Defining marketing

Marketing is the term given to those activities which occur at the interface between the organisation and its customers. It comes from the original concept of a marketplace, where buyers and sellers would come together to conduct transactions (or exchanges) for their mutual benefit. The aim of marketing as a discipline is to ensure that customers will conduct exchanges with the marketer’s organisation, rather than with the other ‘stallholders’. To do this effectively, marketers must provide those customers with what they want to buy, at prices which represent value for money. The two most widely used definitions of marketing are these:

Marketing is the management process which identifies, anticipates, and supplies customer requirements efficiently and profitably. (UK Chartered Institute of Marketing)

Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchange and satisfy individual and organisational objectives. (American Marketing Association)

Both of these definitions have been criticised. The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) definition has been criticised because it takes profit as being the only outcome of marketing, whereas marketing approaches and techniques are widely used by organisations such as charities and government departments which do not have profit as their goal. The American Marketing Association (AMA) definition has also been criticised for failing to take account of the increasing role of marketing in a broader social context, and for appearing to regard consumers as being passive in the process. The same criticism could equally be applied to the CIM definition. To the non-marketer, marketing often carries negative connotations; there is a popular view that marketing is about persuading people to buy things they do not want, or about cheating people. In fact, marketing practitioners have the responsibility for ensuring that the customer has to come first in the firm’s thinking, whereas other professionals might be more concerned with getting the balance sheet to look right or getting the production line running smoothly. Marketers are well aware that the average customer will not keep coming back to a firm that does not provide good products at an acceptable price, and without customers there is no business. Competition in many markets is fierce. If there is room for four companies in a given market, there will be five companies in there, each trying to maximise their market share; the customer is king in that situation, and the firms that ignore the customer’s needs will go to the wall. Marketers therefore focus their attention entirely on the customer, and put the customer at the centre of the business.

Comprehension

1. Define the term ‘market’.

2. What are the requirements of any market?

3. What is the difference between consumer and industrial markets?

4. Fill in the chart and speak about the key characteristics of each industrial market.

5. What are resellers generally concerned about?

6. What is the aim of marketing?

7. Why is marketing important for a firm’s success?

8. Why is marketing definition often criticized?

9. What is the marketer’s core attention paid to?

10. Read texts 4.1, 4.2 again and decide whether these statements are true or false. Correct the false one.

There are five key requirements for any market. Consumers marketers often need to provide their customers with larger amounts of information than industrial marketers. Members of institutional markets include non-profit organization and foundations. Resellers may physically change the products they handle to make it more appealing. Marketers’ main concern is not only customers but organiSations and stakeholders as well.

T/F T/F T/F T/F T/F

Language study

1. Find in the text the English equivalents for the following.

Оригинальная концепция; осуществлять сделки; взаимодействие между; цель маркетинга; процесс управления; предвосхищать запросы; с прибылью; процесс выполнения; оценки и продвижение товара; распространение идей; благотворительные организации; принимать во внимание; относится к потребителям как; убедить людей; быть ответственным за; работать без сбоев; сконцентрировать внимание; конечная цель; широкий резонанс; существующие связи; обеспечить максимальную выгоду; ответственность за; средний покупатель; полностью сконцентрировать внимание на; в центре бизнеса; соревнование на различных рынках; производственная линия; брать во внимание.

2. Fill each gap in the sentences below with the correct word from the box.

segments	products	performance	distribution	price	demand
process	consumer	potential	services	promotion	services

Marketing consists of the 1) … of business activities that direct the flow of goods and 2) … from producer to 3) … or user.

Marketing is a total system of business activities designed to plan, 4) …, promote, and distribute want-satisfying 5) … and services to present and 6) … customers.

Marketing is the development and efficient 7) … of goods and services for chosen consumer 8) ….

Marketing is the 9) … in a society by which the 10) … structure for economic goods and 11) … is anticipated or enlarged and satisfied through the conception, 12) …, exchange, and physical distribution of such goods and services.

3. Render the text in English.

Большинство исследователей сходятся во мнении, что маркетинг - это процесс. Он начинается с исследования целевого сегмента рынка, для которого собирается работать компания. Маркетологи определяют потенциальный спрос и его размер (ёмкость сегмента рынка), то есть выявляют покупателей, потребности которых не удовлетворены в достаточной степени или испытывающих неявный интерес к определённым товарам или услугам. Производится сегментирование рынка и выбор тех его частей, которые компания способна обслужить наилучшим образом. Разрабатываются планы создания и доведения продукции до потребителя, а также стратегия маркетинг-микс (англ. marketing mix) воздействия на спрос через товар, цену, каналы распределения и методы продвижения товара. Создают систему маркетингового аудита, которая позволит оценивать результаты проводимых мероприятий и степень их воздействия на потребителей. Маркетинг начинается не столько с товара, сколько с поиска платёжеспособного потребителя, который готов нечто купить. Главным исходным продуктом всех указанных выше действий является маректинговая стратегия.

4. Match the parts of the sentences to get a complete text.

An actual or nominal place where forces of demand and supply operate, and where buyers and sellers	(2) communicating the price information, (3) facilitating deals and transactions, and (4) effecting distribution.
Markets include mechanisms or means for (1) determining price of the traded item,	need it and have the ability and willingness to pay for it.
The market for a particular item is made up of existing and potential customers who	interact (directly or through intermediaries) to trade goods, services, or contracts or instruments, for money or barter.

READING II