Introductory Lecture

Week 1 Introduction and the four Ps of marketing.

1 Introduction- Marketing is a philosophy.

The first phase was to make products and sell them to the customer. The second phase was to find out what the customer wanted and give them their needs. The new phase centres on consumer behaviour, consumer choice and a combination of new technology and extreme awareness of quality, service and unique experience. We live in affluent times and, within the context of a family, we have most of our needs. Food for example consumes a smaller proportion of the household budget than it used to. Spending power is with the consumer. Choice is with the consumer. Grey power is increasing and the Web is providing information in a readily accessible form. As media literacy increases suppliers will have an increasingly difficult time to break down consumer resistance to their siren advertising methods. Furthermore, if people become disciplined in their thinking and exercise their will they may adopt a utilities approach to buying goods and services. They may only buy the basics and a few expensive goods, services, experiences of their choice. The key question is 'Has consumerism a future?' A world in which people live to buy is no sensible world in the long term. A consumerist lifestyle may not endure - people are already saying 'Get a life' and not, unlike the advertisers, saying 'Get a life style'. The classic four Ps of Marketing will have to give way to more subtle forms of purchase. But the four Ps is a good place to start.

2 Towards the Marketing Mix - (O’Connor & Galvin Chapter 9 - pp 159 - 174) .

2.1 Strategic market planning
Companies need awareness of a strategic plan in which they consciously adapt to take advantage of opportunities in its constantly changing environment. It is the process of developing and maintaining a strategic fit between the organization's goals and capabilities and its changing marketing opportunities.
Strategic planning sets the stage with for the marketing plan. It starts with its overall purpose and mission. These guide the formation measurable corporate objectives. A corporate audit then gathers information on the company, its competition, it market and the general environment in which the firm competes. A SWOT analysis gives a summary of strengths and weaknesses of the company together with opportunities and threats it faces in its environment.
The board must then decide what portfolio of businesses and products are best for the company and how much support to give each one. This helps to provide the strategic objectives that guide the companies various activities. Then each business and product unit develops detailed marketing and other functional plans to support the company wide plan. Thus marketing planning occurs at the business-unit, product and market levels. It supports company strategic planning with detailed planning for specific marketing opportunities.
The companies strategic plan establishes what kinds of businesses the company will be in and its objectives for each. Then within each business unit more detailed planning takes place. The main functional departments in each unit - marketing, finance, accounting, buying, manufacturing, personnel and others -0 must work together to accomplish strategic objectives.
Each functional department deals with different publics to obtain resources such as cash, labour, raw materials, research ideas and manufacturing processes.

There is overlap between company strategy and marketing strategy. Marketing looks at customer needs and the company's ability to satisfy them; these factors guide the company mission and objectives. Most company strategy planning deals with marketing variables - market share, market development, growth - and it is sometimes hard to separate strategic planning from marketing planning. Consequently, some companies refer to their strategic planning as "strategic-market planning".
Marketing plays a key role in the company's strategic planning in a number of ways.
1. Marketing provides a guiding philosophy - company strategy should revolve around serving the needs of important customer groups.
2. Marketing provides inputs to strategic planners by helping identify attractive market opportunities and assessing the firm's potential to take advantage of them.
3. Within business units, marketing designs strategies for reaching the units objectives
Within a firm marketing could be regarded as just another business function. However, marketeers would argue, marketing is the principal function of the firm. They would maintain it is marketing's job to define mission, products and markets and to direct other functions to support the task of serving customers.
It is more sensible to put the customer at the at the centre of the company. The marketers would argue the firm cannot succeed without customers., so the crucial task is to attract and hold them. Customers are attracted by promises and held by satisfaction. Marketing defines the promise and ensures its delivery. However, actual customer satisfaction is affected by the performance of other departments, so all functions should work together to sense, serve and satisfy customer needs. Marketing plays an integrative role in ensuring all departments work together towards customer satisfaction.