Firms must spend money to create time, place and ownership utilities as discussed earlier.
Functions of Marketing
Firms must spend money to create time, place and
ownership utilities as discussed earlier. Several studies have been made to
measure marketing costs in relation to overall product
costs and service costs and most estimates have ranged between 40-60 percent.
These costs are not associated with raw materials or any of the other
production functions necessary for creating form utility. What then does the
consumer receive in return for this proportion of marketing cost? This question
is answered by understanding the functions performed by marketing.
In the following table, marketing
is responsible for the performance of 8 universal functions: buying, selling,
transporting, storing, standardizing and grading, financing, risk taking and
securing marketing information. Some functions are performed by manufacturers,
others by marketing intermediaries like wholesalers and retailers. Buying and
selling, the first two functions represent exchange functions. Transporting and
storing are physical distribution functions. The final four marketing functions
– standardizing and grading, financing, risk taking and securing market
information – are often called facilitating functions because they assist the
marketer in performing the exchange and physical distribution functions.
Tags : MARKETING MANAGEMENT - Introduction to Marketing
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