Until fairly recently, marketing focused primarily on exchanges of goods between individuals (business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing) and businesses (business-to- business (B2B) marketing).
Marketing in different sectors
Until
fairly recently, marketing focused primarily on exchanges of goods between
individuals (business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing) and businesses (business-to-
business (B2B) marketing). A new area of marketing has recently emerged. It is
services. Consumer marketing deals with good and services targeted to households
for individual consumption. Industrial marketing deals with the organizational
purchases of goods to support production of other goods
or daily operations or for resale. Services deal with intangible products
offered to both consumer markets and industrial markets. Table 1.1.2 highlights
the differences between consumer marketing and industrial marketing.
The marketing of services require
additional effort. With the growth of the services sector, marketers realized
that services cannot be marketed in the same way as the products. Certain
characteristics of services posed serious problems for marketers who realized
that services marketing must be done differently and not with the same
marketing mix (4 Ps) variables. Services have unique characteristics like :
1. Intangibility (service firms don’t sell a tangible thing, but a promise)
inseparability (production and consumption of services take place at about the
same time), 2. Heterogeneity (the problem due to the fact that no two service providers are
like, nor are the service consumers) and 3. Perishability (service providers cannot maintain inventories of their
products).
To cope with these challenges,
service marketers broadened the 4-Ps marketing mix to make it 7-Ps marketing
mix. They suggested additional 3 Ps – process, physical evidence and people.1. The
process is aimed at solving the heterogeneity or variability problem associated with the services by providing a service blueprint.
2. The
physical evidence solves some of the problems associated with the intangible nature of services. The physical evidence in terms of
service environment, equipment, personnel and so on attempts to tangibilize the
intangible.
3. The final
P – People – gives lot of attention to the service providers because they are, strictly speaking, part of the service provided. They
can influence the perceived service quality in a big way. With the world becoming a global
village, marketers started targeting global audience for their products and
services. International marketers implement the basic marketing framework
discussed earlier. However transactions that cross national boundaries
encounter an additional set of environmental factors. For example, differences
in laws, economic conditions, cultural and business norms and consumer
preferences other demand variations in marketing strategies. The biggest
challenge in international marketing is managing the international business environment. With many uncontrollable
factors, sharing complex relationships among them, the international marketer
faces the dilemma of whether to standardize or differentiate his marketing mix.Non-profit organizations
encounter a special set of characteristics that influence their marketing
activities. Like for-profit firms, non-profit firms may market tangible goods
and/or intangible services and operate in B2C and B2B markets. An important
distinction is that profit-seeking businesses tend to focus their marketing on
just one public – their customers. Non-profit businesses however must often
market to multiple publics (say, their clients and sponsors), which complicates
decision making regarding the markets to target. Also a customer or service
user may wield less control over the organization’s destiny than would be true
for customers of a profit-seeking firm. As a result, non-profit marketing must
fine tune its marketing variables to adjust to these conditions.Activity 1.1.4 | Match the following: |
(1) | Product
marketing | - | (A)
AIDS awareness |
| campaign | | |
(2) | Service
marketing | - | (B)
Selling iron ore to a steel |
| manufacturer | | |
(3) | Consumer
marketing | - | (C)
Selling ice creams to |
| adults | | |
(4) | Industrial
marketing | - | (D)
Disney setting up a park |
| in Hong
Kong | | |
(5) | International
marketing | - | (E)
Setting up an ayurvedic |
| massage
center | | |
(6) | Non-profit
marketing | - | (F)
Selling electric bulbs |
Tags : MARKETING MANAGEMENT - Introduction to Marketing
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