Marketing Philosophies
Business has evolved significantly and markets have changed all over the world with the
passage of time. The companies have also changed the way they deal with the market,
progressing through different phases of progress. The advances in all areas of life change the
way people live and work. In line with this progress, the marketing function has come into
being. Understanding the use of modern marketing technology and emerging communication
strategies in the new marketing era can help the company build deeper relationships in the
marketplace. As every company differs in philosophyand objectives, the decisionstoo differ
on the basis of factors adopted i.e whether the company focuses on mass production
/innovative product/ aggressive selling /customer satisfaction/ societal development
/relationship building. Hence, understanding philosophies right from Production concept has
been explained.
Fig 1.13 Philosophies in Marketing
Production Concept
Production concept lays emphasis on affordability and availability of products.
Affordability is possible by reducing cost of production by producing large quantities and
achieving mass production.Availability is possible by mass distribution by making the
product widely available.This philosophy states that any amount of goods produced will sell
if it is available and affordable to customers.
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The production concept is almost extinct now with companies paying more and more
attention to the customer as the basic ideology here is customers will choose products and
services that are widely available and are of economical. So business is mainly concerned
with making as many units as possible. By concentrating on producing maximum volumes,
such a business aims to maximize profitability by exploiting economies of scale. This seems
a viable strategy in developing markets i.e. India, Brazil, Russia, China, and South Africa.
The Mantra for this concept is “Low cost and mass production” as rightly proven by
Lenovo computers of China.
Product Concept
During production concept supply increased over demand. Gradually low cost and
availability couldn’t ensure increase in sale and survival along with growth of the firm. The
companies had to innovate products and started giving more choices to customers which lead
to product concept. This concept is based on the philosophy that consumers will prefer
products that have better quality, performance and features. It emphasises on innovation to
produce better quality products. It believes in the ideology that a “good product will sell
itself” as rightly proven by Apple and Google brands. Both of these companies have strived
hard on their products and deliver customers rich feature, innovative and diverse application
products that people just love these brands. So a good product backed by right price and
proper distribution and promotion will sell in the market and need not to be low priced
(production concept) to sell in market. Thus product improvement became the key to profit
maximisation for firms in product concept.
Selling Concept
With the passage of time marketing environment further underwent changes, competition was
constantly increasing and just the improvement in product and making it available to
customers was not working. There was something more required then just a quality product
for the survival and growth of the companies as large number of sellers started manufacturing
quality product. Something more was required to persuade the customers now. Business
philosophy changed it was believed that customer would not buy or would not buy enough
until or unless they are convinced and influenced to do so. Therefore, Selling is the act of
influencing a customer to buy a product or service. Businesses had to concentrate on ways of
selling their products.
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The concept is based on the belief that customers, be individual or organizations will not buy
enough of the organization’s products unless they are persuaded to do so. So organizations
should undertake selling and promotion of their products for success. Thus making good
products was not enough rather focus changed to pushing the sales of products through
aggressive selling. The selling effort is supported by promotional activities and aggressive
advertising. The company does not consider the needs and wants rather thinks that anything
and everything can be sold. This concept can also be applied in the firms having over
capacity in which their goal is to sell what they produce than what the customer really wants.
For example this concept is effectively applicable in the cases of unsought goods like life
insurance, vacuum cleaner, fire fighting equipment’s including fire extinguishers where the
customer doesn’t need them but if persuaded constantly the customer buys them. The
disadvantage with this approach is that it assumes that customer will certainly buy the
product after due persuasion and if dissatisfied will not speak to others, which is not true.
Marketing Concept
By this time customers were fed up of too much influence of the salesman during purchase of
products which led to unnecessary purchase that did meet customer’s needs and wants.
Customers expected that companies should be more responsible enough to understand their
actual needs and wants rather than imposing products on them. The marketing concept
proposes that the success of the firm depends on how well it understands the needs and wants
of the customers and how successfully it converts these needs in to products and services that
will satisfy the customer’s requirements.
Marketing starts before the product; service or solution is ready and continues even after the
sale has been made. In marketing company makes honest efforts towards retaining the
customers and also attracting new ones. Customer satisfaction is the strongest pillar of
marketing where company assures that customers are satisfied after buying a product or
service. This is a customer centric approach rather than product centric one. In marketing
concept customer satisfaction is the focal point and all decision making based on it. Decisions
like the product to be produced, with the features to be included. The price and the place to be
sold all depends on the customers. For example if customer is in need of a pen, pencil and
eraser all in one Linc pens have met that need of customers. If customers want triple door in
refrigerators LG, Godrej, Hitachi companies will produce them to satisfy their needs and
wants. These companies spend a lot on research to understand and meet customers’
requirements.