Marketing concept can be defined as the philosophy a business uses to identify and fulfill the needs of its customers, benefiting both the consumer and the organization. Another name for marketing concepts is marketing management philosophies.
It’s a strategy employed by organization to beat their competitors or outperform them.
By developing a marketing concept, you are able to integrate all of the organization’s activities, including promotion and production, to satisfy these needs and wants.
Before deciding which type of marketing concept you should use; there are a few factors to consider such as;
- Type of business- Is it manufacturing, merchandise or service.
- Nature of your product/ service- Is it a want or a need? Essential or non-essential.
- Target audience- Age, sex, location, income level, lifestyle characteristics.
- Unique selling proposition (USP) – What makes you stand out.
- Your competitors- How is the playing field and the market. How well can you control your share.
Importance of marketing concept
- Your organization gets to focus on consumer’s needs and wants. This way you are able to determine which marketing concept works best for your organization.
- Able to build strategic and philosophical value. Marketing concepts will help your management direct the organization towards long-term goals of the business. This includes goals such as growth, stability, revenue generation etc.
- Increases the ability to respond to changes in the environment. By understanding the complex interplay of different variables, it can detect the impending changes and prepare itself to exploit them. The firm can very well face the pressures of competition and environmental changes.
MARKETING CONCEPTS
There are five distinctive marketing concept types or approaches to achieving effective marketing. Notably, not all these marketing concept types work for all industries, because they differ in function. Every marketing concept was created depending on the need of the market. As markets changed, so did the concepts.
Before we get to the different types of marketing concepts, we need to understand consumers’ needs and wants.
Needs– This is something necessary for people to survive, be healthy and stable. We all know the basic human needs; Food, shelter and clothing.
Wants– These are desires, something wished for. It is not basic for survival and is mostly shaped by culture.
Demands– This happens when needs and wants are backed by the ability to pay, they have the potential to become economic demands.
What are the different types of marketing concepts?
Production concept:
This concept was founded in the early 1950s towards the beginning of the capitalism era. It is based on the approach that a company can increase supply as it decreases cost. This is a very company-oriented approach that believes in economies of scale. Which essentially boils down to production and cost. Mass production can decrease cost and maximize profit (decreased production cost per unit).
Companies that use the production concept have the belief that customers primarily want products that are affordable and accessible.
Product concept:
The product concept holds that the consumers will favor products that offer the most in quality, performance and innovative features. It works on the assumption tat customers prefer products of greater quality. At this point, price and availability does not influence their purchasing decision.
Marketing strategies are focused on making continuous product improvements. Product quality and improvement are important parts of marketing strategies. A good example of a company that uses this strategy would be the Apple Inc.
Selling concept:
This strategy focuses on making every single possible sale of the product; regardless of the quality of the product or need of the customer. With this strategy, the power lies in the hands of the business. The business assumes that the only way that a consumer will buy their product, is if they aggressively market it to them despite their needs and wants.
Here, the marketer assumes that the consumer can be enticed into buying the product and if they do and happen not to like it, the consumer will then forget the experience after a while and go back to the business and make another purchase. This in return will lead to rare repeat customers, low customer satisfaction and little to no relationship built with the customer.
Typically the selling concept is practiced with unsought goods. Unsought goods are that buyers do not normally think of buying, such as insurance.
Marketing concept:
The marketing concept is a customer-centered “sense and responds” philosophy. The job is not to find the right customers for your product but to find the right products for your customers.
This concept places the consumer at the center of the organization. The business aims to understand needs and wants of the customer. By doing this, a company can deliver more value than its competitors. This is what we call the ‘pull’ strategy. This is the most common type of marketing concept used by most marketers and organizations.
This concept focuses on having a better value proposition as compared to their competitors. It gives customers a reason to choose them over their counterparts.
Societal marketing concept:
This is a relatively new concept that more organizations are beginning to adopt in their strategies. It highlight the wants and needs of the target market and delivery of better value than its competitors (marketing concept) while also emphasizing the well-being of customers and society as a whole.
This concept put human welfare on top of profits before satisfying the needs and wants. It calls for sustainable marketing, socially and environmentally responsible marketing that meets the present needs of consumers and businesses while also preserving or enhancing the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
It calls upon marketers to build social and ethical consideration into their marketing practices.
Conclusion
Marketing converts and returns the investment quite quickly if done the right way. In order to get there rather sooner than later and make the most out of it, you need to start doing research in order to come up with a marketing concept that works for you and your organization.
Elle voyage 