of vision in marketing management, only to see the quality of their own products, do not see the market demand in the change, resulting in business operations in a predicament.

For example, the U.S. xxxxx watch company has been recognized as one of the best watch manufacturers in the United States since its founding in 1869 to the 1950s. The company emphasized the production of high-quality products in its marketing management, and distributed its products through a marketing network consisting of famous jewelry stores, large department stores, etc. Before 1958, the company's sales were always on the rise. But thereafter its sales and market share began to decline. The main reason for this situation was that the market situation had changed: many consumers in this period were no longer interested in expensive watches and tended to buy those economical, convenient and novel watches; moreover, many manufacturers catered to the needs of consumers and had begun to produce low-grade products, which were actively marketed through mass distribution channels such as cheap stores and supermarkets, and thus captured most of the ×××× Watch Company's market share. ×××The company did not even notice the change in the market situation, and was still obsessed with the production of exquisite traditional-style watches and sales through traditional channels, believing that the quality of its products was so good that customers would inevitably come to it. As a result, the company suffered a major setback.

(C) the concept of marketing

The concept of marketing (or sales concept) arose in the late 1920s to the 1950s, is another concept used by many companies, as "I sell what the customer buys what". It is believed that consumers usually show a kind of purchasing inertia or counterbalance mentality, and if they listen to nature, they generally will not buy the products of a certain enterprise in sufficient quantity, therefore, enterprises must actively market and vigorously promote in order to stimulate consumers to buy the products of the enterprise in large quantities. The concept of sales promotion is heavily used in the modern market economy to promote those non-thirsty items, i.e., products or services that the buyer would not normally think of purchasing. The sales pitch concept is also often practiced by many companies when there is a surplus of products.

The concept of salesmanship arose during the transition from a "seller's market" to a "buyer's market" in capitalist countries. During the period of 1920-1945, due to the progress of science and technology, scientific management and the popularization of large-scale production, the output of products increased rapidly, and gradually appeared the new situation of oversupply of products in the market and fierce competition among sellers. Especially during the great economic crisis of 1929-1933, a large number of products could not be sold, thus forcing enterprises to emphasize the use of advertising and salesmanship to promote their products. Many entrepreneurs feel: even if there are good quality and cheap products, may not be able to sell out; enterprises to survive and develop in the increasingly fierce market competition, we must pay attention to sales promotion. For example, the U.S. Fort Pierce Flour Company in this business concept-oriented, then put forward "the company aims to promote flour". The concept of sales promotion still exists in today's business marketing activities, such as customers are reluctant to buy products, often using forced sales tactics.

While this concept is a step forward from the previous two concepts, which emphasized advertising and salesmanship, it is still production-centered in nature.

(4) Marketing Concept

The marketing concept is a new type of business philosophy that emerged as a challenge to the above concepts. This concept is based on the satisfaction of customer needs as a starting point, that is, " what the customer needs, what to produce ". Although this idea has a long history, but its core principles until the mid-1950s is basically finalized, when the rapid development of social productivity, the market trend for the oversupply of buyer's market, at the same time, the majority of the population's personal income is rapidly increasing, it is possible to choose the product, the competition between enterprises to achieve the intensification of the product, many enterprises began to realize that it is necessary to change the concept of business, in order to survive and develop. Marketing concept that the key to achieving the objectives of the enterprise, lies in the correct identification of the needs and desires of the target market, and more effective than the competitors to transmit the goods or services desired by the target market, and thus more effective than the competitors to meet the needs and desires of the target market.

The emergence of marketing concepts, so that the concept of business operations has undergone a fundamental change, but also makes a revolution in marketing. Marketing concepts have significant differences compared with the concept of sales promotion.

Theodore Levitt has made a profound comparison between the concept of sales and marketing, pointing out that: the concept of sales focuses on the needs of the seller; the concept of marketing focuses on the needs of the buyer. Sales concept to seller needs as a starting point, consider how to turn the product into cash; while the marketing concept is to consider how to meet customer needs through the manufacture, transmission of products and all things related to the final consumption of products. As can be seen, the 4 pillars of the marketing concept are: market-centered , customer-oriented, coordinated marketing and profit. The 4 pillars of the marketing concept are: factory, product orientation, sales promotion, and profit. In essence, the marketing concept is a customer needs and desires-oriented philosophy, is the embodiment of consumer sovereignty in corporate marketing management.

Many excellent companies are practicing the marketing concept. For example, the Japanese Honda Motor Company wanted to launch a new Accord brand car in the United States. In the design of the new car before, they sent engineers and technicians made a special trip to the Los Angeles area to study the situation of the freeway, the field measurement of the road length, road width, the collection of freeway asphalt, shooting the design of the import and export roads. When they returned to Japan, they built a 9-mile-long highway specifically for the purpose, and even the road signs and bulletin boards were exactly the same as those on American highways. When the designers disagreed on the luggage design, they went to a parking lot for an afternoon to see how people put and take their luggage. This immediately harmonized opinions. As a result, Honda's Accord brand cars became so popular in the United States that they were known as great cars that could be accepted all over the world.

Then there is Disneyland in the United States, where joy is as omnipresent as air. It makes every child's dream come true from all over the world, and makes adults of all colors have a forgettable love. Because Disneyland was founded at the time it is clear that its goal: its products are not Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, but happy. People come here to enjoy joy. The park offers all joy. Everyone in the company was to be the soul of joy. No matter who a visitor asks a question, he or she must answer with "Disney etiquette" and never say "I don't know". Therefore, tourists return here again and again to enjoy the fun, and are willing to pay the price. On the contrary, some of China's Casino, Folk Village, the world's scenic city, the monotonous program, no expression of the commentary, ignore the face, so that people only feel the chill, which has the joy to speak of? This shows the urgency of our enterprises to establish the concept of marketing.

(E) social marketing concept

Social marketing concept is a modification of the marketing concept and supplement. It arose in the 1970s in the western capitalism, energy shortages, inflation, unemployment increased, serious environmental pollution, consumer protection movement prevails in the new situation. This is because the marketing concept avoids the reality of the implied conflict between consumer needs, consumer interests and long-term social welfare. The social marketing concept holds that the task of the firm is to identify the needs, desires, and interests of each target market and to provide the target market with goods or services that satisfy its needs, desires, and interests in a way that protects or enhances consumer and social welfare more efficiently and profitably than its competitors. The concept of social marketing requires marketers to take into account the interests of three aspects when formulating marketing policies, i.e., corporate profits, fulfillment of consumer needs and social interests.

The above five concepts of business operation have their historical background and inevitability, and they are all linked and adapted to certain conditions. At present, foreign enterprises are changing from production-oriented to operation-oriented or business service-oriented, enterprises in order to survive and develop, must establish a modern awareness of marketing concepts, social marketing concept. However, it must be pointed out that, due to the constraints of many factors, today's U.S. enterprises are not all set up a marketing concept and social marketing concept. In fact, there are many companies are still oriented to the concept of product and sales concept.

Currently, China is still in the primary stage of the socialist market economy, due to the degree of development of social productive forces and market development trends, the state of economic reform and the majority of the population's income status and other constraints, China's business concepts are still in the marketing concepts, a variety of concepts coexist in the stage.