Importance of Marketing
Marketing function is considered important on account of the following contribution:
1. Marketing concept enables the organisation to keep abreast of changes. An organisation practising the concept
keeps feeling the pulse of the market through continuous marketing audit, market research and consumer testing.
2. The purpose of any marketing concept is the satisfaction of consumers. It is the customer who willing to pay for goods, converts economic resources into wealth, things into goods. All economic activities like production, distribution and consumption are dependent on marketing.
3. Another distinguishing feature of the marketing concept is integrated management action i.e. all the different functions of the business must be tightly integrated with one another, keeping marketing as the pivot.
4. An efficient marketing set-up increases the volume of sales and thus reduces the cost of distribution of products & services.
5. A marketing function maintains a regular interaction with the existing and potential consumers to ascertain
their needs.
6. Marketing has been described as a means of helping man as a member of society and as a means of delivering
a better standard of life to society as a whole.
7. It creates an infra-structure of various activities viz. warehousing, insurance, transportation etc. due to which employment opportunities increase.
India’s vast rural areas provide ample opportunities for marketing. Nearly 80 percent of the total population live in villages. More than 50 percent of the N.I. is generated from the rural areas. Marketing has not made much inroads into the rural areas. It, therefore, requires to play an important role in providing more and more goods to the rural people to increase their living standard.
However, in the modern era of marketing, the objective of the marketing is not so much to find customers for goods & services produced by the firm as it is to find ways in which the resources of the firm can be used to meet the needs of the potential customers and maximise profits. Marketing guides the actions and decisions of every one in business. It is said to be the eyes and ears of business because it keeps the business in close contact with its environment and informs of events that can influence its operations.
As we know that the end of all production is consumption. But there is a widespread gap between production and consumption. The place of production is f away from the point of consumption.
Thus, in order to satisfy consumers’ needs & wants, the products must be available in the right form, on the right time, at the right place and in the right manner.
Scope/Functions of Marketing Management
Marketing Management sets marketing objectives, develop marketing plans, organizes marketing functions, puts marketing plans and strategies in action and monitors the marketing programmes in the final analysis. Accordingly the scope of marketing management covers the following activities like
●Assessing the marketing opportunities
●planning the marketing activities
●providing the effective marketing
organisation
●organising and monitoring the stocks at optimum levels so that the customer demand may be met without any difficulty
●organising and maintaining the effectiveness in the activities of sales promotion, advertisement, credit control and services after sales.
Evaluating and adjusting marketing efforts
There are four important bases of modern concept of marketing:
(1) Customer-oriented,
(2) Integrated Marketing,
(3) Profit through the Satisfaction of Consumers, and
(4)Consumer Welfare. The details are as follows:
(1) Customer-oriented. The very first and most important base of modern concept of marketing is that it is a customer-oriented concept of marketing. This concept assumes that all the activities of a producer must go around the choice or behaviour of consumers. It assumes that we should produce the quality which is liked by our consumers; we should produce the quantity which is required by our consumers; we should fix the price which can be afforded by our consumers; we should distribute our products through the channels of distribution which are most suited to our consumers; and we should provide this all at the time and place most convenient to our consumers. Therefore, a successful producer is one who stress upon marketing research and as a result of it make the necessary changes in his product. The main components of this concept are as under:
(1) A consumer is the king of the market. A producer depends upon his consumers and the consumers do not depend upon the producer.
Only those goods and services can be sold in the market which are according to the tastes and likings of consumers.
A producer should always stress upon the production of new and developed products so that he may attract more consumers.
(2) Integrated Marketing. The second important base of modern concept of marketing is that marketing is an integrated system. It is not limited to physical distribution of goods and services. Under this concept, a firm has to satisfy the needs of its customers by establishing effective co-ordination between various departments. Marketing department has to co-ordinate the activities of all other departments of the firm in a manner that all the departments may discharge their responsibilities in the best possible manner and may contribute to the satisfaction of consumers. All the departments of a firm are co-ordinatied through marketing department and the decisions of marketing manager are considered to be the most important.
