CHAP 1 WHAT IS MARKETING ?
1) Briefly compare and contrast the concepts of needs, wants, and demands, giving an example of each. Discuss how these concepts relate to marketing practices.
Answer: Human needs are states of felt deprivation. Needs are part of the human make-up; they are not created by external forces. Humans have a basic physical need for food, clothing, warmth, and safety; a basic social need for belonging and affection; and a basic individual need for knowledge and self-expression. Unlike needs, wants are not innate; instead, wants are needs shaped by culture, society, and individual personality.
For example, an American needs food but wants a Big Mac and a soft drink. An American with ten dollars needs food, wants a Big Mac and soft drink, and demands lunch at McDonalds.
Wants become demands when they are backed by consumers’ buying power. Marketers conduct extensive research to understand customers’ wants and demands. They then attempt to fulfill customers’ wants and demands through their market offerings.
2) In a short essay, explain how and why marketers go beyond selling a product or service to create brand experiences.
Answer: Sellers are most effective when they focus more on the benefits and experiences produced by their products and services than on the specific products and services themselves. Smart marketers focus on creating a brand experience, incorporating several products and services for their customers.
By doing so, marketers hope to increase customer satisfaction, creating a body of customers who will repeatedly purchase their market offerings and recommend those offerings to friends.
3) Compare the selling and marketing concepts, listing the key components of each philosophy.
Answer: The selling concept reflects an inside-out philosophy, while the marketing concept takes an outside-in perspective. The selling concept is typically practiced when an organization is marketing products or services that buyers do not normally think of purchasing, such as insurance or blood donation. Aggressive selling focuses on creating sales transactions rather than on building long-term relationships with customers, with the aim of selling what the company makes rather than making what the customer wants. The marketing concept, on the other hand, is based upon identifying the needs and wants of target markets and then satisfying those needs and wants better than competitors do. In contrast to the selling concept, marketing focuses on the customer, not the product, as the path to profits.
4) Briefly explain the societal marketing concept. Give an example of an organization that has effectively used the societal marketing concept.
Answer: According to this concept, firms will succeed if they take underlying consumer needs and society’s well being into account over the long term. A pure marketing concept can damage consumers’ long-run welfare by focusing exclusively on satisfying consumers’ short-run wants. Over a long period of time, this too-narrow focus can be damaging to the company. In setting their marketing strategies, marketers today need to balance company profits, consumer wants, and society’s interests. Johnson & Johnson is an example of a company that has successfully implemented the societal marketing concept. The organization stresses honesty, integrity, and putting people before profits, an ethic that helped Johnson & Johnson quickly address and recover from the poisonous tampering of Tylenol capsules in 1982.
5) What should sellers consider if they wish to avoid marketing myopia?
Answer: Sellers should consider the particular benefits and experiences desired by their customers, and not just pay attention to the specific products they offer.
6) You are a manufacturer of tents, sleeping bags, and outdoor cooking equipment. How might you go about creating brand experiences for your customers?
Answer: Such manufacturers should focus on the benefits enjoyed through the use of their products-access to the great outdoors, shared family experiences, and relived memories of the consumer’s youth
7) Think about suppliers and other marketing partners. A modern marketing system relies on profitable relationships all along the way. How might Wal-Mart rely on their marketing partners in order to offer low prices?
Answer: Wal-Mart must rely on suppliers that will provide merchandise at low costs, a low-cost and efficient distribution system, an accurate and efficient customer relationship database system, and a strong partnership with each of the members of its
supply chain.
8) When demand for the latest talking Elmo was at its highest, it was suggested that manufacturers purposefully maintain strong demand by limiting supply, which would drive prices up. If this were the case, explain how such manufacturers were NOT carrying out the production concept.
Answer: The production concept holds that consumers favor products that are available and affordable. With this concept, manufacturers work to increase production and improve manufacturing efficiency, and thus eventually lower the price paid by the consumer.
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