Lesson 2: marketing management philosophies

Reading:

Marketers operate within a dynamic global environment. Every decade calls on them to think freshly about their marketing objectives and practices. Rapid changes can quickly make yesterday's winning strategies out of date. As Peter Drucker once observed, a company's winning formula for the last decade will probably defeat it in the next decade. Anyhow, there are several more or less complete concepts under which organizations can conduct their marketing activities.

The Production Concept is one of the oldest philosophies guiding sellers. It holds that consumers will favor products that are available and affordable, and therefore managers should focus on the production and distribution efficiency. As a result, management may become so focused on production that they forget the customer. We all have surely experienced a common production-oriented restaurant after normal dining hours. It may be one-third filled, yet all customers are forced to cluster in one section, thus creating unnecessary density.

The Product Concept holds that customers prefer existing products, and the job management is to perfect them. This theory misses the point that customers might turn to entirely different products which satisfy their needs better, such as motels instead of hotels or fast-food shops in student centers instead of cafeterias.

The Selling Concept holds that consumers will not buy unless the organization undertakes a large selling and promotion effort. It focuses on sales and does not worry about satisfaction of a buyer after it. The selling concept does not establish a long-term relationship with the customer, since the focus is on getting rid of what the organization has, rather than creating a product to meet the needs of the market.

The Marketing Concept is a more recent business philosophy and one that is rapidly adopted in the hospitality industry. It holds that achieving organizational goals depends on determining the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfaction more effectively than competitors. This concept is often confused with the selling concept, but there is an essential difference between them. The selling concept focuses on existing products, the marketing concept focuses on customer needs.

The Societal Marketing Concept is the newest marketing idea. It holds that the organization should determine the needs, wants, and interests of target markets and deliver the desired satisfaction more effectively and efficiently than competitors in a way that improves the society's welfare.

 

 

Exercises:

1. Find in the text the following topical words and phrases, make sure that you are able to explain in English what they mean, and add them to your working vocabulary:

out-of-date, to favor, distribution efficiency, production-oriented, dining hours, a promotion effort.

 

2. Write out from the text the sentences or their parts which contain the words and phrases given below and translate them into Russian:

a global environment, a winning strategy, a decade, it holds that..., affordable, to cluster, to miss the point, long-term relationships, to be adopted, effectively and efficiently.

 

3. Answer the following questions using the topical words and phrases:

1. Why is it necessary to change marketing strategies every next decade?

2. What did Peter Drucker say about marketing strategies?

3. What are the main concepts of marketing activities?

4. What should managers focus on, according to the Production Concept? Explain the weak points of this concept.

5. What does the Product Concept hold and what points does it miss?

6. What should the managers focus on, according to the Selling Concept? Explain the weak points of this concept.

7. What is the main difference between the approaches of the Selling Concept and of the Marketing Concept?

8. Explain the main idea of the Societal Marketing Concept.