The Marketing Concept Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Marketing Concept - Essay Example The paper tells that the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) has defined the concept of marketing in a different way. It suggests that marketing is a type of management process where the customer requirements are identified, anticipated and finally supplied in an efficient and profitable manner. Hence marketing can be considered to be consisting of a wide range of activities starting from market research to the development of a new product. Marketing is supposed to have evolved through five different phases over the past many years. They are the: a) era of trading, b) era of production, c) era of sales, d) era of the marketing department, and e) era of a marketing company. The marketing company era, which is the most recent and current phase of marketing evolved as a result of the realisation of the need of different business organisations to be focused on their customers to achieve their goals and objectives. Hence, in this modern era, customer is given the highest priority in an y of the marketing activities followed by the organisations. The concept related to marketing orientation is believed to have been developed at the Harvard University and in a few of the proactive and forward looking organisations during the period of the end of 1960s to the beginning of the 1970s. It has actually replaced the concept of sales orientation that was prevalent prior to this period. There is a substantial difference between the sales and market orientation. According to Lamb, Hair, and McDaniel these two types of orientations have been compared with each other based on five different characteristics. They are the focus of the organisations, the business activities followed by the firms, people to whom the products are being directed, primary goals of the firms, and various tools that are utilised to achieve those objectives and goals. Personnel of organisations that are sales oriented have their focus on selling the products to the customers that are already manufacture d by the firms. However, in recent times most of the organisations are observed to gain competitive advantage by focussing on the external market environment. Various organisations like Dell, Inc., Southwest Airlines, and the Royal Bank of Canada have succeeded in outperforming their competitors through the market orientation approach. A marketing oriented company can be considered as a business organisation which has its focus on the customers and their needs and wants. Companies try to identify various solutions to meet the satisfaction levels of the customers and in order to achieve this objective the organisations get involved in activities related to gaining an insight about the customers’ needs and wants through various means that includes both secondary and primary research. Most often people are found to misunderstand the concept of marketing and they associate it with advertising. However, marketing consists of various other aspects which the organisations need to be concerned with in order to have its sustainable growth and development in future. The thinking process of customers is volatile in nature and their needs and wants change in a short period of time. Hence organisations are required to be aware of those changing needs and wants of the customers and this fact makes marketing a useful concept for the companies.