Selling in the Marketing
Environment
The Nature, Development and Functions of Marketing
• Marketing is the performance of business
activities that directs the flow of goods and
services from producer to consumer or user.
• It involves activities necessary to assure that
the right goods and services are moved
efficiently to satisfied customers through the
right channels, at the right price, and that the
right promotional combinations are used.
Markets and Market Segmentation
• A market can be described as the total or
aggregate demand of actual and potential
buyers of a product, service, or anything else
of value; aggregate is the composite demands
of many consumers for a specific item. Within
the total or aggregate demand are market
segments, or groups of potential buyers who
demand specific different requirements for
the same item.
Consumer Markets
• The overall consumer market is composed of
all the individuals and households that buy or
acquire goods and services for personal or
family consumption.
• It can be segmented in several ways, such as
by:
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Demographic
Psychological traits
Physical characteristics
Behavior patterns
Marketing conditions
Organizational Markets
• Business organizations and non-profit
organizations that buy sorts of goods and
services for their own use, use in further
production, resale, or redistribution.
• Major types of organizational markets:
– Industrial markets
– Reseller markets
– Government markets
Emergence of a New Customer/ Society-Oriented
Marketing Concept
• Some critics of business and marketing have
pointed out what they consider a serious flaw
in the customer-oriented marketing concept.
They have noted that while customers are at
the heart of all business and marketing
planning activities, the end result is to “give
customers what they want” with little
consideration of whether “what they want” is
really beneficial either to them or to society.
• Called the societal marketing concept, its aim
is not only to fulfill consumer needs with
something of value and benefit that will bring
lasting satisfaction at a profit to the seller (the
heart of the older customer-oriented
marketing concept), but to provide as well “in
a way that preserves or enhances the
consumer’s and the society’s well-being.”
Planning Sales/Marketing Strategies and Action
Programs
• Business firms commence planning their
sales/marketing strategies and programs
around products and markets by first making
careful forecasts as to expected market
demand and sales volume and profit
potential. The end objective of planning
derived from such forecasts is profitable sales.
Forecasting in a Changing Marketplace
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Population growth and changing age structure
Geographic shifts in population
Age mix of household composition
Income distribution within market areas
Planning the “Marketing Mix” to be Employed in
Carrying out the Strategies and Programs
Product Classification
• Product Classification According to Durability or
Tangibility
– Durable Goods
– Non-durable Goods
– Services
• Consumer Goods Classifications
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Convenience Goods
Shopping Goods
Specialty Goods
Unsought Goods
• Industrial Goods Classifications
– Materials and Parts
• raw materials, manufactured materials and parts
– Capital Items
• installations, accessory equipment
– Supplies and Services
• operating supplies, maintenance and repair items, business services