Nature & Scope of Marketing: Marketing is an ancient art & is everywhere. Formally
or informally, people & organizations engage in a vast numbers of
activities that could be called marketing. Good marketing has become an
increasingly vital ingredient for business success. It is embedded in
everything we do- from the clothes we wear, to the web sites we click on, to
the ads we see.
Marketing deals with
identifying & meeting human & social needs or it can be defined as “meeting needs profitably”.
The American Marketing Association
has defined marketing as “an organizational function & a set of
processes for creating, communicating & delivering value to the customers
& for managing customer’s relations in ways that benefit the organization
& the stake holders.
Or
Marketing management is the art
& science of choosing target markets & getting, keeping & growing
customers through creating, delivering & communicating superior customer
value.
Or
“Delivering a higher standard of
living”
For a managerial definition,
marketing has been defined as “the art
of selling products” but people are surprised when they hear that the most
important part of marketing is not selling. Selling is only the tip of
marketing iceberg.
Peter Drucker says it this way that
the aim of marketing is to know & understand the customer so well that the
product or service fits him & sells itself. All that should be needed is to
make the product or the service available.
Eg. The success of Indica, the
first indigenously designed car by Tata Motors. Backed by strong customers
delight, the company designed a vehicle with luggage space & legroom &
offered it a price easily available & affordable to middle class.
(2) Gillette launched its March III
razor.
Marketing people are involved in
marketing 10 types of entities: goods services, events, experiences, persons,
places, properties, organizations, information & ideas.
Therefore ideal marketing should
result in a customer who is ready to buy.
Importance of Marketing: Financial success of any organization depends upon marketing
ability of that organization. There should be sufficient demand for products
& services so the company can make profit. Therefore many companies created
chief marketing officer (CMO) position to put marketing on a more equal footing
with other e-level executives.
Marketing is tricky & large well
known business such as Levi’s, Kodak, Xerox etc. had to rethink their business
models, Even Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Nike who are market leaders cannot relax.
Thus, we can say that making the
right decision is not easy & marketing managers must take major decisions
about the features of the product prices & design of the product, where to
sell products & expenditure on sales & advertising. Good marketing is
no accident but a result of careful planning & execution. Marketing
practices are continuously being refined to increase the chances of success.
But marketing excellence is rare & difficult to achieve & is a never
ending task
Eg. NIRMA – The brand icon of the
young girl has adorned the package of Nirma washing powder. The jingle has
become one of the enduring times in Bangladeshi advertising.