The evolution and implementation of the marketing concept

Résumé du document

Since its introduction in 1950's the marketing concept has been criticized, broadened, and blamed for the current decline in the competitive world. Have critics failed to recognize what marketing concept really is?

The Marketing Concept was created in the 1950's just after the World War II, more precisely in the 1952 annual report of General Electric. This concept appeared when the variety of products increased and the sales of the products were not based just on the way to sell it or the price to sell it, but based on the questions: what do customers want? And how can we keep our customers satisfied?

Since its creation the Marketing Concept has been applied in most of companies, this concept is based on the philosophy of Adam Smith who wrote in 1776 in "The Wealth of Nations" that "the needs of producers should be considered only with regard to meeting the needs of consumers." It means that it is the demand which induces the supply, so the supply has to listen to the demand's needs.

For the US marketer Philip Kotler, "the Marketing Concept holds that the key to achieving organizational goals lies in determining the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfaction more efficiently and effectively than the competitors". It means that a company has to create some products based on what the customers want. The aims of Marketing Concept are to satisfy customers and to keep them, because according to the Customer Service Institute, it costs as much as five times as much to acquire a new customer than keep an existing one. To reach these objectives companies had to create tools.

Keywords - modern concept of marketing, production concept marketing, right concept marketing,
the marketing concept.

Extraits

[...] The two last points against the Marketing Concept is about its tools. The first one is about the marketing research, which is supposed to find who will buy the product: the commercial target or the segment; and how many consumers can be attracted by this product: the size. But sometimes, and especially in the fashion world, the commercial target can change, without the company wanting it. The best example is maybe: the Jeans made by Levi's. At the beginning, it was a work clothes at the beginning of the twentieth century, and in the 1950's it became popular and everybody got one. [...]

[...] Now, I will give my point of view of the Marketing Concept, his criticism and his future. Firstly, I think we should study the definition of the Marketing Concept, it says that the company has to satisfy the consumer's needs, but there is a different between the need to buy a product and to buy a product. A lot of things can happen between the time where the company do the marketing research and the time where the product is on the market, because a new product can come on the market at a lower price or with a new technology. [...]

[...] Companies do not have to only think to their product but: “will my product satisfy customer? And companies have to use prediction techniques to estimate the future consumer's needs. This concept is not totally agreed with the Marketing Concept, but it takes up the main idea of the Marketing Concept that is: companies have to pay attention of customers and create product based on their needs. Therefore, the Marketing Concept is a good philosophy, which can be applied in many companies. [...]

[...] Moreover, it is maybe the best example of an application of Marketing Concept. For Deng and Dart, Marketing Concept is a business (and political) philosophy that holds that long-term profitability (and electoral success) is best achieved by focusing the coordinated activities of the organization toward satisfying the needs of a particular market segment(s)”. This definition means that for the election campaign all the politicians promise to vote laws when they will be president, but these laws are just “products” consumer needs; and the marketing research are opinion pool. [...]

[...] It is also used in the Sales Department, because one of the objectives of the sales department is to get a satisfied customer. To reach this aim, companies develop After Sales Service, a free assurance on the product; sales assistants give advices to customers to do the good choice Thanks to these different services the customer will be satisfied; he will maybe come back later to buy another product. For a company it is very important to have satisfied customer because, according to the American Marketing Association for an average company of its business comes from its presently satisfied customers. [...]