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Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying consumers' requirements profitablyto a 1994 definition of societal marketing (applicable to not-for-profit organisations such as charities or schools): The societal marketing concept holds that the organisation's task is to determine the needs, wants, and interests of target markets and to deliver the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than competitors, in a way that preserves or enhances the consumer's and the society's well-being. (Kotler, Philip. Marketing management: analysis, planning, implementation and control 8th ed. Prentice-Hall, 1994)This puts even more emphasis on identifying the needs of the clients, and on providing a service or product which is of the required quality. It also brings the well-being of society into the equation, and leaves out the profit motive (in order to include not-for-profit organisations). However, if an organisation has profitability as one of its objectives, then that will be an important factor when marketing objectives are being drawn up. There is a longer explanation of the meaning of social marketing at the University of Strathclyde Centre for Social Marketing site. A phrase which often comes up is 'exchange relationships'. Exchange, in this context, means the provision or transfer of goods, services or ideas, in return for something of value. For example: a person may give their time to work in an Oxfam shop in exchange for feeling that they are doing something worthwhile. When a company information officer provides a search, exchanges take place between the user (who receives results and may also transfer funds), the intermediary (who receives wages and, hopefully, job satisfaction) and the company (which ultimately funds the exchange and benefits from the use of the information in decision making etc ). Relationship marketing is also currently much talked about. This focuses on developing a close relationship with your customers, and is particularly important in the information and library sector. With many services you depend on 'repeat business' in order to make your investment in acquiring a new customer worthwhile. Tom Peters has described it as: The relentless pursuit of an almost familial bond between customer and product. (Peters, Tom. The pursuit of Wow! every person's guide to topsy-turvy times. London: Macmillan, 1995.)For the scholarly, a useful background article available on the web is: Gronroos, Christian. From marketing mix to relationship marketing: towards a paradigm shift in marketing. Management Decision. 32 (2): 1994. p4-20..The main point of all the current definitions is that they cover they whole marketing cycle (including defining your mission, and market research), and that they focus on the needs of the target market (the people you want to use the product or service) or the individual customer.
Bluffers can make up their own definitions by permuting any appropriate words and phrases: they should be not less than 40 words long, and can be attributed either to a real marketing guru (such as Philip Kotler) or to a fictitious American professor (who you can claim to have got to know via the Internet). |
Sheila Webber. 2 August 2001