Unit Seven

What is all about marketing?

Objectives

Get the student to be familiar with the concept of marketing.

Cultivate the students’ ability of problem-solving.

Help the students to grasp the techniques for fast reading.

Section A Introduction “Marketing is a societal process by which

individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating, offering and freely exchanging products and value with others.”

—Philip Kotler

Pre-reading

Before reading the following passage, answer the question:

What do you think are the key ingredients in marketing?

Text Core Marketing Concepts (I)

To explain this definition—“Marketing”, we will examine the following important terms: needs, wants, and demands; products and services; value, satisfaction, and quality; exchange, transactions, and relationships. The following Figure shows that these core-marketing concepts are linked, with each concept building on the one before it.

Needs, Wants, and Demands The most basic concept underlying

marketing is that of human needs. Human needs are states of felt deprivation. They include basic physical needs for food, clothing, warmth, and safety; social needs for belonging and affection; and individual needs for knowledge and self-expression. These needs were not invented by marketers; they are a basic part of the human makeup.

Wants are the form human needs take as they are shaped by culture and individual personality. An American needs food but wants a hamburger, French fries, and a soft drink. A person in Mauritius needs food but wants a mango, rice, lentils, and beans. Wants are shaped by one’s society and are described in terms of objects that will satisfy needs.

People have almost unlimited wants but limited resources. Thus, they want to choose products that provide the most value and satisfaction for their money. When backed by buying power, wants become demands. Consumers view products as bundles of benefits and choose products that give them the best bundle for their money. A Honda Civic means basic transportation, affordable price, and fuel economy; a Lexus means comfort, luxury, and status. Given their wants and resources, people demand products with the benefits that add up to the most satisfaction.

Outstanding marketing companies go to great lengths to learn about and understand their customers’ needs, wants, and demands. They conduct consumer research about consumer likes and dislikes. They analyze customer inquiry, warranty, and service data. They observe customers using their own and competing products and train salespeople to be on the lookout for unfulfilled customer needs.

In these outstanding companies, people at all levels—including top management—stay close to customers. For example, top executives from Wal-Mart spend two days each week visiting stores and mingling with customers. At Disney World, at least once in his or her career, each manager spends a day touring the park in a Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, or other character costume. Moreover, all Disney World managers spend a week each year on the front line—taking tickets, selling popcorn, or loading and unloading rides. At AT&T, CEO C. Michael Armstrong often visits one of the company’s customer service centers, dons a headset, and fields orders to get a better sense of the problems and frustrations that AT&T business customers face.

At Marriott, to stay in touch with customers, Chairman of the Board and President Bill Marriott personally reads some 10 percent of the 8,000 letters and 2 percent of the 750,000 guest comment cards submitted by customers each year. Understanding customer needs, wants, and demands in detail provides important input for designing marketing strategies.

Products and Services People satisfy their needs and wants with products

and services. A product is anything that can be offered to a market to satisfy a need or want. The concept of product is not limited to physical objects—anything capable of satisfying a need can be called a product. In addition to tangible goods, products include services, which are activities or benefits offered for sale that are essentially intangible and do not result in the ownership of anything. Examples include banking, airline, hotel, tax preparation, and home repair services.

More broadly defined, products also include other entities such as experiences, persons, places, organizations, information, and ideas. For example, by orchestrating several services and goods, companies can create, stage, and market experiences. Disneyland is an experience; so is a visit to Niketown. In fact, as products and services increasingly become commodities, experiences have emerged for many firms as the next step in differentiating the company’s offer. In recent years, for example, a rash of theme stores and restaurants have burst onto the scene offering.

Stores such as Niketown, Cabella's, and Recreational Equipment Incorporated draw consumers in by offering fun activities, fascinating displays, and promotional events (sometimes labeled “shoppertainment” or “entertailing”). At theme restaurants such as the Hard Rock Cafe, Planet Hollywood, or the House of Blues, the food is just a prop for what's known as “eatertainment.”

Thus, the term product includes much more than just physical goods or services. Consumers decide which events to experience, which entertainers to watch on television, which places to visit on vacation, which organizations to support through contributions, and which ideas to adopt. To the consumer, these are all products. If at times the term product does not seem to fit, we could substitute other terms such as satisfier, resource, or marketing offer.

Many sellers make the mistake of paying more attention to the specific products they offer than to the benefits produced by these products. They see themselves as selling a product rather than providing a solution to a need. A manufacturer of drill bits may think that the customer needs a drill bit, but what the customer really needs is a hole.

These sellers may suffer from “marketing myopia”—they are so taken with their products that they focus only on existing wants and lose sight of underlying customer needs. They forget that a product is only a tool to solve a consumer problem. These sellers will have trouble if a new product comes along that serves the customer's need better or less expensively. The customer with the same need will want the new product.

Post-reading

Answer the questions on the text. 1. What are the terms one discussed in the article? 2. What are the human needs? 3. What elements shape human wants? 4. For what purpose do people at all levels—including

top management—stay close to customers in some outstanding companies?

5. What are the people’s better standard of products according to the article?

6. What is the definition of product? 7. What activities does Niketown offer to draw their

customers? 8. What is the mistake that many sellers make?

Section B Reading skills

Importance of Details Details are able to express and include a

large amount of information and these two are complementary to each other.

The details are mainly embodied in the statistics, data, descriptive information; and to provide a reference case, or quotations.

Speed reading task

Let’s have a glimpse of more concepts of marketing. Use techniques for speed reading to find out the answers to Exercise 1 as quickly as possible.

True or false

1. _____ Exchange is one way that people can have a satisfied object.

2. _____ Exchange has been used as way of satisfying needs.

3. _____ Exchange is the concept of marketing as well as unit of measurement.

4. _____ You pay sears $350 for a TV set is a typical transaction.

5. _____ Increasingly, marketing is shifting to building mutual beneficial relationships with customers, distributors, dealers and suppliers.

KEY: T T F T T

Section C Case Study

Task Discuss the following questions in groups: How would you recommend that Harry

proceeds? Draft the outline of a report that Harry might

prepare for the board, setting out the arguments in favor of adopting a marketing approach. What benefits might Alderson’s expect form this new way of doing business?

NOTES 1. Republic of Mauritius 毛里求斯共和国，非洲东部一岛国，位于印度洋西南方。西距马达加斯加约 800公里，与非洲大陆相距 2,200公里。整个国土由几个火山岛组成，面积 2,040平方公里，人口约 126万。

2. Honda Civic 本田思域 : 1972年第一代本田思域诞生，并推出搭载低污染的 CVCC发动机。 Civic意思是市民的和公民的，其意思想指这款车是大众化的车款。

3. Lexus 雷克萨斯，是日本丰田汽车旗下，于海外销售的高级轿车品牌。在 2005年，雷克萨斯在海外载誉归来终于打入日本本土市场，使其成为了在全球均有销售的高级轿车品牌。雷克萨斯自面世而来，在全球众多国家的宣传格言都是：” The Pursuit of Perfection”。

4. Disney World 迪士尼主题乐园，迪士尼乐园于 1955年开幕，此后，在美国和海外又陆续开了 9家，分布在 4个迪士尼度假区。 2005 年 9 月 12日，香港迪士尼乐园开幕，成为大中华区第一座迪士尼主题公园。

5. Marketing Myopia 营销近视症，由著名的市场营销专家、美国哈佛大学管理学院西奥多 ·莱维特

(Theodore Levitt)教授在 1960年提出。营销近视症是不适当地把主要精力放在产品上或技术上，而不是放在市场需要 (消费需要 )上，其结果导致企业丧失市场，失去竞争力。