Essential Marketing Concepts: Strategy, Environment, and Consumer Behavior

Marketing and Business

The Concept of Marketing

Marketing is the process of creating, communicating, and distributing value to satisfy consumer needs and establish lasting exchange relationships. It focuses on acquiring new customers while retaining existing ones, as they generate the majority of sales revenue. Marketing stimulates demand but does not create the need.

Marketing Guidelines

Marketing strategies vary depending on the market situation. Key approaches include:

• Production Orientation

  Focuses on lowering production costs to offer lower-priced products (e.g., Henry Ford's approach).

• Product Orientation

  Emphasizes producing the highest quality products, applicable when demand exceeds supply (e.g., early mobile phones).

• Sales Orientation

  Prioritizes sales force and advertising to sell what is produced.

• Marketing Orientation

  (1960s) Consumer-centric approach, aiming to satisfy needs better than competitors.

• Societal Marketing Orientation

  Considers long-term social welfare in addition to consumer needs and company profits.

Both production and product orientations risk focusing too much on internal activities and neglecting consumer needs.

The Commercial Function in the Company

Strategic Marketing

Defines long-term business actions, identifies consumer needs, targets specific markets, designs products, and chooses distribution channels.

Operational Marketing

Designs and implements the marketing plan, a formal document reflecting strategic goals. It details actions, resources, objectives (units, revenue, time limits, profitability), budget, and the marketing mix: Product, Price, Distribution, Communication.

The Marketing Environment

Understanding the marketing environment is crucial for success. It comprises all forces influencing actions, decisions, and results.

Microenvironment

Forces closest to the company with a direct impact:

• Internal Microenvironment: The company and its structure.
• External Microenvironment: Relationships with:
  • Suppliers
  • Intermediaries
  • Competitors
  • Interest Groups
  • Customers and their tastes

Macroenvironment

External forces with indirect influence:

• Demographic factors
• Economic factors
• Technological factors
• Cultural factors
• Political and legal factors
• Ecological and natural factors

Market Definition and Types

From a marketing perspective, the market consists of individuals or organizations who:

• Have a need
• Have buying power
• Are willing to buy

Market classifications:

• By Demand Type:
  • Consumer Markets: End-users fulfilling personal or household needs (consumption markets, durable markets, service markets).
  • Organizational Markets: Businesses acquiring products for their operations.
• By Expansion Possibilities:
  • Current market
  • Potential market
  • Market trends
• By Area:
  • Local market
  • Regional market
  • National market
  • International market
  • Global markets

Analysis of Consumer Buying Behavior

Consumer buying behavior encompasses the process of selecting, purchasing, and using products. Influencing factors include:

• Internal Factors: Individual perceptions and motivations.
• External Factors: Views, attitudes, social class, culture, and marketing activities.

The buying decision process:

1. Need recognition
2. Information search
3. Evaluation of alternatives
4. Purchase decision
5. Post-purchase evaluation

Market Research Techniques

Market research is the process of designing, collecting, and presenting information for marketing decision-making. Objectives include:

• Identifying unmet needs
• Understanding customer preferences and behavior
• Detecting new product opportunities
• Measuring marketing effectiveness

Research Phases:

Phase 1: Problem/Opportunity Discovery

Phase 2: Objective Specification (questions or hypotheses)

Phase 3: Research Design (primary and secondary sources)

Primary data collection techniques:

• Survey: Personal, postal, telephone, online.
• Panel: Ongoing data collection from a fixed group.
• Observation: Direct observation of consumer behavior.
• Experiment: Analyzing reactions to different alternatives.
• Depth Interviews: One-on-one discussions to explore feelings.
• Projective Techniques: Studying responses to external stimuli.

Phase 4: Information Collection

Phase 5: Data Processing (tabulation and coding)

Phase 6: Analysis and Interpretation (report preparation)