Evolution of Marketing “OR” Marketing Orientation

In subcontinent, marketing was introduced in 18th century with the British colonies.

The following are the concepts about the marketing orientation.

Production Orientation:

The production concept prevailed from the time of the industrial revolution until the early 1920’s. The production concept was the idea that a firm should focus on those products that it could produce most efficiently and that the creation of a supply of low-cost products would in and of itself creates the demand for the products. The key questions that a firm would ask before producing a product were:

Can we produce the product?

Can we produce enough of it?

At the time, the production concept worked fairly well because the goods that were produced were largely those of basic necessity and there was a relatively high level of unfulfilled demand. Virtually everything that could be produced was sold easily by a sales team whose job it was simply to execute transactions at a price determined by the cost of production. The production concept prevailed into the late 1920’s.

The Production Concept has been around for years. That concept simply suggests that customers

prefer inexpensive products that are readily available. In effect, “if we make it, they will come.”

Product Orientation:

The Product Concept suggests that companies that build the “better mousetrap” will gain

favor. The thinking here is that customers want products that have higher quality, that offer better performance or do something unique.

Sales Orientation:

By the early 1930’s however, mass production had become commonplace, competition had increased, and there was little unfulfilled demand. Around this time, firms began to practice the sales concept (or selling concept), under which companies not only would produce the products, but also would try to convince customers to buy them through advertising and personal selling. Before producing a product, the key questions were:

Can we sell the product?

Can we charge enough for it?

The sales concept paid little attention to whether the product actually was needed; the goal simply was to beat the competition to the sale with little regard to customer satisfaction. Marketing was a function that was performed after the product was developed and produced, and many people came to associate marketing with hard selling. Even today, many people use the word “marketing” when they really mean sales.

The Marketing Concept:

After World War II, the variety of products increased and hard selling no longer could be relied upon to generate sales. With increased discretionary income, customers could afford to be selective and buy only those products that precisely met their changing needs, and these needs were not immediately obvious.

The key questions became:

What do customers want?

Can we develop it while they still want it?

How can we keep our customers satisfied?

In response to these discerning customers, firms began to adopt the marketing concept, which involves:

– Focusing on customer needs before developing the product

– Aligning all functions of the company to focus on those needs

– Realizing a profit by successfully satisfying customer needs over the long-term

When firms first began to adopt the marketing concept, they typically set up separate marketing departments whose objective it was to satisfy customer needs. Often these departments were sales departments with expanded responsibilities. While this expanded sales department structure can be found in some companies today, many firms have structured themselves into marketing organizations having a company-wide customer focus. Since the entire organization exists to satisfy customer needs, nobody can neglect a customer issue by declaring it a “marketing problem” – everybody must be concerned with customer satisfaction.

The marketing concept relies upon marketing research to define market segments, their size, and their needs. To satisfy those needs, the marketing team makes decisions about the controllable parameters of the marketing mix.

Societal Marketing:

The societal marketing concept can be defined as the organizations task which tries to identify the needs and interests of the consumers and delivers quality services or products as compared to its competitors and in a way that consumer’s and society’s well being is maintained. In other words organizations have to balance consumer satisfaction, company profits and long term welfare of society.

This is a new marketing philosophy and tries to reduce the inequalities at various levels. This theory emphasizes that organizations should not only think of cut-throat policies to achieve targets and jump ahead of competitors but should have ethical and environmental policies and then back them up with action and regulation.

Mega Marketing:

Management activity that involves (in addition to the typical marketing activities) other elements of a firm’s external environment such as government, media, and pressure groups is Mega marketing. The term was coined by the US marketing academic Philip Kotler who suggests that a market mix must have two more P’s: public-relations, and power.