Gurus On Marketing

Marketing therefore is a process of facilitating exchange. It is:
‘a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups
obtain what they need and want through creating, offering, and
exchanging products of value with others.’
In order to achieve exchange, organisations have to plan, and implement
the plan, to bring about exchange of goods and services. This
is what marketing management is all about. It is:
‘the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing,
promotion, and distribution of goods and services, and ideas to
create exchanges with target groups that satisfy customer and organisational
objectives.’
Organisations conduct their marketing activity by:
1 Focusing on producing at high efficiency so as to sell their
products and services at low price. Their marketing efforts
will be directed towards these features.
2 Focusing on producing superior products that meet consumer
needs. Their marketing efforts will be directed towards highlighting
superiority of their products.
3 Focusing on selling. Such organisations believe that consumers
have to be coaxed into buying products. Their resources, therefore,
are used to promote selling. The aim is to sell what they
make.
4 Focusing their attention on finding what customers want in
relation to the target markets they are interested in and then
delivering goods and services to these target markets more
efficiently and effectively than their competitors. This way
the organisations aim to satisfy their strategic objectives.
5 Focusing their attention to finding out and satisfying consumer
and organisational needs but in addition they also plan to
‘preserve or enhance the consumer’s and the society’s wellbeing.’
FIVE PHILIP KOTLER 75