Thinking like a marketer

Marketing is a relatively young discipline, and it is important to note that there is still considerable disagreement and debate among academics and practitioners about what marketing is and is not. In particular, there is disagreement about what the boundaries of marketing are.

The key principle agreed on by all marketing academics is that marketing places the customer at the centre of all marketing thought. This does not mean that marketing is a charitable institution: organisations exist to fulfill their own aims, but marketers argue that all organisational activities should be informed and driven by customers and consumers.

In practice, following this principle is not always easy: customers are not necessarily consumers (consider a mother buying clothes for a small child) and customers may have different needs from consumers. Also, it is extremely easy to make assumptions about what consumers need and want – often these prejudices are based on what the planner needs and wants, not on what the actual consumers need and want. The end product of marketing is the competitive advantage of the firm: firms which look after their customers should do better than firms which do not. In simple terms, marketers put customers at the centre of everything they do because it is the best way to get their money off them.

Marketing practice can be considered as being all the activities that happen at the interface between the company and the outside world.

Another popular way of considering marketing’s role is to define it as managing exchange. Marketing is a process of developing products and services so that they provide benefits for consumers, then offering them in exchange for money. The terms, place, time and conditions for the exchange are managed by the marketer. This definition does have some conceptual difficulties, because consumers often have a role in deciding many of these issues (particularly dealing on the Internet).

Marketers operate by controlling various elements of the marketing mix. The marketing mix is all the activities undertaken by marketers, and was first defined by McCarthy in the early 1960s as comprising four elements (the four Ps). These are:

1Product: the bundle of benefits offered by the organisation.

2Price: the consideration given by the customer for the product.

3Promotion: the communications about the product which are aimed at the consumers.

4Place: the location where the exchange takes place.

II. Discuss the following questions:

1. What is the key principle of marketing?

2. How is called organisation that follow its own purposes?

3. What is the end product of marketing?

4. Where do marketers put customers? Why?

5. How can be considered marketing practice?

6. How is called the process of developing products and services?

7. What is the marketing mix?

8. How many elements does marketing mix include?

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