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a) The Production Concept:
This concept holds that consumers will favour or go for products that are widely available and low in cost Management should select products that are economical to produce and set up a marketing department to distribute these goods (wide distribution coverage). The concern in production concept is on achieving production efficiency resulting in lower cost of production and lower prices in order to attract customers.
This concept holds good or can work in at least two situations:
i. Where the demand for the product exceeds supply-in this case, the management should look for ways of increasing production.
ii. Where the production cost is high and can be brought down through increased productivity to expand the markets.
b) The product concept:
Suppliers know best what the customer needs in terms of quality. Product quality must therefore be upheld in order to attract and maintain the existing customers. The product feature orientation believes that all a firm needs to do is to offer for sale high quality goods with many attractive features, provide effective after-sale service and the goods will sell themselves (high quality, performance and features).Therefore, the managers of these organizations concentrate on making good products and improving them over time. These managers also assume that buyers or consumers admire well-made products and are willing to pay more for their products.
The product concept or philosophy leads to undue concentration on the product rather than the consumer needs. This situation is referred to as “marketing myopia” where the organization’s focus is on the product rather than the consumer’s needs.
c) The selling concept: The sales orientation approach believes that people will not buy until they are persuaded to buy. Marketing focus should therefore be on publicity and advertising. It therefore emphasizes on the promotion of organization’s products.
This concept has two major assumptions:
i. Consumers typically show buying resistance and need to be persuaded to buy more
ii. Consumers who are persuaded into buying the product will like it and if they don’t, they will complain to their friends or consumer organizations, and in addition they will possibly forget their disappointment and buy the product again.
d) The marketing concept:
This concept tends to challenge the selling concept. The organizations need to focus on the needs of its customers to meet the highest level of customer satisfaction. In this situation, production responds to the demands of marketing and not vice versa.
The marketing concept takes an outside-in perspective while the selling concept takes an inside-out perspective i.e. organizations guided by the marketing concept start from the market, they identify customer needs, and then develop products that will satisfy consumer needs. Organizations guided by the selling concept start from the factory, develop products without taking into consideration consumer needs and then promote those products/services aggressively to the consumers.
The marketing concept comprises four elements: market focus, customer orientation, co-ordinated marketing and profitability.
e) The societal concept:
In recent years, some people have questioned whether the marketing concept is an appropriate organizational philosophy in an age of environmental degradation/resource shortages, explosive population growth, food shortages, poverty and neglected social services.
According to this philosophy, marketing should serve the needs and requirements of the society. Business organizations exist within societies and therefore societal demands should be given prominence.
This concept calls upon marketers to balance three considerations in setting marketing policies, namely:
i. Company profits
ii. Consumers wants satisfaction
iii. Public interest/society welfare
Kavungya answered the question on April 28, 2021 at 09:09
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